Commenting on the story: ‘Word salad’: Demand for real action to tackle Adelaide hospital crisis

We all know that ED waiting times and ramping numbers are intolerable, but the situations seems to get worse regardless of how many beds, doctors and nurses are thrown at the crisis.

Surely it makes more sense to stop people needing emergency services first, and there are solutions before the Minister to do just that.

We know that mental health crisis is one of the major drivers of demand on emergency services and hospital beds, yet appropriate psychosocial supports to assist people to remain well in their communities are proven to reduce that demand and to do it at a fraction of the cost of emergency/hospital services – but they are grossly under-resourced.

And this is despite a recent SA Report showing that 19,000 South Australians with mental health concerns are without any support at all. It’s no wonder our emergency services are overwhelmed. – Paul Creedon

Commenting on the story: SA hits new ambulance ramping record

It’s laughable (in a tragic sense) the state Labor government’s management of health.

It was the Labor government who closed the Repat. It was the Labor government who built the overpriced, undersized new RAH. – Patrick Wells

Commenting on the story: Rann compares gas industry to big tobacco 

In delivering the Don Dunstan Oration for the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) and the Don Dunstan Foundation in Adelaide on 6 December, former Labor Premier Mike Rann has issued a “stark warning about climate change, attacking the gas industry and in clear contrast to the rhetoric of the current Labor Government,” according to InDaily.

For those of us with even a vestige of corporate and political memory, Rann appears to have undergone an epiphany of monumental proportions regarding South Australian fossil fuel energy production, and his own government’s role in it.

Rann served as the Labor Premier of South Australia from 2002 until he resigned his premiership on 21 October 2011, having been “tapped” in late August 2011 by the right faction powerbroker Peter Malinauskas. Rann vowed he would not resign and insisted he would be leading the party at the next state election. History records him being replaced as Premier by the then Education Minister Jay Weatherill, from the Party’s left faction.

History also records that Rann was a dedicated enthusiast and cheerleader for the massive expansion of the general mining and fossil fuel industries in SA—the royalties were irresistible: think all manner of oil and gas state government supported fossil fuel exploration and development, often supported with taxpayer subsidies, and the championing of Santos Limited, a very large South Australian publicly listed oil and gas explorer and producer, and a very active gas producer in the Moomba gas fields within the Cooper Basin.

The massive expansion of BHP’s Olympic Dam mining operations at Roxby Downs also featured prominently under Rann’s watch, and included very contentious mining approvals and environmental issues. BHP had even been permitted to draw down unlimited and unmetered free water from the crucially important Great Artesian Basin (GAB).

The mantle of “Media Mike” was awarded to Rann because of his then mastery of political spin. That mastery of political spin has been surpassed by the current Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas, in record time at that.

I declare the passing of Rann’s “Media Mike” mantle, to be replaced by “Epiphany Mike” the elder. – Philip Groves 

Commenting on the story: ‘Oasis in the desert’: Report says NDIS needs major, rapid change

Those of us over 65 with disability also are not getting the services and products we need. I hope that our demographic is on someone’s radar. The aged care system is inadequate for us, with insufficient funding and access. – Nicola Stratford

[solstice_jwplayer mediaid=”2Tbp8Xtv” playerid=”Meorb6nj” caption=”Sponsored video: The Post” /]