Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would also like to highlight the appalling speech made by the Minister for Health in this debate. He attacked hardworking health professionals; he attacked our ambos; he attacked our nurses. I am not surprised that there is a Liberal in this place attacking our ambos, because they do it every day in Victoria. Their state government has failed to negotiate a decent agreement with decent working conditions for the Victorian ambos. Their Code Red campaign has been ongoing because the state Liberal government has failed. I am not surprised to hear the health minister not only attack this MPI but make a personal attack on people involved in the health sector. I am not surprised because, when he was the shadow health minister, he came to Bendigo but did not talk about health. He did not let people in Bendigo know that he would introduce a GP tax. He did not let people in Bendigo know—and here is a fact—that he would cut $25 million from Bendigo Health. He stood up in front of a Bendigo Health sign and talked about the carbon tax. He did not talk about health care of central Victorians; he spoke about the carbon tax.

When the then Leader of the Opposition, today the Prime Minister, went around talking to patients and tweeting a photo, he did not say that, when he became Prime Minister, he would oversee a budget that would rip millions of dollars out of health care in regional Victoria; he spoke about the carbon tax. That is the twisted priority of the government. They do not care about people in the bush and they continue to punish people in rural and regional Australia. That is why we have not seen many speakers opposite from country electorates, whether they be country Liberals or country Nationals, stand up and speak on this MPI about regional health.

On this side, we know that regional health is a big issue. People living in the regions are 1.3 times more likely to report with diabetes, they are 1.2 to 1.3 times more likely to get melanoma, they are 1.2 times more likely to suffer serious injury and they are 1.1 times more likely to be obese, particularly in regional Victoria and my part of the world. Funding which was going towards preventative healthcare programs has now been cut—another cut because of this government.

I know I am not alone in raising these facts because the member for Mallee himself, one National Party member who does occasionally speak up for his electorate, stood outside this place, not inside, and said that people in regional Victoria, in his part of the world, have a life expectancy 4.7 years lower than their city counterparts. Yet, rather than address that life expectancy issue, what we see from this government are more and more attacks on regional healthcare services. This government does not have a plan for regional healthcare services; all this government does is attack and cut. We have seen regional health professionals standing up and speaking out, and this government has no way to respond to them. The GPs of Castlemaine have spoken out several times and they have written to the Prime Minister asking him to reverse his plan for a GP tax. To this date they are still waiting for a response. The government not only does not have a decent plan for improving regional health care; it is also not responding to constituents and people working in the sector.

One of the main reasons these GPs are so concerned in regional Australia, particularly Victoria, is that these GPs are on call for urgency care units—not emergency care units, where the doctors are paid by the state government, but urgency care units, which are staffed by regional doctors. Some who work in private clinics, some who work in bulk-billing clinics and some who work in GP superclinics are on a roster and they staff these urgency care units. What this government is doing to those doctors is that, every time somebody presents at an urgency care unit, it is expecting these doctors to be the tax collector and collect $7. It will put these urgency care units at risk. For some of these patients, their urgency care unit is two hours away from another hospital. This government is forcing those families to make a choice: do they go to the urgency care unit, which may not be open because it has been closed due to this government's policies, or get in the car and drive for two hours? Let's remember: they do not have any ambos because of the state government's inability to train and invest in a workforce and establish fair rostering for our ambos.

This government should finally stand up for regional health. This government should have a plan for regional health. This government should stop attacking unions and attacking people standing up for regional health and do the right thing. (Time expired)

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