Tuesday, 28 July 2026

 Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (13:20): Recently we acknowledged six months of the Peninsula University Hospital, formerly known as the Frankston Hospital, and it was amazing to hear of all of the support for our health workers and our midwives, who have done an extraordinary job in bringing this place together. Of course it was Labor that invested and committed to this hospital, and to see what it has achieved, the bubbies that have been born, and to meet twins that came out of that amazing facility was outstanding. It is a credit to the former Minister for Health, who was an outstanding champion of it, the Minister for Health in the other place and the former Premier of Victoria, who has been an outstanding leader in health. We see that 12 hospitals have been delivered because Labor invests in health each and every day. It is why we have got 17,000 more nurses and midwives. Remember, those opposite gave the middle finger to nurses during their industrial relations agreement – that is the form that those opposite have – and the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Kew, on Steve Price’s program said that cuts will be made to education and health. It was as honest as the moment a shadow finance minister told the world and then committed to $40 billion in cuts and one in seven public service workers being wound back. Labor will invest in health and our nurses and midwives, while those opposite under a One Nation–Liberal coalition will tear health to pieces and make nurses and midwives redundant in the state of Victoria.