Cassy O'Connor MP | Greens Leader
Tasmania has been seriously let down at COAG by both the Prime Minister and Premier Hodgman, despite his empty promise not to accept any deal that would see Tasmania worse off.
The Premier's boasting would be laughable if we weren't talking about Tasmanians with health needs who are languishing in the State’s hospital emergency departments.
The savage Abbott budget cuts left our health system worse off by about $1.8 billion over a decade. The Liberals' back slapping over the $54M health funding is just embarrassing. That is a drop in the Health budget’s ocean and won't go far in our under-funded health system.
The Premier claims the $54M would be a "good first step" in restoring funding to our health system, but in the context of the cuts made by the his Federal colleagues to Tasmania’s health system, it’s a tiny baby totter.
The Premier let Tasmanians to believe he would be a strong ambassador at COAG, but he has clearly failed to stand up for Tasmania.
It’s all about priorities ultimately. As an example, the $54M over three years barely covers half of the cost of the diesel generators over three months.
The Premier's self-congratulatory press release crowing about small change being put back in to the Health budget was barely worth the paper it was written on.