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Record of Proceedings, 15 October 2025
I support the amendment moved by the Minister for Health. Before speaking to that amendment, may I place on record my condolences to the family of Christine White on the loss of their beloved family member. Of course there are no words of mine, either here or elsewhere, that will take away the pain and sorrow they are all feeling and will no doubt continue to feel for a long time into the future. As the member for Scenic Rim, my family and the community I represent express our condolences to you at this difficult time.
As a neighbouring MP to Ipswich and representing a region that depends on Ipswich Hospital as one of its major healthcare providers, especially to Boonah Hospital, Laidley Hospital and Esk Hospital, I support the amendment. In doing so, I also need to point to the decade of decline under the former Labor government that has brought us to where we are today. For an entire decade under Labor, hospital services at Ipswich continually went downhill—from an ambulance ramping rate of 20.3 per cent in 2015, when former LNP health minister Lawrence Springborg had overseen huge improvements in that short period of government from 2012 to 2015, to a massive peak of 63.5 per cent ramping in 2024 after a decade of decline. That is not to mention all of the other declines in health services that occurred across the state of Queensland during that decade.
In 2024, 63.5 per cent ramping was the peak we inherited from the Labor Party. It means that nearly two in three people presenting at the Ipswich ED were not seen within recommended timeframes. It had more than tripled since 2015. It no doubt has a devastating impact on patients, but we also need to remember that when the system does not work for people as it should it—and that is the situation we were left with by those opposite—it impacts the staff and everyone connected to the Ipswich Hospital in terms of their morale and their ability to go on supporting the communities they serve. That extends to the smaller hospitals that are part of that network and everyone in the network, including primary healthcare providers as well. It shakes their confidence.
In supporting the amendment, I want to thank everyone who works at the Ipswich Hospital and other hospitals that I am connected with as an MP. Ipswich really was the epicentre of Labor’s ramping legacy and it is a legacy that we will not forget for a long time because it has caused so much pain and grief for so many people in the region. That is why we are doing the work we are doing to improve services at Ipswich and across the state.
While this motion has come about in the context of the death of Christine White, I am also very aware of the loss of other loved ones in the communities that the Ipswich Hospital services, in particular the death of Wayne Irving from Boonah. Wayne was a hardworking family man, with a family he loved and who loved him. He ran a tank-cleaning business and once or twice he did clean my water tank. In 2023 he was ramped for hours and, unfortunately, despite a number of requests for escalation by paramedics at that time, Wayne passed away. I know that Wayne’s family are still grieving him deeply, and I can assure them that we have not forgotten his death or the other negative patient healthcare occurrences as a result of Labor’s ramping crisis.
After the decade of decline, the community has tasked us with the job of improving services. That is why this government in less than a year is taking action to reduce the impacts of Labor’s decade of decline. Just weeks ago the minister and I were at Ipswich Hospital to announce the commencement of building an expanded transit care centre to improve the flow of patients through the discharge process and to ease pressure on the emergency department. It is a $9.6 million commitment for that project which is expected to be completed by June 2026. It is all about prioritising the flow of patients and ensuring that we can better serve people in the emergency department.
I will not be lectured to by anyone in the Labor Party, anyone opposite, about Ipswich Hospital and the services there after what they did to the place. The LNP government is getting on with the job of fixing those services, including at Ipswich and other parts of Queensland, and we will continue to do that. (Time expired)