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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-28 Daily Xml
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Women's and Children's Hospital

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Given South Australians won't see a Women's and Children's Hospital this decade, how many millions will the government invest into sustaining the current Women's and Children's Hospital site? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN: The former government had already invested over $80 million into sustainment works and this, of course, was based on the fact that a Women's and Children's Hospital would be delivered in 2026-27.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for West Torrens! The Treasurer is called to order. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:50): Well, that is a significant development. In the past few days, we have heard it was all going to happen in 2026; now we hear 2026-27 it was going to happen. They put '27' in, slotted that one in there.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: The truth of the matter is that even proceeding with the smaller site with the clinical inadequacies of that project, the advice that we have is that the earliest that that could possibly happen would be 2028 for that to be developed.

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: So on either scenario—going with the new site that's going to have better capacity for the future and the ability to expand both the women's and the kids' and the RAH or the small site with the clinical inadequacies and no expansion capacity—there is still going to need to be sustainment works undertaken at that hospital. But the idea that the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow minister have been going around to the media today with their dodgy brothers consulting company figures of $220 million is just laughable.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr TARZIA: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Minister, please be seated. I will hear the point of order.

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Schubert!

Mr TARZIA: Point of order, sir, for debate, 98(a): the minister is now deviating from the substance of the question.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Hartley. I will listen carefully. I bring the minister back to the substance of the question.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is called to order. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Let's look at the facts of this and let's not look at what they say; let's look at what they did.

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: At the end of 2021—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —the previous Liberal government—

Mr Cowdrey interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Colton! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —made a budget allocation for the sustainment works until 2027. So five years more of operation of the Women's and Children's Hospital they costed at $30 million—$30 million they said was going to be the allocation from December 2021 to 2027, the opening of the hospital.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley is called to order. The member for Schubert is warned. The member for Chaffey is called to order.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: That's right, we put that in when we were in government. That had already been spent. So you made an allocation for what was needed for those five years of operation at $30 million. We acknowledge that obviously under either scenario the hospital is going to have to continue operating longer. Under either scenario, more investment is going to be needed in the hospital. But to go from saying, as the Liberal Party did, $30 million over five years to now the figures they are floating in the media today of $220 million over three or four years is just laughable.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call. The member for Chaffey is called to order. The member for Schubert is warned. The member for Hartley knows better.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: There will have to be sustainment works done at the hospital, but they are much more likely to be in the order of the works that the previous Liberal government budgeted, held up in glory, saying these were great works, and $30 million—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned again.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: It is much more likely to be in that magnitude than the figures that have been plucked completely out of the air today by the Leader of the Opposition in his desperate ploy to try to find something he can say on this project to get himself a grab on the news without actually saying whether he's going to support it or not. Is he going to back it? I hope he does. I hope that this is a project that gets support from across the community because this is a project that has the support of the clinicians, and this is a project that has the support of the families at the hospital who use this service.

Ms Pratt: At what cost? How much?

The SPEAKER: Member for Frome!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: This is a hospital that all South Australians take pride in, and I think all South Australians want to make sure that we build with the long term in mind and get it right the first time.

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