Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2009-2010 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2009-2010 seek to appropriate funding for government decisions included in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook and decisions taken since the release of that outlook. There are three particular areas that I would like to concentrate on. One area is health and the $45.2 million that has gone to the H1N1 influenza virus pandemic response from the government, and I will talk more generally about the Rudd government’s response to many of the issues that are plaguing us in terms of health. I would also like to concentrate on the $40 million of additional funding for the General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme and talk a little bit about the Rudd government’s approach to keeping Australians in jobs and the measures that we have taken to that end. I would also like to concentrate on the $165 million that has been set aside for the establishment for the Local Government Reform Fund and important local government issues, particularly in my electorate, and the effects that they have on the community.

The government is proposing to provide the Department of Health and Ageing with $45.2 million in response to the H1N1 influenza virus pandemic. The funding seeks to manage this pandemic and to enhance preparedness for any future pandemics by supporting such activities as the storage, compounding and distribution of antivirals and personal protective equipment; the production, processing and distribution of immunisation consent forms; and the conduct of an immunisation awareness campaign. As 15 January there have been 37,569 confirmed cases of the pandemic and 191 deaths reported in Australia.

While it is currently reassuring to know that the influenza-like illness presentation rates in Australia are generally low at the moment and consistent with levels usually seen at this time of year, we must remember that the pandemic is still affecting other parts of the world. As at 10 January 2010, the World Health Organisation regional offices reported at least 13,554 deaths associated with the pandemic worldwide. Pandemic influenza transmission continues in many parts of the world, though it is declining and it has passed its peak except in some focal areas. The most intense areas of the pandemic influenza transmission are currently in parts of North Africa, South Asia and east and south-eastern Europe. In the Southern Hemisphere sporadic cases of the pandemic influenza continue to be reported without evidence of sustained community transmission.

It is important that we have taken these steps as a government in preparing Australia for this. It is also an important warning for people to go out and avail themselves of the government’s vaccination programs. In a few months we will be coming back into the start of the flu season. We do not know whether this virus, when it comes around a second time, will be more deadly in its effect. The best way we can respond to this is by making sure that our families are vaccinated. This is something that protects the community as a whole from this particular influenza virus. It is something the Rudd government moved quickly to address, and it is a very important initiative.

However, when we look at the achievements the Rudd government has made in health generally, it is worth highlighting the difference between what we are doing as a government and what occurred previously under the Howard government. I think it is particularly important when we look at who is now the opposition leader, what his former role was and what his record was as health minister. When Mr Abbott was the Minister for Health and Ageing of this country he presided over a regime where he was responsible for ripping $1 billion out of our health system.

While we hear frequently from the opposition leader about the state of our hospitals, for four years he was the minister responsible for the national government’s policy and the national government’s response in relation to what would happen with health in this country. His response was, ‘Let’s rip $1 billion out of our health system,’ because philosophically those on the other side do not believe in our public health system. They do not believe in Medicare; they never have. So it is entirely consistent with the approach that they have taken over many, many years to try and run down the Commonwealth’s commitment to health.

But they did worse than that as well. They put a cap on GP places. They put a cap of 600 on GP places Australia wide. What this meant was that there were fewer doctors being trained, coming out and being available for all of our communities right around Australia. In my electorate of Dobell—and the member for Mayo’s electorate probably suffered the same problem—we had only one doctor for every 2,000 residents. We were having difficulty attracting doctors and keeping doctors because there simply were not enough being trained, because in 2004 the former government decided to put a cap on the number of doctors being trained, the number of GP places. One of the very important things that this government has done is to lift that cap. We have lifted it so that there are many, many more doctors being trained. Already in my electorate we have gone from having one in 2,000 to one in 1,500. While that is still not ideal, it is a far better situation than what we had before.

In terms of health generally, the Rudd government, rather than rip out $1 billion, will invest $64 billion in the hospital and health system across the country over the next five years. That is a 50 per cent increase on the previous agreement made by the Liberal Party. This is not rhetoric. This is not spin. This is real change. This is a 50 per cent increase. It is $64 billion which is affecting people’s lives every day in terms of the way in which we deliver health care across the country.

We have invested $600 million in our elective surgery program. In stage 1 we committed to a target of 25,000 extra elective surgeries. In 2008 there were more than 41,000 additional procedures delivered around the country. These are people who had been waiting on waiting lists for hip replacements and the like. We were able to get 41,000 additional procedures done. These are real changes that are affecting people’s lives, making our health system better than it was before. These are changes that mean that we have a better health system two years into the Rudd government than we had before we were elected in 2007.

We have invested $750 million to take pressure off emergency departments, and this is very important, particularly for electorates like my own. Wyong Hospital has the fifth busiest emergency department in New South Wales, and the money that is being spent on resources for our emergency departments is absolutely critical in making sure that people are seen in a more timely manner when they turn up at our emergency departments.

In terms of health infrastructure, we are investing $3.2 billion in 36 major projects across our hospital and medical research institutes, including $1.2 billion for world-class cancer centres. This is not spin. This is not rhetoric. This is not promising to do something and sitting on our hands. These are real changes and real dollars that are going out there for vitally needed health infrastructure, to make sure that our hospitals continue to provide the world-class services that they do, to make sure that as many people as possible are seen and to take the pressure off our health systems, which of course continue to struggle under an ageing population.

The Rudd government has committed $275 million to help construct 34 GP superclinics across the country. Now, $275 million is a lot of money, but because of the way in which this scheme operates it is actually much more money that is being spent, because we are encouraging the private sector to partner in these particular arrangements.

I will talk about the GP superclinic that is in my electorate on the northern part of the Central Coast. We are providing a little over $2 million for the GP superclinic. The successful tenderer who is building this GP superclinic is putting in $16 million. That is $16 million that they would not have actually put in except for this program, so the good citizens of Dobell are getting the advantage of an over $18 million investment in a GP superclinic through the significant but smaller investment that has been put in by this government. That is a very appropriate way to spend health money, because we are spending public money but encouraging the private sector to partner with us so that much more money is spent and there are much greater outcomes.

A temporary GP superclinic is already up and running in my electorate. There are two doctors, a physiotherapist and a dietician. It has an ear clinic as well. While they are at their temporary location, that is just the start of what they will have. They have already purchased the land for the final location, which is Warnervale, a very fast-growing suburb of my electorate. At Warnervale there will be this $18 million spent on a GP superclinic which will provide a vast array of services for the growing population of the northern part of the Central Coast. The successful tenderer have been so impressed with the model of a GP superclinic that, on their own initiative outside of this, they have decided that they will build a second GP superclinic without federal money. They are going to spend a further $14 million. So for our investment of a little over $2 million we are now getting $30 million being spent. The successful tenderer, who already own a doctors surgery on the Central Coast, will go from employing just over 20 doctors to employing just over 60 doctors, so just in terms of GPs there will be a gain of over 40 doctors on the Central Coast, let alone the fact that GP superclinics are about providing all the other health professionals to meet the need for physiotherapy, hearing and psychology services and all those sorts of important allied health services that are a part of this particular model. So we are going from a situation where under the Howard years we had one doctor for every 2,000 residents to a situation of one for every 1,500 residents because we have started to increase the number of places for GPs being trained. We have been directly intervening, in terms of the investment that this government has been making, to make sure that more doctors and more allied health professionals are providing services on the Central Coast.

This government is investing $1.1 billion in training more doctors, nurses and other health professionals. This is the single biggest investment in the health workforce ever made by the Australian government. This is not spin. This is not talking about something that we might do in the future. This is actually acting now, spending $1.1 billion to try to get more doctors, nurses and allied health professionals trained and out there so that they can provide the sorts of services that we need to have provided.

Turning to dental health, the Rudd government has committed a total of $650 million for two dental programs. The Teen Dental Plan, which was committed to last year, provides a $150 annual payment to eligible families. To the end of December 258,203 teenagers had received a dental check-up under this program, with 7,598 dentists, or 70 per cent of dentists, providing this service. Unfortunately, due to the opposition’s position, the reintroduction of the Commonwealth dental program, which they axed straight after coming into government in 1996, has been blocked in the Senate. At the last election we promised its reintroduction and we have a mandate to bring it back in so that those people who have difficulty in affording dental care will get access to dental care under that program. That is a disgrace and the opposition need to look at the people who are being affected by this and make sure that they get out of the way, letting our government get on with caring for people’s health generally and their dental health in particular.

These appropriation bills also go to GEERS. One of the great differences between this side of the House and the other side of the House is our approach to jobs in Australia. On this side of the House we have been responsible for putting in place stimulus packages that are about creating jobs out in every community, and we have seen the effect of the stimulus package on our unemployment rates compared to those overseas. What these stimulus packages have done is ensure that there are jobs out there in local communities. The best of these schemes is clearly the investment in our schools through the education revolution and the building of much-needed capital works programs in all of our primary schools throughout the nation.

In my electorate, where extensive building is going on in all of the primary schools, the number of locals who have been employed because of the way this scheme has been set up is absolutely outstanding. I congratulate Bovis Lend Lease, the overarching consultants, for the approach that they have taken, particularly in a high-unemployment area like the Central Coast, where jobs have always been at a premium. We are seeing apprentices who have been laid off for two or three years and who are midway through their apprenticeships being taken back on and completing their apprenticeships on these job sites. Not only does that provide the employment and the stimulus for the economy that has seen us as one of the few economies to grow and to create rather than lose jobs during the global financial crisis, but importantly it has also built this vital social infrastructure at all of these primary schools. That has been a great thing.

In the short time that I have remaining I would like to highlight the appropriations in relation to the government’s Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program. I have two councils in my electorate, Gosford council and Wyong council, and there has been considerable money spent through this program in relation to particular projects that have affected their local communities. The Gosford council has been able to build new play equipment, soft-fall areas, shade structures and picnic facilities at a couple of playgrounds. It has turned what were destitute playgrounds into busy hives of community interaction, with families going there all the time because of those resources. The same has happened at Canton Beach on Tuggerah Lakes, where Wyong council has constructed an all-access playground with additional picnic tables and barbecue facilities. Again, that is being put to great use. Wyong council has been able to build six new netball courts at its busy Baker Park complex. This not only provides much needed sporting areas for those people who play netball in my electorate but also will allow the Wyong council to host state championships because they now have the number and standard of courts required.

While all of these projects, which are worthwhile projects in their own right, have been taking place, they have been taking place with local people being employed. So we have had the dual effect of providing much needed local community infrastructure and, importantly, of creating local jobs. In an area such as mine, which traditionally has unemployment at two or three per cent higher than the national average and where employment is in areas that are most vulnerable to economic downturns, these sorts of programs have been absolutely vital. The Rudd government is about providing real money for real areas of major importance to people in terms of health, jobs and local government. These are not issues that you can spin and pretend are going to be addressed. You actually have to really do something. This government has really done things, and it stands in stark contrast to the record of the previous government. I commend these bills to the House.

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