Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to express my concern at the decision by the Northern Territory government and the Abbott government here in Canberra to delay the construction of the new hospital for Palmerston, which is near my electorate of Lingiari. This hospital will primarily serve the Darwin rural area that is in my electorate and the second Top End city of Palmerston, which includes the NT electorate of Blain, which goes to a by-election on 12 April. There is a grave disappointment in the community at the announcement by the government that this hospital will not be constructed and will not be finished until 2018—a two-year delay in construction. The initial money was committed by the former, Labor government of $110 million. Had the Labor government been re-elected, we would have had that building commenced this year.

See this speech in context