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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-02-18 Daily Xml
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Giles Electorate

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (15:26): I rise today to talk about two issues in my electorate. The first is the ongoing issue to do with violence at Whyalla Hospital, with violence directed at nurses and at other staff members. This has been an ongoing issue. It is an issue that I have spoken about in this chamber previously. I wrote to a number of ministers about the issue back in 2019 warning that the situation will lead to even more disturbing outcomes if it is not addressed.

This January, we saw 22 incidents at Whyalla Hospital, so the situation is escalating and it is escalating in the face of the deficient processes that have been put in place to address the problem of violence at the hospital. I have made suggestions to the minister on what needs to be done, and I stand by the proposal to put in specially trained security guards at the hospital. Given it is a health setting and given there is a whole raft of sensitivities—people sometimes in a disturbed state—we do not want to see a security guard who might do a shift at a local hotel. We need properly trained people for that particular setting. We do need security guards, as what is in place at the moment clearly is not working.

The union has expressed incredibly strong concerns about what has happened this January. They have also said that the situation is getting worse and that the processes put in place have not helped. In fact, they go as far as to say that they might well have made the situation worse. I said back in 2019, when I wrote to the minister, that this is an urgent issue. It is a very urgent issue, and it still has not been adequately addressed.

At the time, I was looking around for other options, given the minister rejected the proposal to have security guards at the hospital—even if the security guards were there at the times when violence was more likely, such as a Friday night or the weekend, although I strongly believe properly trained security guards are needed at the hospital around the clock.

I did write to the then police minister to make another suggestion, given the lack of support for security guards. I said, 'Can we have a look at providing the protective security officers at the hospital?' We come in here, as members, and we have people from that service working here and we are at far less risk than the nurses and the staff at Whyalla Hospital. But the Minister for Police rejected that suggestion. In fact, none of these particular people live or work in regional South Australia.

We know that a number of hospitals in Adelaide do have properly trained security guards and it has a positive impact. I am not claiming that this is a panacea for some of the issues around violence we have at the hospitals, but it is an important step and it is a step that needs to be taken. So I call upon the minister again to act urgently. Let's not have a repetition of all the things that were said in 2019 that have not led to a good outcome at the hospital.

I also want to raise another issue in my electorate and I am deeply concerned about this issue as well. It is the potential abandonment of the policing model in the APY lands. It appears that a model has been developed that will be based on fly-in fly-out to the APY lands. How on earth are you going to develop trust? How on earth are you going to develop relationships with a fly-in fly-out model? So all power to the police union in taking this on. They recognise that the model that is being proposed will not work in the APY lands. You need people based in community, people building trust, people building relationships and knowing what is going on.

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