Wednesday, 11 May 2022

Ministers statements: health infrastructure

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:14): This is a government that builds hospitals. It does not close them, nor does it privatise them. This is a government that works with our hospital services, our doctors, our healthcare workers, not one that wages war on them. This is a government that, given the investment in our healthcare system, builds that investment in response to the one-in-100-year set of circumstances of the global pandemic to work with our healthcare professionals in a system that has never been busier.

As we come out of this one-in-100-year pandemic, that record level of investment in our ambulances, in our emergency departments and in our paramedics is so important. Across that $12 billion investment is in fact a substantial capital component that keeps this government’s multibillion-dollar—over $10 billion worth of—investment in our healthcare system since our time in government. To build new hospitals, there is over $900 million in the seat of Melton for the new Melton hospital, over $500 million in the women’s and children’s hospital in Geelong, over $236 million in the emergency departments at Werribee and Casey hospitals, and over $300 million in the rural infrastructure investment fund. Right across our community, right across our state this is a government that builds these critical community assets that support our hospital system. That is before we take into account all the current projects such as the new hospital in Footscray, such as our investment in Bendigo, in Ballarat, in Frankston, in Wonthaggi and in Bass. Right across our state, this is a government that invests in our healthcare system.