Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The ACT will be hard hit by the federal budget. From July, these cuts will see ACT health funding drained of a much needed $47 million. Over the next four years, Canberrans will see more than $240 million cut from health funding. As Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has stated, the cuts to health funding equates to the staffing of 135 acute hospital beds, 390 nurses or 2,850 elective surgery operations.

ACT hospitals and their dedicated staff do a tremendous job in caring for the health of Canberrans. The loss of more than $240 million would place a strain on the provision of health care in the ACT. The decision of this government to cut more than $3 billion dollars from Australian public hospitals will shift the burden to already stretched states and territories. And it makes a mockery of the Prime Minister's repeated promises that there would be no cuts to health.

Along with my federal Labor parliamentary and ACT Labor Assembly colleagues, I will do all that I can to sustain hospital and health services in the ACT. Today's ACT budget will be a difficult one, made harder by the federal government's broken promises. Hospital workers at Canberra Hospital, Calvary Hospital and Calvary John James Hospital deserve better than this government's willingness to rip out the heart of our hospital system.