State Government to spend ‘what it needs’ to beat COVID-19
Taxpayers will be left with an open bill to fight COVID-19 – the Treasurer says the state will spend “whatever needs to be spent” in the coronavirus battle.
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Taxpayers will fund “whatever needs to be spent” to protect South Australia from coronavirus after a multi-million-dollar budget blowout fighting COVID-19, the State Government warns.
New Treasury figures show SA Health’s budget was more than $6.6bn over the past financial year after a $220m overspend.
While the state’s biggest agency battled to control spending before the pandemic, the government said additional funding was needed to respond to “unprecedented challenges”.
SA Health said the new spending ensured sufficient capacity within the hospital system while appropriately protecting staff and public.
Treasurer Rob Lucas told the Sunday Mail while there would be a “lot of red ink” in this year’s budget, “whatever needs to be spent on COVID-19 related health expenditure will be spent”.
“We will do what we have to do,” Mr Lucas said.
Mr Lucas is facing a new $1.4bn GST black hole as the crisis decimates the nation’s finances. SA’s overall deficit is forecast to hit $1.9bn this year as debt soars toward a $30bn.
The government declined to provide this year’s proposed SA Health budget.
Mr Lucas warned other health spending had to be prudent.
“If there are other non-COVID-19 related areas in the health budget where there were efficiencies planned or being implemented, the expectation is they would continue and the community, the taxpayers and certainly I, as Treasurer, would expect that to be the case,” he said.
While more than 60 COVID-19 clinics have been established, the government says almost 300 jobs have also been created with 33 local companies hired for capital upgrades.
More than $21.1m has been spent upgrading the southern suburbs’ Repat Health Precinct, Daw Park, the former city-based Wakefield Hospital site and ECH College Grove facility at Walkerville.
Further upgrades, or fast-tracked building works, have happened at SA Pathology, Medical Imaging, Flinders Medical Centre as well as the Lyell McEwin, Modbury, Women’s and Children’s and Mount Gambier hospitals.
A further $93.1m has been spent on more than 45 million masks from local company Detmold to boost the state’s stockpile and secure protective equipment for any future pandemics. Warning against community complacency, Mr Lucas said authorities hoped the “very positive result” in managing the virus continued.
“We can’t afford a second wave,” he said. “If we have a second (similar to) Victoria, there will be significant increased costs in health.
“We either have the normal health challenges or the extraordinary COVID-19 increment added to the top.”
While SA Health has been widely credited for overseeing a world-leading COVID-19 fightback, the virus crisis has already hit other major projects.
The planned new Women’s and Children’s Hospital faces delays, as does the taskforce inquiry responding to allegations of SA Health corruption, while the $20 million Korda Mentha audit is suspended.
Labor health spokesman Chris Picton warned against further cuts, such as voluntary separation packages at the Central Adelaide Local Health Network. “No one is going to begrudge health spending what it needs to deal with the pandemic but what is shocking is that more cuts are being made,” Mr Picton said.