Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. The Community Health and Hospitals Program was recently scrutinised by the Australian National Audit Office. Why is it important that every health dollar is invested wisely? What lessons can be learned from the recent Audit Office report?

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Swan for her question. She's a terrific new member in this House, doing a terrific job representing the people of her community in WA. She knows that after nine years of cuts and neglect to Medicare from those opposite, it has never been harder to see a doctor than it is right now. This means that now, more than ever, every dollar spent in health is precious. That's why the member for Swan and the team on this side went to the last election promising to strengthen Medicare, and we delivered on that promise in the May budget with a $6 billion package to strengthen Medicare. The centrepiece of that package was $3½ billion dollars to triple the bulk-billing incentive. We remember on this side of the House the father of the modern Liberal Party, John Howard, describing bulk billing as an absolute rort. We remember the Leader of the Opposition, in his first budget as health minister, trying to abolish bulk billing altogether. But for Labor, bulk billing is the beating heart of Medicare.

More broadly, the contrast between our budget and the approach of the former government could not be clearer. They cut billions of dollars from Medicare with a six-year-long Medicare rebate freeze, but they found $2 billion to build a fund to take to the 2019 election that will allow them to travel the country announcing their hand-picked project. As at the member for Swan said, last week, the Audit Office published a scathing report into this program, just the latest in a series of funding scandals by the Morrison government that breached even the most basic principles of public administration. The report details project after project where no expressions of interest were sought—no suitability assessments were made at all. The department was forced to monitor the media, to watch the TV, to learn which projects had been announced by the government as they travelled the country. The Audit Office found that, of the 63 major projects, only two ended up being assessed as highly suitable—only two out of 63. They found that administration of the other 100 grants were, and I quote the Audit Office report:

… not appropriate, involving deliberate breaches of the relevant legal requirements.

Then, as we saw right through the period of the Morrison government, the delivery of this program was hopeless, because it was always about the announcement with this government, always about the media release and never about changing things for ordinary Australians. Well, we are implementing all of the recommendations from the Audit Office. Each one of the remaining projects from this program are assessed for value for money for taxpayers. We are determined to clean up the mess that was left to us by the former government, because, as the member for Swan said, every dollar spent in health is precious.