Ambulance Ramping

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:43): My question is to the Premier following that answer. When will ramping end once and for all in South Australia?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:43): I appreciate the opportunity to talk about this because it is a very important issue. We don't—

Mr Picton: When? When?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —want ramping in South Australia. The member for Kaurna shouts across, 'When, when, when?' The reality is that it's not a simple answer because there are two—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —issues here: one is demand and one is capacity to respond to that demand. To be quite honest, we don't know what will happen with that demand around the country. We know that it is elevated at the moment. We hope that that will subside but, regardless of whether it subsides or not, we are working on the other part of the equation, the part that we can control here in South Australia which is expanding the capacity of our ability to respond.

So, yes, we can't control the demand. Having said that, sir, as you would be aware, on 1 January last year we opened Wellbeing South Australia, which is a new agency focused on whole of person wellbeing and putting preventative strategies in place so that people weren't driven to emergency departments. It's a very good agency, which is headed up by Lyn Dean. She and her team are looking at a range of programs that are there to support people to stay out of hospital. We don't want them in hospital if they can remain healthy and, in a preventative way, stay out of that acute setting.

Nevertheless, people will turn up at a hospital, and we need to make sure we have the capacity to respond. That is why, since coming into government, I'm very proud that the annual health budget, the operating budget, didn't actually conform to what those opposite had planned, which was a $1.3 billion cut to the budget over the forward estimates. Instead, what we did was increase the annual budget by $900 million per year. The annual operating budget is $7.4 billion, and that is $900 million greater than what we inherited, when we came into government, from those opposite.

In addition to that, we have had to put a huge amount of focus on capital upgrades to reverse the cuts to Noarlunga, to Modbury, to The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and of course the callous closure of the Repat Hospital by those opposite.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Premier, just take a seat for a moment. The member for Lee is warned for the first time, and the leader is on one warning already. I have already thrown him out once this week; I didn't like doing it. I am always prepared to give him a bit more latitude than others given his position, but leader you can't continue to interject. It is out of order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I was mentioning The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, a hospital close to my heart. I was born at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned for the second time.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Those opposite cut the 24/7 cardiac services. They cut the 24/7 cardiac services at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. They have amnesia—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Premier—

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —about the services that were cut when they were in government.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Premier, can you take your seat, please. The member for Lee will leave for half an hour.

The honourable member for Lee having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It was an incredible outburst. I would have thought the member for Lee, like many people living in the western suburbs, would be very grateful for the fact that we restored the 24/7 cardiac services in the western hospital and invested a further $4 million into the clinical cath labs at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Premier, there is a point of order.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: Standing order 98: debate. The Premier continues to recite all the substantial upgrades initiated under the former Labor government when, in actual fact—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Premier—

Members interjecting:

Mr MALINAUSKAS: Can I finish the point of order, sir?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leader, take your seat. The Premier is called to order. Minister for Energy and Mining, I will deal with your point of order in a moment. Leader, what is your point of order?

Mr MALINAUSKAS: It is standing order 98, sir. The question was rather specific. The Premier made an unequivocal commitment that he will end ramping once and for all. The question was: when will the ramping, once and for all, actually end. The question wasn't about the litany of heartbreak announced by the former Labor government that you have the credit for.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, leader; we have the question.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: This is one of the things that happens in question time. The Leader of the Opposition likes to rewrite history, saying that everything that is occurring now under our government, the massive increase in expenditure, was somehow created by the former government. That is simply not correct.

The reality was that when we came to government the operating expenditure for SA Health was $6.5 billion per year. It is now $7.4 billion per year—and we took out the $1.3 billion worth of cuts that you had baked into the forward estimates.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is a point of order.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: Standing order 98, sir. The question wasn't about the cuts baked into the forward estimates.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leader, thank you for the speech—

Mr MALINAUSKAS: It was when will ramping end. He has about 30 seconds left. When will ramping end?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leader, take your seat. I uphold the point of order. The Premier has 10 seconds.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you very much, sir. There were a lot of interruptions and interjections, but what I was saying was that it is a function of demand and supply. We can control supply, and that is why we are investing. On the demand side, we are working with Wellbeing SA to do everything we can with preventive programs to reduce that demand on our emergency departments in South Australia.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Premier has completed his answer. Member for Kaurna, I did indicate earlier that I would go to the member for Newland, and I will honour that.