House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-04-07 Daily Xml

Contents

LYELL McEWIN HOSPITAL

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): My question is again to the Minister for Health. Will the minister confirm that the $201 million Lyell McEwin stage C redevelopment budget included non-building costs such as $25.5 million for market risk and $40 million in professional and managing contractor fees?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:25): Madam Speaker, it is curious, isn't it, and it's probably an abuse of the process of the parliament, for the Leader of the Opposition to ask me a question to which she had the answer in her hand. I said I would get any detail if she needed to know.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I said that I assumed it covered design and construction and, as my colleague here says, there is usually an element associated with risk in those figures as well, which is a contingency level of some sort. As I said, I will get a fuller briefing for her if she wants. What it doesn't contain, of course, is the cost of borrowing that money. It doesn't include the cost of maintaining that facility over the 30 or 35 years—

An honourable member: It should.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —all of those other things that the member says it should. I actually agree that the smart way of looking at any building, whether it is a private building or a public building, is to take into account the whole of the life-cycle cost because that focuses you on the real cost, and that means you invest in a better way at the very beginning because you know what it's going to cost you to look after the building. Traditionally, governments have just looked at the cost of construction and not the whole life-cycle cost and, I think, from an environmental point of view, that makes a lot of sense to do that. So, I am very pleased. I think that one of the benefits of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital will be that we are taking into account the life-cycle costs and we'll be able to design a better hospital as a result of that.