Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment Participation, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

We have said it before and we say it again: the Rudd Labor government have been an absolute failure in the health portfolio. They promised the world before the last election and have delivered next to nothing. They promised to fix public hospitals, they promised to end the blame game, and they promised a new era of cooperative federalism. The Prime Minister promised the buck would stop with him and, of course, the Prime Minister and the then shadow minister for health and ageing, now the Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, promised most emphatically that they would retain the existing private health insurance rebates as an important part of the policy framework underpinning our health system.

We have seen a Prime Minister in absolute panic. The reality of inaction in the health portfolio over 2½ years has caught up with him. He is desperately looking for a political fix. That is what we witnessed last week: a Prime Minister desperate to find a political fix to try and make it look as if he is doing something when in fact he has done nothing. Here we have yet another broken promise. Let us just remind ourselves that before the last election not only did the Prime Minister say that he had a plan to fix public hospitals but he was going to work cooperatively with the states. I went back to some of the early entries on the Prime Minister’s website when it came to his commitments in health. I remind the Senate that for the first year on coming into government the Prime Minister said this on his website under the headline ‘Fixing our hospitals’:

The Rudd Government is committed to achieving national health care reform in partnership with State and Territory governments.

‘In partnership’ with state and territory governments, he said. He also said:

However, if significant progress toward the implementation of the reforms has not been achieved by mid-2009, the Government will seek a mandate from the Australian people at the following federal election for the Commonwealth to take financial control of Australia’s 750 public hospitals.

Note he said ‘if significant progress toward the implementation of the reforms’ has not been achieved by the middle of 2009. We as an opposition, holding the government to account in a very important public policy area—in an area where they promised the world and have delivered next to nothing—asked the government: what does ‘significant progress’ mean? Were the states and territories told what was expected of them in terms of improvements to our public hospitals by the middle of 2009 so that we, the states and territories and patients across Australia could scrutinise whether or not the states and territories had been successful in meeting the targets that may or may not have been set by the government? The answer was, ‘There was no definition.’ The states and territories to this day have not been told by the Rudd Labor government what is expected from them in terms of improvements in public hospitals across Australia.

So what did the Prime Minister do after we raised some questions about what his plans were for fixing our hospitals and the definition of ‘significant progress’? Did he come out and develop some targets? Did he come out and fix the fact that there had not been any action? Did he go out and talk to the states and territories and demonstrate a bit of cooperative federalism in health? Did he work with the states and territories on improving things for patients across our public hospitals? No. Do you know what he did, Acting Deputy President Trood? He changed his website. It was an absolute fraud committed on the Australian people. He made very clear commitments before the election. Those commitments were still reflected on his website in October 2008. Do you know what it said a couple of months later, after we started asking some questions? Fixing our hospitals had all of a sudden become ‘Improving our hospitals’ and ‘significant progress toward’ the implementation of health and hospital reforms became:

While immediate action is important, Australia also needs to consider the long term future of the health system.

Weasel words if ever I heard them. And there was this:

The Government has established the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, chaired by Dr Christine Bennett, who has extensive experience in the health sector. The NHHRC will develop a long-term reform plan for the health system—

so it ‘will develop a long-term reform plan for the health system’? A year earlier that was ‘significant progress toward the implementation of the reforms’. All of a sudden that became:

... will develop a long-term reform plan for the health system, in consultation with health experts, professionals and consumers, by the middle of 2009.

That was the 20-month review we had. Before the election the Prime Minister led people to believe that he had a plan to fix public hospitals. The Australian people went to the ballot box thinking that they had an incoming Prime Minister who had a plan to fix public hospitals. After the election all we had was a review over 20 months which was subsequently followed by a review into the review and of course photo opportunities for the Prime Minister and Minister Roxon across Australia. People clearly were getting a bit bored with those photo opportunities, so the Prime Minister and Nicola Roxon thought they would make the footage a bit more interesting for people, because I am sure that the television stations were getting a bit tired of the Prime Minister and Nicola Roxon in front of a board with slogans on it and just talking from a podium. So now they are wearing the surgeon’s uniform. They are there with the head cover, making it look real. If you are not doing anything, make it look as if you are. Make it look as if your Prime Minister Rudd is about to go into the theatre and provide open-heart surgery, like he himself is going to reduce elective surgery waiting lists! What a joke! What an absolute joke!

But the real commitment that this Prime Minister and this Minister for Health and Ageing did give before the last election is that they would retain the existing private health insurance rebates. It was a most solemn promise. Yet the only action that we have seen from this government in the health portfolio is a continuation of the age-old ideologically based Labor crusade against private health. What the government is doing with this bill will not improve things in our health system; to the contrary, this legislation will make things worse for our health system.

We have had a 20-month review into our public hospitals and last week we get this rushed announcement after 2½ years of inaction, where clearly the Prime Minister had not done his homework by talking to the states and territories beforehand. So much for cooperative federalism and for ending the blame game. Here he is, right at it, pursuing a political strategy of trying to beat up the states and territories. Quite frankly, on this occasion, who can blame the states? The government did not give them any targets and did not tell them at all what was expected of them. They rushed this announcement out as a political fix and of course the states are going to say: ‘Well, hang on. Let us look at the detail. Where is the additional money? There is no new additional money in this.’

The Prime Minister is pursuing a strategy whereby he wants to beat up the state and territory governments because he wants to be seen as a strong man and he wants to hide the fact that he has not done a thing over the last 2½ years. He wants to take the Australian people for fools. He wants the state and territory Labor governments to jump up and down and attack him because he thinks that when those unpopular state Labor governments attack him that somehow that is going to make him look like he is doing something. It is all part of a political con, and I call on the Australian people to look very carefully at what is happening here.

We had this 20-month review by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, followed by a review into the review. Now did the Prime Minister make any announcements in relation to any of the recommendations out of that 20-month review followed by a review into the review? No, he did not. The only thing in his announcement that related in any way, shape or form to something that was mentioned in the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission report was related to the Commonwealth taking a greater role in primary care. We support that, but that is something that was initiated by the Howard government. We did not need to waste 2½ years of meetings and sitting around the table and coming up with yet another report that can gather dust somewhere just to come up with that particular initiative that was part of a package with not much detail last week.

This is a government that is in an absolute panic because the Prime Minister knows that the perception out there is that he promised the world and that he delivered next to nothing in the health portfolio. That is what people think out there; that is what people are telling us every day. The things that he said he would not do he is pursuing—for example, this piece of legislation. This piece of legislation, if it were passed by the Senate, would put additional pressure on our public hospitals; it would see people leave private health insurance. Even the government accepts that people will leave private health insurance. There would be a squabble on the numbers, but even the government accepts that there will be fewer people in private health insurance as a result of this legislation. It will put upward pressure on premiums and it will take us back into this downward spiral which Labor governments have taken us down before. On this side of the chamber we want a well-balanced health system in which all Australians can get timely and affordable access to quality hospital care. In order to achieve that we need both a strong, well-funded public system and a strong, well-supported private system. Nothing out of what the Prime Minister and his government have announced so far would in any way, shape or form improve things for our health system or improve things for patients across Australia.

As for this plan last week, it was cobbled together at the last minute. It was clearly driven by a need to have something for the Prime Minister to say during his National Press Club address. It is exactly the same modus operandi that has got this government into so much trouble with the Home Insulation Program. It is all about the spin, with nothing about the substance. It is all about talk but no action. There is no additional money in it, something that was very eloquently pointed out by the Premier of Victoria—the Labor Premier of Victoria, I hasten to add. There is absolutely nothing in there other than trying to provoke the states into a reaction, which the Prime Minister will use politically to help him to look as if he is doing something.

They have not thought this through; they have not done their homework. And of course they do not even intend to implement the announcement last week because this is yet another announcement that is not going to start tomorrow or next month or on 1 July 2010. Guess when it is supposed to start: sometime in 2012-13—after the next election, of course. So what the Prime Minister yet again wants the Australian people to believe is this somehow—‘Trust me, I’m from the government. My name is Kevin; I’m from Queensland.’ Well, I say to the Australian people: you cannot trust this Prime Minister. Look at his record: he promised the world before, he has delivered next to nothing, he has overpromised and underdelivered. The things that he promised he would do he has not done and the things that he promised he would not do he is doing. This legislation is the most emphatic broken promise in this term of government, and the Senate should not support it. This is an absolute breach of faith with the Australian people because it will lead to bad outcomes not only for privately insured Australians but also for those Australians who will have to compete with increasing numbers of Australians leaving the private health system and seeking access to their hospital care through the public health system.

This is not the way to improve the health system. And in any event the Rudd government conducted the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission strategic review, and to this day we have not received a response from the government on which part of the recommendations they will support and which ones they will not. Why would you go ahead with something like this—if it is going to have a bad impact on our health system overall and if it is going to have a bad impact on our private health system—without taking an overall strategic view? This is a government that is up to its old tricks. It is driven by ideology rather than by what is good public policy. It is not focused on the best interests of patients; it is focused on its ideological crusade against private health.