Question Time

Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:12): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier accept responsibility for ramping levels in South Australia? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Since the 2022 state election, and despite promising to fix ramping, the Labor government has delivered the 15 worst ramping months in the history of South Australia.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:12): I would like to thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question because his question comes at an important time in the context of the challenge that the state has to alleviate the level of ramping that we have. I am very pleased to report to the house, to the parliament and to the people of South Australia more broadly that what we have seen this winter is a dramatic improvement—

Mrs Hurn: It was the worst winter on record last year.

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned. The Premier has the call.

Mrs Hurn: Worst winter on record.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert, you are on two warnings. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: This winter, we saw an improvement in ramping numbers on what we saw in the winter prior. I am very pleased to report that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Frome, order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —May this year is better than May last year. June this year is better than June last year—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —July this year is better than July last year, and August this year is better than August last year, which speaks to a trend of improvement.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Morialta is warned. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: A point that has been made in this place on a number of occasions—and I am happy to repeat it for the benefit of the members of the opposition and many other South Australians who are interested—at the time of the election last year, when South Australians called 000, 66 per cent of the time they knew the ambulance would be late. They knew that, as a matter of fact, there was a better than even chance that when they called 000 during their time of urgent need they would see the ambulance not roll up on time, and instead a life would be at risk on many occasions because the ambulance was late. What we have been able to deliver over the course of the last 15 months as a result of opening beds and employing more nurses, more doctors and more ambulance officers—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —is a dramatic improvement in ambulance response times. Lots of that improvement is as a direct consequence of the active policy interventions that this government has made, including a record investment. But it's also true that some of the improvement to ambulance response times that we have seen this winter—which of course are better again than what we saw last winter—is because we have started to see signs of improvement in regard to the volume of hours of transfer-of-care data. We need that trend to continue. This government is not going to make the same mistake of the former government: at the first sign of positive data—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Hartley is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —irresponsibly claiming victory, irresponsibly making representations to the public to suggest that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —the whole problem is fixed and there's nothing to see here.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Frome is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We acknowledge this challenge, and we make active policy choices to confront the challenge by making the biggest investments in health infrastructure that this state has ever seen. The good news for those people who are working so hard on the frontline within our health service more broadly is there are a lot more resources coming.

Mrs Hurn: They voted for you to fix it.

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: There are still more nurses to be employed, still more doctors to be recruited, and more ambulance officers to enter on the frontline—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —as that progressively ramps up over the course of the next few years.

Mr Patterson: Extra car parks to park the ambulances.

The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: More beds, more nurses, more doctors, more ambulance officers: we want that trend of improvement to continue. We acknowledge that there is still a lot of work to be done, but we are heading in the right direction, which is exactly what we wanted to deliver as we came to government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!