Women's and Children's Hospital

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:42): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding the Women's and Children's Hospital.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Today, there was an announcement at the Women's and Children's Hospital about the new Women's and Children's Hospital, about new partnerships, in which it discussed that 'a consortium of Aurecon and Deloitte will work with us to prepare the final business case, find opportunities in the co-location with the new RAH, set up the project management office and a number of other factors'. Is the minister saying that he was unaware of this process or unaware of this consortium, even though it was announced today by his department at the Women's and Children's Hospital?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:43): The honourable member does not seem to understand what devolution means. The former Labor government was focused on centralising power in a multistorey building on Hindmarsh Square. They abolished boards. They had a Stalin-like approach to managing the health bureaucracy. We, in contrast, believe that devolution is important. That means that boards working with local management make local decisions.

As I have indicated earlier, I was aware of the Women's and Children's Hospital project team tender process. I will certainly seek an update following the honourable member's question, but let me be clear to honourable members: I look forward to your questions, I look forward to answering all that I am able to, but let's remember that when we have a portfolio that employs more than 44,000 people—across LHNs, across the ambulance services, across the department—there is a lot that happens in the portfolio that I will need to seek further advice on.

One of my parliamentary colleagues was suggesting to me earlier this week that he thought that SA Health would probably be the largest employer by multitudes, perhaps tenfold. I appreciate there are other honourable members who would have a better idea of what the largest private sector employer would be in South Australia, but I am told that it's likely to be less than 10,000. SA Health is not only a major provider of health services in South Australia, they are also a major employer right across the state. We will continue to devolve, because it makes sense.