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

Let us start with the government’s record: a $64 billion funding agreement for health and hospitals. These health dollars started flowing last year and represent a 50 per cent increase on the previous government’s funding agreement. Then there is our $600 million elective surgery waiting list reduction plan, which has already started to deliver 62,000 procedures—64 per cent more than the target of 25,000 procedures. And 125 hospitals have received new elective surgery equipment and operating theatres, with 37 hospitals around the country receiving upgrades to their emergency departments.

In addition to that, these achievements would not have been delivered under the previous Liberal government, in which Mr Abbott was the health minister. He preferred to cut the health funding, neglect services, cap doctor numbers and ignore nurse shortages. That is the record of the opposition in this regard. Let us be clear: as health minister in the previous government, Mr Abbott cut $1 billion from public hospitals and ignored the need for more nurses, despite a shortage of 6,000 nurses across the country. In contrast, under the Rudd Labor government, as part of our government’s $1.7 billion investment into building a world-class hospital system, 17 hospitals are being upgraded. What is more, as part of the government’s $430 million investment, 12 medical research and hospital workforce facilities are receiving capital upgrades. There are 12 new MBS-eligible MRI machines— (Time expired)