Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

E-health, primary infrastructure, GP superclinics, telehealth, national prevention policies—all were on the hit list of those opposite. Let them not come into this place with their sanctimonious sentiment—every single one of those things is a policy they would not support. The honourable member for Forrest did not mention that. She knows very well, as do those opposite, that when the Howard coalition was in government—and the Institute of Health and Welfare belled the cat in October 2007—the proportion of health and hospital funding in this country declined. Their record in health and hospital funding is appalling. They are the ones who capped the GP training places—Michael Wooldridge did that when he was the health minister back in 2004.

It behoved us when we came to government to put a huge amount of money into emergency service relief across the whole country. We have massively increased funding to the health and hospital system, and the National Health and Hospitals Network Bill is part of our overall strategy to alleviate the problems we inherited from the Howard coalition government. This is about putting the money back into the system; this is about a national approach. This is not about anachronistic hospital boards; this is about making sure we have health networks, it is about Medicare Locals and it is about injecting real money into regional and rural health services across the country. It is not about some phoney policies that the coalition came up with just before the election which would have ripped hundreds of millions of dollars out of health and hospital funding across the country. They made phoney promises to spend the phoney money allocated through the phoney commitments they made based on the big black hole that they had in their costings. I did not believe, and I do not think people in the electorate of Blair believed, the commitments made by those opposite in health and hospital funding.

We know that as part of the National Health and Hospitals Network we will see Medicare Locals. I have had meetings with the Ipswich and West Moreton Division of General Practice to talk about the future. They are very enthusiastic about the Medicare Locals in our area. I have had meetings with rural hospitals, doctors and allied health professionals in my area to discuss the hospital networks that we are bringing in. Again they are supportive of what we are doing. I have written dozens of letters in support of applications for funding sought by GP practices across the Ipswich and West Moreton area in support of our primary infrastructure funding—$300,00 for one lot; a possible $500,00 for other important infrastructure such as medical clinics across the area. The people of the Ipswich and West Moreton region also support the idea of a GP superclinic like the one currently operating at the University of Queensland, run by UQ Health Services.

This legislation is important because it is part of the overall framework for the health and hospital system that we are bringing in. It is important legislation because it establishes the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. It is important legislation because this commission will set national clinical standards and strengthen clinical governance. The agreement provides real accountability and transparency. A performance and accountability framework will be established, and we think also, because the commission is established in a very sensible way with a board of directors, a CEO, expert committees and consultants and commission staff, the commission will have the capacity to monitor national standards and work with clinicians to identify what is best for clinical care for the Australian public, including what services should be delivered in which particular areas. We also want to make sure that the networks have local people involved as well. That is why the legislation is important.

This bill legislates not just for the establishment of the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care as a new independent statutory body; it forms part of a framework for our overall strategy on health and hospitals. The legislation was talked about in detail by the Minister for Health and Ageing in her second reading speech on 29 September 2010. She made the point that the federal Labor government’s health reforms, which she is responsible for in her ministerial capacity, are the most significant changes to Australia’s health and hospital system since the introduction of Medicare. I concur.

My electorate is the fastest growing region in South-East Queensland and has long suffered by not having enough doctors and allied health professionals. This particular region warmly welcomes things like the GP superclinic. Why would the local newspaper, the Queensland Times, editorialise about how important that GP superclinic is to the people of the Ipswich and West Moreton region? That particular clinic provides services such as urgent care and it deals with people who cannot get in to see the after-hours clinic at the Ipswich General Hospital, which receives federal funding of $100,000. I commend the Ipswich and West Moreton Division of General Practice for their assistance in running that clinic.

The urgent care clinic has two GPs and a nurse. It provides concession card holders with the kind of assistance they need by simply bulkbilling them. Children under 16 and patients over 65 will also get access to bulkbilling. The clinic is open from 8 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday. The second stage will open in 2011 and will focus on diabetes, respiratory and mental health services, and paediatric and cardiovascular care. These are important issues in my region and the GP superclinics are absolutely vital.

Maintaining wonderful clinics like the Kambu Medical Centre in Ipswich is also important. I commend Ms Stella Taylor-Johnson, the CEO, who was recently elected as chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service in Brisbane for the work that she has done. I have been to that centre on many occasions and I have also taken Minister Snowdon with me to that particular clinic. The funding for that comes from the budgetary provisions for health clinics across the country. Kambu is located in the Ipswich City Council area, which is home to 4,729 Indigenous people or 3.4 per cent of the area’s population, according to the ABS census data collected in 2006. It receives considerable funding from the Department of Health and Ageing.

This is important for my local area because while this particular legislation is part of a national framework the people at the coalface—the doctors, nurses and allied health professionals—deal with patients everyday and there are capacity constraints that we see locally in the fast-growing region of the Ipswich and West Moreton area. The provision of funding for 1,300 new subacute beds is also particularly important. We are more than doubling the funding for mental health services. We are investing $1.6 billion for those new subacute beds, many of which will be able to be used by people suffering from mental disability. This is particularly important for my region because for a long time the Challinor Centre housed people with mental disability. Now many of these people are living in the community and looking after themselves with the support of wonderful local organisations like Focal Extended, ALARA, Blue Care and Lifeline.

While this is a bill that affects us nationally, I want to talk about how it affects my electorate in particular. I look forward to the Medicare Locals, with the emphasis on Ipswich being the hub and the spokes going out into the rural areas. The Ipswich General Hospital has received considerable assistance from us over the years. Since we have been elected, there has been additional assistance for elective surgery as well as for the infrastructure needed for those surgeries. This was to assist not just the waiting lists but also the hospital to become better able to cope with the growing areas of Springfield, the Ripley Valley and the areas west of Ipswich. I look forward to working with the local GPs in my area because I think they will make a big difference. Allied health and community health providers will also offer great assistance and I looking forward working with them to make sure that our region has the kind of health services that we need.

This legislation is important. As Tip O’Neill, the former Democrat House of Representatives spokesperson, said, ‘All politics is local.’ I wanted to talk tonight about how this national legislation and the establishment of this particular commission, as part of a whole framework, will affect my seat of Blair. I wanted to make sure that those of my constituents who listen to this speech and follow what happens in the House of Representatives understood how important the National Health and Hospitals Network is not only for my electorate and the whole of the Ipswich and West Moreton region but also for the Lockyer Valley and the Scenic Rim.

Debate (on motion by Ms Ley) adjourned.

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