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.