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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-09-19 Daily Xml
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Repatriation General Hospital

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (14:31): Thank you, sir. My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the minister update the council on the state government's progress towards reactivating the Repat and the recent public consultation on the future of the Repat site?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:31): I thank the honourable member for his question. At the election, the Liberal Party committed to reactivate the Repat as a genuine health precinct. I am pleased to update the council on progress being made to deliver on our commitment.

As honourable members know, this government stopped the sale of the Repat site. I terminated the contract on 2 May. The Repat is remembered particularly for its link with the veterans community, and I want to highlight the government's commitment to this history. We have ensured that the Repat Memorial Chapel remains a place for the community to honour our veterans community. A commemorative service was held at the chapel on ANZAC Day and an event is planned for Remembrance Day.

We have reopened the hydrotherapy pool: on 28 May, a phased approach to reactivation of the pool commenced. We have undertaken a consultation process on the reactivation of the Repat site. In April, we engaged both SA Health and community stakeholders in identifying and testing options and these ideas were brought together in an issues guide.

On 15 August, we launched public consultations on the future of the Repat. This consultative approach was in stark contrast to the previous Labor government's approach to Transforming Health. On 1 September, a second consultation event was held. Described as a speed dialogue event, it provided guests with an opportunity to discuss the proposal concepts with clinicians, SA Health and stakeholders.

The government invited an expression of interest from private and non-government organisations, which closed last Friday 14 September. Over 30 expressions of interest have been received. We also asked the community to participate and tell us what services they wanted to see on the site.

In total, almost 1,500 members of the community participated, with 1,325 online poll results and approximately 100 submissions via letter and email. The community consultation phase closed last Sunday 16 September. The public response has been outstanding. We already saw, on 17 March, how much the community value this site and the community engagement with the process to date has only confirmed that.

Some of the statistics: 165 people attended the public launch, 50 people participated in the speed-dialogue public consultation event, 180 people attended a local community forum arranged by local MPs, and more than 6,000 people viewed the YouTube video which was created at the launch event. The YourSAy website has had over 11,000 page views in total, with a record 1,200 page views in one day, on 15 August, the day it was launched. Social media posts have reached more than 120,000 people in total.

I would like to thank everyone who has taken the opportunity to have their say on how they think the Repat site should be used and what should be located there. From here, SA Health will shortlist potential partners from the EOI process and begin negotiations with those shortlisted organisations. The government will also develop a fully costed conceptual master plan based on the feedback from the public and other input. The final master plan is expected to be released for public comment either late this year or early next, with the next stage of the site's activation commencing next year.

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