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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
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Royal Adelaide Hospital

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:54): My question is to the Minister for Health. When was the minister first notified of the independent certifier's report on Master Works Program No. 58, in which the independent certifier lists 10 reasons they think that the 25 May date will not be achieved, and has the independent certifier or any other adviser to government now indicated when it considers that the hospital will reach technical completion?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:54): I would need to check when, and indeed if—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: I am not necessarily provided with advice on the independent certifier's reports to government as a matter of course. We have got processes within government to deal with these things, but let's be quite clear; we work upon the information that is provided to us by SAHP.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: The Leader of the Opposition—

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: I can say one thing, Mr Speaker: building a new hospital is a lot more complex than running a Wokinabox; a lot more complicated, and obviously if the Leader of the Opposition struggled with running a Wokinabox, there's no way he's going to understand building a new hospital.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: But that aside, Mr Speaker, you only need to have a look at new hospital builds interstate. I was just in Western Australia last week talking to my very good friend Kim Hames, who I congratulate—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Keep Steven.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Keep Steven, indeed. #KeepSteven. Thank you. I was in Western Australia, in Perth, last Friday for our COAG Health Council and at that meeting we farewelled my very good friend the Liberal health minister in Western Australia, Kim Hames, who is a Liberal who actually is interested in and understands health.

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Mr GARDNER: Point of order; the minister is debating and is well, well away from the substance of the question.

The SPEAKER: Well, I would have to see how the farewelled minister Hames develops.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: I will get there, sir; I will get there.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Be patient. In Western Australia the Liberal government there has been involved in constructing new hospitals—the Fiona Stanley Hospital and a new children's hospital. Those hospitals have both run considerably late because—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Mr GARDNER: The minister's answer has nothing to do with when he received the report referred to, and he is therefore debating.

The SPEAKER: I don't uphold the point of order. The minister is joining up his remarks about a minister for health in another state, who, like him, is a builder.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: He is a builder, and if you look at those two new hospitals interstate, both of them have run considerably over time because building hospitals is complex, it is difficult, and the new Royal Adelaide Hospital is the most complex undertaking of this state ever. It is enormously complex, and it is no surprise that it is running late; it is not unusual for new hospital builds to run late.

But I have always been upfront with the people of South Australia. I have never said anything other than the information I had available to me at the time. It had become apparent to me quite some time ago that the new Royal Adelaide Hospital wasn't going to be on time and, despite SAHP's reassurances to the contrary, I said, I think it was in late January, that my expectation was that the hospital would be late. There is nothing new here.

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