Healthcare System Campaign

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:15): My question again is to the Premier. Will the government's $1.9 million recent advertising campaign help to reduce the cost of seeing a GP at the Hallett Cove Corner Surgery? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: The South Australian government recently launched a $1.9 million advertising campaign boasting about the heath system.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:15): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The campaign that the government is running at the moment is actually important for a couple of reasons. The first is this: at its most basic South Australians are entitled to have a degree of familiarity with a $7-plus billion investment that we are making in the healthcare system. That's obvious. It goes without saying.

The other two elements are important as well. The first one goes to the fact that as a result of this government's commitment to increase the capacity and make a bigger health system we are employing a lot more people within the health system and we need South Australians—particularly younger South Australians who might be contemplating a career or a profession in healthcare service delivery through the state government—to know that there are lots of options available in that regard and we want people to be aware of it.

It is a competitive labour market, we have the lowest unemployment rate in the country, which means, as a significant employer in SA Health which now employs I think over 50,000 people, we need to compete in a tight labour market.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Excuse me Premier, the member for Morialta can leave until the end of question time.

The honourable member for Morialta having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The third element is making sure that the community writ large has a degree of awareness of the options that are available to them when it comes to being treated in a timely way, not just through emergency departments but we want to make sure that people are aware of all the alternatives that this government is investing in in terms of access to health care.

The Leader of the Opposition draws the house's attention to the $1.9 million investment that the government is making in this campaign. He is aware of that because the government has disclosed it proactively, which is a completely different approach, I might add, from what those opposite applied when they were in government not too long ago. We never got those numbers upfront. We, as a government, have sought to provide those numbers transparently, which I think is a good thing because we do not shy away from the investments we are making.

One number that the Leader of the Opposition and those opposite weren't keen to put out there upfront was the cost of their own campaigns when they were in government, including the Building What Matters campaign, which wasn't $1.9 million, that is true, it was $2.3 million. Of course, the contrast is stark. They were running around talking about infrastructure projects such as GlobeLink and the like, but we as a government are only seeking to communicate to the people of South Australia about the actual projects we are delivering, and the size of the investment to increase the capacity of our health system is very substantial indeed.

Only on the weekend, I was with the health minister at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital where we could see firsthand how the bright Woodville facility is operating. This is an alternative pathway, an ED avoidance measure that, from memory, has already seen over a thousand people in the short time it has been open. It's making a difference and we are very grateful for the hard work that is being applied there.

Of course, it is these types of initiatives that in their own way have contributed to a 41 per cent reduction in ramping hours that we saw in the last month. I say that figure in the context of the fact that we know there is a long, long way to go. We are not being presumptuous about this, we are not celebrating prematurely, we are not claiming victory but what we are doing is delivering the big investments, the new infrastructure, the greater number of personnel to make a difference in health care service delivery and we are pleased with recent results.