Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

The work that they do is not valued sufficiently by you to make sure that they get the infrastructure they require. Let me give you an indication of work which is being done in the Katherine Hospital. Minister, you may be aware that in 2012, for the first time, a physician started work at the Katherine Hospital. As a result of that physician starting work at the Katherine Hospital, 10,000 bed days were saved in the Darwin hospital. Those sorts of improvements in health outcomes for people in my community are very important. You might laugh at them and you might not take any notice of them, but they are extremely important.

What you say to the Australian people is, 'Look, we're doing more for Australians through the health system and the hospital system than was done under Labor.' That is simply not true, and you know it. The changes you have made to Medicare are impacting on the whole of the Australian community, and you know that as well. So not only are you impacting on the primary healthcare of people across the community but you're also impacting negatively on secondary and tertiary care in those communities.

I was going to come to the issue of Closing the Gap and talk about this budget in terms of the follow-up and support for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan, which was, of course, introduced by us in a bipartisan way in 2013 to last for 10 years. We are five years on, and an implementation strategy which has been developed and supported by us has yet to be funded, Mr Minister. So I'm wondering: how seriously are you taking this Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan, if you're taking it seriously at all? We know you've provided no funds for it. We know you're not taking it seriously, and it's very clear that your priorities are elsewhere, rather than looking after the health system of Australians wherever they might live.

The minister at the table, who is about to speak, understands regional communities and understands the importance of regional hospitals to regional communities. He ought to understand, if he does that, the negative impact this government's cuts are having on those regional hospitals, whether in the communities he comes from in northern New South Wales or in my communities in the Northern Territory. (Time expired)

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