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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. T.J. STEPHENS (15:00): Minister, are you aware of the comments made by Mark Mentha yesterday with regard to the disgraceful position—

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Point of order, Mr President: I believe the honourable member is introducing new information in his supplementary.

The PRESIDENT: I haven't heard the full question yet, the Hon. Mr Hunter. The Hon. Mr Stephens, please ask your question.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: Minister, are you aware of the comments made yesterday by Mark Mentha of KordaMentha—KordaMentha has been mentioned a number of times—with regard to the state of CALHN?

The PRESIDENT: I will allow the question, the Hon. Mr Hunter.

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:01): Well, the honourable member is directly relating it to the issue raised about the benefit to the state—

The PRESIDENT: Minister, I don't think the Labor opposition have anything to complain about.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —of having Mark Mentha, a part of KordaMentha, having a good look at these books. This a team of tremendous experience. Let's remember that this is the team that helped save Whyalla—the birthplace, I understand, of the honourable member. They are a highly respected firm and for them to be able to say that they have come in and looked at the Central Adelaide Local Health Network and that it is the 'most broken organisation' they have seen in 40 years, and that the use of public money there is a 'shameful waste of taxpayers' money', is nothing other than sobering.

What I found particularly striking and particularly encouraging by the comments that were being made repeatedly in recent days is the importance of cultural change. What was fascinating when you were listening to Lesley Dwyer and to the other members of the turnaround team who were at the committee yesterday was that they put cultural change first. They accept the fact that you can't have an organisation working well financially if it is not working well culturally, so what they said is, 'Fundamentally, we are here about changing the culture.'

What that says is what a toxic state this network was left in after 16 years of Labor. That means nurses and doctors being bullied, that means doctors working horrendous hours because the rosters are not being managed. It is one thing for Labor to claim to be a friend of the worker but over 16 years they turned this hospital network into a parlous state. This government will continue to work to turn the Central Adelaide Local Health Network around culturally and financially. That will be to the benefit of the taxpayer, but most importantly will be to the benefit of the workers in that network and the patients that they serve.

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