Hospital tops wish list
by Yvette Brand and Aidan Knight
A new West Gippsland Hospital continues to top the Narracan electorate's wish list - nine years after it was first promised.
And, sitting Member for Narracan Wayne Farnham has declared he will resign if an elected Coalition government fails to deliver the project in its first term.
It is 20 years since the West Gippsland Healthcare Group future proofed its operation and invested in a greenfield site at Drouin East for development of a new hospital.
After more than a decade of community lobbying and bipartisan election promises four years ago that all but guaranteed a new hospital, the project remains the top priority for Narracan voters for the third consecutive state election.
The promises continued at last week's election candidate forum where Mr Farnham and ALP candidate Jannette Langley voiced their support and willingness to fight for delivery of the project while One Nation candidate Ben Lucas said the hospital remained his number one priority, but only if budget figures supported it.
Putting his job on the line, Mr Farnham said the Coalition's biggest plan for Narracan was to build the hospital.
"If I get elected and that hospital isn't built, you won't have to vote me out, I will resign...that's my promise to this community," Mr Farnham said.
In February 2017, former Liberal leader Matthew Guy committed $300 million to a new hospital - a promise that was reconfirmed ahead of the 2018 election and grew to a $600 million commitment by Mr Guy ahead of the 2022 election.
Providing the bi-partisan commitment the WGHG board and community was waiting for, the then Premier Daniel Andrews committed $650 million to a new hospital just before the 2022 election - declaring it would be delivered in the next term if Labor was elected.
From $300 million to now $850 million, Liberal leader Jess Wilson and Nationals leader Danny O'Brien reconfirmed in July the Coalition would deliver a new hospital if elected on November 28.
The current ALP government has failed to deliver on Mr Andrews' commitment to build a new hospital.
“This has been properly costed, planned and funded - further detailed design work will begin next year, construction will begin in 2024, it will be completed by 2028, patients and staff would move into that brand new hospital in 2029,” he said in 2022.
At last week’s forum, Ms Langley said the ALP had committed $65 million to Warragul and Wonthaggi hospitals and planning was continuing to deliver a new hospital.
“You will get a new hospital,” she said. “The land has been there longer than the Labor government - the Liberals could have delivered it and they didn’t,” she said.
Speaking to the Gazette after the forum, Ms Langley was asked if she too was prepared to resign if a new hospital was not delivered. She said “no, I’m not going to do a Wayne and resign. You can’t plan one of these in five minutes.”
Ms Langley argued that if Labor wasn’t committed to West Gippsland health, the government wouldn’t have already funded upgrades to the existing hospital.
She also clarified that her support for upgrades at Latrobe Regional Hospital (LRH) announced earlier last week were aimed at Narracan residents living in Trafalgar and other fringe towns. “It’s a regional hospital,” she added, “many people from here (in Narracan) choose to go there.”
Ms Langley argued a Liberal state government would likely take longer to deliver than Labor - “just look at how the Kennett government shut down 12 hospitals.”
If elected, Ms Langley committed to acquiring a formal update from planning authorities so she could update the community.
Mr Lucas reinforced a new hospital was “absolutely” his number one infrastructure project priority.
But, he said, the people of Narracan were sick of being lied to, being promised a hospital and it not being delivered. “If we can, we will.”
“This will be the first time we (One Nation) look someone in the eye and say we don’t know if the money is there...because Labor has spent every cent we’ve got.
“No one is in a position to commit to it, we are in a debt disaster.
“It is all about fiscal responsibility, we need to understand where the budget is at. We can’t spend our way out of the position we are in,” he said.
