Tuesday, 2 December 2025

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (14:00): I was just reminiscing about when I first witnessed you sitting over there with your green hair. Nevertheless, my statement is: last week’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee exposed exactly what government departments are doing – or not doing. In health it was further exposed just how stretched our hospitals are and how the Allan Labor government continues to fail to deliver what is required. Take, for instance, the Royal Melbourne Hospital needing to raid the Royal Melbourne Hospital Foundation for funds to build a security room.

We know occupational violence within health settings has spiralled out of control under Labor, despite years ago their promises to do something. They promised mandatory minimum sentencing for violence against emergency workers, yet no-one from the department could tell the committee how many offenders have actually been sentenced. In fact the department secretary was at a loss to be able to tell the committee quite a bit. In the interests of all Victorians, we deserve greater transparency, not less, but under Labor it is constant deflection and denial. Look at the latest Victorian Agency for Health Information data: surging numbers of Victorians on the surgery waitlist to almost 61,000. The government waited to release the data on the last sitting day of the last sitting week in question time, and it was 20 days overdue.

But getting back to the Royal Melbourne Hospital Foundation being required to fund hospital infrastructure, I am sure many of the generous donors expect their donations to go towards medical research and equipment that improves patient outcomes and saves lives, not doing the work of government and building a room. Due to the reckless management of Victoria’s budget, the government is raiding areas that should not be hit but are because Labor cannot manage money. The consequences of this gross mismanagement are serious and they are real.