SPEECH: Health Services and Road Infrastructure

Senator NASH (New South Wales) (3.45 p.m.)—I rise today to address the very important matter of public importance—the failure of the Rudd Labor government to ensure the adequate provision of health services and road infrastructure for regional communities. More than seven million Australians live outside our capital cities and major metropolitan areas, and they are suffering at the hands of a dithering Rudd Labor government. They are suffering because of the continuing failure of health services in regional communities and they are suffering because of a lack of decent road infrastructure. That same Labor Party talked very tough when they were in opposition about getting things done on a whole range of issues if they formed government. They talked about it constantly during the campaign running up to the election. They talked about working together with the state Labor governments. Over and over, we continually heard about how well they, federal Labor, would be working with the state Labor governments. But what have we seen to date? Nada—absolutely nothing. I am indebted to my colleague Senator Ronaldson for his very insightful media release of last week entitled ‘Kevin 07 and Kevin 08—a tale of two Rudds.’ Australians heard Kevin Rudd say in the lead-up to last year’s federal election that he would ‘end the blame game’, that he would deliver ‘fresh ideas’ and that—everyone would remember this one—‘The buck stops with me.’ In the nine months before the election Mr Rudd said he would ‘end the blame game’ 146 times. But, surprisingly, since the election, what have we heard? We have heard him use that phrase a mere 36 times. When he said he would end the blame game, he was talking about being able to work with state Labor governments. He has used that phrase only 36 times since the election. ‘Fresh ideas’ he said 87 times leading up to the election. Guess what? He has used that phrase only seven times since the election. I am sure my colleagues will support me in saying that the phrase ‘the buck stops with me’ was heard 31 times before the election. How many times has the Prime Minister used that phrase since? Just once. The Prime Minister that we now have said in the run-up to the election, ‘The buck stops with me’, and that he would be taking responsibility for things like hospitals and roads in the bush, but we have seen absolutely nothing. Senator Sterle—He’s busy implementing his new ideas. Senator NASH—How many times has the Prime Minister said that he can work with the state Labor governments? It has been over and over and over again. We are still waiting. When is the work going to begin? We are watching Mr Rudd, and the federal Labor government is apparently watching pretty much everything. We have Fuelwatch, watching petrol prices; ‘grocery watch’, looking at household items—and we know what a disaster that has been—‘school watch’, which was in last week’s education funding announcement; ‘sports watch’, which was in last week’s sporting structure reform announcement; ‘Asia watch’, the Asia-Pacific union announcement earlier this year; ‘nuke watch’, keeping an eye on the nuclear disarmament group; and, of course, ‘state watch’ or COAG. These are good examples of Labor being all talk and no action. What are the Prime Minister and his government actually doing to ensure the adequate provision of health services and road infrastructure for regional communities? Absolutely nothing. After all those promises we heard running up to the election, we have nothing. Maybe we will end up with ‘bush watch’. Speaking of watches, I think if the Prime Minister was a watch he would be a fake Rolex—lacking in detail, lacking in quality and lacking in craftsmanship. It is a cheap substitute for the real thing. From a distance, it does look like the real thing, but it is not. In my state of New South Wales we are witnessing a health system in crisis. Across the state rarely a day will pass without reference to a health system crisis in the inadequate standard of care, staffing shortfalls, lack of bed availability, long hospital waiting times, non-availability of specialist services and complete lack of adequate infrastructure. If you are looking for examples of a crisis, you need look no further than the transcripts from the 34 public hearings, which were held between February and May this year, and conducted as part of the special commission of inquiry into acute care services in New South Wales public hospitals. And the state of roads across New South Wales is no better. There are serious delays to projects getting underway and, even worse, they are finishing well beyond planned completion dates and there are huge budget blowouts due to gross mismanagement by New South Wales Labor. It is interesting to look at specific communities. I would like to have a look today at Port Macquarie as an example of federal Labor’s inability to deliver health and road infrastructure in the region. Keep in mind that before the election Mr Rudd was constantly talking about working with the state Labor governments and ending the blame game. The hospital situation in Port Macquarie is in crisis. The Port Macquarie Base Hospital was built to handle around 12,000 to 14,000 presentations. By the end of the last financial year there had been an astonishing 31,000-plus presentations at the emergency department alone. We have had problems with elective surgery and cancellations. A local doctor said that almost 60 per cent of the 981 cancellations in the past financial year could have been avoided by increasing the hospital’s capacity. We can see that the base hospital is operating at more than double its capacity. The people of Port Macquarie were, until recently, represented in the New South Wales state parliament by the Independent state member, Mr Robert Oakeshott. In 2003, Mr Oakeshott committed to: Making certain that appropriate levels of funding are provided to Port Macquarie Base Hospital, so that local residents can make full use of the excellent medical services available. This will include advocating for additional funds to reduce the inequitably high waiting list at Port Macquarie Base Hospital. He also promised a fourth wing to increase the capacity of the hospital. On these, Mr Oakeshott has failed to deliver time after time. Why? Because, like Labor, the Independent state member for Port Macquarie talked tough but failed to deliver because he had no influence on the state Labor government. The federal Labor government cannot work with the state to produce any decent health outcomes and it is failing the people of those regions. Interestingly, we are seeing, in the roads situation up there, enormous problems for people in the region. There have been huge blowouts over the last 10 years and gross mismanagement from an incompetent Labor government—the Labor government that Mr Oakeshott says he works so cooperatively with and, interestingly, was recently in the paper photographed with Mr Albanese talking about roads. So the roads to Port Macquarie have been paved with disaster. For the Independent previous member—state member—to say that he has delivered for the community in Port Macquarie is absolutely false. We can see that he continually said how closely he worked with Labor and how much he would deliver for the regions. Well, there has been absolutely nothing. Federal Labor has had absolutely no ability to address the funding for health and roads that is needed in the area. We have a situation where the previous Independent state member is saying how much he could deliver for the region. It is an absolute falsehood because we only have to look at the state of the hospitals and the state of the roads to see that all of those promises that the Prime Minister put forward before the election campaign have not been delivered on. He said, ‘We will fix the hospitals’. He has not been able to do it and he has not been able to work with the state Labor government to do it. The previous Independent state member had no ability to do it either. He claimed he could work cooperatively with Labor but he could not deliver anything. Quite frankly, he will not be able to deliver anything for the region while working with a federal Labor government. He has got form, he has not been able to deliver anything with the state Labor government and he certainly will not be able to deliver anything with the federal Labor government. It is an absolutely appalling state of affairs for this Prime Minister to have promised to fix hospitals and roads in our regional communities. He has completely failed, the state Labor government have failed with them and the regional communities across this country deserve better.

Source: Senate Hansard - Matters of Public Importance