$100m spending pledge

$100m spending pledge

Newly-elected Premier Peter Malinauskas last week made a whistlestop tour of the Limestone Coast less than 72 hours after being sworn-in to confirm his intention to honour $100m of pre-election pledges for the region.

The commitments included a $52.7m funding package for Limestone Coast Health which specified $23.9m towards a major Mount Gambier Hospital upgrade.

The investment includes an $8m emergency department upgrade, $11.2m to double the size of the mental health unit and $4.7m to fit out and operate two dedicated drug and alcohol detox beds.

The funding package also included $7.4m for 24 additional paramedics and ambulance officers across the region by July 2024, $3.5m for four additional community drug rehabilitation beds in Mount Gambier, an $8m Naracoorte Hospital upgrade and $9.75m to secure a seven-year funding agreement with Keith and Districts Hospital.

During his visit, Mr Malinauskas toured the Mount Gambier Hospital and said the upgrades to the emergency department were “desperately needed”.

He said the investment of paramedics in the region was “urgent” and believed this would be the first matter addressed.

“On our schedule of rolling out where those new paramedics will go, Mount Gambier is at the top of the pile, because it is desperately needed here,” Mr Malinauskas said.

The Premier then travelled to Port MacDonnell to meet with cray fishermen before touring the NF McDonnell and Sons timber mill facilities.

Mr Malinauskas assured his $24m commitment to the timber industry would go ahead.

He apologised for the previous Labor government privatising the forests and said “we cannot go back in time, we can only go forward”.

“Water remains a critical resource that can underpin future expansion of planting new trees,” he said.

“We have committed to a genuinely independent, comprehensively-resourced, scientifically-viewed of the use of water here in the … Limestone Coast.”

Mr Malinauskas said he also understood there were shortages in certain trades, hence his government’s commitment to invest in TAFE.

Mr Malinauskas said he was committed to delivering for the Limestone Coast.

“I said to the people of Mount Gambier, including (Member for Mount Gambier) Troy Bell before the election, that within 72 hours of being sworn in, I would be right here, on the ground, seeing to it that we deliver on those commitments,” he said.

“And I have honoured that pledge, honoured that promise, just as I will honour all the promises that I have made in the lead-up to the election.”

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