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

I thank the member for Greenway for her question. I was delighted to be able to visit her, the member for Lindsay and the member for Reid last week to have a look at how health reform is already delivering to Western Sydney. Of course, the national health reforms that are being implemented, as the Prime Minister mentioned, are turning into very real services right across the country. In Western Sydney our health reforms will deliver an extra 232 beds, and 150 of those are already open. So I was able to visit, with the member for Greenway, Blacktown Hospital. They are going to have 48 extra beds—18 of those are already open and providing services to the local community. I went with the member for Lindsay to Nepean Hospital, where the $96 million investment means that the new ICU has opened this week and 26 of the 36 new beds are already open, providing services to that fast-growing community.

Of course, we are also increasing transparency, as the Prime Minister mentioned, for the performance of our hospitals—a measure that the opposition voted against yesterday in this House. From October this year for the first time the MyHospitals website will report infection rates at hospitals across the country. And yesterday we passed through this House legislation for the first national performance authority on health to be established. It will report not just on hospital services but also on services in both public and private hospitals and in Medicare Locals.

From all of this it is clear to Australians across the country what Labor is delivering in terms of health reform. It is clear when you look at our history what we believe about health—in terms of investing in Medicare, being the creators of Medicare and the creators of the PBS and now introducing these health reforms—but it is very hard to understand where it is that the Liberal Party stand on health reforms. They opposed the performance bill yesterday. They have not released any policies at all, and the Leader of the Opposition—

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