David Feeney (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the answer referred to by Senator Fierravanti-Wells and I wish to discuss the issue of health reform. Senator Fierravanti-Wells has tackled this question with customary passion but her sneering contempt for the Minister for Health and Ageing did her no credit. Likening her, in such a sneering way, to a nurses aid is an inappropriate way to recognise the hard work and efforts of nursing aids and nursing staff across the country.

Health reform is a critical issue for Labor. It has been a critical issue for Labor for many years. Health is one of the quintessential policy areas which Labor have long regarded as a priority. Labor have long insisted that health reform be a continuous program of government. Those opposite have long had a policy which, at its root, has had a distrust and indeed hatred of Medicare and a philosophical opposition to the notion that universal health coverage and universal health care was an appropriate way to manage health costs in this country. We come at this from positions which are poles apart.

In more recent times, under Prime Minister John Howard, those opposite made the practical decision to support Medicare, at least in their public utterances, because Medicare and its predecessor Medibank had not only been successful Labor innovations but also had become part of the bedrock of this country. It was no longer sustainable for those opposite to oppose such an important reform.

In recent years we have seen Labor continue its very proud record of supporting and strengthening Medicare and health care in this country. That was a key issue for Prime Minister Rudd last year and it remains a key issue for the federal Labor government today. Those opposite may sneer. They may try to belittle the achievement so far, but let us consider for a moment what some of the real gains have been. Keeping people healthier and out of hospital by providing health services closer to home is simply common sense. That is why under Labor 64 GPs superclinics have been promised—