Appropriation Bill 2022 – Second Reading speech
Thursday 16 June 2022
S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (15:57): I rise to speak in support of the Appropriation Bill 2022. At the forefront is the commitment we made to South Australians for significant investment in our health system. Included in this is a record $294 million allocated to provide better treatment for mental health patients, with additional hospital beds, specialised care, and much-needed support for families.
A total of 100 new inpatient mental health beds will be delivered across the health system to improve patient outcomes as well as to address the ambulance ramping crisis by reducing pressure on our emergency departments. Each of these 100 new inpatient beds will be provided in a single room to create a better environment for patients and staff to best support treatment and care. These additional beds also provide more capacity for paramedics to transfer patients into emergency departments as soon as they arrive at hospital—unlike under the previous government, where mental health patients were too often confined to waiting in ambulances as ramping hit record levels.
These additional health services for mental health patients are part of a greater package that the Malinauskas government is delivering. Children and teenagers will now have access to 100 new mental health and learning support specialists who will work at public primary and secondary schools to ensure both students and teachers get the support they need. The mental health care package also includes an extra six specialist mental health nurses at the Women's and Children's Hospital, five more child psychiatrists and 10 more child psychologists at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.
We will also deliver more support for public community health teams, allowing them to reach more South Australians in crisis, including:
prioritising mental health voices in the Lived Experience Leadership and Advocacy Network;
SIDS and Kids SA boost to support bereaved families;
investing in the MATES in Construction program, which delivers innovative and evidence-based suicide prevention and mental health programs to the building, mining, energy and construction industries; and
mental health training for pharmacists to allow them to identify and respond to the early warning signs of mental ill-health.
A key priority for this government is to deliver greater capacity in our healthcare system. The Flinders Medical Centre services the people of Gibson, so the joint commitment between our state government and the federal Labor government for a significant upgrade is most welcome. The much-needed $400 million expansion includes 136 extra beds, an upgrade and expansion of mental health facilities at the Margaret Tobin Centre, a brand-new eye surgery clinic, expanded medical imaging services and an expanded intensive care unit. This extra capacity of beds and additional nurses and doctors will help to reduce ambulance ramping, which goes hand in hand with our commitment for a long-overdue upgrade for the Marion Ambulance Station.
Our government has been listening when it comes to cost-of-living pressures. The Malinauskas government's first state budget is delivering targeted cost-of-living relief to those who need it most. Amid the rising cost of everyday expenses, with petrol prices surging and inflation rising, this budget delivers cost-of-living relief to pensioners and other Centrelink recipients, low-income earners, school parents and people living in regional and remote South Australia.
Our 2022-23 state budget includes doubling the Cost of Living Concession for eligible households to up to $449, free public transport all day every day for eligible seniors and a $100 subsidy, for eligible school parents and caregivers, off the materials and services charge for the 2022 and 2023 school years.
This budget takes the first steps in delivering a plan for a better future for our children, with the creation of a royal commission into early childhood education and care and investing in education infrastructure upgrades. The royal commission will examine how we can better support children in the first three years of life, how universal quality preschool programs for three and four year olds can be delivered in South Australia and how families can have access to out-of-school hours care at both preschool and primary school ages.
For older students, Labor will build five government technical colleges—three in metropolitan Adelaide, one of which will be built in Tonsley, and two in regional South Australia—that will connect existing secondary schools and be associated with the TAFE campus. They will crucially set up young people for the rest of their lives by making sure they are learning the modern skills needed for the future and getting their high school certificate. We know that investing in our young people is crucial to ensuring that they have the best start in life.
The state government has committed to a new self-cleaning toilet block at Ballara Park Reserve. This reserve is co-located with the kindergarten and, as such, has high use by young families. This work will be an addition to the upgrade of the park by Marion council and the recently elected Albanese government. The election of this Malinauskas state government and Albanese federal government also enables funding delivery for the upgrade of the Warradale Park Tennis Club. This funding will support the Warradale Park Tennis Club to improve its venue's facilities as well as ensuring clubrooms meet all occupational health and safety requirements.
The club will be in a great position to continue to meet the needs of its members and its guests, to grow the club and maintain and foster close community ties. An important aspect of the Warradale Park community tennis club is that it is not exclusively for the use of tennis players and their families, but it also welcomes of the community groups into utilise its facilities. This upgraded project will also enable the club to be sustainable in the future by enabling it to increase its revenue base by hiring out the proposed all-weather, multiuse first floor.
Another project to be delivered in partnership with the federal Labor government is the on/off ramp at Majors Road, a project that the previous Liberal government was paralysed by. Congestion on Brighton Road has long been a concern for the residents of Gibson, a concern which the previous government was unable to deliver a solution for. The on/off ramp is a critical piece of infrastructure, as the ramp will make an enormous difference to the residents of the southern suburbs.
Another election commitment which was announced a long time ago, and one which we will finally see realised, is ending the trains and trams privatisation. Residents of Gibson are frequent users of the Seaford train line and regularly advise me of the reduction in the quality of service since privatisation took hold. As such, we look forward to the $1 million for 2022-23 to fund a commission of inquiry to advise the government on the return of the train and tram operations back into public ownership. As Peter Malinauskas said our state Labor convention at the time that this was proposed by the previous government:
A private company would not work in the interests of public transport users…It makes no sense to hand this over to a private network who will make it less efficient and more about profit…We need public transport to be a key service operating in the interests of people, not in the interests of an overseas shareholder.
In my first speech, I spoke about my passion for the arts and my concern that as a sector it is too often overlooked for much-needed support to ensure viability. In light of this, I am keen to outline the budget measures that have been announced, including:
$3.3 million over two years for vouchers and grants to get live music back into pubs, clubs, small bars, restaurants, cafes and other smaller venues;
$1 million to provide 200 grants of up to $5,000 for venues to undertake minor upgrades to cater for live music and other performances;
$500,000 to help support the return of live music to the Royal Adelaide Show after a hiatus of 20 years and to support local artists and performers who have done it tough during COVID-19;
$8 million over four years to allow the Fringe to host a headline anchor event each year, provide resources to effectively market the event interstate and overseas and to also support the Fringe's grant program to continue to support new and emerging artists coming to the event;
$8 million over four years to boost funding to arts and artists; and
$2 million over four years to support the Adelaide Film Festival becoming an annual event.
This is a comprehensive list of programs supporting arts organisations and artists in South Australia, and our Labor government is able to deliver on all of our election commitments.
I look forward to the realisation of delivery of these important projects and seeing this Malinauskas government improve the lives of South Australians and, in particular, the people of Gibson. I commend the bill to the house.
