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Legislative Assembly
 
Federal health funding

22 February 2018
Federal health funding
FRANK McGUIRE  (ALP)

 


Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (14:23:38) — The Yes Minister episode is titled 'The Compassionate Society'. It tells a story of conflicting values concerning health funding with biting insight. Instead of the focus being on life-saving care for patients, it highlights funding follies. We are witnessing Australian political life repeating scathing British satire. The stakes can make the difference to pain relief for many, and in some cases even the difference between life and death. That is why this motion matters, despite the opposition's deflections and denials. Put simply, the Turnbull government is proposing to short-change Victorian hospitals and Victorian families by more than $2 billion. That would mean Victorian hospitals missing out on $113.5 million in the first year of the agreement, from 2020–21. This rises to $2.1 billion during its first five years. At the Northern Hospital, this means a loss of $83.5 million over those five years.

For the people I represent, let me put the human face on the consequences we are discussing here. This is equivalent to cutting 13 447 elective surgeries that relieve pain. It would axe the jobs of 667 nurses or 280 doctors. This is why such cuts could prove fatal.

Victoria's position is straightforward: the commonwealth should pay its fair share. The commonwealth and Victoria should share the cost of hospital funding growth equally. The Turnbull government is refusing. It beggars belief that the Victorian opposition, the coalition that wants to have the privilege of governing Victoria at the end of the year, still comes in here and argues against the public interest. That is the critical point — they are arguing against the public interest and the better health of Victorians.

There is more. The Australian government is also proposing to cap growth funding at 6.5 per cent, an amount which will not meet the growing demand in our hospitals. The coalition is dudding Victorians — as the Australian government and as the opposition here in Victoria. They are repeat offenders. Victoria's health system is still recovering from the four years of cuts and neglect under the former Liberal-Nationals coalition. It cut $1 billion out of our health system in one term. I know they want us all to have amnesia about that one-term government, the first in over half a century. This was the critical point. People remembered what they did.

The Andrews Labor government inherited an ambulance crisis from the former coalition regime. Victorians suffered from the worst ambulance response times on the mainland. The Turnbull government's latest funding proposal can be seen as one of many repeat offences and disappointments in health.

Only a Labor government will prioritise health spending in the way that Victorians deserve. The deal the Turnbull government is proposing comes on top of the $104 million they still owe Victorian hospitals for services provided in 2015–16. These were services provided in good faith by Victorian hospitals on the basis of a funding agreement, an agreement the federal coalition has ignored. This trumps even the Yes Minister satire.

How can they expect our hospitals to employ doctors and nurses, buy the necessary equipment or plan for the future when they refuse to pay money owing for work that has already been done — and I have not heard anybody from the opposition mount a case to defend that. That is the indefensible proposition that we are facing now. But they will not rise above partisanship and actually address the public interest. Our hospitals have kept their side of the bargain by providing health care to the Victorian community, but the federal coalition government is running away.

On other matters connected with this, I want to quickly go to the issue of dental cuts. Some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in my community are already being affected by the cuts to dental services imposed by the Turnbull government. The federal coalition government has rolled out a new National Partnership on Public Dental Services for Adults agreement, with a 30 per cent cut to dental investment. This means that more than 60 000 Victorian public dental patients will miss out on crucial dental services. This cut amounts to almost $30 million over the life of the agreement. This cut to dental services will also affect jobs, as providers are forced to scale back on services. Of course people in my community will again be hardest hit by these cuts.

Unfortunately this will disadvantage Australians everywhere because this cut is not just occurring in Victoria. The contrast is stark: while the Andrews Labor government is committed to improving the oral health of Victorians with an increase in investment, the Turnbull government is slashing billions of dollars from dental services around the country.

I want to go to the one-term coalition government, because in Victoria they had the metropolitan health plan and they released it within hours of the Baillieu government's first budget. It is what the Americans call 'taking out the trash', because they knew they had no answer to the problems that it exposed — that the greatest growth and the greatest need was in Melbourne's north.

Mr Watt — On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member for Oakleigh decided to jump to his feet and call a point of order on me for not being relevant. I do not see how what the member for Broadmeadows is saying has anything to do with the federal government funding, the Leader of the Opposition not standing up to Canberra or the federal government owing us money. He is talking about the former state Liberal-Nationals coalition government, and that is not within the remit of this particular motion. If the government had wanted to go to those things, it should have put them in the motion. They had the opportunity; it is their motion. The member should be brought back to actually talking about the things that are in the motion.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Pearson) — Member for Burwood, I have heard sufficient. It has been a wideranging debate. The member is making a point, a characterisation —

Mr Watt interjected.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Pearson) — Member for Burwood, in your contribution you covered a whole range of areas which did not relate to health. There is no point of order. The member for Broadmeadows to continue.

Mr McGUIRE — The member for Burwood in his proposition said that there was no capability to do something to help Victorians. That was his critique, so I am taking him up on it. This is what you guys did. You did nothing for Melbourne's north. Who opened the Broadmeadows Hospital? It was the Andrews Labor government. Who actually has put in more than $160 million to build the entire stage two of the Northern Hospital? It was the Andrews Labor government. Who is delivering to help save lives, to help cut pain for people and to help families? This is the proposition.

Mr Watt interjected.

Mr McGUIRE — He does not want to hear it of course because they want us all to have amnesia when it comes to what the facts really are.

The Andrews Labor government has committed $162.5 million to deliver the vitally needed stage two of the Northern Hospital. I am delighted to have advocated for that and to have seen the Premier, the Treasurer and the Minister for Health deliver it, and also to have stood with the Minister for Health — Australia's best health minister opened that hospital — in Broadmeadows when we opened that hospital, because that had been subject to another Yes Minister proposition from a former Liberal government. They did not build it when they should have.

I want to go to the issue of what we are doing for cancer. We should realise that in relation to cancer the White House came to Melbourne. Joe Biden came here because of what we are doing. We are forming international collaborations. This is what is critical. These are the partnerships that are being formed by Labor to actually deliver better opportunities and to be a partner with Barack Obama's moonshot quest to cure cancer. We are building those alliances.

Mr Watt interjected.

Mr McGUIRE — The US Vice-President Joe Biden came to see the $1 billion jewel in Australia's medical research crown, the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. That is what we have done. This is what has happened. The reality is that no matter how much they shout —

Mr Watt interjected.

Mr McGUIRE — If you want to be the last galah at the end of the line, it is your call to define yourself in this place. But from Medicare to medical research, from investments and international partnerships to fight cancer, from dental care to the hardest hit, to cuts to the most vulnerable, from infrastructure to health, Victorians know who is cutting, who is defending and who is investing in the compassionate society.