Government Performance

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (15:25): I rise to talk about the importance of why governments need to keep their promises and to highlight in this instance where they have not and potentially the issues that come with that. At the moment here in South Australia, right at this very minute, the Convention Centre conference is being hosted, an extremely important conference that is being conducted by the people from OurWatch and the Australian Women Against Violence Alliance who, from 19 September until today, 22September, are having a conference around 'prevalent and preventable', the International Conference on Practice and Policy in the Prevention of Violence against Women and Children.

Laudably, the government is the major sponsor for this event, and congratulations to the government on that. But perhaps the government was too embarrassed to let the conference organisers know that some of the information in their booklet was incorrect. I will go to page 7 where, under general conference information, the people of the conference are being advised that in the event of a medical emergency the nearest public hospital casualty department is at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital at the junction of West Terrace and North Terrace.

Unfortunately for the people who are attending this conference—and quite a number of them are obviously not from South Australia—they need to realise that the government has failed to deliver on that promise to have that hospital ready and open in time for this conference. For those at the conference who are potentially wondering why it is that the new Royal Adelaide Hospital casualty department is not open, like its major sponsor has promised it would be, it is because the government has failed to deliver this hospital on time and on budget.

In July 2007, the government decided to start building the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, at a cost of $1.7 billion. Some of the first operative dates include technical completion on 19 January this year, with a commercial acceptance date of April 2016. Based on those figures, and on those dates, it would be reasonable for the conference organisers to assume that the hospital would be open and that, even if there were some delay, that that would not necessarily cause a problem. But there have been problems, and there have been many problems, and they start in March 2015 when SA Health decides not to implement EPAS into the old RAH and instead implements a light version at opening with paper records still being required.

Interestingly, in June the Auditor-General highlighted the dangers of implementing EPAS directly into the new RAH, and then we roll on to January 2016 when the first deadline—19 January, which was the first day for technical completion—was missed. Then between 29 January and 10 May the South Australian government issued 12 defect notices, of which at least a couple were acknowledged as valid by the SAHP. In February, we find that the project's independent certifier reports that the hospital is in a distressed state.

On 23 March this year, it emerged that this $2.3 billion hospital we have just built does not have floors strong enough to hold the paper records that now need to be implemented because instituting EPAS into the hospital is not going to be completed on time. On 4 April this year, the second technical completion deadline is missed. It is potentially at this point that the government should have had a chat with these conference organisers to let them know that they were not going to be able to deliver the hospital as promised.

On 5 April then, the South Australian government issues a major default notice. In April and May, we see two draft cure plans submitted by the builder and SAHP asking for more time in order to be able to rectify defects. In July, we hear media reports about the fact that clinical trials cannot all be housed and subsequently, on 1 September, the government gives us some sort of solution, but again, many, including the AMA, remain extremely sceptical about whether this problem has been solved.

On 1 August, a report commissioned by the department itself reveals that only 80 per cent of pathology delivered at the old RAH will fit into the new hospital. On 25 August, the SA government launched legal action in the Supreme Court against SAHP. It was potentially at this point that the principal sponsors of this conference could have let the organisers know that this information was completely wrong.

We then have the last number of dates that have been missed. On 16 September, this week, the revised technical completion date came and passed, and it now looks as though it will be the middle of next year before this hospital is opened. The South Australian people certainly know that governments need to keep their promises and, for those who are at this conference, I urge them to head east along North Terrace, as opposed to west, in the case of any emergency.