George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator O'Neill, I am not familiar with that remark that you attribute to the New South Wales government, but I can assure you that that will not be the effect of any decisions made by the Abbott government. The government is not cutting hospital funding. We have kept the commitment we made at the last election, and, in this year's budget, schools as well as hospital funding continues to increase each and every year. Total annual hospital funding increases by 25 per cent, or $3.8 billion, over the next four years. Senator O'Neill, I think you are meaning to suggest that the Commonwealth's support for hospital funding will fall; it will rise by 25 per cent over the next four years.

Now, in the 2015-16 budget, funding is less than estimated at the time of the 2014-15 budget, but the reason for that, Senator O'Neill, is reductions in forecast price growth by the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority, and updates to hospital activity estimates by the states. The government will continue to fund hospitals on an activity basis under the National Health Reform Agreement until the end of 2016-17, and from 2017-18 the Commonwealth will index its contribution to public hospitals funding by the consumer price index and population growth. That is the way, Senator O'Neill, that the model works. That is the way the model works. So we have a situation in which the model provides for an increase in funding over the forward estimates, and overall, across the land, there will be a 25 per cent increase across the forward estimates. (Time expired)