HEALTH — FUNDING
287. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the Premier's
comments in The West Australian today in which he stated that the
government turned state spending around in its first three years and saved an
enormous amount on interest payments. Given there were three code yellow emergencies across our health system yesterday, with
only seven COVID cases in ICU, how can the government boast about
cutting costs when chronic underfunding in health over a number of years has
brought our health system to its knees?
Ms A.
SANDERSON replied:
That
was an interesting composition of issues there—one about Treasury and
one about health. Under this government there has been record spending
in the health portfolio, without question. The health budget has consistently
gone up under this government since 2017. It
has not been cut; it has not been reduced. If the member for Vasse read the
budget papers, she would see that the funding in the health budget has
increased every single year. That is a fact. The member needs to read the
budget papers to look at what the funding is actually doing.
We are making record investment in
capital works and employing extra health staff. The budget has increased by 22 per
cent in the last two years. When we came to office in 2017, we had been left
with an absolute shambles of state finances.
If that had continued, the health system would not have been able to operate.
The public health system that the community relies on, particularly in a
pandemic, would be in a terrible state. The former government was borrowing to pay
the bills. It was borrowing to pay doctors. It was borrowing to pay nurses.
That is what the former government did.
Because of the solid financial
management of this government, the health budget has increased consistently in
a sustainable way, so that we have been able to support the community over the
last two years during the most difficult time that we have ever seen. The
government has also provided additional support for businesses during the
pandemic, cost-of-living relief to the community as well as one of the best
public health services in the world, the budget for which has consistently
increased for the entire period of our government.