KordaMentha Report

Mr BOYER (Wright) (15:36): Question time this week was yet another reminder that this government's rhetoric about openness and transparency before the election was nothing but spin. The public release of the KordaMentha report into the Central Adelaide Local Health Network on Monday raised many questions, and as the opposition we did what the South Australian public would expect us to do and we used that time to ask those questions of the government.

The answers given by the Premier to the very straightforward questions that we asked were nothing short of farcical. It was not so much a few lines worthy of Yes Prime Minister, as word for word enough dialogue to shoot an entire new season of the series. Never before have I heard in one speech so many synonyms for the word 'cut'.

What we heard the Premier say was, 'The report makes it very clear that there are quite a lot of unnecessary overnight stays within our health system at the moment,' and, 'We make it very clear that we will have the requisite number of beds in South Australia,' and, 'We will have those beds exactly and precisely where they are needed.' But then this purler came in response to a question from the member for Kaurna about whether the government will close any wards in the Royal Adelaide Hospital or The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and I quote again:

Again, as outlined in the plan, we will be reducing activities that don't add any value so that we free up capacity.

What weasel words. Never before—

Members interjecting:

Mr BOYER: You just 'hear, hear' to weasel words, you do realise that? Never before have so many words been used to say so little. This government has the audacity, after coming to government on the back of many promises in the health portfolio, to award a $19 million contract to KordaMentha to be administrators of the Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth hospitals, and then refuse to be transparent with the public about how those savings are actually going to be found. To come into this place and simply repeat ad nauseam that there will be the requisite number of beds is an insult to the South Australian public.

They know what these recommendations mean. They mean bed closures and staff cuts. For the Premier to suggest in this place that the savings outlined in KordaMentha's report can be found in some other way is very disingenuous. I think the little kernel that the Premier did disclose that will prove to have the farthest reaching ramifications of any of the recommendations in KordaMentha's report is the line about 'unnecessary overnight stays'.

Of all the complaints that I have heard about the health system over the years, one I can never ever recall hearing from a member of the public is, 'I just think they keep me too long in hospital,' or, 'I wish they had booted me out of the hospital sooner.' This is dangerous language. It is the language you expect when you put health services in the hands of corporate liquidators. What it means is that if the government cannot achieve its objectives of closing beds, if the political heat is too much to bear to do that, the savings will be made by kicking people out of hospital early. That is the future of health care in this state under the vision of the state government and KordaMentha.

The Minister for Health gave the game away when answering a question in the other place on Tuesday when he said, 'Our hospitals cannot operate effectively if they are constantly full of patients.' That is a fantastic quote. It is completely at odds with the promises made by those opposite before the state election. It is completely at odds with what South Australians want from this government. Their ongoing unwillingness to come into this place and answer questions put to them on matters like health care is certainly at odds with the promises they made to the South Australian public about being open and transparent.

Far be it for me to accuse this government of only paying lip service to its promises; I will leave that up to the Minister for Emergency Services who, in his contribution on the motion to recognise women in agribusiness said, and I quote, 'I would like to use this opportunity to extend our platitudes for the efforts of women in the emergency services sector.' What can I say? He certainly is the 'suppository of all wisdom'.