NSW Government’s $300m splash cash surprise to develop Rouse Hill Hospital

The NSW Government has been grilled in state parliament over forgetting to include landmark funding for the long-promised Rouse Hill Hospital, allocating a surprise $300 million to the project days after the budget was released.

ROUSE HILL: Artist impression the new Rouse Hill Hospital which will be built opposite Rouse Hill town centre.

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The NSW Government has scrambled to reveal $300 million worth of surprise funding will be allocated to the land acquisition and construction of the Rouse Hill Hospital following outrage from Hills voters after the NSW Budget was handed down.

The kneejerk announcement for the long-promised public hospital came after the Times revealed no landmark construction funding had been allocated when NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet handed down his third State Budget on Tuesday.

A total of $56 million worth of funding was allocated in Tuesday’s budget for land acquisition for the Hospital, which was the centre of major election commitments by both the Liberal Party and Labor in March.

However, in the 2018 State Budget, a total of $75 million worth of funding was promised for the purchase of a site.

The site of the new Rouse Hill Hospital which will be built opposite Rouse Hill town centre.

Yesterday, Shadow Health Minister Walt Secord grilled the NSW Government over its failure to allocate funding for the much-needed health infrastructure project in parliament, which led to Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor revealing the $300 million surprise cash splash.

“Before the election the Premier and the Health Minister scoffed at Labor’s plans for a $700 million public hospital (at Rouse Hill),” Mr Secord said in parliament.

“Prior to that the Liberal-Nationals Government promised a private hospital, in the heat of the election, it said it would be public.

“Now government members are scurrying like cockroaches away from the commitment — there is not a single dollar for Rouse Hill Hospital in the budget.”

Mr Secord said the Berejiklian Government lied about promises to fund Rouse Hill Hospital.

“The lack of funds in the 2019 to 2020 budget as revealed by the Rouse Hill Times shows that the Berejiklian Government perpetuated ‘a dreadful con and betrayal of the families of Sydney’s North West’,” he said.

Following the attack in state parliament yesterday, Riverstone state Liberal MP Kevin Conolly and Health Minister Brad Hazzard came out swinging against Labor, declaring funding had been committed for the development of the hospital at 768 Windsor Rd, Rouse Hill, which is in its final stages of land acquisition.

“As the local MP I am so pleased the NSW Government has continued to progress its commitment to deliver a new hospital in Rouse Hill for our growing community,” Mr Conolly said, citing it as one of 29 hospital projects in the pipeline.

An artist impression the new Rouse Hill Hospital which will be built opposite Rouse Hill town centre.

“The balance of the $300 million set aside from the ‘poles and wires’ remains to fund construction of stage one (of the hospital) later during this term of Government, once the planning phase is completed.”

However, correspondence from Health Minister Brad Hazzard, obtained by the Times, reveals the $300 million allocated to the Rouse Hill Hospital is inclusive of the already promised $75 million for land acquisition.

A total of $225 million is left to fund the construction of the hospital from the sale of Poles and Wires.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said this year's budget contains “more than $56 million in 2019-20 and more than $16 million over the forward estimates for the acquisition of land for the facility”.

“The remainder of funding for the project is in the Restart NSW Fund which has $8.3 billion in reservations for projects across NSW,” he said.

Budget Infrastructure papers reveal a total of $320 million worth of funding allocated to the ‘Hospital Growth Program’ inside the Restart NSW Fund, but does not outline individual funding for the Rouse Hill Hospital.

“In 2015 Labor didn’t commit a single cent towards a Rouse Hill Hospital. Only after the Liberal Government committed to the project did Labor discover a need for a hospital in Sydney’s north west,” Mr Conolly said today.

Mr Conolly said Health Infrastructure would work with the wider community and council as part of the masterplanning and design process.