Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I think there were about 38 questions from the member for Mackellar there. Forgive me for addressing all of the questions in very short order, just to get through as many as I can in my allotted time. I thank all members for their contribution to an area of policy that I know is dear to everyone's heart, because we all know how important it is for our community. As for prevention, as the member for Mackellar may know, it's our intention that the CDC take responsibility for the overall prevention policy. What we've said at this stage, as we engage with states and territories in the sector, is that the CDC will largely be stayed initially looking at infectious diseases, for obvious reasons, given the pandemic, but my vision is for it to play a strong role in noncommunicable diseases and prevention in particular.

I'm talking to groups in the community about the obesity strategy. Again, it's a very good-looking document, but it's not going to change much if we don't find ways to turn it into a funded action plan. I'm very committed to that. I must say that, in the 10 years I've been out of the health portfolio, smoking rates have improved dramatically to the point where they're probably the best in the world; obesity rates have deteriorated dramatically to the point where they are some of the worst in the world. This must be a focus of the health portfolio over the course of this decade.

The member also asked, as did the member for Moncrieff, about better access. I've said in the parliament before that we are looking at that and a range of other COVID related measures that are due to terminate on 31 December. We will have more to say about that in the very near future. The member also asked, as did the member for Farrer, about hospital funding reflected in the budget. As members would know, and certainly the member for Farrer should know, as a former health minister, we have an activity based funding system. We pay according to the bill sent to us by states and territories. Activity has obviously been constrained for a range of reasons associated with the pandemic. A lot of activity was essentially diverted from the end NHRA area of activity into the COVID NPA. That is going to have an impact on the activity they report to the administrator. We simply reflect the numbers given to us from the states.

There will be reconciliation of 2022-23 activity by the hospital funding administrator in early calendar 2023. I think everybody expects hospital activity to rebound, but how it will rebound and how quickly it will rebound is still to be known. If the member for Farrer checked her notes about how hospital funding does work, the states send us the bill, we pay the cheque. We pay 45 per cent of the increase in activity, and that's reflected in our budget papers, as it has been in the last 10 or 11 years since the first ABF agreement was reached. I think they're all the measures that were asked by the member for Mackellar.

I thank the member for Lingiari for her support in developing the First Nations package and her recognition that this is a huge implementation challenge in which she will play such an important role. To the member for Braddon, can I say—as I think was reflected in Tasmanian media this morning—there's a great discussion going on between our government and the Tasmanian Premier about how we can cooperate as two levels of government. I intend to have another discussion with him about that which will cover the whole of the great island of Tasmania. I know the depth of the GP crisis that is in place down there. There is a range of elements to deal with rural general practice in the budget. I encourage the member to look at them. They go to additional funds for innovative models of care. They go to additional workforce incentives for GPs working in rural Australia, particularly with additional skills, like obstetrics, emergency and mental health skills. They go to additional John Flynn training places, a program that's been very successfully rolled out in Tasmania, among other parts of the country. They go to additional Commonwealth supported places for the James Cook University, a terrific university in Far North Queensland. I encourage the member for Braddon to look at them. There was strong consultation around DPA. There was a 12-month Senate inquiry that held hearings, including in Tasmania, that informed the policy that we took to the last election.

To the member for Boothby, can I say that the package that the Minister for Aged Care and Sport—who would have loved to have been with us today—has rolled out through two pieces of legislation already passed through the parliament and in the budget will make a real difference to those older Australians who have worked so hard and have paid their taxes their entire life and built the community that we are so privileged to live in and deserve a better aged-care system than we are currently delivering to them. This budget will make a real difference, and I know that all members will get behind the initiatives we've funded.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

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