Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the need for reform in Australia’s health system after years of neglect and inaction?

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

They had 12 years to do something about the health system of Australia and they did nothing—absolutely nothing. The Leader of the Opposition and I were privileged to be invited to last night’s annual dinner of the Australian Medical Association. I listened very keenly to hear a policy speech from the Leader of the Opposition. What I heard again were a number of political one-liners destined for media consumption but not destined for real policy change.

I also appreciate the support for the government’s plan which we received last night from the head of the AMA, Dr Pesce, who said:

We are heading for a once-in-a-generation change to the way health services are delivered and funded and managed in this country.

               …            …            …

From the top, the Commonwealth must have a greater funding and national planning role.

And from the grassroots, there must be more local clinician input to decision-making at the local level, to ensure funding meets local needs.

That is what the head of the AMA said last night in support of the government’s plan. In the months leading up to the release of the government’s plan only last week, the Minister for Health and Ageing and I travelled across the country to speak with doctors, nurses, patients and those who are intimately associated with the health and hospital system of Australia.

Whether it is in Hobart or in Darwin or in Perth or in Parramatta, right across the country there is one clear message: not enough hospital beds, not enough doctors and not enough nurses. On the question of nurses, in 2008 Access Economics estimated that around 6,000 additional nurses would be needed each year to 2025 over and above the current graduations of 9,000 a year. On GPs, the health department estimated that demand for GP services is likely to increase by around 15 per cent by 2020 on current trends and the current GP training pipeline will not meet this demand growth. These are the workforce challenges that we now face. Of course, if you have an insufficient supply of doctors and nurses, what results is longer waiting times. The NHHRC reported that data indicates that the median waiting time across all types of elective surgery was 34 days in 2007-08, up from 28 days in 2003-04—getting worse and worse. On emergency departments, 31 per cent of patients presenting in emergency departments in 2007-08 were not seen within clinically acceptable times. This is the direct product of sustained underinvestment in the system by the Australian government and governments across the nation.

Back in July of 2006, when a certain Leader of the Opposition was Minister for Health and Ageing, he got a letter from the head of the AMA warning him and warning the government of the looming crisis in medical training. This is what the head of the AMA had to say to the Leader of the Opposition when he was discharging such a fine set of responsibilities as health minister of Australia. This is what the AMA warned back in 2006:

… without urgent action by all governments, Australia will have a new generation of doctors who … will struggle to gain the detailed education and significant clinical skills needed to practise independently.

He went on to say that this would:

… have catastrophic effects on the medical workforce, our hospitals, and the access to quality health care that patients rightly expect.

That is what the head of the AMA wrote to the Leader of the Opposition when he was in the position of health minister of Australia. What did the Leader of the Opposition as health minister of Australia do in response to this representation from the AMA? Nothing. Instead, the then health minister decided to rip out $1 billion from the public hospital system, and that $1 billion is the equivalent of 1,025 hospital beds. They do not like this number—$1 billion ripped out by Tony Abbott when he was minister for health, which is the equivalent of 1,025—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Pyne interjecting

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

Order! The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Manager of Opposition Business will withdraw.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw my statement that the Prime Minister is a liar.

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

The Manager of Opposition Business knows that he must come to the dispatch box and withdraw unconditionally.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. Further to the instruction you have just given to the Manager of Opposition Business, let me just say that the Prime Minister’s statement is a lie.

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

The Leader of the Opposition will withdraw.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I am happy to withdraw but I would suggest that it would help the House—

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

Order! The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. He does not have the call. The Leader of the Opposition knows that if he has a problem with statements made which he believes need redress he can use other forms of the House at the end of question time.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: with due respect to you, we have on many occasions since this parliament began found a situation where you have acted within what is, I think, your understanding of the standing orders to say that when an untruth is remarked upon by the other side of the House, the remedy for that is for the leader to stand up at the end of question time and correct the record. But, as we know, that is not broadcast and this is. So the untruth remains on the public record.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

Order! The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. Those on my right will remain silent. As I have indicated previously, one of the things that I have learned since becoming Speaker is that I am apparently producing a media event, because it seems that the behaviour of members is dictated on the basis of whether there are visual images going out to people’s lounge rooms, whether there is broadcast—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

That is not my problem. My problem is to try to run this place based on precedent and the standing and sessional orders, and I think I am doing that. The Prime Minister has the call.

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 Leader of the Opposition was asked to withdraw and he has not done so.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

I am sorry if people are under the belief that in his earlier statement the Leader of the Opposition did not withdraw. I simply say to a number of people that are giving me this free advice by interjection: it is a bit hard to keep up with what is going on when people think that they can all talk at once. I am assuming that the Leader of the Opposition did withdraw. He then rose to make a different point, to which I have made comment. The Manager of Opposition Business appears to be aggrieved about my opinions on that. Is the Manager of Opposition Business rising on a point of order?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am, Mr Speaker, and I am not aggrieved by your statements. I simply make the point, as under standing order 91(f), that you have said that it is not your problem. May I remark, with due respect, that if the opposition is provoked by people making untruths it leads to disorderly conduct and that that is your problem—to maintain orderly conduct in the House.

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

Order! The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. On the element of his comment—rather than point of order—that of course the behaviour of any member is my problem, I acknowledge that. But I simply put it to members of long standing—probably those that were here in the previous parliament and beyond—that it has ever been the case during question time that from time to time repeated remarks are made that require withdrawal under the standing and sessional orders and practices of this place. That is done at the end of question time, and I think that what we find today is consistent with the way in which the House has conducted its business in the past.

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

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. Certainly I was aware, both as Leader of the House and when I was Manager of Opposition Business, that when the Speaker requires a comment to be withdrawn it should be done unconditionally. That has not occurred. The Leader of the Opposition is required to stand at the dispatch box and simply say, ‘I withdraw.’

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

If it would assist the House, whilst I believe that the Leader of the Opposition has withdrawn—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! I would find it incredible—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! In attempting to assist the House out of this strange dilemma in which it has placed itself, if I could ask the Leader of the Opposition just to simply say yet again that he has withdrawn, that would finalise the case. I do not see it as further punishment of the Leader of the Opposition. I have indicated to him that I felt and thought that he had withdrawn, but if it would get this place moving towards the proper conduct of question time I would invite him to assist in that manner.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, to assist the aurally challenged, I withdraw.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The Prime Minister has the call.

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

For the information of the Leader of the Opposition, I draw his attention to the budget papers of 2003-04. On page 179, under the Australian healthcare agreement itemised at that time, for 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07, the following figures are listed—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop interjecting

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

The member for Mackellar is warned.

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

In 2003-04, minus $108 million; 2004-05, minus $172 million; 2005-06, minus $264 million; 2006-07, minus $372 million. I simply go through those figures to draw them to the attention of the Leader of the Opposition. I also draw to the Leader of the Opposition’s attention that when he was minister for health, while he may be uncomfortable about his record, he also imposed a cap on GP training places. I can understand full well why the Leader of the Opposition is sensitive about his record as health minister—a sensitivity which is only underpinned and surpassed by his undertaking to the Australian people, that absolute ironclad guarantee, that there would be no change to the Medicare safety net—a rock solid, ironclad guarantee, until after the election. That is what the Leader of the Opposition did when he was health minister. What we have done in the two years we have been in office through the agency of the minister for health is increase the number of GP training places by some 35 per cent. That is what we have done. From 2009 universities offered an additional 1,094 undergraduate nursing places. That is what we have done. On top of that, in terms of funding to our public hospitals, we have increased our allocation to hospitals in the states and territories by some 50 per cent. If you want three concrete pieces of action, those are they.

Those opposite, not content with their record on health and hospitals reform, which is a dismal record, right now in another place, in the Senate, are seeking to block important pieces of legislation and stand in the way of further reform to the health and hospital system. They are blocking changes to PHI—a blocking which will result in taxpayers paying $2 billion, money which could be better invested in public hospital beds across Australia. On top of that, they in the Senate have refused to pass landmark legislation giving more support and recognition to our midwives and nurse practitioners. This is unacceptable. Those opposite find this to be a passing irritant; they do not think that nurse practitioners and midwives are important. We on this side of the House do. Dental services have been blocked by those in the Senate; they have refused to pass legislation for Australia’s first ever preventative healthcare agency.

I say to the Leader of the Opposition that it is time on health and hospitals reform that he just got out of the road, that he actually allowed the government to get on with the business of fundamental health and hospital reform for the future. We intend to get on with the business of bringing about this reform for Australia. I will be consulting with the premiers and chief ministers in the days ahead, prior to COAG in April. We have a plan for the future. I will begin that process with the Premier of New South Wales in Sydney tomorrow. I will travel to every state capital in the country and every territory capital to bring about the needed reforms for our health and hospital system for the future.