A $175m offer from Gina Rinehart to build a high-end cancer hospital in Darwin is not entirely off the cards, despite the former chief minister Adam Giles claiming it was only going to go ahead if he won.
The deal, first reported in 2014, is believed to have included a state-of-the art facility providing world-leading care for international clients as well as Australians, in return for the Northern Territory government providing waterfront land.
On Saturday Giles told the NT News the deal was off the table because he was no longer chief minister.
“She was doing it because of me. I would say 99.99% it’s dead,” Giles said.
However, on Sunday, Rinehart’s media adviser, the former Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella, refuted the claim.
A statement from Rinehart’s office said while Rinehart had “both trust and confidence” in the former chief minister regarding the project, she hadn’t heard from the new Labor government yet. The offer remains, providing the new government can meet the same conditions.
“The donation was always on the basis of a peppercorn rental for suitable coastal land to be made available, which the hospital and donors would not own, and with all required approvals for building the hospital,” it said.
The deal was first reported in 2014 and confirmed by Rinehart the following year, after she visted Darwin and toured potential sites with Giles.
According to government sources, Giles called a meeting in late 2014 after Rinehart personally made a “discreet offer”. Giles immediately directed his then health minister, Robyn Lambley, the head of the health department, Len Notaras, and a senior bureaucrat, Anne Tan, to visit a particular facility in Turkey and determine how it could be replicated in Darwin. The Istanbul site was a nondescript shopfront disguising world-leading medical equipment, services and specialists.
The short trip, which also took in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, was shrouded in secrecy, with the group not knowing the location of the Istanbul facility until they arrived and called around external sources.
The facility, which Lambley said catered to high-end and VIP clients, including royalty, was understood to have impressed the group but Lambley told Guardian Australia she didn’t think it was viable and the chief minister was informed as much on their return.
“The medical tourism industry is extremely competitive throughout the world,” she said. “We were told people would only go to a facility if the medical specialists were first class internationally and people would only pay to go to a particular destination that had the appeal of not just medical services but other appeals as well.”
Lambley said one Australian specialist at the hospital said in his opinion the only place such a facility would be successful in Australia was at the Gold Coast.
“In hindsight it was a complete waste of time and money in my opinion,” Lambley said. “Within weeks of coming back Giles reshuffled the whole of cabinet.”
She said the competitive market and the need to attract the best specialists, coupled with Darwin’s low global recognition and the high cost of labour for a facility that catered “around the clock” to its high-end patients, made it an unrealistic venture.
Few details of the Rinehart deal were made available to the delegates and there remains confusion about exactly what it entailed, including whether the “for-profit charity” would cater to local Northern Territory patients without private insurance, Guardian Australia was told.
In February 2015 Rinehart first indicated the project was already funded.
Accepting an award in Kuala Lumpur last year, Rinehart said her company had paid back loans for three mining operations and “were able to fund our commitment for the largest charitable donation in Australian history – to build a private specialised cancer and keyhole hospital for primarily the people of Northern Australia”.
She said the hope was it would be based on the Darwin coastline “so that patients, and medical staff, can also enjoy water views, while recuperating and working”.
“It was very vague – I never saw anything in writing,” Lambley told Guardian Australia.
“There was no agreement between Gina Rinehart and the government that was in writing. My understanding was it was a discussion between Mrs Rinehart and the chief minister and we were dispatched to go on this reconnaissance mission to collect information based on that conversation … There was no documentation, there was no plan.”
The new Northern Territory government has been contacted for comment but the chief minister, Michael Gunner, on Sunday said he would look at the project to see if it suited Territorians.
