Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Ludwig. Will the minister outline for the Senate exactly how much money in the second stimulus package is allocated to Australia’s ailing health system?

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

The COAG health package has provided significant money to provide health and hospitals support. That is perhaps the difficulty that Senator Payne has in asking this question about a package that is designed as a stimulus to the economy and what we are doing as a package in the health area, which is unrelated. Providing that support is what we are going to do and we are doing. As a result of last November’s historic COAG meeting, the Commonwealth government, in implementing lasting reform to improve the Australian healthcare system, agreed to provide $64.4 billion over five years. That is the appropriate place for the provision of funding, through the COAG process, to assist hospitals right across Australia. That package includes several national partnerships to strengthen our hospitals and health— (Time expired)

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

Mr President, I raise a point of order in relation to relevance—indeed, direct relevance. The question was specifically about the stimulus package and how that assists the ailing health sector in this country. Senator Ludwig at another time might tell us about COAG and other measures, but this was a specific question specifically about the health sector being funded, if at all, under this stimulus package. I would invite you, Mr President, to ask the minister to answer the question and, if he cannot, to take it on notice.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on the point of order. It is obvious that this point of order has to be ruled out of order, but the persistence of Senator Abetz in this matter, given his performance as minister, is breathtaking. What Senator Ludwig was making clear was the government’s initiatives in the health area providing funding through a different vehicle. It was a perfectly appropriate and honest response. So I do not know that there is any point of order. It just seems that Senator Abetz insists on wasting the time of the parliament by taking these points of order to pursue some cause he holds dear about relevance—one that he showed no interest in when he was a minister.

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

Order! There are 42 seconds left. Senator Ludwig, I draw your attention to the question.

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

If you want to confuse what we are doing in the health area and what we are doing with the Nation Building and Jobs Plan legislative package, I can make it even plainer: the legislation that needs to pass, which you are holding up, will provide a tax bonus for working Australians. It will be paid through the ATO to eligible taxpayers beginning in April 2009—that is $950 for eligible taxpayers. The Commissioner of Taxation— (Time expired)

Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I thank the minister for acknowledging that there is no money allocated in this package to the health system. Will the minister then outline exactly how much money in this package is being earmarked for the Ageing part of the Health and Ageing portfolio?

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

What we are doing in this package is providing four other household measures: the single-income family bonus, the back-to-school bonus—

Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How’s the back-to-school bonus going to help the aged?

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

Order! Senator Abetz is on his feet waiting to take a point of order. He is entitled to be heard in silence.

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

Unless we are to believe that school children are somehow in the aged cohort within the community, I would have thought that that answer was completely and utterly irrelevant to the question that was asked.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. I think it is fair to say that there are still 46 seconds out of 60 to go and that to take a point of order this early is not allowing the minister to get close to answering the question. If those opposite keep taking points of order, all they are doing is wasting their own time. There are still 46 seconds to go, and Senator Ludwig is entitled to complete his answer.

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

Senator Ludwig had been addressing the supplementary question for 14 seconds. He has 46 seconds left to go. I draw your attention to the question, Senator Ludwig.

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

As I have been saying, both the COAG process and the current Nation Building and Jobs Plan provide a range of benefits to Australians right across the board, including a tax bonus of $950 for eligible taxpayers. All of that supports jobs in the community and supports those people such as nurses, people who support and work in aged-care facilities—right across the board—to keep their jobs, to ensure that their jobs are supported. It also provides infrastructure and longer term benefits as well. All of this is about ensuring that the economy remains strong— (Time expired)

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz’s point of order was prophetic!

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

‘Pathetic’ did you say?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Prophetic!

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I agree with Senator Brandis about the ‘pathetic’, but I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper, Mr President.