Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Currently in the state of Tasmania, my beautiful state, the state government is undertaking a review into the provision of health services throughout the regions. I find it disturbing this morning to report to this chamber that the Independent member for Denison, Mr Wilkie, from the comfort of his electorate in Denison, has conveniently called on the government to close one of the hospitals in the state of Tasmania, saying that four hospitals for a state population of 500,000 is uncalled for and that one should be closed. I say to the member for Denison that he should be man enough, strong enough, to stand up and indicate which hospital it is that he is proposing, because we all know which hospital it is that he refers to—that is, the Mersey Community Hospital, which services the area around the city of Devonport, the regions of Port Sorell, Latrobe and Kentish, probably servicing nearly 50,000 people.

I find this astonishing. On this particular matter—I say it with all the grace that I can muster on this issue—the member for Denison should pull his head in. I do not know that he would how to get to the electorate of Braddon unless he had a GPS. It is all very well for him to be saying that we should lose a hospital on the north-west coast. For your benefit, Mr Deputy Speaker, a couple of years ago the Mersey dealt with 26,000 presentations to emergency, 8,500 inpatient admissions and 48,000 outpatient visits, and it also conducted nearly 8,000 operations.

For generations in my electorate of Braddon, on the north-west coast, we have been more than willing to travel to the major hospitals in Launceston and Hobart, which are both great hospitals. We go there regularly for procedures, and that is just a part of the way that we live our lives. How difficult would it be if in fact, as a part of this review, the hospitals on the north-west coast were identified as having the skills that they do have and the magnificent staff that they do have and were to become centres of excellence so that people in Launceston and Hobart could maybe consider travelling the other way and going to our hospitals to receive the attention they need?

The people of the north-west coast are not fools. They know what Mr Wilkie, the member for Denison, is about, and they are just not copping it. We have great staff at the hospitals on the north-west coast, particularly at the Mersey hospital, and I want to see all of their jobs retained and enhanced. I want to see more services provided out of the hospital at Mersey. The two-campus model on the north-west coast works very, very well, and it should continue.

I think it is also time that the member for Denison realised that there is a lot of wealth created in my electorate. We pay our taxes, and the companies pay their taxes, and it is about time that he and many others realised that it is not just for those in the southern part—the Public Service part—of the state to spend those hard-earned taxes. We want to see some of those taxes reinvested in our region. (Time expired)