Libby Mettam: Labor’s health spend is all an illusion

Smoke and mirrors is a game Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson has become good at since taking over the portfolio in December 2021.

To sell almost eight years of chronic underspending on health infrastructure as “record investment in health”, you’ve really got to be able to crank the smoke machine.

By swiping away the smoke, the reality is clear. In the eight years to 2017, the former Barnett Liberal government invested $5.7 billion in health infrastructure. By contrast, in the past seven and a half years, the Labor Government has invested just $3 billion in health infrastructure.

If those figures are not a stark enough demonstration of how the current Government has short-changed the people of WA when it comes to health, then they become even more startling in the context of the major revenue streams each government had while in office.

Between 2009 and 2017, the former Barnett Liberal government received $21.7 billion in GST grants and $30.9 billion in iron ore royalties.

Since 2017, the current Labor Government has — courtesy of changes made by a Federal Liberal government — received $40.3 billion in GST grants and — courtesy of surging global iron ore prices — $65 billion in iron ore royalties.

In summary, that’s $52.6 billion in revenue for a $5.6 billion health infrastructure spend by the former Liberal government, compared with $105.3 billion in revenue for a $3 billion spend for Labor.

The minister kept the smoke machine stoked last weekend when she rushed out with a cobbled-together announcement of a $50 million expansion to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital’s emergency department.

The announcement came hot on the heels of a horror week for the ED, during which staff worked through five days of rolling code yellow internal emergencies, with capacity peaking at more than 200 per cent.

The McGowan Government promised additional ED beds, theatres, and an upgraded ICU four years ago. Ms Sanderson’s announcement made no mention of theatres or ICU improvements, and she could not say how many additional ED beds the $50 million would buy.

Smoke aside, there are only two options; either the minister is choosing not to tell us, or she genuinely doesn’t know. Both options raise some serious alarm bells.

If Ms Sanderson knows, but isn’t telling, the obvious question is: why?

If the project has gone through the recommended chain of checks and approvals — Infrastructure WA, Treasury, the economic review committee, and Cabinet — then it seems implausible, although not impossible, that no one knows the bed count.

Not impossible, because Labor’s approval process has, in seven years, become a very different beast from what Mark McGowan promised.

Mr McGowan paid $1 million for John Langoulant to report on the decision-making processes of 31 projects commissioned by the former Barnett government, and consequently promised “gold-standard” transparency and water-tight business cases for government spending.

Among the 31 projects Mr Langoulant examined, eight were major health projects. Most were found to be well-managed and provided good value for money, while some were seen as evidence of risky decision-making.

His recommendations included a review of all major projects by the economic review committee. Unfortunately, the $1 million advice seems to have faded into the background for Treasurer Rita Saffioti. Metronet projects, for example, are exempt from ERC scrutiny.

With no such free ride for health spending, it’s clear to see who wears the power pants in the Cook Government.

Internal power struggles aside, my money is on the first option — that Ms Sanderson knows but isn’t saying because it’s embarrassing how far short the final proposal falls from what the Government promised.

Staff are desperate for more ED beds, additional operating theatres, and the expanded ICU, which were to be part of the King Edward Memorial Hospital relocation to QEII.

At least 10 more beds are required to alleviate pressure on the current 54-bed ED.

So, the minister rolled out the smoke machine and played down the rolling code yellows in the ED stating they were “a standard operating mechanism”.

A code yellow is indeed a “standardised” operating code for an internal emergency, but it is not the standard to which hospitals expect to be operating on a daily basis.

Labor’s chronic underspending on health has left West Australians with seven of the nation’s worst-performing emergency departments, as well as the nation’s lowest State government spend per person, and the lowest number of hospital beds per person.

These are shameful statistics, especially when viewed in the context of Ms Saffioti’s announcement last week that a late rush of iron ore shipments delivered her an unexpected $1.3 billion Budget boost.

There were no smoke and mirrors for the Treasurer, just dollar signs and a Cheshire cat grin for the assembled media. Maybe it was thoughts of more cream for Metronet.

Libby Mettam is the leader of the Liberals