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

What this government has done in this area of health and hospital funds you will see if you look at regional Australia, where you will see that we are not about treating regional health funding like the Howard government did. They ripped $1 billion out of the health system. Start with rural health infrastructure as one example. The Gillard government acted to deliver better health infrastructure to provide high-quality health services in rural and remote communities. That is where the focus of this government has been. We have developed and delivered rural infrastructure programs to inject capital funding where it is needed most. The current regional round of the Health and Hospitals Fund dedicated up to $1.8 billion to regional Australia. This builds on the 37 per cent of the first, $3.2 billion, round that was allocated to regional projects. This government has been working hard to provide— (Time expired)