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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-30 Daily Xml
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Barossa Hospital

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (15:28): Having pushed hard for progress on a new Barossa hospital under both the previous government as a Liberal candidate and now under this new government, I was really pleased to hear some news about progress at a recent health advisory committee meeting. Just the other week, I was at the AGM of the health advisory committee, of which I am a member, and I was advised and really delighted to hear that the final draft full business case of a Barossa hospital has now been given the tick by the board of the Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network.

The full Barossa business case in its draft form is extraordinarily comprehensive, and I would like to list off a number of the items that are in that draft full business case. We have a clinical service plan, functional design considerations, a proposed master plan and an indicative cost report. There are change management strategies, workforce strategies, a stakeholder communications plan and a financial impact statement, so indeed quite a comprehensive draft for a business case.

Of course, the previous Liberal government started this progress. We did undertake some really detailed planning work. We put money in the budget not just for this final plan but also for the purchase of the land and the start of the early works. This was actually the very first time in the history of the state that money had been put in a state budget specifically for the purposes of a brand-new Barossa hospital. I am really pleased to see that the foundation that was laid before the state election is progressing to the point where this draft business case will soon be considered by Infrastructure SA, so that it is welcome news.

The Liberal Party had intended a much quicker time frame. That has been fleshed out by the former Liberal health minister Stephen Wade on multiple occasions, but any and all progress is welcome when it comes to the delivery of this project. The next big test for the government will of course be the next state budget, because once this is through Infrastructure SA the next step is making sure that we actually put money in a budget to start building the hospital. We should really be expecting to see a funding commitment for this in next year's state budget.

As I have already mentioned, the former government had put money in the budget for the land as well as the early works, but we do need money in not just next year's state budget but the budgets beyond to get this hospital actually built for the community. With 25,000 people estimated to be moving into Concordia, which is in the Barossa Valley, over the next decade, having a brand-new Barossa hospital is not just critical for the Barossa and the surrounding region but extraordinarily important for South Australia as a whole.

Labor, we know, seems to be able to find massive pots of money—often undisclosed pots of money—for events. When I look at a project like a brand-new Barossa hospital, this is something that is not just a critical piece of infrastructure for my community in the Barossa Valley and the region more broadly but a critical piece of the health puzzle that we need to solve to be able to get on top of the pressure we are seeing right across the health system.

Beyond the boundaries of Schubert, I think it is fair to say that health remains a number one concern for people. We saw at the election that this was what so many people in South Australia voted for. People still want to know what is going on inside and outside their hospitals at the moment, so I just thought I would reflect upon a couple of things.

Ramping I have spoken about on a number of occasions not just in this house but right across the state and with the media. SA Health data shows that people are more likely to be ramped under this Labor government than they have been at any other point in our state's history—any other point in our state's history—despite the Premier and all those opposite promising their local communities that they had the plan to fix ramping.

In fact, 60,000 hours—that is how long South Australian patients and paramedics have spent stuck outside their hospital since the election. Looking at that record, Labor are on track to deliver more ramping in two years than the former Liberal government did in four years. That is just the start, because there is a litany of errors in health, whether it is the workforce or the cochlear implant program, and we will continue to hold this government to account for the rest of this year and well into next.

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