Michael Ferguson (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With all of the theatrics of parliament this week there is one thing which I have been working on and have been raising in this place now for many months that I want to raise again here tonight—that is, the state of our health system in Tasmania and specifically, insofar as it concerns my constituents, the Launceston General Hospital. I speak tonight, as I have done so often, to an almost empty chamber. I look with disgust on those opposite who remain silent, who say nothing and who will never take the opportunity to exert any influence on their state Labor mates to overcome the enormous difficulties which are presenting huge challenges to families and individuals in my electorate of Bass. Today the Examiner newspaper took the unusual but quite justified step of opening by saying:

The State Government has lost control of the Tasmanian public health system and it only has itself to blame.

This issue is so deep and so complex it cannot possibly be canvassed in the few minutes available to me. But I will say that the state Labor government has every opportunity to address the challenges. I admit these are significant and difficult but the government has every opportunity to do so. It ought to implement reforms that make our health system more efficient and more cost effective. Why is it that the only reforms that this government is prepared to countenance are reforms at the clinical end? Why is it that Minister Lara Giddings refuses to reform her own department, her own bureaucracy? Why is it that the Premier of Tasmania—his government, the cabinet—refuses to reform his own budget and to give priority to what is the No. 1 concern for people in Northern Tasmania?

There are problems throughout every health system in this country and that is to be expected. But in Tasmania the significant problems that we are facing today can be addressed if hospitals are properly funded. The Launceston General Hospital is being deliberately underfunded. The hospital is not over budget; it has been deliberately underfunded. The only explanation for this is that the Tasmanian government wish to downgrade the Launceston General Hospital by starving it. By cascading debt year by year the LGH will be forced to make decisions about cutting clinical care for my constituents and families in the electorate of Bass. The people of Northern Tasmania are not stupid; they gathered in numbers of 5,000 or 6,000 just two weeks ago to demand that this Labor state government properly fund the hospital. We know they have the money. But they will not do it.

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They’ve got the GST.

Michael Ferguson (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They’ve got the GST but they also have a plan to build a new hospital in Hobart. It is not costed, but it is a plan nonetheless and we know that they are desperately scrambling to find the funds to pay for it. The Howard government is currently making an intervention into health services in north-western Tasmania—although not in my electorate. Relieving the Tasmanian government of the duty to fund the Mersey Hospital releases immediately at least $40 million per annum, which the state government can now spend on other hospitals.

I am about to make a very important statement. On 1 September the state health minister said to the LGH rally, in recognition of the savings to be made from the Mersey, that not one dollar would be going to the south. On Tuesday of this week the minister broke that promise. Of the $40 million, she has allocated just $4 million to Burnie, just $8 million to the LGH and $8 million to the Royal Hobart Hospital. First of all, an admission that all of the hospitals are underfunded puts the lie to the claim that the hospital system was properly funded and, secondly, it puts the lie to the claim that the funds would be preserved in the north where they are most needed. This minister is incompetent and has been dishonest. It concerns me greatly and I will not give up this fight. As the Examiner editorial correctly says:

It is absolute nonsense for Treasurer Michael Aird to blame the Federal Government ...

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It would also be unacceptable for the State Government to be funding a new hospital in Hobart through cutbacks in services elsewhere in the State.

I thank the House.