It’s D-Day for health and Mr Rudd prepares to break another election promise
30th June, 2009
Kevin Rudd is on the verge of breaking yet another election promise, this time dumping his pledge to take over the running of the public hospital system from the States.“In Opposition, Mr Rudd told the nation that 30 June 2009 was the deadline to fix our 750 public hospitals,” said the Leader of The Nationals, Warren Truss.
“After that date, he said ‘the buck stops with me’, and if there was no improvement he would propose a takeover of the ramshackle public hospital system via a referendum. This was the core promise of all core promises.
“It is now obvious that Mr Rudd never had any intention of making good on that pledge.
“Under any comparison, Australia’s public hospital system – particularly in the regions – is now in worse shape than it was in 2007.
“New figures released this month show the median waiting time for elective surgery continues to get worse – 20 percent worse than five years ago. In New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania, the number of waiting list procedures performed has actually declined over the past year. An extra 30,000 people were admitted to hospital because of inadequate out of hospital care. Waiting times for those waiting patiently in line continue to increase.
“Apart from the promise on health, Rudd Labor came to office promising to cut the price of petrol and groceries and reduce banking fees. He has failed on all of them.
“The Federal Government will apparently receive the findings of yet another review into this issue today. I expect it will be used by the Federal Government to squib on the promise. I also predict it will be used by Mr Rudd to blame the Coalition for State Labor’s mess, even though in many states the Coalition has not been in power for a decade or more.
“The Federal Coalition has a different approach. We will work with the states to re-establish local hospital boards, where local people make the decisions about what happens in their local hospital and ensure we get the services we need,” Mr Truss said.
