House debates
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Questions without Notice
Budget
2:34 pm
Sharryn Jackson (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. What are the government’s plans to increase community access to primary care and health services outside of hospitals?
Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I thank the member for Hasluck for her question because I know on this side of the House people are delighted with the announcements from last night to invest more money in primary care, the front line of our health system. Whether it is more money for GPs, whether it is more money for infrastructure for general practice or whether it is more money for practice nurses, all of these initiatives are vital for making sure that constituents in our electorates can get the health care they need when they need it.
One of the key initiatives from last night deals with the very fact that we know people do not get sick just between nine and five, Monday to Friday. People need care and access to nurses and doctors after hours. Unfortunately, what many of us might think is anecdotal when people come to our electorate offices and say, ‘I can’t get access to a GP,’ or, ‘My GP stopped opening late on work days,’ or, ‘My GP doesn’t open on the weekends any longer,’ is not anecdotal; this is real.
What we know is that in the last decade, during the watch of the Leader of the Opposition as the health minister, the percentage of doctors providing their own after-hours services reduced from around 50 per cent to 28 per cent. So what we have committed, as part of a $2.2 billion investment into primary care, is the expansion of an online and phone service to be able to get immediate advice from a nurse, follow-up advice from a GP and referral through our Medicare Locals to a local GP if someone who rings the service needs to have a GP visit.
Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
What if you haven’t got one?
Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I hear an interjection opposite: what if we don’t have one? This is the whole point. This is actually why we are investing millions and millions of dollars in training more GPs, because your leader, when he was the health minister, put a cap on GP training places. That is why we are investing in funding for more than 5,500 new GPs, because electorates like those of the member interjecting do not have enough GPs. He perhaps might ask the Leader of the Opposition why he neglected this issue for so long and left it for us to pick up the pieces.
Of course, those opposite might say, ‘What happens if we don’t have a GP in our electorate right now?’ That means that the constituents—the mums and dads who are worried about a child with a temperature or someone who perhaps does not drive who gets sick at night—will be able to phone up and get advice from a nurse and a GP immediately. Those opposite might be dismissive of this, but anyone who has young children knows that having someone on the end of the line to give them a bit of quick advice—to tell them that it does sound serious and they should go to hospital or that they need not worry and a bit of Panadol might work—is important. These issues are day-to-day issues for our constituents and for all Australians, and those opposite neglected these issues.
What has also been a very significant investment is another $355 million into infrastructure for GP services—more GP superclinics and of course 400 general practices that will be able to expand their own services. I thought that perhaps I might take the opportunity to ask members on the shadow frontbench, as we are progressively opening these superclinics across the country, whether they might have more guts to turn up and represent their electorates than the shadow minister for health did!
Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Dutton interjecting
Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I would like to emphasise that on Monday—
Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Only two are fully operational!
Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Two out of 36!
Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Dickson is appropriately sensitive about this issue because he has a superclinic operating in his electorate that has provided thousands of services to young families who are in his electorate and otherwise have to travel to hospital for services on weekends. But on Monday I am going to Port Stephens to open a superclinic—
Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Finally!
Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
and I thought perhaps the local member, who has been very supportive in his electorate, would like to attend.
Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I haven’t received your invitation yet.
Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I am issuing it to you right now. I would be delighted if you would come.
Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Baldwin interjecting
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Order! The member for Paterson will cease interjecting. The minister will ignore the interjections and address her remarks through the chair.
Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I cannot let the opportunity pass because I know that the member for Petrie would not forgive me. On Friday we turned the first sod for the Redcliffe superclinic at the hospital site in her electorate. It was covered on the Redcliffe and Bayside Herald front page with, ‘Super boost for GPs: $5 million clinic to ease the strain on hospitals’. What the local community in Redcliffe told us is this will be the first time ever that GPs will be trained in the electorate of Petrie—the first time ever. Twenty medical trainees going through this superclinic, year after year, making sure that the shortages in the region will be able to be met. This is fundamentally good news and I am sure that those communities are very happy with the timetabling of this GP superclinic.
Finally, I would like to make mention of the fact that today is International Nurses Day, and the nurses who work very hard across our country should be congratulated for the hard work that they do. I know that many nurses were very excited about the investments in the budget last night, probably most importantly the $390 million for better supporting practice nurses. These are nurses who work with our doctors in general practice to provide extra services, particularly for chronic disease and prevention. This investment will allow up to 3.8 million additional GP services to be provided because of the time that is freed up while nurses provide important care to members of our community.
I would also like to encourage members of this House—I know the member for Lyons and a number of others have already put in their requests for new GP superclinics. And I am sure that, like the member for Parkes and the former leader of the National Party, John Anderson, who made pretty fast tracks to our doors to ask for a superclinic in Gunnedah, we will have backbenchers and others arguing for these investments to be made in their electorates. We will welcome those requests, we will take each of them seriously and we look forward to providing more support for members of the community who need access to GP and nursing care.
2:41 pm
Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, my question is to the Prime Minister. With commodity analysts predicting a glut in global resource production by 2014-15, and with mining companies already paying 33 per cent more tax on their profits than all other Australian companies, how will miners pay double the tax of other companies and still grow at the 20 per cent figure predicted by this government under a new great big mining tax? How can the assumptions in this budget be taken seriously when they are built on such flimsy ground?
Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I thank the member for Groom for his question, and I do not think he was listening to the answer I gave to an earlier question about the Treasury’s assumptions about the change in commodities prices over the short, medium and long term. This, by the way, is the same Treasury which provided advice on future courses for commodity prices for the previous government.
The other part of his question goes to the underpinning assumptions for the budget itself. This has been the subject of some interesting discussion today, as the member for North Sydney would be well aware. On the underpinning assumptions of the budget 12 months ago, in May 2009, the member for North Sydney had this to say:
The Treasury has some pretty heroic assumptions in their forecasts of how quickly we come out of recession.
Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Yeah, that’s right!
Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
That was 12 months ago. What did he say today?
Last year the Treasury was immensely pessimistic about the budget.
Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The budget numbers. Forecasted numbers. Do you understand the difference?
Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Joe, Joe, Joe. How sloppy can you get?
Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
You cannot on the one hand last year say that they were monstrously optimistic and then this year say that last year they were monstrously pessimistic. It does not add up. It is a bit like what the member for North Sydney had to say when he set us that benchmark to meet for the budget the other day. When asked on Insiders what is the benchmark the government must meet, he said:
Well they could do it if they tried—
that is, bring the budget into surplus—
in three to four years.
Joe, we are doing it in three.
Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
You won’t!
Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
We actually got to the inner margin of what you set as the benchmark. Can I just say that, in this entire debate about economic credibility, assumptions and the budget, what we see is a federal opposition which is the least economically literate federal opposition we have seen for decades. On the Liberal Party, we also have some interesting comments about the level of literacy and the question of financial conservatism. My attention was drawn to a comment recently, contained in the Sydney Morning Herald, which refers to the economic literacy of the Leader of the Opposition. This is what was said in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald on 10 April—
Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order, obviously on relevance. How could the Prime Minister’s answer now be relevant when he was asked a question about the issue of resources and how they could be taxed into oblivion and still grow in the budget forecast by 20 per cent a year for the next four years?
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, those on my right! The Manager of Opposition Business should ignore taunts if he really wants to hear my response to his point of order. The question did go to how seriously the budget forecast should be taken, which allows a fairly wide response, but I would ask the Prime Minister to relate his material to the question.
Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I draw my answer to a conclusion. The comment which is contained in the herald reads:
When he lost a fight with Peter Costello in the expenditure review committee over some expensive proposal or other he’d go straight into John Howard’s office to try to get the decision overturned … He never really understood the meaning of fiscal conservatism …
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Order! The Prime Minister will resume his seat. On the question of relevance, the Prime Minister must go to relating his material to the question.
Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Resources have been around for a long time, both when the previous government was in as well as under this government. The point that I am making is that, when it comes to responsible economic management, we have relied upon the same Treasury advice as Peter Costello relied upon. We are relying on the same Treasury advice, which is to serve independently the governments of both political persuasions, and we have acted professionally based on that advice concerning future assumptions for commodity prices. But, as a former long-term cabinet colleague of the Leader of the Opposition said, he never really understood the meaning of the term fiscal conservatism.
2:47 pm
Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Minister for Education and Minister for Social Inclusion. Will the Deputy Prime Minister outline to the House the investments the government is making in skills through the budget and the importance of these measures for Australia’s productivity?
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Order! If the member for Leichhardt’s fan club on both sides of the chamber can just be a little quieter, I will give the call to the Deputy Prime Minister.
Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I am certainly a member of the member for Leichhardt’s fan club and I thank him for this important question. Of course, the member for Leichhardt knows, and I have spoken to him on many occasions, about the need for investment in skills in this country, and last night’s budget contains an important skills package. Today I want to highlight just one part of this important skills package. It is the right time to be generating even more investment in skills, as the budget papers show we are moving towards a full employment environment. In this environment, we want to make sure that young people get a start in life, that they get a trade—an opportunity for a start in life.
Last time our country went through an economic downturn, apprenticeship commencements went through the floor. The really bad news is that, after they went through the floor, it took 14 years for commencements to recover—so sharply down and 14 years to recover. As a result of the global recession, apprenticeships were threatened once again. As a government, we became very concerned as we saw signs, in the 12 months following September 2008, like apprentice and trainee commencements falling by 20 per cent—worrying signs for all.
We could have stood back and done nothing in these circumstances, but, just as we took quick and decisive action to support jobs, we took quick and decisive action to support apprenticeships. This included in October 2009 our $100 million Apprentice Kickstart program, designed to reverse the decline in traditional trade commencements, aimed squarely at young Australians leaving school and provided over the summer months. We also invested in a $145 million package to secure Australian apprenticeships for those apprentices who had become out of trade because of the economic circumstances their employer was facing and needed a new opportunity in order to complete their apprenticeship. The great news is that, taken together, these measures have assisted more than 40,000 businesses in national skill shortage areas, enabled more than 49,000 apprentices to remain in work or complete their training and ensured that around 24,400 young apprentices started in the trades over the summer. That is great news.
As a result of last night’s budget, today we are opening the second phase of Apprentice Kickstart. Today, employers can put on a young person and get special new incentives for doing so. The incentives for putting on that young person have more than tripled. We expect this phase of Apprentice Kickstart over the next six months to support 22,500 commencements. We are focusing this initiative on small- and medium-sized businesses, businesses with fewer than 200 employees. Once again, our target is young Australians aged 19 years and under in the key areas of construction, automotive, mechanical engineering, hospitality and electrotechnology. These are real opportunities for young people, available from today.
Today, together with the member for Eden-Monaro and my ministerial colleague Senator Mark Arbib, I went to Country Energy and I met with a young apprentice called Thomas Watson. I met with his supervisor, who started life as an apprentice, a man called John Bruce, and I met with the overall boss, a man who also started his life as an apprentice, Phillip Green. This proves that getting a trade gives you employment support for life. It is the doorway to great opportunities. We have acted decisively to save jobs. We have acted decisively to save skills. Today I ask Australian employers to get in and take advantage of this program and give a young Australian a fantastic start in life through a trade apprenticeship.