A budget blow to schools and hospitals

SCHOOLS and hospitals can’t just run on the dedication and goodwill of teachers, nurses and doctors. In the real world, they need money.

NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley.

SCHOOLS and hospitals can’t just run on the dedication and goodwill of teachers, nurses and doctors. In the real world, they need money to provide the quality health and education services we need.

But last week confirmed the massive funding cuts first announced in Tony Abbott’s horror Budget of 2014. This year was Mike Baird’s last chance to convince his Liberal colleagues in Canberra that their cuts will hurt our schools and hospitals.

But he failed dreadfully.

This failure is hard to understand. After all, the federal government is controlled by the NSW Liberals. It should mean that Mike Baird has the inside running on getting a good deal.

But Mr Baird has failed to convince his colleagues of the impacts their cuts will have. Instead the Premier is happy to lead the Liberal cheer squad welcoming the Budget.

So far Mr Baird has recovered less than $1 billion of the $15 billion cut from our hospitals and an even smaller share of a $10 billion cut from our schools. The maintenance backlog for schools has blown out to $732 million. Essential maintenance, like toilet and sewer upgrades and fixing damaged roofs, is just not being done. There are now 120 schools each needing more than $1 million in maintenance works to bring them back up to scratch.

In health, the federal government’s decision to freeze the Medicare rebate until 2020 means that more and more people will be forced to visit overstretched emergency departments to get the medical care they need.

The elective surgery waiting list in NSW has blown out to 73,304 patients and the waiting time for non-urgent elective surgery now stands at 223 days. With Malcolm Turnbull having confirmed the essential unfairness of Tony Abbott’s approach, the question now is what is Mike Baird’s plan to deal with the results?

All we have heard from him is a plan to increase the GST to 15 per cent and use the proceeds to fund company tax cuts.

It was a plan so lacking in credibility that even Mr Turnbull rubbished it.

With his GST plan off the table, and his federal Liberals resolute in their funding cuts, Mike Baird now owes the people of NSW an explanation of how the future of our schools and hospitals can be secured.

Luke Foley is NSW Opposition Leader