David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party, Assistant Minister for Children and Families) Share this | Hansard source

I really relish this opportunity to respond to the outrageous propositions that we've just heard from the other side. It's like being in Groundhog Day. I wake up and come to an MPI, and they're still arguing the same spurious figures and arithmetic. Across the whole four pillars of the health system, whether it's hospital funding, Medicare funding, medical research or mental health, the funding has gone up.

We might just start with this simple arithmetic. When I left practice after 33 years in the hospital system, the funding from the federal government when the current opposition was in government was $13.3 billion. Now it's $21.182 billion, going up next year to $22.3 billion. For simple arithmetic—I know you used to work in banking—$22.3 billion next year is much better than $13.3 billion when they were in government. In my electorate, the Lyne electorate, the arithmetic is similar. Hunter New England Health Authority, which runs Taree and Gloucester hospitals, had $1.3 billion received from the Commonwealth. It is now up to $1.52 billion.

The member for Lingiari spoke about the Northern Territory funding—as I mentioned, Groundhog Day and sophistry, confusing the numbers. Out there, people don't understand. There's funding from state governments and territories, and there's funding from the Commonwealth, but our proportion in the Northern Territory in 2017-18 is $290 million. In 2019-20 it goes up to $307.8 million. Over the 10 years on the new national hospital agreement, there's an 82 per cent increase. That's simple mathematics.

The Minister for Health mentioned our Stronger Rural Health Strategy. There is a really great initiative where we're going to end up with more medical practitioners, more nurses and more allied health because of initiatives that we've delivered in this budget. We are expanding end-to-end medical school training in existing medical schools and also expanding Charles Sturt University, which is linking with Western Sydney University. We are streamlining general practice training and putting funds into more GP specialist training for rural generalists. There's $84 million for the Royal Flying Doctor Service for remote mental health, emergency and dental schemes. The other pillar is Medicare funding—$4.8 billion more.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme—when I was practising in a hospital, we were dying to get the latest drugs, the biological agents, the amazing cancer drugs. Since we came into power in 2013, some 1,500 new drugs have been approved. That's $8.2 billion worth of new drugs. Whether it's heart failure, schizophrenia, pulmonary hypertension, cancers, melanomas—the Minister for Health mentioned Spinraza. Young Finn in my electorate has spinal muscular atrophy. When that came through I spoke to his mum and she was in tears. We have been battling for this drug for the last couple of years—and this budget, and the pharmaceutical benefits approvals, have delivered it.

Our Medical Research Future Fund is delivering enormous benefits to medical, surgical and mental health research. There is now $7 billion in the Medical Research Future Fund and it will peak at $20 billion in 2020. The dividends it is delivering are already showing up. The Biomedical Translation Fund—whether it takes discoveries on the benchtop in the science labs through to the bedside by translation or helps find a cure for various types of brain cancer—is a huge investment in genome research.

Across all areas of the Health portfolio, there have been great initiatives. The best thing that ever happened to the health system in this country is the coalition government coming into power in 2013 and delivering in spades—more for hospitals, more for Medicare, more for pharmaceutical benefits, for all the new drugs, and for mental health. It is really good. I'm so proud that, having given up my medical career to come to this place, we have delivered the goods for the Australian people.

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