Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Polley, you have been involved with me on a committee looking at state government financial management. And even you have to admit that Labor state governments cannot handle money. They are simply incompetent. And that is the Labor way. You appoint your mates to the bureaucracy and increase wages for fat cats in the Public Service down here. Departmental heads under Labor got a $1,400 a week increase from Mr Rudd, who preached constraint to everyone else but handed to his top public servants $1,400 a week. Why couldn’t that go into some more beds for hospitals in Queensland?

Why didn’t Mr Rudd have a look at his own state and the backyard not far from his electorate or Mr Swan’s electorate? In fact, I think that it might be in Mr Swan’s electorate. The Royal Brisbane Hospital is struggling, with people in corridors. It is not the wards that are overcrowded; it is now the corridors that are overcrowded. What is this bill going to do? It is going to throw more and more people into an already overcrowded system.

I report in sadness and in anger that hospitals in smaller communities throughout Queensland are being shut down by the Labor government. The Aramac hospital in central western Queensland was shut down. Aramac is a lovely little town. It is only a small town, but it is very community minded. Their hospital has been closed by the Queensland Labor government because they have not got the money to keep it going. And that is the story right around the nation.

I despair for hospitals and those patients needing them in Queensland. It is a bad situation now. I started my speech talking about the Townsville General Hospital. Before the last state election, Mr Beattie came to Townsville and made a promise. He said: ‘I know there’s overcrowding in the Townsville General Hospital. I’m going to give you an extra 78 beds.’ Everyone thought: ‘Gee, that’s good. We’ll vote for them.’ And so there are three state Labor members of parliament for Townsville at the moment. Do you know what we got after the campaign by the Townsville Bulletin over the last few days? The Queensland government announced that they are going to put in eight beds next year, a lot short of the 78 beds that Mr Beattie promised before the last election.