Repatriation General Hospital

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (15:15): Supplementary: in responding to significant community concern around the closure of the Repat site, will the minister now make a political decision, or was the decision to close services at the Repat site—was that clinical or was that political?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (15:15): They really have run out of questions, haven't they? Another five minutes to go and they have to try to pad out question time, and they have left it to the poor old member for Schubert: 'We have run out of questions. Can you pad us out and get us through for the last five minutes of question time?' I have never seen, in 20 years in this place, an opposition burning the clock in question time. It is the first time in 20 years—

The SPEAKER: Point of order, member for Unley.

Mr PISONI: I ask you to direct the minister to the substance of question; he is obviously debating.

The SPEAKER: Could the minister address the member for Schubert's question, rather than give us his correct views on everything.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I will try to go for four minutes to help out the member for Schubert. I will see if I can help them.

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: The Minister for Agriculture is happy to help out, too. I am confident in the support for the changes at the Repat Hospital. The $200 million investment that the ACH Group are going to make at the Repat site, the fact that they are bringing new services onto the Repat site, the fact that they have undertaken to protect and preserve the heritage buildings, the Peace Garden, the chapel and all those things are going to be enormously popular.

The opposition are going to look incredibly backward looking and silly in having opposed what is going to be a magnificent new development. Indeed, the new rehabilitation and palliative care building at the Flinders Medical Centre—a beautiful new palliative care in the southern suburbs is going from an old building with old facilities, without any privacy, into a beautiful new building on the rooftop, with a rooftop garden. It is going to be absolutely state of the art. I am looking very much forward to being there at its opening in coming months. It is going to be very, very exciting.

Mr Marshall: You promised you would never ever sell the Repat.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Absolutely. We will stand by that decision because we know how popular it is going to be—and doesn't the Leader of the Opposition just sound more and more shrill and silly the closer we get to this election?