A Catholic provider is taking over six private hospitals in NSW, which means restrictions on IVF, abortion, voluntary assisted dying, gender-affirming care, vasectomies and tube ties. Calvary also operates a public hospital in Newcastle, and the Minns Labor government is ignoring staff and community pleas for a fully public hospital.

The problem: Health care is being run by religious and for-profit businesses

Calvary Health Care follows a Catholic code of ethics that limits access to many health care services. There’s a real risk of Calvary Health monopolising healthcare in some communities. Doctors have been raising the alarm on  Calvary Health’s takeover of private hospitals in Tasmania, becoming the only private provider in that state. The same could happen in NSW.

Newcastle is looking at a future with three hospitals under a Catholic framework. Calvary also runs a public hospital in Newcastle, the Mater.

Yes, a Catholic organisation could soon control three hospitals in the Hunter – including the public Mater Hospital that treats terminal cancer and palliative care patients and cannot offer voluntary assisted dying.   

This is outrageous. 

Profit-driven health care is not the answer either. 

The Greens chaired a NSW parliamentary inquiry that exposed the issues with private businesses having their hand in public health. Newcastle’s Mater Hospital has run under a public private partnership since 2006. The inquiry heard about mould in cancer wards, maggots falling from the ceiling, a surgeon fainting in the operating theatre, and whistleblowers being silenced. 

The inquiry found “higher than expected deaths and readmissions for respiratory conditions” and a public private partnership that “represents poor financial value for NSW”. 

The Minns Labor government needs to bring the Mater, and other NSW Health services operating under a public private partnership, back into public hands. 

Health care shouldn’t depend on a profit margin or someone else’s religious beliefs.

The solution: Bring the Mater back into public hands

Religion and profit don't belong in public health care. 

The parliamentary inquiry report into the Calvary Mater Hospital was clear: bring ownership and management back to NSW Health as soon as possible. The NSW government did this for Northern Beaches Hospital. Newcastle deserves the same. 

Watch my speech, as Chair of the Inquiry, tabling the report. 

The Minns Labor government has failed to commit to making the Mater fully public. NSW Health Minister Ryan Park says he wants the contract ended by Christmas, but he hasn’t provided any details. He says they’re “considering options”. 

There’s a risk Calvary Health will remain involved in the management of the Mater.  

The government's largely non-response is an insult to the patients, families and health workers who gave evidence at the inquiry. The Newcastle community deserves a public hospital owned and managed by NSW Health; not by a for-profit nor Catholic provider. 

We must send a clear message to the NSW Government: we do not want religion or profit in our public hospitals. 

What are the greens doing? We’re fighting for health care based on need, not profit or religion.

Here’s the action we have taken: 

• We initiated and led the inquiry that exposed what went wrong at the Mater and other NSW health facilities under the public private partnerships, platforming staff, patients, and their families. This exposed issues at the Mater, Orange and Bathurst Hospitals and Northern NSW Rescue Helicopter Service. (Watch my parliamentary speech calling for this inquiry.) 

• We forced documents into the open. The Greens passed an order for papers, to make the government release internal documents.

• We have protested alongside health staff. The Greens have stood with Mater nurses and doctors at their rallies and will keep amplifying what they tell us.

• We have held the Minns Labor government to account in Parliament. The Greens have questioned Ministers and raised these issues in the chamber, including the fact Mater staff raised the alarm as early as 2017 and demanding the Mater be returned to public hands.   

• We have amplified these issues in the media. The Greens have spoken out about the Calvary Mater and other public private partnerships over and over, including in opinion pieces by NSW Greens spokesperson for Health Dr Amanda Cohn and Greens candidate for Newcastle Lucy Miller.