Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister update the House on how a strong economy helps the government deliver record funding for hospitals, Medicare and new medicines? How might conflicting ideas risk the delivery of these essential services?

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

I want to thank the member for Tangney, who was a strong advocate for increased access to continuous glucose monitoring for pregnant mums and for concession cardholders. He also knows that you can only support new and extended services in health and elsewhere in the economy if you have a strong economy and, therefore, that's the reason why we need to take steps to ensure that we have more than a million jobs created by reducing taxes on income, reducing taxes on business and taking away taxes on electricity. These are the reasons why we do these things. It's because they have a benefit in themselves and they create a strong economy which allows us to provide essential services.

In Medicare, what we've seen is an increase from $19 billion under Labor to $25 billion this year to $26 billion, $27 billion and $29 billion over the course of the budget. In hospitals, what we've seen is a 50 per cent increase in hospital funding under this government compared with Labor's last year—up from $13.3 billion to $21 billion, $22 billion, $23 billion and $24 billion. Bulk-billing is up to record levels of 86.1 per cent, up 3.9 per cent over what it was in Labor's last year. But what we are very, very proud of in particular is our record in listing new medicines, such as Orkambi for cystic fibrosis, SPINRAZA for spinal muscular atrophy and KISQALI for breast cancer. They have all made a difference.

Added to that, on the weekend, we were able to list new devices because of a strong economy, with a $100 million commitment to continuous glucose monitoring. In particular, in terms of continuous glucose monitoring, we announced that pregnant mums and nursing mums would have access, where they have type 1 diabetes, to continuous glucose monitoring technology, saving them $7,000 a year, and the same for concession card holders. We're up to 37,000 Australians with that access.

Of course, this compares with what happens if you cannot run a strong economy. We know that under Labor—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

The members for Ballarat and Barker!

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

the Leader of the Opposition was the Assistant Treasurer—

Mr Pasin interjecting—

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

No! The member for Barker will end his conversation.

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

When the Leader of the Opposition was the Assistant Treasurer they deferred the listing of new medicines because of fiscal circumstances, until fiscal circumstances would permit. In other words, they couldn't run the economy—therefore, they blew the budget. Because of that, they stopped listing medicines. It's very simple: you can't trust Labor with the economy and you can't trust them to list— (Time expired)