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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-05-13 Daily Xml
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PORT AUGUSTA HEALTH SERVICES

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:56): My question is to the Minister for Health. Given the Rudd government's abandonment of the people of Port Augusta and the surrounding region in its budget—they have reneged on their commitment to provide an MRI service which would support the Upper Spencer Gulf, Port Augusta, outback and surrounding regions—will your government advocate to get that service in place?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:57): I thank the—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Unley!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Would you like to answer the question? I'm sure the others would like to answer the question, but unfortunately—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Unley!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I thank the member for Stuart for his question. This is an important issue for that community. During the 2007 federal election, the then health minister, now Leader of the Opposition federally, made a rash promise to put an MRI machine into Port Augusta, contrary to all of the sound principles about the size of population that is required to make the implementation of an MRI machine work. The Rudd opposition matched that promise and they attempted to find—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Unley!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: This is a matter of some moment for the member for Stuart and for the population he represents. I would have thought that the member for Unley would at least if not give me the courtesy would give him the courtesy to get an answer so that he can take it back to his constituency rather than interrupt it in the very silly and trivial, childish way that he continues to do in this house.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Inane is the word I would use.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: 'Inane' is another word one might choose. The Rudd opposition made the equivalent promise, and then in government they attempted, as I understand it, to find a company that could meet the requirements of the tender because they put it out to tender. Unfortunately, I am advised that, not surprisingly, no company could properly satisfy the tender requirements that the commonwealth put forward. That is because the initial promise was a promise that probably shouldn't have been made because the population base is not sufficient to provide the throughput to make the machine viable and, therefore, to make the investment by the private company which will be running the machine profitable. That is the real problem. You need to have sufficient numbers of people using the machine on a regular basis to make it viable and to ensure that you have the skills base and the people with the relevant skills there to do it.

All of those things had to occur and, as I understand it, the commonwealth government has not been able to make that happen. If the commonwealth government with all of its resources cannot do it, it would be very foolish indeed for this state to try to match that and end up with the same result—that is, that it can't be done. I think it would be very foolish for the member for Stuart to encourage his party to make that promise because if the other side were ever to get into office they would find it is a promise that they would not be able to satisfy because it just won't work in that environment.

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