Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Will the minister outline to the House any recent achievements in health and how these achievements could be jeopardised?

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kingston for the question and actually thank her also for recently hosting the cabinet in her electorate and for hosting one of a number of GP superclinic consultations that have been held around the country. Over the last eight weeks, a lot has been happening in health. In particular, on 1 July a range of our election commitments signalled new services becoming available for Australians. These include $150 for a preventative dental check for teenagers under our new Medicare Teen Dental Plan. In just its first month, one in five dentists has already seen teenagers to conduct these checks. From 1 July, free health checks are being provided for four-year-olds—for those children who are getting ready to go to school—to make sure that they are healthy, happy and ready to learn. From 1 July, $400 is available for breast prostheses for women who have had a mastectomy and previously had to find the money to pay for those prostheses.

So far, all of these initiatives, plus a range of others, are going well. After just six months of operation, our elective surgery plan has already delivered 14,000 extra procedures, well over half the target set for this year. After years of stagnation and frustration in the sector, we delivered a $136 million plan to boost organ donation across the country and save lives. Just last week, while I was in Western Australia, we launched our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program, so schools are now able to indicate their interest in becoming a demonstration school as part of our strategy to fight obesity amongst young children. Also last week, we announced $50 million of funding to improve cancer research, including support for Australian researchers to take part in the largest ever international effort to unlock the genetic secrets of cancer.

I am sure nobody on the other side, let alone on our side, in this House would disagree that these are good initiatives, but the problem is that it is measures like these that are under threat because of the economic irresponsibility of the opposition. The government has built a budget surplus—the Treasurer has already taken the House through that—but if the opposition is determined to blow a huge hole in the budget we will not be able to keep providing many of the sorts of services I have just listed. If those opposite continue to oppose the Medicare levy surcharge, if they continue to refuse to remove a tax burden from people who are under pressure from the cost of living and if they are determined to side with the alcohol industry to play cheap politics, these sorts of initiatives are under threat. In the budget, we announced that a portion of our surplus would be invested in a new $10 billion Health and Hospitals Fund—the largest Australian investment in health infrastructure ever—but if the opposition continues to rip money from the surplus it is turning its back on that fund and all the benefits that it could deliver.

Just think for a moment what that $10 billion could pay for: several state-of-the-art, major metropolitan hospitals; $6.2 billion, if all of the threats are followed through with, to fund over 600 GP superclinics across the country or unprecedented levels of investment in medical research facilities. This is not the time for us to be putting the economy at risk. It is not the time for us to be baulking at investing in the health system that was neglected for so long under the previous government. We need responsible economic management. We need people to think for the long term so we can deliver for the health and hospital infrastructure that is needed. We do not need these short-term, cheap political stunts from the opposition.