Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, can you outline to the House the findings from the critical safety report at the Royal Adelaide Hospital that was kept secret by the former Weatherill Labor government in South Australia? Minister, what impacts does this report have on trust within the health system?

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

I want to thank the member for Barker, who's been a great advocate for hospitals in his electorate in Mount Gambier, Millicent and Penola—all of whom suffered power outages at critical times under the previous state Labor government. He's also been an advocate for better health funding from the Commonwealth in South Australia, and on his watch we've seen an increase from just over $1 billion a year of Commonwealth funding to $1½ billion at the end of the current forward estimates. What we see is a 47 per cent increase in Commonwealth funding to South Australia.

One of the other things he's been very focused on is about quality, safety and transparency in relation to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. We heard rumours that there was a secret report into the Royal Adelaide Hospital in the days leading up to the South Australian election. And guess what? There was. That report was released on the first full day in office by the new Premier, Steven Marshall, and the new Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Stephen Wade. They released the report that Labor hid from the South Australian public.

That report from the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards into the Royal Adelaide Hospital found 24 breaches, including seven fundamental or core breaches. Those areas included: a failure on reviewing medication management; a failure to provide GPs with the list of medicines on discharge of patients; a failure to provide GPs with general discharge summaries; a failure on quality management systems; and, above all else, a failure to minimise risks to patient safety, particularly in relation to mental health. All of this has been dealt with from day 1 with a level of honesty and transparency which compares Labor's approach to hospitals and health care and our approach as Liberals across the nation.

This lesson from South Australia also translates into what we see as two different approaches at the federal level. On their side, they were utterly dishonest about their approach to private health before the 2007 election, and they are equally dishonest now. They took an axe to private health under the Keating government, which former minister Mike Wooldridge had to fix up. They took an axe to private health under Rudd-Gillard-Rudd, and they will do it under the Leader of the Opposition. That's their approach. They don't care about health. They care about false actions, and so, ultimately, the message from South Australia is very clear: they're not just 'Medifrauds'—you can't trust them with your electricity, you can't trust them with your savings— (Time expired)