Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What an extraordinary contribution from the member for Gippsland. He tried as much as he could to speak about anything other than health—‘Let’s not mention health, let’s not even talk about it’—because we know that on your side the record on health is absolutely abysmal, ripping a billion dollars out of the health system, putting a cap on GP places so there are not enough doctors, doing nothing about the shortage of nurses, doing nothing about allied health professionals—and the shortages that were there for years. What we saw under the previous government was a decline in the contribution the federal government made to the health budget. We saw it drop below 40 per cent. That is what you did when you were in government. You should hang your heads in shame in relation to what you did when you had the treasury bench and were looking after health.

You ask for some concrete things that this government has done in health. Well, talk to the tens of thousands of people who got treatment more quickly because of the money we put into elective surgery. Talk to those tens of thousands of Australians who came off those waiting lists because of the money in last year’s budget—real action on health affecting people’s lives, making sure that they are seen as quickly as possible. That is real change. That is actually doing something positive for health, rather than ripping money out of it. This government has increased by 50 per cent the amount of money that went into the COAG agreement. That is real money going to fix the system, making sure that people get better services in our public hospitals.

We have promised over $7.3 billion in relation to helping health. That means 1,300 extra beds. What is the member for Gippsland’s position in relation to that? He is not even going to talk about health; he does not even care about what happens in health. He is just a bit worried about which photo he can get into next. It does not matter what he believes as long as he can get into a photo. That is the motto of the member for Gippsland. If there is a camera out there anywhere, he will be rushing out to jump into the frame. You can bet your bottom dollar that if there is an opportunity for a photo in relation to our health reform the member for Gippsland will be the first one lining up to get there and, surrounded by doctors, saying what a wonderful thing this is. But when he comes to Canberra it is very different. He talks one game back in his electorate, happy to take the glory for the reforms that this government is making. He comes to Canberra and talks a totally different game. He tries to walk both sides of the fence by having a different argument here in Canberra from the one he takes back to his electorate.

This government is about real reform. Look at some of the real reform that is being proposed in my electorate, for example. We have the view that our hospital networks should be run locally. The biggest concern on the Central Coast is that our area health services either are run out of North Sydney, as they are at the moment, or could be run out of the Hunter. We have over 300,000 people on the Central Coast and we want to have our health system run locally. That is what this reform does. It proposes that we run our health system locally rather than the way it has been done in the past. That means that we are able to get local clinicians, local doctors and local nurses involved in the decisions that affect people on the Central Coast. If that was the only reform that was being done, then that would be a fantastic reform and a major reform for the Central Coast, but we have already started to make other reforms on the Central Coast as well. We have a temporary super GP clinic here. We know from those opposite they do not believe in super GP clinics.

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