Opinion with Steve Martin: Will Geraldton Health Campus continue to miss out in next State Budget?

Member for Geraldton Lara Dalton and the Labor Party have earned an unwanted hat-trick with the Geraldton Health Campus upgrade being cancelled three times since 2017. If rumoured cost blowouts are the reason for the indefinite delay to Labor’s signature election promise then the Member for Geraldton needs to convince Premier Mark McGowan that the extra funds needed for the Geraldton Hospital upgrade can be found in the upcoming State Budget. And remember, the Premier, despite having 74 colleagues in the WA Parliament that could fill the role, is also the Treasurer. No passing the buck — the lack of bucks for Geraldton really does land at the Premier’s desk. Also worth remembering, cost blowouts haven’t stopped major infrastructure projects in Perth. The Premier just writes another cheque if the sums don’t add up at Metronet, for example. Labor’s signature rail project is already running hundreds of millions of dollars over budget, and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti as recently as last week warned more overruns were likely with the rapid rise in the price of diesel. “What you find is that in most contracts, in particular civil construction contracts, fuel prices are a factor,” Ms Saffioti said in The West Australian recently. What are the odds of the Premier putting Metronet on hold until the fuel price comes down? I’m making the bold prediction that if more funds for the multi-billion-dollar project are needed then the budget will deliver. And the Labor Government does have a few dollars to spare. The 20-21 Budget released last September came in with a $5.8 billion surplus and with iron ore prices remaining high, a similar number between $4b-$5b is expected in May for the 21-22 Budget. Just not spare dollars for Geraldton, apparently. Unless the Member for Geraldton can convince the Premier to loosen the purse strings and honour the election commitment, the promised upgrades to the emergency department, the new intensive care unit, and plans for an integrated mental health unit within the hospital will not occur. Despite the lack of government investment in the infrastructure the hard-working staff at the Geraldton Health Campus have done a wonderful job meeting the needs of the Mid West community. What will be the impact on staff morale and the ability to recruit staff from any further lack of commitment from Government? It’s time to upgrade the Geraldton Health Campus. And if you don’t believe me, listen to the Premier and the Member for Geraldton. They’ve been telling everyone it’s top of their list of priorities for five years. This was the Premier’s view as reported by the Geraldton Guardian in October 2017. “No work had been done on improving the hospital by the former government, so you do the business case, you allocate the money after we work out exactly what we are going to spend nearly $50 million on.” “We’re going to expand it and improve it,” he said. “People of the Mid West can rest assured that the money will go into future budgets.” The people of the Mid West are still waiting. Steve Martin is the Liberal Member for the Agricultural Region