Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. When there is already a shortage of 20,000 nurses, state governments are sacking nurses and hospitals are struggling to meet elective surgery and emergency department waiting times, why is the government cutting $80 million from hospitals and schools? Can the minister guarantee to the nurses in the gallery today that no hospital will need to make do with fewer nurses because of the savage budget cuts to health?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a lot of irony in that question from the member for Sydney. She presided over the ripping of millions and millions of dollars away from frontline services and putting them into great big new Labor health bureaucracies. When we came into government the department had over 5,000 people and 21 outside agencies, many of which had grown under Labor's six failed years of government. The shadow minister, the minister at the time, who now aspires to occupy permanently the chair of the Leader of the Opposition, wants to talk about her record on health. Her record on health is absolutely appalling. Let me explain why.

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order on relevance. The question was about his $80 billion worth of cuts, which he is refusing to deal with.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have reminded the member before that the point of order is not an invitation to restate the question. A quick look at the practice will help the member phrase it properly.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This dream team will go nowhere—that is my prediction. You failed under the Rudd-Gillard years. You have all the loyalty of Julia Gillard. That would be my projection. In relation to hospital funding—she does not want to hear it!

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will resume her seat; the Deputy Leader of the Opposition on a point of order.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like you to say the word 'nurse' just once.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition knows that is an abuse of the standing orders, and it will not be tolerated.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will come to hospital funding in a second, but in relation to nurses—I am very happy to talk about nurses—we went to the election promising 500 new scholarships over the next three years for nurses and allied health care workers.

Opposition members interjecting—

Why do you scoff at that? You would prefer to spend money on GP superclinics, half of which have never opened six years later?

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton, the member for Kingsford Smith and the member for Jagajaga will desist.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We took that money away from superclinics and we took other money Labor was wasting and we are putting it into nurses. We have increased the number of places for training GPs over the coming years. We took money away from Labor's bureaucracies and we put it into frontline services.

What have we done in relation to hospitals? Let me tell the Leader of the Opposition, as she wants to be, that we are increasing hospital funding across the Commonwealth by nine per cent over the course of the next 12 months. What will we do in the year beyond? We are going to increase it by nine per cent. What will we do the year beyond that? We are going to increase it by nine per cent. And in the fourth year we will increase hospital funding by 6½ per cent. We increase health spending in this budget and every budget as we go forward, but we are not going to do it in the way in which Labor did.

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will desist.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The people of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, in particular, know the way in which Labor governments ran their hospital systems at a state level and they got a taste of it over the last six years. They take money away from frontline services—

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are no props permitted. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will put the prop down.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and they give it to the unions in these great big health bureaucracies. We will not fall for that. We will not fall for those stupid mistakes. We will not make the mistakes that the member for Sydney made when she was the health minister. We will take money and we will put it into nurses and we will put it into doctors. We will make Medicare sustainable. We will not go down the failed path of Labor. People know that at the next election they will have a choice to make between getting more money into health, which is what we on this side of the House provide, or signing themselves up again to the failed health system that Labor presided over for six years.