Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Saturday Tasmanians get a choice between a tired Hodgman Liberal government and the progressive Rebecca White Labor majority government. Rebecca White as leader of the Labor Party in Tasmania has been doing a remarkable job. Every person she meets likes her more and more. One of the big issues getting a lot of prominence in this campaign is health. The Abbott government, when first elected back in 2013, ripped more than a billion dollars over 10 years from Tasmania's health system, then Premier Will Hodgman came in and ripped $210 million from health in his first budget. This has had a devastating impact on the state of Tasmania.

As we heard from the member for Bass earlier, waiting lists have blown out, especially for people waiting to see a specialist in the public health system. People are waiting to see the specialists before they can even get on an elective surgery waitlist. People are waiting 12, 14, 18 months, two years, just to see a specialist in the public health system in Tasmania, because of the shortage. The ambulance ramping is also particularly bad. Some nights there have not been enough ambulances in southern Tasmania. Ambulances have been sitting on the top of Tolmans Hill, trying to cover two areas, waiting to see if anything happens, because the other ambulances are ramped up at the Royal Hobart Hospital. Staff are under strain. Nurses are doing double shifts. Specialists in the hospitals are working as hard as they possibly can to ensure that people have the best possible care, but they're not being supported by the Hodgman government.

Then at the Liberal campaign launch a couple of weeks ago the government said, 'It's alright now; we'll give you a bit more money for health.' Frankly, Tasmanians don't believe them. They've sat on their hands for four years while Tasmanians have suffered, waitlists have grown and ambulances have been ramping—and they suddenly think they can find some more money?

When you have a look at this money they're getting, it's actually smoke and mirrors because they are not going to employ any actual staff to help with the system in the first four years. They're not going to employ more nurses, more doctors. Most of the money in the first few years is actually capital expenditure; its not actually ongoing funding for staff that are desperately needed in the health system in Tasmania.

It's quite different to Labor's plan. Labor actually wants to spend money on doctors and nurses and health professionals to provide care. We've very clearly said we're going to employ 500 health professionals. We're going to open up more hospital beds. And federal Labor has also made a commitment that we will spend $30 million addressing the elective surgery waitlists. So that will provide about 3,000 surgeries, I understand, in Tasmania and will help with the list. It will help get those Tasmanians that are currently waiting for surgery to get it. Labor will also spend money, critically, on getting more specialists into Tasmania so that those people who are waiting to see a specialist to get onto the waitlist can also be seen because we want to make sure that Tasmanians get the same health services that all other Australians get and we want to make sure that we do the very best that we can.

We also know that, when it comes to the health system in Tasmania, that Tasmania's funding for health over the long-term is at risk because of this federal Liberal government and it is at risk due to the Productivity Commission's inquiry into GST distribution. That Productivity Commission interim report is of great concern to Tasmanians because it would mean that, over the forward estimates, Tasmania would lose almost $1 billion; indeed, $168 million in the first year, and that's money that we need for our health and education systems in Tasmania.

We were really concerned when, in early January, the Treasurer slipped out a little note saying that now the Productivity Commission won't report until May. And what that means, of course, is that Tasmanians and South Australians who are going to the polls in March are not going to have the information they need before they make their decisions. They are not going to know how much revenue they will be losing in GST to those states that is critically needed to provide the same services that all Australians rely on—health and education.

When it comes to education, the Hodgman Liberal government, when they first came to office, made every school sack two teachers. Every single school in the state had to sack two teachers. Sadly, a lot of those schools removed other language teachers, they removed specialist music teachers and they removed other teachers that provided literacy support for students. What that has meant is that other teachers in those schools are having to make up for that loss. And then, all of a sudden, you know, you get the government come out again and say, 'Oh, but now that the budget emergency's over, we can provide some money for schools.' As I said on health, people don't believe them and they don't believe them because they know the Liberals cut teachers out of schools. They know that they had to sack their music teacher or their language teacher or their early learning literacy teachers. And we know that the Liberals can't be trusted on this. Federal and state Labor who have consistently said, 'We want to invest in proper, needs-based funding for our schools.' We have said that we will put more money into schools in Tasmania at both the state and federal level.

But importantly, my state colleagues have said that they will abolish school levies. Levies in Tasmania happen to be some of the highest in the country. People are paying $800 to go to their local public school. Not only that, but the state government's education department is actually sending debt collectors to collect the levies. So you have parents at this time of year, as students have returned to school, paying off the uniforms, doing the things that they need to do to get their kids to school and they're getting debt collection notices for school levies, as you would. It's not good enough, and it's only Labor that has a plan to address this. We're saying that public schools should be free, that students should be able to turn up to their local public school and not have to pay a levy to attend the public school. It is a great policy, and I commend Labor leader Rebecca White on doing that. But she's gone even further. Labor is going to provide free bus travel at the state level to the nearest public school for all students from kinder through to Year 12. That will mean that parents can reliably put their children on those public buses—free public buses and free public school—and send their children to the local schools. That is a great outcome for those parents and those students in Tasmania.

We've also seen an issue around biosecurity in Tasmania recently. What we have in Tasmania is a fruit fly incursion. What we saw from the Liberal Hodgman government—again, when they first came to office—were cuts to Biosecurity Tasmania. What we have seen is an increase in tourist numbers in Tasmania because of investments by the previous state and federal Labor governments.

Government Member:

A government member interjecting—

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is true. They have cut officers. Not only that; they haven't increased the biosecurity officers that have been needed to deal with the increase in tourists. They know that people are coming into our state. They are bringing fruit into our state and we now have a fruit fly incursion. This, of course, has affected our primary producers. We invested very heavily in irrigation, around $180 million between state and federal Labor on irrigation schemes in Tasmania, and we are seeing the benefits of those investments. But they are at jeopardy because of the state Liberal government's ineptness when it comes to biosecurity. They are not ready. They don't have enough staff trained. That has become very clear during this outbreak. They are scrambling to deal with this situation.

We've even had the Deputy Premier of Tasmania say that this is a national issue and that it's because of the federal government that the state is in this position. I'm not sure whether it's the federal government's responsibility, the state Liberal government's responsibility or both of the Liberal governments' responsibility, but Tasmanians are very concerned about this biosecurity issue. They're very concerned about our fruit fly status that is stopping some of our exports overseas and is causing people to have to dump their produce. We are having people dump tomatoes and cherries because they're not allowed to remove them from the fruit fly exclusion zone. This is a very serious matter, and it would only have happened under the Liberals' watch, because they are the ones that haven't kept up with the need when it comes to biosecurity. They are blaming the federal government, but clearly neither the federal Liberal government nor the state Liberal government are taking this issue seriously enough. The choice is clear this Saturday: Rebecca White and her talented team or the tired, old Hodgman government.