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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-19 Daily Xml
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ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:26): My question is directed to the Treasurer. Will he guarantee that the total cost of the government's proposed hospital at the rail yards, summing all payments to the consortia, will not exceed $3 billion in 2009 terms?

The opposition and medical professionals opposed to the proposed rail yards hospital have been separately advised by the development industry that the cost of the hospital has already blown out towards $3 billion. Yesterday, the Treasurer told the house that the project:

…has not gone to market yet: it will not go to market for some time, and the final figure will be not be known until we get our accounts in.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (14:27): Get our accounts in?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: What a dumb question! You are not allowed to use the word 'lie', but you have made that up, that figure of $3 billion. You have made that up. There is no blow-out.

Mr Hamilton-Smith interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The development industry! I can tell you, Mr Hamilton-Smith, that if you have been talking to the development industry it will be telling you what it is telling us: it is always better, cheaper and more efficient to build on a greenfield site than it is on a brownfield site. That is what the development community are telling you.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The Leader of the Opposition has to stop making things up. If he wants to be taken seriously, and as a credible alternative to this Premier and our government, he has to stop making things up.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Mr Speaker, $3 billion is a nonsense figure and, as I have said before—

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for MacKillop has a point of order.

Mr WILLIAMS: The Deputy Premier is clearly debating, and he is not answering the substance of the question, which was: will he—

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The member for MacKillop will take his seat.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: There is no substance to that question. As we have—

Mr Venning interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Schubert is warned.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I have already said a figure of $3 billion is wrong. He has made it up. I cannot accuse you of being a liar in this place because apparently that is unparliamentary. But I tell you what—you are everything that that word describes.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: Mr Speaker, that is clearly unparliamentary and I ask you to insist that he withdraw.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I withdraw that, sir.

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier withdraws.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The Leader of the Opposition makes things up. He has a different position every time he opens his mouth.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: On a point of order, Mr Speaker, I ask that you require the Treasurer to withdraw the inference of lying and apologise.

The SPEAKER: He has withdrawn.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: His earlier remarks that yet again—

The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The inference that you are a liar was withdrawn. The Deputy Premier.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The Leader of the Opposition is a teller of untruths. He is somebody who make things—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for MacKillop!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I heard him on the radio.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs REDMOND: Point of order, Mr Speaker.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Heysen has a point of order.

Mrs REDMOND: Even if a word itself is not unparliamentary, standing order 127 relates to personal reflections against members, and I believe the Deputy Premier's comments would breach that.

The SPEAKER: No; that is in the past. My understanding is that that has not been the case: that saying someone is guilty of telling untruths is a personal reflection, but I will check that out and, if I am wrong, I will report back to the house.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I am happy to apologise if that was offensive to the leader. I will just say this again. We have had detailed cost estimates undertaken by a number of firms to give us a robustness of an estimate of what a new hospital will cost. That figure is $1.7 billion. We will go to market with that project and we will see what the bids come in at, and then we will know what the final price is. But a figure of $3 billion is a fabricated number with no substance and no credibility, and it really goes to the heart of what we are debating here, and that is, the integrity of what comes from the mouth of the Leader of the Opposition—he makes things up.

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