Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to join the debate on the motion before the House. I do admire the member for Solomon’s enthusiasm. There has been an orgy of self-congratulation regarding health reform among some Labor MPs, and it is probably time for a cold shower. There is a lot of work still to be done on health reform and actually delivering the services that Australians expect, particularly those families that live in rural, regional and remote locations.

The motion before the House congratulates the Rudd government on reaching its historic COAG agreement on health and hospital reform. It overlooks the simple fact that the Western Australian government has not even signed up to this historic COAG agreement as put by the mover of the motion. That does not, however, stop the spin from going into overdrive when it comes to the Rudd Labor government. It does not stop the taxpayer funded advertising propaganda campaign. We have already seen the rollout of $10 million worth of advertising. It has already hit the airwaves. But what happened to the promises about the Auditor-General having oversight of government advertising? I sincerely hope, for the benefit of the member for Solomon, that the government has not paid too much for the ads, because they are an appalling representation of government policy. It is like ‘Noodle Nation’ revisited, so I hope you have not paid too much for it on behalf of the Australian taxpayers. This issue of Auditor-General oversight has gone the way of being another Labor government broken promise.

We suggest to the minister and to the Prime Minister that they should stop paying for spin doctors and use the money to pay for real doctors. That $10 million could have employed 30 doctors in the course of one financial year. That is the problem with this government, and the member for Solomon himself knows it. There are so many broken promises that no-one is listening to the spin anymore. You can just keep on spinning, keep on spinning, but no-one is actually listening anymore. The good doctor Rudd is actually poison on the ground in the electorate of Gippsland, as in so many other parts of regional Australia. We have had the home insulation disasters, the rorting of the school halls program, the failure to deliver on the promised childcare services and the backflip on the emissions trading scheme.

This motion asks the House to congratulate the Rudd government on reaching its historic COAG agreement on health and hospital reform, and I would be happy to congratulate the government if it actually managed to deliver any program on time and on budget. Just deliver one program on time and on budget and I would be happy to join in congratulations with the member for Solomon. I do not want to sound churlish. Quite recently, the Gippsland Cancer Care Centre was promised $22 million. It is a positive announcement and I freely acknowledge the positive announcement. But, given the Rudd Labor government’s record of broken promises and failure to deliver on the projects that are promised, Gippslanders have every reason to be sceptical and wary, and the overall sentiment remains that the people of Gippsland will believe it when they actually see it.

Even the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services had to sneak into Gippsland to make the announcement, with not even the courtesy of a phone call. That is the way they do business in this government. I must admit I expected a little bit more from the member for Maribyrnong. Perhaps I was misguided. I do not expect much from some of his colleagues but I thought the member for Maribyrnong had a bit more class than that.

The motion before the House also refers to the government’s investment in training more doctors and health professionals, cutting waiting lists, improving services in emergency departments and providing these cancer care services. The four-hour target the member for Solomon refers to regarding emergency department waiting times is just another target, another promise from the Rudd Labor government. He talks about it as if it has already happened, as if he is meeting this target of a four-hour waiting time. I suggest to the member for Solomon that the reward money he talked about is very safe in the Treasury’s coffers. I do not think the four-hour target will be met. I do not trust this government and its capacity to deliver health services to my constituents, particularly in rural and regional communities. I would have thought that, with this government’s track record of continually overpromising and underdelivering, it would be better off keeping the corks in the champagne bottles until it actually get some runs on the board.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia naturally takes a very close interest in this debate and these matters relating to health and hospital reform. Dr Nola Maxfield, the president of the association, put out a statement on 11 May in relation to the budget and health reform package under the headline ‘With a severe lack of rural workforce measures, this budget really needs a doctor’. Dr Maxfield said:

“When it comes to real measures to improve access to health care in the bush and entice more doctors and other health professionals to rural and remote Australia, this budget is in serious need of a doctor … literally”

She went on to say:

“Instead of trying to paper over poor access to after-hours medical care with the Medicare Local national health telephone service, why not put in place real measures to get more Doctor Locals into the bush? After all, if there is no doctor in a rural town anyway, where is Medicare Local going to direct those after-hours patients needing serious care … Sydney, Melbourne or Perth?

There is still a great deal of uncertainty in my electorate about how the health and hospital reform proposed by this government will actually affect those living in regional areas. I have met with the providers in my electorate in recent weeks and they are passionate about ensuring that local decision-making capacity remains in the future.

In future, before we debate motions congratulating the government, I call on the government to actually get some results in terms of improved health services throughout regional Australia. (Time expired)

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