‘Blood money’: Candidate damns ALP pokies policies
A Labor candidate will campaign publicly against his party’s stance on pokies, saying the policy “maintains the monopolised flow of blood money”. HIS FULL SPRAY >>
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A freshman Labor candidate has denounced the party’s pokies policy, saying it “maintains the monopolised flow of blood money”.
Lawyer Fabiano Cangelosi has written to Labor members saying the party’s stance on gambling and on anti-protest laws are unacceptable to him.
He is standing for state parliament for the party in the seat of Franklin.
The six-month party member says he will be campaigning internally — and publicly — against the party’s pokies policy.
“It is a policy that overstuffs the coffers of the Federal Group,” he wrote to party members
“It maintains the monopolised flow of blood money.
“It unbalances unequal scales, committing the poor to financial devastation, the vulnerable to depression and suicide, and working families to fracture and ruin.”
Mr Cangelosi said that while he backed party leader Rebecca White, he could not support the party’s platform on either issue.
Speaking today, Ms White says she continues to support Franklin candidate Fabiano Cangelosi despite his scathing criticism of the party’s poker machines and anti-protest policies.
“Fabiano made some comments today that are not Labor policy and I made that clear to him. The Labor party has clear policies on both the issues he has spoken out about and I have made it incredibly clear that the Labor policy is very different to his views and he is now aware of that.”
“I’m happy to have a diverse range of opinions from candidates but what needs to be expressed very clearly to the community of Tasmania is that he is speaking in a way that is not consistent with the Labor party policy.”
“There’s no doubt he is a very passionate person, but I have made it abundantly clear that, that is the policy of the Labor party and it isn’t changing.”
“Every single candidate that seeks to stand for the Labor party knows that they do so signing up to the platform and the policies that the Labor party has. “Every single candidate is expected to campaign on that platform and those policies and every single candidate will be doing that.”
Ms White yesterday resolved a bitter internal stoush within the party over the preselection of Kingborough Mayor Dean Winter.
Mr Winter is now the party’s sixth candidate in Clark running alongside Mr Cangelosi, whose nomination will need to be lodged with the Tasmanian Electoral Commission by noon on Wednesday.
Mr Cangelosi said he was loyal to party leader Rebecca White.
“I support the Leader of the Party. She has my profound admiration. I must nonetheless put before you now my steadfast determination to eradicate both of these policies, whether within the Party or within the Parliamentary caucus,” he wrote.
“I must do so because principles matter.
“I likewise intend to denounce these policies publicly, because not to do so would be contrary to principle: and because principles matter.
Mr Cangelosi, who as a spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance, has spoken out against the protest laws prior to becoming a candidate in Franklin.
He says Labor’s proposal to introduce its own tough anti-protest legislation is also abhorrent.
“This party’s position on protest laws is an example of something from this party that is wholly repugnant to that spirit.
“It is a policy that does nothing to protect resource reliant communities. It is a policy that impairs the process whereby we seek to balance unequal scales and to shine the light of progress.”
Gutwein confident of funds to pay for pledges
April 6:
THE Liberals’ big-spending start to the state election campaign would not blow the budget, Premier Peter Gutwein says.
The party has made promises totalling more than $450 million during the campaign to date compared to less than $40 million of pledges by Labor.
The latest review of the 2020-21 budget reveals that the state is facing a $960m budget deficit and will accumulate $1.7 billion worth of net debt by the end of the financial year.
Announcing his party’s Southern Health Police in Kingston on Tuesday, Mr Gutwein said increased tax revenues would help pay for the party’s promises.
“We’ve rebuilt confidence, as a result of that we’re seeing investment flow and we’re seeing the economy grow, jobs have returned to pre-pandemic levels and as a result that growing economy is going to provide us with growing revenues,” Mr Gutwein said.
“I’d expect to see how forward estimates improved as a result of the growing economy that we have.
“Our plan is to have a growing economy that generates the revenue so that we can provide the services that Tasmanians need, into health education and other essential services. And that’s a plan that has stood us in good stead over the last seven years.”
But Mr Gutwein did not directly address the possibility of cuts in the post-election budget.
“My focus has got to be on growing our economy to generate the revenues that we need,” he said. “That’s a plan that is working.”
Labor leader Rebecca White said the government should have made big investments in health sooner.
“I think most Tasmanians have be asking why Peter Gutwein hasn’t invested this money into the health system before today,” she said.
“They’ve had seven years to fix the problems in health and in fact what’s happened is they’ve gotten worse.”
Ms White said she did not share Mr Gutwein’s rosy outlook on the economy.
“There’s no doubt that the impact of the downturn across the economy has had an impact on budgets right across the nation.
“I’d expect that we’ll see the same here.”
Mr Gutwein continued the Liberals’ series of health funding announcements, pledging $30 million towards the second stage of the Kingborough Health Centre at Kingston Park.
Mr Gutwein said it would provide expanded services to the area and would help to meet the needs of growing communities.
“This includes community nursing, child health and parenting services, physiotherapy and other allied health services, oral health and mental health services, and visiting specialist services,” he said.
The Premier and Liberal candidates travelled to Dover in the state’s far south to announce upgrades to the local medical centre.
He pledged $1 million over two years to significantly upgrade the Dover Medical Centre, again to improve services on offer.
“This includes GP services and allied health, including podiatry, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, social work and psychology services,” he said.
Health Minister Sarah Courtney said the $156m elective surgery boost and the Royal Hobart Hospital stage 2 development would also benefit southern Tasmanians.
“Since coming to government we have delivered a 70 per cent increase in health funding, with 1500 more FTE staff, we are focused on building the infrastructure and providing services that help to give more Tasmanians access to the care they need, when they need it,” she said.
“Today’s announcement includes the new Health Staff Recruitment Taskforce, so within 30 days of our re-election, we will stand up this taskforce to work alongside important stakeholders like the ANMF, as well as education institutions such as the University, to look at how we can further work on our recruitment strategies.”
Campaigning in Hobart’s northern suburbs on Tuesday, Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said Liberal pledges on health were hard to believe.
“For the past seven years, we’ve watched the Liberals deprioritise health and now we’ve got 1000 people suffering on the elective surgery waiting list, we’ve got nurses doing 18-hour shifts,” she said.
“This has come about because of the choices that the Liberal government has made.
“We’ve had a Liberal government for the past seven years and the health system has gone backwards.”
RHH boost as Libs’ health cash splash rolls on
THE Liberals have continued their health cash splash with a promise to fund an expanded second-stage redevelopment of the Royal Hobart Hospital.
Premier Peter Gutwein will today pledge a further $110m to an expanded $200m project, which will include extensions to the emergency department and more intensive care unit beds.
The Premier’s announcement amounts to a second scope of work for the stage-two project, the third announcement of its imminent commencement and fourth revision of the project budget.
It comes amid questions from Labor about the government’s ability to cut waiting lists with its fifth elective surgery blitz.
Former premier Will Hodgman promised $91m for stage two of the RHH redevelopment in March 2019 — with a three-year completion deadline.
The budget handed down in May that year contained $63m — including $30m in 2021-21 and $31.4m in 2021-22.
Last year’s budget contained $89.8m in total, cutting the allocation to $17.2m in 2020-21 and pushing $61.2m into 2021-22.
Mr Gutwein will announce the development will include an expanded emergency department and an expanded intensive care unit with capacity for 12 more beds.
There will be a new neurology/stroke ward, a new General Medical/Surgical Ward in J-block, a new Rapid Assessment Medical Unit, a new medical sub-specialties ward, an Older Person’s Unit and a new Sleep Study Centre.
“Detailed design work will commence within the first 100 days of a re-elected majority Liberal government to ensure this work can start as soon as possible, with construction expected to commence during the next term of the government,” Mr Gutwein told the Mercury.
“It took a majority Liberal government to deliver the new $689 million RHH development – after the Labor-Green Government left the project in tatters without laying a single brick – and only a re-elected majority Liberal government will deliver this next stage of the redevelopment.”
EDITORIAL: Stepping up on health
AT last the major parties are talking seriously about the toughest challenge facing the state — our health system.
Tasmanians have every right to be cynical about the Liberals’ health pledges. Since 2014, the government under Will Hodgman and now Peter Gutwein promised to make big changes to the effectiveness of the public hospital system.
For several years, long after it was relevant, the government referred to failures inherited from Labor. Slowly, thankfully, that tired blame game faded. But the health problems persisted.
Yes, spending on health grows each year, but it is hardly worth boasting about because the inflation in health costs are bigger than most budget increases.
Yes, Tasmania has more health challenges, its ageing population is putting pressure hospitals and services, and hospitals are seeing more patients each year.
We give credit to the Tasmanian government for sparing us the worst of COVID-19 by managing the pandemic as well as could be expected.
Peter Gutwein’s pledge of an extra $154m for 22,300 operations over four years is welcomed, as is the $110m boost in an expanded second-stage Royal Hobart Hospital redevelopment, as revealed by the Mercury today.
More difficult to improve is the efficiency of the system. A public hospital cannot be run like a business, it must treat everyone, however rich or poor, sick or well, grateful or not. But it would be a rare government department that could claim optimal efficiency, especially when every act must be documented as insurance against investigations or legal or compensation claims.
There were about 7600 Tasmanians waiting for elective surgery (deemed non-essential but, in reality, life-changing) when the Liberals came to power. It is now more than 12,000.
Nationally, less than 3 per cent have to wait longer than a year. Here, it’s almost 10 per cent, as health analyst Martyn Goddard wrote in his Talking Point on Friday.
Along with their misery, each patient is costing money as their general health deteriorates and they are forced to quit their job and seek help with daily tasks.
Launceston General Hospital has the worst bed block of any public hospital in Australia and Royal Hobart Hospital the fourth worst. If you’re in emergency for longer than eight hours because there’s no bed on a specialist ward, your risk of dying increases about 30 per cent.
Mr Goddard said plans for a second RHH campus were too distant and suggested prefabricated wards at the Repatriation site and, in Launceston, hiring vacant space at Calvary’s St Vincent’s Hospital.
These sound extreme, but not nearly as radical as the pain some are enduring waiting for surgery.
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