Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week the South Australian Marshall Liberal government announced that $18.9 million will be paid to accounting firm KordaMentha to find $276 million of savings out of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network expenditure. Savings is code for cuts: $276 million in health funding cuts to a health system that is already under considerable strain with ambulance queuing at a crisis point, with elective surgery waiting times becoming a joke and with emergency department waiting times at public hospitals forcing people to leave without treatment. It will ultimately result in a poorer public health system within the state. The cuts come on top of $31 million of federal government cuts.

The appointment of KordaMentha is nothing but a backdoor attempt to privatise the management of South Australia's public hospitals and in turn offload responsibility from the minister on to an unelected entity when the minister already has an entire department to manage his portfolio. Even worse, it is $18.9 million that could better have been spent on much needed public health services that would make a meaningful difference to the lives of South Australians.