Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about Mona Vale Hospital, in my electorate of Mackellar. It is a vital institution for the people who live there, particularly for those in the north of Mona Vale but also for the electorate at large. I rise to speak on this for two reasons. The state of health in New South Wales is just appalling. I think we have all become aware of the way in which public hospitals have become run down, but in New South Wales it is worse. There has been an attempt by the Labor government in New South Wales to close Mona Vale Hospital and Manly Hospital, take their land, sell it off and supposedly build a new hospital at Frenchs Forest. The proposed hospital at Frenchs Forest has now been cancelled. They wished to knock our hospitals down and sell off that land a long time before they even planned to build the new one, and we as a community have fought to make sure that our Mona Vale Hospital, which is in my electorate, remains exactly where it is.

We have a huge influx of people as visitors to our electorate through the summer season. As we come into that period, we know how important that hospital is. There are people who swim in the surf and are not as skilled as they ought to be, and lifesavers save them. If they are in need of a hospital, Mona Vale Hospital is, of course, where they go straight away. The stories of people who live in the electorate and who owe their lives to that hospital are legion. When we first had our big rally, back in 2002, I wrote to the people in the electorate and 7,000 people turned up. We have had many more rallies where there have been 1,500 or 3,000 people. Whenever we were threatened with something—for example, that the intensive care unit would go—the people would turn out. For that reason, that hospital is still there and functioning. The care and the dedication of the staff are absolutely fantastic.

We are a community that say: ‘We are prepared to do our bit.’ Four years ago, when we badgered the state government into finally building a new emergency ward, it had no new equipment. I hosted a dinner with the hospital auxiliary—women who work fantastically hard—and we raised $90,000 to buy all the new equipment for emergencies. Again, just recently, the hospital needed equipment. It needed new humidicribs. It needed a very expensive piece of equipment, $19,000 worth. Humidicribs are $15,000 each. We needed a whole range of other equipment—again, $90,000 worth. Two weeks ago I hosted another dinner, a community dinner, with the hospital auxiliary. I thought that, in this climate, we would be doing very well if we got half that amount. And yet these wonderful people—including the IGA grocers at Belrose; the Rotary Club of Brookvale; Richard Rowe; the Brennans of Avalon; the Blackmore Foundation; the Master Builders Association; Roy Mustaca, who owns the Warriewood theatre and who donated the premises and all the food; and the Bayfield family, who provided all the drinks and refreshments—raised a staggering $107,000 at that function, and it may even top that yet.

The community are prepared to put in and buy what is needed but we need the state government to make money available to us, a Liberal electorate where the state government seems so reluctant to give us anything at all. We need money to come into that hospital. I was in there several times in the last week visiting people and watching the paint peel off the walls. The dedication of the staff is there and we can get the equipment in there, but the hospital needs an upgrade. It needs the state government to do its bit and furnish the hospital with everything it needs so that it can go on and serve the community. As I said, the proposed Frenchs Forest hospital is gone. They have just put out a report and they talk about closing the emergency ward of Manly Hospital. They are saying Mona Vale is needed. But it is no good having that report and having people saying they are prepared to support it unless the state government comes to the party. We need this federal government to say to that state government, ‘Give that money to Mona Vale Hospital to allow the staff to do the things they do so well, to preserve the lives that it saves and to build its reputation so that people know that the dedication of the community and the staff together produce a fantastic outcome.’