Work has commenced at the contested site of the new Tweed Valley Hospital in Kingscliff, with Tweed MP Geoff Provest (Nationals) saying it would result in ‘a local jobs boom’.
Mr Provest and NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard (Liberal) announced on Friday that Tweed Coast Demolition and Excavations had been awarded the contract for demolition and site remediation work ahead of the commencement of construction.
‘We are excited that works are getting underway on our new hospital which will ensure locals get treatment closer to home and thousands of jobs will be created both through construction and once the hospital is up and running,’ Mr Provest said.
‘Unlike Council and unlike Labor, the NSW Government wants local businesses to benefit from the biggest investment in our health infrastructure in over 100 years.
‘Local companies have already expressed their interest in getting involved in different stages of the construction of our new hospital – a real boost to our regional economy.’
Mr Hazzard said the NSW Government ‘remains committed to building the hospital at Kingscliff without any further delays’.
He said geotechnical drilling and perimeter fencing is already underway.
Labor won’t back down
But Labor insists that it will wind back the clock should it win the next election.
Speaking in parliament on November 15, ALP leader Michael Daley re-committed Labor to building the Tweed Hospital in Kings Forest ‘to protect Cudgen farmland and prevent overdevelopment in Kingscliff’.
‘Labor has listened to communities in the Tweed and if I become premier in March next year, the people of the Tweed will get their hospital at King’s Forest,’ he said later in a media release.
Labor’s candidate for the state seat of Tweed, Craig Elliot, said the next election would be ‘a referendum on the location of the Tweed Hospital’.
‘My commitment is to build the Tweed Hospital at Kings Forest – and save Cudgen farmland from the Nationals Party bulldozers,’ he said.
Local jobs boom would be better served by upgrading the existing hospital and protecting the farm land around Cudgen so that we can increase farm production, expand trade and therefore provide more jobs for locals. I say economic growth in Tweed is priority to keep the place viable. With the 10,000 more homes ear marked for construction to house 14,000 more residents we need more jobs than just the construction of a hospital and a few more staff.
We must protect the farm land and expand production and trade. What about considering a new sea port in the area also for trade. You have to consider all locals futures here not just the minority stakeholders who hold personal vested interests in seeing the new hospital constructed at all costs come hill or high water. I say upgrade the existing and do it urgently!