The Federal government decision to take over the Mersey hospital in Devonport, which was to lose its acute functions under a Tasmanian government revamp, has been widely condemned in the state and national press. The Mercury, in Hobart, is even running with the claim that the decision to split health services between Devonport and Burnie will result in lost lives:
Leading health economist Jeff Richardson said yesterday Mr Howard may succeed in keeping the hospital open.
“He will also succeed in killing a lot of Tasmanians,” Prof Richardson said.
Essentially, it appears that there isn’t the staff to run two hospitals in north-west Tasmania. If the Mersey is to be retained as a full-service hospital, it’s likely that neither hospital will be able to keep enough staff to offer quality services.
So, it seems, not only are the broader public policy outcomes of Federal Government cherrypicking of state responsibilities bad, it seems that this particular intervention might well lead to $45 million a year being spent to deliver worse health care.
To top it all off, it seems that the pork-barrel politics of the decision aren’t as clear-cut as you might assume. While Devonport locals are happy, The residents of Burnie are rather peeved.
It’s the same dynamic with so much pork barrelling. The costs are diffuse and the benefits very specific. no one is going to vote against the libs because of this decision – (although maybe there will be some outrage in Burnie).
I really hope this backfires, but then I think it is a forlorn hope.
oh ye of little faith
the shit is still to hit the fan
Having lived near Burnie for a while, this decision will not go down well there.
As stated, the hospitals cannot cover their staffing requirements already.
The Libs will pick up a few votes around Devonport. That will be it.
Baker is a dud member, and any general swing back to the ALP will overwhelm those votes anyway.
And no bounce from this, or the Haneef affair in the latest Morgan poll.
Interestingly only 28% think the government will win the election!
Michelle Grattan has called this for what it is: link
There will be much more of this – it appears to be Howard’s main tactics for the campaign leading up to the 20 October election – or will he delay this until he gets the poll bounce he is desperately probing for?
Interesting the Howard is also running on being the “safe economic hands” line when he indulges in such blatant pork barrelling.
The weirdest thing about the whole affair is that Bass and Braddon are simply not winnable seats for the government unless something huge happens to turn around current polling. ALP on more than 50% primary, plus Greens 8-10% is what I’ve seen. No way in the world can Howard hold those seats.
Now why would he waste time trying to pork-barrel those seats instead of working on seats he might swing in QLD or WA?
Methinks the old fox is losing his legendary sense of smell…
The pork barrelling is to ensure “The quality of Mersey is not strained”
Good God. You’re quibbling about mere lives and hospitals when the very survival of the Howard government is at stake. Which is more important Robert?
Today’s Morgan Poll
Because people in Devonport know that when John Howard promises something, he delivers.
Hope he can run a hospital better than the Feds have run the Dental Services since they came to power in 1996. Last I heard there were something like 640 000 people waiting on a two year waiting list for public Dental work to be performed.
It would be interesting to be the proverbial fly-on-the-wall of the Costello household as the rampaging rodent flings Treasury money here, there and everywhere. Can’t wait for the next media ambush of Cossie and the chance to interpret the smirk…. given his frank admissions to the two academic authors about his views on Howard’s other pre-election spending antics.
Of course quality might be Z”strained” if more doctors follow this lead.
Yet another good reason to fully privatise the running of hospitals in this country. What a ridiculous decision. The LP outrage is well directed on this one. But let’s face it, this is probably not a decision that could occur in a properly functioning private healthcare market. And people bang on and on about the evils of the profit motive!
Cheers
BBB
Actually BBB, that very hospital was privatised under the Tas Libs, and went down the gurgler so badly the following Tas Labour government had to take it over again.
That was too subtle. Please note there is a degree of tongue-in-cheek in the above.
Cheers
BBB
I am sure that if Howard gets re-elected any pork that gets flung at the Mersey hospital will come straight out of the states health funding barrel following the election. This is perhaps why the commonwealth has postponed signing a new health funding agreement with the states until after the election.
Think you’re spot on Horatio.
Fair enough , BBB, missed that!
Just wondering, seeing as how the Tasmanian government owns the hospital and the land it sits on, how will Howard put this takeover into effect?
Horatio: that happens automatically, in fact, through the adjustment mechanisms of the Grants Commission funding formula.
It’s one of the most bizarre aspects of Australian politics – all the fuss and bother about Commonwealth funding for this or that project, when the money gets taken, in large part, back off the state’s general grants later. Or at least, that’s how it’s been explained to me.
Yes Robert, there is no chance that this ‘additional’ $45 million won’t be clawed back when the next round of payments is made.
The local community wanted this result so the politicians reflected the will of the electors.
If the pollies did everything the economists wanted there would be full cost recovery on public transport rather than the hefty govt subsides currently provided.
Is subsidised public transport pork barrelling for those in the cities?
One persons pork barrelling is another persons sensible social policy!
Oh Dear, this isn’t going to help Ratty.
Senior obstetrician Mike Saunders has resigned in protest over the Federal Government’s planned $45 million takeover.
Dr Saunders is on leave but has emailed his immediate resignation to Dr Ayre and other staff members.
“He (Dr Saunders) has said that he supported the Clinical Services Plan. This intervention by the Prime Minister has obviously changed the whole environment,” Dr Ayre said.
“He’s not really prepared to work in that sort of an environment. We expected that.
“I know that my other directors are also considering their position in relation to the Mersey.”
So much for Staff support of the plan.
so Howardis destroying the tassie health system to try save his own skin
he will need a dermatologist, but there won’t be any…
I see from the Fin today the floodgates have opened – every marginal government member has suddenly discovered an underfunded hospital/school/road needing an urgent infusion of federal cash. So much for interest rates and fiscal responsibility!
Are you talking about Laura Tingle’s piece, Mark? She got a few things wrong, so take it all with a grain of salt. Still, the thrust of she was saying is basically right. We are about to witness one of the all-time greatest lowerings of policy standards.
Cheers
BBB
Not just Tingle, BBB, there was another article in the Fin with quotes from stacks of backbenchers nominating their millions of dollars in “community” priorities.
I couldn’t help thinking of all the criticisms of democracy in PNG where members get basically given a pile of money to hand out as they see fit.
Sorry Mark, looking back at that piece, Tingle was on about something else. Please ignore!
Cheers
BBB
Yes, she did mention it, but spent most of the piece talking about the counter-productive abolition of CDEP in the Territory.
Isn’t the Devonport hospital announcement symptomatic of something bigger? It’s so entirely devoid of any sense of logic, equity and decency that we’re not even meant to consider it against these standards. It’s aimed exclusively at those who need jumper leads to kick start their brains (with acknowledgement to a letter writer in today’s SMH). At those who simply look at look at the issue (if indeed they look at it at all) as: duh, why shouldn’t the guvmint support a hospital?
Howard has completely given up on appealing to those who are concerned with quaint notions of propriety and what constitutes sound public policy, as he’s assumed (probably correctly) that he’s lost their votes anyway, and would be wasting his time trying to appeal to them.
No doubt we can expect more of this in the coming months.
It might be worth pointing out to those who are sentimentally attached to the cottage hospital that’s been in their town for a century or so, that the world has moved on.
* modern transport means that people don’t have to rely on local resources – the regional centre of medical excellence is only a short chopper ride away for emergency cases, or a safe road ambulance trip away for serious but not crisis cases.
* think about it – would you rather your serious burn or fracture was treated by the locals who only see a dozen or so cases like yours a year, or by the regional centre of medical excellence who see a dozen cases like yours every week? Same-same for obstetrics emergencies etc
The Tasmanian govt had commissioned several investigations by experts, the experts reported that the North-West Coast of Tasmania can only support one world-class centre of medical excellence, and that other hospitals should be downgraded to serve as low-level infection and trauma wards and triage centres for more serious injuries that should be referred to the regional COME. The Tasmanian govt decided that the regional COME should be at the Burnie Hospital, not the Mersey Hospital. So what’s going to happen to the Burnie Hospital now?
A good and rather cheap investment for a seat I would think.
Try telling that to reiosdents in the most Marginal Federal Liberal Seat in WA about closing the Maternitiy Section of the Kalamunda Hospital and diverting resources to Swan Districts Hospital which is a mere 20 minute drive along a major highway.
http://www.stuarthenrymp.com/speeches/kalhosp.htm
All I can say is that if Howard’s gonna “save” every local Hospital in the land, he’s gonna need to import a whole lot of Dr Haneefs on 457 visas to staff ‘em.
Even saving those in marginal Liberal seats will drain this year’s graduating classes from both the Banglaore and Hyderabad Uni Medical Faculties combined. Hell, they might even have to recruit in Delhi too.
Go Johnny.
Just be sure to weed-out the Terrists first.
A glorious Howard-funded disaster in the making!! I’m loving every crap-soaked second of this campaign.
The big drum-beating intervention in Aboriginal welfare has sputtered to a gradual shoulder-shrugging who-knows-what.
The Dastardly Doctor Haneef has actually been exposed as a scheming nice person with a dopey second cousin, and totally innocent of any wrongdoing.
Now, the saviour of the Mersey Hospital has managed to drive the specialists at that institution away on the next train.
Well done, John! Brilliant campaign so far, you useless old lush!
btw, on that last point….have you noticed how John Howard’s nose is heavily made up for TV interviews, but when the cameras catch him on the street, the bloated veins stand out?
What was that piece recently about him addressing Parliament while drunk? Hmmmm….
Ratty refers to his action as an example of an:
Timed likewise pragmatically before an election, of course.
Shaun Carney has an article in the age:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/the-howard-game/2007/08/03/1185648139566.html
I think we will experience the mother of all election year spendathons and we may have to rename Ratty as Porky not only for the lies but for being the Mastermind of Pork, special subject Porkbarrelling
We do not know the depths yet of political depravity the guy will stoop to in his maniacal desire to cling onto power. I suspect this hospital thing is the beginning of a campaign of wedges against the states which he hopes will splatter mud on Rudd.
I’m hoping voters see it for what it is, a cynical and gross abuse of power for one end, LNP fortunes, not for the benefit of the nation.
His use of words “pragmatic federalism” is a misnomer, since he’s been grabbing power at the expense of the states for yonks, aided by a compliant High Court. For “pragmatic” read tearing down. What Howard would like is the states being reduced to the status of mendicant shire councils, but with some modicum of power that he can always play the blame game when he fucks up.
Trevski, a possible explanation for the bloated veins is the nose stretching so much as he is forced to tell more porkies.
This is fast descending into farce as Howard and others defend the move, hinting at others, while Costello tries to fend off the long queue of other hopefuls with assurances that it is strictly a “one-off”. Meanwhile medical professionals are resigning.
Howard seems to be losing it in his desperate attempts to find anything to boost votes. It might have been cheaper to stick to the original arrangements and install a bullet train between Devonport and Burnie, plus a twice-daily helicopter service. Some of the costs could probably have been offset in the tourist potential of such services.
That and the Foreign Nasal Policy, Don:
brown-nosingGWB policy for our national security is not to be sneezed at, nor aggravated by people who if not with US must be with the terrorists.In acute Howarditis sinusitis, yellow (ALP) or Green electorally caused pus may be discharged from the nose, but shortly afterwards the
brown-nosingsymptoms will rapidly disappear, and bloated veins will return to geriatric dimensions, known as post liberaldementiaburst of grandeur syndrome.This will of course be accompanied by a great blast of
rectally defective liberal sphincter syndromehot air, and there will be much deflation in the land, with less Pork on Tasmanian hospital menus, for example.My feeling is this succession of lamearsed stunts, aka “Teh Liberal campaign”, are only being taken at all seriously because he’s still PM.
They’re worse than Lathamesque. His campaign is a complete joke. Its falling apart.
Expect to see polls static, or improving for the ALP.
If the last few weeks are anything to go by, Rudd can just sit back and watch Team Rodent self-destruct.
Having said that, IM with Trevski, its gripping viewing….
What insane crap will be next on Survivor Canberra?
Oh look, The Idiot Wind keeps digging his hole.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/05/1996988.htm
Dig this!
Erm, well, since you withdrew his visa, Dimsticks, his options included leaving, or “staying around” at Her Majesty’s Displeasure in Villawood.
Pretty puzzling, no?
The state premiers are having a “bikie gang” moment over being trumped by the feds.
Unfortunately for the state premiers, health is one issue over which people will change their vote in a flash.
People die in the hallway/carparks of state run hospitals because they can’t be seen for several hours.
Reality doesn’t matter. The perception will be that the feds MAY do something about getting hospitals working (while the states have been making a pig’s ear of it) so that our relatives don’t die.
If not handled properly by the ALP, this will cost votes. The massive spending on things other than doctors and nurses by the states will not help them much. Handled properly by the Liberal Party, this could swing lots of votes.
Kevin Andrews refused to listen to SATP.
I hope for everyone’s sake that Tony Abbott isn’t making the same mistake.
Do you really think Australians are that daft, SATP? I dont.
I reckon this naked attempt at marginal seat pork barrelling – at the exoesen of a coherent health policy – will be looked back on as the start of the end for Team Rodent.
Meanwhile, the moral and intellectual giants of the LNP frontbench debate “whether the KKK is Kool”.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/05/1997062.htm
NB exoesen is Mosedrn chatroom Urdu patois for “expense”
Aww… crap.
States own the infrastructure, Feds only have the money SATP and zilch policy/administrative skills (well apart from establishing criteria for fed grants). Are you proposing that the Feds take it over completely or use their complete ignorance of running state medical systems and dictate all micro/macro priorities and service with “strings attached” funding? He’ll need an army of fed bureaucrats to do it.
Going on past form, perhaps they would send all the “Sammy/Wog” doctors home; appoint liberal party dregs as state and hospital administrators and really fuck it up. [Guys like "doing a heckava job Brownie" with FEMA in the US ie Peter Reith the hospital phone card system; John Anderson's son the vegetable supply; Manildra the fuel supplier for the emergency generators--heaps and heaps of pork laden contracts to hand out to the useless hacks and business "faithfull." ]
Heaven help us if the long term plan is privatisation but the last thing the feds actually want is to be given responsibility for the whole shebang, cos then they’d reveal their incompetence and make the British NHS people look like geniuses.
The real reason Ratty is doing this shit is because he can’t lay a glove on Rudd so he’s trying to find a wedge with ALP state hospital problems hoping some shit will stick to the federal ALP–the rationale for the Rat-O-Van/Baldrick Cunning ‘Hostipal’ Plan goes under the “perfidious evil of wall to wall Labor” narrative.
Problem is everything he does these days appears to backfire, as it should with cretinous fools knowing SFA [or wilfully ignoring] the nuanced intricacies in state medical/hospital systems.
“Steve at the Pub” makes a good general point about people and that they will change their votes over health matters. However, on this specific issue I think he is wrong in saying the feds have “trumped the states”.
I know the Northwest of Tasmania well. Hospitals up there have been a nightmare for politicians for decades. John Howard is playing with fire by interfering. In fact I think that even within the electorate of Braddon, this intervention will cost more votes than it will gain. Here’s why.
Northwest Tasmania has a large and well regarded hospital already. It’s located 30 minutes from Devonport in Burnie, the second largest (but more centrally located) city on the coast (and also within the electorate of Braddon). Boosting the Devonport hospital threatens the viability of the Burnie hospital. There’s not enough doctors, nurses and patients to justify two major hospitals so close to each other. There is already a call from a member of Tasmania’s upper house for money saved on the northwest as a result of John Howard’s largesse to be redirected to other hospitals in the state. Unless John Howard is going to save the Burnie hospital as well, its future must be in doubt. I suspect any votes John Howard gains in Devonport will be lost in Burnie.
Finally, there is the big hit that Howard’s financial credibility has taken. This is such a blatant attempt to buy votes with absolutely no regard for good policy. As the headline said – costly and counterproductive.
PAB, it doesn’t matter how it looks in north-west Tas, this is politics, it only matters how voters in the rest of the country see it. Especially when there are events (and it only needs one or two of them) like a woman dying in the hallway of Logan hospital after waiting several hours and still not being admitted.
Katz, Lefty E & others who make trite of people dying: God help you, you soulless bastards!
Tell it to Howard SATP.
The public health billions going down the toilet on private health insurance subsidy (you know, that 30% that was completely wasted by being progressively eaten up by premium rises, since the funds knew we could afford it) might have been used better elsewhere.
PS how’s the government’s form.
When interest rates are low, they take the credit.
When they’re high, its someone else’s fault!
Bwaahahaaa. They’re rooted.
Oh deary me, the ad hominem when the Howardista arguments go belly up.
Shorter SATP: John Howard and I have put on our Florence Nightingale badges. Those who mock are soul-less (presumably atheistic) bastards going to hell.
It absolutely sinks to the rest of the country SATP. Everyone would like better hospital services but this is not a sane way to provide them. Fortunately, not long now to the election where we can wave them goodbye.
John Howard’s lamp is a Molotov cocktail.
Peter Kemp, I am not saying the Tasmanian intervention is going to deliver better health care, or anything of the sort.
It is purely politics, & possibly quite cunning politics. To think otherwise would be erronous.
It would be a bold move by the opposition to think that this cannot be worked into an issue which will strike a chord with, and possibly change the vote of, a lot of people nationwide who would otherwise vote for the opposition.
We have a few here who are as to politics as the Joker is to Batman, laughing hysterically at everything the govt does as they see it “stuffing up”.
The public need not see it that way, for not everybody sees things through the bottom of the “ALP-all-the-way” Schooner glass.
Steve at the pub said “PAB, it doesn’t matter how it looks in north-west Tas, this is politics, it only matters how voters in the rest of the country see it”.
Sorry, SATP. I’m not convinced. I understand your point about this intervention highlighting the states’ failures on health. But I think the blatant nature of it will swamp any such subtle points. The obvious question is, why wasn’t the money spent somewhere that needs a good hospital instead of on a hospital that is barely viable in an already well serviced area? Why wasn’t it spent on your Logan hospital for example?
I think that within the electorate of Braddon this intervention will cost Howard as many votes as he will gain from it. And I think that outside Braddon it makes him look like a spend-thrift opportunist.