❓ Opposition accuses the Minister for Health of deliberately withholding information about Fiona Stanley Hospital's commissioning delays to mislead the public before the election. The Minister denies the accusation, citing advice from the Director General of Health and acknowledging known risks.
AnsweredQoN 271Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
FIONA STANLEY HOSPITAL — COMMISSIONING
DELAY REPORT
271. Mr R.H. COOK to the
Minister for Health:
I have a supplementary question. Is it not true that the
minister wilfully avoided providing further information on the status of this
project at the end of 2012 so that he could simply say at the election that the
project was on time and on budget, and that was frankly untrue?
DELAY REPORT
271. Mr R.H. COOK to the
Minister for Health:
I have a supplementary question. Is it not true that the
minister wilfully avoided providing further information on the status of this
project at the end of 2012 so that he could simply say at the election that the
project was on time and on budget, and that was frankly untrue?
AnswerView source ↗
I am happy to take that supplementary question from the
Deputy Leader of the Opposition. However—perhaps we should check with Hansard later—it bears
absolutely no resemblance to the question he asked about Serco. Nevertheless,
it is not a bad question. The answer is no, I do not accept that. It is not
true. I have said that over and over again. I had numerous conversations about
this project. I was reassured by the director general of the Department of
Health that although there were significant challenges, which had been
highlighted over and over again and which the shadow Treasurer would have seen
in Treasury reports, annual budgets and the midyear review, there were
reflections by Treasury of concerns about the risk. We agreed with them. There
were risks. We were working extremely hard —
Mr B.S. Wyatt interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Victoria Park, I call you to order for the third time.
Dr K.D. HAMES : I
think what members need to do —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Cannington, I call you to order for the second time. Member for
Kwinana, you have asked a question; let the minister answer.
Dr K.D. HAMES :
Clearly, members have not read the report in detail. If they had, they would
have read the comments printed at length from Kim Snowball, director general of
Health, on all the things that he did do, both in comments in presentations that
he made to the committee and in subsequent submissions to the committee. When
he was advised that adverse findings were going to be made against him, he
wrote back again. That comment is in the back of the report contradicting the
statements that were made against him in the committee. He has talked at length
about the things that were done to try to mitigate those very serious risks.
April was a very challenging date. The hospital was a construction site up
until the end of December. We were supposed to open it three months later. I
have said in retrospect that to try to get all those services into that
hospital in a three-month window was a very difficult target, and we recognised
at the start of 2013 that it was not achievable and that we would have to both
delay and phase the opening of the hospital.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition. However—perhaps we should check with Hansard later—it bears
absolutely no resemblance to the question he asked about Serco. Nevertheless,
it is not a bad question. The answer is no, I do not accept that. It is not
true. I have said that over and over again. I had numerous conversations about
this project. I was reassured by the director general of the Department of
Health that although there were significant challenges, which had been
highlighted over and over again and which the shadow Treasurer would have seen
in Treasury reports, annual budgets and the midyear review, there were
reflections by Treasury of concerns about the risk. We agreed with them. There
were risks. We were working extremely hard —
Mr B.S. Wyatt interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Victoria Park, I call you to order for the third time.
Dr K.D. HAMES : I
think what members need to do —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Cannington, I call you to order for the second time. Member for
Kwinana, you have asked a question; let the minister answer.
Dr K.D. HAMES :
Clearly, members have not read the report in detail. If they had, they would
have read the comments printed at length from Kim Snowball, director general of
Health, on all the things that he did do, both in comments in presentations that
he made to the committee and in subsequent submissions to the committee. When
he was advised that adverse findings were going to be made against him, he
wrote back again. That comment is in the back of the report contradicting the
statements that were made against him in the committee. He has talked at length
about the things that were done to try to mitigate those very serious risks.
April was a very challenging date. The hospital was a construction site up
until the end of December. We were supposed to open it three months later. I
have said in retrospect that to try to get all those services into that
hospital in a three-month window was a very difficult target, and we recognised
at the start of 2013 that it was not achievable and that we would have to both
delay and phase the opening of the hospital.
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