Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with respect that I suggest that the member for Bendigo may need to have her hearing checked, because her claims with regard to what the Minister for Health said were absolutely false. I am astounded that Labor can rise to speak in this place about these apparent failures. They have short-term memories when it comes to how the coalition government left the economy in 2007 and how drastically the economy deteriorated under Labor's short tenure. The member for Throsby has been quite busy lately visiting the electorate of Macquarie, rallying the public on the issue of health again, sidetracking the public from the woes they left behind and interfering with what this government is required to do to fix them. Labor have been and will always continue to be out for the media grab or a deflection from their own broken promises and failures.

Firstly, let me remind the House of some—given I only have a few minutes—of Labor's broken promises. With superclinics Labor promised 64, but what did we get? Thirty-three. Labor promised no cutting of the private health insurance rebates. What did we get? Four billion dollars worth of cuts in that space. I would like the member for Throsby to explain that to the 56,000 people in the electorate of Macquarie who have private health insurance. What would you say to them who now struggle to pay their private health insurance? New medicines already referred to by the PBAC—what did we get under Labor? Deferred. Labor tried to take $400 million from medical research in 2011 and then reversed their stance at the last moment. One hundred and forty million dollars was taken out of medical research last year using tricky accounting, hiding it in a budget that paid the National Health and Medical Research Council funding monthly in arrears rather than quarterly in advance.

In contrast, in just one year the coalition has worked to act on what we committed to prior to the 2013 election. First, this government is committed to ensuring we spend precious health money in the most efficient way, ensuring each dollar is spent on improving patients' outcomes. This was not the case under Labor; they created more than 10 new health bureaucracies instead of putting more doctors and nurses in front of patients.

In relation to pharmaceuticals the previous government deferred already recommended PBS items. In contrast, since stepping into government the coalition has listed 221 and is listing medicines twice as fast as Labor. We are listing in excess of 20 medicines each month in contrast to Labor's average of eight. Back to medical research: instead of last-minute flips and tricky accounting, this government is taking measures that will see medical research taken seriously in Australia, with the recent announcement of a $20 billion medical research future fund.

Budget papers do not lie and, in spite of Labor's continuous scaremongering, including in the electorate of Macquarie, health and hospital funding is increasing each year over the forward estimates. In New South Wales hospital funding will increase each year, from $4.6 billion in 2014-15 to $5.9 billion in 2017-18. In rural health, where the member for Throsby says we have broken our promises, the coalition government is investing $40 million over four years to create additional intern training capacity, $52.5 million for infrastructure grants to build on the teaching and supervision of the rural and regional medical workforce, $13.4 million to provide 500 additional scholarships for nursing and allied health professionals and $238 million to double the practice incentives payment for teaching and general practice.

October is Mental Health Month I would like to finish by speaking on the coalition's investment in this area. With three-quarters of all mental illness manifested in people under the age of 25, the coalition government is supporting people experiencing mental health issues by expanding the highly successful headspace network by an additional 10 sites, taking total to 100 sites across Australia by 2015-16. We are also investing $80 million over four years to establish a national centre of excellence in youth mental health and are providing $5 million over three years in funding to the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre. This government is focused on delivering real outcomes while ensuring sustainability for the future.

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