State Government Services

Mr DULUK (Waite) (16:36): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier update the house on how the government is delivering on its commitment to deliver better services for the people of South Australia?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (16:37): I thank the member for Waite for his question. It's a very good question because, as I said, we took a very strong plan for real change to the election and we promised jobs growth, lower costs and improved state government services. I thank the member for Waite for allowing me to update the house on some critical areas where we do need to improve government services in South Australia.

The former government were in for 16 long and punishing years. They didn't focus on providing the people of South Australia with the very best services they could. In fact, on many occasions they were just sitting on their hands, arrogant and dismissive of what best practice even looked like. It was a dysfunctional organisation within the government and they didn't focus on outcomes.

Often, in this chamber, when we would ask questions about poorly performing services, all we would get from former ministers who are now sitting opposite is, 'Well, we are putting more money into this area.' Let me tell you that there was failure after failure after failure, all trying to be papered over with more money. We are going to have a completely different approach and it's going to be focusing not on inputs, but on outputs—outputs that improve services for the people of South Australia. No more of the comprehensive failure to look after our most vulnerable people in South Australia.

The former government should hang their heads in shame at the way they failed to look after people in our health system. Older persons with mental health issues in South Australia and child protection were just catastrophic failures over an extended period of time, with warning after warning after warning ignored by the former government. We won't be doing that.

In the remaining time that I have available I would like to concentrate on two critical areas, if time permits—first of all, improved outcomes in terms of education. This is a very important area neglected by the previous government. I don't know what the leader is going to jump up and pat himself on the back for next. Next he is going to tell us he was doing a good job in terms of education.

Let me tell you that South Australia languished below the national average on the NAPLAN test results in 20 out of 20 areas—20 out of 20 areas. This government comprehensively failed the next generation in South Australia. We've got a lot of ground to make up to get South Australia's education system back to where it has been in the past—the best education system in the country.

A couple of the things which the new education minister will be focused on will of course be, number one, making sure that we can transition our year 7s through to secondary school. Whilst the former government signed—

Dr Close interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We have the deputy leader over there mumbling. I don't know who she is talking to at the moment. She should actually be standing up and apologising to the people of South Australia because in her government they actually signed up to the national curriculum, which provided that year 7s were going to be in secondary school with smaller sizes and more specialist teachers. Did they deliver it? No, they didn't go near it. They used every single excuse in the book: 'It's impossible to deliver.'

Well, the reality is that every single other state in Australia has made that transition or is making that transition, yet in South Australian somehow, miraculously, our children weren't good enough to be afforded the benefits of year 7 being in secondary school. It's completely unacceptable and we will be making sure that happens as soon as possible.

I have run out of time, but I would also like to very briefly congratulate the Minister for Education on the work that he has been doing around our literacy guarantee. It's an important area of public policy and I'm sure we will be hearing more about it in this chamber very soon.