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

I am always pleased when the member for Dickson gets an MPI and gives us an opportunity to talk about health. I think everybody across the country and probably everybody in the parliament agrees that our health system is at a tipping point and that there are problems that need to be fixed. Of course, I take issue with responsibility for the problems and with the causal links that the member for Dickson has made with some of the problems, but we agree that there are a range of problems in the system.

But after getting over my initial enthusiasm and excitement that the member for Dickson has an MPI on a topic which is very important for the community, I am frustrated that the member has spent 15 minutes listing every single problem and not one single solution—and he mostly does not even stay to hear the debate. Last time he went out to conduct an interview on alcopops. He wanted to hide the fact that he had to execute a very humiliating backflip. I suppose it is no surprise that today, the very day the alcopops matter is finally passed by the Senate, the member did not raise that in his 15-minute speech about health.

Let us get serious about this. We do not pretend it is easy; we do not pretend that the health system can be fixed immediately. We have invested in a range of measures, and we can spend all our time going through the range of investments we have made. But I challenge the member for Dickson to go out to Queanbeyan, in the electorate of the member for Eden-Monaro, where the GP superclinic is now contracted and underway, to ask people whether they want the GP superclinic and whether they think it is a bad idea. I challenge him to speak to the member for Herbert. He has used with glee the example of the Townsville Hospital, which is getting $250 million courtesy of the Rudd Labor government—

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