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

I thank Senator Green for that question. One of the big differences between the former government and ours is we want to work with states and territories to deal with and support the work that they do across the health system through their primary responsibility, hospital led care, and through how the primary care system works. We work with them, we cooperate with them, and we are happy to partner with them to make sure that Australians get access to the best type of health care in the most convenient and affordable way possible. That is what urgent care clinics do. That's why you're all so quiet now: because you know they are very popular and they're delivering exactly what we set out to do.

It is in stark contrast to the approach taken by those opposite. We remember it was in Mr Dutton's days as the health minister—remember he was voted, I think, the 'worst health minister in the country'—when he cut $200 million from a national partnership in public hospital services that was explicitly there to reduce emergency department wait. You cut; we invest.