Nurses' Wages

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (14:57): Supplementary: in light of the government's failure to match the offer in Victoria and the significant crisis that is gripping our health system—

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Simms, did you start with—I missed the first words. If you haven't started with a question, you can't have a preamble.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: Is it not the case, given the crisis that is befalling our health system and the fact that the government is not going to actually match the offer that has been put on the table over in Victoria, that people are going to simply move interstate and cause further problems in our health system?

The Hon. B.R. Hood: I will allow it.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ben Hood will allow it. If that is the case, then we had better allow it.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:58): I thank the Hon. Ben Hood for allowing it. I think the honourable member is taking some liberties. He well knows that is not how the industrial relations system works. It doesn't happen, when there is one agreement in one jurisdiction somewhere, that it automatically becomes something that every jurisdiction then gets too.

I was going to suggest that if there were a parliament somewhere else around the world that paid more than here would the honourable immediately move to that parliament because it has better wages? Then I remembered that the honourable member has been in almost every form of government—every single form of government, including local government, that we have in this country—so maybe he is working his way up in that respect.

I think what that does indicate is that it is certainly a factor but there are a lot of other factors that determine where someone chooses to live, where someone chooses to raise their family, and I think South Australia has a lot of advantages in that respect.