Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

In the last term I fought doggedly for a new single-site hospital for Albury Wodonga, lobbying the former Prime Minister and the former Treasurer and using every opportunity to keep the pressure on. I was re-elected with a mandate to keep up this fight. The new government is on notice that I will not rest until we have the hospital our growing and prosperous community deserves.

Both the current and former federal governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars building hospitals all around the country. This government promised $200 million for the Flinders Medical Centre, matched by the South Australian government. A new hospital for Albury Wodonga must be next.

A fortnight ago, the NSW and Victorian health ministers met in Albury for the first time, starting discussions on how co-funding of this hospital could work. We saw opposite sides of politics uniting for a common cause to address an urgent need. This government needs to join them at the table. Sharing the cost of a new hospital between three parties means that all sides get below-cost infrastructure. This is a world-class deal for a world-class hospital. I look forward to inviting the state and federal ministers to meet on the border so they can see how transformational this investment could be.

It was a former Labor Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, who was the original visionary for the Albury Wodonga cross-border partnership almost 50 years ago. This government has the chance to continue this legacy by funding this hospital.

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