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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-11-26 Daily Xml
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SA Health Workforce

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:17): My question is to the Premier. How does the Premier respond to the comments made by the CEO of SA Health to the parliament's Budget and Finance Committee? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: Chief Executive of SA Health, Robyn Lawrence, said to the parliament's Budget and Finance Committee:

I think we are very similar to other jurisdictions. Certainly, when I talk to my colleagues across the country we are all in a very similar position. I don't think any of us would say we have full workforces.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (14:18): I just identify to the Leader of the Opposition my previous answer that there are pockets of specialties in the system where we would like to see more people coming through. That's why we developed comprehensive workforce strategies for those people. You're running around offering cash to people we've got. That's not a thoughtful, well-calibrated policy.

The Leader of the Opposition refers to remarks from the CEO of SA Health, Dr Robyn Lawrence. I want to take this opportunity to thank her for the work that she is doing. She has a massive program. SA Health employs over 50,000 people in this state, a number that has grown astronomically during the life of this government. SA Health has one of the biggest capital investment programs at the moment that we have seen in the history of health in this state. Just go to Flinders, QEH, Modbury, you name it, we are doing work there; Mount Barker, massive program, Women's and Children's, all being rolled out at the same time, big effort, at the same time seeking to address a range of challenges that we are seeing in the health system that she referred to in the Leader of the Opposition's remarks around the country.

But I will note this: the last time I recall a Leader of the Opposition commenting on Dr Robyn Lawrence was when your predecessor stood up, presumably next to the shadow minister for health, and personally attacked and called into question the integrity of the CEO of SA Health in a way that was an absolute disgrace. It turns out the former Leader of the Opposition might have been on a comedown that day or something to that effect, and now we see that former Leader of the Opposition liken this Leader of the Opposition's circumstances to the ones that he had to endure.

So we have this unvirtuous cycle within the state Liberal Party that seems to be on repeat over and over again, and the victims of that seem to be highly qualified dedicated public servants like Dr Robyn Lawrence who are out there every single day getting the work done and executing one of the most comprehensive policy efforts we have seen in the history of SA Health. We ask her to keep on with that job: keep on with that job and you keep the work up, along with everybody else working in SA Health. It is a sustained program of dedicated effort that will ensure that we deliver better health outcomes to so many more South Australians, particularly given we have a growing population and an ageing population.

It is within our means to always strive to do better. That is what we are doing in SA Health. It is what has delivered response times and the dramatic improvement we have seen within the state ambulance service, and continues to see almost everybody who walks through the doors of our hospitals getting a positive experience as a result of the extraordinary work that is undertaken by all those extra nurses and doctors, along with the residual ones who we employ. We are going to keep up that effort for as long as it takes to make sure we continue to strive for improvement within public health service delivery in this state.

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