Nurse Redundancies

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:31): My question is to the Premier. Why did the government make three nursing positions in emergency departments redundant in June 2020, and with your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PICTON: FOI documents from the Central Adelaide Local Health Network reveal three nursing positions in emergency departments were made redundant in June 2020, with a total redundancy payout of $193,000.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:31): As the member would know, these are decisions that are taken at the local health network level. I might invite the member to turn his mind back to June 2020. We were in the midst of the global pandemic—

Mr Picton: So why did you cut nurses?

The SPEAKER: Member for Kaurna!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The member might recall that we did have a very different situation in our hospitals at that time. The year 2020 was a very different year in terms of the presentation levels that were there—

Mr Malinauskas: So why would you make them redundant?

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and ultimately those decisions are made by the clinicians and the management within the Central Adelaide Local Health Network. What I can say, though, is that it's an odd question to ask. The member is asking a question about something that occurred I think 10 or 11 months ago, when were in the midst of a pandemic, when we didn't have the emergency department presentation rates that we are at at the moment. What I can tell the member—

Mr Malinauskas: Redundancy means they don't come back.

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —is that since coming to government the most recent reported figures were a very significant increase in the nursing staff here in South Australia: an additional 286 nurses and midwives between June 2018 and June 2020. We are only a few weeks away from getting an update, of course, on what those levels are at the moment.

But what I can assure this house is that, since coming to government, we have very significantly increased the budget for the Central Adelaide Local Health Network and SA Health overall. They ultimately make the decision as to where those resources are best applied. There may be some experts on the opposition bench; I doubt it, but let's just say there were. They had 16 years to implement their ideas. It didn't work particularly well. That's the reason—

Mr Malinauskas: But ramping was half what it is now.

The SPEAKER: The leader is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The Leader of the Opposition shouts and yells and carps and complains. He doesn't recognise that we are in a very different situation now than when they were in government. We are dealing with a global pandemic. We are dealing with a nationwide surge in presentations. We have significantly increased our budget, increased our capital budget, increased our doctors, our nurses, our paramedics and our hospital beds and we are continuing. When we bring the budget down in a few weeks' time, you will see a further increase in expenditure in critical areas to fix the mess that we inherited from those opposite.

But it's not clever to find a set of statistics that are subject to movements up and down, in terms of presentation levels, due to the coronavirus. It's not clever. It's not clever not to present the people of South Australia with any other alternative.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It's not clever to undermine the confidence that the people of South Australia have in an excellent health system in South Australia. But it is a health system that I admit—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —is under extreme pressure at the moment. But again I make the point to you, sir, that ultimately we are experiencing unprecedented demand at the moment, like the rest of the country is. Where would we be if we had left the settings that we inherited in place? We would have tragedy across the system. I appreciate that the system is stretched at the moment, and that's why we are working overtime—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to refine the resources to a systems-wide improvement in what we inherited. There is more work to be done. But at the moment we have capital works underway at the Lyell McEwin Hospital, the Flinders Medical Centre, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the Modbury Hospital, the Mount Barker hospital, the Gawler health system, the southern Fleurieu health system and the Murray Bridge hospital. We are looking at a massive increase in our capacity. There is much more work to be done.

The SPEAKER: I will give the call to the member for Kaurna once more. I just remind members who are seeking the call to do so once the minister has completed his answer.