Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In speaking to this legislation, the National Health and Hospitals Network Bill 2010, I note it is always very pleasing to follow the member for Paterson considering he comes from an area that is close to my electorate. I find it quite interesting that he has raised the issue of health services that are needed in his electorate given that he was a member of the Howard government from 2001 to 2007 and that during that time he was not able to have any of these projects brought to fruition. I might also add that he needs to acknowledge here in this place that it was the Howard government that put a cap on the number of GP places, which led to the chronic shortage of GPs and other health professionals that I know he and his people experience in his electorate and I and my people experience in the Shortland electorate. So I do welcome the additional training places that the Gillard government has brought on line. As I am sure the member for Paterson knows and appreciates, the Gillard government is investing $1.2 billion in doctors, nurses and allied health people as part of the National Health and Hospitals Network. It is for training an additional 5,500 new GPs and an additional 680 medical specialists over the coming decade, improving support for 4,600 full-time-equivalent nurses working in general practice, training aged-care nurses—which is vitally important for both the Paterson electorate and the Shortland electorate because they have very elderly populations—and providing $1.6 billion for more subacute beds.

Health is one of the most important issues confronting Australians, and it is about the ability to access health care when they need it and the ability to have services on the ground. During the Howard years I was involved with the health and ageing committee in an inquiry into cost shifting and coming out of that inquiry we prepared The blame game: report on the inquiry into health funding with its recommendations. The blame game report has been used as one of the starting points to develop the National Health and Hospitals Network. From there the current Minister for Health and Ageing has put in place a number of structures that have led to recommendations as to the legislation that has been presented here in parliament and the legislation that will be presented later this week.

What makes me just a little angry is that, for all the years that the Howard government was in power, the previous speaker, the member for Paterson was not raising issues but was lauding the health policies of that government—a government that ripped $1 billion out of our hospitals. Then he came in here this evening and went through his wish list, and even condemned the Gillard government for spending money in his electorate.

Health is important, getting it right is important and everybody working together is important. The legislation we have before us today is part of the framework of the Gillard government’s efforts to fix the mess created by the previous government—a government that did not even respond to the blame game report of the health and ageing committee. That report was noted for its groundbreaking recommendations and for the fact that it recognised all the key factors that were creating problems within our health system.

The bill before us today provides framework legislation to establish the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. It will be an independent body and will later be amended to include provisions to establish an independent hospital pricing authority and a national performance authority. The Commonwealth will provide $35.2 million over four years to jointly fund, with the states and territories, the continuation and the expansion of the commission to support improvements in safety and quality in health care.

The Gillard government is about safety and quality in health care. I previously stood in this parliament and spoke against coalition government legislation that downgraded the Commonwealth’s commitment to providing health services. Now I stand here tonight as a member of a Labor government that is committed to reforming our health system. The Gillard government will be introducing landmark legislation this week to secure better hospital services across Australia through fundamental reforms to the health system.

I implore members on the other side of this House to support that legislation. It is vital legislation that will deliver health care to their constituents. It is legislation that will put in place a funding model that will stop the blame game that was identified in the blame game report. The Commonwealth will be taking the majority funding responsibility for public hospitals and full responsibility for primary care, thus ending the blame game. There will be no more blaming the states or the states blaming the Commonwealth. It is a mature approach to health care. It is an approach which recognises that health care is about delivering health services to Australians rather than trying to abrogate the responsibility of governments by blaming the states or the Commonwealth. This is a Commonwealth which is taking responsibility. The change in funding arrangements will provide a foundation for major reform of the health and hospital system.

Madam Deputy Speaker Bird, I know you recognise how the Australian health system has suffered for such a long period of time from inadequate funding arrangements and from unclear accountability. That has gone on for far, far too long and the blame game report of 2006 recognised that. Unfortunately the then government did not even respond to that report which was delivered to it.

The new hospital arrangements will ensure for the first time that the federal government properly funds public hospitals in Australia, and that has been a very big issue over a long period of time. Those arrangements will reverse what happened under the previous government when the Commonwealth financed a declining share of hospital funding. In actual fact the previous health minister, the now Leader of the Opposition, ripped $1 billion out of the Australian hospitals.

The new arrangements will ensure for the first time that the Commonwealth will fund hospitals for each service rather than provide funding through block grants. This will increase accountability and will allow the Commonwealth, as the dominant funding provider, to introduce new national standards for public hospital services ensuring that all patients receive timely and quality services. It will also drive improvements in primary care and prevention.

The legislation will fund: 60 per cent of the efficient price of every public hospital service provided to public patients, which will lead to an improvement in health services; recurrent expenditure on research and training functions undertaken in public hospitals; 60 per cent of capital expenditure; and 100 per cent of GP and primary care services. This is a big change and is a real change in the way our hospital system works.

But the changes do not end there. I have already detailed the increase in the funding that has been committed to by the Gillard government. I have already spoken about the landmark reforms that the Gillard government has embraced. The Howard government ignored the need for these changes and actually cut training numbers and funding to hospitals. The establishment of the local hospital network particularly benefits the Central Coast part of the Shortland electorate. Previously the Central Coast was lumped in with northern Sydney; now they will have their own network. The Hunter New England hospital network will be very similar to the network that exists now. It has been shown to be a very strong integrated network, unlike what was happening on the Central Coast. Medicare Locals will be established to work with local GPs, allied health workers and community health to drive local integration.

What this will do is bring health into the 21st century. It will establish electronic health records, which I see as being vital, particularly to those people living in rural and remote areas of Australia. It will establish a national after-hours GP and primary care service. Whilst the member for Paterson may not embrace the GP superclinics in his electorate—

See this speech in context