Michael Ferguson (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

With all of the theatrics of parliament this week there is one thing which I have been working on and have been raising in this place now for many months that I want to raise again here tonight—that is, the state of our health system in Tasmania and specifically, insofar as it concerns my constituents, the Launceston General Hospital. I speak tonight, as I have done so often, to an almost empty chamber. I look with disgust on those opposite who remain silent, who say nothing and who will never take the opportunity to exert any influence on their state Labor mates to overcome the enormous difficulties which are presenting huge challenges to families and individuals in my electorate of Bass. Today the Examiner newspaper took the unusual but quite justified step of opening by saying:

The State Government has lost control of the Tasmanian public health system and it only has itself to blame.

This issue is so deep and so complex it cannot possibly be canvassed in the few minutes available to me. But I will say that the state Labor government has every opportunity to address the challenges. I admit these are significant and difficult but the government has every opportunity to do so. It ought to implement reforms that make our health system more efficient and more cost effective. Why is it that the only reforms that this government is prepared to countenance are reforms at the clinical end? Why is it that Minister Lara Giddings refuses to reform her own department, her own bureaucracy? Why is it that the Premier of Tasmania—his government, the cabinet—refuses to reform his own budget and to give priority to what is the No. 1 concern for people in Northern Tasmania?

There are problems throughout every health system in this country and that is to be expected. But in Tasmania the significant problems that we are facing today can be addressed if hospitals are properly funded. The Launceston General Hospital is being deliberately underfunded. The hospital is not over budget; it has been deliberately underfunded. The only explanation for this is that the Tasmanian government wish to downgrade the Launceston General Hospital by starving it. By cascading debt year by year the LGH will be forced to make decisions about cutting clinical care for my constituents and families in the electorate of Bass. The people of Northern Tasmania are not stupid; they gathered in numbers of 5,000 or 6,000 just two weeks ago to demand that this Labor state government properly fund the hospital. We know they have the money. But they will not do it.

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