Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last night the Rudd government delivered a responsible budget that will not only help tackle inflation but also help working families—those that really need a helping hand in the present economic climate. Very importantly, the government has honoured its election commitments. I have been working for over 12 months to ensure the tropical north receives the attention and investment it requires to meet future needs and challenges. I am proud to be part of a government that does what it promises, looks past the short term and quick fixes, and plans for future generations.

In the lead-up to the election last year I campaigned strongly for new health services for the region. I am proud to say that we are delivering. Last night we delivered on all our commitments in full, but I am particularly proud of our health commitments: $45.9 million for a new dental school for James Cook University, providing 60 training places over four years and including a clinical outreach service; a GP superclinic to tackle the growing problem of chronic disease, particularly diabetes and heart disease; and $8.3 million towards radiation oncology facilities for Cairns, in the tropical north. I will continue to work with COUCH and the state government to deliver this commitment as soon as possible. We are already delivering $7.5 million for a new MRI machine for Cairns Base Hospital, which will reduce the need for patients to transfer to Townsville. These local commitments are part of a national plan to fix our health and hospital system. The community is tired of the buck-passing and the blame game on health and just wants the system fixed. These are all specific funding commitments within this budget that start to fix the health system.

Last night the Treasurer also set out a national plan, including $3.2 billion for health and hospital reform to revitalise the public health system, $600 million to cut elective surgery waiting lists, $491 million to help families meet the cost of dental check-ups for teenage children and $290 million to help state governments reduce public dental waiting lists. We need to tackle workforce issues, and we have announced new funding to bring nurses back into the workforce.

These are all specific spending commitments within the budget, but we need to plan beyond the short term. The $10 billion health and hospital fund was a very important announcement last night. This fund will allow us to look beyond this budget cycle and well into the future. I am pleased that the Queensland government recently committed $450 million to expand the Cairns Base Hospital, including cardiology and new oncology services, but we need to ensure that we have a new hospital into the future and we need to start planning for that now. This $10 billion fund will ensure that we have the funds available to invest in this sort of infrastructure into the future.

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