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

Can I just address a few of the contributions that have been made? Firstly, thank you very much to the member for Petrie, who is doing an exceptional job. He is very accessible in his local electorate and that has certainly been acknowledged by his local constituency.

He raised the very important issue of youth mental health, and I am very pleased that in this budget we have provided $18 million over four years for the National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health. We have provided $23.4 million in 2014-15 for the Mental Health Nurse Incentive programme—a continuation of that funding. And, very importantly, we have provided additional funding to the headspace program of $14.9 million over four years. It is a successful program that was strongly supported by the now Prime Minister when he was health minister in the Howard years, and it is an opportunity to provide support to those young people who may not be able to interventions elsewhere in the system. The government strongly supports that particular process.

Can I also address the very worthy contribution of the member for Braddon, who rightly raised concerns around what is a significant and in many ways silent killer within Australian society? Early prevention for any cancer and for any condition is particularly important, which is why it is important for the government to make this $96 million investment in relation to bowel cancer screening. I am very proud of the fact that we were able in a tight budget, where we inherited such a very difficult fiscal position, to find this additional funding to put into bowel cancer screening. We delivered on that election commitment in this budget, and it will save lives. That was acknowledged by Ian Oliver and it was obviously alluded to in the contribution by the member. As he pointed out, he has many years of experience looking at these particular issues and looking at ways in which we can better deliver health care, not just in Tasmania but across the country as well.

Can I also think the member for Kingston for her contribution? It was a difficult situation that we inherited—there is no question about that. There were not only growing numbers within the department but also a dozen new bureaucracies that were created on Labor's watch. It was replicated in New South Wales and in Queensland, where they had a failed health model as well. It has been rectified in Queensland and it has been rectified in New South Wales. We are seeking to do our best to get money back to front-line services, and we reflect that in this budget as well. The government wants to have as much money for front-line services as is possible, and it is a bit rich for one member opposite to be arguing for additional services to be provided and yet for the shadow minister to be arguing, for arguing sake, for more money to be spent in bureaucracies.

It just does not add up; Labor's magic pie just does not add up. We will deliver services more efficiently by bringing them back into the department—services that were previously delivered by HWA and also ANPHA. We will reduce the waste, we will put the money back into the department proper and we will continue those programs within the department because this government is determined not only to fix up Labor's mess—certainly, as it applies fiscally—but in relation to health as well. We will make sure that we get that money back to front-line services, but we are not going to do it by continuing the great big bureaucratic growth program that was delivered by Labor. We will reduce the bureaucracies and we will put money back into front-line services.

I will close just on the very important point raised by the member for Throsby in relation to Indigenous funding. It is still a national disgrace that we have such disparity between life expectancy for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The Prime Minister has made it one of the main causes of this government, to make sure that we can address that issue and to close the gap. Otherwise, we provide expenditure in the health portfolio separate to the billions of dollars spent within government of $970 million in 2013-14, and that includes $550 million provided in grant funding for Indigenous health services.

So, in addition to the $20 billion that we provide through Medicare, we provide additional support to Aboriginal health services as they operate around the country. That is very important; it will continue, and we are determined to deliver better health outcomes for all Australians, but we cannot do it if we are saddled with Labor's debt and Labor's bureaucracy. We will clean up the fiscal mess, we will clean up the mess in health, we will get money back to front-line services and we will improve health outcomes. Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Immigration and Border Protection Portfolio

Proposed expenditure, $5,037,127,000

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