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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-06-18 Daily Xml
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Question Time

COUNTRY HEALTH CARE PLAN

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:04): Will the Premier guarantee that no-one will die in the country or the city, who might otherwise have lived, as a consequence of his planned closure of 43 South Australian country hospitals and the resignations—

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: No, I am not. It is about people's lives. It is about their safety and their life.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members will not interject and the leader will not respond to interjections.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: I repeat the question. Will the Premier personally guarantee that no-one will die in the country or city, who might otherwise have lived, as a consequence of his planned closure of 43 South Australian country hospitals and the resignation of dozens of doctors from our metropolitan hospitals?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:05): The Leader of the Opposition—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —to the excitement of the masses, has just given his budget reply. Yesterday, apparently when he saw five or six—

Ms CHAPMAN: Mr Speaker—

The Hon. M.D. RANN: No. I will answer it the way I want to answer it.

Ms CHAPMAN: I rise on a point of order. This is nothing about the budget reply speech: it is clearly about country hospital closures.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Yes, the Premier needs to speak to the substance of the question.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: He had to call a quorum to get his own members in the chamber to listen to him.

Ms CHAPMAN: A point of order, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Order! There is a point of order.

Ms CHAPMAN: Mr Speaker, the Premier is clearly disobeying your ruling.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will answer the substance of the question.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Okay, the substance of the question is this: there are 699 more doctors now than there were when you were in cabinet—699 more doctors. Under the Liberals, there was cut after cut—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —to our hospitals and our health system. All you did was cut hospitals and health, and what we have done is put an extra 699 doctors into the system—699 more than when you were in government—and 2,500 extra nurses.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left will come to order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Billions of dollars more are being invested in our health system compared to when the Liberals were around. There is no-one more phoney than the Leader of the Opposition when it comes to public health and public hospitals.

The SPEAKER: The member for Norwood.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Norwood.

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