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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2022-02-10 Daily Xml
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State Liberal Government

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (10:18): I move:

That this council condemns the Premier, the Hon. Steven Marshall, and the health minister, the Hon. Stephen Wade, for their negligence and dereliction of duty, including:

1. Increasing ambulance ramping by 485 per cent in four years;

2. Paying corporate liquidators KordaMentha over $40 million to cut staff and services in major public hospitals;

3. Making more than 100 nurses redundant during the pandemic;

4. Not preparing for the opening of the borders that preceded the deaths of over 120 South Australians;

5. Failing to take action following the ICAC Report into SA Health which the health minister originally did not even read; and

6. Cutting community health funding and closing 30 mental health beds just last week.

The motion sets out a litany of absolute disasters that befell the health system under the administration of the Hon. Stephen Wade and the Hon. Steven Marshall. We have seen ramping increase by 485 per cent over four years. I travel around not just metropolitan Adelaide but even country areas, and I was recently in Port Lincoln where we had a meeting with senior members of the Aboriginal community. The number one issue that they wanted to discuss was ramping in metropolitan hospitals because of course it is not just people who use metropolitan hospitals who live in Adelaide.

The deterioration of the health system, reports from ICAC and nurses being made redundant during a pandemic speaks very, very poorly of a government's intentions and priorities. You could not find a more stark difference in priorities than the Steven Marshall Liberal government, with the Hon. Stephen Wade as health minister. Their number one priority, their big spend election commitment, is to spend two-thirds of $1 billion—$662 million—on a basketball stadium when we are experiencing ramping that actually affects people's lives.

I am very proud that there is now a very large contrast. The people on election day, the people in the seat of King, will have a very clear choice, whether they want to support Paula Luethen, who has a plan to build a $662 million basketball stadium, or support a plan to improve hospitals in the north-east and all over the state, to employ more paramedics and have better ambulance services. It will be a very clear choice for the electors in the seat of Adelaide, whether they want to follow Rachel Sanderson's plan to build a $662 million basketball stadium in her own electorate—

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Leader, please refer to—

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: The member for Adelaide, the Hon. Rachel Sanderson.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you—and the member for King. You have been around long enough.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Certainly, sir. It gives me another chance to reiterate that the member for Adelaide, the Hon. Rachel Sanderson, has a plan to build a $662 million basketball stadium smack bang in the middle of her electorate when her constituents are waiting hours and hours for ambulances.

It gives me an opportunity to remind people that the member for Elder, Carolyn Power, wants to build a $662 million basketball stadium rather than spend that on critical services, better hospitals, more paramedics and more ambulances. It reminds us also that in the seat of Newland, Dr Richard Harvey has a plan to build a $662 million basketball stadium rather than spend this funding on better hospitals, more paramedics and more ambulances.

Sir, I can absolutely assure you that the people in those seats, and in fact the people all around South Australia, will be reminded of this. They will be reminded with very close to the quotes that I have just said about what the Liberals' plans and intentions are. It is, quite frankly, a shame.

With that, I have much more to go, but I do recognise that there are many items lower down on this Notice Paper that crossbenchers, particularly the Hon. Robert Simms, the Hon. Tammy Franks, the Hon. Frank Pangallo and the Hon. John Darley, have moved in good faith. I could spend another couple of hours, like the Hon. Rob Lucas did yesterday, going on about the failures of the Liberal government, but I will not do that. I think it shows a lack of respect to the crossbench, so I will seek leave to conclude my remarks and come back at a later stage possibly to finish them.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

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