Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to his statement of 23 August 2007, where he said:

When it comes to improving Australia’s health and hospital system, as Prime Minister if elected, the buck will stop with me.

If that is the case, why have surgeons and visiting specialists in the Greater Western Area Health Service in New South Wales not been paid since May and why have the Dubbo medical staff passed a vote of no confidence in hospital management?

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

The government is concerned about the proper delivery of health services and hospital services across the nation. That is why the government, with the states and the territories, in the middle of November will be determining the future shape of the Australian healthcare agreement. I say to those opposite before they jump in and make a short-term political and opportunistic remark that the reason that is important is as follows: the government of which they were part—and so many of them sat around the cabinet table, including the member for Wentworth—pulled billions of dollars out of the public hospital system in the country. You did it systematically. As a consequence, what you—the previous government—did over time was push responsibility onto the states and territories—

Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on a point of order to protect you again, Mr Speaker. The Prime Minister is accusing you of all sorts of dreadful things.

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

The member for O’Connor will resume his seat. The Prime Minister is aware of the need to address his remarks through the chair.

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

The previous government simply absented the field, pulled billions of dollars out of the public hospital system in the country, pushed that responsibility onto the states and territories and then played the blame game. That is exactly what they did—year in, year out.

This government takes a different approach because Australians want an answer to this problem. They do not want excuses for inaction. That is why the government has sat down these last nine months with the states and territories, through the agency of the Minister for Health and Ageing and with the Treasurer, to go through the future shape of the Australian healthcare agreement for the following five years. That will go to a proper role for Commonwealth funding into the future. That is the responsible course of action. We intend to prosecute it, rather than simply pull money out of the system and say, ‘It’s all over to you.’

The individual management of hospitals within any particular state, including those to which the honourable member has just referred, is of course an operational responsibility for the state health authority concerned.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

It is.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! Those on my left!

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

They are very excited this afternoon, Mr Speaker.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order on relevance. This issue is very relevant to the people of western New South Wales, and I ask the Prime Minister to respond.

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

The member for Parkes will resume his seat. The Prime Minister is responding to the question.

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

The Commonwealth’s responsibility is to ensure that proper funding levels are delivered to the states, who run the health system. Secondly, I am not familiar with the details of the individual management practices in the state health authority of New South Wales as they apply to the hospital which the honourable member is concerned about. Of course, there are problems with the administration of certain hospitals across the country, including in New South Wales. We fully accept that, but the bottom line for the Commonwealth is to ensure that there is a proper forward funding stream for the states, who run the hospital system. I suggest the honourable member get behind the government’s program of delivering proper funding to the states long term so that these hospitals within state health authorities can have certainty about their funding stream into the future.

This is a complex area of public policy. There are 750-plus public hospitals across this country. Each of them is administered separately by state and territory health authorities but, you know something, the bottom line is to make sure that the Commonwealth is in there as part of the solution, not simply perpetuating the blame game, as those opposite under repeated health ministers did for 12 years.