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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-17 Daily Xml
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Motions

Health Infrastructure

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (11:15): I move:

That this house—

(a) condemns the Malinauskas Labor government for delaying critical health infrastructure right across South Australia;

(b) notes that the Malinauskas Labor government has announced delays for the Lyell McEwin Hospital emergency department expansion, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital stage three upgrade, the Flinders Medical Centre expansion and the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital; and

(c) expresses its concern that the lack of priority in health infrastructure by the Malinauskas Labor government demonstrates that the South Australian public were misled in the 2022 state election.

Governments are elected to be the custodians of taxpayer money. The promises and the priorities that they go to the people of South Australia with at election time are meant to drive where investment and money are spent over the course of their term in government. Whilst we have seen money flowing into various events, into overseas trips that have been taken by those opposite, we have also in that very same breath and in that very same time frame seen significant delays to critical health infrastructure right across South Australia. I think this highlights quite a profound shift in priority from the member for Croydon and, indeed, the entire Labor government.

Throughout the election campaign (and I am sure I do not need to remind those on this side of the house or those opposite), not a single day would go by when Labor was not out there talking about health and telling South Australians, desperately trying to convince South Australians, that urgent action was required to address the significant challenges that our health system was under at the time—that urgent action was needed. Indeed, many South Australians voted for this urgent action, but they unfortunately have been let down.

They have been let down not just because South Australia is in the grips of an escalating ramping crisis under the watch of the member for Croydon—and that is obviously placing really significant stress and pressure on our frontline health workers and, indeed, on many pockets of our state—but they have also been confronted with significant time line blowouts on really critical health infrastructure projects.

From the city to the country, this is a Labor government that has placed the delivery of critical health infrastructure projects right into the slow lane—critical upgrades that no doubt would have been able to help alleviate and ease just some of those dreadful ramping hours that we are seeing right across our state. I think that it has actually raised those questions as to whether health is still a priority for this government—health as a whole and, in particular, where health infrastructure particularly sits in that order of priorities.

Just rewinding to last year when the government handed down its first budget, this was a budget that, I think, built on the significant investment that the former Liberal government made in health, where we poured millions and billions of dollars into ensuring that our health system could cope with the serious challenges that we had. Comparing that 2022-23 budget and the Agency Statements with the former government's last budget in 2021-22, as well as looking at various other public statements that have been made by those opposite and those in Canberra, I can advise the house that we have seen the following infrastructure blowouts.

The Lyell McEwin Hospital and the ED expansion was a project that under the former Liberal government was scheduled to be delivered in December 2022. Now what do we see under the Malinauskas Labor government? We see that this is a project that has been pushed off into March 2024. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital stage 3 redevelopment was scheduled to be delivered for the people of South Australia in June 2024. It is now pushed off into the never-never, to March 2025.

Take, for instance, the Flinders Medical Centre expansion. I will come back to this one in more detail in a moment but, when this was first announced, it was announced that it would be completed by 2028. Now we know, according to these budget papers, that it is not going to be delivered until June 2029, and I think that is a very optimistic time frame.

Regarding the new Women's and Children's Hospital, under the former Liberal government this was really a flagship project that was scheduled to be delivered in June 2026, and now we are going to get a new Women's and Children's Hospital that is going to be delivered in 2032—not this decade. So dark clouds continue to hover over the delivery of these two major infrastructure projects, that is, the Flinders Medical Centre in the south and the new Women's and Children's Hospital that really is a flagship of paediatric care and care for women in South Australia.

This again sparks concerns not just about Labor's priority—whether it is indeed still on health—but also really significant concerns about the Labor government and whether they even have the ability to handle the delivery of major health infrastructure projects. I will get to this in a moment, but they do have quite a chequered track record when it comes to the delivery of critical infrastructure projects and delivering for South Australians on health. I think that a hallmark of the Labor Party in South Australia is going into the election and leaning in on all the promises in the world, and then, when the election is over, leaning back on the delivery.

Specifically on the Flinders Medical Centre expansion, the delayed project, as I have already mentioned, will not be delivered until June 2029. This was despite commitments from the member for Croydon and the now Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, who stood at Flinders and said that this would be a project that would be completed by 2028. This delay—the delay until the next year, 2029—actually occurred in a space of 30 days. They had this massive push-off of infrastructure investment in just 30 days, which I found particularly extraordinary.

We know, if we look at what is happening in the south of our city at the moment, that the Flinders Medical Centre continues to face really extraordinary pressure, so much so that we are always seeing the Flinders Medical Centre operating on Code White capacity, which means that there is not a single, solitary bed available for people to get the care that they need when they need it. Let us not forget that this was a government that went to the election promising South Australians that they had the magic bullet to fix all of this. Unfortunately for South Australians, we are now seeing that increase.

In fact, at Flinders we have been in the situation where we are seeing ramping not just escalate but literally reach a whole new level. We have seen those dreadful reports that ramping at Flinders hospital was so bad that ambulances were actually forced to park their vehicles on the fourth floor of the public car park at Flinders. Of course, we also know that there were many instances where patients were being forced into storage rooms that had been converted into beds. We can see that this is something that needs to be delivered, but Labor have put it into the slow lane.

Looking specifically at the Women's and Children's Hospital, there is no doubt in my mind, and there is no doubt in the minds of those sitting on this side of the house, that the people of South Australia absolutely deserve a world-class hospital, a world-class new Women's and Children's Hospital. That is unequivocally a shared goal and is something the former Liberal government was very stridently working towards. Indeed, under the former Liberal government, the construction of the new Women's and Children's Hospital was scheduled to already start last year, with a completion date of 2026-27 and with a $2 billion price tag. So we should already be seeing shovels in the ground, preparing for what was going to be a fantastic facility for South Australia.

This was a project that went to Infrastructure SA and got that tick, which was fantastic, and it also was a project that went through really rigorous testing. We had hundreds of hours, many hours, engaging with clinicians on this project. We now know that of course this is a project that the now government has gone back to the drawing board on, and they have announced a hospital that is going to be worth an eye-watering $3.2 billion.

This is a project that is just not going to be delivered until 2032 at best, so not even this decade. So, whilst there is unequivocal support on this side of the house, of course—we want there to be a flagship world-class Women's and Children's Hospital—we are very concerned about the delays and very concerned about the time frames. It represents a $1.2 billion cost blowout, which is particularly enormous. Think about what you could do with that $1.2 billion within the health system and of course over the delay over the last five years.

That sparks another question, a concern that we have had and that we have been speaking about publicly, which is what this means for the current Women's and Children's Hospital site. We just cannot allow this site in North Adelaide to go to rack and ruin whilst we wait for the government to get their act together on what types of upgrades are going to be needed. The former Liberal government invested $80 million into the sustainment works of the current Women's and Children's Hospital on new wards and new facilities, and that was absolutely welcomed by not just the patients the former government had been speaking to, not just the frontline workers there but also the parents and right across South Australia.

That $80 million commitment was based on the fact that South Australia was going to be getting a new Women's and Children's Hospital in 2026-27, so we eagerly await the government to announce a sustainment program for the Women's and Children's Hospital. We will continue to work on that but, as I say, we have concerns about Labor's ability to deliver this on budget. We have concerns about the cost blowout, concerns about the completion delay, and the big elephant in the room of course is looking at Labor's ability to deliver the project.

In the short time that I have left, I want to touch briefly on Labor's track record when it comes to health infrastructure in South Australia because, for 17 out of the last 21 years, the Labor Party have run the health system in South Australia, which I often find quite interesting when those opposite, those on the government benches, are reflecting on the last four years of government, in which the Marshall Liberal government navigated a global pandemic better than anywhere in the world. Those opposite, the Labor government, oversaw the delivery of a new Women's and Children's Hospital, building it too small with immense time delays, with immense cost blowouts. They oversaw the disastrous Transforming Health project which some health stakeholders—

Members interjecting:

Mrs HURN: It is interesting that they interrupt as soon as I mention Transforming Health because I get it. I would not like to be reminded of that disastrous health policy that will come back to haunt them for many, many years. In fact, one health stakeholder, I believe it was the AMA, said of Transforming Health that it seemed to be more about juggling infrastructure and selling real estate than about improving services and patient outcomes. I think that sounds about right.

Members behind me are saying, 'Don't forget that they flogged off the Repat,' and we will not. We will not forget that it was the Labor government who desperately tried to flog off the Repat. Since they have returned to government, we have ambulance ramping that has never been worse and now they are kicking the infrastructure can further and further down the road. So there are health infrastructure delays right across metropolitan Adelaide and right across regional South Australia, which I know the member for Frome and my electorate neighbour, Penny Pratt, the shadow minister for regional health, will also speak to.

I will also make this point: at the same time we have governments at the state level, at the national level and right across South Australia that are really leaning into population growth strategies, we have the government in South Australia that is massively putting the handbrake on critical infrastructure projects. It just makes no logical sense whatsoever because the government should not be putting the handbrake on critical infrastructure projects: they should be putting the pedal to the metal and getting on with it. That is why I will be supporting this motion, those on this side will be supporting this motion and, put simply, the Labor government cannot be trusted when it comes to health.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (11:29): Mr Speaker, I look forward to a discussion of particularly your area in the context of this debate. I move to amend the motion as follows:

Delete paragraph (a)

Amend (b): delete the words 'has announced delays for' and replace with 'is delivering a major infrastructure program including'

Amend (c): delete all words after 'infrastructure' and replace with 'by the former Liberal government'.

This motion is cheeky in the extreme from the member for Schubert, as we have come to expect in her tenure as the shadow health minister, because this is a government that has a massive infrastructure program for health that we are getting on with. The reason we are able to deliver that massive infrastructure program for health is very clearly that we made a choice and we put that choice to the people of the state at the last state election, namely: do you want to invest $662 million into a new basketball stadium, or do you want to invest that $662 million into our health system? Resoundingly the people of South Australia spoke that they wanted that to be invested in our health care system, and that is exactly what we are doing.

We inherited a situation where there were no plans at all for a lot of the projects we are working on. There were no plans to undertake the expansion to hospitals that we are doing, the new ambulance stations that we are building—we are putting that in place. We have people working on the design right now, and a number of these projects are now starting construction. Take, for instance, the Lyell McEwin Hospital expansion. This hospital has been expanded time and time again under Labor governments.

We saw under the previous Liberal government that the expansion of the emergency department, which was funded way back in 2017 by then Premier Weatherill, was delayed time and time again. We are now finishing the job on that, but also putting in much needed 48 extra beds at the Lyell McEwin Hospital to service the growing need in the northern suburbs, and construction is starting on that project right now. We want that done as soon as possible, because these beds are desperately needed in the north.

Take the southern suburbs where, at Flinders Medical Centre, all that was done by those opposite when they were in charge for four years was a project that reduced the number of inpatient beds at that hospital. They switched inpatient beds to emergency department beds and said, 'Look, we've increased emergency department beds at the hospital,' but they actually reduced inpatient beds at the hospital, so there was no benefit whatsoever. An independent report commissioned by the Liberal government said that it made ramping worse at the hospital, so there was no expansion to capacity at all at the hospital.

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: You reduced the number of beds at Flinders Medical Centre.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Elder and the member for Schubert will cease their exchange. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: That is why not only did we commit at the election to put in 24 more beds at that hospital—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

Ms Clancy interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Elder is warned.

Mr Teague: The member is interjecting out of her seat.

The SPEAKER: And I have drawn attention to it and do not need your assistance, member for Heysen. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: As opposed to those opposite, who reduced inpatient beds at Flinders Medical Centre, we committed to increase them by 24, but then coming into government and seeing the serious situation at hand we have now increased that commitment to 136 extra beds at Flinders Medical Centre, the first of which we already have on board. We are also fast-tracking another 20 beds to go into Flinders Medical Centre as well.

There is dramatic change from what was in place previously to what is being delivered now at Flinders Medical Centre, where we know there are significant additional beds needed in the system. Take the situation in the Hills; as you know very well, Mr Speaker, there is a massive growing population in the Hills, particularly around Mount Barker. They had the same number of beds at the Mount Barker hospital that we have seen for over the past 20 years; no action was taken to increase the number of beds at that hospital. We committed to a plan to triple the number of beds at the Mount Barker hospital, which is absolutely what is needed for people in the Adelaide Hills.

What did we see right before the last state election but the then Minister for Health and the now member for Heysen doing a video saying that that was not really needed. That absolutely shows their ignorance of the situation for people in the Adelaide Hills and how that connects with the situation for our city hospitals and reducing pressure on them as well.

The member for Schubert talks about the Women's and Children's Hospital, which I am happy to talk about all day every day because, as opposed to those opposite who had a plan for one extra bed at the hospital, we will be delivering over 70 extra beds at that hospital on a site that is futureproofed, unlike a site that was constrained, that had limitations, where we could not deliver clinical excellence with that design and had to make significant compromises. The member talked about how that was somehow ready to go. That is absolutely not the case, and it is absolutely confirmed by the officials working on that project.

The member for Schubert said that it was going to cost $2 billion. Well, the work that has been done through the site review made it very clear that it was going to cost in the order of $2.8 billion to deliver on that site. Very importantly, if we had proceeded with that plan, which would have been the politically expedient thing to do, we would have forever locked out the ability to expand the Royal Adelaide Hospital into the future, because it is the RAH expansion site it was going to be built on.

Now we are going to have a new hospital that will have more beds, that will be futureproofed and will not be full on the day it opens, unlike the member for Schubert's plan, and we will have the ability to expand both the women's and kids and the RAH into the future, thinking for the long term. This is a plan that has been wholly and completely supported by the clinical staff who work in that hospital, who are excited about what this is going to mean in terms of a much better solution than they were otherwise faced with.

In my remaining time I will point out a few of our other key projects we are working on. There is a significant expansion of Noarlunga Hospital, where there will be a 50 per cent increase in the number of beds for the growing region at Noarlunga Hospital. Once again, we have gone further than we said at the election. We said we would do 24 beds. We are now going to 48 beds at Noarlunga Hospital because we know the need is there—and it is substantial.

At the same time, we are investing in our ambulance services as well, with nine new stations being built across Adelaide, across peri-urban areas, to make sure we have the capacity we need for our ambulance service to improve the response times and make sure that South Australians calling 000 can get an ambulance when they need it. We have now selected the sites for those ambulance stations, the designs are in place and being worked on, and we will be delivering those as soon as possible in line with the schedule we announced at the election.

In addition to that there is the building of the new ambulance headquarters, an issue that was raised time and time again. A patch-up job was done a couple of years ago under the previous government, but that is a facility that is not fit for purpose and does not have the capability our state needs for one of its major emergency headquarters that deals with the sorts of things ambulances deal with on a day-to-day basis, let alone dealing with major disasters. We need a much better site and a much better situation for ambulance services, and that is exactly what we are delivering.

On top of that we are expanding Modbury Hospital as well, and on top of that expanding The QEH. It is worth talking about The QEH because this was yet another project that was committed to by the previous Labor government back in 2017 but which suffered delay after delay after delay under the previous Liberal government. We are looking forward to that project finally being delivered next year, seven years after it was originally committed to. In addition, we will be expanding and putting an additional 24 mental health beds into The QEH, which are desperately needed.

This brings me to my last contribution: country health. One of the benefits of not going ahead with the city basketball stadium is that we can invest in country health as well, with upgrades at Mount Gambier, Naracoorte, Kangaroo Island, Port Pirie and Port Augusta. All of those were not funded, were not planned and were not going to be delivered under the previous Liberal government. We are getting on with the job of improving our country health services because they are absolutely critical, and we look forward to those upgraded facilities delivering much greater care for people who live in regional areas of South Australia.

Ms PRATT (Frome) (11:39): I rise today to support the motion by the member for Schubert and I am in furious agreement with her that critical health infrastructure delays have indeed plagued South Australia under the Malinauskas Labor government. It has been curious, in our first couple of speeches, to listen to the faux outrage that is coming from members opposite, desperate to rewrite history.

Of course, they do not want to reflect on their shameful legacy of Transforming Health, closing the Repat and downgrading emergency departments in metro Adelaide. But why would they? It is evident that the government has failed to fulfill its promises and has placed the delivery of these vital projects in the slow lane, betraying the trust of the South Australian public.

The recent news of time line blowouts and project delays reveals a different story, though, and it is one of broken promises and a lack of commitment to local health care. First and foremost, I certainly want to acknowledge the significant frontline health workforce. These are amazing professionals who, in my own portfolio space of regional health services, are living in regional South Australia, keeping us safe and well. They are the backbone of a critical but crippled healthcare system, ensuring that every South Australian should have access to high-quality medical care closer to home.

But I want to recognise that that has become harder and harder for them to deliver. Time and time again I hear great praise for our country GPs, nurses and allied health professionals. If only we did not have to wait weeks to see them. The ones that we do have access to are working extremely hard to keep up with this demand.

What concerns me when it comes to the health system—and I will come to the critical infrastructure that wraps around that—is the number of towns and districts that have lost GPs through retirement and burnout. I am sure that they have reflected on the crippled system they are navigating and that there is an enormous loss of faith in the system as well as in this government.

There are many factors contributing to pressures on our health workforce, but critical infrastructure has to be a part of that story. To retain the workforce that we have and to attract more to the regions, away from metro conveniences—we need to recognise that is sometimes the temptation—we certainly need to appeal to lifestyle choices and advancements in careers. It is too late for this government to now say with some fanfare that they are turning their mind to incentives for a workforce that has been cannibalised and poached by other states. A case in point, of course, is the $100,000 of total incentives that sit on the table in Victoria. WA has got on board and South Australia is just considering it.

Training opportunities happen in clinics and in hospitals, but this out of sight, out of mind mentality sinks in when decisions about country health are being made by city boffins. Some examples to point to that might be the District Council of Kimba, which felt that to attract doctors—a country GP—to its fabulous clinic that it invested $1 million in it needed to run its own advertising campaign. Why are our local councils having to get involved in this recruitment strategy?

In my own town of Clare, in conversations with the director of nursing, when we talk about the infrastructure of the hospital there, recruitment is tied to housing. Housing is yet another challenge that the government needs to keep turning its mind to, but our hospitals cannot recruit the staff they need if they cannot house them.

Safety and security issues continue to dog this government, in terms of frontline staff in our country hospitals and what critical safety infrastructure is required to keep them safe at work. We know there have been incidences at Wallaroo, Port Pirie and Port Augusta and, in particular, the Riverland is calling for this type of investment. These issues need to be addressed urgently by the government.

To add to the story of what critical infrastructure looks like in regional health services, it is important to touch on the equipment that is essential to that work. It is not just equipment that needs to be maintained and repaired but often replaced at enormous cost. Our health professionals and frontline workers certainly need to have certainty in their work environment. How and where they work matters to them. We need to see this government deliver a better standard of care to regional health consumers, and when this government sets expectations, like it continues to do, they need to meet them.

The member for Schubert has touched on some of the commitments that have been outlined across last year's budget set by the Malinauskas government. The health minister was quick to point out that he has outlined funding promises for new projects in regional health services right across South Australia, but all that glitters is not gold. The estimated completion dates are the details that our country friends need to be looking at. These projects should concern every regional local health network. If we cannot currently guarantee supply to the construction industry for residential housing, it is not hard to imagine the delays that are set to beleaguer this government in its promises to country hospitals.

We are going to see blowouts well beyond the patience of sick people who are banking on receiving treatment at a local level. As I draw your attention to some of the promises made in last year's budget, I note that the minister, in his comments on this topic, found no more than 30 seconds to address regional health. It is more critical than he might think and it is certainly worthy of more than 30 seconds.

As I reflect on the estimates completion dates set in the budget, let me draw your attention to particular examples. The Kangaroo Island hospital upgrade has an estimated completion date of June 2026. The Mount Gambier emergency department and the mental health beds, with millions allocated to them, still has an estimated completion date set to be for June 2025 and 2026.

The Naracoorte hospital upgrade is very worthy of $8 million, and there are a number of members in the house—the member for MacKillop and the member for Adelaide—amongst us who care very much about investment in the Naracoorte hospital, but I would draw the member for Adelaide's attention to the completion date. This is a town and a community that needs to see this done sooner than after the next election.

Mr Speaker, close to your heart might be the new Mount Barker hospital, and we welcome the investment into this facility, but I am sure you would share my concern with the critical services in palliative care and hospice that is also much needed. The hospital is not going to be delivered to your community until an estimated date of 2027. I really want to paint the picture that while this government prides itself on investing in regional health services and infrastructure, we are not going to see delivery dates for our patients, our family, our loved ones until beyond the next state election. I will add, Port Augusta and Port Pirie are caught up in these dates.

The government wants to pride itself on its reputation for investing in regional health infrastructure. What it means is our biggest community centres, and it does not mean it is going to be finished any time soon. They have a track record of delay, mismanagement and cost blowouts, and this should cast doubt on their credibility to deliver on these major projects. The history of the Labor Party's handling of health, including the delivery of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and the disastrous Transforming Health program, demonstrates a lack of trustworthiness when it comes to health care, a lack of credibility.

We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that these delays in both metropolitan and regional health demonstrate a lack of priority by this government. I welcome this motion as an opportunity to remind the Labor government of its health contract with regional South Australia and its obligations to deliver key infrastructure projects on time.

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services) (11:49): I have had a quick look at the amendments as offered up by the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, and I am sure the opposition were so surprised to see those. I thought actually the Minister for Health and Wellbeing was very kind and very measured in his amendments and did not just strike the pen through the whole motion. What faux outrage! If ever I have heard such a bunch of twaddle—seriously.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. N.F. COOK: I will start the history lesson with you.

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. N.F. COOK: The member for Unley can blabber on, but we all know how exciting the Christmas dinners must be at the member for Unley's house with the union-enriched brother sitting at the table. It must be fantastic.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Unley, member for Frome, order!

The Hon. N.F. COOK: You know when you have them going—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. N.F. COOK: —because they all start talking. It is fantastic.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. N.F. COOK: Can I continue?

The SPEAKER: The minister has the call.

The Hon. N.F. COOK: Thank you very much. Yes, I know, and you are not, and thank goodness for that. Anyway, we will start back with the history lesson that led to where we got to—Joe Hockey's cigar. Do we remember that budget? Do we remember when Joe Hockey smoked the cigar, sitting outside, beating his chest. 'How good am I?' he said.

Ms Pratt interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Frome!

The Hon. N.F. COOK: 'Look at me cutting millions and millions of dollars out of the health budget.'

Ms Savvas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Newland!

The Hon. N.F. COOK: 'Look at me,' ripping the guts out of health services across the entire nation—not just South Australia but the entire nation. He ripped the guts out of it, and health ministers across Australia were left to pick up the pieces.

I will give you a bit of a lesson. It is not the health minister; the health minister does not decide on the options to provide the health system with. It is the experts within the health system that come together to direct the policy, the people who are expert in the delivery of health care.

I sat around a number of tables, a number of consultation periods within that government—the Joe Hockey, smoked cigar, rip-the-guts-out-of-health budget that was handed down in 2013. What a terrible time that thought process must have been when they were heading into government. 'What are we going to do as soon as we get into government?' said Hockey and Abbott. 'We're going to rip the guts out of health care. We're going to make it impossible for the hardworking nurses, the hardworking doctors to deliver health care.'

What we have here is another motion that does not even consider the workers. It makes no consideration of the workers. It is not just bricks and mortar. For years, people tried to unpick the Hockey budget.

Ms Pratt interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Frome!

The Hon. N.F. COOK: For years, they tried to put up options as to how to deliver health care when they had a chokehold around their necks. That is where Transforming Health came from. That is where the ideas came from. We are now years down the track, where some of that has been changed, and we have had four years of a state government—a Liberal state government—where they did nothing. They gave no regard to the hundreds and hundreds of casual nurses who were left without work during COVID—hundreds of them who were stood down, who were not able to feed their families, who were left neglected and abandoned by this government.

That was while this government at that point of time in 2020 did nothing. They announced a strategy to upskill workers who had been out of the workforce, working either in areas that were subacute or not working at all, while they had nurses there at the ready, already there to deliver health care as experts, but they were casuals. They could not access JobKeeper. They could not do anything. It took intense pressure to get anyone to listen. That is what people remember of this government. They remember also and they know acutely well—

Ms Pratt interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Frome!

The Hon. N.F. COOK: —that while the member for Frome might want to go on about the regional workforce and GP shortages, who is responsible for that? Who did nothing? In nine years of federal government the Coalition government did nothing to improve the attraction, the retention, the training, the delivery of regional health under a dwindling GP workforce. You cannot just come in here and try to blame that debacle on the state government. It simply is not the case.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. N.F. COOK: The member for Flinders pretends he knows about health, but he knows nothing. He knows nothing. Stick to what you know, member for Flinders.

An honourable member: What do you know?

The Hon. N.F. COOK: I know plenty, and I have great connection with health workers, with health academics. In fact, yesterday in here we had Judy Duchscher from Canada, who is a world-renowned academic who has led the delivery of transitional professional practice programs across the world. Do you know her? No, you do not. She has led the development of a new TPP program, which will ensure much better transition of staff into the workforce, not into a boiling hot bucket of water but with staff development and practice.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. N.F. COOK: You can laugh all you like, member for Flinders; it just demonstrates you do not know what I am talking about.

Mr Telfer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. N.F. COOK: You do not know, and I will not listen to you about it.

Mr Telfer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Flinders!

The Hon. N.F. COOK: I will listen to the nurses. I will listen to the academics who know what needs to be done to support our workforce. We have an opposition who have completely tried to erase the last four years, the last four years when they abandoned healthcare workers, where there were healthcare workers who were desperate for support and they were forgotten.

This government is getting on with providing additional beds, employing additional nurses and employing additional doctors. I am absolutely confident that you, Mr Speaker, will be delighted with the planning and the delivery of what will be a state-of-the-art hospital in Mount Barker, which will support the delivery and the nurturing of hundreds of babies a year and provide the support for families and children that they desperately need.

The estimated build time may well be 2027. It may well be that. Well, thank goodness we are not going to put it together with a bit of ticky tacky and what have you and let it fall down. We are putting a lot of thought into that. The Minister for Health and Wellbeing is providing fantastic leadership on this project with a number of people who work in the health region up there. I have been privy to some of those conversations, and I am very happy with what is being delivered. What would have been the delivery date under those opposite?

Ms Savvas: Never.

The Hon. N.F. COOK: Never.

The SPEAKER: Member for Newland!

The Hon. N.F. COOK: There we go, indeed. We are confident that these projects that are realigning the delivery of health care within properly planned and well-articulated infrastructure projects are going to deliver what the people of South Australia need and what the people of South Australia rely on. This is a Labor government that is priding itself on the key mantras: health care, education, early childhood, jobs, skills and training, providing support, and providing the delivery of the infrastructure and the support of the people. All of that is what the Labor Party is doing here in South Australia.

Thank goodness the Labor Party federally can now try to pick up the pieces that started with Joe Hockey and his arrogant, ignorant smoking of a cigar after the delivery of a budget that put a chokehold around the neck of healthcare providers across this nation. You should be ashamed, and you should stop trying to ignore it—all of you.

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (11:59): I rise today to contribute to the motion that has been moved by the member for Schubert and obviously endorse the motion as presented to the house. I just wanted to take the opportunity today to walk through some of the history around The QEH upgrade process.

I notice that the member for Kaurna, the current Minister for Health, was very selective in his history that he presented on that project to not have taken any of the context prior to 2018 into consideration; sorry, prior to 2017 when, at the very last minute, the Labor Party had a thought bubble that said, 'Transforming Health is actually very unpopular and is potentially going to get us into a lot of trouble electorally in some of our seats in the western suburbs, so perhaps we need to do something about that.'

It is something that the people of the western suburbs have zero confidence in the Labor Party on in terms of delivering any sort of upgrade for The QEH. Why do they have no confidence? Because they have been promised and had the project shelved again and again and again. I will not focus on the project that was promised and then pulled around 2010. I will focus instead on the project that was promised just prior to the 2014 state election, when the then Premier and a number of Labor local MPs were down at The QEH spruiking the fact that the hospital would be upgraded if Labor was returned to government in 2014.

Then, what do you know, in the first budget the Treasurer of the time, the member for West Torrens—and I do note also that the commitment was $125 million at that time; $125 million for a stage 3 upgrade of The QEH. That number, now, having needed to be delivered a near decade later, escalated to $315-odd million. That is the cost that is borne by those opposite and the people of South Australia for their delay. For the first budget, having promised The QEH upgrade for not the first time but the second time, the member for West Torrens, then Treasurer, put the project on ice.

It did not end there. We then had the period of Transforming Health, where we had clinician after clinician at The QEH hospital coming out defending the cuts to local services that were being taken out of that hospital. It started with cardiac, it moved to cancer, it moved to gen med beds. There was service downgrade after service downgrade after service downgrade over that time. As to the cardiac services in particular, this house is well aware of Dr Horowitz and his particular issues with The QEH cardiac services that were ripped out through the Transforming Health process—a very well-respected doctor and very well-respected services.

There is not a month, I think, that goes by that you do not have somebody come up to talk to you about the fantastic service that they received by way of cardiac services at The QEH. But were it not for the Liberal Party being elected in 2018, those 24/7 services we are sure would not have been returned to the hospital.

So we had cardiac services scheduled to be taken out, hospital beds (this is a clipping from 2017) where 55 beds were claimed to be closed including the shutdown of Ward 7 that accommodated 26 general medical patients at the Royal Adelaide Hospital—so 55 beds between The QEH and the Royal Adelaide.

Then, given the dilapidated state of The Queen Elizabeth Hospital—in particular, the surgical capabilities at that time—there were periods in 2017 when surgery needed to be closed because the air conditioning was not appropriate to ensure that the surgical bays were kept at the appropriate level of temperature and humidity.

This is the state that The Queen Elizabeth Hospital was in under those opposite. There were upgrades that were cancelled. The facilities were simply left to rack and ruin. Then all of a sudden, I am sure off the back of some polling, we had an epiphany: that all of a sudden we needed to do something and fix this mess, and the upgrade of The QEH was suddenly back on.

Every Labor MP in the western suburbs was all of a sudden straight back down to The QEH for the press conference. We saw every effort possible. There were letters going into the letterbox of every resident in the western suburbs—not just letters, but full-blown colour brochures—ensuring that everybody knew that the upgrade was back on for the second or third time—how many times has this been promised?—but it did not stop services being cut.

Again, I have a clipping here from 12 November 2017, where cancer services were wound down at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital from that day, with the former 20-bed cancer ward closing in preparation for changes. Who was health minister at that point in time? The current Premier was health minister. Now, forgive me if I sit here not wanting to be lectured by those opposite in terms of their commitment to health care in the western suburbs, because there was no commitment. Cardiac services were taken away and only returned because of the Liberal Party's commitment to do so in the western suburbs.

When this project was announced, there was a quote in one of the media releases. It may have been a Budget and Finance Committee transcript, I am not sure, but I distinctly remember at the time that, when announced, the SA Health CEO was asked about this not long after. She was asked a specific question about the upgrade, something in line with how much it was going to cost, how many beds it was going to deliver, and her answer was, 'Well, I can't answer that question because I don't have the plan. It hasn't been given to me yet.'

That tells you everything you need to know about how far advanced the Labor Party's plans were in regard to The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, that tells you everything about how prepared they were to build that upgrade at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, that tells you everything about their commitment to health in the western suburbs—it simply has not been there. In stark contrast, we came into government, we have added additional money to the project, within three years early works had commenced, construction had commenced and the upgrade is soon to be delivered next year.

We had the member for Hurtle Vale here telling us that to do things properly it needs to take 3½ years to build a hospital. Funny that. At the same time we have those opposite telling us that we delayed the project, that we delayed the project, that we delayed the project. Well, you cannot have it both ways. We committed to doing this. We actually did it. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital upgrade stage 3 and the services that are there are servicing our local community in the western suburbs. Thank goodness for the Liberal Party because, if not, we may never have seen the reality of The QEH hospital being upgraded for all those who need those services in the western suburbs.

Ms THOMPSON (Davenport) (12:08): What a history lesson we are having today. The Malinauskas Labor government inherited a health system under significant pressure driven by a lack of investment under the former Liberal government. The inaction and blatant neglect by those opposite resulted in unacceptable ambulance response times, huge ramping increases and devastating outcomes for South Australians. The Liberals had no plan or policies to address ramping and hospital system capacity.

The Malinauskas Labor government has a plan. It is our number one priority and, without delay, we are delivering a generational investment to rebuild our health system. We are investing a record $2.4 billion to open more than 550 additional beds, recruit hundreds more healthcare workers and build and upgrade key health infrastructure to provide the capacity that our healthcare system needs—and this is happening right now.

The southern Adelaide community and I are particularly pleased that our state government's partnership with the Albanese government will see $400 million spent on the Flinders Medical Centre, while the Liberals' solution to ramping at Flinders was to cut acute beds, only making the problem worse. Our record level of investment at Flinders will deliver more beds, an upgraded intensive care unit and an expansion of dedicated mental health and older persons facilities.

But, like the member for Hurtle Vale says, it is not just about bricks and mortar. Of course, delivering more beds means more staff, and we are employing more ambos, doctors and nurses to boost capacity across our health network and relieve pressure on hospitals and our emergency departments. In our first year of government, we have hired 550 staff for SA Health above attrition: 278 extra nurses, 89 extra doctors, 141 extra ambos and 42 extra allied health workers. These 550 staff above attrition are allowing us to open hundreds more beds right across the system to deliver better health care for South Australians. This recruitment is far in excess of our election commitment targets.

As part of the $400 million state and federal government pledge to expand services in the south, construction is now underway—right now—for dozens of new hospital beds at the Repat site, even more than originally committed. Exceeding the original commitment for 24 beds, there will now be 32 beds delivered at the Repat, a 33 per cent increase in capacity aimed at delivering dedicated care for older South Australians.

These construction works will deliver a bigger, purpose-built Geriatric Evaluation and Management (GEM) Unit in a refurbished and expanded ward. The new beds allow the existing GEM unit at Flinders Medical Centre to shift to the Repat, providing specialised care and rehabilitation to older people on site while creating additional acute bed capacity at Flinders—additional beds, not cutting beds. The new Repat GEM service is anticipated to be complete and operational by mid-2024.

A further six beds will now also be established at the Repat with the relocation of the Complex and RestorativE (CARE) service to a newly refurbished space. This service helps older South Australians receive appropriate care and, importantly, avoid the emergency department. Its relocation will free up six extra beds for patients in the Bangka Strait Ward, which supports patients to leave hospital and safely return home sooner.

In addition to the delivery of new beds at the Repat, a major expansion of medical imaging services is being delivered at Flinders. The new medical imaging suite will include additional MRI and CT scanners to boost imaging capacity at the hospital, meet increasing demand and improve emergency department flow. The additional CT scanner will have capacity to deliver 25 inpatient scans a day during business hours alone, representing a more than 60 per cent increase on current inpatient capacity.

The additional MRI scanner will have capacity to deliver 12 inpatient scans per day, representing a 110 per cent increase on current inpatient capacity. In total, both machines will deliver more than 9,000 extra scans each year, resulting in fewer patients waiting for imaging, which is also reducing bed block by getting them out of the hospital sooner and getting them out of our emergency departments.

Also for the south, the Malinauskas Labor government will deliver a $74 million upgrade of Noarlunga Hospital, the biggest ever capital investment at the site, boosting the number of beds by more than 50 per cent. The government will build 48 new beds at the hospital, lifting capacity from 92 to 140 beds and providing much-needed extra healthcare support for the people in Adelaide's growing southern suburbs.

We are not only delivering on our election commitments: we are going further, much further, to build as many beds as we can in our hospital system. This is a government that is investing in our health system, and that is why I commend the amended motion to the house.

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (12:14): It gives me great pleasure to speak in regard to both motions. I am not going to talk about who has done what and who has not done anything, but I will talk about health infrastructure on the Limestone Coast, and I will talk about two governments.

We have a number of hospitals on the Limestone Coast and particularly in MacKillop. We have a number of hospitals in need of upgrades and that have received some upgrades. During the Marshall years, Naracoorte hospital received $3½ million for a sterilisation unit upgrade and upgrade to an operating theatre, but that did not fix the leaking roof, and they needed buckets in the corridors whenever it rained. It did not help fix the lift when it broke down. There was no lift in the hospital for a while, but I believe that has been addressed. It is still a piece of infrastructure in Naracoorte, a major hospital in a regional town, that is probably 20 years past its major upgrade date. In fact, 20 years ago, it was planned to be replaced, but it is still there the way it is.

It is very pleasing to see that the Malinauskas Labor government is advocating another $8 million to that hospital this term, and I am very pleased that $1 million is going into a hospital review. Rather than just fixing up bits and pieces, it is going to be really interesting to see what the review finds at this hospital, what is required at this hospital and what is needed at this hospital for a major town centre such as Naracoorte.

Naracoorte has around 6,000 to 7,000 people and services a number of small towns around it, including in Victoria. There are two medical clinics in the town with GPs, but it is no different from any other town struggling to find GPs to be in the town and meet the needs of the region.

I move on to Keith hospital, a private hospital with a chequered past. A lot of community funds went into that hospital and, prior to 2018, I believe nearly $1.2 million worth of donations and philanthropy went into keeping the hospital alive. The Marshall government supported it and moved it forward into a new model, and the Malinauskas government has also supported it in an even bigger way and perhaps even for a longer future than the previous government.

It is going to be interesting to see how the medical clinic at Keith, not being a hospital, meets the needs of the community. It is my understanding it has community support and the Keith hospital board's support. It is a medical clinic with a tier 3 nurse and two medical practitioners backing up the town and so forth. From where it has been and where it is heading, it is in a better place. It sits right alongside a 30-bed aged-care facility, a 28-room aged-care facility, all modernised and fully booked out with a waiting list, working like it is alongside the hospital.

Not far away from Keith is the Bordertown medical system. There is a proposal for a whole new medical clinic that the Tatiara council is very supportive of. It wants to emulate a medical clinic at Nhill that a lot of people in South Australia use. The medical clinic proposal is for a new health hub in Bordertown that sits alongside a new community health centre build, alongside the hospital.

There is also an aged-care facility in Bordertown. If you saw it in Adelaide, you would think, 'Why the hell is that still there?' The aged-care facility alongside the hospital in Bordertown is an old nursing quarters. It is a two or three-storey building built out of besser blocks. The rooms are very aged and the facilities are very aged. I have heard from a lot of locals that they would love to see an upgrade to the aged-care facility in Bordertown. Bordertown is a growing, prosperous town, ready to explode in some shape or fashion once they address the shortfalls of housing and water issues. We are going to need good medical facilities in Bordertown.

Moving to Kingston hospital, before 2018 I remember a well-known grazier in the region went to the hospital for health reasons and they had to bring buckets into his room because the roof was leaking. He then, in a philanthropic way, donated money to remove the old tiles from the roof and fully reroof the hospital. That was the sort of donation this character made around the place. But why would a hospital like Kingston need a donation to repair the roof to stop the water coming in? This is why I am talking about this topic at the moment.

Again at Kingston, they have just upgraded the nurses' quarters through the local HAC board and through John Davidson and the locals who have supported that HAC. I think there may have also been an Apex Club or a Lions Club as well that put money towards the nurses' quarters. I know that the health fraternity there, the nurses and the like, will really appreciate the new, modern upgraded facilities at the nurses' quarters. Again, I believe it did not come from SA Health.

Kingston has two aged-care facilities alongside it, including Lighthouse Lodge, where the Marshall government put in a sprinkler system. It has two rooms that apparently are rather tired and not fit for purpose because they do not have bathroom facilities that are ready to go, and they are looking for funds and upgrades in this area. In the aged-care facilities in the hospital, where there is higher need and a higher quality of care, there are no sprinkler systems or fire systems in place. It has been like that for a number of years, so I hope this is addressed.

At the other end of the hospital is the Community Health Centre. The Community Health Centre used to be at the old end of the hospital, and it is where there are a number of dentists and where vaccination clinics are held. The elderly go there to get their vaccinations and be seen for minor issues. There is a really steep driveway up to this old hospital. They are looking for a new entrance to the Community Health Centre so that the elderly in their gophers or wheelchairs or walking frames can get into the Community Health Centre better than they can today.

The local HAC committee, with donations and philanthropy, have a good lick of money. They do not have enough money, but they are looking to work with the local health network, the Limestone Coast Local Health Network, SA Health, to address these issues. What I am trying to say is that we see all the time that communities in our regions are backing these health facilities and builds and infrastructure and upgrades, and we need the government to be on board to make sure that, first of all, it can occur and it can back up the support that comes from the community.

There is another hospital I will touch on, and that is the Millicent hospital. Millicent has 6,000 or 7,000 or 8,000 people, and it is a major centre not far from Mount Gambier. What is really interesting about Millicent is that it still has a medical clinic but it is really sad that the hospital is nothing like it was in its former glory. I am only talking 20 years ago, not 50 years ago. Millicent used to outshine Mount Gambier in procedures and operations, with two anaesthetists, and where acting surgeons and so forth would come in. There were doctors who could also practise in the hospital. It is nothing like that now compared to its former days.

Now I believe the hospital is taken care of by locums. Not only do the GPs struggle in the clinic to find enough doctors, like anywhere in regional Australia and South Australia, but they do not even have time now to facilitate or help in the hospital as they used to, and that is why locums are used—because they have to be. Again, the hospital has the Millicent Health Advisory Council and there is also the local Millicent and Surrounds Health Support Group (MASHSG). That sits alongside the hospital as well, outside the system. It obviously has working bees and fundraising and anything else to support that hospital.

The other hospital I want to touch on while I have a couple of seconds is the Penola hospital. A major aged-care facility alongside the Penola hospital is being backed up again by locums. I do not think there are enough doctors in the town to be able to support the hospital. It will be interesting to see where this medical precinct goes. Obviously, I will always support whatever we can get for the Penola hospital and the community to keep it open and to keep it functioning. I am just hoping that whoever the government of the day is they recognise the importance of regional health and infrastructure.

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (12:24): I also rise to speak on this motion. I do find the member for Schubert's motion quite cute when we are talking about prioritising health infrastructure, given that the former Liberal government's signature election commitment—the jewel in the crown of their policy priorities—was a $662 million basketball stadium on the Parklands.

Unlike the former Liberal government, we did choose to prioritise health. We chose beds over basketballs; we chose health staff over stadiums. That is why upon coming into government one of the very first things we did was scrap the former Liberal government's $662 million basketball stadium and direct that funding to health. The fact that we have prioritised health infrastructure over a $662 million basketball stadium has resulted in great commitments to the health sector—investments like a brand-new Women's and Children's Hospital that will actually provide for current and future generations.

—almost seven years ago this weekend I became a mum at the current Women's and Children's in May 2016. I know from standing out the front of the current Women's and Children's with a petition, talking to doctors, talking to parents, talking to nurses, that they are in desperate need of a bigger and better Women's and Children's Hospital. That is what this government will deliver. We will deliver a world-class outcome that would not have been possible under the former Liberal government's plan. Our bigger and better Women's and Children's Hospital will feature 50 more beds than the former Liberal government's plan.

For the South Australian Ambulance Service, we will build a $120 million new ambulance HQ, which has been long called for, comprising the new State Emergency Operations Centre and the first State Health Control Centre. On the same site at Richmond Road, we will build a brand-new Adelaide ambulance station featuring two 24/7 crews armed with brand-new ambulances to serve our community because we do prioritise health infrastructure.

While I live in the best capital city in the world, where I am proud to be the member for Adelaide, I never will forget where I came from: the beautiful and bountiful South-East of our state. It makes me so proud that our government is investing significant funds in health infrastructure in my home town. There is an $8 million upgrade of the Naracoorte hospital, where I and my three brothers were born and where my family said goodbye to my beautiful stepdad, Patrick, and my grandfather, Lindsay Hood. Planning works are well underway as the first stage of a major redevelopment.

We are also investing $24 million in the Mount Gambier hospital, where my sister-in-law, Ellen Hood, works as a midwife and nurse. This includes $8 million to upgrade the emergency department, $11.4 million to double the hospital's mental health unit and $4.6 million to fit out and operate two dedicated drug and alcohol detox beds.

This motion is an opportunity to highlight why elections matter, because in an alternative universe—if the former Liberal government had been successful in March last year—they would right now be turning the sod on a new basketball stadium on Helen Mayo Park in our Parklands. Instead, thankfully, the Malinauskas Labor government was successful at the March 2022 election and we are investing in critical health infrastructure: more doctors, more nurses, more ambulances, more allied health workers—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey and member for Newland, the member for Adelaide has the call. I think we should all respect that, thank you.

Ms HOOD: I am very proud that that alternative universe does not exist. The sod is not turning on a $662 million basketball stadium, and the Malinauskas Labor government is getting on with the job of delivering for South Australians because health is our number one priority.

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (12:29): I am very glad to rise in this place to speak about the importance of investment into health infrastructure and to support the motion from the member for Schubert. Investment in our health infrastructure right around South Australia is something which we must ensure that continuing subsequent governments continue to do.

If we do not enable especially our regional communities to be sustainable in the long term, with investment into basic services like health services, we are condemning our state's economy to continue to be Adelaide-centric, capital city-centric, and really missing opportunities that other states are taking. Other states are investing into their regional centres, and they are population centres that are growing and they are economic opportunities that are growing because of smart, intelligent investment from their state governments.

Out in regional South Australia every bit of health infrastructure is obviously ageing, but every quality piece of infrastructure is actually paid for by the community. We have heard some of the lessons put to us by those opposite, telling us that we do not know anything about health. That was the statement to me from the member for Hurtle Vale, and I shake my head in wonderment because, in reality, we in regional centres have to live the realities of the health service that we have every single day.

There are people who are volunteering their time and volunteering their effort to ensure that there are health services that are able to be continued into the long term. As has been mentioned already by the member for MacKillop, I will give a bit of a shout-out to the health advisory councils all around regional South Australia, but in particular in my electorate of Flinders. It is those health advisory councils and the many, many volunteer hours of hospital auxiliaries that are actually delivering health infrastructure into the regional parts of South Australia. We really need a state government that actually gets behind communities to give some accompanying funding to make sure these things are delivered.

I will give you some examples. In the electorate of Flinders there are a number of different health advisory councils. I will firstly highlight the HAC in the Lower Eyre and the main hospitals that they cover at Tumby Bay and Cummins. If you go to those hospitals you will find pretty incredible facilities, really, for the little amount of state government investment that has been put into those, especially in the previous 16 years of Labor government.

You go to those areas and you see the amazing investment that has happened because of community fundraising through hospital auxiliaries and also through the incredible philanthropic donations and bequests of community members who actually recognise that what is happening, as far as health infrastructure goes within our regional centres, is not acceptable, and they are doing their part.

I was at a recent—that is, in the last few years—opening at Tumby Bay of an upgraded laundry facility at the hospital. You may think that laundry is a pretty basic bit of infrastructure that really should be delivered in our hospitals all around the state, but this is actually delivered by donations, bequests and work that gets facilitated by the local HAC, the local hospital auxiliary and the local council. Upgrades and expansions are all enabled by the dollar that is being given through donations.

It is the same at Cummins. There has been incredible work done by the Lower Eyre Health Advisory Council in expanding the facility there, and they are continuing to do it. They are looking at what are the next steps and what are the next needs our community has in the future, that are going to be able to help the sustainability of our community. If we do not invest as a state into our regional communities, then the economic activity that those regional communities drive is going to be lost. We are going to lose the most vulnerable: those at either end of the age scale, the young and the old, will not be able to be in our regional communities without proper investment into our regional health infrastructure.

This is why this is so important. Look at the work that the Western Eyre HAC is doing at Wudinna and Elliston, work that is essential for the longevity of those communities and the health care for those communities but work that has been done and driven by their local communities. The state government needs to get behind these communities. Give them some enabling funding, sure, make sure they get out of the way and do not put extra levels of bureaucratic red tape in the way of good people in the community doing good work.

It is the same with the Eastern Eyre HAC that has done amazing work too. It has already been pointed out that the community in Kimba has been enabled to have incredibly up-to-date modern medical facilities, a medical clinic, without a bit of state government funding at all. The opening of the Leo Schaefer memorial medical clinic only a few weeks ago was an incredible example of local communities in regional areas getting stuff done.

Investment in our health infrastructure all around our state needs to be in response to what our communities need and in response to the needs of our regional communities, because in the end they are the ones that are going to be there, I hope, for the long term, and I hope to see regional South Australia grow even more with their economic contribution to the state and federal economy. Tens of billions of dollars get put into our state and federal economies from regional South Australia and we need to have investment in infrastructure that actually reflects that. There might not be the numbers of people in those areas for the economic activity, and the financial drive that our state gets from those regional communities needs to be reflected in investment back into health infrastructure.

I recently went for a wander through, on invitation, the Yadu Aboriginal health facility, and they are constantly pushing for investment back into their facility. I am really happy to hear that the federal government in partnership with the state government is putting investment back into that facility because if we do not have those investments going back in, it is not a sustainable community. I am not here to try to play party political games like some. All I want is a good result for our regional communities. Those opposite can carry on all they like. I do not need to get involved in that stuff because I am just standing up for my community for investment back into regional infrastructure.

There is some basic stuff that we need to get right as a state. I will give an example. There is infrastructure in place in a couple of small hospitals, a couple of X-ray machines, which have a bureaucratic red-tape end of life. They do not get used a lot but they get used when the time is needed. These X-ray machines have reached their theoretical end-of-book life, and what is going to happen? Either the government needs to invest back in to replace them or the bureaucratic red tape needs to change to allow them to continue to be used, otherwise we are not going have those facilities in some of our regional communities.

We need to make sure that we are responsive as decision-makers to what our communities' needs, especially in regional communities. This is why as the member for Flinders I will continue to stand up for my community to make sure that there is proper investment in the long-term sustainability of our communities so we can continue to be the economic driver, the economic powerhouse, within our regions for the state of South Australia.

Ms SAVVAS (Newland) (12:38): I do find the opposition's motion quite galling today to be honest, as I do the suggestion from the member for Flinders that he is not here to play party politics, when in fact the entire premise of this motion is to play party politics, so I am very interested in that comment from the other side and of course the content of the motion itself.

I will say, however, that this is a good opportunity as always—and the opposition is very good at giving us good opportunities—to promote what is going on in our communities and the investment that the government is making in our communities. So I am really happy for that opportunity to remind the house and to remind the community about the investment that we are making in health, not only across the state but of course the investment that we are making in the north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide.

It is always a pleasure to make that reminder, because we were elected very much on the basis of those commitments. I have very grave concerns about what would have happened had we not been elected, because I will be able to list to you today the number of commitments regarding health in the north-eastern suburbs that would not have come to light should the former government have been re-elected in March last year.

In the lead-up to the 2022 election, a number of things were under attack, but one of those things was mental health services at Modbury Hospital. We know on our side that one of the really key components to assisting and fixing the ramping crisis is to address issues with mental health and the backlog of mental health patients in our emergency departments. We know that it is important to have better triage and treatment of patients presenting in EDs with mental health concerns.

The previous government, however, came in before the election and tried to take away mental health services from our local hospital. They tried to take away those services. They tried to get rid of Woodleigh House, our mental health facility at Modbury Hospital, and referred to it as an expansion of the service, by moving it to another hospital. We, of course, know what that means in the north-eastern suburbs: that means taking away the service.

I would like to give the house a bit of a picture of what it means for residents who live on my side of the track, or perhaps where my family are over in Highbury. It means that to get up to Elizabeth, where that service was going to be expanded, under the words of the former government, it would be over 30 minutes to get to that hospital, as opposed to accessing those services at Modbury Hospital, which is within a five-minute drive.

There was a huge campaign to keep those services, and because we were elected in 2022 not only were we able to keep mental health services at Modbury but also we were able to commit to expanding those services, increasing services at Modbury for mental health by 24 beds. It is important to note here what would have happened if they were elected, and that means that those services not only would not have been saved but there would not have been that expansion either. The new facility at Modbury will allow for continued treatment of mental health patients and also treatment of older persons presenting with mental health concerns.

Modbury Hospital is another wonderful example of something that the former government claimed that they committed to upgrade, when in fact the Premier as health minister spent many months in the basement of Modbury Hospital. He tells the story very well of how he sat with the advocacy groups down at Modbury Hospital and fought for the commitment, the $90 million investment into Modbury Hospital.

The former government certainly cut some ribbons on that facility and sent out very carefully worded brochures and DLs over the last four years, explaining what they had done at Modbury Hospital, but the way it was worded makes it very clear that that is all they were doing—they were ribbon cutting that facility, when the investment had been made when our now Premier was actually the Minister for Health.

With respect to Modbury Hospital, we have already seen work underway. We celebrated the 50th birthday of Modbury Hospital earlier this year with a number of local members from the community and heard from the lived experience advocates, who will be helping with that co-design process, not only keeping that service there but ensuring that those who know what is needed best will be the ones assisting with the design of that facility. We also committed to an extra 48 subacute beds to relieve pressure on the ED at Modbury and also to build a cancer centre, which will have 12 treatment spaces at Modbury, providing cancer treatment services for people in the north-eastern suburbs for the very first time.

I remember very well that I got a call from a resident I had never met before right after we made that commitment in the lead-up to the election and she was in tears. When I was able to chat with that individual, I asked her, 'What's wrong? Is there any way I can help you?' She said to me that she was travelling to the RAH for cancer treatment on a regular basis.

On the many times she had received that treatment she had had to get in a taxi and pay an expensive fare because she was not able to drive herself down for treatment and back home after receiving that treatment. She called me literally in tears because, for the first time, there was now the ability to access cancer services in the north-east within walking distance or a close drive from her home.

Again, that was a commitment we had made. The former government did not make that commitment: they made the commitment to remove mental health services from our hospital. They did not make a commitment to expand the beds at Modbury Hospital and they did not make a commitment to bring in cancer services at Modbury Hospital. Further to that, and as we all know all too well, they did not make commitments with respect to ambulance stations.

Not only did we have a commitment to bring in an extra ambulance station in the north-eastern suburbs but we have actually located where that will be built. There will be an extra ambulance station at Golden Grove, right in the heart of Golden Grove next to the village shopping centre and the park-and-ride. At the moment, for a council area of 100,000 residents plus surrounding suburbs as well, there is only one ambulance station, the one at Redwood Park, which is supposed to service the needs of a really growing community and which is, of course, experiencing significant pressure as a result.

It was another really proud moment to stand with local members at the site of the new ambulance station and know that, because of a commitment our government made when we were in opposition, there will be less pressure on the ambulance station at Redwood Park and surrounding stations, whether that be down at Paradise or up in Parafield. There have also been an extra 20 paramedics already dispatched who will eventually come to service that site. They are based at Parafield already, helping to service the community and assisting with relieving the pressure for ambulances and paramedics in the north-east.

Of course there are many elements that need to be addressed in health, but we know that under the former government's lack of a plan there would be no extra ambulance station to service a community of 100,000 people—none. There would be no extra ambulance station, no extra beds at Modbury Hospital, no keeping mental health services at Modbury Hospital, no cancer services at Modbury Hospital.

In the space of just a five to eight minute drive I am able to show to you the infrastructure investment made by this government to health in the north-eastern suburbs that would not exist had the previous government been re-elected. When I say it is galling to be standing here hearing the motion from the other side, that is one example of a small community, compared to the rest of our state, that is benefiting extremely well from the investment that has been made in health.

The pressure on Redwood Park ambulance station was already immense, and dispatching those extra crews, as well as having extra staff and another physical location, will make a significant difference to the pressure we are experiencing on health in the north-eastern suburbs. Our community knows that, and we know they know that because they chose it and on a very regular basis I hear from community members—as I am sure others on this side of the house do as well—thanking us for the investment we made in health, for the decision to prioritise our health system over a Riverbank arena that literally no-one asked for.

I am incredibly disappointed by the content of the motion from the opposition and very happy to commend our investment in health, particularly in health infrastructure in my community in the north-eastern suburbs.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (12:48): I, too, rise to make a contribution to one of the most important agencies in South Australian government budgets, because we all know too well how important a good, robust health system is. What the member for Schubert has brought to the table seems to have agitated the government members because I think, rightfully so, they were elected on the premise that they would fix ramping. Along the course of the past 12 months we have seen ramping almost double.

It is outrageous that we have had the member for Hurtle Vale, and other members of the government backbench who were not in this place in a previous government, who never really experienced how the now Premier, the now member for Croydon, who was then a member of the Legislative Council but also the then Minister for Health, oversaw the initiative Transforming Health, one of the greatest failures in South Australia's health history.

We also saw what Transforming Health did to the health system in South Australia. It put huge doubt on the capacity of what we would see in our health system. It was not about providing better health services; it was about adjusting the spend in the health system, dealing with the budget and making health savings that were going to see detrimental damage over a number of years to the health system in South Australia.

We saw downgrades of some of those outer hospitals, such as Modbury and Noarlunga. We saw the downgrade of The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and we are also dealing with the transition of the original Adelaide hospital, which is now known as the NRAH. The Royal Adelaide Hospital back then was old and outdated, but we saw a huge budget blowout on what is now the centrepiece of the health system in South Australia. The NRAH has seen significant challenges in ironing out all the wrinkles and with all the issues that hospital was brought up with.

What we see now is a government that is continually pointing the finger at what the former Liberal government did within the health system. We had record spending. We saw an extensive upgrade of beds and doctors and made sure that mental health was dealt with and we also dealt with the COVID pandemic. Sadly, COVID has put a significant strain on the health system, not only with people being admitted to hospital with symptoms of the pandemic but also significant strain on the mental health system.

We know that people who present themselves to emergency departments are not able to have a bandaid or to have a cast put on a broken arm. They are there with long-term issues that cannot be fixed overnight and that is why we have seen a significant clogging up of our health system and our emergency departments. The former Liberal government put a lot of measures in place: increasing bed numbers and increasing capacity to get flow through of ambulances.

The now Malinauskas Labor government really has deceived South Australians by coming into government vowing to fix ramping and vowing to fix the health system. We know it is not going to be an easy fix, but we have seen the doubling of ramping. We have seen some of the sneaky tricks that the government has put in place to try to hide what is now very evident: that South Australians were deceived by a very tricky, well-planned and thought-out process to fix the ramping crisis.

Along the way, there has been much talked about with a lot of the upgrades to the health system, particularly at our hospitals. The incoming government were going to do the expansion at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. They are kicking the can down the road at every opportunity. It was going to be December 2022, but it is now March 2024. Stage 3 of The Queen Elizabeth Hospital was going to be completed in June 2024, but it is now March 2025. The Flinders Medical Centre expansion was going to be completed by 2028, but it is now June 2029.

The new Women's and Children's Hospital would have had the sods turned. That would now be under construction, under a former Marshall Liberal government. We are now looking at an estimation of 2032. Not even in this decade is this Women's and Children's Hospital, a much-needed hospital, going to be started, let alone completed. I think we need to put a bit of balance into this argument.

I want to discuss a few of the really important health issues in my electorate of Chaffey. The former Liberal government did great work to make sure that we had health initiatives and health systems in place so that it would help some of my country constituents to not have to travel for procedures or treatment at a faraway hospital. In most instances, that hospital journey was three hours.

It is a three-hour journey away from home, away from loved ones, particularly for cancer treatment, particularly with the high levels of stress that are attached to health procedures. Of that three-hour journey down to Adelaide to have a procedure, we then had to make a three-hour journey home, and that comes at great cost. Not only are you not in your workplace, not surrounded by the support of family and friends and community but it is a costly exercise if you have to stay overnight, if you have to incur the travel expenses and all the other associated costs with health.

I do acknowledge that the former Liberal government was going to double the PATS (Patient Assistance Transport Scheme). We did not do it; the current government did it. I give them credit for what they did because it was long overdue. We saw many, many reviews of the PATS system and it all amounted to very little. What we saw and what we are seeing now is that there is some level of recognition for the hardship and the economic challenge that it is to seek medical and procedural advice when having to come down to our major hospitals here in Adelaide.

The electorate of Chaffey has a number of hospitals. All those hospitals are there giving the best health care they can. Some of them are being sadly downgraded to aged-care facilities, but what we have seen is that the regional hospital in Berri is now the centrepiece of the health system in the Riverland, and the Mallee to some degree. We are seeing that the Renmark hospital still has a capacity to undertake health procedures, and with Loxton hospital, Waikerie hospital and Barmera—they are four critical pieces of infrastructure as part of the health system within the Riverland.

I must say that I would also like to pay respect and thank my HAC (Health Advisory Council) volunteers. The health advisory councils are manned by volunteers. They do great work and they are part of keeping that health system going, making sure that they advise of the issues at hand and making sure we have a health system that is acceptable. We also have to acknowledge some of the hospitals, particularly at Waikerie and Loxton, for the auxiliary funds that have kept those hospitals alive. We have seen significant money, whether it be from bequeathed philanthropic-type arrangements, which has been put into services or upgraded services to see where we will have ongoing capacity to keep those hospitals alive.

I must thank Sally Goode and Justin Loffler as two of my HAC representatives because they are the two hospitals that have seen those auxiliary funds shared and put into the community to keep those health services alive. I want to also mention the helipad, particularly at the Berri regional hospital, because it is a vital piece of infrastructure that sadly has not seen the upgrade that it was promised.

To all the health staff, nurses, administration, our doctors, and all our frontline health services and staff, I say thank you; thank you for the work you do and thank you for going above and beyond, because health is a very important part of everyday life and it is an important part of living in regional South Australia.

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (12:58): I am happy to speak very briefly as we head into lunch. The South Coast District Hospital, known also as the Southern Fleurieu Health Service, is a wonderful facility. It is under enormous pressure. Back in 2015, the GPs were removed from the operation of that emergency department and it is now managed in a staff-doctor arrangement. That has delivered a lot more people to the facility who may have previously gone to their GP rather than going to the emergency department. It has put an enormous amount of pressure on it.

The Morrison government committed over $8 million to an upgrade of that ED. We are still waiting. That commitment was made back in 2019, and it is important that continues to be developed to make sure that we actually bring this forward. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.

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