Now for the pictures. Well the Liberals have finally got the shadow health minister talking about health. After Opposition Leader Tony Abbott yesterday ordained hospitals as the big coming campaign issue, Peter Dutton this morning has broken his silence. He told ABC Radio that the Federal Opposition is willing to offer bipartisan support for a referendum to overhaul health funding.
Referring to previous indications by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that he will seek a legal mandate for a federal takeover of the health system if the states do not fix it, Mr Dutton said a referendum could happen at the next election. “We would offer that bipartisan agreement to the Prime Minister for a referendum at this election,” he said. “Then Mr Rudd would be a complete fraud if he rejected that offer.”
The Dutton promise does sit oddly with the declaration by his leader that the role of an Opposition was to oppose rather than help a Government but it does mark a start of Coalition campaigning on an issue that can win it votes. All that has to happen now is for the shadow health minister to realise that it is pictures not words that will make hospitals a winner.
He needs to get out and about in the nation to show case the regular examples of things that go wrong in public hospitals. He could start with a visit to South Australia’s Novita Children’s Services which reported yesterday that waiting lists for wheelchairs, walking frames and other essential equipment for disabled children are poised to blow out, amid claims children are already waiting years. Apparently there are already 400 children waiting for 700 pieces of equipment and a support group says some parents are in “total despair” over the growing problem. A visual display of that would bring the blame game well and truly home to the Prime Minister.
And while in Adelaide why not call in for a chat with the injured prison officer who recently waited five hours for treatment in a public hospital after she was turned away from a private centre contracted by the Government because of overdue bills. The female officer from the Adelaide Women’s Prison was denied treatment for minor head injuries because government bills for $196 from early October had not been paid.
Just the kind of example of why the system does not work with state governments in charge.
A climate change strategy. If Tony Abbott is looking for a way of showing his green credentials without doing anything too complicated he could do worse than start talking about contingency plans for Australia in the likely event that international agreement on climate change is a long time coming. Rather than having a “cut off our nose to spite our face” approach of unilateral carbon reductions, concentrate on the steps that will be necessary to make a warmer Australia as habitable as possible if and when the temperature rises.
Dud forecasts that spring eternal. My quotation of the week:
The overwhelming, plain-as-a-pikestaff economic lesson to be learnt from this year is that economists — whether official, market or media – have no idea what the future holds.
Economics writer Ross Gittins does some truth telling in the Sydney Morning Herald
I can understand Crikey’s view that a poor beggar like Peter Dutton needs all the help he can get.
The view presented is distorted, however.
My sister ,a kidney transplant recipient, has been undergoing extensive treatment over an extended period at Brisbane’s Princess Alexander Hospital, my mother in-law has been recieving ongoing treatment for skin cancer at the Royal Brisbane and my wife recently underwent tests at Prince Charles where I saw first hand the care and compassion of staff towards lung transplant patients.
In all instances the standard of medical care was of the highest quality and the attitude of all staff ,from the admin officers to the surgeons has been caring, compassionate and efficient.
Lets give credit to a great public hospital system, which in my experience has better quality control than the private system, and stop using it as a political football just because you can.
Barry Welch
Don’t often disagree with you, Richard, but your idea for Tony Abbott to concentrate on adaptation to climate change, rather than reducing it, is a bad one. Abbott will of course take any excuse to do even less about addressing climate change than he intends now (since his closest allies in the Liberal Party believe in doing nothing at all about it), but that will send a clear signal to developed countries who do take action on climate that Australia is even more recalcitrant than was previously thought. Anyone who thinks this will not be taken out in trade terms on the part of countries who do invest in lowering emissions is simply not paying attention: the French have already talked about a carbon import tax, and you can bet that as US industries begin to invest more in lowering their own emissions (and they will), they will press for more of the same. Our farmers and many others will find themselves facing trade restriction measures just as the worst of the climate change impacts on productivity begins to manifest here – harder and earlier than for any other developed economy. Let’s not help Abbott become even worse on this issue than he is now.
Who the f++k is Peter Dutton?