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

I thank the member for Grey, who knows that one of the most critical elements in keeping the lights on in hospitals and in helping to create 371,500 jobs in Australia over the last year is affordable and reliable energy. Here is a very simple proposition: if you can't keep the lights on, you can't run a hospital, you can't run a Whyalla steelworks and you can't run a Port Pirie metalworks.

Affordable and reliable energy is critical to business and jobs, but it is also fundamental to our hospitals. We know this because we saw the Port Augusta Hospital lose power after the South Australian blackout last September, and we saw the Port Augusta Hospital lose power after its back-up failed. That meant a very simple thing. It meant that, in the member for Grey's electorate, there were risks to people who faced the need for dialysis and who needed critical care involving ventilators or humidicribs, things which are fundamental to patient safety and human safety. Running a hospital requires a stable electricity supply.

Against that background, it's almost impossible to imagine that somebody would deliberately blow up a power station in Port Augusta. But Labor deliberately blew up the Port Augusta power station.

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