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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-05-07 Daily Xml
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National Commission of Audit

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (14:19): Supplementary question: following the Premier's comments about cuts, is it still the government's intention to proceed with $900 million worth of cuts to the health budget over the forward estimates?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Health Industries) (14:19): The health budget will grow by $500 million between now and—

The Hon. I.F. Evans interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Davenport is called to order.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Let there be no mistake, the greatest threat to the South Australian health system is those members opposite, those members opposite whose friends in Canberra and their audit commission—

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Point of order from the member for Stuart. If I anticipate it correctly, the Minister for Health is not responsible to the house for the opposition in this house, though he may be responsible for the effect of the federal government's policies.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: If you're going to support that one, then that is what I was going to say.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I agree with myself.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: And that is exactly what I was going to say, sir. The greatest threat to the South Australian health budget is the proposals coming from Canberra, particularly the commonwealth government's proposal, or the proposal coming out of the audit commission, to renege on the national health agreement. That would have a significant impact on the South Australian health budget and seriously compromise services.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order, sir: standing order 98. The minister is not directing his answer to the substance of the question, which was simply: is he going to continue with his $900 million cut? He is debating the issue.

The SPEAKER: Well, that's a fine judgement. It seems to me that the member for Davenport really invited this rant, and he is going to have to hear it.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Thank you, sir. I don't know whether to take that as a compliment, sir. Every dollar in health will be reinvested back into our state hospitals. Every single dollar that we find in making our system more efficient will be reinvested back into our health system, an opportunity members opposite had to make a pledge about before the last election, along those lines, but something that they studiously refused to do.

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