Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, you look for a word that can describe what has happened here today and there is not one. After 11 years of neglect, today they have the audacity to come in and pull this on.

Figures show $1 billion was slashed in 2003 from public hospitals. There was $1 billion taken out of public hospitals, and it will take a lot of time to turn that around. We saw a decade of neglect, but the government is stepping up to the mark and is determined to deliver dramatic improvements in health care. The State of our public hospitals, June 2008 report is based on figures from when the Howard government was in power. I will read some of those figures out. In 2006-07, public hospital admissions increased by around three per cent. That is more than twice the rate of the population growth. When did this happen? It was in 2006-07. Who was in government then? It was the Howard government. Again in 2006-07, there were 6.7 million presentations to emergency departments, the equivalent of a third of Australia’s population. When did this happen? It was when the Howard government was in power, yet all we heard was the blame game. All we heard from the other side every time a question was raised by us when we were in opposition was, ‘Blame the states.’ The number of patients presenting to emergency departments between 1998-99 and 2006-07 increased by over 34 per cent. Three in 10 emergency department patients were not seen within the recommended time. This all happened under your watch; this all happened while the Howard government was in power.

All states and territories, with the exception of New South Wales, had a lower percentage of people presenting at emergency departments seen in the recommended time than in 1998-99. Indigenous Australians represent five per cent of public hospital admissions, but only 2.5 per cent of the Australian population. On average, the longest waits for elective surgery procedures are for knee replacement—162 days median—and hip replacement—median 106 days. This is why we are determined as a Labor government to improve our hospitals. All these facts and figures refer to when the opposition was in government.

Much work lies ahead of us. We know it is not an easy task, as the Minister for Health and Ageing said, to deliver a better health and hospital system. Much of this work has already commenced. Already, after just 11 months in government, we have a proud record. We will invest an extra $1 billion in public hospitals in the next year—the largest single-year increase in almost a decade. That is $1 billion extra into the health system; $1 billion more than the previous government had in there.

We established the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission to drive large-scale reform. Reform is something that we did not hear at all about over the last 12 years. We have invested $275 million in 31 GP superclinics to help keep people well and out of hospital. We have begun a wide-ranging review of primary care and the Medicare schedule to create a greater focus on prevention in our health system. We are also committed to establishing a $10 billion Health and Hospitals Fund, the largest investment in medical infrastructure in Australia’s history. That is an extra $10 billion that was not there when you lot were in government. We have increased the overall budget for health and ageing to $50 billion for the first time ever. These are real reforms.

We have also announced a plan to bring almost 10,000 nurses into the health and aged care systems. That is 10,000 nurses on the floors in hospitals to ensure that they deliver services for people. We have also begun work with the states and territories on a new Australian Health Care Agreement to end the blame game and improve our hospitals. As I said earlier, all we saw was 11 years of blaming the states for everything that went wrong instead of sitting down and negotiating with them and talking with them. All we had was blaming the states.

There is much in our health system to fix after 11 years of neglect, and it does not end at hospitals. We are determined to look at health in all areas. We are committed to introducing the Commonwealth Dental Health Program. Instead of supporting the government in its reform agenda, the opposition are actually jeopardising it. Their not supporting the Commonwealth Dental Health Program in the Senate is causing pain and suffering for thousands of pensioners and other low-income people in Australia. There is an enormous need in my electorate of Hindmarsh, which has many elderly people, for the Commonwealth Dental Health Program; they want and need a Commonwealth Dental Health Program. It is a big need not only in my electorate but in many electorates.

In South Australia the average waiting time for dental care restorative services is estimated at 18 months, for dentures 39 months and for specialist dental care 33 months. All these waiting times increased under the Howard government’s watch. Every time dental care was raised in this place the government at the time would wipe their hands and say, ‘It is a state issue—nothing to do with us.’ In South Australia the waiting time is a little shorter, down from 49 months in 2001—thank God for the Rann Labor government being elected back in 2002. They managed to reduce the waiting list. After Howard was elected in 1996, one of his very first acts was to abolish the Commonwealth Dental Health Program. The Rudd Labor government was elected on a platform that included the re-introduction of the Commonwealth Dental Health Program.

However, dental care for pensioners and low-income families risks being stalled by the opposition in the Senate as they continue to not support the government’s program. There are currently about 30,000 people in my state on waiting lists who would receive immediate relief if the opposition were to support that program. We have heard before in this place the horror stories of people suffering with bad dental decay. The opposition can currently give these pensioners immediate relief if they choose to support our very important dental scheme in the Senate. They would be able to assist pensioners immediately by not opposing this program. By opposing this program they are only doing harm to these people and making them wait longer.

The opposition’s record is quite bad. The Liberals cut funding by $1 billion in an already stretched system. They practised the systematic neglect of our hospital system for 12 long years. They played the blame game for 12 long years. Despite their belated recognition that they have made mistakes, the matter of public importance debate today is a clear sign that they have not changed at all since the heady days of government. In fact, I propose that the wording of this matter of public importance today be changed to, ‘The failure of the opposition whilst in government from 1996 to 2007 to deliver an effective public hospital system.’ That is what it should be.

As I said, when they sat on these benches on this side they consistently refused to take any responsibility for the problems in our health system. Now it seems that they have the same approach—willing to blame everybody else but themselves for 12 years. Almost everybody knows that the blame game was the clear cause of many of the problems in our health system.

We know they cut $1 million, we know they neglected reform and we know they failed to invest in prevention, knowing full well that those sick people would end up in state hospitals, and then they could just blame the states. Those failures are why the statistics you have heard in the last 48 hours happened on their watch. That is why the AMA talked about 1,500 people dying from overcrowding. But it is important to remember that these figures are figures from 2003. Who was in government in 2003? The Howard government! (Time expired)

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