Nurse Redundancies

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (15:22): My question is to the Premier. Why has the Premier's government approved redundancies for frontline nurses in vital positions such as emergency departments across the health system? With your leave, Mr Speaker, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: One hundred and twenty nursing positions have been made redundant by the government in the past two years, including emergency department nurses, intensive care nurses, cardiology nurses, general medicine nurses, cardiology and neurosurgery. The Auditor-General has confirmed that in the past 12 months there was a reduction in nurses overall across the health system of 112 nurses.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:23): I am not familiar with the statistics that the Leader of the Opposition is referring to. He quite often looks at very narrow statistics and doesn't look at the broader picture. When I look at the number of nurses and medical staff in South Australia since the 2018 election, which it occurs to me was the last time that he was in government—in fact, he was the health minister. So, if we look—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —thank you, sir—and compare our position now to when the Leader of the Opposition was the health minister in South Australia, the Auditor-General's statistics are the ones that we need to look at. Since then—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I am not familiar with the narrow statistics that the Leader of the Opposition has provided to the house, but I am familiar with what the situation was since we came to government and that is confirmed by the Auditor-General: an extra 286 nurses and midwife jobs in South Australia and an additional 247 medical jobs. We are significantly addressing the capital requirements that are required both here and in metropolitan Adelaide and of course across country SA, with $150 million being invested into urgent upgrades and maintenance which are required across the state. So whilst those opposite want to talk down our health system, while those opposite want to undermine public confidence—

Mr Brown: You're running it down, not talking it down.

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —in an excellent system here in South Australia, a health system which has actually supported South Australia during a global pandemic, a health system which, quite frankly, can stand up against any other health system in the world at the moment, while they want to talk that system down, we are backing it. We are backing it with additional resources: $2.2 billion worth of new money since the Leader of the Opposition was the Minister for Health—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —more than $1 billion going into capital upgrades for hospitals right across the state. We appreciate that there is a surge going on at the moment. The system that we inherited when we came to government was not suitable—was not suitable—and those opposite know it. I thought I would read to the parliament a little extract from a book I have in my bedside reading. I thought it was really interesting; in fact, I think the member for Kaurna was the assistant to the former minister, and it was very interesting. I quote, sir:

During my term the Flinders ED was considerably refurbished and its capacity expanded. During this reconstruction I expressed the view that issues of ambulance-to-hospital transfers would be fixed once the development was completed. Unfortunately, the design (strongly influenced by ED clinicians) included a relatively small waiting space—forcing the de facto implementation of a policy to ramp patients in ambulances once the waiting room was full.

They are the words of the former health minister. We know his assistant, the member for Kaurna, was advising him at the time. We know that the person who followed after him was the Leader of the Opposition. They knew while they were in government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They had created an emergency department that was not fit for purpose. I'm not going to complain about it—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —we are just going to get on and fix it. This is the busiest emergency department in the state. It's now being invested in by our government to make—

Dr Close interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the deputy leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —it the largest emergency department in this state. And whilst there is some inconvenience during that very, very significant expansion—

Mr Brown: Some inconvenience—people are dying!

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —once it's finished it will be a very good emergency department, supporting not only the people of the southern suburbs but of course it would take the pressure off those ambulances currently being diverted to the Central Adelaide Local Health Network.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the member for Elder, I call to order and warn the member for Chaffey. I warn for a second time the member for Playford. I call to order the member for Kaurna and the deputy leader. I call to order the Deputy Premier. I warn the member for Lee.