Ministerial Statement

ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:02): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Davenport referred to figures from an alleged Macquarie Bank document to make claims about the cost of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. The Leader of the Opposition must now show the public of South Australia the document that was used to make this claim, because we know that people in her position have in the past—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —had credibility issues—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —with documents used to make outrageous claims in this parliament, as the member for Waite well knows.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms Chapman: Scurrilous!

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for MacKillop, the member for Norwood and the member for Bragg!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Talk about the cat calling the kettle black. Yesterday, the member for Davenport used deliberately ambiguous language referring to 'total use of funds spent come 2016' in parliament. The member for Davenport refused to appear on radio with me to discuss these figures this morning. What has he got to hide?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The Leader of the Opposition must now show the parliament the breakdown of the costs provided in the alleged Macquarie Bank document and come clean with the people of South Australia—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —about what these documents truly say about the construction cost of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The Liberal Party has a questionable history of misusing or manufacturing documents for political claims, as the former leader knows only too well. Where is the member for Unley today, speaking of such matters?

An honourable member: He is working on documents.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: He is working on documents. If the alleged document is genuine, the aspiring leader, the member for Davenport—

The SPEAKER: Point of order! The member for Finniss.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr PENGILLY: Standing order 98: I believe the minister is just debating this matter.

The SPEAKER: This is a ministerial statement. Minister, continue on.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: If the alleged document is genuine—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order: I believe the minister did, a moment ago, make a very disparaging remark about the member for Unley who is not here to protect himself. I ask that the minister withdraw and apologise.

The SPEAKER: What in particular did he say, member for MacKillop?

Mr WILLIAMS: The minister suggested that the member for Unley, who is not here at the moment, was out somewhere manufacturing documents. It was a very disparaging remark, and the member is not here to protect himself.

The SPEAKER: Alright; sit down!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister, did you say that?

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker, I think what I said was that the Liberal Party have a questionable history of misusing or manufacturing documents for political claims, as the former leader knows only too well. Then I said, 'Oh, where is the member for Unley?' My colleague made some witty remark, and I think I may have repeated it. If I repeated something which offended the deputy leader I am happy to withdraw it.

The SPEAKER: So you have withdrawn that remark. Minister.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: If the alleged document is genuine the aspiring leader, the member for Davenport, must know that the document reveals a construction cost that is lower, much lower, than the figure he used and does not support the claims he and the Leader of the Opposition made in the house yesterday.

The final contractual negotiations, as I have said many times, are currently underway with the winning bidder, SA Health Partnership, to design, build, finance and then maintain and operate the new Royal Adelaide Hospital over a 35-year period. Financial details—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —of the project are confidential until the contract negotiations with SA Health Partnership consortium are completed and a contract is signed and the financial close is reached. As has already been mentioned in the parliament, and outside, consistent with other PPP projects in South Australia—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —I have no idea what you're saying, Vickie—the government will release details of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital PPP contract within 60 days of the contract being signed, including the total value of the signed contract. We will provide full information to the public—

Ms Chapman: What about the contracts themselves?

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Bragg!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —about the final cost of the project over 35 years, which will include construction cost, finance cost, transaction cost, facilities maintenance cost, equipment life-cycle cost.

Ms Chapman: What about contracts?

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It is interesting that the member for Bragg talks about contracts, because we have a lot of history in this place about contracts that her side of politics provided to us over time. Maybe we should talk about secrecy in the Liberal Party while we are talking about this. What we are offering to do, we are promising to do, is to provide as much detail as we possibly can to the public, so they can form their own opinion as to the benefits of this project.

So, construction cost, financial cost, transaction cost, facilities maintenance cost, and equipment life-cycle cost will be made available to the public. I am advised that the cost of risk is built into every element of the costing process. The government will release all information—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: We will release all information that is not commercially confidential. The government will not pay a single dollar until SA Health deems the hospital—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —is ready for use. This is one of the benefits of this contract. It gets built, it's constructed, we do not start paying until we move into the hospital. I repeat: this is a very good deal for the taxpayers of this state—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Norwood!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —and the Leader of the Opposition should come clean and show the public document that she is relying on to make these kinds of claims.

The SPEAKER: I call on questions without notice—and I'm warning people that today I am a bit cross, and they might end up out of the chamber.