NSW Labor has slammed the National Party for supporting what it describes as an ‘obscene misdirection of priorities’, saying it is ‘spending $2.5 billion on rebuilding Sydney stadiums when North Coast hospitals and schools desperately need the financial support’.
NSW Labor Leader Luke Foley and Shadow Minister for the North Coast Walt Secord said the Nationals were ‘completely out of step with the needs of the community’, preferring to ‘spend billions in Sydney while rural and regional communities receive second-class health and education services’.
Mr Foley said the North Coast schools and hospitals are ‘going begging’ after the Liberal- National state government committed ‘an obscene $2.5 billion on knocking down and rebuilding Sydney stadiums.’
He said the decision would directly affect North Coast school children who ‘face years of being taught in demountables or in classrooms with leaky roofs and broken toilets’.
Mr Foley said he would ‘not allow this obscene amount of money to be spent on a couple of Sydney stadiums.
‘This is money that should go to schools and hospitals; they come first and will always do so under a Labor government.’
Mr Secord said the decision would ‘do nothing to help the almost 5,000 patients on the North Coast who have been waiting months for elective surgery.’
‘We have thousands of elderly patients waiting in pain for knee and hip replacements while the state government spends more than $2.5 billion on stadiums.’
Hospitals
According to Labor the following wait times apply across the Northern NSW Local Health District:
- The median waiting time for non-urgent elective surgery is 285 days – with some patients waiting nearly a year;
- There are 4,996 patients waiting for elective surgery (as at 30 June 2017);
- At Lismore Base Hospital, the median waiting time for non-urgent elective surgery is 328 days. The waiting time for a total knee replacement is 329 days;
- At Lismore Base Hospital, there are 1,783 patients waiting for elective surgery (as at 30 June 2017).
Schools
Labor says that:
- Across the region the maintenance backlog for schools is $2.5 million;
- There are 40 schools in the region that are at 100 per cent capacity;
- There are 137 demountables in the region’s schools.
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