Page 1610 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 12 May 2015
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
here, and that I want to really home in on today, is this: when we see that sort of uncertainty, it is the preventative health funding that is the first to suffer in that kind of environment.
That sort of uncertainty means that projects about which people think, “Well, they would be beneficial in the long run but we have got this immediate pressure,” are the things that go first. That is why I want to talk about that bigger picture today as well. What I am concerned about is not only the direct impact which Mr Corbell spoke about in his opening remarks and which he set out very clearly in the motion here today but the way that then ripples through the rest of the health system and becomes, I guess, a self-fulfilling cycle. Perhaps “self-fulfilling” is not the word; it becomes a cycle that simply builds upon itself because that preventative funding is not there.
Health can be undermined by this sort of uncertainty and the kinds of pressures we then see through the hospital system, which Mr Corbell’s motion particularly speaks to, simply become further amplified. I will be supporting Mr Corbell’s motion today. I think it is essential that the commonwealth play its part in funding the health system, that it actually retain a level of certainty so that state and territory governments can continue to plan and take the lead in the way that they have to roll out these health system funding processes.
As I say, I will be supporting Mr Corbell’s motion today. I will come to all Mr Hanson’s comments when we actually get to that motion tomorrow. I will make some comments on that then.
Motion agreed to.
Sitting suspended from 12.19 to 2.30 pm.
Questions without notice
Minister for Education and Training
MR HANSON: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, I refer to the vote of no confidence in the minister for education by members of the Australian Education Union. The Canberra Times reports today:
… the 140 counsellors from 86 public schools and the Canberra Institute of Technology expressed deeper reservations about the minister’s competence and voted not to continue negotiating their agreement with her.
The Canberra Times continues:
Glenn Fowler, secretary of the Australian Education Union, which represents more than 3500 teachers, wrote to Mr Barr on Monday, calling on him to remove Ms Burch after two-and-a-half years of “confusion, inaction and poor communication”.
He is reported as describing “a record depreciation in staff morale, as educators continually question the competence of the minister in administering her portfolio” and saying:
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video