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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2022-02-10 Daily Xml
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SA Health

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (15:23): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding Health.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS: The minister just said in a previous question that he had confidence in his chief executive. This is despite the fact that the chief executive failed to declare private sector directorships and failed to resign from them before becoming the most senior health official in SA. This is despite the chief executive being involved in negotiations with his immediate former employer soon after joining SA Health.

This is despite the chief executive being found to have breached the Public Sector (Honesty and Accountability) Act by a former commonwealth ombudsman. This is despite the chief executive being required to undertake remedial conflict of interest training, and this is despite the chief executive leading SA Health at a time when the department was found by the Ombudsman to have acted in a party political manner.

My question to the minister is: does the minister only have confidence in the Chief Executive of SA Health because he attended a Liberal Party fundraiser in the months prior to the 2018 election, was in charge when SA Health social media was used in a party political way, ignored the Ombudsman recommendation to apologise for SA Health acting in a party political way in 2020, was in charge when links to a Liberal Party election database were embedded in SA Health COVID information websites in 2021, and failed to protect his public servants from having to be subject to the Premier's party political press conferences in 2022?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:25): This is one of the surprises of this last term in government. The Liberal Party came to government in 2018 and there were relatively minor changes to the public sector leadership. I expected the former Labor government, now in opposition, to show respect to public servants, but instead, time after time—particularly in committees—we have politicians smearing public servants who are simply doing their job serving the government of the day. The Labor Party says they are concerned—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —about politicising—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —the pandemic—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —but it continually smears public servants. I believe what they are trying to do is politicise the Public Service—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —so that they might be able to get, shall we say, advice of convenience if they were ever in government again. The fact of the matter is—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —the more they smear public servants—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —people simply seeking to do their job—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —the more that South Australians will see them for what they are. It's the old Labor Party—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —the union thugs coming into the parliament—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —smearing public servants. 'If you're not with us, you're against us.'

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: It's that sort of bullying behaviour that the South Australian community has rejected time and time again at former elections and—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —bring it on, we look forward to them rejecting that bullying behaviour at this election too.

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