CAPALABA MP Don Brown says a $30 million LNP federal election commitment for the Redland Hospital was a broken promise - and "a real slap in the face" - because the money is only in the 2022-23 budget.
Federal MP Andrew Laming has lashed back, accusing Mr Brown of being ungrateful. Mr Laming said the funding was announced three years in advance of construction, the same timeline as state Labor's Redland Hospital car park and the three-year timeline for Rickertt Road construction.
"The reality is that it takes three years to plan these projects given that the state government hasn't even lodged a detailed design with Canberra yet," Mr Laming said.
Mr Brown said federal Health Minister Greg Hunt had told the Queensland government the $30 million promised ahead of the federal election was in the 2022-23 budget.
"During the recent election Mr Laming did not hide the fact that he intended to 'fix Redland Hospital' with signs across the electorate, especially across the road from the hospital," Mr Brown said.
"Voters had every reason to believe that Mr Laming's $30 million promise to redevelop Redland Hospital would happen this term. Now only a couple of months after the election the federal health minister has confirmed that this is not the case.
"This is a real slap in the face for voters who took Mr Laming at his word. They have every right to feel that this is a broken promise."
Mr Brown said this meant the money would be available only after the next election.
Mr Laming said that nothing prevented Labor from matching the federal government's funding and starting the upgrade.
"I've put the $30 million up, only to have Mr Brown whining that I'm not doing his job of upgrading his government's hospital fast enough," Mr Laming said.
He said the state government should start designs for the hospital upgrade and release their hospital car park business case soon.
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