ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (14:44): My question is to the Treasurer. Why did the Treasurer claim yesterday that the cost of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital had increased because there had been an increase in the hospital floor space when the floor space has reduced? In November 2008, the Minister for Health stated on radio that the cost was to be $1.7 billion and the floor space was to be 170,000 square metres.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister for Health.

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) (14:45): We have been through over four years of contest over this new Royal Adelaide Hospital. An election has taken place in relation to this new Royal Adelaide Hospital. What we have determined to do as a government is to give the people of our state the very best hospital we can provide them. We need to give them a new hospital with a—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Bragg will be quiet.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker—

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker, I—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I think we are going to be here until 5 o'clock, the way this question time is going, or I will call it to a close. We will have some order on my left and also my right. You will be quiet because I'm getting very cross about this. Someone will leave in a minute. Minister.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rarely blush, Madam Speaker, but I came close to it on that occasion.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: I can't hear you.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I'm sorry, I'm so shocked by the interjection. The process of developing proposals for the hospital has gone in this way: we made an assessment early on that the option of building on the new site was not viable; we looked at a range of other sites where we could produce a hospital; and then we went through a process of deciding that, if we are going to build on the Royal Adelaide—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam, they are inviting me to enter into argument across the chamber, which would be disorderly.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I'm getting to the point if they would stop interrupting. We went through a process of designing a hospital which we could use as a benchmark for the provision of services, and that is what we did back in 2007, from memory, and we came up with a floor space of approximately 170,000 square metres, which was going to cost the sum of money that has been described. Over the process of the intervening years, the design and the processing of that has changed, and the original—

Mr Pisoni: It's gone up in price.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Well, I'm not sure whether members on the other side have ever bought a house or built a shed or done any other bit of planning which involves infrastructure, but if they had, Madam Speaker—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition, you are warned.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —they would realise, of course, that, as you go through a design process and a costing process, things change. The planning process we went—

The Hon. I.F. Evans: You still can't say that 170 is smaller than 167.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. I.F. Evans interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Davenport, you asked the question; you will listen to it.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: If you stop talking, I will answer the question. The process we went through involved a series of design and costings processes and thoughts, and the stage that we finalised our own design was around 154,000 square metres. That was the view we had as to how large the hospital ought to be. Then, through the process of discussion and involvement with the—

Mrs Redmond: You announced 170,000.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Yes; I don't resile from that, and that's—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! member for MacKillop, you are warned.

The Hon. R.B. Such interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Thank you. I thank the member for Fisher for his support. I say to members opposite that we went through a process of detailed design and the parameters and the scope and all of the issues were under active consideration through that whole process. When we got into the arrangements through the public-private process, we had a model in mind for a public build of about 154,000 square metres and, through the ultimate design process involving the private sector, it came in at 12,000 square metres more because we just could not fit the requirements into a smaller site, despite what we had initially thought.

It is true that we started off with a bigger site—that was the earlier scope—and we changed it over time. But that is what you do if you are building something as complex as a hospital of this size. If you think the first take is going to be the right take, you are seriously deluded. We have been honest about this the entire way through. I resent completely the claim made by the member for Davenport, who likes to be tricky when it comes to matters of fact in this place.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: We have been absolutely open about this the whole way through.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Morphett.