The Berejiklian Government’s latest backflip on the Shellharbour Public Hospital is a victory for people-power over privatisation.

However, NSW Labor has warned that the message from today’s decision is that NSW cannot trust the Berejiklian Government to keep public services in public hands.

Labor has warned Illawarra residents that if re-elected in 2019, the Berejiklian Government will bring back their privatisation proposals because privatisation is part of the Liberals’ DNA.

For more than a year, Illawarra Labor MPs, unions, staff, patients, their carers and the general public have expressed their absolute anger at the suggestion that Shellharbour Public Hospital would be privatised.

For more than a year, the Illawarra has waited for a start date and detailed timetable for work to commence on the upgrade of Shellharbour Public Hospital that the community was promised at the 2015 election.

For more than a year, uncertainty about the future of health and hospital services remained until the Berejiklian Government announced its inevitable backflip on Shellharbour Hospital today.

The Illawarra community has one final question – when will the upgrade begin?