Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the House for this opportunity to speak on the Australian National Preventive Health Agency Bill 2009. Fortunately for me, I happen to be a board member of the Inala Primary Care facility in my electorate of Oxley. It is a community role that I have undertaken in an honorary capacity because I felt that this was one area of health care that was desperately needed and could be better managed in the overall construct in the way health services are provided in this country.

If there is one thing that we know after many years of study and many years of experience and learning in the health sector it is that preventive health care is the best health measure that we could possibly provide. Combining information from across the sector into a substantial health policy and providing that to all areas is, I think, the best approach. I am more than happy and more than satisfied to say that this is the approach that the Australian government, the Rudd government, has actually taken. We will certainly see that as part of the bill that is before us today.

My experience of preventive health care and primary health care in my local community has shown me that the benefits they provide to a community are enormous. The Inala Primary Care facility, which is right in the heart of my electorate, is an amazing organisation. It has developed out of a need in the community and it demonstrates just what can be done by a community when it has the right partnerships in health services. It was a struggling organisation that was having financial and, I think, service delivery difficulties. With its reorganisation—the establishment of a new board, a new system put in place and an approach that looks at how preventive health can benefit the community directly—we have seen an amazing outcome. There have been not only health outcomes but also economic and financial outcomes, which provide for the taxpayer as well as the health consumer.

May I say—and it is a great opportunity to do so—that the Inala Primary Care facility has won a number of accolades in the last two years. In particular, it has just won an award for the best preventative healthcare provider in Queensland. It is in partnership with the University of Queensland and with the state government department of health and really in partnership to with the private sector through GP services and through the people who actually run the organisation. I want to make particular mention too of Cathy Brown, the CEO, who is an incredible person. She has done some great work over many, many years and has brought an enormous amount of energy, experience and talent to the board and to the organisation, which has been able to provide fantastic service to the local community.

I think that it is one of those areas where we can do the most good in many cases. For too long health care has always been at the wrong end of health provision—that is, after the event. If we look at the great issues of health care today—obesity, diabetes, chronic diseases such as liver diseases and lung diseases, cancer and a whole range of other areas—we can see that if we can take some early preventative measures we can actually have a positive impact for the individual, which in the end is the most important person, but also for the community they live in and for taxpayers as a whole.

The communities in which we have seen the biggest impact are the Indigenous communities, and they are certainly a focus for Inala Primary Care. There are also other disadvantaged communities. It is not just about healthcare provision but also about education and about providing people with the right tools and knowledge to understand about lifestyle choices and about what they are actually doing themselves in order to get the right equipment so that they can be a major participant in their own long-term health care. Certainly there has been a lot of evidence of the good work done by Inala Primary Care and the long-term benefits that will be provided in that community.

Through a range of changes and policy directions that the Rudd government has taken we have been able to step forward in a number of directions when it comes to preventative health care and health care more broadly. It would have to be one of the most complex portfolios that any minister could take on, and I congratulate Minister Roxon on her fine work. It is one of the most complex portfolios—and I daresay that no-one on the other side in the opposition Liberal or National parties would disagree—but also one of those portfolios that needs almost a bottomless pit of money. There is no limit to what you could spend on healthcare provision. There is an understandable and expected standard in the Australian community that we are provided with the best healthcare services in the world. For the most part, that is actually the case. Our training, standards and requirements are world class; they are world’s best practice. The amount of equipment and services and the types of resources that are provided are first class and world’s best practice. Also, through the Medicare system we have a universally accessible system that is affordable. Those different pillars within the health portfolio provide all Australians with an incredibly great service, one that does not discriminate on locality as such, on your income level, on who you are as a person or on what community you live in.

In saying that, I do acknowledge that there are some limitations. Where you live does have an impact on your ability to get certain services, and locality is one of the great challenges for all Australian governments in how they provide services. But certainly the work that we are doing and the cost-saving measures that we are bringing to the health portfolio, along with the enhancements through our GP superclinics in communities where they are desperately needed and a range of other policy initiatives, I think take us in the right direction.

I will sum up briefly by saying that having a preventative health framework, a preventative healthcare policy and legislation that does all that it can to provide the right instruments, tools and regulatory frameworks for the health sector to provide the best possible care and give people the tools necessary for them to look after themselves is the right way to go. It is a commendable approach by the Department of Health and Ageing. I commend the bill to the House and again congratulate the minister for health for her fine work.

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