Mr MITCHELL - 1998-11-25
In Labor’s handout, 10 good reasons, they claim Territorians will be forced to join private health funds and that jobs will be slashed if government implements private management in our hospitals. Can the minister tell us if this will be the case?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the 10 good reasonsto keep Territory hospitals in our hands, I understand, has been circulated to all Territorians. It must be a fairly expensive exercise involving taxpayers money, for starters. I tabled the document yesterday. I’ll outline 10 things this document demonstrates.
It demonstrates why Labor is out of touch, why Labor does not want better health services for Territorians, why Labor doesn’t want new hospitals in the Northern Territory, why Labor does not even understand the proposal that we have put forward, and why Labor has lost the confidence of Territorians and continues to mislead them. On that point, I would say to the 500 or 600 concerned workers who turned up yesterday, some of them health workers in Territory Health Services, that I thought it was an absolute disgrace the way the unions went out there and peddled the misinformation to those sorts of people.
Mrs Hickey: They are looking after their members.
Mr BURKE: If they are going to look after their members, the least they can do is tell them the truth. The least they can do is read the consultant’s report, rather than the last page, and pick out the bit that suits them. At least they could give some sort of balanced argument about the whole proposal.
The member for Millner asked about private health insurance and whether jobs will be slashed. They are the 2 biggest lies that have been peddled in this document, apart form the cutting of services argument that is run right throughout it. But when I answered the question about private health insurance …
Member interjecting.
Mr BURKE: It doesn’t matter who is running the public hospitals. It doesn’t matter whether they’re run by Territory government, it doesn’t matter whether they’re run by St Vincent’s or St John of God or whether they are run by Australian Healthcare. Under the Medicare agreement, anyone who doesn’t have private health insurance is entitled to free public hospital care - that is the fact of it.
If we breach those principles in any way, shape or form, the Commonwealth would withdraw the $90m for hospital fundings that is provided. But more than that, in the terms of the contract, the concepts of accreditation, the standards of service, I have given out all the documentation, and all the analyses are there.
I will put out 5 more appendices of that consultant’s report which will show the extent of the analysis that has been done and that predicts our growth in all sorts of episodes of care, right through until 2006. We know what our need is in our public hospital. We have predicted it through to 2006. We will insist that the contract caters to those needs we are predicting.
We have the experience, as I said, from officials from the West Australian government who have been through this exercise on a number of occasions, and from officials from the Victorian government who have been through this exercise on a number of occasions. We are the last jurisdiction to proceed down this path. Territorians can be assured that in the case of public hospital services, the aim is to get them better services, better facilities, to extend the range of services in Nhulunbuy and Tennant Creek so that they can get more and more services closer to home. For people in the Palmerston and rural area, there is a real opportunity to get something like a 40-bed hospital built there in the near future. That is a good and responsible approach by government.
But more than that, Madam Speaker, as I have said before, there are 51 000 Territorians who pay $1100 to $1200 per year and access almost nothing for their money. We intend to get them a reasonable deal for what they are paying.
In terms of the big lie about jobs being slashed, for the umpteenth time, I can only say that there will be no forced redundancies of public sector employees, and no public sector employee will be forced to work for a private operator.
The answers in health are self-evident. That is, the valued and experienced workforce in the Northern Territory will be preserved whether it is by government or by private provider, because they simply couldn’t do the job unless they preserved that workforce. They will be focusing their efforts, I’m sure, on attracting that workforce in the propositions that are put up.
The thrust of the opposition’s criticism is to deny Territorians choice of service, to deny Territorians a greater range in specialities in the Northern Territory, and to deny Territorians and people in Palmerston and the rural area a new facility. Go out there and tell them what you are denying them.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the 10 good reasonsto keep Territory hospitals in our hands, I understand, has been circulated to all Territorians. It must be a fairly expensive exercise involving taxpayers money, for starters. I tabled the document yesterday. I’ll outline 10 things this document demonstrates.
It demonstrates why Labor is out of touch, why Labor does not want better health services for Territorians, why Labor doesn’t want new hospitals in the Northern Territory, why Labor does not even understand the proposal that we have put forward, and why Labor has lost the confidence of Territorians and continues to mislead them. On that point, I would say to the 500 or 600 concerned workers who turned up yesterday, some of them health workers in Territory Health Services, that I thought it was an absolute disgrace the way the unions went out there and peddled the misinformation to those sorts of people.
Mrs Hickey: They are looking after their members.
Mr BURKE: If they are going to look after their members, the least they can do is tell them the truth. The least they can do is read the consultant’s report, rather than the last page, and pick out the bit that suits them. At least they could give some sort of balanced argument about the whole proposal.
The member for Millner asked about private health insurance and whether jobs will be slashed. They are the 2 biggest lies that have been peddled in this document, apart form the cutting of services argument that is run right throughout it. But when I answered the question about private health insurance …
Member interjecting.
Mr BURKE: It doesn’t matter who is running the public hospitals. It doesn’t matter whether they’re run by Territory government, it doesn’t matter whether they’re run by St Vincent’s or St John of God or whether they are run by Australian Healthcare. Under the Medicare agreement, anyone who doesn’t have private health insurance is entitled to free public hospital care - that is the fact of it.
If we breach those principles in any way, shape or form, the Commonwealth would withdraw the $90m for hospital fundings that is provided. But more than that, in the terms of the contract, the concepts of accreditation, the standards of service, I have given out all the documentation, and all the analyses are there.
I will put out 5 more appendices of that consultant’s report which will show the extent of the analysis that has been done and that predicts our growth in all sorts of episodes of care, right through until 2006. We know what our need is in our public hospital. We have predicted it through to 2006. We will insist that the contract caters to those needs we are predicting.
We have the experience, as I said, from officials from the West Australian government who have been through this exercise on a number of occasions, and from officials from the Victorian government who have been through this exercise on a number of occasions. We are the last jurisdiction to proceed down this path. Territorians can be assured that in the case of public hospital services, the aim is to get them better services, better facilities, to extend the range of services in Nhulunbuy and Tennant Creek so that they can get more and more services closer to home. For people in the Palmerston and rural area, there is a real opportunity to get something like a 40-bed hospital built there in the near future. That is a good and responsible approach by government.
But more than that, Madam Speaker, as I have said before, there are 51 000 Territorians who pay $1100 to $1200 per year and access almost nothing for their money. We intend to get them a reasonable deal for what they are paying.
In terms of the big lie about jobs being slashed, for the umpteenth time, I can only say that there will be no forced redundancies of public sector employees, and no public sector employee will be forced to work for a private operator.
The answers in health are self-evident. That is, the valued and experienced workforce in the Northern Territory will be preserved whether it is by government or by private provider, because they simply couldn’t do the job unless they preserved that workforce. They will be focusing their efforts, I’m sure, on attracting that workforce in the propositions that are put up.
The thrust of the opposition’s criticism is to deny Territorians choice of service, to deny Territorians a greater range in specialities in the Northern Territory, and to deny Territorians and people in Palmerston and the rural area a new facility. Go out there and tell them what you are denying them.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016