Nurse Relocation Reimbursement

Ms PRATT (Frome) (14:27): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Have any interstate nurses had their relocation reimbursement request declined and, if so, how many? With your leave sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms PRATT: In October last year, New South Wales nurse Chantelle Menzies was encouraged by SA Health to complete the forms and successfully relocated to South Australia to work in our public health system. Five months later, SA Health advised her that her application was declined. Ms Menzies has written directly to the Labor Party and has heard nothing back.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:28): I will certainly make contact with the Labor Party if somebody has made contact with them. I am not sure if she has made contact with the state government or not, but we will certainly look into that matter. Whether there were eligibility issues in terms of that position, or whatever the case was, I am happy to look into it. Certainly, I am not sure if the member has raised that or written to me about it but I—

Ms Pratt: She has written to you.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: You said she wrote to the Labor Party. I am—

Ms Pratt: That's not you?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: No.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left will come to order, and the minister—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: And members on my right as well! Member for Elder! The minister is right. He has—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister for Education, don't make me throw you out with all those students in the gallery; and the shadow minister for education, you might join him. The students are watching. The minister is right in that he's not responsible to this house for anything that the Labor Party does, and that was the question, that someone had written to the Labor Party. I will continue to listen to the minister.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. My son Alex has a book called Government and politics in Australia that he got from the library. I am happy to get a copy for the member for Frome. There is a whole page there on how parliaments work. There's a whole page there on how political parties work—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Frome! The member for Colton!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —and we are standing in the parliament.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Flinders!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: This is not a political party. So I am happy to clarify those matters for the member for Frome.

Mr Telfer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Flinders, you can leave the chamber until the end of question time.

The honourable member for Flinders having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: I am also happy to check if the member for Frome has written to me about this issue. She knows where to contact me, she knows my number, she knows my address. We have previously had—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: You're very busy?

An honourable member: She's very busy.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Have you written to me? We have previously had the member for Schubert sending letters to my ministerial address three minutes before question time, so we will see if the same thing has happened in terms of the member for Frome's correspondence to us. I am always happy to look into matters that have been raised by our hardworking nurses as well as doctors, allied health professionals and those across the health system. We thank them. We have been adding many, many hundreds of extra nurses across our system. We have added 1,400 additional clinicians across our system—full-time equivalent, above attrition—and we are very thankful for all those people who have joined SA Health as part of our efforts to create a bigger health system.