Wednesday, 18 February 2026

 Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:33): I rise to speak on the budget papers for this current financial year, particularly budget paper 4 and budget paper 3, as they relate to output initiatives for the Department of Health. On that subject, I was very excited with the news in the past few days that a builder has been appointed for the construction of Casey Hospital’s new emergency department. Casey is, of course, a very important hospital in the south-east, and it is growing, and we are serving a very large and growing population that I am proud to represent in the Casey–Cardinia region. That is why practically doubling the capacity of the new emergency room compared to the old one is such an important initiative. I, myself, with Mr Tarlamis and other colleagues, have been out many times to Casey to see firsthand the pressures on the existing emergency department, and we know that this new facility is going to make a tremendous difference to getting timely access to emergency health care in the growing south-east suburbs, because as the south-east grows, we invest in it and we are growing services and infrastructure with it.

It is not the only investment that we are making in health in the south-east, though. There is of course the Peninsula University Hospital, the single largest investment in a hospital facility outside of central Melbourne in the state’s history. It is a terrific new hospital – great to see it up and running there. The local member, Paul Edbrooke, has done a tremendous job in advocating for this project and seeing it through to completion, with Frankston Hospital now becoming this premier health facility on the tip of the Mornington Peninsula with Peninsula University Hospital.

It is also not just about tertiary critical care hospitals; it is also about the other supports and services, including Cranbourne Community Hospital. Whilst the Liberals seek to talk them down – whether they are denying that they exist or are just flagging to us that they plan to shut them down as part of their secret cuts agenda, I do not know – what I do know is the Cranbourne Community Hospital is already providing really important services to the local community with those sorts of more minor entry-level day surgeries and the like, providing that care closer to home and in the process taking that pressure off bigger hospitals like Casey, Dandenong and Peninsula University as well. Indeed it is not the only one in the south-east. Pakenham Community Hospital is well underway and continuing construction, and the very hardworking member there, Emma Vulin, has done a great job in pushing that through with the various site challenges it has faced. In fact it is just another example of the huge amount of investment that has been made across the south-east.

I note that the current – and current for the time being – leader of the Liberal Party went down there recently and tried to with a straight face tell locals that we are not investing in the south-east. I do not know what she was doing when she was being driven all the way down from Kew to have a look in Pakenham. She probably was not looking at the roads that we have already upgraded or the roads that we are currently upgrading. She probably was not looking at the four level crossings that we have removed in the suburb of Pakenham alone. She obviously did not take the train, because she would not have seen the level crossings. She would not have seen the brand new, rebuilt Pakenham station. She would not have seen the other brand new station in East Pakenham either. She probably did not see the countless new schools we have built in the suburb, including some that have opened in just the last few years. She probably did not see the urgent care clinic in Pakenham either that is invested in by the state government – with 50 per cent contributions to these very important facilities, whether they be in Pakenham or whether they be in Narre Warren.

While she is complaining about a lack of investment and at the same time complaining that the works and roadworks going on are causing distress, it is a bit of a strange path to be walking, but whatever line she decides to fall onto the end of, you cannot deny that the Labor government, this Labor government, is investing heavily in Pakenham, in Berwick, in Cranbourne, in Narre Warren and right across the south-east for the health services, the transport infrastructure, the new bus routes in fact and all of these services that our growing communities need and deserve.

The urgent care clinics are another very important part of that, as is indeed the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department, providing an alternative pathway to critical emergency care when you need it.

Nick McGowan interjected.

Michael GALEA: Whatever happened to the virtual ED, Mr McGowan? Because some of your colleagues also refuse to acknowledge that it exists. They ask – maybe they are going to cut it as well.

Lee Tarlamis interjected.

Michael GALEA: Maybe they are going to cut it as well, Mr Tarlamis. They ask openly, ‘Have you ever heard of a virtual ED?’ to the person who set it up in Victoria, because they do not know, and they do not want to know, because they do not care. All they are going to do if they do get in is cut them back because they do not care about these services. They do not even care, and they do not even want to know about them. That should be a chilling thought to anyone who values the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department, who values Cranbourne Community Hospital and who values the investments that this government is making in our growing suburbs.