Denison MP Andrew Wilkie must stop his campaign to close the Mersey Hospital.
Last week I accused Mr Wilkie of being a Hobart centric politicians hell-bent on attacking those who live in regional Tasmania, especially the North West.
Sadly, instead of apologising, Mr Wilkie has renewed his attack on vital health services in the North of the state.
Mr Wilkie doesn’t believe people in the North West deserve first class health services.
On ABC radio this morning, Mr Wilkie was asked about the $730 million 10 year deal and he responded:
“It gives us a clear timeline for the closure of a northern hospital. We now have 10 years to plan, 10 years for the government to explain to the community that they will be better off if they have to perhaps to travel a little further but to a better hospital that ultimately get better healthcare”.
It’s time North West Coast community leaders, including the Advocate Newspaper, joined the Hodgman Liberal team and condemned Mr Wilkie’s stance.
Mr Wilkie must stop his attack on vital services for the North West Coast.
Mr Wilkie, who spends his life within a very short radius of Salamanca and in Canberra has no idea of how important health services are to the North West community.
Let’s not forget, Mr Wilkie turned down a billion-dollar deal from Tony Abbott to build a new RHH, to instead take $340 million from Julia Gillard. And unlike our Mersey money, that money was not exempt from GST calculations, meaning that it has effectively netted out to zero with our GST payments being adjusted to take that money into account.
It’s rumoured Mr Wilkie wants to run candidates at the next state election – well I challenge him to put his money where his mouth is, and run candidates in Braddon so that North West Tasmanians can tell him what they think of his idea to close our hospitals.