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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-08 Daily Xml
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MATTERS OF INTEREST

CHAPMAN, MS V.A.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN (15:24): I rise to draw honourable members' attention to a media release issued yesterday by Ms Vickie Chapman MP, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in another place and shadow minister for health. The press release is headed, 'Kidney Wasted as Ambos Sleep'. The allegation made by Ms Chapman was that an elderly Mount Gambier resident who needed to be flown to Adelaide for a kidney transplant did not receive the transplant because he or she was driven to the airport in a taxi instead of an ambulance, and the reason for that was because they did not want to disturb on-call ambulance officers during the night and, therefore, organised a taxi.

Vickie Chapman, as shadow minister for health, has alleged that ambulance officers in Mount Gambier were more interested in sleeping than in ensuring that a patient in need received a new kidney. It is bad enough that that allegation was made, but it turns out, as with so much of what the opposition tells us, that this was entirely incorrect. In fact, the Minister for Health has informed the other place that the patient did catch the flight, was taken to hospital, underwent the kidney transplant and is recovering well.

I do not know this person; I certainly wish them well and all the best for their recovery. However, what is extraordinary here is not only that Vickie Chapman as shadow minister for health was alleging that their sleep was more important to the ambulance officers in Mount Gambier than saving patients but also that this media release appears to have been issued after the Minister for Health in the other place was able to correct the record.

This matter was first raised by the member for Bragg in the other place as a question at 2:47. The minister, as I understand it, did not have the details to hand and got back to the house fairly promptly at 3:13. Yet, the stamp on the fax indicates that, at 3:49, Vickie Chapman was sending this press release to the media in the South-East.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS): You did use the right practice in saying 'the member for Bragg in another place' earlier, so you ought to continue to do that.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: I am much obliged, Mr Acting President. So the shadow minister for health, the member for Bragg in the other place, has indicated that ambulance officers were more interested in sleeping than saving a patient or ensuring that a patient was able to get to a flight so that they could receive a kidney transplant. Not only was that disgraceful slur on our health professionals bad enough but it transpires that this information was provided to the media after the Minister for Health (Hon. John Hill) was able to put the facts of the matter on the record in the other place.

It will come as no surprise, I am sure, to members that there is a large number of people awaiting transplants and that there is a very careful process to select who will receive transplants. However, not everybody who is going to undergo a transplant is currently in hospital undergoing care just waiting for the transplant because, obviously, the nature of transplants is such that we do not know when the organs are going to become available in most cases. People will be required at short notice to get to the hospital in order for the transplant to occur, but that does not necessarily mean that they are laid up in hospital and have to be transported by ambulance.

This was a disgraceful slur by the member for Bragg in the other place on the ambulance service and our health professionals in general, and it is extraordinary that, even after she was informed in the other place of the facts, she released this incorrect information to the media. I think the local Liberals in Mount Gambier must certainly be wondering who are their friends and who are their enemies because they are saddled with an opposition that is making these kinds of false accusations, an opposition, which has, as the centrepiece of its policies, building a stadium in Adelaide that nobody wants. The AFL has not indicated that it will play there.

Members interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT: Order! The honourable member ha s the call.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: Cricket Australia has not indicated that it wants to play test cricket there but, nonetheless, the opposition's centrepiece policy is to build a billion dollar stadium. That is certainly an embarrassment to Liberal supporters in Mount Gambier.

Time expired.

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