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

I thank the member for Shortland for her question. She was a member of the cross-parliamentary committee in the last parliament that delivered the Blame game report, a very important report which the national plan that was released last week deals with—and which the previous government neglected to respond to. The National Health and Hospitals Network announced by the Prime Minister last week has been shaped and informed by the work of the ‘blame game’ committee that the member for Shortland and others were part of, the detailed work of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission and the work of health professionals, front-line doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and, most importantly, the community—the people who are the patients in our health and hospital system.

This plan will make all Australians stakeholders in the reform of our health system. The Prime Minister, other ministers and I conducted more than 100 consultations across the country following the release of the reform commission’s report, to road test the recommendations of the report and to seek the views of staff and patients on the front line. It is why we have developed a plan where the health system is funded nationally but run locally. The response from stakeholders, which I have been asked about, has been very enthusiastic. The AMA, the ANF, the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association and the Business Council of Australia are just some of the key stakeholders who have backed the National Health and Hospitals Network.

This network is a bold reform. Like all health reform, we know that it will unleash much debate. The government welcomes this debate. After more than a decade of complete inaction and neglect of health reform by the former government, it is well overdue. This is why it is disappointing, but not particularly surprising, that the Liberal Party has chosen to oppose our plan from the outset. As I think some other ministers have already mentioned, Mr Abbott said in December that he was going to oppose any health reform—

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