Elective Surgery

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:42): Supplementary question: given the minister thinks that the spike in elective surgery was a result of the winter flu season, why did it triple in a month, and that month was the month that coincided with the move of the Royal Adelaide Hospital?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (14:42): If I understand the honourable member's supplementary question correctly, he is suggesting that the government's decision to move to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital resulted in more people getting flu. Is that the implication of the honourable member's question? So, does that also mean that the move to the Royal Adelaide Hospital that occurred here in metropolitan Adelaide also somehow had some far-reaching health consequence where the record spike in the number of flu cases that we saw occur in Victoria and New South Wales was also a consequence of the Royal Adelaide move?

I mean, Mr President, the Liberal Party's opposition to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital has just now jumped the shark. We have got the Liberal Party arguing that the new Royal Adelaide Hospital is causing people in the Eastern States to have more flu. How patently absurd. It is about time that the opposition realise that the new Royal Adelaide Hospital is going to deliver an outstanding service to this community, and their idea to somehow blame everything that occurs on the Royal Adelaide Hospital, including more flu in the Eastern States, represents the complete lunacy of the Liberal Party's position on health generally.