weekly hansard - Queensland Parliament - Queensland Government

2566 Matters of Public Interest 23 Aug 2005
When it comes to the racing industry we had a seven-month inquiry costing millions of dollars, but
when it comes to the issue of Queensland Health—something which is more important to all
Queenslanders—we have a five-month inquiry. We know that there are still problems in Hervey Bay.
There are issues in Mount Isa that have to be addressed. There are problems on the Gold Coast. There
are a whole range of people who need to tell their story. We hear that at some time in the not-too-distant
future we are going to see both former ministers for health in the dock giving evidence before the Morris
royal commission, but are we going to hear from the former director-general, Dr Stable? No doubt he
would have a very interesting story to tell as well.
It is as simple as this, and make no mistake about it: this decision to truncate and pressure Tony
Morris into concluding this inquiry by the end of September is about reducing the pain on the
government; it is not about reducing the pain on patients in Queensland. The political pain was
exemplified by the good voters of Redcliffe and Chatsworth on the weekend. They were the lightning rod
that delivered a very strong message to this state government that it needed to pull its socks up. They
were sick of the promises, they were sick of the Premier’s crocodile tears and they were sick of the
government admitting that it caused a problem which it says it is going to fix but nothing ever changes.
They wanted something to change and they said to the government on the weekend that they would
change something for the government, and certainly in the case of those two members of parliament
they did.
I congratulate Michael Caltabiano and Terry Rogers on being successful on the weekend—two
well-run campaigns and two very good candidates who will make an outstanding contribution to this
parliament. It is as simple as this: if those swings are replicated across Queensland at the next general
election, it is bye-bye to about 25 members of parliament who sit on the other side. Bye-bye to the
member for Whitsunday. Bye-bye to the member for Broadwater. Chris Cummins is already saying that
he does not know if he is going to go bye-byes but he could go bye-byes, and if it is going to be byebyes
he will be the first one to find out about it. We have had the member for Burleigh saying that she
was worried about it.
Mr Reeves interjected.
Mr SPRINGBORG: It is even bye-bye to the member for Mansfield. We hear a lot of cockiness
from the members opposite who come into this place and see themselves as completely invincible and
completely invulnerable. As those particular voters in Redcliffe and Chatsworth said on the weekend,
‘You are not invincible.’ They said to the government, ‘You are not invulnerable.’ What we have had
seen today from this government is more promises about fixing the problems of Queensland Health.
I ask members to cast their minds back to what happened in Queensland when Peter Beattie
became health minister in 1995. He put out a press release and said that he was going listening. He put
on the ears and he was going listening across Queensland. He was going to every region to listen. He
said in his press release at the time that, as part of his preliminary listening process, he had already
identified that a lot of staff were not happy about the growth in bureaucracy in Queensland Health and
about how resources were being malapportioned and he was going to fix it. Not only that; he put out five
listening books. That is what happened as a result of 100 days of listening. They are not picture books,
though they may as well have been. We have listening book No. 1—a vision for the next five years. We
have listening book No. 2—maximising health in Queensland. We have listening book No. 3—a focus
on people. We have listening book No. 4—reforming the health system in Queensland. This is the now
Premier’s blueprint for listening. In 1995 we had a consultation paper. That is what you produce after
you have listened. You strap on the big ears and you run out there and you listen, listen, listen. It is onetenth
of a century later and we have been listening all over the place. We have more listening and more
promises and nothing is really happening.
Let us look at listening book No. 3—a focus on people; cutting red tape and freeing up our
greatest resources. Who has been warning this government about problems with bureaucracy and
administration in Queensland Health over the years? Our side of politics. The Nationals have been
warning the government about it. We had Commissioner Morris identify about three administrators for
each clinical person in the health system in Queensland, but that quietly snuck by the Premier. He had
no idea about that. As part of his listening and his five listening books, he was not able to do any of
those sorts of things. Really interesting stuff! Once again, we have a sense of deja vu. In listening book
No. 1 on page 2 he says this—
I know when I started I said I would spend 100 days consulting before I made any major decisions but in some instances I could
not wait. Along the way some of the needs became so obvious and pressing that I had to get on with it and fix them there and
then.
That is what the Premier said. That is what he did with his listening books. Some of those issues
that he referred to, such as oncology services in Townsville, still have problems today. What did he do
with these listening books when he became Premier, some seven years ago in Queensland? Throw
them in the bin? Ignore them? All of the issues were exposed here. This was nothing more than a public
relations farce. It is the same sort of thing that we have seen with his treatment of the Morris royal
commission in Queensland and the outcomes from the Morris royal commission in Queensland.