Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the weekend, the Tasmanian Liberals finally released their public health policy for the March 3 election. The big headline number, $757 million, captured the attention of journalists, who went on to dutifully report the Liberal government's flashy spin. Meanwhile, Labor got to work on the detail, and what we found was a con job. The Liberals promise 298 new beds, but only a handful are to be delivered in the next four years. That was not made clear in the announcements; Tasmanians will have to wait until the term after the next to see the promise kept in full. Not only will the Liberals have to try to win this election, they'll have to try to win the next one as well to see their promise kept. It means that a child who started primary school last week will be in high school before those 298 beds are delivered, and that's assuming they don't break their promise in the meantime. It's a meaningless promise.

As part of the meaningless promise, the Liberals say they will recruit 158 doctors over the next six years. On average, that's two doctors a month, or 13 every six months. Right now, it's taken them six months to replace just one specialist. What a joke! What an absolute snow job.

To get an idea of what the Liberals would do with health in the future, let's look at what they've done over the past four years. They've cut $210 million from public health, and ambulance ramping is out of control; it's diabolical. Nearly one in five patients waited in a ramp ambulance for more than 30 minutes last year compared to one in 20 just the previous year. When you combine the health cuts of the Hodgman government with the health cuts of the Abbott and Turnbull governments, it's clear Tasmanians are suffering when it comes to health under the Liberals. The Medicare rebate freeze remains in place, costing Tasmanians more every time they pay their doctor's bill.

In comparison to all this disaster we have Rebecca White and the Tasmanian Labor team. Rebecca White has a $560 million plan for Tasmania's health system which will be invested in the next two years, not the next two election cycles. Labor's plan will create more beds, increase investment in mental health and provide more assistance for new mums and babies. Five hundred more—500 more!—health workers will be recruited across Tasmania's health system with a focus on integrating preventive and acute patient care. Rebecca White and her team will also negotiate to repair the damage done by the federal government cuts since the Liberals came to power in 2013.