COUNTRY HEALTH CARE PLAN

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:53): Today I wish to discuss Labor's failed Country Health Plan. I am part of the Liberal Party task force formed to look into Labor's plan, and I would like to pass on to the council that country people are not happy—in fact, they are furious. I was at a community meeting at Tumby Bay last week—

The Hon. B.V. Finnigan interjecting:

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: The moose-head from Mingbool might learn something if he listens. People are confused and they are angry. As Liberal task force leader Rob Kerin said recently, 'I haven't seen an outpouring of community concern like this in all my years in politics.' What the Rann government has forgotten is that there are thousands of voters in metropolitan seats who spend their holidays in rural and regional centres; the government would be reminded, for example, that 40 per cent of ratepayers on Yorke Peninsula normally live in Adelaide.

Hundreds of thousands of Adelaideians also holiday right across regional South Australia, and I am certain many of these will attend a rally outside the Norwood oval this Saturday morning to let the Rann government know what they think of the plan. We had a fantastic turnout for the first rally on the steps of Parliament House, and I am sure that country and city people will turn out together in force to, essentially, maintain the rage against the government's unfair plan.

The bureaucrats in the back office have had a huge win with the Country Health Plan. They have no understanding of country communities and the delivery of country services. As many as 75 to 80 per cent of rural South Australians who want anything other than simple health care will need to make a trip to Adelaide. If you look at where 80 per cent of people in South Australia live, they will end up coming to Adelaide for nearly all their medical services. It is just not good enough.

That is one of the most obvious things to come out of the plan, but our task force has been looking at a whole range of issues. One issue that has not been properly considered, for example, is that over the past few years we have seen older people moving out of smaller towns to retire to where the 43 downgraded hospitals will be, and part of the reason they have bought these homes in their retirement is that there is a working hospital in that area. We have been told by some of our constituents that this is an important factor in their move, and it makes sense that people want to be close to quality health care in their retirement. These people have made their investment and made the move, and then the government comes up with this plan to take away the services they need.

A recent editorial in the Clare Argus was spot on. The member for Stuart shared it in the other place, and I will share it here. It states:

It is funny how local government is required to ask its communities their opinions on anything from the naming of new roads to the use of community land. Funny because the next couple of tiers of government obviously believe it's okay to ride roughshod over everyone and everything, making decisions for us—because, presumably, we are incapable of providing useful input.

I can assure the council that it is not just a few Liberal MPs and a handful of country people who are angry. Medical professionals are angry, and two of them who were in contact with the Liberal Party around the time the plan was announced said it best. Dr Alison Edwards, medical director with the Mid-North Division of Rural Medicine warned the Rann government:

As a GP, I have served the Port Broughton area for 14 years, and the government's health plan will devastate our community. I will be able to treat my patients but not be able to admit them to hospital locally.

Rural Doctors' Association of South Australia President Dr Steve Holmes said that the skills of doctors will 'wither and die' without access to country hospitals to utilise their expertise. He also said:

People in country towns will lose doctors and a level of health services that city people take for granted. The removal of acute services from hospitals will place an extra burden on ambulance retrievals and force patients and their families to travel hundreds of kilometres. That is an unacceptable standard of care in Australia today.

The government has implemented these reforms without consulting rural communities or the doctors who work in them. I ask members opposite to put pressure on the Minister for Health to tell him to stop listening to the bureaucrats and do the right thing by country people. That goes especially for you, the Hon. Bernard Finnigan, claiming you are a rural man. Make sure you get into the Minister for Health and get him to do something about this ridiculous health plan.