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I acknowledge the First Australians on whose land we meet, and whose cultures we celebrate as among the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
Women and men of the Health Services Union Australia, it's great to join you this morning, because you are the backbone of our hospitals, our aged care and our health services. You know how important your work is and how much the health system depends on you.
I've got a bit of insight into your work as well, both from working as a wardsman at Canterbury Hospital in my late teens, when I learnt that job is much, much more than just pushing a trolley around a ward, and from visiting dozens of hospitals all across the country during the past 12 months as the Government has embarked on the work of national health reform.
One thing I've heard loud and clear as the Health Minister Nicola Roxon and I have talked to patients, to health experts, to staff, and to health unions is this: there's a lot we can do to deliver better health and better hospitals, and it doesn't matter who talks to me - nurses, surgeons, orderlies, ambos, clerical staff, or the people behind the counter in the café - everyone knows we need change. And everyone knows we want change, and that's what we are delivering - The most fundamental change in Australia's health system since the introduction of Medicare, a National Health and Hospitals Network that is nationally funded and locally run.
This morning I want to talk to you about how our plan will deliver better healthcare for all Australians, but first I will discuss how healthcare fits into the Government's larger vision for Australia's future.
Two and a half years ago, the Government that I lead was sworn into office. Since our first day in office, our purpose has been to build a stronger economy that delivers a fairer share for working families.
We came to office with an ambitious agenda because we believe Australian families deserved better: better economic opportunities, better health and hospitals and better schools.
We've made progress.
We've cut income taxes three years in a row so that someone on $50,000 will now pay $1,750 less in income tax. That means almost one in every five dollars they were paying in tax three years ago, is now back in their own pockets, helping them pay for the weekly groceries, get on top of the pile of unpaid bills sitting on the kitchen counter, or put a few dollars aside each week for the kids' Christmas presents.
We've also delivered an education tax refund to help get the kids through school, paying for things like textbooks, a laptop, a printer, broadband at home and trade tools for kids in school trade courses. This year, that refund will put up to $779 back in your pocket for each child in secondary school, and $390 for each child in primary school.
We've ended Work Choices. That means Australians can no longer be forced onto AWA individual contracts that cut their pay and conditions. We've built a modern safety net of decent pay and conditions. Employers can't rip away penalty rates, overtime and leave loading with no compensation, as happened with WorkChoices, and for the first time, employees have the right to come together and bargain with their employer for a better deal.
We're investing in nation-building for Australia's future after years of governments failing to invest enough to keep our roads, railways, ports and broadband up to world class standards and much, much more.
When we were all threatened by the global financial crisis, as a government we did what we had to do. We acted decisively to support Australian families.
Almost every other advanced economy went into recession. Australia didn't, and the reason we didn't was because as a nation, we all came together, governments, business, unions and local communities.
The Government took decisive action. As a result, Australia has come through stronger than almost every other advanced economy.
In the rest of the world, millions of jobs have been lost - as much as 16 million in advanced economies, but in Australia, since the global recession began in 2008 we've been creating jobs. There's almost 225,000 more jobs today than there were then. All of us should be proud of that, because every one of those jobs matters.
Even so, the last couple of years have still been tough for many families, because the path to economic recovery is uneven.
We've got much, much more to do to keep the economy strong and deliver a fairer share for Australian families. It all starts with maintaining a strong economy.
We're getting the budget back to surplus in three years' time, three years ahead of time, to keep the economy strong. Our debt levels are low, peaking at less than one-tenth the average of the major advanced economies, and less than half the level projected a year ago.
We're undertaking the big challenge of tax reform, so that we can boost superannuation for all Australians, and cut taxes to make Australian companies and small businesses more competitive, and we're investing in the things that will make our economy stronger and more productive in the future.
We're investing in an education revolution, building better primary schools for our kids. We're currently delivering Trades Training Centres for 732 secondary schools and in the next three years, for another 520. We're delivering our commitment to provide computers for every year 9 to 12 student across the nation. Last Friday the Deputy Prime Minister delivered the 300,000th computer to a school in Cranebrook in Sydney's west.
And despite setbacks, we will continue to act on climate change, with major investments in renewables like solar power. We have now passed laws to ensure that by 2020, we'll be generating enough renewable energy to meet the needs of all Australian households.
And most importantly, I want to discuss today how we're tackling health reform.
Fixing our hospitals and healthcare is important for everyone in this room because it matters to you every day you turn up at work, but it's also important to you and to all Australians because all of us depend on our healthcare system, whether it's for an ageing mum or dad, our young kids, a sudden emergency or managing an ongoing condition.
Better hospitals and better healthcare matter for all Australians. That's why the Government has taken on this challenge, because we know from the major review of the health system that we commissioned when we came to office that our health system is at a tipping point. It's under enormous pressures, and those pressures are going to keep on growing.
We can't just sit idly by and do nothing, and we certainly can't afford a government that rips billions out of our public hospitals as Tony Abbott did as Health Minister, and as he'd do again if he becomes Prime Minister.
Our hospitals and healthcare system needs reform. That's why we're implementing the most far-reaching reforms to our health and hospitals system since the introduction of Medicare almost three decades ago.
We will make the Australian Government the dominant funder of our public hospital system for the first time in history. That's important, because in the long run the States simply can't afford to meet the growing cost of healthcare. It will literally send them broke. By stepping up to the plate, the Australian Government will ensure that our hospitals and healthcare system have the funding they need for the future.
On top of this, we are delivering more resources right now. We are investing in 1,300 new beds for our hospitals, expanding capacity in emergency departments and elective surgery, and supporting 2,500 new aged care places.
We're making major new investments in primary health care with GP Super Clinics that can provide care when you need it after hours, and that can help avoid the run-around between GPs, specialists, pathology and other health services.
We're already funding 1,000 new nurse training places a year. We are raising the number of GPs being trained to 1,200 a year - more than double the cap imposed by Mr Abbott. We are doubling the number of scholarships and locum places for our allied health professionals every year.
Each of these investments will help improve the health services in which you work, but let's be specific about what a National Health and Hospitals Network means for Australian families.
Consider how much healthcare has changed from our parent's generation, the days when visiting your GP meant visiting an office with one doctor and a pile of cardboard records; when a cancer diagnosis was less likely to provide hope of survival; and when chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes were more likely to be treated in hospital, often when they had severe and fatal effects.
Now consider our vision for better hospitals and better health care through the Government's plan for the National Health and Hospitals Network.
Imagine a family with young kids. It's Saturday morning, and their seven year old daughter, Emily, has suddenly come up with a severe skin reaction. Her mum, Anthea, doesn't know what it is or how she should treat it. She picks up the phone to the family's local medical practice, to find that it is closed, but her call is automatically put through to the National After Hours GP and primary care service, in which the Government is investing $126 million over four years.
Anthea is able to get immediate advice from a registered nurse who can ask the right questions and make an initial assessment of whether she needs to get immediate assistance. If required, she will be put through to a GP, who can tell her whether she needs to call an ambulance, go to a hospital, or arrange for Emily to be seen by a GP in their community.
That advice line is an important first step because it gives Anthea the opportunity to speak directly to a qualified professional for advice.
Let's imagine the advice is to go to the GP. The National After Hours service helps arrange for Emily to be seen at a clinic that is only 15 minutes away. Emily is taken straight to this clinic to see a GP, and her mum is spared precious time ringing through a pile of numbers in the Yellow Pages.
It might also mean that Anthea and Emily avoid a long wait in a hospital emergency department when she could have been helped by a local health service, something that happens to 2 million Australians every year, because of the introduction of personally-controlled electronic health records, with Anthea's permission, the GP is immediately able to see Emily's medical history: her history, for example, of asthma; her previous allergies; and the current medication that she is receiving. This helps to quickly identify possible causes of a skin reaction and helps avoid prescribing medicine that might have an adverse effect.
Let's imagine that the doctor advises a further consultation with a specialist dermatologist. Because of the Government's $355 million investment, the clinic that Emily has visited is one of 425 across the country that has been upgraded so that it can deliver more services in a single location. This means that more specialist doctors will be co-located and this will be made possible because the Australian Government is investing $144 million over four years to train more specialist doctors - 680 more over the next decade. In fact, a dermatologist might be on duty that morning, enabling the GP to walk Emily across directly and perhaps have a direction conversation about Emily's skin reaction.
This kind of interaction has been rare in the past. As many of us have experienced first-hand as parents, carers or friends, or for our own healthcare, getting to see a specialist often involves long waiting lists, battling through traffic jams and juggling time off work.
Now let's imagine that the patient is not the daughter, but the mum. Anthea has a history of diabetes in her family, and she has recently been diagnosed with diabetes herself. Her doctor is participating in the Government's $449 million plan to provide more coordinated care for diabetes sufferers. That means she can benefit from a major innovation in primary health care.
She can be confident that instead of having to initiate regular doctor appointments and feel responsible for organising every aspect of her care, she is now going to benefit from ongoing care supported by single general practice where she is enrolled.
Anthea's GP will prepare a care plan which identifies the services she will need over the next 12 months. That includes regular visits to a dietitian who is co-located with the local Clinic. It also includes visits to an endocrinologist who will help to identify any emerging health problems associated with the diabetes and develop preventative strategies to avoid a deterioration. She'll see a podiatrist, and a diabetes educator.
This contrasts to the experience of healthcare that many diabetes patients have right now, which often involves them having to navigate their way around the health system alone and without any guidance. In fact, all too often Australians living with diabetes end up in hospital. Indeed, one out of every three avoidable hospital admissions is related to diabetes.
That's why the Government is acting to provide better health care for the estimated 2.2 million Australians with diabetes over the next decade. This is not just in the best interest of Australians, but for the first time it is in the financial interests of the Australian Government. There will no longer be an incentive to shunt patients from Commonwealth-funded GP and primary care services into the state funded hospital system.
As the dominant funder of public hospitals, the Australian Government will ensure that patients have access to high quality health care closer to home, because we will otherwise foot the bill for more expensive hospital care.
Now let's turn to Anthea's elderly father, Angelo. Angelo has been experiencing chronic hip pain. His specialist doctor has put him on the waiting list for a hip replacement, but there's a high demand in his area because of the older age profile of the population.
We know people are waiting too long for elective surgery and our reforms will change that. The Government's $800 million investment will ensure 95 per cent of all patients waiting for surgery will be treated within clinically recommended times, and from July 2012, anyone who has been on the waiting list for longer than clinically recommended will have their surgery fast-tracked. That means that Angelo may have his hip replacement operation in a hospital in another area, or in a private hospital.
Now let's imagine one other person: Walter, a 53-year-old farmer in northern New South Wales.
A regular checkup with his GP has discovered a suspect mole on his back. The mole turns out to be cancer, and a nasty one. It's a diagnosis which turns his life upside down, but instead of having to go to Brisbane or Sydney for treatment, he is referred to Lismore - to the North Coast Cancer Institute Regional Cancer Centre at Lismore Base Hospital.
He'll be able to stay at Our House, the new 20-unit cancer patient and carer accommodation facility. Because the diagnosis has been made early, and he hasn't had to wait months before he can arrange getting to a major city, he now has a better chance of beating cancer, because one of the awful things about cancer - an awful disease - is that Australians living in rural and regional areas are three times more likely to die from some cancers than their counterparts in major cities. That's why we are investing in 20 regional cancer care projects around the country.
If complexities emerge, Walter is able to access a world class cancer institute in Sydney, the Chris O'Brien Cancer Centre, where treatment and research come together under the same roof. It is part of our National Plan for Better Cancer Care, backed by more than $2.3 billion in funding since the Labor Government came to office in 2007.
It's at all these times - when your child has a serious rash, when you are battling with a long-term illness, when you need surgery to restore your mobility and when you suspect you might have a very serious disease - that Australians turn to their health and hospitals system. That's when better hospitals and better healthcare really make a difference and that's when the Government's health reforms will really make a difference in the lives of Australian families and these changes will support the critical role of the health workforce in our health and hospitals system.
While the Local Hospital Networks will assume responsibility for the day to day operations of their services, it is not the Government's intention to change existing employment arrangements, including the Crown employment arrangement in NSW. States will continue to have responsibility for overall industrial relations policy, including the conduct of enterprise bargaining and the setting of broad IR policies such as union consultation. It is the Government's clear intention that existing wages and conditions will be maintained in the introduction of Local Hospital Networks and any future changes would only occur through the usual negotiating processes applying in each state.
Friends, I said earlier today that the Australian Government came to office with an ambitious agenda. We came to office with an ambitious agenda, because we're ambitious for Australian families and Australia's future.
Government is hard work, and we're involved in some very important national debates right now - on health reform, on tax reform, on industrial relations and on economic responsibility and how we ensure Australian families have their fair share of our nation's prosperity.
Within the next six months there will be an election. Australians will have the choice between a reforming Government that is building a stronger economy with a fair share for working families - and the risk of Tony Abbott as Prime Minister.
Mr Abbott is a risk to Australian families. His record of pushing extreme policies like WorkChoices, ripping a billion dollars out of our public hospitals, and his erratic decision making speaks for itself.
I don't believe Australian families are prepared to risk their future with Tony Abbott. I believe they want a government that is committed to delivering better opportunities, better schools, and better health and hospitals. That's what the Government is delivering.
Australian families deserve better, and we are determined to continue that work.