Women's and Children's Hospital

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:10): My question is, again, to the Premier. Can the Premier explain the cost blowout of more than $1 billion for the new Women's and Children's Hospital? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: The former government fully costed the Women's and Children's Hospital at $1.9 billion—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —which is more than $1 billion less—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —than the cost of the hospital announced today by the government.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:11): I do love it when we have these introduced facts—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —that are not facts whatsoever. The idea that the Leader of the Opposition—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —is putting forward that everything was fully costed, everything was fine, is shovel ready—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Badcoe, the member for West Torrens and the member for Florey are called to order. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: As we know, $53 million has already been spent on this project and there is not a shovel in sight on this project—$53 million! Immediately after we formed government we immediately got briefings from the project team, and what were we told?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We were told that there had already been—

Mr Cowdrey interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Colton is called to order.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —a blowout in the cost—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey and the member for Schubert!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —that there wasn't enough capacity, that there were serious clinical concerns about the size of the hospital, and particularly the critical care units—the ICUs and the operating theatres.

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: So we did the responsible thing—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —and we got a review done of this site, and one of the things we have done as part of that work—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —is we got a proper review of the cost estimates that were put in place. So three different—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned for a second time.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —sources, an independent cost consultant, Lendlease, the managing contractor and the—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley is on three warnings.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —former CEO of New South Wales Health Infrastructure have all reviewed the costings and the basis of those costings, and we have now a determined figure of $2.8 billion for the cost of delivering that hospital, $150 million of which was our commitment in terms of delivering an additional 50 beds.

As the Premier said, the previous plan for this hospital was one extra paediatric overnight bed. So you are spending all this money and it would be at capacity by the time it opened. It is $700 million worth of additional costs is down to the following: increase in construction costs, estimated to be $1,425 per square metre; construction intensity; and additional cost of the requirements that were put in place largely before the election in terms of trying to address some of the hot floor concerns in terms of those critical services. All of those costs add up.

It is increasingly getting closer to the Royal Adelaide Hospital—which was the plan that was in place before we got into government—and by doing that the complexity of the construction increases, and that meant that the cost of it was going up as well. All of those factors, as well as clearly an increasing cost internationally of construction projects at the moment has led to that cost estimate of $2.8 billion.

What we have done is the work in comparing all the options that are all available to see. We have fully briefed the media today in terms of all those options that you can see, and what came very clearly out of the assessment was that the new site that we have selected got the best score from the clinical group of all the options. The best possible clinical outcomes, not only for now—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —but into the long term.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister, please be seated. Member for Schubert, you are on three warnings. Of course, I remind the house of standing order 141, which indicates that the house is not to permit quarrels. Minister, I am going to grant you an additional 15 seconds for your answer.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Thank you for your generosity, sir. We've got a reference group that has given the advice that this is the best clinical outcome. That was even before we added the addition of the four women's ICU beds, which have even increased the clinical excellence of this hospital. We are delivering a hospital that's not just going to be there for the short-term, that isn't going to be full on day one, but that is going to set us up for the long term and importantly provide the capacity to expand the women's and kids' and the Royal Adelaide Hospital long into the future.