Tuesday 30 April 2019 The Speaker, Ms Hickey, took the Chair at 10 a.m., acknowledged the Traditional People and said Prayers. LEAVE OF ABSENCE Member for Franklin - Ms O'Connor [10.03 a.m.] Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin) - Madam Speaker, I inform members that the Greens Leader, Cassy O'Connor, has had the sad loss of her dear beloved mother. As she is interstate looking after her family and extended family she will not be in parliament this week. This is the first time that Ms O'Connor, the Leader of the Greens, has not been in parliament in her parliamentary career. We have advised you, Madam Speaker, of this situation and also written to the Government and the Opposition and requested a pair arrangement on compassionate grounds for Ms O'Connor's vote on the floor of the parliament. I am very grateful to say that both the Government and the Opposition have agreed to a pairing arrangement where a pair would be granted on a vote-by-vote basis at which time we would indicate how the Greens would be voting. If the Government was against us on the vote we would seek a pair from the Government. If the Labor Party was against us on a vote we would seek a pair from the Labor Party. In the instance of a situation where both the Government and the Labor Party voted against the Greens then we would only be seeking one vote as a pair. I thank members for the supportive comments that they have already made through me to Ms O'Connor. I am sure we all look forward to seeing her back in parliament. Madam SPEAKER - Thank you, Dr Woodruff. On behalf of the parliament we pass on our condolences to the Leader of the Greens. Members - Hear, hear. QUESTIONS Hospitals - Bed Capacity Ms WHITE question to MINISTER for HEALTH, Mr FERGUSON [10.05 a.m.] Last week an extraordinary letter written by Royal Hobart Hospital Emergency Department registrars was leaked to the media. This was unprecedented action by frontline workers who saw no other option after five years of you, as Health minister, refusing to listen. One of the most tragic revelations in that letter was that people are dying at hospital unnecessarily because there are simply not enough beds. The registrars wrote: There have been abundant cases of direct patient injury and death resulting from access block. We can provide as many examples as desired. 1 30 April 2019 Do you accept the advice of health professionals on the front line that people are dying when they should not be? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I acknowledge the question from the Leader of the Opposition. This Government has been working very, very hard to support our staff and to support our patients in our community to get the access that we believe they deserve. We strongly stand by the clinical and expert advice to us as we have every year since this Government has been elected by the people of Tasmania to rebuild our health system after the savage cuts the previous government had wrought. We have made inroads and significant progress. We have opened significant extra bed capacity, so much so that this Government is at times criticised by Ms White for the over-capacity protocol, which has been developed by clinicians. We certainly do not quarrel or argue with the experts on risks in our health system where people cannot get timely access to care. That is why we are so committed to solutions. I invite the Leader of the Opposition and her colleagues in the Labor Party to stop playing the blame game and provide support for people to work together. We are interested only in helping our staff to meet the extraordinary demand they are confronted with. On the evidence, the Government wants to take risk out of our health system. We can do that as we have by opening those 130 additional beds. We can do that, as we did last December at the proactive suggestion, the constructive suggestion, of the AMA to provide more direct support to those clinicians facing that high demand in the emergency department, which we did by providing $5 million. Despite the pressures they are facing, the advice I had as recently as last Friday was that that support is helping. With the extraordinary increase in demand, which I remind people is the reality that we face, a 21 per cent increase in the last three years - Members interjecting. Mr FERGUSON - If I may be just allowed to continue. Madam SPEAKER - Order, please. Mr FERGUSON - With the extraordinary increase of 21 per cent increase in demand at the Royal Hobart Hospital, specifically at the ED, we need to support our staff. That is exactly what we are doing. We look forward to working even more constructively, particularly through our partnership with the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine. They want to work together constructively. We met last Friday. We are going to have a formal meeting in June where it will be a broad-based invitation for people who want to work together constructively so that we can avoid situations where people are waiting too long for care that we believe they should receive. The Government is committed to supporting our staff and allowing them to support our patients as best they can. I will ask the Leader of the Opposition to be sensitive to the fact that you should not be individually bringing up cases that you know are before the Coroner. I note that you have not done that today, but you have done that outside of this House. The Coroner has a role to perform and you should not try to interfere with that. 2 30 April 2019 In terms of this Government, I will conclude where I started. We have made significant inroads into improving our health system. We have brought significant extra funding to our health system. We have employed 800 more people to care for those extra 130 people each and every day that we can now provide care to. There is much more in front of us to do. That is why my mode of operation will be to continue to listen - Ms White - The doctors are wrong? Mr FERGUSON - No, do not assert that. I have never said that. This Government does not say that. You cannot assert that from the sidelines where you throw your rocks. We listen to our doctors and nurses. We respect their opinion and we respond to them with the extra support and there will be more to come. Hospitals - Capacity to Provide Services Ms WHITE question to MINISTER for HEALTH, Mr FERGUSON [10.10 a.m.] When you took on the health portfolio in 2014, you declared the health system was broken. Five years later, health professionals say the situation in the health system has never been worse. Patients are being forced to wait for days on end in the emergency department and people are dying needlessly because there simply are no beds. If the system was broken then, how would you describe it now? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her second question. We certainly did inherit a basket case. I thank the member for acknowledging that. It was a mess. You are again looking backwards. We need to be looking forward. If you are asking me how I would describe the health system today, I would say it is under significant pressure in our emergency departments. That is very clear. Members interjecting. Mr FERGUSON - You do not appear to be interested in the answer, but you asked the question, so allow me to answer it. The EDs are under significant pressure. With a 21 per cent increase in the number of people looking for care through our emergency departments, we want to expand capacity and improve people's access. Every other state has the same pressures that we are experiencing. This is not a new problem, nor is it a unique problem. I meet with other state health ministers. We confront the same challenges. It was precisely this point that Professor Burgess made yesterday in response to Labor's continued chants to change the health minister. They will not heed the fact that the Government was returned and the Labor Party did not win the last election. The AMA made the point that there is significant chronic illness in the community and significant increase in acuity of care conditions that require emergency care. Emergency patients require ward beds. 3 30 April 2019 It is clear from the questions and the behaviour opposite, that Labor is not interested in solutions. We are. That is why we are getting on with the job. Community Safety and Protection - Legislation Mr TUCKER question to PREMIER, Mr HODGMAN [10.12 a.m.] Can you update the House on the majority Hodgman Liberal Government's plan to keep Tasmanians safe and ensure criminals face the consequences of their crime? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. This side of the House believes very strongly in ensuring that we do all we can to provide for Tasmanians to live safely in their communities and free from the impacts of crime. Protecting our communities is and has always been a pillar of our plan and a top priority of this Government. We have been very clear in our position at successive elections. Having been to previous elections and budgeted for a number of important initiatives and moved to pass laws in this place to do that, there can be no doubt about what we stand for and how serious we have been about this matter.