Alby Schultz (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Is the minister aware of reports that 30 maternity units in local hospitals have now been closed throughout rural and regional New South Wales? Is the minister further aware that the next hospital targeted for closure is Pambula Hospital, and local community anger is such that, on 13 November, 800 people attended a public meeting to save Pambula Hospital? One of the people who should have been there and who did not attend of course was the member for Eden-Monaro.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Hume will resume his seat. I think the Chief Government Whip has a predictable point of order.

Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my point of order is that the question is out of order.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think the element of the question where the member for Hume has unnecessarily injected argument is out of order. To save him having to restate the question, I will indicate that that part of the question should be ignored. Often there is leniency given about argument within questions, but I think that that point was unnecessary.

Alby Schultz (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, as hospital funding has been finalised and the buck stops with the government on health, will you commit to keeping the maternity unit at Pambula Hospital open?

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

I thank the member for his question. It is good to see so many members interested in important issues in our community relating to health. Not just in New South Wales but across the country in rural and regional communities, maternity services are very much under pressure and have been for a long period of time—

Government Member:

Twelve years!

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

Twelve years might be a good point to make here! I am aware of the issue at Pambula Hospital. In fact, the reason that I am acutely aware of it is that the member for Eden-Monaro has been very persistent in raising this issue with me, which is what you would expect local members to do.

As we have been at pains to point out many times in this House, we do not have the answer to immediately and magically be able to fix every problem in the health system on day one. We do, however, have a long-term commitment to making sure that hospital services are available in our community. We believe strongly that women should be able to have their babies as close to home as they safely can—and I am due to receive, before Christmas, our maternity services review, which has been conducted by the newly appointed Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer.

We are determined to fix this long term. I know that puts pressure on individual members from time to time, when decisions are made, not by us, that have an effect on the community. But this needs to be fixed long term and we are committed to doing that. We, unlike those opposite, took action very quickly upon getting elected to get advice to make sure that the decisions we make for a whole range of obstetrics and maternity services are sustainable long into the future—and that is not just in Pambula; it is in many other places across the country—and we will continue to take that action.