STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE ON LIFE SUPPORT
When it comes to winning the next state election, the key issues of ambulance ramping, ineffective juvenile justice laws and integrity will determine the outcome
THERE are several key issues that will determine the outcome of the next state election and hosting the Logies and the premiere of Hollywood blockbuster movies on the Gold Coast is, sadly for the Palaszczuk government, not among them.
Nevertheless, the Palaszczuk government should be applauded for its commitment to making the Gold Coast a beacon for movie and TV production.
It is a solid fiscal outlay and a reflection of premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s commitment to making the Gold Coast the entertainment capital of Australia.
But when it comes to winning the next election in October, 2024, there are three issues that will define whether LNP leader David Crisafulli, the Broadwater MP, becomes Queensland’s next premier.
The first is health. The fact that the Labor government announced record funding of $23.9bn towards health at last Tuesday’s budget shows how badly the ramping crisis is hurting the government.
Ambulance ramping is so bad in Queensland that it is now the worst in the country. South Australian voters kicked Liberal premier Steven Marshall out for his inability to get ambulance ramping under control and Queensland’s problem is far worse than that experienced in South Australia.
The government doesn’t have the ticker, the ability or the factional will to rein in its union-led Ministerial duds.
Here’s what Australian Medical Association president Maria Boulton told the Today Show this week:
“The (Queensland health system) is on life support. I was in a large emergency department on Monday and there were people ramped all through the hallways. There were 10 ambulances waiting ramped in the carpark, and there was a lady who’d had a stroke who had been waiting for 23 hours to access a bed in the hospital. So you’re right. The system is on life support. What we heard yesterday was that our call for increased hospital beds has been answered. There’s going to be a huge investment to increase the beds across the state over the next six years. So we’re getting more than 2,500 beds, which is great news. However, we’re a little bit disappointed with the spend over the next 12 months. The budget was increased, but it’s really increased by 5.6 per cent only, which is really just above the inflation rate. We would’ve liked to have seen more just to address the urgent needs that we have now.’’
Host Allyson Langdon: Can I just go back to what you just explained in our hospitals there and just what you saw? Was that yesterday, I think you said? Is that out of the ordinary?
Dr Bolton: “No. It used to be. It used to be. And there were times before Covid that hospitals were like that, but it’s getting like that more and more often. And I was speaking to a consultant there and she said that the worst time she’d ever had was two weeks ago where the ambulances were lined up outside the hospital and around the corner. So it’s getting worse and worse. It’s getting to the point where staff used to be placed on call just in case they needed to come in. Nowadays, whenever they’re placed on call, they just assume that they’re going to be working because they’re going to be very busy.’’
Now, Labor has been trying to fix this problem since 2015. They can’t. The unions won’t let them. And that’s bad news for Labor candidates going around in 2024.
Both the LNP and Labor know that health is the top issue for voters at a state level and with Anthony Albanese in Canberra, Ms Palaszczuk won’t be blaming the feds for the health woes.
She will try to blame former LNP premier Campbell Newman (she blames him for everything), but under Lawrence Springborg as Health Minister, ramping under the LNP from 2012-2015 was at historically low levels.
The other major issues are Labor’s ineffective juvenile justice laws, which leads to soft sentencing for teenage thugs, and integrity.
On juvenile justice laws, the public have had enough. Even hardened Labor voters want changes to ensure, for example, the thug that killed Kate Leadbetter and Matt Field on Australia Day last year in Brisbane, drunk and stoned behind the wheel of a stolen car, gets more than six years’ jail.
If the government doesn’t change the breach of bail laws, voters will change the government. Unfortunately for Labor MPS, the government won’t change the laws because the left faction won’t allow it.
On integrity, people who understand politics and value their vote, know that this government is less than transparent, and it lacks accountability.
No amount of reviews into public service dysfunctionality and culture will change the errant ways of Ministerial offices dealing with departmental staff.
Again, the government doesn’t have the ticker, the ability or the factional will to rein in its union-led Ministerial duds.
This all adds up to another two years of pain for Queenslanders before they get the chance to throw this mob out, once and for all.
You could even write a Hollywood script on it. Eat your heart out Baz Luhrmann.