Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes; 40,000 people at Caboolture Hospital. We also visited the electorate of Lindsay—and the member for Macarthur will remember this well—where the Nepean Hospital is crying out for support and assistance. You haven't even begun to assist with the forward planning for a hospital that is in a rapid growth corridor there. It is already stretched to the limit right now. It can barely cope with the ongoing demand now. It's in the middle of a growth corridor, yet there's absolutely no assistance there.

Your lack of vision, your lack of planning, for public hospitals in Australia is astonishing. Nepean Hospital isn't exceptional. That's the sad story. What's going on at that hospital is being repeated across Australia. Our major public hospitals are stretched to the absolute brink. Elective surgery waiting times have skyrocketed. Emergency departments are struggling and, worst of all, patients are suffering. We know that because we are actually out there talking to people who use this healthcare system every day, and for members opposite to suggest otherwise is truly astonishing. What a hide!

When it comes to private health insurance, we can only say that members opposite must live in some other, parallel, universe. If you are not getting the message that the Australian people do not see value for money in private health insurance these days, if you are not hearing the message that they are finding it very difficult to accommodate the almost $1,000 per annum increase in premium fees that has come in under the Abbott-Turnbull government's watch— if you are not getting that message—then you need to see your GP for an ear check, quite frankly. That's what you need. It is only Labor that will defend Medicare. It is only Labor that can be trusted to achieve an Australian healthcare system that is fair and accessible to all.

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