Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a hospital pharmacist who worked at my local hospital in Wyong for 10 years before I was elected and who worked in mental health units for most of my life, Labor has a strong tradition in health and hospitals. We are the party of Medicare. I'm proud as a hospital pharmacist to say we are the party of the PBS. I am very proud to stand here today as a member of the Labor Party, as a hospital pharmacist and as a former mental health worker. I challenge anyone to walk into a public hospital or a mental health unit anywhere in Australia and say that our hospitals or our mental health units are properly funded.

Anyone who has sat in an emergency department knows that hospitals need more funding. Anyone who is waiting for elective surgery on a list that is getting longer and longer knows that our hospitals need more funding. Anyone who has been to a specialist lately knows it's not affordable. After four years of neglect under this government, our health system is in crisis. The dedicated staff working in these hospitals go to work each and every day to do their best with what they have but they are under strain. Our doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physios, OTs, speechies, social workers, psychologists and all hospital staff need more resources to provide the standard of care that they want to and the standard of care our community deserves. Resources are scarce. Everybody in our community, in our health system, knows that and everybody in our community and our health system cares about it except, it seems, this Liberal government, that wants to cut $2.8 billion from Australia's public hospitals in the next seven years.

People are now out of pocket by $38 every time they visit a GP. People are now out of pocket by $88 every time they see a specialist. Recently my sister was referred to a neurologist and was charged $440 up-front for a 20-minute consultation. With a young family, that's out of people's reach. That is not affordable for many, and it is causing people to delay or cancel specialist appointments and to delay or avoid filling a prescription. In fact, on the Central Coast of New South Wales each year, about 12,000 people skip a GP appointment, and about 21,000 people skip a specialist's appointment. As a pharmacist, I am especially concerned about the almost 21,000 people on the Central Coast who avoid or delay filling a prescription because of cost, risking their health and leading to greater long-term costs to our health system.

This budget shows that this government is failing to fund our hospitals and our healthcare services properly. Either it doesn't know or it doesn't care. The budget doesn't properly fund prevention to tackle the causes of many chronic and complex diseases. It has little on primary care. There's no more funding for hospitals and mental health services, and the further you live from a big city, the worse it is for your health under this government.

I heard from Narelle last week. Her daughter was recently turned away from a public mental health unit and was recommended a cup of herbal tea. She was later admitted and had to bring in essentials like toothpaste and soap. This is a system in crisis. This is a system that is broken.

In my electorate of Dobell, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, one in five of us is under 15 and one in five of us is over 65. Young people and older people are the biggest users of our public health system, those who need it most, and yet this government is letting down people in regional and remote Australia.

On the Central Coast, one in five of our young people is looking for work, and more and more of our young people find themselves sleeping rough or homeless. Unemployment and insecure work have a direct and immediate effect on the health and wellbeing of people, yet this budget does nothing for young people and their mental health.

Labor will invest more in every single public hospital in the country, with an extra $2.8 billion in funding for more beds and shorter waiting times. Labor will invest $80 million to boost the number of eligible MRI machines and approve 20 new licences, meaning that 500,000 more scans will be funded by Medicare over the course of the first Labor budget. Labor will provide $12 million towards ovarian cancer and Australia's National Action Plan for Ovarian Cancer Research. Labor will make HIV history. As I have worked with sexual health clinics and have met many people living with HIV, this is very close to my heart. Labor will respond to the unique health needs of people in regional and rural Australia by developing a new national rural health strategy.

This government is failing our community on health care and hospitals. Labor is the party of public hospitals. Labor is the party of Medicare. Labor will always properly fund public hospitals and always protect Medicare.

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