John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Is the minister aware of moves by the states to make better use of the private sector in their public hospital systems? Does the government support this approach? What benefits are there for the health care of Australians and particularly for those who reside in the federal division of Mallee?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mallee for his question. I certainly acknowledge his strong support for the many private doctors, private hospitals and also public hospitals in his electorate. I can inform the House that nearly all of the state Labor governments make good use of the private sector to, amongst other things, reduce their public hospital waiting lists. Many of the state Labor governments also use the private sector, including the for-profit private sector, to actually run some of their public hospitals—for instance, Noosa public hospital in Queensland, which is run by Ramsay Health Care corporation, as are the Joondalup public hospital in Perth and the excellent Mildura public hospital in the electorate of Mallee. There is Healthscope, another for-profit private company, which runs the Modbury Public Hospital in South Australia. There are the great religious charities which have long run some of the largest public hospitals in Australia, such as St Vincent’s public hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne and Calvary Public Hospital here in Canberra.

The Keating government in a responsible moment privatised the management of those great repatriation hospitals, such as Greenslopes in Brisbane and Hollywood in Perth, to the great benefit of patients and taxpayers. The state Labor governments are not embarrassed by using the private sector. For instance, we had the New South Wales health minister earlier this year saying:

The Government is unapologetic about using services in the private sector ... where it’s otherwise better value for money to be able to provide ... those services and more efficient to do so in the private sector.

Premier Bracks wants to ‘use the innovative skills and abilities of the private sector in a way that is most likely to deliver improved services to the community’—including using a for-profit private company to deliver support and cleaning services in the new women’s hospital in Melbourne. Unlike responsible Labor politicians, the member for Lalor will always grab the chance to smear the private sector.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Gillard interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Lalor does not need to respond.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

She said yesterday:

... what’s public about a hospital that’s managed for profit and who’s generating this profit? Is it coming out of the pockets of patients?

The member for Lalor does not like being told it, but she is still a socialist at heart. She hates the private sector. Then there was the dog whistle on health. She said yesterday:

Do they—

Australians—

want an American-style health system in this country with Medibank Private gone and then Medicare on the chopping block?

Quite apart from the knee-jerk anti-Americanism involved there, the member for Lalor thinks that, if you say ‘privatise Medibank’ fast enough, people might think the government wants to sell Medicare itself. That is the dog whistle that she is practising.

Let me make it absolutely clear that the Howard government is the best friend that Medicare has ever had. We understand that public health services in this country have long been delivered by the private sector. It is high time the member for Lalor gave the private sector the credit it deserves.