Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Ludwig. Is the minister aware that doctors at the Murwillumbah and Tweed hospitals on the New South Wales North Coast are in open revolt against government cutbacks of services at the hospitals? Given that the doctors now say that Tweed Hospital is unsafe for patients, and given that the local federal Labor MP was re-elected on the promise that ‘Kevin Rudd will fix our hospitals’ and ‘We will end the blame game’, will the minister intervene in the Tweed Hospital’s crisis before patients die unnecessarily?

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

I thank the senator for her question. I know Senator Nash continues to have an interest in health. There are a couple of important statistics, though, that we need to go to. The first is that, New South Wales wide, the number of long elective surgery waiting lists has been almost halved in the year to June 2008 to 40 patients. The Rudd government is acting in this area. It is taking a considered and measured approach, both through the COAG process and through Minister Roxon’s own actions aimed at ensuring that health is put squarely on the agenda, unlike what the Liberals did in their 12 long years in government.

The second point is that we have never pretended to be an apologist for the states. We recognise there are problems. Many of them are a result, as I have said, of 12 years of neglect. It has been difficult to address them in the short time that we have had them, but, when you look at the long length of time that the Liberals opposite had to deal with this, it is one of those areas that they did not take to a COAG agenda. The Liberals opposite did not look at how they could establish a health fund to deal with some of these issues. They were not elected to deal with elective surgery waiting lists, unlike this government in the nine months that it has been in office. We have taken the issue to COAG. We have started to address the elective surgery waiting lists in states. We have started to address how we can ensure that we have a health fund for the future. We have also started—

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz interjecting—

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

I will pause there for a moment because I think the Liberals opposite do not understand or refuse to understand the work that we have done through COAG, which they were incapable of doing when they were in government. The $600 million waiting list reduction plan has its initial phase focused on patients on long waiting lists, as I have said. That is something that those opposite, Senator Nash, including you, did not press when you were in government to ensure that there was work being done.

In New South Wales, statistics are consistent with this strategy. But, as I said, the Department of Health and Ageing is working with the states to report back on progress to date. I understand, though, that not all the states have the statistics available, and I know the senator has focused in on a particular region quite close to my home state of Queensland. But the other initiatives in the areas of hospitals include $1 billion for hospitals this year, unlike what those opposite—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

And they seek to interject. Perhaps they do not like the good news. It can only be for that reason that they raise their voices to interject. We have committed $10 billion to establish the HHF for significant health research and technology investment and $275 million for 35 superclinics across Australia, creating 1,300 extra medical training places each year. But there is also an extra 1,170 nurse uni training places per year from 2009. It is about systemically addressing, through the COAG process and through the Commonwealth initiatives that I have outlined, not only those hospitals on the coast around the Tweed but also— (Time expired)

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Given that the Labor MP for Richmond was pictured on the front page of the Tweed Daily News on 26 July officially opening 30 new beds at the Tweed Hospital, beds which to this day remain empty, will the senator ask the minister for health to get on the phone to her state counterpart, the husband of the member for Robertson, and insist he come good on this longstanding but still unkept Labor Party promise to Tweed patients?

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

It seems we now have Senator Nash thinking she is in the New South Wales parliament. What this government is doing is addressing the problems that the Liberals left us over the last 12 years. In the nine months we have been in office, we have done more in this area than those opposite did in the last 12 years. As I have said, we have spent $600 million on addressing the elective surgery waiting lists right across Australia—at the Tweed, right across New South Wales and right into Victoria—unlike those opposite. Yes, I can hear them complain. Of course they are complaining, because we are actually doing something which they failed to act on while they were in government. That includes our hospital fund and addressing waiting lists and GP superclinics, because, unlike the Liberals opposite, we understand that this is an important area that does need to be addressed. (Time expired)