Regional Nurses, Work Safety

Ms PRATT (Frome) (14:39): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. What is the government's response to evidence given today by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation to the Economic and Finance Committee? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms PRATT: Regional nurses gave confronting witness statements about threats to their personal safety at work.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:39): I obviously do not sit on the Economic and Finance Committee of the parliament. I know a number of members do. I know a number of members of the Labor Party do. I am advised that only one member of the Liberal Party managed to attend the hearing this morning, interestingly enough. This is an inquiry that the government—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Did you have more than one person at the committee? No? I understood that of three members of the committee, only one Liberal bothered to turn up. This is a serious topic, and that is why we had members turning up to the committee to hear that evidence. This is a topic that we supported having an inquiry into by the Economic and Finance Committee. They have travelled to the region, and I understand our members also turned up to that. Only one out of the three Liberal members of the committee turned up on Yorke Peninsula to hear the evidence from the local community.

That is why we are taking it seriously, and that is why our members turned up to those hearings. Obviously, our regional health services are incredibly important. Obviously, we are listening through that committee to the members of the Yorke Peninsula community in terms of their needs for their local health services. We have been increasing our budgets for regional health right across the state, increasing both the recurrent budgets and also the capital works budgets across the state. In fact, when we came to office, just $34 million a year was being spent on capital works across regional health services. We have increased that not by a little bit but by a lot: we are now spending up to $166 million a year. That is an increase of 388 per cent.

The operating budgets have also increased by 25 per cent, or $260 million, under this government compared with the last budget of the previous government. This is a government that is taking regional health seriously. We have invested in both recurrent and capital works projects, and we are also investing in terms of workforce as well. In fact, in the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network, we have increased the capital works budget by 500 per cent since coming to government, from just $4 million to $20 million. The operational budget has increased by 26 per cent, from $173 million to $219 million.

So we will continue to listen to the community and to workers on Yorke Peninsula and elsewhere. We will continue to invest in regional health services across the state, and we will continue to turn up to these important committees, listen to the evidence and formulate responses to help improve health services.