Last night on the ABC program Stateline, Health Minister John Hill repeatedly refused to guarantee that Rann Labor’s Royal Adelaide Hospital plan would cost $1.7 billion.
“In fact, the best Mr Hill could manage or stumble was that he “hoped” or he was “optimistic” or it would be “about” $1.7 billion,” Shadow Minister for Finance Rob Lucas said today.
“Mr Hill could have said he was very confident that their cost estimate was accurate, but he deliberately chose not to say even that.
“After three weeks of attacking the Liberal Party over costings, the hypocrisy of the Rann Government is now clear to everyone.
“This is now the latest in a series of costing stumbles by the Rann Government after Treasurer Foley last week said his estimate of the Adelaide Oval redevelopment was only a “ballpark”.
“The Rann Government was also embarrassed when their complaint to the independent Electoral Commissioner about Liberal Party costings for the RAH rebuild was dismissed on all three grounds of appeal by the independent umpire.
“This latest stumble makes it clear that Mr Rann, Mr Foley and Mr Hill have no credibility when it comes to the costings issue.
“Put simply, Mr Rann and the Labor Party cannot be trusted on costings.”