Repatriation General Hospital

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Regional Development. With the strength of opposition to the closure of the Repat Hospital expressed to you at a meeting that you attended at the Port Pirie RSL in March, will you join efforts being made calling for Ward 17 to be rebuilt on the site of Daw Park?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:51): There is a process—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Questions about the Repat go to the Minister for Health: I am the Minister for Health.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: If members of the opposition continue to breach the invariable rules of the house about which minister can answer a question—namely, all of them—then they will be warned or ejected from the house. The Minister for Health.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: As I have said previously, we have a process in place. We have a working group, chaired by Dr Susan Neuhaus, who is the chair of the Repat Foundation, co-chaired by Professor Dorothy Keefe, eminent experts in post-traumatic stress disorder, representatives of the veterans' community, and Professor Sandy McFarlane, I think Australia's pre-eminent expert on post-traumatic stress. They are working through this issue. They are looking at what the model of care should be for sufferers of post-traumatic stress, and that will drive where the new Ward 17 will be.

Dr Neuhaus has said repeatedly that her advice to the government about where the new Ward 17 will be located will be driven by the model of care and not the other way around, because it is very, very important that we get the model of care right first and let that drive where the location of the new Ward 17 should be. It would be a mistake to compromise on the care of veterans because there had been a politically predetermined outcome as to the location of the new Ward 17.