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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-03-22 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Ambulance Ramping

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (15:02): There are thousands of people who work tirelessly in our health system, looking after us and our loved ones when we need help, good people who work so hard each and every day in what are really mentally and physically challenging roles. These are the people who deserve a health system and a government that supports them, but the unfortunate reality is that this government is absolutely letting down the health workers in South Australia and the people of South Australia.

Just 12 months after the state election, when an ironclad commitment was made by those opposite to fix ramping in this state, Labor are trying to run from this as fast as they possibly can, so much so that you might think that they are in a race with Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt. To rub salt into the wound, guess what the government is trying to tell the South Australian public? That it was the voters who got it wrong. Apparently, this confusion was all South Australians' fault. It was us who misunderstood Labor's promise, that we did not ask enough questions, that we did not seek out that fine print, that we were not invited to those invite-only press conferences.

It does seem that ramping is just no longer a priority for this government and that is, I think, quite convenient, because for the last 10 months those opposite have governed over the worst ramping results in South Australia's history, where our patients and our paramedics have spent more time out on the ramp than ever before in history—37,370 hours stuck outside on the ramp. That is 1,557 days and the equivalent of more than four years' worth of time.

What does this government do? With a straight face, they tell us that they never promised to fix ramping. They promised that they would fix and improve the response times, which is so funny, because I just do not remember seeing the posters up hill and down dale saying, 'We will fix ambulance response times'. It is funny because they have barely mentioned ambulance response times since the election, but now, after they have presided over the 10 worst months of ramping in South Australia's history, Labor is doing what Labor does.

After 16 years of Labor government, you are absolutely protecting your own political skin, as if spinning out of problems was essentially an Olympic sport. Why would we expect anything different from those opposite? It is just the same old Labor weasel words and dishonesty that South Australians absolutely detest. It brings me no pleasure to say this but, after 12 months of Labor, their commitments to fix health and their commitments to deliver for the people of South Australia are unequivocally on life support. So much so, that the very people who were propelled into office on the back of the wave of Labor's central promise to fix ramping do not want to talk about it anymore, they do not want to hear about it.

This was made extraordinarily clear when Labor rolled out their 12-month self-congratulatory video, where they gave themselves a big old pat on the back for all the things that they had apparently done, except they forgot to mention one thing—

An honourable member: The key pillar.

Mrs HURN: —the key pillar. It was not even mentioned once. Guess what it was?

An honourable member: Ramping.

Mrs HURN: Fixing ramping. It got me thinking. I thought, 'Why haven't they mentioned it?' Is it because the backbench are worried about talking about ramping now that the election is over and now that they are governing over the worst ramping results in our state's history? Perhaps those opposite can tell their constituents that actually it was them that got it wrong and they misunderstood their very clear promise. Or is it because they do not quite know how to explain record ramping to those families and loved ones who have seen their loved ones die waiting for an ambulance? I think that unfortunately it is all of those things.

Labor has made a decision that it is no longer in their political interests to talk about ramping, now that it has never been worse. What is so galling is that they expect South Australians to believe this farcical rewrite of history. They have such arrogance that they reckon they are going to get away with this. Labor campaigned every day on a very clear promise to fix ramping in this state, exploiting absolute heartache for their own political gain. Labor sat with paramedics and told them that they would fix it. Labor door-knocked, and they looked their constituents in the eye and told them that they would fix it. Now they need to sit with all those people again, because it is time that those opposite apologise. I think I have the start of a script, and it goes like this: 'Sorry that 12 months on—

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Brown): The member's time has expired.

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