Castlereagh Community Hall, Castlereagh - 11th March 2007

Thank you for your welcome.

It’s great to be here in Castlereagh, in this great old community building.

When I come to places like this, I am reminded of the enduring Australian quality of community.

Places like these were built many years ago by people who were passionate about the new life they were creating in their community,  often using their own very limited resources and their own hands, to provide the facilities their families needed.

They were often war veterans. We owe them much for the work they did when they returned home to build the Australia we enjoy today.

And we owe them much for the values they established, and made uniquely Australian through their example.   

They worked hard, took responsibility for their own lives, their families and their community, and expected others to do the same. They understood that nothing happened unless you got out there and made it happen.

They didn’t wait around expecting others to do it for them.

In the various roles in which I have served, I’ve drawn inspiration from these men and women.

We must continue to build a great Australian community. A community that exists at every level, whether swelling in pride or grieving in sorrow at moments of national  significance, or at a local level, enjoying moments together, pulling together when times are difficult or simply building communities.

Our Liberal team in Western Sydney understands this.

And yesterday I joined them in a graffiti clean up across Western Sydney, beginning at Moorebank, then Macquarie Fields, where I saw this community spirit alive and well. Communities working together to create a better way of life for them and their families.

So it’s great to be joined by our Liberal Western Sydney team here today - Tricia Hitchen for Penrith, Bart Bassett for Londonderry, Kevin Conolly for Riverstone, Ray Williams for Hawkesbury,  Karen Chijoff for Mulgoa and Michael Paag candidate for Blue Mountains.

And they are joined today by our extended Liberal Western Sydney family, Jackie Kelly, Kerry Bartlett, Louise Markus and Marise Payne.

If you have any doubt about what our Liberal team of candidates can achieve for Western Sydney, then you need look no further than these Federal Members.

They have earned the trust and respect of their community by listening and delivering from day one. Our team will do the same.

I also want to thank Jillian for her introduction, and more importantly her tireless efforts as Shadow Minister for Health.

It is Jillian who has, probably more than any other Shadow Minister, witnessed first hand the devastating impacts of what Labor has done to the people and families of this state.

It is Jillian who has championed the rights and welfare of patients, victims and frontline workers in our public health system - nurses, doctors, ambulance officers and the list goes on.

She has stood alongside them, she has comforted them, she has shared their confidences, she has fought for them and she has got results.

I said last week that NSW Police have no greater friend than Peter Debnam – it’s true.

Well, when it comes to health, people and families in NSW and the frontline workers in our health system have no greater friend than Jillian Skinner.

Just imagine what Jillian Skinner will achieve when she becomes the Minister for Health if we are elected on March 24, now that’s a change worth voting for.

Friends, today I want to talk about what we need to do to fix our health system.

People and families want to have confidence that in their time of greatest vulnerability and most desperate need, when they or a family member are ill and in need of care, that they will get that world class care.

Our public hospitals and our health system are a State Government responsibility.

There is nowhere to run and no place to hide for Morris Iemma and NSW Labor on health.

And over 12 years, more so than in any other portfolio, this is where Labor has demonstrated that they have had long enough.

12 years ago Bob Carr said that if he was elected, he would halve waiting lists or resign.

He did neither.

12 years later there were almost 53,000 people on our waiting lists – over 8000 more than when Labor was first elected 12 years ago. And when Morris Iemma was Health Minister there were between 59,000 and 65,000 people on the list, a new Labor record.

I could quote more statistics, such as the fact that we have 15% less beds in NSW hospitals than we did twelve years ago, but health is not about statistics.

Health is about people.

It’s about families. It’s about children. It’s about the elderly. It’s about the disadvantaged. It’s about people who need care.

From the point of view of delivering better services, it’s about the people who give that care, the nurses, the doctors, the ambulance officers, the counselors.

The people who give care must get the resources they need, so the people who need care, can receive it.

We MUST get resources to the frontline of our health system. This is what OUR health policy is all about.

This is what Jillian Skinner has been fighting for, for 12 years.

And this is what the Carr-Iemma Labor Government has failed to deliver in NSW for 12 years.

This MUST change.

We have already announced a series of major policies to deal with the problems in our health system.

And in each case, our changes are about getting resources to the front line for our nurses and doctors in our hospitals, a frontline that has been starved by Labor’s bloated health bureaucracy.

In 2004, when Morris Iemma was Labor’s Health Minister, salary payments for administrative staff in our health system had almost doubled since 1997 – an increase of around 95%, while administrative expenses increased by more than 140%.

But during the same time, the budget for nurses salaries had only increased by 56%.

We have said we will commit $207 million over four years to bring more than 500 nurses back into the system.

And this is in addition to the 1200 nursing vacancies that Labor has been unable to fill.

That’s right, we want to employ MORE nurses, NOT less, as Labor would have you believe from their dishonest advertising.

It is Labor who have been unable to employ nurses in our public health system.

Last year around one in three, registered and enrolled nurses in NSW actually worked in our public health system.

We have also committed an additional $208 million to dental health, to reduce dental treatment waiting lists, employ more dental and para dental clinicians and increase the salaries for dental professionals in the public system.

That’s right, MORE people working in the frontline of dental health, NOT less as Labor would have you believe.

We will deliver higher standards and better services in our public hospitals to reduce the rate of hospital acquired infections, where you currently have a one in twenty chance of falling victim, by retaining the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission and committing $80 million to improve quality and risk management systems in our hospitals. 

And we have set aside $396 million above Labor’s commitments, to convert our mental health system from one of crisis, to one based on early intervention, rehabilitation and recovery.

And we will review and reform the Mental Health Act and appoint a dedicated Minister for Mental Health to make sure it happens.

Mothers and Babies will also get our support.

Around 85,000 babies are born every year in NSW.

These children are a gift and blessing to every parent and to our community.

In January, I announced as part of a $23 million maternity package, a $6 million commitment to reopen the Birthing Centre at Nepean Hospital,  as a Centre of Excellence in Midwifery. 

This announcement also included funding for a Women’s Health program in Nowra and the Central Coast and increased funding support for Early Childhood centres.

And for country families, we announced $30 million to maintain existing obstetrics units, surgical and anesthetic services, as well as reopening maternity units in smaller country hospitals.

And there are two other announcements we have made that I’m sure the people who have sat in this community hall over the years would agree with.

We have said that we want communities to have a greater say about the quality of health care in their local areas.

That’s why we will establish District Health Boards and abolish Morris Iemma’s decision, while Minister for Health, to centralize all power in eight faceless regional health bureaucracies.

It’s time communities had a say, and a role, in the quality of health services in their local areas again – and we will deliver it. 

Because when you stop listening to the community, and become captive  to a faceless bureaucracy, that is when you make bad decisions, like Labor’s pre Christmas decision to abolish community based NRMA Careflight and Westpac Lifesaver helicopter services,  and hand the contract over to a foreign commercial operator, an operator that works for profit.

Bart Bassett was a founding pilot with Childflight and understands the value of  NRMA Careflight and Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter services.

I’m proud to have Bart on our team.

And I’m pleased to say to Bart and all the heroes of Careflight and Lifesaver Helicopter services, and all the families who have benefited from their efforts, and everyone in the community who has supported their efforts, that we WILL reverse Morris Iemma’s decision to sack Careflight.

But today there is still more we need to do to fix our health system.

Everyone knows the public hospital system is broken. The fact that it functions at all is due solely to the dedication of exceptional people -  doctors, nurses and other health workers willing to endure conditions that are frankly unacceptable by modern standards.

That’s why today I announce that the NSW Liberal/Nationals will commit a further $335 million over four years to boost frontline health services to unblock Emergency Departments and reduce elective surgery waiting lists.

This package includes:

.. $200 million towards the provision of up to additional 200 hospital ward beds to facilitate quicker admission for patients through Emergency Departments and into wards.

.. $50 million towards six dedicated ‘After Hours’ elective surgery operating theatres. These will be established at Westmead, St George, Royal North Shore, John Hunter, Tamworth and Orange Hospitals

.. $40 million to provide additional incentives for doctors and theatre staff to keep these ‘After Hours’ Theatres open and operating.

.. $45 million towards an additional 20,000 elective surgery procedures.

And that’s right, this policy will be funded by cutting expenditure on waste and duplication within the bureaucracy.  Including ..

..  a reduction in expenditure on advertising and consultants,

.. a recruitment freeze on Sydney bureaucrats,

.. and a reduction in State Government Departments and agencies from around 33 to 9.

Unlike Labor, we will transfer resources from the Sydney backroom bureaucracy to the frontline of our nurses to boost services and start fixing NSW.

Ladies and Gentlemen, at this election there is clear choice,

.. if you want more Sydney bureaucrats, vote Labor,

.. if you want more nurses, teachers and police, vote Liberal or National to fix NSW.

If Labor is re-elected on March 24, NOTHING will change, and that is NOT good news for NSW, especially for the 31,000 patients who waited too long to be seen in our Emergency Departments, around 20% of emergency patients waiting more than 8 hours to be admitted to hospitals.

 Let’s not forget, Morris Iemma is running a dishonest campaign.

Morris Iemma believes it’s a risk to elect someone in NSW who has experience outside politics.

Of course he would – he has had NO experience outside politics.

Morris Iemma and Labor have put up a sign at this State election, ‘People with real life experience NEED NOT APPLY’.

‘Small Business Owners NEED NOT APPLY’

‘Nurses and police NEED NOT APPLY’

‘People who have served in the Defence Forces, NEED NOT APPLY’

But these are the candidates you will see from the Liberals at this election, especially here in Western Sydney.

Real life experience is exactly what this state needs. We need real people to fix real problems in NSW.

As this campaign continues Morris Iemma is becoming increasingly cocky by the day. Just imagine how cocky he and Labor will be if they win this election – and even worse win easily.

And if re-elected, he will re-appoint Michael Costa, Joe Tripodi and Frank Sartor to continue making the decisions that will affect your future for another four years.

This election is your opportunity to get your message through to Labor about our hospitals. Because there will be no opportunity afterwards, if Labor wins.

Because if Labor is rewarded on March 24, then Labor will return to ignoring the concerns of people and families in this state on health once more. Just as they have for the past twelve years.

You know it’s true. Because you have been living with Labor’s disasters for the past twelve years.

But if you do want change. And if you do want Labor to get the message that you want change, then you must vote Liberal or National at this election.

Even if you have never voted for Liberal or Nationals in your life.

At this election, it’s time to send Labor that message. It’s time to tell Labor that they can no longer ignore your concerns.  It’s time to tell Labor that you want change, especially in our health system.

It’s time to tell Labor that after 12 years, it’s time to fix NSW. It won’t happen any other way.

After twelve years, Labor’s had long enough. It’s time to fix NSW.

So on March 24, don’t reward Labor. Vote Liberal or National to fix NSW.