Hospital redevelopment funding questioned by candidate

COUNTRY Labor candidate has expressed concern the funding of the Grafton Base Hospital redevelopment is a 'hollow election promise'

THREE'S COMPANY: ALP candidate for Clarence Trent Gilbert launched his campaign for the 2019 NSW Election in the Yamba Memorial RSL Hall on Sunday. Picture: Tim Howard

QUESTIONS over the Grafton Hospital redevelopment have been raised again on the eve of the election, with one candidate expressing concern over the lack of detail in the plan.

Country Labor candidate Trent Gilbert has held concerns since the announcement of the $263 million redevelopment, that the lack of detail meant the commitment might not be genuine.

"I am just concerned that all this is a hollow election promise," he said.

"If he was fair dinkum about this then they would have a timeline to go with the announcement and room in the budget.

"If they want us to take them seriously they need to tell us when it will happen and identify a funding source in the budget."

In response to the claims, Nationals MP Chris Gulaptis explained that similar to other major project announcements, funding came in stages after extensive planning and that the Government was committed to starting the project if elected.

"(The funding) is obviously going to come from the health infrastructure budget and while we have other projects being built, we now need to work out exactly how we will do it," he said.

"This it is no different to the Lismore Hospital rebuild which was done in stages and like the Grafton bridge, we said work would commence in the next term and it did.

"It will be the same with the hospital, if elected, work will commence on site during our next term."

Originally published as Hospital redevelopment funding questioned by candidate