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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-10-24 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

GLENSIDE HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:28): Recently, the government announced a $100 million redevelopment of the psychiatric hospital facility at the Glenside campus of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, formerly a hospital which stood independently since 1870 in this state, having previously been the Parkside psychiatric hospital. It has a proud record of delivery of service to South Australia for people with mental illnesses, and it has served the community statewide for some 140 years. The redevelopment, or promise to rebuild a contemporary psychiatric facility for a South Australia's mental health patients, was welcomed.

However, the proposal, which has been announced, is that, in addition to building a new psychiatric hospital, there will be a significant reduction in bed capacity in the hospital based on the claim that some services are being transferred to other facilities. It has also been announced that the government will rent out the heritage area, which is currently on the site, some of which is vacant and some of which undertakes psychiatric administration services. Nearly 50 per cent of this 30 hectare site will be sold for private, commercial, retail and private housing projects. Interestingly, the announcement included a significant area of hectares fronting Fullarton Road, which is being offered as a first option to the Frewville Shopping Centre owners, which are neighbours to the facility, only divided by a heritage wall. Services are provided for mental health, as I said, all across South Australia, not only available to metropolitan residents, but it is the only facility available to country residents. So, it plays a very significant role.

It has announced that it proposes to remove the aged patients (who will be relocated at various places) but will add a facility for drug and alcohol services after the sale and consolidation of three other sites in metropolitan Adelaide. It will privatise the assessment process (that is going off for someone else to do) and bulldoze an undisclosed number of trees on the site. We have had assurances from the Premier that he is committed to trees, that he loves trees, but, of the 299 trees on this site (165 of which are significant), we have had no indication of the number that will be removed or damaged or, in some way, be the subject of relocation; neither have we had an undertaking from the government that it will not remove any trees until there has been full consultation with the community.

Well, the consultation process has started (of a sort). There have been two public meetings in the last couple of weeks and, not surprisingly, the local community has a lot of questions regarding what will happen to their trees, regarding the design and density of the proposed housing precinct, the security that will be available with the introduction of drug and alcohol patients, and access they may have to the public area. They have questions regarding what will happen with schools and local community groups who use the oval, which will be covered up by a shopping centre, and what will happen with the traffic and roads to be opened in and out of the site, which is currently accessible only through residential facilities for aged persons, and the like. These are all legitimate questions for which they are seeking answers.

The Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse has promised a consultation period and Commissioner Cappo has advised the government, in his report, of his support for this concept. He says that it is important to open the site and bring in the wider community. I do not see anywhere in his report where it says that, for the mental health of South Australia, we need another supermarket in Glenside when, at the other end of the suburb, there is one of the biggest supermarkets, cafe and retail shopping facilities in the state—in fact, I think the supermarket at the Burnside shopping centre actually has the biggest turnover in South Australia. Nevertheless, he says that it is important.

I do not know where he has been for the last 10 or 20 years when we have taken down the ha-ha walls and members of the public have been using these facilities. What is absolutely unconscionable is the announcement by the government that it will proceed with this development by ministerial PAR, and cut out and silence the voice of Burnside.

Time expired.

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