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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-19 Daily Xml
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Mental Health

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (14:43): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Minister, will the government honour the mental health bilateral agreement with the commonwealth to establish adult mental healthcare centres in the northern suburbs and Mount Barker?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:43): Very, very good question. I am liking all of these questions today, because this is something I was looking to do some media on, but I might actually outline this today. Do you know when this agreement was signed between the commonwealth and the state government? It was signed the day before caretaker was entered. The day before caretaker was entered—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —this agreement was signed.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Chaffey! Member for Morialta! The member for Chaffey is warned. The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call. The member for West Torrens is warned.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Premier, order! Further interjections will regrettably lead to members departing.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Thank you for your protection, sir. This deal was signed the day before caretaker. What has the reaction been to this deal that has been signed? Has it been positive? Have there been people saying this is a great deal? Funnily enough, no. In fact, Suicide Prevention Australia have come out condemning this deal that was signed between the former Marshall government and the Morrison government.

We have also seen Sonder, which is a significant mental health and health NGO in South Australia, condemning it. They pointed to the fact that we got a worse deal than other states around the country. This is yet another example of the approach to federal-state relations that we saw under the previous government and that we will not be seeing under this government because this government—

Mr TARZIA: Point of order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister, there is a point of order.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —will stand up for South Australia. This government will fight for our fair share—

The SPEAKER: Minister, there is a point of order, which I will hear under 134. Please be seated.

Mr TARZIA: The question was very clear. This is clearly debate: 98.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer and the member for West Torrens are called to order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Premier! There is a certain enthusiasm and energy in the room; however, it does not mean that the standing orders can be cast aside. Under 134, I uphold the point of order and I bring the minister to the question.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Very clearly, this deal was done right before the election. This deal has been criticised by an important mental health NGO in South Australia, by an important national stakeholder in Suicide Prevention Australia, as not being a fair deal for South Australia. So I have very rightly asked my department to undertake a review of this, to compare it to what we have around the country and to make sure that, whoever the health minister is going to be after Saturday at a federal level, we do get a fair deal out of this deal and we get the investment that we need for mental health in South Australia.

This is incredibly important because we know that mental health, the lack of available services for mental health care, is a key driver of the crisis that we see in our hospitals and our ambulances, and this is a huge area we need to invest in. So if we see other states getting a better deal, that's going to make the situation worse here in South Australia. We have put up, from our perspective, a massive program of investment in mental health.

I think when the Treasurer delivers the budget in a few weeks' time, this will be seen as a generational investment in mental health that will be going into this budget. If you look at the investments that we are making, there are three significant new mental health rehabilitation wards across the state; an additional ward that will be part of the new Mount Barker hospital, sir, which I know you are a strong advocate of; more mental health beds in the new Women's and Children's Hospital as well; more Hospital in the Home mental health beds and services; as well as more community based mental health services.

We made mental health a critical driver of our election policy and our investments in addressing ramping and access block across the health system. Do you know why? Because we actually listened to the clinicians and the consumers who were saying that this was a key driver. To be completely frank, the 170 beds that we have been able to open, they are not mental health beds, because mental health beds require a certain amount of infrastructure and facilities that are not available to just open. We need to build those facilities.

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