I find the government’s defence of the $120 million allocated to the construction of the new Goulburn Base Hospital a little strange. As I remember it, the $120m was announced at the same time as the government was trying to privatise the hospital. They were expecting the successful bidders for the hospital to put in a similar amount as the government to complete it. As we know, no private operators took the opportunity of privatising our hospital (fortunately, as previous hospital privatisations have not gone well).
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Bega Hospital, in the Transport Minister’s electorate, received $300m for their new hospital, designed to accommodate future population increases. Wagga Wagga received $250m for their new hospital, and Lismore has recently been allocated $270m for their new hospital.
It is little wonder that the government has recently asked for additional funds to help complete our hospital. I wonder why these other locations have been allocated more than twice as much money to build their new hospitals than Goulburn? Given the government’s refusal to provide more suitable train services for us and seemingly underfunding our new hospital, does this means the government has no interest in the Southern Tablelands, or are they just taking us for granted?