SA Pathology

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:20): Supplementary: does the Treasurer intend to account for the Health economics of GPs unable to get the information they require to act urgently to health issues? Will he account for these efficiency dividends being put on SA Pathology that will actually come at the expense of other parts of the Health budget?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:20): When you get into the weeds of the details of these particular issues, I will leave that to my very capable colleague the Minister for Health. As I have outlined, and as the minister has outlined, in terms of the broad aggregate numbers for SA Health and SA Pathology, it is not an unreasonable expectation, on behalf of the taxpayers of South Australia, when you have a budget which is haemorrhaging out of control and the taxpayers have to bail it out year after year after year—

The Hon. T.A. Franks: Haemorrhaging might not be the wisest euphemism to be using there.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Well, it's a word that I think very wisely and accurately describes the way the former Labor government managed the Health budget. When you have one particular part of health—CALHN—which was $250 million overspent last year, and over the previous four years was overspent by between $50 million and $150 million, and the former Labor government did nothing about it and just basically said, 'Well, the taxpayers of South Australia can just continue to pay for massive overspending, financial mismanagement and incompetence, and do nothing about it', then that's one of the reasons why the people of South Australia threw the former Labor government out.

They basically said, 'Are you not prepared to do something on behalf of we, the long-suffering taxpayers, who have to pay for the massive budget blowouts, the overspending, the financial mismanagement, the negligence and the incompetence of Labor ministers and the management of the Health budget?' The answer that we are giving is that we as a new government are prepared to try to take some action.

If other pathology providers in other public health institutions interstate—not private sector providers, because that's an even more onerous comparison because they can actually provide the same services at a lower cost in other jurisdictions—but if other public sector providers can actually provide the same level of quality service at a much lower cost, then it is not an unreasonable position, on behalf of the taxpayers of South Australia, to say, 'Why wouldn't we look at making the savings of tens of millions of dollars on behalf of taxpayers?'

When push comes to shove, we will be there, battling away for the quality of the services being delivered within hospitals. We will also be there on behalf of the long-suffering taxpayers of South Australia, who are the ones who ultimately have to pay the cost of the health system here in South Australia, which has been massively overspent over a long period of time because the former Labor government was unprepared to tackle the serious problems that have confronted them for literally a decade or more.