Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be talking about Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2011-2012 today, because this budget builds on an incredibly large investment in health that this government has made. I have been very pleased about this, because my electorate, in the outer suburbs of Adelaide, has had significant investment since this government got elected. Under the previous government, it was completed neglected, I have to say, and there was no investment, but under this government we have seen significant investments. Most recently, I am very pleased that it has been announced that there will be a Headspace unit at Noarlunga, which will really address mental health issues in the local southern suburbs of Adelaide. What is great about these Headspace sites is that they bring everyone into one tent: physical health professionals, mental health professionals and employment services, providing a holistic approach. In this budget, there is mental health funding of $2.2 billion, a significant investment. I am pleased that the Minister for Mental Health is here. He did a lot of hard work in making sure that we got this package. It was a priority of the government to really invest in mental health, and I am very pleased about the Headspace site.

It is disappointing that the member for Boothby has left the room, because the member for Boothby made a little bit of a mistake on radio the other morning. This government has invested $12 million into a GP Plus Super Clinic at Noarlunga. The member for Boothby was on the radio and had obviously read some paper somewhere that said this was delayed. He made a mistake because he got on radio accusing the state government of delaying the GP Plus Super Clinic. I have got good news for the Member of Boothby: there will be no such delays in Kingston. I am very pleased to inform him—I am disappointed he is not here, because he did make that mistake on radio—that it is full steam ahead, with stage 1 already open and stage 2 being constructed. This is another example of this government's significant investment in health.

In addition, we are investing a lot in training new GPs and clinicians, whether they be nurses or allied health people. I am very pleased that the final stage at Flinders hospital at the Noarlunga centre is open for the training of more GPs. That was something that the previous government really neglected. They put a cap on GPs. Their only strategy really was to provide golf balls to GPs to try and train more. I am not really sure what their strategy was with the golf balls, but certainly it did not work. The golf balls were somehow meant to encourage GPs. The minister has a good example of that—they were not even all used. That did not work.

Our investment is in training positions—in my electorate at Flinders, at Noarlunga and at the repat hospital—in training facilities so that doctors can be trained where they actually might want to work so that we can increase the capacity. I know that Flinders has also extended into some very sophisticated training facilities at Alice Springs, all funded by this government. This is real investment in health.

In addition, I know that there has been a real investment in integrated cancer services. This is really important. Darwin is one of the places where, previously, the patients had to fly to Adelaide but now they have an integrated cancer service in their local area. But a focus of this government has been on prevention. Previously, very little attention was paid to prevention, but this government has put a real focus on prevention. Obviously, the Gillard government has extended funding for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program. My question to the minister is: could the minister advise how this program will improve the detection and prevention of bowel cancer?

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