Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The list of failures goes on. It was not just about funding. There was also the shortage of doctors, nurses and specialists. The Leader of the Opposition and the then Howard government were warned seven times on the shortage of doctors, nine times on the shortage of nurses and three times on the shortage of specialists.

What did the Leader of the Opposition do in the face of all of this information? On 16 March 2010 what he finally said was:

… we were about to start tackling the public hospital system when we lost office.

This is after five years as Minister for Health and Ageing. He is a man in a hurry—five years and he had finally woken up to the fact that his own conduct had caused a crisis in health. This government is acting to fix the crisis caused by the Leader of the Opposition and that is what our reform agenda is about. Our reform agenda for hospitals is clear and we also have a reform agenda for primary care, because we understand that if you truly want to take pressure off our public hospital system, if you truly want to offer Australians the best possible health care, we need to strengthen primary care, need to strengthen the system that most Australians use, need to strengthen the system that keeps Australians well and out of hospital.

That is why today the Minister for Health and Ageing and I have announced that applications are open for the creation of the first 15 Medicare locals, a new system to strengthen primary care. That is why I have determined that there will be more Medicare locals and they will be made available more quickly, that access to after-hours care will be brought forward by two years and be available to people sooner. This is on top of the telephone line to assist people when they have health problems after hours. These are appropriate investments to make a difference for the community. We are still waiting for the answer from the Leader of the Opposition—will he try and block all of this too when it comes to the parliament in legislation? Time for playing politics should be over; let us get on with improving the health care of Australians and delivering our plan.

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