❓ Mr Blayney asks about Commonwealth funding for Geraldton Hospital infrastructure. The Minister for Health confirms unsuccessful funding applications despite perceived prior commitments, criticising the Commonwealth's allocation process and suggesting political bias.
AnsweredQoN 208Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
GERALDTON HOSPITAL — INFRASTRUCTURE
FUNDING
208. Mr I.C. BLAYNEY to the Minister for Health:
The minister has previously advised me that the commonwealth
government has promised to fund some badly needed infrastructure works at
Geraldton Hospital. Now that the commonwealth budget is known, can the minister
please confirm whether funding has been provided for Geraldton Hospital?
FUNDING
208. Mr I.C. BLAYNEY to the Minister for Health:
The minister has previously advised me that the commonwealth
government has promised to fund some badly needed infrastructure works at
Geraldton Hospital. Now that the commonwealth budget is known, can the minister
please confirm whether funding has been provided for Geraldton Hospital?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question. The member obviously has
serious concerns about the functioning of the hospital in his electorate of
Geraldton. Members will recall that the new hospital in Geraldton was built and
completed in 2005, and virtually from the time it was completed, it was
realised that the hospital had not been built big enough to cater for the
growing size of Geraldton and its regions and the demand that would ensue.
Since that time, there has been enormous pressure, presumably on previous
governments, and on our government, to do something to address that problem. We
have put funds in and made changes to the hospital to make it more functional,
and that has been successful; and of course things like our four-hour rule will
also assist. We have also contracted out some services to the private sector
through St John of God Health Care, which has a low level of occupancy in its
hospital, to make sure that we balance the use of both the private and the
public hospital in Geraldton.
We have also sought funding from the commonwealth, through
its health and hospital fund, to assist us to rebuild or extend Geraldton
Hospital to provide for that expansion of service. There have been a number of
rounds of that funding. This was our first priority in the previous round, and
we were unsuccessful. It was also our first priority in this recent round, and
I regret to inform the member that, once again, we have been unsuccessful in
getting the funding for that hospital. We are seeking $103 million to do that.
The last round of funding was $475 million, and we had expected that we would
get at least 10 per cent of that funding; however, we got only $35.4 million,
and the state government, as a component of that, got only just over $7 million
to assist us in providing those services. That is totally unacceptable, for two
reasons. The stated focus and purpose of that last round of commonwealth
funding was to support upgrades to regional health infrastructure, support
expansions to regional hospitals, and help support the clinical training capacity
of regional hospitals. That is all about regional hospitals. Yet only a small
proportion of that funding went to this state, for things like additions to
pathology services, and to support some Aboriginal health clinics in remote
parts of Western Australia. None of that funding went to our regional
hospitals. The projects that the commonwealth did fund are worthwhile and
valuable. However, although we were seeking additional funding for a component
of those projects—namely, Aboriginal health service facilities—we
have since been able to get funding through royalties for regions to expand
those health services in the regions. So, the critical area was not addressed.
What disappoints me most is that we
thought we had a commitment from the former federal Minister for Health and
Ageing, Nicola Roxon, for funding for that hospital. That was partly because
there was a request also from the private sector for some funding to address
the needs of the new detention centre that is being built at Northam at the old
Army barracks. In my discussions with Nicola Roxon in a telehealth link-up, we
had reached an agreement that strongly indicated that Western Australia would
be the beneficiary of those funds. With the change to the new Minister for
Health, I also made it clear that our understanding was that we had a verbal
commitment to that funding. But, sadly, that funding has not appeared.
I have found the new minister to be very good and very easy
to deal with, so I am disappointed that the hospital did not get funding. I
suspect that because it was in a strong Liberal federal electorate, the chance
of it getting funds was pretty slim. We have one round to go; that will come
next year in the lead-up to the election. I strongly suspect that for exactly
the same reason the chance of us getting funding for that is extremely slim. It
is quite clear that we can expect no help from the commonwealth.
Several members interjected.
Dr K.D. HAMES :
Something that is important for everyone to remember is whose money this is. It
is our money that the commonwealth is taking. We just want our fair share
again. We just want our 10 per cent back. Our population represents 10.3 per cent
of Australia's population. Therefore, if we did not take into account
our massive costs in providing for the regions, in driving this country, if we
forgot about that and calculated it on population, it would be nice to get our
population's share of the funding.
This is an old note, so it does not
bring us up to date; it is from the middle of last year. However, the note
details our percentage of other infrastructure funds and major wealth-building
funds such as the education investment fund. At that stage, we got 6.1 per cent.
My bet is that has not improved. From the major infrastructure project fund we
got 8.5 per cent. It is critical for the growth of this state that, if nothing
else, we get our fair share of
funding and make sure that we have the ability. The reality is we should get a share, particularly for hospital funding, that is not based on our
population, but that takes into account the sparseness of our population and
the size of our state. We should get a share that properly funds us to keep
driving Australia into the future.
Tabling of Paper
Mrs
M.H. ROBERTS : The minister referred to a document and waved it
around. I ask him to table it.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : I do not mind tabling it. In fact, I ripped it out in
anticipation.
[See paper 4811.]
serious concerns about the functioning of the hospital in his electorate of
Geraldton. Members will recall that the new hospital in Geraldton was built and
completed in 2005, and virtually from the time it was completed, it was
realised that the hospital had not been built big enough to cater for the
growing size of Geraldton and its regions and the demand that would ensue.
Since that time, there has been enormous pressure, presumably on previous
governments, and on our government, to do something to address that problem. We
have put funds in and made changes to the hospital to make it more functional,
and that has been successful; and of course things like our four-hour rule will
also assist. We have also contracted out some services to the private sector
through St John of God Health Care, which has a low level of occupancy in its
hospital, to make sure that we balance the use of both the private and the
public hospital in Geraldton.
We have also sought funding from the commonwealth, through
its health and hospital fund, to assist us to rebuild or extend Geraldton
Hospital to provide for that expansion of service. There have been a number of
rounds of that funding. This was our first priority in the previous round, and
we were unsuccessful. It was also our first priority in this recent round, and
I regret to inform the member that, once again, we have been unsuccessful in
getting the funding for that hospital. We are seeking $103 million to do that.
The last round of funding was $475 million, and we had expected that we would
get at least 10 per cent of that funding; however, we got only $35.4 million,
and the state government, as a component of that, got only just over $7 million
to assist us in providing those services. That is totally unacceptable, for two
reasons. The stated focus and purpose of that last round of commonwealth
funding was to support upgrades to regional health infrastructure, support
expansions to regional hospitals, and help support the clinical training capacity
of regional hospitals. That is all about regional hospitals. Yet only a small
proportion of that funding went to this state, for things like additions to
pathology services, and to support some Aboriginal health clinics in remote
parts of Western Australia. None of that funding went to our regional
hospitals. The projects that the commonwealth did fund are worthwhile and
valuable. However, although we were seeking additional funding for a component
of those projects—namely, Aboriginal health service facilities—we
have since been able to get funding through royalties for regions to expand
those health services in the regions. So, the critical area was not addressed.
What disappoints me most is that we
thought we had a commitment from the former federal Minister for Health and
Ageing, Nicola Roxon, for funding for that hospital. That was partly because
there was a request also from the private sector for some funding to address
the needs of the new detention centre that is being built at Northam at the old
Army barracks. In my discussions with Nicola Roxon in a telehealth link-up, we
had reached an agreement that strongly indicated that Western Australia would
be the beneficiary of those funds. With the change to the new Minister for
Health, I also made it clear that our understanding was that we had a verbal
commitment to that funding. But, sadly, that funding has not appeared.
I have found the new minister to be very good and very easy
to deal with, so I am disappointed that the hospital did not get funding. I
suspect that because it was in a strong Liberal federal electorate, the chance
of it getting funds was pretty slim. We have one round to go; that will come
next year in the lead-up to the election. I strongly suspect that for exactly
the same reason the chance of us getting funding for that is extremely slim. It
is quite clear that we can expect no help from the commonwealth.
Several members interjected.
Dr K.D. HAMES :
Something that is important for everyone to remember is whose money this is. It
is our money that the commonwealth is taking. We just want our fair share
again. We just want our 10 per cent back. Our population represents 10.3 per cent
of Australia's population. Therefore, if we did not take into account
our massive costs in providing for the regions, in driving this country, if we
forgot about that and calculated it on population, it would be nice to get our
population's share of the funding.
This is an old note, so it does not
bring us up to date; it is from the middle of last year. However, the note
details our percentage of other infrastructure funds and major wealth-building
funds such as the education investment fund. At that stage, we got 6.1 per cent.
My bet is that has not improved. From the major infrastructure project fund we
got 8.5 per cent. It is critical for the growth of this state that, if nothing
else, we get our fair share of
funding and make sure that we have the ability. The reality is we should get a share, particularly for hospital funding, that is not based on our
population, but that takes into account the sparseness of our population and
the size of our state. We should get a share that properly funds us to keep
driving Australia into the future.
Tabling of Paper
Mrs
M.H. ROBERTS : The minister referred to a document and waved it
around. I ask him to table it.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : I do not mind tabling it. In fact, I ripped it out in
anticipation.
[See paper 4811.]
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