Royal Adelaide Hospital

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:30): Supplementary: will the Premier then confirm that no such cladding has been used on the new Royal Adelaide Hospital?

The SPEAKER: I should explain for the benefit of viewers that the standing order is that, though the question may be directed to the Premier or to a minister, any minister in the government may answer the question. Deputy Premier.

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (15:31): I appear to be unusually representing the government today, but that won't be every day, so they can be happy about that. As I explained previously, there was a media conference. My recollection is that it was around the 25^th or thereabouts of August, something like that. I believe it was reported in the media. I believe I was there with the chief fire officer and with the Lord Mayor. At that conference, we answered all of these questions and we went to some length to explain them, but I will repeat what the chief fire officer said nearly a month ago—in fact, over a month ago—because the member for Unley may not have been watching TV that night.

What he said was that it is believed that a number of buildings in the city contain aluminium composite panels and that includes the Royal Adelaide Hospital. I think he said they were looking at whether or not any of it was in the Adelaide Oval complex. They are looking all over the place. Then the question was asked: are you worried about the fact that this material has been used in the Royal Adelaide Hospital? His answer was:

No, we are not. We have not seen anything to indicate that there is any safety issue whatsoever relating to this material in any place we have seen it, including the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

So that is the most recent state of affairs. I can assure the parliament that if the government becomes aware that any building, whether it be a public building or a private building, is a building about which the Metropolitan Fire Service has concerns, that building will immediately be the subject of action by the MFS and by the government, and, if we are provided with that information, we will not be sitting on our hands and doing nothing. But, as at the present time, the MFS have been very, very clear that they don't have any particular issue with any of the buildings they have looked at.

The second phase of the audit, which is presently being undertaken, will be looking in some greater detail. What they have told me is that some of these buildings may have some of this material on it, but only in relation to a particular feature of the building and not the whole building, just an awning or something of that nature, so that is progressing.

The short answer now is: the MFS has been looking into this and the MFS has told me, in so many words, that they are not concerned about those buildings or any other buildings in particular. They will continue to look and if they find anything that they are worried about, they will tell us, because it is their duty to tell us, and they will tell the owners of the buildings and the insurers of the buildings and the occupants of the buildings. That is what we intend to do.

As for those who want to go around scaring and frightening people because they live in buildings which are perfectly safe, we are not going to—

The SPEAKER: Deputy Premier, I think I have cautioned you about going down that road.