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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-06 Daily Xml
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HOSPITAL PARKING

Ms THOMPSON (Reynell) (14:56): Can the Minister for Health and Ageing tell the house what he is doing to ensure affordable parking at metropolitan hospitals?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:57): I would like to thank—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I warn the member for Unley for the first time.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: I would like to thank the member for Reynell for her interest in this issue. In the 2010-11 state budget, the then treasurer, Kevin Foley, announced that the government would investigate the sale of multideck car parks at metropolitan hospital sites, with car parks at the Flinders Medical Centre, Women's and Children's Hospital, Lyell McEwin Hospital, and two car parks connected to the Royal Adelaide Hospital being investigated for potential sale.

The potential sale of these car parks has raised the public's concerns that hospital parking may become too expensive for those who need to visit loved ones in hospitals. The government has listened to concerns about hospital parking and introduced two hours' free parking in all open-air hospital car parks. Also, I am pleased to tell the house that on Monday I took a proposal to cabinet to ensure there is a mechanism built into any potential sale of multideck car parks to prevent private owners from price gouging.

A potential sale of the car park adjacent to the Women's and Children's Hospital, for instance, could see further expansion of the car park, with a clause written into a contract to ensure parking remains affordable while at the same time allowing a potential private developer to expand the car park and create more car parking places. By putting a pricing mechanism in place, the government is ensuring that any potential future car park owners will not charge unreasonable amounts for individual parking spaces, and it will ensure that South Australians have affordable parking at our hospitals.

At certain locations around the city, it makes good business sense for car parks to be run by the private sector. This will allow the government to put the capital raised by car park sales back into hospitals and the running of our health system. This government is ensuring that it focuses on the business of running governments rather than running car parks that are far better run by the private sector in general.

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