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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-26 Daily Xml
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MARJORIE JACKSON-NELSON HOSPITAL

Ms CICCARELLO (Norwood) (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Health. How will the construction of the Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Hospital provide more open space for South Australians to enjoy?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:46): I thank the member for Norwood for her question. Along with the member for Adelaide, the member for Norwood is a very strong advocate for open space in our city, particularly the Adelaide Parklands. The state government, as members would be well aware, is building Australia's most progressive state-of-the-art hospital—the Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Hospital. It will be located on the former site of the rail yards in the city's west—a dilapidated, degraded part of the city. The disused rail yards are heavily contaminated, and as part of the project that site will be completely cleaned up and remediated.

The development of the hospital will also open up that site to the River Torrens, allowing patients, staff and visitors to have access to the river bank. Through this project, three hectares of remediated land will be given back to the people of South Australia on the western end of the site. These three hectares will be incorporated in Adelaide's—

Ms Chapman: They might.

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is warned.

The Hon. M.J. Wright: She has accused you of misleading the house.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I did not hear the deputy leader's interjection. She does it so frequently that I have developed a skill—an admirable skill, really—of blocking her out. But, if she suggests that I am misleading the house, I would encourage her to move a motion appropriately. The three hectares will be incorporated into the Adelaide Parklands. Once the Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Hospital is completed, the focus will shift to the Royal Adelaide Hospital site, with plans for the ageing buildings to be demolished.

Heritage buildings, of course, on that site will stay, but a great deal of open space land will be created through that demolition process. So, we will win with extra open space at the railway site and we will have extra open space at the old site as well. That land will either be incorporated into the adjacent Botanic Gardens or become part of the Parklands. We need to work that through.

The Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Hospital project will produce a net gain of open space and parklands for South Australians to enjoy as well as giving us one of the best hospitals in the world. In comparison, the opposition's plans to patch up the Royal Adelaide Hospital, instead of building a new hospital, will result in less open space for South Australians to enjoy. The deputy leader, on radio recently—

Mr WILLIAMS: On a point of order, Mr Speaker, according to your ruling of yesterday, when the minister uses words like 'patch up' is he not entering debate?

The SPEAKER: Sorry; I do not see the member for MacKillop's point.

Mr WILLIAMS: Sir, yesterday when the leader (I think) asked a question and used an adjective to enhance his question you ruled that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my right!

Mr WILLIAMS: —that entered debate into his question. I put it to you, sir, that the minister is doing exactly the same now by using terms like 'patch up' with regard to the opposition's plans for the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I did not exactly hear the context in which the Minister for Health used the words 'patched up'. I presume he was talking about the hospital. I do not see how using it in that context could possibly be described as debate. As to any similarity with my rulings yesterday on the leader's questions, I do not see any parallel there at all. The Minister for Health.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I am sorry if the word 'patch up' to describe the opposition's plans creates some anxiety for the member for MacKillop. Let me say 'renovate' or 'redo' or 'refurbish' the Royal Adelaide Hospital site. Patch up, I thought, was a reasonable way of describing all that, but whichever way you look at it there are two options here. Let me strip them down to their essentials.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: What the government plans to do is to build a brand-new, state-of-the-art hospital on the existing railway site. What the opposition wants to do is a repair job on an old broken-down 1950 set of buildings. I do not mind how you deconstruct that: that is what they want to do.

Getting to the essential kernel of my point, the deputy leader on radio recently referred to a block of land which was 'vacant space behind the hospital before you go into the Botanic Gardens areas'. She hinted that this land would be developed as part of the patching up or rehabilitation or refurbishment of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. This land is currently being rehabilitated to be restored to the Parklands.

In fact, in 1990 the then Bannon government set aside 2 hectares of land which was then used as a car park at the rear of the Royal Adelaide Hospital to be gifted to the people of South Australia, and I understand that the transfer of title has occurred. It is now controlled by the city council which is in the process of rehabilitating it.

The site is currently being restored and will eventually become open space. It will make a magnificent entrance to the Botanic Gardens from Frome Road. The only inference that one can draw from the deputy leader's comments last week is that the opposition's plan is to use that land as part of their refurbishment or patching up of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

I would say to those who are interested in open space in the city that they have a very close look at what is being proposed by the opposition, because, contrary to what the government is doing, where we will have more open space at the railway site and at the RAH site, there will be less open space, if the opposition were to be successful. The reality is, of course, that the opposition is making it up as it goes.

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