Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise, not for the first time, to express my grave concerns at the impact of this cruel budget on the health and wellbeing of people in the Scullin electorate.

Before I go directly to that, it is appropriate that, today being Mabo Day, I also draw the attention of the House to the precarious position in which this budget leaves the Bubup Wilam Aboriginal Children and Family Centre in Thomastown. While this wonderful community-controlled facility is mainly concerned with early childhood education, it also plays an important role in supporting primary health care for Aboriginal people in Melbourne's north. It is simply unconscionable that this wonderful and important work is under threat—as are health outcomes across the electorate.

While we are still trying to appreciate the full impact of the Commonwealth's massive cuts to the state, we know enough now to appreciate the pressure that will be brought to bear on the Northern Hospital in Epping. On 1 July—that is 1 July of this year—the Northern will have $4.7 million cut from it. The full effect of this budget is to make the Northern $36 million worse off. That would pay for 7,000 surgeries. Beds will close. Staff will be sacked. People with illnesses will remain sick. Local GPs amplify my concerns that hard-won gains in boosting primary care—and I pay tribute to our Medicare Local in that regard; it is another body that is in this budget's sights—will be lost through the impact of the GP tax.

As the member for the electorate with the highest rate of bulk-billing in Victoria, I say to this government: keep your promises, and junk this budget of broken promises. And I say to Victorians: you have got a chance in November to put part of this right by electing an Andrews Labor government that will stand up and fight for your health care.