Via a ‘drop’ to News Corp’s The Advertiser, the Government revealed a $500 million spending commitment, whose centrepiece would be “new capital funding, to be announced today, [to] further expand a series of major hospitals that were downgraded under the former Labor Government”.

The newspaper wrongly suggested that the Government would also reveal “an extra $450 million to tackle the Omicron wave”, money already allocated in this year’s health budget.

As it turned out, the operational budget increase makes up the bulk of the promised $500 million boost, with Premier Steven Marshall revealing a capital spend of just $123 million for upgrade works on four hospitals – the Repat, the Lyell McEwin, Noarlunga and Modbury.

The additional operational spending would go towards maintaining the Government’s ongoing COVID response, which Marshall described as fulfilling a commitment to add 392 additional hospital beds – already budgeted at $123m when it was announced last October – as well as ongoing RAT and PCR testing and the vaccination rollout.

Asked if that meant the increase was effectively a budget blowout, Marshall told InDaily: “Only you could describe our response to a global pandemic, which has kept people safe, as a blowout.”

But the minister responsible for spending the cash was uncertain this morning when asked on ABC Radio whether the investment was new money.

The Treasurer is the custodian of the purse

“That’s a question for the Treasurer – the details will be made later today,” Wade said.

Asked whether he should be across such details, he responded: “The Treasurer is the custodian of the purse.”

That in itself seemed at odds with the Premier’s weekend assertion that it was not necessary to publicly anoint a successor for retiring Treasurer Rob Lucas, because “we’re spoilt for choice in the Liberal Party” and “the way we make decisions in our cabinet government is not up to the Treasurer, it all goes through the cabinet”.

“Those comments were regarding the budget cabinet committee,” Marshall explained today.

“Stephen Wade doesn’t sit on the budget cabinet committee.”

Asked at a mid-morning media conference about his minister’s comments, Marshall said: “I didn’t hear the interview, sorry.”

When pressed as to whether it was odd for the minister responsible for spending $500 million to not know where it came from, he said: “No, look this is a very exciting announcement for our state today.”

Photo: Tony Lewis / InDaily

He then continued his attack on Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas, whose relative inexperience and brief tenure as Health Minister has been a running theme in the opening week.

And speaking of running, the Labor leader’s mid-week fun run photo op gave the Premier his latest line of attack: “He can run, but he can’t hide from his appalling management of health when they were last in government.”

The phrase is originally attributed to US boxer Joe Louis, who uttered it before a 1946 rematch with challenger Billy Conn.

Marshall will be hoping for a similar result, with the title holder winning by knockout in the eighth round.

Although it’s perhaps more commonly known for its use in the Mel Gibson vehicle Mad Max 2.

Marshall insisted his health splurge – while not quite living up to the overnight hype – would be funded by ongoing economic growth, rather than shifting priorities elsewhere.

Asked if he would spend more on health than Labor, which has tied its scrapping of the Government’s mooted $662 million city arena to its spending plans, Marshall said: “We’ve got $3 billion worth of capital projects that have already been announced and today even more right across the state.”

He explained the stated $500 million investment as being comprised of a proportion of the $450 million increase in operational spending on the pandemic – “a small amount” of which was already included in December’s mid-year budget review –  as well as today’s $123 million in upgrades and a forthcoming “big increase in mental health to be announced with the Commonwealth next week”.

Our spend today is once and for all going to fix ramping in SA

But he insisted – not for the first time – that his Government would solve the ramping crisis, saying: “There’s still a long way to go on fixing ramping but we are the only party with a comprehensive plan to make sure that happens.”

“Our spend today is once and for all going to fix ramping in SA,” he pledged.

It’s a pledge Labor has already made, with Marshall again urging voters to assess Labor’s record in office on the issue rather than the Opposition’s pre-election rhetoric.

Malinauskas continued his own series of announcements on health today, committing a Labor government to spend $2.4 million on “improved care and support for South Australians living with motor neurone disease”.

The money will fund not-for-profit community organisation Motor Neurone Disease SA to provide treatment and equipment for sufferers.