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2332 Appropriation (Parliament) Bill; Appropriation Bill 31 Oct 2012 number of temporary positions would have detrimental effects on front-line service provision. This stands in direct contradiction to the minister’s earlier statements that every front-line service under national parks will be looked after. The non-government committee members were disturbed by the fact both the minister and the director-general refused to answer simple and direct questions on the percentage of protected areas covered by a management plan. The minister deliberately misled the committee on the previous government’s legacy by stating that a 2010 figure for the percentage of protected areas covered by a management plan was current. The minister was unable to explain the meaning of the cardinal principle for national park management. It is troubling that the minister could not articulate that national parks exist to provide to the fullest extent possible for the preservation of an area’s natural condition. This is a clear indication that the cardinal principle is no longer a factor in the management of Queensland’s national park estate. In addition the minister stated that the Newman government is determined to open up national parks to motorbikes, four-wheel drives, horse riding, logging and mining, as well as assorted other damaging activities with little to no scientific assessment and without applying the precautionary principle which has traditionally been considered. Due to the insufficient amount of time allocated to the examination of the budget estimates for the portfolio of National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing we must express severe reservations. Moreover, the conduct of the minister raises legitimate questions as to his suitability to oversee the expenditure. Evasion is not a substitute for reasoned and diligent policy development and delivery. Hon. LJ SPRINGBORG (Southern Downs—LNP) (Minister for Health) (10.46 pm): Can I first of all start by thanking the Health and Community Services Committee for their examination of the estimates of the Department of Health and also their report to the parliament, of course minus the dissenting report. Can I acknowledge the chair of the committee, the honourable member for Redlands, and the magnificent stewardship that he showed in keeping an unruly opposition under control during the course of that day. Reading the report of the committee, and particularly the dissenting report, I was thinking I must have been living in a parallel universe. We have the shadow minister for Health writing some form of dissenting report where she fundamentally fails to understand what the KPMG report into the bungled Labor Party Health payroll system was all about. She tried to dismiss the whole $1.2 billion as though it did not really matter; you could walk down the back of the garden and pluck another $1.2 billion off the infamous Labor Party money tree. She indicated it was not really such a problem because $1.008 million of that was operations and it was going to happen anyway. I have news for the honourable member for Bundamba. If she actually reads the KPMG report, on page 28 there is a very instructive graph where it is indicated that those operational costs were indeed more than twice what they should have been because in actual fact twice as many staff than what was originally envisaged had to be put on just to operate the system. So the cost of running the system over a period of time operationally was at least $500 million more than what was originally envisaged. Not only that, of course, there was another $200-odd million worth of projects that we knew about where we had to invest to try to fix that system up. Is it any wonder that we have this problem with the Labor Party in Queensland. I have a graph here that explains the job losses very well. The ones in the red column we can attribute directly to the Labor Party because of the payroll—1,537 of them adding up to $150 million this year unfunded. I will take credit for the corporate office ones of around about 1,217—in actual fact, myself and Anna Bligh because we were both going through a corporate office restructure. There is another part of this parallel universe. I do not know what the understanding of the opposition is with regards to national health reform, but under national health reform they envisage the establishment of local hospital and health networks. We call them boards. The whole point of those boards is that, as the former Labor Party treasurer and deputy premier said, we need local area governance of our health system in Queensland because no longer can we trust the corporate office to do the day-to-day operational things of the health service in Queensland. One really has to ask the question: in this so-called Labor parallel universe, what does the honourable member for Bundamba envisage? Was the honourable member for Bundamba going to appoint those people to chair the hospital and health networks? Many of those people were already in the equation prior to my coming in and they were appointed because they are the best people for the job. Was she going to let them do the work or was it going to be a bit like Nightmare on Elm Street with Freddy Krueger, aka the honourable member for Bundamba? Every time Dr Alexander goes to make a decision, up pops the member for Bundamba, like Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street, saying, ‘Don’t make that decision’. Out in West Moreton, Mary Corbett would face the same sort of thing: ‘We want to give you discretion, but we don’t want to give you that much discretion. We want to have all this wonderful central Labor Party control, which has given us such a wonderful Health system in Queensland.’ I say this to the honourable member for Bundamba: in the future, when people write to me about the reorientation—as the Labor Party called it—of services at Eventide, I will write back to them personally. I will remind them that Gordon Nuttall’s apprentice, the honourable member for Bundamba,
31 Oct 2012 Appropriation (Parliament) Bill; Appropriation Bill 2333 was sitting beside Gordon Nuttall in 2005 when they decided to sell 2.1 hectares of Eventide, because I am sure they do not know about that. I will also give them the cabinet documents that show the Labor Party, in February of 2009, made the decision to get rid of Eventide and four other aged-care facilities. (Time expired) Mr MANDER (Everton—LNP) (10.51 pm): As Assistant Minister for Sport and Racing, I am proud to support Minister Dickson in helping the Newman government get on with the job of delivering the LNP’s election promises. The key budget initiatives of the Department of National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing include the following: the Get in the Game initiative being boosted to $18 million over the next three years; $13.9 million of national parks capital works funding being directed towards visitor amenities, park volunteer programs and boosting fire management; and a support program being put in place to help rejuvenate Queensland’s racing industry. We also had to make some very tough decisions during the process of creating our new department, which is delivering a more streamlined delivery of services focused on customer outcomes. Those decisions were necessary to make sure our vital front-line ranger services would be protected. The stark reality is that Labor has left Queensland $65 billion in debt. The Newman government has made an ambitious commitment to the National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing portfolio. We plan to open up our national parks for all types of recreation by improving access and implementing proper management of Queensland national parks and state forests. We plan to get Queenslanders more active through participation in sport and recreation activities. We plan to revitalise our ailing racing sector by providing a proactive and supportive regulatory environment for the racing industry, which had been brought to its knees by the former Labor government. The delivery of those services will also contribute to the Newman government’s objectives for the community and commitments in the following ways: contributing to the growth of a four-pillar economy through reducing red tape and regulation for sustainable tourism in protected areas; revitalising frontline services for families by streamlining the processes for camping and vehicle access to national parks, and enhancing sport and recreation service delivery through our Get in the Game initiative; delivering better infrastructure and better planning with new racing infrastructure upgrades; and restoring accountability in government through implementing arrangements for governance and planning across all codes of Queensland racing. In 2012-13, the Newman government will deliver key commitments and initiatives, including $5.4 million over four years to improve fire management programs, $1.5 million over three years reallocated to provide better coordination of volunteering in Queensland national parks and launching an online system to streamline the registration process for camping and vehicle access permits at national parks and reducing permit classes by 50 per cent. In 2012-13, $13.9 million will be provided for capital works to replace and build visitor and management infrastructure on Queensland’s protected area estates and forests. Funding has been increased through our Get in the Game program by $2 million over what was initially promised in the lead-up to the election this year, taking funding to $18 million over three years. That means each of the affiliated programs, Get Playing, Get Started and Get Going, will provide even greater assistance to Queensland families by reducing the cost of club registrations and funding better equipment and infrastructure. Get Playing will provide grants of up to $100,000 in funding to sport and recreation organisations for facility development, while Get Going will provide grants of up to $10,000 for items and activities to assist clubs in attracting and retaining club members. Funding of $6 million for Get Started will enable at least 40,000 voucher payments of $150 to young Queenslanders over three years. In order to rejuvenate the Queensland racing industry, the Newman government has committed to re-establishing separate control bodies for each code of racing, namely, thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing, along with a Queensland All Codes Racing Industry Board. In addition, amendments to the Racing Act 2002 will transfer appropriate integrity functions to government and remove restrictions on bookmakers to make them more competitive with bookmakers in other states. Over four years, $4 million will be provided to rejuvenate country racing in Queensland. Additional funding of $2.5 million in 2012-13 and a further $2.5 million in 2013-14 is being provided for the Queensland Thoroughbred Investment Scheme. The Newman government is acting now to address the problems caused by the former Labor government’s financial mismanagement and to get Queensland back on track. Hon. TE DAVIS (Aspley—LNP) (Minister for Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services) (10.56 pm): As Minister for Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services, I was very pleased to be part of this government’s first budget estimates hearings and now to contribute to tonight’s debate. I start by thanking the members of the Health and Community Services Committee. In particular, I congratulate the chairman, the member for Redlands, for his excellent oversight of the hearings. I commend him for the very fair manner in which he afforded an equitable share of time to both
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