MP Bill Tilley slams planning for upgrade over a greenfields hospital

Bill Tilley on Wednesday November 1 used a grievance speech to roast the Victorian and NSW governments' decision to upgrade the Albury site rather than follow a master plan recommendation to establish a hospital in a fresh location.

"The decision to jointly spend $450 million on the Albury site raises serious questions around how the Victorian and NSW governments arrived at this point," Mr Tilley said.

"It borders on malfeasance and possibly misconduct in public office.

"This is no idle claim."

The Benambra MP said he arrived at that point after examining 2000 pages of documents.

They included emails between Albury Wodonga Health bureaucrats and state health departments, master plans, engineering reports, geotechnical findings based on remote analysis, capital investment proposals and budget submissions.

"These documents suggest that NSW and senior management at Albury Wodonga Health had absolutely no intention of building the Border's much needed new hospital on anything but Albury base," Mr Tilley said.

"And all of that despite its well-documented limitations, history of unstable ground and the greenfield build recommendations of workshops and a Master Plan in December 2021.

"This Victorian Labor Government was either hoodwinked or turned a blind eye to what was happening under its nose."

Mr Tilley cited correspondence from October 2021 declaring "the NSW Government is not considering the establishment of an additional hospital in the region".

Yet a month later, a top NSW Health director Vince McTaggart is copied into minutes during master plan activity which states a workshop found "a clear preference, an absolute crystal clear preference, emerged for the greenfield option to locate acute and sub-acute facility".

"What is apparent from those documents was that no one was telling any of the stakeholders involved in the development of the master plan that the deal was done ... that no matter what the result of the master plan that a brownfield build at Albury was locked in," Mr Tilley said.

He notes "Janet Chapman, (then) deputy CEO of Albury Wodonga Health is also pushing for the Albury brownfield site, undermining the board and master plan meetings".

"So too is the Victorian Health Building Authority executive general manager, planning and development ... Stefano Scalzo," Mr Tilley said.

"Scalzo and McTaggart are emailed by then AWH CEO Michael Kalimnios, a Sunday afternoon, 21 November 2021, asking for their help at the board meeting later that week to promote the 'way forward' for a brownfield development.

"Now we know that the board was supporting the greenfield build."

Mr Tilley then contrasted the master plan of 2021 with the version released in October 2023 which he described as a "nothing - no detail, no bed numbers, no idea really other than to erase 29 years of history, learnings and evidence".

He also raised concerns over the stability of the ground on which Albury hospital sits, revealing he had spoken to an architect who worked on planning for the Borella Road centre ahead of its opening in 1994.

"The architect tells me the only way forward in the future, unfunded, stages is to demolish before you rebuild on this site," Mr Tilley said.

He stated faceless bureaucrats, "some of whom I've named today", had chosen the cheap option "perhaps at the behest of their masters, perhaps of their own volition".

"Someone needs to stump up and tell us, show us, why the greenfield site recommendation was shafted," Mr Tilley, who repeated a call to pause the hospital project, said.

"They need to tell us who gave those health authorities the greenlight to pursue the Albury brownfield development against all independent recommendation and public need.

"If they acted alone, they should be held to account under the offence of misconduct in public office.

"If it was the Health Minister and her cabinet colleagues then I grieve for them too."

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