Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take the opportunity to tell the House about a circumstance that's finding itself playing out in Barker. In 2019, the coalition government secured $4.3 million for radiation therapy in Mount Gambier in the south-east of South Australia. That money still sits here in Canberra, pending its expenditure, to deliver radiation therapy for people who would otherwise have to travel to Adelaide or to Warrnambool and spend six weeks in that economy. The minister opposite knows exactly what's happening. The money-hungry Labor government in South Australia has said no to radiation therapy in Mount Gambier but yes to a car park. Can you believe that? They've said no to radiation therapy in Mount Gambier, but they want to spend that same $4.3 million on a car park at the Mount Gambier hospital—car parks, not radiation therapy. Well, the people of Mount Gambier in the south-east stood up. 16,000 people have signed a petition to say: 'Do you know what? We don't want car parks at the Mount Gambier hospital. There are plenty enough. We don't want our people to have to travel to Adelaide and live there for six weeks for radiation therapy. We want what the coalition promised us and what Labor are frustrating us from having, and that's radiation therapy in the south-east of South Australia.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 43, the time for members' statements has concluded.