Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House:

(1)

congratulates the Rudd Government on reaching its historic COAG agreement on health and hospital reform;

(2)

acknowledges the massive investment by the Government in training more doctors and health professionals, cutting waiting lists, improving services in emergency departments and providing cancer care and services throughout Australia; and

(3)

notes that the Leader of the Opposition, when Health Minister, reduced funding for public hospitals by $1 billion.

It gives me great pleasure to move the motion tonight to thank and congratulate the Prime Minister, the Minister for Health and Ageing and the executive for reaching a historic COAG agreement to deliver better health care and better hospitals for Australian working families. The Rudd government’s National Health and Hospitals Network reform plan gives a commitment to permanently fund 60 per cent of public health costs, 60 per cent of capital projects and 60 per cent of the teaching and research in our public hospitals. The Australian government will also deliver $7.3 billion in additional funding over the next five years to provide 1,300 new subacute hospital beds and an additional 2,500 aged-care beds. The government is also committed to elective surgery being delivered on time for 95 per cent of Australians; a historic agreement to reshape mental health services and help 20,000 extra young people get access to mental health services; more coordinated care in general practice for patients with diabetes; a Commonwealth takeover of primary care; and a Commonwealth takeover of aged care.

The government will invest $1.2 billion in training and supporting more doctors, nurses and allied health professionals as part of Building a Health and Hospitals Network for Australia’s Future. This includes an additional $520 million investment in Australia’s nurses. In total, the government’s investments will train almost 5,500 GPs and 680 specialist doctors and expand and improve support for more than 4,600 full-time equivalent nurses working in general practice, as well as other nurses working and training in aged care and rural areas. It will support 800 allied health professionals working and training in rural areas over the next four years, which is significant to the people in my electorate of Solomon.

Hardworking doctors and nurses in our emergency departments do a great job, but they need more support to deliver working families the timely services they need. The most recent figures show that, currently, almost one in three patients—almost 600,000 people each year—wait longer than eight hours in an emergency department before they are admitted to hospital. Almost one in three patients wait longer than is clinically recommended. The new national four-hour target for emergency department access in public hospitals will be established under the new National Health and Hospitals Network. The government will provide $150 million from 1 July this year in upfront payments to help states and territories with the costs of moving towards the four-hour target. This investment will help provide the additional capacity, equipment and planning that is needed to deliver improvements in emergency departments and lift hospitals to the new high standards required under the National Health and Hospitals Network. A further $350 million will be available in reward funding for meeting or beating the target.

This investment will mean that families can be confident that when they or a loved one need urgent care in an emergency department they will no longer have to spend all night sitting in waiting rooms or waiting for a bed. The new National Health and Hospitals Network will also mean that doctors and nurses will have more say in the way their local hospital is run, through local hospital networks and new primary healthcare organisations. This fundamental reform and the government’s investments will ensure that our health workforce meets the needs of Australians today and the growing demand for health services into the future.

Without central reform, spiralling health costs could have consumed entire revenues raised by states and territories. The agreement delivers that reform, putting health funding onto a sustainable footing and delivering better health and better hospitals for working families across Australia. For more than a decade, Australia suffered as public hospital emergency departments struggled to cope with two million extra presentations and reduced funding from the former government. We know that the states and territories did suffer under the previous government, when Mr Abbott was the Minister for Health and Ageing and ripped a billion dollars out of the hospital system.

In my electorate of Solomon, the efforts of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health and Ageing have been significant. On Friday I did some filming of some government funded sites, such as the GP superclinic in Palmerston, which is nearing completion, and the new medical school, which will be under threat if the former government is returned to office. The oncology unit is now operational—

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Campaign ads, were they?

Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection from the member for Gippsland. It will not be called the Tony Abbott Cancer Centre. In fact, it is the Alan Walker Cancer Care Centre, after Dr Alan Walker. That is operational now, with a $28.6 million investment from the Rudd Labor government to make it happen on the ground. I am very thankful to the Prime Minister for his initiative and his vision in going into the hospital system and making sure that we have reforms and changes for the future. I also acknowledge, as I said, the health minister’s tireless work in this area. I thank the House. (Time expired)

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Public Security and Policing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to join the debate on the motion before the House. I do admire the member for Solomon’s enthusiasm. There has been an orgy of self-congratulation regarding health reform among some Labor MPs, and it is probably time for a cold shower. There is a lot of work still to be done on health reform and actually delivering the services that Australians expect, particularly those families that live in rural, regional and remote locations.

The motion before the House congratulates the Rudd government on reaching its historic COAG agreement on health and hospital reform. It overlooks the simple fact that the Western Australian government has not even signed up to this historic COAG agreement as put by the mover of the motion. That does not, however, stop the spin from going into overdrive when it comes to the Rudd Labor government. It does not stop the taxpayer funded advertising propaganda campaign. We have already seen the rollout of $10 million worth of advertising. It has already hit the airwaves. But what happened to the promises about the Auditor-General having oversight of government advertising? I sincerely hope, for the benefit of the member for Solomon, that the government has not paid too much for the ads, because they are an appalling representation of government policy. It is like ‘Noodle Nation’ revisited, so I hope you have not paid too much for it on behalf of the Australian taxpayers. This issue of Auditor-General oversight has gone the way of being another Labor government broken promise.

We suggest to the minister and to the Prime Minister that they should stop paying for spin doctors and use the money to pay for real doctors. That $10 million could have employed 30 doctors in the course of one financial year. That is the problem with this government, and the member for Solomon himself knows it. There are so many broken promises that no-one is listening to the spin anymore. You can just keep on spinning, keep on spinning, but no-one is actually listening anymore. The good doctor Rudd is actually poison on the ground in the electorate of Gippsland, as in so many other parts of regional Australia. We have had the home insulation disasters, the rorting of the school halls program, the failure to deliver on the promised childcare services and the backflip on the emissions trading scheme.

This motion asks the House to congratulate the Rudd government on reaching its historic COAG agreement on health and hospital reform, and I would be happy to congratulate the government if it actually managed to deliver any program on time and on budget. Just deliver one program on time and on budget and I would be happy to join in congratulations with the member for Solomon. I do not want to sound churlish. Quite recently, the Gippsland Cancer Care Centre was promised $22 million. It is a positive announcement and I freely acknowledge the positive announcement. But, given the Rudd Labor government’s record of broken promises and failure to deliver on the projects that are promised, Gippslanders have every reason to be sceptical and wary, and the overall sentiment remains that the people of Gippsland will believe it when they actually see it.

Even the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services had to sneak into Gippsland to make the announcement, with not even the courtesy of a phone call. That is the way they do business in this government. I must admit I expected a little bit more from the member for Maribyrnong. Perhaps I was misguided. I do not expect much from some of his colleagues but I thought the member for Maribyrnong had a bit more class than that.

The motion before the House also refers to the government’s investment in training more doctors and health professionals, cutting waiting lists, improving services in emergency departments and providing these cancer care services. The four-hour target the member for Solomon refers to regarding emergency department waiting times is just another target, another promise from the Rudd Labor government. He talks about it as if it has already happened, as if he is meeting this target of a four-hour waiting time. I suggest to the member for Solomon that the reward money he talked about is very safe in the Treasury’s coffers. I do not think the four-hour target will be met. I do not trust this government and its capacity to deliver health services to my constituents, particularly in rural and regional communities. I would have thought that, with this government’s track record of continually overpromising and underdelivering, it would be better off keeping the corks in the champagne bottles until it actually get some runs on the board.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia naturally takes a very close interest in this debate and these matters relating to health and hospital reform. Dr Nola Maxfield, the president of the association, put out a statement on 11 May in relation to the budget and health reform package under the headline ‘With a severe lack of rural workforce measures, this budget really needs a doctor’. Dr Maxfield said:

“When it comes to real measures to improve access to health care in the bush and entice more doctors and other health professionals to rural and remote Australia, this budget is in serious need of a doctor … literally”

She went on to say:

“Instead of trying to paper over poor access to after-hours medical care with the Medicare Local national health telephone service, why not put in place real measures to get more Doctor Locals into the bush? After all, if there is no doctor in a rural town anyway, where is Medicare Local going to direct those after-hours patients needing serious care … Sydney, Melbourne or Perth?

There is still a great deal of uncertainty in my electorate about how the health and hospital reform proposed by this government will actually affect those living in regional areas. I have met with the providers in my electorate in recent weeks and they are passionate about ensuring that local decision-making capacity remains in the future.

In future, before we debate motions congratulating the government, I call on the government to actually get some results in terms of improved health services throughout regional Australia. (Time expired)

Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What an extraordinary contribution from the member for Gippsland. He tried as much as he could to speak about anything other than health—‘Let’s not mention health, let’s not even talk about it’—because we know that on your side the record on health is absolutely abysmal, ripping a billion dollars out of the health system, putting a cap on GP places so there are not enough doctors, doing nothing about the shortage of nurses, doing nothing about allied health professionals—and the shortages that were there for years. What we saw under the previous government was a decline in the contribution the federal government made to the health budget. We saw it drop below 40 per cent. That is what you did when you were in government. You should hang your heads in shame in relation to what you did when you had the treasury bench and were looking after health.

You ask for some concrete things that this government has done in health. Well, talk to the tens of thousands of people who got treatment more quickly because of the money we put into elective surgery. Talk to those tens of thousands of Australians who came off those waiting lists because of the money in last year’s budget—real action on health affecting people’s lives, making sure that they are seen as quickly as possible. That is real change. That is actually doing something positive for health, rather than ripping money out of it. This government has increased by 50 per cent the amount of money that went into the COAG agreement. That is real money going to fix the system, making sure that people get better services in our public hospitals.

We have promised over $7.3 billion in relation to helping health. That means 1,300 extra beds. What is the member for Gippsland’s position in relation to that? He is not even going to talk about health; he does not even care about what happens in health. He is just a bit worried about which photo he can get into next. It does not matter what he believes as long as he can get into a photo. That is the motto of the member for Gippsland. If there is a camera out there anywhere, he will be rushing out to jump into the frame. You can bet your bottom dollar that if there is an opportunity for a photo in relation to our health reform the member for Gippsland will be the first one lining up to get there and, surrounded by doctors, saying what a wonderful thing this is. But when he comes to Canberra it is very different. He talks one game back in his electorate, happy to take the glory for the reforms that this government is making. He comes to Canberra and talks a totally different game. He tries to walk both sides of the fence by having a different argument here in Canberra from the one he takes back to his electorate.

This government is about real reform. Look at some of the real reform that is being proposed in my electorate, for example. We have the view that our hospital networks should be run locally. The biggest concern on the Central Coast is that our area health services either are run out of North Sydney, as they are at the moment, or could be run out of the Hunter. We have over 300,000 people on the Central Coast and we want to have our health system run locally. That is what this reform does. It proposes that we run our health system locally rather than the way it has been done in the past. That means that we are able to get local clinicians, local doctors and local nurses involved in the decisions that affect people on the Central Coast. If that was the only reform that was being done, then that would be a fantastic reform and a major reform for the Central Coast, but we have already started to make other reforms on the Central Coast as well. We have a temporary super GP clinic here. We know from those opposite they do not believe in super GP clinics.

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Chester interjecting

Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have more than two because I have a temporary one which is seeing over 2,000 patients a month.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Chester interjecting

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Gippsland was heard in silence. I expect the same for other members.

Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Those opposite get agitated when they hear about health. They do not like to hear about what we are doing in health. They do not like to hear about how super GP clinics are taking pressure off public hospitals. Wyong Hospital, which is in my electorate, has the fifth busiest emergency department in the state. We are building a super GP clinic which will employ over 106 staff and will be less than a kilometre away. It will have extended hours and bulk-billing and will take the pressure off a public hospital, which is one of the things the member of the Gippsland said we should be doing. Yet, on his side, what did we hear in the budget reply? ‘We are doing away with super GP clinics. We do not want to have any more.’ Quite clearly, the opposition have no idea when it comes to health reform and no idea about putting in additional services. The opposition are about ripping the guts out of the health system. We know they did it before; we know they will do it again. They cannot be trusted in health. (Time expired)

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand completely why the member for Dobell would want to get New South Wales Labor out of the health system. I understand why he, as a New South Wales member, would want New South Wales Labor as far away as possible at the next federal election in a few months time because anything the New South Wales Labor Party has touched in recent times does not turn out to be all that good. So I can understand his desperate desire to talk about getting rid of the New South Wales government’s role in the health system.

But, unfortunately, the so-called plan of the Prime Minister does not do that; it does not do much at all. It is a health policy for an election, not for the future, which is just so typical of this Prime Minister. Unfortunately, as much as it pains me to do it, I have to disagree with the three points in the motion of the member for Solomon on health and hospitals. There are only three points in it. I disagree with each of them and it is very rare for me to disagree with the member for Solomon. I cannot congratulate this government for yet another spin job. I cannot acknowledge an investment which does not exist. I cannot accept the third point, which just continues to outline a complete fib that those on the other side have been told to push around by the hollow men up there in the Prime Minister’s office about the so-called record of the Leader of the Opposition, who was a very good minister when he was the Minister for Health and Ageing.

When it comes to this Prime Minister, this is his record on health. He promised to fix hospitals by mid-2009 and he has failed. He promised to take them over and he has not. He promised to deliver 36 GP superclinics—not super GP clinics but GP superclinics—but only three are open. We have just heard about the temporary one in the electorate of Dobell, which is alongside the temporary deficit. He promised to recruit 7,500 hospital nurses, but only 1,000 were recruited in 2008 and just 617 recruited in the last two years. He promised to recruit 1,000 nurses for aged care but only 139 were recruited. He has now dumped the Bringing Nurses Back into the Workforce scheme. He promised to deliver 12 defence health clinics but not one has opened. Finally, he promised to cut elective surgery waiting lists, but they are longer than they have ever been.

You cannot trust Rudd Labor when it comes to health, like you cannot trust them on the economy and you cannot trust them to implement any sort of program. When they cannot implement a pink batts program, how can you trust them with the $100 billion health system?

Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Craig Thomson interjecting

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Don’t worry, Member for Dobell, I will be on health; there is no doubt about that. It is the easiest story to pick apart that you could imagine. So desperate was the Prime Minister to try and have something to take to the election that he had to junk his commitment to give the Auditor-General a role in government advertising at the end of March so that he could have an advertising program on—guess which subject—health. It is an advertising program that no longer has to go through the Auditor-General. It is an advertising program he promised he would never do when he was in opposition.

The Prime Minister, when he was in opposition, said, ‘Why don’t we have a system whereby a ban is placed on publicly funded government advertising unless agreed between the leader of the government and the Leader of the Opposition for three months prior to an election?’ It is now three months before an election and what did we see on the weekend? The most political government advertising we have seen in this place in a generation. It is the most outrageous abuse of government money, and it was all done after they cut the Auditor-General out of the process. The government stood on their high horse before the last election and now just before this election they dump the promise. It is just so typical of this government. You cannot trust what they say before an election because it will all change after the election. Whether it is the greatest moral challenge of our time or an absolute commitment on government advertising, you cannot trust them. You cannot trust them when it comes to health.

You would not put these blokes in charge of the $100 billion health system after you have seen what they did with the memorial school halls program and the pink batts insulation program. They cannot implement a program. You would not trust them with the $100 billion health system because they do not have the ability to implement a program. What they do have is an ability to run an election campaign, and that is all this is about. The health policy is a cover for an election campaign policy. It is one of those things that will be dumped after the election, like ‘the greatest moral challenge of all time’ was dumped after the last election, like the government advertising fraudulent claim was dumped just before this budget so that they could run ad after ad after ad leading to this election.

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

Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.