Zoe McKenzie MP
Shadow Cabinet Secretary
Shadow Assistant Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations
Federal Member for Flinders
TRANSCRIPT
Rosebud Hospital Press Conference – Jess Wilson, Zoe McKenzie, Georgie Crozier and Anthony Marsh
Saturday, 14 March 2026
Topics: Rosebud Hospital; Youth crime crisis; contactless Myki.
JESS WILSON: Well, delighted to be here in Nepean today in Rosebud to announce that our new Liberal team with Anthony Marsh as the candidate for Nepean at the upcoming by-election, will deliver a new Rosebud Hospital. The residents of Nepean and the broader Mornington Peninsula deserve access to quality health care. But, over the last few decades the investment required in Rosebud Hospital has not been delivered by the Labor government. It has not been delivered and the residents on the Mornington Peninsula here in Rosebud and right across Nepean are missing out on the quality health care that they need and deserve. Under my leadership with Anthony Marsh, our new Liberal team will deliver a $340 million rebuild of Rosebud Hospital. We will double the capacity of the beds at Rosebud Hospital. We’ll expand the emergency department, an emergency department that sees a great growth during the summer periods in particular. We’ll make sure that we have access to the very services local residents need, whether that’s dialysis, whether that’s cancer treatment. We’ll make sure that Rosebud Hospital can deliver the quality health care services local residents desperately need on the Peninsula. What we’ve seen over the past decade is the Labor government not investing here in Rosebud. Not investing in this hospital. We know that minor parties, independents, can’t deliver on so-called promises. Only a Liberal team, a new Liberal team with Anthony Marsh can deliver on the Rosebud Hospital. At the upcoming by-election, a vote for Anthony Marsh is the first step, the first step of changing the government this November. Georgie…
GEORGIE CROZIER: Thanks very much, Jess, and as Jess has said for too long Labor have ignored the needs of the community of the Mornington Peninsula and we’re here in Rosebud to make this announcement because this has been neglected for years by Labor. This hospital is in desperate need of an upgrade and that’s why we have made this investment commitment to rebuild this hospital because this is an aging and growing population, with more chronic disease and more needs, and as Jess said, through the summer months, those seasonal spikes where the emergency department is under enormous pressure. All of this has been ignored by Labor for far too long and imagine if that $15 billion of corruption money, the CFMEU that lined the pockets of bikies and criminals didn’t go into their pockets. What it could have done to this hospital. This government has ignored the needs of this community and that’s why we’re going to get on and rebuild this desperately needed hospital for the community.
ANTHONY MARSH: Good morning, it’s great to be here. For many years as the local mayor I’ve been advocating alongside residents and the volunteers in the hospital to rebuild Rosebud Hospital and I’m absolutely thrilled to be here this morning to announce that we are going to rebuild Rosebud Hospital not just to serve Nepean but the broader Mornington Peninsula. I was in the hospital meeting staff and volunteers earlier this week and everyone knows this community within this hospital is amazing the staff do the best they can with what they’ve got but the government have not given them the infrastructure to deliver the best healthcare for this community. So, we’re here today making this announcement to give them the facilities and the infrastructure they need to make that health care service delivery in this region. It’s great to be part of Jess and the team and being part of a party of government in the future that can deliver for the community. Thank you. Zoe …
ZOE MCKENZIE: It was back in 2019 that the federal Coalition Government provided $5 million to undertake a business plan for the redevelopment and the rebuild of Rosebud Hospital. That business plan wasn’t shared with me as the federal member, it wasn’t shared with Greg Hunt as the former federal Health Minister, and it wasn’t shared with the local member here either. The government has refused to share it with anyone and refused to put the money in that this hospital needs to be rebuilt. It is a much-loved hospital. Everyone locally has a story of coming here but more often than not now people end up getting diverted up to Frankston. It’s too far for people to go, particularly in an emergency situation. They come here for help. We have eight million visitors over summer. It is much needed. It deserves reinvestment. The staff do an incredible job, but basically in a 1980’s setting. So, this is an extremely welcome commitment from Jess Wilson and Anthony Marsh, and Georgie Crozier. It will change the future lives of residents of the southern Mornington Peninsula.
GEORGIE CROZIER: Yes, thank you. Thanks so much, Zoe. Angelo, would you like to step forward?
ANGELO: Sure.
GEORGIE CROZIER: Angelo is going to share his story, his experience with his wife. Just move up to there. Could you just explain what happened to your wife and the experience that she had here and what you needed to do?
ANGELO: Sure. My wife suffers from … my wife suffers from COPD, which is, I guess, smoke-related. She has only 25% lung capacity. And just around Christmas time, she caught a really, really bad virus. Had to call an ambulance. 10:30 in the morning, they brought her over here to the Rosebud Hospital. I wasn’t sure that that was the best move. Anyway, she was there but the staff were fantastic. The resources they have, just not enough to cope with her condition. At 2 o’clock in the morning, they had to take her to Frankston, where she was left on a trolley there for about five hours.
She was left there for five hours. Nobody knew that she was there. And eventually, she got transferred to the Bays Private Hospital in Mornington. The staff here were fantastic. But, you know, if you don’t have the resources, you can’t do anything to help people. I feel that, honestly, in my heart, I feel we’ve been forgotten by the Labor government, this whole area. We’ve been forgotten by the Labor government. That’s how I feel. But luckily, my wife, once she went to the Bays, she improved out of sight, because they had the staff and the facilities there. Yeah, so it was a pretty bad experience, but I’ve got to say this, the people that work at the hospital are really, really good people. They’re caring people, and we really need this rebuilt, whatever. So, I’m really glad to hear of this undertaking by the Liberal government.
GEORGIE CROZIER: Thanks, Angelo. Thank you very much.
JOURNALIST: While we’ve got you there, Angelo, can we just ask you what would it mean to have a fully functional new hospital as an option, particularly with your wife’s health condition, to know that that’s a bit closer for you to go to?
ANGELO: Well, you know, people say if you can’t get any help here at Rosebud, go to Frankston. It’s an hour’s drive to Frankston, nearly. Here, if we had the facilities, if we had this hospital upgraded the way it should be, I would feel so much happier, so much confident that my wife will get looked after and get the help that she needs.
GEORGIE CROZIER: Any more questions, Penny?
JOURNALIST: Thank you. That’s all for Angelo. Thank you, though.
ANGELO: Thank you.
JESS WILSON: Do you want me to come up, Penny?
JOURNALIST: Yeah, that’d be great. Thank you. So, on this project, how much money would you commit to it?
JESS WILSON: So, this is a $340 million rebuild of Rosebud Hospital and I said this will be a complete rebuild of the hospital here on the Peninsula, to not only to deliver for the people of Rosebud, the people of the Nepean electorate, but for the broader Mornington Peninsula as well, by making sure that we expand access to that emergency department. What I’ve heard on the ground over recent weeks, in particular when I’ve been out and about with Anthony around the electorate, is that during those summer weeks, that peak season over summer, the emergency department here at Rosebud sees a flux of people coming through the doors. So, providing that expanded capacity through this rebuild is critically important.
JOURNALIST: And what would be your hope of a timeline on an entire rebuild?
JESS WILSON: Well, we’ll ensure that we start planning as soon as we come to government in November this year, and commencement, construction commencement will start within the first term of a Liberal Nationals government. And we know, we know that this is a desperately needed project. This has been a hospital that has been neglected. It has been ignored by the Labor government for more than a decade. It is the real need down here. We hear it day in, day out when Anthony’s on the ground, that local residents do not have access to the quality health care services they deserve. So, we will get on with the job, and we will commence construction within the first term of a Liberal National’s government… All good?
JOURNALIST: Sorry, couldn’t get myself off mute. Sorry.
JESS WILSON: That’s all right.
JOURNALIST: Just on to something else while we’ve got you there, just in terms of the government today is announcing that there’s going to be a public trial on four train lines from Monday of using tap and go technology and credit cards on the Myki system. This is, you know, we know what’s happening in other states. It’s been happening for years, nearly, you know, a decade in other places overseas. It’s still, they won’t give a deadline as to when it will be fully up and running after this trial. Do Melbournians deserve better when it comes to being able to access public transport in this way and particularly people visiting from overseas?
JESS WILSON: Oh, absolutely. Melbournians deserve so much better than a government that continues to promise, promise, promise, promise when it comes to tap and go and the Myki system. I can’t even keep up with how many trials we’ve now had of the Myki system. This is a system that has rolled out in places like Sydney nearly a decade ago. And yet people in Melbourne, Melbournians, are still waiting to be able to use their phone to get on the train or the tram. We still have the outdated Myki system, and I think that Melbournians in particular should rightly ask how much is this costing? Why is this a delay, a delay and a delay under this government? But once again, it just demonstrates that this is a government that loves to make a big promise before the election but fails to deliver.
JOURNALIST: The Mernda vigil last night that you went to, can you just talk to us a little bit about what it was like being there and why it was that you wanted to go along to that?
JESS WILSON: Yeah, it was absolutely devastating. To see Aidan’s mum and dad. His mum actually get up and speak to the thousands of people who had come together to say goodbye to Aidan and to thank him for what he did for the community, what he did for that young schoolboy when he came to his aid just over a week ago. It was incredibly moving and, as a mum, as a mum of a little boy, I just can’t imagine how his mum even gets out of bed. I can’t imagine how she got up and spoke to thousands of people the way she did so eloquently and spoke about the loss of her son. My heart breaks for that community and I wanted to be there because I wanted to be there for the local community. I wanted to show that I care, I understand that they’re frustrated, that this never should have happened, that Aidan never should have lost his life and that we need to put an end to this youth crime crisis, and, you know throughout the evening I had people coming up to me saying that enough’s enough. We can’t afford to see any young people continue to lose their lives in this state because of a crime crisis that isn’t being fixed.
JOURNALIST: We don’t believe there were any senior government ministers there last night. Do you think there should have been a show of support from the government? We know that the Premier’s been sort of separately, but particularly about public vigil?
JESS WILSON: Oh look, I’ll leave those decisions to the government. As I said, I wanted to be there because I wanted to show my support for the community. A day doesn’t go by in my role where I don’t hear from a victim of crime in this state, but the loss of Aidan. To see his friends, his family, that local community in Mernda come together last night, it was just a tribute to how close that community is and just the absolute, the frustration, the grief from those who had come together to say goodbye to Aidan. It was incredibly moving to be there, and I just say to that community that I’ll be there any day to support them, but as many people said to me last night, we shouldn’t have had to be there and it should never have happened in the first place.
JOURNALIST: And just onto something slightly separate. I’m not sure how much you know about this, but it’s been reported that the incident at Geelong a couple of weeks ago where a man was killed in a psychiatric ward that’s still sort of under investigation, that there was only a door, unlockable doors and a bathroom between the two rooms where one patient has gone into another patient’s room and that that’s not something that is under sort of the current codes for hospitals in Victoria, but it was still happening at this Geelong hospital, unfortunately. How can people, I suppose, what’s your reaction to that and should that still be happening in our hospitals if it’s being considered not to be a safe option and people can’t be locked out of each other’s rooms?
JESS WILSON: Well, I think there needs to be a proper investigation to understand what did go wrong here and if there weren’t the appropriate procedures, processes or safety requirements in place in this hospital, then we have to understand why that was the case. So, I’d call on the government to ensure there is a proper investigation, a robust investigation to get the bottom of this and to ensure this isn’t the case in any other hospitals in Victoria. Georgie’s just gonna add something.
JOURNALIST: Yeah. Thanks, Georgie.
GEORGIE CROZIER: I think it demonstrates the underinvestment by the government that has not upgraded these facilities to the standard that it needs to be, and as a result we’ve had this tragic and horrific outcome and it really is, as Jess said, a thorough investigation needs to take place. But more importantly, or just as importantly, you know, proper investment and again, we’ve just seen underinvestment in these really critical areas within healthcare, whether it’s Geelong, whether it’s Rosebud, whether it is Mildura, whether it is anywhere around the state, we’ve got so many issues with health infrastructure. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Thank you all. Really appreciate your time. We’ll get that off to everyone else as well and we’ll see you guys soon.
JESS WILSON: Thanks Penny.
JOURNALIST: Thanks guys, bye.
JESS WILSON: Thanks everyone.
ENDS.
