Socialist Alliance – outrage over the state government budget, including dangerous cuts to mental health services.

225 Murray St, Hobart, TAS 7000 / Phone: (03) 6234 6397 / hobart@socialist-alliance.org
Socialist Alliance outrage over the state government budget,
including dangerous cuts to mental health services.
5 August 2011
Socialist Alliance members were outraged by the harsh neo-liberal budget handed down by the
Tasmanian Labor-Greens government on June 16. The government has pushed for and then backed
down on a plan to close 20 schools. Now the government wants to slash over $110 million from the
health budget in the next financial year alone. Mental health services in the south of the state have
been one of the first targets.
Inpatient and community teams have been told that they will lose clinical case management, nursing,
allied health, admin, emergency crisis worker and diversional therapy positions. Staff at the 12-bed
mental health residential facility in Campbell St have been told that the service will be closed down or
transferred to an NGO and the Department is even considering outsourcing the Mental Health Helpline
- the critical gateway into the service which is responsible for responding to crisis calls! Staff have
expressed anger and alarm to Socialist Alliance about the impact that these proposed cuts will have on
people with serious mental illnesses who need treatment and support.
All the community mental health teams already have big waitlists for people needing case
management. Existing staffing resources are not enough to meet even the current needs of the
seriously mentally ill. Professor Patrick McGorry has convincingly explained that mental health
services in this country remain drastically under-funded in comparison to other health services.
Burnout, stress and work overload is already an issue amongst Tasmanian mental health staff.
“If the Health Minister goes ahead with plans to cut all these frontline clinical positions, we will see
more people with serious mental health conditions going untreated and unsupported and the stress on
existing clinicians will be extreme. This is likely to lead to more hospital admissions, more social
disruption, greater physical harm and more risk of suicides,” warned Linda Seaborn, spokesperson
for the Socialist Alliance.
Seaborn asked “How can these cuts make economic sense when you consider the long-term costs to our
community of not treating illnesses early? This is true even if you just consider the economic costs of
increased hospital admissions and potential loss of working capacity.” The Socialist Alliance says
“Hands off mental health services’ frontline positions!”
Socialist Alliance members are disappointed that Greens MPs are supporting and actively
implementing this budget. Greens leader and MP Nick McKim said in a media release: “The Greens
welcome the move to a new fiscal strategy.” He said that they have “rolled up their sleeves” to take
“tough remedial budget action” and they won’t “shirk from this responsibility”.
“This Labor-Green government has got its priorities all wrong”, said Rose Matthews, spokesperson for
the Socialist Alliance. “The government is punishing ordinary people by slashing into the services we
really need. Nobody believes that you can axe millions of dollars and over a thousand jobs from health,
education, and police without leading to poorer services. They may even slash the Royal Hobart
Resource public services, not Gunns!
For a healthy, socially just, sustainable
and democratic stateHospital’s budget by 20% ($70 million), the Launceston General Hospital by $39 million according to
reports today. Grassroots workers will be the ones to face the sack, not the top-levels of the
bureaucracy.”
The Socialist Alliance pledges to stand side-by-side with the mental health and other public
sector workers that are currently campaigning against cuts to their services.
“In fact, we need to defend health, education, housing and child protection services across the board.
Cuts will lead to the most vulnerable people in our community suffering. They will also result in a loss
of skilled staff to the mainland and more flow-on unemployment in the private sector,” Matthews said.
“Governments need to stimulate the economy by maintaining a strong public sector and investing in
jobs, especially in times of economic crisis.”
Yet Premier Lara Giddings is too eager to listen to its ex-TCCI (Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce
and Industry) economist who she recruited to be her senior advisor. Roz Madsen from Unions
Tasmania pointed out that last year, the state government cut land tax, payroll tax and tax on betting
exchanges which led to a reduction of $185 million in government income. The government has
also spent taxpayers’ money on propping up Gunns and other favored businesses, with no public
benefit.
The Socialist Alliance advocates an alternative approach that protects services and boosts the
economy. We call on the government to:
- Boost grassroots professional jobs in essential services like health, mental health, education,
child protection, ambulance services etc to meet the needs of all Tasmanians
- Take up the offer of the Federal Government to fund 50% of an evidence-based EPPIC (Early
Psychosis) treatment service for young people, which we badly need in this state.
- Invest in rail, renewable energy, national parks and public housing, going into debt in the
short-term if necessary, in order to stimulate jobs and the economy
Instead of slashing essential services, they could balance the budget by doing things like:
- End subsidies and pay-outs to Gunns and other private companies (especially when there are
no guarantees of long-term jobs)
- Increase corporate payroll tax
- Increase mining royalties significantly from the meager rate of 5.5%
- Reduce the frivolous budget spent on maintaining a full-time governor and Government
House
- Charge market rates to the three big corporate electricity users instead of selling our electricity
to them at below-cost
- Tax the excess gaming profits made by Federal Hotels (which according to Greg James on
Tasmanian Times, amounts to $225 million per annum)
- Take action to recoup the $721,000 owed to the government by the Walker Corporation for
planning costs associated with their failed Ralph’s Bay marina application
- Return water and sewerage to council control
- Reduce parliamentary and top-bureaucrat perks, privileges, superannuation and wages
For more info: Linda Seaborn 0409 421 738 Rose Matthews: 0407 550 805