More spin over Daniel Andrews’ health cuts

Liberal Party Victoria

Yet again, Daniel Andrews is blaming everybody else rather than himself for Victoria’s health crisis.

His breathtaking hypocrisy was again on show today when he blamed Canberra over health funding, stating that “covid catch-up is a long-term project”.

This is the same man who cut health funding in last month’s budget by $2 billion while claiming the cut was because COVID-19 spending had decreased.

Shadow Minister for Health, Georgie Crozier, said that Daniel Andrews’ budget con was duping Victorians in the middle of a crisis.

“The Premier can’t have it both ways,” Ms Crozier said.

“He can’t deny cutting Victoria’s health budget by pointing to less funding for COVID-19, and then say more money is needed from Canberra to deal with COVID-19.

“The truth is, despite Labor’s spin and claims otherwise, total expenditure on healthcare will fall by more than $2 billion from $27.06 billion in 2021-22 to $25.02 billion in 2022-23.”

More than $1 billion of Labor’s health cuts alone were from ‘admitted services’ – funding for acute and sub-acute patient services in Victorian hospitals including elective surgery.

The Andrews Labor Government also made cuts to ’emergency services’ and ‘non-admitted services’ – which includes services for medical diagnosis and treatment; ongoing management of chronic conditions; pre- and post-hospital care; and maternity care.

Ms Crozier said the person who caused the health crisis isn’t the one to get us out of it.

“The Premier is to blame for Victoria’s health crisis,”

“Only a change of government will fix it.”

/Public Release. View in full here.