weekly hansard - Queensland Parliament - Queensland Government

23 Aug 2005 Questions Without Notice 2557
Newman: keep up the fight because, frankly, you will continue to be supported by the people of this city
while you are.
The lord mayor is seeking $400 million over 15 years to fund his tunnel network. To his credit, he
also says that federal funding is needed for the Gold Coast, the Pacific Motorway, Logan and the Bruce
Highway north of Caboolture. What can we say other than, ‘Hear, hear! We agree with the lord mayor’?
Queenslanders have voted for 14 federal Liberal MPs in the south-east of Queensland. People
would expect them to back the lord mayor. Not once have they done so. What about these four Liberal
senators who sit around in Brisbane, taking money under false pretences? All they do is back Canberra.
Never once have they backed they lord mayor. When they met last week at Liberal headquarters, did
the senators pat the lord mayor on the back? They did not pat the lord mayor on the back; they stabbed
him in the back. They stabbed the lord mayor in the back because he is out there trying to get some
money for a road project.
In 2005-06 alone, the Queensland government is spending $2.83 billion on transport and main
roads including $760 million for rail infrastructure and $538 million for ports. We are committed to the
$55 billion 20-year South East Queensland Infrastructure Plan. The Commonwealth government has
cut real spending on infrastructure in half over the past 10 years. We are the ones, at a state level, who
are trying to build roads and who are trying to do things about buses, public transport and the railway.
Who do we have supporting us? The only person who is giving us any sort of support is the Liberal lord
mayor. Who is trying to knife him in the back? It is the Liberal Party. What a sordid group of people!
When it came time for the preselection for the ward vacated by Mr Caltabiano, what did they do?
The lord mayor nominated his candidate. What happened? Senator Santoro and Mr Caltabiano then
stabbed the lord mayor in the back and he did not even get the candidate he was promised. I am
starting to feel sorry for the Liberal lord mayor, I have to tell members. All I can say to Campbell is: keep
on fighting, Campbell, because in the end you will find that the Liberal Party has no backbone.
Health System
Mr COPELAND: My question is to the Minister for Health. Visiting medical officers at the Royal
Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and at the Nambour and Gold Coast hospitals have rejected the
government’s proposed enterprise deal and intend to resign, and there is every likelihood that the VMOs
at Princess Alexandra, the Prince Charles and the Mater public hospitals will resign also. Given that the
visiting medical officers perform more than 70 per cent of the surgical procedures and are responsible
for more than 70 per cent of the training conducted in the public health system, when will the minister
stand up for these doctors and force the Treasurer to recognise that more patients will die when the
public health system collapses? When will the minister force Treasury to recognise that public hospitals
will lose their accreditation as tertiary training facilities if they lose the services of VMOs?
Mr ROBERTSON: The opposition spokesperson makes a relevant point, that is, that with respect
to the current campaign by VMOs and their representative, who sits on the AMA, at the end of the day,
with respect to waiting lists—and the AMA have been quite outspoken about the issue of waiting lists, I
have noted, in the state—not one extra patient will go through our hospital systems if the resignations
that have been collected so far by the VMOs’ representative are tendered to Queensland Health. How
will that be of benefit to the waiting lists? How will that benefit Queenslanders who are wanting
operations done through our public health system? To put it simply, it will not.
I have made it clear now on a number of occasions that last Friday week I met with the VMOs’
representative, Dr Cartmill. He laid down a number of demands. He was quite stringent about them. He
said, ‘This is make or break time.’ He laid out A, B, C, D and on each of those points I reached
agreement with him; on each and every point I reached agreement with him. He went away from that
meeting having received everything that he asked for. It is a strange set of negotiations, I think, when
one actually sits down with a representative of a group of employees and agreement is reached on
everything that they put forward—and No. 1 was, ‘Minister, I demand that you get rid of that directive.’ I
said, ‘Yep,’ got in touch with Minister Barton, got in touch with the Premier and said, ‘We have to get rid
of the directive. Let us put in place an interim industrial agreement,’ which was agreed to by Dr Cartmill.
Yet these are the very points that Dr Cartmill says are unacceptable to VMOs.
I am confused. I am confused when a representative comes to me and makes a series of
demands and I agree with them and he then goes away and holds meetings and says that what we
have agreed on is unacceptable. How can you possibly do business like that? It is about time that there
was some responsibility taken here. It is about time that there was a bit of trust and honesty here.
Because what I have also noted is that on each and every occasion that the VMOs have met, the story
seems to change. Last night on the Gold Coast money was not the issue; last week at the other
hospitals it was because they are not being paid enough. There has to be a consistent message here.
The Premier and I will be meeting with the VMOs this week because it is time that we put this campaign
to rest.