Toowoomba Hospital Baillie Henderson project faces 12-month delays due to funding issues with Qld government

Workers on the new Toowoomba Hospital construction site say the project could be delayed by years if the state government does not release more funding.

The completion date of the new Toowoomba Hospital appears to have blown out by a year due to a funding standoff between contractors and the new state government, with construction workers concerned about major job losses and budget increases if there are further delays.

Work has effectively stalled on the $1.3bn project, which was greenlit by the previous Labor government and slated for completion at Baillie Henderson by 2027.

Multiple sources told News Corp the package of early works on the hospital is close to completion, but lead contractor John Holland has not yet been allowed to install necessary infrastructure like permanent tower cranes yet.

It is understood John Holland has been given no indication of when the next tender will become available.

Construction of the new Toowoomba Hospital at the Baillie Henderson Hospital campus is seen from Old Goombungee Rd, Thursday, October 24, 2024. Picture: Kevin Farmer

A site worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there were as few as 50 people on-site at a time when there should be close to 200 workers.

“We’ve been told again and again that this will be the date, this would be the day when we’ll have tower cranes in now and each time that day comes around, it seems to have been rescinded by somebody,” he said.

“We’re now not expecting anything major until roughly about August — there’s a potential that if we keep going at the pace we are, we will run out of work.”

Other sources said the delays and persistent use of mobile cranes had already added another $100m to the project’s budget.

“It’s just wastefulness, it’s burning money,” one said.

It comes as Labor deputy leader and former treasurer Cameron Dick accused the Crisafulli government of hiding the results of a review into the Hospital Capacity Expansion Program (HCEP) by New South Wales infrastructure specialist Sam Sangster.

The new Toowoomba Hospital format, which controversially will be based over two campuses, was a keystone project in the funding program.

State Labor deputy leader Cameron Dick addresses media in Toowoomba with opposition health spokesman Joe Kelly outside Toowoomba Hospital. April 7, 2025.

“Last week, the premier said in the parliament that the health expansion program, those 2200 new hospital beds across Queensland are ‘undeliverable’,” he said.

“They’re his words that he used last week and that means there are 118 new hospital beds in Toowoomba that are at risk.

“We know the state government has a report on the hospital expansion program, but they’re hiding it from Queenslanders.”

Originally slated to cost $9.7bn in 2022, Health Minister Tim Nicholls in November said the true cost of the program had likely blown out to between $19bn and $23bn.

“Labor had zero ability or strategy to deal with the pipeline of projects they announced. It is now our responsibility to fix their failures,” he said at the time.

An aerial of the new Toowoomba Hospital site.

When pressed on Labor’s role in the blowout of the HCEP, Mr Dick took aim at the LNP’s choice to build new venues as part of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

“On one side of Herston Road in Brisbane, they’re building a brand new aquatic centre – that’s a captain’s call by David Crisafulli that wasn’t recommended to the government by the Independent Infrastructure Committee for the Olympics,” he said.

“They’ve not told Queenslanders how much it’s going to cost, but it’s going to be more than $600 million that’s been in the newspapers.

“On the other side of the road, they put the Queensland Cancer Centre on hold.”

When asked by News Corp about concerns of potential local job losses and the results of the Sangster report, Toowoomba South MP and treasurer David Janetzki responded by slamming Mr Dick’s performance in the previous term.

Treasurer David Janetzki. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

“As former Treasurer he oversaw record debt, record spending and record taxes and yet left Queenslanders with record numbers of the sick waiting on ramps and unfunded hospital promises,” Mr Janetzki said.

“We will deliver a hospital that Toowoomba deserves – Cameron Dick never would have.

“Just last week the Opposition had to apologise to the parliament for misleading Queenslanders over making incorrect claims about cuts to hospital beds, and now less than a week later here we are, and the Opposition is at it again.”

Toowoomba North MP Trevor Watts echoed his colleague’s assessment, calling Mr Dick’s accusations “complete nonsense”.

“He knows as treasurer he failed to allocate the funds to build this project — now the Crisafulli Government will clean up his mess and make sure the people of Toowoomba get their new hospital,” Mr Watts said.