Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Ludwig. Given that Perth’s hospital emergency departments already are Australia’s most overcrowded and have dangerously long waiting times, which will only get longer as a result of your proposed changes to the Medicare levy surcharge, can the minister advise if the Carpenter Labor government has made any formal requests for additional funding to the Rudd Labor government since the federal budget?

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What I can say about the health industry is that if you look at what the Rudd government is doing you see that it is delivering on its promises. It is building a modern health system for modern Australia. It is rebuilding the health system after 11 long years of neglect by the coalition government. We are delivering on our agenda of fundamental reform in health, of keeping people well and out of hospital. We are pursuing a dual-track approach to reform which is building for the future, delivering for today, ensuring working families can get the health care they need when and where they need it and working with the states and territories to end the blame game and deliver much needed reform. That is what the Rudd—

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I need to be able to hear the answer.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of course, the facts are these, Mr President: we are rebuilding the health system after 11 years of neglect, with a $10 billion health and hospital fund, the single biggest investment in health infrastructure ever; there is $3.2 billion worth of health and hospital reform in the budget, including $600 million to slash elective surgery waiting lists and $275 million to establish GP superclinics in local communities; and there is an immediate injection of $1 billion to relieve the pressure on public hospitals, the largest single-year increase in public hospital funding in almost a decade. No wonder the coalition are silent in their response to this. They should be. When you look at what they spent in 11 years you see that they did not talk to the states, they did not talk to the territories and they did not address the waiting lists. They spent 10 long years simply talking about health reform but doing little about it.

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I raise a point of order. My question was very specific: has the Carpenter Labor government put in a formal request for additional funding? I ask you to draw the minister’s attention to the question.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. As you know, I cannot direct a minister how to answer the question. I draw the minister’s attention to the question. The minister has one minute and 58 seconds in which to answer the question.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What the senator did raise was the Medicare levy surcharge, which we understand those opposite are blocking, but they might change their minds between now and when the bill comes on for debate. If those opposite were interested in reducing the inflationary pressures, they would pass the government’s budget. Despite the scaremongering over this measure from those opposite, the Medicare levy surcharge changes will bring welcome tax relief to 465,000 Australians. Opposing this form of tax relief will hurt many working Australians. Many working Australians will be hurt as a consequence of your opposition to this measure.

The Senate committee report on the Medicare levy surcharge revealed that, in 1997-98, when this measure was introduced, 167,000 high-income earners paid this tax penalty as a result of not taking out private health insurance. By 2005-06, because of the previous government’s failure to change the threshold, a massive 465,000 people were paying this tax, many of them now earning below the average wage. That is the reason for this measure—immediate tax relief for almost half a million working men and women who have been hit with an unjust tax slug.

I am surprised at the position those opposite have taken with respect to this. They want to stand in the way of removing this unjust tax slug on working families, especially at a time when many families are doing it tough. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition last week indicated that he did not think the policy should ever change. I will tell you a result of that absurd policy position. (Time expired)

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister aware of comments by Western Australia’s AMA President, Gary Geelhoed, that at least ‘120 people were dying in WA each year because of overcrowding in public hospitals’? Has the Commonwealth government done anything to discourage the Carpenter government from requesting additional funds to tackle this gross neglect?

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unlike the opposition, we have entered into a COAG agreement. We will provide funds and money to hospitals to cut waiting lists to help those hospital systems which they neglected over the last 10 or 11 years. It is rich for the senator to come into this chamber and complain about our action. He should take the blame for his own inaction during the whole 11-year period when those opposite had control of the health system. They did not enter into meaningful talks under the COAG agreement to provide health funding. We needed to be able to slash waiting lists then. What the opposition are now complaining about is our action to deal with the crisis that they have left us with in some of those acute areas. When you look at their failures against our achievements, you see 650,000 on the public dental waiting list against our Teen Dental Plan. (Time expired)