Health

In conjunction with the Education portfolio, this responsibility is huge across Central Australia and the NT.

Restructuring the government department into a ‘flatter’ structure that effectively removes ‘ management clogs’ is a key. So much ‘wasted money’ needs to be re-focused into a ‘net that works’!

Middle managers who are working well in their positions will be elevated to the senior management team (that includes the incumbent Minister).  Each senior manager (with the exception of the Minister) will be directly responsible for a number of operational team members and they will report activity to each other in a two-way simplistic and meaningful manner with projected outcomes and time-lines for achieving them.

The capacity to build the capacity of the minds and hearts within Territorians is extraordinary. The positive physical, social, emotional, psychological and spiritual health of this jurisdiction is imperative to growing our Territory forward. Health issues for Centralians have been marginalised by successive governments and bureaucracies over the past 30 years in favour of Top-End practices. It’s time that stopped. Fair and equal distribution of resources across the whole of the NT that more effectively delivers quality health care services to people where they are is preferable.

Having worked at various times in the Health systems public, non-government and private for periods spanning more than three decades (Sydney and the NT), I have a solid grounding of ways in which systems can be strategically improved to save valuable resources that can then be utilised in a more effective manner.

With regard to the major ‘law and order’ hobbyhorse of the two major parties, neither of them seem to ‘get it’. The behaviour of individuals (impacting on everyone’s mental, physical, social and spiritual health)
is their own responsibility – not those of any government. Punitive threats around the ‘punishment model’ are archaic and less relevant.

It’s more about the ‘encouragement’ model that will help people turn around the way they think (the glass is half full remember) and choose to behave in ways that empower themselves and their communities. Imagine – people are so ‘busy being ‘good’ there’s no time for ‘bad’. Sure this will take time but if all of us in the community take action TODAY to build our respective ‘now’ and ‘tomorrow’, we can turn it all around. Humans are not innately ‘bad’. We weren’t born ‘bad’. I’ll be supporting legislation that recognises the inherent ‘good’ in people and encourages people to think and act in ways that produce positive outcomes for themselves and their communities. This is all possible – we each just have to believe that it is. Make it so, Number 1 (that’s you by the way)!!