House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Women's And Children's Hospital Women's and Children's Hospital Ms PRATT House of Assembly Frome Women's and Children's Hospital Ms PRATT (Frome) (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the minister confirm when early works on the new Women's and Children's site will commence, and whether any delayed payments to Lendlease are liable to be paid by the government if there is a postponement of that construction? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain. Leave granted. Ms PRATT House of Assembly Ms PRATT: Under the former Liberal government, construction was scheduled to start later this year. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The minister. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call. The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly Kaurna The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:47): I thought that where you ask for leave to introduce facts, you actually have to introduce some facts and not complete fantasy. Let's remember that this is a project that the former government promised was going to open in 2024. Open in 2024 was their original promise, that this would happen. Then it got delayed and delayed and delayed. Now we are hearing this line being put out by those opposite— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta! The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —that it was apparently 'shovel ready'. It is a complete furphy, absolute fantasy that this project is shovel ready. There is no truth to that whatsoever. In fact, now there is a suggestion that there were some payments that have to be made to Lendlease. This doesn't even show an understanding of what the contract was that was signed by the previous government with Lendlease. There was an initial contract in terms of the initial planning stages which are, of course, continuing. There will be additional contracts in regard to the construction further down the track. There is completely no truth whatsoever to the idea that major construction was going to be underway this year on this project. What happened when we came to government was that we already knew that the project had blown out in cost and in time frames and, very quickly, we were told, 'Well, actually it has blown out even more in cost and more in time frames than was public before the election.' At that point, we said we had to bring in some outside expertise to have a look at this project and we will soon be going through the results of that work. It is really important we get this project right because it is going to last for generations. We can't have a situation where this project continues to blow out in terms of cost and time frames and, in addition, not be able to deliver the important clinical benefits that we need for our health system for the future as well. We know that the other element of this project was: how many extra beds do you think—hundreds of extra beds, 50 extra beds, 20 extra beds? Actually, one fewer overnight paediatric and adolescent bed was part of the plan for this hospital. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! Mr Patterson House of Assembly Mr Patterson: That's just cherrypicking. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett! The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We have to get to the bottom of what the full costs of this project are. We have to get to the bottom of what the proper time frame is for this project. Mr Patterson interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett! The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We have to look at the potential alternative sites that we can consider. Importantly, we have to plan for the future in terms of having the capacity for growth in terms of clinical services. That's what has been raised with the clinicians and that is what we are now following up on in terms of making sure that we deliver this project right.