Question Time dramatically suspended in Vic after doctor hecklers target Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas
Victorian parliament’s Question Time has been shockingly suspended and the gallery cleared after a group of doctors shouted and heckled Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas.
Victoria
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Question Time in the Victorian Parliament was sensationally suspended and the public gallery cleared after a group of doctors shouted at Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas, calling her a “disgrace”.
During a heated debate on Wednesday afternoon, Ms Thomas was responding to questions from Benambra MP Bill Tilley about the controversial redevelopment of the Albury-Wodonga hospital, which some 200 residents had rallied against earlier in the day.
Asked why she wouldn’t listen to Wodonga locals and build the hospital that the community “desperately needs”, Ms Thomas said that the government “will not be supporting the (new) proposal, which to be clear has no land, no plan, and no funding,”
But the session was immediately suspended when over a dozen members of the gallery started shouting at Ms Thomas while she was on her feet.
“Shame — regional people’s lives matter,” yelled Albury Clinician Dr Lachlan McKeenman.
“You’re a disgrace and you’re out of touch,” another doctor shouted.
The entire gallery was then cleared, with over a dozen protesters continuing to shout down onto the house floor as they were escorted from the chamber.
Labor MP Pauline Richards called on the Speaker to review the footage, arguing that opposition MPs had incited the behaviour which threatened government MPs.
Bill Tilley, who insists the outburst was unplanned, accused the Allan government of breaking its promise to build a new 10-storey hospital in his electorate.
“I’ve been summoned to the speaker’s office,” Mr Tilley said afterwards.
Residents had earlier rallied against the development on the steps of parliament house, with locals demanding the current redevelopment be scrapped in favour of a larger and more comprehensive development on a different site.
It comes after Former NSW and Victorian Premiers Dominic Perrottet and Daniel Andrews originally pledged $558 for the development, which is meant to ease the burden of crippling shortfalls in hospital bed numbers that currently plagues the border’s existing two-hospital system.
Speaking to the Herald Sun, Mr Tilley said the current redevelopment plan was the equivalent of “putting lipstick on a pig”.
“Even ten years after it’s delivered on the (original) Brownfield site, there will be no net gain. No gain in beds, in surgeries, or anything else,” he added.
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