Women's and Children's Hospital

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (15:28): A supplementary arising from the original answer on the task force that has been set up: has the minister excluded representative bodies from the task force, such as the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Association, and has this breached an election promise that the task force will include clinicians, health professionals and industrial organisations?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:28): I don't know the election commitment the honourable member is referring to, but let me be clear: the task force is more than half clinicians. I insisted that, in selecting those clinicians, the views of employee organisations be sought, and I hardly think it is credible for this Labor Party to come into this chamber and talk about consulting with clinicians and their employee organisations.

For the last four years, while Transforming Health was being rolled out, continually we had the ANMF, SASMOA, the Health Services Union and other unions saying, 'Why won't the government talk to us?' They claim to be the party that is a political wing of the industrial movement, yet their behaviour belies that fact. Continually, clinicians were telling us that neither they nor their unions were consulted in Transforming Health and in other parts of the operation.

There's still a lot to be done in improving SA Health's engagement with its employees, but I can assure you that there are much greater prospects under this government, which respects clinicians and employees, unlike the former Labor government.