Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for his question. I know that when I visited his electorate with the member for Corio the local community received—in some cases with tears in their eyes, as was the case with the nurses at Geelong Hospital—the news that the cancer centre that had for so long been their dream in Geelong was coming to reality. That is because in this year's budget we have allocated $1.8 billion—$1.3 billion of that being spent on 63 projects across the country in regional Australia. This has been received so well in the community that I have to report to the House that something incredibly strange happened. That incredibly strange thing was that the member for Indi actually said thank you. The member for Indi said thank you to the government for the $65 million being invested in the Albury regional cancer centre, which forms part of 24 cancer centres across the country. This has been made possible because this is the government's fourth health reform budget in a row. It is a health reform budget that proves that we did not have to choose between regional Australia and mental health. We did not have to choose between health reform and mental health. We have been able to fund all of those priorities because of the good work done by this government, by the Treasurer and by others and because of the priority that we give to investing in important health services that are needed across the country. Unlike those opposite, we have been able to fund each and every one of those commitments.

I know in communities such as Wagga, Palmerston, Hervey Bay and Bega—all across the country—people are very grateful that these investments have been made. Of course, my friends, who are sitting together—the member for Lyne, the member for Denison, the member for O'Connor and the member for New England—have also had their communities very enthusiastically receive news of our investment in hospitals not only in their electorates but in many other electorates as well. We are not just investing in infrastructure. The sorts of initiatives that the minister for mental health has already taken the House through show that we are serious and show the community that we will listen to their concerns. I want to take this opportunity to thank not just the minister for mental health but all of the advocates that he worked very closely with to make sure that this package was truly going to meet the needs of the community. It would truly meet the needs of those young people who needed support, it would not neglect the needs of children, it would look at the needs of adults with severe and persistent mental health problems and it would put pressure on our state colleagues to work with us to invest more to make sure that our hospital services whether they are in the acute system, the hospital services, or whether they are in the community, working with GPs and psychologists and others, provide better services for those who have been falling through the gaps for far too long.

But the real question now for the Leader of the Opposition, having seen the fourth health reform budget in a row, is for him to be able to articulate on Thursday what, as a former health minister, he would prefer to do in these areas and to tell us for once how he would actually fund those initiatives. We know last time when he tried to fund some of these packages that he wanted to stop funding e-health, even though as health minister he promised to. He wanted to close super clinics. He has never once said whether he supports these regional hospital projects across the country, and it is about time he told us if he did.

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