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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 132 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Perhaps, Mr Hargreaves, you should have amended the motion and included saying that the ACT superannuation blow-out was part of the problem. It seems to be the cause of all the problems in every other instance. I am sure that naughty, naughty cause of all the Treasurer's problems must play a part in the decline of bulk-billing rates.

But seriously, what sort of two-bit analysis is it that the problems facing general practitioners in the ACT are all due to the rebate on private medical insurance? What insight, what acumen-what piercing perception!

I have looked at the documents and I have had discussions with the AMA and the Division of General Practice, and there are a number of factors affecting this situation. It is not the private health insurance rebate's fault at all. Mr Hargreaves may now well hold his breath until he is blue in the face, before the Commonwealth comes to the party.

But the problem is real, the problem is immediate and the problem will not be solved by an ill thought-out motion such as this, which simply says it is somebody else's fault. The problems of the ACT are ours and ours alone. We cannot afford to go around saying that the Commonwealth should fix this and should fix that. We will be waiting a long time for that to occur, regardless of the political persuasion of the federal government of the time. Whilst we talk to the Commonwealth and urge them to change their views, we must ensure that, where we can, we look at fixing our own problems.

If Mr Hargreaves was serious about this motion, he would be tapping on the door of his own health minister, Mr Corbell, asking him what he is going to do and asking him for his support for some of the initiatives contained in the previous minister's report and perhaps to come up with some of his own.

Mr Hargreaves mentioned the nurse practitioner trial, saying he welcomes it because it might give us a nurse practitioner in Tuggeranong. Why did the government, particularly the previous health minister, sit on the results of that trial for so long? The results of those trials had been known for at least six months, if not up to a year, before anything happened under the previous, do-nothing health minister. Why? Where was Mr Hargreaves when nothing was happening? Sitting on the back bench doing nothing.

I will go back to the Labor Party policy document in the lead-up to the last election, the fact sheet, Labor's plan to rebuild ACT health! I am looking at page 2 of 3 under "Labor's new initiatives". We are all aware that a shortage of GPs is causing people to use the accident and emergency system at the hospitals, which transfers the burden from one health sector to another, and that we should not allow that to happen. What is Labor's answer to this?

Labor will therefore establish at least two after-hours clinics, staffed by general practitioners, to treat those patients with less serious illnesses.

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