Page 153 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 12 February 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: To correct Mrs Dunne from the start, these were not options about the location of SPIRE. They were options about the footprint of SPIRE and its connection to the rest of the hospital. This is exactly in line with what I said in this place in November 2019 when I was asked by Ms Lee:
… what is the point of community consultation by the government on traffic flows to and from SPIRE after the government has already decided on its location?
To which I responded:
It is an interesting question because there are in fact a number of options in relation to traffic flows to the SPIRE building, to the SPIRE project, in that current proposed location. This is something we are working through.
Those options related to that work, not the location of SPIRE.
Mrs Jones: On a point of order, Madam Speaker—the clock was not on but that probably does not really matter now. The question was: what was option 1?
MADAM SPEAKER: The minister is in order. She has referred to discussions about the paper and the options being within the footprint, without verballing her.
Mrs Jones: There was no answer to the question: what was option 1?
MADAM SPEAKER: The answer is in order.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, can you tell the Assembly what the options were, and specifically what option 1 was? And why were any of these options rejected?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: This is work that is ongoing to inform cabinet considerations, which, as Mrs Dunne is well aware, is why the attachment was not provided under freedom of information. No, I will not inform the Assembly of what all of those options were.
What I will say is that it is exactly in line with what I said we were doing last November. Let me quote again from Hansard. Mrs Jones asked me:
Is there any possibility that you will move the entrance?
After many points of order and backwards and forwards, I responded:
The current proposed entrance to the emergency department in the SPIRE project is as far away from Garran Primary School as it could be on the SPIRE location.
There appeared to be some misunderstanding on that point. I continued:
So it is very unlikely that the entrance to the emergency department will be moved. But we are in the process of detailed design development, so I do not want to give any concrete yes or no answer, because that is what the detailed design development process will consider.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video