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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-07-15 Daily Xml
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GLENSIDE HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:34): My question is for the Premier. Will the government reconsider its decision to build the Premier's film hub at the Glenside site? In a letter to me dated 9 February 2009, Jonathan Phillips, former director of mental health in South Australia, stated:

South Australia will lose its most outstanding health asset if Glenside becomes a multi-purpose campus or, worse still, should it be sold.

He goes on to say:

In my opinion Glenside is far too important to be broken up for the sake of expediency. It fills me with dread to even contemplate this.

When appointing Jonathan Phillips to the position of director of mental health services in South Australia, the then minister for mental health stated:

Dr Phillips is a highly respected clinician, teacher and administrator and I consider it to be a tremendous coup for South Australia to recruit someone of his calibre.

She went on to say that 'the Rann Labor government has made mental health a priority'.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:36): This is an extremely old question, I guess. Can I just say that I do not know why the opposition is delaying the reshuffle: if everyone's going to get a prize it is not that hard. The thing about this is that it is really important to understand that this government has announced the greatest commitment for mental health in the history of this state.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Absolutely—if you want to laugh. The government is committed to the more than $250 million reform of the mental health system that included a $130 million 129-bed new state-of-the-art mental hospital at the centre of the new system. Of course, the previous government, the Liberals, had allowed the mental health system to languish and fall behind the standards of the rest of the world.

A key part of the mental health reform is the introduction of a whole new level of intermediate care, so that people can get the help and support they need before they become acutely unwell, and this is a key part of the new stepped model of care that was announced some time ago. Under that, there would be 86 additional adult mental health beds across the whole of the mental health system and we are creating usable purpose-designed open space. In fact, there will be more usable open space, I am informed, than currently exists on site.

Just in terms of the film industry, only the Liberals do not believe that the film industry is important for the state.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: No, no, no! Just a few weeks ago, your rival—the once and future queen of the Liberal Party—said that she wanted us to put money into saving a cinema—millions of dollars.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: To buy it; $2 million to buy a cinema, which happened to be—

The Hon. K.O. Foley: In her electorate.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Very close to her electorate, but services her electorate. Indeed, it is in the honourable member for Hartley's electorate, who has been at the forefront of lobbying to get, and she secured it, a very extensive donation from the government, a grant of $25,000 towards the heritage restoration of the area.

The film industry came to see me and said, 'If you want to keep filmmaking in this state, then you are going to have to have state-of-the-art facilities,' because if you go down to the Hendon studios—and the Leader of the Opposition should realise, having been involved as a shadow spokesman for the arts—you will see that they are simply not adequate, not well-equipped enough, not state-of-the-art enough to sustain a modern film industry.

My advice to the Leader of the Opposition is to go and talk to Scott Hicks, go and talk to Rolf de Heer, go and talk to Rising Sun Pictures, go and talk to Kojo Pictures, go and talk to the people from the industry who want world-class facilities to sustain a film industry in this state. In case you think that we do not have any credentials in this area, just think of what has happened to the film industry since we have been in government. We have seen not only multiple winnings of AFI awards by films like Ten Canoes, Look Both Ways—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: No, not the Bollywood film, that's the one that I'm in. It hasn't yet won any awards that I'm aware of, but you never know.

The Hon. J.D. Hill interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Maybe the longest film ever. But the fact of the matter is that the industry is saying to the government, 'We want state of the art facilities,' and they are going to get them and they will be located at Glenside.

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