Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I hear Senator O’Brien interjecting. What we want is real change in Tasmania on 20 March, because we know the state Labor government has failed dismally when it comes to health and the provision of health services in Tasmania. They made a promise to move the Royal Hobart Hospital onto a working port. They spent millions of dollars on consultants and reports to make that happen and guess what happened? They did a backflip. They changed their mind and wasted all that money. What a shocking waste. I have it here. It says:

After three years of planning costing in excess of $10 million—

of Tasmanian taxpayers’ money—

in May 2009 the State Labor Government again changed its position to redevelop the hospital on the current site but defer completion until 2030 …

Hello? Yes, 2030, in 20-odd years time from now. What a joke that is.

In terms of health services in Tasmania, Tasmanians deserve real change. They deserve better. Let us see what else we can learn from the health situation in Tasmania, knowing it is a very important issue, one of the top issues for Tasmanians as they make their decision on 20 March 2010. They will decide whether they want real change with the Will Hodgman led Liberal government post that special day.

In 1998 the state Labor Party promised to reduce waiting lists, but today there are thousands more Tasmanians on waiting lists. Tasmanians wait much longer than the national average. They promised to do better and they have failed, just like Mr Rudd promised and has not delivered. At the end of May 2009 there were 4,094 Tasmanians who had been waiting longer than the clinically recommended times—more than half of the waiting list. Of the 4,094 overboundary cases, there were 2,847 waiting at the Royal Hobart Hospital, 875 at the Launceston General Hospital in my home town of Launceston, 292 at the North West Regional Hospital in Burnie and 80 at the Mersey. These people were promised better services. They were promised that the waiting list would reduce and they have been let down by the Bartlett Labor government. They should do so much better. Tasmanians, as I say, have an opportunity to decide on 20 March.

It is clinically recommended that patients in categories 1, 2 and 3 be admitted within 30 days, 90 days and 365 days respectively. Waiting longer than clinically recommended for elective surgery, let us face it, often means more pain. That is what has happened, sadly, to the Tasmanians who have had to wait on these lists—they have suffered and endured, in many cases, more pain.

What did Lara Giddings, the Tasmanian Minister for Health, say in budget estimates on 20 June 2009? She said:

We do know people who have been on elective surgery waiting lists become emergencies.

So we know what is going to happen. Once that list stays long—and it will stay long under Labor—people will end up in accident and emergency. That is not what we want for our fellow Australians and fellow Tasmanians.