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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-11-13 Daily Xml
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Regional Hospital Helipads

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Does the state government's contract with Babcock mean that regional helipads are noncompliant with the current aircraft fleet? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr WHETSTONE: In response to questions on the 29 October, the minister said:

…we are trying to work through with Babcock to make sure that they are satisfied that they can be operated safely.

However, the opposition has been advised that some regional helipads are now noncompliant due to the size of the current Babcock helicopters, and aircraft in Toll's contract fleet will be smaller.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:00): I am not sure where some of that information has come from, which I don't believe is true at all. Certainly, the information that I provided in the last sitting week still stands in terms of the work that we are undertaking, being led by the chief executive officer of the Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network on behalf of all the local health networks, to work with Babcock to make sure that we can get those helipads open as soon as possible. We already have seven of those helipads now open and operational, including Berri, in the member's electorate, which opened in the past fortnight or so.

I have to say, since we last met, I saw some of the comments from the member for Chaffey on ABC in relation to this matter which, I have to say, I thought were pretty disgraceful. There were claims that the member for Chaffey made that a death was attributable to the helipad's construction. I thought that was a new low, unfortunately, made without particular evidence. The truth is that, in relation to that matter, there was a fixed-wing aircraft that was determined by MedSTAR and by SAAS to respond to that incident. There are arrangements in place where a rotary wing, a helicopter, can go to Berri, if need be, before the helipad was open, but there also wasn't any delay in terms of the commissioning—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Yes, because it was still under construction. There was no delay in the commissioning of that. There was also the ability for a helicopter to land at the nearby airfield and provide that support, if that had been the determination of the clinicians who work in MedSTAR and SAAS to make that determination. That was not the case. That was not the decision that they made in those instances.

Obviously, it was an operational decision that they had made. I think it's particularly unfortunate that the member for Chaffey has sought to try to play politics with such a serious issue. We, of course, all extend our condolences to the family who lost a loved one. But for the member for Chaffey to play politics with that matter, where a helipad was under construction, and there were alternative arrangements in place, if that was determined, I think is pretty disgraceful.

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