Palmo hospital under threat

FEDERAL Health Minister Sussan Ley has fired a warning shot to the NT Government over its apparent lack of progress on the Palmerston Hospital and various remote health clinics.

Ms Ley told the Sunday Territorianthe Territory Government was required to update the Commonwealth on the progress of the project every six months and the next one due in May would be scrutinised closely.

Ms Ley said the Northern Territory Government was res­ponsible for the delivery of the health projects.

“It’s not uncommon for infrastructure projects to have changes in time frames, particularly where weather has a huge influence on construction like it does up north, and we try to be accommodating to this,” Ms Ley said.

“However, at the same time we have set clear construction milestones, which need to be met for Commonwealth funding to be released to the Territory Government. If these milestones aren’t delivered on time, then no funding will paid until they are.”

Last week the NT News reported that according to the project agreement between the NT and Federal governments, the Palmerston Hospital is well behind schedule.

It also revealed that only one of the 11 remote clinics to be built or upgraded as part of a $50 million Federal-Territory partnership had been ­finished.

The project agreements on the remote clinics show that six should be finished and three are due to start construction next month despite contracts for the construction of the clinic not even being awarded yet.

Health Minister John Elferink twice dodged direct questions during the week about whether the clinics were on track and on time.

Yesterday he released a bullish statement, slamming criticism of the Government’s progress but ultimately admitting the bush clinics were behind schedule.

“I admit it – there are some delays,” he said. “But what would Senator Peris have us do when some of the hold-ups are around the land tenure issues for some of the clinics? And would she like us to trade off the land issues for consultations with the community?

“Would Senator Peris and Labor’s Ken Vowles like us to compulsorily acquire the land? Perhaps they think there should be changes to the Aboriginal Land Right and Native Titles Acts to allow for the title to be stripped from the communities and/or land councils?”

The NT Government has promised construction on the hospital will begin at the end of next year but agreed to a much earlier timeline with the Federal Government with construction to commence in May this year.