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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2022-02-09 Daily Xml
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Repatriation General Hospital

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (21:47): I move:

That this council condemns the former Labor health minister, the member for Croydon, Mr Malinauskas MP, for closing the Repatriation General Hospital.

I thank the council for the opportunity to speak to this motion. I was disturbed that I was one of the speakers that was earlier proposed to be gagged. In response to the comments by the Leader of the Opposition in relation to the previous motion, I assure you that I will be here for every motion that is brought before this chamber. I believe that every member has the right to be heard.

On 18 September 2010—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —Mike Rann, as Labor Premier, said:

The Repat Hospital is here to stay; the Repat Hospital will never ever be closed by a Labor government…

Exactly seven years after Mike Rann made that commitment, Peter Malinauskas, now the member for Croydon, was given the opportunity to keep that promise. On 18 September 2017, Peter Malinauskas, then a member of this council, was appointed as the Minister for Health. He had the opportunity to save the Repat. He had the opportunity to stop the closure of the Repatriation General Hospital scheduled for six weeks after his appointment. But he did not. He just let it happen.

The Repatriation General Hospital was closed in November 2017. If he had the courage, Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon, would have then stopped the sale. The Weatherill government was already skulking away from its disastrous Transforming Health experiment. In June that year, Premier Weatherill had declared that Transforming Health was 'complete'.

So an incoming minister, Minister Malinauskas, had a great opportunity to reset the plan. Even then, after he allowed the hospital to close, he could have acted to preserve the site for future health services. The site is well located. The site has many valuable assets, a number well within their useful life. Indeed, Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon, wanted to put the wrecking ball through the valuable assets at the Repat site. His vision for the Repat was for a quiet land sale. His vision was not for health services; it was for multi-storey apartments on the site.

Thankfully, the people of South Australia did not support Labor's vision. At the March 2018 election, South Australians elected a Marshall Liberal government. The Repatriation General Hospital had already been closed on the watch of Minister Malinauskas, but the sale had not been completed. The Marshall Liberal government scrapped the sale. We saved the valuable health assets on the site. We rezoned the site to dedicate it for health purposes. In the four years since, we have been delivering on our vision for the Repat, a vision Minister Malinauskas could not see. As a result, the Repatriation Health Precinct will continue to be a much loved site providing health care for generations to come.

I would like to highlight how the Repat is playing an integral role in addressing some of the health challenges we face. The former Labor government failed to invest in emergency departments. The Flinders Medical Centre near the Repat was well over its design capacity before our Southern Health Expansion Plan of the last couple of years.

One of the groups that is at risk of delayed transfer of care when emergency departments are overcrowded is older South Australians requiring urgent care. One of the ways that the Marshall Liberal government is easing pressure on our emergency departments is through alternative care pathways such as the Priority Care Centre, but the Repat, too, is playing its part in providing alternative care pathways. At the Repat, the Marshall Liberal government has established the Complex and RestorativE centre (CARE) in the eastern wing of the Bangka Strait building.

The CARE service, staffed by specialist geriatric nursing and allied health staff and delivered in partnership with the Ambulance Service, has been specifically designed to improve care for older patients by providing alternative treatment pathways to emergency departments where emergency care is not required. The service is easing pressure on hospitals and giving elderly patients the best possible care. The CARE team can deliver same-day hospital level care to appropriate older people either in their homes or at the CARE centre based at the Repat Health Precinct.

The Repat is a key part of the future of health services in South Australia. If Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon, had succeeded in selling off the Repat, this opportunity for alternative care pathways would have been lost.

One of the other areas where Labor has failed the state in health services is the failure to provide adequate hospital step-down opportunities. Under the Marshall Liberal government, the Repat is playing a key part in addressing this need. Former Wards 1 and 2 have been refurbished and named Bangka Strait to provide a 26-bed transitional care facility, which started providing care in March 2021.

Patients who are awaiting services such as NDIS equipment and housing or other rehabilitation services are cared for at Bangka Strait. Wards 5 and 6 have been redeveloped into a 30-bed ward called Timor Ward, which is a base for the NDIS Transition to Home service, providing transitional accommodation for National Disability Insurance Scheme consumers delayed from hospital discharge perhaps while waiting for alternative long-term accommodation or refurbishments at their own home.

Both Bangka and Timor wards help patients, including long stay patients, take their next step along their journey. It also, importantly, frees up hospital beds for those who need them. The Repat is a key part of the future of health services in South Australia. If Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon, had succeeded in selling off the Repat, this opportunity for better hospital step-down opportunities would have been lost.

The former Labor government had let the accommodation of the statewide rehabilitation services at Hampstead degenerate well beyond their use-by date. The Marshall Liberal government took the opportunity of the Repat Health Precinct to repurpose the rehabilitation facility at the Repat into an exciting complex for rehabilitation care.

A new 48-bed statewide brain injury and spinal injury rehabilitation unit with a new state-of-the-art exercise physiology and sports gymnasium will see the transfer of inpatient and outpatient specialised rehabilitation services from the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre to the Repat Health Precinct and a new town square with a community hub and open outdoor space. The Repat is a key part of the future of health services in South Australia. If Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon, had succeeded in selling off the Repat, this opportunity for refreshed rehabilitation facilities would have been lost.

On 22 September 2017, four days after his appointment, Peter Malinauskas closed the final part of another facility, the Oakden aged mental health care service. That facility did need to close, but Labor went to the election without a plan to deliver the mental health beds lost with the closure of Oakden. In contrast, the Marshall Liberal team made a firm commitment to deliver older persons mental health beds at the Repat—and we are delivering.

The refurbishment of Ward 18 is providing a quality 18-bed Repat Neuro-Behavioural Unit for people with dementia experiencing extreme behavioural and psychological symptoms. Ward 18 is a key part of what is now a growing dementia care hub. Two Older Persons Community Mental Health teams now work from the Repat. Ward 20 has been repurposed as a 12-bed Specialised Advanced Dementia Unit providing specialised treatment of complex needs for dementia patients assessed as having acute medical conditions.

We have established a partnership with HammondCare, a world leader in dementia care. HammondCare is establishing a dementia care facility that will provide 70 spaces in a homelike environment for the care and support of people with dementia and people with complex needs. The Repat is a key part of the future of health services in South Australia. If Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon, had succeeded in selling off the Repat, this opportunity for improved mental health care for older South Australians would have been lost.

Labor closed the Repatriation General Hospital. The Repat was an elective surgery hub. I understand that 25 per cent of Adelaide's orthopaedic and neurological elective surgeries were delivered at the Repatriation General Hospital. In partnership with Nexus, the Marshall Liberal government is investing in the Repat site to support elective surgery. Nexus is to build a new world-class surgical facility, which will include up to six theatres, 30-bed overnight capacity, a 20-chair renal dialysis unit, a GP clinic, a community pharmacy, space for specialist medical and other allied health services and capacity for 540 car parking spaces.

In partnership with SA Health, Nexus will deliver services to public patients from the new facility, which are expected to significantly help to reduce waiting lists across the health system and ensure the state can meet demand for health care into the future. The partnership with Nexus will increase capacity across the SA health network, and make high demand services available on site at the Repat, including services such as ophthalmology; orthopaedics; plastics and reconstructive; ear, nose and throat; general surgery; urology; and colonoscopy procedures.

The Repat is a key part of the future of health services in South Australia. If Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon, had succeeded in selling off the Repat, this opportunity to enhance elective surgery capacity would have been lost.

The decision of Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon, to close the Repatriation General Hospital was particularly galling to our veteran community. For veterans, and for many South Australians, the Repat is sacred ground. They were so traumatised by the decision that a group camped continuously on the steps of this parliament for 161 days. They led the charge for a petition which collected over 85,000 signatures.

Having stopped the sale of the Repat site, the Marshall Liberal government, in partnership with the commonwealth, was determined to secure veteran services at the very heart of the Repat site. The Repat is now home to a dedicated Veteran Wellbeing Centre. The centre aims to strengthen relationships, improve service coordination, advocacy and integrate health promotion activities to achieve better health and wellbeing outcomes for veterans and their families.

The Repat is a key part of the future of health services in South Australia. If Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon, had succeeded in selling off the Repat, this opportunity for veterans' services on a veterans' site would have been lost. Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon, deserves to be condemned for closing the Repat. He was the health minister. He failed to act. I commend the motion to the council.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (22:01): The Greens, in terms of our response to this motion, question why it seeks to condemn the current member for Croydon, the former Hon. Peter Malinauskas of this place and now the Leader of the Opposition, for closing the Repatriation General Hospital. It was actually Minister Jack Snelling who made this decision, and I did not hear the words Family First once in the previous contribution, but I know that Transforming Health was, indeed, the baby of the former minister, Jack Snelling, so I do find it odd that that was erased from history.

I also find it odd that we are here discussing matters of history. It was long known that the Greens supported the continuation of the Repatriation Hospital. We supported the protesters on the steps, we supported the hospital continuing and we are pleased that the Marshall government has created that health precinct. We welcome that.

I find it odd that we are here revisiting decisions made well over four years ago that we rightly condemned at the time but, if you want to start talking about condemning previous decisions, then let's start with the privatisation of ETSA and the Treasurer in this place because that has had a far more profound negative impact on this state than any of the other decisions that have been made—and, by goodness, there have been a lot of negative decisions made by both sides in this place over time.

Indeed, selling ETSA will dog the Treasurer. It will go down in history as one of the dumbest decisions—even dumber than the car race, I would venture, the Hon. Frank Pangallo. I do not think they are on a par. You cannot go any further than the privatisation of ETSA, our essential service, for dumb decisions. With that, I echo the words of my colleague the Hon. Rob Simms with regard to his contribution to the previous motion.

We are here at 10 o'clock or so on a Wednesday night debating decisions made by a minister who is now not even in the Labor Party while a government, who has had power now for four years, is still acting like it is an opposition. Those opposition games may have served you well in opposition, but they do not serve you well in government. Leadership is not about these petty political games. Leadership is about moving forward.

The current Minister for Health and Wellbeing should be congratulated on what he has achieved with the Repatriation Hospital. He should be congratulated for his efforts, particularly under the stresses of a pandemic, but that is not what we are debating here tonight. We are debating a motion about the Leader of the Opposition, who in fact was not even the one who made the decision to close the Repatriation hospital. With that, the Greens understand there may be further amendments to this motion. We call it for the political game that it is, and we reserve our right.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Pangallo, have you already spoken on this?

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (22:05): No, I have not. I know we are all confused about it because there has been so much dirt flying around on different subjects, but I have not. I am going to indicate that I will move an amendment on the floor to this motion, and I think it is important that we do because we have just had the health minister put on the public record errors of fact. Mr Malinauskas was not the person who closed down the Repat: it was actually done by the previous minister in the previous government.

The Hon. S.G. Wade interjecting:

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: But it was not the opposition leader. I am going to propose an amendment off the floor that condemns the previous Labor government for attempting to close the Repatriation hospital.

I live in the electorate of Waite, and I have had family members who had reason to use the Repatriation hospital. I have to say that I was also quite angered by the decisions the previous Labor government were going to make to close the Repatriation hospital down. It caused a lot of outrage in our community and in our electorate for those people who view that facility as quite important, particularly for war veterans and also for other seniors in the community.

As the Hon. Tammy Franks has pointed out, I will commend the Marshall government for what they have done with the Repatriation hospital. I go past it almost on a daily basis and I have seen the work that has been carried out on that place. To see it revitalised and returned brings a great deal of joy to the community that there is that facility there, and I guess it brings some faith back in governments that were out to axe so many facilities in the health system of South Australia. It was fortunate that it was not sold off. No doubt it actually cost the sitting member his position at the time.

I think the government certainly deserves some credit there for what they have done with that place, but they need to get their facts right. I think it is important that if you are going to come in here with a motion like this, get it right, rather than try to politicise it all just to have a crack at the current Leader of the Opposition. We have been talking about waste; we did it in the last motion about where money has been wasted. Let's not forget that this government has also wasted money with KordaMentha going through the Royal Adelaide Hospital, trying to find more than $100 million in savings. That has not happened probably only because of COVID.

Another thing I omitted to mention in dumb decisions by this government in my previous address is Smith Bay on Kangaroo Island, which the suspended Attorney-General killed off. She killed off an industry. She killed off hundreds of jobs. She killed off the potential for an industry that would have sustained the economy of that island for decades. Despite the fact that her own department, the State Planning Commission, had actually given it a conditional green light, she chose to axe it. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars to that economy. At the same time, it cost Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers something like $30 million, a private company that had invested, done all the right things that were asked of it, and that money was lost—totally lost—and it destroyed investment confidence.

The other nightmare that has emerged from that decision, of course, is the timbers that are still stuck on that island. The current government has not even found a proper solution to get that off the island. There are millions of dollars of timber rotting away on Kangaroo Island with still no plan on how to get it out. Governments do make mistakes, do make bad calls of judgement, but in this instance I cannot support the motion in its current form.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Pangallo, just for clarity, the amendment you are moving—do we have this right—is leave out the words 'health minister' and 'member for Croydon, Mr Malinauskas MP' and insert the word 'government'?

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: 'The former Labor government'.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: That actually falls into place. Is that the amendment?

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: That would be my amendment.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Does somebody want to second that motion?

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY: I will second that motion.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Darley seconded the motion. Have you concluded, Mr Pangallo?

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Yes, I have, thank you.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (22:11): I will not speak very long. Other members have made the exact point I was going to make. To place on the record, under the strictures of parliament and the need for accuracy, I am informed that the Repatriation General Hospital's closure decision was some 301 days before the member for Croydon, Peter Malinauskas, was a member of parliament and some 958 days before the member for Croydon was the health minister. That is the information I have. If the motion is to read accurately, it cannot refer to a decision that someone purportedly took 958 days before they had responsibility.

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (22:12): Let me make it clear that I do hold Peter Malinauskas responsible for closing the Repat. Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon, was the health minister in November 2017. That is when the Repat was closed. He had responsibility. The Hon. John Darley has made this point in relation to the previous motion in relation to Mr Mullighan: if you are the minister, you are accountable. He was there for six weeks before the Repatriation General Hospital closed. He had the opportunity to act. When he was the minister, the Repatriation General Hospital closed and it should not have.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: He has shown a lack of character, a lack of courage and leadership. He failed to act when he could have acted. He allowed the Repatriation General Hospital to close. The Repatriation General Hospital closed on his watch. Let's be clear: there is nothing factually incorrect.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Sure, the decision was made earlier, but he assumed the responsibility—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —as the Minister for Health and he failed to act to stop it. In spite of the fact we already had 85,000 signatures tabled in this place calling for the Repatriation General Hospital to be kept open, in spite of the fact that we had Repatriation General Hospital advocates on the steps of Parliament House for 161 days, in spite of the fact that Jay Weatherill had already started backpedalling on the Transforming Health experiment earlier that year, Peter Malinauskas, the member for Croydon, failed to act. I regard that as a lack of courage and a lack of leadership. He is not worthy to be the Premier of this state.

Sure, Jack Snelling made the previous decision. He has been dispatched to political oblivion for that fact, but there was a person who took the reins and who failed to act. That person now wants to be the Premier of this state. I believe that this record disqualifies him from that privilege.

In relation to the motion, it is in the hands of the council, but whether you want to condemn the former Labor government, the former Labor minister Jack Snelling or the former Labor minister Peter Malinauskas, now the member for Croydon, matters not because they are all condemned by their failure to stand up for the Repatriation General Hospital and to preserve the site.

Amendment carried; motion as amended carried.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Mr Deputy President, I draw your attention to the state of the council.

A quorum having been formed:

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