House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-03-18 Daily Xml

Contents

Health Review

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:08): Does the minister know what the symptoms of a life-threatening stroke are?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:08): Fortunately, I'm not in the ambulances diagnosing strokes. That is not a job the health minister has. I'm barely qualified—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: I'm barely qualified to cut my own toenails as far as health care is concerned. I have occasionally applied a bandaid to one of the children, but fortunately it's not up to the health minister in this state to diagnose strokes.

Mr Marshall: You don't know.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: No, I don't know—I don't need to know. That's not my job. We employ 30,000 people to work in our health system: ambulance officers, nurses, doctors—that is their job. I wouldn't pretend to interfere; I wouldn't be so arrogant as to say that I had diagnostic knowledge and that this is something that I would be able to have any particular expertise in.

The SPEAKER: Before the leader asks his next question I call to order the members for Schubert, Hammond, Elder and the Minister for Agriculture, and I warn a first time the deputy leader, the member for Hartley, the leader and the member for Heysen. Leader.