Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move opposition amendments (1), (4), (5), (6), (9), (11), (12) and (19) on sheet 7711.

(1) Clause 4, page 3 (lines 18 to 22), omit "Initially, the Fund's investments are a portion of the investments of the Health and Hospitals Fund which was established under the Nation-building Funds Act 2008. Additional amounts may also be credited to the Medical Research Future Fund Special Account", substitute "Amounts are credited to the Medical Research Future Fund Special Account in accordance with determinations by the responsible Ministers".

(4) Clause 5, page 6 (lines 3 to 5), omit the definition of Health and Hospitals Fund.

(5) Clause 5, page 6 (lines 6 to 9), omit the definition of Health and Hospitals Fund Special Account.

(6) Clause 10, page 12 (lines 6 to 10), omit "Initially, its investments are a portion of the investments of the Health and Hospitals Fund which was established under the Nation-building Funds Act 2008. Additional amounts may also be credited to the Medical Research Future Fund Special Account", substitute "Amounts are credited to the Medical Research Future Fund Special Account in accordance with determinations by the responsible Ministers".

(9) Clause 15, page 16 (line 23), omit "amounts referred to in paragraph 34(4)(a) are", substitute "amount referred to in paragraph 34(4)(a) is".

(11) Clause 19, page 20 (line 21), omit "Agency; or", substitute "Agency."

(12) Clause 19, page 20 (lines 22 to 24), omit subparagraph (iii).

(19) Clause 34, page 36 (lines 15 to 20), omit paragraph (4)(a), substitute:

  (a) the principle that the total amount (in nominal terms) that has been credited to the Medical Research Future Fund Special Account under section 15 should be preserved over the long-term;

These issues go to the Health and Hospitals Fund. Labor does not support the abolition of the Health and Hospitals Fund and its remaining funds—somewhere in the order of $1 billion—being rolled into the Medical Research Future Fund.

I particularly want to make mention of some of the projects that have been delivered through the Health and Hospitals Fund and the positive impact that that fund has had on the health and wellbeing of Australian people. In particular, I want to acknowledge the 24 regional cancer centres delivered across three rounds of the fund, including in areas where, up to the time of their opening, patients had had to travel many, many hundreds and sometimes thousands of kilometres to receive the best quality treatment for cancer. I refer in this regard to the services constructed in my city of Cairns, Townsville, Traralgon, Ballarat, Bunbury, and Whyalla in South Australia. The Health and Hospitals Fund also contributed to countless other projects of significant value to communities across the country, including through the Garvan St Vincent's cancer centre in Sydney, the Nepean Clinical School, the Melbourne Neuroscience Institute project, the new rehabilitation unit at the Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth, the Midland Health Campus also in Perth, the acute medical and surgical service unit in Launceston and the research and training facility at the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin.

I also want to comment on Senator Sean Edwards's commentary in his second reading debate where he spoke glowingly about the SAHMRI, the cheese grater, in South Australia. He talked about how proud he was to attend with Prime Minister Abbott the opening of that facility a couple of years ago. It must have been early in the time of the new government—that was funded through the Health and Hospitals Fund. That was a project that has been delivered by the Health and Hospitals Fund in its current iteration, in its current structure. If our amendments are not carried today, those moneys, that billion dollars that is still left in the fund, will then move across into the research fund. As I said, Labor supports research funding. I think it was Senator Xenophon who said, 'I hope we are not robbing Peter to pay Paul.' Well, Senator Xenophon, I think we are. And, to answer that question, we are. We are taking money from, in this case, the Health and Hospitals Fund and from a myriad of other programs as well. I certainly will come back to the minister with that list. I hope that it is being worked on.

I have moved those amendments. I remind this chamber, though, that the Prime Minister promised, before the last election, that there would be no cuts to health. In opposing the abolition of the Health and Hospitals Fund, Labor is, at least, holding this government to account on this program.