APPROPRIATION BILL
APPROPRIATION (PARLIAMENT) BILL
APPROPRIATION (SPECIAL OFFICES) BILL
GENERAL GOVERNMENT LIABILITY MANAGEMENT FUND BILL
PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT OPERATIONS AMENDMENT (TRADEABLE EMISSION SCHEMES FUND) BILL
PUBLIC FINANCE AND AUDIT AMENDMENT (BUDGETING AND FINANCIAL REPORTING) BILL
STATE REVENUE LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (BUDGET) BILL
Second Reading
GOVERNOR'S SPEECH: ADDRESS-IN-REPLY
Take-note Debate
Mr FRASER (Coffs Harbour) [4.58 p.m.]: It was interesting to sit in the House last night and listen to the contributions of the honourable member for Newcastle and the honourable member for Maitland. I know of one interjection when the member for Newcastle was speaking—unfortunately, he did not answer it. It was said that this budget is a Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong budget. I received a sign of glee and affirmation from the Deputy Speaker because I think the people of Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong read only the budget speeches of the members from those areas. They did reasonably well out of this budget. I wish to raise a number of issues. This Government says that the Treasurer has had seven surplus budgets. We do not deny that fact: we do not deny that year in year out the budget has been in surplus, the State has been in surplus, the books have been in surplus.
However, the budget has been in deficit because every year the Government has had to introduce additional appropriation bills to make up the shortfalls within budget allocations. The only reason that the Government has been able to do that is because of the extremely high incomes that have been earned on stamp duties as a result of the property boom in Sydney, the Olympic boom, and the payroll tax that it promised to reduce. The Government's income has been bursting at the seams. Government members have been able to pork barrel their electorates, as they will do until the end of this year. They will then say, "No, you have only got what you have asked for."
Anything that the Coalition offers, the Government will put on the barometer and say that we are spending money that we do not have. If the Treasurer had acted judiciously and prudently he would have ensured that all New South Wales debt was retired, debt racked up over many years by the Wran Government that we inherited. Only the prudential management of the former Coalition Government gave this State a triple-A rating, which ensured equity across the State. A procession of Ministers has told us that the Government is doing wonderful things in the Coffs Harbour electorate, such as fast-tracking the pipeline from Nymboida to Coffs Harbour to improve the water supply. Government members do not realise that the people of the Coffs Harbour electorate know that the so-called fast-tracking is a falsehood. The pipeline was mooted and priced under the former Coalition Government.
When the Carr Labor Government came to office it put a two-year hold on all capital works in all country areas. As a result, the pipeline was put on the backburner. Consequently, the Coffs Harbour hospital was delayed. I have a letter to the editor that I can show anyone who is interested—I am sure that the Hon. Dr Refshauge would not be interested—in which the former Minister for Health promised to complete, furnish and occupy the new Coffs Harbour hospital by the end of the Government's first term in 1999. The hospital was not even started by the end of the Carr Labor Government's first term. The site identified by the former Coalition Government was eventually purchased after much haggling. The hospital and health service in the Coffs Harbour electorate cannot meet the needs of the population. Today 14 surgical beds remain closed, despite assurances from the current Minister for Health and the Premier that we would have a three-year budget for health so that we would know where to put the money.
Health services diminished because increased funding from the Minister for Health, as announced by the Premier, only made up the increase in staff wages under normal circumstances and award conditions for that period. Every time we have received or asked for a new service—I have screamed for services—we have ended up with a one-off allocation. When the Premier came to the Coffs Harbour electorate to launch the Federal campaign for the local Labor Party member he found $970,000 of unallocated funds. The chief executive officer, Mr Clout, tells us that his budget is poor, yet the Premier can find $970,0000 of unallocated funds to improve services at the Coffs Harbour Base Hospital. I am yet to see the balance sheet to determine whether that $970,000 was allocated. Before people move into the Coffs Harbour electorate they consider airport services, roads, rail and health. A large number of retired people reside in my electorate. People have been assured that there will be a new hospital.
However, people are not told that they cannot get their hips or knees replaced, or have their vascular surgery done, at the hospital. If people are unfortunate enough to have cancer and need chemotherapy, but have private health insurance, they are directed to go to Brisbane, Newcastle or North Shore Hospital. It is a disgrace. On Mr Clout's own admission, approximately $33 million flows from the Coffs Harbour area to Sydney. That means that $33 million per annum worth of services are provided to people from the Coffs Harbour electorate in Sydney. I am the first one to admit that that $33 million could not be returned 100 per cent. Heart surgery and other major surgery cannot be performed in our hospital, even though it is a level five hospital and it has two operating theatres—neither of which has been opened since the hospital opened during the last Federal campaign. But let us assume that a little more than one-third of the money could stay in Sydney. In fact, we could leave $15 million in Sydney to provide the services we need at major teaching hospitals.
At least $18 million of services go to the bone, hip and joint replacement clinic at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Last night I noted that the honourable member for Maitland referred to the proposed hip and joint replacement clinic for Newcastle. That is commendable. But give us the funding so that our orthopaedic surgeons, who spend 80 per cent of their allocation on trauma surgery, can perform more elective surgery. The waiting list for elective surgery at Port Macquarie hospital is about 1,400. In Coffs Harbour it is about 400. Because of the way the health dollar is directed within the Mid North Coast Area Health Service, patients are directed to Port Macquarie. Somewhere between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of orthopaedic surgery in Coffs Harbour is elective, and 70 per cent to 80 per cent of it is trauma. In Port Macquarie 20 per cent to 30 per cent of orthopaedic surgery is trauma, and 70 per cent to 80 per cent of it is elective.
The waiting list in Port Macquarie reflects that people from Coffs Harbour, Macksville, Kempsey, Grafton and Dorrigo are on the waiting list. We cannot attract orthopaedic and other surgeons to the Coffs Harbour health campus as they now call it, but it is a base hospital, because they cannot be assured of elective surgery. We cannot provide that service because funding is not available. I implore the Minister for Health to come to my electorate for a day. We will not tell the media about it. I will write to the doctors and, on the quiet, we will ask the people on the waiting list to talk to the Minister. We will see whether we can get through his steely exterior so that he might provide us with a real increase in recurrent funding to provide the health services my electorate needs and deserves. The Treasurer made great noises in the Budget Speech about mental health facilities at Coffs Harbour Base Hospital. But what the Treasurer did not tell us was that we have now opened 19 beds out of 30, which means that 11 beds in that convalescent unit remain closed. Nurses are walking away from the hospital in droves because they are far too stressed. Horror stories come out of there day in and day out.
Last weekend Mrs Burley, a 94-year-old woman from Dorrigo, found that she had a blood clot in her leg. She was taken to Dorrigo hospital, where she was told that she could not be taken to Coffs Harbour hospital because it has no vascular surgeon because there is no budget allocation. She could not be taken to Armidale because it did not have funding to complete the operation. Port Macquarie could not do it because it was booked out. Mrs Burley, who was in extreme agony but who was given every care and attention from the people at Coffs Harbour and Dorrigo hospitals, died on Sunday. Anyone would consider 94 to be a good innings, but no-one should have to die in agony because a vascular surgeon could not be accessed within an hour's drive of the person's home. It is an absolute disgrace. I call on the Minister to apologise to her family, who are extremely distressed that such a grand lady could not get the service she needed because of a lack of funding and attention by this Government.
I note that the Hon. Harry Woods, under the auspices of the Department of Regional Development, will give Coffs Harbour City Council $25,000 on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Coffs Harbour City Council said, "We will take it." The council will use that money to try to attract more specialists to Coffs Harbour. It is a political move. We have a Labor mayor, and I would suggest a majority Labor council, which will waste $50,000 trying to attract services. The $50,000 would go a long way if it were put into elective surgery at Coffs Harbour, rather than put into a shopfront-type activity to try to attract new services to Coffs Harbour. The one thing that will attract new services—such as more ear, nose and throat specialists, vascular surgeons and orthopaedic surgeons—is money.
Give us money and we can provide the service. Open up the closed beds and operating theatres and the doctors will put their hands up to come to a magnificent area to service the people that are already there. I was told yesterday by Cactus, a fellow from Macksville who I think is a life member of the North Coast surf life saving association, that he has to travel from Macksville to Coffs Harbour for dialysis treatment because he cannot be given that treatment at Macksville hospital. Macksville hospital is not in my area; it comes under the network of Coffs Harbour Base Hospital. He told me that up to five patients a week travel by ambulance to Coffs Harbour hospital from Macksville to receive dialysis. The cost of this service, I am led to believe, is in the vicinity of $7,000 a week. That is a great deal of money. Rather than spending it on ambulance services it should be put into a dialysis unit at Macksville.
The outflows—the air ambulances, the Isolated Patients Travel and Assistance Scheme payments—involve money over and above the $33 million that is going down to Sydney. It is an added cost. I have asked the Minister to have a good look at Mr Clout's operations. I think they are fairly inefficient, with the outflows to Sydney involving a 10 per cent to 15 per cent wastage. Health funding should be more transportable. Money should be given back to the people of Coffs Harbour and put into Coffs Harbour Base Hospital so that people can receive the service they need. It would be cheaper for NSW Health and there would be less stress on patients. I know that both the Parliamentary Secretary at the table and you, Mr Deputy-Speaker, can relate to this problem directly. Imagine having to tell your wife—or mine—when she had cancer, "You toddle off to Sydney for your chemotherapy and leave your children and your loved ones where they are. When you have had two weeks of chemo come home for two weeks and then go and get another dose—whatever the treatment for that type of cancer is." The stress of that on a cancer patient is absolutely unforgivable.
We need extra funding. The Minister had a crack at me by claiming that I did not want the extra cataract operations in the area. I do, but I want the money to be spent where it is most needed, to ensure that people have quality of life and the health care that they deserve in my electorate. I do not believe this is being provided properly under Mr Clout's administration. The Minister should bring a performance audit team to the area and have a good look at the way the money is being spent within the whole of the North Coast Area Health Service. Across the whole of the area I am told that when there is a problem a nurse with a clipboard is employed. They do not employ a clinician; they employ someone who knows the system and who knows how to provide excuses back to the general public, the local member and the Minister to ensure that the issue goes away.
People know that if they come to me as the local member and I rattle cages in the right way they can be bumped up the waiting list. That is a bit sad. In effect, my office is becoming a de facto booking office for elective surgery in the Coffs Harbour area. That is not good enough. The one thing that will fix the problem is a genuine increase in funding to people in the Coffs Harbour electorate. We need a genuine increase, not only one to cover the increase in wages. We are the second-lowest funded health service in regional New South Wales, yet we have one of the fastest-growing populations. Many retired people who have moved to the area have medical conditions. We welcome them; they add to the great lifestyle in Coffs Harbour. But they should bring funding with them or the funding should be adequate to give us per capita equity. Last night I heard the honourable member for Newcastle and you, Mr Deputy-Speaker, saying that at long last the Newcastle area has some equity in health funding. We do not have the per capita funding that you have. [Extension of time agreed to.]
A fairly large percentage of the increase in health funding will go to other areas in New South Wales to fund elective surgery for patients from electorates such as mine. John Hunter Hospital provides fine services—some are absolutely brilliant. Two young friends of mine were airlifted to that hospital not long ago as a result of a car accident. They received first-class treatment at John Hunter Hospital. I commend the nurses and other staff of that hospital and the staff at Coffs Harbour hospital as well. But let us make their life a little better by giving them the equity in funding that they deserve as health professionals, because they are not getting it now.
Pursuant to sessional orders business interrupted.