Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Nash for that excellent question. The Commonwealth is implementing lasting reform to improve the Australian health system. In terms of hospitals, the Commonwealth is working cooperatively with the states and territories and has already made tangible progress in achieving positive outcomes in our health and hospital system.

We have committed an extra $1 billion in public hospital funding. This is the largest single year increase in almost a decade. The Liberals on the other side, when they were in government, did not commit $1 billion in a single year. On top of this, the Commonwealth is investing an extra $600 million in the Elective Surgery Waiting List Reduction Plan to reduce the number of patients waiting longer than clinically recommended for elective surgery. The latest indication shows that there is an increasing number of elective surgeries being provided under the 2008 blitz and the Commonwealth continues to monitor this increase in supply. We have committed to investing a further $10 billion in the health and hospital fund to help states to increase their capital infrastructure in the long term. We are boosting our hospital workforce by investing $34.9 million over five years in the Bringing the Nurses Back into the Workforce program, which will provide cash bonuses for nurses and midwives returning to work in public and private hospitals and residential aged-care homes as well as funding up to an additional 1,170 ongoing university nursing places per year. That is what the Rudd government are doing in respect of how we are working through COAG to help hospitals in states throughout Australia. We are keen to improve accountability in hospitals through performance reporting for both the public and private sectors. Better reporting will ensure that we can pinpoint what is and is not working and fix what needs to be fixed. It will also offer patients the chance to see exactly how the health care they are receiving stacks up.