Shadow Minister for Health, Bill Yan, says a shocking time-wasting exercise by Labor
backbenchers who have asked an abundance of Dorothy Dixers during the first two days of
Estimates just confirms the absolute panic from the Gunner Government about being held to
account.
“It’s pretty ridiculous that instead of allowing the Opposition and Independents to quiz
Ministers on government spending, Labor backbenchers have wasted at least an hour each
day asking frivolous questions to run down the clock. They might think they’re being clever,
but they’re actually denying Territorians the right to know how taxpayer funds are being
spent.
“This is an opportunity for the Opposition to sit face to face with Ministers – many of whom
are responsible for multiple departments and we used the time we had to probe the Health
Minister and her departmental heads on key issues relating to the delivery of health services
to Territorians.
“We began by asking about the decision to scrap Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) at Howard
Springs despite the supplementary testing regime being used while the quarantine facility
was under the control of AUSMAT.
“No one is suggesting these tests should be used instead of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
testing. But the Rapid Antigen Testing is cheap, accurate and nurses on the frontline are
calling for a return to the additional level of protection – why can’t we just have both?
“The issue has been bubbling along for more than six weeks now and in an extraordinary
move, the Health Minister continues to pit the Deputy Chief Health Officer against the nurses’
union by removing herself from the decision-making process.
“Opposition questioning also uncovered Labor’s inability to rollout funding earmarked for
communication and marketing to encourage uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine in remote
communities. The Minister admitted the Health Department has a budget of $500,000 for
these awareness programs, yet not even half of the funding has been spent.
“When quizzed about how many COVID-19 vaccines had been disposed of because they were
unused, the Health Minister trotted out a cagey explanation that the national standard
considers the waste of five vaccines or more as ‘significant wastage’ and the Gunner
Government hasn’t hit that threshold.
ENDS