Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, seek to speak in the debate on the matter of public importance on Labor's waste and mismanagement and the chaos caused in the health sector, especially through retrospective funding cuts. Midway through the financial year we have had yet another dysfunctional decision by the Gillard Labor government when they announced $1.6 billion-worth of cuts to public hospitals from the hospital national pool, causing chaos right through the hospital system all over the country, playing havoc with people's lives.

These funding cuts have been directly linked to bed closures, operating theatre closures and delays in elective surgeries right across the country, and you have heard this from senators from Queensland to South Australia to WA and beyond.

The fact is, hospital patients are paying the price for Labor's economic mismanagement in search for the elusive, yet now abandoned, budget surplus. Labor cannot manage health—$403 million has been cut halfway through this financial year alone for funding that has already been spent and allocated in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 financial years. Labor does not understand how the business end of our hospital system works. Contracts need to be signed, staff hired and surgery lists set. How many times have we heard repeatedly from Labor benches that the buck stops with them on hospitals. For the hospitals in Victoria, we thought the lack of federal bucks for a time would stop their operation. Failed and hollow promises were made yet again that they would end the blame game and fix public hospitals. The public hospital cuts are in addition to the $4 billion slashed from private health insurance and the $1 billion slashed from dental health. The Prime Minister needs to stop the blame game and stop using it as a way to pick a fight with premiers and to target my own home state of Victoria.

In the face of the Victorian hospitals budget reductions in the 2012-13 financial year by $107 million, the Victorian government stated that it would have a major negative consequence for the Victorian community, including the cancellation of Victorian hospital services and the retention of staff. The state government has further stated that this clawing back of health funding from the 2010-11 financial year, after patients have been treated, was based on incorrect application of population growth data. Across all aspects of this particular government, they just cannot get the numbers right. When we look at numerous levels right across this nation, we need to send some of the ministers back to the maths classroom—particularly Minister Plibersek so that she can use an appropriate dataset on which to base her financial predictions.

What did these funding cuts mean on the ground in Victoria? What did they mean for a city like Bendigo, with 100,000 people in the middle of building a world-class hospital right in the heart of regional Victoria? It meant that the budget of the Bendigo Health Care Group was $2 million out of pocket. What did that mean? It meant reducing elective surgery by 600 cases, the closure of 24 beds, $100,000 worth of savings in the mental health area by not filling positions, and reducing after-hours services. These are all services that a regional city like Bendigo needs. The Bendigo Hospital CEO, John Mulder, said that this was an unprecedented move by federal government to remove funding at this point in their cycle. This is the case being felt by hospital administrators right across our state, because they have had to manage in an economically responsible way. They have had to balance their budgets. It meant that services had to be cut. Other hospitals, right across Victoria, suffered, and I notice Mr Trewin, from Benalla, in the gallery today. Benalla and District Memorial Hospital is set to lose $202,000 out of its budget.

The health minister needs to stop the blame game, targeting the states, particularly my home state of Victoria. The truth is the Victorian government are reducing bureaucracy, re-investing administration savings and efficiencies over the next six years in the health portfolio and delivering back into front-line health services, which is exactly what the Gillard Labor government need to get serious about, instead of wasting more health dollars by advertising their backflip in our local papers over the weekend. It does not matter which way you look at it, and how much they squirm, Labor cannot be trusted on health. The public expect more from us. They have to stop shifting the blame and, basically, grow up.