Tuesday, 25 November 2025

“FOI Documents confirm the Department warned Health Minister Mark Butler that Sandringham hospital lacked an MRI machine before he signed off on an MRI license, so now he funds an MRI or admit it was a cruel health hoax”, Federal Liberal Member for Goldstein, Tim Wilson said.

Mr Wilson’s comments follow documents released by the Department under FOI, as well as questioning from Shadow Minister for Health, Senator Anne Ruston, in Senate Estimates last week in the Community Affairs Committee.

Ruston: So when the decision was made for Sandringham Hospital to be one of the hospitals that would be granted this early access to a subsidised MRI, did the Sandringham hospital have an MRI machine?

Department: No.

Eligible MRI licenses enable scans to be claimed back on Medicare. Goldstein secured its first license in 2017 at Cabrini Brighton during the former Coalition government.

“During the last term of government Labor ripped $100 million out of the Goldstein community. On the eve of the election Labor announced an MRI license for Sandringham Hospital giving the former Member something to claim was delivered when it wasn’t. The community was conned, so now it is simple – fund an MRI or admit it was a cruel health hoax”, Mr Wilson said.

“Answers in Senate Estimates confirm the license was already granted from 2027, it was just brought forward two years to 1 July 2025 as an election bribe – but there’s no MRI machine”.

“One email from 16 December states calculating the impact of issuing an MRI license to Sandy hospital is “relatively simple from a costing perspective”, which is fair enough because there’s no cost when it doesn’t have an MRI machine”.

“Like an episode of Yes Minister where a hospital was built without patients, Minister Butler issued an MRI license to a hospital without an MRI machine in a cruel health hoax to help his Labor-aligned Teal friend get re-elected”, Mr Wilson said.

“Labor is treating the Goldstein community with absolute contempt – it either fesses up and admits it was an election bribe and was a worthless license, or it funds an MRI so the Goldstein community gets the health services it was promised”, Mr Wilson said.

ENDS