Mr Davis told the Bendigo Advertiser the Best and Final Offer stage of the tender had been completed and said his department would now consider the two bids from the consortia. 

But he wouldn’t say if Lend Lease was still in consideration for the work or when the winning builder would be announced. 

“Just to be quite clear, we’re obviously very happy with the way the tender itself is proceeding,” Mr Davis said. 

“The government went to a Best and Final Offer in December, asking the two tender groups to come back with a best and final offer. 

“The key task was to drive value for the people of Bendigo and northern Victoria.

Mr Davis said work would start this year and said the winning tenderer would be announced “very soon”. 

He also said the project would be finished in 2016 despite confidential emails from December, which were obtained by The Age, quoting Mr Davis as saying extending the tender process would “jeopardise” the project finishing on time. 

He wouldn’t commit to the deadline during a visit to Bendigo in January and yesterday said the Construction, Forestery, Mining and Energy Union was stalling the project through court action. 

“The only thing that can derail the timeline is the CFMEU legal action, supported by the Labor Party,” Mr Davis said. 

Member for Bendigo East Jacinta Allan said it was hard to believe anything the health minister said about the project. 

“Behind the scenes they know the hospital won’t be completed by 2016, yet they continue to try to deceive the Bendigo community by saying the opposite in public,” she said. 

“You just can’t believe anything that the Napthine government or the health minister says anymore when it comes to the Bendigo Hospital project that they said work would start by the end of last year.

“There is a great big building site that has been sitting there for construction works. The work is still some months away before being started.” 

Ms Allan said the government’s “anti-worker crusade” through industrial relations laws was stalling the project.