2026-06-03
The Greens have renewed urgent calls for the Victorian Government to build cohealth’s shovel ready plan for an upgraded Collingwood health facility with co-located community housing.
It comes after the recommendations from the independent review of cohealth general practice and related services were released on Wednesday which recommended that the Victorian Labor Government go back to a proposal to redevelop the Collingwood community health facility.
The review also recommended the federal government deliver two additional years of funding and trial a new funding model for community health that recognises the multidisciplinary nature of community health.
In 2019 cohealth released plans made for a new community health facility which included 50 new community homes for people with complex health needs.
In 2022, before the last state election, the Labor Government promised to fund the new development but never followed through with the funding.
Last October, cohealth announced they would have to close GP and counselling services at these sites by December 16, the the entire Collingwood site permanently in 2026, due to insufficient funding from both federal and state governments.
Since the announcement, the Greens at all levels of government joined with the community to run a huge campaign to pressure Labor to deliver funding to keep cohealth open.
Hundreds of people attended community meetings in Richmond and Kensington, and the Greens built a community petition of almost 8,000 local signatures as well as brought questions and motions before the state and Federal Parliaments.
Quotes attributable to Leader of the Victorian Greens and Member for Melbourne, Ellen Sandell:
“Our local community health centres need secure, long-term funding, and it’s outrageous that Labor refuses to provide it”
Quotes attributable to Greens Member for Richmond, Gabrielle de Vietri:
“Enough is enough, it’s time Labor stopped misleading our community and coughed up the money to fund the Collingwood cohealth redevelopment.”
“These recommendations make it clear that the responsibility for funding community health lies squarely with the state and federal Labor governments. Instead of doing the right thing and funding community health, Labor is desperately deflecting responsibility and playing politics with people’s lives.”