Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Right now in Tasmania, our hospitals are filled with workers who show up every day for their communities, but they alone can't keep the system running when the funding simply doesn't add up. The federal government is offering an extra $20 billion in funding over five years. On the surface, that sounds impressive, but it falls billions short of the promise they made to our states to lift their contribution to 42.5 per cent of public hospital costs by 2030. This new offer won't even get us close. It's more like 35 per cent. For Tasmania, that shortfall isn't just a number on a spreadsheet; it's a crisis waiting to happen. We have an ageing population in rural and regional communities that rely on already stretched services. To cope, hospitals are putting in vacancy controls and tightening every belt they can find, and that means quality of care is slipping. That's not because our workers don't care, but because we're asking too much of them. Let's be clear: the point of federal funding should be to make sure money is never pitted against health. Yet here we are again—promises made, promises broken.

It's not just Tassie; every state is feeling the strain. Under this new deal, Tassie is more than $670 million worse off. That's 1.2 million emergency visits potentially unfunded or 128,000 elective surgeries that just won't happen. Behind each of those numbers is a Tasmanian, a person waiting, a family wondering, a nurse working a double shift because there's no-one else. We need the federal government to step up and honour its word. Tasmanians do deserve better, and Australians do deserve better. Our health system can't afford another broken promise.