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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-05 Daily Xml
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Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:09): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier fix ramping before the next election?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:09): We are determined to make sure that the ramping crisis and its impacts on people—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —are diminished in comparison to what we saw prior to the last election.

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

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta, order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: What we made clear—

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

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Cue the—

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Cue the false outrage in just a moment. Let me just—

Members interjecting:

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

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: I didn't even get the chance to finish the sentence, Mr Speaker, before the interjections ensued. What we made clear—

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned.

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The member for Hartley interjects, 'Where's Ash?'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: I'll tell you where she is: she's driving ambulances that are—

The Hon. N.F. Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hurtle Vale!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —now rolling up on time. They are now rolling up on time which is very different—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —from the experience that was left behind—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —from those opposite.

Mr Pederick interjecting:

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

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Those opposite—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members to my left, we are early in question time and the parliamentary sitting week. I call to order. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: What we know is that over the course of a less than two-year period since the last state election, ambulance response times have gone from—

Mrs Hurn: How's ramping going?

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Those opposite can't work out if they care about ambulance response times or not.

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond is on a second warning.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: One minute—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members to my left, order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: I am more than happy to furnish the member for Schubert with an extraordinary—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Hartley is on two warnings.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —volume of—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Premier, please be seated. The member for Hartley will depart under 137A for repeated interjections. There are members queued very closely behind.

The honourable member for Hartley having withdrawn from the chamber:

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Schubert is warned. The member for Morialta is on a further warning for the remainder of question time. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: As I was explaining, and as the South Australian electorate well understands, addressing the ramping crisis is important for a couple of reasons, the first of which—addressing it, fixing it—is that when ramping is particularly bad, it means that ambulances don't roll up on time to 000 call-outs.

What we saw two years ago, prior to the election, was that in the month of January, of all the 000 call-outs that occurred that were emergency call-outs, 64 per cent were late—late. Imagine calling 000 and the ambulance rolling up late 64 per cent of the time: a two in three chance that when you call 000 in your time of need, they're not there when they need to be. They're not there when they need to be. Now the opposite is true, and that actually matters because that is the difference between life or death. Now we have turned around, almost completely reversed, the performance of the Ambulance Service in regard to response times, because who would have thought—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —that not cutting the Ambulance Service, and actually investing in it, would make a difference. I tell you who would have thought it: we did and we've done it. Now that we have achieved that outcome, we have now got the challenge—that we are committed to addressing—of ensuring that when people roll up to the hospital in an ambulance having arrived on time, we are able to get them off the ramp and into the hospital.

That requires more beds, which is exactly what this government is delivering and which is definitely the clear contrast between the policy approaches of those opposite and those on the government's side of the house. We believe in extra beds in the system. We believe in extra people and clinicians in the system. Those opposite, including the Leader of the Opposition, have referred to the fact that, potentially—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —extra beds are a waste of money.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order, sir—

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We don't believe that, which is why we are delivering them.

The SPEAKER: Premier, there is a point of order—

Ms Clancy interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Elder! There is a point of order which I will hear under 134. The member for Morialta.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Thank you, sir. Standing order 98.

The SPEAKER: Very well.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Teague interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Heysen, order! The Premier has the call; I will listen carefully. Premier—very well. Turning to the opposition.

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