Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I refer the minister to an appearance on Q&A on 21 February 2013 when Tony Jones asked him, 'Can you guarantee to spend the same amount that Labor is projecting it will spend on health?' The minister at that stage said, 'Yes, yes, I can guarantee that.' I also refer the minister to his own health policy document where he states that the coalition government will commit to 50 per cent of the efficient price, which he now seems to have reneged on. I particularly want to refer again to the government's intention to cut $80 billion from public hospitals and education. Page 126 of budget paper 2 states:

From 2017-18, the Commonwealth will index its contribution to hospitals funding by a combination of the Consumer Price Index and population growth.

I refer to the fact that the Australian healthcare agreements in 1998 and in 2003 and the agreement Labor negotiated in 2011 included a factor above population growth to account for new technologies—in particular to fund procedures where there was formerly no hospital treatment. Can the minister confirm that no such provision exists in the government's proposed funding arrangements and that these arrangements reflect the lowest level of funding for public hospitals since Federation? Can the minister confirm whether the proposed formula for hospital funding is age-sex weighted? Can the minister confirm that health cuts are now growing at a greater rate than CPI—so the changes proposed in fact represent very real cuts to the system and that these cuts start on 1 July? Is the South Australian Premier correct when he says that the $80 billion being cut from health and education represents a cut of 600 hospital beds in that state? Does the minister agree that this reflects closing every bed at one of the state's major teaching hospitals?

I also refer to comments by the minister at the Press Club on 28 May that over the course of the last couple of years the hospitals in some states overstate their activity and that, when you dig a little deeper into what is happening in hospitals, they are receiving money for not seeing patients. I ask what evidence the minister relied on for making that statement and what evidence there is that this is actually happening. If the minister does have this evidence, then I ask what action the minister is taking to ensure that individual hospitals that are responsible for this overstatement are being pursued. Further, can the minister confirm that the cuts to hospitals factored into the forward estimates are the equivalent of cutting some 2,400 hospital beds in New South Wales and more than 1,800 beds in Victoria?

I also ask: can the minister confirm that the cuts in his budget across the country are the equivalent of cutting nearly 6,000 hospital beds? Given the minister wanted to quote some figures, I will quote some myself. Can the minister confirm that in New South Wales in 2014-15 the cut is $237.8 million, in 2015-16 it is $260.2 million, in 2016-17 it is $295.3 billion, and in 2017-18 it is $366.4 billion. In Victoria in 2014-15 the cut is $129.2 million, in 2015-16 it is $217.6 million, in 2016-17 it is $324.7 million, and in 2017-18 it is $289.2 million. In Queensland in 2014-15 the cut is $33.6 million, in 2015-16 it is $15 million, in 2016-17 it is $65 million, and in 2017-18 it is $235 million. I could go on in terms of each of the states and territories. Tasmania in particular overall, if you include the MYEFO cuts, loses some $49.3 million out of the Tasmanian health system. Given the minister claimed increases, perhaps he can now confirm those cuts in the forward estimates.

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