Motions

Health Care for Regional and Rural South Australia Petition

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (11:03): I move:

That the eligible petition presented in the house on 15 November 2023 from 10,688 residents of Narungga and greater South Australia requesting the house to urge the government to take steps to ensure the equitable distribution of health expenditure, materials and staffing resources to ensure appropriate access to quality health care for regional and rural South Australians; and to reclassify Port Pirie and Wallaroo hospitals to improve resource allocations within the electorate of Narungga be referred to the Economic and Finance Committee.

I thank the government for their acquiescence in bringing this to the top of the Notice Paper this morning. As mentioned in the motion, the petition was tabled in November of last year, so it has been sitting on the table for quite some time. I have to say that the members of my electorate who signed this petition, almost 11,000 of them, did so because they believed that they would have the opportunity to make a direct impact in a mandated inquiry and they would be able to contribute and help form the direction in which health care in Narungga proceeds, and hopefully this referral will give them the chance.

We know that the Legislative Review Committee has been snowed under with inquiries and it has not found the time to be able to complete those. As such, a law change was made to enable for those petitions to be referred to different committees. At this stage we are still waiting for the Standing Orders Committee to come up with a mechanism to enable those referrals to happen, but in lieu of that, I am thankful that the government has allowed this motion to proceed and it will pass on to the Economic and Finance Committee.

I will make one final point and that is that all standing committees I know are busy, they have all got a large number of referrals and tasks before them. There would not have been an option on the Notice Paper of the standing committees that would have enabled this petition to rise right to the top immediately. I would urge the Economic and Finance Committee to please find the time as quickly as they possibly can to inquire into this. It is clear from the Hansard when the petition bill was presented to the last parliament that the intent was that these eligible petitions be inquired into as soon as practicable. It was not intended that they be presented, the inquiry mandated and then sit languishing in the bottom of the pile for the rest of the term of parliament.

I have nominated the Economic and Finance Committee because I know that they are chaired by a regional member, a tremendously capable member, and I know that he will do his best to ensure that this regional health petition sees the light of day as soon as is possible. I am sure that the entirety of the committee will do a wonderful job inquiring into it and I am completely confident that we will get a wonderful set of recommendations that will guide the future health care in Narungga.

Once again, thank you to the government for seeing fit to allow this motion to reach the top of the pile; I am tremendously appreciative. I am hopeful that the inquiry will start as soon as practicable and I look forward to informing my constituents of the avenue with which they might make a submission to this inquiry in due course.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am sure flattery will get you everywhere, member for Narungga.

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (11:06): I just want to make a very brief comment in support of the motion to refer this petition to the Economic and Finance Committee. Regardless of the merits of the petition itself, I think it is timely. It has been sitting on the table, as the member for Narungga said, for quite a while now.

We have changed the standing orders to allow the Legislative Review Committee some reprieve from the onerous work of petitions work. As the member for Narungga has indicated, the Standing Orders Committee still has not polished the mechanism by which that referral takes place to the relevant committee and it is complex. This is not an apology, it is sort of an explanation that this is an unexpectedly complex matter in which a private member refers a petition to a relevant committee. I just want to reassure the member for Narungga that that is still being worked on and hopefully this situation will not arise again in the future where a petition is sitting on the table for so long.

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (11:07): I rise to indicate the support of the opposition for this motion and the recommendation to refer it to the Economic and Finance Committee. I commend the member for Narungga, a hardworking local member on the other side of the gulf, for his effort in collecting over 10,000 signatures. To have this as a tipping point for an inquiry is a really important thing.

As a member of the Legislative Review Committee I have been privy to a number of petitions that have been presented to that committee and, as the member for Narungga has spoken about, there has been great engagement from communities right around South Australia with this process. As a member also of the Economic and Finance Committee, I am looking forward, as a regional member of parliament, to delving into this aspect. I also assure the member that I, too, will be pushing for this inquiry to be heard as soon as possible, because regional health in South Australia is such an important matter to make sure we have sustainable, long-term communities which are able to be viable into the future and can contribute, as they currently do, and to an ever-increasing amount to our state and federal economy. In doing so, I speak in favour of this bill.

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (11:08): As the Presiding Member of the Economic and Finance Committee, I welcome this inquiry, and doubly so as a regional member. I think it is important to provide a focus on the delivery of health services in regional communities. There will not be a single regional community that does not have a range of issues when it comes to the delivery of health services.

These issues are often complex and systemic in nature. I am not just involving state government but also federal government policy. I think it is good to have an avenue where the member for Narungga can prosecute his case. He has been patient. Even though it might not fall exactly into the remit of the Economic and Finance Committee, I think it is important at times we demonstrate a degree of flexibility, especially when it comes to an issue as important as this one.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (11:10): The member for Flinders having given an indication of the opposition's support on the merits, I rise to join in expressing that support. In circumstances where this is an early referral from the house, I note the contents of the motion include the referral to the Economic and Finance Committee. That is a pathway to efficacy here. The house is making clear its desire for the Economic and Finance Committee to examine this and, as the member for Narungga has said, the expectation, given the capacity of that committee, will be that there will be very useful outcomes of what is a very meritorious subject matter.

Motion carried.