Tasmanian budget fails health and child-care

By Tony Iltis

HOBART -- Rising gambling tax revenues and a 5% levy on household electricity bills allowed the Tasmanian ALP government to boost some public spending and deliver a budget with a surplus for the first time this century. But a $44 million injection into health and human services is inadequate to solve the funding crisis.

Tasmanian households already pay disproportionately high electricity bills due to subsidies to corporate consumers.

Budget sweeteners included a 4% increase in education funding, employing 34 new primary school teachers. According to Mike Poate, from the Australian Education Union, this is welcome, but the increased funding to private providers of TAFE programs is not.

Handouts to business included payroll tax exemptions and federal payroll tax rebates for information technology companies, and subsidies and loans to business, including $10 million in export subsidies. Similar handouts in previous budgets have failed to lower Tasmania's unemployment rate, the highest of any state.

The media made most noise about the $44 million rescue package for health and human services. One aim of the package is to try to end the operating theatre closures and surgery restrictions at Royal Hobart and North West Regional Hospitals. There is also money to replace ambulances, but not to increase ambulance staff, despite the staffing crisis being so severe that members of the public are sometimes required to drive ambulances so that paramedics can attend to the patients.

The package will not save the St John's Park Child Care Centre, the only government-run child-care centre in Tasmania. The centre was set up for public sector workers on shift work and short-call rosters, and is unique in being open 7am to 6pm throughout the year and providing care for infants under two.

The decision to close the centre, which is used by 160 families, and redeploy the 145 centre staff provoked an angry response from parents, who are considering action against the government under the Sexual Discrimination Act. On May 20, the government rejected a submission by the Community and Public Sector Union to run the centre on a $60,000 annual subsidy.

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