Month of Silence on Queensland Health Funding Cuts

Published Sunday, 07 April, 2013 at 03:51 PM

Minister for Health
The Honourable Lawrence Springborg

Today marks exactly one month since a bipartisan Senate Committee recommended the Federal Labor Government return, “as a matter of urgency”, $103 million that was cut from Queensland health funding, yet neither Treasurer Wayne Swan or Prime Minister Julia Gillard have yet bothered to respond to the recommendations.

Media Note: Senate Committee’s Recommendations are at the end of this media release.

Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said the Federal Government’s snap cuts, which took effect in December, were having a major impact on the morale of Queensland Health staff and jeopardising patient services.

“This report handed down one month ago on 7th March, made it crystal clear that the Federal Government’s health funding cuts to Queensland needed to be reversed urgently," Mr Springborg said.

"But instead of being focused on the health of Queenslanders, Labor has been focused on itself."

Mr Springborg also condemned Queensland Union bosses who continued to sell-out their own members by remaining silent on the Gillard Government health cuts in a bid to put the job security of Labor politicians ahead of the job security of health workers.

He said the extent of the Federal Government's cuts had been so dramatic that even the Greens Senator on the bipartisan parliamentary committee had demanded Queensland’s $103 million be returned.

“To put it into perspective, a $103 million cut over a six month period is equivalent to the salaries of almost 2000 nurses," he said.

"That is what Federal Labor has cut from the Queensland health budget and that is what Federal Labor has been told to put back into our budget by the bipartisan Senate Committee."

Mr Springborg called on the Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan to immediately respond and enact the Senate Committee recommendations that included:

  1. The committee recommends that as a matter of urgency, the Commonwealth reinstate funding to states and territories cut retrospectively for the years 2011–12 and 2012–13 that were announced with the release of the MYEFO in October 2012.

  1. The committee recommends at the Commonwealth immediately desist from attempts to bypass existing arrangements and the National Health Funding Pool to fund hospitals directly, as this will simply lead to additional compliance burdens for public hospitals, likely leading to a diversion of resources from patients.

     3.  The committee recommends that the Commonwealth commit to not undertaking retrospective funding cuts of this nature in the future. It is inevitable that any so-called funding adjustments for past years will have a substantial impact on patients as it is impossible to effectively reduce treatment levels when health services have already been performed.

[ENDS] 7 April 2012

Media Contact: Clare Mildren 0417 255 284