Question Time

Royal Adelaide Hospital

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:10): My question is to the Minister for Health. Six weeks after the government issued a major default notice to require SA Health Partnerships to identify a firm technical completion date for the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, can the minister advise the house the date on which technical completion will occur?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:10): I certainly will once I have a date from SAHP that I have confidence in. To date, that has not been forthcoming, but I can assure the house, as I did yesterday, that as soon as we are in a position to make public a date for technical completion I will make that public. But I can say I have two priorities: firstly, the safety of patients—patient safety is my first priority, that we safely move patients and that we commission this new hospital, and on that matter I will not compromise; the second issue is the safety of the workers on site.

Contrary to the urgings of the opposition, I will not be putting any undue pressure on the builders of this new facility that would in any way compromise the safety of the workers on that site. They are my two priorities on which I will not compromise. The hospital will be finished when it is finished.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: It has been operating down there for 170 years; a few more months isn't going to make a terrible amount of difference.

The SPEAKER: I call to order the leader and deputy leader, the member for Morialta, and the members for Stuart, Goyder, Chaffey, Finniss, Adelaide and Kavel for forced cackling.