Ross Hart (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks to a leaked COAG document, we now know the Prime Minister's secret pre-budget hospital plan, which will lock in seven years of public hospital cuts. This five-year deal offers no new money for public hospitals and leaves the states locked into their current, inadequate funding arrangements until 2025. In my home state of Tasmania we are facing a health crisis; the last thing we need is more cuts to health funding. Surgery and emergency room waiting times have blown out. This week I received a letter from one of my constituents, desperate for assistance. She is on the public waiting list for a knee replacement. This is a person with no cartilage in her right knee. She suffers from chronic pain and is unable to stand for any period of time, limiting her day-to-day activities. When she last inquired about the waiting period for her surgery, she was told it would be eight years. This is entirely unacceptable. Her call to my office was a last resort. She told me:

The thought of living like this for another eight years terrifies me.

The Tasmanian Liberal government's cut of $210 million from our hospitals in their first budget was a bridge too far. Tasmanians have been suffering for this ever since. Whenever Liberals get a chance, they cut health. We've seen it in Tasmania and we're seeing it again with this Prime Minister's secret plan. Labor will invest in health, putting patients first and fixing our health crisis.