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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-10-28 Daily Xml
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Women's and Children's Hospital

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:16): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Minister, can you please update the council on the new designs for the car park and outdoor space for the new Women's and Children's Hospital?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:16): I would like to thank the honourable member for his question. The new Women's and Children's Hospital will be a hospital that all South Australians can be proud of. The Marshall Liberal government has committed $1.95 billion—

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: How much?

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I'm sorry: $1.95 billion to the new hospital, which will be, importantly, co-located with the Royal Adelaide Hospital and will include more treatment spaces, more beds, bigger emergency departments and more car parks—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hanson!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —than the current site. We want to give the children and women of this state the best possible facilities and the best possible care, but we also want to build a hospital in a way that sits well with its environment, and that includes the hospital car park plan for the western side of the railway from the new hospital site on Port Road.

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: 'We're going to. We're going to do this. We're going to do that.' Four years of it.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hanson is out of order.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: After receiving feedback from the Adelaide City Council, the Adelaide Park Lands Authority and the public, SA Health has revised its proposal and almost halved the footprint of the proposed car park in a bid to reduce the impact on the western Adelaide Parklands. The footprint has been reduced from 15,400 square metres to 8,350 square metres by using a more vertical structure.

Originally, the car park design protruded into Kate Cocks Park. Now it doesn't—it sits up against the railway. The design is more sensitive to the heritage and environment of the Parklands, which is important to the government and to the council, as well as to the Women's and Children's Hospital patients, staff and visitors and the broader South Australian community.

The new design of the car park will in fact enhance opportunities to enjoy what is a relatively disused part of the Parklands near the Adelaide Gaol and the Thebarton Police Barracks. It includes the rejuvenation of existing unused land into a new landscaped outdoor space and amenities for hospital families and the wider community. The design will give this unused area an opportunity to come alive.

The additional outdoor areas will provide connections to nature and outdoor spaces for patients and families, which we know offer much-needed respite for women and children during their hospital journey. There will be better pedestrian and cycling links to Port Road, North Terrace, the new Women's and Children's Hospital, the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Adelaide biomedical precinct. There will also be connections to Bonython Park and the River Torrens Linear Park trail.

Despite the smaller footprint, there will still be 1,215 car parks at the site, almost double what is available at the current site. So many times, South Australian families have said to me, 'It's so hard to get a park at the Women's and Children's Hospital.' That will be fixed when this new hospital is delivered. We recognise that parking can be difficult at the current site and we want to make sure the new site is better.

In terms of the proposal for the part of the new Women's and Children's Hospital that will be west of the railway line, the government has listened to the Adelaide City Council and the Adelaide Park Lands Authority and the general public. Although the council has yet to approve a wider rezoning of the Riverbank area, I am advised that the revised car park option has been well received by council. A motion, I am advised, has been passed, enabling council officers to continue to work with the new Women's and Children's Hospital project team on the revised car park design.

On behalf of the government—and for that matter on behalf of the Department for Health and Wellbeing, on behalf of the Women's and Children's Hospital network and the project teams that are working with them—we certainly assure the council and stakeholders that we are determined to continue to work with them to make sure this important project is the best that it can be and that it sits well within the Adelaide Parklands.

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