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

On the challenge of health and health care, it is important to note one basic fact. That is, in 2008 around 87 per cent of Australians saw a doctor or a health provider—in other words, this is a mainstream service for the entire Australian community. In fact, Australians make 115 million visits to their local doctor each year and our 768 public hospitals are in the process of providing some 49 million hospital services to the Australian public each year. All Australians want a better health system and a better hospital system for the future.

In the two years that this government have been in office, we have, firstly, increased our investment in the public hospitals of this country by 50 per cent, in contrast to those opposite, who ripped $1 billion out of the system when the current Leader of the Opposition was the health minister.

Secondly, the government, in just two years, has increased the number of GP training places by 35 per cent, compared with the cap imposed on GP training places when the current Leader of the Opposition was the Minister for Health and Ageing for four years.

Thirdly, we the government have also made for the first time direct investments in emergency departments and elective surgery, in the case of elective surgery providing more than 60,000 additional procedures across the nation which would not otherwise have occurred, and the amount directly invested in elective surgery and emergency departments by our predecessors in government was zero.

On top of that, the government has provided new incentives for doctors to work in rural and remote communities where the shortage of doctors is acute. We are also in the process of implementing the establishment of 36 GP superclinics—including the one at Strathpine—including the eight which are fully or partially operational and the 28 for which contracts have been signed, in contrast to the number of GP superclinics established by those opposite, which was zero.

The government has also, in its two years in office, introduced free health checks for every four-year-old to make sure they are fit, healthy and ready to learn when school starts. And on the question of dental care, can I say this: with the introduction of the teen dental program, we are now providing teeth checks for our teenagers—nearly half a million across the country. How many dental services were provided for teenagers by those opposite? Zero. That is quite apart from those opposite having abolished once and for all the Australian dental scheme to look after, in particular, senior Australians who need dental care.

That is what we have done in just two years. The challenge ahead is to deal with the challenges of the long-term future. The Minister for Health and Ageing today launched a campaign to combat illicit drug use across the nation. In 2007 more than one-third of the population aged over 14 years had used an illicit drug at least once in their lifetime. That is a stunning statistic. Among 14- to 19-year-old children, regular ecstasy use has rocketed in the last 10 years from less than one in a hundred in 1998 to nearly one in six in 2007. These are disturbing statistics. The government’s campaign will help tackle drug use through a wide range of media which will expose young people to the true physical and psychological impacts of drug use.

I conclude on the question of health policy by simply saying this: to fund the system for the future, you need to have a secure source of long-term revenue. What those opposite have done by blocking reforms to the private health insurance scheme is deny the investment of some $2 billion into our hospitals of the future. That is across the forward estimates. Expenditure on the PHI rebate is projected to grow at nine per cent a year over the 10 years from 2012-13 onwards, adding a cumulative $33 billion to spending over the next decade. Our reforms are fair, they are principled and they go to those who most need them, as opposed to private health insurance subsidised by the taxpayer for people on $200,000, $300,000 and $400,000 a year, like the Leader of the Opposition and myself, who do not need it.

Therefore, for the future this country will build on the health and hospital reforms that we have undertaken in the two years we have been in office already. This will be a big year for health and hospital reform. Australia needs better health and better hospitals. This government will get on with the business of delivering that for all Australians across our country.

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