Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ludwig, the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing. I refer the minister to the report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare into hospital statistics, which notes that visits to emergency departments in Australia are growing by five per cent a year. In the Australian Capital Territory an average wait time in an emergency department is 10 hours. Bearing in mind the Prime Minister’s promise to fix the public hospital system by next Tuesday, I ask: does the minister regard people waiting for 10 hours for treatment in emergency departments as the kind of fix the Prime Minister had in mind?