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

I thank the member for Dickson, now that he has returned to his seat—in both senses—for the question. He raises a question about public hospitals. He raises a question about the AMA report. Obviously the member for Dickson did not see my comments at the time. I said, in response to the AMA report, that they had basically got it right—that is, there is a huge problem in the nation’s public hospital system. Let us be up-front about it. Secondly, let us also talk about the fact that there is a problem with elective surgery waiting lists and there is a problem in the time that elapses before people receive attention at accident and emergency with respect to what are defined as clinically acceptable times. In each and every one of the consultations that the health minister and I have been participating in around the country, nearly 20 of which I have been in myself and about 70 or 80 of which have involved the minister and others, we have given a standard presentation on the fact that the waiting time for accident and emergency has not changed—based on our data—since the early part of this decade and that it is unacceptably high.

The second thing we have said, when it comes to the time for elective surgery, is that the waiting time is unacceptably high as well. It is a standard part of our presentation and it is consistent with the data that is contained within the Bennett commission report. If the honourable member is seeking to infer somehow that we do not recognise there is a problem, can I say that he has not been studying what I or others have been saying in the public debate on this.

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