Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I don't think it's okay, but I also believe that the Tasmanian government, led by Premier Will Hodgman, is exactly the right government to deal with the problems that you've been highlighting. The Minister for Health has written to the Tasmanian government seeking an update on the issues that you've raised today. I saw that report on the front page of The Mercury today also. But the member would also be aware that the Commonwealth does provide significant funding support to hospitals, public hospitals in particular; not just in Tasmania but all around the country.

When we look at what has been done in terms of Tasmanian and Commonwealth public funding, when we came to office the Commonwealth was investing $294 million in hospitals in Tasmania. That has increased by 42.5 per cent under our government to $419 million this year. And we were pleased that the Hodgman government was one of the first to sign on to the new hospitals agreement which has been negotiated by the Minister for Health, which is delivering record Commonwealth government funding to Tasmanian hospitals out to 2024-25. In the five years from 2020, under the new agreement, Tasmania's public hospitals will receive an additional $373.6 million, growing at 18.4 per cent over that period.

In addition to that, you'll be aware of the $730 million to the Tasmanian government to secure the long-term future of the Mersey Community Hospital in Latrobe for a decade. You'll also be aware that the funding means more services, more doctors and more nurses at the Royal Hobart Hospital, in particular. This funding is delivering significant growth in the number of elective surgeries being performed, from 6,740 when our government first came to office, to 7,755 in 2016-17, on the figures we have available. In terms of mental health support for Tasmania, the Commonwealth, through Primary Health Tasmania, has invested $34.58 million to commission mental health and suicide prevention services.

We are delivering record funding to hospitals and health services around this country, and we will continue to do that. We will ensure that the support is there for our state governments, who have carriage of delivering those services across all the states. The reason we're going to be able to do that and the reason why Tasmanians can count on that is that we are running a strong economy, which means we can generate the revenue not from higher taxes but from a stronger economy, to deliver what Tasmanians need.

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