House of Assembly Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1) 54 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Question Time Hibbert Review Hibbert Review Mr PICTON House of Assembly Kaurna Hibbert Review Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:14): My question is to the Premier. Why was there no public announcement in December that the government had commissioned an inquiry into a cluster of nine deaths? The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly Dunstan Premier Hibbert Review The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:14): Why was there no public announcement regarding the manifold problems that existed— The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell House of Assembly The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell: We ask the questions, mate. We ask the questions. Answer the question. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Mawson is called to order. The Premier has the call. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —under the previous government? The reality was that this government acted swiftly to commission an independent report. We have now received that and we have released it. I'm not going to be lectured by those opposite regarding transparency— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to address an issue. The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The Minister for Education is called to order. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: This is an issue that we inherited from the previous government. They should hang their heads in shame. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They should hang their heads in shame. The hopeless health system that we received— The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Could the Premier please resume his seat for one moment. The member for West Torrens has a point of order. The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS House of Assembly The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: the Premier is talking about the former Labor government— The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The point of order is? The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS House of Assembly The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The point of order is relevance. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The point of order is for relevance/debate. There was a question— Mr Pederick House of Assembly Mr Pederick: Yes, they were irrelevant. They were irrelevant. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond is called to order. I suppose there is a question about the timing of the announcement. I will allow the Premier some background and then I expect him to get to the substance of the question. The Premier has the call. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The substance of the question is about the announcement proactively to the people of South Australia as to whether or not a government investigation was underway. Now, of course, we as the government reflected on the precedent set by those opposite in their previous 16 years of government. We couldn't find any evidence whatsoever of proactive disclosure. In fact, we couldn't find any evidence that they had conducted an investigation into their hopeless mismanagement of the health system in South Australia, but we rejected the precedent. We commissioned the independent report and now we have published the report, accepted the 14 recommendations and we are getting on with fixing the hopeless situation that we inherited from those opposite, most notably the Leader of the Opposition, who was of course the previous minister for health in South Australia.