Budget 09 last chance for Rudd to keep hospitals promise

Next week’s federal budget is Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s last chance to keep his promise to fix regional hospitals, according to NSW Nationals Senator Fiona Nash. “Several NSW regional Labor MPs, including Janelle Saffin (Page), Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro) and Justine Elliot (Richmond), were elected on the back of the Prime Minister’s promise that he would fix local hospitals,” Senator Nash said. Senator Nash said the specific Labor pre-election pledge was: “If State Governments have not improved services by mid 2009, a Rudd Labor Government will seek to take control of all Australia’s 750 public hospitals.” (source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/23/2012915.htm ) “Mr Rudd even boasted: ‘when it comes to health the buck stops with me.’,” Senator Nash said. “In NSW, the Garling Report demonstrated beyond doubt that public hospitals, especially those in regional NSW, are getting much worse not better.” “Access to quality, free public healthcare is the number one concern of families in regional Australia, but instead of fixing the problem, Mr Rudd is just passing the buck back to his State Labor mates – this is the cruelest of his many broken promises,” Senator Nash concluded.

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