Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Seselja interjects, but he does not understand hospital funding. He does not understand that estimates of projected growth are that we are getting less than what was estimated in the Commonwealth budget paper. This goes to the point that those opposite will say there have been no cuts. Reduced growth funding is a cut in health. It is a cut, no matter which way you dress it up.

If hospitals and expenses are growing at over five per cent and one of your major funding partners is funding at 1.7 per cent, that is a cut. That is a cut of three per cent that will be felt within the hospital system. This is how hospitals have been funded since the Commonwealth, state and territory governments resolved modern funding arrangements. There was an estimated growth cost. Find me one state or territory budget that has been handed down, in the last month, that funds public-hospital growth at 1.7 per cent. You will not find one, because they are growing much faster than that. The people who provide the services have to be realistic about how those services are funded. Perhaps the Commonwealth does not need to worry about that, but the states and territories do. There has been a cut to health and a cut to health funding in the ACT, and the ramifications will be felt for years to come. (Time expired)