Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, absolutely, Mr Deputy Speaker. As I said earlier, this is in reference to the second reading amendment and the failure of the government to make sure that there was proper investment within our health care system. There are so many areas of need, and the sale of Medibank Private will indeed greatly impact upon people’s incomes and their access to health services.

I want to make a point about some of the hidden cuts to the health budget. We have seen $1.5 million ripped out of the More Doctors for Outer Metropolitan Areas measure and $6 million ripped out of the Better Access to Radiation Oncology program. Again, these hidden cuts will greatly impact upon people in regional areas such as mine. Right across the board, when it comes to funding for the health needs of our present and our future generations, we have not seen any national leadership or vision that is going to fix a lot of the problems that we have in our health system.

In fact, it is only going to get worse in the coming years, particularly with an ageing population, when the health needs are so great. To not see funding being placed in prevention and cure is going to make a huge difference. But, as I stated, there are some particular areas of need, especially restoring the federal dental plan, and the failure to do this will continue to cause so many problems in my electorate and right throughout the country, as will the cuts to the PBS. We are seeing first-hand that people are not accessing those medicines. They are staying in their homes, getting sicker and exacerbating the situation.

I fear that the fact the Howard government has failed to take action on this will continue to impact upon the elderly, and they are the ones who desperately need support from this government to ensure their future health care needs at a time in their lives when their health needs are very complex. We certainly need to see a greater investment in a whole range of areas, particularly for the future, because we do have a rapidly ageing population. We have the opportunity to get it right in Richmond at the moment, with 20 per cent of the population aged over 65, and we have to get it right now for those elderly people who are very stressed and unable to cope.

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