SA Pathology

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:29): The question was: does the minister support the comments made by his counterpart in the other place that privatising SA Pathology was a poor move? We didn't ask about reviews—

The PRESIDENT: You are seeking clarification, the Hon. Mr Wortley, are you?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: Clarification—does he think privatisation is a poor move?

The PRESIDENT: I have the gist of the question. Minister.

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:30): It's an interesting question that the former minister asks. Let me bring to the attention of the parliament two statements that were made by two separate political parties in response to questions asked by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. During the election, the ANMF put out a policy statement and in it asked for individual parties to respond to what—

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Point of order: relevancy in the answer. Nowhere in the supplementary question was it asked about competing statements by parties, or any questions asked by the Nursing and Midwifery Federation. He was asked very specifically about a comment made by the member for Stuart. It was a very, very specific question.

The PRESIDENT: I appreciate it was a specific question. I am allowing the minister some latitude and we will see how it goes.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I will seek your guidance on this, Mr President, but if the member wants to know if I am going to provide commentary and speak on behalf of the honourable member for Stuart, the answer is no. If the member actually wants me to address the issue of the value of privatisation, then I ask for a bit of latitude in responding to it. Before the election, the ANMF put out this statement, and they asked this specific question:

Do you oppose any further privatisation or outsourcing of public health services, whether for delivery or management, or for the development of physical infrastructure?

The answer from the Liberal Party—unlike the answer from the Labor Party—provided a direct answer. It said:

The Marshall Liberal government will not sell any public hospitals, nor will we move to have any public hospital privately managed. The Labor Party has sourced a wide range of services from beyond the public sector. In assessing such options, the Liberal Party will be focused on health outcomes.

So how did the Labor Party respond to exactly the same question? They made one comment about Medicare, which seemed to be more related to the federal government than the state. They made another comment about being committed to world-class health services, which didn't seem to relate to the question. Then they got to the substance of the question in the latter part by saying:

We will not privatise our public hospitals and we will defend our hospitals against any attempt to do so.

And then this is their attempt to address the fact that they might outsource:

The South Australian Labor government acknowledges there is always more work to do in the provision of health care and that we must continue to invest and collaborate with all stakeholders in the healthcare system to bring about sustainable service improvements.

I put it to honourable members that collaborating with all stakeholders in the health system sounds like, 'We are going to continue to put out lots of tenders and to get lots of outsourced services.'