Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): My question is to the Premier. When it comes to ambulance ramping, what is a crisis? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: Early in September, the Chief Executive of the Premier's Delivery Unit, Rik Morris, told the Budget and Finance Committee, and I quote:

I will leave that to others to define the word 'crisis'.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:25): I was more than happy to define what crisis looked like during the course of the election campaign, and I do not resile from any of those words today. I made it perfectly clear, during the course of the election campaign, time and time again, that what the ramping crisis looks like is people calling 000 and the ambulance not rolling up on time. What were those statistics? What were those statistics? At the election in February 2022, we know that when South Australians were calling 000 with a lights-and-sirens emergency—that is to say, a life-threatening emergency—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left will listen to the Premier in silence.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —the ambulance would roll up on time around about a third of the time—a third of the time. Today that statistic has improved to the extent of virtually 100 per cent. We now see that for priority 2 lights-and-sirens emergencies—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Frome!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —life-threatening emergencies, that the ambulance is twice as likely to roll up on time than what was the case two years ago. That is a difference between life and death. The Leader of the Opposition asks, 'What does a crisis look like?' Well, a crisis looks like a family calling 000, the ambulance not rolling up on time, and then the people in charge putting their head in the sand and pretending there is no problem—pretending there is no problem, which is what the policy was—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left will listen to the Premier in silence.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —and that stands in stark contrast to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey will stop interjecting from outside of his seat. You can return to your seat if you want to make noise, and if you make too much noise you will be chucked out.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: It stands in stark contrast to the policy on this side of the house, which is actually to improve ambulance response times, and that is exactly what we have delivered.