Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of answers given by the assistant minister for health, Senator Nash to questions from Labor senators today. Before I do that, I think someone ought to inform Senator Bernardi that there is no one-speech-fits-all. We just heard the usual rhetoric that we expect from Senator Bernardi. But he did actually confirm that the government has indeed cut the health budget, because he was at great pains to point out how the government needs to be fiscally responsible. He went further than Senator Nash did.

I asked her specifically about comments made by the Australian Medical Association—a very conservative body, nevertheless a body concerned about the health of Australians. When the Australian Medical Association starts to complain about cuts to the public health system then we should really listen. Since almost the term of the Turnbull Abbott government, the AMA has been very concerned about significant cuts to spending in the public health area. You only have to look at my state of Western Australia which is in a disgraceful state.

The Fiona Stanley Hospital, a public hospital that the Barnett government privatised, is 18 months late in opening and has cost millions and millions in budget overspend, and it is the same now for the Children's Hospital. Certainly the Barnett Liberal government has demonstrated that it cannot manage anything at all and it particularly cannot manage public health. Western Australia's credit rating has been reduced two or three times under the Barnett government.

The other group that Senator Nash referred to today was the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation. I recall Senator Nash saying that she has very good relationships with NACCHO. She might have good relationships with them, but they have well and truly documented and spoken about at length about the cuts to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health programs right across the nation, cuts that NACCHO believe will go to very provision of essential services in rural, regional and remote Australia. Senator Nash is actually a National Party senator, purportedly representing the bush, but it is a long time since the National Party in Australia has represented anyone's interests other than its own. NACCHO, like the Australian Medical Organisation—a credible organisation—is really putting down on the public record exactly where those cuts have taken place. We have seen cuts to NACCHO in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health in communicable diseases, in substance use treatment services and in drug and alcohol services. There are just five specialised Indigenous programs left.

Just a week or so ago we saw the absolutely shameful death of a young 10-year-old girl who took her own life in the Kimberley. We certainly do not need to be looking at cuts to community organisations—particularly in the area of health—that go to the level of suicides especially in the Kimberley, which is the worst in the world. The leading cause of death for young Aboriginal people now is suicide, and what a shameful record that is. We do not need to see cuts to health, cuts to programs and cuts particularly to preventative programs that go to closing the gap.

One of the cuts that came out for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the woeful, shameful first Abbott government budget—the one that Mr Turnbull has signed up to—was to the Indigenous smoking program. We have very high rates of smoking amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but we have just seen that program slashed and burnt. We know that to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health we need to put Aboriginal people in charge of these programs. We need Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led solutions put in place by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people—not whitefella solutions but solutions led by local people and local communities. Smoking was one area where we were seeing some success, but that program has been cut. We have had nothing but weasel words from the government today. They have cut spending in health.

Question agreed to.