Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Ballarat proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The government cutting hospitals and healthcare.

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a little hard to follow after that given the outrage on this side of the House, but I shall attempt to do this subject justice because justice it deserves. This government has been cutting hundreds of millions of dollars out of our public hospital system, hundreds of millions of dollars out of your public hospital system. That is what this government has been doing. The latest budget, in fact, actually cuts a further billion dollars out of our healthcare system. It does so by a few means. This government can't seem to help itself when it comes to healthcare.

Cuts in this new budget include: $416 million to GP visas; $336 million on increased use of generic and biosimilar medicines; and $190 million from the MBS review. Taken in isolation, some of these savings measures may not necessarily be a bad thing. For example, Labor offered bipartisan support for the MBS review. But some of these savings, frankly, don't stack up.

More than two weeks after the budget, we are still waiting for the government to explain the claimed savings from the GP visa changes, but the minister has been silent on this issue. AMA president, Michael Gannon, argued these savings won't be realised because patients will move to other GPs. If that's true, the government has a half-a-billion-dollar back hole when it comes to its budget. The only other alternative is that these savings will be realised because people are not accessing Medicare services—that's a cut to Medicare. The government should come out of hiding on this and actually explain this measure and say which it is. You have either got a hole in your budget, or people—particularly in country areas that have been relying on overseas-trained doctors to access services—are actually going to have less access to Medicare services. You can't have it both ways.

Whatever the case, there is a broader question here—namely, where is the $1 billion actually going to?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's because you haven't asked me a question since the election, not one.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister is interjecting yet again from the table. I have to say, it is great that the minister actually stays for these MPIs. He's the only frontbench minister who actually stays to debate me on MPIs. I think that says something about how nervous he is. It is great, because he was missing in action, frankly, in the last election campaign—no debate between the Libs and Labor on health care. It is great that the minister's actually here but I do note the fact that he feels the need to be here, that he actually has to be here. Are you feeling a bit of heat, mate? You'll get your time, sunshine. Here we are.

Excuse my cynicism, but I don't trust a single word that this government says when it comes to health care. The government makes the claim that it's going to redirect all of its savings into health care. I suspect most Australians will take a similar view to us, that the government's assurances when it comes to health care are absolutely worthless. By way of an example, there's $190 million in savings from the MBS review. There is just $25 million in new MBS listings. That is a cut to Medicare. Where is the rest of the money going? You can't say population growth and the use of services in Medicare is actually increasing Medicare. You just can't. Population growth is not actually a policy about increasing people's access to Medicare services and new innovations in Medicare. It is not going into new services.

We certainly know that it is not going into public hospitals. After four years of ongoing Abbott-Turnbull cuts to Australian public hospitals, they are in crisis across this country. When this government broke its 2013 election promise—tore up Labor's historic national health reform agreement with the states—it walked away from a commitment to fund an equal share of efficient growth in hospital costs. In case the minister doesn't remember, I'll show him. Here it is in black and white—or in blue and yellow, which I think were your colours then—your 2013 election commitment, which said you would match Labor's historic health and hospital reforms, funding 50 per cent of growth in the efficient price of hospital activity. That was your policy to match Labor. What has this government actually done? That is a commitment that was designed to end the blame game, to stop cost shifting between the states and to put budget certainty into our public hospital systems. But after the 2014 horror budget, what we saw was that this was not sacred. They said, 'No cuts to health'. There were not going to be any cuts to hospitals. They had their policy here, and this is what they've done.

The current Prime Minister eventually, after a campaign run by Labor, restored some of the funding in the lead up to the 2016 election campaign, because they knew they had a very big problem when it came to this. What he then did was offer 45 per cent of growth in the efficient price capped at 6.5 per cent. That, Minister, is a cut to our public hospitals. From 2017 to 2020 alone that is $715 million that you have cut from our public hospital system. Now what you have tried to do is lock that cut in for a further five years, to 2025. That is a cut of $2.8 billion out of our public hospital system. That is the record of this government.

He's been going around the country, trying to browbeat some of the states into signing this deal. Most of those that have signed, including the Labor states that have signed, have said very clearly that they have only done so—the Northern Territory actually hasn't signed yet, Minister. I know you have been claiming they have, but they actually haven't signed yet. What those states are saying very clearly to us is that they know this is an inadequate deal but they don't trust this government not to cut public hospitals further. That's what they are telling us. They've done so for budget certainty, and they are looking to us to fix this government's mess when it comes to our public hospital system. It is an inadequate deal and represents a $2.8 billion cut to our public hospitals from 2019.

Our public hospitals simply cannot keep up with demand at the moment. That is why we are seeing emergency department waiting times blow out across the country. Elective surgery waiting times are also getting longer and longer under this government. The Australian Medical Association put it best when they recently said:

… the current funding formula will doom our public hospitals to fail, and patients will suffer as a result.

That is the record of this minister and this government. It's the grimmest of warnings from one of the most respected medical groups, but this government has not been listening. It's been going around, trying to keep everything quiet on health, because it knows it's got a problem when it comes to health, represented by the Minister for Health, who is willing to actually debate on this issue. He is the only frontbench minister who takes MPIs—good on him. They are out there desperately trying to spin the line that they are spending more on health than ever before. That's what they're trying to say. What they're studiously neglecting to mention is that spending is declining on a per capita basis—the most important measure. As experts from the Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy warned a fortnight ago as a result of this government spending trajectory, 'Australians will either become sicker or be forced to pay more for their medical care'. That is what they have said. The group's director, Henry Cutler, said:

… real health expenditure would grow by 1 per cent less than population growth over the forward estimates—

which is a cut, Minister. The government insists that spending more than they were, using the Abbott government as their baseline—that's what this minister does. This is what this minister does: he uses the Abbott 2014 budget as the baseline and then tries to say, 'We're putting $30 billion more into public hospitals.' You're putting in $30 billion more than the member for Warringah did when he was Prime Minister. That is the baseline that you're using. It's a pretty poor baseline given the billions of dollars it represented as a cut to our public hospital. The government insist that they're spending more, as I said, using that baseline—the lowest of low bars to use. If they really think that being slightly better than Tony Abbott on public hospitals is generous, then it shows just how out of touch the government are. The government know that their funding is lousy. That's why they've resorted to comparing spending in 2015 to 2020 with spending under their proposed deal for the subsequent five years. Of course the Commonwealth will spend more on public hospitals in 2025. There are going to be about five million more people in Australia in 2025 than there were in 2015. So, basically, they are fudging the numbers.

On Medicare, too, we know that the government's record is absolutely and utterly shameful. They have cut already out of the Medicare Benefits Schedule over $3 billion. That is their legacy when it comes to Medicare. The freeze on the Medicare Benefits Schedule, the savings that they've made from that, the cut on patients' rebates, the capacity for people to be able to access their doctor—that is the record of this government. Record cuts to Medicare, record destruction of our health— (Time expired)

Ms Flint interjecting—

Mr Deputy Speaker, I just ask you to ask the member behind you to withdraw the unparliamentary remark she just made.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Did the member make an unparliamentary remark?

Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No.

Opposition members interjecting—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I didn't hear the remark.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Absolutely weak. If you want to use that word in here—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call the Minister for Health.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition is very sensitive because we have called out Labor's lies in Longman. We have called out Labor's lies in Longman where they were running about and pretending that there have been cuts. You know what? Not only has there been, every year, in every state and territory, record funding for hospitals, record funding for Medicare and record funding for health under this government but, when you look at the very claims they make in Longman about Caboolture, there's an extraordinary story. Let me go right to the heart of the issue which seems to have excited them so much, because they have been caught out. Labor have been caught out, flat, plain lying as they did at the last election, but this time we're on to them from day 1.

What do we hear from them? We hear that the Caboolture Hospital has somehow had a cut. They're half right and they're half wrong. They're right because Queensland Labor has cut. They're wrong because the federal coalition government has increased. How do we know this? Because the activity based funding which has been published confirms this. Let me give you some examples. This goes to credibility. When we look at the figures for Metro North, which includes Longman and the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, which I visited last week, and also includes Caboolture Hospital, we see that, over the last three years, coalition funding has gone up 38 per cent and Labor funding has gone up four per cent. But what is really instructive is to look at the last full year of funding. Coalition funding went up $120 million for the area, which includes Caboolture Hospital, in one year. What happened to Queensland Labor funding? There was a decrease of $21 million. So they were right in one respect. There have been some cuts to Caboolture Hospital and they are Queensland Labor's. They were silent on this. How could it be that you actually go there, stand outside the Caboolture Hospital and cover up your own side having made a cut of $21 million in the last year?

My favourite point is that the opposition shadow spokesperson for health loves to talk about the base year. So let me go to the base year, their last year of funding when they were in government. That was a $13 billion figure. Labor put in $13 billion, and since then the funding has gone up under the coalition to $14 billion for hospitals, to $15 billion for hospitals, to $17 billion to hospitals, to $18 billion to hospitals and to $20 billion—and in this budget the next four years are $21 billion, $22 billion, $23 billion and $24 billion. Each year, every year, every state, every territory: a record. That's the reality. And you know what is extraordinary? What you see is that funding has increased at a faster rate under the federal coalition than under the previous Labor government.

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

We were starting from your base! We were starting from Labor's base. Each year, every year, a record in funding, and each year, every year, what we've seen is that the coalition has increased at a faster rate than Labor. That is exactly what we are seeing. It is the same whether it's in Medicare or it's in health as a whole. What we see is that the overall health budget is up $12.4 billion this year.

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

$12.4 billion.

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Ballarat!

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It goes from $99 billion to $102 billion to $104 billion to $109 billion. Medicare goes up from $25 billion to $26 billion to $27 billion to $29 billion. That is up $4.8 billion.

What we see now is that Labor are so incapable of making their own arguments that they are now saying, 'Yes, it's going up, but the population's growing.' You know what? Medicare funding is going up. Let me give you some examples of new Medicare items which we brought in: 3D mammograms for up to 200,000 women are included in this budget, as are a new funding item—

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Ballarat is warned!

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

for MRIs for men potentially with prostate cancer and new tests for cystic fibrosis. We have new cataract surgery items, which will have a major impact in many areas of rural and regional Australia. This is what we are actually doing. There is more funding in Medicare, more funding in hospitals—more funding right across health.

There is an additional $338 million for mental health services, including $100 million for support for older Australians, whether it's in residential care or in the community, for their mental health needs. There is funding for beyondblue for their extraordinary Way Back program, and I commend former Prime Minister Gillard for her work with the government and now with the states on that. This is a program to give people treatment at the very moment they are most likely to take their own lives. It's a cooperative program which we've embarked upon. Similarly, we're contributing $33 million to Lifeline. With the great Professor Patrick McGorry and other leaders such as Professor Kapur, Professor Helen Milroy and Professor Tracey Wade, from South Australia, who is an expert in eating disorders, we are putting together a $125 million Million Minds Mental Health initiative under the Medical Research Future Fund—the largest, longest, single investment in mental health research in Australian history.

Let us compare that. Let us compare that with our friends on the other side. When you look at what's happening in Queensland, you see the absolute truth. In Mackay, we're increasing funding by 30 per cent; Labor at the state level are decreasing funding in that region by two per cent—a 32 per cent difference. Townsville is an extraordinary example. In Townsville we see that we're increasing by 25 per cent, and it is a zero per cent change over the last three years, but I had a look at the figures for the ABF funding from Queensland to the Townsville area for the last full year. It's gone from $374 million to $346 million. So Queensland Labor have cut their own funding to their own hospitals in their own seat by $28 million. So there you go. That is an extraordinary thing about which they are absolutely silent. If they want to have a debate about facts, let's go for broke. Let's have a debate about facts.

But there is something that is even more significant than that: a vision for the Australian health system. What we saw on budget night was a vision for the Australian health system which covered our primary care and a-once-in-a-generation reform of our rural workforce system, and I am delighted to have at the table the assistant minister who was one of the architects of that system. What we see here are 3,000 new doctors and 3,000 new nurses for rural Australia with better opportunities for doctors, better opportunities for nurses and better outcomes for patients. That is a fundamental reform of profound significance and meaning.

In addition to all those Medicare items that I mentioned—for example, for mammograms, for prostate cancer, for cystic fibrosis and for cataract surgery—what we also see is an investment in new medicines. There is $2.4 billion, including for SPINRAZA, this extraordinary medicine to assist with spinal muscular atrophy for kids who would otherwise never have that opportunity; and for Kisqali for over 3,150 breast cancer patients who wouldn't have access to that medicine. And that compares—and this is the thing—with what Labor did when Labor was in office. They deliberately made a decision not to follow the advice of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. They did that on the statement of the former minister, who said they could not list everything that the PBAC provided. We are very happy to provide those quotes. We guarantee that we will do that.

They left medicines for pulmonary conditions, asthma, endometriosis, IVF and schizophrenia on the table on the side and chose not to advance those listings at the time that it was progressed. And they made deliberate, conscious decisions. That is the difference. In the end, when it comes to health, we don't just pledge; we deliver each year, every year, record funding, hospitals, Medicare, health and mental health. (Time expired)

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bowman on a point of order?

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Standing order 89, unparliamentary language. The member for Ballarat. The use of the word 'idiot' is unacceptable.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the member for Ballarat wish to withdraw?

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw that reference to the minister.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was an astounding contribution by the Minister for Health—

Ms Flint interjecting—

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Boothby is warned.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sadly, he was unprepared to own up to the truth or the facts as they were outlined by the shadow minister for health, the member nor Ballarat, who, as you well know, Minister, is very accurate in her depiction of your funding arrangements and is very accurate in making very plain your cuts to the hospital system. I know it. I feel it in my communities. And I see it because of the reliance of people in rural and remote parts of Australia on the hospital system. And I know that you think you care, but you don't act as if you do. I think you have got real issues around making sure that the hospital systems are funded properly. You're not prepared to accept the evidence that you've cut $715 million from 2017 to 2020.

In my electorate, Mr Minister, that means $3.2 million from the Alice Springs Hospital, $350,000 from the Tennant Creek Hospital, $450,000 from the Gove District Hospital and $620,000 from the Katherine District Hospital. I'm not sure if you've ever been to any of those hospitals. I suspect you probably haven't. But I know the quality of work they do and the work they provide for our communities. I know how important they are in addressing issues to do with closing the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health because of the nature of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health in my communities and how much they rely on the secondary and tertiary care provided by these hospitals. And you, Mr Minister, seem to be not alive to the contributions they make or to the importance of improving their opportunities to provide further and better health care to those people.

Just so you recall: for people who live in remote and very remote areas of this country, mortality rates are 1.4 times that of metropolitan centres. For coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in all areas, the mortality rate is 1.2 to 1.5 times higher than in cities. And diabetes in very remote areas is 2.5 to four times higher. These people rely on the health services that are available to them. In this case in Alice Springs, for example, we've got tremendous physicians, great people doing top work. But they rely on the funding we make available to them, and you, Mr Minister, have decided by the decisions you've taken that the work they—

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do recommend that the member address his directions through the chair.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The work that they do is not valued sufficiently by you to make sure that they get the infrastructure they require. Let me give you an indication of work which is being done in the Katherine Hospital. Minister, you may be aware that in 2012, for the first time, a physician started work at the Katherine Hospital. As a result of that physician starting work at the Katherine Hospital, 10,000 bed days were saved in the Darwin hospital. Those sorts of improvements in health outcomes for people in my community are very important. You might laugh at them and you might not take any notice of them, but they are extremely important.

What you say to the Australian people is, 'Look, we're doing more for Australians through the health system and the hospital system than was done under Labor.' That is simply not true, and you know it. The changes you have made to Medicare are impacting on the whole of the Australian community, and you know that as well. So not only are you impacting on the primary healthcare of people across the community but you're also impacting negatively on secondary and tertiary care in those communities.

I was going to come to the issue of Closing the Gap and talk about this budget in terms of the follow-up and support for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan, which was, of course, introduced by us in a bipartisan way in 2013 to last for 10 years. We are five years on, and an implementation strategy which has been developed and supported by us has yet to be funded, Mr Minister. So I'm wondering: how seriously are you taking this Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan, if you're taking it seriously at all? We know you've provided no funds for it. We know you're not taking it seriously, and it's very clear that your priorities are elsewhere, rather than looking after the health system of Australians wherever they might live.

The minister at the table, who is about to speak, understands regional communities and understands the importance of regional hospitals to regional communities. He ought to understand, if he does that, the negative impact this government's cuts are having on those regional hospitals, whether in the communities he comes from in northern New South Wales or in my communities in the Northern Territory. (Time expired)

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party, Assistant Minister for Children and Families) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I really relish this opportunity to respond to the outrageous propositions that we've just heard from the other side. It's like being in Groundhog Day. I wake up and come to an MPI, and they're still arguing the same spurious figures and arithmetic. Across the whole four pillars of the health system, whether it's hospital funding, Medicare funding, medical research or mental health, the funding has gone up.

We might just start with this simple arithmetic. When I left practice after 33 years in the hospital system, the funding from the federal government when the current opposition was in government was $13.3 billion. Now it's $21.182 billion, going up next year to $22.3 billion. For simple arithmetic—I know you used to work in banking—$22.3 billion next year is much better than $13.3 billion when they were in government. In my electorate, the Lyne electorate, the arithmetic is similar. Hunter New England Health Authority, which runs Taree and Gloucester hospitals, had $1.3 billion received from the Commonwealth. It is now up to $1.52 billion.

The member for Lingiari spoke about the Northern Territory funding—as I mentioned, Groundhog Day and sophistry, confusing the numbers. Out there, people don't understand. There's funding from state governments and territories, and there's funding from the Commonwealth, but our proportion in the Northern Territory in 2017-18 is $290 million. In 2019-20 it goes up to $307.8 million. Over the 10 years on the new national hospital agreement, there's an 82 per cent increase. That's simple mathematics.

The Minister for Health mentioned our Stronger Rural Health Strategy. There is a really great initiative where we're going to end up with more medical practitioners, more nurses and more allied health because of initiatives that we've delivered in this budget. We are expanding end-to-end medical school training in existing medical schools and also expanding Charles Sturt University, which is linking with Western Sydney University. We are streamlining general practice training and putting funds into more GP specialist training for rural generalists. There's $84 million for the Royal Flying Doctor Service for remote mental health, emergency and dental schemes. The other pillar is Medicare funding—$4.8 billion more.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme—when I was practising in a hospital, we were dying to get the latest drugs, the biological agents, the amazing cancer drugs. Since we came into power in 2013, some 1,500 new drugs have been approved. That's $8.2 billion worth of new drugs. Whether it's heart failure, schizophrenia, pulmonary hypertension, cancers, melanomas—the Minister for Health mentioned Spinraza. Young Finn in my electorate has spinal muscular atrophy. When that came through I spoke to his mum and she was in tears. We have been battling for this drug for the last couple of years—and this budget, and the pharmaceutical benefits approvals, have delivered it.

Our Medical Research Future Fund is delivering enormous benefits to medical, surgical and mental health research. There is now $7 billion in the Medical Research Future Fund and it will peak at $20 billion in 2020. The dividends it is delivering are already showing up. The Biomedical Translation Fund—whether it takes discoveries on the benchtop in the science labs through to the bedside by translation or helps find a cure for various types of brain cancer—is a huge investment in genome research.

Across all areas of the Health portfolio, there have been great initiatives. The best thing that ever happened to the health system in this country is the coalition government coming into power in 2013 and delivering in spades—more for hospitals, more for Medicare, more for pharmaceutical benefits, for all the new drugs, and for mental health. It is really good. I'm so proud that, having given up my medical career to come to this place, we have delivered the goods for the Australian people.

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Budgets are about government priorities. Certainly in this budget, what we've seen is that there is no priority for health in this country. This government would rather give an $80 billion tax cut to the top end of town than look after people who require knee replacements, hip replacements and proper health services. We know that there is absolutely no increase in public hospital funding. The budget actually locks in the $715 million in cuts from the 2014 budget that the Abbott government brought down in 2014. The $715 million in cuts are still there. This means people in my electorate will have to wait longer and longer for knee replacements, for hip replacements, to see a specialist, to see their local GP and they'll have to pay more in co-payments towards their Medicare costs. That is what it means for those people.

The Turnbull government is continuing those cuts from 2014. For South Australia this budget means a shortfall of $12 million—$3.6 million for the Royal Adelaide Hospital, $5 million for the Flinders Medical Centre, $1.8 million for the Women's and Children's Hospital and $1.5 million for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, an iconic hospital in the western suburbs that serves a lot of the people in my electorate. This $12 million cut to hospitals serving the people of South Australia and Adelaide and my electorate is equivalent to an additional 33 nurses that could have been provided instead of cutting. It's nearly 18,000 extra people in emergency department visits and 29,000 outpatient visits. That's what it means for the people in my electorate of Hindmarsh. These cuts to health and hospitals are hurting everyday Australians across the country. All you have to do is look at the record of this government. The cost of seeing a doctor is the highest it's been on record. The average waiting time for elective surgery is the longest on record. The number of hospital beds available for elderly Australians is the lowest on record under this government's watch.

This government, as we all know, has also taken the axe to Medicare. I say this because you can go back and dress it up and paint it in any way you like—the government tries to describe us when we were campaigning on Medicare. The reality and the facts are that in 2013 when they won government, after promising not to cut a single cent from health, the first thing they did was try and introduce the co-payment. They pushed and pushed. They couldn't get it through. They tried again in the coming budget. Again they failed, so they tried to do the sneaky thing, and that was to put a freeze on payments to doctors. That is reality. That is not a furphy. That is not something that didn't take place. That is the reality, and that's where the Australian public lost confidence in this government when it comes to Medicare. We have a proud record on Medicare. Each and every one of us on this side pledged to protect Medicare. We've got that proud record because we introduced Medicare. We are the founders of Medicare. We believe in public health and we believe in a universal healthcare system.

In this budget, we know that another 1.7 million people say that they will skip seeing a specialist because of the current cuts and the costs that are involved. This has a devastating impact on many people, particularly older Australians in my electorate. If you want me to go to older Australians not in my electorate but across the country, we have seen one of the biggest con jobs on older Australians by this government. What we saw was 14,000 new places for people in aged care in terms of packages and we have 100,000 people on waiting lists, and it's growing by 20,000 every six months. What a con job.

Labor in government will fully reverse the government's cuts, by investing an extra $2.8 billion. This record investment will reduce emergency department and elective surgery waiting times, not bring those elective surgery waiting times up as will happen under this government and is already happening. It's also going to give more than 3,000 doctors, nurses and other hospital staff, and many who live in my electorate of Hindmarsh, the resources that they need to deliver the best care possible. We are proud of Medicare on this side of the House. We are proud that it was the Labor government that implemented Medicare. We are proud to continue to protect Medicare from the cuts that this government wants to bring. (Time expired)

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's always nice to be in the cheap seats at the end of the debate and having yet another farrago of cuts and growth. As a health economist, it's probably worth defining a couple of terms, because when the fear campaign ceases to work—look, I confess: back in the 2016 election we were slightly wrong-footed by 'Mediscare'. We didn't think anyone would have the effrontery to actually put out fake Medicare cards and make out that Medicare was under threat and likely to be erased forever.

We're dealing, of course, with a Labor entity that created Medicare in 1975 and never really moved on. They live back in the era of payments, where it's all about saving Medicare, back in the mid-1970s. What they've abdicated completely from is any debate about private health insurance and any debate about how the PBAC and the PBS work—anything about the four pillars of Medicare. They've never seen a private hospital they weren't scared of. You're flat out getting a Labor MP into a Catholic hospital. They try and fake it to a non-state hospital and then hope they've got a couple of mates there from Victorian Catholic education to back them up when they don't know what to say.

These are Labor politicians without any clue on how the health system works. Have more than one of them ever worked in a hospital? I think they just recruited a second one. They managed to scrounge around and find a nurse. They've got a guy who's an actual paediatrician on extension 2311—you never call the guy. You never listen to the one specialist you've got. You never involve him in the debate. In fact, you never even invite him to do an MPI, because he knows too much. He might actually talk about something other than factitious, completely ridiculous cuts to Medicare.

Let's define some terms. Let me have a crack at this as a health economist. Growth is numbers getting bigger? Cuts is, maybe, numbers getting smaller? When growth doesn't increase as fast as it did the previous year, it's a reduction in growth; it's not a cut, by any means. It's like a shyster walking down the street, offering to double your salary and then vanishing, then you go back and beat your boss up and say that he's halving your pay. It's rubbish! You never funded a single growth number you quote. You never found the money for it.

When this mob over here tell you they had a $52 billion health plan, remember, they only funded $2 billion of it—the rest of the money was never found. There was never any effort to find the money because they were too busy funding bureaucrats, too busy putting people behind desks with executive toys, standing around water bubblers. They are very good at that to try and fake their unemployment data but, when it comes to hospitals, these MPs opposite know nothing more about the public hospital system than the visiting hours. They wouldn't know where to go except to the coffee cart in a public hospital. None of you have worked in a hospital. I see one bureaucrat who stood around a water bubbler and looked at numbers and said, 'Just say a number and put the word "cuts" after it.'

Let's be serious. Let's look at what's happening in Queensland. For every dollar the feds put in, the state is flat-out matching it now. In the great Mater Hospital of South Brisbane, we have seen a negative-10 per cent funding growth from the state government while we are shovelling in a 10 per cent increase in funding—overall, in my own area, $404 million to $582 million; for the entire state, $2.7 billion up to 5.2 billion over five years of Commonwealth contribution; of nationwide $14 billion up to $23 billion. You need to be a kabuki artist to be able to turn that into a cut. You have to have a masters and be a 3rd Dan in kabuki to turn that into a cut because it's growth funding. You can say, 'You are using a lower base.' That is because every year before has a lower base because funding goes up every year. Of course the base of the previous year is lower.

That mob opposite are so tied up in their calisthenics, desperately trying to keep together that simple cuts argument but it is starting not to work with Australians. We are doing the right thing with HIV patients. We are doing the right thing in aged care. We are funding generously mental health. At every level, it looks bad for the Labor Party. This great party of health reform, in 1975, would be far wiser to say, in 2018, 'Good for them for continuing the increase in funding; we would advise you spend it in a different way. We would advise you to be more creative, to work not just in funding and need but in outcomes.' But, oh no, this party never heard of the word 'outcomes'. They never cared about how well the patient was; it's just about defending the funding and leaving the other stuff to the experts. When they walk through a hospital, they say, 'Careful, don't press that button.' I mean, you guys are absolutely petrified of health policy. They bring down a member for Macarthur, a man with a long career in public health provision. His extension is 2311. For those listening to the debate around the nation, 062772311, call that man and say, 'Come down and save Labor.'

Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a hospital pharmacist who worked at my local hospital in Wyong for 10 years before I was elected and who worked in mental health units for most of my life, Labor has a strong tradition in health and hospitals. We are the party of Medicare. I'm proud as a hospital pharmacist to say we are the party of the PBS. I am very proud to stand here today as a member of the Labor Party, as a hospital pharmacist and as a former mental health worker. I challenge anyone to walk into a public hospital or a mental health unit anywhere in Australia and say that our hospitals or our mental health units are properly funded.

Anyone who has sat in an emergency department knows that hospitals need more funding. Anyone who is waiting for elective surgery on a list that is getting longer and longer knows that our hospitals need more funding. Anyone who has been to a specialist lately knows it's not affordable. After four years of neglect under this government, our health system is in crisis. The dedicated staff working in these hospitals go to work each and every day to do their best with what they have but they are under strain. Our doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physios, OTs, speechies, social workers, psychologists and all hospital staff need more resources to provide the standard of care that they want to and the standard of care our community deserves. Resources are scarce. Everybody in our community, in our health system, knows that and everybody in our community and our health system cares about it except, it seems, this Liberal government, that wants to cut $2.8 billion from Australia's public hospitals in the next seven years.

People are now out of pocket by $38 every time they visit a GP. People are now out of pocket by $88 every time they see a specialist. Recently my sister was referred to a neurologist and was charged $440 up-front for a 20-minute consultation. With a young family, that's out of people's reach. That is not affordable for many, and it is causing people to delay or cancel specialist appointments and to delay or avoid filling a prescription. In fact, on the Central Coast of New South Wales each year, about 12,000 people skip a GP appointment, and about 21,000 people skip a specialist's appointment. As a pharmacist, I am especially concerned about the almost 21,000 people on the Central Coast who avoid or delay filling a prescription because of cost, risking their health and leading to greater long-term costs to our health system.

This budget shows that this government is failing to fund our hospitals and our healthcare services properly. Either it doesn't know or it doesn't care. The budget doesn't properly fund prevention to tackle the causes of many chronic and complex diseases. It has little on primary care. There's no more funding for hospitals and mental health services, and the further you live from a big city, the worse it is for your health under this government.

I heard from Narelle last week. Her daughter was recently turned away from a public mental health unit and was recommended a cup of herbal tea. She was later admitted and had to bring in essentials like toothpaste and soap. This is a system in crisis. This is a system that is broken.

In my electorate of Dobell, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, one in five of us is under 15 and one in five of us is over 65. Young people and older people are the biggest users of our public health system, those who need it most, and yet this government is letting down people in regional and remote Australia.

On the Central Coast, one in five of our young people is looking for work, and more and more of our young people find themselves sleeping rough or homeless. Unemployment and insecure work have a direct and immediate effect on the health and wellbeing of people, yet this budget does nothing for young people and their mental health.

Labor will invest more in every single public hospital in the country, with an extra $2.8 billion in funding for more beds and shorter waiting times. Labor will invest $80 million to boost the number of eligible MRI machines and approve 20 new licences, meaning that 500,000 more scans will be funded by Medicare over the course of the first Labor budget. Labor will provide $12 million towards ovarian cancer and Australia's National Action Plan for Ovarian Cancer Research. Labor will make HIV history. As I have worked with sexual health clinics and have met many people living with HIV, this is very close to my heart. Labor will respond to the unique health needs of people in regional and rural Australia by developing a new national rural health strategy.

This government is failing our community on health care and hospitals. Labor is the party of public hospitals. Labor is the party of Medicare. Labor will always properly fund public hospitals and always protect Medicare.

Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This MPI by the Labor opposition about their proposal that the government is cutting hospitals and health care is absolute nonsense. The federal Labor opposition and the Victorian Labor state government are running a campaign of lies regarding health funding across Australia and, in particular, Victorian hospital funding.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Including Frankston Hospital.

Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They are doing a disservice and harming my constituents in Dunkley—and indeed, as the member opposite said, in Frankston. I am calling upon Labor to take responsibility for their lies and misinformation campaign, which is spreading a scare campaign for those working in health care in my electorate. It is certainly a reminder of their 'Mediscare' campaign at the last election, for which Labor still haven't apologised. It wasn't true; it isn't true; and it will never be true. That scared many of my constituents in Dunkley, but I stood up for them on this, and I will continue to stand up for them against the lies that are being spread by those opposite.

The Labor Party are the real party of cuts, because they like to talk about them so much: cuts to health, cuts to Medicare, cuts to education, cuts for TAFE. They're all false, and none of these cuts are happening. They just love to use the word 'cuts' to cover the fact that they are the real party of cuts in this country, reducing our standard of living, whether it comes to taxing your housing or your retirement savings, your income and so much more. The fact is that federal funding for public hospital services under the coalition has increased from $13.3 billion in 2013-14 to a record $22.7 billion in 2020-21, a 70 per cent increase. That's about $10 billion more than when Labor were in government. How they frame that as a cut is beyond me.

Locally, at Peninsula Health, in Frankston in my electorate, their funding in 2013-14 from the state was about $170 million and from the federal government was $135 million. In 2016-17, state funding increased by about $24 million to $194.9 million, whereas federal funding increased by over $56 million to $191.6 million. Federal funding in Victorian hospitals, including at Peninsula Health, is more than double that of the state government. This is despite hospital management being primarily a responsibility of the state government.

It's not just about dollars; it's about the effectiveness of investment. Our funding is supporting more services, more doctors and more nurses in public hospitals. But Victoria has still not signed up to our new national hospitals agreement, despite the fact that it's been signed by WA, the ACT, Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales. As far back as March this was an issue. I issued a media release on 1 March and told the Dunkley public that the Andrews Labor government, including the state Labor member for Frankston, Paul Edbrooke, have shunned Victorians and are spreading lies. I will not put up with such falsities being fed to local residents as well as employees in the healthcare sector on the important issue of health care.

Minister Hunt, the Minister for Health, an ardent supporter of health investment, especially on the Mornington Peninsula, particularly given he was born at Frankston Hospital, pointed out in that media release that Commonwealth funding has increased much faster than Victorian state funding. The new national hospitals agreement would provide Victorian hospitals with an additional $7.4 billion, an increase of 29.6 per cent, so Daniel Andrews is short-changing Victorians. We are at record levels of bulk billing. GP bulk-billing rates have increased from 82 per cent in Labor's last year in government to 85.8 per cent. Let's look at the 2016-17 financial year compared with Labor's last year in government. There were 21.6 million more bulk-billed GP visits and 1.9 million more bulk-billed specialist visits.

A big part of the 2018-19 budget was securing essential services. We know how to run the economy. We know how to grow the economy. We are increasing revenue, meaning we can spend more on essential services, we can deliver tax relief, we can get back to a surplus and we can pay more for health care. Indeed, that enables us to guarantee Medicare with an additional $4.8 billion over forward estimates. It means Spinraza and Kisqali— important things—are listed on the PBS to help local constituents in Dunkley. (Time expired)

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

In my home town of Launceston we have one of the best regional hospitals in the country. I know because I was on the board of Tasmanian Health Organisation—North, which is responsible for the governance of the Launceston General Hospital. It has a proud history of innovation and care. Workers at the LGH are to be commended on the outstanding work they do despite cuts to hospital funding. Tasmanians remember all too well the Liberal promises that there would be no cuts to hospitals in 2013. What did we get? Four years of Prime Minister Abbott's and then Prime Minister Turnbull's cuts and neglect, and now Tasmania's public hospitals are in crisis.

The Liberals are worse than ignorant as to their role in a system in crisis. They even deny the fact that there are health cuts, just as we've heard today. Instead they rely upon the assertion they are delivering more funding than in years past. With growing presentations and acuity on one hand, increases in healthcare inflation outpacing other cost increases and Commonwealth funding failing to keep pace, it is no wonder that the Launceston General Hospital is not able to keep up with demand. Under the Liberals, the cuts to our hospitals are putting those workers under pressure and the lives of Tasmanians at risk. The stories, the personal stories, that I hear almost daily speak of the stresses placed upon our emergency department and hospital wards. The story late last year of a patient left waiting outside the LGH for treatment and constant stories of ambulance ramping tell me that the cuts to health this government has overseen need to be seriously addressed now. Instead, this government's budget prioritises tax cuts to big business ahead of the health of the Australian people.

The Prime Minister and his Liberal government are cutting $715 million from 2017 to 2020, including $1.95 million from the LGH in my electorate of Bass, equivalent to the cost of performing 542 cataract surgeries or 75 knee replacements. It's a big cut, enough to fund 4,745 outpatient appointments or 2,928 emergency department visits. From the North West Regional Hospital in Braddon, he is taking $730,000. This would be a complete disaster for the health of northern Tasmanians. Between the next election and 2025, the Prime Minister wants to cut $2.8 billion from Australia's public hospitals.

Labor, by contrast, has a proud record on public hospital funding. The last Labor government signed a historic national health reform agreement with the states and territories in 2011. The aim was to end the blame game and give public hospitals long-term budget certainty by funding an equal share of efficient growth in hospital costs. This is where the Liberal lies on increases in health funding come unstuck. They tore up that agreement. Now the federal government is delivering less each year of the total cost of running our hospitals, including the LGH and the North West Regional Hospital.

As Labor is not giving businesses an $80 billion tax cut, Labor can afford to reverse the Turnbull government's cuts to hospitals from 2019 to 2025 and create a $2.8 billion better hospital fund, a practical step to address these daily pressures. Labor has already committed to a $30 million investment to slash Tasmania's elective surgery backlog. This record investment will reduce emergency department and elective surgery waiting times. This is something that only a re-elected Justine Keay and I can promise our constituents in Braddon and Bass. Justine Keay and I know from our experience that our hardworking and dedicated health professionals—our medical specialists, surgeons, nurses and allied health workers and all the support staff—will continue to work above and beyond the call of duty to look after the patients that present to hospitals in the electorates of Bass and Braddon. However, it is the present Liberal state and federal governments that are responsible for the health crisis—the backlog in elective surgery and increases in wait times in our emergency departments, the front line of the crisis. Try telling someone, when they are waiting for over 30 months to get an appointment to see a specialist even before they are investigated for surgery, that the Liberals are doing a good job. The freeze on the Medicare rebate has meant that many people elect not to see a GP at the right time. This government is responsible for those cuts. (Time expired)

Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about this matter today, as I see it as an opportunity to discuss how the Turnbull government is guaranteeing essential services Australians rely on. The Turnbull government is increasing funding for hospitals, medicines and Medicare. The only alternative approach from those opposite is to basically lie. Labor lies are intrinsically linked to their modus operandi when it comes to health. We saw their profound Labor lie before the 2016 election with regard to 'Mediscare'.

Unlike the Labor Party, we ensure a constructive, measured approach to economic management, and the proof is in the pudding. For example, with Medicare, there is the Turnbull government's Medicare guarantee. In relation to bulk-billing, the GP bulk-billing rate as at December 2017 is 85.8 per cent, up from 81.9 per cent in Labor's last year in government. Under the Turnbull government, more Australians are seeing their doctor without having to pay. Federal funding for hospital services under our government increased from $13.3 billion to a record $22.7 billion in 2021, a 64 per cent increase.

I have worked in the consumer healthcare and pharmaceutical industry for many years and, based on the number of patients' stories which I've witnessed firsthand, I know medical research and new medicines are something that literally changes people's lives. Since coming into government, the coalition has listed more than 1,500 new and amended medicines, worth approximately $9 billion. These medicines will assist people suffering from conditions such as heart disease, cystic fibrosis, cancer, psoriasis, epilepsy and severe asthma. This is unlike Labor's record of listings. The record will show that Labor gave listings of life-saving medicines very little attention. They put it on the backburner. Why? Because they can't manage the economy. If you can't manage the economy, you can't list life-saving medicines.

I'm a passionate advocate for mental health services for all Australians and so very proud to be part of the Turnbull government, which is committed to providing access for all Australians to the services they need to support their mental health and wellbeing. The government is investing $4.3 billion in mental health services this year. We're making significant investment in early intervention services.

Debate interrupted.