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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-19 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:04): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier fix the ramping crisis? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: The Malinauskas government was elected two years ago promising to fix the ramping crisis. Since then, the Premier has presided over the worst 21 months of ambulance ramping in South Australia's history and more ramping in less than two years than the former Liberal government's entire four-year term.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:04): We know that one of the big concerns that South Australians have at the top of their minds when it comes to our health service is the impact that ramping has. When we think about ramping at its worst, of course it's when ambulances don't roll up on time. But the good news is ambulances are now rolling up on time.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: What we have been able to do as a government is reverse, in a very substantial way, the policies that the former government had. Under the former Liberal government, we were the only state in the country to cut—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —the Ambulance Service three out of four years. It's quite remarkable that across four years of the life of the former government, three—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —just sticking to the facts—three out of four years they cut the Ambulance Service, so when we got a growing population and an ageing population, when we had a global pandemic, they thought—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —the wise thing was to cut the Ambulance Service. When they started cutting the Ambulance Service—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —guess what started happening? Guess what started happening?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta! Member for Florey!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Ambulances stopped rolling up on time. What we have done is we have completely reversed that.

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We have dramatically boosted the Ambulance Service and now ambulances are rolling up on time.

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Now, on top of that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —we continue to roll out a program of employing more doctors, which we now have a lot more of—

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

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —more nurses—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: In fact, this year we have 832 new graduate nurses and midwives coming on board. Then, throughout the second half of this year, as a result of the decisions that we have made that those opposite would not, we have 150 new beds being added to the capacity of our hospital system. Then next year, another 130 new beds on top of that. What that adds up to is effectively a whole new Queen Elizabeth Hospital coming on line—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —over the course of the next—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Hartley!

Mr Cowdrey interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Colton!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: All things that would not have happened had this government not been in charge. More ambos, more nurses, more doctors, more beds and all of that—

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

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —along with a better hospital system that would not otherwise have been the case if those opposite were in charge. What is telling—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members to my left!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: What is telling, of course, is that all these policies: to build a bigger health system, to have more staff working in a hospital, the opposition haven't complained about once. They don't seek to criticise a single policy of the government's in the area of health. In fact, how could they?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: How could they criticise our policy when they don't have one of their own? That's right, those opposite—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —have no policy, no legitimate criticism, only commentary. Well, commentate all you like because those that commentate without policy are not entitled to be on the government benches.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We are getting on with the task of actually delivering for the people of South Australia.

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

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta, order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order from the Leader of Government Business.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: When you started speaking, sir, there was a wall of noise.

The SPEAKER: Indeed there was.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: A wall of noise. The opposition can't be interested in asking questions—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —they interject continuously.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Florey, order! The member for Morialta, the member for Schubert, the member for Hartley, the member for Chaffey and the member for Florey are warned.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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