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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-10-23 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Responsibility

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:55): Mr President, I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health and Wellbeing a question regarding departmental advice.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: On 8 May this year, I asked the minister whether he had read and understood all of his incoming government briefs, whether the minister had received any further advice beyond the incoming government briefs and if he fully understood that advice. The minister responded, and I quote:

I have received a set of incoming briefs and numerous briefs since then. I continue to read and digest them and seek further briefs from agencies.

My question to the minister is: does the minister still stand by the answer that he gave on 8 May, and does the minister in fact actually read and digest the briefings he receives from his agency?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:56): It's absolutely breathtaking that the Labor Party can be so fixated on an issue in terms of when I first viewed a brief. What they are studiously avoiding is the systemic mess they left this government. Even while we were sitting here today, the report of the Auditor-General was tabled, and what it shows is that Health was left in an absolute mess as a result—

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Point of order, sir.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Minister, let me hear the point—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Liberal benchers, I cannot hear the point of order. A point of order is a serious matter.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Mr President, the point of order is one of relevance. The question was directed to the minister about him reading his departmental briefs and then, of course, going on from that, how he replies in parliament to questions on those briefs. All he wants to do is talk about other things like the Auditor-General's Report, which has no relevance to the question about why did he get a briefing and tell this parliament—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Through me, the Hon. Mr Hunter.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —Mr President, why he told this parliament something that was untrue, and then—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter, sit down. You are going a little bit far. Under Erskine May, the minister has considerable latitude to attempt to answer the question; therefore, I am going to allow the minister to go on. Minister.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The honourable member wants—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Alright, sit down, minister. The Hon. Mr Ridgway, you are a minister; I am holding you to a higher standard. Please do not engage with the Hon. Mr Hunter. The Hon. Mr Hunter, you have been a minister and you know that you shouldn't be doing that; please restrain yourself.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: I'll try my best.

The PRESIDENT: Minister.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The point I am trying to make, Mr President, is that there are huge challenges facing the health system in South Australia. One of the most serious is the financial mess left to us by the former government. What the Auditor-General's Report today says is that:

At May 2018 LHNs and SAAS collectively were expected to exceed their 2017‐18 budgets by $467 million…

Later on that page, it has a damning indictment of the former Labor administration in Health. I am sure that the Treasurer will be chilled by this one:

There was no long‐term financial plan that drew together all strategies across the Health portfolio and described how it intended to meet budget forward estimates and savings expectations.

In fact, later on it says:

To achieve the budgets provided by [the Department for Health and Wellbeing], LHNs would need to not only reverse health expenditure growth trends but spend at levels lower than previous years.

So what this government has been faced with is an extraordinarily challenging financial environment. We were also faced with a government which, over 16 years, had totally destroyed its credibility. We had a Labor Party that promised not to close the Repat; that is exactly what they did. Labor promised upgrades to The QEH at the 2010 election, at the 2014 election, and it did not deliver.

It is now the Marshall Liberal government that has begun the upgrade. Labor promised that the Women's and Children's Hospital would be located with the new Royal Adelaide Hospital in 2013. By the end of the last term, they had abandoned it, deciding to leave children's services at North Adelaide. When it comes to credibility, I put my credibility against the Labor Party's any day.

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