Grievance Debate

Ambulance Ramping

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (15:40): I have a bit of an odd confession to make, and that is that on a few occasions I have felt extraordinarily sorry for the member for Kaurna, who is the health minister here in South Australia, because we know that he has a really big job. It is an important job. It is one of the most demanding jobs in the state cabinet. It is an important one because it genuinely impacts the lives of all South Australians in so many ways. I hate to say it, though, but he has presided over the worst ramping results in the history of South Australia.

It is always the member for Kaurna who is sent out to defend the indefensible, and it is not just on record ramping. There is a litany of failures that we are seeing constantly under the Malinauskas Labor government when it comes to health. While the member for Kaurna is out defending the indefensible, what do we have the Premier doing? He is taking a bow and he is doing all the curtain calls, which is fantastic for the Premier.

So I have felt sorry for the member for Kaurna on a number of occasions. That is until I remember one thing: the state election campaign, when it was the member for Kaurna and all those opposite—the Premier and all the backbench—who went out there and looked South Australians in the eye on many occasions and promised South Australians that they would fix ramping.

In fact, they said it was so bad that they made an idle threat to South Australians that they had to use their vote like their life depended on it because things were so bad that people might die if the government did not change. In fact, the day before the state election, what did we have the Minister for Health, the member for Kaurna, out there saying? He said that there was only one thing required to fix ramping in South Australia. Can you guess what it was? 'Vote Labor. We will fix ramping. That is the only thing that is required to fix ramping.'

After I remember that, after we on this side of the house remember that, every single drop of sympathy that I might have had for the member for Kaurna completely evaporates, because what have we had since the election? Has ramping improved? Are our emergency departments less clogged? Are people getting their elective surgeries quicker? Do we have workers who are feeling at ease now that they finally have a Labor government? Not by a country mile, because this government has delivered the worst ramping in our state's history and it is workers and patients who are worse off under this Premier.

What do we get? We have seen it on display today in question time. All we get are these mealy-mouthed excuses from the government. They are constantly clutching at excuses: 'It's the federal government's fault. We have an ageing population. This is a national problem. We can't possibly fix it overnight.' The Premier had all of that on display today. Unfortunately, that is not what they said during the state election campaign; they said they would fix ramping and it was so bad that people had to vote like their life depended on it.

The clock is ticking for the government to deliver. They can try to spin all they like about the different metrics that they promised, but we expect that in being so desperate to change things around and deliver on their election promise they will look for any trick to possibly do it between now and the election.

That brings me to the motivation behind the latest policy change to the ambulance transport and handover policy, which has been in draft form for some time. The government is desperately trying to say, 'Nothing to see here. It is a minor change about who is legally responsible—nothing big.' But here is the thing: when you have bureaucrats, and who knows where else the pressure is coming from, to clear the ambulance ramp, who is legally responsible for the patient fundamentally matters.

So what is some of the feedback that we have been hearing from clinicians, because the minister said today that apparently the opposition is just kicking up dust—apparently we are just kicking up dust. Well, this is what some people in the ED say: it would lead to unattended patients in invisible spots in the ED getting no care, no monitoring. Here is the real one: patients will die and staff will leave.

If that is not enough to send a shiver down the spine of a health minister, I do not know what is, and the minister is wilfully ignoring this. I think that it is time for the mealy-mouthed excuses from those opposite to end. It is time for them to start delivering and actually put the patient first because that is the difference between us and them. We are focused on the patient and we are not going to be taking shortcuts to deliver better outcomes for them, whereas this government is desperate to save their own political skin by making changes like this.