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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

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:02): My question is again to the Minister for Health. Will it be easier for money currently held by the Commissioners of Charitable Funds to be spent at the government's proposed hospital at the rail yards now that the name of the proposed hospital has been changed? Has the government sought Crown legal advice on this matter? The 2006-07 annual report of the Commissioners of Charitable Funds shows $75.7 million invested with the commissioners as at 30 June 2007, of most of which the Royal Adelaide Hospital is the beneficiary.

The Hon. J.W. Weatherill interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:03): My colleague the Minister for Environment and Conservation just reminds me that, when the RAH was established, of course, it was the Adelaide Hospital (AH). It was only made the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1939. The Commissioners of Charitable Funds was established—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Yes, milord, thank you very much. The Commissioners of Charitable Funds Trust was established before that; in fact, sometime ago. There have been name changes over time. Of course, legal advice was sought, I understand, when the RAH as a hospital was abolished. In fact, the RAH has not existed as a hospital entity for some time. It is part of the Central Northern Adelaide Health Service, which is the legal entity of the hospital. The RAH is a name that applies to a particular site and a particular set of buildings and arrangements.

I understand that legal advice was sought at that time. I do not believe there is any problem with the commissioners being able to allocate funds according to the wishes of those who have left funds. As the member would probably understand, some interesting trust arrangements have been created in South Australia over time. A former American member of parliament, King O'Malley, and his wife established a very significant trust fund, which I think the education department manages—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: He said he was Canadian.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Canadian, was he? The point I am making is that he established a trust fund to provide support for young girls to become better housekeepers and to learn how to sew and do other kinds of things; so, a large sum of money was left. Such skills are not necessarily taught these days in public schools. Some might see this as a—

Ms Bedford: A natural thing.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Yes; a natural kind of thing. There has to be some ingenuity about how you use those funds in a modern context. I am sure that the commissioners are able to exercise appropriate flexibility. As the new hospital will be known as the RAH, I do not see that they will have any problem at all.

However, I thank the member for asking the question because it allows me to knock on the head the outrageous headline in the Sunday Mail of a week or two ago that suggested that the new site would take money from the Commissioners of Charitable Funds to build the RAH. That was a total fabrication. I was very pleased that, in a radio interview on FIVEaa, the Hon. John Darley supported my claim that there was no way in the world we could do that unless we introduced legislation to give us that power.

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