SINGING FOR HEALTH PROGRAM

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:03): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, representing the Minister for Health, questions about the Singing for Health program.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: In just over two weeks, the Singing for Health group, a choir that helps people from the southern suburbs to overcome social and mental health issues, will be shut down, after the health department recently decided to axe the small amount of funding they receive. This community health arts program began in 2009 and involves up to 30 residents of the southern suburbs who meet to sing a cappella at the Noarlunga GP Plus Super Clinic each week. It is run by a social worker and psychologist, who each have a musical background.

The amount of funding this program receives from the health department is tiny, but the impact on the people who participate is life changing; it is a wonderful example of the power of music and the arts to transform lives. The Singing for Health group members desperately want to keep going, and they have started to campaign to keep it alive. Their plight was recently featured in the Southern Times Messenger. Tomorrow, some very courageous members of the choir will stand up to sing protest songs on the steps of Parliament House. Joining them will be members of a number of other choirs to support them and also to represent Singing for Health choir members who are not able to participate.

Singing for Health appears to be a victim of the McCann razor gang, which has ripped through a range of successful and popular community health programs. Frustratingly, there is a wealth of evidence of the effectiveness of singing as a cure for depression, a fact, I am informed, that was talked about last night during the final of The Voice.

South Australia has, until recently, had a wonderful reputation in this area. Singing for Health is more than just a choir; it keeps members healthy and out of hospital and, for many, it is their only social activity, and axing the program does not even make economic sense. My questions are:

1. As any savings from axing Singing for Health will be wiped out if just one choir member stays for a couple of weeks in hospital, will the minister consider options to keep this highly successful program alive?

2. Does the minister see any role for the arts in health? If so, why are so many valuable arts and health programs like this one being cut?

3. Directed to the Minister for Environment personally, who I have heard has a great singing voice: would he like to come out to the steps tomorrow at 1 o'clock to sing along with this wonderful group of South Australians?

The Hon. G.E. Gago: You could sing the answer.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:05): I could, thank you very much. Give me a C-flat, will you, Steve?

The PRESIDENT: Order! Singing in the chamber is against standing orders, minister; I have heard you sing.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr President; as always, I take your guidance on these matters. I thank the honourable member for his most important questions directed to the Minister for Health and Ageing in another place, and I undertake to seek a response on his behalf. In relation to the third question directed to me personally, I would advise him most strenuously to not mislead parliament in such a way.