Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

For anyone around the country who may not be aware of the issue that I am talking about, the front page of today’s Courier-Mail revealed a story that is really quite unbelievable. It is that the policy of the Queensland health department for tired doctors is to drink lots of coffee. It is to drink five to six cups of coffee, according to the policy document from Queensland Health. The article says:

“The recommended dosage for a prolonged and significant reduction in sleepiness during a night without sleep has been suggested at 400mg of caffeine … equivalent to about five to six cups of coffee,” the document states.

So if you are a doctor in the Queensland health system and you are tired then the recommendation of the Queensland health department is to drink lots of coffee. This is just absolutely absurd. Queenslanders were promised all kinds of things at the last election, and they were also deceived by the Queensland Premier. It is time for Queenslanders to realise that this is exactly what they have here in Canberra. They have a federal Labor government which, as sure as night follows day, is heading down the path of the Queensland Labor government.

I say to all Queenslanders: if you need any persuasion whatsoever of what Australia will look like with a prolonged Labor government, look at New South Wales and, for Queenslanders, look at George Street. It is about time that the Queensland government delivered. We want Premier Anna Bligh to be at the wheel. We do not want her to be in front of the camera cooking on some program trying to raise her profile. Everybody knows who she is. Everybody knows that she is the Queensland Premier, responsible and accountable to the Queensland electorate for delivering good services, and the Queensland health department is telling tired doctors that what they should do is drink coffee, not just one cup of coffee—or two, three or four—but five to six cups of coffee.

In the article in the Courier-Mail an international physician of global repute, John Saunders, slammed this advice, saying that it would ‘turn doctors into addicts’. This is a health expert of global reputation, of significant international esteem, and he is condemning this absolutely absurd policy. The article says:

“They’re suggesting 400mg is a perfectly fine dose? I would absolutely dispute that,” said Professor Saunders, the Pine Rivers Private Hospital alcohol and drug program director.

“For a health department to suggest that doctors use caffeine like this is the height of irresponsibility.”

This is the first decade of the 21st century. In this rich country of ours we have a Queensland Labor government telling the Queensland health department that its advice to tired doctors should be: drink more coffee. Even the most one-eyed of Labor supporters in Queensland, those with substantial affection and loyalty to the Labor Party, would surely have to contest that this is good advice. I am sure that in the homes around the Ryan electorate those who voted for the Labor Party at the last election would say, ‘My goodness, I wish I had not voted for them.’ In particular they might say, ‘If my mum or dad was in a hospital or if my children were in a public hospital and the doctor that was about to treat my relative had just come on duty after drinking lots and lots of coffee, I probably would not want him looking after my relative.’ Surely that is just untenable in this day and age. I say to all Queenslanders: look where federal Labor is going. This is a place that we do not want to be in. I say to all Queenslanders: please ring your Labor MP—ring the member for Moreton if you live in Sunnybank, and tell him otherwise. (Time expired)

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