BIPARTISAN SUPPORT NEEDED ON HEALTH REFORM - OAKESHOTT

INDEPENDENT MP for Lyne Robert Oakeshott today said he was concerned at the Opposition‟s rejection of key legislation on health and hospital reform.
While outlining some of his own reservations regarding the reform process, Mr Oakeshott said he hoped that improvements could be made constructively with “bipartisan and multipartisan support”.
“It is a concern that today we have seen the Liberal-National Parties vote against the first substantive Bill on health and hospital reform, and this is a potential concern regarding the health reform agenda for this country,” he said.
“In my region, a growth region in NSW, we are desperate for health reform that sees greater Commonwealth engagement alongside greater local clinical autonomy.
“Voting in the Parliament against this goes against all previous indications that the Coalition understands the need for greater Commonwealth involvement, and I am disappointed the Liberal and National Parties have chosen to „go negative‟ on such critical reform.”
Speaking in Parliament, Mr Oakeshott said the reform process had to deliver improvements on „the two Es‟ of equity and efficiency, citing concerns within his own community and local health sector about “incursions by the states” into the reform agenda through COAG.
“If the equity principle is not tied to the Commonwealth dollar, we are potentially going to fall into the trap of a government once again not making hard decisions when cutting deals on service agreements with all these new local health networks,” he said.
“We will just have what we had before.
“I continue to advocate for that equity principle to be included.”
Mr Oakeshott said he was equally concerned to see local efficiency encouraged by ensuring that health networks that exceed performance benchmarks have the money returned to them, rather than having that money redirected to prop up less efficient hospitals.
“I would hope these two „Es‟ are front and centre in all thinking as we see these bills come through,” he said.
“I do not see it in writing. I certainly hear plenty of words about it and I continue to seek feedback from the minister and the government about the details of how we are going to see those two „Es‟ survive this process and make it valuable.
“As everyone is pointing the finger at each other on reform in the last 24 hours, I would hope that this is one of those reform agendas where there is bipartisan and multipartisan support and that, through this process, that support continues over the next critical six to nine months.”
ENDS
Media contact: Garth Norris – 0429-787320