Thursday, 15 August 2024

 John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:14): My question is to the Premier. The contract awarded last year to dig SRL tunnels was for $3.6 billion. Will the Premier pledge that no further SRL contracts will be signed while hospitals are being forced to reduce services and cut staff?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:15): There were two points in that question from the Leader of the Opposition. The answer to the second part of his question is that he is wrong. We are putting record funding into our world-class hospital system to treat more patients and to support a growing workforce than ever before. And the answer to the first part of his question is no.

 John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:15): With no Commonwealth money received, no detail on value capture and our health system in crisis, why is the Premier committed to signing all SRL East contracts?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:16): We have, can I say, a world-class health system here in this state that is staffed by more hardworking healthcare workers than we have ever had before working in our hospital system. The work that they do every single day is work that we should value and respect and celebrate, and we should not put about claims that are simply wrong and, can I say, more than a little offensive, on behalf of all of those hardworking healthcare workers.

John Pesutto: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, I ask that you draw the Premier back to the question about why she is committed to signing all SRL East contracts.

The SPEAKER: I ask that points of order not repeat the question. The Premier was referring to contracts. She was also referring to the health system, which the Leader of the Opposition referred to. She was being relevant to the question. The Premier has concluded her answer.