Ross Hart (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker, I cannot top that! I rise today to speak about the health-care system in northern Tasmania. I also wish to acknowledge the achievement of a northern Tasmanian institution, which is St.LukesHealth. The organisation is a non-profit, members' own private health insurer established in Launceston in 1952. It has a proud focus on customer service and serving its communities. That focus on customer service was recently recognised by Roy Morgan Research in its 2016 Customer Satisfaction Awards. Notwithstanding that St.LukesHealth is tiny by comparison to large players in private health insurance, it was recognised as the leader in private health insurance nationwide for 2016. It was awarded the title of Private Health Insurer of the Year, based upon 12 months of data from Roy Morgan's consumer single source survey. I think it is significant that this award was won by a mutual—a customer owned—organisation. It is also significant, in my view, that the award was given to an organisation with a culture of supporting communities within which it operates—something that many organisations, large and small, strive to achieve with varying success.

I congratulate St.LukesHealth, its board, management, staff and members, for having achieved so much as a small organisation, competing with very large organisations in a heavily contested space. Nevertheless, notwithstanding the fantastic efforts in customer service of St.LukesHealth, serving its members in all states and territories of Australia, there are some significant constraints within my electorate with access to private health care.

It is acknowledged that the private health-care system and private health insurance plays a role in supporting the public sector—in particular, the public health system. Labor strongly believes and affirms the importance of a public universal health system. There is much material to suggest, including recently released data, that the public health system, across the various jurisdictions, is under significant stress. I would say that the stress is a product of underinvestment in our public health system, whilst the present government claims increased investment in public health and our public health-care system.

The problem is, of course, that the present Liberal government, whilst promising increased investment, highlights the fact that it is spending more money but not keeping pace with health-care inflation or increased demand. Health-care inflation and increased demand, whether just from increased populations or increased acuity, means that unless funding is increased to address those issues the system will go backwards.

In many markets those who have private health insurance are able to access a fully functioning private alternative, thereby fulfilling the object of taking pressure off the public system. There are many regional markets within Australia where private health-care availability is at marginal levels with limited access to, for example, birthing services, emergency services or more comprehensive surgical and medical services. Northern Tasmania has recently lost its access to services for maternity services, for postnatal care, with the closure of the St Vincent's postnatal unit in Launceston.