Health policy is clearly on the agenda of the new Queensland Government, but wider public health issues are at risk, with particular concerns for Indigenous health and climate action, reports Alison Barrett.
The election campaign and outcome present some clear messages for public health advocates and political parties in the lead up to the 2025 Federal election, experts say.
Alison Barrett writes:
Health policy action features heavily in the new Queensland Liberal National Party Government’s plan for its first 100 days, including work towards the publication of transparent real-time hospital data.
The LNP’s Health Plan says this data will be used to cut waitlists by optimising surgery schedules, reducing ambulance ramping and “to drive resources and frontline staff to where they are needed”.
The LNP’s First 100 Days plan also commits to assessing staffing levels across all regional Queensland maternity services to understand where the gaps in service are.
Premier David Crisafulli, who was sworn in on Monday, confirmed there will be no employment cuts to the public service workforce as there were during the last LNP tenure, according to The Mandarin.
The LNP also plans to re-establish a Queensland Productivity Commission, establish an independent Public Sector Commission as well as establish a Parliamentary Inquiry into Elder Abuse, and a working group with victims of domestic, family and sexual violence to highlight gaps in the system and opportunities for future reform.
Health Consumers Queensland (HCQ) told Croakey they are looking forward to working with the new Government, particularly “to ensure it upholds its commitment to empower local and consumer-centred decision-making for better health outcomes in Queensland”.
CEO Keith Tracey-Patte said HCQ would be advocating strongly for an ongoing commitment to funding health prevention activities.
“We are pleased that our new Premier has committed to pursue greater funding for this state, regardless of who holds the federal purse strings, as one of his priorities in his coming term,” he said.
Dr Cath Hester, Queensland Chair of the Royal Australian College of GPs, said in a statement the “LNP’s commitment to delivering real-time health data for the state’s hospitals is an important first step to improve information sharing across acute and primary care providers”.
Adjunct Professor Tony Rahman, Chair of the Queensland Committee of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, said addressing the state’s healthcare workforce shortage must be the new Government’s top priority.
“Unless bold and urgent action is taken to strengthen and support Queensland’s healthcare workforce, this problem will worsen. We’re calling on the incoming Government to invest in retention and attraction measures which will help address the state’s healthcare workforce shortage,” Rahman said.
Rights at risk
According to the LNP’s First 100 Days plan, they will begin drafting the Making Queensland Safer Laws, which includes the ‘Adult Time, Adult Crime’ mandate in the first week, with intention to legislate by the end of 2024.
Amnesty International Australia urges the new Government to look at the expert, longitudinal evidence on how best to address the root causes of youth offending, which includes prioritising rehabilitation and supporting safe, community-based alternatives.
Kacey Teerman, Amnesty International Australia’s Indigenous Rights Campaigner, said in a statement: “We call on Premier David Crisafulli to explain why he thinks he knows better than every expert in this field who say that imprisoning children only increases offending and harms these kids, their families and communities.”
The LNP’s ‘Adult Crime, Adult Time’ policy is set to put Queensland in direct violation of international human rights standards, including UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Australia is a signatory, according to Amnesty. Under the UN CRC, children should only ever be incarcerated as an absolute last resort and for the shortest time possible.
Former Premier Steven Miles told ABC Radio Brisbane this week that the new LNP Government clearly has a “mandate” to legislate its youth crime agenda, The Guardian reported.
Federal election lessons
Many health leaders are concerned about progress on climate change, youth and reproductive rights, and treaty and truth-telling, while also pointing to opportunities for advocacy on these important issues in the lead up to the federal election.
Larissa Baldwin, CEO of GetUp, told Croakey that the “huge public support” for measures such as free school lunches and 50 cent public transport is a lesson “to all parties contesting the Federal election that bold policy decisions to improve people’s quality of life and access to services are huge vote winners”.
Housing and energy affordability are also top issues for voters, she said.
However, Baldwin said now is the time to make sure the new Queensland Government knows there is no mandate to take us backwards on climate action.
“We’ve seen so much progress on climate action in Queensland in the last five years thanks to powerful community campaigns to accelerate clean energy and ensure a just transition beyond coal,” she said.
“David Crisafulli’s comments before the election that we should continue burning coal indefinitely reflect the agenda of the fossil fuel industry, not the will of the Queensland people.”
She also told Croakey that many First Nations communities across Queensland are really concerned by the election of an LNP Government who has said they will walk away from hard-won progress on truth-telling and treaty.
As well, the ‘tough on crime’ approach threatens to accelerate the over-policing and over-incarceration of First Nations children.
“We’re seeing the rights of children, especially the rights of Indigenous children, really not factor into the national debate,” Baldwin said at a GetUp post-election debrief this week.
She told Croakey after the debrief that we need to hold governments accountable at a state and Federal level to truly listen and take leadership from First Nations people.
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people know the solutions to the health needs of our communities,” she said. “We need to invest in the health and wellbeing of our young people and setting up our next generation to thrive, not locking up more kids in prison.”
Baldwin calls on Croakey readers to actively participate in advocating for the root causes of inequality to be addressed, as well as advocating for healthcare reform.
“As people who care deeply about the health and wellbeing of our communities, Croakey readers have a powerful role in advocacy,” Baldwin said.
There is a role for everyone in this work, she said, whether that looks like having conversations with friends and neighbours, engaging with candidates in your local area or sharing your story online and in the news.
She told Croakey that in the lead up to the Federal election, GetUp will coordinate campaigns to build public support and political will to act on key issues including accelerating action on climate change, Treaty and truth-telling with First Nations communities and tackling the cost of living.
“It’s going to take all of us,” she said.
Hazardous fossil fuels
Dr Beau Frigault, a Brisbane doctor and member of Doctors for the Environment Australia, echoed many of Baldwin’s sentiments.
“The election of the LNP in Queensland could have significant implications for climate change, Indigenous health and public health,” he said.
The LNP has historically leaned toward resource development, which will likely prioritise fossil fuel projects over renewable energy initiatives, according to Frigault.
He said this focus could impede progress on climate change as less stringent environmental regulations might be enacted.
“Consequently, Queensland could experience increased greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating the impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events that disproportionately affect vulnerable communities,” Frigault said.
Dr Kate Wylie, a GP based on Kaurna country and DEA’s Executive Director, told Croakey that Crisafulli’s signal during the election campaign that he will keep Queensland’s coal-fired power stations open “indefinitely” risks the health of the people in that state and the health of all Australians.
“As our recent report, Fossil Fuels are a Health Hazard, states, coal, oil and gas harm our health. Of all the fossil fuels, coal is the most carbon-intensive and the largest contributor to climate change,” Wylie said.
“Premier Crisafulli needs to understand that coal is hazardous to health and that he has a responsibility to protect the health of his constituency by rapidly phasing out coal.”
Frigault told Croakey the Queensland election result might suggest that a party’s position on climate change mitigation, public health investment and Indigenous health may not have influenced the vote.
“Instead, voters prioritised a party they felt could deliver more on economic relief, including housing prices and other cost-of-living pressures,” he said.
“In next year’s federal election, climate and health advocates may need to modify their messaging to potential voters.
“Helping Australians understand the economic and health benefits of a carbon-neutral way of life could change the political narrative that adopts a planetary health approach to public policy”.
According to Frigault, public health may also face challenges under an LNP Government. “The party’s fiscal policies could result in cuts to health services or a lack of investment in preventive health measures.”
Leonie Short, Director of Seniors Dental Care Australia, told Croakey she had heard that nurses and other health employees are worried about their jobs – “they are not wanting to see mass sackings of public servants again”.
“As legal and safe abortion was an election issue, I and other like-minded women are not wanting to see the clock turned back concerning women’s choice,” she said.
While Short said the Public Health Association of Australia’s Queensland branch did a great job in getting responses from the major parties about key public health issues, it seemed the issues at the “forefront” of people’s minds were rising costs of living, fear of violence associated with crime, housing affordability, and the “it’s time” factor of a government who had been in office for 10 years.
Similarly, at GetUp’s post-election debrief, Baldwin said “we know right now across not just Australia but globally, it is incredibly hard in this cost-of-living crisis for incumbents to remain in government”.
Baldwin also told Croakey, the “attempts to roll back reproductive rights are out of step with the public”.
“Right-wing pushes to revisit abortion laws were strongly rejected by voters – it’s clear that any move to challenge these rights would not only be regressive but also deeply unpopular as we head toward the federal election,” she said.
See Croakey’s archive of articles on the Queensland election and health