Motions

Universal Ambulance Cover Scheme

Adjourned debate on motion of Ms Bedford:

That this house establish a select committee to inquire into and report on the feasibility and effectiveness of a universal ambulance cover scheme for South Australia; and in particular—

(a) the potential benefits of a universal ambulance cover scheme;

(b) the extent to which there are gaps in current coverage arrangements and the social costs thereof;

(c) the administrative and financial costs and risks associated with current arrangements;

(d) models for a universal ambulance cover scheme (including models for universal ambulance cover in other jurisdictions);

(e) the likely costs of a universal ambulance cover scheme and potential funding models, including alignment with other social insurance schemes;

(f) the legislative and governance arrangements that would be optimal for a universal ambulance cover scheme; and

(g) how a universal ambulance cover scheme could be best implemented.

(Continued from 31 May 2018.)

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (11:47): It is my pleasure to speak on the motion from the member for Florey to start up a select committee—I think it would be the first select committee of this parliament—to look into the issue of ambulance fees and whether there should be a change in South Australia's approach to ambulance fees. Obviously, she is advocating for a universal coverage for ambulances.

I indicate that the opposition is happy to support a select committee. We believe that it is a good time to look at the issue of ambulance fees across South Australia. There have been a number of very significant changes in the delivery of ambulance services over the past 20 years since the transition from St John volunteer services in the city to fully paid SA Ambulance staff. We have seen the increasing professional delivery of services through paramedics. Paramedics have increased skills in terms of the delivery of services, providing very high-quality services to the point that the level of service received for a healthcare affliction in an ambulance now, compared with 20 or 30 years ago, is dramatically different.

Paramedics can perform a whole range of different functions. They are soon to be a registered profession. We want to continue to see those skills develop and our society benefit from those excellent, hardworking paramedics across our system. At the same time, we have seen increasing demand for those services as well. Year after year, the resources being put into SA Ambulance Service have increased quite dramatically.

Because of that extra demand, of course, we see extra usage in terms of either the demand for people to get ambulance cover or, if they do not have cover, the need to pay fees. We think that is something worthy of examination by this parliament. We think it is worth looking at what the approaches are across other states and internationally to see whether we do have the best practice approach to ambulance fees in South Australia and whether there are ways that we could improve it in the future. We think that is a very appropriate issue for this parliament to look at through a select committee. I hope that it is something that the government will see is worthy of examination. We hope to work with the government to look at this issue, and we think this is exactly what our parliament should be doing.

We have heard the Premier a number of times talking about how he wants this to be a hardworking parliament. Here is the first chance for the government to show that it is keen for this parliament to be hardworking and taking on the big issues through investigations such as these into important issues that the community is concerned about. We hope that they will look upon this motion from the member for Florey and support it so that we can look at this issue, gather the evidence and report back to the parliament and the public on the best approach to this issue.

Sadly, I think we are about to see that the government is going to adjourn this motion off again. Hopefully, we will see next week, or the week after, when we are meeting in this place, the government supporting this select committee, because this is a test of whether they do want to see a hardworking parliament. I congratulate the member for Florey on bringing this motion to the house. I acknowledge that she has a genuine and longstanding interest in this area, and we hope that this can be an area where we can work together in a bipartisan way to investigate the best outcome for South Australia.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: It is highly disorderly to reflect on the vote of a house, I remind members. Let's not get off to a bad start.