Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the things I am proudest about from Labor's contribution to my own community is the massive Commonwealth investment made by the former Labor government of $175 million in the Logan Hospital expansion project, which is due to open in the next fortnight. I would like to thank the director, staff and management of the hospital for having Catherine King, the member for Ballarat, and Tanya Plibersek, the member for Sydney, visit the new facility over the last couple of months and tour the remarkable new emergency department and children's in-patient unit that was made possible by Labor's investment. The new wing will give local families confidence that they can get the health care they need and that their kids need in the local area, without having to drive all the way into the city.

Labor's record investment in health and hospitals is a mark of great pride. It stands in stark contrast to the $80 billion that the Abbott government is pulling out of hospitals and schools over the next decade. I am advised that over the next four years the Metro South Health network, which includes the Logan Hospital, will lose $26 million in funding. Some members over there try to say that it is not a cut because the hospital has not received the money yet. But it is there in black and white in their budget, and I encourage them to read it.

I am proud of Labor's history of investment in hospitals in my community and of the work of our local nurses, doctors and support staff—work that Labor invested in and work that will be made a bit harder by the Abbott government's cuts.