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  4. 27 September 2006

Business of the House

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About this Item
SubjectsParliament: New South Wales; Rural Health; Birth
SpeakersStoner Mr Andrew; Scully Mr Carl; Speaker
BusinessBusiness of the House, Division, Motion


    BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
Page: 2402


    Reordering of General Business

    Mr ANDREW STONER (Oxley—Leader of The Nationals) [2.22 p.m.]: I move:

    That the General Notice of Motion [General Notice] given by me this day [Rural Health Services] have precedence on Thursday 28 September 2006.

    I seek precedence for this motion because after 12 years the Carr-Iemma Labor Government has created a third world health system in western New South Wales. This motion needs to be debated because despite repeated warnings the Premier has done nothing and we have now seen the human cost of his negligence. This motion needs to be debated because the Government has ignored all the warnings, including the Four Corners program earlier this year when a Cobar general practitioner stated:

    In terms of access to services, it definitely is third-world, there's no question of that … There aren't many places in Africa where you don't have access to a midwife. And I can tell you that in rural South Africa, there's better access to midwifery services and a caesar than there is in rural New South Wales at the moment.

    I seek precedence for the motion because Australia is a first world nation and there is simply no justification for one part of our society to live in third world conditions. There is an onus on every member of this House to ensure that New South Wales does not become a two-tiered society, with one level of services for country people and one for city people. I have told the House of the tragic case in which a Cobar mother lost her baby after being forced to give birth midflight, after the Government closed the maternity ward at Cobar. I have spoken of a Lightning Ridge mother who went into labour and a midwife could not be found for five hours. I have also told the House about the case in Dubbo in which a mother was asked to leave the Dubbo Base Hospital because of a desperate bed shortage eight hours after a complicated birth.

    That is why The Nationals have called for an urgent, independent inquiry into regional and rural health. More importantly, every member of this House, especially country-based members, should rise above party politics and support me on this issue. This motion needs to be debated because all I have heard from the so-called Country Labor faction has been dirty politics and scorn, like the honourable member for Murray-Darling, who blamed the crisis in rural health on the doctors when he told the Dubbo Daily Liberal that some doctors have unreasonable expectations. Shame on him! He is more interested in sticking up for a Premier, whose name he cannot pronounce, than standing up for his constituents. I know who is supporting this motion: country people. We want an inquiry now. [Time expired.]

    Mr CARL SCULLY (Smithfield—Minister for Police) [2.25 p.m.]: This is confected concern about rural health. A golden opportunity to hold the Government to account was the estimates process for the Health portfolio. Not one member of The Nationals turned up! There were two from Country Labor, because Country Labor treats this matter seriously. The Nationals did not bother to turn up. I am astonished at just how much the Government has done and is doing for rural and regional health. In this current financial year $3.46 billion will be spent in rural and regional New South Wales on health services. That is an increase of $307 million on last year.

    There will be $241 million in rural and regional capital works as well as more beds, more elective surgery and better access to services for regional and rural New South Wales. An extra 201 beds will build on the 290 from the previous year. Why does the Opposition not debate the miserable deal the Federal Government gives us on health funding? Members opposite are complete apologists for the Federal Government. I have pages and pages of what we are doing in country New South Wales in health—additional anaesthetic training places, advanced specialist training positions, new rural recruitment packages, targeted vocational training in schools to support the transition of rural school leavers to health care.

    Mrs Jillian Skinner: Go and speak to the doctors who are on strike at Dubbo. Talk about health at Dubbo.

    Mr SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member for North Shore will come to order.

    Mr CARL SCULLY: The honourable member for North Shore should ring Tony Abbott and tell him to stop being an apologist for Greg Smith and his disgraceful performance in the prosecutor's office and start writing articles about how he is going to give a better deal.

    Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of The Nationals will resume his seat. The honourable member for Wakehurst and the honourable member for Bathurst will stop calling out.

    Mr CARL SCULLY: Tony Abbott is on trial, as far as I am concerned. The Opposition does do not like the fact that we have done a good job in health.

    Mr Ian Armstrong: Point of order: The matter under debate has nothing to do with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions or anybody involved in it. The Minister has strayed from the subject through his own inability to debate the issue of health.

    Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Police will return to the leave of the motion before the House.

    Mr CARL SCULLY: This very mischievous, misleading motion does not reflect the great work that the Government has been doing in rural health. The answer is no.

    Question—That the motion be agreed to—put.

    The House divided.
    Ayes, 35
            Mr Aplin
            Mr Armstrong
            Mr Barr
            Ms Berejiklian
            Mr Constance
            Mr Debnam
            Mr Draper
            Mrs Fardell
            Mr Fraser
            Mrs Hancock
            Mr Hartcher
            Mr Hazzard            		Ms Hodgkinson
            Mrs Hopwood
            Mr Humpherson
            Mr Kerr
            Mr McTaggart
            Mr Merton
            Ms Moore
            Mr Oakeshott
            Mr O'Farrell
            Mr Page
            Mr Piccoli
            Mr Pringle            		Mr Richardson
            Mr Roberts
            Mrs Skinner
            Mr Slack-Smith
            Mr Souris
            Mr Stoner
            Mr Tink
            Mr Torbay
            Mr J. H. Turner
            Tellers,
            Mr Maguire
            Mr R. W. Turner

    Noes, 50
            Ms Allan
            Mr Amery
            Ms Andrews
            Ms Beamer
            Mr Black
            Mr Brown
            Ms Burney
            Mr Campbell
            Mr Chaytor
            Mr Collier
            Mr Corrigan
            Mr Crittenden
            Mr Daley
            Mr Debus
            Ms Gadiel
            Mr Gaudry
            Mr Greene            		Ms Hay
            Mr Hickey
            Mr Hunter
            Mr Iemma
            Ms Judge
            Ms Keneally
            Mr Lynch
            Mr McBride
            Mr McLeay
            Ms Meagher
            Ms Megarrity
            Mr Mills
            Mr Morris
            Mr Newell
            Ms Nori
            Mr Orkopoulos
            Mrs Paluzzano            		Mr Pearce
            Mrs Perry
            Mr Price
            Ms Saliba
            Mr Sartor
            Mr Scully
            Mr Shearan
            Mr Stewart
            Ms Tebbutt
            Mr Tripodi
            Mr Watkins
            Mr West
            Mr Whan
            Mr Yeadon
            Tellers,
            Mr Ashton
            Mr Martin

    Pairs
                Mr George
                		Ms D'Amore
                Ms SeatonMr Gibson

    Question resolved in the negative.

    Motion negatived.

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