SA Health

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (14:44): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing about an ICAC inquiry.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Before the 2018 state election, SA-Best's leader, Nick Xenophon, called for a royal commission into SA Health, describing it as bloated, toxic and badly managed. We have already seen plenty of evidence of that. Today, the ICAC commissioner, Bruce Lander, wants to conduct an inquiry because of concerns SA Health is riddled with corruption and failing processes. It seems that Mr Xenophon's concerns were well founded.

My questions to the minister are: does he agree with the concerns that his department is riddled with corruption, and have executive staff reported instances of corruption? Does he endorse an inquiry with the coercive powers of ICAC, and will the government now provide resources to the ICAC commissioner and conduct an inquiry?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:45): I thank the honourable member for his two questions. The first question is in relation to reports. The Department for Health and Wellbeing and related agencies actively ensure that we comply with our reporting requirements under the ICAC legislation. Certainly, we can always do better, and we continue to do training to remind people of their responsibilities. I acknowledge that that has been expanded recently in relation to what was formerly called the whistleblower legislation.

In relation to the suggestion of a royal commission with coercive powers, let's be clear: the ICAC has coercive powers. It is almost a standing royal commission. The Marshall Liberal government is committed to fixing our health system and renewing the culture of SA Health. You ascribe observations to Mr Xenophon, a former member of this place, that SA Health is toxic, bloated and mismanaged. The Liberal opposition made similar comments before the election and, in government, through attempts to deal with the problems of maladministration. I have made similar comments that there is still a major cultural issue in SA Health.

That is why, soon after we were elected to government, we initiated the KordaMentha diagnostic and recovery plan process. That was a very important step. As the ICAC commissioner himself acknowledged this morning, the engagement of KordaMentha has been an important step to deal with maladministration. I note the comments of the commissioner this morning. Significantly, they echo the observations of the KordaMentha diagnostic report and recovery plan.

For example, in particular, he mentioned the issue of poor record keeping. That issue of poor record keeping was highlighted only yesterday in the media in relation to the coding issues. Not only did we come into government with what I understand was a backlog in coded items for 9,000 episodes of care but there are another 2,000 where the technical competency of the coding was so poor that the state risked losing tens of millions of dollars in resources. The commitment of the ICAC commissioner to deal with maladministration and corruption is strongly supported by this government. That is why we invested $18 million in the KordaMentha process.