AD-
LIB SPRING ISSUE 2015
LIB
AD-
AD-LIB is the quarterly publication of the south Australian young liberal movement.
Editor:
Nicholas Charles
DISCLAIMER:
The opinions expressed herein belong solely to the respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or the South Australian Young Liberal Movement. Contributions to this edition of ADLIB are from members and friends of the SAYLM. To contribute to the next issue of ADLIB or to contact the Editor, email nickcharles@outlook.com.au. Authorised by Mr Alexander Hyde, President, SAYLM. 104 Greenhill Road, Unley, 5061. Published 09/10/2015
SPRING ISSUE 2015 Contents 04
From the president
Report from the SAYLM President, Alexander Hyde.
05
Meet the executive / vox pop
Get to know the members of the SAYLM Executive.
09
SAYLM Committees and delegates
Includes: Policy, Social and Campaign Committees along with Delegates to State Council and Fed. YL Council.
10
SUPERHEALTH
A proposal to improve our health system by Ben Newell.
12
canning by-election
Report about the recently held By-Election in Western Australia by Leighton McDonald-Stuart.
16
liberals win at adelaide uni
Liberals win mandate to reform student politics at Adelaide Uni by Kyriaco Nikias.
18
transforming health plan
A review of the State Labor Government’s ‘Transforming Health’ Plan by Saffron Ronson. Image: Adelaide Town Hall Theen Moy (Source: Flickr)
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03
From The President of for a Liberal student. This result was achieved by the hard work of all candidates, a record number of whom were also elected. An honourable mention must go to Kyriaco Nikias, whose skilful employment of social media contributed greatly to the team’s success. Kyriaco also serves as the Movement’s Campaigns Director and I would strongly encourage you to read the 2015 Campaign Review he compiled. No doubt if the Party were as efficient in producing, and responding to, campaign reviews we might one day enjoy enough electoral success to fix our once flourishing state.
Welcome to the spring edition of Ad-Lib, a snapshot of our recent activities – and an especially In other news, the Movement is in the process warm welcome to our many new members. of welcoming a record number of new members and introducing them to the Party. With over 200 new The last few months has seen a new executive members this year, the Movement remains the single appointed, a continuing rollout of Movement events biggest contributor to our Party’s membership growth. and a number of crucial campaigns – all of which Our first new members’ event last month was sold out have been met with gusto and enthusiasm that the and attendees enjoyed an informative and social tour Liberal Party has found synonymous with being a of the old Treasury building on King William Street. Young Liberal member. Still on the topic of membership, at the request The by-election in Canning, WA, saw four South of the Young Liberal Council, the Young Liberal Australian Young Liberals offer their time and effort Executive has formed a Young Liberal Women’s to the campaign (you can read a report from one of Committee. The Committee aims to address some of those campaigners in this edition). I would like to the fundamental reasons why our female membership extend my thanks to those who took part. My Western level is unsatisfactory. While under my tenure the Australian counterparts inform me that the SA team’s Movement’s balance of female-to-male members has efforts were instrumental in the Party’s victory and positively adjusted, it is not enough and the Committee the election of Andrew Hastie to Federal Parliament. will work to rectify this unfortunate phenomenon of modern politics. The task will not be easy, however. Another challenge met by South Australian As Liberals we believe in meritocracy and oppose the Young Liberals was the 2015 Adelaide University quota-centric mechanisms that the Left use to treat student elections. Led by the Adelaide University the symptom of lower female political engagement. Liberal Club, whose majority of members are Young The Committee will aim to properly engage women Liberals, this year’s student elections saw the best at a grassroots level. Hopefully this initiative will Liberal result in living memory. Credit must go to eventually see a higher proportion of women in senior Rob Katsambis and Rhys Williams, who dragged Party ranks as those enthused and confident Young the once defunct club and transformed it into one of Liberal Women become true Liberal conservative conservative youth politics’ most valued assets. stalwarts of the Party. Our lead candidate, Jack Newton, secured election to the Board in first place – embarrassing the once dominant Left as this is something unheard
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Alexander Hyde SAYLM President
Meet the Executive A vox pop with the executive members 1. Occupation // 2. Qualifications // 3. SAYLM Member since // 4. Reason for joining the SAYLM // 5. Interests // 6. Favourite politician // 7. 2015-16 SAYLM aspirations // 8. Contact
Alexander Hyde // 22 // President
Courtney Stephens // 30 // State Vice-President
1. Student/Electorate Officer. 2. Studying Bachelor of Law. 3. 2010. 4. To promote the ideals of liberalism and to have a positive and creative impact on society. 5. Spending time with friends and family, following news and current affairs, playing Xbox, and of course campaigning for better government. 6. Ronald Reagan. 7. This year I hope to take the Young Liberal Movement to new, exciting and innovative heights and to help foster an appreciation for Liberal ideals across the spectrum of young people in Australia. 8. president@sayoungliberals.com
1. Office Manager 2. Bachelor of Teaching (Junior Primary/Primary), Graduate Diploma of Communication (Public Relations) 3. 2004 4. To engage with other like-minded young people and talk about issues that were important to me. 5. Netball/basketball, travel, food, and reading. 6. Dr Brett Mason, Ambassador to the Netherlands (former Senator) 7. Hold great events, get young people involved in campaigning, provide opportunities for members to have their say on issues important to them and engage with new members. 8. vp@sayoungliberals.com
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05
vox pop with the executive members 1. Occupation // 2. Qualifications // 3. SAYLM Member since // 4. Reason for joining the SAYLM // 5. Interests // 6. Favourite politician // 7. 2015-16 SAYLM aspirations // 8. Contact
Leighton McDonald-Stuart // 20 // Policy Vice-President
Robert Katsambis // 23 // Administration Director
Jack Newton // 19 // Membership Director
1. Law/Arts student, On Dit editor 2. Studying Double Bachelor Law/ Arts 3. 2011 4. I’ve always been passionate about limiting the size of government and reducing its role in people’s lives. 5. I enjoy cold war history but also take an interest in cars and computers. 6. Thatcher and Reagan are easily up there! 7. I want to see the Young Liberals take a leading role in developing policy as we approach the next state election. 8. pvp@sayoungliberals.com
1. Student/Electorate Officer for Senator Cory Bernardi 2. Studying Double Bachelor of Law and Commerce. 3. 2011. 4. Politics, history, music, soccer. 5. Firm believer in the Party ideology. 6. Julia Gillard - for helping us win government. 7. Continue to beat Labor and the Greens on campus and get Liberal students involved in the Party. 8. liberal@auu.org.au
1. Electorate Officer at the Office of Senator David Fawcett, part-time at Brighton Foodland, and Board Director at the Adel. Uni. Union. 2. Second year student studying Bach. of Commerce (Accounting and Management) at Adelaide Uni. 3. December 2013. 4. I have always been interested in conservative politics and saw the SAYLM outlet to pursue this interest. 5. Surf Lifesaving, Football, Golf, Australian and South Australian politics, Reading, and cooking. 6. Winston Churchill 7. As the Membership Officer, I would like to see the membership base continue to grow and our new members made to feel welcome and gain as much as they can out of the movement. 8. jacknewton96@gmail.com
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Laura Dickenson // 23 // Social Director
Nicholas Charles // 21 // Communications Director
Grace Marryat // 24 // Treasurer
1. Accountant 2. Completed a Bach. of Commerce (Accounting) at Adelaide Uni and in my final year of Bach. of Laws at Adelaide Uni. 3. March 2014 4. I grew up on a farm in a country town. Joining the Liberal Party was inevitable. I attended boarding school in Victoria so was unable to join the SAYLM until I returned to Adelaide for university. However, I wasn’t introduced to the movement until a SAYLM council meeting at the Robin Hood in March 2014 when I signed up. 5. Movies and travel 6. Sir Thomas Playford IV 7. That our social committee can host the Annual Ball just as last years, create more fun events and attract new members 8. laura.dickenson@live.com.au
1. Student/Retail Assistant. 2. Cert II in Retail, QCE, Bach. of Architectural Design (completing) 3. 2012 4. Tired of Labor Governments and the nanny state. 5. Architecture and heritage preservation, travelling, and wine tasting. 6. Margaret Thatcher, Joh BjelkePetersen, Thomas Playford and John ‘Black Jack’ McEwen. 7. As Communications Director I like to continually improve the movement’s magazine Ad-Lib and its online social media presence. 8. nickcharles@outlook.com.au
1. Student/Media contributor. 2. Bachelor of Arts (Completed), Certificate III in Event Management (Completed), Bachelor of Media (Current) 3. SAYLM member since October 2014. 4. To engage with other conservative young people. 5. South Australian produce, music, and the pursuit of the perfect brownie. 6. Margaret Thatcher, because soft serve. 7. To help keep the SAYLM movement true to its conservative beliefs. 8. grace.marryat@gmail.com
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vox pop with the executive members 1. Occupation // 2. Qualifications // 3. SAYLM Member since // 4. Reason for joining the SAYLM // 5. Interests // 6. Favourite politician // 7. 2015-16 SAYLM aspirations // 8. Contact
Kyriaco Nikias // 19 // Campaigns Director
John-Ross Savvas // 22 // Development Director
1. Student 2. Ask me this in 4 years: hopefully a law degree 3. Early 2014 4. Joined the Adelaide University Liberal Club on my first day of uni, and decided to join the party soon after: it was a progression from being just a supporter when at school 5. Political theory and practice (obviously), art, piano, languages and travel 6. Only listing those ones who aren’t obvious, in order of preference: both Gladston and Disraeli, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Julie Bishop, Count Ioannis Capodistrias 7. I’m keen to see the SAYLM’s activities become better integrated with those of the uni Liberal Clubs. 8. Facebook is best :)
1. Student/Law Clerk. 2. Currently undertaking final year of study for a Double Bachelor Law/ Commerce. 3. 2012. 4. I have always supported the objectives of the Liberal Party and wanted to be an active contributor to the cause. 5. Sports, music, economics and politics. 6.John Howard. 7. As a new Executive member my goal is to work with the Executive and the Young Liberal membership to support the debate of new policy opinions and ideas. This will allow the Young Liberals to make a more meaningful contribution to senior Party policy. 8. Contact me on Facebook.
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Congratulations to the following young liberals who were also elected at the 2015 saylm agm Young Liberal Policy Committee
Young Liberal Campaign Committee
Young Liberal Social Committee
Alex Mulders Ben Woolford Dominic Olivieri Henry Davis Jim Coffey Almira de Vera
Taylor Malthouse-Bevan Luke Hanson Arkin Gulsen Tom Edwards Nikolas Baric David Morton
Max Bruce Matthew Macowan Tut Tut Simon Jenkins Saffron Ronson Jarryd Thiel
Delegates to state council Courtney Stephens Travis Munckton Erin Murray Ben Newell Dylan Turner Bradley Vermeer Rhys Williams Cameron Emery Jack Newton Kyriaco Nikias Robert Katsambis William Katsambis
Delegates to federal young liberal council Travis Munckton Courtney Stephens Ben Woolford Kelvin Binns Ben Newell
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09
‘superhealth’
a proposal to improve our health system ben newell Earlier this year, Australia’s pool of superannuation savings was estimated to have reached $2 trillion for the first time. This means that there is now more money in the superannuation system than the approximately $1.65 trillion in shares on the ASX, or national GDP at $1.5 trillion. The question that we must now ask ourselves is what is the best way that we can harness the superannuation system to improve Australia?
‘SuperHealth’ One idea that I believe would be worthy of consideration is the proposal to extend default insurance coverage within superannuation to also cover private health insurance. The ageing population and the increasing cost of sustaining the healthcare system will become even more significant issues into the future. We must improve private health insurance coverage in Australia to improve our overall healthcare system. Currently, most superannuation funds offer default life, income protection and TPD (total and permanent disability) insurance. The precedent has already been set to allow insurance to be purchased through your superannuation so why not also extend this to private health insurance?
Private Health Insurance Coverage Today The reason I believe private health insurance should be purchased through superannuation is to raise the number of people with private health cover, thereby taking pressure off our overburdened public hospitals. At the moment approximately 50% of the Australian population have some form of private health insurance, the other half are totally reliant on the public system. In the early 1970s just over 83% of Australians had private health insurance. I believe that we should aim to have at least 80% of Australians with private health insurance.
“in the past decade the cost of medicare...has risen from $8b to ~$20b today” Escalating health costs The cost of Medicare has been rising faster than inflation for a number of years now. In the past decade the cost of Medicare to the Commonwealth has risen from $8 billion to approximately $20 billion today. The percentage of
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state and territory budgets which have been allocated to healthcare have been increasing substantially. A way to rectify this is to ensure that people have appropriate private health insurance coverage so that those who can pay, do pay.
Weaknesses of the current system Private health insurance in Australia is underutilised while the public system is over utilised. The private health insurance rebate introduced by the Howard government in 1999 raised rates of coverage and was a good first step, but the rate of people covered by private health insurance remains too low.
“rate of people covered by private health insurance remains too low” Under the present policy settings there is no impetus for a significant rise in the number of people with private health insurance policies anytime soon. This must change.
Sensible safeguards At present, people with multiple superannuation
insurance policy. A critical part of any reform to superannuation or health policy is allowing personal choice. People should be free to choose their insurer and level of cover. People with existing policies should be permitted to keep their policies and all the associated benefits with their policy. Sensible policy changes should ensure that no one is left worse off by moving to a new system.
“ensure that no one is left worse off” If this policy which is in effect a administrative change, were to be enacted there would be enormous benefits to the health system as well as the potential for premiums to be lowered if the policy framework is right. I urge our party to favourably consider the policy of automatically including private health insurance coverage within the superannuation system. Ben Newell is the Policy Coordinator of the SAYLM and Treasurer of the Adelaide University Liberal Club.
accounts who have not changed their default account settings are wasting money each year by paying multiple sets of fees and insurance premiums. No person would willingly take out multiple health insurance plans either so if the system is to be automatic then there must be a mechanism utilising either tax file numbers or Medicare numbers to ensure that each person is only paying for one health
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011
Canning By-Election policy vp leighton and comms director nicholas travelled to western australia to campaign in the canning by-election leighton mcdonald-stuart One could easily get lost in Perth. Its myriad of towering skyscrapers draws you in, like Gina Rinehart to an iron ore mine. Its river is actually more like a lake, and prices are so exorbitant, you would mistake a Maccas for a high end burger joint on the Parade. Fortunately, I wasn’t in perth to blow all my money on a very expensive Create Your Taste burger from Maccas (though that certainly happened). Instead I had been invited by the Young Liberal Movement to assist with the Canning by-election campaign. The campaign had been triggered by the death of Liberal MP Don Randall. Randall had famously in his last months become quite the antagoniser on the Federal scene, having helped to bring about the vote for a leadership spill earlier this year. The irony of the events of the week preceding the by election were not lost on those who knew Randall. Having been greeted at the airport by Federal Young Liberal Movement VP Anthony Spagnolo, it was straight into campaigning. I soon joined the rest of the Electorate Development Officer (EDO) program team. The team was comprised of top campaigners from SA (4), NSW (2), Queensland (1) and the ACT (1). A number of Victorian Young Liberals were also in WA for the by-election, though they were not a part of the EDO.
Andrew Hastie MP making his victory speech at Pinjarra Bowls Club.
lots of flexibility in our approach. The media as well had taken a fascination with the by-election, which was only to be amplified given what would happen in Canberra. Every major news outlet was seen roaming the electorate, and quite often we would return to our campaign office only to have some camera crew waiting at the front door trying to do a live cross (we also had a particularly strange prosolar protest one time). But neither the camera crews or the weird man who was dancing around dressed up as a sun as a part of aforementioned protest were the enemy.
If anything struck me as odd about this particular Indeed, our enemy was to be found in an office campaign it would be the sheer size. Not only was directly across the road from our own in Mandurah. there a contingent of interstate campaigning experts It was here that the ALP had placed the office of in the EDO, we were also well resourced and given
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Part of the EDO Team relaxing in Mandurah after a day of campaigning.
hipster-lawyer, come candidate Matt Keogh. Keogh wasn’t a particularly challenging opponent. He seemed to us a quiet and reserved candidate, better suited to a soy-chai-latte than a cup of Nescafe blend 43. The main challenge was from his union mates, particularly the dastardly CFMEU who seemed intent on giving us a headache, particularly on the night before the election, but that is a story for another time. We were constantly reminded of the purpose for our visit to WA every time we came across our candidate for Canning, Andrew Hastie. For those who don’t know anything about Hastie it would be fair to say he is the polar opposite to Keogh. Hastie is an ex-SAS commander who himself commands one’s attention with his enormous height as well as his charm. In all the campaigns I have worked on I have not come across a candidate who is so genuine and warm. It was very telling that he would always make an effort to shake our hands, speak to us and
see if there was anything else we needed. From my week in WA I know that Canning will be well served by Andrew. I was also lucky enough to meet many solid Western Australians in my travels around Canning. For anyone wondering how it is we travelled around canning, do remember that we were particularly well resourced as an EDO team, with 3 brand new SUV’s to be ours for that week. With all the driving around Canning, Macklemore’s Downtown became our de facto anthem. The star power of the campaign was also awesome to behold. Abbott, Turnbull, J Bish, and Cormann all paid a visit, while former Senator Chris Ellison joined the EDO team in the trenches (and proved a great asset). I like to think Senator Dean Smith and I also made a formidable scrutineering tag team on the night of the election. The AEC man in charge of our polling booth certainly wasn’t particularly smitten with myself or the Senator by
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Andrew Hastie MP with EDO campaigners, (left to right) Darcy Bee-Hickman, Leighton McDonald-Stuart, Hannah Eves, (Andrew Hastie MP), Anthony Spagnolo, and Austin Wenke.
(Top-left) Nicholas Charles and Leighton McDonald-Stuart campaigning with one of the campaign vehicles. (Top-right) Nicholas Charles signwaving at a busy intersection. (Bottom-right) Austin Wenke, Hannah Eves and Leighton McDonald-Stuart out doorknocking the suburbs.
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the end of the night.
the rolling coverage of the spill and Canning.
Despite all that, our biggest day was in fact the evening that saw Malcolm Turnbull elected as leader of the parliamentary Liberal Party and thus as PM. When word broke in Canning that a challenge was underway, everything seemed up in the air. SAYLM Communications Director Nicholas Charles and myself quite solemnly continued with our work at the EDO base, although ABC 24 was our temporary main focus. In the early evening as the spill was underway, the EDO team found itself waving signs at the entrance to a church where a community forum was being held. We were joined there not just by Hastie and Keogh, but by a throng
Fortunately, that didn’t happen. In fact, the events in Canberra had a particularly negligible impact on the ground, with the exception of the hoards of media which joined us. Most locals were too caught up on the local issues, particularly the ongoing ice epidemic which plagues the area. As Andrew said in his speech on the night, Moscow and London are closer than Canberra and Canning. In the end we suffered a swing of just 4.16% and saw Andrew elected with a 2PP of 55.25%. The EDO and the by election was thoroughly memorable, enjoyable, and informative and I must thank Nicholas Charles, Anthony Spagnolo, Simon
of media. Scores of media trucks were there, satellite dishes pointing straight up, hoping to beam the latest from the campaign onto the national stage. I even found myself, along with a colleague from the VIC YL’s, being unwillingly interviewed by a number of reporters, which was particularly daunting given that any slip-up would see our faces find their way into
Breheny, Austin Wenke and Hannah Eves for making it so. Leighton is the Vice President (Policy) of the South Australian Young Liberal Movement. He joined the Canning campaign courtesy of the Young Liberal Movement of Australia.
Former Prime Minister the Hon. Tony Abbott and Andrew Hastie MP meeting EDO campaigners at the Kelmscott Campaign Office.
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Liberals win mandate to at Adela
kyriaco nikias
The 2015 AUU Student Elections campaign was the most successful one on record for the Liberal Club. Immense credit is owed to some 60 candidates and campaigners who worked extremely hard to get us this result. With continually growing member engagement at the Liberal Club, we’ve been able to increase the number of candidates we run, the size of our campaign and most importantly, our primary vote. Jack Newton was first elected to Union Board with the highest primary vote (444). Seven For U Candidates were elected to SRC. I was also elected delegate to National Union of Students. We have run in a coalition with Progress for the last three elections by going into preference-swaps and sharing resources. It is headed up by current SRC President Renjie Du, who we have had the benefit of working with closely on the AUU Board and in every election since he founded Progress. Progress is our most valuable asset in student
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elections as it brings two-thirds of our coalition’s vote. It often obtains around 800-900 votes every year and their preferences flow to our candidates at about 80%, which is unheard of given that the elections are optional-preferential. Because of this alliance, we have been able to get candidates elected to the Union Board in previous years, and this year it meant that our entire SRC office bearer ticket got up. They have also given us crucial support on the Union Board to pass our reforms to clean up the Union’s governance to ensure that the likes of the Labor Party and the Greens can no longer engage in their dodgy practices of unlawfully dismissing Liberal student representatives and rigging internal elections. Members of the Liberal Club should be commended on how it has been very tolerant and understanding of the language and cultural differences when working with Progress. Our ability to make reasonable compromises has meant that we
Group photo of ForU campaigners.
o reform student politics aide Uni. now competitively contest and actually win student elections, which for a Liberal team on University grounds is very rare to say the least.
From the candidates:
Jack Newton: ‘We have a mandate to carry out effective reform to ensure students are getting the Campaign tactics employed by the extreme Left most out of their Union: electoral reform, funding factions during elections were particularly ineffective arrangements and ensuring the Union holds in the Left’s bid to take control of student bodies in worthwhile events’ 2015. This stood in stark contrast to the friendly and Henry Blacketer: ‘I’ll be working with our team to approachable manner in which For U campaigners ensure student money is spent on student services. engaged themselves. This is not hyperbole, but a … Practical on-campus goals will make the union reflection of our focus on representing mainstream excel, and I think the student body has recognised students without a radical political agenda. our ability to deliver on our promises.’ The behaviour by certain students associated Angus Crouch: ‘We were able to convince groups with the Trotskyite Student Voice ticket was strongly and individuals by approaching them in a friendly condemned in a report published by the Returning and coherent manner—unlike the Left.’ Officer, Mr Andrew Klima. Members of Student Voice, such as Mr Tavlaridis, would verbally abuse students who politely declined to engage with them, prompting several independent complaints to the Returning Officer. The Returning Officer banned Mr Tavlaridis from campaigning on Thursday and Friday of the election week, citing his need to ‘consider the health and safety of students’. Whereas the Trotskyites’ dirty tactics could not pass through the sieve of election regulations, the real judgement was in the hands of ordinary students. Those students showed emphatically in the way they voted that they rejected the indecent campaign conducted by the extreme Left on campus.
Jack Newton (centre) with some ForU supporters.
Kyriaco Nikias is Vice-President of the Adelaide University Liberal Club and Campaigns Director of the South Australian Young Liberal Movement.
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saffron ronson
The State Labo 'Transforming
The State Government’s scheme to revolutionise healthcare in South Australia comes with a hefty price tag and questionable benefit Delivering Transforming Health-Our Next Steps was released in March 2015 by the State Government in order to communicate the upcoming changes to the healthcare system commencing in 2015. Whilst Transforming Health promises new facilities for the benefit of the health system in South Australia there are fundamental issues with how this will occur. The proposed transformations of the health system are designed for South Australia’s metropolitan hospitals, excluding rural health facilities. The explanation from the Labor government is that an improvement of metropolitan hospitals will create a ‘run-on’ benefit for rural South Australians. The new Royal Adelaide Hospital features heavily in the Government’s discourse for the improvement of health in our State. However, the new Royal Adelaide Hospital (NRAH) is over budget, over due, and its exorbitant costs are leading to the cutting of costs in other hospitals. The latest estimate of the NRAH’s cost is $2.1 billion, an additional $176.6 million required for the transfer from the old to the new site, as well as $34.3 million in site remediation costs. The original sum budgeted
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for this project in 2007 was $1.7 billion. The mismanagement of funds and timeliness does not set a promising precedent for future projects under the Transforming Health banner. The current Royal Adelaide Hospital is home to 680 acute medical beds. The NRAH will be home to 700 beds. However these 700 beds will be single rooms with en-suite shower facilities, which is suggestive of a wasteful attitude to space at the new facility. Considering the enormous cost of a new hospital it seems foolish to allocate single bedrooms when such space could house a greater number of patients. The argument that single rooms prevents cross infection may be valid in some, but certainly not all cases.
“the cost of the new rah has also led to widespread cuts... with 3.2% of sa health jobs to be cut” The cost of the NRAH has also led to widespread cuts in other areas with 3.2% of SA Health jobs to be cut in cost-saving measures. The downsizing of emergency departments at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and Noarlunga hospital are cuts that will increase the demand at the already busy Flinders Medical Centre, Lyell McEwin, and Royal Adelaide Hospital.
or Government's g Health' Plan A cut to health services that has managed to capture a high level of engagement from the community and the media is the closure of the Repatriation General Hospital, ‘the Repat’, and this hospital’s clinical services to be moved to other hospitals. The closing of ‘the Repat’ includes moving palliative care services from the beloved Daw Park Hospice to the overburdened Flinders Medical Centre, and the Ward 17 mental health clients to a new post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment centre at the Glenside Hospital Campus. The new PTSD centre will come at a proposed cost of $15 million when patients have clearly indicated that their preference would be to stay at the current site, as evidenced by the “Save the Repat” campaign attracting more than 85,000 signatures to their petition. While the State Government has reluctantly committed to continuing the Emergency Department at Noarlunga hospital, after previously announcing to close this vital service, they will still be transferring acute medical admission patients to Flinders Medical Centre. The Acute Medical Unit at Flinders is home to thirty beds, and with the well-publicised severity of ramping at the Flinders ED, will there be room for these Noarlunga transfers? It’s hard to imagine such a transfer occurring easily. The issues with Transforming Health impact outpatient services as well. One such example
concerning ‘The Repat’ is that this hospital’s closure would lead to the closure of its ophthalmology (eye specialty) outpatient clinic. Last year the ‘Repat’ held 4200 outpatient ophthalmology appointments. Flinders Medical centre has a waiting list of 1500 people for their outpatient ophthalmology clinic and cannot easily absorb such a number of additional patients. These are only some of the examples of the new Transforming Health proposals but it seems clear that the current State Government cares more about the building of new facilities beyond the means of the State’s finances than the actual patients that require health services or the employees on the floors of SA Health hospitals.
“state government spent a minimum of $3 million on advertising the plan” The spoonful of sugar offered to the public to swallow this bitter pill? The state government spent a minimum of $3 million on advertising to promote Transforming Health to South Australians. Saffron Ronson is Campaigns Director at the University of South Australia Liberal Club and is currently studying a Bachelor of Pharmacy at the University of South Australia.
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www.saylm.org.au www.facebook.com/sayoungliberals @sayoungliberals
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