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

Tasmania's health system is in crisis. For the third night running, ambulance ramping at Royal Hobart Hospital has been out of control. Last night, at least eight ambulances were ramped, making them unavailable for emergency call-outs, while more than 60 people awaited treatment in the emergency department. On Tuesday night, at least seven ambulances were ramped, with 62 Tasmanians waiting in emergency. On Monday night, it was six ambulances.

Ambulance ramping under the Tasmanian Liberals is a daily feature of the health system. Every ambulance on a ramp with a patient in it and usually two paramedics is an ambulance that is unavailable for emergency call-outs. Ambulance ramping takes highly trained and highly professional paramedics out of action. Ambulance ramping occurs because the Tasmanian Liberal government has for the past four years failed to invest in our public hospitals and our emergency departments. The Tasmanian Liberals would rather keep patients waiting in ambulances than provide the resources that allow them to be admitted so ambulances can get back on the road saving Tasmanians.

In their first year of government, the Tasmanian Liberals cut $210 million from the Tasmanian health budget, and that was on top of the $1.1 billion that the federal coalition cut from our hospitals over 10 years. What did the Liberals think would happen? Beds were shut. Services were cut. Specialists were lost. And, now, after four years of crisis after crisis and in the middle of an election campaign, the Liberals want Tasmanians to believe they'll put back all the money. But the fact is the Tasmanian Liberals cannot be trusted. Many of the beds that the Tasmanian Liberals have announced won't be open until 2023, more than two elections away. That's not an election promise; that's an election con.

A Rebecca White-led Labor government will triage Tasmania's haemorrhaging health system. Rebecca White will invest $560 million in our state's health and hospital system, and that means 500 more health workers. But Rebecca White isn't just looking after the cities. She knows that people in the regions also deserve access to quality health care, and that's why $35 million will be specifically directed at better rural and regional health care, better patient transport to rural and regional areas, better flow of admissions and discharges between major and regional hospitals, and an investment in seven-day community nursing.

Labor will also invest in preventative health and health promotion, which is welcome news to me after the Turnbull government cut funding to preventative health programs throughout regional Tasmania last year, causing great upheaval in many of my communities. And now, in the middle of a state election campaign, the Liberals are talking a big game on health. It's like they've just woken up after four years of cuts and realised that health's a big issue. But Tasmanians can see with their own eyes what the Liberals have done with health for the past four years, both in Tasmania and federally. Under the Liberals the Medicare rebate freeze remains in place, costing Tasmanians more every time they go to the doctor. Health insurance premiums continue to rise, while what can be claimed continues to fall. The cost goes up, and so does the gap.

The Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, isn't worried. He just comes into this place to parrot the lines of his private health insurance masters and cry about how Labor supposedly hates private health insurance. No, Minister, we don't hate private health insurance. We hate that Australians are getting ripped off by expensive premiums that do not provide the cover that Australians expect—as well as ambulance ramping, overcrowded emergency departments, fewer beds, cut services, lost specialists, higher costs to go to the GP and private health insurance that doesn't do the job that's expected. Tasmanians know the Liberals cannot be trusted with health.

In the few seconds left to me I'd like to briefly talk about the economy. What we hear from this government is that these corporate tax cuts are going to be the panacea for everything. Well, what we heard yesterday was that NAB posted, I think, a $6.9 billion half-year profit and 6,000 jobs are going to go—explain that to me.