Women's and Children's Hospital

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:04): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier explain why the budget papers show a reduction of 39 staff from the Women's and Children's Hospital over the next financial year starting next week?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:04): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. It gives me an opportunity to talk about the current Women's and Children's Hospital and of course the proposed women's and children's hospital. I think it is an important opportunity to reflect on the difference in what we are doing as a government compared with the previous government, when they made the decision to move to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. In that case, there was no investment in the—

Mr Picton: Cutting 39 staff.

The SPEAKER: Member for Kaurna!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —old Royal Adelaide Hospital site. That site was basically left to go to rack and ruin over an extended period of time after the decision was made to move to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. By contrast, with regard to the Women's and Children's Hospital, we have increased our expenditure on that site with regard to capital improvements to make sure that we can—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —have an ongoing high-quality facility on that site. Those opposite said that they were going to build a new Women's and Children's Hospital. They said they were going to do this in 2013. They then cancelled that project in 2016. Just before the last election, they said we were going to have a new women's hospital. They haven't had the same position for a three-year period over the last decade with regard to the Women's and Children's Hospital.

By contrast, what we have done is listen to the clinicians and also listen to the general public, who want to have a high-quality service here, co-located with the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. We have very substantially increased our health expenditure since coming to government. In fact, we are now spending I think approximately $900 million more per year than when the Leader of the Opposition was the health minister in South Australia, so there is a significantly larger budget now and on an ongoing basis. Within that, those LHNs determine what their staffing is. They are the ones who determine what that staffing is.

There has been a gradual increase to deal with issues associated with the coronavirus, but over and above that there has been a very substantial increase in the number of doctors, nurses and paramedics right across the health system in South Australia. The cherrypicker-in-chief—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —reverting to type, always wants to talk about one statistic over another. Well, let me give you a couple of statistics I think it's really important to look at. When the Leader of the Opposition was the health minister in South Australia, there were 32,212 people employed in SA Health—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will resume his seat. The member for West Torrens rises on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Standing order 98:

In answering a question, a Minister or other Member replies to the substance of the question and may not debate the matter to which the question refers.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The question to the Premier was: can the Premier explain why budget papers show a reduction of 39 staff members? The Premier is now debating the question and attempting to try to create a debate or a quarrel in the house, and I ask that you rule, sir.

The SPEAKER: Leaving aside perhaps an element of editorial at the end of that point of order, the point of order is well understood and it's well made. I listened carefully to the question, which sought an explanation on the assertion of facts. I allowed the question a certain amount of liberal interpretation of the question in that sense. Nonetheless, the question was specifically directed and the Premier should direct his answer to the specific question. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The question was about the numbers at the Women's and Children's Hospital, and the point that I was making was that the LHNs themselves determine what their staffing ratio is. When we look at it overall, when we came to government there were 32,212 people employed in SA Health. Currently, it is 33,740, so there is a very substantial increase in the number of people—doctors, nurses and paramedics—in our health system across South Australia.

Some of those are there because of our flex response to the coronavirus and, of course, as we know, that hasn't been something that the Women's and Children's Hospital has been exempt from. They have been running their own clinics in terms of providing that vaccination, and, of course, going forward into the new financial year we will see a reduction in the number of people who are involved in those vaccination services which are going to be in place. We will leave those specific staffing numbers up to the LHN—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —but what we can see, looking from the overall highest level, is a massive ramp-up of doctors, nurses and paramedics right across the system. It is a massive increase in the capital that is being applied to our hospital network in South Australia and a massive, massive $900 million per year increase in the operational budget since the Leader of the Opposition was the failed health minister in South Australia.

The SPEAKER: Order! The time for answering the question has expired. Before I call the leader, I call to order the member for Playford, I call to order the member for Kaurna, I call to order the member for Colton, I call to order the Deputy Premier and I call to order the leader.