Wilson returns to Wonthaggi with $40 million plan to lure health workers
The pitch lands in Bass where stages two and three of Wonthaggi Hospital remain stalled after four years.
HEALTH workers who take hard-to-fill jobs at regional hospitals would be paid up to $10,000 upfront and up to $10,000 for every year they stay under a Coalition plan launched at Wonthaggi Hospital on Sunday.
The Liberals and Nationals would spend $40 million over four years on a Victorian Rural Health Workforce Incentive Scheme covering doctors, nurses, dentists, midwives and allied health professionals.
Payments could be made in cash or used to cover relocation and accommodation costs, with the scheme modelled on one running in New South Wales since 2022.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said hospital buildings were no use without the staff to work in them, pointing to the $350 million she pledged in July to finish stages two and three of the Wonthaggi redevelopment.
“You must have the health workforce to go with that infrastructure,” Ms Wilson said.
“You can only deliver quality healthcare in quality facilities if you have the strong healthcare workforce to do so.”
“We understand it can be really difficult to see healthcare professionals move to regional Victoria.
“That’s exactly why we’ve looked to New South Wales to see a model that is operating effectively and delivering real results.”
Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier said health services across the state kept telling her the same thing.
“One of the biggest challenges is getting the workforce that they require,” Ms Crozier said.
“They say it’s difficult to recruit and then retain staff, and that’s what this incentive scheme does.”
Asked whether staffing was now a bigger problem than bed numbers in regional hospitals, Ms Crozier said it was both.
“There are challenges right around the system, and Labor has ignored those challenges for far too long,” she said.
Stage one at Wonthaggi opened in November 2022 at a cost of $115 million, delivering three operating theatres, an 18-space emergency department and a 32-bed inpatient ward.
Ms Wilson said planning for stages two and three was finished but the project had been left in limbo, and she returned to the promise Labor made at the same hospital before the last election.
“Prior to the 2022 election, Daniel Andrews stood right here and promised to the community in Bass that he would deliver stage two and three of Wonthaggi Hospital,” she said.
“A supposed $290 million commitment at the time.
“And here we are today, nearly four years later, and we are yet to see one delivery from the Labor government.”
Where suitable the Coalition would also build staff accommodation into new regional hospital projects, naming West Gippsland Hospital and Mildura Base Public Hospital.
Wonthaggi has one on the way already, a 20-room facility beside Kirrak House due to open next month, built with $5 million from the State Government’s Regional Worker Accommodation Fund.
Liberal candidate for Bass Rochelle Halstead hosted the announcement alongside State Narracan MP Wayne Farnham and State Nationals MLC Melina Bath.
“Once again, we’re focusing on health and doing everything we can to make sure that our health system is strong,” Ms Halstead said.
Bass is the tightest seat in the state, held by State Bass MP Jordan Crugnale by about 200 votes, and with Ms Crugnale not recontesting it is an open race between Ms Halstead, Labor’s Chris Buckingham and One Nation’s Nikole Schellekens.
Ms Schellekens made much the same argument to the Sentinel-Times last week, saying One Nation wanted incentives to get GPs and medical students working regionally along with minimum standards for 24-hour emergency and maternity care at regional hospitals.
“Wonthaggi Hospital isn’t functioning at capacity due to staffing numbers, yet the plan is to throw more money at developing it further,” she said.
“Offering incentives gives them a chance to try working in regional Victoria, and I am certain they will want to stay because it’s amazing out here.”
Labor has announced no equivalent incentive scheme this campaign.
Its main health workforce offer so far is $13 million attached to a promise of 10 free public dental clinics, including relocation support to attract 20 clinicians to the three regional clinics.
Labor’s $5,000 graduate sign-on bonus is paid in two instalments and limited to nurses and midwives who finished their degrees between 2022 and 2024, and the $270 million it spent making nursing and midwifery degrees free was open to students across the state.
A Regional Mental Health Workforce Incentives program has run since 2022, paying relocation and settlement grants to mental health and drug and alcohol workers who move to the country.
The New South Wales scheme the Coalition wants to copy was set up by that state’s Liberal and Nationals government and expanded by NSW Labor, which lifted retention payments to as much as $20,000 a year.
Victorians go to the polls on November 28.
Labor candidate for Bass Chris Buckingham was contacted for comment.
