Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the Thursday before the state election, South Australian Labor put up a particularly dishonest poster, saying that the Liberals would cut Flinders neonatal unit and saying, 'Don't trust the Liberals with our hospitals.' It was not the worst thing they did during the election campaign, but it was an example of their dishonest tactics. What we are seeing now in the South Australian budget to be released this afternoon is that the South Australian Labor government are cutting $284 million in upgrades at four major hospitals, with: $125 million cut from the upgrade to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital; $100 million cut from the Flinders Medical Centre; $27.8 million cut from the Modbury Hospital; and $31.3 million cut from Noarlunga. These were state Labor promises. This was state government money.

It is a matter of record and a matter of fact that hospital funding for South Australia from the Commonwealth government is increasing every year. It will increase by $70 million over the next year. So what we are seeing again from South Australian Labor is that they say one thing before an election and do another after. They said one thing only three months ago and are doing another in government. This is a disgrace. They ran a dishonest campaign and now we see that they will be ripping $284 million from hospitals— (Time expired)