Opposition health spokesman Walt Secord has defended Labor for not including the new Lower Hunter hospital in its major infrastructure plan.
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Labor released the plan last week, which detailed commitments to various health, road and education infrastructure projects across the state.
The plan indicated that Labor would pay for the commitments using about $10 billion of unused money from the Restart NSW fund and by delaying tax cuts for businesses that were to be introduced on July 1.
While the document earmarked $3 billion for health infrastructure, there was no mention of the new Lower Hunter hospital.
Liberal candidate for Maitland Steve Thomson said he believed this was because Labor did not have the money to build the new facility.
But Mr Secord accused Mr Thomson of spreading lies.
He said the hospital was not included in Labor’s infrastructure document because it had already been accounted for in the party’s forward estimates.
Mr Secord said the infrastructure plan released last week only included projects that would be funded by the $10 billion that Labor had found and the hospital would be funded by other means.
“The hospital was one of the first projects I committed to when I became shadow minister for health in November,” he said.
“Labor is 100 per cent committed to building the hospital.
“The Liberals have more questions to answer on the hospital than Labor does.”
Mr Thomson said if he was elected and the Baird government was returned to office in March, construction on the Metford hospital would begin during his first term in Parliament.
He criticised Labor’s move to delay the introduction of a range of tax cuts for businesses, which he said would affect every small business in Maitland.
“At the last census there were 4500 small businesses in Maitland, so that’s at least 4500 families that will be hit,” Mr Thomson said.
Opposition Leader Luke Foley said last week that Labor also would reserve $810 million in a regional investment fund for the Hunter as part of its infrastructure plan.
But Minister for the Hunter Gladys Berejiklian said Labor’s plan was a glossy brochure full of motherhood statements that lacked detail about specific plans for the region.
