Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

It is not surprising that the so-called grand hospital plan that was touted by Labor is now coming to a sad and sorry end. In my contribution to today’s debate I want to go back and look at the history of this plan to see why it has got to where it is and to say to the Australian people that it is not surprising that it is finally falling apart simply because it was never a real plan. It was simply a smoke-and-mirrors exercise in true Labor tradition—all spin and no substance.

Let us go back to 2007 when New directions for Australian health: taking responsibility: Labor’s plan for ending the blame game on health and hospital care was released. In that policy document Kevin Rudd set out a strict deadline for achieving reform. It was repeated in the launch on 14 November: ‘I have a long-term plan to fix our nation’s hospitals. I will be responsible. The buck stops with me.’ One presupposed that the incoming Labor government actually had a plan. But when we traversed this issue in estimates on 10 February 2010 we actually got to the bottom of it. There was actually no plan. There was not even a back-of-the-envelope plan. There was no document that Labor brought when it came into government that outlined what its plan was.

Therefore they had to scramble. They had to find something. They had to do something on health because suddenly the gloss was starting to come off K. Rudd. That is when we suddenly saw the establishment of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission under the chairmanship of Dr Christine Bennett. This commission produced a number of reports including Beyond the blame game: accountability and performance benchmarks for the next Australian health care agreement. It produced A healthier future for all Australians: interim report. It traversed the countryside. It undertook consultation and finally produced this tome: A healthier future for all Australians: final report June 2009. It is a very comprehensive piece of work and you would think that then Prime Minister Rudd and Minister Roxon would have taken the 123 recommendations through the consultation process and at least responded to them. No, they had to then review the review. They had to consult about the consultations. They had to spend their time trekking around the countryside—surprise, surprise—to most of Australia’s marginal seat areas. Off went Kevin Rudd and Minister Roxon to trek around the countryside and have their picture taken in hospital garb. Mr Deputy President, I have this photograph that you corrected me on earlier, but I can tender it if you so wish.