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

Regional Australians experience worse health outcomes and lower life expectancy than those in metropolitan Australia. This inequity has persisted for generations, and it is entirely unacceptable. This is why I will never ever stop fighting for a greenfield single-site hospital at Albury-Wodonga. Albury Wodonga Health is the largest health service between Sydney and Melbourne and the only cross-border health service in the country, and it's stretched across two separate hospital campuses. As the population on the border grows, Albury Wodonga Health is only going to get busier. By 2040, we will need a hospital capable of handling 150,000 emergency presentations, 40,000 surgeries and 1,900 births every single year.

In 2021, future challenges were recognised when Albury Wodonga Health's Clinical services plan found splitting service delivery across two campuses created significant risks to patient safety. It recommended in black and white that Albury Wodonga Health should and must consolidate services to a single site. In October 2022, just prior to two state elections, the New South Wales and Victorian premiers flew into Albury and announced $558 million to redevelop the current Albury hospital. I cautiously welcomed this announcement. I didn't want to let the perfect get in the way of the good. But we know now this announcement is nowhere near good and nowhere near enough.

In 2018, the New South Wales government spent $723 million to build Tweed Valley Hospital for a catchment size similar to ours. In 2022, the Victorian government committed up to $675 million to build a new greenfield hospital in West Gippsland to service 60,000 people. Why then would the state governments only allocate $225 million each to our region of 300,000 people? Our worries were confirmed. A letter sent from Albury Wodonga Health's chief executive and chair to the state health ministers was revealed. It stated that the $558 million 'will not deliver the government's policy intent of a single-site hospital'.

It's not just about the money. There isn't enough land on the intended site to build a bigger hospital with more theatres, more beds and enough car parking in an area with virtually no public transport. I acknowledge the Albury and Wodonga mayors met with the Victorian Minister for Health only yesterday but were disappointed in the outcome of the meeting. The case was clear in 2021, and it's still clear in 2025. We need a greenfield single-site hospital on the border. The states can't deliver this alone, and the Commonwealth government must come to the table.