Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister please update the House on the latest COAG meeting?

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

When it comes to health and hospitals it seems that those opposite only have one response, which is to guffaw. But, bearing in mind that we face a Leader of the Opposition who gouged $1 billion from the public hospital system, we do understand what they have to guffaw about.

I ask the Leader of the Opposition to suspend his cynicism for just one moment and reflect on the historical significance of the health and hospitals deal which was arrived at among the states and territories in Canberra on 20 April. This was a historic reform. This is the largest change to the health and hospital system since the introduction of Medicare. We know where those opposite stand in their commitment to Medicare, because in years past they tried in election after election after election to get rid of Medicare. This government introduced it and this government sustained it, despite their successive attempts to get rid of it.

The questions which are often asked are: ‘What is this reform about? Why are we doing it?’ Point number one is that this system of ours is at a tipping point, partly because our predecessors, when the Leader of the Opposition was health minister, ripped $1 billion out of the system. The system was underfunded and under stress. But I go to the core element—

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. Amongst the 20 or 30 occasions that the Manager of Opposition Business has defied standing order 65(b), he has made remarks that are considered unparliamentary and I would ask that on this occasion he withdraw.

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

I withdraw.

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

The core of this reform, when it comes down to the nuts and bolts, is this: we are going to have 1,300 more hospital beds, we are going to have 2,500 additional aged-care places, we are going to have 6,000 additional doctors, we are going to progressively introduce a four-hour waiting time target at A&E and we are going to bring in a target for elective surgery to be delivered on time for 95 per cent of patients. Furthermore, if a patient cannot receive their elective surgery within the clinically recommended time, we have undertaken that they would receive free treatment at a public or private hospital to get that surgery done. Beyond that, for those suffering from mental health complaints, an additional 20,000 young people will get access to mental health services. This is the bread and butter of what we are putting forward to the Australian people.

At the level of structural reform, this is of fundamental importance. First of all, we have brought about a nationally funded system for the first time. The primary healthcare system of Australia will be funded exclusively by the Australian government, the Australia government will be the dominant funder of the acute hospital system, and the aged-care network will be funded exclusively by the Australian government. Having a system funded nationally is one thing; having it run locally is in fact equally critical. Under these reforms local hospital networks will take on the primary role for local decisions on the delivery of these improved healthcare services for working Australians. This is an important national reform—funded nationally, run locally. For the first time the Australian government will be the dominant funder of the Australian hospital system.

On top of that, there will be new national standards. These standards will mean shorter waiting times in our hospitals. We have outlined with the states and the territories new arrangements for national access targets and elective surgery targets, and there will be additional investments to make these things happen on the ground. These are reforms which mean things to working families across the country. Of course, when we began this debate in this parliament some years ago, it was about ending the blame game between the states and the Commonwealth. Those opposite scoffed at the possibility of any such agreement ever being reached. This government has delivered that agreement. It goes to the heart of cost shift, blame shift between the two levels of government. With the Australian government now being the exclusive funder of the primary system, the dominant funder of the acute system and the exclusive funder of the aged-care system, the financial incentives which have existed for decades and decades to shift patients from one system to another are removed. That is why this is a historic reform.

However, the rubber hits the road when we talk about what happens for the individual communities around Australia—for the 764 local public hospitals of Australia—and what it means, for example, for the people of Blacktown, who already in their local hospital have had 19 additional subacute beds added since the announcement of the government’s decision the other day. There is the addition of further investments for accident and emergency departments, the needs of Cairns Base Hospital and the new cancer treatment services at Townsville Base Hospital, Rockhampton, Gosford and Tamworth—all across the country. Also, there are the further investments that we are making in the expansion of services in hospitals in Darwin, Hobart and Launceston. These are not just structural reforms; they are bread and butter reforms. They are bread and butter reforms to make a difference for working families on the ground right across Australia—for pensioners and carers who have not been able to get decent access to the system so far. This is a fundamental reform. The Leader of the Opposition stood up four or five years ago as health minister and said it was time for the Commonwealth to bring about a fundamental reform to the system. For five years he failed to act; in two years this government has acted.