Tuesday, 12 August 2025

 Sam GROTH (Nepean) (19:00): (1241) My adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Health and concerns the long-overdue redevelopment of Rosebud Hospital, and the action I seek is that the Minister for Health actually get in her car, go down to Rosebud, meet with Peninsula Health and meet with the nurses, the staff and the local community to discuss the urgent need for the redevelopment of Rosebud Hospital. In recent weeks we have had a Labor member of the upper house, a member of the other chamber, take to social media speaking warmly about the hospital and acknowledging the need for investment, and one of the posts even notes:

Another visit to Rosebud Hospital, it underscores the need for investment in our much loved facility …

They are fine words, but our community needs deeds, not just empty words for political gain. The truth is since Labor came to office in 2014 there has been no announced state funding for the redevelopment of the hospital. No-one in my community would contest that point. It is a lived reality of many patients, their families and the staff that work there, who have watched successive budgets go by without a line item to get shovels in the ground. The local community have had enough; they want to see this built, and the absence of a state commitment, even though the community has petitioned on this for a long time, is unacceptable. At the last election we, the Liberals and Nationals, committed to a $340 million redevelopment of Rosebud Hospital, one that went unmatched. We have an ageing population and we see seasonal surges in demand, and no-one wants to have to go all the way to Frankston to get the health care that they deserve.

Recently I put a question on notice to the Minister for Health, and the minister could not even put the word ‘Rosebud’ in her answer. She mentioned every other possible health infrastructure available statewide, and the mention of Rosebud was completely non-existent. We have got Labor MPs acknowledging it in posts and in Parliament; we have made the commitment. We know Rosebud Hospital is important. It is missing in budgets. This government continues to ignore the health needs of those on the southern Mornington Peninsula.

Before I finish I want to place on record my thanks to the staff and the volunteers at Rosebud Hospital. I and my family have experienced their care firsthand. They do an incredible job with a facility that is no longer fit for purpose. My community deserves world-class infrastructure. They deserve wards and they deserve theatres that match community needs. The community has waited long enough, and it is time for this government to take action, not just use words, to give those on the southern Mornington Peninsula the health care they need and to make a commitment to funding Rosebud Hospital.