Page 2376 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 29 August 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (5.41): Mr Speaker, there can be no greater requirement of an ACT government than providing a quality health system. The government’s disappointing performance in many aspects of this area is one of the most telling indictments on mismanagement by the territory. This year $665 million will be appropriated to the health system, and the health minister proudly told the estimates committee that expenditure will exceed $800 million for the first time.
The minister would have you believe that this means that everything is going well, that spending money has solved all the problems. Sadly, the people of Canberra have only to visit the emergency departments or join the elective surgery waiting lists to know better. Try telling a mother and father who have waited for hours for their child to be seen in emergency that this government has fulfilled its duty to provide a quality and efficient health system. Try telling someone hobbling around uncomfortably waiting for elective surgery as they inch their way painfully to the top of the waiting list that the government deserve congratulations for their spending in health.
These criticisms—I take up Mr Stefaniak’s point—are not a criticism of the people working in the system. The bottom line is that it is an issue of management. These are really dedicated people, but even as recently as last weekend we had one of the kids down there: it is tedious, it is long and it is frustrating. It is less than ideal; in my view, there is massive scope for improvement.
Spending does not equate to improved service. I used these figures last week in a question without notice and I will use them again. According to figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, in 2005-06 patients in the ACT health system waited 61 days for elective surgery; this was up from 45 in 2004-05, with an Australian average for 2005-06 being 32. People wait twice as long in the ACT compared to the national average—twice as long, Mr Speaker. Yet this government does little but offer itself pats on the back. It criticises the previous Liberal government and expects that to carry some weight with people who want service standards improved today. It shrugs off—
Mr Hargreaves: It worked in 2004.
MR MULCAHY: Mr Hargreaves said, “It worked in 2004.” That is the very level of complacency and smugness that I think will send a resounding message in 2008. If Mr Hargreaves believes that the events of 2004 are a reflection of what will happen in 2008, then, even though he is a pretty good reader of the electoral cycle and the electoral process, on this occasion I think he is going to be in for a fright. I look at the letters I get in my office from people—and they are not Liberals; they are just people out there—telling me time and time again that they are frustrated about an experience in health. I just signed a couple more a moment ago. I am not asking people to complain about it. These are people coming of their own volition, all with a different story.
I sent the minister two letters today. One was about a person who said to me at Gungahlin last Saturday that they had a 12-hour wait in emergency. Another one said there was a 14-hour wait while they had a raging infection. I am just giving those to the minister. No doubt her officers will look at them. Maybe they were exceptions; I
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .