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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-12-04 Daily Xml
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SA Health, ICAC Report

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:07): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier explain to the house how he developed a response to the ICAC report when he had not read the ICAC report?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:07): I don't know. I think it is much better when he reads the questions that are prepared for him by his office in the dream factory because when he goes on—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: He just embarrasses himself, as per usual.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! Member for West Torrens.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That was debate, sir, and disruptive.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I will go through it again slowly, sir.

The SPEAKER: No, I am well aware of what you were saying. I will allow the Premier to provide some relevant preamble—I am not sure that first contribution was relevant—and ask him to come back to the substance of the question.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you, sir. I would like to address the substance of the question. The question from the leader was: how could we determine our entire response to the document so quickly? If he had been listening to my earlier—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Elizabeth and Leader of the Opposition! The member for Wright is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I'm so scared.

Mr Brown: You're not fooling anyone.

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The reality is we did not determine our response yesterday. We have established an interagency task force to determine our response. They will provide their advice to the government by the end of this year. This is the prudent and constructive way to work through a range of serious issues that were raised by the commissioner. We are taking these issues seriously.

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I would like to highlight that many of these issues go back a very long way. In fact, the commissioner himself talked about instances back in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017. We know who the minister for health was in 2017. It's the Leader of the Opposition. These are not new issues.

Mr Patterson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: In fact, they have been around for far too long. In fact, in the commissioner's report he identified more than 1,000—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —reports that had been made with relation to Health since he had become the commissioner in South Australia. It begs the question: how many of those 1,100 reports were made under the previous government? And what did the previous government do about those reports? What response did they make? Let me tell you, sir, when we came to government we found SA Health in a complete and utter state of hopelessness, and what did we do? We set about immediately—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —fixing the mess that we inherited from those opposite. Let me tell you, sir—

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kaurna is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —when we appointed KordaMentha to sort out the hitherto undisclosed mess within CALHN, did we get support from those opposite?

Ms Hildyard: 880 jobs cut.

The SPEAKER: Member for Reynell!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: No way! When we set about reforming the governance of the local health networks in South Australia, did we get any support from those opposite?

The SPEAKER: Premier, be seated.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: No, not a bit.

The SPEAKER: Premier, please be seated for one moment. Point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sir, our support or otherwise is debate.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order. I ask for interjections on my left and my right to cease so that I can hear the Premier's answer. I have the question. It was very clearly about how the Premier developed a response. I believe at the moment he is answering in a manner which is germane to the question. However, I will be listening assiduously to make sure that he does not deviate. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you very much, sir. Can I make the point that we have been working on a response to the mess that we inherited from those opposite since the very day that we came to government, and we have not been assisted in this task whatsoever by those opposite. When we wanted to appoint KordaMentha, we had nothing but complaint from those opposite. When we wanted to reform the local health networks, introducing five new local health networks in South Australia, a completely different governance arrangement in South Australia, with individual boards—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to guide the continuous improvement within the 10 local health networks in South Australia, did we receive any support whatsoever? No. Those opposite have tried to stifle our improvement of South Australian health ever since we came onto the treasury benches.

The SPEAKER: Point of order, Premier. Please be seated for one moment. The point of order is for debate?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Debate, sir, obviously, yes.

The SPEAKER: Yes, the Premier is beginning to deviate. Would he like to come back to the substance of the question? Three minutes in.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Anyway, sir, I was just trying to provide the house with some evidence of the hard work that we have been doing since we came to power to improve the mess that we had inherited from those opposite. In no way, shape or form was the establishment of an interagency task force the end point. It was the starting point for a response to the document which has been provided by the commissioner. I find this document extraordinarily helpful. Yes, many of these issues—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —have been raised for a significant period of time, going back years and years and years, but it is good to have it in one document.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I thank the commissioner for his report and I look forward to receiving advice from the interagency task force before the end of this year.

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