Arabic version: ائتلاف فيكتوريا يستهدف تقليص فترات انتظار العمليات الاختيارية

According to ABC News, the Coalition has pledged to halve Victoria’s elective surgery waitlist if it wins the coming state election, while the Carroll government has promised to wind back 2023 land tax threshold changes if re-elected. About 68,730 Victorian patients across urgent and non-urgent categories were still waiting for elective procedures in June, following continued growth in the list over the previous year.

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said the Coalition would give public patients the option of having surgery at private hospitals at no cost. She said the proposed program would deliver an extra 25,000 surgeries each year and would cost $1.27 billion. The Coalition says it would fund the plan by winding up Breakthrough Victoria, a government investment fund currently valued at $600 million.

Breakthrough Victoria recorded losses of $5.7 million in the 2025 financial year and $3 million in 2024. The fund was merged with startup agency LaunchVic earlier this year. Under the Coalition proposal, private hospitals with spare capacity would receive four-year contracts to treat public patients. Australian Private Hospitals Association chief executive Brett Heffernan backed the plan, saying surgery waiting times were becoming a major problem.

The government said Victorian public hospitals delivered a record 218,000 planned surgeries in the past year and that all category 1 patients were treated within 30 days. It has also committed $50.1 million for 4,000 additional planned surgeries for children in the 2026/27 budget. On land tax, Labor said it would progressively raise the threshold by $25,000 a year after lowering it from $300,000 to $50,000 in 2023, a change that brought 250,000 more Victorians into the tax system. The reversal is expected to cost $230 million over five years.