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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-27 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Women's and Children's Hospital

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:06): My question is to the Premier. Premier, why is it that the new Women's and Children's Hospital will not be delivered this decade?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:06): Because no-one has had the courage before us to make the decision that we have made.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We went to the election in March this year making a suite of solemn commitments. Chief amongst them was that we would be a government with a keen focus on making sure the right decisions will be made in respect of our health system. But more than that, we also committed to the people of South Australia that we were going to take a long-term view.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We weren't going to be focused—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We weren't going to be focused on making short-term decisions that had a firm eye on political expediency at the expense of making decisions that were going to actually set the health system up for the long-term future of the state. We know that there is a real case here of compare and contrast—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We know—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley is warned for a second time and very soon on a third warning.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We know there is a clear case of compare and contrast here. On one hand, there was a proposition for a new Women's and Children's Hospital which was going to be jammed in on a very small site immediately adjacent to the RAH, which was going to be a $2.8 billion build which would deliver one extra overnight bed.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is called to order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Morphett is warned. Member for Wright!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: One extra overnight paediatric bed. Now, on the other side of the equation, we now have a proposition before us that will see a bigger hospital that will actually set us up for decades to come.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Ramsay! Member for Schubert!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: I think South Australians want—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —to see a government make a decision that is consistent with building a hospital that might last longer than the opening day, that might actually set us up for a capacity to expand in the future, and we had to make some tough decisions.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We had to make some tough decisions here. Are we going to continue to make decisions that suit—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —political expediency, or are we actually going to start building hospital infrastructure that will last for the future generation of our state? I know—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —that the young people who are here in the room today, that young children who exist within our community want to see—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —a hospital that might last the long term. Our plan for the new hospital will see a substantial increase in capacity, an increase in capacity that it will survive for the distant future.

If we had built a hospital on the immediately adjacent site next to the women's and kids—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley is on three warnings.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —not only would we preclude the government from the ability to build a bigger hospital but we would also preclude the ability for a future government to expand the existing RAH site. At some point in the future, the RAH will need to expand. It might not be for another 10 years, it might not be for another 20 years, but it will happen—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —and I am not—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —going to lead a government that has on its conscience—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is called to order.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —building a new facility that will deny future expansion options.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: Who was the health minister who built the new RAH?

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The new RAH has next to it the ability to expand, but if we build a Women's and Children's Hospital next to it we deny the ability to expand in the future. There are some in this parliament—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned for a second time.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —that would weigh heavily on their conscience. Not us, Mr Speaker. We are delivering on our commitment for a bigger hospital with more capacity, not just now but into the long term.

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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