Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health, Senator Gallagher. Minister, on 28 July, the Minister for Health said 'it has never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor' in Australia. Just yesterday he described the GP shortage as 'terrifying' and something he is 'deeply concerned' by. Given the health minister clearly recognises the pressures that the health system is under, can the minister guarantee the government will not cut the $27.5 million in regional development funding for the Coffs Harbour health services precinct delivered in the 2022 federal budget?

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

R (—) (): I won't stand here and foreshadow decisions that are being considered through the budget process. I have been clear with the chamber and, I think, publicly that we are reviewing measures from the March 2022-23 budget, the budget before the election. We are reviewing that budget. There was a lot of spending in it, but if that spending is warranted—if it's needed, if it meets that test—then we will make decisions based on that. Seriously, we, an incoming government, need to go through and have a look at where this money was placed. We've seen reports in the paper today about some of the decisions made under some of these programs where proponents weren't aware of them, where applications weren't made for them or when disproportionate amounts went to particular parts of the country, so there is a legitimate issue here that we are taking our time to work through.

On the issue of health and making sure that the health system is adequately resourced, we have already injected over $1.4 billion, I think, into the health system through various payments and COVID related things. I'll check if I've got that figure wrong, but we have made those investments. This was money that wasn't provisioned for by the previous government. We have made additional investments into health.

On the issue of the GP shortage, it is a crisis. Primary care is in crisis, and nine years of cuts to Medicare and pushing back and not ensuring that there was a good supply of doctors coming into and being trained in general practice are problems that we have inherited from those opposite and are trying to fix. People can be guaranteed that a Labor government will always be better on hospitals and will always be better on Medicare. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cadell, a first supplementary question?

Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister also guarantee that the government will not be cutting the $19.5 million in regional development funding for the Shepparton Rural Clinical School delivered in the 2022 federal budget?

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

As I said, my answer is the same. We are going through all the measures. If they stack up, if they actually meet that quality test—yes, they're needed; yes, they can be delivered; yes, they've been properly costed—then we will proceed with many of the measures, where they meet that test. If they don't meet that test, then we are looking at other opportunities to reprioritise, to return money to the budget. Can I just remind people: the budget we inherited had deficits in the order of over $200 billion across the forward estimates—$1 trillion in debt. Costs of servicing debt are going to exceed many government programs in the next few years. Just the increase in interest is going to hit the budget to $125 billion. This is the budget that we're trying to manage, and we will prioritise accordingly. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cadell, a second supplementary question?

Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister guarantee that the government will not cut the $8.3 million regional development funding for a national posttraumatic stress disorder centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast delivered in the 2022 federal budget?

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

We're working through all that. As I've said, my answer is the same to the two previous questions. But I would also say we are—

No, this is serious. We are working through all the ongoing health programs—adult dental, for example, which just falls off a cliff next year. They're the problems we've inherited. What about the My Health Record card? We'll just get rid of that, shall we, in the next two years? We have so many terminating programs in health—over 200 terminating programs that we are dealing with that you hid when you tried to make the presentation of your budget look better, by cutting services and not funding them properly, in an ongoing way. So, is adult dental going to need to be funded after next year? Yes, I reckon there's a pretty high chance that it will need to be. Yet those opposite didn't make provision for it in the budget, and this is what we are fixing.