Presented by Robert Clark MP		www.robertclark.net

Government must act now on Box Hill Hospital car park

26th November 2003

The Editor
Whitehorse Leader

Dear Editor,

Your correspondent Brian Smith (Letters, November 26) asks whether as local MP I will argue for a multi-storey car park to be built at Box Hill Hospital sooner rather than later.

The short answer is that I have been arguing for such a car park for a long time, and I will continue to do so.

Box Hill Hospital submitted a proposal for a car park to its hospital network board for approval in early 2000. The proposal was held up, first of all while the health network was restructured, and then from early 2001 awaiting the approval of the Treasurer, Mr Brumby, for the project to proceed under the Government's "Partnerships Victoria" policy, and for the Government to prepare and issue the tender documents.

Tender documents were finally issued in July 2002, but when bids closed in September 2002, none of the bids met the Government's tender requirements, and the whole project collapsed.

The Government should never have tried to have the car park built under its Partnerships Victoria policy, which is far too complex and cumbersome for projects of this size. Instead, it should have issued a simple call for bids for an operator to build and run the car park.

Now the Government is talking about building the car park as part of a major redevelopment of the hospital, but the Government has given no commitments about when, if ever, it will be able to afford to provide the necessary funds.

Instead of forcing hospital users and local residents to wait years for a possible future carpark, the Government needs to be working with Box Hill Hospital now to get a car park built urgently as a separate project.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Clark, M.P.,
Member for Box Hill.