Question Time

Health Services

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:50): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health and Wellbeing a question about health services.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Over the last week in parliament, the Minister for Health has refused to provide time lines for the release of hospital accreditation reports, has said that on some issues he refuses to take advice from his own department, has had to ask the Premier whether he, as health minister, has talked to someone about becoming chief executive of his own department, and has refused to rule out privatising hospital and clinical services. It is possible that some of these lines of questioning were too complicated for the health minister so I will be more specific.

My question, very specifically, is: can the minister name any of the services that he will not privatise? Specifically, will the minister rule out privatising:

1. All or any part of SA Pathology?

2. Any aspect of the Patient Transport Service?

3. Any part of the SA Ambulance Service?

4. Any part of the clinical services that form part of the SA Prison Health Service?

5. Any clinical services performed outside of hospitals, including but not limited to in-home palliative care?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:52): I would like to make a very solemn and clear commitment to this council that I have no intention of privatising the Repatriation General Hospital site, contrary to the commitment of the previous government. Soon after I was appointed as minister, I went into discussions with ACH. I have terminated that contract, unlike the former—

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Point of order: I know it is early, but the honourable minister is answering a question he was not, in fact, asked. He was not asked a question about the Repatriation General Hospital.

The PRESIDENT: It was a general question and the minister has not concluded his answer. Ministers of the Crown have some latitude, as you would well remember, Hon. Mr Hunter.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I don't think it was a general question, sir. I think it was very specific.

The PRESIDENT: Minister, continue.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Thank you, Mr President. I appreciate that you heard the question, which was whether I could name one service that I wouldn't privatise. I can make it very clear that I am not privatising the Repatriation General Hospital site.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Let the minister answer.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, we have had this before. It is your question. Show the minister respect regarding your question and allow him to answer.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: The Premier won't be happy if you are not ruling it out.

The PRESIDENT: You do not know the mood of the Premier, Leader of the Opposition. Let the minister answer in silence.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I would like to commend the Leader of the Opposition for his cognitive development over the last couple of years. In the last parliament he seemed to make an art form of giving 'yes/no' answers; we had to give a 'yes/no' answer to everything. At least now the Leader of the Opposition, having assumed the opposition role, has discovered the art of multiple choice.

It was very kind of him to give me a range of opportunities that I might want to privatise. That might be the approach of a Labor cabinet. Mr Rann signs a billboard-sized 'I will not privatise anything' and then they go into the $2.4 billion NRAH project and then they run around outsourcing all the hospital services. Then, once they go back to the blissful side of the opposition benches, they suddenly rediscover their values and also the art of multiple choice, so congratulations to the Leader of the Opposition. I will take up the challenge. I will identify a privatisation opportunity that I will not take, and that is the privatisation of the Repat hospital.

The PRESIDENT: Is this a supplementary, Leader of the Opposition, or something different?