Ambulance Services

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:57): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister please update the council on the government's plan to strengthen ambulance services in regional South Australia?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:57): I thank the honourable member for his question. It does remind me about the neglect of Labor. The ambulance station that I'm referring to was built 40 years ago. It's well past its use-by date, yet didn't even get a blink from the Labor Party over 16 years. Gee, you would want to live in a Labor town under a Labor government, wouldn't you—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —because they completely neglect the people they are meant to represent.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter! Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: So I look forward—

The Hon. C.M. Scriven interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Scriven is out of order.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —to the MRI tomorrow, when the Hon. Ian Hunter is going to tell me about how much money the Labor Party put into the Port Augusta ambulance station over 16 years.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Until I can hear the minister, we will cease and the clock will continue to tick. I call the minister.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Thank you, Mr President. I thank the honourable member for his question. The Marshall Liberal government is continuing to deliver on its promise to improve the delivery of health—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: So not only do they neglect the country, they think the country is a joke. They think services to country people are worth a laugh and that's all.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: This government is investing $4.3 million in the ambulance services in Port Augusta.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order on my left! Order! There will be no conversations on both sides. I want to listen to the minister.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Thank you, Mr President. Significant and sorely needed investments are being made to address the chronic underinvestment that has occurred in country South Australia under the previous government. Labor's neglect has led to massive—massive—capital works and backlogs in the regions, which in turn contribute to the difficulty to recruit and retain staff. In contrast—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The leader and the Hon. Mr Hunter will remain silent.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Here it comes. You asked for it. Here it comes.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Point of order. I seek your—

The Hon. S.G. WADE: In contrast, the Marshall Liberal government—

The PRESIDENT: The minister will resume his seat. The Leader.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I seek your guidance about the parliamentariness or otherwise of the minister pointing at the opposition.

The PRESIDENT: Pointing at another honourable member is out of order, but so are constant, loud interjections, and I don't want to see either of those. The minister will resume.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Thank you, Mr President, and I do apologise for offending the sensitivities of the opposition. In contrast to 16 years of neglect by Labor, the Marshall Liberal government has committed $140 million to address that backlog—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —in addition to $20 million to develop and deliver a rural workforce strategy. In addition to that $140 million to deal with the country capital works backlog, we are delivering more than $30 million on larger country health infrastructure builds on top of the backlog spend. One example, only one example of those investments is a $4.3 million new ambulance station for Port Augusta.

The new station will not only provide amenities for our frontline paramedics but is expected to increase the capacity of SAAS to improve the response times of many of the calls that it receives. The current station is more than 40 years old and is owned by the St John Ambulance service. I first visited the station as minister in March last year at the request of the member for Stuart who was keen for me to see the place with my own eyes and to understand the pressing need for something to be done—16 years of neglect.

As I learnt during that visit, and in subsequent briefings, parts of the station are unusable. The floor is uneven and there is significant cracking. On a windy day it is difficult to stop dust and sand from blowing in. The current station was built in the era of panel van ambulances. Those vehicles were shorter and narrower.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Today, the ambulance attached to the station barely clears the entrance. As for the ambulances of tomorrow—so much wider and higher than the old panel vans—they would simply not fit in. The new station will address these issues. It will be able to accommodate more than 20 staff, and garage seven operational vehicles. Our $4.3 million investment is not only good news for our frontline staff, it is great news for the people of Port Augusta and the region, both now and in the future.

Port Augusta, in spite of Labor's neglect, is the fifth biggest city in South Australia and the second largest on Eyre Peninsula. The present station is located alongside the Port Augusta Hospital on the southern side of the railway line, which I'm told is not the side on which most people live. As local ambulance officers explained to me when I visited the station at the end of last month, the location of the current station is problematic whenever a train is passing through, which is not uncommon in Port Augusta. No-one wants an ambulance officer to be unable to attend a call because they are stuck at a railway crossing.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I am sorry the Leader of the Opposition doesn't find this interesting but it's really important to the people of Port Augusta.

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: I am sure the minister is coming to the conclusion of his answer.

The Hon. E.S. Bourke: When was the last time you went to Port Augusta?

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I thank the Hon. Emily Bourke for interjecting because only a sentence ago I said I was there last month. No-one wants an ambulance officer to be unable to attend a call because they are stuck at a railway crossing watching a long train go by. That is one of the problems that SAAS is determined to address in identifying the site of the new station. This is just one of the many examples of the Marshall Liberal government investing in regional South Australia after 16 years of Labor neglect.