Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The health system is failing Australians and the facts don't lie. On 15 March this year, one of my residents wrote a five-page letter to the health minister, in which he referred to the failings, incompetence and blunders relating to medical treatment for himself, his wife and his two adult daughters. I'm happy to make that letter available to the minister if he needs it. I don't know whether the minister has responded to that letter, but it clearly articulates and outlines everything that is wrong with Australia's health system. Sadly, his youngest daughter has died.

I understand that the responsibility for health services in this country is shared between state and federal governments, but the reality is that the buck stops with the federal health minister if we're going to get national changes to the services available to people. I heard the minister talking about Medicare bulk-billing rates. Minister, there is a vast difference between the rates, in terms of the services that are billed, and the number of people, in terms of the percentages that are being bulk billed for their treatment. Indeed, I refer the minister to an article written by Jennifer Doggett on 17 July which clearly outlines what the real situation is.

I turn to my own home state of South Australia, where elective surgery waiting lists have blown out to, in many cases, over two years. I regularly get people from my electorate coming to me for assistance to try to speed up the wait for surgery they need, because they are getting desperate. The South Australian state government, now desperate, wants to outsource elective surgery to the private system because the public system simply cannot cope. If that doesn't tell you exactly what's going on, then nothing else ever will. The reality is that that is happening right around Australia. We could go to the public dental services as well. The same applies there, where waiting lists are simply unreasonable and people have to wait for months and months before they get the treatment they need. I haven't even touched on the mental health services, both in South Australia and across the country, which are exactly the same when people are wanting to get the services they need.

I want to turn to another critical issue: that hospitals, because they cannot cope, are discharging patients before they should be getting discharged. There was a case in South Australia only a couple of months ago where a person died as a result of being discharged when they shouldn't have. That case is now before the state coroner for investigation.

I'll turn briefly to rural health in the time I have left. The front page of Adelaide's Sunday Mail last weekend talked about, effectively, the crisis in getting health professionals into country South Australia. There is a shortage, with 60 doctor positions that are unfilled and have been unfilled for months and months. It is unlikely that those positions will get filled in the near future. Again, that means that the people in those areas are not getting the services they need. They are predominantly in the electorate of the member for Grey, who is in the chamber. I'm sure he would be well aware of what's going on in his electorate.

One of the solutions to all of that was presented last night by a refugee who came to this country, Aseel Yako. He came from Iraq as a refugee and was a practising doctor in Iraq for 20 years. He had experience and expertise but had to navigate an absolute minefield just to get his credentials recognised in Australia so that he could go and practise. After a long, long period and after going through all the obstacles he needed to go through, he finally got work at the Warragul hospital in the electorate of the member for Monash, who, can I say, spoke beautifully about this person at the launch of the book Refugee Stories: In Their Own Words.

The whole argument is that if there are people out there who are willing to work in the country areas, why don't we do something about making their pathway a lot easier? Can I say to the members opposite who keep talking about their response to rural health needs: you've been in government for six years. Your 10-year plan means it will be 16 years at best before anything is really done for the people in country Australia. Quite frankly, none of the ministers who are making that claim will even be here to be held to account for promising the people in rural Australia the services they need.

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