David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party, Assistant Minister for Children and Families) Share this | Hansard source

Here we go again. The usual lies. Everyone's used to seeing mist cleared from the eyes of confused people, from the 'Mediscare' campaign of the last election. But the propaganda that keeps coming out of the other side about cuts to health is starting to be just repeated lies. Like those masters of propaganda, if you keep saying a lie often enough people start believing it—even the people who are telling the lie. And that's where they're going with this argument.

You've just got to look at the budget papers. There was $13.3 billion spent by the federal government in 2013-14. Now it will be $22.7 billion in 2021, as of the last budget papers. At the moment, we're over a 50 per cent increase by the end of the forward estimates. In these budget papers the increase will be 70 per cent. In the latest hospital agreement the increase goes up to $30.2 billion. I will reiterate that: $13.3 billion in 2013; $22.7 billion in 2021. That is a 70 per cent increase. That is not a cut.

Look at the PBS. One of the best initiatives is from the Minister for Health who has organised savings on the old drugs to guarantee extra funds to get the new drugs onto the PBS. Since the coalition government has been responsible for the health portfolio, since 2013, we have had 1,870 new medicines listed on the PBS. That's about 31 a month: one a day.

We have from a Senate inquiry in 2011 all the things the Minister for Health mentioned. Former Minister Roxon admitted that they took drugs off recommendations from the PBAC and didn't list them. They were drugs for schizophrenia, IVF, deep vein thrombosis, asthma and COPD. All the records were delayed. They did it because they couldn't manage the economy. They didn't have the funds to pay for it. Past behaviour reflects future behaviour. They froze the rebate for health insurance. Back in March, the member for McMahon, the opposition Treasury spokesman, was meeting with health funds, saying they're going to freeze it again—at least $2 billion extra in costs for people holding health insurance. There are 13½ million people in this country holding health insurance, and 6½ million of them, many of them pensioners, only earn $40,000. Health insurance is such an important arm of our health system, and they want to increase the cost to make it unaffordable.

We've made it much more affordable for young people to hold health insurance, because we've given the 18- to 29-year-olds a 10 per cent discount. We've changed the regulations to allow people, if they haven't got mental health cover, to upgrade to mental health cover without a waiting period. We've increased a whole lot of initiatives in mental health—extra funds for mental health, for regional people to get mental health by telemedicine and for psychological counselling by telemedicine.

We've had so many great initiatives. You've just got to look at the record funding for medical research, the Medical Research Future Fund and the National Medical Industry Growth Plan—that's another $1½ billion on top of the Medical Research Future Fund. There is $2½ billion at least that's going into direct medical research through the NHMRC funding, on top of the Medical Research Future Fund, and then on top of that the Medical Industry Growth Plan. We have got extra funds for vaccinations for children and mothers for whooping cough and meningococcal disease, and that is why it is so important.

Everywhere you turn there are funding increases. We have made health insurance simpler and more understandable. There were so many complex offers there in the market that we simplified it. In mental health, as I mentioned, former minister Fiona Nash, the former Minister for Rural Health, initiated extra funding for mental health in remote Australia. We have got extra funds for immunisation and for drug treatment and prevention. (Time expired)

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