Women's and Children's Hospital

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (14:50): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health and Wellbeing a question about health.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: In April 2018, the Premier said that he was consulting with the clinicians for the new Women's and Children's Hospital, due in 2024. In early 2019, the government received a report from its appointed task force outlining the business case for the new Women's and Children's Hospital. The government said in the budget that it could not provide a full cost for the project and that the time line had been pushed out from 2024 to 2025 or 2026. This is eight years, of course, after they were elected.

The government later said that its final costing and final business case was due at the end of 2019. The government announced in January this year that the business case was delayed and would not be provided until the end of 2020. Then, again today the government has announced that the business case has been delayed again. This time, apparently, there's a pandemic emergency that started two months ago rather than their own repeated delays that I have just outlined, obviously started two years ago. My questions to the minister are:

1. Why didn't consultation occur with clinicians over the 24 months between the election and the coronavirus emergency declaration?

2. When will the new Women's and Children's Hospital start construction and when will the new Women's and Children's Hospital be completed?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:52): The honourable member seems to think that the government can consult with clinicians on all relevant issues from day one. The reality is that's not the case. It was only in April 2020 that the new women's and children's project executive steering committee approved the new women's and children's project, proceeding with a realigned program in response to the constraints arising from COVID-19.

A project team had been established and it will continue to do background work on the preliminary master planning and preliminary concept planning in collaboration with a range of professionals. This phase does involve significant consultation with clinicians, staff, consumers and key stakeholders. We will do what we can during the pandemic, but it is not surprising that the progress of the project and the progress of the consultation is impacted by the pandemic.