Ms WALKER - 2011-11-22
The Liberal government in Victoria plans to cut nurses in hospitals and replace them with low-skilled health assistants. Can you please update the House on how the Henderson Labor government continues to build the Territory’s nursing workforce?
ANSWER
With great pleasure, Madam Speaker, because we know very well you cannot trust the Liberals with the health system - they have history. Let us remember what the then minister for Health in the Howard government did with the health budget. He took $1bn out of public hospitals in Australia. He restricted training positions for doctors and nurses so …
Ms Lawrie: What was his name?
Mr VATSKALIS: Tony Abbott. The CLP has history here. I worked here when the CLP took away 200 nursing positions from the system. The CLP closed a 30-bed ward at Royal Darwin Hospital. What does the CLP want to do now? It wants to downgrade Royal Darwin Hospital and they want to close all the super clinics. They do not support the super clinics. You cannot trust them with the health system for Territorians.
Since they want to know how many people are employed in different departments, I can give some really good statistics ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale!
Mr VATSKALIS: In 2001, the Health Department employed 3700 people. In 2011, the Health Department employed 5400 people. This includes nurses and doctors. To give you an example of what we have done in the past 10 years, when we took over government there were 1300 nurses working in our system; there are now 2060 nurses. When we took over government there were around 272 doctors working in our system; there are now 396.
Madam Speaker, you were the Minister for Health when we took over government, and you will remember that there were 100 specialists; there are now more than 130. In the past 10 years, we have been building up the health system in the Territory, not only in the urban centres, but in rural and remote communities. In the past 10 years, we have seen some of the health indicators in the Territory increase, not only in the urban system but also in the bush.
Do I have to remind members opposite who refused to put any haemodialysis machines anywhere outside the urban centres? Do I have to remind them that in the past few years since we have put a great deal of money into renal dialysis we have seen the lifespan of people with renal problems increase to match that of other Australians? Do I have to remind them that the anaemia rates in Indigenous kids have collapsed? Do I have to remind them that the lifespan of Indigenous women has now increased significantly?
In the past 10 years, we have put our money where our mouth is and we have built up the health system.
ANSWER
With great pleasure, Madam Speaker, because we know very well you cannot trust the Liberals with the health system - they have history. Let us remember what the then minister for Health in the Howard government did with the health budget. He took $1bn out of public hospitals in Australia. He restricted training positions for doctors and nurses so …
Ms Lawrie: What was his name?
Mr VATSKALIS: Tony Abbott. The CLP has history here. I worked here when the CLP took away 200 nursing positions from the system. The CLP closed a 30-bed ward at Royal Darwin Hospital. What does the CLP want to do now? It wants to downgrade Royal Darwin Hospital and they want to close all the super clinics. They do not support the super clinics. You cannot trust them with the health system for Territorians.
Since they want to know how many people are employed in different departments, I can give some really good statistics ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale!
Mr VATSKALIS: In 2001, the Health Department employed 3700 people. In 2011, the Health Department employed 5400 people. This includes nurses and doctors. To give you an example of what we have done in the past 10 years, when we took over government there were 1300 nurses working in our system; there are now 2060 nurses. When we took over government there were around 272 doctors working in our system; there are now 396.
Madam Speaker, you were the Minister for Health when we took over government, and you will remember that there were 100 specialists; there are now more than 130. In the past 10 years, we have been building up the health system in the Territory, not only in the urban centres, but in rural and remote communities. In the past 10 years, we have seen some of the health indicators in the Territory increase, not only in the urban system but also in the bush.
Do I have to remind members opposite who refused to put any haemodialysis machines anywhere outside the urban centres? Do I have to remind them that in the past few years since we have put a great deal of money into renal dialysis we have seen the lifespan of people with renal problems increase to match that of other Australians? Do I have to remind them that the anaemia rates in Indigenous kids have collapsed? Do I have to remind them that the lifespan of Indigenous women has now increased significantly?
In the past 10 years, we have put our money where our mouth is and we have built up the health system.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016