Calls to stick with new WCH plan over budget blowout fears
The Treasurer issues a warning after a new report flags rising construction costs are threatening the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital budget.
Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis has admitted the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital $3.2 billion budget is “under pressure”.
“I’ve seen reports saying about $5 billion. I don’t know where that number comes from; no one’s ever said that number to me,” Koutsantonis said on ABC Radio this morning.
It follows the Auditor-General Andrew Blaskett releasing his report on state finances yesterday afternoon, warning the current budget for the hospital “may not be sufficient”.
Koutsantonis today warned developer Lendlease that the government was “sticking to its guns”.
“We want this project delivered. I understand it’s under pressure. I understand there’s been escalation, but I am not going to surrender and put up the white flag just yet.
“I want this project delivered on time and on budget.”
Blaskett wrote in his report – tabled in Parliament yesterday – that costs “remain uncertain”, saying it has been some time since the preferred location for the new build was first announced in 2022.
“Since then, construction costs have increased significantly,” the report reads, noting that SA construction costs have increased by 3.2 per cent in the 12 months to June 2026.
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Australian Medical Association in South Australia President Associate Professor Peter Subramaniam said the government must not “respond to today’s budget pressures by cutting the hospital women and children will depend on for decades”.
“South Australian families were promised a hospital with more beds, more operating theatres, a bigger emergency department and intensive care for critically ill mothers,” he said.
“The government must give South Australians a simple guarantee: the hospital they were promised is the hospital that will be built.
“Cutting capacity now, only to try to add it back later, would be a false economy. It would be more difficult, more disruptive and ultimate more expensive.”
Even a 10 per cent budget overrun for T2D would amount to a $1.5 billion cost increase, the report warned.
Koutsantonis this morning said that there was a “very large contingency” in the $15.4 billion budget for T2D.
“I am very confident that we will deliver that project, and I am not worried about there being any spikes.”
However, the Treasurer said he “[does] have concerns” with the budget for the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
The Auditor-General report warned that the current $3.2 billion budget for the hospital “may not be sufficient”.
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Treasurer’s vow to T2D contractors
Koutsantonis also put the consortium of companies building the $15.4 billion Torrens to Darlington on notice this morning, saying “if we have to intervene, we will”.
“I just warn every contractor who’s on the Torrens to Darlington site: If we even get a whiff that there are organised criminal elements in that business, you’re gone,” he said.
But Koutsantonis said concerns were not raised with him around recent revelations that a member of the outlawed Comanchero bikie gang was involved in court proceedings involving a contractor working on the Torrens to Darlington project.
The lawyer of Unley constituent and Career Boss Australia shareholder Robert Cammarano reportedly raised the concerns in the office of new Labor minister Alice Rolls on September 11. Infrastructure Minister Joe Szakacs’ chief of staff was also at the meeting; however, Premier Peter Malinauskas said he was not informed about the meeting’s content until it was reported by journalists.
“We don’t want what happened to Victoria to happen here”, referencing how the Victorian CFMEU – a blue-collar trade union representing construction workers – became a “crime syndicate” under former secretary John Setka, Koutsantonis said.
The Treasurer said it was the responsibility of the Torrens to Darlington Alliance – a consortium of companies including John Holland, Bouygues Construction, Arcadis Australia, Jacobs and Ventia – to “make sure there’s no organised crime elements on the… project”.
“Everyone is on notice here that what happened in Victoria is not going to happen here. The Premier will not allow it,” he said.
Questioned in parliament about whether his ministers had explained why he was not informed, Malinauskas said “The most important thing that was on my mind…was what action was undertaken to advise the appropriate authorities”.
“I think the minister’s chief of staff also did the right thing in not just reporting this matter to the department immediately following the meeting, but also advising Mr Camarano’s lawyer that this should be reported to South Australian Police.
“When a crime is committed or someone witnesses an alleged act of impropriety or criminality. The first place you go to isn’t your local member of parliament. You go to South Australian Police.”
Both Rolls and Infrastructure and Transport Minister Joe Szakacs are facing calls from the Opposition to resign over failing to inform the Premier about the reports.
Asked by Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn why Rolls waited “an entire week to speak to the Premier”, Rolls told state parliament on Tuesday that “we have ministerial portfolios for a reason” and that “allows for lines of responsibility”.
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