Royal Adelaide Hospital

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:45): Can the minister confirm to the house that in fact it will be in excess of $250 million more per year to move to the new site and that money is not paying for one single additional doctor or nurse and of course, leading to the diminution of services right across—

The SPEAKER: Could we just have a question, please?

Mr MARSHALL: —the rest of our health service?

The SPEAKER: The leader is seriously out of order in using a question to make an impromptu speech. Minister for Health.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:45): Let's go through this slowly for the Leader of the Opposition. Yes, if we did nothing at the Royal Adelaide Hospital: no upgrade, nothing, we just left it exactly as it is and it became essentially a museum piece that still had patients in it, there is no doubt if we were still using chloroform for anaesthetics we could probably save money there. Why use anaesthetics at all? The Leader of the Opposition would be quite happy to save the money and not have anaesthetics at all.

The simple fact is that we are very proud of our investment in this new hospital, which is not only a hospital but will create a precinct down at the western end of North Terrace—a biomedical precinct where you have SAHMRI, the universities on that site. The universities are alive to the possibilities from this new hospital. The only people left in South Australia who are still arguing to stay on the old site are those opposite.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The members for Elder, Hammond and the leader are called to order. The members for Morialta and the deputy leader are warned a first time, and the member for Taylor is warned a second and final time. The leader.