Ms Allan welcomed the announcement of a preferred bidder for the new Bendigo hospital but said work on the project should have started a long time ago.

“What’s disappointing is that work should have been started already on this site behind us here,” she said during a media conference at the new hospital site.

“We should be standing here today seeing workers on this site building Bendigo’s new hospital.

“But what has happened, as a result of the absolute bungling of the tender process by Premier Denis Napthine and his colleagues, is that we know that Bendigo’s hospital is going to start months and months behind schedule.

“And that is a real worry because every month that this project is delayed puts pressure on the completion date.

“And we just can’t trust this government, we just can’t trust Denis Napthine and the Liberal National government on their word when they say it will be completed by 2016.

“Their actions to date demonstrate that they have not had the best interests of the Bendigo hospital or the Bendigo community when it comes to overseeing our most important building project.”

Ms Allan said pressure from the local community and media, including the Bendigo Advertiser’s front page report yesterday about a leaked cabinet-in-confidence document, had undoubtedly put pressure on the government to make the announcement earlier than they had intended.

“And it is now clear the Bendigo hospital project has been held to ransom while the Liberal National Government try and force their anti-worker agenda on government projects.” 

“The letter from the Health Minister David Davis to the then Premier last December indicated that Lend Lease was the preferred bidder – yet here we are four months later only getting an announcement now.”