Libs blast budget’s hospital ‘ghost money’
THE state Opposition has accused the Andrews government of “dodgy accounting tricks” after millions of dollars for the Geelong women’s and children’s hospital were promised but not allocated in Tuesday’s state budget.
The government’s $350m promise for the hospital, on top of $100m pledged at the 2018 election, fell flat with the Coalition.
The government is working on a timeline to open an eightstorey women’s and children’s hospital in 2029, but has not allocated money for construction in 2021-22 or 2022-23.
Opposition leader Matthew
Guy, in Geelong on Thursday, said if elected at the November state election, the Opposition would allocate money to the hospital in its first budget in May 2023.
Asked how much it would allocate, Mr Guy said: “We’ll be making that announcement fairly shortly … we believe that Geelong deserves clarity. I’ll be giving that clarity as to exactly how much money we will put into our first budget.”
He criticised the government for promising the hospital in Geelong at the previous election but not delivering during its current term.
“This pledge of the Premier in this budget, a centrepiece of this year’s budget was made four years ago, like the Melton hospital that hasn’t been delivered, like the community hospitals, all 10 of them, none of them are open,” he said.
Under the first stage of the government promise, women’s and children’s facilities at Geelong hospital would be expanded, including more operating theatres and birth suites, a bigger outpatients area to support paediatric clinics, and a revamp of maternity assessment and short stay areas.
The hospital tower would fall under the second stage.
A government spokeswoman said early works would begin before the end of the year, construction of stage 1 would be completed in 2025 and stage 2 in 2029.
She said the government allocated $3.6m across 2020-21 and 2021-22 for detailed planning for the hospital.
At the 2018 election, the Opposition did not match Labor’s $100m pledge.
Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said “dodgy accounting tricks and ghost money won’t build hospitals”.
“In the middle of a health crisis, Daniel Andrews is ripping money out of health and kicking construction of new hospitals down the road,” she said. “Geelong communities need a real plan to get this expansion built.”