So here we are in the second week. Andrew Dittmer from the Darwin & Palmerston Sun has been asking candidates to supply policy remarks on a different topic each week of no more than 250 words. Here’s my brief statement:
Healthcare is in crisis.
Waiting lists for elective surgery rise, beds fill up, emergency departments are overflowing. This is the story at Royal Darwin Hospital and Darwin Private Hospital. It’s also the story in hospitals across the country.
What do these hospitals have in common? They are all owned or over-regulated by government. For decades governments at the Territory and Federal level have tried managing health on a one-size-fits-all basis. Yet no matter how much money they pump in, the result is failure.
The answer is to shift to a simpler, deregulated system. The Liberty & Democracy Party are the only party with the political courage to take this project on. We would increase competition for the supply of medical services, hospital beds, health insurance and pharmaceuticals. This is the only guaranteed way to increase supply, improve quality and drive down prices.
Approaches based on spending more money on a failed system of healthcare will just lead to more bureaucrats and health crises. Subject only to safety regulations we can rely on the market to feed, clothe and shelter us. We can rely on it to diagnose and treat our illnesses too.
Obviously it’s light on the detail. It’s hard to summarise detailed root-and-branch reform in 200ish words. Still, I can speculate that the other statements will be something like:
| David Tollner | We’ll spend more money. It’s all Clare Martin’s fault. |
|---|---|
| Damien Hale | We’ll spend more money. It’s all John Howard’s fault. |
| Deborah Hudson | We’ll spend more money. It’s all Exxon’s fault. |
I don’t know what the CEC candidate would say. Something about hedge funds I guess. That seems to be their bag.
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