Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, let me say this. The Minister for Health made a comment that Labor has done nothing and made no mention of mental health. Let me tell him quite clearly: I came into this job from 15 years of mental health experience, and the best mental health programs we ever got came from a Labor government. We had the first federal minister for mental health, in Mark Butler, and the best programs we have ever seen in this country. How dare he say that Labor doesn't talk about mental health? He should withdraw his comment, and quickly.

History clearly demonstrates that Labor is the party of health reform and investment, and it's not at all surprising that the people in Longman and Braddon are concerned about their health care. Labor believes that, when people are sick, they should receive the care that they need in a timely manner, regardless of their credit card. In contrast, the LNP is the party of cuts to healthcare services, hospitals and Medicare, which it would love to privatise. The Turnbull government wants you to pay more when you visit your doctor and pay more for your private health insurance.

The Herbert community has had enough of the LNP's cuts. This government has inflicted massive cuts on the hospitals in Herbert, which hurts, because our public hospital is the only tertiary hospital in Queensland outside of the south-east corner. The Townsville Hospital and Health Service will receive a $9 million cut under the Turnbull government. What does that mean? It means four fewer beds a year for three years, 12 fewer doctors a year for three years, 25 fewer nurses a year for three years, 21,825 fewer outpatient appointments, 30,468 fewer emergency department visits, 2,491 fewer cataract extractions, 1,488 fewer births and 345 fewer knee replacements.

Where will the women go when they are in labour if the hospital does not have a bed for them in the labour ward as a result of the Turnbull government cuts? Where will pensioners go when they need knee replacement surgery, when the hospital has no funding for their surgery because of the Turnbull government cuts? Where will the veterans go when they want to visit the emergency department? Because of the Turnbull government cuts, the emergency department is now overcrowded. The Turnbull government has no understanding of what its cuts mean on the ground, especially in rural and regional centres. Allow me to read an email from a Townsville constituent that clearly explains how these cuts hurt. Karen from Townsville wrote on 2 June this year:

Hi Cathy I need your help.

In fact the whole state & country needs your help.

My carer just had his 3rd heart attack on Wednesday.

He was stabilised & scheduled for a procedure on Friday.

All prepped & ready but the queue was so long he was bumped to Monday.

Instead of being home today, it'll now be Tuesday or Wednesday.

Cathy can something be done to reduce the queue, increase staffing (no one - except nurses - works on weekends)

Yes, Karen, something can be done; we can vote out this out-of-touch Turnbull government at the next federal election. I am here every day fighting hard against this top-end-of-town government. I will fight for people like Karen and her carer because their hospital needs are really important and these cuts are not fair. All of this is in a community where the unemployment rate has almost doubled under the consecutive LNP governments. How can the Turnbull government think that cutting 12 doctor positions or 24 nurses is a good idea? My community is already hurting, yet the Turnbull government is hell-bent on creating more hurt by cutting doctors and nurses. It's disgraceful.

Let's not forget the axe that is being taken to Medicare. More than $3 billion has been cut from Medicare by LNP governments. This has increased out-of-pocket costs to see a GP. The average out-of-pocket cost for seeing a GP is now more than $38. That's a $4 increase since Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's pre-election promise that no-one would pay more to see a GP. Out-of-pocket fees to see a specialist have soared even higher, up to almost $88, an increase of more than $12 since the election. The Bureau of Statistics' figures show that those cost increases are forcing many Australians to skip basic health care. Those cost increases have resulted in one million Australians saying they cannot go to see a GP—they're avoiding it; they can't afford it—and 1.7 million people are saying, 'I can't afford to see a specialist.' Labor will fund our hospitals and fund Medicare because we won't be giving $80 billion tax cuts to big business and the banks. Labor created Medicare and we will protect it.

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