Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

It's interesting to note that there was no mention of mental health, no mention of the PBS and no mention of medical research. I want to talk today about what this government is doing and what the previous government and the current Labor opposition can never do: guarantee the funding of essential services. We can guarantee that funding because we are able to secure a strong economy based on a deep plan.

Let me begin with a very simple quote. This quote isn't from us; it's from Labor's health portfolio budget statement in May 2011. What did that statement say? That statement from the health portfolio budget said:

… given the current fiscal environment, the listing of some medicines would be deferred until fiscal circumstances permit.

There were seven medicines. Do you know what happened? It's very interesting. A Senate inquiry followed that, which saw people from all the different sides of the political divide and the medical profession condemn and chastise the ALP and force them to realise that what they had done was utterly unacceptable. As somebody said to me, 'They could fund pink batts, but they couldn't fund the PBS.' It was over $2 billion that they put towards pink batts, but the were unable to fund fundamental medicines—for schizophrenia, for IVF, for endometriosis for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease—because 'fiscal circumstances' did not permit. Those are their words, not ours. There could barely be a more damning indictment of the inability of one side of this parliament to manage government and to manage the economy—and, therefore, their inability to manage health—than the deliberate deferral of medicines because 'fiscal circumstances did not permit', while at the same time they were funding pink batts.

Under us, fiscal circumstances will always permit, because we not only manage the economy but manage the federal budget. We manage it as custodians for the people. Delivering new medicines is one of the most significant things that any government can do. Guaranteeing that you can manage the economy to deliver those new medicines is one of the fundamental tests of both honesty and competence upon which the Australian people should base their decision at the next election and upon which we ask the people of Longman, Braddon and Mayo to base their decisions in the coming weeks.

Let me go forward. The result of this management of the economy is record funding for health overall, from $99 billion to $102 billion to $104 billion to $109 billion over the forward estimates of the budget. In Medicare, the first pillar of our long-term national health plan, we will go from $25 billion to $26 billion to $27 billion to $29 billion. That's record funding each year and every year, with new items such as 3D mammography scans coming in for over an anticipated 200,000 women a year, with new MRI tests for prostate coming in this weekend for thousands of males, with new renal dialysis provisions coming in under Medicare and with new treatments for ophthalmology coming in under Medicare. All of these things are critical and fundamental.

But we see more than just that. There are new listings of medicines, as I mentioned earlier today, such as Kisqali, a $700 million investment, one of the largest on record by the Commonwealth, for breast cancer, something that I believe has the support of every member in this parliament. That means 3,250 women a year will have access to a medicine that would otherwise have cost $70,000 and been beyond the reach of virtually every woman and family in Australia. Only a very small number would have been be able to access it. However, what we see as well on so many different fronts is what we're doing with support in relation to HIV and the listing of PrEP, what we've done in relation to Crohn's disease and the listing of Stelara, and what we've done in relation to Keytruda and Opdivo and the extension to new forms of cancer treatment. These are fundamental. Along with mental health, these are probably the two things that are raised with me most often by the public. What do they ask about? They ask about mental health treatment, acknowledging the importance of this fundamental issue, and they ask about and are delighted at the access to new medicines and the guarantee that this government gives.

When it comes to hospital funding what we also see is record funding each year, every year. We're going now from $21 billion to $22 billion to $23 billion to $24 billion a year under this government. What we see is a more than doubling of hospital funding from Labor's last year in office to the end of the new hospital agreement and a $30 billion increase, including an additional $7.5 billion in Queensland alone. There was some discussion about the metro north region, where the Caboolture Hospital is based. It is very, very interesting that Labor has walked away from its campaign. What was front and centre is now an embarrassment. When it was revealed that this government in the last full year alone increased funding to the metro north region in which Caboolture Hospital is based by $120 million at the same time as Queensland Labor reduced funding for that region by $20 million there were looks of horror on the faces of the opposition. They were embarrassed, shamed and caught in a classic Labor lie. But this time we're right onto it, right from the outset, as we were in Bennelong. We have learned not to dismiss Labor lies; we have learnt to deal with them head-on.

What we saw in the papers today is that the people of Longman don't believe them on health either. That must have been a devastating blow for Labor. That must be one of the reasons why they have walked away from their great Caboolture Hospital lie. They were caught out. Patsy said it on radio, and Patsy's indictment of the Leader of the Opposition was simply devastating. She spoke for the people of Longman, the people of Queensland, the people of this parliament and the people of Australia when she made it absolutely clear that you cannot trust the Leader of the Opposition on health and you cannot trust the Labor Party. The reason why is very simple: if you can't manage the economy, you can't manage health.

We're able to manage the economy. We're able to make investment in the third of our pillars—mental health. There is $338 million being added to mental health in this year's budget. There is $70 million and more for suicide prevention in wonderful programs through Lifeline and beyondblue; over $100 million to support our seniors, many of whom suffer from desperate loneliness, isolation and depression; and $125 million through the million minds mental health mission under the Medical Research Future Fund for the single largest medical research program into mental health in Australian history. We've also been able to support preventative and recovery actions for those who have drug addiction, including, in Caboolture, $11 million for the Lives Lived Well program: $3½ million for detox and recovery and rehabilitation facilities and $7½ million for a residential facility for those needing longer form recovery treatment.

That finally brings me to medical research. What we've done in medal research has been one of the great achievements of this government. By laying down a $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund, we are able to do things such as fund $250 million for clinical trials for rare diseases and rare cancers, to assist with $80 million for clinical fellowships, to assist with translation of new drugs and devices and to assist with a $100 million and more Australian Brain Cancer Mission and a $500 million national genomics mission. At the end of the day, you can only fund health if fiscal circumstances permit. Under this government, fiscal circumstances will always permit and always allow.

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