❓ Opposition Leader Mark McGowan questions the Minister for Health, Dr. Kim Hames, regarding a report criticizing his handling of the Fiona Stanley Hospital commissioning, particularly the Serco contract, leading to significant financial losses. Hames defends his actions and criticizes the impartiality of the report.
AnsweredQoN 267Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
FIONA STANLEY HOSPITAL — COMMISSIONING
DELAY REPORT
267. Mr M. McGOWAN to the
Minister for Health:
I refer to today's Fiona Stanley Hospital report,
which criticises the minister's failure to seek further information on
the status of the project despite reports and briefing notes alerting him,
failure to ensure that the obligations of the Serco contract could be met
before signing the contract in 2011 and failure to adequately ensure that the
objectives of the contract were being met, all resulting in the loss of $330 million-plus
of taxpayers' money. Given that this report shows the minister retired
from doing his job as health minister two years ago, why does he not just
officially bring forward his retirement to today?
Opposition members: Hear, hear!
DELAY REPORT
267. Mr M. McGOWAN to the
Minister for Health:
I refer to today's Fiona Stanley Hospital report,
which criticises the minister's failure to seek further information on
the status of the project despite reports and briefing notes alerting him,
failure to ensure that the obligations of the Serco contract could be met
before signing the contract in 2011 and failure to adequately ensure that the
objectives of the contract were being met, all resulting in the loss of $330 million-plus
of taxpayers' money. Given that this report shows the minister retired
from doing his job as health minister two years ago, why does he not just
officially bring forward his retirement to today?
Opposition members: Hear, hear!
AnswerView source ↗
They are tougher than you guys in the press gallery, aren't
they? They just drive me into the ground.
No, I am not bringing forward my retirement. I have often
reflected —
Several members interjected.
Dr K.D. HAMES :
Yes, the opposition is very disappointed, I know.
A lot of people have said I am in retirement mode already and
I am moving down, but I think of myself like a good footy player in that the
last year of someone's time as a footy player is often their best. When
they know they are about to retire, they make sure that in the last year or two
before their retirement they work their absolute butt off making sure —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Collie‑Preston, are you with us?
Dr K.D. HAMES :
People make sure that all the goals they wanted to achieve are done, such as
the $7 billion of hospital infrastructure that we have seen on the paper.
This is a very serious point, and I
need to quickly answer it because we do not want to spend too much time on just
me answering questions. There are two points. If we go to the findings of the
report, we see that there are two findings against me personally in that I
should have done something. One is finding 19, which reads —
The Minister for Health signed a
$4.3 billion contract with Serco where the government was obligated to deliver
an operational digital hospital on 1 April 2014. The Committee is not satisfied
that the government had assured itself that it could achieve this before
signing the contract.
The second is finding 40, which
reads —
The Minister for Health had signed
a $4.3 billion contract on behalf of the State, which contained obligations for
the State to deliver a digital hospital in April 2014. We are not convinced
that the Minister adequately satisfied himself that the obligations of the contract
were being met.
Do they sound similar? Do they sound
like they are the same? Do they sound like they are identical recommendations
that have about three words different? The reality is that that is the only
thing this committee, despite all the talk of its members during their
speeches, says I should have dealt with.
Several members interjected.
Dr K.D. HAMES : I
remind the house that the Serco contract was signed in July 2011.
Mr M. McGowan :
Finding 38?
Mr R.H. Cook : What
about finding 38? He is not talking about that.
Dr K.D. HAMES : It
was not until right near the end of 2012 that it was recognised that the full
digital-free contract —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for West Swan, I call you to order for the first time. I
want some silence.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : Sorry, Mr Speaker, I did miss finding 38, which refers to ''more
information about the status of the commissioning project''. I do not
accept that as a fair and accurate report, and we have seen reflections of what
the opposition is like and the opposition members of the committee are like on
this issue. They are supposed to do an impartial report, but look at the words —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Cannington, I call you to order for the first time.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : It is a good argument that it is a government majority
committee, but all members have to do is read the Hansard comments by
those three individuals to see what they look like. The chair of the committee
stood and gave a very impartial and balanced report that referred to some of
the issues that the health department has had through that contract. Next, the
two Labor Party members stood with a personalised, focused —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, I call you to order for the first time.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : The two Labor Party members of the committee stood and did a
personalised, focused attack and raised issues that were not even in the
findings or the report.
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Warnbro, I do not want to hear from you again.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : The report in itself, I think, is a reasonable report; what is
not reasonable are the personal and vindictive comments made by opposition
members, totally contrary —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Mirrabooka, I call you to order for the first time.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : The comments were totally contrary to the findings in the
report.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Mirrabooka, I call you to order for the second time.
Dr K.D. HAMES : The
other good example of opposition prejudice in this is that prior to the release
of the report, we had a debate in this house during which those members, before
even reaching their conclusions, before even getting to the end of the committee
inquiry, were attacking me and attacking Kim Snowball.
they? They just drive me into the ground.
No, I am not bringing forward my retirement. I have often
reflected —
Several members interjected.
Dr K.D. HAMES :
Yes, the opposition is very disappointed, I know.
A lot of people have said I am in retirement mode already and
I am moving down, but I think of myself like a good footy player in that the
last year of someone's time as a footy player is often their best. When
they know they are about to retire, they make sure that in the last year or two
before their retirement they work their absolute butt off making sure —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Collie‑Preston, are you with us?
Dr K.D. HAMES :
People make sure that all the goals they wanted to achieve are done, such as
the $7 billion of hospital infrastructure that we have seen on the paper.
This is a very serious point, and I
need to quickly answer it because we do not want to spend too much time on just
me answering questions. There are two points. If we go to the findings of the
report, we see that there are two findings against me personally in that I
should have done something. One is finding 19, which reads —
The Minister for Health signed a
$4.3 billion contract with Serco where the government was obligated to deliver
an operational digital hospital on 1 April 2014. The Committee is not satisfied
that the government had assured itself that it could achieve this before
signing the contract.
The second is finding 40, which
reads —
The Minister for Health had signed
a $4.3 billion contract on behalf of the State, which contained obligations for
the State to deliver a digital hospital in April 2014. We are not convinced
that the Minister adequately satisfied himself that the obligations of the contract
were being met.
Do they sound similar? Do they sound
like they are the same? Do they sound like they are identical recommendations
that have about three words different? The reality is that that is the only
thing this committee, despite all the talk of its members during their
speeches, says I should have dealt with.
Several members interjected.
Dr K.D. HAMES : I
remind the house that the Serco contract was signed in July 2011.
Mr M. McGowan :
Finding 38?
Mr R.H. Cook : What
about finding 38? He is not talking about that.
Dr K.D. HAMES : It
was not until right near the end of 2012 that it was recognised that the full
digital-free contract —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for West Swan, I call you to order for the first time. I
want some silence.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : Sorry, Mr Speaker, I did miss finding 38, which refers to ''more
information about the status of the commissioning project''. I do not
accept that as a fair and accurate report, and we have seen reflections of what
the opposition is like and the opposition members of the committee are like on
this issue. They are supposed to do an impartial report, but look at the words —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Cannington, I call you to order for the first time.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : It is a good argument that it is a government majority
committee, but all members have to do is read the Hansard comments by
those three individuals to see what they look like. The chair of the committee
stood and gave a very impartial and balanced report that referred to some of
the issues that the health department has had through that contract. Next, the
two Labor Party members stood with a personalised, focused —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, I call you to order for the first time.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : The two Labor Party members of the committee stood and did a
personalised, focused attack and raised issues that were not even in the
findings or the report.
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Warnbro, I do not want to hear from you again.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : The report in itself, I think, is a reasonable report; what is
not reasonable are the personal and vindictive comments made by opposition
members, totally contrary —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Mirrabooka, I call you to order for the first time.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : The comments were totally contrary to the findings in the
report.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Mirrabooka, I call you to order for the second time.
Dr K.D. HAMES : The
other good example of opposition prejudice in this is that prior to the release
of the report, we had a debate in this house during which those members, before
even reaching their conclusions, before even getting to the end of the committee
inquiry, were attacking me and attacking Kim Snowball.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.