Women's and Children's Hospital

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (14:35): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing about the proposed Women's and Children's Hospital.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Recently, in discussing the plans for the proposed development of the Women's and Children's Hospital on Port Road, next to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, the minister indicated there would be need for remediation of the site because of the presence of contaminants like heavy metals and that this would be taken into consideration in the enormous cost of the project.

My question to the minister is: is the minister aware that Adelaide is the most earthquake-prone city in Australia and that the site sits on our most active fault line? Therefore, does he have concerns that we will have two major hospitals being built on fault lines only 66 years after a major earthquake caused enormous damage in the city and the suburbs? Has this been, or will it be, factored into the projected $2 billion-plus cost of the project, and will the new building be required to be earthquake-proof?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:37): I thank the honourable member for his question. I will certainly both attempt an answer and also undertake to take the question on notice because I won't be able to offer him the detail that he's seeking. The new Women's and Children's Hospital is located on the same parcel of land, if you like, as the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. It was appreciated that, being a former railway industry site, there was likely to be the risk of significant soil contamination.

The advice I have received is that the risk of significant contamination is significantly lower at the western end of the site but, nonetheless, as a matter of due diligence, bores are being drilled in that area. That is an important part of assessing what work needs to be done in terms of soil contamination and also in terms of the nature of the soil and the engineering requirements. It's only when we have those drilling results that we will have confidence about what we are dealing with, and we can deal with that in the project planning.

The honourable member rightly indicates that Adelaide is an earthquake-prone city. In that context, my understanding was that the new Royal Adelaide Hospital was built with a higher level of earthquake standards to be able to cope with an earthquake. Also, in the context of the discussion of the cost comparisons between the new Women's and Children's Hospital and the Calvary Hospital, one of the factors is that the new Women's and Children's Hospital will need to be built to higher critical infrastructure requirements.

The functional services at the new Women's and Children's Hospital are higher than at what is commonly called Calvary Blue. Also, because it is a major trauma hospital for paediatrics, it has a higher level of specialist services. So in terms of both earthquake and general critical infrastructure requirements as well as soil remediation, these things do all add to the cost.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Pangallo, a supplementary.