Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Brandis, the Minister representing the Prime Minister. Is the New South Wales government correct when it says that the Abbott government's changes to health funding will mean reduced capacity at public hospitals and increased waiting times, disproportionately affecting patients from low-SES backgrounds?

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

Senator O'Neill, I am not familiar with that remark that you attribute to the New South Wales government, but I can assure you that that will not be the effect of any decisions made by the Abbott government. The government is not cutting hospital funding. We have kept the commitment we made at the last election, and, in this year's budget, schools as well as hospital funding continues to increase each and every year. Total annual hospital funding increases by 25 per cent, or $3.8 billion, over the next four years. Senator O'Neill, I think you are meaning to suggest that the Commonwealth's support for hospital funding will fall; it will rise by 25 per cent over the next four years.

Now, in the 2015-16 budget, funding is less than estimated at the time of the 2014-15 budget, but the reason for that, Senator O'Neill, is reductions in forecast price growth by the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority, and updates to hospital activity estimates by the states. The government will continue to fund hospitals on an activity basis under the National Health Reform Agreement until the end of 2016-17, and from 2017-18 the Commonwealth will index its contribution to public hospitals funding by the consumer price index and population growth. That is the way, Senator O'Neill, that the model works. That is the way the model works. So we have a situation in which the model provides for an increase in funding over the forward estimates, and overall, across the land, there will be a 25 per cent increase across the forward estimates. (Time expired)

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Will the Abbott government's green paper on Federation contain a proposal to cease all Commonwealth funding for public hospitals?

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

Senator O'Neill, again you are wrong. There is no green paper—there is a draft green paper—about reforming the Federation. You ask me this question as if there is a final document, and there is not. There is not. However, Senator O'Neill, when the green paper on the reform of the Federation is published, it will contain a range of options. Of course it will contain a range of options. What sort of an exercise would it be, Senator O'Neill, if it did not contain a range of options? Some of those options will provide for a reduction in Commonwealth involvement, and another of the options to be considered in the green paper is an increase in the Commonwealth involvement. It is an options paper, so of course it is going to consider the range of different approaches to reforming the Federation. That is what we have done so that we can make an informed policy choice.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. How is cutting more than $50 billion from hospitals over the next decade and contemplating a plan to cease all federal hospital funding consistent with the Prime Minister's pre-election promise that there would be 'no cuts to health'?

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

Senator O'Neill, I do not know how many times I have to tell you that we are increasing hospital funding by 25 per cent over the next four years. That is what the figures in the budget reveal. I take it your reference to 'contemplating' is a reference to the draft green paper. Senator O'Neill, when you have one of these green-paper processes, the point of the process is to put all the options on the table. Now, you should know that, Senator O'Neill, because your own National Platform says this about reforming the federation—let me quote your National Platform to you:

Labor believes our Constitution and Federation need to be modernised to resolve the funding and administrative problems that have prevented government effectively dealing with the challenges of today.

What your National Platform foreshadows is exactly the same process that the Abbott government is in fact undertaking—that is, putting the various options on the table so that policymakers can make informed choices.