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

I move:

That the amendments be agreed to.

I am very pleased that the opposition, after all of their blustering on this measure, have decided to support what is a sensible and important budget measure. The bill will allow the government to put the extended Medicare safety net onto a sustainable footing into the future. With expenditure increasing 30 per cent in the last year alone, it is obviously an important measure to keep some of those costs under control.

The Rudd government’s health budget this year was all about reforming our health system, delivering better services to the community, funding new drugs and expanding successful programs and making them fairer and more sustainable in the long term. Unfortunately, the opposition do not seem to have yet made the connection between funding new programs, demanding existing ones are fair, delivering to patients and providing best value for taxpayers’ dollars.

We know that every taxpayer dollar in health is precious, and the limited funding we have must be targeted to ensure we get not just the biggest bang for our buck but the best bang for our buck. This measure returns almost half a billion dollars—which has been buying Rolls-Royces and all sorts of other extravagances for some very well-paid specialists—so that we can invest in health measures that will have benefits to patients.

For example, in this year’s budget we provided funding for a new cancer drug, Avastin, at the cost of $314 million. We have continued the Herceptin breast cancer drugs for women, at $168 million. We have instigated a new maternity package, providing more choices for women, at $120 million, and a rural health package with incentives for doctors who work in more remote parts of the country, at $134 million. So it is important that these savings measures can be delivered to allow for this expenditure in health.

We are happy to support the amendments; however, I would note that the determination that implements the caps is already a disallowable instrument in parliament, so there is already parliamentary scrutiny. The amendments to this bill will create an additional burden for the parliament, with every annual indexation of the cap having to go through both houses.

I am pleased that the opposition has indicated that it will now facilitate the smooth passage of this determination when it is presented to the House, and this will happen after the bill has received royal assent.

The government has agreed that a cap on the benefits for the injection of a therapeutic substance into the eye will not be implemented. In recent years there have been significant advances in therapies to treat macular degeneration which can hold dramatic results for patients, including saving sight. I would like to acknowledge the important role that the Macular Degeneration Foundation has played in securing these changes, and I support the amendments before the House.

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