Thursday, 15 May 2025

 Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:17): I rise to update the house on the Allan Labor government’s commitment to the health and wellbeing of all Victorians. Year on year we have increased the funding that we deliver to our health services. We have opened and upgraded hospitals right across our state, and we have built our workforce – in fact it has grown by almost 50 per cent since we came to power. We will always back our healthcare workers, because that is what Labor does. Our government is transforming the way in which women’s health services are being delivered here in Victoria, with new services being opened right across the state, because we respect women, we listen to them, we believe them and we act on their concerns. I am proud of services in Epping, Frankston, Geelong, Ballarat, Horsham, Sunshine, Ararat, Bendigo, Broadmeadows, Wyndham Vale and Shepparton, just to name a few of the places in which these new services are operating. We are pleased to have a partner in Canberra when it comes to meeting the healthcare needs of all Victorians but women in particular. We believe and care for women dealing with issues like perimenopause, menopause, PCOS, endometriosis, prolapse, incontinence – all these issues that were never spoken of prior to our government taking these issues up. Victorians know that they can only trust Labor and that in fact they cannot trust the Liberals when it comes to the delivery of health care. Why can’t they trust them? Because their actions tell us. Every time they have had the opportunity, they have cut, they have closed and they have privatised. I might point out also that when it comes to women’s reproductive rights –

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, the member on her feet knows that her ministers statement is not an opportunity to attack the opposition. I would ask you to ask her to desist from doing so.

The SPEAKER: I ask the minister to come back to her ministers statement without attacking the opposition.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: I was only comparing and contrasting. Let me say this: Victorians know, whether it is Dutton or Battin, that they cannot be trusted with the delivery of health care.