His admission comes after questions were put to him in parliament by Member for Wagga Joe McGirr, asking why the new car park had less than half of the spaces initially promised during the 2018 byelection.

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Mr Hazzard said the shortfall was because of the University of New South Wales' proposed clinical services building, which will take up space previously earmarked for the car park.

"That building, though, will be located towards the front on the highway on the lefthand side over towards Lewis Drive. That means that the car park that was going to be somewhat bigger will have to be reduced in size," Mr Hazzard said.

"We want to try to make sure we have rural generalist doctors who are interested in rural practice being there. We are hoping the fact that they are on campus for years one and two will make a huge difference to them staying. At the same time, we are trying to balance the car parking."

However Dr McGirr said Mr Hazzard's response raised even more questions, such as why the smaller car park still cost $30 million and whether it would offer enough spaces.

Dr McGirr said he also wanted to know how Health Infrastructure is coordinating with council to deal with parking around the hospital, which has long been a source of frustration for locals.

Dr McGirr has since put those follow-up questions to Mr Hazzard, who has promised to provide a response in the coming weeks.

"This is a very important issue for people in the community, and I think we've lifted the priority with the government," Dr McGirr said.

Wagga City Councillor Dan Hayes, who also put questions to Mr Hazzard through the shadow health minister, said his response raised more questions than it answered.

Cr Hayes said he still wanted to know why that site was chosen of all places, why the smaller car park still cost $30 million, and why Mr Hazzard failed to tell the Wagga electorate about the change in plans.

"They've picked a site to take up the most amount of car parks, then hidden that from the community and delivered a multistorey car park with half the parking for the same price," Cr Hayes said.

"This is just a debacle by this government. This is us missing out once again, going back to what we experienced with Daryl Maguire, which is being ignored and getting half of what we need."

Cr Hayes said he also wanted to know why the new UNSW building was placed on the left-hand side of the Edward Street entrance, where it encroaches on the multistorey car park, instead of the right-hand side, where it doesn't.

The Daily Advertiser reached out to Mr Hazzard's office, but was told that he was unavailable for comment.

However, Mr Hazzard's full response to Dr McGirr's questions can by found on the NSW Parliament website.

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