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Labor will create a new layer of bureaucracy and continue the blame game rather than get on with the job of fixing the fundamentals of Australia’s health system, according to Member for Hinkler Paul Neville.
Mr Neville said the razzamatazz of yesterday’s health policy announcement didn’t hide Labor’s failure to outline any practical plan to reduce hospital waiting lists or improve health care.
“The plan so far is very light on policy detail for purely political reasons,” he said.
“The devil will be in the detail, and it’s the detail we need to be concerned about. Some very serious questions need to be asked, and some very obvious consequences need to be acknowledged.
“Firstly, no State Government wants to see its revenue dry up, and having a third of its GST stripped from it is the greatest excuse the Bligh Government will ever have to gouge more money from people’s pockets through higher state taxes.
“I think the private health sector, and private health insurance holders also have a right to ask what impact this will have on them. Whilst the government is attacking rebates on one hand, they plan to push more people into private hospitals on the other – hypocrisy at a high level.
“There’s also no doubt we’ll see the bloated health bureaucracy blow out even further.
“The Commonwealth will need a new layer of public servants to administer the relationship with the local networks, and after Anna Bligh pledged 100,000 new jobs for Queenslanders at the last election, she’s hardly likely to sack a swathe of her own bureaucrats. After all, the Prime Minister has said the State will have to choose the board or ‘network’ personnel.
“I also fear that under Labor’s plan, smaller regional hospitals like Childers and Gin Gin could be sidelined and have their viability put at risk.
“The Prime Minister was also very light on the structure and authority of his health boards or ‘networks’. If they follow the Goss Government Regional Health Authority format I believe they’ll be disastrous.
“Boards will need to be local, have a sense of community ownership and, like the health boards of earlier eras, have legislated statutory authority - anything short of that will just be window dressing.”
Mr Neville said the Coalition did believe in the Commonwealth having a greater role in primary care, but after Labor’s insulation stuffup, a lingering doubt remained as to whether the Rudd Government was up to the job.
“Trying to run a national health system from Canberra will be a hugely complex process. Do we really want to put our faith in a regime which can’t even effectively manage the installation of pink batts?”
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