House debates
Monday, 27 February 2017
Questions without Notice
Energy Security
2:38 pm
Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Health and Minister for Sport. Will the minister outline to the House why energy security is crucial to providing reliable health care for Australian families? Is the minister aware of any examples where an unreliable energy supply has put the delivery of critical healthcare services at risk?
Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I want to thank the member for Barker, who knows that energy security is fundamental to the provision of safety and patient care in our healthcare services and hospitals. I know myself that I warned on 17 August, when I was in South Australia, of the serious and significant risks to their infrastructure and energy security from the South Australian experiment, which the Leader of the Opposition wants to adopt nationally. We know, however, that this has translated to real and significant consequences for the South Australian healthcare system. On 8 February, during the most recent round of blackouts, what we saw in Millicent, Penola, Murray Bridge and Mount Gambier was that those hospitals were all forced onto backup generators. Quite significantly, the South Australian energy minister at the time tried to say that critical infrastructure such as hospitals would be exempt from load shedding. It was then up to a South Australian government official to correct it and make the small correction that smaller hospitals and healthcare facilities across South Australia may be affected from time to time. Well, they were. And so four significant hospitals and facilities, including the state's largest regional hospital, were forced onto generators.
But generators may not always work in a time of crisis. We saw that on the 28 September blackout. Remember the blackout that was just a 'hiccup', according to the member for Port Adelaide? On that day, the Flinders Medical Centre generator failed. What was the consequence of that failure? Embryos waiting to be transferred to a fertility clinic—
Ms Rishworth interjecting—
Tony SmithGreg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
were destroyed as a consequence of that blackout. If there are any members on that side who think that is a hiccup, funny or trivial for those involved, now is your chance to speak up.
Mr Butler interjecting—
Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
But it was not just Flinders; it was also Port Augusta, where for five hours that day the backup generator failed. So the importance of energy security to health care is absolutely fundamental. It is not just us who think this. As the South Australian HSU—you remember the HSU and your good friend Craig, Leader of the Opposition—itself said:
There is much equipment that runs on power. You have oxygen machines, you have machines that are taking blood pressure automatically, there are breathing apparatus that are run by power.
There could not be a clearer statement from no less than the HSU why energy security in South Australia is so fundamental to health care. They have blown it up at the state level. The Leader of the Opposition wants to do the same at the federal level. He should protect our hospitals and abandon his reckless plans.