Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Would the minister outline to the House how the coalition government is supporting the health of South Australians, including those in my electorate of Boothby? Is the minister aware of any threats that may jeopardise the delivery of services for patients?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Boothby, who is a passionate advocate for the Flinders Medical Centre in her electorate, as a graduate of Flinders University but also as somebody who, shortly after coming into this place, saw the tragedy of the state-wide blackout and the impact of that on the Flinders Medical Centre. I just remind the House of the headline in the Adelaide Advertiser at the time: '50 embryos belonging to 12 families lost in "absolute tragedy" at Flinders Medical Centre during state-wide blackout'.

Fortunately, there have been some very strong developments in health, which will benefit the people of South Australia, in recent months: (1) we've been able to contribute $110 million for youth mental health around the country, but, in particular, that will assist in South Australia; (2) record-high GP billing rates in every state and territory, including an additional 22,000 GP services for the people of Boothby; (3) a new quad-strain meningococcal vaccine which will help with at least 15,000 children every year in South Australia. Also, significantly, the Commonwealth has contributed, since this government has come in, a 26 per cent increase in funding to South Australia's hospitals. Still, this compares with the South Australian government's six per cent increase over that same period of time—26 per cent under us; six per cent under South Australian Labor. And what is very interesting is that in the last year the SA government actually reduced funding to their own hospitals by $7 million. They've actually reduced funding to their own hospitals.

So, I was asked whether there are any threats to the healthcare system in South Australia. They are (1) the South Australian government, (2) the South Australian government and (3) the South Australian government, because what else has happened? The second thing is that not only did Flinders Medical Centre lose power but, only just over a week ago, the Royal Adelaide Hospital lost power at the hands of the South Australian government's own actions. We saw the lights go out during an operation on a 97-year-old because they couldn't keep the lights on; they couldn't keep the power going. It was the president of the South Australian AMA who was operating at the time and who said that this was unacceptable and that patients could die. That is what is happening in South Australia: cuts to funding and the lights going out. And last Friday, whilst Western Australia signed up to a Commonwealth hospitals agreement, Jay Weatherill turned his back on $1.5 billion. They've sold out the patients of South Australia, they can't keep the lights on, they've cut their own funding and they've turned their back on Commonwealth funding.