Page 2699 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 June 2012
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AMA, ASMOF or Medicare Local, formerly the Division of GP, actually making such a statement. I think it is worth making that point in that we essentially have one group, or more likely one person, who has led this call.
In relation to access to overall health care, as I said earlier, there are, like all health systems across the country and across the world, in fact, good things and bad things about the ACT health system. The system is providing more services than it has in the past, and to more people, plus we have a huge number of people from across the border and the region who access the ACT health system.
The point I have also made is that we need to focus more on preventative health. I do wait for the day, and I will not hold my breath, when we have the government and the opposition debating why we do not have more money going into preventative health measures and how we are going to address the infinite growth in the health budget. This has to be addressed—
Mr Hanson: Didn’t you read my health discussion paper?
MS BRESNAN: Your discussion paper posed a lot of questions, no answers, Mr Hanson.
This has to be addressed if we are going to deal with the ever-increasing demands. This need to refocus has been raised by numerous health groups. There are conditions such as heart disease, which is one of the leading chronic conditions and causes of death, diabetes and obesity which are growing, which have an impact on the health system and which are preventable.
There is funding in the budget for some prevention measures but it is insignificant compared to the funding which goes to acute areas. The Greens recognise that you have to meet demand but you have to start taking seriously the need to reduce demand also. This is not an area that will provide a definitive figure, and impacts may not appear for five to 10 years. But when I hear statements such as those that came out by the previous ACT Health Council that there are fears that the next generation may be the first with a reduced life expectancy, that is an area where we need to focus.
Again, the Greens will not be supporting this motion today. As I have outlined in my speech, there are good things and bad things about this system. We have got to recognise all of those and not be selective in the sort of information we are putting forward.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (12.08): Ms Bresnan asks: what have the Canberra Liberals done about GPs? As the Greens spokesman on health, she has a very short memory if she does not remember the inquiry that was called for by Mr Hanson, which immediately resulted in the minister announcing a task force. To the credit of the task force, it has done great work and put forward a range of policy proposals and some initiatives that could be implemented that would do something about the shortage of GPs. But we are in that space with that policy work done because of the work of Mr Hanson. Mr Hanson’s motion here today is in many ways the culmination of the work that he has done of bringing to the attention of the ACT community the parlous state of the ACT health system.
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