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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-11-18 Daily Xml
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GLENSIDE HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:12): My question is for the Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse. What project plans and documentation exist to support the approval provided by the minister, and subsequently cabinet, for the expenditure of $117.823 million for the construction of Precinct 1 (new health facilities, public open space and site-wide infrastructure) at Glenside, and is it normal practice for the government to endorse this level of expenditure based on concept drawings and a nine page report?

At the Public Works Committee meeting held today, committee members were asked to support the Precinct 1 project while being provided with only nine pages of information, with the costs components broken down into: health facilities, $75.323 million; site works and infrastructure, $24 million; principal contingency, $2 million; and professional fees, $16.5 million.

While breakdown details were provided on the $16.5 million professional fees cost, no detailed information was provided to the Public Works Committee on the remaining $101.323 million of this project. The committee was told that the details provided were identical to that provided to cabinet when it resolved to support the project.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I rise on a point of order. It is a point of order that has been taken by the opposition quite recently. I understand that the particular report is set down for debate before the parliament very soon.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: It is, then, before the committee and it is specifically on the matters before the committee, that being a committee of the parliament.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The house will come to order. No, I do not uphold the point of order. It is an interesting point of order that the minister raises, and I will have to consider it, but for the moment I will allow the question and allow the minister an opportunity to respond. The Minister for Mental Health.

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH (Adelaide—Minister for Education, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (15:15) I thank the member for his question relating to the project on the Glenside site. Of course, this is a very exciting project, a 129-bed hospital that will replace many old buildings that are up for renewal and, appropriately, should be replaced.

This is a great project that will provide good facilities for staff to work in and good opportunities to rehabilitate the patients there. I suspect that the substance of the member's question was: what went to cabinet in terms of documentation? I can assure the member that there was adequate information, but I am not in a position where I can tell the member what went to cabinet, because that is not how the process works, at least from this side. I know that on that side there has been a tradition of declaring information that goes through cabinet and leaking it to various people. That is not how we operate.

Certainly, it might well have been possible for the member to get information had those members of the committee stayed to the end instead of staging what I regard as a somewhat theatrical walkout in the middle of those questions actually being answered.

Mr PENGILLY: On a point of order, the minister is engaging in debate without sticking to the substance of the question and straying into grounds about which she knows nothing.

The SPEAKER: I think the minister is in order. Has the minister completed her answer?

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH: Yes.

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