Modbury Hospital

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:14): My question is to the Premier. In light of his comments about poor performing emergency departments, will he assure the people of my area that the work on the Modbury Hospital emergency department will be completed before the work at the Lyell McEwin emergency department?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:14): I thank the member for Florey for her question. She has been a staunch advocate for the Modbury Hospital along with the new member for King and the new member for Newland and, of course, the entire Liberal Party. She has been fighting for Modbury. She found it very difficult being in a party that always wanted to slash services and drive more and more people—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to the Lyell McEwin Hospital. The reality is we've been very happy to meet with the member for Florey, who seems to me to have a pretty sensible approach to improving services in her local area. The reality is I do not have a detailed answer between the sequencing of Modbury Hospital and Lyell McEwin Hospital, but I'm happy to come back to you with some more information. But, suffice to say, what we want to do on this side of the chamber is to improve the overall healthcare system in South Australia, and that doesn't mean cutting off—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —services that sit outside of the three major teaching hospitals. Of course we want those hospitals to be as good as they possibly can, but in addition to that we see a very logical role, a very important and critical role, for other hospitals in South Australia, like the Modbury Hospital, like The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, like the Noarlunga Hospital and, of course—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —like the Repat site, which we will be keeping as a genuine health precinct going forward. Transforming Health was a mess.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It was all designed to drive more and more patients—

Mr Malinauskas: Why don't you come up with an idea of your own? Apart from KordaMentha, what have you come up with?

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to the three major teaching hospitals. That did not improve a single outcome in terms of our health system. We will not be following the blueprint laid down by those opposite. We will be putting the resources where they are necessary. I remind this house—and it is important to remind this house—that, since coming to government, we have put more than $900 million back into the health budget in South Australia.

We do that because we've got a genuine concern that if those opposite were re-elected—thank heavens they weren't, but just say they were elected—the cuts that they had put into their forward estimates would have been brutal and devastating on health outcomes in South Australia. We rejected those brutal cuts. We put $900 million and we are setting about the important task of restoring the health system to our state.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Hammond, I call the following members to order: the members for Light, Badcoe, Playford, Wright, Ramsey, Hurtle Vale, Reynell, the deputy leader and the member for Waite. The member for Hammond has the call.