Firstly, I was very disappointed to see yet another Tory Prime Minister, the latest one, Rishi Sunak, turn out to be a dud after only a few weeks in office. His first budget increased spending in the already well funded education and health areas, and, despite a war raging over the Channel in Europe, actually decreased defence spending, thus betraying not only the long-suffering British Armed Forces, but his NATO and Ukrainian allies as well, not to mention breaking his election promise. The UK does not need more diversity officers in the National Health Service; it needs more troops in its sadly depleted army.
Talking of getting your priorities wrong, our longstanding Green / Labor local government continues to splurge on its tram to the detriment of our health system.
Gordon Scott, a well-known rugby and choral identity, suffered a stroke, and is in the Canberra Hospital as I write. His wife, my old friend Maggie Scott, was horrified to learn that her husband had to go on a waiting list for an MRI, as that poor old hospital only has one machine. He’s not after a government house but a basic medical procedure, Messrs Rattenbury and Barr! A large First World hospital like the Canberra Hospital should have access to more than one MRI machine.
Similarly, Anita Sadil, an avid bike rider, recently went to hospital after a bad bike accident, and was in excruciating pain. Unfortunately, the hospital had run out of painkillers. The helpful staff finally found (after three hours’ search) one pain-killing needle, and the nurse was so happy he was beaming from ear to ear when he located it!
In recent months, we have seen the tragic deaths of two young children who presented to the emergency department. It’s been suggested that these deaths may have been avoided if the Canberra Hospital was properly resourced.
The ACT’s longest serving Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, has regularly railed against the lack of funding for our health system and the diversion of money that should have been allocated to it being wasted on the tram. Jon puts the problems down to under-resourcing after Senator Katy Gallagher left ACT politics and the current duo of Labor Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Greens leader Shane Rattenbury took charge. Jon has pointed out that between 2015/16 and 2018/19, the number of admissions to the Canberra Hospital increased at about 2.5 per cent. Yet for those same years, expenditure was cut by 2.5 per cent per year. At the same time nationally, people admitted to hospital rose 3.5 per cent, but expenditure elsewhere rose 4.8 per cent to meet the need. The ACT was the only jurisdiction to cut expenditure.
Nationally, the first duty of any national government is to ensure the country is adequately defended. In Australia, at a state and local level, the two big areas where money must be spent are policing and health (closely followed by education). Messrs Sunak, Barr, and Rattenbury all seem to have got their priorities a bit skewed. In the ACT, the health and wellbeing of our community should be paramount, not the tram.
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Canberra Daily.
