Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am standing tonight because I am actually aggrieved by the opposition’s lack of interest in health reform and in health care in this country. What we have seen over the last few weeks from the Rudd government is the biggest announcement in health reform in this country since Medicare was reformed and we have also seen a really large announcement today in relation to GP and specialist numbers. But what we have had from the opposition so far are only two questions on health reform in over a week. Given that these are some of the largest ever reforms to the healthcare system of this country, I am really aggrieved by that.

The government has said that we are going fund nationally and act locally when it comes to hospitals around this country. I know that in my home state of Tasmania this has been extraordinarily well received by the local community and by our state Premier, David Bartlett. When it comes to health and hospital reform, he has been out there supporting the package of the Rudd government, and why wouldn’t you support it? We are going from a zero per cent federal investment in health infrastructure to 60 per cent federal investment in health infrastructure. We are going from the current zero per cent investment by the federal government in equipment for hospitals to 60 per cent investment in equipment for hospitals. This is actually a really important and really significant change in the way health is delivered in this country and I think it is one that those opposite at least ought to be interested in, even if they are not willing to support it.

Today we had the very important announcement of GP places. We are going to increase the number of medical graduates to become general practitioners to 1,200 by 2014, and that is a significant increase—

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