Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to raise the issue of an MRI licence for Maitland. An MRI scanner is an important piece of equipment in the evaluation of tissue in the body. Back in September 2007 Tony Abbott, the then Minister for Health and Ageing, put out a tender for an MRI licence covering the areas of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. I want to establish right at the beginning that the town of Maitland is a part of the Hunter Valley. To think otherwise would show an ignorance of geography. During the election campaign, a statement was made in a Maitland Mercury article on 31 August by the then Labor candidate Jim Arneman, who said in relation to the MRI machine:

In this area in particular, I’m concerned that we don’t have the license for the MRI scanner in East Matiland, and that’s an issue Frank Terenzini—

the state member—

pursued vigorously in the State campaign.

It’s a federal issue, it comes down to the granting of the license, and that’s something I think there’s a real need for. If it’s good enough for Newcastle it’s good enough for Maitland and I think we’ve got the need for it here.

Those comments were supported by the member for Hunter. Geographically the member for Hunter would have about three-quarters of Maitland’s township, I hold just under a quarter and the remainder is represented by the member for Newcastle. In fact, a press release put out before the election by Nicola Roxon, the then shadow minister for health; Joel Fitzgibbon, the member for Hunter; Sharon Grierson, the member for Newcastle; Jill Hall, the member for Shortland; Labor candidate Jim Arneman; and Greg Combet, the candidate for Charlton, outlined their health policies. They said of the MRI for Maitland:

… Labor supports the provision of Medicare funding for an MRI machine in Maitland.

What did we see after that? We saw the tender recalled and still not issued. That tender recall was to insert the word ‘Maitland’. If Labor had stayed out of the way and allowed that tender process to go through, Maitland would probably have its licence now. But instead they allowed the community to believe there would be a separate and stand-alone licence for Maitland, a licence which Labor have not delivered. There has been a lot of rhetoric and spin about issues coming from the Labor government, which is something we are becoming used to, but there has been absolutely no delivery on their promises. In fact, this was supported by a letter from Jan McLucas on 14 July responding to a representation I made on 28 March. She stated that they hoped to have it completed by mid-September 2008. That is 12 months longer than necessary that people have been without an MRI licence. (Time expired)