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

I thank the member for Deakin for his question, particularly because I understand it is his birthday today. I wish him happy birthday as well.

But more importantly than the member for Deakin’s birthday is that the electorate of Deakin, along with every other electorate across the country, is going to benefit from our new National Health Reform Plan, which is a truly national agreement. Our plan is going to produce a sustainable, efficient and improved health system.

As the Prime Minister has already said, the Commonwealth is stepping up to 50 per cent growth in the system. So in electorates like Deakin, which is fast-growing and where there is a high reliance on our health services, having the Commonwealth sharing the growth, and having that money following where the population is and where the services are needed, is vitally important for reform.

Of course, the importance of this reform has been backed up by the response that we have seen from clinicians and health experts, who have been calling for these reforms for well over a decade. As the Prime Minister mentioned, the Leader of the Opposition ignored those claims from stakeholders; but let me just give you a brief taste of some of the responses to our plan, because it has been so widely supported.

Andrew Pesce from the AMA:

We will have a national health system that is transparent, economically responsible and geared to providing the best possible outcome for patients.

Stephen Leeder, an academic leader in this area says the package:

… sets up a structure that should enable basic patient care to be better, especially for people with long-term problems.

John Deeble, the architect of Medicare says:

I think Julia Gillard’s is a pragmatic solution.

And even Alan Kohler says that this deal:

… should be used as a template for everything else states do, including education and public transport.

Of course, the Liberal Party have absolutely no plan to tackle this problem, but they will have a choice when the legislation comes before the parliament whether or not they will support these important changes.

We know the Leader of the Opposition to date has opposed everything we have done in this area. But the time will now come that he has to make a choice whether to support this or not. In fact, we know he opposed this deal before the meeting was even finished. He was out there giving a press conference on Sunday afternoon, saying it was a bad deal before he had even seen what was in the agreement. That is absolutely a measure—

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