Royal Adelaide Hospital

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:13): Well, could the minister provide some clarity to his best understanding of the difference between the items contained within the major default notice and the outstanding defects, the seven outstanding defects?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:13): Obviously, the builder is in default because there has not been technical completion when they had earlier said. There is a cure plan which the builder has submitted, or SAHP has submitted, to the government, which at the moment we are assessing. That cure plan has in it the rectification of the defects, how they propose to do it and how and in what time line they propose to do it. At the moment, the government, of course, is assessing that, as I have previously indicated.

As I have said previously, I'm not going to be making any public statements regarding those dates until I have confidence that that is a date we can rely on. To date, the dates that have been provided to us by SAHP we haven't been able to rely on, but at the moment we are going through the process of having our own independent experts assess that cure plan. In parallel with that, there is obviously also court action happening as the government asserts its rights with regard to the contract. As I said in my ministerial statement, we have a very strong contract and we are determined to ensure that the state's rights with regard to that contract are protected. It is quite simple.