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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 1322 asked in the Legislative Council on 1 December 2022 by Hon Dr Steve Thomas

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

PERTH CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL — JOHN HOLLAND

1322. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the Leader of the House representing the Premier:

I refer to the Premier quoted on page 4 of today's copy of the Collie River Valley Bulletin saying that ''everyone loves free money'' while spruiking his cash splash in Collie, and witnessed by the Minister for Regional Development.

(1) Is the $38 million the state paid to John Holland to settle the Perth Children's Hospital lawsuit also from the pile of free money?

(2) Why was the settlement confidential a week ago and made public yesterday?

(3) If the amount of the settlement can be revealed, why can the details not also be revealed so that we can have gold-standard instead of lead-standard transparency?

Hon Stephen Dawson: Whose baby was it? The Liberal–National government.

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question. I note the Deputy Leader of the House's comment about who started the Perth Children's Hospital and what happened.

(1)–(3) I refer the honourable member to the statement made by the Minister for Finance in the Legislative Assembly on 30 November 2022. The former Liberal–National government commenced this project in 2013, which was then followed by countless revised completion dates, before finally the McGowan government was elected and did what the former Liberal–National government could not do—take control and deliver the project for people of Western Australia.

As the Minister for Finance has stated, the terms of the settlement are confidential. The state takes its responsibility to the confidentiality clauses seriously and has adhered to them appropriately, and as such no further statements on the settlement will be issued.