❓ Debate regarding the future of Royal Perth Hospital, considering both redevelopment and refurbishment options. Minister refutes claims about past budget figures.
AnsweredQoN 315Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ROYAL PERTH HOSPITAL — REDEVELOPMENT OR REFURBISHMENT
Now that the Liberal-National government has moved to save Royal Perth Hospital as a trauma centre in the Perth central business district by introducing the Royal Perth Hospital Protection Bill 2008, which is currently on the notice paper, can the minister inform the house whether it has been decided to redevelop or merely refurbish Royal Perth Hospital? Dr K.D. HAMES
Now that the Liberal-National government has moved to save Royal Perth Hospital as a trauma centre in the Perth central business district by introducing the Royal Perth Hospital Protection Bill 2008, which is currently on the notice paper, can the minister inform the house whether it has been decided to redevelop or merely refurbish Royal Perth Hospital? Dr K.D. HAMES
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question. I was keen to answer this question during question time because although I can and will cover it during the debate on the bill, sadly, only about three or four members of the opposition have been present in the house during debate. Other opposition members have been missing out on hearing about what we plan to do with Royal Perth Hospital. I am more than keen to answer the question and thank the member who asked the question for — Mr M. McGowan : Hurry up. The SPEAKER : Minister, I urge you to get to the answer. Dr K.D. HAMES : We have planned to do one of two things with Royal Perth. When we went to the election, we committed to build a new west wing to replace the old structure of Royal Perth Hospital. We would retain the newest component of tertiary hospitals in Western Australia—that is, the north block, with approximately 200-odd beds, and build to the west of that a replacement for the beds on the other side to the order of about 170 beds, making in total a 400-bed tertiary hospital. Obviously, we need to significantly downsize the hospital as a result of the construction of Royal Perth Hospital. While that was my commitment and still remains very strongly my preferred option, the committee that I put in place to oversee a study of what happens to that whole block of Royal Perth and the land it owns over about five city blocks has come to me with an alternative proposal. The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, planning people from Royal Perth, the member for Ocean Reef and the former chief executive of Royal Perth Hospital are on that committee. One of the suggestions that the committee has come back to me with is that it might be possible to totally refurbish the old hospital. There is a hospital in the east that was totally refurbished to make a modern apartment development. The committee members are saying to me that by starting one floor at a time—we would need only four of the 11 floors of Royal Perth to do this—we could totally gut a floor and rebuild the inside. They are saying that there could be single rooms with ensuites—the latest and the best development that could be expected in a hospital. The basic structure of that component of Royal Perth Hospital is still excellent, and a very high quality redevelopment could be built on those top floors. The floors underneath would still retain the mortuary. A significant amount of money was spent by the previous government on a major upgrade of the emergency department. What is in some of those other buildings could be brought into the lower floors of that building to free up land to allow for development that would then fund the project. I will talk more about that later. I have given the committee the okay to look at and continue to study those two options. I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
Dr K.D. HAMES replied: I thank the member for the question. I was keen to answer this question during question time because although I can and will cover it during the debate on the bill, sadly, only about three or four members of the opposition have been present in the house during debate. Other opposition members have been missing out on hearing about what we plan to do with Royal Perth Hospital. I am more than keen to answer the question and thank the member who asked the question for — Mr M. McGowan : Hurry up. The SPEAKER : Minister, I urge you to get to the answer. Dr K.D. HAMES : We have planned to do one of two things with Royal Perth. When we went to the election, we committed to build a new west wing to replace the old structure of Royal Perth Hospital. We would retain the newest component of tertiary hospitals in Western Australia—that is, the north block, with approximately 200-odd beds, and build to the west of that a replacement for the beds on the other side to the order of about 170 beds, making in total a 400-bed tertiary hospital. Obviously, we need to significantly downsize the hospital as a result of the construction of Royal Perth Hospital. While that was my commitment and still remains very strongly my preferred option, the committee that I put in place to oversee a study of what happens to that whole block of Royal Perth and the land it owns over about five city blocks has come to me with an alternative proposal. The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, planning people from Royal Perth, the member for Ocean Reef and the former chief executive of Royal Perth Hospital are on that committee. One of the suggestions that the committee has come back to me with is that it might be possible to totally refurbish the old hospital. There is a hospital in the east that was totally refurbished to make a modern apartment development. The committee members are saying to me that by starting one floor at a time—we would need only four of the 11 floors of Royal Perth to do this—we could totally gut a floor and rebuild the inside. They are saying that there could be single rooms with ensuites—the latest and the best development that could be expected in a hospital. The basic structure of that component of Royal Perth Hospital is still excellent, and a very high quality redevelopment could be built on those top floors. The floors underneath would still retain the mortuary. A significant amount of money was spent by the previous government on a major upgrade of the emergency department. What is in some of those other buildings could be brought into the lower floors of that building to free up land to allow for development that would then fund the project. I will talk more about that later. I have given the committee the okay to look at and continue to study those two options. I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
I thank the member for the question. I was keen to answer this question during question time because although I can and will cover it during the debate on the bill, sadly, only about three or four members of the opposition have been present in the house during debate. Other opposition members have been missing out on hearing about what we plan to do with Royal Perth Hospital. I am more than keen to answer the question and thank the member who asked the question for — Mr M. McGowan : Hurry up. The SPEAKER : Minister, I urge you to get to the answer. Dr K.D. HAMES : We have planned to do one of two things with Royal Perth. When we went to the election, we committed to build a new west wing to replace the old structure of Royal Perth Hospital. We would retain the newest component of tertiary hospitals in Western Australia—that is, the north block, with approximately 200-odd beds, and build to the west of that a replacement for the beds on the other side to the order of about 170 beds, making in total a 400-bed tertiary hospital. Obviously, we need to significantly downsize the hospital as a result of the construction of Royal Perth Hospital. While that was my commitment and still remains very strongly my preferred option, the committee that I put in place to oversee a study of what happens to that whole block of Royal Perth and the land it owns over about five city blocks has come to me with an alternative proposal. The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, planning people from Royal Perth, the member for Ocean Reef and the former chief executive of Royal Perth Hospital are on that committee. One of the suggestions that the committee has come back to me with is that it might be possible to totally refurbish the old hospital. There is a hospital in the east that was totally refurbished to make a modern apartment development. The committee members are saying to me that by starting one floor at a time—we would need only four of the 11 floors of Royal Perth to do this—we could totally gut a floor and rebuild the inside. They are saying that there could be single rooms with ensuites—the latest and the best development that could be expected in a hospital. The basic structure of that component of Royal Perth Hospital is still excellent, and a very high quality redevelopment could be built on those top floors. The floors underneath would still retain the mortuary. A significant amount of money was spent by the previous government on a major upgrade of the emergency department. What is in some of those other buildings could be brought into the lower floors of that building to free up land to allow for development that would then fund the project. I will talk more about that later. I have given the committee the okay to look at and continue to study those two options. I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
Mr M. McGowan : Hurry up. The SPEAKER : Minister, I urge you to get to the answer. Dr K.D. HAMES : We have planned to do one of two things with Royal Perth. When we went to the election, we committed to build a new west wing to replace the old structure of Royal Perth Hospital. We would retain the newest component of tertiary hospitals in Western Australia—that is, the north block, with approximately 200-odd beds, and build to the west of that a replacement for the beds on the other side to the order of about 170 beds, making in total a 400-bed tertiary hospital. Obviously, we need to significantly downsize the hospital as a result of the construction of Royal Perth Hospital. While that was my commitment and still remains very strongly my preferred option, the committee that I put in place to oversee a study of what happens to that whole block of Royal Perth and the land it owns over about five city blocks has come to me with an alternative proposal. The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, planning people from Royal Perth, the member for Ocean Reef and the former chief executive of Royal Perth Hospital are on that committee. One of the suggestions that the committee has come back to me with is that it might be possible to totally refurbish the old hospital. There is a hospital in the east that was totally refurbished to make a modern apartment development. The committee members are saying to me that by starting one floor at a time—we would need only four of the 11 floors of Royal Perth to do this—we could totally gut a floor and rebuild the inside. They are saying that there could be single rooms with ensuites—the latest and the best development that could be expected in a hospital. The basic structure of that component of Royal Perth Hospital is still excellent, and a very high quality redevelopment could be built on those top floors. The floors underneath would still retain the mortuary. A significant amount of money was spent by the previous government on a major upgrade of the emergency department. What is in some of those other buildings could be brought into the lower floors of that building to free up land to allow for development that would then fund the project. I will talk more about that later. I have given the committee the okay to look at and continue to study those two options. I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
The SPEAKER : Minister, I urge you to get to the answer. Dr K.D. HAMES : We have planned to do one of two things with Royal Perth. When we went to the election, we committed to build a new west wing to replace the old structure of Royal Perth Hospital. We would retain the newest component of tertiary hospitals in Western Australia—that is, the north block, with approximately 200-odd beds, and build to the west of that a replacement for the beds on the other side to the order of about 170 beds, making in total a 400-bed tertiary hospital. Obviously, we need to significantly downsize the hospital as a result of the construction of Royal Perth Hospital. While that was my commitment and still remains very strongly my preferred option, the committee that I put in place to oversee a study of what happens to that whole block of Royal Perth and the land it owns over about five city blocks has come to me with an alternative proposal. The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, planning people from Royal Perth, the member for Ocean Reef and the former chief executive of Royal Perth Hospital are on that committee. One of the suggestions that the committee has come back to me with is that it might be possible to totally refurbish the old hospital. There is a hospital in the east that was totally refurbished to make a modern apartment development. The committee members are saying to me that by starting one floor at a time—we would need only four of the 11 floors of Royal Perth to do this—we could totally gut a floor and rebuild the inside. They are saying that there could be single rooms with ensuites—the latest and the best development that could be expected in a hospital. The basic structure of that component of Royal Perth Hospital is still excellent, and a very high quality redevelopment could be built on those top floors. The floors underneath would still retain the mortuary. A significant amount of money was spent by the previous government on a major upgrade of the emergency department. What is in some of those other buildings could be brought into the lower floors of that building to free up land to allow for development that would then fund the project. I will talk more about that later. I have given the committee the okay to look at and continue to study those two options. I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
Dr K.D. HAMES : We have planned to do one of two things with Royal Perth. When we went to the election, we committed to build a new west wing to replace the old structure of Royal Perth Hospital. We would retain the newest component of tertiary hospitals in Western Australia—that is, the north block, with approximately 200-odd beds, and build to the west of that a replacement for the beds on the other side to the order of about 170 beds, making in total a 400-bed tertiary hospital. Obviously, we need to significantly downsize the hospital as a result of the construction of Royal Perth Hospital. While that was my commitment and still remains very strongly my preferred option, the committee that I put in place to oversee a study of what happens to that whole block of Royal Perth and the land it owns over about five city blocks has come to me with an alternative proposal. The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, planning people from Royal Perth, the member for Ocean Reef and the former chief executive of Royal Perth Hospital are on that committee. One of the suggestions that the committee has come back to me with is that it might be possible to totally refurbish the old hospital. There is a hospital in the east that was totally refurbished to make a modern apartment development. The committee members are saying to me that by starting one floor at a time—we would need only four of the 11 floors of Royal Perth to do this—we could totally gut a floor and rebuild the inside. They are saying that there could be single rooms with ensuites—the latest and the best development that could be expected in a hospital. The basic structure of that component of Royal Perth Hospital is still excellent, and a very high quality redevelopment could be built on those top floors. The floors underneath would still retain the mortuary. A significant amount of money was spent by the previous government on a major upgrade of the emergency department. What is in some of those other buildings could be brought into the lower floors of that building to free up land to allow for development that would then fund the project. I will talk more about that later. I have given the committee the okay to look at and continue to study those two options. I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
Dr K.D. HAMES replied: I thank the member for the question. I was keen to answer this question during question time because although I can and will cover it during the debate on the bill, sadly, only about three or four members of the opposition have been present in the house during debate. Other opposition members have been missing out on hearing about what we plan to do with Royal Perth Hospital. I am more than keen to answer the question and thank the member who asked the question for — Mr M. McGowan : Hurry up. The SPEAKER : Minister, I urge you to get to the answer. Dr K.D. HAMES : We have planned to do one of two things with Royal Perth. When we went to the election, we committed to build a new west wing to replace the old structure of Royal Perth Hospital. We would retain the newest component of tertiary hospitals in Western Australia—that is, the north block, with approximately 200-odd beds, and build to the west of that a replacement for the beds on the other side to the order of about 170 beds, making in total a 400-bed tertiary hospital. Obviously, we need to significantly downsize the hospital as a result of the construction of Royal Perth Hospital. While that was my commitment and still remains very strongly my preferred option, the committee that I put in place to oversee a study of what happens to that whole block of Royal Perth and the land it owns over about five city blocks has come to me with an alternative proposal. The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, planning people from Royal Perth, the member for Ocean Reef and the former chief executive of Royal Perth Hospital are on that committee. One of the suggestions that the committee has come back to me with is that it might be possible to totally refurbish the old hospital. There is a hospital in the east that was totally refurbished to make a modern apartment development. The committee members are saying to me that by starting one floor at a time—we would need only four of the 11 floors of Royal Perth to do this—we could totally gut a floor and rebuild the inside. They are saying that there could be single rooms with ensuites—the latest and the best development that could be expected in a hospital. The basic structure of that component of Royal Perth Hospital is still excellent, and a very high quality redevelopment could be built on those top floors. The floors underneath would still retain the mortuary. A significant amount of money was spent by the previous government on a major upgrade of the emergency department. What is in some of those other buildings could be brought into the lower floors of that building to free up land to allow for development that would then fund the project. I will talk more about that later. I have given the committee the okay to look at and continue to study those two options. I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
I thank the member for the question. I was keen to answer this question during question time because although I can and will cover it during the debate on the bill, sadly, only about three or four members of the opposition have been present in the house during debate. Other opposition members have been missing out on hearing about what we plan to do with Royal Perth Hospital. I am more than keen to answer the question and thank the member who asked the question for — Mr M. McGowan : Hurry up. The SPEAKER : Minister, I urge you to get to the answer. Dr K.D. HAMES : We have planned to do one of two things with Royal Perth. When we went to the election, we committed to build a new west wing to replace the old structure of Royal Perth Hospital. We would retain the newest component of tertiary hospitals in Western Australia—that is, the north block, with approximately 200-odd beds, and build to the west of that a replacement for the beds on the other side to the order of about 170 beds, making in total a 400-bed tertiary hospital. Obviously, we need to significantly downsize the hospital as a result of the construction of Royal Perth Hospital. While that was my commitment and still remains very strongly my preferred option, the committee that I put in place to oversee a study of what happens to that whole block of Royal Perth and the land it owns over about five city blocks has come to me with an alternative proposal. The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, planning people from Royal Perth, the member for Ocean Reef and the former chief executive of Royal Perth Hospital are on that committee. One of the suggestions that the committee has come back to me with is that it might be possible to totally refurbish the old hospital. There is a hospital in the east that was totally refurbished to make a modern apartment development. The committee members are saying to me that by starting one floor at a time—we would need only four of the 11 floors of Royal Perth to do this—we could totally gut a floor and rebuild the inside. They are saying that there could be single rooms with ensuites—the latest and the best development that could be expected in a hospital. The basic structure of that component of Royal Perth Hospital is still excellent, and a very high quality redevelopment could be built on those top floors. The floors underneath would still retain the mortuary. A significant amount of money was spent by the previous government on a major upgrade of the emergency department. What is in some of those other buildings could be brought into the lower floors of that building to free up land to allow for development that would then fund the project. I will talk more about that later. I have given the committee the okay to look at and continue to study those two options. I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
Mr M. McGowan : Hurry up. The SPEAKER : Minister, I urge you to get to the answer. Dr K.D. HAMES : We have planned to do one of two things with Royal Perth. When we went to the election, we committed to build a new west wing to replace the old structure of Royal Perth Hospital. We would retain the newest component of tertiary hospitals in Western Australia—that is, the north block, with approximately 200-odd beds, and build to the west of that a replacement for the beds on the other side to the order of about 170 beds, making in total a 400-bed tertiary hospital. Obviously, we need to significantly downsize the hospital as a result of the construction of Royal Perth Hospital. While that was my commitment and still remains very strongly my preferred option, the committee that I put in place to oversee a study of what happens to that whole block of Royal Perth and the land it owns over about five city blocks has come to me with an alternative proposal. The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, planning people from Royal Perth, the member for Ocean Reef and the former chief executive of Royal Perth Hospital are on that committee. One of the suggestions that the committee has come back to me with is that it might be possible to totally refurbish the old hospital. There is a hospital in the east that was totally refurbished to make a modern apartment development. The committee members are saying to me that by starting one floor at a time—we would need only four of the 11 floors of Royal Perth to do this—we could totally gut a floor and rebuild the inside. They are saying that there could be single rooms with ensuites—the latest and the best development that could be expected in a hospital. The basic structure of that component of Royal Perth Hospital is still excellent, and a very high quality redevelopment could be built on those top floors. The floors underneath would still retain the mortuary. A significant amount of money was spent by the previous government on a major upgrade of the emergency department. What is in some of those other buildings could be brought into the lower floors of that building to free up land to allow for development that would then fund the project. I will talk more about that later. I have given the committee the okay to look at and continue to study those two options. I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
The SPEAKER : Minister, I urge you to get to the answer. Dr K.D. HAMES : We have planned to do one of two things with Royal Perth. When we went to the election, we committed to build a new west wing to replace the old structure of Royal Perth Hospital. We would retain the newest component of tertiary hospitals in Western Australia—that is, the north block, with approximately 200-odd beds, and build to the west of that a replacement for the beds on the other side to the order of about 170 beds, making in total a 400-bed tertiary hospital. Obviously, we need to significantly downsize the hospital as a result of the construction of Royal Perth Hospital. While that was my commitment and still remains very strongly my preferred option, the committee that I put in place to oversee a study of what happens to that whole block of Royal Perth and the land it owns over about five city blocks has come to me with an alternative proposal. The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, planning people from Royal Perth, the member for Ocean Reef and the former chief executive of Royal Perth Hospital are on that committee. One of the suggestions that the committee has come back to me with is that it might be possible to totally refurbish the old hospital. There is a hospital in the east that was totally refurbished to make a modern apartment development. The committee members are saying to me that by starting one floor at a time—we would need only four of the 11 floors of Royal Perth to do this—we could totally gut a floor and rebuild the inside. They are saying that there could be single rooms with ensuites—the latest and the best development that could be expected in a hospital. The basic structure of that component of Royal Perth Hospital is still excellent, and a very high quality redevelopment could be built on those top floors. The floors underneath would still retain the mortuary. A significant amount of money was spent by the previous government on a major upgrade of the emergency department. What is in some of those other buildings could be brought into the lower floors of that building to free up land to allow for development that would then fund the project. I will talk more about that later. I have given the committee the okay to look at and continue to study those two options. I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
Dr K.D. HAMES : We have planned to do one of two things with Royal Perth. When we went to the election, we committed to build a new west wing to replace the old structure of Royal Perth Hospital. We would retain the newest component of tertiary hospitals in Western Australia—that is, the north block, with approximately 200-odd beds, and build to the west of that a replacement for the beds on the other side to the order of about 170 beds, making in total a 400-bed tertiary hospital. Obviously, we need to significantly downsize the hospital as a result of the construction of Royal Perth Hospital. While that was my commitment and still remains very strongly my preferred option, the committee that I put in place to oversee a study of what happens to that whole block of Royal Perth and the land it owns over about five city blocks has come to me with an alternative proposal. The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, planning people from Royal Perth, the member for Ocean Reef and the former chief executive of Royal Perth Hospital are on that committee. One of the suggestions that the committee has come back to me with is that it might be possible to totally refurbish the old hospital. There is a hospital in the east that was totally refurbished to make a modern apartment development. The committee members are saying to me that by starting one floor at a time—we would need only four of the 11 floors of Royal Perth to do this—we could totally gut a floor and rebuild the inside. They are saying that there could be single rooms with ensuites—the latest and the best development that could be expected in a hospital. The basic structure of that component of Royal Perth Hospital is still excellent, and a very high quality redevelopment could be built on those top floors. The floors underneath would still retain the mortuary. A significant amount of money was spent by the previous government on a major upgrade of the emergency department. What is in some of those other buildings could be brought into the lower floors of that building to free up land to allow for development that would then fund the project. I will talk more about that later. I have given the committee the okay to look at and continue to study those two options. I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
I heard some interjections from the other side. I want to refer to a comment that was made during the debate about Royal Perth Hospital’s budget. The member for West Swan said that the budget figures show that when the Labor Party came to government in 2000-01—I think she said this; I have not seen the Hansard to confirm it—there was a 1.5 per cent increase. That is the figure she quoted. I happened to get out the budget figures. The member for West Swan said that there was a 1.5 per cent increase in budget. Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
Ms R. Saffioti : Recurrent. Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
Dr K.D. HAMES : This may be recurrent. I have before me the budget for 2000-01, which actually shows a 4.55 per cent increase in budget. The actual increase in budget from the year before was 7.4 per cent. That year it was 7.6 per cent. The subsequent year it was 9.4 per cent. It got down to 5.2 per cent in 2003-04 when the Labor Party was in office. The reality is that the member was wrong and she misled the house on the budget figures.
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