Wed, 21st May 2008
Nelson Doorstop - Traralgon - Visit to Gippsland, Access Economics report...
The Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP
Leader of the Opposition
E&OE
DR NELSON:
It’s terrific to be back here in Gippsland and to be here with Rohan Fitzgerald who’s doing a terrific job flying the liberal flag. We’re quietly confident about Rohan being a fantastic candidate, a great person to represent the people of Gippsland. He’s a fair dinkum bloke, a family man, four kids, lives in Traralgon, works in Sale.
Today we’re doing a number of things. We’re here at the Latrobe Regional Hospital and we’ve gone for a tour of the hospital. We’ve visited their cancer treatment facilities and been through the emergency department. We’ve had a look at a range of facilities in radiotherapy and obviously pharmacy and we’ve seen one of the wards.
The important thing I think for the people of the community of Gippsland to appreciate is that this is an outstanding hospital. The men and women who work in this hospital; the doctors, the nurses, the support and administrative staff are doing a terrific job. The buildings are magnificent but the hospital is seriously overloaded.
There are more than 1100 people that are on waiting lists to get elective surgery in the hospital. There are more than 1800 people that wait more than eight hours on trolleys. Very frequently there are ambulances queued up outside the hospital and now Mr Rudd has introduced a policy which is going to put another one million Australians into public hospital care. The Medicare surcharge change that was announced in the Budget last week will actually mean close to one million Australians will be dropping their private health insurance and they’ll be queuing up in public hospitals like this one.
It also means for the pensioners, retirees and families who are battling to keep their private health insurance we can expect private health insurance premiums, we’re told today, to increase in the order of another 10 per cent.
This is classic Labor Party policy - to hit the people that want to look after themselves, to add even more people to public hospital waiting lists, and to overload our already overloaded public hospitals.
We’ll be going shortly also to the Traralgon Post Office and Rohan Fitzgerald has been working really hard to make sure that we keep the post office. More than 120 years it’s served the people of Traralgon, it’s served the community. We’ve got a lot of elderly people, we’ve got pensioners, people that are frail, people who desperately need the convenience of the post office where it is. And to move it to where it’s being proposed and where there’s no direct public transport is something that we will be opposing in the strongest possible terms.
We’ll also be visiting the Maffra District hospital and that’s another example of a hospital that has been seriously neglected by the state Labor Government. It needs upgrading, it needs better facilities and I think the people who go to the Maffra District Hospital deserve better than a four bed bay.
QUESTION:
How important is this election for you guys?
DR NELSON:
It’s very important for the people of Gippsland that they actually have someone who goes to Canberra to fight for them. It’s very important that we have someone like Rohan Fitzgerald who is actually going to go to Canberra, not be a part of Mr Rudd’s choir, but instead stand up for the people of Gippsland. Whether it’s the Traralgon bypass, whether it’s the Princes Highway, the Maffra Hospital or getting a better treatment as far as the Traralgon Post Office is concerned. This is very, very important for the people of Gippsland. That’s who really counts in this.
And for us, for Rohan Fitzgerald, for the Liberal and Coalition parties, five cents a litre less off petrol is what we stand for. We stand for lower taxes and I can assure you that every person in Gippsland from now until the day of the next election needs to remember that Rohan Fitzgerald stands for cheaper petrol, five and a half cents a litre at the pump. That is the policy that we have and that which we will take to the next election, not only the by-election but of course the next general federal election.
QUESTION:
Do you think it will give you a sign of how people are accepting your leadership of the Liberal Party?
DR NELSON:
The most important thing people are concerned about is the price of petrol. We stand for making it lower, Mr Rudd thinks that if you watch petrol it will bring the price down – it won’t. What we stand for is five an a half cents a litre off the price of petrol at the pump. We stand for lower taxes, Mr Rudd stands for higher taxes. They’re the things that really count. And every person in Gippsland needs to ask themselves, as a result of the Budget; is it going to be easier for me to keep my house? Easier to put petrol in the car? Easier to buy groceries? And if I’m a pensioner, is it actually going to be any easier to feed myself? The answer to that is no.
This is a Budget that delivered higher taxes, higher spending, failed pensioners, failed carers, failed families. And importantly from the Liberals’ perspective, every time you fill your car up with petrol it will be five and a half cents a litre cheaper, whatever the price at the pump under us.
QUESTION:
The AMA report this morning found that the Government’s [inaudible]
DR NELSON:
The Access Economics report is now another report which shows that this Government not only can’t get its Budget figures right, but it’s also a savage attack on people who have got private health insurance. What we’re now looking at is about a half billion dollar hole in the Government’s Budget as a result of it trying to attack people with private health insurance. We’re going to have almost one million more Australians lining up in our overloaded public hospitals and those pensioners, retirees and families that stay in private health insurance will pay even higher premiums than they have recently.
So when you’re waiting in a hospital queue, when you’re at Latrobe Regional Hospital and you’re in a hospital queue, or you’re in an ambulance and you can’t get through the door, just remember that Mr Rudd has made a conscious decision to add one million more people to waiting lists in Australian public hospitals at the same time as putting more inflationary pressure onto the people with private health insurance.
What we’ve now got is a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, we’ve got a report from Access Economics which shows not only can the Government not add up and get its Budget right, it’s also hell bent on pushing people out of private health insurance onto public hospital queues. That is not the kind of Australia that we want and our Australian hospitals need a hell of a lot better than that.
QUESTION:
Isn’t this an ideological [inaudible]
DR NELSON:
There are two reasons why the Labor Government has chosen to do it; they don’t like people with private health insurance in the same way they don’t like private education. And they’ve also done it because they think that they will save themselves money, because they won’t have to give the 30 per cent private health insurance rebate which we introduced in government to those nearly one million people who will be dropping their private health insurance.
This, like many other aspects of the Budget fails Australia and it fails our healthcare system.
QUESTION:
Back to the election here, is it dangerous to be running a Liberal candidate against a National candidate as well, considering it’s a fairly safe National seat?
DR NELSON:
Rohan Fitzgerald is a perfect candidate and he is just the kind of person from the community, of the community, to represent Liberal values and interests in this by-election. We have a healthy, friendly competitive competition between the National and Liberal parties. But it’s important that the people of Gippsland have a choice and that’s what they’re going to get.
QUESTION:
Is it a winnable seat given the Coalition’s decline in popularity?
DR NELSON:
It is most, it is absolutely essential for the people of Gippsland to think carefully about the person that they are going to send to Canberra to represent their interests, their concerns and their aspirations for Gippsland itself. It is very, very important that the people of Gippsland think long and hard about the qualities, the character and what the candidate has to offer them in terms of standing up for the local community.
The issues are obviously roads, hospitals, the position of the post office in Traralgon. Jobs in the Latrobe Valley, and with Peter Garrett and Kevin Rudd coming down the road with changes to climate change, we’re very concerned about job security in Gippsland. It’s very important that the people of Gippsland make sure they send someone like Rohan Fitzgerald to Canberra who can actually stand up for them. That’s what’s really important in this.
QUESTION:
Should they believe that the leadership at the top level, especially between you and Mr Turnbull is strong enough?
DR NELSON:
What they need to believe is that if they send Rohan Fitzgerald to Canberra they’re more likely to get five and a half cents a litre off petrol when they fill up their car. Rohan Fitzgerald stands for cheaper petrol, he stands for lower taxes, and he stands for people getting a fair go in Canberra instead of just kow-towing to Mr Rudd as a part of his choir.
QUESTION:
So have you made up with Mr Turnbull?
DR NELSON:
Mr Turnbull will be giving a very strong address at the National Press Club today, making sure that Australians understand how Mr Rudd’s Budget has failed families, pensioners and carers. How it fails the need that we’ve got to deal with interest rates, with petrol and groceries. And he’ll be setting out very strongly why Australia needs to get back into solid, sound economic management at the next federal election.
QUESTION:
[inaudible]
DR NELSON:
Anyone that thinks that petrol at $1.50 a litre going down to $1.45 is going to get everyday people to start driving an extra 100 kilometres a week simply doesn’t understand the pressures that Australian families are under. The price elasticity of demand for petrol at $1.50 a litre for everyday families is now at absolute breaking point. If you drop petrol from around $1.50 to $1.45 a litre, anyone that thinks that people are going to suddenly start driving their cars a lot further simply doesn’t understand the pressure that’s on pensioners, retirees, families and small businesses in this country.
There is one thing that the Government can actually do to bring down the price of petrol - rather than just looking at the price of petrol - and that is to cut the excise. That’s what we stand for and that’s what Rohan Fitzgerald will deliver if he is sent to Canberra.
QUESTION:
Are you concerned by the reports that Malcolm Turnbull tried to talk to Julie Bishop to get her to take over form Troy Buswell in WA?
DR NELSON:
Julie Bishop is doing a terrific job as the deputy leader of the Opposition and of the Liberal Party and she’s fully committed to continue to do that.
QUESTION:
Are you going to talk to Malcolm Turnbull?
DR NELSON:
I talk to all of my colleagues every day.
QUESTION:
Do you think that it’s damaging [inaudible]
DR NELSON:
The single most important thing to everyday Australians is can I put petrol in my car? Can I buy groceries to feed my family and my kids? Can I keep my house with interest rates going up? Will I be one of the 134,000 people that Mr Rudd is budgeting to throw out of work in the next 12 months? Will I be able to more confidently raise a family in Australia as a result of the Budget?
They’re the issues that really count and the one thing that Australians will take out of last week’s Budget is that the Coalition stands for cheaper petrol – five cents a litre off when you fill up your car - Mr Rudd just wants to look at it and somehow seems to think that that’s going to bring down the price of petrol, it won’t.
QUESTION:
Dr Nelson I just wonder if all these important issues that we’ve got on our plate here, now would it not be better just to put this Malcolm Turnbull thing to bed once and for all so you can both be part of your own choir and sing off the same song sheet?
DR NELSON:
Well as I said yesterday, Mr Turnbull is doing a very effective job as the shadow Treasurer and he will be at the National pres Club today giving a very strong speech pointing out to Australians how Mr Rudd and Mr Swan have failed Australia in terms of their first budget. And in particular that we will be standing for a number of things including five cents a litre off the price of petrol.
QUESTION:
And do you expect to get unequivocal endorsement of your leadership at the National Press Club today?
DR NELSON:
Yes.
QUESTION:
The CFMEU has been letter dropping in Gippsland to timber plant workers, trying to get them to suss out which party they think would best support them. What’s the Liberal Party’s stance on the issue?
DR NELSON:
We think it’s very important that the jobs of timber workers throughout the country, not only in Gippsland but right throughout this country are protected and preserved. The Labor Party has a track record of being captivated and high-jacked by left leaning, latte sippers in large suburban cities. We stand up for the workers that are in regional Australia. We’ve done so in the past and we will continue to do so. We are very concerned that with a bloke like Peter Garrett, having a senior position in the Rudd Labor Government, that the jobs of timber workers may not be guaranteed in the future. And Rohan Fitzgerald will be standing very, very firmly to support the jobs of timber workers.
It is long past time in this country where we left behind this fashionable attack on people who earn a living from working in the timber and forestry industries. We’ve got agreement which balance work with the environmental preservation of forests and regrowth forests. And I think we’ve got it about right and the last thing that Australians and the people of Gippsland in particular will need is uncertainty brought in my Mr Rudd and Mr Garrett and others in the Labor Party that have got a long history of not supporting workers when they need it most.
QUESTION:
[inaudible]
DR NELSON:
Instant a lot of the time.
QUESTION:
On the weekend the Government released draft legislation for carbon capture and storage, what do you take form that and their focus on making coal cleaner?
DR NELSON:
Well look we put $150 million last year alone into clean coal technology in the Gippsland valley as far as energy production is concerned. As far as Australia’s future is concerned not only for power generation but also the protection and support of the jobs of people whose lives depend on it, clean coal technology and carbon capture are absolutely essential to this country’s economic and energy future. Renewable energies will be important but as far as base load power is concerned, we must make absolutely certain that we maximise our investment in technologies that are going to give us clean coal technology. At the same time as supporting global initiatives that bring all of the world into any agreement on climate change and also to continue to push reforestation initiatives particularly in south east Asia.
QUESTION:
Are you confident you’ll be leading the Liberals at the next election?
DR NELSON:
Yes, very confident.
QUESTION:
[inaudible]
DR NELSON:
As I say, very confident.
Thanks very much everybody.
QUESTION:
[inaudible]
DR NELSON:
I think Mr Downer made some comments about it yesterday.
Thanks very much.
Thanks guys.