After offering to do so, I have appeared three times before the Legislative Council sub-committee and cooperated with their inquiry, providing three written submissions and also facilitating visits to local health facilities and meetings with officials.
When Labor’s Michelle O’Byrne was health minister, she refused to even appear before a Legislative Council inquiry, or have anything to do with it. That was after Labor cut half a billion dollars from health, closed down whole wards and sacked nurses.
Since this inquiry commenced, the Hodgman Majority Liberal Government has added an additional investment of $757 million to health over six years, to open nearly 300 more beds, employ hundreds of extra frontline staff and increase services across the state.
We know demand on our health system is increasing, as it is nationwide.
What we’re focused on is getting on with the job of improving the health system without distraction, as the community would rightly expect us to.
