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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-05-13 Daily Xml
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HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): My question is also to the Premier. Why has the Premier made a decision to isolate medical researchers at the rail yards for four years while the Royal Adelaide Hospital operates on its current site? Today, the Premier confirmed (and again just a few moments ago) that the new research centre would be expected to open in 2012 and yet his central city hospital at the rail yards will not be open until 2016.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Mr Speaker, I rise a point of order. Before we commence, I just point out that the question was disorderly in that it engaged in debate in the very question itself. It used provocative terms such as 'decided to isolate research'. I just point out that it will be impossible for ministers not to engage in debate if the question itself is debate.

The SPEAKER: The question could have been more tightly phrased. The question itself was—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Rather than being too finicky over ruling questions in and out of order, my practice is always to give the appropriate latitude to the minister answering the question in light of the way in which the question has been asked, and I will continue to do that.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:26): I have been Minister for Health now for just under 3½ years. When I became health minister, one of the first things that I became aware of was the incredible under-resourcing of health and medical research in South Australia. We have a very proud record in this state of health and medical research. The member for Florey, in particular, would know the great strengths of our health and medical research history. Her seat commemorates the great achievements of Lord Florey, and I know that the member for Florey regularly takes the opportunity to celebrate his achievements. So, we have had a great history in health and medical research in this state.

In previous years, until a number of years ago, our share of the national health and medical research dollar was well above what our population share would have suggested it should be. In other words, we would be getting about 13, 14 or 15 per cent of the national dollars. Over the last 10 years or so, that share has continued to decline and, in fact, I think last year or the year before we reached the stage where we were then getting below our population share; it was about 6½ per cent.

The reason for that being the case is that the other states had been able to establish larger institutes, and the commonwealth prefers larger health and medical institutes for providing funding. What we did in South Australia was to bring together the key researchers from the universities and hospitals and we sat down with them to talk about what they needed. We also commissioned a report by John Shine and Alan Young, known as the Shine Young report. I believe I tabled it in this house, but I have a copy here if people would like to see it.

That report really created the framework for us to proceed in relation to health and medical research. It essentially said three things. The first was that we needed to set up a single health and medical research institute in South Australia. We are working on that and legislation is in the process of being drafted (which I hope to bring to this house subject to parliament and my caucus at some stage during the second half of this year) which will create the governance framework to create a single health and medical research institute. The plan is that each of the three universities in South Australia will be part of the management of this, and that will provide South Australia with one of the biggest and the boldest health and medical research institutes in Australia.

The second thing the report recommended was that we needed to set up a state-based health and medical research fund. We have already established that, and it is accumulating assets at a tremendous rate. A lot of the money that is going into that fund comes from the commercialisation of the work done by John Hopwood, who is a fantastic researcher involved in SA Pathology, based at the Women's and Children's Hospital. We are currently getting something like $1.5 million a quarter out of our share of the commercialisation of that work. We have created that fund, and it will be available to support the very best researchers in South Australia.

The third thing that the report recommended, which is strongly supported by the research community in South Australia, is that we needed to have more research capacity. The Shine Young report recommended an iconic building to be the centre of the new health and medical research institute—and I will get to where it said that building ought to be in a minute or two.

So, there are three things, and we now have a commitment to each of those three things: the governance arrangements to bring the institute together, the cash to support the research fund and the commitment to a building. Last night, of course, the Rudd government revealed that it would provide $200 million to build a state-of-the-art facility to house a health and medical research institute in South Australia.

What we are talking about here is up to 25,000 square metres of extra research space, which will house up to 675 health and medical science researchers in South Australia, a huge boost to health and medical research in this state. This is a fantastic commitment from the commonwealth to sponsor the development of South Australia as a major hub for important health and medical research.

This will absolutely undoubtedly lead to local researchers working on treatments and cures for some of the most insidious diseases and afflictions that we face. It will also allow researchers in South Australia, who are crammed in to existing facilities, to be able to expand. I have spoken to researchers at the Hanson Institute who say, 'We need more space and we need it as soon as we can get it because we have a lot of money that has come in and we need to be able to spend it to build extra capacity.'

We currently have hundreds of researchers working across Adelaide at various locations, including the Hanson Institute, many of our metropolitan hospitals and at other laboratories as well. Their facilities are varying in quality and space. We recently opened the QEH research facility, which was given extra capacity at that hospital, and that is a great facility. It is about 4,000 square metres.

As I said, the Rann government commissioned internationally renowned researchers, the executive director of the Garvan Institute, Professor John Shine, and Adelaide business leader, a director of Baker Young Stockbrokers who is also the chairman of the Flinders Foundation, Alan Young, an excellent businessman with a strong commitment to health and medical research in South Australia.

We asked them to review and provide strategic direction for research in this state to enable our researchers to secure more national funding for this important work. Their valuable report provided us with the key recommendations, which I have already gone through, to create a single health and medical research institute to bring together our local researchers and to develop a flagship facility to house that institute. The report stated, and this is the key to the answer to the question raised by the deputy leader:

Ideally, the research building should be a stand alone building located close to the Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Hospital.

Now known as the RAH.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the deputy leader!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The deputy leader protesteth too much, I think. The recommendation from the research community is to build a research—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The deputy leader's solution, of course, would be for us not to build a research facility so that the research community has no extra space. Let me assure you that they would rather have the extra space now than wait for four or five years until we have built the hospital. The government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The government has already committed to establishing an institute, as I have mentioned, and today we have confirmation of the flagship facility. The health and medical research institute will be collocated with the new Royal Adelaide Hospital in the western Parklands.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It will be built as fast as possible. I know the opposition would like to delay the construction of that site, but the research community cannot wait, they need the space now. You would stop cancer research, you would stop research into children's health issues just because of your political agenda. You are so insincere and so dishonest when it comes to raising issues in this house. The health and medical research institute will be collocated with the new Royal Adelaide Hospital on the western Parklands. It will be a building—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Yes, four years between the construction of the institute and our new hospital. How long would it be between the construction of the institute and what the opposition would do with the RAH? It would be 15 years. Fifteen years for the Liberals to get one of their options up. Fifteen years, what a joke! This will be a custom designed building, constructed for the needs and requirements of researchers and will have close links to the new hospital. It is estimated that 50 per cent of the building will accommodate Adelaide's existing research community, with the remainder of the space to be taken up by researchers attracted from interstate and overseas and, of course, new researchers who come online through our own institutions.

The opposition protests about this. You would think that when the opposition came here to make these complaints the deputy leader would be doing so based on the views of the research community. If there was any validity to her comments you would think that they would be backed up by the research community. Well, let me tell you what the research community said to us today. Report co-author, Mr Alan Young said:

This is truly an historic moment. The new building will allow the establishment of an independent institute which will bring together top researchers to work in related fields in world-class facilities. It will provide a focus of health—

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Point of order, Mr Speaker: the deputy leader just turned, I think, to the member behind and in reference to Mr Alan Young said, 'How much was he paid?' Are you inferring that Mr Young would give us a response because of what was paid?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Premier will take his seat. I did not hear the remark. If it was made, it was a private remark made to another member.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! It was a private remark made to another member. The Minister for Health.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: As I was saying—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Mr Young is a distinguished Adelaide—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for MacKillop, the Deputy Premier and the deputy leader!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Mr Young is a distinguished Adelaide business leader who devotes an enormous amount of his time to assist health and medical research in South Australia. I will continue my quote. He says:

The new building will allow the establishment of an independent institute which will bring together top researchers to work in related fields in world-class facilities. It will provide a focus of health and medical research activity in South Australia, recruit and retain leading research teams, attract increasing levels of national and international funding and enhance collaborative activity.

The co-author, Professor John Shine, Director of the Garvan Institute, one of the leading institutes in Australia, said:

This is exciting and will build huge momentum for South Australian research. Bringing together leading researchers from SA and around the world will build a critical mass for research and will transfer to the prevention and treatment of disease. Adelaide now has a unique opportunity. Everyone wins.

Professor John Hopwood, to whom I referred before and who is one of our state's most successful and esteemed medical researchers, also welcomed the announcement. He says:

Practically, this research facility will overcome our lack of dedicated laboratory space that is drastically needed to coordinate and focus high quality medical research, and to encourage leading researchers to South Australia.

All three universities are also supportive of the construction of the new research centre on North Terrace. Vice Chancellor of the University of South Australia, Professor Peter Høj, says the news of the new institute is 'fantastic for the state', and he says:

This is also great news for UniSA because it will increase the strength of our significant research partnerships between the university and the wider medical and health research community.

Professor Justin Beilby, Executive Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Adelaide, states:

The University of Adelaide welcomes the funding for the new research institute and looks forward to developing the partnership around the research institute. We look forward to developing the research momentum and strengthening our research outputs over the next five to ten years.

I also visited, I have to say, the Hanson Institute and talked to some of the leading researchers there a few weeks ago. They are very excited about this proposition and cannot wait to get access to the space. It would appear that the only opponents to this are the Liberals. And why are they opposed? It is about politics; it is only about politics. They suggest that the government is building this facility to cruel their half baked plans for a stadium. That is what all this is about. The contrast is very clear.

This government is committed to the good health of South Australians, to providing the best care and treatment in a world-class hospital, and creating more opportunities for researchers to produce cures and improved treatments for diseases. The opposition's answer: a stadium that they hope the federal government might pay for but may or may not ever be used.

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