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

The government’s commissioning of Ms Bennett to conclude this inquiry will have its end point when it reports around midyear. It will examine a range of options for the future of our health and hospital system. Those opposite would also be familiar with this, having themselves sucked out $1 billion in federal investment into the public hospital systems of Australia. The government, through the last Council of Australian Governments meeting, returned that investment into the hospital system and agreed on a wide-ranging set of health and hospital reforms with the states and territories. That is practical action for the future. We will consider the Bennett commission of inquiry’s report when it is deliberated on and concluded, and we will take what necessary action there is for the future. That is a proper course of action on the part of the government, as opposed to those opposite, who saw hospitals as one single opportunity in the past: a political opportunity simply to kick the states at every single pass and to make themselves look like the big, responsible people in Canberra—disinterested in what was happening in the states, disinterested in the crowding in our emergency departments and disinterested in the lengthening lists of procedures which were necessary in hospitals for people who had a range of complaints and medical conditions. Instead, we have engaged in practical cooperative arrangements with the states. We will act on the Bennett commission’s report when it is properly submitted to government.

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