Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister confirm Treasury advice to the Senate estimates hearings that the government’s estimated private health insurance drop-out figure of 484,000 people does not include children and dependants? Will the Prime Minister confirm that the estimated drop-out figure for private health insurance is now closer to one million people and that these people will now add to the massive burden on state public hospitals? Prime Minister, doesn’t this just prove that the private health insurance changes were just a savings measure and the government has no plan for better hospital care?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government has a first-class plan for dealing with the future of hospitals in this country. When it comes to the future of hospitals in this country, you can either invest in the future of hospitals or ignore them, which is why this government, for the first time in the nation’s history, has established a hospitals investment fund of some $10 billion to look at the long-term needs of the system. This is fundamental to making sure that the capital needs of the nation’s hospitals are set in the right direction. If you travel around the hospitals, as the Minister for Health and Ageing and I have in recent times, you will discover one set of capital needs after another. Then there are the workforce needs—again, monstrously undertended by those opposite who, year after year and for a full decade, did nothing to address the undersupply of doctors and nurses across the nation despite the fact that doctors and nurses are trained in tertiary institutions which are the exclusive responsibility of the Commonwealth.

If the opposition are raising questions seriously about the future of hospitals, the future of health policy and the future of our health workforce, I would suggest that after 12 years in office, with ample opportunities to act in each of these areas, they should have done so. We have a long-term plan for the future when it comes to health and hospitals—$10 billion worth of investment and a cooperative negotiation currently underway through the Council of Australian Governments to work with the states and territories on how we overcome duplication and overlap and bring an end to the blame game in this critical area of concern to the people of Australia.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Abbott interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Will the member for Warringah sit down. He cannot act in that disorderly manner. I use this point, after a comment was made to me, to remind people that nobody needs a warning to get one hour under standing order 94(a). The warning would also then lead to an ability to be named for one day. Without going to a point of order that was not raised, the illustration in that question and answer was that that was a three-part question that went to mentioning whether the government did or did not have a plan—that is, inter alia. I think that that then becomes a difficulty for people who wish to seek a question being ruled out as irrelevant.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The member for Warringah should withdraw.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I cannot remember what he actually said, but it would assist if he did withdraw.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw. I am justly—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Warringah will resume his seat.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Under the standing orders for disorderly conduct, you have just raised with the member for Warringah the inappropriateness of his point of order. He then came to the dispatch box and acted in a disorderly fashion in defiance and contempt of your ruling, and I ask that you take action.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will resume his seat. The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. I have taken note of the point made by the Leader of the House. We are now in questions.