Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

After being in this parliament for 8½ years, I have to say this is the weakest, most pathetic, ill-conceived matter of public importance I have seen. The Labor Party has certainly got the trifecta today: the worst three features I have ever seen in an MPI in this parliament. It is absolutely pathetic. The Labor Party could not even get a question up in question time about an MPI—normal procedure. The member for Gellibrand in her opening statement said that the health system was not all that bad. What is she going on about? This is a most ill-conceived, pathetic and inaccurate MPI. So many things about it were just shocking and I think that the Labor Party have really got to look at their health spokesman. It has been an absolute joke today.

Our constituents have told the government that health care is important to them, and we have responded with literally billions of dollars in funding support—incentives, programs and services. We have seen some major achievements in health in recent years with this government’s activities primarily focused on the development and implementation of ongoing health system reforms aimed at supporting universal and affordable access to high-quality medical, pharmaceutical and hospital services and improving health outcomes through promotional and disease prevention activities, maintaining sustainability and providing access to quality aged-care services.

When I was first elected to this parliament in 1998 you could wait up to two weeks to get to see a GP. Labor’s answer to the health system in rural areas was: I hope you get better before you get a chance to see a doctor. That was the answer. When I was elected in my electorate there were 149 doctors. There are now 189 doctors in my electorate—40 more doctors than we had when we were elected in 1996. That is our answer: we provided more health services and we provided more doctors, more nurses, and this despite a very badly run health system from state governments throughout Australia.

Let us talk about my electorate of Barker. Let us talk about rural and regional health care, and the leaps and bounds it has taken in recent years because of the opportunities that have been afforded and paid for by this government. You will notice a common theme in what I am about to share—that is, consistency. The government has a very consistent scorecard when it comes to steady improvement in health care. Further to that, total Medicare benefits scheme funding has more than doubled in the past 10 years, to where it now stands at $66.1 million in my electorate alone. Bulk-billing rates of non-referred GPs have seen a similar improvement—a 20 per cent increase. And the good news is that it is likely to get even better from here. It is in the nature of rural health programs that they often service very large areas and cannot always be accurately allocated to an electorate.

See this speech in context