Today I rise to speak on a matter of public importance. I wish to provide an update to my electorate of Redcliffe and those opposite on the Redcliffe Hospital expansion rescue plan after Labor’s disgraceful attempt at misleading my community with their shadow cabinet roadside last week although I am delighted that so many on the left were out in Redcliffe. Shadow ministers and Labor staffers were more interested in the Redcliffe Hospital than in their own electorates.
I have said it before and I will say it again: I was born at the Redcliffe Hospital, my first job as a nurse was at the Redcliffe Hospital and my daughter and family work at the Redcliffe Hospital. I am fiercely and passionately committed to ensuring the Redcliffe Hospital expansion plan is delivered. Let me be clear: my community and many beyond Redcliffe rely on the health services delivered there. I again put on record my heartfelt thanks to all the hardworking staff: the nurses, doctors, radiographers, pathologists, pharmacists, allied health workers, ancillary staff, administration staff, caterers, hospitality workers and security staff. I also express my deep thanks to the executive director, Cang Dang, with whom I meet regularly to receive updates on the Redcliffe Hospital rescue plan. Anything contrary is categorically untrue and a desperate scare campaign from those opposite. I want to give a special shout-out to Redcliffe Hospital’s occupational therapists as yesterday was World Occupational Therapy Day.
The Crisafulli LNP government is committed to delivering easier access to world-class health services in Redcliffe and for all of Queensland. Labor’s decade of decline left the Redcliffe Hospital expansion plan—and I quote from the independent Sam Sangster review— ‘undeliverable in its current form’. The laundry list of failures are far and many. Under their plan, it included a $1 billion cost blowout, a delay of at least two years due to planning failures and site risks, inadequate planning that ignored the clinical advice, no paediatric outpatients, no mortuary and no education and training facilities. They failed to address major safety concerns and they failed to resolve the cultural issue with the scar tree, which caused more than $50,000 per day in delay costs. That is a waste of taxpayers’ dollars. The Crisafulli LNP government’s fully funded $18.5 billion Hospital Rescue Plan is delivering for my community, including through the provision of more beds than Labor promised with at least 210 overnight beds. The project continues to move forward with the hospital and health service executive and clinicians welcoming and embracing the opportunity to be involved in redesigning the hospital. They want to ensure it is truly fit for purpose and will meet the growing needs of our community. Soon we will return to market through a competitive retendering process to secure a construction partner for the new hospital expansion. We are committed to ensuring value for money for taxpayers and an open market process. The recent car park tender at Redcliffe, which is expected to be awarded shortly, demonstrates this commitment.
Let me be crystal clear: the Crisafulli LNP government will deliver the Redcliffe Hospital expansion plan through calm and methodical planning and budgeting, not because of any petition or roadside appearance from the member for Bancroft but because we are committed to diagnosing, treating and healing Labor’s health crisis. Those opposite attempt to distract from the decade of decline that they created—a mess that failed to deliver the Redcliffe Hospital expansion that our Hospital Rescue Plan has saved. I put on record my thanks to health minister Tim Nicholls who was one of the first ministers to visit my electorate and has visited multiple times since. I thank him for his commitment to the people of Redcliffe and to Queensland that we will deliver better health services closer to home.