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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-02-26 Daily Xml
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Hibbert Review

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:47): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding the cluster of nine deaths subject to the Hibbert report.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: On 14 September 2018, now Premier Steven Marshall made the following comments during an address to the IPAA. The comments were:

Ministers must be ultimately responsible to the public through parliament for the quality of services funded by taxpayers and the actions of those providing them.

If serious errors or worse occur in an agency, the minister takes responsibility, particularly where there has been evidence of warnings or maladministration not acted upon or ignored.

I have told my ministers that they cannot expect to remain in cabinet if they see nothing, hear nothing and question nothing.

Ministers have to be inquisitive, inquiring and challenging.

Responsibility ends on the minister’s desk, not at the departmental door.

My question to the minister is:

1. Which minister is responsible for the Hibbert inquiry?

2. Which minister is responsible for this cluster of nine deaths?

3. When did the minister first inform the Premier that this was being investigated?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:48): In terms of ministerial accountability, it is my responsibility to make sure that the health portfolio continues to strive to provide the best possible care for the people of South Australia. I was certainly keen to follow the independent review. The actions taken by SAAS, in my view, were completely appropriate. In fact, as far as I know, there was no systemic review in the previous Labor government. So to have an executive team, which was doing a case-by-case assessment of the cases, take immediate action but also initiate a systemic review, in my mind, was very good practice.

Individual cases can bring forward, shall we say, more localised issues that need to be addressed, but what the Hibbert report shows is that, often by looking at individual cases, you can't see the broader issues that need to be addressed. I ask the council: looking at the Hibbert review, would any reasonable person think that the recommendations won't continue to enhance quality and safety in the Ambulance Service, and are to be welcomed?

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