SA Ambulance Service

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (15:19): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier take any responsibility for the fact that life-threatening priority 1 cases are now at risk of having no ambulance available to respond? With your leave, Mr Speaker, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: The Ambulance Employees Association have reported that on Sunday a life-threatening priority 1 case involving a 10-year-old child had no local ambulance available to respond. It took 23 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. As a priority 1 case, an ambulance should have arrived within 8 minutes rather than the 23 minutes it took.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:20): I do have a contribution to make on this because I know that the Ambulance Employees Association made several claims on radio this morning. There was a patient who was triaged as a priority 1 patient and an ambulance and a solo extended care paramedic were immediately—immediately—dispatched. The extended paramedic arrived, with the patient in a difficult location in a conservation park, within 10 minutes of the call to the South Australian Ambulance Service. Extended care paramedics are highly trained intensive care paramedics who play a key role in delivering life-saving treatment.

Since coming to government, we have very, very significantly increased the budget for the South Australian Ambulance Service over and above the budget that was in place when we came to government.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Very significantly increased the budget for the South Australian Ambulance Service since coming to government. In our first two years, we increased the number of ambulance officers in South Australia by 187.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Then, in addition to that, you would notice, sir, that in the current budget we provide for a further 76 ambulance officers in South Australia. I know those opposite claim that the sun rises and sets because of policies that they put in place when they were in government. They didn't actually hand down last year's budget. This is a further investment that we are making.

The South Australian ambulance officers in South Australia do an extremely, extremely good job. They have been provided with increased resources since we came to government—also an upgrade of their fleet, with 50 of the ambulances in South Australia being replaced since we came to government. We are negotiating with them and their representatives at the moment. Those negotiations are continuing and I hope that they can reach a conclusion soon.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the leader, I call the leader to order.