Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in consideration of the committee report of the Select Committee on Health, Hospital funding cuts: the perfect storm – The demolition of Federal-State health relations 2014-2016 final report. It brings me to the issues that we experienced during the federal election in my home state of Tasmania, particularly around the Launceston General Hospital and the Royal Hobart Hospital rebuild. We know that the Liberals went to the last election promising that there would be no cuts. Then they inflicted a billion dollars of savage cuts to Tasmanian hospitals—to the Launceston General Hospital, to the Royal Hobart Hospital and to the Mersey hospital. Since these cuts, there has been crisis after crisis at the Launceston General Hospital, lengthy delays to the ongoing development of the Royal Hobart Hospital and, during a two-week period in June, nine of the 11 specialist doctors from the hospital's emergency department resigned, retired or reduced their hours. The reason for these walkouts was aired in the media with staff saying they had lost faith in their ability to care for patients. A shortage of beds has led to people not only being admitted into hospital through the emergency department but for the first time in so long—longer than I can remember—there was a gentlemen in his 70s left for days in the emergency department at the Launceston General Hospital. We know that there was a woman down at the Royal Hobart Hospital who was left lying on the floor.

We know that the nursing staff have reported very dangerous working conditions due to the lack of resources. The community of Tasmania—and I know across the country in fact—has said enough is enough. Why has our only public hospital, the Launceston General Hospital, been forced into an untenable position whereby there have been walkouts, people walking off the job and people so stressed because they have not been able to deliver the services that they believe are essential to their local community?

What did we see during the federal election? We had the former member for Bass, Mr Nikolic, responding to the concerns of the people in his community by saying that this was a state issue—that is all he could come up with. The Tasmanian community will not stand by. They have demonstrated resoundingly at the last federal election that they will not stand by and allow governments to cut, cut and cut their health services. They will not allow a government to get away with threatening to derail and destabilise Medicare, our great public health system in this country—or the one that we have had and we aspire to have the best in the world.

We know that even the Liberals are going off against very conservative people by trying to blame a legislative councillor in the north of the state for holding a press conference in relation to the crisis at the hospital. It is pretty serious when you have the AMA, GPs and pathologists all campaigning against you at a federal election. They are not natural supporters of the Labor Party; they are not a group of people you would expect to go out campaigning against a Liberal federal government.

But the local member, the former local member, failed to protect the Launceston General Hospital from these cuts. He failed his community. Because he did not listen to his community, they voted him out. There is no-one else to blame for his demise but himself and his government's policies that he espoused on a daily basis.

As I said in a speech earlier this week, we know that his mantra was: 'Jobs and growth. Jobs and growth. Jobs and growth.' I tell you across the rest of Tasmania people were saying: 'No more cuts. No more cuts to education. No more cuts to our health system, and we will never allow you to undermine Medicare.' That was the outcome.

Quite clearly, we know that the former member failed to not only listen to but engage people within his community so he paid the highest price: they voted him out. But, earlier this week in a speech, I spoke about the three amigos, the three arrogant and out-of-touch House of Representatives members from Tasmania—now former members—the members for Bass, Lyons and Braddon. I said to them that I had brought a message from the Tasmanian community and that was: adios amigos. But I can see that, instead of taking my very sound advice, Mr Nikolic has not ridden out of town, because he has given me the great honour of a story that appeared in our local great newspaper, The Examiner, online. I quote from his Facebook page, which said:

Disappointing to see Labor Senator Helen Polley still celebrating her involvement in nasty, false and personal politics.

Quite clearly, Mr Nikolic, you still have not learnt from your firsthand experience of being defeated in the election, because you failed your constituency. There was nothing at all that I shared with the community that was nasty. There was certainly nothing that was false. There was certainly nothing from me that was a personal attack on him. What I did do was remind the community, which is my responsibility, of all the things he voted for when he was the member for Bass. I highlighted the fact that he failed to stand up for our health system. He failed to provide the funding that we need for education; in fact, they cut money.

Mr Nikolic also failed older Tasmanians, because it was his government that over the last three years gutted aged care. They used it as an ATM to take $3 billion away from older Australians. I do not think that is a record that he should be proud of and I do not think he should be offended because I reminded the community of his failings as a member. I never made a personal attack on him whatsoever—none whatsoever—but I did my job as a senator for Tasmania: I went out and campaigned to ensure that they had the best representation possible. It is fantastic to finally have Labor members, once again, like Ross Hart, the new member for Bass, along with his colleagues Justine Keay and Brian Mitchell, who will be good listeners for their communities. They will stand up and fight for their communities, and they certainly will not turn their backs on the people who elected them.

I say again that this government have an opportunity. They were re-elected, but with that comes enormous responsibility. The responsibility that they have, as every federal government has always had and always should, is to look after those people who are most vulnerable in our communities. We had a speech from a new government senator from Tasmania, who I thought made some fantastic comments. He is a proud Tasmanian, as am I, and I suggest that those opposite and the leadership of the government should sit down and talk with him, because he has some good ideas, and I believe he will be a strong voice for his constituency.

When it comes to things such as aged-care policy, we need to have a bipartisan approach because we have a responsibility as elected senators and as members of the opposition and the government, as I said, to look after those who are most vulnerable in our communities. And I am sad to say that the 44th Parliament, under the leadership of Mr Abbott and Mr Turnbull, failed miserably. (Time expired)

I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also wish to speak on this motion about the select committee report on supposed hospital funding cuts. I note in commencing that Senator Polley said she never personally attacked Mr Nikolic when he was in this parliament. It seems to me that she has waited until he was not in the parliament and could not speak for himself in this place to launch a pretty vicious personal attack on a great Australian who, both in parliament and his life previously in our defence forces, has made a magnificent contribution to Australia—a much more significant contribution, I might say with respect, than Senator Polley ever has or will.

Senator Polley's discussion on this health report draws to my attention the whole question of hospital funding. I commence my remarks by congratulating all of those who work in our hospitals, both public and private—the nursing staff, the support staff, the medical staff. They do a wonderful job for all Australians and it means, of course, that Australia has one of the best, if not the best, health systems anywhere on this planet. So congratulations go to all of those involved.

My congratulations also go to Sussan Ley, the Minister for Health, who has done a wonderful job in the time that she has been the health minister, and has continued funding not only to hospitals but all aspects of the health budget. I particularly note the work that Ms Ley has done in bringing on to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme some very expensive drugs that have now been made available to ordinary members of society. I mention in passing just one of them: the drug related to fixing hepatitis C. So congratulations to the coalition government and the minister on the work she has been doing there, and also on the work she has been doing generally with hospitals.

Senator Polley's reference to Medicare alerts me yet again, with much sadness, to what is the most disgraceful episode that I have ever seen in my long life in any campaign. This was perpetrated by the unions, who control the Labor Party, with the Labor Party and with that outrageously fraudulent group called GetUp!, which is just a front for the Greens political party. I do not know what happened elsewhere, although I suspect this disgracefully dishonest campaign was conducted by the unions and the Labor Party and the Greens right throughout Australia, but I know it certainly happened in north Queensland.

In the two pre-poll booths in Townsville there were long queues waiting to get a pre-poll, and southern unionists—not locals, I might say, but people imported by the Labor Party and the unions, from the south somewhere—were there bullying people in the queue with dishonest comments like, 'the Liberals will get rid of Medicare' and 'the Liberals are going to sell Medicare'. I mean, who would want to buy Medicare, for a start? It was a disgracefully dishonest campaign.

Further to that, the unions—and I suspect, the Labor Party—had printed cards that looked exactly the same as the Medicare card all of us have when we go to a doctor or a hospital. But these were fraudulent cards with a message on them that said the coalition government was going to sell Medicare, to get rid of Medicare. It was completely dishonest and fraudulent. This was followed up by those robocalls—unauthorised, I must say, but I do not think anyone would challenge me in saying they were paid for by the unions or the Labor Party—with voices coming across in the blackout period in the last couple of days before the election, saying, 'this is a message from your local Medicare office; the coalition government is going to get rid of Medicare', or words to that effect. This was a disgracefully lying campaign that is the lowest point that I ever seen in the long years that I have been involved in campaigns in Australia.

This campaign by the Labor Party and the unions actually scared a lot of people. Those unionists who were bullying people along the queue waiting for a vote at the pre-poll picked their mark. They would go to older people—

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Polley on a point of order.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sure that under standing orders, as the good senator would know, you should not be misleading the Senate. If you have something that you want to talk about on bullying at polling booths, then perhaps you should talk to your former member who was grabbing leaflets out of people's hands.

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Polley, resume your seat. As you well know, that is a debating point. Senator Macdonald, please continue.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I always say with those ridiculous points of order, the Labor Party will try that bullying on me. I can tell you, Senator Polley, it does not work on me. In fact, you had a couple of your union hacks on these polling booths and as they were standing there, lying to people and saying, 'the coalition will sell Medicare,' I went and stood next to them. As they would say that, I would say: 'Please ignore this. That is a complete lie.' The unionists on a couple of occasions then turned round and said to me, 'You're bullying me. You're in my space.' Me bully them! They were about five times my size! But I just told the voters who had been told a lie by these union thugs what the truth was. The unionists said, 'You're in my space.' I said, 'If you don't like it, move somewhere else or go back to Sydney, Brisbane or Hobart, from whence you obviously came.' This was the low point: trying to confuse and frighten vulnerable people into casting a vote on the basis of the most outrageous lie I have ever head in my long time in politics.

Senator Polley interjecting—

For Senator Polley to continue the mistruths about funding by the coalition government for hospitals and health care right around Australia is equally as demeaning.

The GetUp! people are just a front for the Greens political party and the left wing of the Labor Party, and they even acknowledge that themselves now. We have always known GetUp! were a fraud, but they are confirming that themselves now. They were in the electorate of Dawson, which is in the southern part of Townsville, going down through my home town of Ayr and into Mackay. Five or six of them were there trying to run this campaign; they were not very good, I might say, but they were there in numbers. They had this big banner up saying, 'The coalition is going to sell the Mackay hospital'. Now they could not work out that although it was still in the electorate of Dawson, they had these signs about the Mackay hospital talking about a city 400 or 500 kilometres south of Townsville. Quite frankly, Townsville people were really not convinced on the way they voted because someone was talking about a hospital 400 or 500 kilometres away! But that was the standard of the sort of person that GetUp! were paying or had convinced to go and try and get rid of Mr Christensen in the electorate of Dawson. Mr Christensen increased his vote in spite of a most vicious campaign against him by the unions and GetUp!—they both set upon him. So perhaps the Labor Party will learn in the future that they should look at their resources more.

On that, I might add that the CFMEU and the MUA, I was told, sent up workers to hand out how-to-vote cards for the Glenn Lazarus Team. Remember Senator Lazarus, who was here for a short period of time? Undistinguished time, I might say. He had all these unionists up there handing out his how-to-vote cards. I think he got about one per cent of the vote. Again, I understand there are repercussions within the Labor Party for the MUA and the CFMEU putting resources into Mr Lazarus's campaign rather than the Labor one—although, of course, Lazarus's preferences all went directly to the Labor Party, as you would expect if you had seen the way then Senator Lazarus voted in this chamber.

So while this report is a majority report, you can understand where it is coming from. I think the minority report is by far the better indication of what happened in that committee.