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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-11-27 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Hospital Funding

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:10): My question is to the Premier. Did the Premier mislead the people of South Australia when he went to the state election promising more hospital beds, no cuts to nurses and reduced waiting times, and just eight months later brought in corporate liquidators to cut hospital beds, cut nurses and cut hospital procedures?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:10): What a desperate, desperate opening question from the Leader of the Opposition, but of course it allows me—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to outline to the house exactly and precisely what we have been doing since we came to government on 17 March earlier this year.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: What a happy day that was for the people of South Australia because finally they had a government in place that was going to address the mess that we were left by those opposite, especially as it related to health care. The Leader of the Opposition himself should hang his head in shame because he was the minister for health.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Did he come clean with the people of South Australia? Did he tell them the massive overbudget performance of his own division?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order.

Mr Duluk: There is no point of order because there was no question.

The SPEAKER: The member for Waite is called to order. The member for West Torrens on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sir, this is debate.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order on the point of order.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: It's bogus. The previous Speaker, Atkinson—

The SPEAKER: What is the point of order, minister?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —made it very clear that, if there is a question of that nature that contains argument—

The SPEAKER: What is the point of order?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —there is no capacity for a debate point of order to be made. It's bogus. He should be thrown out.

The SPEAKER: The minister will be seated.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left! Members on my right! Premier, I haven't ruled yet. I do try to listen assiduously to these questions. There was a fair bit in that question, I must be honest. I have let it go. I have also allowed the Premier some preamble. I would expect him to keep to the substance of the question. There was a fair bit in that, but I will be listening carefully. I ask members to pay a bit of respect to the Premier, especially those on my right, so I can hear his answer.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The basis of the question is whether we misled the people of South Australia with regard to the commitments that we made in terms of health care leading up to the election. What I am outlining to the house is what we found on coming to government on 17 March earlier this year—mass deception. The people of South Australia had been deceived by those sitting opposite, regarding the true state of especially the Central Adelaide Local Health Network. In fact, there was no indication whatsoever that this part of a very important part of our health system was so massively out of control and out of budget. Did the Leader of the Opposition, the then minister for health, actually make it clear to the people of South Australia how dysfunctional this was? No. Let me tell you, sir, in the six months prior to the election—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —we now have statistics to show that not only was CALHN operating nowhere near the national efficient price—

Mr Malinauskas: It was in a brand-new hospital.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It was 30 per cent above and the Leader of the Opposition asserts that this was because it was a brand-new hospital. Let me remind this house exactly and precisely what those opposite were telling the people of South Australia when they were spending $2.4 billion on a new hospital. They said this would improve outcomes, lower costs and improve efficiencies in health care in South Australia. What a lie! What a lie inflicted—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —upon the people of South Australia by those opposite. The reality is that we have worked very quickly since coming to government.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: In April this year—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: In April this year, Mr Raymond Spencer was appointed as the chairperson of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network. He worked with a range of stakeholders to take a look at exactly how the Central Adelaide Local Health Network was operating. What he found was disturbing. We then engaged KordaMentha to conduct a diagnostic report on what actually existed. It was appalling and those opposite should hang their heads in shame. I don't how the Leader of the Opposition gets out of bed in the morning. He was the one who presided over the mess that we inherited.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Standing order 127: personal reflections on members, sir. The Premier is out of order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I'm sorry—

The SPEAKER: Personal reflection on?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —I don't know how 'hang his head in shame' or 'how he gets out of bed in the morning' is a personal reflection.

The SPEAKER: Premier, one moment. The personal reflection was on?

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens, personal reflection?

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Sorry, if you're talking about personal reflections—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —one only needs to look in the mirror.

The SPEAKER: The Premier will be seated.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The reality is—

The SPEAKER: The Premier will be seated. The personal reflection was on, member for West Torrens?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The Leader of the Opposition.

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition. The leader takes offence. I would ask the leader to rise.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: No, sir; standing order 127 is clear: ‘a member may not digress from the subject matter on any question under discussion’.

The SPEAKER: Yes, yes.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order on the point of order.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: The member cannot argue with you—

The SPEAKER: Yes, he cannot.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —on a point of order.

The SPEAKER: He should not be arguing with me, and I am going to deal with it. Further convention: if a member has taken offence to something that is said, if there is a personal reflection made, the member at that time will rise and ask for that comment to be withdrawn. The member for West Torrens knows it.

The Hon. V.A. Chapman: Twenty-one years.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Yes, and I am going to rule that I do not uphold that point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Fair enough.

The SPEAKER: I do not uphold that point of order.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: And if the member for West Torrens continues to conduct himself in this way he will be named today. Before I call the Premier—could you stop the clock, please, Mr Clerk—to wrap up his answer, I call the following members to order: the member for Hammond; the member for West Torrens is warned. I call to order the member for Badcoe, the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Taylor, the member for Waite—

Mr Gee interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Taylor is warned. I call to order also the member for Unley, the Minister for Child Protection, the member for Giles, the member for Morphett, the member for Light and the deputy leader. Premier, I ask you to please wrap up your answer.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you very much, sir. Back to the question which, of course, was whether we had misled the people of South Australia. The answer to that is, of course, no. We outlined what we would do. We rejected Transforming Health. We went to the people of South Australia saying that we would fix up Labor's mess, and that is precisely what we are going to do.

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