Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

R (—) (): I won't stand here and foreshadow decisions that are being considered through the budget process. I have been clear with the chamber and, I think, publicly that we are reviewing measures from the March 2022-23 budget, the budget before the election. We are reviewing that budget. There was a lot of spending in it, but if that spending is warranted—if it's needed, if it meets that test—then we will make decisions based on that. Seriously, we, an incoming government, need to go through and have a look at where this money was placed. We've seen reports in the paper today about some of the decisions made under some of these programs where proponents weren't aware of them, where applications weren't made for them or when disproportionate amounts went to particular parts of the country, so there is a legitimate issue here that we are taking our time to work through.

On the issue of health and making sure that the health system is adequately resourced, we have already injected over $1.4 billion, I think, into the health system through various payments and COVID related things. I'll check if I've got that figure wrong, but we have made those investments. This was money that wasn't provisioned for by the previous government. We have made additional investments into health.

On the issue of the GP shortage, it is a crisis. Primary care is in crisis, and nine years of cuts to Medicare and pushing back and not ensuring that there was a good supply of doctors coming into and being trained in general practice are problems that we have inherited from those opposite and are trying to fix. People can be guaranteed that a Labor government will always be better on hospitals and will always be better on Medicare. (Time expired)