Ministers statements: Metro Tunnel
Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Health Infrastructure, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:20): I rise to update the house on exciting projects in Parkville set to transform the way in which Victorians receive world-class care in this state. The Metro Tunnel project will connect more Victorians to our world-class hospitals and health services. Thanks to record investment from the Allan Labor government, we know that our Parkville precinct is home to some of the world’s best hospitals, from groundbreaking cancer treatments at Peter Mac to world-class trauma care at Royal Melbourne. For all the mums and bubs and kids who use the Royal Women’s and the Royal Children’s, thousands of Victorians get the health care that they need at this precinct, and now we are making it easier to access that care. Country Victorians rely on our specialist services too. Melbourne Metro will make it easier for people from my electorate and from all of those representing regional Victoria here to access the care that they need from our specialist services. With a station at Parkville, Metro Tunnel will deliver patients straight to the health care that they need by train.
It is good for patients and it is good for their loved ones, but it is also good for the tens of thousands of healthcare workers who travel every single day to work in this precinct. Our nurses, our midwives, our doctors and our allied healthcare workers but also our cooks, our cleaners, our scientists and our medical researchers for the first time will have a turn-up-and-go service delivering them to their workplaces. This is going to be an absolute game changer for these healthcare workers. I cannot wait to ride the train with some of those healthcare workers. On this side of the house we will always stand with our healthcare workers; we will not be going to war with them. We will always invest in public health care; we will not cut, close and privatise, which is what those on the other side of the house do.