Royal Adelaide Hospital

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:58): My question is to the Minister for Health. Can the minister update the house on whether the technical completion of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital will be achieved tomorrow week, 25 May, as in accordance with the advice that he provided to the house on 22 March this year?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:58): I think it's pretty unlikely, and I point out that at the time I said I had very little confidence in that date, but that was the date that we were being provided with by SAHP. So, I have been very, very clear from the very beginning that I did not expect that technical completion would be done on 25 May; however, that was the information we were being provided with.

With regard to what is going on in the process, we are still in consultation with SAHP, and we have made very, very clear that what we expect from SAHP is a date that I can have confidence in so that we can go to the people of South Australia with a firm delivery date so that we can make the planning we need to do to deliver this hospital.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: I know the opposition have never liked the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and scream and shout, and all the hysteria we get from the Leader of the Opposition, perhaps the most pathetic Leader of the Opposition we have seen in modern times in South Australia—

The SPEAKER: The minister is warned for the second and final time for gratuitously violating the standing orders by insulting the Leader of the Opposition, who, of course, invited it by interjecting.

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I also warn for the first time the member for Hammond. The Minister for Health has more?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: I do have a little more, sir. We, of course, are working with the consortium partners. I have made very clear a few facts. Firstly, we expect a reliable delivery date. It is simply not good enough that we are flying blind with regard to when the hospital is going to be ready. I want to be able to talk to nurses and I want to be able to talk to doctors with some firm plans about when we are going to be moving from the old RAH down to the new RAH, and the fact that we haven't been able to extract that from SAHP is simply not good enough.

The second thing, I can inform the house, is that I have also made very, very clear that we will not pay a dollar to SAHP until we get a hospital that is complete and ready for us to move into. They are my two conditions, my two priorities, and I hope that we will be in a position to make an announcement with regard to our dates of completion and moving-in dates very, very soon. But these are matters that we are working through and pursuing every possible avenue that we can to have this matter resolved as soon as possible.