Wednesday, 15 May 2024

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (17:46): I rise to speak on a document that was tabled in Echuca at the regional sitting, and that was a response from the Attorney-General about the documents motion that I moved on 6 March asking for documents relating to Albury Wodonga Health. That documents motion moved by this house on 6 March was passed unanimously by this house, including by the government. The government were due to reply to that within three weeks of their having passed that motion, so that set 27 March as the date by which the government should have responded and supplied those documents to the Legislative Council. That 27 March date came and went, and then on 18 April, six weeks after the motion was passed and three weeks beyond the deadline for the production of the documents, the Attorney-General tabled a letter saying that the government had not had enough time to produce those documents and needed more time. Well, here we are now on 15 May, 10 weeks after the motion was passed and seven weeks after the due date, and still we have nothing from the government – nothing at all. It has been 10 weeks, and they have not been able to produce those documents that were demanded by this house. This is an insult to the Parliament. It completely disregards the will of the Parliament, and the government need to be transparent on this. We know that these documents can be responded to rather quickly, because the New South Wales government did produce a similar set of documents within three weeks when the Legislative Council in New South Wales demanded those documents, but this government and the secretive state that we have here in Victoria will not produce the documents.

Albury Wodonga Health is an important health service in this state. It is a unique service because it is a cross-border service. It services a regional catchment area of around 300,000 people, and it has an increasing demand for services in that area. On Friday 1 March Ms Crozier, Mrs Broad and I attended a health summit in Albury–Wodonga, and there were representatives there from the federal government, from the federal Parliament, from the New South Wales government and from the New South Wales opposition of the New South Wales Parliament. There were representatives from the Liberal and Nationals parties, but not one person from the Victorian government could even turn up and give that community the time of day.

The community there want a new hospital. They want it on a greenfield site, and this is what they were originally promised. But then there was this new master plan released that said that they would now have a refurbishment of the Albury site for the hospital location. There was a big announcement by the New South Wales and Victorian governments about funding for that, but now it appears that that project too has stalled. It appears that the government here in Victoria is walking away from a commitment to the Albury and Wodonga community. This is an important Victorian health service. It is a Victorian health service – as I said, it is unique because it is cross-border, but it is a service that is actually provided by the Victorian government. It is vastly important that we have transparency around this project for the people of Albury and Wodonga so that they understand what their health service will look like as it goes forward and whether they will get this investment from the two governments into a new hospital in Albury–Wodonga. I would urge the government to get on with whatever they are doing to identify these documents and to supply them to the Legislative Council by the next time that we meet.

The PRESIDENT: That ends statements on tabled papers and petitions. It just came to my attention that Mr Mulholland made a statement on a paper that has not been tabled. I remind people that statements need to be made on reports that have been tabled.