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

My question is to the Prime Minister. In 2013, the coalition promised to provide 50 per cent growth funding for hospital services. The government broke that promise, cut its contribution and is now paying only 45 per cent, meaning it is cutting $2.8 billion from hospitals from 2019 to 2025. Why is this Prime Minister giving an $80 billion handout to big business instead of properly funding our hospitals across Australia? Here is your policy, in case you haven't seen it.

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

Let me start with a single figure: $30 billion. Thirty billion dollars is the amount that we are adding to hospital expenditure in Australia, and we go this year from $21 billion to $22 billion to $23 billion and to $24 billion. What we see is that, from when Labor was last in office, we go from $13 billion to more than double that, $28 billion, by the end of the next hospital funding agreement. There is a 116 per cent increase in hospital funding on our watch. That's the reality. But you might want to compare and contrast this with what is happening with Labor in Longman. We have mentioned today that we increased funding for Metro North not by $10, $20, $30 or $40 million but by $120 million in the last financial year alone, but how much did Queensland Labor decrease funding by? Not $5, not $10, not $15, not $20 but $21 million; that is what they cut from their own hospitals, whilst we increased it by $120 million.

It is fascinating that Labor raise this figure, because what we see now is that Labor are walking away from even their own policy on hospital funding. What we have now is Labor running around the country making little contributions here or there, but there's a simple question: will they guarantee that every single dollar they have will be allocated under activity based funding? The answer is: they've walked away from their own policy. At the last election, some in this House may remember Labor were talking about a figure of $57 billion. Do you know what? They turned up to the election with a $2 billion figure and a $55 billion black hole against their own funding. They never funded their own complaints. They never funded the very thing that they implied for many years that they would do.

So, when it comes down to it, you see what we're doing: $30 billion of additional funding for hospitals in Australia—record funding each year, every year, in every state and territory. And, when it comes to Longman and Caboolture, we see that Metro North had a $21 million cut under Queensland Labor, but there is absolute silence from this opposition.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

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

The member for Morton tests my patience most days. Is the member for Ballarat seeking to table a document?

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

I've got several documents. The first I'm seeking leave to table is the coalition's 2013 health policy, which shows the cuts; it seems to have disappeared off your record.

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

Is leave granted? Yes, or no? No. The next one?

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

I have another document. I seek leave to table a national health funding pool document which shows the Queensland government's funding $356 million more than the Commonwealth—

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

The member for Ballarat will not enter into a description of all of the documents and seek to make, effectively, a 90-second statement. Is leave granted? Leave is not granted. Is there another one?

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

Yes, there is. Again, another document that shows that Queensland is—

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

No. The member for Ballarat is warned and will resume her seat. I'm not even going to ask for leave on that. The member for Calare.