{"id":901037,"date":"2026-09-22T07:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T07:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901037\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T07:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T07:36:14","slug":"liberals-extra-100-million-pledge-for-albury-hospital-receives-mixed-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901037\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberals’ extra $100 million pledge for Albury Hospital receives mixed response"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tell us about your experience. <\/p>\n

There has been a mixed reaction from community leaders after the Victorian opposition pledged an extra $100 million of funding towards the Albury Hospital redevelopment if they win the November state election.<\/p>\n

The investment pledge, coming on top of the existing $558 million of federal, New South Wales and Victorian government funding, would provide 50 more beds, a multistorey car park and a full fit-out of the clinical services building including a helipad, paediatric ward and operating theatres.<\/p>\n

The Coalition said it would fund the provision of specialist youth acute mental health beds within the hospital’s mental health unit.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Victorian Liberal opposition have pledged an additional $100 million towards the Albury Hospital redevelopment. (ABC News: Annie Brown)<\/p>\n

Liberal candidate for Benambra Steve Martin said the commitment would also fund a health infrastructure feasibility study to determine whether long-term demand could be met over the next 25 years at the current 8 hectare Albury site or required a new location.<\/p>\n

“Immediately on being elected we’ll be starting a feasibility study which will identify a preferred greenfield site and do a proper benefit cost assessment of continuing develop at the Albury site or starting on a new greenfield site,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said the issue with stopping the current redevelopment now was just how long it would take to deliver new beds at the site.<\/p>\n

“Everywhere I go I hear the needs are now and we need to be able to deliver something that will cater to our community as it needs now, but we’re also mindful we need to start already preparing for what’s next,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said the party had not taken lightly its change in approach to the issue.<\/p>\n

“In 2022, the Liberal position was a greenfield site and that was our preference, but we’re four years along the path and the needs are so urgent. Every day we’re seeing 40 to 70 beds short, and this will deliver new beds within two to three years,” Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n

He also confirmed the party would commit to delivering the newly promised services even if the cost rose above the $100 million budgeted figure.<\/p>\n

\"Opposition<\/p>\n

Jess Wilson says the aim is to provide “quality healthcare”. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said the commitment was to provide “quality healthcare” for the community while also ensuring a “real plan” for the years to come.<\/p>\n

“An additional $100 million for Albury Wodonga Health means more beds, greater access, better clinical services and a real plan for the future health needs of this growing community,” she said.’Legoland for decades’<\/p>\n

Better Border Health director Stan Stavros said he was “definitely appreciative” of the announcement and welcomed the “immediate relief” promised by delivering beds in modular wards.<\/p>\n

“This is something the clinicians, the doctors and the nurses have been calling for, for about five to six years,” he said.<\/p>\n

However, he said more was needed.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Stan Stavros welcomed the promise to deliver beds in modular wards. (Supplied: Stan Stavros)<\/p>\n

“I think it should be extended to also providing \u2026 modular operating theatres which are quite a practical way of providing immediate relief over a number of years,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While welcoming the “good bits” of the announcement, he also acknowledged there were some “bits we don’t like”, particularly around investing even more money into an existing brownfield site instead of a greenfield one.<\/p>\n

“The investment of funds into what we consider to be a compromised site, it would just subject us to Legoland for decades,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’ll just be decades of patch ups, decades of catch up.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said even with the extra $100 million on top of the $558 million Albury Hospital Redevelopment, the money being spent on the hospital per capita in the region was nowhere near that being spent elsewhere.<\/p>\n

“On a per person basis based on our population size, we’re getting nothing,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That’s still going to be \u2026 well and truly under two-thirds of what other communities are getting,” he said.<\/p>\n

Wodonga Mayor and chair of the Alliance of Councils for Albury Wodonga Region Health Services Michael Gobel also had a “nuanced” response.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Michael Gobel has mixed feelings about the Liberal’s election promise. (ABC News: Philippe Perez)<\/p>\n

Cr Gobel welcomed the commitment to a feasibility study to compare brownfield and greenfield sites, but was concerned putting a further $100 million into the brownfield could “jeopardise” the business case for a new site.<\/p>\n

He also questioned whether spending $658 million on the brownfield was a “good use of taxpayers’ money”.<\/p>\n

He did however welcome the Liberal’s commitment to the scope, even if the budget exceeded $100 million.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Victorian Premier Ben Carroll criticised the announcement as “desperate politics” and said the Liberals were untrustworthy when pledging money to hospitals.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Carroll says the announcement is “desperate politics”.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“Don’t listen to what they’re saying. Look at what their actions have been. They’ve closed hospitals,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Labor has invested over half a billion dollars to get this hospital off the ground and redeveloped, and we’ll continue to work with the Labor government in Canberra.”<\/p>\n

More news from regional Victoria<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tell us about your experience. There has been a mixed reaction from community leaders after the Victorian opposition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[133798,275544,469551,260919,64,63,137,500,127355,469552,32499,92645,133799],"class_list":["post-901037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-albury","tag-albury-hospital","tag-albury-hospital-redevelopment","tag-albury-wodonga-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-jess-wilson","tag-member-for-benambra","tag-steve-martin","tag-victorian-liberal-party","tag-wodonga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}