Thursday, 22 February 2024

Maroondah Hospital

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:02): On 12 November 2018 the then Andrews Labor government put out a press release, and the headline was ‘An emergency department Maroondah kids and their families can count on’. Well, what a craven thing to say. We know that in 2018 when they said that, they really had no intention of ever doing it. Fast forward to 2022, and there is no emergency department for those children. Despite allotting $64 million to do exactly that, never did they do that. So they came out at the next election, 2022, and what did they say? They were going to have a whole new hospital. We are more than a year into this term of government, not a shovel has hit the ground and yet they are at it again. I see that they have got another press release out. Let none of us forget they also managed to rename the hospital with absolutely no community consultation.

A member interjected.

Nick McGOWAN: It is a shame; it is an absolute shame. I will take up that interjection because it is absolutely accurate. It is an Indigenous word. The government clearly at the time had absolutely no idea that that was the case. It should be a source of everlasting embarrassment for the Labor Party that the Premier of the time did not even know that the word ‘Maroondah’ was an Indigenous word. Then in another craven move they looked to rename it the Queen Elizabeth hospital. What a stupid idea. I mean, if they want to do that, then they can rename John Cain Arena. Get rid of that name. I am quite happy for that; you can call it what you like. But to come out into Maroondah and mess with it in that way was absolutely reprehensible.