Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I just get concerned that I think some senators on the other side are afraid of some of the truths and the facts that are being put on the record by me. They will do what they can to try to silence me! I just want to be clear that when it comes to standing up for New South Wales I will not be shushed in this place!

Tony Abbott and the Liberals want to take Australia down the path of a two-tiered higher education system. The Americanisation of our universities will put a degree beyond the reach of many young people in New South Wales. A university degree should depend on hard work and good marks, not your parents' bank balance. A degree should never be a debt sentence for students and their families, who are already struggling to make ends meet. Australia needs an education system that provides an opportunity for every young Australian who wants one.

The tragedy of what we have seen happen in terms of education reform, at both the school level and the higher education level, is that the actions of this government have not met the rhetoric they took to the last federal election. If the people of Australia had been given a frank assessment and frank information about the reality of the horrors that were going to transpire after the election on both higher education reform and school funding, I believe it would have had a large impact on the federal election.

When it comes to the issue of education funding, there is an opportunity for the people of New South Wales to have their say on it this weekend—to actually have their say on the model and what has been proposed by the government, particularly the failure of the New South Wales state government to stand up and fight against the cuts, particularly the cuts to the Gonski reforms, which the government has failed on. There is an opportunity available to New South Wales residents this weekend. I urge them to take that opportunity.

I also wish to speak about the cuts to health we have seen unfold, especially in future funding for our health sector. At the launch of the coalition's health policy, on 22 August 2013, Mr Abbott, the then Leader of the Opposition stated,

… I am giving an absolute commitment here today that the overall levels of health funding will be maintained.

But his budget imposed an $80 billion cut to health and education spending over next decade. Also, in August 2013, Mr Abbott stated, 'We are not shutting any Medicare locals.' But all 61 Medicare Locals will now be scrapped and replaced with new local health networks, which are a pale imitation of what was being provided.

While the Prime Minister has now backed down in the face of massive community opposition, he has, by attempting to introduce a GP tax, also broken his promise that there will be no new taxes. It was a $5 tax, a $20 tax and then a $7 tax. The figure kept changing, but when it settled at the $7 model it was estimated that this would cost Australian families $3.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs—a hit on the most vulnerable Australians.

When we are sitting here in this chamber in Canberra we talk about these things as big principles, but I want to talk about the reality of what some of this means at the local hospital level. I would like to speak briefly about the challenges facing one area of Sydney, and I am picking this area because I think it is a good example. I am referring to the St George region in Sydney's South-East and those who live and work in the suburbs along the Eastern Suburbs train line in places like Rockdale and Kogarah, and also the residents from all across the state of NSW who have cause to call upon the services of St George Hospital.

St George Hospital, located near the shoreline of Botany Bay and close to Sydney Airport, serves the entire state of New South Wales, whether it is the cattleman near Cobar who has fallen from a horse, or kids in Kogarah who have come off their skateboards. The emergency ward at St George Hospital is one of the most overstretched in New South Wales. Under the national benchmark, hospitals are required to treat 81 per cent of emergency patients within four hours of presentation. St George Hospital is well below this target, with 41 per cent waiting more than four hours for treatment. Between July and September 2014, more than 870 patients were still in the emergency department nearly 14 hours after arriving. The South East Sydney Local Health District's Asset Strategic Plan 2012-2017 documented numerous failings at St George Hospital. I quote them here:

The current ICU [Intensive Care Unit] capacity is saturated and land locked. There is 1 bathroom for 15 critical patients and nil for CICU [Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit].

The plan also states that there is a 'high infection control risk' and 'refurbishment for hybrid theatres will not provide adequate space for technology'.

I am very conscious of the time and there is much more I would have liked to have said on this topic. But I do want to say that the people of New South Wales have an opportunity this weekend to stand up and be heard on these issues.

In conclusion, I thank the good Senator from the ACT for hearing me in silence!