Member for Ipswich Jennifer Howard today welcomed the Treasurer’s record budget for health, which will invest $710 million in Stage 2 of the Ipswich Hospital Expansion and deliver an additional 200 new hospital beds.
The budget will also invest an additional $84.5 million for the Ripley Valley Satellite Hospital and deliver 90 new beds for this brand new sub-acute care facility.
Ms Howard said that a record $817 million will be spent on West Moreton Hospital and Health Services, which will see first class healthcare delivered across the Ipswich and West Moreton region.
“Every year since 2015, the health budget has increased in Ipswich,” Ms Howard said.
“Today’s announcement is in addition to the $166.9 million the Palaszczuk Government has invested for delivery of Stage 1 of the Ipswich Hospital Expansion.
“We’ve seen Stage 1 deliver a new 26-bed ward at Ipswich Hospital, construction of the new Acute Mental Health Unit, a new MRI machine, a new Alcohol and Drug Withdrawal and Rehabilitation facility soon to be built, and funding for the expansion of our hospital’s emergency department.
“We are putting healthcare first in this budget.
“The Treasurer made clear that we’re freeing up hospitals to allow them greater flexibility on investing on outcomes, not just activity, and focussing on early intervention, prevention of illness, and keeping patients out of hospitals in the first place.
“Importantly, this means Ipswich Hospital will have more flexibility on how they invest their funds to achieve good health outcomes for our community.”
The budget also saw significant funding for other areas including frontline services and transport.
“We’re investing $4.4 million to construct the new Ambulance Station at Ripley as well as $4.3 million for the new Ripley Police Station,” Ms Howard said.
“Funds have also been allocated for road and intersection improvements as well as for cycle facilities.”
Ms Howard was delighted to see $43.74 million allocated for infrastructure improvements at Ipswich schools, including $7.6 million to Claremont Special School for additional classrooms and $3.42 million to Bremer State High School for extra specialist classrooms.
“And of course, we’re all excited about the new $60 million primary school to be built in Ripley, due to open in 2023,” Ms Howard said.
“Ripley’s population is booming, and I’m glad that we’re investing so heavily in this region to support that growth including $45 million for infrastructure in the Ripley Valley Priority Development Area which will include $9.2 million to support delivery of land supply for housing.”
Ms Howard also said that the Treasurer’s highlighting of renewable energy investment in this budget showed that Queensland is well on its way to becoming a global energy superpower and this means we can deliver more jobs in more industries across the state.
“There’s no reason why Queensland can’t become a low-emissions manufacturing powerhouse by utilising renewable energy,” Ms Howard said.
“We’ve got 50 large-scale renewable energy projects committed, commenced, or constructed in Queensland, and this budget will see more investment with $48 million over 2 years to progress work on the Borumba Pumped Hydro Energy Storage project.”
Ms Howard said that the four things that are raised with her regularly by Ipswich people were mental health, the hospital, housing, and renewable energy, and she is pleased to see that this budget is investing in these areas.
“I’m proud to be a part of a government that listens and responds, and I congratulate the Treasurer and the Premier on delivering another strong budget for Queensland.”
Full details about the 2022-23 budget can be found on the Queensland Government’s budget website: https://budget.qld.gov.au/
