“People were asking me throughout the entirety of the election campaign: ‘When will we see change?’, and every time… I’d be honest and said: ‘Our commitment is over the course of four years to reduce ramping down to a level that ambulances start rolling up on time,” he said.
“That is my commitment before the election, that is my commitment after the election.
“Everybody understands this isn’t going to happen overnight, it’s not even going to happen in a week or months – it’s going to take years.
“We believe that over the course of four years we can see a difference start to be made.”
The Mount Gambier Hospital is one of the hospitals we’ll be upgrading which includes upgrading the emergency department and doubling the mental health unit.
We’re doing this because the Limestone Coast plays a key role in the economic and social fabric of our State. pic.twitter.com/WNNx8pYZ1H
— Peter Malinauskas (@PMalinauskasMP) March 23, 2022
Asked if he would apologise for the man’s death, Malinauskas saidxjmtzyw: “I take responsibility for delivering on our policy, which is to dramatically increase capacity within our health system and try and end the ramping crisis which leads to these tragedies”.
“When you read about these stories in a tweet it just becomes another tragedy, but when you actually take a moment to stop and think about that person in that circumstance and their family, it makes you realise how acute the need is to do something about it.
“These aren’t stats, these aren’t just news stories, these are real people and they deserve better and that’s what my government’s committed to doing.”
Meanwhile, Malinauskas said the former Weatherill Government’s decision to sell harvest rights to pine forests in the state’s south east was “wrong”.
The forward sale of the government-owned plantations, worth $670 million, prompted protests across the region in 2011.
“We can’t go back in time, we can only go forward,” he said.
“The actions of the former government – whether it be the Marshall Government or the one before that – that’s for them to talk about.
“What I’m responsible for is my government and I’ve got a forestry policy that we’re serious about and I’m looking forward to delivering it.”
Independent Mount Gambier MP Troy Bell, who was one of the leading protestors against the forestry sell-off, this morning said: “at some point you either move on, or you bare a grudge to your own community’s detriment”.
“This is a different Labor government,” he said.
“I’ve never heard a premier apologise for a previous government’s actions before in my political time and I think that’s the character of Peter Malinauskas.”
Bell praised Malinauskas for visiting his electorate within 72 hours of being sworn in as premier and for pledging in the order of $100 million worth of projects for his region, including a $24 million upgrade of the Mount Gambier Hospital.
