The past month has seen a concerted effort to highlight funding cuts to Bendigo Hospital.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
So much so that it has become a political football for both of the old parties, Labor and Liberal, in Victoria and Canberra.
It has got to the point where it is very clear that this is less an argument about equity and ensuring adequate health services in the region, and more about how many points one party can score against the other.
Truth be told, many dollars have been put into the campaign by state Liberals, with prime-time blame-and-shame ads on television and glossy mail-outs across the region, shifting the blame to Labor.
At the same time federal Labor, especially Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, is running ongoing media blame-shifting campaigns.
Hospitals have fast become the responsibility of both Canberra and Spring Street, but this ongoing political football proves two heads of government are not better than one.
While federal Labor doggedly clings to its surplus promise and state Liberal recklessly cuts billions from state services, we are highly unlikely to see an end to this farcical football game.
It would be slightly entertaining, if it weren’t for people’s lives being played with.
Lachlan Slade,
Castlemaine