Josh Zimmerman: Little chance McGowan Government will agree to costly royal commission into WA health system

Last year’s parliamentary inquiry into ambulance services in WA was widely expected to deliver political cover for the McGowan Government to terminate its contract with St John and bring paramedics into the public sector.

The eventual report did exactly that — ending on a recommendation that the not-for-profit be given five years to improve its performance before facing a thorough review to determine its fate.

But the 219-page document — authored by the Public Administration Committee and containing 74 findings and 48 recommendations in total — also thoroughly mapped out the issues plaguing St John and sketched out a roadmap for reform.

Writing in The West on Friday, Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam pushed the case for a royal commission into WA’s ailing health system.

Her campaign comes after the coronial inquest into the death of seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath heard repeated evidence about the harrowing working conditions at Perth Children’s Hospital.

A royal commission, both costly to establish and politically explosive given the subject matter, is almost certainly dead in the water.

While Mettam talked down a parliamentary inquiry, writing such an exercise would inevitably be Labor-dominated and “it is hard for any committee to appear impartial when investigating itself”, that remains the far more likely avenue for the kind of probe she has demanded.

The PAC — containing three Labor MPs, a National and a crossbencher — proved itself capable of navigating the complex issues facing St John.

Perhaps it should be given the same opportunity with WA Health — or forced to explain why it is not interested in the issue.