2025-03-19
The Victorian Greens have slammed Labor for selling off a publicly owned site that provides accommodation for parents of sick newborns, and women needing cancer treatment and abortion care.
Patients have been moved out of the Royal Women’s Hospital free accommodation in Carlton and hospital staff were only given six days notice before people were being vacated with no plan in place for alternative housing.
Dr Sarah Mansfield, a GP from regional Victoria and the Greens health spokesperson, says that it’s outrageous that Labor is displacing women and children seeking healthcare with no alternative plan in place and has warned that this will lead to women being left in vulnerable positions choosing between not receiving critical healthcare or sleeping rough if they can’t afford a hotel room.
She added that this is going to leave women from regional Victoria, who already face barriers when accessing healthcare, even further in the lurch as the flats provided free accommodation for regional patients required to travel to Melbourne to access specialised care.
The Victorian Greens say the fact that Labor is sacrificing this critical accommodation that women rely on in order to access critical healthcare, and instead choosing to sell off the publicly owned site to private property developers.
Quotes attributable to the Deputy Leader of the Victorian Greens and spokesperson for health, Dr Sarah Mansfield:
“The people who have been relying on this accommodation have complex health needs, it is distressing that the Labor government has ripped this service up from underneath them with barely any notice and no alternative plan.
“Labor has opted to sell off publicly owned land for private development without thinking twice about keeping this lifesaving service.
“This will result in women and children who can’t afford other accommodation sleeping in their cars or travelling after medical procedures when they’re physically not fit to.
“This is another example of the very human cost of Labor’s wholesale sell off of our public land and services, and people are rightfully outraged by this.”