25 May 2010 in Speeches
Private Members Motion - HEALTH REFORM, Monday 24 May, 2010
Mr Briggs (Mayo) (9:24 PM) —I understand completely why the member for Dobell would want to get New South Wales Labor out of the health system. I understand why he, as a New South Wales member, would want New South Wales Labor as far away as possible at the next federal election in a few months time because anything the New South Wales Labor Party has touched in recent times does not turn out to be all that good. So I can understand his desperate desire to talk about getting rid of the New South Wales government’s role in the health system.
But, unfortunately, the so-called plan of the Prime Minister does not do that; it does not do much at all. It is a health policy for an election, not for the future, which is just so typical of this Prime Minister. Unfortunately, as much as it pains me to do it, I have to disagree with the three points in the motion of the member for Solomon on health and hospitals. There are only three points in it. I disagree with each of them and it is very rare for me to disagree with the member for Solomon. I cannot congratulate this government for yet another spin job. I cannot acknowledge an investment which does not exist. I cannot accept the third point, which just continues to outline a complete fib that those on the other side have been told to push around by the hollow men up there in the Prime Minister’s office about the so-called record of the Leader of the Opposition, who was a very good minister when he was the Minister for Health and Ageing.
When it comes to this Prime Minister, this is his record on health. He promised to fix hospitals by mid-2009 and he has failed. He promised to take them over and he has not. He promised to deliver 36 GP superclinics—not super GP clinics but GP superclinics—but only three are open. We have just heard about the temporary one in the electorate of Dobell, which is alongside the temporary deficit. He promised to recruit 7,500 hospital nurses, but only 1,000 were recruited in 2008 and just 617 recruited in the last two years. He promised to recruit 1,000 nurses for aged care but only 139 were recruited. He has now dumped the Bringing Nurses Back into the Workforce scheme. He promised to deliver 12 defence health clinics but not one has opened. Finally, he promised to cut elective surgery waiting lists, but they are longer than they have ever been.
You cannot trust Rudd Labor when it comes to health, like you cannot trust them on the economy and you cannot trust them to implement any sort of program. When they cannot implement a pink batts program, how can you trust them with the $100 billion health system?
Mr Craig Thomson interjecting—
Mr Briggs —Don’t worry, Member for Dobell, I will be on health; there is no doubt about that. It is the easiest story to pick apart that you could imagine. So desperate was the Prime Minister to try and have something to take to the election that he had to junk his commitment to give the Auditor-General a role in government advertising at the end of March so that he could have an advertising program on—guess which subject—health. It is an advertising program that no longer has to go through the Auditor-General. It is an advertising program he promised he would never do when he was in opposition.
The Prime Minister, when he was in opposition, said, ‘Why don’t we have a system whereby a ban is placed on publicly funded government advertising unless agreed between the leader of the government and the Leader of the Opposition for three months prior to an election?’ It is now three months before an election and what did we see on the weekend? The most political government advertising we have seen in this place in a generation. It is the most outrageous abuse of government money, and it was all done after they cut the Auditor-General out of the process. The government stood on their high horse before the last election and now just before this election they dump the promise. It is just so typical of this government. You cannot trust what they say before an election because it will all change after the election. Whether it is the greatest moral challenge of our time or an absolute commitment on government advertising, you cannot trust them. You cannot trust them when it comes to health.
You would not put these blokes in charge of the $100 billion health system after you have seen what they did with the memorial school halls program and the pink batts insulation program. They cannot implement a program. You would not trust them with the $100 billion health system because they do not have the ability to implement a program. What they do have is an ability to run an election campaign, and that is all this is about. The health policy is a cover for an election campaign policy. It is one of those things that will be dumped after the election, like ‘the greatest moral challenge of all time’ was dumped after the last election, like the government advertising fraudulent claim was dumped just before this budget so that they could run ad after ad after ad leading to this election.
The SPEAKER —Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.