Page 2124 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 May 2009
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The government have articulated the need for wage constraint. They have not identified where that is coming from, but I would counsel the Treasurer and health minister that, if she looks for these wage constraints, she should be very mindful of any impact on our health professionals or nurses, who are already a workforce under great pressure. She needs to be mindful of the impact that will have on our ability to recruit and retain health professionals into the future.
There are initiatives included in the budget targeted at workforce development—indeed, in the area of GPs. I certainly welcome that, but I would emphasise that this is something that we have been crying out for for some time. It is very much coming late in the day, and only after immense pressure from the opposition, with the support of the crossbench, to establish inquiries in this place that have embarrassed the government into now finally responding to the fact that we have the lowest number of GPs per capita in Australia.
There are also initiatives in the budget across chronic disease, health prevention and mental health. The amounts in there are only starting to catch up on the failures of this government over the last seven years to deliver in such critical areas of need. There is still much more that needs to be done.
The $90 million earmarked for e-health is an important area, and I recognise that, but again it is simply in response to national initiatives and in recognition of this government’s utter failure to provide the technological advancements that we have needed in health for some time.
On the whole, when you put these elements together in the health budget, it clearly is not delivering now. And there is nothing in this budget that provides us with any confidence that it is going to resolve many of the issues that we face now and into the future—or, indeed, as we push up against the increase in demand, that we will not go backwards in many of the key areas that I have already addressed.
I turn now to police. There are not many announcements in this budget in the area of policing. CCTV cameras are one area, but it certainly does not replace the need for experienced police on the beat, on the ground, in the community. There are very few initiatives to support that. There is an announcement that we have spent on the re-opening of the 24-hour Gungahlin police station, but noting that this government actually closed that—silently, quietly, in the dead of night—and then re-opened it with great fanfare and has put that in the budget.
Throughout the election campaign, the government proclaimed a new era of community consultation with the establishment of suburban policing consultative committees. I cannot see them in the budget. They are either hidden there because the government are embarrassed by it or it is another election promise that they have clearly stepped away from. I hope that that is the case; this was a flawed strategy. But what they do have is money towards Neighbourhood Watch—which we have been pushing for, encouraging the government to do. We are glad that they have followed our lead in this regard.
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