House of Assembly: Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Contents

Women's and Children's Hospital

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. When does the new site for the police barracks have to be determined to avoid further delays on the new Women's and Children's Hospital with the completion date of 2031?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:03): Thank you for the question. We have allocated $2 million to the police to undertake work in relation to the business case for the moving of those services that are currently on that site. A number of services are currently on that site. A number of task forces are in temporary removalist-type buildings. There are obviously the dogs and the horses, and there is the Police Historical Society as well. The police are undertaking a project in terms of—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Florey is warned.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —moving those services to other appropriate locations.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Florey is warned for a second time. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: This is something we have been working on collaboratively with the police. I want to thank the police minister for his collaboration in terms of this. This is something that the police have obviously had in mind for some time, particularly since the member for Heysen rezoned that land as health zoning back when they were in government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: So there has been some—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Just in case!

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer is called to order. The member for West Torrens is called to order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Chaffey! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: So there has been some indication that the police may need to consider this over time. Some preliminary work has already been done. Obviously, there are other elements to the hospital as well. The construction of the car park is likely to be the first element that's constructed of the hospital.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Florey! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: That's on the same site of where the car park was originally proposed to be located, along Gaol Road. That's likely to be where the first construction elements take place.

Members interjecting:

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

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Obviously, the faster we can get access to the SAPOL site, the faster we can get access to undertaking the construction works on that site as well. Work is underway. We want that to happen as fast as possible. The faster we can bring that forward, the faster we can get the construction works happening on that site. In addition, the faster we can get legislation approved by the parliament, that will certainly help in terms of the time line of this project as well. A key element in terms of the questions in relation to cost impact this as well, where—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey, it's not the Colosseum. The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: The faster that we can have the SAPOL access, the faster that construction can happen. The faster we can get the legislation, we can potentially bring forward the time line as much as possible. The more we can bring forward the time line, the less the cost. If the time line goes the other way—for instance, if we have to go a more difficult route in terms of planning—then that obviously has additional costs. We don't want to have that happen, and that's why it's really important not only to have the SAPOL work that is currently underway but also in terms of legislation that we will be bringing before the house very shortly.