Labor backs Kings Forest hospital site
FEDERAL Labor heavyweight Anthony Albanese has elbowed his way into the controversial debate on the Tweed Hospital.
Mr Albanese was on the red soil in Cudgen yesterday, near where the NSW Liberal Government has chosen to build its proposed $534 million hospital.
He was campaigning with Federal Member for Richmond Justine Elliot in their push to give her husband Craig the win in the seat of Tweed at the March state election.
The site chosen by the Government has divided the community.
Kingscliff residents, farmers and environmentalists have argued the hospital would ruin the coastal feel of Kingscliff and is a waste of the State Significant Farmland.
Mr Elliot has said the upcoming election will be a referendum on where people want the hospital.
Labor has promised if it wins, the hospital will be built on billionaire developer Bob Ell’s King Forest Estate, south of the proposed site.
Mr Albanese yesterday continued to hitch Labor’s hopes of winning the seat of Tweed on the issue.
“This is an example of planning gone wrong,” Mr Albanese said.
“Here we have prime agricultural land that is so important for our national economy and also for local jobs. And yet they want to convert this into a hospital site.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that this is aimed at opening up overdevelopment and changing the very character of Kingscliff.”
Current National Party member for Tweed Geoff Provest said it was about time Labor stopped playing politics with the hospital.
“The location of the new hospital was determined by extensive public consultation and by experts at NSW Health Infrastructure,” he said.
“We’re getting on with the job of building the new Tweed hospital, that’s the expectation of the local community.
“If the Labor Party have made a promise to a developer mate that they can’t fulfil, that’s their problem, not ours.”