Ivan Dean, Speeches Index

Thursday 18 October 2007

PREMIER'S ADDRESS

Mr DEAN ( Windermere ) - Mr President, most of the things that I was going to refer to have been covered so I am not going to go into any detail on them but I will probably briefly mention them just to put them on the record.

Economically the State is doing okay and I do not think there is any doubt about that. I think it is fair to also say that the country, Australia, is doing very well at the present time. Thank goodness for that because as I said yesterday, by way of interjection, instead of having three pages of the state of the State address devoted to the Federal Government, we probably would have seen about eight or 10 pages devoted to it if it had been doing poorly. I am glad it was doing okay.

I say the State is doing okay because there are some areas where there are some difficulties, very clearly, and the Government accept that. One of those areas is our health system and in particular in relation to our hospitals. I will just briefly make some comments on hospitals in a moment.

I just wanted to first start on, and it has been spoken of now I think by just about all members, the position in relation to the energy price increases, the electricity price increases that are going to occur over the next 18-month period. Very clearly that is going to have a huge impact not only on pensioners but, as the member for Montgomery said, will impact probably worse on the family person, a wife or a partner with two or three children who is probably on the basic salary or a little bit above the basic salary, because they will not be entitled to any concessions. They are the ones who will in the main I believe be hit harshly by any increase in electricity charges. It is going to increase something in the region of 25 per cent as we know over the next 18 months, which is a huge increase. I do feel sorry for those people and I am not quite sure what we can do or what the Government can do in particular to help those people through. The pensioner does get a remission, an extra one, and I congratulate the Government on that. However, they still will be up for additional charges for their energy uses.

Ms Thorp - Through you, Mr President - it is a pity that the $34 billion tax cuts did not include an increase in old-age pension. The $34 billion in tax cuts that were announced on Monday did not include any rise in the old-age pension - none at all.

Mr DEAN - Which is sad.

Ms Thorp - It is appalling.

Mrs Smith - They were not tax cuts, they were only a policy. We have not got them yet. Don't let Hansard reflect that maybe we're going to get them.

Mr DEAN - I just relate quickly something I was confronted with the other night. I arrived at the home of my 88-year-old mother-in-law to find her sitting up in a chair with a rug around her and blankets across her legs. I asked why the heater was not on and wondered why it was not switched up to a reasonable level and she said that she was conserving electricity. That is without the increase that we currently have and that is not a good position to have. They ought to be able to use whatever electricity is necessary to ensure that they have a fairly warm environment.

Ms Thorp - It is not uncommon for an old person on limited income to spend the day in bed with the electric blanket on rather than a heater.

Mr DEAN - You are right, it is not, and that is a sad situation. Mr President, you will be well aware that the Tamar Valley are trying to clean up the environment and achieve better atmospheric conditions by getting rid of pollution. I was disappointed then that the councils are saying to people right across the Tamar Valley, and it is not just Launceston but the West Tamar Council and George Town Council as well, 'Get out of your wood heaters and move into electricity and/or gas, or make the wood heaters Australia and New Zealand standard compliant'. So it comes on top of a big push for that to happen. The AMA are very strong in that regard as well in wanting that to occur because they know only too well that wood heaters - and it is conclusively proven - are adding to the problems in the Tamar Valley with pollution. There is no doubting that whatsoever.

Mr Parkinson - For many people it is a cheap form of heating. A lot of people, for example, get their wood either for nothing or very cheaply and so they need an incentive to change to something that is going to cost them more.

Mr DEAN - They do, you are absolutely right there. A lot of people go what is commonly referred to as wood hooking where they get it for nothing. I am not quite sure how we get over that. I suppose the only way we can do it is to continually push for Federal and State Government support to remove wood heaters. I think this is where we have got it wrong: I think we should also be providing those funds that are made available under the wood heater buy-back program - and I have referred to this in other areas and there is support for it - to also help people make their current wood heaters compliant with Australian and New Zealand standards. That can happen.

Ms Thorp - Through you, Mr President - quite often it is the quality of wood that is used and people not using their wood heaters properly. But my question would be to you, how many people have access to gas?

Mr DEAN - I do not know, but there are other options out there, as I said. I just want to reiterate that we ought to be able to use those funds, and we have just received another $500 000 - that is not just for Launceston, it is for the West Tamar - to buy wood heaters back and put in another form of heating or to apply to making them compliant. The cost is not as great either, and if they were compliant then the pollution is limited and will help the situation in that area.

I want to go briefly to the area of hospitals, Mr President. We know where the hospitals are and, as the member for Murchison said, there has been a lot said on this and therefore there is no need to go into it in great detail. Suffice to say that work has to be done in relation to the proper and appropriate funding of hospitals throughout the State. I have never been so parochial as to simply say it only relates to the Launceston General Hospital; it does not, but it certainly does apply to that hospital in a big way. I do not think there is any doubt of that at all. The people are sick of the blame game, they do not want any more of that; they just want to see their system improve. I was talking to some doctors the other night and they said their major concern is now that electives, to use their phraseology, are not being done and they are coming back as emergencies. That is a situation that we really cannot condone. There is a need for us to try to get on top of that and I am not sure how we do it. Doctors say more staff, quite obviously, and the opening up of the wards, the opening up of more beds will certainly help them to do that, with some extra staffing.

So that is the sad thing. As they have said, in some cases when they turn someone away as an elective surgery patient they know very well that that person will come back again in a worse condition, an aggravated condition that will require more treatment by them and a longer stay in hospital where it could otherwise probably have been fixed with minor surgery. So that is one of the concerns that they have. I want to read a couple of comments from an AMA document I have. It says:

'The politicians need to stop bickering and start focusing on helping hospitals. It is irrelevant really who is doing the under funding as the situation is dangerous and impacting on safety. We are really quite sick now of hearing that hospitals are to live within their budgets when we know that to do so would be negligent and really quite impossible.'

That is a pretty ordinary situation to be confronted with, knowing that our hospitals and doctors are working in ordinary conditions which they say are dangerous and, they say also, with some unsafe practices. I just wonder where they would be if something did go wrong and they were taken to task. I do not want to think of that and I do not think that they want to think of that either. They have a job to do and they want to do their job to the best of their ability. That is their concern. I am not sure where we go with that. The State Government is aware of that; they know what the situation is.

The Clinical Services Plan, where is it right now? The Leader might be able to answer that for me, and tell me how close we are to fully funding it. The AMA would also like to know where that funding is coming from and also whether or not that funding is likely to impact on the current services that the hospitals are providing in and around this State. They are some of the questions that they have asked me.

Mr Parkinson - Funding of what?

Mr DEAN - The Clinical Services Plan.

Mr Parkinson - You mean how it is being funded?

Mr DEAN - Yes, how is it being funded, where is the funding coming from, will that funding impact on the current services that are being provided by the hospitals throughout the State? Will it impact? Where will it come from?

Mr Parkinson - It is budgeted. It is an ongoing plan.

Mr DEAN - I do not know if it is all that clear, and that is why the question has been asked. This matter is not going to go away and I think the AMA has made that fairly clear as well. It is not going to go away, they are not going to stick their head in the sand as it were and let things just go on; they want some action. We know the Federal Government's funding will give some assistance with capital funding and will provide them with some of the things that they need to provide a better service, so that will be of some support and assistance. We also know that that was not an election promise; that is going to occur. That statement was made before we went into caretaker mode.

Mr Parkinson - We also need a Federal government that supports a long-term plan rather than this picking out -

Mr DEAN - That is an issue that has been raised, you are right. I would probably support your position that they need to be involved in the long-term plan.

Mr Parkinson - Pork-barrel solutions are the worst-case scenario.

Mr DEAN - I do not disagree with that but the fact is they have made some funding available and the fact is that that funding will assist with capital purchases of properties that they need and items that they need which will help them into the future.

The ambulance levy I just wanted to touch on. I am not sure if anybody has touched on that but I have no doubt the member for Huon will certainly mention this one.

Mr Harriss - I hadn't thought of that up until now.

Mr DEAN - There you go.

There has been a lot of discussion on this, and I do not think the Government is quite sure at this stage where they are going to go with that and how it will be paid for. I was talking to a major health insurer only a few weeks ago who said that they still had not been approached by the Government in relation to this issue. That is a concern because they have also said that the cost of the insurance in these circumstances, they are satisfied, will be well beyond that as identified by the Government. That is their indication, that it will be well over and above what this Government has said it is likely to be. It will be an interesting thing to see where we go there.

There has been a lot of discussion in relation to the funding; if you live in a rural area as opposed to living in a suburban area will you pay more. I believe that if those sorts of situations applied it would be tragic, to say the least. I am of the view that our ambulance services should be paid by everybody irrespective of whether you use the service or not because if you are an able-bodied person sitting at home not having had cause, luckily, to need an ambulance, you need to know that we have a good professional and reliable ambulance service out there that can respond to you should the need ever arise. I do not think it ought to come back onto the users, and it ought to be a levy applied to all.

I did not see a lot in the state of the State address in relation to road infrastructure and certainly not a lot in relation to road infrastructure in the north of the State. Certainly I do not think anybody would deny the funding of the Midland Highway and progress being made there to change it and make it safer; it is certainly needed, but there are a number of roads in the north of the State that also need assistance, particularly in and around the George Town area. I will refer to that in a moment when I talk briefly on George Town, but also in and around Launceston. There is a big move to try to get heavy vehicles out of the centre area and bypassing Launceston. There is some requirement there for the State Government to jump on board with local governments to try to provide some support in that regard.

I just want to touch briefly on police. I was at a Crime Stoppers function the other night at Launceston. It was a tremendous function, well supported and well attended, huge support provided there for police, as there should be, and also for the Crime Stoppers program as well, and it was very beneficial to them with a lot of funds being raised for it.

We had a presentation on the statistical data applying to police in the northern part of the State and everything was positive. That is good and I commend the police for what is happening with criminal activity and a lot of other activity. But there was not one negative comment made or statistic identified at all and, as one of the businesspeople said, we know very well that assaults are still continuing to rise, we know that fatalities are continuing to rise and there has been no hold in relation to those areas. As I said, maybe there needs to be some balancing of these reports when they are provided. I do not blame somebody for honing in on the positives but there is crime and also some of the other issues that need to be brought out as well so that people can have a balanced view of what is going on.

Fatalities in particular are a real concern. If you wanted to take a look at crime and if you took a look at fatalities I think people would sooner see fatalities decreasing rather than crime if they had the choice of the two. Of course they want to see both areas drop but if they had the choice I think they would say they would like to see their children going out and returning safely. It is an issue, and I have continually raised it here, but I do not think that enough has been done in the area of road safety. I do not think that there are enough changes being made in that area.

I continually harp on and talk about speed cameras and their placements. There is a new site that they have and that is on the Bridgewater Bridge, well and truly out of my area, but I fail to see where speed cameras placed on the Bridgewater Bridge have an impact on road safety on the roads where the accidents are happening. I doubt if there would be too many accidents on the Bridgewater Bridge -

Mr Parkinson - Are there cameras there now?

Mr DEAN - They are there almost every time I go home and every time I come down here.

Mr Aird - They are trying to get you.

Mr DEAN - They are. I do not think that there would be too many accidents on the Bridgewater Bridge, that is the point I am making.

Mr Hall - Foxes are hard to catch too.

Mr DEAN - Foxes crossing a road? Perhaps they are trying to photograph foxes trying to cross the road. You are probably right; I had not thought of that.

Mr Parkinson - For that purpose we might get you to attach a camera to the front of your vehicle.

Mr DEAN - I am always on the road so there is an opportunity there for me to photograph one, I suspect. I think that I will travel up and down that road for a long time and for many years.

I note in the state of the State address there are some comments made in relation to smoking in public places and what the Government have done or are doing in that regard and I commend them. The harm and dangers of smoking have once again been proven. I like what is happening but I do not think that that is taking it far enough. There will be some discussion on that of course when some amendments for another bill in relation to smoking come into this House at some time in the near future. I look forward to that bill arriving here. We know that it kills, we know that it is a dangerous substance; we ought to be taking cigarettes out of view of any member of the public anywhere sales occur.

If we look at New Zealand, New Zealand is talking of being smoke free in about 10 years' time - cigarette-smoke free. I am not quite sure that that will ever occur but that is what they are looking at. So they are very serious about their intention to control and get on top of smoking in their country. I quote from a document, 'Groups want nation smoke-free in 10 years', taken from the Net. I will just make a couple of comments from it. This is from Australia:

' ''We support the New Zealanders and we think Australia could achieve that as well" the Heart Foundation's National Tobacco spokesman, Morris Swanson, said from the Oceana tobacco control conference in Auckland. Subject to an appropriate level of commitment from the Australian Federal Government it is possible that Australia could be smoke-free within 10 years. Just two per cent of the $7 billion the Federal Government collects in tobacco tax each year - about $140 million - would be enough to run a comprehensive anti-smoke strategy, the health group believes.'

Our State Government is taking some good action, there is no doubt about that. I look forward to the bill coming in but we ought to be going a lot further. I think that there would be a huge amount of support out there from the public. There are only about 25 per cent of the people now smoking.

I want to talk a little bit about George Town, as I mentioned a while ago. There are some issues and some concerns in George Town and I want to mention the one on radiography services. They did have a service in George Town. This was from a private business and that is now lost to George Town. They say that there is not enough use of those services so they are withdrawing the services. This means that the people of George Town will be more reliant on public transport, of which there is very little. There are huge concerns about the availability of public transport for them. They will now need to come into Launceston for radiography services, which previously they did not often have to do.

Ms Thorp - Through you, Mr President - do you find that some of your constituents labour under the misapprehension that the provision of private doctors and radiologists is something that the Government has control over?

Mr DEAN - Yes, I do find that. When this was raised with me, they said they saw that as a government service.

Ms Thorp - That the Government should put one there.

Mr DEAN - Well, they saw this as a government service, until it was explained to them that it was a private service.

Ms Thorp - It is no more a government service than having a plumber, an electrician or a dog-groomer in the community.

Mr DEAN - You are right. The public are, at times, not aware of who is providing the services and who is responsible for the provision of services. This was a classic case, which was raised with me.

Ms Thorp - Through you again, Mr President - very early in my time in this place I tried hard to get a government-funded doctor at Rokeby and fell very foul of the private doctor in the area. He did not want to see the competition.

Mr DEAN - There you go. To add to that, as brought to my attention by the Mayor of George Town, are the new driving regulations, and I am not aware of these.

Members interjecting.

Mr DEAN - I was going to mention this a little bit later but now I might not.

Mr Aird - He only wants the best parts.

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - He only wants to cherry-pick them, I believe.

Mr DEAN - I want to make the services better.

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - Do you want to make them better for everyone?

Mr DEAN - The George Town community are concerned, the mayor in particular, about the new driving regulations that will apply to those people driving community vehicles. I do not know what they are but they have real concerns because they have trouble getting community vehicle drivers now. With the new regulations that are proposed or the changes that might occur, he believes that getting drivers is going to be that much harder in those areas. The mayor has asked that I raise that and I will be interested to see what responses the Leader can give me in that regard. I have not seen the changes at this stage.

Ms Thorp - I am not aware of any.

Mr DEAN - That was the advice, that there are changes. Whether they are government changes or not I am not sure, but he said there are changes that will make it much harder for them to get drivers.

Ms Thorp - There could be a concern - through you, Mr President. A lot of the people who volunteer are retired and hence a bit older. If they are driving people around, you might want to have checks that they do not have a history of sex offences or -

Mr DEAN - As I said, I am not sure what they are as I did not have time. I will be interested to see if there is anything moving in that regard.

Affordable housing was also raised with me by two businesspeople in George Town. They agreed with the Affordable Housing Strategy but whilst they support it, they believe there needs to be a proper balance of affordable housing. I have asked for a report from the minister and received it but I do not have it with me now. These businesspeople believe that the percentage of affordable housing is far greater in George Town than it is in other areas around the State in a similar position to George Town.

Ms Thorp - I bet that is not the case after the mill is built.

Mr DEAN - It might not be if the mill is built, but what they said was that when affordable houses are being considered and built et cetera, you need to look at all of the other things that are necessary to support people who are living in affordable housing. In other words, they have a greater reliance on public transport normally and a greater reliance on other community services. They believe that probably is not being considered to the extent it ought to be because George Town does not have some of those services.

Ms Thorp - Through you, Mr President - there is sometimes a misapprehension that affordable housing means cheap housing. Affordable housing can also refer to the manner in which a home buyer is supported to make that purchase. You have to be careful equating affordable with cheap.

Mr DEAN - You are right. I agree there is a difference.

Ms Thorp - It is a matter of access.

Mr DEAN - As I said, it was two businesspeople who brought that to my attention and I have the response now from the minister but I do not have it here with me now.

Another issue which was raised with me and I did identify this a moment ago very briefly, is road infrastructure at the Bell Bay industrial area. I will read verbatim from this. It is only two sentences long and it was made available to me by the General Manager of the George Town Council:

'The intensive use of Bell Bay roads, both State and Council, and the consequent efficiency of the port and the industrial area remain a concern to Council particularly since the State Government has to date done little to alleviate the situation in relation to the State roads.'

George Town certainly has some concerns about this matter and I think this has been on the agenda for a while because I recall having spoken to or having a briefing from the George Town Council a long time ago. They raised this as an issue when there was going to be some work done on those roads in and around Bell Bay and, quite obviously, little or nothing has occurred. I am not sure of the reason for that. They asked that I put that to the Government in responding to the state of the State address.

Mr Parkinson - Was this about George Town Council roads?

Mr DEAN - Yes, in the Bell Bay area, I would say, as they are required to maintain some of those.

Mr Parkinson - Can't they maintain them?

Mr DEAN - No, they do not have the funds.

Mr Parkinson - Isn't that a question of charging rates to get the funds?

Mr DEAN - I guess there is only a certain amount of funds that ratepayers can make available. In the case of George Town, which is a relatively small area, getting the funds that are necessary to maintain the infrastructure at the level it should be maintained at, is not all that easy.

Mr Parkinson - Your idea of amalgamations is starting to sound good.

Mr DEAN - Hence that is the problem confronted by all local governments.

Mr Harriss - Aha, the Leader. He is supporting your proposition for local government amalgamations.

Mr Parkinson - I said 'starting to sound good'.

Mr Harriss - Yes, well.

Mr DEAN - I noticed it, do not worry.

Mr Harriss - The media release would look even better.

Mr DEAN - I was going to wait until I read Hansard to make sure I was hearing right.

Mr Harriss - No, just rip the media release out now.

Mr Parkinson - Voluntary of course - add the word 'voluntary'.

Mr DEAN - I just want to briefly refer to the EPA, which was referred to, I think, on page 15 of the Premier's address. I am surprised that this has not been given a lot more publicity. I really thought that this was a very important issue and one that would make if not the front pages of the newspapers the Government would be on to it to make sure it was on the second pages because it is a critical area. I am of the view that had this position been known prior to the pulp mill discussions, or during the pulp mill discussions, a lot of people with concerns in relation to the pulp mill and how it will be monitored if it is built would have been somewhat satisfied perhaps -

Mr Parkinson - Are you saying the EPA?

Mr DEAN - Yes, with the EPA that has been identified in this document from the Premier where he says it will be an absolutely independent body. I think the member for Apsley referred to it. It is going to be an independent body, absolutely independent of the Government, the chairperson will be absolutely independent of the Government, there cannot be any ministerial interference and a decision made by the EPA, if I read it correctly, is final.

Mr Hall - It has been on the drawing board for a couple of years.

Mr DEAN - Yes, I know it has.

Mr Hall - I think the Government have put some money, some seed funding towards it.

Mr DEAN - I know that, but what I am saying is that inasmuch as it is here now and identified and the Premier referred to it in the state of the State address, I would have thought now it is moving forward. It seems to be moving forward, it seems as though it will come to fruition and it will be a reality.

Mr Hall - I am just trying to pin down the Government here.

Mr DEAN - People have raised that they had concerns about the independent monitoring of this mill, but this EPA will be independently monitoring every industrial site in the State so it is not just set up for the pulp mill at all. It is set up for the purposes of considering looking at monitoring all industrial businesses in the State. I commend the Government for, now at least, moving it forward further, and I think we all look forward to it being in place and operating and working. I am not quite sure when and I would ask the question of the Leader as to when that is likely to occur; how far down the track are they with that? When can we expect an EPA in that form to be up and running?

Mr Parkinson - The bill is coming in before we rise this year.

Mr DEAN - Right. The planning scheme; I just wanted to touch on that, Mr President, and I am almost through. There is a reference made to that at page 7 of the state of the State address. The planning schemes are very important, and I think this has been raised previously as well. In Tasmania you currently have 29 different planning schemes and the situation is that where borders meet you can have conditions applying to one side of the street that are different to the conditions on the other side of the street. Really it is a nonsense, to say the least. I support the State Government's position here in the fact that they are looking at a State model or something that is consistent right throughout the State with, I guess, some differences that will occur to the local government areas.

I support the Government in their move to get consistency right across the State in those planning schemes. I am aware that one northern council, the Launceston City Council in particular, has already reviewed their planning scheme and they are hoping that will be taken into account when the State Government start and get their act together. I am not quite sure how far down the track they have gone on that, Mr President, so maybe the Leader can tell me that as well. I know that the minister, Mr Kons, is I think anxious to get a determination made in that regard and I have heard him speaking recently in relation to it, so it would be good to know just where we are with that as well. The Launceston council are saying that they are hoping that what they have just done and just gone through will be taken into account by the State Government when they give their consideration to the planning schemes. So it is a pretty important issue for all of us.

The council have signed off on their position and they have now sent a document out to get public input and feedback on what they think should be contained in that document.

I think there is a lot to be said for it. It was raised a while ago that I am still very strong in my position of going to move a motion in due course in relation to further council amalgamations or bringing them together or working better together; one or the other. I believe that that should happen sooner rather than later; that there ought to be a review of where local governments are currently at because we know that many of the local governments are currently struggling to remain viable and we know that that is a very difficult area. In fact, the ALGA was saying recently in a document that I read that the sustainability of local government into the long term is probably the most critical issue that is currently confronting many local government areas.

Mr Parkinson - Even some large local councils are heavily in debt.

Mr DEAN - Large ones as well. They say that sustainability of local government is probably the biggest issue currently confronting local government. So it is a critical area; it is an area that we need to be looking at and considering seriously to get it right at the end of the day. I think there is only one way of doing that and that is starting to look at the number of local governments that we have in this State; 29 in a State of about 480-odd thousand people really leaves a lot of questions to be answered as to why that is the case. If you look at Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, or the Northern Territory, just those I am aware of, as to where they have gone in the past few years in relation to local government and the number of changes that they have made, in most respects they will tell you that it has been for the better, so I would urge the State to start to look at that.

Mr President, I do not need to say any more at this time. Most other areas were covered by other members and I do not want to go down that track. I note the state of the State address as put forward by the Premier, Mr President.

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