Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The waste and mismanagement of the Rudd-Gillard government is having a very real and direct impact on the health care of Australians. 'We will end the blame game'—that was the promise that the Labor Party made when it came to hospital reform. Yet, to try to cover for Labor's economic incompetence and unprecedented borrowings, rather than ending the blame game the Minister for Health has launched a national attack on hospital funding and tried to shift blame to the states.

The federal government has cut $1.6 billion from the health budget that otherwise would have gone to local hospitals. As a result up to 350 beds in my home state of Victoria will be closed. But don't take my word for it; look at what the hospitals themselves have had to say about it. A memo to staff at Alfred Hospital, on the border of my electorate of Higgins, said:

The recently announced reduction of $7.815 million in funding to Alfred Health by the federal government can only have a detrimental impact on our continuous improvement and for that I am greatly saddened as I know you will be. It is with this in mind, and with great regret, that Alfred Health will reduce its elective surgery program to only the most urgent cases for six weeks around Easter from March 29 to May 10.

We are left in the ludicrous situation where the hospitals themselves are saying point-blank that cuts in services are having a direct impact on the healthcare of Australians and are due to federal cuts by a federal health minister who is trying to pretend otherwise.

But the attack on our health system does not end at these budget cuts to our hospitals. The health minister has treated the private health insurance of middle Australia and the private health system as her own private piggy bank. Forget the so-called 'education crusade', the health minister is on her own crusade against the Prime Minister's so-called 'working families'. Through means testing rebates, linking funding increases to CPI rather than the standard measure of average industry premium increase, and changes to Lifetime Health Cover component rebates, the government has ripped almost $4 billion out of the private health sector. These cuts are now being reflected in the increases to private health insurance premiums announced last week. The increases will average 5.6 per cent. So, whilst the funding increases are now linked to CPI, the rates and premiums will increase by over double the CPI. This will put extra cost-of-living pressures on the millions of families and individuals who chose to have private health insurance. Moreover, those who can no longer afford the price increases will potentially leave the private system altogether or decrease their cover, thus putting more strain on an already stretched public sector, including in particular our hospitals.

Something that the Labor Party has never fully comprehended is the importance of mental health reform, and mental health is also in the minister's sights. At least $550 million is being cut from the Better Access program as rebates and referrals are reduced.

But I leave the best till last. In what must be the most extraordinary example of the health minister's sophistry we see her announce a new dental scheme while being rather silent on the fact that this dental scheme is replacing an already functioning scheme, one that serviced people who, in over 80 per cent of cases, were on health concession cards.

She scrapped that in September and her new scheme will not come into effect until 1 January 2014 for children and until 1 July for adults. This of course saves $1 billion from the budget. This is to make up for the economic incompetence of Treasurer Wayne Swan to deliver the supposed surplus that was promised over 500 times but which the government has now acknowledged will not be delivered.

These are just some of the examples. They contrast to the very strong and positive record that the coalition had in health and health reform. They contrast particularly to the record of Tony Abbott as health minister. We will ensure that we have a strong, prosperous, safe and secure Australia and we will have a health system that functions for all Australians. (Time expired)