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

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:35): My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, how does the government justify its argument that a PPP transfers risk away from the government to the private sector, when, under the new Royal Adelaide Hospital PPP, the taxpayer is still liable for 80 per cent of the cost of cleaning up unknown amounts of contamination at the rail yard site?

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) (14:36): Madam Speaker, I guess it is kind of PPP 101—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Davenport and the member for MacKillop!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It is PPP 101. We enter into an arrangement with the project company and there is—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: You've got witty things to say, Vickie? Please, have the floor.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It is a fatal flaw, Madam Speaker. She can talk when someone else is talking but when it comes to her, she hasn't got the bottle to actually say what she means. We are talking about the way that PPP—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Oh, there she goes again. Please, go ahead.

The Hon. K.O. Foley: Well, don't forget, you stopped them coming over here.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Yes, that's right.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. Foley: If you hadn't opened your mouth—remember that. All there, guys; remember that.

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right!

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I warn the Minister for Police.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Minister, could you get back to the answer to your question?

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I am trying to, Madam Speaker, but you might have trouble hearing what I am saying, is the point I am making, because the interruptions are continuous. What I was trying to do is to explain to the opposition and to anyone who was listening that a PPP arrangement transfers risk.

It does not transfer all of the risk, of course. There is a negotiation about which risk is transferred. But the substantial risk that is transferred is the risk associated with the building of the project. There are two sorts of risks, as I understand it. There are risks that are integrated in that project, so, for example, if the building company is unable to get contractors to do a particular piece of work and they have to pay more for them, or if something associated with the contract is unable to be completed, then that risk is on the head of the builder.

Then, Madam Speaker, there are the risks associated with global events, which might mean that there is difficulty completing the project. They are the major risks that would focus on the construction of the site.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Well, the member keeps saying '80 per cent', but it is 80 per cent of nothing because it is an unknown risk. 'Unknown', that means that there is nothing there. If we were aware of anything there, it would have been incorporated in the project, so—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Yes, well, let's not talk about American vice presidents, but it is an 'unknown unknown' in this case.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Secretary of Defense.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Secretary of Defense. I beg your pardon, I got the wrong title. What we are really talking about is something which bears not a lot of risk associated with it, because we have a very good understanding of the pollution on that site. There has been a lot of drilling and lots of work done to identify the pollution, and the building company takes on that issue.

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