Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Of course, the facts are these, Mr President: we are rebuilding the health system after 11 years of neglect, with a $10 billion health and hospital fund, the single biggest investment in health infrastructure ever; there is $3.2 billion worth of health and hospital reform in the budget, including $600 million to slash elective surgery waiting lists and $275 million to establish GP superclinics in local communities; and there is an immediate injection of $1 billion to relieve the pressure on public hospitals, the largest single-year increase in public hospital funding in almost a decade. No wonder the coalition are silent in their response to this. They should be. When you look at what they spent in 11 years you see that they did not talk to the states, they did not talk to the territories and they did not address the waiting lists. They spent 10 long years simply talking about health reform but doing little about it.