Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The first responsibility of government is to make sure we have a decent public hospital system. And can I say to those opposite: if ever I saw a demolition derby being conducted on the public hospital system of Australia, it is the 12-year history of the Howard government—12 years of denuding a public hospital system of appropriate funding to manage for its growth. There was at least $1 billion sucked out of the contribution by the Commonwealth to the states for the management of the nation’s public hospital system. What this government has done in the nine months since being elected is reinvest $1 billion, $500 million of which has already been delivered, into extra funding for our hospitals, and we are proud of that fact.

The second thing that we have done is commit $600 million to a fund to help slash elective surgery waiting lists, to which we have already provided an upfront allocation of $150 million. That is designed to bring about 14,000 extra procedures, which have already been delivered.

In terms of senior Australians, we have a plan to introduce the Commonwealth Dental Health system—a scheme which it took the Howard government less than 12 months to abolish when they were in government. So let us get real about this. In the 12-year history of the Howard government, they pulled $1 billion out of public hospitals and, in the nine-month history of this government, we put $1 billion back in. When first elected, it took the Howard government less than 12 months to abolish the Commonwealth Dental Health scheme and, in nine months, we have reintroduced the Commonwealth Dental Health scheme.

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