Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, Minister Roxon has been to Lismore and Grafton. What we did—and it was really important—was consult. We went to every hospital. I know reforms are not just about hospitals, even though we focus on hospitals; they are about providing better care in the community and a whole range of primary health care. But we used the hospitals as our focal point, invited people in from the community and talked about what these health reforms mean. It was a really wonderful exercise.

We were able to do that as well in my area when we established the GP superclinic. I did a year-long consultation myself to make sure everybody was on board with it before the formal consultation happened through the Department of Health and Ageing. We were able to bed down what was happening and everybody was comfortable with it. Everybody wants reform but the question is: how do you implement it? It is in the implementation that we have to do the groundwork.

Also the national network will bring together eight state-run systems with one set of tough national standards to deliver better hospital services. This commission is the subject of the bill and one of the key things it will be able to implement. The Australian government will be taking over full responsibility for the GP and primary healthcare services. In my area we are quite ready for this with the local GP networks getting ready to turn into primary health care organisations or Medicare Locals, as they are called. They will cover the whole North Coast Area Health Service, where a decision has been made that there will be two local hospital and health networks. The North Coast Area Health Service is a big area which will be divided in two. A lot of work has been done on the ground so that we are very comfortable with that model. We are looking forward to operating with those two networks and we are looking forward to working within the new framework, particularly in mental health. We are lucky in our area—we have some wonderful, expert people working in mental health.

It gives me great pleasure to speak on this bill, which is one part of the national health reform agenda. Health reform is not easy. Sometimes it would be easier to shy away and not tackle reform because a lot of health reform that has happened throughout our history has been bits added on here and bits added on there. You can end up with quite a disjointed health system. These health reforms go a really long way to being real reforms where we are trying to recalibrate how we deliver services in communities, with equity and efficiency. I commend the bill to the House.

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