Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I could not see that plan. I tried very hard to see it. The shadow minister gave us a rendition of carping and sniping at the minister. That was followed by a theatrical performance by the member for Denison—a very good one, I might add. I have great respect for my colleague from the Hunter and I think that she is a quite genuine participant. But this is me. I come from Bundaberg. Ding, ding: does that ring a bell? Queensland Health; Dr Patel. Remember that? I have been through that for two years, and that was solely under the control of the ALP government of Queensland—every last bit of it.

The person who blew the whistle on Dr Patel was not someone in the government of Queensland; it was my National Party colleague Rob Messenger, the member for Burnett. He was vilified by the minister at the time, Minister Nuttall, and then, after about three days, when the sick and maimed patients came out of the woodwork, everyone was ducking for cover. Crossing the floor in a division in the house, Nuttall said to Messenger: ‘You’ve ruined the life of a brilliant surgeon.’ This is a health minister, for God’s sake. Then he came to Bundaberg, lined up the senior nurses and said: ‘You’re a mob of racists. You will not talk to Messenger or the Bundaberg News Mail’—our local paper—‘and there’ll be no inquiry.’ Famous last words!

It is interesting that the member for Gellibrand, who raised all these things today, came to Bundaberg a few weeks ago and insulted the people of Bundaberg by standing outside the Bundaberg Base Hospital—the site of Labor’s greatest betrayal of any community in Australia, to say nothing of the betrayal of the staff who lived under psychological and physical pressure the whole time. It was the subject of two royal commissions.

Let me look at the record of the Leader of the Opposition, when he was at Wayne Goss’s side in the Premier’s office. During that time, they sacked all the hospital boards and created huge bureaucracies in a structure that is in part to blame for the ‘Doctor Death’ fiasco. They closed 2,200 beds, sacked local ambulance boards, closed maternity services, allowed elective surgery waiting lists to blow out to extraordinary levels, abolished the role of the chief nursing officer—you must not have anyone sticking up for the nurses—closed three operating theatres at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and Royal Brisbane Hospital and had dental waiting lists blow out to four years—some record! And you seriously think that the people of Australia want that to happen under a federal Labor government? If that is the role of a state Labor government, what would you expect from a federal Labor government?

The Leader of the Opposition, in his manifesto, says that he will spend $2 billion on the hospitals and, after that, if they do not come up to scratch, he will take them over. But look at $2 billion spread over two years. Queensland’s share would be about $90 million a year. Mr Beattie promised $41 million to the Bundaberg hospital to get it back up to scratch again and that that would be delivered by early 2008. We are nearly at 2008 and he has spent $2½ million of $41 million. So, even if we went ahead with Labor’s plan of $2 billion, the Bundaberg Base Hospital alone would take half of one year’s allocation for Queensland—one hospital alone.

Tell me the logic of this: how is it that it is wrong for the coalition government to take over the Mersey hospital, but the Leader of the Opposition says, in unequivocal terms: ‘If I don’t get my way with the states and they don’t toe the line, I’ll take over all the hospitals.’ Pray tell: where is the difference? Look at the figures for bulk-billing, look at the figures for private health insurance, look at the figures that we have invested in health and you will find that there has been very little opposition criticism of that because it has been very good. We will continue to run health well in Australia, and we obviously do not need the sort of nonsense that we heard today in a theatrical performance and a carping whinge.

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