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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-07-05 Daily Xml
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Hospitals, Car Parking

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:32): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the government reverse its heartless decision to axe free hospital car parking for our frontline health heroes?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! There is a point of order. Member for Schubert, please be seated. I will hear the point of order at 134.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That question involved argument and debate, sir, and I ask the member to rephrase.

The SPEAKER: Very well. I will give the member for Schubert an opportunity to put the question again.

Mrs HURN: Thank you for the opportunity, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the government reintroduce free hospital car parking for our frontline health workers for the duration of the pandemic?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:33): Of course, the decision that the member refers to was a decision made by the previous government to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Morialta, member for Colton, member for Schubert! The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer is called to order.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: The decision referred to was a decision by the previous government to make that tied to the state of emergency. Obviously, the state of emergency has ended—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Colton!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —and of course—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Of course, the other decision that was made by those opposite and the member for Dunstan was to increase the price of hospital car parking for staff by up to 130 per cent.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: So then we have more crocodile tears from those opposite about their decisions—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is on two warnings.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We have been very clear about two things. One is that we have made the decision to prioritise more services—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is on three warnings.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Florey!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We have made the decision to prioritise more services into our frontline hospitals—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert, you are on three warnings.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —more nurses, more allied health professionals, to make sure that they can get the support that they need to care for people. That is what has been raised consistently as the priority: to make sure that they've got the support they need on the frontline.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey! Member for Frome!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: And that contrasts very significantly with those opposite, who had a program of voluntary separations for frontline nurses during the pandemic.

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Treasurer! Member for West Torrens! The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Chaffey!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: So we had hundreds of nurses and other health staff made redundant during the course of the pandemic under those opposite. That is not happening under this government. We are investing in more health staff, more frontline staff; we are not making them redundant. The other thing—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: You're just making them pay for car parking.

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is on three warnings.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: The other thing that has been made very clear by the Premier and me is that we are very happy, and we've got a process underway, in terms of enterprise bargaining negotiations at the moment with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. We are very happy to discuss hospital car parking and negotiate along those lines as part of those negotiations, which I understand are underway at the moment.

But our priority is making sure that we invest in the health services that clearly a couple of questions before this were focused on. We want to make sure that we provide that care for patients and also that support for health workers who need additional staff to care for patients.

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