Thread by @CliffordHayesMP

Here’s my issue with vaccination mandates, in wake of another transport budget blowout.

They served a purpose to get our vaccination rates comfortably high. Now +92%.

Why are they still in place? Govt says to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed.

It's their job to fix!! 1/6

They could pump emergency funding into hospitals.

Instead, Govt hands off tens of billions of $, neatly wrapped with a Teflon ribbon, to private consortiums like Transurban.

There's no place for Scrooge McDuck in public health investment, especially during a pandemic.
2/6

They've neglected public health spending in a state that has seen rapid population growth – prior to the closed borders. A recipe for overwhelmed hospitals.

They were happy to pocket tsunami of wealth that came with population boom; but reinvested into roads, not health.

3/6

Last April, a good example. Premier made an announcement that Victoria would benefit from “$1.3 billion injection to quickly establish an extra 4000 ICU beds”.

It’s almost +18 months and there’s no sign of those extra beds, and he's distanced himself from the entire plan.
4/6

If Govt scrambled up the cash to bring our public health infrastructure up to speed as quick as it lined boardroom of construction firms in 24kt Gold, we wouldn't need mandates at all. Hospitals wouldn't be gridlocked.

People wouldn't die waiting for ambulances.
5/6

In July 2020, it was reported that while New South Wales had invested $1.6 billion into public health, Victoria allocated less than $600 million.

6/6
#springst #auspol