Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Anyone in this chamber who thought that the Commonwealth funding crisis in our public hospitals had been averted needs to think again. Once again, we stand on the precipice of another funding crisis. Once again, we see the federal Labor government playing with the lives and wellbeing of patients right across the country but most particularly in my home state of Victoria. Like the endless merry-go-round, the federal Minister for Health is once again threatening the funding to public hospitals in my home state of Victoria.

Let me just remind this chamber that this is not the first time that the minister has tried to cut funding to the Victorian health budget and to our state hospital system. Last year, the minister tried to cut it by more than $107 million, only to be met with a public outcry, only to be met with the concerns of many hundreds and thousands of Australians about the fact that it would result in $7.8 million being cut to the Alfred Hospital and the closure of up to 350 beds. It would also affect the children's hospital.

I am sad to say that, despite the community campaign overturning this decision and the minister being forced to restore this $107 million, she is at it again. On 1 July this year, the federal government will be cutting $368 million from Victorian public hospitals over the coming three years. This has a direct impact on services, emergency care and elective surgery. It will have an impact on the number of beds that can be kept open. This cut is based on a dodgy and completely astounding assumption that Victoria's population is somehow decreasing by up to 11,000 people, which of course is not sustained by the facts. We know it is not the truth, because the Commonwealth's own Statistician produced figures to confirm that Victoria's population grew—it did not decrease; it grew—by 75,400 people in 2011. This was corroborated also by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

I suppose it should not really surprise us that this government would make up figures. We have seen that happen each and every year this Treasurer has delivered a budget. We have also seen it when the minister for immigration provides numbers regarding the 457 visa issue. But I do think we need to take this current cut that the minister will impose on Victoria, and on our public hospital system, very seriously. It will have a direct impact on my constituents in Higgins, and right across Victoria, and she must reverse that decision immediately.