Wednesday, 13 May 2026

 Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:10): (2529) It is somewhat serendipitous that at the end of the first parliamentary week since the budget was handed down I have the opportunity tonight to address my matter to the Treasurer directly. It is very fortunate, Treasurer, that you are here today. I know that it is a pleasure for you to perhaps reconsider – and that is what I am asking you to do today – your position insofar as the government’s policy stands in respect to the Maroondah Hospital. In particular – I will be specific – what I would like you to do is make a special allocation consistent with your government’s own policy as enunciated in 2022, where the then Premier went to Maroondah Hospital, with a number of your colleagues, and promised to invest between $850 million and $1.05 billion in a brand new hospital in Maroondah, for the people of not only Ringwood, Ringwood East, Blackburn, Vermont, Nunawading and Mitcham but much further afield. It is a critical piece of infrastructure, and much more than that, it is a device. It is a place of unbelievably valuable staff – from the nurses to the doctors, to the cleaners, to the orderlies – and it is a community service that benefits so very many people in the eastern suburbs. To have that project not budgeted for in the entire forward estimates – not a single cent for construction – is devastating.

I will take this opportunity to remind the government of what was said previously. The previous Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas said the Queen Elizabeth hospital – I am not going to keep using that renamed title because it really is quite inappropriate – will provide modern facilities for our hardworking nurses, midwives and doctors, the facilities they need to provide the very best care for families in the growing eastern suburbs. The minister was right: we have not got it. The then Labor candidate for Ringwood said:

Everything I’ve heard from local residents tells me that our community really understands the importance of Maroondah Hospital. This investment will mean so much not just to patients and families, but to healthcare workers as well.

The Labor candidate was right. Then there was the member for Ringwood at the time, Mr Halse. He said:

I know firsthand how hard our nurses work …

True; no-one disputes that. And he went on:

… and I couldn’t be prouder that a re-elected Andrews Labor Government will build the hospital our community needs, and our healthcare workers deserve.

I am in complete agreement. Then we had the member for Bayswater Mr Taylor, who is still in this place, in the other chamber, and he said:

The outer east deserves first-rate hospitals …

There is no argument from me there, Mr Taylor. Last, but not least, we had the Labor candidate for Monbulk, who is today the member for Monbulk. That member said, in the same press release – I did not have to have to collect these from news clippings and videos at the time:

People I love get treatment at the Maroondah – I’m so thrilled the extraordinary healthcare workers will be able to deliver their care in the world class facilities they deserve.

That is what we all want. That is what we were promised. We were promised construction would start last year, in 2025. Sadly, that has not come to fruition. We were promised that the hospital would open in 2029. That will not happen. Minister, I ask you to urgently review that decision and fund it appropriately.