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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-02-12 Daily Xml
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KordaMentha

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (14:58): A supplementary: can the minister confirm whether the contract with KordaMentha at the moment of $47 million has any economic benefit at all for South Australia?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:58): I think the KordaMentha contract has a huge benefit for the people of South Australia. It is the former Labor government that, over 16 years, got the CALHN network into such an appalling state that it was $300 million overspending its budget every year.

Let me explain that, for honourable members opposite. They set a Labor budget. They said, 'We think this is enough money to run the Royal Adelaide Hospital.' Then, the Central Adelaide Local Health Network went out and ran the hospitals for a year and spent $300 million more. When this government comes in and says, 'Well, the former Labor government said you could run it for $300 million less; we think you can run this hospital for $300 million less', somehow Labor says that is a cut. I am sorry, but that is facing the reality of financial mismanagement.

The 16 years of the former Labor government which completely ignored the financial responsibilities of the network is one of the reasons we are in such a mess in CALHN. It is a 29 per cent more expensive hospital than an average hospital around Australia, and there were repeated warnings to the former Labor government to act.

In 2012, there was a budget performance and remediation review by Deloitte. In 2015, there was an SA Health internal audit repeatedly saying, 'This ship is sinking.' So what did the former Labor government do with the Hon. Peter Malinauskas as minister and the Hon. Chris Picton as the assistant health minister? They just merrily go along. And now the other side of the election, when we are trying to steady the ship to make it a sustainable quality health service, they want to yap from the sides. Well, this government is not for turning. We have a responsibility to the people of South Australia to make sure that the health services are quality and they are sustainable.

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