Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, under your government. It says: in 2003-04, $108.9 million was taken out of the system; in 2004-05, $172 million was taken out of the system; in 2005-06, $264.6 million was taken out of the system; in 2006-07, $372.9 million was taken out of the system. That is why the state and territory premiers and chief ministers were complaining and claiming that about a billion dollars had been cut from the agreement in terms of the forward estimates as far as 2003 was concerned. So let’s not cop this hypocrisy coming at us from the other side.

What does the recent COAG agreement show? Glenn Milne, who reported on it, obviously off the back of the Prime Minister’s press release, said that there was a $64.4 billion boost to health and hospital funding, driving reform through the national healthcare agreement—an  increase of more than $20 billion, or 50 per cent, over the last agreement. What it will also do is deliver significant reforms for stringent accountability measures, performance reporting and rewards for meetings in terms of setting targets. So there are actually incentives there. This is something you had an opportunity to do. You did not do any of that in the 11½ years you were in government. You handed over money without benchmarks, without requirements, and you criticise us! What did we do at our first opportunity in relation to a COAG agreement? We increased the funding. That is funding with an annual indexation rate of about 7.3 per cent, which is a growth rate—it is not a cut; it is not smoke and mirrors. These are figures that have been accepted by everyone in the industry, and we have the opposition coming in here and trying to say we have not done anything.

The total is $64.4 billion and $4.8 billion is for public hospitals. That is the one thing that the member for Dickson attacks us over: fixing public hospitals. I will tell you what: sadly for this nation, it will take more than 12 months to fix up the mess that you left after 11½ years. It does take time to repair damage. You have to get people back into the system. What are we doing? There is $1.1 billion to train more doctors, nurses and other health professionals, and $750 million to take pressure off emergency departments. And you have got the hide to come in here and try and criticise us! This is why the member for Dickson has got no hope against the member for Curtin: it is the sublime and the ridiculous. He comes in here and tries to argue that black is white. Where has he produced the figures? Instead, he rails against me because he has got a bit of an obsession against me, because I happen to have been a legal aid lawyer before I came into parliament and he was a policeman—I say no more. There is $500 million for measures to provide additional subacute care, $450 million for preventative health national partnerships and $800 million for Indigenous health.

I go back to the original figure: an extra $4.8 billion for public hospitals. That is what the MPI is about. Refute it. Tell us it is not in there. No-one has said that the figure is illusory; it is real money, it is real dollars. And the rest of the agreement relates to performance. Of course you pay on performance. Do I trust the states? Absolutely not! My history in this place is one of a centralist. My cooperation with states is to force them on benchmarks. When I was the shadow minister for Aboriginal affairs, I supported the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs at the time, John Herron, when he wanted to bring in benchmarks on the states and territories in relation to Indigenous matters because money went missing. I do not make any apology for the fact that I totally support what happened at COAG. I do not mind the states coming and asking us for extra money, and I think we should give it to them based on their need, based on their performance, based on proper delivery of services. But to cop this garbage of an MPI that asserts that somehow this government, which has a commitment not only to public hospitals but also to Medicare, is somehow errant in its first 12 months—give us a break! No-one can take you seriously.

Pay on performance? Members opposite are very lucky there was no productivity performance on themselves in the last 12 months! I have to say to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, they are still grieving. They do not know why they lost the last election. I will tell them why they lost. They lost all right because they did not deliver on the health system, on education. People who voted for them, blue-collar workers, were rewarded with Work Choices! Anyone with half a brain who worked the electorate at the last election picked all that stuff up. But I will tell you who the public trusts on public hospitals—Labor. Not the Liberal-National Party because of their obsession with private hospitals and private health. It is only Labor that has had the commitment to public health and public hospitals. So it is a nice, cute little trick for the opposition in bringing these MPIs forward. It will get them nowhere. This is a wasted MPI. It is irrelevant, and the people are saying that because those opposite are not on the money. In this instance, it is an affront that their tactics group would allow such a subject to come up as an MPI. Come on; make it a bit harder for us! This is easy. I would have had no trouble convincing a jury on this; they would have come back in less than 20 minutes!

The state-by-state breakdown is $20 billion for New South Wales, $15 billion for Victoria, $12 billion for Queensland, $6 billion for Western Australia, $5 billion for South Australia, $1.4 billion for Tasmania, $900 million for the ACT and well over $½ billion for the Northern Territory. What happened is that the Prime Minister did not play games at COAG, whereas the former Prime Minister used to play one state off against the next. There is no doubt that Queensland did a lot better than others because that is where a swag of conservative seats were, but I predict we will pick up a few more at the next election there. So that will be an interesting exercise.

It was a delight to be asked by the Chief Government Whip to speak on this MPI because it is a very easy MPI in which to defend the government’s record. Those who come in here to try to rail against us, frankly, are firing blanks. There is nothing in what they are saying. The record does speak for itself. We have a commitment to public hospitals. We will have a commitment in the long term as well. (Time expired)

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