The Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, says the Allan Labor government’s crippling record debt is now putting lives on the line.
And Mr Walsh says if Premier Jacinta Allan’s latest plan to rip countless millions of dollars out of the regional hospital system goes ahead people will end up paying a very high price.
He says when Labor won power in 2014 it inherited a strong balance sheet, with a “easily managed” debt of $22.3 billion.
“Victoria is now facing a staggering debt of $178 billion by 2027 and that will only keep climbing because Ms Allan and her incompetent Cabinet have not got a clue about managing money let alone a whole economy,” Mr Walsh says.
“Regional and rural health services across Victoria are facing forced amalgamations, service cuts and closures as the Allan Labor government slashes millions in health funding in a desperate bid to shore up our collapsing econmy,” he says.
“Weeks ahead of the upcoming State Budget, reports have indicated Labor is forcing unrealistic savings targets on all of Victoria’s 76 health services, which will collectively see millions cut over coming years.
“These funding cuts follow confirmation more than a dozen regional health services suffered operating losses across 2022-23, with projections that by June this year, more than half Victoria’s health services face negative daily cash balances.”
Mr Walsh says leaked internal briefings reveal bosses at multiple country health services have warned the forced “unrealistic” savings targets are unsustainable.
He says some reported multimillion-dollar deficits last financial year and now say there is no way to cut costs without impacting frontline services.
The directive to slash costs came from the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance to all 76 health services and had individual targets across the next three financial years, under what are called Financial Management Improvement Plans.
“Victoria’s massive debt equals $70,000 for every Victorian household,” Mr Walsh added. “Our grandchildren, and generations beyond, will be paying for this catastrophic financial failure by the Premier and Labor’s fantasyland where the more it spends the less people will want to check the bottom line.
“Victorians should make no mistake, these are not changes to improve efficiency, but desperate and savage cuts triggered by Labor’s financial mismanagement,” he says.
“Under the Allan Labor Government, regional and rural communities across the state will be stripped of their voice in local health services as this latest round of funding cuts by stealth is the real-world consequence of Labor’s financial mismanagement and it is patients across rural and regional Victoria who will suffer.
“Under Labor, Victorians are already struggling to access basic healthcare and are waiting longer for vital treatments, just look at this week’s reports of seriously ill people waiting hours in ambulances outside hospital because there is no bed available for them.
“These cuts and threats of large-scale amalgamations demonstrate the disdain Labor has for rural and regional communities.”
