Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The National Health Reform Amendment (National Health Performance Authority) Bill 2011 proposes to establish a new statutory authority, the National Health Performance Authority. It introduces amend­ments to the legislation brought about by the National Health and Hospitals Network Bill 2010, only passed by the House on 21 March this year. The National Health and Hospitals Network Bill established the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care as an independent statutory authority. If enacted, this bill will amend the National Health and Hospitals and Network Act by changing its title to the National Health Reform Act 2011. Still to come is further legislation that will establish a third statutory authority, the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority.

All of this legislation arises out of the convoluted so-called health reform engin­eered by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd—I am very pleased to have him in the chamber listening to this speech today—and Minister Roxon at the height of their reform frenzy last year preceding Mr Rudd's most undignified demise at the hands of the current Prime Minister. Both Mr Rudd and the Minister for Health and Ageing, Ms Roxon, promised at the time that these changes would not lead to further bureauc­racy in the health sector—clearly yet another hollow promise from this Labor government, for here the parliament is being asked to grow the bureaucracy with the first of two new authorities and the attendant boards, secretariats and associated staff.

When the initial bill was introduced last year the coalition called for the government to provide all the provisions to establish all of these bodies at the one time so that the House, the stakeholders and the community could see the full intent of the government and, crucially, see exactly the interaction between these bodies. As is usual for this health minister, what we have is a piecemeal approach of bill after bill and amendment after amendment with all the attendant risks for poor outcomes as this minister tries to get it right. That is what we see here today—page after page of amendments to the legislation.

I will come to those amendments later. They are a humiliating rebuttal of this government and this minister—the minister for health is having to stand in this House and introduce amendments which clearly say she cannot be trusted to run the nation's health system, and the states will ensure that she does not get the opportunity to step in and override their authority. First, though, it is worth recounting very quickly the history relating to this bill, the authority it creates and the warnings and concerns that have been sounded loudly. It is an outstanding example of the ineptitude of this govern­ment. When the minister introduced the initial bill, the National Health and Hospitals Network Bill, in September last year, as with virtually anything this government attempts to do with health it was described as historic and delivering on the government's health reform agenda. Of course the so-called health reform agenda was somewhat different back then. These were the Rudd-Roxon reforms and, as the minister told the House, they were all about a hospitals network that would be funded nationally and run locally. At that time now Prime Minister Julia Gillard was still on board with Kevin Rudd and his reforms, telling the Committee for Economic Development in November last year:

From July 1 the Commonwealth's share of hospital funding will increase to sixty per cent ... GST retention and dedication to health care will commence.

Like so much of what this government promises, that also did not come to pass. Julia Gillard earlier this year—

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Dickson ought to refer to the Prime Minister by her title, under standing order 64.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The current Prime Minister earlier this year unceremoniously dumped the Rudd clawback of GST and the commitment to major funding to public hospitals and is now only going to provide around 40 per cent of public hospital funding. Yet in last year's election campaign the Prime Minister also stated:

… I regard health care as one of the greatest responsibilities of any government.

  …   …   …

If my government is returned to office on August 21, I will pursue our national reforms until the job is done.

We all know that standing by commitments and promises to the Australian people is not a high priority for this Prime Minister or indeed her government. Her actions in health are every bit as egregious as the reversal of her promise that no government she led would introduce a carbon tax—a tax the Australian people do not want but one she steadfastly insists upon inflicting on them by mid next year.

Despite multiple and embarrassing backdowns in health, the overblown rhetoric of this government does not disappear and consequently Labor's self-assessed historic Council of Australian Governments agreem­ent of April last year has been replaced by another historic agreement of the COAG meeting of February this year, according to the minister when introducing this bill. It seems historic agreements come and go quickly under this Labor government. It remains to be seen whether Ms Gillard's efforts will survive longer than her predeces­sor's, for all she has at the moment is an agreement to reach an agreement and she is still negotiating with the states to get a final deal. We will see the final outcome at the next COAG meeting, whenever that might be, but, as the amendments now before the House make clear, the states are not accepting Labor's so-called reforms. We know that in the last 24 hours the planned COAG meeting has been delayed because they cannot get agreement—

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour and the honourable member Dickson will then have the opportunity to continue his remarks.