Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Macquarie for his question, because I know in the complexity of his seat, both the urban parts and the rural parts, that health is a top order issue for him on many occasions and that he and his electorate will have welcomed the final report of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, which was released on 27 July 2009. Members will remember that the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission was established by the Rudd government because we knew that the health system was really struggling after a decade of neglect from the previous government. We inherited from the Howard government a legacy of bed shortages, doctor shortages, nurse shortages and long surgery and dental waiting lists, and we tasked Dr Christine Bennett and her team of experts with conducting a root-and-branch review of our health system and gathering evidence.

But we did not sit back and just put up our feet while this work was being done by the commission. We actually rolled up our sleeves and got to work straightaway, investing $64 billion into our public hospitals, an increase of 50 per cent from the previous government’s funding. Our work includes $275 million for 31 superclinics across the country—24 of those contracts have been signed and construction is underway on many of those sites; $600 million for an elective surgery waiting list blitz, with 41,000 procedures delivered in the first year—and we now have 109 hospitals across the country with construction and new equipment being put in place to deliver on long-term improvements for elective surgery; $750 million for our public hospitals in emergency departments, relieving pressure; particular works going on in more than 35 hospitals across the country; and, of course, $3.2 billion from the Health and Hospitals Fund for 32 projects across the country.

After 18 months of hard work, the Health Reform Commission has made clear that our health system is now at a tipping point, something that I know many members will be acutely aware of in their electorates, and that the health system is struggling to adapt to the needs of an ageing population and a community which is becoming more prone to chronic disease. So the report makes clear that business as usual is no longer an option for the way we deliver health care into the future. We need to reshape our health system to put more effort into keeping people healthy, stabilising and managing illnesses in the community and strengthening our hospitals for those who need acute care.

The report made 123 recommendations; the House will be pleased that I do not intend to read each of them to you. However, there were some key recommendations. They include recommendations such as the Commonwealth takeover of all primary care services, the introduction of an electronic health record for individuals, the strengthening of subacute care, the greater separation of elective and emergency services, national access targets for clinical service delivery and recommendations such as Denticare to completely reform the way dental services are provided in this country.

Taken together, the report’s recommendations are an opportunity for us to introduce the most fundamental reform to our health system since the introduction of Medicare by Labor 25 years ago. That is why the Prime Minister and I and the government’s health team have been crossing the country to consult with health professionals, stakeholders and members of the community and to get their feedback on these recommendations. Six consultations have been held so far, with more to come. The Commonwealth then intends to convene a special COAG meeting to deal with health issues by the end of the year and to report to the states and territories and will then present a reform plan to the states and territories by early 2010. Our preference, of course, is that the states and territories will join us in this work, but, if they do not, we will go to the people seeking a mandate to take over full funding control of our health system.

So the scale, scope and importance of this reform underline why we are not going to rush decisions in this health reform debate. We must get these decisions right. It is useful to ask the question: does the Liberal Party, the opposition, have anything to contribute to this health debate? Let us just look very briefly at the evidence we have about the Liberal Party’s health policy. Firstly, we know that $64 billion would not have been put into our public hospitals according to the member for North Sydney, who thought that that was a waste of money. There is no support in the Senate for dental health, which is being blocked by the Liberal Party, and the shadow health minister has made clear that he does not support Denticare, improving access for people to dental services. We have seen flip-flopping, of course, all over the place on prevention issues like our alcopops measure, which the opposition still has not allowed to come on for a vote in the Senate. And, of course, they are opposing the very reasonable positions that we have put to ask those who have more resources to contribute more to their own health care via sensible changes to the Medicare levy surcharge and the private health insurance changes. So not much has changed since 2007, when the Liberal Party went to the election without a health policy; it still does not have one.

There is, however, one thing that the member for Dickson has recently said which makes sense. I know it is unusual for me to say there is anything that the member for Dickson has said that makes sense, but there is one thing which, in fairness, I think I should repeat to the House. He, in his modest contributions to the health reform debate, has called on the government not to:

… repeat the same mistakes over the next decade that we’ve repeated over the last decade.

Indeed, and on that point we actually agree. We have a blueprint for reform—

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