SPRINGBORG CREATES DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN

Media Release 

Shadow Health Minister, Jo-Ann Miller, says the Newman Government is turning Queensland’s health system into a disaster waiting to happen.

“Instead of growing and improving our health system, this dysfunctional LNP government is engaged in mass sackings and savage cuts to frontline services,” Mrs Miller said.

“The Premier needs to take control of this issue as soon as he lands tonight to ensure patient treatment is not compromised or people’s lives are not lost through the actions of the Minister for Health Cuts and Closures, Lawrence Springborg.

“If Mr Newman has a shred of leadership credibility or authority left he will call time out to Mr Springborg’s cuts and closures.

“Already we are hearing of possible bed closures as nurses face the reality of having to do more work with fewer support staff and services.

“We have already seen the government attack elderly Queenslanders by closing nursing home beds and their target this week are sick Queensland children who will be affected by the cuts to children’s health services.

“These cuts come at the worst possible time of the year when children will soon be on Christmas holidays and the risk of injury increases. These cuts cannot help but compromise the safety of Queensland children.

“Leaked notes from the chair of the Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Board, Susan Johnston, suggest almost 90% of jobs in the area of children’s health are frontline jobs.

“The notes also suggest the board was ‘surprised and concerned’ at the scale of the cuts demanded by the Minister.

“This shows yet again that despite Mr Springborg’s best efforts to hide behind the boards, the reality is he is directly responsible for the cuts and closures being inflicted on communities across the state.

“Mr Springborg has been trying to blame regional boards for cuts imposed by him and his government.

“He has been trying to distance the government from the decisions, but the boards are part of the government and when they act or speak they are acting and speaking as the Newman Government,” Mrs Miller said.

She said efforts by Mr Springborg to blame health payroll problems for his cuts and closures were a diversionary tactic.

“There are no payroll problems in other government departments which have also faced mass sackings and savage cuts to frontline services,” Mrs Miller said.

“Mr Springborg is also indulging in Canberra-bashing to divert attention from his direct responsibilities by claiming a cut in federal funding.

“The latest figures I saw show a 21% rise in federal health funding to Queensland over the next four years, equal to a $600 million increase from $3.1 billion to $3.7 billion in 2015-16.”

LNP slash Central Queensland police funding

Media Release 

Shadow Police Minister and Member for Rockhampton Bill Byrne says the LNP Government has slashed the police overtime budget of the Central Region by $110,000 this financial year.

Mr Byrne said the Police Minister Jack Dempsey needed to explain the potential impacts of his reduced overtime budget outlined in his answer to Question on Notice 699.

“The Minister must explain if his reduced police overtime budget will mean fewer cops on the beat late at night at peak crime times,” Mr Byrne said.

“It would be typical of this dysfunctional LNP government that as we go into the busy Christmas and New Year’s season Central Queensland communities will see fewer police on the streets and there will be fewer arrests being made as a result.

“A reduced overtime budget could also result in police working unpaid overtime adding to increased levels of stress and fatigue in the service.

“With less overtime being paid it puts our police officers in an unenviable position because they may need to respond to incidents towards the end of their shifts but they won’t be paid for the time it will take to detain and process people through the watch house.

“During the busy party season this can only mean the Central Queensland streets will not be as safe this summer,” he said.

Mr Byrne said the Central Region police overtime budget had been slashed from $2.1 million in 2011-12 to $1.99 million in 2012-13.

Each district within the Central Region had also had its overtime budget slashed this financial year, including:

- Gladstone District from $509,000 down to $483,000

- Longreach District from $117,000 down to $110,000

- Mackay District from $683,000 down to $648,000

- Rockhampton District from $790,000 down to $749,000

“The LNP Government went to the election with a so-called ‘tough on crime’ stance but now it seems no-one is immune from their slash and burn mentality,” Mr Byrne said.

LNP Government continues to rip itself apart

Media Release

Members of the Newman Government care more about protecting their own jobs than governing for Queensland as insiders continue to focus on battling each other.

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said the latest revelations by former LNP Gaven MP Alex Douglas showed a government in crisis, with little hope of recovery as its leadership team continued to arrogantly call the shots.

“What we are seeing is simply extraordinary – this LNP Government is literally imploding before our eyes just nine months after it won government,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“You have three people in the Premier, Deputy Premier and Treasurer who think they can do whatever they like and get away with it but Dr Douglas dared to fight back.

“You have a government that has lurched from crisis to crisis since March but this latest debacle proves they don’t have the strength to govern.

“What we are hearing is the truth of what this government is really about from a key insider and it does not make a pretty story. They are about looking after themselves first.

“What we are hearing would normally come from the Opposition, not one of their own.

“But it gives a unique insight into this shambles of a government.”

Ms Palaszczuk said while Campbell Newman was treading the world stage in India at home his government was in tatters because of its arrogant treatment of not only Queenslanders but its own Members.

“Campbell Newman should be getting the first flight home today to try and sort out this growing mess.

“Things are probably beyond repair but the least Mr Newman can do is set the record straight.

“Why was Dr Douglas dumped from the Ethics Committee – the most powerful committee of the Parliament?

“Who was really behind the dodgy deal to push Dr Douglas aside?

“What did Mr Newman know and when did he know it and did he subsequently mislead the Parliament?

“Until these questions are answered and until this extraordinary display of a government ripping itself to shreds ends, Queenslanders can have no faith that anyone is running the state.”

Springborg And Langbroek Must Answer On Barrett Centre

Media Release 

Opposition Leader, Annastacia Palaszczuk, says the Newman Government has double crossed youth at risk and their families by refusing to clarify the future of the Barrett Adolescent Centre and school at Wacol.

“The Barrett Centre is a unique facility in Queensland offering a school and residential care for adolescents with serious mental health problems and the LNP government has callously refused to commit to keep it open in 2013,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“As the school year ends the Minister for Education and the Minister for Health must give certainty to students and parents. Will the Barrett Centre be open in 2013 or not?

“If not, what will happen to the students who come from throughout the state and what is the future of the staff?”

Ms Palaszczuk and Shadow Health Minister, Jo-Ann Miller, today met parents and other representatives of the Barrett Centre to discuss their concerns.

“The Barrett Centre is literally a lifeline for many young people with psychiatric disorders and the last thing they and their families need is to have their lives thrown into crisis by its closure,” Mrs Miller said.

“Closing it would be the equivalent of shutting a hospital’s intensive care unit. The centre is an intensive care unit for young people at risk and parents and staff have fears for the safety of some students if it shuts.”

Mrs Miller said at present there were up to 16 young people living at the centre and attending its school at any one time along with eight day students.

“The former government planned to relocate the Barrett Centre to a new site at the Redlands Hospital and although there had been some delays in the process, the former government was never going to shut the centre and school,” she said.

“By contrast, the dysfunctional LNP government has no qualms about abandoning the young people who need help and their families. Of all the callous cuts to frontline services made by the Newman Government this would have to be one of the very worst.

“There is no way the centre can be described as anything but a frontline education and health facility.

“It is no use Mr Springborg hiding behind the regional board, yet again. The boards are part of the LNP government and their decisions are government decisions.

“Yesterday we saw the announcement of 500 jobs going in our state’s health system in critical frontline areas including children’s health across the state, on Brisbane’s northside and in the rapidly growing Gold Coast region.

“In Townsville the LNP’s cuts mean it is almost a case of BYO bandages. These are all decisions that are the direct responsibility of Mr Springborg.”

LNP Double-Crosses On Power Line

Media Release 

Shadow Energy and Water Minister, Curtis Pitt, says LNP MPs need to explain why they have dashed the expectations of locals in relation to the power line planned to run from Loganlea to Jimboomba across the Logan River.

“The LNP in government has simply not lived up to the promises it made to locals on this issue when in opposition which shows how risky it will be for people to vote LNP again,” Mr Pitt said.

He said LNP Energy Minister, Mark McArdle, had announced approval of the line on November 28 despite his party’s strong opposition to it in previous years.

“It is no wonder Queenslanders feel disappointed and double-crossed by the LNP and local LNP MPs,” Mr Pitt said.

“At both the 2009 and 2012 state elections the LNP led local residents to believe it opposed this transmission line and if it had to be built, would make sure it went underground.

“LNP candidates such as Mark Boothman in Albert and Michael Pucci in Logan who are now local MPs were in the front row when it came to leading voters to believe an LNP government would do things differently.

“It is no wonder more and more people are realising they will be taking a huge risk if they vote LNP again,” Mr Pitt said.

Mr Pitt said at the 2009 election the current Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney said an LNP government would “guarantee that comprehensive and meaningful consultation will be undertaken with all community stakeholders so everyone affected has an opportunity for input into the planning process”.

“Mr Seeney was also raising expectations and now that he and the LNP are in government he must explain why he has walked away from his commitments,” Mr Pitt said.

Temps set to soar as emissions grow: report

An extract from the ABC Website:

By environment reporter Sarah Clarke and wires.
03/12/12


The latest snapshot from climate scientists has found the planet is on track for a 4 to 6 degree Celsius temperature rise by the turn of the century.
As United Nations climate talks enter their final week in Doha on the Persian Gulf scientists are increasing the pressure on governments to do more to cut the discharge of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
The Global Carbon Project, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, has calculated that emissions rose by 3 per cent last year, and 2.6 per cent this year despite the weak global economy.
Pep Canadell from the CSIRO was one of the lead authors of the report, and says the growth in emissions is shocking.
"Our analysis showed that by the end of this year, 2012, global emissions from fossil fuels are set to reach an unprecedented amount of 26 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide," he told AM.
"Just to put this thing in perspective, this is 58 per cent over 1990, which is the Kyoto Protocol reference year, and growing at about three times faster than they were growing during the 90s."
He says on current trends, governments globally will have no chance of averting dangerous climate change.
"We are now following perfectly on track of the emissions path that will take us to anywhere between 4 and 6 degrees by 2100, if we don't do anything different from what we are doing now," he said.
That figure is at least double the 2 degree target set by UN members struggling for a global deal on climate change.
According to the study, a few big developing nations are fuelling the emissions growth.
China's carbon emissions grew 9.9 per cent in 2011 after rising 10.4 per cent in 2010, and now comprise 28 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions, compared with 16 per cent for the United States.
Dr Canadell says he is surprised by this year's emissions growth, given the US and Europe are in financial turmoil.
"Of the growth we've seen specifically last year, in 2011, 80 per cent came from the growth in emissions in China and the rest [was] split among the rest of the emerging economies in the developing world," he said.
"We have seen some decline in Europe and the US and we are wondering if this decline may disappear... as these regions move out of the economic crisis that still is underway."

 

Improvement stalls

Globally, the improvement in the carbon intensity of economies, a measure of carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product, has stalled since 2005 according to the study, which analysed data from the US government, the United Nations and statistics from oil company BP.
Emissions in 2011 from coal totalled 43 per cent, oil 34 per cent, with gas and cement production making up the rest.
The authors say while it was technically still possible to limit warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, emissions growth would have to rapidly come to a halt and then fall quickly.
"Unless large and concerted global mitigation efforts are initiated soon, the goal of remaining below 2 degrees Celsius will soon become unachievable," they said.
Each year of 3 per cent emissions growth made achieving the temperature limit even less likely and ever more costly.
It would require a rapid shift to greener energy and even net negative emissions in the future, where more CO2 is taken out of the air than added.

LNP defector launches stinging attack on Newman

An extract from the ABC Website:

7.30 Qld
By Jessica van Vonderen
01/12/12

A former Queensland Government MP has launched a stinging attack on Premier Campbell Newman in an interview with 7.30 Queensland.
Alex Douglas, the Member for Gaven, resigned from the LNP this week after a public disagreement over his removal from the Parliamentary Ethics Committee.
He was one of three LNP backbenchers to leave the party in a tumultuous week for the Government.
In an interview on 7.30 Queensland, Dr Douglas predicts the downfall of the current leadership team and raises the prospect of the formation of another conservative political party in Queensland.
"I think this current leadership team will be expunged and will go and that ultimately there will be some sort of structural realignment and we will resume normality of democracy here in Queensland," he said.
"The Premier does not believe in teamwork. The Premier talks about teamwork, he does not practice it."
"He also talks about loyalty. He thinks you need to write it down and be pledged and to be terrified into it. You earn loyalty, you earn respect, and you set good examples."

Gaven MP Alex Douglas

"He is the first amongst equals. This is not a one-person team directing and saying everything and saying you will agree or else. It doesn't work that way."
Earlier this week billionaire businessman Clive Palmer claimed there was "a 50 per cent chance" he would set up a new party. Dr Douglas says it is possible he would join it. "It's possible, I could, but equally I would like to think I could create something that's based on what is really LNP values," he said."I was on the LNP standing policy committee for a long time. I'm a strong believer in having policy developed internally by resolutions of members and then working them through.
"I can't see anything wrong with that process."