SA Labor vows to axe health network administrator KordaMentha if elected in 2022
SA Labor leader Peter Malinauskas says he will sack the administrators of SA Health’s biggest network if elected Premier – but the government says it’s an ‘empty’ promise.
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SA Labor leader Peter Malinauskas has promised to sack the controversial administrators of SA Health’s biggest network if he is elected next year.
Mr Malinauskas announced the latest election pledge at the SA Labor state conference on Saturday morning.
After lamenting the state’s ambulance ramping crisis, the Opposition leader took aim at Sydney-based consultants KordaMentha.
“On day one of a Malinauskas Labor government, I will show the corporate liquidators the door,” he said to rapturous applause from the crowd of Labor Party delegates at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
But, Health Minister Stephen Wade said KordaMentha had already completed its “on-the-ground work” for the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) and would be gone “long before” the next election.
“Labor’s promise is hollow,” he said.
KordaMentha was appointed as administrator of CALHN, which includes the Royal Adelaide Hospital, in November 2018 after completing a devastating report about the agency’s budget blowout of nearly $300m a year.
Company head Mark Mentha previously told a parliamentary inquiry that CALHN was “the most broken organisation I have ever witnessed, both financially and culturally”.
The company has been paid at least $36.5m since becoming the network’s administrator. It is unclear exactly when its contract with SA Health ends.
“Labor will be making sure that it’s not the corporate liquidators that run our health system, but instead the doctors and the nurses who work in the system, with the interests of patients at heart,” Mr Malinauskas said.
“(Premier Steven Marshall) has put in charge, and delivered, nothing but cuts and a price tag of $30m for their services – that’s not the way we think that the public health system should be run.”
Mr Wade said KordaMentha achieved savings of $57m in its first year in the role and had supported the Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth hospitals to deliver “better patient outcomes”.
“The board and CEO of CALHN … have made good progress in turning around the financial and organisational mess that the former Labor Government left.”
Federal Opposition leader Anthony Albanese also attended the Labor conference, where he delivered a 20-minute speech about his vision for the future and attacked the government’s workplace and industrial relations policies.
Mr Albanese compared the Scott Morrison Government’s industrial relations “ideology” to John Howard’s “WorkChoices” laws in 2005.
Mr Howard’s amendments prompted widespread criticism and contributed to Labor’s rise to power.
“The Howard government may be long gone, but its ideology lingers,” Mr Albanese said.
“It lives on in the hearts of Liberal regimes, whether it’s the Marshall Government or the Morrison Government.”
Earlier this month, the federal government’s gutted workplace laws passed the Senate after most of the controversial reforms were dumped, sparking division in SA’s Centre Alliance team.
Mr Albanese also reaffirmed to the party faithful his promise to tackle gender pay inequality by forcing companies with more than 250 employees to publicly report their pay gaps and prohibit pay secrecy.
gabriel.polychronis@news.com.au
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