Barossa Hospital

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (15:47): This is a fantastic day in South Australia for the people of the Barossa Valley. For the first time, after some almost 30 years worth of campaigning, we have money in the next state budget to help deliver a Barossa hospital for my community.

This idea was first mooted back in the early nineties, around 1993, when the two hospital boards from the Tanunda and Angaston hospitals were encouraged to merge into a single hospital board on the basis that a single brand-new facility would be built. Ever since that day, we have seen hospital boards and other health advisory groups raise money towards that end. We have heard lots of talk by politicians helping to try to get this project off the ground, but today we can have confidence that the Barossa hospital will now be built.

There is $6 million in the budget: $1 million to go towards finalising the design, the scope of services and the other planning works that need to happen, and $5 million to go towards land acquisition, to buying the site if it needs to be purchased, and undertaking the early works and connecting the power and those kinds of things to get this project off the ground.

What we will see over the coming weeks and months is a site chosen from one of three sites, I understand, that are currently under consideration, one being a brownfield site at one of the existing hospitals, the second being a brand-new site on the outskirts of Nuriootpa and the third being a private proposal. Once the site is chosen, we can get on with the early works. We have the money and the budget to get on with the early works to get this hospital built.

In parliament today, I want to thank so many people who have been on this case and on this issue for decades. I was first introduced to this topic by the then MP Ivan Venning, who gave me his history on the topic. I sat down with Wyndham Rogers and David West, two people who were on the hospital board at the time, to understand that history. I have talked with many different nurses and doctors, including Trudy Vaughan and Libby, who have long been on at me about this issue, as well as doctors from across the Nuriootpa, Tanunda and Angaston medical practices.

Lately, there is a real push by retired dentists Bill Holmes and Barry Swan. Barry is the head of a trust that actually helps to raise money towards health facilities in the Barossa. All these people are fighting on behalf of their community and today we can finally give them the assurance that a Barossa hospital is going to be built.

I can understand the frustration of my community. It is something that has been talked about by some for almost 30 years, but this is the first time we have actually had money in the budget, and money in the budget is how we know that this project is going to go ahead. I look forward to being able to update the community on the steps of this project as we go forward so we can finally deliver that regional health facility that we know is going to deliver better outcomes for the people of the Barossa.

I also want to pay tribute to the many people inside government who have helped bring this to fruition, from the Treasurer, who holds the purse strings, to the Minister for Health who, together with Country Health, as well as the new candidate for Schubert, Ashton Hurn, have been pushing to bring this project to fruition. This budget is one that finally puts paid and delivers for the people of the Barossa after decades of neglect, especially under the former government. I look forward to being able to spruik this opportunity to my community over the coming weeks, months and years that it will take to finally be built so that they know they are going to get the first-class health care they so richly deserve.