Royal Adelaide Hospital

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:30): Supplementary: what rectification is the government seeking for this defect and how long will it take to be completed?

The Hon. T.R. Kenyon interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Newland is called to order.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:30): The rectification is that we need a chiller system which has full redundancy so that, if the chiller system breaks down, there is another system that can completely back that up so that we are not in the situation where we would have to evacuate the hospital. That is what we are seeking.

Regarding the time frames to do that, we have some advice that it would be a matter of months, not years or anything like that. It would be a matter of months to be able to rectify the situation, but the sooner SAHP just gets on with it the sooner we can get into the hospital and the sooner we can start paying the quarterly service payments. It is in everyone's interest for SAHP to stop messing around and trying to quibble over a few million dollars to get this hospital ready.

I know what the opposition would do. Stephen Wade was outside the courthouse every single day of the trial saying, 'The minister is just dragging us into a legal quagmire. What I would do is just give in. I would move into an unsafe hospital.' That's what would happen if the Liberal Party were in government. Well, that's not what this party is going to do. That's not what this government is going to do. Our first priority is always the safety of patients. We are never going to compromise on that and, unlike the opposition, we are never going to be bullied by some spivs from New South Wales who are trying to get us to take a hospital that's not safe.

Mr Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned.