Ms McCARTHY - 2008-05-06
Can you inform the House of the Territory government’s record spend in the budget for Health, and what that will mean for Territory families?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Arnhem for her question. Some $915m into health is a record spend. I know the member for Arnhem is particularly pleased that there will be a new health clinic built at Milingimbi for some $4.5m. Not long after I became Health Minister, I visited Milingimbi - I have been to Milingimbi quite a number of times over the years - and I was appalled at the state of the health clinic. It had been left to go to rack and ruin for many years - decades of neglect. I came away from that and spoke with the CEO and also the then Treasurer, the member for Nhulunbuy, and said: ‘We must get a new clinic at Milingimbi. It must go on the design list for the 2007-08 year’. That is what has happened. This year, we are now clear to build that $4.5m clinic at Milingimbi - and not before time.
Included in regional highlights is $1.7m for Stage 3 at Tennant Creek Hospital. That is important. If you look right across the regions, this is a government that has been investing heavily in infrastructure in our regions. That is very important because, for many years, they were neglected. I applaud that and am proud to be a Health Minister who is directing that, along with my Cabinet and Caucus colleagues.
We have increased our health expenditure since we came to government in 2001 by 89% - nearly 90%. We are spending $229m this year at Royal Darwin Hospital. That is just over double the expenditure than when we came to power in 2001. Similarly, Alice Springs Hospital receives $113m this year - and so the list goes on.
Talking of Alice Springs, Allied Health Services at Alice Springs is boosted by $200 000 this year. As the Treasurer alluded to in her budget speech, Hospital in the Home is being bolstered in Darwin and Alice Springs. This is very important to help people in their own home.
I have already spoken a number of times in this place about the boost to the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme. It is a significant investment of $2m overall into our Patient Assisted Travel Scheme, which I am sure will be very welcome.
The Community Midwifery program will be boosted in RDH and Alice Springs with additional funding of $280 000.
Just as importantly, building on the progress we have made and investment into renal services, there is an extra $1m in the 2008-09 financial year. This is about decentralising those services. Certainly, Alice Springs and Darwin are major hubs, but we are looking at having dialysis stations throughout the region.
Regarding the Australian Health Care Agreement, evidence of cooperation between this government and the new federal government is a boost over the next year so that we were able to put $3m into our core services within our hospitals - $3m extra. Under the Howard government, indexation in the Health Care Agreement was ratcheted down so, at the end of the Howard years, instead of a 50:50 split of spending between the Territory and the Commonwealth, it was 70:30 - 70% Territory burden, 30% Commonwealth. They had cost-shifted back on to the states and territories - and the Leader of the Opposition has the gall to ask where all the money has gone!
Well, firstly, we have invested in the services I have talked about but, secondly, your mates who were in power in Canberra were cost-shifting from the states and territories. We know that health budgets are very large; we are talking about significant amounts of money. However, we are redressing that situation. We have a partnership with the new federal government, so we are investing in core services like radiology - very important, right across the Territory, not just Royal Darwin Hospital - and a whole range of services within our hospital. We are a government that has invested up to now in our health system, and we will continue to invest right across the Territory.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Arnhem for her question. Some $915m into health is a record spend. I know the member for Arnhem is particularly pleased that there will be a new health clinic built at Milingimbi for some $4.5m. Not long after I became Health Minister, I visited Milingimbi - I have been to Milingimbi quite a number of times over the years - and I was appalled at the state of the health clinic. It had been left to go to rack and ruin for many years - decades of neglect. I came away from that and spoke with the CEO and also the then Treasurer, the member for Nhulunbuy, and said: ‘We must get a new clinic at Milingimbi. It must go on the design list for the 2007-08 year’. That is what has happened. This year, we are now clear to build that $4.5m clinic at Milingimbi - and not before time.
Included in regional highlights is $1.7m for Stage 3 at Tennant Creek Hospital. That is important. If you look right across the regions, this is a government that has been investing heavily in infrastructure in our regions. That is very important because, for many years, they were neglected. I applaud that and am proud to be a Health Minister who is directing that, along with my Cabinet and Caucus colleagues.
We have increased our health expenditure since we came to government in 2001 by 89% - nearly 90%. We are spending $229m this year at Royal Darwin Hospital. That is just over double the expenditure than when we came to power in 2001. Similarly, Alice Springs Hospital receives $113m this year - and so the list goes on.
Talking of Alice Springs, Allied Health Services at Alice Springs is boosted by $200 000 this year. As the Treasurer alluded to in her budget speech, Hospital in the Home is being bolstered in Darwin and Alice Springs. This is very important to help people in their own home.
I have already spoken a number of times in this place about the boost to the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme. It is a significant investment of $2m overall into our Patient Assisted Travel Scheme, which I am sure will be very welcome.
The Community Midwifery program will be boosted in RDH and Alice Springs with additional funding of $280 000.
Just as importantly, building on the progress we have made and investment into renal services, there is an extra $1m in the 2008-09 financial year. This is about decentralising those services. Certainly, Alice Springs and Darwin are major hubs, but we are looking at having dialysis stations throughout the region.
Regarding the Australian Health Care Agreement, evidence of cooperation between this government and the new federal government is a boost over the next year so that we were able to put $3m into our core services within our hospitals - $3m extra. Under the Howard government, indexation in the Health Care Agreement was ratcheted down so, at the end of the Howard years, instead of a 50:50 split of spending between the Territory and the Commonwealth, it was 70:30 - 70% Territory burden, 30% Commonwealth. They had cost-shifted back on to the states and territories - and the Leader of the Opposition has the gall to ask where all the money has gone!
Well, firstly, we have invested in the services I have talked about but, secondly, your mates who were in power in Canberra were cost-shifting from the states and territories. We know that health budgets are very large; we are talking about significant amounts of money. However, we are redressing that situation. We have a partnership with the new federal government, so we are investing in core services like radiology - very important, right across the Territory, not just Royal Darwin Hospital - and a whole range of services within our hospital. We are a government that has invested up to now in our health system, and we will continue to invest right across the Territory.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016