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22 May 2013 Questions Without Notice 1669 Government members interjected. Madam SPEAKER: Order! Mr Seeney: They want the Labor government back. Madam SPEAKER: Deputy Premier, I now warn you under standing order 253A. I would ask members to pay attention when I have the call and I am about to call a member for questions. Public Hospitals Mr RUTHENBERG: My question is to the Minister for Health. I refer to claims by Labor-barracking union bosses that public hospitals are up for sale, and I ask: is there a single website anywhere in Australia that lists any public hospital for sale? Mr SPRINGBORG: I thank the honourable member for Kallangur for his question. In the last month or so I have visited quite a few hospitals throughout Queensland. I must admit I have been very interested in what is being said by some of the Labor Party apologists, the union bosses around Queensland, particularly the Nurses Union bosses. Only recently I had the opportunity to visit the hospital in Ayr. I looked out the front but I did not see any ‘for sale’ signs. I also had the opportunity to visit the hospital at Logan and there were no ‘for sale’ signs out the front. Craig Emerson has a few in his office as he is trying to whip up a bit of a frenzy in a search for relevance. I have also been at the Gold Coast Hospital, Ipswich Hospital, RBWH and the PA but I have not seen any of these ‘for sale’ signs. I took the opportunity to do a bit of a search on the web to see if there were indeed any ‘for sale’ signs for Queensland public hospitals. The only ones I could find were in Queensland Nurses Union publications. They have conveniently put a little ‘not’ on them. What we have here is the Queensland Nurses Union advocating that the RBWH is for sale. We also have them advocating that a range of other hospitals throughout Queensland, including Longreach Hospital, are for sale. I was there the other day and I did not see any ‘for sale’ signs in Longreach. What we see here is that the Queensland Nurses Union bosses have joined the league of the grassy knoll conspiracy theorists. Quite clearly recently we ruled out any privatisation of existing Queensland public hospitals. Indeed, if that is too hard for the Nurses Union bosses or anyone else to understand, we cannot vouch for their intellectual competence. But we have ruled that out. We are more than happy to engage with private or not-for-profit providers in relation to any new or additional health service facilities in Queensland. That is appropriate and prudent. What might be news to the Deputy Premier is that the Queensland Nurses Union claims it has stopped the closure of Theodore Hospital. I was not aware there was any move to close Theodore Hospital. In actual fact, a doctor at the hospital with whom I was speaking the other day had heard no such thing. He saw the press release from the Nurses Union which suggested that Theodore Hospital was for sale. He looked out his door, but he could not see the sign. The Labor Party, the Queensland Nurses Union bosses and their coterie of hangers-on in the union movement are running around in a desperate attempt to prop up a failing Gillard-Swan government. That is what this is all about. (Time expired) Commission of Audit Mr KNUTH: My question without notice is to the Minister for Transport. Given that recommendation 18 of the Costello report suggests that the Mount Isa-Townsville rail line be transferred to the Port of Townsville and jobs be outsourced, coupled with the recent removal of a ‘no forced redundancy and relocation’ clause, what guarantee can the minister give workers in respect of job security to alleviate employees’ concerns? Mr EMERSON: I thank the member for the question because it brings forward a very interesting point. First I will go back to the Commission of Audit. We have ruled out certain things recommended by the Commission of Audit, as we have heard very clearly. There are other things we are considering. One of those is the bolting of the line from Mount Isa to Townsville on to the port and then the possibility of leasing that port out for 99 years—not selling it but leasing it out. We have made no decision on that; we are still considering that. But it is a recommendation we are considering.
1670 Questions Without Notice 22 May 2013 I have heard criticisms and complaints from particularly those opposite about what is going to happen to the rail—what is going to happen to maintenance and who is going to do the work. The reality is that a quarter of our regional rail services and the maintenance on it is already outsourced. Who outsourced it? Labor did it as part of their rushed QR National sale. The reality is that 1,200 kilometres of our 6,000 kilometres of regional rail service maintenance is already outsourced. That is the kind of behaviour we see. So in terms of what is going to happen, we have not made a decision. But if the member looks at what Labor members did he will see that it is already outsourced. It was done when they sold QR National—when they had their secret plan. They did not tell anyone about it. They went to an election and what did they say? ‘No, we are not going to sell assets. We are not going to get rid of the fuel subsidy. We swear—cross our hearts. We will not do it,’ they said. Did they talk about the increases to public transport fares—15 per cent per year after year after year? No. They did not talk about asset sales, they did not talk about the abolition of the fuel subsidy and they did not talk about public transport fare increases, but they went ahead and did it. This demonstrates the hypocrisy and deceit of Labor. They are responsible for fiscal mismanagement, debt and deficit but also engage in deceit. The reality is that we have not yet made a decision on this issue. It is still under consideration. Why was the Commission of Audit commissioned in the first place? Because of the fiscal mismanagement of Labor—because of the debt and deficit they left us by their mismanagement, by their incompetence. Who made those decisions? Honourable members should look at the opposition frontbench. The Leader of the Opposition was transport minister, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was a minister and the member for Mulgrave was also a minister. And then there was the member for Bundamba as well. (Time expired) Gateway Motorway, Upgrade Dr ROBINSON: My question without notice is to the Minister for Transport and Main Roads. Can the minister outline what offers are on the table for the Gateway Motorway North upgrade and what the government is doing to fix one of the worst bottlenecks in Queensland? Mr EMERSON: I thank the honourable member for the question. I also acknowledge in the public gallery people from the Buderim War Memorial Community Association who are visiting the House today. They have come down from the Sunshine Coast. Those people travelling from the Sunshine Coast would use the Gateway North and they would know the congestion that is the problem. The RACQ has identified it as one of the most congested sections of the road. This is a federal road. Let us talk about the realities of who has funding responsibility for that road. In terms of federal roads, the traditional arrangements are that 80 per cent is contributed by the federal government and 20 per cent is contributed by the state government. I know that the Labor opposition has a view that the state should not pay for any federal roads. That is not our view. It does not want to contribute any money for the Bruce Highway. On that basis it would not want to contribute any money for the Gateway North upgrade. It would not want to contribute any money for the Ipswich Motorway or the Warrego Highway. But the reality is that, traditionally, federal roads are paid for 80 per cent by the federal government and 20 per cent by the state government. At the moment there are two offers out there from the federal parties. One offer is $1 billion for the Gateway upgrade—for the $1.3 billion project. That offer is consistent with the traditional contribution share of 80-20. Who made that offer? It was made by the coalition. There is another offer—one from the federal government. That offer is for only $718 million—50-50. They want to change the rule. Wayne Swan, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Anthony Albanese want to change the rules and take the funding share for the Gateway Motorway to 50-50. That is what they want to do. They want to change it from 80-20 to 50-50. It is particularly discouraging to hear Queenslanders like Wayne Swan and Kevin Rudd selling out their own home state—short-changing it. We see Labor members on the other side of the chamber. What do they want to do? They want us to sign up, because they do not care about Queenslanders. They only care about their mates in Canberra, wanting us to support them. The reality is that we will not sell out Queensland. The offer from Tony Abbott on the Gateway Motorway fits. Ms Trad interjected.
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