Swan must reinstate his treacherous cuts to Queensland hospitals
26th February, 2013
Federal Member for Wide Bay, Warren Truss, has today called on the Gillard Labor Government to immediately reinstate the $103 million it has cut from Queensland hospitals, as it now plans to do in Victoria.“If it is good enough for Victoria, it is good enough for Queensland. The Federal Government must reverse its funding cut to Queensland hospitals and restore the money taken from hard pressed hospitals in the electorate of Wide Bay,” Mr Truss said.
“The patients at hospitals in the Wide Bay electorate at Maryborough, Gympie, Murgon and Noosa should not have to miss out on surgery and suffer from the ill-conceived cuts that are being imposed by the Gillard Labor Government to fund its self created budget crisis.”
The funding cut to Queensland hospitals for 2012-13 is $103 million and will add up to $381 million over three years. It has been estimated that Labor’s funding cut for this year amounts to the salaries of up to 2,000 front line Queensland Health employees, including nurses.
“Labor’s Treasurer Wayne Swan, took a scalpel to hospital budgets across the nation. However, he was forced into performing an embarrassing back flip in Victoria, where the Federal Health Minister has now indicated that the funding will be restored.
“Mr Swan is a Queenslander. He knows that after nearly two decades of mismanagement under the former Beattie and Bligh Labor Governments that our State can ill-afford his cuts to the Queensland hospital budgets. His move is treacherous to his own State, made even more obvious by Labor’s reversal in Victoria,” Mr Truss said.
The Federal Labor Government blamed a fall in Queensland’s population for the cut to the State’s hospital budget, saying that it had fallen by 35,000 people, but the Bureau of Statistics says Queensland’s population has actually increased by 67,000 people.
“With threats of imminent job losses in local health services, Mr Swan must now restore the funding that is due to Queensland’s hospitals,” Mr Truss said.
