Kerry Rea (Bonner, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very proud to rise this evening to talk about the Health Care (Appropriation) Amendment Bill 2008. I want to talk about the substantive content of the bill, which concerns our public hospital system. In particular, I am very proud to be part of a Commonwealth government which is finally putting its money where its mouth is and dealing with the very real problems that exist in our public health system at the moment, in particular our hospitals.

I represent the electorate of Bonner, which is in the state of Queensland. It is part of Brisbane and the south-east corner, one of the fastest-growing areas of population not just in Queensland but, indeed, in this country. Many residents in my electorate are well aware of the pressure our public hospitals are currently under and are looking to any level of government, in particular the federal government, to put more emphasis on this issue. That is why this appropriation bill is so important.

The significance of injecting this $1 billion into the public health system to help state governments deal with the public hospital system is great, for two reasons. Not only is the Rudd Labor government once again demonstrating its commitment to implement election promises by providing this money—and providing it early—to state governments; it is also delivering on its very key election commitment to end the blame game. It is about working in partnership with state governments for ordinary working Australians out there who deserve a high-quality healthcare system. They have a right to a free public hospital system that will meet the needs of them and their families. This is the election commitment that is delivering to them.

For too long we had a federal government that simply sat on its hands. The only exception to that was when it pointed the finger of blame at the states for the public hospital system, meanwhile reneging on $1 billion of funding, which has contributed significantly to the pressure currently on our public hospital system. Of course, that is the easy way out. It is very easy to blame state governments, particularly if they are not of the same political persuasion as you, instead of actually rolling up your sleeves and dealing with the issue.

It is a bit rich, though, for the previous federal government to blame the states when in fact their lack of desire, courage and action contributed significantly to many of the issues that are putting our public hospitals under pressure, particularly in the area of skills. We are dealing with a lack of trained nurses—in fact, we have a nationwide shortage of almost 6,000 nurses and funding was not provided by the previous government to support training of those health professionals. Also, when you consider that across Australia we are now faced with a shortage of doctors, which affects 60 per cent of the population, it is clear that the Commonwealth has not been pulling its weight in this area. Indeed, it has been almost negligent in its lack of support for state governments and the public hospital system.

So, as I said, the bill delivers two election commitments: $1 billion to work in partnership with the state governments to deal with the pressure on public hospitals and, in that line, to end the blame game and start building partnerships with state governments to make sure that it is the community that benefits. What is significant about this appropriation bill is that it will begin with the bringing forward of $500 million to be allocated this financial year to the support of public hospitals. We have heard much about the fact that this is a problem for state governments and that the Commonwealth should not be bailing them out. But I would like to remind members in the House of the Medicare principles that this Commonwealth government developed and endorses: to ensure free treatment in hospital for eligible persons and to ensure access to services based on clinical need within a clinically appropriate period, one of the most significant being equity of access regardless of geographic location. I would include in ‘geographic location’ living in a Labor electorate or indeed a Labor state, where you should also have equity of access. This does not seem to have occurred over the last 11½ years. This bill sees a funding increase of 10.2 per cent over the next 12 months.

What I am also pleased about is that the bringing forward of these funds is part of, and works in conjunction with, the discussions of COAG in March this year, when the state, territory and Commonwealth governments sat down together and agreed to do a range of things. They agreed that they would work in partnership. The Commonwealth put significant extra funds on the table. They also agreed that they would roll over the terms and conditions of the current healthcare agreement so that we could spend a significant amount of time—in fact, the next 12 months—talking about and negotiating an agreement that would see real, long-term strategic benefits for health care, in particular for the public hospital system in this country. At discussions in March between the key stakeholders—the states, the territories and the Commonwealth—it was agreed that a new healthcare agreement would clarify the roles and responsibilities of governments. It is a significant step towards a national registration and accreditation scheme for health professions to be implemented by 1 July 2010. Initially this scheme will cover nine health professions: medical practitioners, nurses and midwives, pharmacists, physiotherapists, psychologists, osteopaths, chiropractors, optometrists and dentists, including dental hygienists, dental prosthetists and dental therapists. So we are seeing real, long-term strategic negotiations that will deal with our public hospital system.

It is interesting when you consider the amendment that was put forward by the member for North Sydney and his criticism that this bill does nothing about long-term health care. I am particularly pleased that COAG has asked Skills Australia to give it by July this year advice on the possibility of allocating up to 50,000 additional vocational education and training places to the health workforce over the next three years. If that is not a commitment to dealing with the long-term issues that are putting pressure on our public hospital system, I do not know what is. I would particularly like to focus on the additional $100 million to support the Queensland health system in this bill. We know that public hospitals in Queensland are under pressure and that the state government is looking at every avenue it can to relieve the pressure for both patients and health workers.

This $100 million will go to helping to train more doctors. If you ask anyone who is either a patient of the health system in Queensland or a worker in the public hospital system in Queensland, they will tell you that one significant issue they face is simply and purely a lack of doctors. That goes to the extent that the Queensland state government has put its money into extra medical training places. It is the first time a state government in this country has had to put money into funding doctors because of the lack of—and, in fact, the decrease of—funding by a federal government. So, once again, there is $100 million for Queenslanders to see an extra 235 medical student places at Griffith University on the Gold Coast. This will be a major benefit to our public hospital system, a major benefit to the health workers of Queensland and a major benefit to the residents of Bonner and all those other electorates. They will want to make sure that the public system is accessible for them to get the treatment they need when they need it. Thank goodness we have a Commonwealth government that wants to work in partnership with the states and that puts its money where its mouth is to deal with health issues in our public hospital system, not simply point the finger.

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