Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier explain the difference between 'fixing' and 'progressing'? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: In early September, Rik Morris, head of the Premier's Delivery Unit, when asked if the government will fix the ramping crisis, said, and I quote:

…there will be progress to measure that before the term of this government is up.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:28): During the course of the election campaign, and I invite the new Leader of the Opposition—I am getting some stats up for the shadow treasurer; you might want to look at some statistics every now and then in your new role.

Mr Telfer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Flinders, you are on your second warning.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: At the election, during the course of the election campaign proper—and again, there is oodles of footage of me saying this on the record, which I would welcome the Leader of the Opposition familiarising himself with—we made it clear that our objective was to get ambulance response times back up to a range closer the 2018 levels. At the 2018 levels we saw priority 2 lights-and-sirens emergencies approaching 80 per cent. I am very pleased to report that even just this week, even just this month so far, the month of September, we now have that number at 68.4 per cent, so just shy of 70 per cent. I would like to put on the record my thanks to Rob Elliott, the CEO of the South Australian Ambulance Service, for providing me those statistics, as he does on a weekly basis on a Monday.

We made it clear that that was our objective. We know that when we reduce ramping we improve ambulance response times. We also know we improve ambulance response times when we don't cut the Ambulance Service, which is exactly what the Leader of the Opposition sat around the cabinet table and did.

Their policy, during the course of a global pandemic, was to close beds, cut the health system and become, uniquely in the commonwealth—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Flinders, you are out after any more interjections.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Uniquely, the Leader of the Opposition endorsed a policy around the cabinet table that was unique in the commonwealth because it was the only jurisdiction to decide to cut the Ambulance Service during the course of a global pandemic—cut the Ambulance Service. Can you believe that in a global pandemic with a growing population and an ageing population that the Leader of the Opposition gladly made himself party to cutting the Ambulance Service? The ambulance response time was a 33 per cent on-time performance; today it's 67 per cent.

Mr BATTY: Point of order: 98, the Premier is debating and he should return to the substance of the question.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Let me explain it to the new—what are you now?—Leader of Opposition Business. The way it works is that if an ambulance is on a ramp it's not out there responding to someone. Under your predecessor's leadership and under the Leader of the Opposition's leadership, what we saw was ambulance response times down at 33 per cent. Today they are at 67 per cent and we want to see that number continue to go up.