Peel Health Campus redevelopment
590. Mrs Lisa Munday to the Minister for Health Infrastructure:
I refer to the Cook Labor government's commitment to ensuring that all Western Australians can access the health care that they need, when they need it. Can the minister please update the house on how the significant investment in Peel Health Campus will improve health care for residents in my and the member for Mandurah's community?
Mr John Carey replied:
I thank the member for her strong and articulate advocacy in relation to the health needs of her local community. As we know, last week, our government made a historic announcement of a hospital building fund worth $1.5 billion. To put that into perspective, that is a record for our state in terms of the overall capital works program—$4.7 billion to transform hospitals across Western Australia.
As we know, in this term of government, the Premier created not only the health infrastructure portfolio, but also a new central agency—the Office of Major Infrastructure Delivery. I tasked that unit to re-look at our critical projects, and advice was provided to us. That advice has informed these decisions, including the critical decision to build a completely new hospital at Peel Health Campus. It will be six storeys and will include an expanded emergency department; additional operating theatres and day procedure facilities; additional chemotherapy places and a dedicated cancer treatment area; a new medical imaging department; expanded outpatient services; fully upgraded clinical support services; expanded pharmacy, pathology, admin and back-of-house facilities and contemporary ICT and digital systems. By making this decision based on that advice, we know that it will be a cleaner build, and it will also ensure that we do not disrupt the current operations of the 24/7 live environment of a hospital. Construction will commence next year, with completion in 2029.
It is great to see that we got a lot of positive feedback, and I know that the local members have been inundated, because this is a stark difference from the other side of politics. As we know, the former Liberal government cut and privatised. We are able to make this decision only because we brought Peel Health Campus back into public hands.
Although we know that the current Leader of the Liberal Party and the health spokesperson will cut and privatise, it was really brilliant to see that someone else came out and congratulated us on building Peel Health Campus. It is the Leader of the Liberal Party's best friend, Andrew Hastie, who actually went out of his way to send a direct email attacking the Liberal leader with a picture of the Liberal leader that we use in the Labor Party. It was the most unflattering picture of the Liberal leader. Andrew Hastie used it! I mean, it is extraordinary—his best mate! Andrew Hastie said:
This announcement is a win for the Peel community …
Let us be very clear. It is very sure that that side of politics is increasingly becoming isolated. Their own federal colleagues hate them. They do not like them at all, and why is that? It is because we know that when they get in government, they cut and privatise health care, just like they did with Peel Health Campus.
