Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I will always refer to the health minister as the delicate petal that he clearly is. He is obviously unable to deal with an issue where we have been prepared to make a difficult decision. The Leader of the Opposition has stood up and said: ‘The buck will stop with me.’ We would like to make sure that we can improve our health and hospital system with the states. We want to do it in cooperation with them. We are going to negotiate with them on a range of measures that are going to take pressure off our emergency departments, deal with our elderly in a more appropriate way and make sure we reduce preventable hospitalisations. This is already five times more detail than the minister has released of his criteria for taking over the Mersey hospital.

The government only has one plan for one hospital in one electorate in one state. We have a $2 billion national plan for dealing with the long-term future of the health and hospital system. This is something that, frankly, the community expects the minister to be able to take some responsibility for. He is embarrassed because he has been caught out. He is on record as having said what he would like to do. He is on the record as having said that the system between the Commonwealth and the states is a ‘dog’s breakfast’. He is on the record as having said that the states should vacate the field and let the federal government run the health system altogether from start to finish.

What does he say when Labor comes up with a clear national proposal? ‘Oh, no, I’m older and wiser and have decided that that’s not such a good idea.’ In other words, ‘The Prime Minister said no and I didn’t have the guts to follow it through.’ That is what happened with this minister, and he now is embarrassed that he finds himself with his views on health policy more in line with ours but not able to pursue them.

I can tell you, Minister, that you have left everybody very confused about your view on hospitals. It seems to change every week: you want a federal takeover; you do not want a federal takeover. Then, of course, the Prime Minister launches a takeover of one hospital; you are not sure whether that is a test case and whether it is going to happen in other hospitals. You changed your mind five different times in one week, and then, when asked in an interview if this was an election stunt, you were unable four or five times to deny that that is all it was. People have been asking the minister for his criteria. As I say, I can table the minister’s criteria if that would be of assistance, because it seems to me it is the only way that, in this House, we will know whether hospitals are going to be given any attention by the Howard government or not. If you are not close on the pendulum to the electoral interests of the Howard government, you have no hope of anybody paying any attention to your healthcare needs in the community.

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