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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-06-03 Daily Xml
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PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE: GLENSIDE CAMPUS REDEVELOPMENT

Ms CICCARELLO (Norwood) (11:46): I move:

That the 321st report of the committee, entitled Glenside Campus Redevelopment (Health Facilities—Enablement Works), be noted.

The Glenside Hospital campus plays a significant role in mental health service provision in this state. The government has committed to transform Glenside into a specialist centre for mental health services and broader related health care services into the future. The Glenside site will provide for the best practice care of vulnerable people and will complement community and mental health services and those mental health services provided in mainstream acute hospitals. This will see the campus used in tandem with the new specialist psychiatric facilities being built at major hospital sites.

The Glenside Redevelopment Master Plan was developed in response to the Social Inclusion Board's report on mental health. It provides a blueprint for the development of the site, along with the planning and design framework for guiding the redevelopment of the campus. There are four key elements to the broader Glenside campus redevelopment, all of which are progressing concurrently, namely:

enablement works to prepare for the construction of health facilities, open space and site-wide infrastructure in precinct 1;

enablement works to prepare for the construction of the Film and Screen Centre in precinct 2;

design and construction of precinct 1; and

design and planning development of precinct 2.

The redevelopment will also see the introduction of targeted substance abuse services onto the Glenside site recognising a co-morbidity that exists between mental health and substance abuse. To facilitate construction of the new health facilities, associated open space and site-wide infrastructure, temporary movement of existing services to other parts of the site is necessary. This enablement task requires:

planning and management of the relocation of clinical, administrative and support services from existing locations to areas both on and off site;

continued provision of safe and effective clinical services whilst significant building works are in progress;

development of interim models of care as leverage to progress reform; and

efficiency and service review of all functions as consolidation occurs.

The Glenside campus redevelopment needs to take place on an operating psychiatric hospital site and implemented without adversely impacting clinical service delivery and patient care. The enablement works include the refit and refurbishment of five buildings within the operating campus, ranging from relatively minor to significant internal refits. These buildings are either currently partially in use or have been previously utilised for similar purposes on campus.

As part of the site-wide infrastructure requirements, it is necessary to relocate ICT cables located on the Glenside site. These cables serve networks of state significance and their relocation involves long lead times to ensure minimal disruption to the network. As a result, this work is being brought forward to safely relocate the existing fibre optic cabling prior to the commencement of health facility construction activities.

Consultation has been undertaken with both Planning SA and the Heritage Branch of DEH to address any planning and heritage issues. Their advice has confirmed that no heritage buildings are impacted by these works. The primary purpose of this project is to prepare the Glenside site for construction of precinct 1 Health Facilities, open space and site-wide infrastructure. Its secondary objectives are:

to facilitate comprehensive change management;

to provide a more efficient and effective mental health facility;

to trial the model of care that has been developed for the new health facilities; and

to progress South Australia's mental health reform agenda.

A range of business benefits is anticipated. Clinical services currently scattered across the site will be collocated in service centred 'hubs'. This collocation will provide multiple efficiencies in the provision of care, and mirrors the approach which will be utilised in the new health facilities. There will also be an opportunity to initiate cultural change and to trial the model of care, schedule of accommodation and staffing profiles developed for the new health facilities. The project also provides the opportunity to progress the private sector redevelopments of precincts 3 and 4.

The estimated cost of the phase 1 enablement exercise is $5.05 million. The estimated expenditure for the ICT cable relocation works is $300,000. The phase 1 enablement works and the ICT cable relocation works form part of the overall Glenside campus redevelopment project and are included within the approved $134.33 million capital expenditure allocation. The phase 1 enablement works program is to be completed in late 2009.

Based upon the evidence presented to it pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public work.

Mr PISONI (Unley) (11:52): The interesting thing about this proposal is that the member for Norwood pumps it up as being a mental health initiative whereas, in actual fact, it is a project to slap a bit of paint around, stick up the odd wall, tile around a toilet and basin, and move people out of a facility that has been in use for over 100 years for mental health patients and into temporary accommodation that has a life span of only a couple of years so that the Premier can move the film hub from Hendon into the accommodation that is otherwise being used by people in need who are suffering mental illness.

I know the Premier may think they are a bit of a nuisance being there while he wants access to that building for the film hub but, unfortunately, we are seeing patients being moved not just once for this project but twice, and they are being forced now to use temporary accommodation which is crowded and which was quickly established. I think the cost is about $5.5 million to make these changes to existing buildings that are not needed by the film hub so that patients can use them.

Of course, between the time of the Public Works Committee being made aware that it was hearing this matter and it actually sitting down and hearing it, the Deputy Premier announced that, in order to save money because of the global financial crisis, there would be a two-year delay in the development of the new hospital at Glenside. What is interesting about that whole proposal is that we were told when the Glenside development was announced that the land was being sold to a shopping centre developer and to other developers to fund the new hospital, but there has been no delay in the selling of the land. There has been no delay in the proposal to extend the shopping centre. There has been no delay in moving the film hub into those buildings; in fact, it has been done post haste. We have seen temporary accommodation set up for mental health patients in order for that to happen.

The question the government needs to answer and be held accountable for is that, if this project is self-funding through the sale of what they describe as excess or surplus land—and I assure the minister and the Premier that open space in and around Unley is not excess land at all, as we have very little open space (about 2 per cent public open space—one of the smallest amounts of public open space of any electorate—in fact, the electorate of Unley is geographically the smallest of any state division because of the density of population and because of the lack of open space)—I would be interested to know where in the social inclusion report it says that one of the ways to nurture back people with mental health difficulties is to have a shopping centre and a housing development on their doorstep. I am not a mental health expert, but I am sure that was not in the social inclusion report. We will see a windfall for developers in selling off public open space as an aid to assist people recovering from mental illness. However, that is another story.

We were told that the sell off of the land was justified because it would pay for the new hospital. What I find difficult to understand is why the sell-off is going ahead. The government is getting the money, but we have seen the secondary plans for the building of the new hospital, the key reason for this activity at Glenside—the expansion of the shopping centre, the sell-off of land to developers and the film hub moving in—leap forward ahead of the new hospital, even though the government is still getting the money from the sale of assets.

It is interesting that this government fought a very tough and successful election campaign in 2006 on an anti-privatisation platform, but we are seeing an enormous amount of privatisation of government assets happening under this government. We have even seen the Treasurer attempting to sell buildings the government does not own. Perhaps we should call him the Cathy Jayne of South Australian politics, but that is a story for another day.

The disturbing thing about this whole process is that we are seeing mental health patients being moved into temporary accommodation, which has been budgeted and designed to last for only a couple of years. They will be forced to use that temporary accommodation for up to five years before we see the start of the new hospital that was promised, it being the whole justification for the public asset sell off and for the Film Corporation moving in, developers grabbing land and the shopping centre expanding.

The whole justification was that there was to be a new revamped hospital, but that is now the last thing on the government's agenda for that site. It is still pending, because we still do not have a start date. We have been told two years, but we know a number of proposals have been delayed by the government. We were told about the Marion swimming pool about seven years ago and have only just seen a contract awarded for that project. Who knows when we will get the hospital? However, we do know that the government will get its money, and it will not go into mental health but into general revenue.

Motion carried.

Mrs GERAGHTY: Mr Speaker, I draw your attention to the state of the house.

A quorum having been formed:

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