The state opposition is walking back from a promise to spend $8 billion on regional hospitals, with less than half that amount likely to be offered up ahead of the November 26 state election. | Josh Gordon
The state opposition is walking back from a promise to spend $8 billion on regional hospitals, with less than half that amount likely to be offered up ahead of the November 26 state election.
But Nationals leader Peter Walsh said this week the $8 billion promise for the regions assumed the full $35 billion cost of the rail line would be available to the Coalition to spend on health, under a deal between the Liberal Party and the Nationals to direct one-quarter of infrastructure spending promises to regional Victoria.
“The $8 billion was 25 per cent of what the government was saying at the time the Cheltenham to Box Hill line would cost,” he told. “Until we made our announcement Labor never said anything about other sources of funding. So they need to come clean with the people of Victoria about how their funding model works.”
Budget papers also made it clear the government was banking on one-third of the suburban rail loop being funded by the federal government, which has so far only stumped up $2.2 billion, and one-third coming from as-yet-unspecified “value capture” provisions, potentially involving profits from commercial development opportunities around the new line.The $11.