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Labor Premier John Brumby limped back from Canberra in April with a poor health deal for Victorian families. John Brumby has become “Mr 20 Per Cent” after boasting that he was going to secure $4.8 billion over the next four years in extra funding for Victoria’s health system and returning with a total of $890 million over four years.

After weeks of posturing on health, John Brumby folded and limped back from Canberra with a very disappointing outcome for Victorians having also given up 30 per cent of State revenues to the Rudd Government from the GST.This is not good enough for Victoria.  We have proposed the dedication of gaming licence revenue to significantly improve facilities in the Victorian public health system with additional hospital beds, new and improved health equipment, mental health facilities and the rebuilding and upgrading of hospitals.We will establish a $1 billion Health Infrastructure Fund to improve the future health facilities of our state if elected on 27 November this year.  John Brumby should follow the Coalition and direct proceeds from the sale of electronic gaming machine (EGM) licences, conservatively estimated at $1 billion, towards a Health Infrastructure Fund to start rebuilding Victoria’s rundown health system.
I challenge John Brumby to tell Victorians what better purpose he has for these funds than rebuilding our struggling hospitals and health system.  Growth and demand into the future would place real pressure on health services and hospitals and require real action now instead of talk and empty promises.  Victoria’s hospitals are in crisis and our health system is in decline. Much of this is because of John Brumby’s failure to invest for the future. There is a unique opportunity of a financial windfall provided by the EGM licence sale. These funds should be directed into health infrastructure.  John Brumby has been posturing around Australia on health while hospital infrastructure has been allowed to run down in Victoria.  If John Brumby is serious about rebuilding our hospital infrastructure, he will not simply try to blame the Commonwealth, he will commit the huge windfall in state funds now becoming available to the rebuilding of our hospital and health infrastructure. Failing infrastructure, a chronic shortage of hospital beds and a rapidly growing and ageing population mean that health services are struggling to meet the needs of Victorian families.  As Victoria grows, so does pressure on health services and our hospitals. But all we have from John Brumby is 11 years of talk and no action.
The sale of these licences is a one-off opportunity to invest in significantly upgrading health facilities and equipment – an investment which is desperately needed by Victorian families and our growing population.  Examples of the health improvements that could be funded by a $1 billion Health Infrastructure Fund included:
• more than 2,500 acute hospital beds; or
• more than 5,400 sub-acute beds; or
• upgrades and rebuilding of run down and neglected regional hospitals; or
• new mental health facilities; or
• new medical equipment, dialysis units and operating theatres; or
• new ambulances and station facilities and community health services. A Health Infrastructure Fund means we can start building now for the growth to come.  Public hospitals in Victoria would benefit from this fund, whether it is by way of additional beds, medical equipment, upgrades or reconstruction.
This investment in health facilities and equipment for Victorian families would mean real action and outcomes instead of just talk.  A Health Infrastructure Fund could allocate funds to regional and rural hospitals, community health services, mental health and dental health equipment and facilities based on demand, need, population growth and hard evidence from practitioners and experts. In Victoria today, nearly 38,400 people are currently waiting on public lists for elective surgery, with countless more Victorians on hidden waiting lists.  Time to treatment is growing alarmingly – when Labor was elected in 1999, a patient would wait an average of 35 days for semi-urgent surgery, but today that figure has blown out to 50 days. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Victoria can no longer claim to have the best-performing hospitals in Australia.  Our emergency departments are overflowing with a record number of Victorians walking out rather than waiting hours for care, we have the lowest number of hospital beds per person of any state, hospital waiting lists have been systematically manipulated and we have the highest rate of unplanned patient re-admission in the nation.John Brumby has failed to plan for health and hospital services that are vital to cope with our needs, and he selectively hands out capital funding for health services from a pork barrel with no long-term planning for sustainable hospital resources and services. These funds would provide a dedicated additional funding stream to rebuild and secure our hospital and health system for the future.
If you have any problems with housing, education, crime, police, health care, transport, consumer matters or any other area of State Government responsibility, please do not hesitate to contact me with your concerns.  You can write to me at Parliament House, East Melbourne, Victoria, 3002 or email me at ted.baillieu@parliament.vic.gov.au.  My website is at http://www.tedbaillieu.com.au;
Regards
Ted Baillieu (LEADER OF LIBERAL NATIONALS COALITIO)