Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. I refer the minister to the Rockingham GP superclinic in Western Australia that was promised more than three years ago, is still not open and yet to see a single patient. How have the delays to this clinic affected the delivery of health services in Western Australia?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much to the honourable member for his question. Governments have two choices: you can either spend money in front-line services in health or you can spend it in great big new bureaucracies in Canberra. The Labor Party of course created 12 great big new bureaucracies in Canberra and it meant they were taking money away from services in Western Australia. This government will not make the same mistake. We will make sure that we deliver on our promises—and when I speak of promises it is very interesting to have a look at some of the promises that Labor made in their GP superclinic program.

It was a $650 million program. It was borrowed money. They promised 64 of these so-called superclinics around the country: they were to pop up with taxpayers' assistance and they were to provide competition against existing medical practices. The difficulty was that even though these were promised in some cases on multiple occasions, some of them have not yet even started work. They have not seen a patient as yet.

WA is a classic example. If you are living in Western Australia and you are asking, 'What would the Labor Party do for me in terms of health services?' look at their track record. The problem was that the member for Sydney, the former health minister Tanya Plibersek, Minister Plibersek, promised six of these in Western Australia. Do you know how many have been delivered? Only one—just one. Sure, by Labor standards she is an overachiever. One in six, about a 16 per cent success rate, makes you a roaring success of the Rudd-Gillard years, Tanya Plibersek, but let me tell you it does not make much difference in the lives of those people in Western Australia.

In the last parliamentary sitting week we also discussed a very important promise that Labor had made in relation to a GP superclinic at Karratha in Western Australia. The former minister, the member for Sydney, hopped up to make a personal explanation at the end of question time and she said:

The Karratha GP superclinic has been offering early services since 2 May 2012.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton will desist or leave, one or the other. Last warning!

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I pointed out last week, the Karratha superclinic, despite having been promised twice by Labor, has not yet started construction. It is very cheeky, but when you look at the words of the former minister she talks about 'early services'. They have been offering early services, have they? Do you know what that means? It means the superclinic has not been built, patients are not being seen, doctors are not providing those services. You have put money into an existing clinic and call that a superclinic. Somehow, that is justification for spending $650 million in this program. The people of Western Australia will not be fooled twice. The Rockingham GP superclinic was promised in 2010 and 2012. They will not fall for Labor's false promises again.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

After 21 well-answered questions, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.