Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make my contribution to the debate on rural and regional Australia. To start with, I would like to look at some of the issues raised by Senator Stephens, particularly in her capacity as the Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector. Senator Stephens spent a deal of her presentation talking about things like the Regional Partnerships program and the fact that the government were moving towards a new program.

While that may be the case, my understanding is that those programs are not going to be ready until 2009, and there is significant need for access to these funding programs in regional communities right now. While I understand it takes a government a little time to get its new priorities and its programs up and running, they have been in government for nine months now and it is still going to be 2009 when the programs are available for regional communities. Effectively, we have a 12-month hiatus or more in the availability of funding.

I think we all agree, and Senator Stephens commented, that members of the coalition will be advocating for projects through the process. I do not have a problem with that. That is what a member of parliament is elected for. They are elected to do that. I was disappointed to note during the previous government that I very rarely saw advocacy for projects from members of the then opposition, so coalition members can be congratulated for the fact that they are being quite proactive. They understand their local communities and their electorates and they are out there advocating even though they are not members of the government. They are out there, working for their local communities. That is what they are elected to do, and for Senator Stephens to criticise a member of a local community for doing that does make you wonder.

Senator Stephens made quite a deal of what was in the budget for regional communities. I would like to put on the record some of the things that were in the budget for regional communities—and they do not necessarily make pleasant reading. There is $12 million of Medicare savings over four years taken from a pathology project for remote areas. Particularly given that Senator Stephens is the parliamentary secretary for social inclusion, it is not surprising that she did not mention it. There is also a $6 million reduction over four years in the budget for the National Mental Health Strategy. Having spoken to a lot of people in my state of Tasmania, particularly in rural and regional Tasmania, I can tell you that there is enormous stress, and this kind and caring government has taken $6 million out of the National Mental Health Strategy. It is another thing that this government has done for rural and regional Australia that reinforces the point of the motion that we are debating here this afternoon.

Half a million dollars has been taken from the Support for Day to Day Living in the Community program, so the numbers are starting to get up there. We have $12 million, $6 million, so we are up to $18.5 million—and this is just what has been taken out of the health portfolio in funding for rural and regional Australia. Funding for the Mental Health Services in Rural and Remote Areas program, which is specifically related to this particular motion, has been reduced by $15.5 million over four years. So we are now getting up there in excess of $30 million in funds that have been taken out of rural and regional Australia by this so-called caring and kind government. We go on to reduced funding for the Training for Rural and Remote Procedural GPs program: $30.5 million.

Senator Stephens, who is the Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector, is saying what a wonderful job the government is doing for rural and regional Australia, but over $60 million over four years has been taken out of health programs for rural and regional Australia. Another $2 million has been taken from a COAG program for psychiatry training outside hospitals. Another $3 million has been taken from the Registrars Rural Incentives Payments Scheme. This government has taken an amount approaching $70 million out of health funding for rural and regional programs.

I am not surprised that Senator Stephens concentrated on the Regional Partnerships program. The Regional Partnerships program did, and the government’s replacement program will, when it comes online in 2009, provide very important funding for infrastructure in rural and regional Australia—in excess of $60 million. Particularly cruel is the funding that has been taken out of mental health programs in regional Australia. I am not surprised that Senator Stephens did not give any consideration to those particular programs that I mentioned previously. It really is a crying shame that the government has seen fit to take funding out of those critical programs at a time when we know that it is so tough in the bush.

Look at what is happening in my home state of Tasmania. It is interesting that the shadow minister for health in Tasmania, Brett Whiteley, and his colleague Rene Hidding did a tour of regional hospitals recently. They went to all of the regional hospitals, most of which are in the electorate of Lyons, which is the seat that Mr Hidding represents and the same seat that is represented in the Australian parliament by Mr Dick Adams. Mr Whiteley and Mr Hidding toured the hospitals at Rosebery, Beaconsfield, St Helens, St Marys, Campbell Town and Queenstown and those down the Tasman, and all of those hospitals are really quite concerned about the future of their facilities. We know that Beaconsfield is in a very precarious situation, and we have heard of the unfortunate circumstances that occurred there. But the particular events that have occurred over the last couple of years at Ouse and at Rosebery really have created a significant level of concern amongst those regional communities about the provision of health services in their local communities.

At Ouse District Hospital we had the spectre of an elderly couple who had lived in that community all of their lives moved forcibly by the Tasmanian government to Hobart. They did not want to go and there was not necessarily a reason for them to go—except that the Tasmanian government had decided that it was time to close the facility, against the wishes of that community. The Tasmanian government moved this couple, who had lived in that community their entire lives and who were living in Commonwealth funded nursing places at the Ouse District Hospital, to Hobart. It was one of the saddest things I think I have seen for a long time, because it absolutely devastated these poor people. It was an absolute tragedy that the Tasmanian government did not have the compassion to look after this elderly couple who had lived in that community their entire lives. Now that the couple have passed on, their family are justifiably quite shattered by the approach taken by the Tasmanian government.

But what was Minister Giddings’s response to the tour by Mr Whiteley and Mr Hidding? As I said, Mr Whiteley is the shadow minister for health and so he would obviously have an interest in these regional hospitals. All of the facilities that I mentioned are in the electorate of Lyons and so, as the local member, Mr Hidding would have a legitimate interest in those facilities. In her response on the radio, Minister Giddings was quite indignant that this tour was being undertaken by Mr Hidding and Mr Whiteley and said, ‘Now I am going to have to go and visit those hospitals myself.’ What an inconvenience! Because the local member and the shadow minister for health had been out and consulted directly with hospitals and communities in regional Tasmania, the minister was going to be inconvenienced by having to go and talk to those communities herself. What an absolute disgrace that something like that might be said by a minister of the Tasmanian parliament.

The Tasmanian parliament has a bit of form, I have to say. Many people would not necessarily recognise it, but there are areas in my home state of Tasmania that are in really deep drought at the moment. They are hurting so badly that what is occurring is really quite terrible. We had the spectre of farmers from the Clyde irrigation area here in Canberra over the last couple of days effectively begging the Australian government, particularly Minister Garrett, to give them some water. They know where there is some water. The Tasmanian government supports them having water. They actually thought they had a meeting with Minister Garrett. They had made their forward plans. They had come to Canberra thinking, ‘Here’s our opportunity to put our case directly to Minister Garrett,’ only to be disappointed by a meeting with an adviser.

These farmers, who have made huge investments in the infrastructure in their region, are getting a pretty raw deal. They are being pushed around a bit by Hydro Tasmania. A proposal has been put together by Hydro Tasmania to be submitted to the Australian government. The money is available after a commitment by the government at the time of the election. I congratulate them on that. That is a very positive move, and I will talk more about that later and about what is occurring with some of the water developments in Tasmania.

The proposal that has been put up by Hydro Tasmania provides them with really a pittance in respect of water supply. It is really disappointing. These farmers have been farming in that area for many years. My understanding is that the Clyde system is the oldest irrigation system in the country. It was the very first one built. These guys are effectively out of water and they are a few weeks away from having the Clyde River run dry. I know people on mainland Australia do not necessarily associate Tasmania with those sorts of conditions, but things are pretty tough down there at the moment.

I appeal to Minister Garrett through this process to consider making that allocation of water to these farmers so that they might sustain their businesses. We know there are issues associated with the release of that water but, as I have said, the Tasmanian government is on the record as supporting the release of that water. In fact, it criticised the previous government for not releasing the water when we were in government. There has been no word from the Tasmanian government now that we have the cooperative federalism and they have agreed not to criticise each other for everything.

You, Mr Acting Deputy President Barnett, will understand this, as someone who has travelled extensively around the electorate of Lyons. In the southern Midlands of Tasmania things are particularly dire at the moment. EC has been declared in that region until 31 March. We know the farming community are seeking an extension of that for at least another 12 months. It is going to take them a considerable period of time to come out of drought. There is no question about that. Things are really crook down there at the moment. I will give you an example of what it is like.

My office received a phone call two weeks ago seeking agistment for 45 breeding ewes. These 45 ewes were the last of this farmer’s breeding stock. The farmer had no money to pay for agistment or for transport. He was desperate to save these last 45 sheep. This situation exists in the southern Midlands of Tasmania. Fortunately, I was able to make a few phone calls to people I knew in the region and the next day we had found a place for those 45 sheep. That is the sort of thing that is going on in the Tasmanian community at the moment. The Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association has an agistment program, which is slowly starting to wind up, and the Lions Club of Westbury is seeking hay and feed to send to farmers in this region. Just this week I had a phone call from the north-west coast of Tasmania offering 45 large bales of hay to send to that region. So there is a general feeling of support through the farming community, and that message is starting to get out.

About four weeks ago, at about the same time we received the call for assistance for those 45 sheep, we had snowfall through the central highlands of the southern Midlands of Tasmania. The temperature dropped to the extent that one farmer found 60 of his breeding merinos dead when he went out the next morning. It was not because they had been shorn but because their condition was so low because of a lack of feed. They just could not handle the conditions. That demonstrates the situation in southern Tasmania at the moment.

The Tasmanian Premier took his community cabinet to Oatlands, which is in this region. He made a big deal of the event. He rolled into town with all the big, shiny cars, took over the council chambers and assembled his cabinet. At the end of the occasion he announced $145,000 to fund the Rural Alive and Well program. This program, which I understand is operating in Western Australia, has been picked up by a fantastic chap in the southern Midlands to prevent suicide in what is really a tough area. It is so tough that not only are the farmers struggling but the leaders in the community are struggling. Those who would normally support the community when times are hard are doing it tough.

One community leader who has worked to get the Rural Alive and Well program up and running heard this announcement on Sunday, 10 August—and it was supported by a press release by the Premier that came out on Monday, 11 August, which announced a $145,000 grant for the Rural Alive and Well program. This gentleman raced down to the council chambers and said, ‘Isn’t it fantastic that we have another $145,000 for our Rural Alive and Well program?’ The general manager had to tell him, ‘Sorry, it is the same $145,000 that was announced back in April and that we have already started spending.’ I cannot think of a more callous thing for a Premier of a state to do to a community that is doing it so hard than to reannounce funding.

Last week, in conjunction with the CWA, we called for some additional funding to assist rural families in those communities. I give the Tasmanian government credit for the fact that they came up with an extra $40,000, but that will last one month. Through that process and through that time I have not seen or heard one sound from a federal Labor member from Tasmania. The local member, Dick Adams, has not been seen or heard and none of the other Tasmanian senators has been seen or heard. It is an absolute disgrace that they are not actively out there working to support the farmers who, quite clearly from the words I have put on the record today, are doing it so tough. In conclusion, I urge farmers to contact Centrelink and not to self-assess. I think that is a very important part of this process. (Time expired)