Page 3306 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 20 August 2008
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It was quite disingenuous of the health minister to say that I had not spoken to these people. I do not know how she knew I had not talked to these people. Perhaps she just made that up on the spur of the moment, which she often does. I have spoken to the people, we have agreed that we will be talking through the issues, talking through our plan, and they were very positive about it—unlike the health minister. All she can do is yap, yap, carp, carp.
The Canberra Liberals have presented a solution for the scarcity of services in west Belconnen—
MR SPEAKER: Mrs Burke, I just draw your attention to a committee which is inquiring into some of the matters that you are commenting on. It would be wise to stay away from anything which pre-empts the work of the committee.
MRS BURKE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I take note of your ruling, sir. The Canberra Liberals have presented a solution to deal with the scarcity of services in west Belconnen. Canberra as a whole has around one GP for every 849 people. West Belconnen has around 10 GPs full time and part time for a community of 32,744 people. This means that the area has only one-quarter of the GP coverage enjoyed by the rest of Canberra. The residents of north-west Belconnen are using the emergency departments at a rate of 27 per cent above the average.
The government has promised a new health centre in Gungahlin, but is this all that it seems? Once again, we have the masters of illusion announcing the grand plan of $18 million to build what? What will the facility be? We have got a building; we have got no recurrent funding; we have got no GPs there. It almost makes you laugh, really. You must be embarrassed. It is like the hospital with no patients in Yes, Minister. The government boasted about having funded a nice new building. It might be a nice building but there are no people in it and there is no recurrent funding.
We have announced our policy to establish three after-hours bulk-billing GP clinics in Canberra’s suburbs where there is most need. We have announced a package of incentives to attract more GPs to Canberra. We are working with the commonwealth government. Unlike the health minister, we will work through. We will not find the difficulties; we will find the solutions. We will be certainly working with the federal government—unlike you. You were unable to work with the former Howard government. Our plan will feature a 12-hour all-night walk-in clinic in south Tuggeranong and two eight-hour clinics in Gungahlin and west Belconnen respectively. Each of the centres will be staffed by a combination of GPs and senior nurse practitioners.
We spend more per head of population than any other place in Australia, except the Northern Territory, which has its own challenges. What is wrong? The answer to this is that we have a government that is all froth and bubble. They promise but they do not deliver. They are masters of illusion, as I have said: scratch the surface and there is nothing behind it. We are not waiting for the commonwealth to ride in on a white charger. Indeed, their changes to the Medicare levy surcharge threshold show that they are part of the problem and it is expected that there will be much more pressure on the public health system as the younger and healthier opt out of Medicare. But
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