House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-04-12 Daily Xml

Contents

Royal Adelaide Hospital

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): Thank you very much, sir. Why did the minister inform the house on 22 March 2016 that he was first advised of the delay to the technical completion of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital on 21 March when documentation provided in February had already projected a delay of the order of 30 days?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:27): Because that is when I was advised that there would be a delay. There are different sets of information. There is obviously the information that is provided; it is a technical document which goes through the works progress by the builder. But I cannot work on speculation: I can only work on what SAHP tell me—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: —and until such a time as SAHP officially tell me that the project is late, I can do nothing other than talk about what other advice to me is, talk about what our independent experts are telling us. There is nothing new in that. I have been saying for a very, very long time that I expected the project to be late. I cannot answer for SAHP. I have already expressed my frustrations that SAHP has not levelled with the government despite it being clear for a very, very long time that it was not going to be able to deliver the project on time.

But we can only work on what the party that we're contracted with, SAHP, tell us. Until then, until such a time as that, what we are doing is basically working on our independent advice. I have been very clear for a very, very long time. For a while now I've said that, despite SAHP insisting that they would have the project delivered—the technical completion will be in April—I didn't expect it to be so. We had independent advice expecting otherwise. There is nothing new in this line of questioning.

Members interjecting:

Mr MARSHALL: Supplementary, sir.

The SPEAKER: The leader will be seated. The deputy leader and the member for Hartley are warned for the first time and the member for Kavel and the deputy leader are warned a second and final time. The member for Giles.