Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is directed to Senator Ellison in his capacity as Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing. Is the minister aware that the Burnie City Council has expressed serious fears that the government’s Mersey hospital intervention could undermine the Burnie hospital’s viability? Don’t the council’s concerns support those expressed by Burnie based senator Senator Parry that the PM’s intervention at Mersey was a disaster and that instead the Mersey hospital should have been closed? Did the government undertake any consultation with the local community or even with its own senators before the Prime Minister intervened in this matter, or was its only consultation that with Crosby Textor?