Legislative Council: Tuesday, December 03, 2019

Contents

SA Health, ICAC Report

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (14:24): Supplementary: whose responsibility is it to address the scathing report tabled in parliament today?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:24): I proposed and the government will be establishing a cross-agency task force, chaired by the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Mr Jim McDowell. It will have representation from the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister, go on with your answer.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Just so that honourable members don't lose their train of thought, I might recap. The cross-agency task force will be chaired by the CEO of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet. It will also include the Commissioner of Public Sector Employment. Obviously, the ICAC report raises a whole range of issues that relate to human resource management. It will also include a representative of the Department of Treasury and Finance.

I presume that the Treasurer will nominate somebody bringing industrial relations expertise, because there is so much in this report that relates to such matters. Also, there will be representatives from the Department for Health and Wellbeing and a representative from a local health network. I hope I haven't forgotten anyone, but that's the basic membership of the cross-agency task force.

The reason why we think a cross-agency task force will be particularly useful in this project is because the expertise required to deal with these issues is beyond the expertise of SA Health. For example, the honourable Treasurer's department are the government experts on industrial relations. It makes sense that that expertise would be engaged.