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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-06-26 Daily Xml
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SA Support Services

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:17): My question is to the Premier. What does the Premier say to workers in SA Support Services? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, Mr Speaker: Erskine May's Parliamentary Practice 25th edition 2019 says and I quote:

A question which cannot be understood without supplementary explanation is not in order.

Now the idea that the Premier can answer that question without an explanation, without leave of the house, is ridiculous, sir. The question should be self-explanatory and any explanation should just add to the question.

Mr TEAGUE: On the point of order—

The SPEAKER: Can you sit down, deputy leader? Can you just sit down? Can you sit down? Leader, thank you for your cooperation in the earlier question. Do you want to just have another go at doing this rather than going backwards and forwards?

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: Is the question out of order? I am happy to do as I did last time to insert what I think is a pretty benign explanation. You might want to make a call on it.

The SPEAKER: Just have another go, in terms of efficiency and getting through as many questions as we can, otherwise it is going backwards and forwards.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: The explanation is, in a lesser sense, to the Premier: the UWU have said, 'You can't fix ramping without fixing staff, and you can't fix staffing without respecting Support Services.' So what does the Premier say to workers in SA Support Services?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:19): During the course of the lunch break of the parliament, I took the opportunity to talk to them. Maybe the Leader of the Opposition would like to do the same. The former government obviously had a policy to actually restrict and cut services within the hospital system.

When the Leader of the Opposition sat around the cabinet table and contemplated health policy during the course of the pandemic, he had some pretty novel ideas. He thought, 'Okay, it's a pandemic: time to cut nurses. It's a pandemic: time to close beds. It's a pandemic: quick, here is our opportunity. Here is our opportunity: let's get the corporate liquidators in.' That is okay: you were in government and you saw the pandemic as an opportunity. You saw an opportunity to cut, and we all know the consequences of that. Our policy approach is somewhat different. What we are seeing across the health system is a dramatic increase in the capacity of the system: more beds, more nurses, more doctors, more allied health professionals.

I very much appreciated the opportunity, during the course of the lunchbreak, to sit down and talk to other people who work within the health system—people who, while they might not wear a uniform that is immediately as visible and obvious to the public, are of course as important as any function within the hospital system.

I particularly enjoyed one conversation I had at lunchtime with a beautiful woman who works in the kitchen at the Lyell Mac. She was able to explain to me that the kitchen is worthy of, potentially, more support by virtue of the fact that that kitchen was built for 200 beds and, because of the work that the Minister for Health is overseeing, has now got over 500 beds that it is servicing. It is true that there are people within our health system who are working harder than ever before because this government is working harder than ever before to grow the size of our hospital system to increase the capacity.

So we accept, on this side of the house, that we have a responsibility, particularly as a Labor government, to sit down and talk with workers and engage with workers in the system to understand and appreciate the pressures they are under and to use industrial negotiations during the course of enterprise agreements to not deliver real wage cuts, which is the policy position that those opposite employed so punitively and aggressively. Rather, on this side of the house, we are committed to real wage increases, including for people within the hospital system and including for people who work so hard behind the scenes. We will continue to negotiate and engage in good faith from a valued position: a position of genuine commitment to real wage increases, which everyone knows all too well is such a stark contrast to the policy position of the Leader of the Opposition.

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