On Rockliff’s ‘Reset’, Stepping Down as Health Minister …

Media release – Jeremy Rockliff, Premier, 20 July 2023

Statement from the Premier

Today I have announced that I will be handing over the reins of the health portfolio, and take on different responsibilities.

I will retain the portfolio of mental health and wellbeing.

This handover will enable me to take an even greater interest in driving Tasmania’s economic growth and creating more jobs for Tasmanians.

The decision to hand over health is one that I have not taken lightly, but I do so knowing that our health system is in the best place it’s been for a long time, despite increasing demand.

I want to take this opportunity to let our nurses, doctors, allied health professionals and all the support staff know that it has been a privilege to be your Minister.

The work you do is as hard as it can be rewarding. You give everything, emotionally and physically, to help us. I appreciate you, and I thank you.

Our health system and our health professionals have been through hell and back over the past three years with COVID – they put their lives on the line for Tasmanians.

Impressively, despite these challenges, we were the only jurisdiction to actually decrease the elective surgery wait list during COVID.

Our Government now invests more than $8 million each and every single day.

We have allocated more than $12.1 billion over the next four years – or 34 per cent of the State’s total Budget because we know how important access to quality health care is for Tasmanians.

In fact, because of our record investment and commitment to drive down elective surgery waiting lists, we have reduced them by more than 30 per cent since 2021.

And our bold approach to establishing innovative initiatives are working, including:

• Our “no script no stress” initiative which is nation leading and helping hundreds of Tasmanians every day access their medication while easing pressure on GPs;
• The Allied Health Scholarship Program which is the most generous in the nation with a $25,000 incentive for 10 professions to fill shortages;
• Our Mental Health Emergency Response (PACER) which has already supported over 1,800 Tasmanians, with 76 per cent of those people remaining in the community and out of hospital;
• Our trial of a Single Employer Model of employment for GPs in training so that we can attract and retain GPs in regional Tasmania; and
• Our $475 million Digital Health Strategy which will be the single biggest transformation in healthcare this century.

While the job is far from done, I believe that now is the right time to hand the health portfolio over to someone else in my team.

I am confident that this momentum will continue under the next Minister and that Tasmanians will continue to see the significant improvements being made across the state.

I will make further announcements about changes to cabinet in the coming days. I won’t be changing the people within Cabinet, just making some small changes to the roles they are doing.

Our team is full of talented members and I am committed to ensuring that each of them are aligned to the important tasks ahead

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Media release – Dean Winter MP, Leader of Opposition Business in the House of Assembly, 20 July 2023

Will the real Jeremy Rockliff please stand up?

Jeremy Rockliff’s attempt at a PR makeover is an admission of failure.

Today, he’s even renamed himself ‘Rocky’. This is his ‘Real Jeremy’ moment.

The Premier has spent 18 months telling Tasmanians one thing. Now he is admitting he got it all wrong. What has he been doing and what does he stand for?

The fact is Jeremy Rockliff has plunged his government into minority, made our health system worse, caused a housing crisis and broken his promise to cap power prices.

On his watch, Tasmania has the worst health outcomes in Australia, the worst education outcomes of any state, people are living in tents and cars and people are struggling with cost of living pressures including paying ridiculously high mainland power prices – all while the state’s debt balloons out of control.

While Tasmanians are rightly worried about the state’s health, housing and cost-of-living crises, the Premier has made it clear he’s more worried about his government’s image than coming up with answers to our biggest problems.

It has been clear for some time that after 10 years in office, Jeremy Rockliff and the Liberals are out of ideas.

Today, Jeremy Rockliff has admitted just that and in doing so shot his credibility to pieces.

Deckchairs, Titanic

Only five days ago Premier Jeremy Rockliff said there was no substance to “rumours” he would relinquish the health portfolio that he was so proud to retain when he took the top job.

He was even callous enough to blame Labor for speculation, despite it first being raised by one of his former colleagues who quit his party because the Premier was doing such a bad job.

Today, he has sensationally sacked himself as Health Minister without announcing a replacement.

This is a Premier that has repeatedly said he could walk and chew gum.

What else has he been lying about?

Perhaps the most worrying part of this announcement is the question of who will take up the health portfolio next.

The Premier was already scraping the barrel when it came to ministerial talent, and it only takes a quick glance to see the cabinet is bare.

Whatever the answer, after ten years of failing Tasmanians on the issues that matter, there has never been a greater example of a Tasmanian Government rearranging the deckchairs before the ship goes down.

Media release – Rebecca White MP, Tasmanian Labor Leader, 20 July 2023

Lack of leadership on full display

Tasmania is suffering from a lack of leadership and today’s fiasco shows just how seriously Jeremy Rockliff and his government have lost their way.

Not only has Jeremy Rockliff consistently failed to do anything to address the health, housing and cost of living crisis, he has now left Tasmania without a health minister.

Tasmanians deserve better than this.

Labor has a plan to help with the cost of living, by capping power prices to ensure Tasmanians pay Tasmanian prices for Tasmanian power.

We have a plan to start easing the housing crisis, by building 1,000 new rental properties and helping more people into home ownership.

The health policies Labor has announced will improve regional hospitals, expand ambulance services and provide free degrees for 150 new health workers.

And in contrast to the uncertainty created by the Premier today about who will hold the health portfolio in his government, the Labor Party has the very capable Anita Dow working every day to improve health services for patients and conditions for workers.

As a former nurse, Anita understands the importance of the health portfolio and she cares deeply about helping people access the health care they deserve.

The Rockliff government is tired, has run out of ideas and its time is up.

The government has had ten years to address health and the other major issues Tasmanians want action on, and if they haven’t fixed these issues by now they never will.

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Media release – Rosalie Woodruff MP, Acting Greens Leader, 20 July 2023

Rockliff’s Reset Just More Hollow Words

Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s so-called ‘reset’ on ‘back-to-basics’ issues are hollow words, and won’t change anything for people struggling to make ends meet or unable to access crucial health services.

The Liberals have been in government for nearly a decade now, and in this time they’ve overseen a huge backwards slide on the issues that matter to Tasmanians. While the Premier and his ministers have focused on maximising the profits of big corporations and donor interests, everyday people struggle more and more to meet basic needs.

If you’re one of the tens of thousands of Tasmanians desperately trying to find a home, waiting anxiously for an ambulance, spending hours in hospital waiting rooms, or unable to pay your power bill, you know this government has failed you.

In the past decade we have seen three Liberal Premiers, and more so-called “resets” than you can count. The result has always been the same – more policies to benefit the top-end of town and big corporations, while things get more difficult for everyone else.

The government’s own statistics don’t lie. Critical measures in healthcare, housing, child safety, carbon emissions, and environmental protection are all significantly worse than they were when the Liberals took office.

If Jeremy Rockliff was serious about delivering a better future for Tasmania, he’d be focused on employing more healthcare staff, tackling the rental crisis head on, delivering real cost of living relief, and protecting Tasmania’s unique environment and wildlife. Instead, he’s hung his hat on selling a massive debt-ridden stadium as the answer to these problems.

Unfortunately, it’s all too obvious the only future the Premier is worried about is his own.

Rockliff Dishonest on Health

In his statement today announcing he would be handing over the reins of the Health portfolio, Premier Jeremy Rockliff said he’d made this decision “knowing that our health system is in the best place it’s been for a long time”.

The government’s own data shows this statement is simply dishonest.

Ramping is now the worst it’s ever been, with more than 1700 patients ramped each and every month, often for many hours.

Nearly half of all patients who present to Tasmanian emergency departments are not seen within clinically safe timeframes. This is down from two thirds of patients seen within these times less than three years ago.

Ambulance response times remain the worst in the country, and more than 100 paramedic shifts are going unfilled every week.

The only hospital providing lifesaving care for thousands of people with serious mental health disorders, St Helens, closed without any continuity of service provided by the government.

The list goes on and on.

Jeremy Rockliff can try all he likes to pretend he’s done a good job handling the Health portfolio, but the facts don’t lie. Across the board our health system is struggling more than ever, and its everyday Tasmanians who are paying the price.