Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to speak on Building a National Health and Hospitals Network, which was announced last week. This makes me very proud, because I know that many of the constituents in my electorate of Corangamite are very keen to see our health and hospital system modernised. My electorate knows the consequences of the Leader of the Opposition’s decision, when he was health minister, to rip more than $1 billion out of our public hospital system and cap the number of GP training positions available.

My electorate is in desperate need of additional funding. We have heard time and time again that state budgets will be overridden by health costs over the coming decades. Many communities and regional towns, particularly towns like Colac in my electorate, know how badly they were hit when the previous health minister ripped more than $1 billion out of the health system and capped GP training places.

I will quickly draw the attention of the House to the announcements made yesterday. The government will invest $145 million to train more health specialists. That follows the disastrous work done by Tony Abbott, the opposition leader, when he was the health minister and he stripped away the opportunities of many Australians to pursue a career as a health specialist.

The workforce advisory committee and medical colleges suggested that there would be a shortage of around 1,280 specialist positions by 2020 if we did not act. The announcement made yesterday by the Rudd government will address this matter. The Rudd government will more than double the current number of places, from 360 to 900, by 2014 and deliver an extra 680 specialists into our health system by 2020. My electorate needs this reform and the nation needs this reform.

It takes a Labor government to put money back into the health and hospital system that was ripped out by the previous government. There is a $339 million investment that addresses GP training places. This will deliver better health for our communities and more doctors to deliver those important reforms. The Rudd government is about building a modern health system that will enable us to deliver for future generations. The lack of investment by the previous government has led to shortages in GPs across the nation. Some 59 per cent of the nation live in areas where there are GP shortages.

The Rudd government is fixing the problem that was left to us by the current opposition leader when he was the health minister. Some 1,200 GP training places will be in place by 2014—a 50 per cent increase on the government’s previous commitment. Five million extra services will be delivered by 2013 as a consequence. This will of course help my electorate and many electorates across the country. The Rudd government will invest some $632 million to train a record number of doctors. This will deliver an extra 5,500 new or training GPs, some 680 medical specialists and some 5,400 prevocational general practice program training places over the next 10 years.

I am proud to be a member of a Rudd government that is fixing the problems left to us by the previous government. I was simply amazed to hear in question time the complete disregard that the previous health minister, Tony Abbott, had for our health care system.

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