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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Let me make it very clear that I am not addressing my remarks to the CEO of the hospital; I am addressing them to the member who asked the question and his refusal to table the document in order to inform this answer. And one wonders why he is refusing. On the question of health costs, the Commonwealth Treasury and the Department of Health and Ageing estimate that the impact of the carbon price will be 0.3 per cent of hospital costs.

Opposition members interjecting—

Let me repeat that again and, as the opposition interject, I am talking about figures of the Treasury and the department of health, which are the same agencies which advised the Howard government. So members of the opposition ought to treat them with some respect rather than engage in interjecting.

The impact of the carbon price will be 0.3 per cent. That is the equivalent of only 3c in every $10 that a hospital spends. When you look at what this government has determined to do with respect to funding of hospitals, you will see that it has increased funding to hospitals in a way which means that we are covering the extra costs many times over. To take just one figure: indexation of the hospital agreement will see federal hospital funding increase by 6.5 per cent in 2012-13, going up each year to more than 10 per cent indexation in 2015-16.

So let us just make that clear again to the opposition, which does not want to absorb the facts: indexation of hospitals is going up to 10 per cent. This is a stark contrast to the days when the Leader of the Opposition was ripping $1 billion out of Australia's hospital system, $1 billion as uncovered—

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