Repatriation General Hospital

Mrs POWER (Elder) (15:12): It has been an historic week for the Repat, with the concept master plan for the site revealed and the state and federal Liberal governments coming together to invest more than $70 million into a revitalised Repat health precinct. I rise today not only to talk about our plans for the new health precinct but also to acknowledge and thank the people who were the driving force behind saving the Repat, and this includes:

the veterans, led by Augustinus Krikke, who slept on the steps of Parliament House during those cold winter nights after Labor first announced its decision to close the Repat;

the people who attended one of the many rallies;

those in the community who worked and volunteered their time at the Repat site;

all the South Australians who signed the petition calling on the Labor government to reverse its decision to close the Repat. When I say 'all the South Australians', that represents more than 120,000 people;

the people who took the time to attend one of my many Repat community forums. So far, in my time representing Elder, that includes eight different community events; and

the individuals who formed a dedicated group to save the Repat, including Professor Warren Jones, Dr Elizabeth Hobbin, Dr Robert Black, John Besanko, Neil and Carla Baron, Christine Doerr and the late Guy Bowering.

As a Liberal team, both in opposition and now in government, we listened to our community. We made a promise that if elected we would stop the sale of the Repat and that is exactly what we did. It has been a collective effort that got us to that point and to where we are now, with a clear master plan for the site.

It has been a journey that we travelled along together as a community, one where we have faced challenges and an uphill fight that in December 2017 looked like we might have lost, with the Repat site, under Labor's rule, potentially set for subdivision and bulldozing. Fortunately, unwavering determination and hope has prevailed and this week we see a future for the Repat site as a thriving healthcare precinct.

The concept master plan for the Repat site sees us deliver on our election promises and respond to the community feedback that we gathered through extensive consultation last year, when more than 1,500 members of our community had their say about what they would like to see at the Repat site.

The concept master plan for the Repat site includes a new statewide brain and spinal rehabilitation unit, including a new state-of-the-art 26-bed inpatient facility; an 18-bed specialised facility to care for some of the most vulnerable South Australians suffering extreme behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia; an eight-bed specialised dementia care unit in addition to the 18-bed unit; a state-of-the-art gymnasium for brain and spinal patients and athletes; and a town square in the heart of the Repat to create a community hub and an outdoor space.

For helping this master plan become a reality, I would really like to acknowledge and thank Nicolle Flint, the member for Boothby, whose work secured $30 million from the federal government for the new statewide brain and spinal rehabilitation unit and a further $1.3 million for the dementia care unit. At a state level, we have also committed $40 million as we continue our work to reactivate the Repat.

At our community forum held on Sunday just past, I shared a quote from Margaret Mead, who said, 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.' Whilst I stand in this house, I stand here as just one of the many individuals in that group of people who together fundamentally changed the fate and the future of the Repat. In doing so, we have improved health care in our community and our state.