Thursday, 7 April 2022

Ministers statements: health services

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:41): As I was saying a few moments ago, we on this side of the house, we as members of this government, are proud of our health team, every single member, every hour of every shift in every part of our state. They have our support, they have record resources. They have the skills, the compassion and the government support they need to get the job done even in unprecedented circumstances. That is why just last Sunday, in a full acknowledgement that COVID has cancelled many thousands of surgeries, disrupted the care of many tens of thousands of patients, our government made a commitment of $1.5 billion in additional funding to provide tens of thousands of additional surgeries—not a blitz, not some one-off, but an enduring reform to grow the total capacity of our surgery system, even to the point where rather than privatising health we are taking over a private hospital and turning it into a public elective surgery centre. If you go down to Frankston, you can see the Frankston public hospital. We are rebuilding that—there is around 500 million bucks there—and we are taking over the private hospital next door.

There is no question really: there is only one side of politics that is prepared to make the investments year on year for better patient care, for better outcomes, and to invest in and support our staff. This of course sits in stark contrast to last week’s federal budget. We are putting $1.5 billion in and they are taking $1.5 billion out just in Victoria. And what do we hear? Do we hear any condemnation? Do we hear any word whatsoever? Oh, no—cheered on by their mates. Some say they care, but all they do is cut.