Wednesday, 9 February 2022

Grievance debate

Elective surgery

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (16:01): Today I grieve for the state of the Victorian health system, and more to the point I grieve for the 80 000 Victorians who are on a waiting list for surgery in this state—80 000 Victorians. And that is not a static figure; it is 80 000 Victorians growing by an extra thousand every week. From a government that claims it has ‘fixed’ the health system, well, fixed it it has—fixed it to a disastrous level, so that almost the population of Bendigo is now on a waiting list for surgery, and that is only in the public system. That is not including what the government has requisitioned and what may be occurring in our private system as well—1000 more people every week. These are men and women of Victoria, children of Victoria. These are your family and mine. These are our neighbours and our friends. These are Victorians who are doing it exceptionally tough, who need surgery and need it straightaway. This could be surgery such as breast cancer treatment, a hip replacement or, as we have heard today, cleft palate treatment and surgery for children.

This is not about government spin or question time answers or press conferences explaining away problems, these are the facts of the matter in Victoria today. We are facing 80 000 people—more than we have ever seen—in a waiting list crisis that is now engulfing this state, with 1000 extra people being added to that every week. This is a disaster for our state. I grieve for the system that has got us there, for the government that treats this as a political problem, not the health crisis that it is, and that wants to solve this by spin and not by genuine action and real solutions. We must take heed of what has been put as facts for our state in just the last few days—some of the worst performance data we have ever seen for health in this state. It is not just about dollars in, it is about what is coming out, and what we know is coming out are some of the worst figures we have seen for decades.

I say again: this is not about an Excel spreadsheet or a departmental brief; these are Victorians who are suffering. These are real examples of people that we raise in this house—mind you, received with contempt from the Minister for Health, with derision from the Premier, with juvenile comments from the members for Bendigo East and Monbulk. We raise them with genuine interest to seek compassion from this government, something they are not showing on this topic but something any other government around Australia when asked about these matters is, Labor or Liberal. But there is only one government that is treating this as a political problem, as opposed to a massive problem in the health sector that they must deal with, and that is this government in Victoria today. And why wouldn’t they? Because who is the person who has run that system for 11 of the last 15 years? It is none other than the Premier of the state today. He was a health minister for three years, there was a change of government for four and he has been the Premier by election for another eight. He cannot personally walk away from the responsibility to manage that system and manage it well. It is not about dollars in; it is about the patients and their care and their health and the stories we are raising in this chamber. The member for Warrandyte has said on a number of occasions, ‘We can’t raise 80 000 different stories’, but that is what it is this week. Next week it will be 81 000 stories. By the end of February it will be 85 000 stories. By Easter it will be 90 000 stories.

These stories are about Victorians, from babies to the elderly, to the disabled, to the underprivileged, to those—unlike sports players—who do not have the ability to access quality health care when it is deemed they are allowed to because they are an elite player. They are ordinary Victorians right across Melbourne. The member for Gembrook and I met a number of them in Berwick just last week. Their stories across the City of Casey are dramatic and real—from Pakenham to Cranbourne to Harkaway, people with the same message: we are simply trying to get quality health care. On top of that, people who a number of members here and I met in the western suburbs said, for the record of the Parliament—a quote from externals—‘We don’t want another level crossing removed. We want an ambulance to arrive when we call it’. That is their priority. The ‘nice to have’ does not beat the ‘must have’. When you are sick you need an ambulance to arrive. When you are having breast cancer treatment you must get surgery. When your child is born with a cleft lip, you must have that seen to. They are the necessities. This government is focused on nice to haves, and they are nice to haves—I do not say they are not. It is nice—I agree entirely: you must build new infrastructure. But what is the priority of Victorians: to build infrastructure when you cannot get an ambulance and one of your family members is dying or when you cannot be seen to when your child needs urgent surgery?

It is easy for people to explain away in government when they are given a cheat sheet by an adviser and told to walk into this chamber and told ‘Here, say this’. You see them all looking like this as they read their contributions—looking down at the cheat sheet notes. Those cheat sheet notes might suffice for a speech in Parliament, but they do not answer the question to the people who we have been seeing, who say, ‘Mr Guy, the ambulance didn’t come and my father died’. This is not 2011. This is not 2012, as the member for Altona just said. This is today: seven, nearly eight, years into government, with 11 years before that. The excuses for Victorians—they are over. There are no more excuses.

What are the excuses for Tiana and Billy’s son, Malik, who the member for Lowan raised today in question time—again to the stunning and horrifying derision of the Premier and the member for Monbulk, and to the humour of the member for Bendigo East. This is a child that needs urgent cleft palate surgery. This is not a story that was invented in someone’s office to sound good in question time. The parents are on the record with their son saying, ‘We need his surgery and we need it now’. Cleft palate surgery does not wait. It does not wait for health briefings. It does not wait for the Minister for Health to go home, go out to dinner, have a brief, come into work the next day and do his daily routine. They need this for their son now—like New South Wales has done. To their credit they recognised the problem and made cleft palate surgery for children urgent surgery. What does the government say to Tiana and Billy, Malik’s parents, who the member for Lowan raised today? What do they say to that? I say again: his surgery is not cosmetic, it is important. It is urgent. It is needed. It will leave a four-month-old boy with permanent scarring if it is not done. For God’s sake, no more lies, no more spin, no more looking good and preening yourself for the cameras as the doddering Minister for Health does. How about fixing the problem? After eight years, nearly a decade, in government, these problems are worse than ever—not better than ever, worse than ever. ‘Oh, we’re putting more money in’, they say, ‘more money than ever before’, but they are getting worse results than ever before. Something is not working, and what is not working is the management of that system. There are some examples.

As was raised yesterday, Rebecca from the City of Casey is another example. This woman needs surgery. She needs it now. It is breast cancer surgery. It is important. It is urgent. It has been raised in this Parliament because she has called the minister’s office twice and been brushed off. She is not raising this with us to score a political point, she is not a member of the Liberal Party, she is not someone who is politically active—she is desperate. She is desperate because if she does not get this surgery, she may die, and she has children. She needs this surgery and she needs it now. What more do we need to say as advocates for our communities in this Parliament to this government? How heartless is a government to say, ‘You’re doing this for politics’ when the example is being flashed in this chamber on repeated occasions?

We raised the issue of Melissa, who had a fractured spine—a burst fracture. I make no reference to anyone else with similar matters; I simply raise, as we did last year, that this woman’s injuries are substantial. She needs surgery, very important surgery, on her back. It is exceptionally painful. This woman is living off painkillers every day—

Mr R Smith: Two years.

Mr GUY: Two years on painkillers, the member for Warrandyte says. Correct. How again can this be palmed off and forgotten? It is just another question time, head back to the office of the Premier and work out ‘How did we go in question time today, guys?’. Well, it might be political spin to them, but Melissa still to this day is on masses of painkillers. This is a woman who is suffering, who has come to us. For goodness sake, she has come for help.

All we are raising in this chamber are matters seeking the help of the government of the day—putting in a public forum to the minister of the day issues that people are seeking help on. They are not invented. Philip of Merbein needs surgery on his knee. He was told by a surgeon last February he would need a total knee replacement. He was then told it would take another 12 months due to the delays in the system. Philip from Merbein waits still today for the call from his doctor to say he can have that surgery. Again, this is not an invented story; this is a man who needs surgery. It is not a point of noting on spin, it is not a point of noting on politics; this has been raised in this chamber because this man is desperate.

These examples will continue to come—just like David Anderson, an 84-year-old veteran who is waiting on hip replacement surgery. Like the others, he waits today. He waits for that call. He waits for the call to say ‘You can get your surgery’. It is fine to say ‘We’re resuming surgery’—so says the minister. We have seen doctors, we have seen theatre staff all on the record—nurses—saying, ‘Here’s the surgery, here’s the theatre; we’re closing it down, turning the lights off. We don’t need to. We have a backlog and waiting lists that are growing’. I noted the minister’s combative language today again about Ramsay Health: ‘Oh, well, they’re a for-profit system’. For God’s sake, they can fix some of the people whose health needs I have just mentioned. But the minister plays politics. The heartless, bumbling, foolish Minister for Health walks in here and says it is all about politics.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition knows not to reflect on members.

Mr GUY: I am sorry, I take that back. Yes, I understand, Speaker, but excuse my frustration at these people’s health problems, because to me that is a duty of care for every elected official—whether your government is Labor or Liberal—as members of Parliament to go to those ministers and to raise those issues. If we could go to the Minister for Health or the Premier directly and they would be remotely civil, we would raise them with them directly rather than in question time. But that avenue does not exist for people in this chamber who are not in the specific faction of either of those two members of the Labor Party. That is not how it should work.

We are seeking people’s help today on a number of issues. Ambulance services is another: people have come to the member for Brighton and the member for Caulfield whose family members have passed away waiting for an ambulance. Whatever the situation is to resolve it, if you need bipartisan support for it, come and tell us. Have the conversation about a way to fix these problems so that people do not die waiting for ambulances, rather than the 2010–14 Parliament where every day it was question, question, question and not a single offer to solve the circumstance.

Well, here we are offering to fix it, to help, because Victorians are suffering. They are dying. Like Chloe in Carrum Downs, whose two-year-old son, Negan, had a history of anaphylaxis. He became ill. As we know in this chamber—we raised it—it took 30-odd minutes for the call to be answered. Not for the ambulance to show, but for the call to be answered. I could go on. There are many examples. I do not want to go on, because it pains me to raise these issues for a health system in crisis and a government that just is not listening.

No doubt the responses to my presentation will be political, combative. They will offer not one way of how we can fix these people’s problems. All we on this side of the chamber ask is one thing. We are in a health crisis. It must be acknowledged. It is not just about COVID. It is about bad decisions that have shut elective surgery for reasons that have not properly been outlined. Other states have not done this, and the health of Victorians is suffering. People are dying, and for this government that is no longer good enough.