Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

That was the most pathetic defence of the government's health system I have ever heard. We got one minute of stats that proved they had cut hospital funding and then he spent nine minutes talking about the Labor Party—nine minutes of the 10 minutes! That's because they don't have an agenda for health reform and it's because they're a third-term government looking for an agenda and something to do. Something to do, Minister, would be to fix the health system!

In my home state of Tasmania the health system is in crisis; it is crumbling. It is so bad that the health minister had to be sacked just a few weeks ago. Even his own side called for his sacking, it was so bad! We have ambulances ramping at the Royal Hobart Hospital and they have been ramping for 10,000 hours—10,000 hours! Sometimes in Hobart at the moment, if you call an ambulance for a major emergency one is not available. That's what is happening in our health system in Tasmania today. The health system has been cut by state and federal Liberals so badly it is failing. It is failing Tasmanians. We see this across the country, with other hospitals failing Australians.

The other really interesting data about the Royal Hobart Hospital that shocked me was that the Royal Hobart Hospital, in the last nine months, was experiencing bed block 93 per cent of the time. For 93 per cent of the time there were no beds available at the Royal Hobart Hospital to admit new patients. This government has failed Tasmanians and their health; it's failing Australians and their health, and for the health minister to get up here and ramble on about how bad Labor is! You are in government! You won, you know! You're actually supposed to fix the health system. That is your job.

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