Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and Pacific Island Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When it comes to any parent, any time their child needs emergency attention and goes to hospital, they want to make sure the child is seen very quickly. It's the same with anyone who needs to go to the emergency department at a hospital. That's so important. I had this experience back in 2019, when my daughter, Jasmine, had an anaphylactic reaction to cashew nuts. We urgently ran down to the Casey Hospital at the time. Like I said, it was 2019. The hospital staff were amazing. They saw her quickly, and everything was fine. But the line of people waiting to be seen went right out of the emergency department. At the time I got on the phone to the then minister for health Greg Hunt and said, 'This is a huge issue; we need to do something about it.'

Back in 2019, under the former Liberal government, we committed half the funding to a children's emergency department at the hospital, something we're very excited about. The state government also agreed to put in half the funding. It was a joint announcement and very exciting at the time. That was back in 2019, and just last Friday, 6 February 2026, the government issued a press release stating that a builder has been appointed to deliver the expansion. It was announced in 2019, and we haven't even seen works started. They described this as a major milestone. I say it's a major disgrace for all those parents in one of the fastest growth corridors in Australia. We've seen so many people move into areas in Clyde North, and we go right up to Pakenham, where the state government's building a so-called community hospital. The emergency department work should be finished by now, yet it still hasn't started.

I feel so sorry for the parents and so many people every time they go down to the emergency department, in particular the staff. I have paid a few visits there over the years and the staff and the nurses tell me they have been waiting to get this new emergency department started. It just never seems to happen under Labor. I call on the federal health minister, Mark Butler, to really get onto this. They've been in power since 2022, and it's just disgraceful that for one of the busiest locations in Australia—the initial announcement was made back in 2019, but I can't see the work being completed for another two or three years. Shame on state Labor and shame on Mr Albanese for not making this happen earlier.