Liberal National Party Candidate for Bowman, Henry Pike, has accused the State Government of being deliberately vague after receiving a disinterested response from the State Health Minister to a community call to maintain free carparking at Redland Hospital.
Henry Pike, and State Member for Oodgeroo, Mark Robinson MP, wrote to the Health Minister with over 1,000 local signatures to express the depth of community concern about the proposed imposition of parking fees.
“I’ve read a lot of political double-talk in my time, but this response from Labor’s Health Minister sets a new standard for a disingenuous non-answer to direct questions,” Mr Pike said.
“Yvette D'Ath has refused to say how much the new charges will be, refused to be drawn on her plan to impose charges on the existing free carparks, and refused to commit to use the revenue for capital upgrades at Redland Hospital.”
Mr Pike and Dr Robinson have received a strong public response to their push to maintain free parking. Over 1,600 locals signed an online petition expressing their opposition to the State Labor Government’s plan to impose parking fees across the hospital campus.
A new multi-level carpark is currently being built at Redland Hospital with the support of a $16 million contribution from the Federal Liberal and Nationals Government.
Metro South Health spokespeople have confirmed that the State Government intends to impose fees on the new carpark and across all the areas where it is currently free to park.
Dr Robinson expressed the community’s concern for the impact that the fees will have on staff, patients and visitors.
“Our hard-working hospital staff have done a fantastic job over the last two years but are being let down by a broken system. The last thing we need is for them to be stung by new parking fees.” Dr Robinson said.
“Sadly we have a State Labor Government not interested in answering questions, and not prepared to listen to the community’s call to keep parking free at Redland Hospital.”
Mr Pike called for local Labor representatives to add their support to the campaign to ensure Redland Hospital maintained free parking.
The Metro South Local Health Network received over $776 million from the Commonwealth Government last financial year. That represents a $371 million increase (or 92%) from the level of funding received in 2013.