House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Patient Assistance Transport Scheme Patient Assistance Transport Scheme Mr HUGHES House of Assembly Giles Patient Assistance Transport Scheme Mr HUGHES (Giles) (14:26): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister update the house on recent changes to the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme? The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly Kaurna Minister for Health and Wellbeing Patient Assistance Transport Scheme The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:26): I certainly appreciate the question from the member for Giles and acknowledge his very longstanding interest in terms of improving the health care for people in country South Australia. I also acknowledge how important the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme is for so many thousands of people across South Australia every year. In fact, last year alone some 13,000 clients across South Australia used the PAT Scheme to access health services away from their home location. It is incredibly important for those people to get that assistance to be able to get to those surgeries or appointments that they have. Mrs Hurn interjecting: The Deputy Speaker House of Assembly The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Schubert! The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly Kaurna Minister for Health and Wellbeing The Hon. C.J. PICTON: The problem is that the rates set for the PAT Scheme have been set for a very long period of time. In fact, the rates set for the fuel subsidy of PATS have been set at 16¢ since 2001—going back over 20 years—and there hadn't been any change in terms of that rate for the fuel subsidy that people would receive of 16¢ per kilometre that they had to travel. That meant the value that people received diminished compared with the price of fuel, which has been going up and up, obviously. Nothing, of course, happened in the previous few years when we saw the rate of fuel prices going up and up and so we have decided to take action on that. Mrs Hurn interjecting: The Deputy Speaker House of Assembly The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Schubert! The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly Kaurna Minister for Health and Wellbeing The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We saw no action on this over the past four years under the Marshall Liberal government. Despite the explosion of fuel prices, they made no attempt to reform the scheme. Members interjecting: The Deputy Speaker House of Assembly The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Flinders, it's actually the third time. Next time, unfortunately, you will be going. The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly Kaurna Minister for Health and Wellbeing The Hon. C.J. PICTON: I am delighted to be able to confirm for the house that this government has now increased the rate of the fuel subsidy. We have not only increased it by 10 per cent or 20 per cent but we have doubled the fuel subsidy that people from regional South Australia are receiving. From 1 January, people now receive 32¢ rather than the 16¢ that was in operation previously. I am advised that this now makes the fuel subsidy under our PATS the best in the whole country. I would like to thank those members who have significantly advocated for these changes, particularly the member for Mount Gambier, the member for Narungga, the member for Stuart, of course the minister, the member for Giles and the member for Mawson—all standing up for their country regions and making sure that we got this change done. You only have to look at some of these electorates to see how many people will benefit from it. In relation to the electorate of Mawson, on Kangaroo Island there were some 1,800 claims just from Kangaroo Island alone last year, 836 of those from Kingscote. In Narungga, I am advised that if you look at just Moonta Bay, there were over 500 claims just from Moonta Bay alone. In the electorate of Giles and Stuart, we have talked about how significant an issue it is there. For example, what this means to somebody who lives in Port Augusta (which of course, straddles those two electorates) is that the subsidy they receive for a trip to Adelaide for an appointment has now gone from $100 to $200 because of this change, which is a welcome relief for those South Australians facing those cost-of-living pressures. Of course, we know that there is much more to do. We are significantly investing in our country health services as well to make sure that people can get access to more services locally so they don't need to travel. That is why we are putting in place more country specialist doctors as part of our election commitment. But this is going to make a big difference to those people who live in regional South Australia.