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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-19 Daily Xml
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Question Time

ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:12): Will the Premier accept responsibility for the idea that building a hospital two kilometres away from its teaching university, the medical and dental schools and the IMVS is preferable to building the new hospital on its current site? Will he tell the house whose idea it was? Yesterday, the Premier told the house—

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: It matters a lot, according to Labor staffers. Yesterday, the Premier—

Members interjecting:

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: And some of your own members.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: Yesterday, the Premier told the house:

Rather than naming it after John Hill, whose idea was the hospital, we named it after a great Australian.

The opposition has since been advised that the Premier's media staff have made a point of telling journalists that the hospital was minister Hill's idea.

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:13): I am proud to jointly put my hand up, as is all of our cabinet—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —for a world-class hospital.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: We remember when you came out and supported it and then said, 'Oh-oh, this is popular. Hang on, I'm supposed to be the Leader of the Opposition. I know, I'll support it, but on another site.' Then it went to the southern suburbs; it went a bit down to Keswick, I think. It was like the mobile central hospital.

An honourable member: It was the Clipsal site.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: It was the Clipsal site; that's right. It was Keswick, it was Clipsal, it was over the railway yards and then it was back to the RAH site. But—wait for it—breaking news: they now apparently want to build it in the Botanic Garden.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: That is what was announced today. Apparently their favourite doctor, what is his name—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will take his seat.

Ms CHAPMAN: He was merely asked whose idea it was. He is debating this matter.

The SPEAKER: No; I don't think he is.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: It was an outstanding idea. It was like the tram, it was a genius of an idea, and I know that Pat was trying very hard to get a share in it for some time. It was conceived in genius and so was the idea that the people of South Australia deserve a world-class hospital. We saw the campaign. First of all—let's go through it—you supported the hospital over the railway yards, then it was Keswick, and then it went back to the railway yards.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: You don't like this; you don't like the truth.

Ms CHAPMAN: A point of order, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will take his seat.

Ms CHAPMAN: Not only is the Premier repeating himself, but he is clearly debating the issue of—

The SPEAKER: No; you have already called that point of order. I have ruled that it is not.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: We have now heard from Mr Katsaros that he wants it in the Botanic Garden; well, maybe, there will be a lot of South Australians who do not want to see a hospital built on our treasured heritage-listed Botanic Garden. But people do want a hospital that will have the world's best facilities because the people of this state deserve the world's best facilities. If you want to have an election campaign fought about your stadium (this mirage in the centre of the city) at $1.5 billion, by the way—and I hope Michael McGuire is listening—based on the Western Australian Premier's vision which has now been scrapped because the Western Australian Premier (the Liberal premier of that state) said that his priorities were health and hospitals, not a stadium.

So, you keep changing your mind. You have supported it on this site, over the railway yards, at Keswick, at the Clipsal site, yet now you support it back at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Apparently, the Botanic Gardens might be moved heavily eastward like the 'Adelaide Botanic Vegetable Plot' by the time the Liberals have finished with it. It would not surprise me. You would mine the gold teeth in West Terrace Cemetery if it was in your interests.

The point of the matter is that you cannot decide what your policy is; you cannot decide what your position is. Is it a stadium? Where is that stadium? How much is that stadium? Sorry, there was a secret consultant's report which cannot be released because they believe in transparency! Then, to cap it all off, we hear from the Leader of the Opposition that we should not believe what he says now in terms of his policy pronouncements. We remember that famous and well-publicised address of his to the Press Club in Adelaide about his vision; but, apparently, no, he accepts that they are not costed because they are non-core promises.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has now left the substance of the question.

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