Hansard

Matters of public interest

Health—Government performance

Matter of public interest

The Speaker informed the Assembly that he was in receipt within the prescribed time of a letter from the Leader of the Opposition seeking to debate a matter of public interest.

(In compliance with standing orders, at least five members rose in their places.)

Mr Basil Zempilas (Churchlands—Leader of the Opposition) (3:06 pm): I move:

That this house condemns the Cook Labor government for its ongoing failures in the health system, including presiding over another record month of ambulance ramping and neglecting metropolitan hospitals and regional health services.

The opposition is raising this issue as a matter of public interest because this government is presiding over a health crisis that is worsening month by month. The government and its five ministers for health are placing patients and frontline workers under unimaginable strain, all the while the Premier and Treasurer keep talking about the Burswood racetrack, their pet project, that is symbolic of this government's focus on the wrong priorities. Again I ask: What could that $217.5 million—the estimated total—do for our hospitals and health? It is not a laughing matter, Mr Speaker, as you know. We are talking about sick, dying and injured Western Australians. I will remind everybody opposite me that the subject of this MPI is the health failures under their watch. I would not be laughing if I were members opposite.

Today I was planning to address the mounting crisis in health and hospitals by coming up to speed with some of what has taken place in the public health space in the two weeks since we have been gone. I could talk about elective surgery, which during our two-week absence continued to be delayed and postponed, putting immeasurable pressure on those family members who were given late notice of those delays. I could have talked about the crack squad that was highlighted during question time by one of the ministers who actually looked our way during her response about health priorities and said, "What are you doing?" That was perhaps a momentary lapse in consciousness that members opposite are in government. I could have talked about the winter surge plan and the revelation that it was finalised only three days before winter. I note also that at the Premier's breakfast on Monday, he said, "But don't worry, next year we're going to get the health minister to get on to it early." That is what he said. I could also have talked about a number of other concerns raised by doctors. One senior medic was quoted as saying:

I would never ever imagine in my lifetime I would be watching health care—and for that matter—hospitals implode.

There was another who said:

When you are down more than a thousand beds through incompetent planning, blaming other politicians over in Canberra sounds desperate.

I will highlight two—not all—of the events that took place during the two-week absence. One of those centres around lead in the water at Perth Children's Hospital. All members in the house will know that during the two-week absence, it was revealed that 11 samples of drinking water at Perth Children's Hospital that were taken between the start of 2023 and the end of March 2024 contained more lead than the safe quantity under the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. I also note that no-one thought that hospital workers, patients or their families deserved to know that. The Australian Medical Association and the Australian Nursing Federation thought completely differently. In 2016, the Premier said that lead in the water at PCH should strike fear into the heart of every Western Australian. That is what the Premier said about lead in the water when he was the opposition spokesperson for health. I will say it again—lead in the water should strike fear into people's hearts.

Today, just before question time, a brief ministerial statement came our way from one of the five ministers for health. One of the highlights of the brief ministerial statement included these words:

I acknowledge the concerns that the headlines late last week may have caused for patients, parents and staff at the hospital.

Of course, the minister was talking about the six water samples taken in 2023 and the five water samples taken between January and April 2024. She then went on to say, according to the draft Hansard:

Late on Friday afternoon, 5 September, the Department of Health advised my office that it had just learned of five further exceedences at Perth Children's Hospital from its latest round of testing relating to two locations.

Mr Lachlan Hunter: We only found out today.

Mr Basil Zempilas: That is right. We found out today, and that led to me asking some questions during question time, which is exactly what we are here to do. That is what the opposition does; it asks questions of government ministers during question time. I asked the Minister for Health when the latest round of testing was conducted. There was no answer to that. I asked at what level the government would consider exceedences to present a risk to patients or staff. There was no answer to that. I also asked why parents and staff were not notified promptly on Friday 5 September of the five further exceedences at Perth Children's Hospital that the minister announced today. I asked three questions and received no answers.

Mr Lachlan Hunter interjected.

The Acting Speaker: Member for Central Wheatbelt, I cannot hear the member for Churchlands because you are echoing and repeating so much of what he is saying.

Mr Lachlan Hunter interjected.

Mr Basil Zempilas: We are talking, of course, about the same subject—

The Acting Speaker: Sorry, member for Central Wheatbelt, are you challenging the Acting Speaker's commentary?

Mr Lachlan Hunter: Do you want me to call a point of order? I can.

The Acting Speaker: Member for Central Wheatbelt!

Mr Lachlan Hunter: Point of order, Acting Speaker.

The Acting Speaker: Sit down. Member for Churchlands, sit down. I asked in previous weeks that those on my left read the standing orders. It is clear that some members have not read those orders from cover to cover. I encourage everyone to go back and re-read those orders because in this chamber it is not appropriate to challenge the Speaker in that way, whether it is the actual Speaker, the Deputy Speaker or an Acting Speaker. Member for Churchlands, you have the call.

Point of order

Mr Lachlan Hunter: The Leader of the Opposition is trying to deliver his speech, and you have got mumbling from a cabinet minister speaking to her colleagues in the background. I ask you to—

The Acting Speaker (Mrs Lorna Clarke): Member, sit down. That is not a point of order. Member for Churchlands.

Proceeding resumed

Mr Basil Zempilas: Again, I asked three questions of the health minister, who is one of five health ministers, but I did not receive answers to those questions. However, we got a little thread that we could follow; I am sure those members sitting on my side followed that thread. From the health minister we got, "Oh no, this isn't good." As the Premier said in 2016, lead in the water should strike fear into the hearts of Western Australians. The minister said, "This isn't good. What we're going to do, and what I've asked today to happen, is that if lead is detected in the water, we're going to get the department to tell the Chief Health Officer and then the Chief Health Officer has to let the director general know and then the director general has to tell me, the minister." This government is becoming famous for handballing the ball around. There is a merry-go-round of health ministers and there is a merry-go-round of excuses in health. We heard the minister say in question time that from now on, the department has to notify the Chief Health Officer, who has to notify the director general, who has to notify the health minister, but she did not say anything about notifying patients, parents and staff. Who will tell staff that they are working in an environment in which there are excessive amounts of lead? For whatever reason, those opposite do not think this is a serious matter. The Minister for Health also said in her brief ministerial statement that the safety of patients and staff remained of the utmost importance to the government, so why not tell them? As the Premier said back in 2016, lead in the water should strike fear into the hearts of Western Australians, so why not tell those patients, their parents and staff that lead has been detected in the water?

I do feel a little bit for the health minister. She is one of five health ministers. She was absolutely dropped into this portfolio. Nobody else wanted it. None of her more experienced colleagues were prepared to take it on, so the first-time minister had to accept responsibility for the health portfolio. I can understand the health minister being a little frazzled, a little frustrated and a little flat. I get it; it is a difficult portfolio, and whenever questions are asked of the senior leadership, the ball gets handballed around and around that merry-go-round. But let us be clear: if there is lead in the water at PCH, the least the minister should do is answer those questions. When was the latest round of testing conducted? What is the level at which she would consider exceedences to present a risk to patients and staff? Why were parents and staff not notified promptly? Rather, we were told that the department has to notify the Chief Health Officer, who has to notify the DG, who needs to notify her, the minister. What about letting us know when the patients, their parents and staff at PCH will be notified?

Of course, the other event during our two-week absence—there were many—was another record round of ambulance ramping. It almost beggars belief that after a new Western Australian all-time record for the month of July, the month of August went past it and set a new record—7,074 hours, which is equal to 295 days worth of ambulances parked outside WA hospitals, not responding to 000 calls, and patients in hospital corridors and outside emergency departments waiting to be seen. August followed July, which saw 7,014 hours of ambulance ramping, which is the equivalent of 292 days. All the while, this government persists with its pet projects. When the Premier, the man ultimately in charge of this merry-go-round of health ministers, was presented with the new record number of ramping for the month of August, did he say sorry? Did he accept responsibility? Did he offer solutions? Did he say, "Here's what we're going to do"? Did he say, "We're going to drop the racetrack, which clearly is a bad idea given it's worth $217 million and could go straight into hospitals"? No, he did not. Do members want to know what the Premier, the leader of Western Australia, said in response to the new record ambulance ramping numbers? They would not and could not believe this. My daughter told me, and I said, "Don't make stuff up, Ava." I went back and looked at the tape and this is what the Premier said:

I sat up last night, I googled 'South Australia ramping' you see headlines 'Crisis, record numbers of ramping' …

Instead of putting his hand up and accepting responsibility and instead of saying, "This is not good enough", "We're sorry that we've let the people of WA down" and "We're going to cancel the racetrack, which even one of our own has pointed out is not wanted, not required, not needed and should not proceed", the Premier blamed others.

I am really pleased that the Premier, our leader—someone who should know better—took us down the google path. I thought I might also google "ramping" in other jurisdictions. It is incredible that just by crossing one state border, the first one we come to is South Australia, and guess what the people have over there. They have a Labor government. Guess what else they have. They have a South Australian Labor Premier. He, too, is struggling with ambulance ramping in Adelaide and South Australia. It was put to him that he has not been able to bring it under control. Do members know what the South Australian Labor Premier said?

Ms Sandra Brewer: Did he wave his arms around?

Mr Basil Zempilas: He did not wave his arms around.

Mr Lachlan Hunter: Did he google?

The Acting Speaker: Order, member for Cottesloe and member for Central Wheatbelt!

Mr Basil Zempilas: The Premier could do well to listen to his South Australian counterpart. He could do well to google his response to ambulance ramping in South Australia. He could do well to look up what real leadership looks like because this is what he said. The Premier of South Australia said:

In terms of fixing the ramping crisis, of course we'd like better results …

I'm not going to shy away from that.

That would be unfair and not responsible.

He also said:

We would have liked far better results in respect of ramping, particularly given how much resources and capacity we've put into the system.

I can't deny that for a second.

Asked whether he had broken an election promise, the South Australian Labor Premier said:

… well certainly people will characterise it that way and I've got to accept that criticism. That's the honest approach.

They are the words of the South Australian Labor Premier in response to his state's struggles with ambulance ramping.

I say to our Premier that he can deflect, deny, duck and dive all he likes, but the people of Western Australia would really like him to start saying sorry and fix these problems. He should not make excuses, pass the buck or play the handball game that he has become famous for, and he should certainly not go ahead with a $217.5 million racetrack when those funds would so urgently make a difference in health and hospitals. It is time for solutions. It is time to fix it. It is time for the Premier to dedicate himself to this most urgent problem on behalf of Western Australians around the state. The Premier has let the people of Western Australia down. His attitude is not befitting the leader that we would expect here in Western Australia. It is time for leadership and empathy. It is time for the Premier to take responsibility. He should axe the track and fix our hospitals.

Ms Kirrilee Warr (Geraldton) (3:23 pm): I rise to support the motion and thank the Leader of the Opposition for bringing forward this important debate. This house must condemn the Cook Labor government for its ongoing failures in our health system. These failures have led to another record-breaking month of ambulance ramping, crumbling metropolitan hospitals and neglected regional health services. It is no wonder this government would rather talk about new racetracks than face up to its shocking health record. Perhaps after today's polling showing 95% of Western Australians do not even want Roger's racetrack—or is it Rita's racetrack; I am getting confused whose it is—people would rather not talk about it at all. But there is one thing that voters across Western Australia agree on: this government has its priorities completely wrong. People are not crying out for footbridges, rugby teams and racetracks; they are looking for investment into the basics of health, housing, jobs, education and safer communities.

In Geraldton, when people stop me in the street, it mostly comes back to two things: health, wanting good health care close to home, and housing. They want a nice home to live in close to the ocean. Who has the Premier put in charge of health infrastructure? It is the very same minister who has failed to increase housing in the regions. After eight long years, we are still suffering from a lack of government regional housing. We have put a motion on the books today and we look forward to debating that in days to come. The same minister is now responsible for delivering the redevelopment of the Geraldton Health Campus that is already overdue and well over budget. This is the same hospital that last month conducted a mass patient transfer by road by St John Ambulance out of the region. That sends loved ones further away from their care and support just to receive the health care they deserve. Where did they go? They went to metropolitan hospitals—the very same hospitals in which we again saw record ambulance ramping. The government continues to smash the records beyond anything we have seen. In July, more than 7,000 hours were lost with patients and paramedics stuck outside our hospitals. In August, it got even worse, with 7,048 hours lost. This is simply not good enough. That is almost 20,000 hours this winter alone. That is 20,000 hours when ambulances were parked, where patients were left waiting and where urgent, sometimes life-saving, care was delayed.

Premier Cook has earned himself a new nickname—"Record-breaking Roger". These are records that no Premier should ever have to hold. Let us not forget that those 20,000 hours lost to ambulance ramping were not just delays for patients; they were 20,000 hours during which paramedics could have been back out in the community saving lives. One in 10 patients in Western Australian emergency departments are now waiting more than 12 hours to be seen. That is not a world-class health system; that is a health system in crisis. We heard the Leader of the Opposition today talk about the Premier's response to that. The Premier sat up last night googling South Australia. Then he continued to talk about New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory—every other jurisdiction but Western Australia. We would hope he would know what is going on here in WA and might have a valid response to why ambulances are ramping for so many hours and breaking those records. No; he was just googling away. The Premier should not be worried about what he reads on Google; he should be listening to the people of Western Australia. Maybe we are starting to see a government with tinea.

According to the AMA record and the report card, WA has the lowest number of ambulance call-outs per thousand people of any state in Australia, with just 131.8 incidents per thousand people compared with the situation in the Northern Territory, Tasmania and New South Wales. If the Premier did a correct search on Google, did a bit of deep diving and had a better look at the data, maybe running it through AI just to double-check, he would have seen that more and more of those states are coming in with improved results with patient transfers within hospitals in a timely manner. They managed to hit their transfer targets more than 67% of the time, but that is not happening here in Western Australia. The people of WA are simply asking for health care close to home, speedy and timely health care and the ability to get the health care they need within the hospital system. Again, we are seeing the same old Labor playbook—deflect, distract and point fingers elsewhere. Newsflash, Premier: the only ramping Western Australians care about is happening right here. It was happening outside our hospitals under his watch as the health minister and now it is happening under his watch as the Premier.

While other states are taking action—for example, Tasmania is implementing reforms to get ambulances moving—WA Labor is obsessed with something else entirely, putting $217 million towards a racetrack that no-one asked for and which 95% of Western Australians just do not want. Let us be honest: does anyone really believe this government could deliver it for $217 million?

Several members interjected.

Ms Kirrilee Warr: No. This is the same mob that has not delivered a single major infrastructure project on budget.

A member interjected.

Ms Kirrilee Warr: Exactly.

The Acting Speaker: Members.

Ms Kirrilee Warr: If Metronet is anything to go by, I would not be surprised if Roger's racetrack ends up costing half a billion dollars before a single lap is even driven.

Here is the reality today: the Premier is sitting on $217 million for a racetrack that nobody asked for, hospitals are falling apart, ambulance ramping is breaking records and aged-care patients are stuck in hospital beds with nowhere else to go. Seriously, what is the Premier doing right now for Western Australians? It is time to look at these projects and scrap them. It is not too late. Every cent should be prioritised on fixing our healthcare system.

In Geraldton, the Labor Party promised $7.5 million for a new Royal Flying Doctor Service base and primary health hub. That is only half of what the RFDS asked for, but not one cent has turned up in the budget. Labor also promised a $21 million radiation service for Geraldton, but so far just $1 million in new funding has been allocated. After eight long years, the Mullewa community hospital only made it back on the agenda following relentless pressure from the Liberal Party and Nationals WA. Meanwhile, tucked away in that same state budget, is the $217 million line item. It has no business case and no demand; it is just another pet project for Perth.

Several members interjected.

The Acting Speaker: Members!

Ms Kirrilee Warr: It is not too late. I urge this government to really consider what these Western Australians are asking for: health care close to home. Let us make world-class health care happen. Axe the racetrack, invest in health and, finally, start listening to the people the government is meant to be serving.

Several members interjected.

The Acting Speaker: Members! Sorry, in all that hubbub, I could not hear who sought the call. Member for Kalamunda.

Mr Adam Hort (Kalamunda) (3:31 pm): I second and third the motion:

That this house condemns the Cook Labor government for its ongoing failures in the health system, including presiding over another record month of ambulance ramping and neglecting metropolitan hospitals and regional health services.

I hear time and again in this space and in the media that no government has spent more on health. Well, I tell you what: you would hope so! The very nature of growth is that the next government gets to spend more than the government before it. That is the way things work. I cannot believe that that is a tagline. Moreover, we had a pandemic in that time, and an enormous amount of money was rightly spent on the pandemic. I just do not understand. I remember when the change of government occurred. I was apolitical; most people in the hospital system are. A few mates said to me, "Adam, you're going to love it. Labor's coming in. They look after the workers in the hospitals." I tell you what—did I get a shock! One of the first things that really stood out is really sad. I was working at Fiona Stanley Hospital at the time, and we had a marvellous service called the Youth Community Assessment and Treatment Team (YCATT). It is a model used right around the world. Essentially, mental health practitioners go out into the community to assess and support adolescents and youth to make sure that they do not have to come to hospital and can live as normal lives as possible. They are supported every step of the way, because hospitals are the last resort. The service was gutted when this government came in. It was gutted by the then Minister for Health and now Premier. It was devastating to see. I knew about it because I had staff in that team. They were doing amazing work and sharing the data right around the world, showing that we could replicate amazing outcomes in Australia, particularly in the South Metropolitan Health Service.

Just last weekend I had a call from Mark. Dorothy and Mark live in the Mundaring hills. I have changed their names because, although they are happy to be identified, I do not want to put that on them. Dorothy was really unwell with COVID, and Mark was looking after her. They are a very elderly couple. In the morning, Mark woke up and identified what he thought were symptoms of a stroke, so he went to his GP at about 9:30 in the morning. His GP rightly said, "Look, I'm not sure that this isn't a stroke, so you need to get it sorted out", so Mark went to St John of God Midland Public Hospital, which is the nearest emergency department for most people in the Mundaring hills.

A member interjected.

Mr Adam Hort: Yes, it is the nearest emergency department for the Wheatbelt. It is not the nearest for all the Wheatbelt. There are some amazing EDs out there, but it is certainly one of the closest tertiary hospitals. He went to St John of God Midland, he arrived at 10:30 am, and he was assessed quickly by someone. Then, he went to the waiting room. At 3:30 am, 17 hours later, his wife was at home acutely unwell with COVID and he was worried about her. He could not contact her because his phone had died. He mentioned the things that he saw in this place. I asked him, "Mark, did you feel unsafe at any stage?" and he said, "No. The staff were amazing. They were just completely overwhelmed." They assessed him at 3:30 am, 17 hours later, and fortunately for Mark, he had not had a stroke. He was discharged two hours later. What happened and the things he saw in that time were really illuminating for Mark. He shared with me things that I have seen in emergency departments as well. He said that it is a system in complete and utter crisis.

I had the absolute privilege and honour of working as the Chief Pharmacist for the WA Country Health Service. One part of the role was to assess whether our hospitals lived up to the standards of the legislation set in this place, so I visited over 60 sites right across country WA. I will never forget some of the locations I saw. Many of those sites benefited from the coalition government's investment in the Southern Inland Health Initiative (SIHI) in 2011–12. Since the SIHI was completed, there has been almost no investment in many of these sites under this government. The legacy of SIHI was very significant.

One day, I visited Wyndham Hospital, which did not benefit from the SIHI, and it was in an appalling state. I could fit my hand in the cracks in the walls in the rooms where they stored medication and the staff worked, which were meant to be safe and secure storage locations. In some of the Wheatbelt hospitals, shelves would fall off the walls when the nurses went to take the medications off the shelf. These kinds of investment have been completely neglected in many of these hospitals. Since SIHI moved on, there has been no ongoing investment.

One thing that I think is really important and I alluded to in question time today is the Bentley Family Clinic. Many people, both mental health patients and family members, have reached out to me about it. They have been told, contrary to what we heard today, that it is closing this month. They had another home just down the road in Victoria Park, but the government decided not to use that. Instead, they closed the clinic, and staff and patients are being moved. The real risk here is that children and adolescents who have established a therapeutic relationship with a clinician are now very likely to move to a new location and a new clinician; 120 kids and young people are being dislocated at a time when they are most vulnerable.

I am conscious of time. One thing that I am completely appalled at is this government's lack of direction and investment in electronic medical records. In 2018, the Sustainable Health Review said that we would need an electronic medical record by 2029. The then health minister, now our Premier, said that he would invest in it, and he did invest some funding in it in 2020. I quote an ITnews article from the time:

Cook said a state-wide EMR would ensure information is "available across the full continuum of care – not only promoting safety and quality …

A member interjected.

Mr Adam Hort: It never happened.

Ms Meredith Hammat (Girrawheen—Minister for Health) (3:37 pm): I rise to respond to this matter of public interest. Of course, we will not be supporting the motion put by the opposition today. Honestly, the opposition comes in here, week after week, purporting to have a plan or a concern for the health of Western Australians. That is what they would have people believe. We hear it in question time. We hear it when we debate matters of public interest. They come in here and cry crocodile tears about the health system in Western Australia.

Several members interjected.

The Acting Speaker: Members on my left, you were heard in silence for your part of the MPI.

Ms Meredith Hammat: I think it is a really important debate. It is incredibly important to debate what is happening in health care and the access to services people need in Western Australia. Our government is absolutely committed to delivering the health care that Western Australians need. Today, my colleagues and I will talk about our plan and the things we are doing. I think it stands in stark contrast to what we saw when the coalition was last in power. I cannot help commenting on the member for Kalamunda's submission, in which he said, "Of course, every government spends more on health. That is just the way growth happens." He dismissed it as though it is just something that happens. I think it is really important to remember that when the coalition was last in government, it stuffed the state budget with record levels of debt. There were record levels of debt under the coalition when it was last in government. It was so bad that it planned to sell Western Power to balance the books, a policy that was totally rejected.

The Acting Speaker: Member for Central Wheatbelt. Can you stop with the ongoing commentary please.

Ms Meredith Hammat: It was a policy that was totally rejected by the people of Western Australia. It could not manage the finances and it could not manage the economy. It could not make choices about how to invest budget surpluses and money to deliver better outcomes for Western Australians. It was going to sell Western Power. It is not an automatic assumption that every government will spend more on health. It could not manage the budget. It could not deliver better services to the people of Western Australia. That is why in the dying days of that government, it made cuts to education and health. If it had been re-elected, it would have sold Western Power. I totally reject the member for Kalamunda when he says every government just spends more on health. We can spend more on health because we have had the discipline to manage our budget well, pay down debt, invest in things that matter to everyday Western Australians, invest in health care, invest in education and invest in transport that will actually provide benefits for generations of Western Australians to come. We are really proud of our record of budget management and our record of investing in the services that Western Australians need, particularly health care. That is why we have made record investments in health. That is why we are proud of the fact that no other government has invested so much in health. We can manage the budget and we understand the priorities for the people of Western Australia. The Premier has been absolutely clear and our government has been clear that our priorities are jobs, health and housing.

Mr Basil Zempilas interjected.

The Acting Speaker: Member for Churchlands, I call you for the third time.

Ms Meredith Hammat: Our priorities are clear: jobs, health and housing. We have been very clear about that. We are very proud of the work that we are doing. As I said, it is part of an unprecedented investment in our system, with $14.3 billion in new funding since 2021. Again, those opposite dismissed that additional funding. We had a pandemic; of course, funding had to increase. It is because of the good and disciplined management of this government that we were able to do so and because of the sensible, measured decision-making that we took. That is why we have been able to manage the economy, the state and the health of Western Australians through the pandemic. Those things do not happen by accident. They happen because we are a government with discipline and leadership, not just in relation to health but to how we go about all our decision-making. We have a proud record in health. We have made significant investments. There are more than 900 new beds in our system since 2021, the equivalent of a brand-new Fiona Stanley Hospital. That is a significant investment in our health system. The Minister for Health has in the pipeline the delivery of another tertiary hospital worth of beds, including the $1.8 billion women's and babies' hospital. It also includes infrastructure right around the state. I had the opportunity to visit the Bunbury redevelopment just last week and I visited the Geraldton redevelopment, which are significant investments in our regional hospitals. We have not stopped there because health is not just about infrastructure; it is about the staff. That is why we have increased staffing. Again, since 2021, there has been a 33% increase. There are 5,000 more nurses and 1,900 more doctors in the system today. These are real improvements for the health care that Western Australians access. We are not stopping there. I have talked when I have had previous opportunities about our commitment to delivering different models of care to ensure that people can get access to the care they need closer to home. Hospitals are important and will always be important. That is why we are investing $3.2 billion into upgrading hospitals in regional areas and in the metropolitan areas and building the new women's and babies' hospital. People want to be able to access health care in a range of different ways, so initiatives like the work we are doing to ensure that pharmacies can provide a broader scope of practice are really important. We have already allowed pharmacists to refill scripts for contraceptive pills and to treat routine urinary tract infections. We have recently announced that the list of conditions that pharmacists will be able to treat will be extended. We are providing funding to support pharmacists to get trained so that they are able to take part in our pilot, which will see more people able to go to the pharmacy to get the health care that they need for routine or non-complex matters. This is super important. This is a way that people can access care that they need. We know that it can be difficult sometimes to access a GP. This provides people with an alternative so that they are able to get the care that they need.

We are also leaning into the opportunities to modernise our healthcare system. Again, I have heard those opposite dismiss these initiatives out of hand. They trivialise them because they do not understand health and they do not understand what modern health care looks like. Our WA virtual emergency department is an incredibly important initiative, allowing people to access care in a way that is more accessible. People can access it from home. Also, we have programs like our Hospital in the Home initiative. We know that people often prefer to get the clinical care that they need in a home-like environment. We have never said that the job is done. We have never thrown up our hands like the former government did and said, "We don't know what else we can do." We are always looking for what more we can do. We know that our work here will never be done. Labor governments take seriously the commitment that we have to ensure that people get access to the health care that they need. As the world around us changes, we will continue to change and find new ways to do things to make sure that we deliver on that commitment for the people of Western Australia. There is always going to be more that we can do. Our government does not and will not ever shy away from that.

I think it is important to look at the most recent budget because I think it speaks to our priorities as a government. We hear a lot from those opposite about the entertainment precinct. Let us look at what we committed to in health care in the budget. We committed $1.4 billion to boost hospital service funding, more beds and progressing our major election commitments. I have already talked about the WA virtual emergency department, with $60.5 million to expand that initiative so that we can do more. We have seen that since we stood up WAVED. It has been very successful in ensuring that people are diverted from emergency departments but are able to access the care that they need closer to home rather than having to attend an emergency department. Since September 2023, the virtual emergency department has completed over 5,700 virtual consultations. Around 72% of patients have been managed clinically appropriately with good outcomes outside of a public emergency department, with 68% of those managed in the comfort of their own home. That equates roughly to about 4,000 avoided public emergency department attendances. Importantly, it represents a better model of care, a better way for people to access care. That is at the heart of our decision-making. How can we make sure that the people of Western Australia get access to the health care that they need? That will continue to be what we focus on with the work that we are doing. In the last budget as well, we committed $24 million to deliver another 60 hospital beds in Perth's north, a really important partnership with Ramsay Health Care. I always love to remind those opposite that we have increased the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme, committing $18.5 million for that. Normally, we get a bit of pushback from the Nationals WA; it does not like to be reminded that it was a Labor government that delivered that. It took a Labor government to deliver that. It was in government for eight years, but could not deliver the increases that this government has delivered, increasing the fuel surcharge to 40c per litre for regional Western Australians. Work is underway to further extend that scheme to include allied health professions and also dental, providing greater access to care. This is important work that recognises we are doing work right across the state and providing a range of different options.

Members, I want to talk a bit about ramping because we have heard a bit from those opposite about that today. They come in and run their cheap criticisms without any recognition about the context in which we are operating. Therefore, I think it is important to put on the record the reality and the context of this winter. As The West Australian has reported—I know the member for Churchlands reads The West Australian, as he often quotes it in here—we are experiencing the worst flu season on record. I have said in this place recently that we have seen a record number of 000 calls as a result of that. Just coming back to the flu, in the months of June, July and August, we have seen over 15,000 cases notified of the flu. Hospital admissions due to flu are higher this year than the average was between 2017 and 2024. We provided access to the people of Western Australia to free flu vaccinations. We extended it as well by month because we understood the importance of making sure the community was protected. I thank those people who took the opportunity to get that vaccination, protecting not just them, but the community as well. We have also seen that flu season come later, and so it remains something that we are very mindful of as we work our way through one of the wettest winters ever and a bad flu season.

I have talked in this place, and it is important, about the record population growth in Western Australia—and why not? Who would not want to live in Western Australia, a place of such beauty and opportunity? The reality is the population equivalent to the Northern Territory has moved here in just the last few years, significantly increasing our population. We have also talked a lot about the impact of our ageing population. We have an increasing number of people who are older in our community, and that has an impact on our hospitals as we have seen large numbers of older Western Australians in hospital, medically fit for discharge, but not able to get the care that they need so that they can leave.

My colleague the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors has spoken extensively about the work that we are doing to ensure that the federal government does its fair share in this to ensure that it provides the home-care packages that would mean people could go home and receive the care they need or to ensure that we have the aged-care places that we need. Again, this government is doing substantial work in our piece in aged care. We are not just sitting back and saying the Commonwealth should do it; it is their responsibility, but we are also ensuring that we are doing work. This is why during the election campaign we committed to a $100 million loan facility to encourage aged-care providers to build additional beds and places here in Western Australia. We have also committed to the older adult health hubs as a way to ensure that we provide appropriate care to older Western Australians.

It is important to reflect on one of the things that we also saw this winter—not just the high presentations of flu, but the record numbers of older Western Australians in our hospitals, medically cleared for discharge but unable to find the care they need. We saw over 300 such people during the very busy weeks. Normally, the number is around 200, so that was a significant increase. These are not things unique to WA. These experiences—an ageing population and the numbers of people in hospitals who are older and not able to get the appropriate care—are challenges for governments around Australia. Therefore, these are not unique challenges, but these are indeed challenges for us all to work on. We have never shied away from that, and we will not shy away from it. We will not throw up our hands, as the former government did, and say, "There's no more that we can do." We will always continue to look at what more we can do. We will always be asking what more we can do to provide access to care in the community, and what more we can do to ensure that people get the care that they need because that is our commitment. That is what Labor governments do. We are very proud of our record in this regard. There is a lot more that opposition members like to refer to as they go through.

I did want to before I finish my contribution talk a little bit about the work that we are doing with the Commonwealth government in relation to urgent care clinics around Western Australia, because, again, this is an example of how Labor governments understand the importance of delivering access to the care that people need. The commitment of the federal government to deliver more urgent care clinics at its recent election is significant for Western Australia. We have seen a number of these urgent care clinics already put in place, and there will be more that come. Urgent care clinics are an alternative for people when they seek care rather than going to an emergency department. Urgent care clinics are not, of course, going to replace the circumstances in which people have urgent things they need addressed. Of course in those circumstances people should always attend an emergency department at a hospital.

We are providing more opportunity and options for people to get the care they need. We will continue to ask: What more can we do? We will continue to invest money in finding solutions. We will continue to work closely, not just with the health service providers that deliver our hospital services, but also with GPs, pharmacists and the federal government with its urgent care clinics in relation to what more it can do in aged care as well.

What we as a Labor government understand, members, is that our work in relation to health will never be done. We will always be wanting to make sure that we deliver the health care that people need, and, as the community changes, as expectations change, and as technology facilitates other ways that health care can be delivered, we will continue on that mission. This is underlined by the decision of the Premier to create a number of health portfolios so that we can continue to make progress across a range of important areas, like infrastructure, for which we have a $3.2 billion commitment over the forward estimates. We will build new hospitals and do the redevelopments, but we cannot just do that; we have to do the work in aged care as well, and we have to continue to focus on the work we are doing in preventive health to make a long-term difference to the health and wellbeing of the people of Western Australia. All this work is important, members, and we are really proud of the work that we are doing.

I could go on for much longer. There is a lot that we can talk about. There is a lot we can say, but I want to provide an opportunity for some of my colleagues to talk about issues important to them as well.

Mr David Scaife (Cockburn—Parliamentary Secretary) (3:57 pm): I rise to oppose the motion. But it is a pleasure to follow the Minister for Health, who has just given a considered and serious contribution on the challenges we face in the health system. That contrasted with the cheap, political points that the opposition wants to score on these issues. We face a series of challenges in our health system, whether it is the pressures of an ageing population or the ongoing effects that we are experiencing in terms of workforce and health infrastructure, particularly following the pandemic. We face a rise in new technologies and the way that people interface with our health system, and that puts us in a position in which government has to be the most agile it has ever been. It must be on the front foot in terms of new models of care and new developments and new redevelopments, many of which the Minister for Health just outlined. In the context of those challenges with the significant change in health delivery in our state, a sophisticated response is required. A nuanced and detailed understanding of the brief is required, which the Minister for Health clearly outlined over the last 20 minutes.

This stands in stark contrast to the opposition that comes in here with no plan, no policies and no solutions; of course, that is not unusual for these opposition members. We might forgive them. They might say, "Oh, it's early in the term. We're still deciding. We're still making up our mind. We do have a policy. We've launched a website in the name of our leader with lovely photos of him on there. You know, that's as far as we've got. That is as much as our brain power has been able to produce so far." Given the brains trust on the other side, we would accept that explanation. But, of course, this is the opposition, as I outlined previously, that last year when Parliament rose before the election had only two health policies—namely, that it would ban puberty blockers and it would not build the women's and babies' hospital at Murdoch.

Get this: its policy was that it would not build a hospital. It was extraordinary at the time, and I even made up a wobbleboard for the member for Vasse. She loves wobbleboards. During the 2021 election campaign, the member for Vasse was out in my electorate wobbleboarding "Honk if you support Roe 8", so I made a sign for her saying "Honk if you don't support a women's and babies' hospital at Murdoch". I suggested to the then Leader of the Opposition that she go out and do some wobbleboarding around my electorate with "Honk if you support our policy to not build a hospital". Strangely enough, she did not take me up on that challenge.

That was the policy space, the policy vacuum, that we walked into at the end of their last term of government. To be fair to the Liberal Party, it did take some other policies to the state election. Its flagship policy was a redevelopment of the entire Royal Perth Hospital. That is laughable for a few reasons. Firstly, the Liberal Party had consistently promised to redevelop Royal Perth Hospital over the full eight and a half years it was previously in government. It constantly went to elections saying that it would redevelop Royal Perth Hospital, and it did nothing. It did nothing at all during that whole time. So the Liberal Party thought, "Let's go back to the hits and let's announce our false promise to redevelop Royal Perth Hospital." What is even more ridiculous is the cost estimate and the commitment made towards that proposal. To redevelop the whole of Royal Perth Hospital, the member for Vasse and the Liberal Party committed $80 million. That is $80 million to redevelop Royal Perth Hospital. We committed more during the election campaign to redevelop the emergency department at Royal Perth Hospital. We committed $97.3 million, which is $17.3 million more, to redevelop just the emergency department, yet, apparently, the Liberal Party thinks the whole of Royal Perth Hospital can be redeveloped for $80 million. That is the fantasy financial management of the Liberal Party. That is the magic economics that it brings to health infrastructure in Western Australia.

Members, I want to talk about priorities for just a second because we have heard a lot about the government's priorities and I want to contrast that with the opposition's policies and priorities. The opposition is led by someone whose priorities include building a giant bell tower in the middle of the Swan River and spending a billion dollars to bring the Commonwealth Games to Perth. At one point, his flagship idea was a dance concert, a Coachella, in Perth. This is also a leader who shut a women's shelter and opposed a primary school in East Perth. Those are the priorities of the Leader of the Opposition. That is his record. The singular devastating problem for the opposition is that opposition members can harp on about these issues as much as they like, but nobody in the public thinks that they would be better off under this Leader of the Opposition. Nobody in the public thinks that someone who shut a women's shelter, who opposed a primary school and who suggested building a giant bell tower in the middle of the Swan River has got the right priorities.

It is good to hear the member for Churchlands start to come to life; I know a little bit about getting under the member for Churchland's skin. He always gets upset about it, but I just want go to some proof, members. I will say, the member for Cottesloe earlier suggested that we are obsessed. We are obsessed with the Leader of the Opposition. He is the best on ground for us. It is not a good thing when the government side is obsessed with talking about the Leader of the Opposition, and members opposite did not seem to learn that lesson during the election campaign. Ellie Whiteaker care of WA Labor, West Perth, did a good number on you. That is for sure. That was all informed by—

Several members interjected.

The Acting Speaker: Members!

Mr David Scaife: It was pretty good. See what I mean? It is joyfully easy. I do want to talk about—I do not think I need to because I have got the evidence I need now. I have the evidence that I live rent free in this guy's head!

On 15 February, the then Leader of the Liberal Party announced her flagship policy at the time, and that was the redevelopment of Royal Perth Hospital. On the day that the Liberal Party's leader released the Liberal Party's flagship policy about hospitals, what should its members have been doing? They should have been out there selling it to their electorate, right? They should have been singing from the same song sheet and making sure they backed in their leader. We know that the current Leader of the Opposition was not doing that to the member for Vasse at the time. In fact, this is really a favourite. This is a highlight for me of the election campaign. On the day that the Leader of the Opposition announced a plan to redevelop the whole of Royal Perth Hospital, the member for Churchlands was in my electorate doing a shopping centre walk-through. Not only did he do that shopping centre walk-through; he fed it to his mate Joe Spagnolo to take up pages in The West Australian. He was not even elected at this point. He was just a candidate. On the day that his leader was trying to sell the flagship health policy for the Liberal Party, the current Leader of the Opposition, who we know was commissioning his own secret polling—I assume it was the same firm that has done his latest secret polling; I have seen his latest secret polling as well—rather than backing in his leader and ensuring that the media was focused on his leader's announcement, went out with the 20-year-old Liberal candidate for Cockburn and did a walk-through of a shopping centre and leaked it to his mates as though it was news that should compete with a commitment to redevelop the whole of Royal Perth Hospital. What should compete with that announcement is the news that he went down the freeway and did a walk-through of the shopping centre.

Mr Basil Zempilas interjected.

Mr David Scaife: See, he talks down the people of Cockburn. It is just terrible. He thinks Cockburn is not worth being in the news unless it is about him.

Point of order

Dr Tony Buti: I am struggling to hear the member because of all the interjections that he is not asking for.

Mr Basil Zempilas: I'm just going to buy three books!

The Acting Speaker (Mrs Lorna Clarke): Attorney General, I will double-check with the member for Cockburn whether he is taking interjections at this point.

Proceeding resumed

Mr David Scaife: I love interjections, especially from this bloke.

Several members interjected.

The Acting Speaker: I thought that might be the answer.

Mr Basil Zempilas interjected.

Mr David Scaife: I literally made the point about me living rent free in his head and he proves the point while I am on my feet. It is sad that the guy who wants to be the alternative Premier lets a backbencher like me get under his skin.

Several members interjected.

Mr David Scaife: Don't take it from me, this is six months after I mentioned anything about the member for Churchlands in this place. I never said a blip! He holds a grudge so badly; he is so hurt; the knife was so deep. He went down the freeway and took the limelight away from his own leader, undermining her announcement on Royal Perth Hospital. This is a leader who thinks that the priorities of government should be all about serving his own interests. He is someone who has the wrong priorities for Western Australia.

Division

Question put and a division taken, the Acting Speaker (Mrs Lorna Clarke) casting her vote with the noes, with the following result:

Ayes (11)Noes (38)

Question thus negatived.