Cronulla MP Malcolm Kerr said today that the NSW Government had benefited to the tune of nearly $2 million dollars from parking revenue at Sutherland Hospital since 2000.

From $183 671 gained in 2000 the car park collected a whopping $560 798 in the 2006/2007 financial year.

Mr Kerr obtained car parking revenue figures for the last seven financial years under Freedom of Information after the Minister for Health refused to answer his question submitted in Parliament.

‘Since the introduction of boom gates at the Hospital and completion of the new hospital, there has been a dramatic increase in parking congestion in residential streets surrounding the Hospital” Mr Kerr said.

‘The transfer of facilities such as the Community Health facility from Sylvania to the hospital grounds has placed a strain on the existing inadequate parking at the hospital, forcing more and more vehicles onto surrounding streets.

‘Residents in streets surrounding Sutherland Hospital such as Frederick Street, Karimbla Road and Hinkler Avenue are now paying the price with their streets turned into car parks from visitors to the hospital unwilling to pay the parking fee’.

‘As if this wasn’t enough the Government now plans to use every last inch of land at Sutherland Hospital by leasing one of the remaining areas of vacant land to a private operator for an aged persons facility’

‘It is no wonder that the Iemma Government did not want this information made public’ Mr Kerr concluded.