Wednesday 2 May 2018 The Speaker, Ms Hickey, took the Chair at 10 a.m., acknowledged the Traditional People, and read Prayers. QUESTIONS Royal Hobart Hospital - Emergency Department Issues Ms WHITE question to PREMIER, Mr HODGMAN [10.02 a.m.] Did you know that yesterday there were 63 patients stuck in the emergency department at the Royal Hobart Hospital, patients were being treated in three corridors, and there were 10 ambulances ramped? This is bad for patients and bad for stressed staff. If anything, it looks like this winter will be worse than last winter. Why was the hospital not escalated to level 4, as staff were asking for? Was there political pressure not to escalate due to the parliament resuming? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the question but would cast a very healthy level of scepticism over any suggestions from her as to what this Government might do other than ensure we get on with the job of delivering on our record level of investment and commitments that will go to delivering the health service, which is improving under our Government and that we promised in the election. That is what we are focusing on. We recognise that there are pressures on the health system. That is why, with our budget back in balance, we have been able to commit a record amount over the last four years, $7 billion in the last budget and $750 million, to boost our efforts to improve the health system Tasmanians need. We will need to not only build the health system and the infrastructure to support it - Members interjecting. Madam SPEAKER - Order. Mr HODGMAN - but employ more staff and, importantly, almost three brand-new beds are to be opened. That will help us relieve pressures in the hospital. Madam SPEAKER - With due respect, Premier, I am standing as I would like this parliament to start its second day with decorum. Please allow the Premier to continue his answer. Mr HODGMAN - Thank you. We are endeavouring to get on with the job of delivering our election commitments. The $689 million redevelopment of the Royal Hobart Hospital is on track, on time and on budget. We rescued that project. It was promised by successive Labor and Labor- Green governments. They did not lay a single brick on that important redevelopment, yet they have the gall - Mr O'BYRNE - Point of order - standing order 45 on relevance. It was a clear question being asked on whether he knew the circumstances of the Royal Hobart Hospital yesterday. He has not gone close to answering that. We ask him to answer that. 1 2 May 2018 Mr HODGMAN - Speaking of relevance, talk about the relevance deprivation disorder the member who was last on his feet has had for the last four years. With respect to the operational matters that take place at the hospital, there may be some that are within the knowledge of the Health minister. I am certainly not aware of the matters that were asserted by the Leader of the Opposition. What I do know is that we are investing more than ever before into our health system. We are fixing a broken system that we inherited from a Labor-Greens government and we are determined to get on with the job of giving Tasmanians what they need, and that is a good health system and not engaging in simple political games, which is all you have brought back after four years. Housing Issues Ms WHITE question to PREMIER, Mr HODGMAN [10.06 a.m.] This morning there is a very visual example of your Government's failure to invest in housing, with the tent city moving to Parliament Lawns. Your population strategy failed to plan for increased demand for housing. In fact, your Government has cut investment in affordable housing by $45.6 million. ABS statistics show that last financial year dwelling approvals fell by 8 per cent and residential building work dropped by $60 million. Do you agree with your new Housing minister, Roger Jaensch, that your Government has been caught napping? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the question. The fact is we are well aware of housing stress in various respects in our community. We are very conscious of the extraordinary rate of growth in our economy that has happened over the last four years of a majority Liberal government that is leading to population growth for the first time in a long time. Under the Labor-Greens government our population actually went backwards. There was net interstate migration. Our population is now growing at the fastest rate in seven years. We are experiencing growth in the number of tourists that are coming to our state. Members interjecting. Madam SPEAKER - Order. Mr HODGMAN - International tourism for Tasmania is the strongest of any state in the country. There are more people in our communities. There are more people wanting to live here, invest here and confidently be part of a Tasmania that is growing. Ms White - You didn't plan for it. Mr HODGMAN - That is not true either. Our population strategy does indeed - Ms White - Talk to those people out there and tell them that. Mr HODGMAN - reflect the fact that it is important to - 2 2 May 2018 Madam SPEAKER - Order. I do not want this to be a day where I am jumping up and down every couple of minutes. Allow a bit of respectful debate. As I said, I do not mind a bit of robust banter but I am asking for a bit of respect when the Premier is speaking. Thank you. Mr HODGMAN - Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is a serious matter. We recognise that there is housing stress in various respects and we are dealing with that and have done for some time. To deny the fact that in the last term of government we delivered the Affordable Housing Strategy, which was warmly welcomed by the community sector and other key stakeholders as the most significant step in addressing housing stress, is farcical. That was what we did in the last term in government. What we propose to do and will do in this term of government is to increase our efforts even further. We are getting on with the job of fixing the problem. We recognise there are challenges and there is more to be done. We would not expect anything positive or constructive from members opposite. We wanted to engage the broader community to understand what we can best do together, government and the community, to support housing options for Tasmanians so we held a housing summit, which the Leader of the Opposition attended, presumably to make some sort of positive contribution, and surprisingly we found that she was prepared to endorse the recommendations and the outcomes of the summit. Someone must have got hold of her after the summit and said, 'No, that's not a good place for us to be. We don't want to be part of a solution, we're more comfortable being part of the problem.'. Since then the Leader of the Opposition has played no constructive role, nor indeed has her spokesperson on this, other than delight in the misery of people who have housing problems. Members interjecting. Mr HODGMAN - You are using them as political tools to advance your own agenda - Ms White - Shame on you. Mr HODGMAN - and cannot even come up with a single idea of your own, other than to tax vacant properties. Ms O'Byrne - That's offensive. Madam SPEAKER - Order. I am asking for a little respect on both sides, please. Mr HODGMAN - The one and only idea of the Labor Party is to tax vacant properties, but that speaks for itself. Our plan, which we have outlined, very sensibly addresses not only the size of the issue but the size of our government's commitment to address it. Political Donations [10.10 a.m.] Ms O'CONNOR question to PREMIER, Mr HODGMAN It is now two months since election day but Tasmanians have not forgotten. You allowed your party to be bought and paid for by the gambling industry, accepting cash and in-kind donations in the order of millions of dollars from vested interests. 3 2 May 2018 Why should Tasmanians have any confidence in a premier and a government that so gladly sold its soul to a predatory industry that destroys lives? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Greens for her question. I utterly refute every single assertion and suggestion she has made within it and would ask rhetorically, whether it is the case that when the Greens Party received donations that they have been bought, or the Labor Party through the union movement. It is so convenient that the holier than thou Greens claim that when any other political party receives the support of a constituency, an organisation or individuals who feel so compelled to be part of our democratic process that the so-called upholders of free speech, the Greens, complain. But no complaint came when they received a donation direct from a business person with an interest in Greens policy that was over $1 million dollars. Not a complaint then, but they come in now and assert that in some way have bought the election. That is arrogant and petulant because it says to the Tasmanian people that the Greens think they are stupid, that they do not know how to make a decision about the future of our state and its government.