Cassy O'Connor MP | Greens Leader & Health spokesperson
Health Minister, Michael Ferguson, cannot possibly justify spending taxpayer dollars on an advertising campaign for his as-yet-unrealised, unfunded health reform White Paper.
Every dollar spent promoting reforms which haven’t yet been implemented is a dollar not being invested in bringing down soaring elective surgery waiting lists.
It is hard to imagine Tasmanians currently languishing on the waiting list, many in pain, who saw the television advertisements last night would think the promotional campaign was a good expenditure of public funds.
These advertisements look and smell like political propaganda at taxpayer expense.
So far, the only tangible to come out of Mr Ferguson’s reform agenda is a White Paper. There has been no meaningful improvement for Tasmanians who rely on our public health system, in fact, the situation in health is worse than it was a year ago.
More Tasmanians are waiting longer for elective surgery on this Minister’s watch and massive funding cuts have been made across the health and hospital system. Mr Ferguson’s record so far is nothing to crow about and he shouldn’t be doing so at taxpayer expense.