Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I stand here as a member of a coalition party that has a very strong record in supporting manufacturing in this country. We did so during our time in government and we would have continued to do so, and we will continue to do so when we are in government again, because we believe that there are manufacturing industries in Australia that have been the backbone of our country.

I can't think of any manufacturing sector that has been more vertically integrated in this country than the Australian wine industry. I come from a very proud winegrowing area in the Riverland of South Australia. The reason I say that I think the wine industry is probably the most vertically integrated manufacturing sector in Australia is that, first of all, we grow the primary product. We grow something from the natural environment, whether that be the soil or the water. We then manufacture that product into something that is not only consumed in Australia but also a very large export product for Australia.

Most importantly, it is also a tourism industry. Many people from around the world visit Australia because they want to experience not just our world-class wine but also the experiences that we offer through our fantastic wine regions. Every single state and territory of Australia has something proud to showcase in relation to the wine industry. So there can be no better example of a vertically integrated manufacturing sector than our fantastic Australian wine industry.

Do you know what I think the greatest threat to the manufacturing sector in Australia is right now? It's rising energy costs. So many of our fantastic industries rely on not just reliable energy but also affordable energy in order to manufacture. There is no point in making great investments in manufacturing unless you actually deal with the cost of doing business and the challenges that are currently facing the Australian manufacturing sector.

It was so devastating yesterday to hear about pools. As the shadow minister for health I think there can be nothing that is more important than being able to provide an environment in Australia where Australians, particularly Australian children, have access to a healthy lifestyle and are able to participate in sport. We're now hearing that swimming centres across the country are not heating their pools to the same extent that they previously were—to the temperatures that they thought were the most appropriate to enable a comfortable experience for Australians who want to participate in water sport and swimming as part of their health regimes. We're now seeing swimming centres dropping the temperature because they cannot afford the energy costs to maintain the temperature levels in pools. This is an extraordinary admission of the failure of this government to provide support to deliver the things that we know that Australian businesses, industry and manufacturing can do.

The other thing that is really disappointing about the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Bill 2023 is the fact that it basically applies every single piece of bad policy and bad legislative design and regulation, and stuffs it all into one bill. The fact that we have got this off-balance sheet—and it seems to be a bit of a track record of those opposite in the ideological pursuit of somehow being able to say that budget repair has occurred. They've stuffed a whole heap of money into off-balance-sheet instruments so that they don't have to list it on the bottom line of their budget. It's not just this one. We've got Rewiring the Nation. We've got the housing fund, which, surprisingly, seems to have disappeared off our Notice Paper and doesn't seem to be the subject of the hours motion that is sitting on our tables to consider later this afternoon. That one seems to have disappeared. But we have got tens of billions of dollars being hidden in off-balance sheets.

Of course, we all know that it doesn't matter whether it's on the government's balance sheet or whether it's off the government's balance sheet; expenditure that is not designed appropriately and is not designed around the productivity outcomes that need to be associated with it becomes inflationary. This government has not paid any attention whatsoever to the inflationary impact of this fund. Because it is off-balance sheet and it relies on other market aspects in terms of the functioning of the broader market, what can actually be spent becomes really uncertain. It also avoids proper and robust process, and proper and robust scrutiny.

When you are spending this kind of money, Australian taxpayers' money, you really do need to make sure that you have got a proper competitive process and that you're not just running around picking winners from the people that you like and your mates, and from the sectors that maybe are unionised. Who would know? But you can't do that, because Australian taxpayers have got the right to know that, when you put these kinds of things together, there is the absolute maximum level of strength of governance around them because it's their money you're spending. The one thing we need to remember in this place—and I never forgot this when I was in government: not one cent of the money I had responsibility for the administration of was my money. Every single cent of that money I was administering on behalf of the department I had responsibility for belonged to the taxpayers of Australia, and those opposite would do well to remember that.

The other thing is: what are the dodgy deals that have been done with the people in this place, that have been necessary to get this bill through this place? I will go back to another fantastic primary industry that has great advanced manufacturing opportunities in this country—that is, the forestry sector. What is the deal that has been done with the Greens to enable them to agree to this? I have to say: when this was first put out there during the election, the Prime Minister, who was the opposition leader at the time, claimed that forestry was at the heart of his manufacturing policy. So where has it gone? He said:

I promise you that if I become Prime Minister, a Government I lead will not shut down the native forest industry.

Is that still absolutely a promise? And, 'I will take up the fight to protect your job too.' It is going to be really interesting when we see the deals that have come out of this.

But your own previous minister for agriculture in a previous Labor government—somebody who I think had probably more integrity in him than anybody who sits on the other side of this chamber: Joel Fitzgibbon—is still an absolute supporter of the forestry sector and the opportunity that it provides for Australians, because we do have some of the best landscape, in order to develop a forestry sector. Guess what? Forestry is the ultimate renewable, and we have got an opportunity in Australia to have one of the greatest forestry sectors because we have the ability to harvest and replant and make sure we are managing our forests, because we have some of the best forestry management in the world. We are recognised worldwide as having some of the greatest forestry management. For those who don't particularly like forestry: have a look in your own house and have a look at some of the things you rely on for some of the fabulous hardwood timbers that are grown in this country, as we sit here today.

Overall, I suppose the greatest disappointment, as we stand here today, is the fact that once again we see bills that were promised coming in a form that has been mangled in order to get a deal. We have seen promises broken, as we have seen the promise to the forestry sector broken by the actions and changes of this government. 'Hand on heart, I will not touch your forestry sector'—it's all fine to say that before the election because you don't want to lose the votes in Tasmania or in other areas that rely so heavily on forestry on Australia, but all bets are off as soon as you win the election. You don't seem to care.

It seems to be a track record in just about everything so far. Who could forget the broken promise of power bills going down by $275. That has got to go down in history as this government's 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' You know what? I reckon there would not be a person, a business or anybody in the manufacturing sector in Australia who could honestly tell you their power bills have gone down since this government has come to office.

But it's not just the energy bills that are impacting; we have seen so many broken promises in so many places to so many Australians. In the sector that I have responsibility for, as the shadow minister for health and aged care, the almost litany of broken promises are too many to recall and recount here. A couple of the really serious ones include the promise to Australians that the government was going to put the care back into aged care. They wanted to put 24/7 nurses into nursing homes. There is nobody on my side on my politics that doesn't want to see older Australians get the care and support they deserve as they age, but you can't go out and make promises just to get yourself elected and then, once you're elected, try and double down on them even though you do not have the capacity to deliver them. There simply aren't any nurses to fill your 24/7 nursing commitment. I think that is absolutely irresponsible and creates distress and uncertainty in such an important sector—one that's just come through the COVID pandemic under extraordinary pressure. But you don't seem to care about that.

The other one is that we were very proud, when we were in government, of our track record, because we believe that the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is one of the core pillars of our health system. Being able to provide Australians with timely access to affordable medicines is something we thought was an essential part of our health system, and that's why we prioritised it. So, during our time in government we moved to make sure we listed every medicine that was recommended by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee so that Australians could get access to them.

What do we find right now, only a matter of months into this government? We've seen, first of all, the de-listing from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme of a life-changing insulin drug for diabetics called Fiasp. We saw the minister do a sort of semi-backflip last week when he agreed he would continue its prescription for another few months for people who were already receiving it but then had the audacity to double down at the Pharmacy Guild conference last week and say, well, actually, it wasn't his fault, because he hadn't had a request for ministerial intervention in this. I mean, really: these people have been talking to you for about nine months, Minister, asking you to consider using your ability to stop the drastic price reduction that has been forced onto it by a mechanism. That's why you had the ministerial discretion in the first place—because we knew there would always be circumstances whereby an innovative component of a drug that wasn't based on the molecule that it was based on would mean it was going to be superior.

This drug, Fiasp, is a superior drug, and we know that while 15,000 Australians who rely on it would have been chucked off it in a couple of days time, they at least have it until the end of September. But what happens then? Really, Minister, this is a very lazy way of addressing this, and we would call on you to honour the commitment of this chamber. This chamber actually agreed and passed legislation that included an amendment that said that you would relist this on a permanent basis. So, honour the promise, and honour and respect the decision of this chamber and relist that medicine on a permanent basis.

The other one is that the PBAC approved a drug called Trikafta for children aged between six and 12 who are sufferers of cystic fibrosis. We found out a few weeks ago that the government had decided that it wasn't going to list the drug on the PBS. If I detected a little bit of a tone yesterday when Senator Farrell was asked in the chamber about this, he did, speaking from the speaking notes that he was handed at the last minute, seem to indicate that there were some ongoing discussions to see how this drug could be listed 'as soon as possible'—whatever that means.

But to have a government that only months into its reign is already taking life-changing drugs off the PBS and refusing to list drugs for six- to 12-year-olds who suffer from cystic fibrosis is a tragic indictment of your inability to manage a really important health system and the PBS. The fact is that last time you were in government, by your own admission on the public record, your health minister in the Gillard-Rudd government actually admitted that you had stopped listing medicines on the PBS because you couldn't afford to do so. Right now we are, as I said, only a matter of months into the reign of this particular Labor government, and already we are seeing drugs taken off the PBS and a minister refusing to intervene—a minister seeking almost to mislead about when he found out about this problem. We know that the company has been speaking to his office for months and months, yet he says he found out only a few weeks ago, and we've had a life-changing drug taken off for young people. (Time expired)