David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition appear to think they have a mortgage on doing anything good in the health portfolio. I would just like to remind the House of their track record. In the Treasury portfolio, they inherited a $20 billion surplus and $45 billion in the bank. At the end of the June quarter, there was $319.473 billion in government securities for the nation to pay back. Their legacy in health, apart from what they alluded to before, is a lot of ballooning bureaucracy and broken promises—an incredible waste.

The previous speaker mentioned the wonderful Medicare Locals. They inherited a $1.8 billion budget and managed to spend 40 per cent of it on bureaucrats and buildings. The Divisions of General Practice Network were just washed away and consumed into this overwhelming bureaucracy. At the opening of the Medicare Local in my electorate, when I was a practising doctor, the CEO walked in and said, 'We've got a $20 million budget. We'd like you to tell us what we should do with it.' Talk about too much money and no idea about what to do with it! That was just a classic Labor Party thought bubble. But the thought bubble grew so big that it became a $1.8 billion thought bubble. Not only did they increase that bureaucracy, but there were 11 other bureaucracies and a 27 per cent increase in bureaucrats. About 64 GP super clinics were promised.

In my electorate, in the town of Port Macquarie, we have had a super clinic for over 20 years and there were no government grants involved in that. They made a promise and allocated $7.5 million for a super clinic in Port Macquarie in 2010. But two private ones were designed, built and have been operating for three years and that $7.5 million is still involved in turning an old hotel, which had been a nursing home, into a whole new super clinic. So four years later we have all that capital tied up. Imagine the drugs for rare diseases or for ground-breaking cancer treatments that we could have approved and paid for with $7 billion—let alone the $650 million program.

They attacked private health insurance at every opportunity—the trouble is that there are 11 million people in this country who depend on it—whether it be removing the indexation, introducing means-testing or removing the lifetime health cover rebate. They introduced the co-payment system for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. They have been supporting it for 25 years and now, when we are trying to keep it sustainable by increasing the cost by 80c for a pensioner and $5 for non concession card holders, they are opposing it. It is gross hypocrisy. The shadow minister for health walked out when this debate on a matter of public importance started. At least our Minister for Health stayed here. We have an Assistant Minister for Health, Fiona Nash, who resides in the other place—that is the only reason she could not be here: she is a senator—and she does a damn good job. She grew up in the regions. She knows what it is like.

So what are we doing? We are making the health budget sustainable. Health funding is being increased from $64 billion in 2013-$14 to $75 billion by the 2017-18 budget. In New South Wales, for instance, it will increase each year from $4.6 billion in 2014-15 to $5.9 billion in 2017-18. Look at the Medical Research Future Fund. That will be a great legacy for the country. The clever accountants in the Labor Party pulled a swiftie on the medical research community and withdrew $400 million in 2011 by funding things in arrears rather than prospectively. How sneaky can you get? You try to make out you have not cut anything, but you move things around in the budget and—bingo: you have saved yourself $400 million. They are all going quiet now, aren't they? We are trying to make Medicare sustainable. It has gone up 122 per cent and we have to make it sustainable. (Time expired)

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