Springborg: ‘No mandate’ to dump surgery guarantee

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LAWRENCE Springborg will challenge the Palaszczuk Government’s decision to dump the surgery wait time guarantee on the floor of Parliament.

The Liberal Nationals leader today said Health Minister Cameron Dick did not have a mandate to abandon the guarantee and replace it with “rubbery targets”.

Mr Springborg said the LNP would move a motion in Parliament to give every MP an opportunity to voice their electorate’s view on whether patients should receive surgery within strict time frames.

“It has taken less than three weeks for the Health Minister to be captured by the health bureaucracy which have never supported guaranteeing patients their surgery on time, every time,’’ he said.

“In order to protect patients, the LNP will by moving a motion when Parliament resumes to keep the Wait Time Guarantee.”

Mr Dick branded the guarantee a “gimmick”, saying it was meaningless when tens of thousands of patients were waiting for specialist appointments.

Parliament will return for the first time since the January election on March 24 with the first two days to be dominated by ceremony.

The LNP’s motion will force Independent MP Peter Wellington and the two Katter’s Australian Party MPs to make a decision on the guarantee although the outcome would not be binding on the Government.

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