Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hindmarsh, a great local member. I did a health forum in his electorate just before the election. He showed a great deal of empathy for people who do it tough with their diseases. He provided a way forward for a lot of people. I think he did an excellent job.

There is a lot for us to argue about in this place, but one of the issues about which I thought there would be no disagreement between the government and the opposition is type 1 diabetes. The previous government announced earlier this year that they were going to provide funding for children who require insulin pumps, children who are suffering the most insidious disease, type 1 diabetes. The former health minister promised that they would be taken care of and provided with funding. After we won the election on 7 September, I thought there would be a lot for us to do in the Health portfolio and I thought the one issue which would have been settled was insulin pumps for those children. I was absolutely amazed and, frankly, disgusted to find that promises had been made to children and to their families earlier this year but a contract had not been signed, that uncertainty had been delivered on those families for all of those months.

Within five weeks I signed a contract with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to provide certainty for families. I was absolutely disgusted that the former minister held out hope to families, yet for months and months was not able to put a deal to bed to provide certainty for the families. And it did not stop there, I am sorry to say. The previous government promised money for GP superclinics, which never opened.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

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