SA Ambulance Service

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:10): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding ambulances.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: In the last 24 hours, the secretary of the Ambulance Employees Association, Phil Palmer, said in a communication to his members:

We had to endure a series of ridiculous proposals from a pigheaded government who just could not get how wrong they were.

My question to the minister is: does the minister accept that his government's interactions with paramedics have been pigheaded and ridiculous?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:10): Given that I handled—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Given that I handled all of the negotiations with my officers on behalf of the government, the question is more appropriately addressed to me. The simple answer to the honourable member's question is no. We always, as I am sure all members would respect, handle our own negotiations with employee representatives and their members respectfully but nevertheless in a firm and fair fashion on behalf of the taxpayers of South Australia.

Without recounting all of the details of the deal that has been arrived at, signed off by the representatives of the AEA and the government, together with the Deputy President of the Employment Tribunal—a signed agreement—it is clear, and that is that both sides have been prepared to compromise. The government is more interested—and as I said yesterday, we are not interested in claiming victory or who won or who didn't win.

The people of South Australia, the patients and the staff within our public hospitals are the winners in relation to what occurred yesterday as a result of—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hanson asked the question; he might like to listen to the answer.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —three or four weeks of negotiation. We are in a position now to move on, with an extra 74 full-time equivalent staff, a commitment to roster reform by 30 June and a willingness to negotiate with each other in terms of crib break reform and, critically, a signed agreement to cease all industrial action as from yesterday.