Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to talk about some of the good health initiatives that are underway in Page and some of the general ones. Since coming to power, the government has had to address nearly 12 years of neglect in the health system. And I have to say that the Leader of the Opposition, who was the Minister for Health and Ageing in the former government for four years, cut $1 billion out of public hospitals. That made a difference to public hospitals in New South Wales and in my area. It also froze GP training places. The Rudd government has increased GP training places by 35 per cent, and some of that will be of benefit in my area.

There have also been some big initiatives that have helped. There was $600 million to reduce the number of patients waiting for longer than is clinically recommended. That had an impact in my area on the North Coast of New South Wales. There was $275 million for 36 GP superclinics, and one of them is getting underway in Grafton for the Clarence Valley. That was an election promise. The contracts have been let and the land has been identified. That has been secured and all of that is underway. Ochre Health have the contract, and there was a lot of planning done in our local community with that.

There are also more PET scanners and 12 Medicare eligible MRI machines in locations across the country. We want a PET scanner in my area, so we have put in a bid as well. There is a whole community initiative underway, whereby the community are backing that and have raised some money themselves. Federal and state members and local government are working cooperatively with Marshall Fittler and the North Coast Community Forum to get some money for that, and we have put it forward in a number of submissions.

To turn directly to some other initiatives, just recently I turned the first sod at Grafton Base Hospital. An $18 million election commitment was made and the funds came in the budget. The planning has happened and we have now turned the first sod, although a lot of early works were already underway. I said to the Mayor of Clarence Valley, Richie Williamson, on the day, ‘It is good.’ He replied, ‘It’s better than good.’ I thank former Grafton City mayor Shirley Adams OAM, the hospital’s Medical Council chair Dr Allan Tyson, former Clarence Valley mayor Ian Tiley and Richie Williamson for their strong support and for the work that we did to make sure this happened. It was an election commitment given when we were in opposition by the now Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and the Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, and they have delivered in government.

In addition to a new GP superclinic in Grafton, we also saw in the Clarence Valley $12,400 going to Grafton’s Queens Street Medical Centre. This was money from the Australian government to refurbish and equip consulting rooms for trainee GPs and to improve and expand the large waiting areas to allow for additional patient capacity—an issue in our area. I also brought to the Clarence Valley area a men’s health forum in Grafton. I requested it because I had been lobbied actively on men’s health issues by some active grassroots services like the men’s sheds, veterans groups and the Clarence Valley Prostate Cancer Support Group. The support group were very pleased to have Treasurer Wayne Swan meet with them on a visit to the Clarence Valley. He talked with them about the challenge that he faced in that area.

Another election commitment concerned Lismore Base Hospital, and that has been delivered on with $15 million for the Lismore Integrated Cancer Centre. It is well underway and I have been up there a few times. I did not turn the first sod at that one; I actually knocked one of the bricks out where we had to set it up to do some of the early works. We have also provided $8.3 million to establish an eight-bed medical assessment unit at Lismore Base Hospital plus an additional $600,000 for new surgical equipment for elective surgery. There was also $4.1 million in operational funds and $5.7 million in infrastructure funds over two years to establish the University of Western Sydney’s new Rural Clinical School in Lismore and Bathurst—in my home town and in my seat. (Time expired)