David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was very pleased to be asked to talk on this MPI. I now understand how John McEnroe felt when he questioned the umpire and said, 'You cannot be serious!' The opposition, in choosing to argue that we are failing in the health portfolio, seriously, must have been blind, deaf and not watching or reading anything for the last six or seven years. We have had the biggest increase in the health budget in the history of this nation.

Look at what we did in the COVID situation. The health outcomes we have delivered in public health, controlling the pandemic in this country, are unbelievable compared to other nations around the world. A few stand out. There is the reform in telehealth, specifically triggered by COVID. That will be a long-lasting reform, although we have extended the special COVID provisions until December 2021. We have organised the private hospital sector's capacity to increase the amount of personal protective equipment. There is the ventilator building project. There is money on vaccine research and subsidies for state governments so they can do all this testing for COVID. There's the mental health support for COVID. Beyond Blue is available 24/7 because of the COVID response. We know that people being isolated raises mental health issues. We've funded extra support mechanisms to get out to remote Australia for Indigenous testing and vaccination. We've initiated electronic prescribing. These are all great reforms that will have long-lasting benefits for Australian health consumers.

The last couple of budgets have covered so many things in health that there is no way I can cover them all, but I'll just cherrypick a few of them: the initiatives in women's health; the extra funding for Jean Hailes to deliver its services online; the initiatives for endometriosis and pelvic pain, and for preventing premature labour, keeping children in the womb longer so that you don't have the risk of premature birth. Look at what we've done with the PBS—the dollars tell you the story—and compare it with what the last Labor health minister did, admitting that they were going to save money by delaying listings. In 2012-13 there was an $8.74 billion spend in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. By the end of this four-year cycle, it will be up to $11.221 billion. In 2012-13 it took an average of 312 days to list a drug on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. In 2019-20 it's down to 166 days. That's almost a 50 per cent reduction in the time it takes to get an appropriate proven, safe and cost-effective new drug onto the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

In 2012-13 the Medicare spend was $19.47 billion. By the end of this four-year budgetary cycle, that will be up to $33½ billion. We've had the Medicare Benefits Schedule review. We've been reviewing all the subspecialties and getting rid of old, superfluous MBS item numbers and practices that aren't justified and putting in new ones. Mental health issues are a scar on Australian life. There's been an increase in mental health issues for young and old. We have announced more headspace centres. We have initiated the Head to Health centres for people older than the headspace age. We have 10 new headspace centres and five satellite services being upgraded. We've put funding into dealing with eating disorders. We've put funding into advanced biological drugs for cancer and other chronic bone marrow disorders. The list goes on. The one thing you wouldn't choose to criticise the coalition government on is health. No-one is perfect, but the health portfolio—in my time in this parliament—has seen the most incredible period of extra funding. All the things that were always missing seem to have been picked up and supported, and this last budget confirms that.

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