Page 1961 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2011
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arboretum, on par with artwork or on par with the new $432 million death star that is being built in Civic. If they cannot find $11 million for a promise to build a mental health facility, when at the same time they are spending $432 million on an office block, it makes it very difficult for the minister to stand up and say that she has a commitment to the mental health community.
In fact the Mental Health Community Coalition has stated that little has been provided in this budget for preventative and early intervention in mental health. And it is a kick in the guts to the mental health community. Look at the priorities for this government. Look at the priorities, as I have talked about, for the massive new building and the arboretum.
Then we heard the question asked at the budget breakfast by the father whose young daughter had been in emergency and had to wait 24 hours in pain: “Why do I have to wait so long?” When the Chief Minister was asked that question about priorities, the Chief Minister’s response was that this was tiresome and this was tawdry. I think that is absolutely outrageous and probably shows why our health system is heading in such a bad direction. If that is the attitude of this government, that when people complain about the service they are provided at the emergency department, which has their daughter in pain, waiting for a surgery for 24 hours, it is tiresome and it is tawdry, that is an outrage.
Primary health and preventative health are also big losers in the budget. This government keeps talking about the need for big initiatives in that area and talking about turning from just a focus on acute—“We have got to turn it around and focus on preventative health and focus on early intervention”—but I see very little in this budget that will turn that around. In fact, if you look at the budget in detail, and no doubt we will go through this in estimates, there are a number of programs that have not actually been delivered that were provided in previous budgets. Not only are they not providing anything of substance in this budget, they cannot even deliver on what they have provided previously.
Katy Gallagher has again failed to deliver on health structure, this time $63 million, up from the $50 million last year and the $57 million the year before. Zed Seselja listed some of the projects—and there is quite a list—that have been delayed. They include the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, which has also blown out in this budget. And this is the minister that is telling us she is now going to invest $800 million of taxpayers’ money in new hospital infrastructure. This is the minister that has spent 2½ years to try to actually make the decision. God knows how long it is going to take to actually build the facility that it took 2½ years to come to the decision on.
You know it was a bad one. You know she took on a fight, just like Simon Corbell did, with Calvary and lost. He tried basically a hostile takeover and lost. Katy Gallagher tried to buy them out and that did not work. Then she tried a whole bunch of different options. They did not work. All she has done is alienate large sections of the community and breach the trust of the Little Company of Mary Health Care and people like the Palliative Care Society and so on.
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