Federal Election

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (14:14): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier please update the house on any federal election commitments that would improve health services and boost bed numbers in South Australia?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:14): I thank the member for Elder for her question. I know that she takes very seriously her responsibility, this whole government's responsibility, towards improving our health system in South Australia. We know it is under extraordinary strain not just because of the COVID pandemic, which of course puts pressure on the health system throughout the entirety of our commonwealth, but also because this state government has inherited a health system that was made demonstrably worse under the life of the former conservative government here in South Australia.

Ramping, we know, increased by over 400 per cent. When the former government did take it upon themselves to eventually, on occasions, release ramping statistics, it became increasingly clear—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members on my left!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —that ramping, under their watch, was made so much worse by upwards of 480 per cent. This government has been elected with a very serious commitment to improve the status of our health system. In the pursuit of that effort, we unapologetically acknowledge that we are looking for active partners to achieve outcomes. We want to be a government that is open-minded to working collaboratively with other agencies and other parts of our economy, including the private sector, to try to drive performance improvements within the health system, and do you know what? That also happens to include the Commonwealth of Australia.

On this side of the chamber, we believe that where there is a willing partner in a federal government to improve our public health system, then we will work with them. It is incredibly unfortunate that there is virtually no evidence of the current commonwealth government showing any willingness or any appetite to engage in constructive discussions, constructive dialogue, let alone willingness to make investments in our public health system in South Australia or anywhere around the country to improve outcomes, to improve the sort of care that patients reasonably expect in a First World country such as our own.

I can't tell you how grateful I have been over recent weeks to learn of the news that the federal Labor Party is willing in government, should they be elected on Saturday, to partner with our state government in investing in critical public health infrastructure in our state. We know that investment at Flinders Medical Centre is needed.

What we do not need as a state are the sorts of piecemeal investments in Flinders Medical Centre that we have seen in the past, the sorts of investments where you might spend money opening up additional capacity in the emergency department only to close capacity behind the emergency department, the sorts of investments that led the former government's own independent report to establish that it actually may have made the situation worse rather than better.

We want to be a government that drives big investments, big change in terms of the performance of the Flinders Medical Centre, which is why we are putting on the table $200 million of state government money if we can have that matched from the commonwealth. The federal Liberal Party, they're out. They don't want to be party to such an investment, but federal Labor have committed to $200 million at the Flinders Medical Centre. This means we can see a $400 million redevelopment of the Flinders Medical Centre if the Australian people, if the South Australian people, so choose this Saturday.