Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

It is not as a result of the national evaluation. The national evaluation is ongoing. If you were to look at the AusTender website, you would see, firstly, that it was advertised and, secondly, that it is ongoing. It is not very complicated. All you need to do is check the AusTender website and you will see that it has been advertised. It is expected to finish early next year. Consultations have already started. As part of those consultations, I expect many people associated with Medicare Locals to welcome the extra funding they are getting—on average, as I said, 20 per cent extra between this year and next. I also expect that they will express a great deal of concern about what the opposition have said on Medicare Locals—that they are just a bunch of bureaucrats—when we know that seven out of 10 of their staff provide frontline services. The member asked: 'What are frontline services?' Doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, Aboriginal health workers, nurses that deal with chronic issues, pain management specialists—right across the board these people are delivering frontline services. The last four-year funding from $1.3 billion to $1.45 billion is at risk when the opposition gets rid of Medicare Locals.

The member for Dickson, shadow minister Dutton, also asked about the national medical stockpile. There is no conspiracy there: we buy medicines with that $17 million. That is why it is called a national medical stockpile. We set aside medicines in the event that there is a catastrophic outbreak of something very nasty and we need to have medicines on hand to make sure that Australians are able to be treated very quickly. We need to stockpile some of those medicines because the unfortunate truth is that when something—

Opposition members interjecting—

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