Australian News – Page 640

LABOR’S PLAN TO IMPROVE CAIRNS HOSPITAL ED

A Shorten Labor Government will deliver better emergency care for the people of Cairns by investing in a major redevelopment of the Cairns Hospital Emergency Department.
A recent review of the hospital called for a number of high priority improvements to the emergency department while a more substantial expansion is planned.
Labor will invest $15 million to deliver these improvements as part of our Fair Go Action Plan to protect Medicare and fix our hospitals.
This commitment comes on top of our promise to put $60 million towards a new dedicated training facility at Cairns Hospital, which will help attract and retain health workers in Far North Queensland.
The new facility will help address the critical health workforce shortage that risks undermining the quality of health care in this region.
But that is a longer-term project.
The Emergency Department redevelopment is something we can deliver in the next 12 to 24 months – delivering tangible health benefits to this community.
The redevelopment will improve safety for patients and staff alike and bring down wait times.
It will include:

An increase in adult short stay capacity from 8 to 16 adult beds
A 4-bed pediatric short stay unit
Improvements to resuscitation bays and trauma treatment spaces
Front of house improvements to provide dedicated space for ambulance offload
And better telehealth facilities.

Population growth has made Cairns Hospital Emergency Department one of the busiest in Queensland, with activity going up by 4 per cent each year. In 2017-18 the number of presentations exceeded 70,000 for the first time.
That’s why we have to invest now in this hospital.
Labor believes Australian should get the best quality health care whenever they need it – no matter if you live in downtown Brisbane or Far North Queensland.
That’s why the last federal Labor Government invested $12m in Cairns Hospital through our Health and Hospitals Fund.
The Liberals on the other hand just cut and cut and cut from health. As Treasurer, Scott Morrison cut from health and hospitals in every Budget he authored.
His government has cut $7.2 million from Cairns Hospital under the current 2017 to 2020 funding agreement.
That’s equivalent to 20 nurses, or 11,000 emergency department visits, or 17,500 outpatient appointments. And it’s part of a $160m cut to Queensland hospitals and a $715m cut nationwide.
Now Morrison is trying to lock in those cuts for another five years – a dud deal that the Queensland Labor Government is resisting.
Labor will reverse the Liberal cuts with our $2.8 billion Better Hospitals Fund, which we will use to fund projects like this one.
Only Labor can be trusted to fix Queensland’s hospitals.

ROCKHAMPTON RING ROAD A CERTAINTY UNDER LABOR

A Shorten Labor Government will unlock productivity and jobs growth in Central Queensland by investing $800 million to build the Rockhampton Ring Road in partnership with the State Labor Government.
This is a transformative project which will support around 780 direct jobs during its delivery, ease congestion on the Bruce Highway, and make Rockhampton as even better place to live, work and raise a family.
The Ring Road will run from the Yeppen Roundabout, along the western side of the airport to a third bridge crossing before reconnecting with the existing highway at Parkhurst – see attached map.
It will take thousands of trucks a day out of the CBD and off suburban streets, both speeding up the movement of freight along the east coast as well as improving safety for local residents.
Importantly, investments such as this are a critical component of a serious decentralisation policy because they provide regional centres with the infrastructure and services they need to grow and prosper.
This commitment follows yesterday’s announcement that a Shorten Labor Government will boost local jobs by ensuring more government contracts and major projects such as the Ring Road are delivered by local businesses employing local workers.
It was the former Federal Labor Government that first began investigating the planning for the Rockhampton Ring Road when we commissioned the Fitzroy River Floodplain and Road Planning Study in June 2009.
The study, completed in 2011, backed the project.
But after nearly two full terms as the LNP MP for Capricornia Michelle Landry has been unable to advance the Ring Road.
A Shorten Labor Government will deliver the project, not just talk about it.
When it comes to the Bruce Highway, the LNP’s record is one of cuts and broken promises.
Indeed, according to figures released by its own Infrastructure Department, the Morrison LNP Government will slash Federal investment in the highway over the next three years by $700 million if it wins the coming election.
Federal Labor’s commitment to the Rockhampton Ring Road builds on our strong track record of delivering for Central Queensland the last time we were in office. This including the major Yeppen Floodplain project which upgraded the Bruce Highway to prevent Rockhampton being cut off from the south, even during a one in 100-year flooding event.

LABOR’S NATIONAL HYDROGEN PLAN

A Shorten Labor Government will deliver a $1 billion National Hydrogen Plan to create new blue-collar jobs, support new businesses and supercharge Australia’s renewable energy industry.
Hydrogen is an emerging industry that has huge potential to deliver significant economic, employment, energy and environmental benefits for Australia.
Hydrogen gas is an energy source that can be produced through the process of electrolysis using renewable energy, meaning it can leverage Australia’s world-class renewable energy to make much cleaner hydrogen competitively.
Developing a hydrogen industry will deliver new opportunities for manufacturing, transport and electricity generation.
As the global demand for hydrogen surges to an expected $215 billion market by 2022, Australia is uniquely placed to benefit from the development of this new, job-generating industry.
Analysis by ACIL Allen projects that hydrogen exports alone could be worth $10 billion in 20 years, and create 16,000 new blue-collar jobs – mainly in regional areas.
Most of the benefits of hydrogen development will be in regional Australia. For example, the deep sea water ports of Gladstone and Newcastle are well placed to support a hydrogen export industry.
While benefiting the nation as a whole, regional Queensland will be the big winner from Labor’s plan.
Labor is taking a hands-on approach to supporting the new jobs and industries Queensland needs for the future.
We want regional Queenslanders to have good, secure blue-collar jobs for the future in existing and new industries.
Hydrogen can be the next great energy industry for Australia – and Labor has a plan to make it happen.
Labor’s six-point plan for hydrogen will:
1. Allocate $1 billion of funding from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to support clean hydrogen development, from Labor’s commitment to double CEFC’s capital by $10 billion.
2. Invest up to $90 million of unallocated funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to support research, demonstration and pre-commercial deployment of hydrogen technologies.
3. Establish a $10 million ARENA funding round for hydrogen refuelling infrastructure around the nation, from within ARENA’s unallocated funding.
4. Invest $40 million of unallocated funding from the CEFC Clean Energy Innovation Fund to target hydrogen technologies and businesses that have passed the research and development stage.
5. Implement regulatory reforms that will help the industry develop and prosper, including reforms to support the use of existing gas pipelines for hydrogen, reforms to support the shipping of hydrogen, reforms to better support the storage of CO2 from blue and brown hydrogen production, as well as other reforms to support hydrogen use and production.
6. Establish the National Hydrogen Innovation Hub in Gladstone with an initial investment of $3 million. This will kick-start early commercialisation of hydrogen technologies, provide a hub for investment and research agencies, and provide opportunities to leverage LNG infrastructure to support hydrogen exports.
A Shorten Labor Government will make Gladstone the hydrogen capital of Australia.
Hydrogen means more investment in Australia, more exports from Australia, and more blue-collar jobs for Australia.
Australia has everything to gain from the global transition to more renewable energy. But to secure the new industries and jobs it will deliver, we need a government that has a plan to foster and grow the industries of the future.
That is exactly what Labor’s National Hydrogen Plan will deliver.
Further information on Labor’s National Hydrogen Plan can be found here.

Hands off our environmental laws, Greens tell Mining lobby

The Liberal National Government must reject the advice of the self-serving Mining Lobby pushing for changes to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, the Greens say.
“The Environment Minister must stand up for environmental protections, not fall to her mates in the mining industry,” Greens environment spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“It’s almost laughable that the Minister for the Environment would even consider the ‘advice’ of the mining industry in drafting new laws to protect the environment, sadly however this is no laughing matter. Our environment is under constant threat because the mining industry continues to push for more coal, more gas, more oil drilling and now they want nuclear.
“The only thing the Minerals Council seem to want to protect are the profits of the mining industry, at the cost of Australia’s environment and a safe climate.
“Nuclear energy is an old technology that Australia has outgrown. We are moving toward a renewable energy future. It’s happening, it’s here and we shouldn’t be looking back.
“We need stronger environmental laws that continue the ban on nuclear energy, and protect our natural world from big corporate interests.
“Adani is pressing ahead with its plans to open a mammoth coal mine with little regard to critically endangered black-throated finch populations. There are cases for strengthening our environmental laws all around the country, in part to pull the mining industry into line.”
“Calls to relax our environmental laws from the mining sector should be ignored by this Government if they are serious about ‘improving’ environmental protections.”

David Littleproud has missed the boat on the MDB crisis

The Liberal National Government must stand up to greedy corporate irrigators and the cotton industry by stopping them from taking more than their fair share, and support a Royal Commission, the Greens say.
“Fish are dying because there is not enough water in the River. Until the Water Minister David Littleproud lifts the freeze on water buy backs to restore environmental flows, the Liberal National Government is culpable of hanging the Murray Darling out to dry. We know it is the most economically efficient and environmentally effective way to restore life to the ailing River system,” Greens water and environment spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“This late-in-the-piece announcement from the Water Minister just confirms this government is content to sit on its hands, because scientists have already told us what the problem is. What we need is a comprehensive probe into the greed and corruption that have left the Basin in collapse. Until that happens the rivers are destined to suffer.
“It will be my first order of business to establish a Royal Commission when parliament resumes next month. It is time political parties came together to support communities crying out for a Royal Commission into the Murray Darling Basin.”

LOCAL PROJECTS. LOCAL JOBS: LABOR’S NATIONAL PROCUREMENT PLAN

A Shorten Labor Government will boost local jobs by ensuring more government contracts and major projects are delivered by local businesses, bringing significant economic benefit to communities in Queensland and around Australia.
Under a Labor Government’s Local Projects, Local Jobs plan, more government investment will be spent on local businesses and local jobs – not multinationals that don’t care about locals and don’t pay tax in Australia.
The Federal Government spends $50 billion every year on goods and services – how the government spends that money, how it contracts and who it contracts matters.
Billions more are spent on infrastructure, energy and resource projects around Australia. Locals are locked out of work as multinationals bring in their own suppliers.
Labor believes that if local small and medium businesses can do the job competitively, then the job should be done locally.
If bidders on large government contracts can’t show how they’ll support competitive local business and local jobs, then they shouldn’t be getting contracts. It’s simple – no local jobs, no contract.
Local companies – those based in the town, city and region where the government is spending funds, should get better access to contracts so they can employ local people.
While value for money for the taxpayer will continue to be paramount, a Shorten Labor Government will put greater emphasis on buying local, employing locals and supporting economic activity in our regions. This is consistent with our international agreements.
Labor’s three-point plan for Local Projects, Local Jobs includes:
Better access to government contracts for local businesses

Labor will require government departments work with local firms to ensure they can benefit from government contracts, and properly consider the economic benefit that local businesses provide. Value for money will be the key criteria.
For projects over $10 million Labor will require bidders to develop a Plan for Local Jobs to support jobs in the regions that projects are undertaken.
Successful bidders will be required to nominate an on-the-ground contact to engage with local small and medium businesses to raise awareness of upcoming tender and subcontracting opportunities.
Companies will also have to undertake local labour-market testing for any new employees required for the project, to ensure temporary work visa holders are not undercutting local wages.
Officials will be required to consider relevant financial and non-financial costs and benefits of the procurement, including commitment to local or regional markets and a more competitive supplier base.

Supporting local business at home and abroad

Labor will ensure that more public and large private projects will be required to put plans in place to give Australian firms a chance to win work on major projects.
On public projects these plans will be required to be considered as part of the project development and tender – not after a contract has been granted.
Projects over $250 million will have to ensure that local firms are provided with a fair opportunity to win work and not be excluded. These projects will be required to put an Australian Industry Participation plan in place, opening up access to new opportunities including in mining, rail, road and energy.
Labor will back local businesses by working with industry groups to make our businesses stronger, and able to win contracts at home and abroad. We will appoint supplier advocates in key sectors like rail and steel to open up new opportunities for jobs. Labor will work with a revamped enterprise connect, industry capability network and have strong anti-dumping measures to keep Australian firms strong.
Just like our international athletes compete with the support of the Australian government, our local businesses should be able to rely on the same support.

More local apprentices and boosting local TAFEs

The Liberals have cut TAFE and apprenticeships – we have 130,000 fewer apprentices and trainees since the Liberals came to office.
Labor will require one in 10 workers on major projects to be apprentices from the local area to ensure we are giving young locals the chance to learn the skills they need for a job, and help older workers retrain for new jobs.
This commitment is in addition to Labor’s existing commitments on TAFE – including scrapping upfront fees for 100,000 TAFE students, and establishing the $100 million Building TAFE for the Future Fund for necessary upgrades and improvements to Australia’s TAFEs.

This announcement is all about supporting local businesses and local jobs. Labor understands the power of government procurement and major projects to deliver economic benefits for communities outside the major capital cities.
As part of our plan for Local Jobs, Local Projects a Shorten Labor government will deliver for our regions, and deliver jobs for Australians.

LABOR TO DELIVER NEW CAIRNS UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

A Shorten Labor Government will help attract and retain health workers in Far North Queensland – and create local jobs – by investing in a new dedicated training facility at Cairns Hospital.
This $60 million investment is part of Labor’s Fair Go Action Plan to protect Medicare and fix our hospitals.
Far North Queensland is facing a critical health workforce shortage that risks compromising the care Cairns residents are entitled to.
This shortage is exacerbated by the lack of a dedicated facility to train and develop doctors, nurses and allied health providers in Cairns. This makes it harder to attract health workers for their training, or retain them as they seek to develop over their careers.
Labor’s commitment to invest in a new Cairns University Hospital follows the ‘Cairns Convoy to Canberra’ last year, when we were briefed on the vision to transform Cairns Hospital into a new tertiary facility.
Our funding will include $10 million towards the purchase of the required land as well as $50 million to fully fund the James Cook University’s Tropical Enterprise Centre within a new Cairns University Hospital precinct.
This is a project that will further diversify the Cairns local economy to support more good, local, secure jobs.
It also has the potential to open up a new world of international education, leveraging off strong growth in the local tourism sector to attract more medical students from the Asia-Pacific region.
When finished, the state-of-the-art facility will host:

Clinical training and development – helping to attract and retain health workers in both primary and acute care to Far North Queensland
Research – into regional priorities such as ATSI health, tropical medicine and equity of access
Innovation – such as a proposed project to deliver services closer to home through telehealth

The Centre will create hundreds of jobs during both the construction and operational phases and free up space at Cairns Hospital by moving all education and research functions to the new Centre.
This will allow Cairns Hospital to expand its clinical space within the existing footprint.
Labor’s Candidate for Leichhardt, Elida Faith, has been relentless in advocating for this project and this major commitment would not have happened without her work.
Labor believes Australian should get the best quality health care whenever they need it – no matter if you live in downtown Brisbane or Far North Queensland.
That’s why the last federal Labor Government invested $12m in Cairns Hospital through our Health and Hospitals Fund.
The Liberals on the other hand just cut and cut and cut from health. As Treasurer, Scott Morrison cut from health and hospitals in every Budget he authored.
His government has cut $7.2 million from Cairns Hospital under the current 2017 to 2020 funding agreement.
That’s equivalent to 20 nurses, or 11,000 emergency department visits, or 17,500 outpatient appointments. And it’s part of a $160m cut to Queensland hospitals and a $715m cut nationwide.
Now Morrison is trying to lock in those cuts for another five years – a dud deal that the Queensland Labor Government is resisting.
Labor will reverse the Liberal cuts with our $2.8 billion Better Hospitals Fund, which we will use to kickstart the construction of this exciting new project.
Only Labor can be trusted to fix Queensland’s hospitals.

SWIM SMART – LABOR’S PLAN TO KEEP OUR KIDS SAFE IN THE WATER

A Shorten Labor Government will make sure Aussie kids have access to swimming and water safety lessons in primary school.
Whether it’s at the beach, the river or the backyard pool – enjoying the water is part of Australian life.
Aussies love swimming, but too many young people are growing up without learning sufficient water safety skills to keep them safe.
In 2017-18, nearly 250 people drowned in Australian waterways. One in five drownings were people under the age of 25.
This summer has been particularly tragic with 65 drownings in our waterways.
We want to make sure Australian children are strong swimmers and safe in the water.
Currently, access to school-based swimming lessons is inconsistent, with access depending on their location, type of school and whether their parents can afford private lessons.
This is unfair and unsafe. We don’t want children to miss out.
The Swim Smart program will deliver more swimming and water safety lessons for students during the school term.
From the 2020 school year, we will fund additional swimming lessons for schools that need it, catch-up lessons for kids needing extra support, and more support for the cost of transport and pool entry fees.
The new national program will be based on the Royal Life Saving Australia’s Year Four National Water Safety Standards. This includes the goal that children can swim 50 metres, tread water and know how to respond if they fall into water unexpectedly.
Currently, about one in five kids leave primary school unable to swim 50 metres.
Labor will work with states and territories, Catholic and Independent schools to deliver the program to schools who require extra support. We will also work with local government, swim schools and lifesaving clubs to help ensure students have access.
The program will also provide additional support to children with disability, to ensure they can participate in water safety and learn to swim programs just like their class mates.
Swimming lessons aren’t just something parents should have to organise on weekends or during the holidays. It’s a critical part of growing up safe in Australia, so it should be part of the school term.
The policy has been costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office to have a budget impact of $46 million over the forward estimates, and will be in addition to existing state and territory programs.
Labor can fund extra swimming lessons for kids because we’ve made tough budget decisions to make multinationals pay their fair share of tax, close tax loopholes used by the top end of town, and we won’t give a tax cut to the big banks.

LABOR TO DELIVER MEDICARE-FUNDED MRI SCANS FOR BRISBANE’S NORTHSIDE

The people of Brisbane’s northside will benefit from better access to affordable life-saving medical scans under a Shorten Labor Government.
Labor will deliver a full Medicare-funded MRI licence to The Prince Charles Hospital, ensuring locals can access the scans they need close to home without paying high out-of-pocket costs.
This is part of Labor’s Fair Go Action Plan to protect Medicare and fix our hospitals.
The Prince Charles is a major Brisbane hospital with over 600 beds. It has a particular speciality in heart imaging and has two MRI machines as part of its Centre of Excellence in Cardiovascular MRI.
However neither MRI machine has a full Medicare licence – meaning Medicare doesn’t cover scans for most outpatients.
Labor will upgrade one of these MRIs to a full licence, expanding access to bulk-billed MRI scans and cutting wait times.
A bipartisan Senate inquiry recognised Brisbane’s northside as an area of major shortage a year ago.
The Government’s own data shows that the Brisbane North Primary Health Network has one of the lowest numbers of fully eligible MRIs per capita in the country.
The Liberals have acknowledged there’s a shortage but after nearly six years in power they’ve done nothing about it.
That’s typical of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government. They know there’s a problem – but they’re too distracted by their own divisions to actually fix them.
This announcement builds on Labor’s commitment to also deliver an MRI licence to nearby Redcliffe Hospital. Elsewhere in Queensland, Labor has also promised an MRI licence for Gladstone.
MRI scans are used to detect and diagnose conditions that affect soft tissue – including tumours and cancer – and can mean the difference in detecting a disease as early as possible. But they only attract a rebate if they are performed on a machine with a licence.
Labor has a proud record on MRIs, granting 238 licences when we were last in office. That means hundreds of communities are benefiting from the early detection and diagnosis of disease today because of Labor’s investment.
The Liberals on the other hand neglected this issue for most of their time in office, granting just one a year in their first five years. It has only been in recent months they have recognised their dismal failure in this space and moved to match Labor’s commitments.
Labor has already announced 10 new licences for public hospitals around the country. We will still deliver a further 10 licences through a transparent application process if we win Government.
Labor’s investment in MRI licences comes on top of our commitment to invest an extra $2.8 billion in public hospitals.
We will reverse the Liberal public hospital cuts and ensure our emergency departments and hospital wards have the doctors, nurses and hospital staff to keep up with record demand.
Labor can afford to protect Medicare and fix our hospitals because we are tackling unfair tax loopholes and making multinationals pay their fair share.

FIRST STOP: LOGAN – LABOR WILL BUILD URGENT CARE CLINIC AT LOGAN HOSPITAL

A Shorten Labor Government will deliver better access to emergency and specialist outpatient care for the people of Logan – and reduce pressure on the local hospital’s emergency department – by building a new Urgent and Specialist Care Centre.
This is part of Labor’s Fair Go Action Plan to protect Medicare and fix our hospitals.
The Logan region is growing rapidly, and its population is ageing and has more complex health requirements than most, putting enormous pressure on local health services.
Labor will invest $33.4 million to establish the new Centre, which will treat people with urgent but not life-threatening illnesses and injuries – meaning they won’t end up in Logan Hospital, freeing up doctors and nurses to deal more quickly with more serious emergencies.
The Centre will be run by the hospital and include 11 urgent care beds to treat people with injuries such as minor fractures, dislocations, abrasions and lacerations, as well as respiratory tract infections.
Outpatient care will be a key focus of the Centre with the inclusion of 22 specialist consultation rooms – boosting Logan Hospital’s capacity by a third – and boast pathology, diagnostic imaging and pharmacy services.
The new walk-in Centre will operate seven days a week and is expected to see over 15,000 patients a year.
This will not only reduce pressure on Logan’s emergency department – and the hospital car park – but also reduce the need for people to travel for hospital services. More people will be able to access care in their own community.
This is another example of Labor’s commitment to delivering the best possible health care for all Australians, no matter where they live or how much money they have.
The Liberals on the other hand just cut and cut and cut: including a $6.1 million cut from Logan Hospital from 2017 to 2020, equivalent to 9,000 ED visits or 15,000 outpatient appointments. That’s part of a $160 million cut to Queensland and a $715 million cut nationwide.
Now Scott Morrison is trying to lock in those cuts for another five years – but the Queensland Labor Government has rejected their inadequate deal.
Labor will reverse the Liberal cuts with our $2.8 billion Better Hospitals Fund – including through projects such as this one.
This announcement builds on Labor’s proud record in Logan. In 2011, federal Labor invested $175 million to deliver 50 new beds and a new ED building at Logan Hospital.
And in 2017 Queensland Labor commited $281 million for the Logan Hospital redevelopment, including a bed increase from 448 to up to 640, and $12.6 million for a new maternity ward. This project will support the redevelopment.
The site for the new Centre will be determined in consultation with Logan Hospital and the local community, including the council and local education institutions.
Labor can afford to protect Medicare and fix our hospitals because we are tackling unfair tax loopholes and making multinationals pay their fair share.
Only Labor can be trusted to fix Queensland’s hospitals.