Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The New South Wales Liberals have today been shamed into listening to the needs of my community following the announcement of the Nepean Hospital upgrade, which comes after years of neglect, inaction and excuses. In his own words, the New South Wales Premier today said this has been a long-fought campaign. Well, I can assure him it has—but not by those on his own team. Our community has been demanding this upgrade for years. In that time, we have seen the human cost of the Liberal Party's indifference to health and hospitals in Western Sydney. I had been personally fighting for this hospital well before I was elected to the parliament; and, since being elected, I have used every single opportunity to call on Malcolm Turnbull and Mike Baird to act. They have short-sheeted this hospital for many, many years. I am glad, though, that today they have finally listened—but only after far too many sick and injured people have been let down by a government that is preoccupied with greyhounds and forced local government mergers. Sadly, this announcement is based on their political survival and not on the overdue needs of the people of my community—and our doctors say it is only 40 per cent of what is actually needed.

While the announcement today made reference to capital upgrades, real concerns around the recurrent funding remain. According to projections in the 2014 budget, Nepean Hospital could be stripped of up to $467.3 million. I call on the government to now announce the recurrent funding to provide us with the doctors and nursing staff, keep the beds open and also commit to not privatising this hospital as Mike Baird has planned to do with so many other hospitals in New South Wales.