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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Thursday, 26 August 2004) . . Page.. 4371 ..

I have to say that the opposition’s approach in this matter is not merely repetitive; they are also pursuing, I think, quite a dangerous game. Mr Smyth says that he is not attacking our valued health staff—the dedicated nurses, doctors, allied health professionals and others out there every day who deliver high quality services to our community. He says that he recognises the value of the work they do.

Yet all he does is criticise the health system as inefficient, as unable to deliver the same level of outcomes that he claims his government did. In effect, he talks down public confidence in our health system. I think he has to be conscious of that very fine line he has to tread between scrutiny of government activity and degrading the public sector health system.

I note in Mr Smyth’s most recent comments that he has also rebutted the most recent initiatives of the government to improve access to beds in our public hospitals by saying, “Without private sector involvement, nothing will change.” That sounds to me like a forecast that Mr Smyth is going to announce a two-tiered health system for the ACT, one that involves more money going into the private sector and less money into the public sector. I will be very interested to see the Liberals’ health policy when it is announced.

I understand that health is a vital topic in this place, and so it should be. It is vital to our community—and we all recognise that—but it is also my responsibility as minister to keep some perspective about what are the key issues and the major strategic developments required to improve our health system—a health system which, despite its pressures and despite its problems, is still one of the best health systems in the world. As a member of this Assembly, I recognise that it is in nobody’s interests to scaremonger and undermine confidence in the system; instead we must be upfront and honest about its failings and work hard to address them.

Providing a high standard of health care is not an easy task. Members will be aware that nationally and internationally public health systems are under pressure. These pressures include critical workforce shortages, an ageing population, reduced economic activity, skyrocketing costs of both new technology and drugs and a significant increase in demand for public hospital services. In addition, Australia’s public health care system suffers the neglect of a federal liberal government who were intent on destroying Medicare, strangling primary health care and creating a two-tiered health system. That we as a government can stand here and report on our achievements and our activities, I think, is a very important opportunity.

Before I outline some of the major achievements of the government in the health portfolio I would like to consider the issue of health system management which is really at the core of Mr Smyth’s MPI. If we did nothing else—I will argue that we did—the one key change made by this government on coming into office was the abolition of the purchaser/provider system within health. While Mr Smyth is full of vim and vigour to decry the government’s management approach, let’s look back briefly on what occurred previously. Even by 1996, the application of a purchaser/provider system for health was widely regarded as inappropriate foolishness. But this did not stop the previous government. Even though systems around the world—in New Zealand, in the United Kingdom—all backed away at a million miles an hour from purchaser/provider, the Liberal Party barrelled forward.

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