They are the words made famous by Michael Caton as Darryl Kerrigan in the hit Australian movie The Castle: “Tell ‘em they’re dreamin’.”

The real dreamer here is the man with his hand on the helm of the NSW Health Department and the future of local hospital services – Mr Della Bosca.

The minister runs the risk of being accused of living in Lotus Land when he authorises staffers to come out and say the Tamworth hospital remains a priority for his Government and that work will commence in the current parliamentary term.

Actually, to be fair to the minister, he didn’t go quite that far...

The three-line response forwarded to us by his office yesterday actually stated “the Premier has given his undertaking that the project will be commenced this term”.

Would it be unduly cynical to suggest that this form of words has been adopted to ensure that when it becomes even more blindingly apparent the project is dead in the water, the minister will be able to distance himself from the actual pledge?

The bottom line, for those who came in late, is that Tamworth’s new hospital has always been a political football, manipulated over the course of two parliamentary terms, to keep the local state seat out of coalition hands.

The then premier – and a former NSW Health Minister – Morris Iemma, pledged the new hospital, then estimated to cost $130 million, in March 2007.

This was just weeks before the last poll.

With little or no action since then and a cost blowout of almost 200 per cent, it is now obvious this cash-strapped State Government is unlikely to commit $300 million or thereabouts to a project in a seat held by an independent, when formerly safe Labor MPs will be fighting for their political lives.

That said, we’d love it if a firm funding commitment tomorrow proved us wrong.