Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare) Share this | Hansard source

I am even-handed with bouquets and brickbats! In March 2006 the state government were going to fix the Sturt Road and South Road intersection. In November 2007 federal Labor were going to fix this. There is a feasibility study, which will report in the middle of next year, but the money for this project is pretty well allocated to the superway on the northern part of South Road, so there is no money, at least until 2014, to fix this intersection, which was first promised by Labor in 2006.

We need to see action from the state government on the Oaklands railway crossing. This is a major bottleneck for the local community. There are a couple of projects, which I am pleased will be going ahead very shortly. Work has begun on the Flinders Cancer Centre, and work is well advanced on the state aquatic centre. Both of these facilities will be fantastic for the local community.

A major issue during the election campaign for all South Australian’s is the future of the Murray-Darling and the basin plan. It is very important that we do have a workable national plan. Residents in my electorate would like to see much more work going on in improvements to infrastructure. It is incredible that, of $5.8 billion, which was left by the previous government infrastructure improvements, has not happened. That is something that I will be keenly engaged on in this term of parliament.

I would like to touch on the issue of the private health insurance rebate. This is an important issue for my electorate. More than 70 per cent of households hold private health insurance coverage. That is almost 96,000 people who are covered by private health. The Labor policy—which was a broken promise from 2007—is to means test the private health insurance rebate. Before the 2007 election, the Labor Party were going to keep the rebate. They broke this promise. And of the three budgets Labor have delivered so far, they have already wound back their support for private health insurance—first by increasing the thresholds for the Medicare levy surcharge and then by means testing the private health insurance rebate, beginning at incomes of $75,000. What we will see is a return to the old system we had under the previous Labor government, whereby rates of cover for private health insurance fell dramatically. This is an important issue in my electorate, not just for all the people who hold private health insurance but for important private hospitals, like Flinders Private Hospital, Blackwood Community Hospital; and, out of my electorate, but used by people in my electorate, the Ashford Hospital. It is important that we do maintain strong levels of private health insurance. This is another issue that the government needs to reconsider.

I am very pleased to be involved in health policy on behalf of the opposition, and to have direct responsibility in the area of primary healthcare and in preventative health as well. These are both issues that are close to my heart and I look forward to working closely with opposition members in this area. We have seen some great improvements in primary healthcare over the last 10 years. Some of the most significant, I think, have been the computerisation of general practice, which was started under Michael Wooldridge; and also the greater role for practice nurses. While general practice has always had a strong focus on prevention, I think with those two developments—the practice nurses and computerisation—we are now seeing a much greater effort in preventative health in terms of that infrastructure.

That leads me to another point I would like to make, which goes to the area of GP super clinics. This is a classic Labor slogan: it sounds good but what does it really mean? By way of background, more than 20 years ago, as a medical student, I worked in a medical centre which offered pharmacy, which offered radiology, which offered allied health and which offered physio, as well as many doctors. This would have been a GP super clinic, but it was provided by the private sector. All around Australia there are GP super clinics, but they are provided not with taxpayers’ money but through the private sector, through companies or through individuals actually raising money themselves. What we see is Labor’s promise from 2007, where they promised 36 GP super clinics, and three years later there only four of them are operational. This has been a massive waste of taxpayers’ money. Despite falling short on their pledge to deliver 36 clinics, the Gillard Labor government have extended this pledge to 60 GP super clinics. The coalition strongly supports general practice as the cornerstone of primary healthcare; however we do not believe that GP super clinics are the answer. That is why, at the recent election, the coalition committed to invest significantly in longer GP consultations, after-hours care, practice nurse services, MRI referrals, infrastructure grants and rural bonded scholarships to help improve access to GP services. We actually think the better way to go is to build on what is already there—enhance the capacity of existing infrastructure and existing practices; enable them to have more rooms to allocate to provide for registrars, allied health professionals or to provide for an extra doctor. Rather than building these white elephants to come along and try and reinvent the wheel, we actually think it would have been more value for taxpayers’ money to build on existing infrastructure with private family practices, which are already in the community.

That is why any scan of news reports will show that there has not been one positive story about the GP superclinics over the last couple of years. Many patients, doctors and other allied health professionals share our view, believing that GP superclinics are not the answer. Our concern is that they put existing practices in jeopardy. They create an unfair environment whereby existing practices that have already put up their own capital are receiving competition from taxpayer funded and subsidised businesses. The existing clinics have invested time and money in their local communities, providing an invaluable service, only to be undercut by the government. The government needs to guarantee that no existing general practice services will be closed as a result of its GP Super Clinics Program.

The GP Super Clinics Program is really just emblematic of the Labor government’s approach. ‘GP superclinic’ sounds good, but what does it actually mean? It means a program which has failed. There are only four operational superclinics of 36 which were promised at the election before last. It is just another case of something that sounds good and looks good but is another Labor lemon.

I would like to conclude by once again thanking the voters in the electorate of Boothby for the opportunity to serve them in parliament. It is a great honour, and I look forward to doing that over the next three years.

See this speech in context