Sexual Health Services Funding

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:52): Supplementary: minister, how will you explain to the 350 clinicians who signed that open letter that cutting funding for sexual health services will lead to improved health outcomes?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:52): That's hardly supplementary, because the letter was nothing to do with the ASHC; it was to do with SHINE SA services. What I explained to the council yesterday, in the context of the motion, was that we expect all parts of the health service to constantly strive to make sure not only that their services are clinically targeted and relevant but they are also sustainable.

The former Labor government continued to tolerate gross inefficiencies across the health system. We will continue to expect all health services to work efficiently. In that period the former Labor government was allowing the Central Adelaide Local Health Network overspend to increase—I think two years ago it was $150 million; last financial year I think it was in the order of $260 million; KordaMentha's estimate was that, if urgent action wasn't taken, it would be $300 million.

While the former Labor government was allowing the management of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network to become so grossly inefficient that we were spending hundreds of millions of dollars, what were they doing? In that same period they cut the health prevention budget by two-thirds. In relation to this particular subject area, the letter that the honourable member refers to was with respect to SHINE SA. SHINE SA in 2012-13 had a cut of $6.9 million

The Hon. T.J. Stephens: How much?

The Hon. S.G. WADE: It was 6.9 per cent, sorry. But then again last year it was an additional 5 per cent. If the honourable member is suggesting that this government is being unfair to these services compared with the hospitals, I would ask him to say why he thought it was tolerable to waste tens of millions of dollars in SA Health tertiary facilities and slash the community ones?