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

I thank the senator for her question. I know Senator Nash continues to have an interest in health. There are a couple of important statistics, though, that we need to go to. The first is that, New South Wales wide, the number of long elective surgery waiting lists has been almost halved in the year to June 2008 to 40 patients. The Rudd government is acting in this area. It is taking a considered and measured approach, both through the COAG process and through Minister Roxon’s own actions aimed at ensuring that health is put squarely on the agenda, unlike what the Liberals did in their 12 long years in government.

The second point is that we have never pretended to be an apologist for the states. We recognise there are problems. Many of them are a result, as I have said, of 12 years of neglect. It has been difficult to address them in the short time that we have had them, but, when you look at the long length of time that the Liberals opposite had to deal with this, it is one of those areas that they did not take to a COAG agenda. The Liberals opposite did not look at how they could establish a health fund to deal with some of these issues. They were not elected to deal with elective surgery waiting lists, unlike this government in the nine months that it has been in office. We have taken the issue to COAG. We have started to address the elective surgery waiting lists in states. We have started to address how we can ensure that we have a health fund for the future. We have also started—