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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-09-24 Daily Xml
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HEALTH DEPARTMENT STAFF

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:43): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister representing the Minister for Health a question on the subject of health job numbers.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: In the budget papers for 2013-14, Treasury indicated that for this financial year there would be full-time equivalent job cut numbers of 959 in the health portfolio. During the estimates committee, the minister indicated that, subsequent to the budget papers being produced, the required job cut numbers in health for this year of 959 had been reduced to 600 because there had been an extension for 18 months of the national partnership agreement for subacute and emergency department funding with the federal government. That agreement had been extended for 18 months.

The questions that have been raised with me in relation to these issues have been twofold. That is, when the federal government grant expires in 18 months, does Treasury require an additional 359 job cuts consistent with the original budget papers? The other issue that has been raised with me is that the budget papers for 2013-14 also indicate that in the forward estimates for 2016-17, the job cut numbers in health are required to be 242. So, if Treasury requires job cuts of 959 in total plus 242 by 2016-17, is health actually facing job cut numbers of 1,201 full-time equivalents over the full forward estimates period? My questions to the minister are as follows:

1. For each of the financial years 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17, what are the job cut number full-time equivalents required by Treasury of the health department?

2. In particular, when the 18-month extension of the national partnership agreement for subacute and emergency department funding expires, does Treasury require SA Health to cut the additional 359 full-time equivalent job numbers?

3. For each of the forward estimate years 2013-14 through to 2016-17, what is the estimated number of nurse and doctor positions that will be cut as part of the total cuts of up to 1,201 full-time equivalent job cut positions?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:46): I thank the honourable member for his very important questions, which I will undertake to send to the Minister for Health and Ageing in the other place and seek a response on his behalf. I have to say that it is a very odd call for a member of the Liberal Party to be talking about job cuts when they have been flagging job cuts of up to 25,000 to 35,000 public servants as part of their secret plan to cut, cut, cut.

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