Opinion: Labor’s grubby attack on Ros Bates exposes hypocrisy, highlights hospital failures

A provocative heckle has highlighted the state government’s failures to provide maternity services while exposing Labor cyber bullying and hypocrisy, writes Des Houghton.

Cross your legs. As cheeky parliamentary interjections go, it was incendiary. Health Minister Shannon Fentiman was left gobsmacked – and speechless – after a taunt by shadow health minister Ros Bates on the floor of the House on Wednesday morning.

Bates’ suggestion had nothing to do with the method of birth control advocated by the Catholic church in bygone days.

Cross your legs so the baby won’t come out was Bates’ flippant and perhaps ribald way of highlighting Labor’s failure to provide basic maternity services in Beaudesert, Ingham, Ayr and even the Gold Coast.

Cross your legs so the baby won’t come out; and cross your fingers you will make it to a birthing clinic on time.

Across Queensland there is quite a club of mothers whose babies were born on the side of the highway.

A shocked Shannon Fentiman in state parliament after Ros Bates’ ‘cross your legs’ intervention. Picture: X

Labor spin doctors posted a video of Bates’ comment on social media and that sparked a “wave of cyber bullying” against Bates, parliament heard.

To my mind Labor’s online attack on Bates backfired. It was grubby and ill-timed.

More so because Steven Miles and Shannon Fentiman on Tuesday put on their his best holier-then-though demeanours to condemn social media giants for providing a platform for cyber bullying _ the very platform their spin doctors used on Bates.

Until Miles or Fentiman sacks those responsible for the misleading post their credibility will remain tarnished.

When discussing cyber bullying Fentiman told the House: “Every single day children and teenagers across Queensland battle the relentless pressure of social media. They are bombarded with carefully curated snapshots …”

“Clearly it is time the social media giants step up, act like adults and take responsibility for the harm that social media is causing.”

She criticised Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg by name, so why does she still use their platforms?

Miles and Fentiman could demonstrate their sincerity by closing down their social media accounts.

Bates is a tough competitor with a reputation as a street fighter. However, in parliament two days later I sensed she had been wounded by Labor’s cyber bullies attempting to create a smokescreen to hide Fentiman’s poor record on maternity service delivery.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates says she has copped serious vitriol and threats on social media. Picture: NewsWire/ Glenn Campbell

Bates said her comment related to mothers being forced to bypass their local hospitals to give birth elsewhere.

“My interjection was not directed at the Health Minister,” she said.

“It was a reference to the absurd notion young mothers were having to hold on whilst in labour until they got to another hospital.

“In the last 24 hours social media posts by the Health Minister suggesting these comments were directed at her and without reference to the context of the debate around maternity services.”

Bates said the post had “gone viral and unleashed a wave of cyber bullying at me that, quite frankly, has been horrific”.

“Worse, I have received vile messages and threats of violence on my phone, my email, my social media, and to my office. As a childhood victim of domestic family violence, these threats have been terrifying.

“I now ask that the incitement of these threats stop and plead with the Health Minister and others to take down her misleading and deceitful videos.”

Unfortunately for Labor, the affair turned the spotlight back on Labor’s poor health record with renewed calls for Fentiman to be sacked.

Complex operations cannot proceed at Biloela Hospital.

There was a litany of questions in parliament about long surgical waiting lists and ambulance ramping.

The lack of maternity services in the regions poses challenges for Labor in the lead-up to the state election.

The crisis was not fully understood until a powerful expose by the Sunday Mail last year.

Despite pledges by Fentiman to restore services, more services have shut.

Parliament heard Beaudesert Hospital was bypassed almost every week across December, January and February. Ingham Hospital was bypassed for two weeks in September, again three times in October and a further three times in February. Ayr Hospital was bypassed thrice between September and February.

At the Gold Coast University Hospital maternity services were downgraded on four occasions in January and February, with complex births sent to other hospitals.

We also heard that Biloela Hospital’s surgical theatres are not up to current safety standards so complex deliveries could not go ahead there.

Fentiman faced a barrage of questions this week about ambulance ramping which reached a record 45.5 per cent for the last quarter.

She commiserated with families who died in ambulances waiting for treatment.

Fentiman faces other challenges

Ambulances ramped at the Gold Coast University Hospital in November 2023.

New figures also painted a gloomy picture of elective surgery waitlists. A total of 60,038 Queenslanders are waiting for surgery with 21 per cent not seen on-time, up from 19 per cent in the last quarter.

And there were delays in emergency departments in the same quarter with 28 per cent of patients not seen on-time, up from 26 per cent in the previous.

Member for Buderim Brent Mickelberg put a human face to the pain caused by the lack of radiographers in Queensland.

He spoke about 18-year-old Zoe from Buderim suffering a rare chromosomal disorder. She cannot speak, he told the House.

“How many Queenslanders like Zoe are living in pain waiting longer than they should for medical imaging?” he asked Fentiman.

“I am more than happy to look into Zoe’s particular case,” she said.

“It sounds incredibly distressing for the family. If the member would like to send me the details, I am more than happy to follow that up.”

IRRITANT OF THE WEEK

Premier Steven Miles for not releasing the Crime and Corruption Commission’s report into a public service controversy involving Jackie Trad, the former deputy premier. What has he got to hide?