‘RAH too small’: Labor, Libs fire off health goals as final election week heats up
The Liberals say the new $2.4bn Royal Adelaide Hospital is already too small and Labor commits to dementia support and a new gymnastics headquarters. Read the weekend’s promises as the state election campaign hits its final week.
Liberal Leader Ashton Hurn claims the new Royal Adelaide Hospital built for $2.4 billion just over nine years ago is already too small – saying if elected she would oversee immediate planning for expansion.
Hurn said planning now was critical to ensure the hospital could serve South Australians into the future.
“South Australia is growing, and our health system needs to grow with it,” Hurn said.
Hurn said clinicians would be central to the planning process to ensure the expansion reflected the real needs of patients and staff and by “starting this work now, we can make sure the Royal Adelaide Hospital is equipped to care for South Australians for decades to come.”
Both Hurn and Labor Leader Peter Malinauskas covered serious ground over the weekend.
Hurn was at the Tanunda Show where she raced locals with a glass of red wine in hand then followed up by supporting the Thunderbirds netball team in Adelaide on Saturday night.
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Both Hurn and Malinauskas were at the Thunderbirds’ first game of the season at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre with Malinauskas later pulling beers amid festival revelry at The Exeter hotel in the city.
On Sunday, he fronted a Labor campaign rally in Unley to fire up candidates in the last week of the state election campaign.
Among weekend promises were a new $100 million permanent home for Gymnastics SA, and during a run for dementia support on Sunday morning, Malinauskas announced a $500,000 commitment to support unpaid carers of South Australians living with the disease.
Malinauskas has previously said older patients were contributing to a blocked pipeline in the hospital system as they were caught up in emergency beds.
The Dementia Carers Wellbeing and Education Program was expected to help those supporting an estimated 35,800 South Australians living with dementia, numbers expected to increase to 55,600 by 2054.
“Dementia touches the lives of so many South Australians and we want to do everything we can to support people living with dementia and their devoted carers,” Malinauskas said.
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Dementia Australia would deliver the program expected to start this year with up to 80 small-group dementia carer wellbeing and education sessions for around 800 carers across metro and regional SA.
Malinauskas said the promise was on top of Labor’s plan to create an extra 1,300 aged care beds to help provide better support and free up acute hospital care beds, including transforming the old Women’s and Children’s Hospital site into a dedicated Health and Aged Care Precinct with more than 600 beds.
The Labor team also announced it would introduce “world-leading reforms” to ban domestic violence and sexual offenders from using online dating platforms.
Serious offenders would face up to a lifetime ban from accessing online dating platforms, with a default ban of at least 10 years for all offenders, under the proposal.
Those caught breaching the ban would face a penalty of up to five years jail.
Both the Liberal Party and SA-BEST MLC Connie Bonaros were talking fuel prices as war in the Middle East threatened shortages, Hurn saying regional areas would be hit hardest and committed to a bipartisan approach to protect even fuel distribution.
Bonaros called on the Federal Government to change its approach to national fuel security, as soaring fuel prices and the threat of supply disruptions threaten to smash the fishing and agriculture industries.
“All week I have had people from the seafood sector ringing me saying their fuel trucks are being turned away at the bowsers because of skyrocketing demand and limited supply,” Ms Bonaros said.
“If they don’t have fuel they can’t fish. The warning signs have been there for years, this is about local food security.”
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