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

The Commonwealth government has reached an agreement on health reform with all states and territories, except Western Australia, which represents the biggest change to our health system since the introduction of Medicare. These changes are the end result of a comprehensive structural review of Australia’s health and hospital system by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, an extensive consultation process to test the report’s recommendation and consultation and intense negotiations with states and territories culminating in the COAG agreement of 20 April. Just two days ago we released a budget that fully funds the health reform investments.

This referral to committee around the detail of the agreement is a duplication of the significant effort that has already taken place. In fact, we believe that the detail sought by Senator Fierravanti-Wells could be found within the publicly released documents which are in existence. These include the intergovernmental agreement on 20 April 2010; the document, A national health and hospital network for Australia’s future—delivering better health and better hospitals, released on 11 May 2010, which I table, and the 2010-2011 budget papers. Within that documentation are key milestones for implementing the various elements of the agreement. These clearly outline those areas where further consultation and negotiation will take place with states and territories and with key stakeholders prior to details being finalised. For these reasons the government opposes the motion.

Question agreed to.