Residents of Paynesville, Eagle Point and Newlands Arm will not see an expansion of timetabled bus services under the Allan Labor Government.
Following his 2022 pre-election commitment to trial increased bus services for these communities, The Nationals’ Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull, wrote to the Minister for Public Transport, seeking the same outcome.
“The intention was to trial increased services for a set period to align buses with the V/Line timetable. This would also have served the dual purpose of offering more transport links for those living in Newlands Arm, Eagle Point and Paynesville,” Mr Bull said.
“When you have a trial, you can then assess patronage levels and determine if the usage is at a level strong enough to make the service permanent.
“Frustratingly, the Minister claims that the existing schedule is sufficient for current and likely demands, so there is no recognition of the population explosion in these areas,” he said.
Mr Bull said he was sick to death of country people being inadequately served and cited the removal of buffet services on four-hour train journeys and ignoring our community's public transport requests.
“They simply had to order the new carriages with this provision but have determined not to do it, so it then makes it very difficult to re-implement that service without a massive cost of carriage renovations.
“We want more travel options, not restrictions, on the public transport network.
“The Minister is completely out of touch with what public transport users in this region need, and I urge Minister Williams to reconsider these matters,” Mr Bull said.

Monday, 26 August 2024

Having raised the challenges facing our health services in Parliament, Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, is pleased a new inquiry will consider in detail the performance of Victoria’s ambulance service.

The Nationals and Liberals recently successfully passed a motion to establish a parliamentary inquiry into the performance, workplace culture and procurement practices of Ambulance Victoria.

“Having met with the ambulance union of recent times, it is clear significant changes need to be made,” Mr Bull said.

“Among them is the need to better triage calls to triple zero, so ambulances are preserved for emergency cases and are not called out to tend to the likes of toothaches, which they have said is occurring.

“These are the sorts of matters the inquiry will look at, and I have no doubt hospital ramping will also be a significant matter of investigation, which hopefully will result in improved outcomes.

“I am pleased the motion was supported, despite opposition from the Allan Labor Government, which I find peculiar, and this is about identifying better outcomes. Another element I support is the short turnaround as we don’t want an inquiry that drags on so long its findings cannot be implemented quickly.

“Our paramedics are burnt out and frustrated with the clunky system they operate under.

“Ambulance Victoria has been failing to meet response time targets for many years now with ambulances left ramped outside our regional hospitals becoming the new norm.

“These vehicles sitting outside emergency departments which cannot take the patients is not an acceptable outcome. It results in paramedics then being called in from further afield to respond and the answer is getting these crews back on the road and serving the community.

“I have no doubt the outcomes will point to the need to improve this element of our hospital system,” he said.

The Legal and Social Issues Committee will inquire into these and other related matters and report back to Parliament within the coming weeks.

Monday, 26 August 2024

Gippsland East Nationals’ MP, Tim Bull, has called on the State Government to make the changes to restore funding in local hospitals and free up ambulance resources.

“Apart from raising these matters in Parliament, of recent times I have met with both local hospital representatives and the Ambulance Union in relation to the current challenges being experienced by the health system both locally and state-wide.

“Our medical staff and paramedics are doing an incredible job under great pressure. They live locally, are part of our community and are going above and beyond at present - they really are, and deserve our thanks rather than angst.

“Last week I met with the Ambulance Union and the clear message was they need improvements in several areas, which includes (but is not limited to) a concerted effort to reduce ramping at hospitals so they can move patients into the hospitals and get ambulances back on the road.

“They also want better monitoring of ambulance despatch so they are not dealing with non-urgent cases like being called to a toothache. This impacts their ability to be available for the more serious cases for which they are required. It also causes overtime / overworking issues. Our ambos care about our community and are happy to do the overtime on cases they are genuinely needed for. These are very reasonable and common-sense requests,” he said.

“Many of our hospitals (like Bairnsdale) also need bigger emergency departments (EDs) and have them staffed. The answer to this is not asking our hospitals to work with reduced budgets as many have been asked to do state-wide, while at the same time being asked not to impact frontline services.

“As many across Victoria are saying, this is an impossibility as they function as one organisation where staff at every level rely on each other. The answer is to ask hospitals what support they need to cater for increasing demand, whether that be infrastructure or staffing.

“I spoke about these matters in Parliament last sitting week and will continue to do so.

“Locally, Bairnsdale hospital is considering options to increase capacity of its ED in the short term. It will require some funding and I’ll continue to work with them in achieving this, noting the issues are far bigger than just Bairnsdale.

“Hopefully we will soon have announced changes where our hard-working paramedics are allowed to focus on emergency cases and our hospitals supported to have what they require,” he said.

Friday, 23 August 2024

Gippsland East Nationals’ MP, Tim Bull, has called on the Allan Labor Government to provide important financial support to our rural Bush Nursing Centres (BNCs), which face an uncertain future.

Speaking in Parliament, he said the BNCs in Dargo, Swifts Creek, Cann Valley, Gelantipy District, Ensay and Buchan all play a critical role in their local communities, but most faced significant financial challenges.

“On top of their budgets being reduced by 10%, I am being told by some local BNC representatives, that even more alarming is the government expects them to cover the nursing staff wage increases recently agreed to by Government of 28.4% between now and 2027. They simply cannot do this,” Mr Bull said.

“There is no question the nurses deserve a pay rise, but it cannot be implemented without financial support provided to the BNCs to meet these increased costs.

“Nurses do an amazing job, and our bush nurses have an extensively dynamic skill set to adapt to the range of care needed in rural settings.

“However, it is completely unfair that our remote care centres have not only had a funding cut, but the Minister remains silent on government support for these wage increases.

"The Allan Labor Government is playing a dangerous game with rural and regional critical health services, and we want to see no change in employment, outreach capacity or service provision.

“The great fear is that without the capacity to pay, nurse hours will be reduced and that is not an outcome that is acceptable.

"It is appalling that I need to stand in Parliament and request that the Allan Labor Government provide some clarity on this.

“The reality is these situations, along with our health system cuts more generally, the state of our county roads and a litany of other issues, is all a result of the catastrophic mismanagement of the state’s finances.

“Even Labor’s own budget papers say we are headed for a debt of $186 billion by 2027 and interest repayments will hit $26 million per day. They can’t manage money and we pay the price,” he said.

Caption: Buchan and Cann Valley Bush Nursing Centres are two of the six BNCs in the Gippsland East electorate that face an uncertain time.

Tuesday, 20 August 2024

The Allan Labor Government must provide immediate certainty on future health funding for the four East Gippsland hospitals at Bairnsdale, Orbost, Omeo and Maffra.
Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, said the Allan Labor Government has been demanding savage multi-million-dollar budget cuts from Victoria’s 76 health services and withdrew longstanding financial guarantees which ensured their continued operation.
“They’ve got themselves in such a mess with financial mismanagement, the state debt is forecast to hit a record $187.8 billion by 2028. To then try and save by cutting our hospital funding is incredulous.
“For months, these financial demands have caused enormous concerns with local boards and staff about the impacts budget cuts will have on health care accessibility, local jobs, and patient outcomes.
“Thankfully, the Allan Labor Government last week backflipped on mergers and announced $1.5 billion in additional funding for 2024-25, but failed to provide any details on where this will be spent and which services will be the recipients. The Minister needs to provide some more detail,” said Mr Bull.
Shadow Minister for Health, Georgie Crozier, said, “Victorians cannot trust Labor to manage our health system. Their chaotic decision making has proved that.
“After months of uncertainty, local communities and health services across Victoria deserve to know exactly what funding they will be receiving and when.”
Mr Bull said the Allan Labor Government must answer how much top-up funding each of our hospitals will receive and will it guarantee no restrictions be put in place that impact community health care.
“Local residents have been put through enough by this chaotic and dysfunctional government. Labor must end the uncertainty and give locals the clear answer they deserve,” he said.

Monday, 12 August 2024

The push to stop the creation of any more National Parks is gathering momentum across Victoria and has the support of Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull.

“A petition launched by my colleague Melina Bath has close to 18,000 signatures and continues to attract great support as the government considers turning a number of areas of State Forest into National Parks,” he said.

“What this would do is put restrictions on a number of recreational activities like hunting, prospecting, puts a far greater restriction on camping and reduces the area available for firewood collection, restrictions on dogs, horse riding and campfires, just to name a few.

“There are simply far more oversights in National Parks compared to State Forests,” he said.

Mr Bull said a large part of his concern rested with the Taskforce the Minister had appointed to make recommendations.

“Firstly, it is chaired by ex-Labor Minister Lisa Neville and includes Labor diehard Karen Cain who oversaw the useless Latrobe Valley Authority, and Melissa Wood from the Victorian Environment Assessment Council, a group which supported the banning of activities in the Grampians and has a clear green bent.

“There is a notable absence of any major representation of bush user groups, so you can only imagine what recommendations they will come up with.

“In this state we already have a significant National Park network and let’s be honest, it has not been looked after, with weed and feral animal infestation,” he said.

“The lock it up and leave it mentality simply has not worked and we do not need to have more areas declared National Parks that further limits the areas where we can undertake our preferred recreation options.

“Let’s allow our Parks Victoria staff to focus its limited funds on looking after the existing Parks’ network, not give them a bigger area to look after and ask them to spread their already thin resources further.”

“I’ve been told in recent weeks they do not have the funds to grade roads or rebuild infrastructure and here we are, looking at pushing more areas into the Parks’ network,” Mr Bull said.

Community Advocacy Eastern Region will be hosting a forum at the Bairnsdale RSL on Sunday August 18 from 1pm-3pm, for anyone that is interested to attend.