E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
CAIRNS
THURSDAY, 28 MARCH 2019
 
SUBJECTS: Liberals cuts to Cairns hospital; SloMo fumbles on putting One Nation last; NDIS; tax cuts.
 
ELIDA FAITH, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR LEICHHARDT: Hi, my name’s Elida Faith I am the Labor candidate for Leichhardt and I'm joined today by Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen, Shadow Minister for Finance Jim Chalmers and Queensland Labor senator Anthony Chisholm.

Now our Cairns Hospital doesn't just service Cairns and the hinterland. It reaches right up to the outer islands of the Torres Strait. Now we have patients waiting for hours to be seen and we have doctors and nurses who are overworked and under-resourced. Now I had my daughter here at Cairns Base almost 19 years ago and I too have sat here with my mum for many hours in the waiting room waiting for her treatments and I know how important hospital services are for Far North Queensland and it's reaching crisis point. I spoke to a lady, 69 years old just this week who was in the emergency department with her 91 year old mother. They were there for nearly three hours and were still waiting to be seen.

So the question is what is Warren doing about this? We're five days out of the Budget. He has still yet to commit to reversing the $7.2 million dollar cuts to our hospital. He has still yet to commit to upgrading our emergency department. This is a member who clearly has lost touch with his community. Labor will deliver. We are going to reverse those cuts to our hospital and we have committed $15 million to upgrading our emergency department. And I'd like to hand over now to Chris. Thank you.

CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW TREASURER: Well thanks Elida. It's great to be back in Cairns particularly with such a fantastic candidate as Elida Faith and we have a lot of faith in Elida to be a great voice for the people of this area in the Federal Parliament. She's fighting a great campaign and she has our full support as she does so.
 
Today we've visited the emergency department. It's clear that the Liberals Canberra cuts are having their impact here in Cairns and right through Queensland on the health system. $7 million cut from the emergency department here at Cairns Hospital. Well a Labor Government will fix it, A Shorten Labor Government will invest $15 million in the emergency department in addition to the other commitments we've made in relation to teaching in hospitals here in Cairns and of course other commitments for Cairns. This is an important commitment. Anybody in the community or at any time might need the emergency department. You might need it for yourself. You might need it for your kids. You might need it for your parents. You want to know that it's there. It's functioning well and that it is working in the best interests of the community so if you do have the worst happen to you you can get the best possible service and care. At the moment we're seeing too many beds in corridors, too much ramping and too many people waiting too long for the expert care that the doctors and nurses and professionals can provide but they're under such pressure.
 
So we need a Shorten Labor Government to deliver it but we shouldn't have to wait for Shorten Labor Government. As Elida said, it should be fixed on Tuesday night. It’s only five days for the Budget. If Warren Entsch has done his job he's been onto Greg Hunt, he's been onto Josh Frydenberg and the money's in the Budget. If it's not the people of Cairns have been let down yet again by the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison Government and they'll have to wait for Shorten Labor Government to fix this mess.
 
Now talking of messes, what an absolute abrogation of responsibility and leadership from the so-called Prime Minister of Australia, dragged kicking and screaming after days of revelations to finally show a little bit of leadership and put One Nation last on his how to vote cards and he even buggers that up. I mean the Prime Minister today was finally forced into the concession that he would put One Nation behind the Labor Party. He didn't say whether he put it behind the Greens or not but put that to one side. He made that final concession after the extraordinarily disturbing video of Pauline Hanson denying that the Hobart massacre was in some way real or was caused by some sort of Government conspiracy. And even now he can't get it right. He says the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party will put One Nation behind Labor but not apparently the Liberal National Party in Queensland. He’s drawn a big line around Queensland as if it doesn't count. Well the fact of the matter is Queensland's the state which has provided the most One Nation Senators and which One Nation has had as its biggest impact and that just happens to be the state in which the Prime Minister says he'll exempt from his new edict to put One Nation lower down on the ballot paper on the ‘how to vote’ than the Labor Party.
 
Well Scott Morrison has failed every test on leadership. He's had multiple opportunities to pass the test and he's failed it. He insists on playing footsie with this conga line of conspiracy theorists and con men that is the modern One Nation. This conga line of conspiracy theorists, con men and charlatans that is One Nation. Well the Labor Party will have no part of it. We'll put One Nation and other like-minded extremists last on the ballot papers. We will put them below the Liberal Party and other minor parties because that's where they belong. And we've got a great team here in Elida faith, Anita Green who of course we hope joins Anthony Chisholm in the Senate from July. They'll be strong voices for Queensland, strong voices for North Queensland, strong voices for public policy for Queensland and services for Queensland.
 
Now Jim's going to just add to those remarks on that and one other matter which he's going to raise and then we're having to take your questions.
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Thanks very much Chris and everybody. Tuesday night’s Budget is a test for Warren Entsch and the LNP. Warren Entsch has been around for a very, very, very, long time and he has repeatedly and consistently failed the test when it comes to proper investment in the health services that the people of Cairns and the far north need and deserve to look after their loved ones. So if Warren Entsch and the LNP don't restore the $7 million they cut from Cairns Hospital, if they don't match Labor's $15 million commitment to improving the emergency department, which is bursting at the seams and had its busiest day ever earlier on this week, then they will have failed again to properly prioritize the people of regional Queensland in particular, and Cairns specifically.
 
Labor has a different approach to the LNP. We've got different priorities. If Warren Entsch and the LNP don't restore funding to Cairns hospital and they don't match Labor's $15 million commitment to the emergency department, that will confirm for everybody in Cairns and the surrounding areas that this is a Government which prioritizes the top end of town at the expense of health services for people in this important community. And Labor will always put investment in health services and hospitals and emergency departments ahead of big tax loopholes for people in Sydney and Melbourne who don't need that kind of support. So if the people of Cairns and the surrounding areas want their priorities reflected in the Parliament in Canberra, they can't rely on Warren who's failed for years and years and years now. They need Elida Faith in the Parliament speaking out for and standing up for the people of this area, particularly when it comes to investment in health. 
 
There have been other stories about Tuesday night’s Budget and some speculation that the Government's incompetence when it comes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme will mean that billions of dollars, which should have been flowing to people with a disability, will instead prop up the Government's bottom line. If the Government's surplus is built on the backs of vulnerable people who need and deserve those billions of dollars to help them deal with their disability, then the Government cannot claim to be superior economic managers. Any surplus which is built on the back of vulnerable Australians not getting the services they need is not worth the paper it's written on. It will say it all about the Morrison Government if the only reason that they have surpluses in the Budget is because they have so substantially made a mess of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. If the surpluses are built on billions of dollars underspent in the NDIS, then that will say it all about their approach. 
 
And finally on One Nation, as Chris said a moment ago, Scott Morrison has substantially failed the leadership test when it comes to preferences for One Nation. Every day he fails this leadership test shows that Scott Morrison is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the extreme right in this country. Every day that Scott Morrison fails this leadership test proves that he can't see the national interests through the fog and the haze of his own narrow cynical political self-interest. Australia needs leadership and it needs unity, and Scott Morrison is providing neither. And particularly for an area like Cairns, which relies so heavily on tourism spending people coming here and visiting here. The damage that Scott Morrison is doing to the local economy in Cairns, the tourism economy of regional Queensland is substantial. We call on Scott Morrison to show some leadership, to do the job that we pay him to do, to put One Nation last; not just in Victoria, not just in New South Wales, but in Queensland as well. He's failing the leadership test on One Nation. He is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the far right and that is very damaging for our country.
 
BOWEN: Over to you folks
 
JOURNALIST: Just on back onto the hospital. The LNP says locally in Cairns the Commonwealth contribution has increased by 90.7 per cent since the LNP came into office. What’s your response to that?
 
BOWEN: Well they would say that wouldn't they? I mean the fact of the matter is they've cut $7 million. That's the fact. And an even better fact is a Shorten Labor Government on being elected would add 15 million. I mean that's the basic maths for Warren. If Warren Entsch wants to come out and match our $15 million today, great. Elida would welcome that, I'd welcome that, the people of Cairns would welcome that but that's the onus on him.
 
JOURNALIST: Is the State Government blameless in the problems here at the hospital?
 
BOWEN: Well the State Government of course relies on the Commonwealth for a big chunk of its health funding, a big chunk and Annastacia Palaszczuk has been right to point out that Commonwealth cuts hurt. Now of course the State Government has responsibility for day to day management within the resourcing of the like provided by the Commonwealth and that resourcing envelope is being cut. Now it's very simple. Federal Labor will invest more in Queensland hospitals. Federal LNP has been investing less.
 
JOURNALIST: But beyond that for the last two decades we've had never ending chronic bed blockage of the hospital no matter who's in power.
 
BOWEN: I don't deny your point. There of course has been long term issues but I do make this point. There's a simple choice here: who's going to invest more to fix it? Who's gonna invest more to fix this emergency department? The answer is as we stand: Shorten Labor. The money is on the table. So nothing from the Government record
 
JOURNALIST: $15 million will fix everything here?
 
BOWEN: $15 million will go a long way and that's what the emergency department will tell you will go a long way to dealing with the problems. Now of course there will be busier days, there'll be quieter days. That's always the case in emergency departments right around the country but a $15 million investment would make a big difference for this emergency department. No questions about it.
 
JOURNALIST: The Government also says Annastacia Palaszczuk shouldn't have spent half a million dollars changing the name of Lady Cilento Children's Hospital.
 
BOWEN: Is that the best they’ve got? Really? They're going to criticise the Premier over a name change to defend the cuts to hospitals? Is that what this is being reduced to by Scott Morrison and his team? That is such a low level criticism that I’m not even going to dane it with a serious response. If that’s the insult they  going to pay to the people of Cairns to say “So because a hospital's name was changed”. That says more about their approach than anything else I could say.
 
JOURNALIST: The Government is likely to roll out an extra $6 billion of tax cuts. Would Labor match this?

BOWEN: Well we daily see speculation about what the Government will do in a desperate political roll of the dice on tax cuts. Well first they’ve got to catch up with Labor. I mean Labor already has, been announced more than 12 months ago, bigger better tax cuts for every Australian earning less than $125,000. That's 10 million Australians better off under a Shorten Labor Government through tax cuts.

So step one: catch up with Labor and if they can do that and they want to do more well then we'll have a look but until that catch up with Labor and have bigger better tax cuts and paid next year, not in 2022, 2024, 2026 on the never never. You know re-elect the Liberal Party two or three times and we might get you a tax cut. Delivered under Bill Shorten next year. Catch up with that Josh Frydenberg.
 
JOURNALIST: Why is the focus on wage rises over tax cuts the right way to go?
 
BOWEN: Well I don't accept that it's a focus on wages over tax cuts, both are important. I mean Bill Shorten is the only leader in Australia talking about wages growth. Scott Morrison doesn't care. Bill's the one who’s put it on the agenda. Australians know everything's going up except their wages. We know we have record low wages growth in Australia. We know that they're not keeping up with the increased cost of living including in regional areas like Cairns where the cost of living is such a big issue and wages aren't keeping up. That's bad for the economy. It’s not just bad for employees and workers, it's bad for business. It's bad for a regional economy where people are under-- their budgets are under such stress. Now we'll put wages growth on the agenda as we've done by reversing penalty rates cuts, moving towards a living wage, cracking down on sham contracting. A big policy agenda but we'll also have bigger tax cuts for lower and middle income earners, 10 million of them. A Labor Government of course can do both. Scott Morrison appears incapable of doing either.
 
JOURNALIST: Okay thanks. Thank you very much.
 
ENDS