Wednesday, 18 March 2026

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (09:50): Rosebud Hospital is too old, too small and too important to patch up again. But the people who live there, work there and visit there are still being asked to rely on hospital facilities built in the 1960s. The Mornington Peninsula is one of Victoria’s most productive regions. It generates roughly the same annual output as Geelong, about $28 billion to $30 billion. It attracts 8 million visitors per year, yet per capita it only receives $5600 in state funding, while Geelong receives $14,400. That is just not good enough. Rosebud Hospital has reached the point where patchwork is no longer credible. The region has a growing and ageing population. Seasonal demands place even more pressure on local health services. Patients are too often forced to travel to Melbourne or into Frankston for the care that they should be able to access closer to home, and it is tough luck if you cannot drive yourself, because Labor has turned a blind eye to the lack of public transport in the peninsula for over a decade. A new hospital would deliver a larger emergency department, more operating theatres, new patient wards, modern imaging and contemporary day medical services. It would also reduce pressure on the Frankston hospital and other hospitals. This is what the coalition is going to deliver. We will rebuild the hospital.