There is little good news for the local community in the Marshall Liberal Government’s 4th State Budget handed down last week.
Local Member of Parliament Mr Tony Piccolo said while the commitment to expand the emergency department at the Gawler Health Service is welcome, only $2.4 million of the $15 million allocated to the project is budgeted to be spent in 2021/22 financial year.
“According to the budget papers the new ED will not be operational until June 2024 at the earliest,” said Mr Piccolo.
“The State Government has refused to release documents regarding the planning and construction of the expanded ED which makes it difficult to assess whether the additional staffing will be made available.”
“An expanded ED without additional staffing will just lead to internal ramping and will be of little benefit for patients requiring urgent medical attention.”
“Sadly, no additional funding has been announced to increase the ambulance presence in the town and surrounding districts.”
“The Town continues to have periods when no ambulance is available locally, resulting in long delays in response rates placing lives at risk.”
Local Ambulance Officers have recently revealed their concerns and fears that some local people have died because of delayed ambulance response times.
Mr Piccolo said State Labor Leader, Mr Peter Malinauskas has announced in his response to the budget that if Labor was elected to Government at the March 2022 election the $700 million city basketball stadium would be cancelled and the funds invested into health services, with $100 million earmarked for country health services.
“People’s health and wellbeing is a higher priority than another stadium for Labor.”
Mr Piccolo said that the State Government has finally agreed to consider establishing an SES unit in Gawler.
The Budget does include an undertaking for planning and design work for a joint incident management facility, CFS regional headquarters and SES unit at Willaston in response to Labor’s 2020 commitment to build a dedicated SES Unit if elected to government in March 2022.
“While the announcement is good news there is NO commitment to actually fund the project over the next four years. Construction of a new SES unit will not start until after the 2026 election at the earliest.” said Mr Piccolo.
“This announcement continues the Marshall Liberal Government’s, promise now, build later, approach to key public infrastructure.”
“Commissioning more and more feasibility and business studies are no substitute for action on the ground.”
“The jobs, infrastructure and services are needed now.”
Mr Piccolo has been working with the Salisbury SES Unit for some years to explore the feasibility of opening a ‘satellite unit’ in Gawler under their auspices. The unit would be initially under the management of the Salisbury SES until enough members have been recruited to ensure its long-term viability.
In 2019 the SES acquired land on Gawler River Road, Willaston which could house a new Unit amongst other uses.
“Establishment of a local SES Unit in Gawler is vital, as the nearest unit is in Kapunda. Having a local presence will be very important in attracting new volunteers to the service.”
“A preliminary investigation indicates that a capital cost of about $2m will be required to establish the Unit.”
“Now is the time for the government to commit funds to establish the facility to ensure volunteers are trained and ready to meet the challenges of the planned population increase.”
The North Para and Gawler River systems are known as a flood risk in the area, that flood on average every ten years.
“Volunteering for the SES is a great way of becoming involved in the community, and also helps you keep fit.”