Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Marshall for his continuing interest in Victorian health. I know that he, like all on this side, has a long-standing commitment to improving healthcare and hospitals for the long-term. The senator is quite right to identify the importance of investment in health care and hospitals. This Labor government is delivering better health services for Australians. We are investing over $74 billion in health and aged care spending through from 2012-13, and over $15 billion in hospitals from the same period. We are investing in the Royal Hobart Hospital and the Grafton hospital and many more like them. We are investing in the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre and over 21 regional cancer centres All up this Labor government has increased hospital funding by well over 50 per cent since we were elected. We are now undertaking crucial reforms to build a better health and hospital system for the future. This is a true national reform deal, with more beds, more funding, more transparency, less bureaucracy and less waiting periods. Health reform will provide 13,000 more subacute beds and be better targeting for elective surgery and emergency departments. All this investment comes with a commitment for value for money, which is so important for our healthcare system. We are saving time and money and reducing medical errors with the new e-health reform agenda.

All this might sound hard to believe for those who are opposite. Their legacy is, of course, ripping $1 billion out of hospitals, capping GP training places and leaving a shortage of 6,000 nurses. The Liberal-National Party would have scrapped health reform, cut after-hours GP support and stopped hospital investment. Mr Abbott was, I would have thought, Australia's poorest health minister for the actions he undertook. He opposed— (Time expired)