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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-18 Daily Xml
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ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:51): I am pleased to see the Treasurer is so good at his economics—

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: I have a supplementary question. What is the latest estimate, then, in 2009 dollars, of the total cost of building the Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Hospital?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (14:51): It is $1.7 billion. Nothing has changed. We have done a scope on the project. The advice that we have been given is that, when you allow for contingency and for what we consider to be the appropriate scope of the project, we come at a figure of $1.7 billion. That has not gone to market yet: it will not go to market for some time, and the final figure will not be known until we get our accounts in. But, we are not in the business, in Treasury, of underestimating or allowing agencies, such as health, to come up with a figure without putting it through a serious amount of rigour. We have had external advice—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: We have put the costing of that hospital to rigour.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: The Bakewell Bridge? You always have to go one too far, don't you, and tell a porky.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: That came in under budget, didn't it?

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Yes.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: There you go.

The Hon. M.D. Rann: He never went out and attacked Bakewell.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Yes. Who was it—Bob Bakewell? With a bit of luck the hospital will come in less than $1.7 billion. But, then again, only time will tell.

Mr Griffiths: Fingers crossed on that.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Fingers crossed on it! I know a lot more about the rigour that I, the Minister for Health and our agencies have put into the value of the Royal Adelaide Hospital than the rigour they have put into their $1 billion football stadium, where they have got some consultant to give them a figure, but it is secret—they won't show it to anybody. It is a bit like the rigour of your shadow transport minister, the member for Unley, who says, 'We're going to put the railway station underground'—the billion dollars or more that is going to cost!

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: They needed to have an accountant in Frome.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Yes; as my colleague the Minister for Infrastructure says, just like the rigour you put into the mathematics of the electorate of Frome. That is the sort of rigour that you are noted for. You could not get off to New York quick enough. 'We won! I'm out of here. An embarrassment for Mike Rann, an embarrassment for Labor.' How did he look? And this guy is having a go at me about whether or not we are putting enough rigour into our accounting. Honestly, this is not a good day for you—not a good day.

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