Danna Vale (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister advise the House on progress of the cervical cancer vaccination program? How does this demonstrate the government’s commitment to the health of Australian women and girls?

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

I thank the Member for Hughes for her question, and I can inform her that vaccination against cervical cancer will start next week in South Australia and Tasmania and shortly thereafter in the other states. In the next four years the government will spend more than half a million dollars to vaccinate women against cervical cancer, using the vaccine developed by Australian of the Year Professor Ian Frazer. There will be an ongoing program for schoolgirls aged 12 and 13. There will be a catch-up program for older schoolgirls; there will also be a catch-up program for women aged up to 26, delivered through GPs, and that program will start in July.

I want to say that the Howard government has an extremely good record on vaccination. The federal government’s spending on vaccination has increased from just $13 million in 1996 to over $200 million in the last financial year. Rates of childhood vaccination have increased from just over 50 per cent, which were Third World levels, to 90 per cent today. I should also point out that the Howard government also has a very good record of protecting taxpayers. As well as preparing her censure motion, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition might like to be reminded that, if the government had accepted her advice on HPV vaccine, taxpayers would have been worse off to the tune of some $90 million. Health spending is important, but so is protecting the economy that pays for it. The Howard government is the best friend that Medicare has ever had because we have run an economy that can afford it. I say to members opposite that if they want to see health services they have to have a good economy, and you cannot run a good economy by surrendering to the ACTU.