House debates

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Questions without Notice

Health Reform

2:16 pm

Photo of Julie OwensJulie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the government both modernising our economy and reforming our health and hospital system to assist and create opportunities for all Australian families, and are there any risks of not proceeding with this reform agenda?

Photo of Julia GillardJulia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the member for Parramatta for her question. I know she is concerned about the delivery of health services and facilities to her local community. Yesterday, with the Treasurer and the minister for health, both outside the chamber and within it we alerted the parliament to the fact that we were bringing to the parliament the foundation stone of our health reform agenda. Of course we have been driven to seek health reform, first because we inherited a health system that was short of doctors, short of nurses and short of money, and of course the Leader of the Opposition knows all about that, having been the health minister responsible.

We also inherited a situation where the system was plagued by cost shifting and blame shifting. There were no real incentives for the federal government to drive activity in prevention and in primary care, to keep people out of hospital. We were seeing an unsustainablity emerge where the biggest burden for hospital funding was increasingly falling on the level of government with the lesser fiscal capacity to deal with that burden, and that level of course was the state governments. That unsustainability had come about because the percentage of the Commonwealth’s revenue to hospitals had gone dramatically down under the former government, the Howard government, and under the leadership of the current Leader of the Opposition. At the same time, the system lacked efficient price signals and it lacked national standards.

We are determined to change that. We are bringing legislative propositions before this parliament to deliver the foundation stone of health reform, which is of course a change to arrangements between the federal government and state governments. Key to this reform is the federal government stepping up to a 60 per cent share of the costs of hospitals as well as paying 100 per cent of the costs of primary care. This reform agenda comes with the setting of efficient prices for hospital activities. It comes with a focus on transparency and quality. It comes with a focus on removing from the system the kind of cost shifting and blame shifting we have seen in the past.

Today I was very pleased to, with the minister for health, not only walk to work—we walked to Parliament House—but also a little earlier today share in an event with leaders of preventative health organisations from around Australia who are urging this parliament to support the creation of a national preventative health agency so we can better drive within the Australian community a focus on preventative health, understanding as we do that so much of the burden of disease that Australians face today is from preventable health conditions like cardiovascular problems and indeed some cancers. We of course will have this focus on reform. I was very disturbed to see in today’s newspapers that it appears that despite all of the things he mused about as health minister—the Commonwealth stepping up to a greater share, having transparent national standards—the Leader of the Opposition is positioning to try and wreck this health reform. Can I say to the Leader of the Opposition, this would be a very poor choice if he cares about health services for Australians.