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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-04 Daily Xml
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ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (14:48): My question is to the Minister for Health. Why would a rebuild of the Royal Adelaide Hospital on site cost millions more dollars and take many years longer than projects to rebuild two Sydney hospitals?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:48): Yesterday the opposition asked a series of questions, the essence of which was essentially, 'New South Wales can rebuild the Royal North Shore Hospital and the Westmead Hospital, so why can't you do it here in South Australia?' I made the point at the time that those hospitals had extra space on those sites and that they were smaller building operations, and so on. I have sought some extra advice—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: And it's arrived.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It has arrived. Let me inform the house that the Royal Adelaide Hospital site on North Terrace is 5.6 hectares. It is pretty well taken up. Anyone who goes down to that site can tell you that it is pretty well consumed by activity. There is a bit of car parking space there that could conceivably be built on and bits could be pulled down, but it is pretty well packed. However, the Royal North Shore site where a rebuild is occurring is a 13 hectare site and the Westmead, the other example given from New South Wales—why can't we do here what they have done in New South Wales—is a 20 hectare site.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: They didn't tell us that, did they?

The Hon. J.D. HILL: They didn't tell us that. Let me assure the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Opposition, if the Royal Adelaide Hospital site was 13 hectares or 20 hectares, we would build a new hospital there because—

The Hon. M.D. Rann: They want to put it in the Botanic Gardens.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: That is a secret agenda. The Premier has nailed it. The secret agenda for the opposition is to build it in the Botanic Gardens, just as their predecessor government, the Playford government, built the existing RAH in the Botanic Gardens. The point is that, if we had 13 hectares or 20 hectares on the site, then we could rebuild it on that site, too. In New South Wales, they are running the existing hospital while they build a new hospital alongside it—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The member says, 'The QEH.' We are not doing that at the QEH at all. The QEH is a bigger site and we are able to build new infrastructure while we are in the existing infrastructure. The QEH is a much smaller hospital and—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The QEH is a much smaller hospital, and it does place pressure on the hospital to have the building works happen there. Much more pressure would be placed on the RAH site, of course, if we were to do what the opposition says it would do if it was to be elected, which is to build a new hospital in a single stage development (we assume) on the RAH site. Their claims about what they would do become more and more incredible day by day, but what they have not told the public is: how they would do it; when they would do it; when it would be finished; how big it would be; and how much it would cost. None of those bits of information have been given to the public of South Australia, so why would anyone trust them?

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