Women's and Children's Hospital

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:35): Supplementary question arising from the answer given: is there any estimate whatsoever of when construction will start on this proposed new Women's and Children's Hospital?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:35): I'm going to make it very clear to the people of South Australia and particularly—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Sorry, minister, sit down, please. The minister had barely started his response to that supplementary and we had the opposition benches yapping away at him, and I won't have that. Let's hear what he has to say.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: It does indicate that they don't really care about the issue because they don't want to hear the answer.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The Labor opposition seems to be agitated about the fact—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister will answer the question, but let him do so.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The Labor opposition is clearly—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: When is it starting?

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hanson, be silent.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The Labor opposition is clearly—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! You are not allowing the minister to hardly open his mouth. Let the minister conclude his response to this and we will get on with question time.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The Labor Party is clearly agitated about this because they are embarrassed about how they botched the new Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The honourable Minister for Human Services is not being helpful.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: Sorry.

The PRESIDENT: The Minister for Health and Wellbeing.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The Labor Party is clearly embarrassed—agitated and embarrassed—because of their own record. They managed to launch the Royal Adelaide Hospital construction process and they ended up having a $660 million cost blowout, a 17-month delay—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —many design flaws, and an appalling—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: You haven't got a date, have you?

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —lack of consultation with stakeholders.

The Hon. E.S. Bourke: I wouldn't be talking about delays.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Bourke!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: We are, I can assure you, learning a lot from the former Labor government on how not to build a hospital, and that is exactly—

The Hon. E.S. Bourke: Because you're not going to build one. You just won't build one instead.

The PRESIDENT: And you are going to conclude your answer, minister, when you get the chance.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: We are at the stage of engaging our clinicians. We are not going to repeat the mistakes of the former Labor government and lock the clinicians out of the building of the hospital. That process started in the middle of August this year with a design team that was appointed in—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Ms Scriven!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —March 2020. We will design a hospital in consultation with the clinicians and we will deliver a quality integrated hospital at the North Terrace site.