Contexts in which the word health was used in the House of Representatives during the 1970s

• Does the Minister agree that this state of affairs represents a desperate situation to the parents of these unfortunate children and other members of their families and places a tremendous strain on the health of the parents caring for the retarded? [More…]

• Therefore, will he consider making available under the home health services such services as those of social workers, physiotherapists, teachers and speech therapists, and will he consider giving financial assistance to parents whose child requires these services? [More…]

• Has the Minister for Health seen reports that the Government, under a contingency plan will exclude doctors who refuse to co-operate with its health scheme from participation in the scheme? [More…]

• -I ask the Treasurer a question.In view of the fact that notices have been directed to Commonwealth public servants that deductions from their salaries for the purpose of meeting home loan repayments are to be discontinued, will the Treasurer, in the light of the Government’s intention to seek the co-operation of employers in deducting health insurance payments from salaries, reconsider the matter of home loan repayments so that deductions may continue rather than cease at a time when there is an ever increasing desire to apply a deduction system in industry and in some State departments? [More…]

• Has he consulted with his colleagues, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Education and Science, with regard to it so that this 8% or more of the population may receive social services based on an informed approach to their needs? [More…]

• The epindemology committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, which advises the Government and the public on these matters, will go no further in relation to forecasting what might happen than to say that the possibility of an influenza epidemic in Australia this winter cannot be excluded. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• As Great Britain has suffered one of its worst influenza epidemics of modern times, I ask the Minister whether the health authorities and the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories are prepared for the same sort of epidemic in Australia. [More…]

• As a result of these meetings, Ministers have agreed to action in the law enforcement, health and education areas, to provide concerted and coordinated activity by the Commonwealth and the States to combat drug abuse problems. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I address a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• 1 direct my question to the Minister for Health and ask: In what month and in what form did the Commonwealth first raise with the States or did any State first raise with the Commonwealth the cost and method of carrying out the hospital recommendations made by the Nimmo Committee a year ago? [More…]

• The Bill before the House is to authorise the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission to import and sell to the Commonwealth, for the purpose of immunisation campaigns, those vaccines referred to in section 9b of the National Health Act. [More…]

• Once the vaccine is cleared for issue in Australia the Commonwealth Department of Health, on receipt of requests from the States and Territories, asks the Commission to forward the appropriate quantities of the vaccine to the States and Territories. [More…]

• The Commission then claims reimbursement from the Department of Health for the vaccine supplied in accordance with a price that has been determined by the Minister under section 22 of the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Act. [More…]

• State Department of Health. [More…]

• These officers are appointed primarily to deal with Aboriginal health problems. [More…]

• However, as the locations they are stationedas can be con sidered remote and they are the only representatives of the Department of Health at these locations, they will, to some extent, be dealing with general community health problems. [More…]

• Has the Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal Affairs made available the sum of $38,000 for the appointment of public health officers at Port Augusta, Ceduna and Oodnadatta in South Australia. [More…]

• If so, are they Commonwealth or State Department of Health employees. [More…]

• To what extent are their duties confined to health problems affecting Aboriginal people. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• On behalf of the honourable member, I will address his query to the State Ministers for Health, who have responsibility for the matters he has raised. [More…]

• The combined outstanding claims provisions of the registered health insurance funds as at 30th June 1969 were as follows: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Do the members of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s sub-committee on Aboriginal health include an ethnopsychiatrist and a social worker. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What were the combined outstanding claims provisions of the registered health insurance funds as at 30th June 1969. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• (2) The Public Health Advisory Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council at its meeting on 20th-21st April 1970 will consider the report of the Geelong Coroner concerning the deaths of two persons following vaccination with influenza vaccine in June 1969, and will also consider other available evidence relating to the incidence of complications following vaccination in muss immunisation campaigns, lt is anticipated that the Committee will make recommendations regarding the conduct of immunisation programmes, and injection techniques in general. [More…]

• I am also unaware of any confusion or anomalies in the field of animal health in Australia. [More…]

• It is not practical or reasonable to have uniform animal health regulations throughout Australia owing to different circumstances pertaining from State to Slate. [More…]

• However, harmonisation of disease control and animal health is achieved by means of the Commonwealth and States Veterinary Committee which meets regularly and reports to the Australian Agricultural Council through ils Standing Committee on Agriculture. [More…]

• The State Ministers presented their requests for Commonwealth grants in 1970-71 in the fields of housing, health, education and employment. [More…]

• In the field of health, Ministers decided that further’workshops’, similar to one held in Sydney in December 1969, would be useful in collating expert opinion, identifying problems and indicating possible solutions to those problems. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Have differences of approach in animal health in this and other instances by various States led to confusion and anomalies. [More…]

• Will he in the interests of efficiency and efficacy initiate moves with the State Ministers concerned to bring about uniform animal health regulations for Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Yes, there is close co-operation between the Department of Health and my Department to ensure that foot and mouth disease is not brought to Australia, and also with the Department of Customs. [More…]

• I declare that the National Health Bill 1970 is an urgent Bill. [More…]

• Spectacles are provided free in repatriation cases, and I cannot see any reason at all why the provision should not apply under these conditions in the case of the health scheme. [More…]

• They are not in the tradition even of the Labor Party’s health service. [More…]

• Before calling on the Minister for Health I point out that amendments Nos. [More…]

• In my earlier remarks I conceded that the amendment moved by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) covered most of the points in my amendment. [More…]

• Such a course would tighten this aspect of the Act with regard to organisations but to little practical effect, having regard to my Department’s experience of the administration of the health scheme over the years. [More…]

• I should be glad to receive the assurance of the Minister for Health that this is no longer the policy. [More…]

• For example, the Commonwealth Department of Health is represented by its Deputy Director-General, and the Attorney-General’s Department by ils First AssistantSecretary. [More…]

• The State Health and Chief Secretary’s Departments are represented by department heads or senior officials. [More…]

• In addition, the Committee has set up working parties of experts to carry out ad hoc projects and is able to draw on the expertise of the Health Education and Mental Health Committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The agenda for the meetings mentioned by the honourable member include a wide variety of questions concerned wilh law enforcement and health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• No progress has been made on the erection of a health hostel al Port Augusta. [More…]

• lt is expected that the building of the health hostel will commence in September 1970, with a completion date in late 1971. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What progress has been made on the proposed erection of an Aboriginal Health Hostel at Port Augusta, South Australia. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Government does not wish to intrude unnecessarily into the fields of education and health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• It is a matter for the Minister for Health and for the Leader of the House. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Is it a fact that the States Grants (Mental Health Institutions) Act expires this month? [More…]

• Has the Government yet made a decision on the proposals which the State Health Ministers have made at their last 4 conferences with the Minister for the progressive introduction of hospital benefits for patients in mental health institutions following the termination of the Commonwealth’s present form of assistance? [More…]

• The Senate returns to the House of Representatives the Bill for ‘An Act to amend the “National Health Act 1U52-I969’: ‘. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has he or his Department received representations from chemists for an increase in the fee for dispensing national health service prescriptions. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Section 76 of the National Health Act sets down the . [More…]

• requirements in regard to financial returns that registered organisations must submit annually to the Director-General of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• (a) Extreme precautions are taken in the design, construction and operation of nuclear power reactors to prevent major accidents from occurring; in the most unlikely event of a serious accident occurring, additional precautions are invariably taken to limit the consequences and to safeguard the health and safety of operating staff and public. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Can he state what is the estimated additional cost which each additional migrant imposes on State, semi-government and local government instrumentalities for the provision of (a) water supply, (b) sewerage and drainage, (c) road, (d) education, (e) health and (f) welfare services in each major urban area in Australia. [More…]

• He indicated that in order to achieve this there would be an overall increase in Commonwealth medical benefits at a cost of $16ra a year and that there would be small increases in the rates of contribution to the health insurance funds. [More…]

• The decision did not, however, involve any further increases in the rates of contributions to the health insurance funds over and above those foreshadowed in the Election Policy Speech. [More…]

• The legislation passed by Parliament in June 1970 extended this Scheme so that families whose income do not exceed $48.50 per week need to meet only a portion of normal health insurance contributions to insurance organisations to be covered for their hospital and medical expenses. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the estimated cost of the alterations to the voluntary health insurance scheme, operated under the National Health Act, proposed by the Government at the 1969 General Elections (a) in total to contributors and (b) to the Government. [More…]

• Liberal-Country Party politicians and officials whether in New South Wales, Canberra or the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, have realised that their policies on such issues as development, welfare, education, financing of health services, rural problems, defence and foreign affairs are obviously not supported by the electorate. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How much more is it estimated that contributors will pay to registered medical benefits organisations in the first 12 months operation of the National Health Act 1970 than in the previous 12 months. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Since there is now only one table of medical benefits instead of several, has the Commonwealth Health Insurance Council recommended that the amount of the contribution income of the funds which can be spent on management expenses be reduced below 15 per cent which it recommended in 1967. [More…]

• In association with the implementation of the new provision requiring health insurance funds to obtain re-registration under the National Health Act, all aspects of their operations, including management expenses, are at present receiving close attention and will continue to be the subject of detailed examination by my Department. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present the annual report of the Director-General of Health on the activities of the Commonwealth Department of Health for the year ended 30th June 1970. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Yes, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee has recommended that oxygen be made available as a pharmaceutical benefit in certain cases on the authority of the Commonwealth Director of Health. [More…]

• Special apparatus and appliances necessary in administering oxygen In patients cannot be provided under the existing provisions of the National Health Act and in addition there are particular problems duc to the weight and size of the containers which make distribution of oxygen through normal channels used to supply pharmaceutical benefits not practicable. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council approved the inclusion of strips containing 20 per cent or less Dichlorvos in Schedule 5 of the Uniform Poisons Schedules at its Sixtyeighth Session in May 1969. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Dr Kalokerinos has discussed his theory that Vitamin C deficiency is a major cause of ill health and mortality in Aboriginal children with me and has suggested ways in which research might be conducted to test this theory. [More…]

• At present, the Commonwealth is carrying out a research programme in co-operation with the States into various aspects of Aboriginal infant health and nutrition. [More…]

• In this programme, the Department of Health is co-operating with my Department. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice’: [More…]

• What sum specifically for capital expenditure has the Commonwealth (including its banks) in the last financial year (a) spent, (b) transferred as grants or loans direct to (i) State, local or semigovernment authorities, (ii) autonomous health, education and welfare organisations and overseas recipients and (iii) private industry, including all compensation and capital subsidies and price support to private industry except by way of relief of temporary natural disasters, and (c) received, as grants or loans, from other countries. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is it a fact that, under the present provisions of the National Health Act, all West Australian workers on the minimum wage will then lose their present rights to have their contributions to medical benefit funds waived or reduced? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• On what dates has the New South Wales Department of Health convened meetings of Commonwealth and State officers to consider the proposal to establish a hospital planning bureau (Hansard, 20 August 1969, page 509). [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 45 Health benefits - Ministerial statement - Motion to take note of paper: Resumption of debate on the motion, That the House take note of the paper. [More…]

• Some 2.5 million people are our responsibility, and to advance them to a more significant stage of economic development requires an infrastructure, health, education, road systems and so on and the measure that is before us now will assist us in doing this. [More…]

• to (3) The eradication of leprosy amongst Aboriginal people of Australia is seen by the Commonwealth as being within the framework of the general improvement of the health of Aborigines. [More…]

• My Office of Aboriginal Affairs and the Commonwealth Department of Health are planning an Australian wide study of these health problems that will produce a programme to improve the problem areas that we know exist. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: (l)(a) As at 1st October 1970 there were 76 medical benefits organisations registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Commonwealth is directly assisting research into alcoholism by means of research grants made by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The health aspects of the Programme comprise the States Grants (Paramedical Services) Act and the States Giants (Nursing Homes) Act. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has there been any health programme resulting from legislation by the Commonwealth which has not become operative in any State because of the failure of the State Government to co-operate in such a programme. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• However the officers concerned are employed by the Victorian State Department of Health and not my Department. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is he able to say whether Dr David Law, Medical Officer of Health in the Riverina, initiated a survey; if so, has Dr Law stated that the survey already indicated a need to stop pollution now. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What arrangements have been made with the States to label cigarette packages with the warning that smoking is dangerous to health. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• At the June 1969 conference of Commonwealth and State Health Ministers it was agreed that Ministers would recommend to their Governments that consideration be given to the adoption of a National Health and Medical Research Council recommendation that the label ‘Wanting, cigarette smoking is dangerous to health’ should be placed on cigarette packets. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What amounts or assistance have been contributed by the Commonwealth Government in each of the latest 3 years for which figures or estimates are available by way of subsidy, tax exemptions or other financial assistance to non-profit, non-statutory organisations concerned with (a) military, paramilitary and related activities of military value, including cadet corps, gun clubs, flying clubs and ex-service organisations, (b) community welfare, including education, non-industrial science, health, emergency services, home help and institutional care and (c) sport, physical recreation and physical culture, including the Boy Scouts Organisation. [More…]

• I will obtain the answer from the Minister for Health, who is in the other chamber, and let the honourable member know. [More…]

• I have on several occasions referred to well publicised claims by the so-called ‘pot-lobby’ that marihuana is no more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco, lt is generally conceded that alcohol and tobacco can be dangerous and are the cause of serious health and social problems. [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• On what basis does the Government ignore the emphatic and repeated recommendations of its expert advisory body, the National Health and Medical Research Council, solidly supported by advice from the Anti-cancer Council, that Australia should place a total ban on cigarette advertising on television and radio, as has been done in the United States of America, Canada, England, New Zealand, France, Italy, Scandinavia and Russia, in a genuine attempt to reduce one of this century’s major health hazards? [More…]

• In respect of each agreement what provisions apply regarding (a) annual intake of migrants, and (b) migrants’ (i) employment classification (ii) age (iii) education and (iv) health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Has he seen a statement by Professor Blacket of the University of New South Wales which points out that minority groups had succeeded in preserving trade practices that prejudice the health of the people and that margarine laws had been framed quite deliberately to prevent competition with butter? [More…]

• Will he also use his authority to see that polyunsaturated table margarine is made available in the parliamentary dining room in the interests of health of honourable members. [More…]

• Most of the matters referred to are those which fall within the authority of the Ministerial Members for Forests; Public Health; Labour; Mines; Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries; Trade and Industry; and the Assistant Ministerial Members for Treasury; Transport; Social Development and Home Affairs, in the House of Assembly for Papua and New Guinea. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Can he also estimate the consequent loss in Government revenue - revenue which would be used to the benefit pf the whole community, including such purposes as health, education and social services? [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to tha honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Have steps been taken by the Commonwealth, alone or in conjunction with the States, to develop a national scheme for the collection and dissemination of uniform statistics relating to health economics and for general health research; if so, what are the details? [More…]

• If so, will the Government consider (a) the immediate abolition of taxes on all devices designed to limit population and the inclusion of such items under the National Health Scheme and (b) the setting up of an inquiry into the need for abortion reform in Territories under the control of the Commonwealth? [More…]

• The Preparatory Committee of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment to be held in Stockholm in 1972 is considering the establishment of an International Registry of Chemical Compounds as a means towards understanding the effects of environmental contaminants on human health and biological systems. [More…]

• It would be necessary to refer to the British Department of Health and Social Security for advice as to whether sickness benefit would be payable in the circumstances mentioned. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Since the introduction of fluoridation of the Canberra watersupply in 1964, a long-term survey of the dental health of 6-12 year old children has been undertaken. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is he able to say what objective data is available which indicates an improvement in dental health following the introduction of fluoridation into reticulated water supplies at population centres in Australia? [More…]

• Can he say (a) for each year involved what was the (i) aggregate and (ii) per capita cost of maintaining water fluoridation at a selection of population centres in Australia, (b) what was the capital installation cost of fluoridation schemes at these centres, indicating the date of installation, population at that date, and whether the system allowed for increased demands by a growing population without incurring significant cost increases for plant alteration and (c) if there is any evidence of personal health being adversely affected at any population centre because of fluoridated water? [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question. [More…]

• On 4th March 1970 the then Minister for Health announced in Parliament that the Government had decided to adopt recommendation 27 of the Nimmo Committee. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What progress has the Government made towards introducing deduction of health insurance contributions from wages and salaries, as proposed in recommendation 27 of the Nimmo Report (Hansard, 4th March 1970, page 37)? [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable members question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (2) In his statement to Parliament on 4th March 1970 Dr Forbes indicated that the general examination of arrangements for the provision of ancillary benefits under the National Health Scheme, including para-medical services, was to be proceeded with within the context of other relevant proposals. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The following table has been compiled relating branch structure to the total number of persons (contributors plus dependants) covered for health insurance by each fund operating branches: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• At 30 June, 1971 the numbers of beds, according to ward classifications, which were available in hospitals approved under the National Health Act for the purposes of payment of hospital benefits were as follows: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the Nimmo Committee of inquiry into Health Insurance recommend the establishment of a National Health Insurance Commission; if so, what steps have been taken to implement this proposal and when will it become effective. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Which health insurance funds, in each State, have a branch structure bearing a lower ratio of one branch to 50,000 of the population. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the Minister’s predecessor indicate, during the 1970-71 Budget session, that inquiries were being made into the possibility of including para-medical services in the national health scheme. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• This level is only a very small fraction of that which may be tolerated continuously without any hazard to health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Minister for Health see recently in the . [More…]

• For the information of honourable members, I present the annual report of the Director-General of Health on the activities of the Commonwealth Department of Health for the year ended 30th June 1971. [More…]

• Ministers discussed a range of matters including the general organisation of the administration of Aboriginal affairs; arrangements for consultation of Aboriginal opinion; recent legislative and administrative action in relation to Aboriginal reserves; problems and needs in the fields of health, housing, education and employment; and progress in combating discrimination. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Where and when have there been meetings of the Health Ministers since March 1970. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Only one meeting of the Australian Health Minister’s Conference has been held since March 1970. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (4) Members of registered medical benefit organisations are eligible for Commonwealth medical benefits for those services at the Centre which are professional medical services within the meaning of the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• each of the categories of (a) unemployed, (b) migrants, (c) sickness beneficiaries, (d) other eligible beneficiaries and (e) families with weekly incomes of (i) below $42.50, (ii) between $52.45 and $45.50 and (iii) between $45.50 and $48.50, who have applied for subsidised health insurance by registering with (A) the Commonwealth Department of Social Services and (B) a hospital and medical benefits society since the introduction of the subsidised medical services scheme? [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (2) The number of (a) town (metropolitan area) and (b) country branches operated by each of the two biggest open health insurance funds operating in each of the States, is shown below together with details of reductions and increases in the number of these branches in each of the last 5 years: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many persons in each of the 3 low income groups did the Minister’s Department estimate would be entitled to receive the benefits of totally and partially subsidised health insurance as a result of amendments to the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Can the Minister furnish details of the number of (a) town and (b) conn i ry branches operated by each of the two biggest open health insurance funds operating in each of the States. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable ‘member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (1). [More…]

• asked the Minister- representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Specialist Recognition Advisory Committees and the Specialist Recognition Appeal Committee were established following the enactment of the National Health Act 1970 which received the Royal Assent on 24 June 1970. [More…]

• In order to expedite the payment of appropriate medical benefits for services provided by specialists and consultant physicians from 1 July 1970, special action was taken, by authority of section 29D(7) of the National Health Act to recognise a number of medical practitioners as specialists or as consultant physicians for the purposes of the National Health Act during the period of some weeks after 24 June 1970 until the Committees were established. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The 1970 Australian Health Ministers’ Conference agreed to the formation of a Hospital and Allied Services Advisory Council to study such matters as the planning and equipping of hospitals, the application of computers and automatic methods to hospital activities, uniform costing in health services management and studies of hospital and allied services generally. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will he consult with the Minister for Health with a view to laying down minimum standards of calorie and protein intake for the Territory of Papua New Guinea in accord with paragraph (18) (d) of the Strategy for the Second Development Decade. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable memember’s question: ‘ [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will the Minister arrange for his Department to update according to the latest available data, each of the tables which it submitted in its document of evidence to the Senate Select Committee on Medical and Health Costs and provide these tables for my information and the information of the Parliament. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Which members of consumer groups or the general public are on each of the following committees or sub-committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council: (a) food standards (b) food additives (c) food microbiology (d) food science and technology and (e) pesticides and agricultural chemicals. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 2 in the Medical Benefits Schedule of the National Health Act to accord with Departmental rulings by deleting the words not being an attendance covered by any other item in this Part’ and insert in place thereof ‘not being an attendance covered by any other item in this part or items 7199, 7200, 7205, or 7206’. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will the Minister’s Department seek to join the New South Wales Department of Health in appointing representatives to the management of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• On what dales since 21st July 1970 has the New South Wales Department of Health convened meetings of Commonwealth and State officers to consider the proposal to establish a hospital planning bureau (Hansard, 21st October 1970, page 2612). [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (2) As a result of a voluntary agreement between the United Kingdom Government and the tobacco industry, health warnings have been appearing on cigarette packets and in Press and poster advertisements for cigarettes since July 1971. [More…]

• It was not supported by the Health Minister. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• That the National Health Insurance Commission be empowered to review claims for benefits and to initiate appropriate disciplinary action in relation to any abuses of the health insurance scheme.’ [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is the most popular open health insurance fund in each State. [More…]

• The Minister lor Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 16, National Health Bill 1971, second reading, resumption of debate, be discharged. [More…]

• As a consequence the National Health Bill which the Minister for Immigration (Dr Forbes) introduced into this House on 16th September will need to be withdrawn and redrafted. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• If so, will the Minister initiate such investigationsin the Territories and suggest similar investigations to other members of the Australian Health Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Can the Minister say whether the Health Minister of the United Kingdom supported a Bill to compel printing of health warnings on cigarettes and a reference to this in advertisements. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the Government completed its examination of the initiation of disciplinary procedures arising from the national health scheme, as proposed in recommendation 19 of the Nimmo Report (Hansard, 4th March 1970, page 37). [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The ‘open’ health insurance organisations with the largest medical fund and hospital fund memberships, as at 30th June 1970, were as follows: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• All I want to say on this paragraph is that if it is all right for this subsidised health plan to have that definition of a dependant that definition should also apply to the contributors to friendly societies. [More…]

• The Minister admitted at the time that he was aware of the serious health problem on this station but promised to investigate the details and to advise the honourable member. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council, which is an advisory body to the States and Commonwealth, has recommended that pest strips containing 20 per cent or less dichlorvos should have the following warning included in the labelling: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has supplied the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (2) Representatives of the Department of the Interior, Department of Works, Department of Health and National Capital Development Commission formed into an ad hoc committee on 24th April 1969 for the purpose of ensuring close and effective liaison between the departments and authorities concerned with the quality of waterways in the A.C.T. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How often has the Health Advertisements (Standing) Sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council met during the past year. [More…]

• Can this sub-committee recommend changes in health advertisements. [More…]

• If so, in which health advertisement has it recommended changes during the past year. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Why has he not allowed the Commonwealth Bank Health Society to maintain its longstanding practice of making ex . [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• An advertising programme costing $83,000 was carried out through the press, radio and television in July and August of 1970 to help introduce the new Health Benefits Plan. [More…]

• Special mention was made in the press and radio advertisements of the Subsidised Health Benefits Scheme. [More…]

• No foreign language advertising of the Subsidised Health Benefits Scheme was carried out in 1970-71 because of the short time available for preparation of an advertising campaign between the passage of legislation through Parliament and the commencement in July of the new Health Benefits Plan. [More…]

• However, ‘ during the period December 1969 to March 1970 an advertising programme dealing exclusively with Subsidised Health Benefits was carried out at a total cost of $43,000. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the cost of advertising the availability of the subsidised health insurance scheme during the year 1970-71. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Health Advertisements (Standing) Sub-committee (Question No. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Commonwealth Bank Health Society has not been requested to discontinue the practice of making ex-gratia benefit payments. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Institutions located in the Electoral Division of Bendigo which were approved under the National Health Act for the purpose of payment of Commonwealth Nursing Home Benefits as at 30 June 1971 ; and [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What steps have been taken, as recommended by the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare in its report tabled on Stb May 1971 on Mentally and Physically Handicapped Persons in Australia, (a) to co-ordinate those functions relating to the health, welfare, education and employment of handicapped persons at present being exercised by the Departments of Health, Social Services, Labour and National Service, Interior, Education and Science and Repatriation, and (b) to collaborate with the States on legislation and services for the handicapped. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• First Division officers: Sir Donald Anderson (Department of Civil Aviation since 1st January 1956); Major-General Sir William Refshauge (Department of Health since 1st September 1960); Mr A. G. Turner (Department of the House of Representatives since 1st January 1959) and Mr B. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has supplied the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 2550 (Hansard, 16th September 1971, page 1497) as being enrolled in medical and hospital insurance organisations, respectively, under the terms of the subsidised Health Insurance Scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Commonwealth is guided in these matters by the advice of the National Health and Medical Research Council, which to date has made no recommendation that road injuries should be included in the list of notifiable diseases. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Commonwealth’s policy in respect of educating the public on the hazards of smoking is to intensify health educational programmes directed primarily towards young people. [More…]

• In the Territories for which the Government is responsible health education programmes include material such as films and brochures. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Can the Minister now say whether the Lady Gowrie child health centres are receiving the additional Government support which has been asked for? [More…]

• However, I understand that officers of my Department co-operated to the fullest possible extent with the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare and supplied it with all information that was required and that was available. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• I am aware of Mr Scotton’s writings regarding the relationship between health insurance contributions and taxation concessions. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• If the position is as stated, does this illustrate an inequitable feature of the National Health Scheme. [More…]

• Department of Health (residential premises). [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• a Division of Public Dental Health within bis Department; [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What measures are taken to ensure that Aboriginals who are eligible for the subsidised health insurance scheme are (a) informed of their eligibility and (b) enrolled in a medical benefits fund. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (2) Consultations with State Ministers for Health on- all aspects of cigarette smoking have been undertaken at Health Ministers’ Conferences over the past 4 years, lt is expected that the subject “will be discussed at future conferences. [More…]

• The question raised in “relation -to incentives and assistance to Australian and New Guinea tobacco growers does not come within my jurisdiction as Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will the Minister consult with State Ministers for Health concerning legislation to prohibit [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (2)It is impracticable to set criteria which would apply to all affected owners, although factors such as length of residence, health considerations and money owing to banks or mortgages would certainly be taken into account. [More…]

• An estimated breakdown by nationality of the 107,816 settlers, quoted in the previous reply provided to you by the Minister for Health, is given in column (1) of the following table. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What consideration has the Health Ministers’ Council given to aspects of environmental pollution. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What methods does his Department usetokeep under surveillance the health of immigrants after their arrival in Australia. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked .the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will the Government also take steps to integrate third party, compensation and voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is the estimated cost of the proposal to allow persons qualifying under the subsidised medical services scheme to continue to receive National Health Scheme prescriptions for SO cents. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The estimated additional cost of the proposal to allow persons, qualifying under the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan, to continue to receive National Health Scheme prescription benefits for SO cents for each prescription is $247,000 for a full year. [More…]

• asked the Minister represent ing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is Commonwealth benefit payable under the National Health Act for (a) physiotherapy treatment and (b) hospitalisation while receiving physiotherapy treatment. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (1), (2), (3) and (4) It is not possible to provide answers to the questions asked by the honourable member in the form presented. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What percentage of the Department of Health’s expenditure is devoted to eradicating this wastage of life and the accompanying morbidity. [More…]

• Beer is injurious to health just as cigarettes are. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many persons during 1970-71 received (a) one-third, (b) two-thirds and (c) complete subsidy of their health insurance premiums because of their income level. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Why was the Department of Health authorised to estimate the cost of the dental health proposals made by the Opposition in June 1971 (Senate Hansard, 9th November 1971, page 1731) but not those made by the Australian Dental Association in August 1968 (House of Representatives Hansard, 25th November 1971, page 3768). [More…]

• Can the Minister advise the House whether or not during the Vietnam war any Americans who came to Australia on rest and recreation leave were lost because of meat poisoning or whether or not over the years a great number of Australians have died as a result of inadequate health requirements being applied to the production of meat? [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What would be the estimated cost to the Health Department if the Government abolished distinctions between psychiatric and other hospitals. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• 4326, insured patients receiving treatment for psychiatric conditions in institutions approved as hospitals for the purposes of the National Health Act are eligible for hospital benefits in the usual manner, but the hospital benefits scheme does not generally cover treatment in public mental health institutions. [More…]

• Mental health authorities in the States have informed my Department that the following numbers of in-patients were accommodated in public mental health institutions in the respective States as at the dates for which the latest information is available: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Can the Minister say what research has been done in the last 5 years on the social and economic aspects of health care in Australia; if so, when was it undertaken and completed. [More…]

• To what extent has this research been sponsored by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What State-owned psychiatric hospitals are approved hospitals under the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Can the Minister say what is the formula used for the means test applied by the Departments of Health in each State and Territory for uninsured families and individuals on low incomes for (a) a visit to an out-patients clinic, and (b) use of a public ward bed. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (3) The Oration covered a very wide range of subjects, many of which do not come within the sphere of my responsibilities as Commonwealth Minister for Health. [More…]

• All aspects of the Commonwealth’s involvement in the health field are the subject of continuing review by the Government. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• If so, does the Minister recognise the appeal in the concluding paragraphs as directed at the Government to avert a crisis of waning morale, adequacy and efficacy in Australia’s health services, research and teaching as compared with those of Britain and the United States. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The National Health Act provides that the Director-General of Health shall furnish to the Minister for Health a report on the operations of registered medical and hospital benefits organisations for each year, commencing with the year ended 30th June 1971. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (1), (2) and (3) Approvals have been given under the States Grants (Nursing Homes) Act to expenditure of $1,670,507 by Queensland, $906,000 by Western Australia and $1,150,000 by Tasmania. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (1), (2) and (3) Apart from the actual provision of health services, the social and economic aspects of health care encompass a wide range of matters such as health education, environmental health and social conditions. [More…]

• Research into these and many other fields is being undertaken in universities, in government departments and agencies, in voluntary health and welfare agencies, and by private individuals. [More…]

• However, during 1971, the National Health and Medical Research Council recommended grants totalling some $92,000 for research in one relevant field, namely, social medicine. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (2) (a) Hospital benefits (including Commonwealth hospital benefits) are payable in the usual manner to patients receiving treatment for psychiatric conditions in institutions approved as hospitals for the purposes of the National Health Act. [More…]

• The hospital benefits scheme does not generally apply to treatment received in public mental health institutions. [More…]

• is not generally payable in respect of pensioner patients in public mental health institutions (but see (4) hereunder). [More…]

• I understand that some patients in New South Wales mental health institutions meet charges based on maintenance costs and that these costs are in excess of SIO per patient/day in certain hospitals. [More…]

• The following 2 State-owned institutions, which cater for patients with psychiatric conditions, are approved as hospitals for the purposes of the National Health Act: [More…]

• I shall be glad to refer the honourable gentleman’s question to the Minister for Health for a reply. [More…]

• This is not a general debate on health services or health matters in Australia. [More…]

• What (a) amount and (b) percentage of these costs was met by (i) the Department of the Army, (ii) the Victorian Department of Health, (iii) the parents, (iv) the local council and (v) any other bodies. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• At the time the voluntary health insurance scheme was introduced, the weekly contribution rates (family) for public and intermediate ward hospital insurance operated by the Hospitals Contribution Fund of New South Wales were as follows: - [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the contribution rate for (a) public, (b) intermediate and (c) private ward hospital insurance for the most popular fund in the most populous State at the time the voluntary health insurance scheme was introduced. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repsenting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Why were no Aboriginal leaders invited to the Minister’s opening of the Alice Springs Child Health Unit at the old Mount Gillen Motel on 7th February 1972. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• However, in respect of patients in State mental health institutions, hospital benefits are not payable but Commonwealth medical benefits may be payable where the patient is treated by a private medical practitioner. [More…]

• Benefits are not generally payable to patients in State mental health institutions because the provision of mental health services is regarded as the responsibility of the States primarily. [More…]

• However, special Commonwealth grants totalling approximately $50m have been provided to the States since 1955 for the construction, extension and equipping of mental health institutions. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice. [More…]

• Will the Government take steps to increase Commonwealth grants to State mental health services with the ultimate aim of extending the same benefits to the mentally ill and handicapped as are applied to the physically ill and handicapped. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• (a) and (b) As at 30th June 1971 the number of members of hospital and medical benefits organisations who were covered by the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan were as follows: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has informed that his reply to part (2) of this question, published in Hansard on 7th [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• For how long was there a continuation of the delay in the translation of details of migrants’ eligibility to benefits under the subsidised health benefits scheme to which the Minister referred in answer to question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the (a) number and (b) percentage of (i) migrants, (ii) sickness beneficiaries, (iii) unemployment beneficiaries, (iv) special beneficiaries and (v) non-income families receiving (A) less than $46.50, (B) $46.51 to $49.50 and (C) $49.51 to $52.50 per week who (I) were eligible to enrol in the subsidised medical scheme, (II) had registered with the Department of Social Services for membership in the scheme and (III) had registered with a private health benefits fund in each State and Territory and in the Commonwealth as at 2nd November 1971. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia is an association consisting of registered health insurance organisations throughout Australia. [More…]

• It was formed by unanimous resolution of a meeting held in Melbourne on 21st April 1971, which was attended by representatives of open health insurance organisations operating in Australia. [More…]

• Membership of the Association is limited to health insurance organisations registered under the National Health Act 1953-1971. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is it also a fact that the Victorian Health Department was aware of this and gave certain directions or advice about dumping the oil at sea. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minsiter for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Yes, except where the account is endorsed by the doctor to the effect that he will accept a benefit cheque in full payment or where the claimant is eligible for Subsidised Health Benefits. [More…]

• asked the Minister represent ing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• If so, is this practice covered by the rules and regulations of this organisation and have the rules and regulations been authorised by the Department of Health. [More…]

• The purposes of the National Welfare Fund are the making of such payments as are directed by any law of the Commonwealth to be made from the Fund, in relation to health services, unemployment or sickness benefits, family allowances or other welfare or social service. [More…]

• What incentives does his Department provide to encourage (a) doctors employed to screen overseas the health of prospective immigrants and (b) other officials employed by his Department overseas to undertake formal study of the language of the country in which they are to be posted both prior to departure for overseas and during their overseas posting. [More…]

• The following schedule shows in which countries doctors posted from Australia have been engaged in screening the health of prospective migrants since 1965 and the average duration of a doctor’s service in each country. [More…]

• In which countries have Australian doctors been engaged in screening the health of prospective immigrants since 1965? [More…]

• Has the Minister’s attention been drawn to the proceedings of the 73rd session of the National Health and Medical Research Council relating to food and drink containers and the problems associated with their disposal, namely, [More…]

• If so, what action does the Government intend to take, in conjunction with, the States where necessary, to introduce legislation to control these problems, as recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• When the Government decided to make provision under the Broadcasting and Television Act to require health warnings to be included in cigarette advertisements in those media, why did it not decide to make similar provision under the Post and Telegraph Act, as was suggested in the notice given last year by the honourable member for the Australian Capital Territory, and require health warnings to be included in cigarette advertisements in publications given postage advantages under that Act? [More…]

• The Government agreed with submissions made by the Department of Health and the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the report on health insurance by the Nimmo Committee recommend the regionalisation of activity of open funds. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• How many doctors engaged for screening overseas the health of prospective immigrants (a) applied for and (b) undertook courses in foreign languages at the expense of his Department in each year from 1965 to 1971 inclusive. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Can the Minister give details of health expenditure in relation to (a) persona) consumption, (b) net expenditure by public authorities on goods and services, (c) capital expenditure by the (i) public and (ii) private sector and Cd) other forms of expenditure for each of the last 5 financial years for which details are available. [More…]

• What was (a) the Commonwealth Government non-capital expenditure as a percentage of the total of non-capital health expenditure and (b) the total health expenditure as a percentage of the gross national product for each of the same years. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the cost to the Department of Health of administering (a) hospital benefits and (b) medical benefits in 1970-71. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has also circulated to medical practitioners a booklet on human genetics. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare submit its. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Are oral or other contraceptives ever provided free or at reduced cost by either the Australian Capital Territory or Northern Territory Health Services: if so, what is the estimated cost. [More…]

• asked the the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 4715 (Hansard, 7th March 1972, pages 665-7; which estimates the cost of the Australian Labor Party’s Medical and Hospital Health Insurance Scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many public health trained persons are employed in the Alice Springs region by the Department of Health. [More…]

• Has the Department indicated that there is a great need for staff dealing with rural health and health education. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• However, provision has been made in the National Health Act for the recognition of specialists and consultant physicians. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Has Cabinet approved the recommendation which the Minister for Social Services made after consultation with the Prime Minister for a public inquiry into poverty similar to the inquiries into the repatriation and health systems? [More…]

• We believe that the officers would use their common sense in relation to health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister represent ing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• However, action to fill these positions cannot be finalised until certain legal formalities associated with their creation are completed by the Commonwealth Department of Health, in which Department doctors’ positions are currently established. [More…]

• omit ‘The National Health and Medical Research Council warns that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health. [More…]

• ’, insert ‘Medical authorities warn that smoking is a health hazard. [More…]

• My reason for moving this amendment is that many medical authorities other than the National Health and Medical Research Council have publicly pointed out that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health and I think that this amendment is both more accurate and more succinct. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council warns that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health.’ [More…]

• The Australian Government warns that smoking is a health hazard.’ [More…]

• Since that proposed amendment was circulated the honourable member for Isaacs (Mr Hamer) has circulated a proposed amendment which seeks to insert the words ‘Medical authorities warn that smoking is a health hazard.’ [More…]

• I do net under any circumstance denigrate the authority of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• But I think that honourable members and the public will appreciate that there is a broad area of medical opinion throughout the world on the question of smoking and its effect on health. [More…]

• It reduces from 5 seconds to 3 seconds the period necessary for television and radio advertisements warning that cigarette smoking is hazardous to health. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 76a of the National Health Act 1953-1971, I present the first annual report by the DirectorGeneral of Health on the operations of the registered medical benefits organisations and the registered hospital benefits organisations for the year ended 30th June 1971. [More…]

• Is the inter-departmental committee established to consider the recommendations of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare in its report tabled on 5th May 1971 on Mentally and Physically Handicapped Persons in Australia, whose membership was disclosed by the Minister for Health in the Senate on 9th December 1971 (Senate Hansard, page 2560), the same as the inter-deparimental committee established to make a survey of handicapped children and the facilities available for their use, whose membership he himself refused to disclose on 28th September 1971 (Hansard, page 1602). [More…]

• The only immigration requirement in such circumstances is sound health. [More…]

• I would think, from what he has said, that many of the questions he raises might be in the court of my colleague, the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Department of Health has supplied the following details in relation to Territories of the Commonwealth: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The administration costs of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Commission would, of course, depend on the extent to which doctors claimed directly on the Fund and did not bill the patient, and in the event of doctors not claiming directly from the Fund, the frequency with which patients submitted claims for benefits. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is (he Medical Benefits Fund of Australia registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister represent ing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many general and pensioner prescriptions were dispensed under the National Health Scheme in each of the first 3 months after the prescription contribution was increased from 50 cents to$1. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: (.1) Which States charge fees to patients in psychiatric hospitals. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• This information is not available in the Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I will endeavour to find out what information there is in the Department of Health on this matter and provide the honourable gentleman with a full reply. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The amounts transferred from reserves by medical and hospital funds to meet current costs in each financial year since the voluntary health insurance scheme came into operation, are as follows: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: (1)Is the management committee of the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia composed mainly of medical practitioners. [More…]

• I want to tell him now that 1 am in collaboration with the chairman of the district hospital and also with the New South Wales Minister for Health on that issue. [More…]

• I presently have a full submission before the Federal Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson). [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What amounts were transferred from reserves to meet current costs including benefit outlays by (a) medical and (b) hospital funds during each year since the voluntary health insurance scheme came into operation. [More…]

• This matter is of course one for the State Health authorities. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 4625, placed on the Notice Paper on 3rd November 1971, concerning the operation of the subsidised health benefits scheme, by providing similar figures as at 30th December 1971. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• However, the considerable amount of work that remains to be done by the Department of Health and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel cannot be accorded as high a priority as a number of more pressing legislative tasks. [More…]

• asked the Minister repesenting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has advised that the footnotes (a) and (b) to the reply to this question, published in Hansard on 31st May 1972 at pages 3420- 1, are incorrect. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many general practitioner services subject to National Health Scheme rebate were on account of (a) surgery consultations and (b) home visits in (i) the Commonwealth and (ii) each State and Territory, in the latest 12 months for which figures are available. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the means test for eligibilityof low income families for the subsidised health benefits scheme when the scheme first came into operation. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Of the 2,333,000 unmatched services referred to in the 1970-71 report of the DirectorGeneral of Health how many received (a) Commonwealth and (b) fund benefits only. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• For the information of honourable members, I present the annual report of the Director-General of Health on the activities of the Commonwealth Department of Health for the year ended 30th June 1972. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Whs consideration given to requiring health warnings to be included in cigarette advertisements in newspapers registered under the Post and Telegraph Act Hapsard 26lh April 1972, page 1977) as well as in cigarette advertisements on radio and television stations licensed under the Broadcasting and Television Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Have changes been made recently in the maximum quantities of drugs that doctors can prescribe under the National Health Scheme. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• It has not been costed by the Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the Board of Inquiry into Health Services in the Northern Territory completed its inquiry. [More…]

• Can I ask the Prime Minister: Does he dissociate himself and his Government from the views of his colleague, the Acting Minister for Health, who sought to defend and justify this action by the Western Australian branch of the Liberal Party, in view of the criticisms of that action made by the Federal President of the Australian Medical Association? [More…]

• Department of Health [More…]

• I listened with great pleasure to the statement made yesterday by my colleague, the Acting Minister for Health. [More…]

• If the shadow Minister for Health likes, I will take the maximum steps to ensure that it receives that publicity. [More…]

• This measure, which is one of a number designed to further publicise the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan, was, in the main, carried out with the cheques posted on 1st and 15th August. [More…]

• The numbers of medical practitioners recognised as consultant physicians or specialists for the purposes of the National Health Act as at 31st August 1972 were- [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 5100 (Hansard, 30lh May 1972, pages 3293-4) which stated that arrangements were being made to post out, with child endowment cheques, notices outlining the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan and aimed to enrol more low income families in the Plan, were these notices only sent out on 1st, 15th and 29th August 1972. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What progress has the Government made in its examination of recommendation 19 on the initiation of appropriate disciplinary action in relation to tiny abuses of the health insurance scheme (Hansard, 7th October 1971, page 2129). [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What does the amount of $7,000 as a special grant to the States for para-medical services refer to in table 1 of the Annual Report of the Director-General of Health for the year 1971-72. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I ask the Acting Minister for Health: Is it a fact that while- [More…]

• Has he also seen a report that the New South Wales Liberal Minister for Health, the Hon. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Have Commonwealth Railways sought the assistance of the laboratories in initiating programmes to reduce noise levels in workshops and other areas where noise levels may be a health hazard. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The latest available information indicates that the following registered organisations are members of the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Which hospital and medical benefits fund in each Stale are affiliated with the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia. [More…]

• What controls does the Government maintain over voluntary health insurance funds in relation to any financial dealings which they may have with the Association. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 4715 (Hansard, 7th March 1972, pages 665-7), which estimates the cost of the Australian Labor Party’s Medical and Hospital Health Insurance Scheme, all at the most common fee level or below. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the, honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The matters referred to, except where students are assisted or sponsored by the Papua New Guinea Public Service Board, now fall within the authority of the Ministers for Education, Health, Forests, and Agriculture Stock and Fisheries in the House of Assembly for Papua New Guinea. [More…]

• Does his Department permit the importation of kirsch marachino down to 23 and advocaat down to 17 per cent alcohol by volume and other imports at strengths between 70 and less than 50 per cent of the requirement of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answers to the honourable member’s questions: [More…]

• Is it a fact that in a despatch of Press releases received by members on or about 30th January 1973 there were several pages of what appeared to be a transcript of an interview with either the Minister for Social Security or the Minister for Health which was without any heading or indication of who the questioner or answerer was. [More…]

• Minister for Health [More…]

• I preface my question to the Minister for Health by referring to the fact that no doubt he is aware of estimates that there will be a shortage of something in excess of 2,600 beds in hospitals in the western suburbs of Sydney by 1980, and that one proposal on which the present Government went before the people was for the establishment of a national hospitals and health services commission with the object of assisting the States to overcome this massive bed shortage, not only in the western suburbs of Sydney but also generally. [More…]

• I therefore ask the Minister how this proposal to establish a national hospitals and health services commission is proceeding. [More…]

• It was only a small statistical sample, but the report does indicate a desperate situation as far as health is concerned. [More…]

• My Department and the Department of Health are examining the matter to see what further steps should be taken. [More…]

• I can guarantee that a 1.35 per cent levy on taxable income will be the level at which contributions will be struck when our health insurance proposals are introduced. [More…]

• I have had discussions on this matter by letter and also personally with Mr Rossiter, the Minister for Health in Victoria. [More…]

• Considering the size of the recently announced increases in contributions to hospital and medical benefit funds and the impending rise in doctors’ fees, can the Minister guarantee that a levy of 1.35 per cent on taxable income will be sufficient to finance the proposed health scheme? [More…]

• Will the 1.35 per cent of income payable as a contribution to the Government’s proposed health scheme be held at that level, in pursuance of the guarantee given by the Minister, only by providing for any short-fall between receipts and expenditure by increased allocations out of general revenues? [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware that the Australian Veterinary Association, the Commonwealth-States Veterinary Committee, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and university veterinary scientists have long requested the establishment of a maximum security veterinary laboratory so that research, specialisation, production of vaccines and diagnosis of exotic virus diseases of livestock may be undertaken? [More…]

• The action proposed by the Government in the field of occupational safety and health was given in some detail when 1 presented the Compensation (Commonwealth Employees) Bill 1973 to this House on 7th March. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Defence representing the Minister for Repatriation and, if necessary, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Social Security: What action has the Government taken to restore the medical benefits of the wives of totally and permanently incapacitated pensioners who were so affected by the last Budget? [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present the report of the subcommittee of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Council on nursing home insurance proposals dated 1st August 1972. [More…]

• and (2) The application of 24th February 1972 was made to the Director-General of Health who declined to allow the advertisement to be published with his authority. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the decision of the former Minister for Health on the application under section 46 of the Australian Capital Territory Pharmacy Ordinance lodged with him on 24th February 1972, for a permit to advertise contraceptives (Hansard, page 1291). [More…]

• This study is being currently carried out in several countries, under the sponsorship of the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will he arrange for financial support and recognition by the Government to be given to Dr Kalokerinos of Collarenabri to continue his search into Vitamin C deficiency and other health problems such as immunology in Central Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• What information is available on the health of operatives using organic phosphate insect sprays. [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to the inquiry proceeding in the United Kingdom regarding the apparent overcharging by a Swiss manufacturing drug company for the tranquillisers librium and valium? [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware that drug problems are escalating rapidly in large urban centres, that heroin peddling is taking place on an increased scale in Sydney and Melbourne and has led to the deaths of some young people? [More…]

• Throughout the 3 years preceding the last election I consistently said - I repeat it now, and if the honourable member for Corangamite agrees to consider the report of the Health Insurance Planning Committee, he will find further confirmation of the view - that private hospitals and private nurs ing homes will have a role to fulfil in the health program that this Government will apply. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What would be the maximum weekly contribution to the Government’s health insurance scheme (a) by an individual and (b) by a family where both husband and wife are working, based on current average weekly earnings and calculated in accordance with his answer of 14th March 1973 (Hansard, page 541). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is it the Government’s view, as stated last year by the honourable member for Maribyrnong - now the Minister for the Environment and Conservation - that private hospitals and nursing homes are irrelevant in the Australian Labor Party’s health scheme? [More…]

• Are any changes proposed under the scheme as outlined in the report of the Health Insurance Planning Committee? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Does the Government intend to perisist with its plan to include children up to the age of 15 years in the school dental health scheme. [More…]

• Is the Treasurer aware that the Federal Branch of the Australian Medical Association has circularised all its members requesting donations of $100 or more to a fund whose purpose will be to prevent a health scheme being introduced for the benefit of patients? [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question, which is based on information supplied to me by the Minister for Health, is as follows: [More…]

• There are medical grounds for concluding that the public health benefits will justify the survey. [More…]

• The modifications made in the compulsory X-ray surveys in Australia have been related entirely to the public health benefits that accrue from each survey. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Will the Minister, as a matter of urgency, refer these appalling conditions to the national Hospitals and Health Services Commission? [More…]

• What progress has been made in the development of standards for locally made contraceptives since the answer given by the former Minister for Health on 16th May 1972 (Hansard, page 2641). [More…]

• Pursuant to Section 76a of the National Health Act 1953-1972, I present the second annual report of the operations of the registered medical benefits and hospital benefits organisations for the year ended 30 June 1972. [More…]

• Social Security seen a statement alleged to have been made by the Canadian Deputy Minister for Health and Welfare and used by the Australian Medical Association, the General Practitioners Society and professional letter writers employed by Messrs Turner and Cade of the hospitals contribution fund and medical benefits funds who quoted the Canadian Deputy Minister as saying: [More…]

• Has the Minister for Social Security had any checks made on that statement and can he tell us whether in fact that quotation referred to the whole of the Canadian health system? [More…]

• The amendment merely adjusts the date of commencement for the benefits for the supporting mothers under the provisions of the National Health Bill.This amendment was made necessary because of the assistance the Opposition gave in passing the Bill through all stages today. [More…]

• Before the debate is resumed on this Bill I would like to suggest that it might suit the convenience of the House to have a general debate covering this Bill, the National Health Bill and the Broadcasting and Television Bill as they are associated measures. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Are the estimated costs of running salaried community health centres based on medical practitioners working the same hours as given in answer to part (1). [More…]

• Has he consulted with the Australian Medical Association or any other professional body on the terms and conditions of employment of salaried medical practitioners working in community health centres. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present the report of the Interim Committee of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission entitled Community Health Program for Australia’. [More…]

• What is the area of ministerial responsibility of (a) the Minister for the Media and (b) the Minister for Health with respect to the laws and regulations governing advertising within Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• That a select committee of the House of Representatives be appointed to inquire into and report on the effects on the Australian community if the present voluntary health insurance scheme is replaced by a compulsory, tax financed health insurance scheme as recommended by the Health Insurance Planning Committee and, in particular, to determine: [More…]

• any erosion of an individual’s freedom of choice of doctor or hospital; and (0 its effects on the national economy and the quality of health care for present and future generations of Australians. [More…]

• Mr Speaker, in accordance with standing order 131 I inform the House that I intend to submit a notice of motion for the appointment of a select committee of the House of Representatives to inquire into and report on matters which were referred to in the petition relating to health insurance which was lodged by me today. [More…]

• The Association pointed out to me that an arrangement was developed between representatives of the Department of Health, which was then concerned with health insurance, and members of, I think, the Association’s economic advisory committee to review the fee situation. [More…]

• If the honourable member wants a better error - this is a matter of historical record in this House - his own Party as the government in 1969 calculated that the cost of changes to health insurance to introduce a common fee concept would be about $16m. [More…]

• Will tenders be called for the supply of computer equipment required for the Government’s proposed National Health Insurance Scheme; if so, will details of tenders received be made public. [More…]

• The body to which the honourable member refers is a front for a number of private health insurance schemes. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Social Security whether he is aware that material critical of the Australian health insurance program is being circulated to primary schools throughout Australia by a body describing itself as the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia. [More…]

• Can he tell the House the status of this body, how its activities are financed and, if the finance involves the use of contribution income, whether this is an approved use of such income under the National Health Act? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I was happy, however, to arrange for ‘Mr Newfong to accompany the Minister for Health on a visit he was making to the Northern Territory at that time but he was unable to accompany the Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did Dr Kalokerinos wish to undertake special research and health care activities among Aborigines at Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• Dr David Jose of the Research Foundation of the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne is directing a study into malnutrition and infection and their effects on the immune response of Aboriginal children as part of an intenational collaborative study sponsored by the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• Will he outline the extent of the Government’s involvement in the enviromental programs being con ducted by(a) the World Health Organisation, (b) the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, (c) the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, (d) the International Atomic Energy Agency, (e) the World Meteorological Organisation and (f) the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organisation. [More…]

• and (2) The Government, through the Interim Committee of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission, is examining the requirements for the delivery of health care to the community. [More…]

• Included in this examination is the provision of transport to and from health services. [More…]

• the Interim Committee of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission relating to the provision of ambulance services. [More…]

• Apart from sponsored dependent family members, for whom the only criteria are health and character, each case is assessed on review on the basis of: economic viability personal qualities which would enable them to fit into the Australian community medical fitness character, and their sincere intention of making a permanent home in Australia and becoming an Australian citizen. [More…]

• Does the Government agree that ambulance services are vital and important in respect of the health of the Australian people. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Having regard to the serious problem of dental caries, what action is being taken by the Australian Government concerning the operation of the school dental service? [More…]

• Positions were also created to initially service theHealth Insurance Planning Committee and they are currently assisting the Interim Executive of the Australian Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Social Security been drawn to the lurid and somewhat garnish displays of political propaganda opposing the proposed national health scheme now being displayed in the waiting rooms of some doctors’ surgeries in the Newcastle area? [More…]

• Will he repeat his public invitation to members of the medical profession to confer with him on any aspect of the proposed national health scheme in order to dispel once and for all any suggestion of a lack of desire on his part to give full consideration to the genuine interests of doctors when the changeover occurs? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is it a fact that certain State Health Departments have considerable experience in the planning and operation of school dental services. [More…]

• Has the Dental Services Advisory Committee been formed to draw on the experience of the States and formulate a national policy for school dental health services. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The question of extraction of such information will be considered in conjunction with the introduction of the Government’s universal health insurance program from 1 July 1974. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: (1), (2) and (3) The recommendations of the Health Insurance Planning Committee relating to the honourable member’s questions are set out in paragraphs 3.60 to 3.67 of the Health Insurance Planning Committee’s Report. [More…]

• Will a general practitioner under the proposed National Health Scheme be able to treat his own patient in a public ward at a general hospital either as a private patient or as a public patient. [More…]

• At the present time responsibilities are divided between various departments and the Government has under consideration the establishment of a Bureau of Animal Health to bring most of its veterinary activities under one Department. [More…]

• If it is the Department of Health, will that Department or the Department of Primary Industry decide the priority of admission of animals to the station. [More…]

• Is it the intention of the Government to concentrate all aspects of animal quarantine and health, including live animal and semen imports and exports, in one Commonwealth Department; if so, which Department. [More…]

• Assuming that the wife’s average income is $60 a week she and her husband will pay nearly $100 a year to be part of the Labor Party’s so-called free health fund. [More…]

• Does he see this as a parallel to the charge by the medical profession that one of the objectionable features of the Government’s health scheme is that participants will be issued with identity cards and their transactions recorded by computer? [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Social Security a question concerning his action in calling for tenders for 13 million registration cards in anticipation of his National Health Bill being passed by this Parliament. [More…]

• How many copies of the pamphlet ‘The Australian Health Insurance Program - The Plain Facts’ were (a) printed and (b) distributed. [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Are persons who are not contributors to health insurance funds and who are chronically ill eligible to receive the same assistance as special account contributors from the Government. [More…]

• If he wishes to know what the cost distribution is for the health insurance program I invite him to read the report of the planning committee. [More…]

• My question, which I address to the Minister for Social Security, refers to the national health scheme. [More…]

• In the Department of Health pamphlet The Plain Facts’, which many people call ‘The Half Truths’, the question is asked: How will the new scheme be financed?’ [More…]

• The staffing establishment of the Australian Department of Health includes positions of: [More…]

• Health Services; [More…]

• Health Services; Dentist, Class 3, Dental Services Branch; and [More…]

• Health Services- [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• School of Dental Services, (b) Director-General of Health Dental Services and (c) Assistant DirectorGeneral of Health Dental Services. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• For the information of honourable members, I present the annual report of the Director-General of Health on the activities of the Australian Department of Health for the year ended 30 June 1973. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Social Security a question concerning a report in the Melbourne ‘Sun’ of 22 October relating to a reserve health plan if this Parliament rejects the Government’s national health insurance legislation. [More…]

• Can the Minister give the House an assurance that in the event of the national Parliament rejecting his health scheme he will not resort to surreptitious moves through grants under section 96 of the Constitution and implement for the nation a scheme which the national Parliament has rejected. [More…]

• I preface my question to the Prime Minister by stating that I am inter.ested in a request by a naturalised Australian Chinese constituent whose aged parents, who are also naturalised and live in Sydney, are not enjoying the best of health. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• What is the position where doctors prescribe drugs that are available under the national health scheme? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Opposition accepts this amendment because it is virtually the amendment first mooted by the Opposition put into slightly different language by the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham). [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a White Paper entitled The Australian Health Insurance Program’. [More…]

• Mr Speaker, I ask for leave to make a short statement on the matter of the tabling of the White Paper on the Australian Health Insurance program which was previoussly being discussed. [More…]

• Is Queensland being unduly penalised in receiving only $55m in Commonwealth finance under the proposed Australian health insurance program when on a per capita basis the figure should be $66m of the $460m total payout? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Mr Deputy Chairman, may I suggest that consideration of the proposed expenditure for the Department of Health, the Repatriation Department and the Department of Social Security be postponed? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Department of Health [More…]

• What sums were expended on Aboriginal welfare from the day the previous Minister took office to 31 August 1973 in each of the following categories: (a) projects, (b) housing, (c) land, (d) sporting associations, (e) sporting activities, (f) education, (g) health, (h) personal loans or grants and (i) other. [More…]

• I seek leave to make a statement of approximately equal length to that made by the Minister for Social Security on the matter of over 1,000,000 persons not being covered by health insurance. [More…]

• Can the Minister for Health inform the House whether any previous Australian Government has ever made grants to the States similar to or on such a scale as those announced during the past few weeks to cater for the community’s health needs with regard to comprehensive health centres and centres for mental health, alcoholism and drug dependency? [More…]

• Has the Minister’s attention been drawn to statements in which the ex-Ministers by whom this convenient extension of the old boy network was initiated or condoned expressed concern that there might be breaches of confidentiality in relation to records held by the proposed health insurance commission? [More…]

• I have already spoken of the manner in which the Government’s health scheme will affect the people of Queensland. [More…]

• But these comments I wish to direct towards the efforts of a Mrs Doreen Farrar of Heidelberg Street, East Brisbane, a constituent of mine, who, like a great number of Queenslanders, has been very disturbed at the Government’s proposals in relation to its health scheme. [More…]

• This woman, without being paid or asked, and not being associated with the Liberal Party, the Australian Medical Association or any particular doctor, has probably created a national record in that up till last weekend she had personally collected 7,554 signatures against the Government’s health proposals. [More…]

• Can he say whether this practice could be adverse to the health of prospective patients who delay attending a doctor until such time as they have sufficient cash available. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• When will he show me, as promised, the letters of protest against the national health scheme from Gympie about which he made serious allegations and which he has since repeated to me in a letter? [More…]

• When he says he is sending literature to each such correspondent in my electorate, does he mean the pamphlet ‘The Australian Health Insurance Program - The Plain Facts’ or some equally discredited document? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• As the scheme for the provision of free milk for school children will be modified from 1 January 1974 to apply only to children of specific community schools or others selected on a needs basis to be agreed with State health authorities, (a) what are the terms and conditions necessary for a school to demonstrate a need, (b) what are the terms and conditions for a school to be classified as a specific community school, (c) has the Government received applications from schools to be classified as (i) a needy school or (ii) a specific community school; if so, (A) how many schools have applied in each category and (B) what are the names and addresses of schools that have so applied and (d) what are the names and addresses of the schools that have been approved as (i) specific community schools or (ii) having satisfied the needs test. [More…]

• In accordance with the Government’s announcement that the modified school milk scheme would apply to schools on a basis to be agreed with the State health authorities, a meeting of Australian Health Ministers was held in Canberra on 28 September 1973. [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to a leaflet entitled ‘The National Health Insurance Program - The Plain Truth’ circulated in the Australian Capital Territory by the General Practitioners Society of Australia? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The health insurance funds may provide whatever level of cover they care to provide for those people who want to take out additional private hospital, private ward including intermediate ward cover. [More…]

• Consistent with the principles which have been written into the existing National Health Act people will not be able to obtain more benefit than the amount of cost they pay for hospital services. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Social Security whether it is a fact that under the Government’s proposed health scheme the $16 per day bed allowance for patients in private hospitals will cease after approximately 180 days and long term patients will then be forced back to standard wards in public hospitals, as the special account arrangements which at present provide indefinite cover for such patients are to be abolished. [More…]

• As the spokesman for the Opposition on matters relating to health and welfare, the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Ohipp), and members of the Opposition want to sit for a further week and thereafter. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Before the debate is resumed on this Bill I would like to suggest that it may suit the convenience of the House to have a general debate covering this Bill and the Health Insurance Commission Bill as they are related measures. [More…]

• I assure the honourable member for Lilley (Mr Doyle) that I have read the White Paper on the Australian health insurance program on numerous occasions. [More…]

• Only pensioners, migrants, the indolent, no-hopers and alcoholics would benefit from the Government’s health scheme’, the Liberal welfare spokesman (Mr Chipp) said yesterday. [More…]

• In 1969 and again in 1972 the Australian Labor Party canvassed throughout the nation the principles of the health insurance program embodied in the 2 Bills now before this House. [More…]

• It is unfortunate that, in some areas, some medical practitioners have become party to distorting the Labor Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• The new health insurance program has important ramifications for people throughout Australia and in some ways has some unique implications for Queensland. [More…]

• Mr Speaker, I ask leave of the House to move that in relation to the proceedings on the following Bills, so much of Standing Orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the House making one declaration of urgency and moving one motion for the allotment of time in respect of all the Bills: The Health Insurance Bill 1973, the Health Insurance Commission Bill 1973, the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bill 1973, the Petroleum and Minerals Authority Bill 1973 and the Sewerage Agreements Bill 1973. [More…]

• I declare the following Bills as urgent Bills: Health Insurance Bill 1973, Health Insurance Commission Bill 1973, Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bill 1973, Petroleum and Minerals Authority Bill 1973, Sewerage Agreements Bill 1973. [More…]

• and (3) The matter has been investigated by the Department of Customs and Excise in conjunction with the Departments of Science and Health. [More…]

• This figure is significantly lower than the lead content recommended recently by the National Health and Medical Research Council in respect of crayons, pastels, paints and painted toys. [More…]

• In speaking to the Health Insurance Commission Bill one speaks to a Bill which is described as one of a sextet produced by the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) - 2 being produced recently and 4 to be presented next year. [More…]

• Therefore the debate which has just concluded on the Health Insurance Bill had a large bearing on this Bill. [More…]

• Referring to the Health Insurance Bill - and I hope that in doing so I am not transgressing the procedures of the House - I would like the fact noted that the honourable members for Lilley (Mr Doyle), Bowman (Mr Keogh), Capricornia (Dr Everingham- [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a report from the Interim Committee of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission entitled ‘A Medical Rehabilitation Program for Australia’. [More…]

• The Opposition is pleased that the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) has seen fit to accept these amendments. [More…]

• One of the amendments recommended by the Senate refers to the tabling of reports when the tabling is recommended to the Minister by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• Tabled by Mr Hayden: Nursing Home Insurance Proposals Report of subCommittee of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Council (1 August 1972) - 11 April 1973. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health will be aware that the outbreak of encephalitis throughout large areas of Victoria and southern New South Wales has now claimed the lives of 5 people and has left a large number of people critically impaired, as well as resulting in huge losses in tourist returns. [More…]

• Many people have been disturbed by reports which suggest that health authorities were warned of the likelihood of this outbreak 2 months before the first cases were reported. [More…]

• Did the Minister for Social Security publicly express an opinion that reserve funds of health insurance organisations should not be used for political purposes because they were collected for health purposes and may be subscribed by people who do not support the party being assisted? [More…]

• Looking at the private health insurance funds, I am not aware of any of the open funds which are consumer controlled. [More…]

• I certainly have committed myself to have consumer participation in the administration of health insurance. [More…]

• Government expenditure will not be cut because I believe that there is still so much that has to be done in the public sphere to overcome years of neglect - and in no other field is that more evident than in the fields of education and health. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Education seen reports of Opposition spokesmen promising to cut public expenditure and reduce taxation by at least $600m while simultaneously stepping up very greatly government outlays for defence and health insurance? [More…]

• The Australian Government is aware of the need for provision of high quality and readily accessible health care services and facilities in all areas of Australia. [More…]

• Accordingly, the Interim Committee of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission is examining the delivery of health care in rural and remote areas, and will be making recommendations to the Government on ways and means whereby the States may be assisted in providing adequate health care services and facilities in rural areas. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I have had this matter brought to my notice and have discussed it with the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I would regard this one as urgent and I will ask the Attorney-General to expedite its consideration after discussions with the Minister for Health. [More…]

• It is responsible for promoting standardisation of food products with the objectives of facilitating international trade and protecting the consumer against health risks and fraud. [More…]

• ls the Minister for Health aware of the existence of a pamphlet put out by American drug companies, offering 101 per cent marks-ups to buyers of certain drugs if they buy in substantial quantities? [More…]

• Unless the Health Insurance Bill is again not passed through the Senate the conditions for the conduct of a double dissolution on this Bill do not apply. [More…]

• a Health Insurance Bill 1973 and a Health Insurance Commission Bill 1973 <a) being presented forthwith and read a first time together and one motion being moved without delay and one question being put in regard to, respectively, the second readings, the committee’s report stage, and the third readings, of the Bills together, and [More…]

• Pathetically, the Health Insurance Bill 1973 has been brought on with a time scale for debate which will, after the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) has given his second reading speech, mean presumably that there will be one, two or five minutes for the Opposition to respond to it, and then it will be guillotined. [More…]

• The actions of the Minister for Social Security in attempting to cover up secret negotiations aimed at amending the Government’s proposed health scheme. [More…]

• Was the first when he said that his second reading speech on the hastily reintroduced health Bills was written and typed ‘a fortnight ago’? [More…]

• In July 1972 the Victorian Government was requested by the then Minister for Health to participate in the survey. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the survey undertaken by the National Health and Medical ‘Research Council into the smoking habits of Australian school children been completed; if so, when. [More…]

• I present a paper which is entitled Liberal Party of Australia - Committee on Social Security, Health and Welfare, Policy Recommendations.’ [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a report on hospitals in Australia as prepared by Hospitals and Health Services Commission dated 10 April 1974. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to reports criticising quarantine procedures in Western Australia? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is his attitude to the request of State Health Ministers for tax deductibility for ambulance subscriptions and charges. [More…]

• The Bill before the House is one of the 2 principal Bills which will govern the new Australian Health Insurance Program. [More…]

• This Bill, together with the Health Insurance Bill, has been passed previously by this House on 2 separate occasions but each time these Bills have been rejected by the Senate. [More…]

• This Bill establishes a Health Insurance Commission as a statutory authority to plan and establish an organisation to administer the new Australian health insurance program. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission Bill is being re-introduced in the identical form to which it was previously placed before honourable members. [More…]

• In speaking to the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill 1974 I mentioned that the levy is to be imposed on people residing in Australia and that its collection is to be integrated with the collection of income tax. [More…]

• This bill will ensure that the arrangements for relief of double taxation apply to both income tax and health insurance levy. [More…]

• In introducing the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill 1974 I outlined basic features of the proposed health insurance levy. [More…]

• These are contained partly in that Bill and partly in this Bill, the Health Insurance Levy Bill 1974. [More…]

• I understand that legislation is to be introduced concerning private health funds. [More…]

• What will be the position in Victoria where already extensive legislation covers private health funds? [More…]

• What will be the position of hospitals and health centres in relation to which on the one hand the Minister said that he will co-operate with the States but on the other the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) said in his policy speech that his Government would press on with the establishment of community health centres where possible in co-operation with State and local governments? [More…]

• As a first principle, it should say how much the scheme will cost the Australian people and what it will mean for their health welfare. [More…]

• The health care future of all Australians is being placed in jeopardy by this Government. [More…]

• Before this debate is concluded, will the Minister for Social Security at least indicate for the first time what other legislative measures will be introduced which will be complementary to these 2 Bills concerning health which are being debated today, so that the Australian people and this Parliament may know for the first time what other legislation is proposed. [More…]

• We are taking steps to increase the nursing home subsidies, effective on 1 August, and in the Budget session of Parliament amendments to the National Health Act will be effected to remove any possible doubt about the effect of regulatory changes to allow these increases. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Health been approached for assistance and has he offered financial support for the establishment of what has been called in the Parramatta Press a clinic to carry out walk-in walk-out pregnancy terminations? [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present the report of the National Health and Medical Research Council on acupuncture. [More…]

• To answer the first part of the question, I am not aware that the group which has set up a women’s clinic in Leichhardt with Federal funding and at the instance and initiative of the State Health Department was formerly operating an abortion clinic or that such clinic was known as ‘Control’. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Is it a fact that in Leichhardt, a suburb of Sydney, there is in existence a women’s medical centre operated by a group of women who previously ran an abortion referral service known as ‘Control’? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Who are the members of the Food Standards Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, and what is the basis of their membership. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Minister will be aware that critics of the Government health centres in the Australian Capital Territory have been making extravagant claims that the cost of medical care in these centres is much higher than for care supplied by private medical practitioners. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is it the intention of the Government to extend health insurance benefits to home nursing visits. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Does the Government intend to expand the school of public health and tropical medicine to enable additional research to be undertaken to examine the occurrence of heart disease with refined food compared to people following vegetarian and whole grained diets. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission, at the request of the Department of Health, is currently reviewing the role and functions of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. [More…]

• The review covers the research functions of the School, including its capacity to conduct health and health services research. [More…]

• I remind the Prime Minister that in his policy speech before the last election he described the areas of schools, health and social security as ‘the only fields where meaningful cutbacks can be made’. [More…]

• He was back on nationalised health again when he knows full well that his assertions are not correct. [More…]

• and (2) The Department of Health has sixtynine positions the functions of which relate solely to occupational health and safety. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: . [More…]

• Department of Health: Officers concerned with occupational health and safety (Question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many officers of his Department are concerned with aspects of occupational health and safety. [More…]

• 1 ) What is the average delay between receipt of a claim for (a) medical and (b) hospital benefit by each of the major health insurance funds in each State and the actual receipt of the benefit by the claimant. [More…]

• The Joint Sitting will now proceed to the consideration of the fourth proposed law named in the Proclamation, namely, the Health Insurance Commission Act 1973, and pursuant to rule 11, I propose the question: [More…]

• Before the debate commences I would like to suggest that it may suit the convenience of the Joint Sitting to have a general debate covering this proposed law and the proposed law entitled Health Insurance Act 1973, as they are related measures. [More…]

• That the proposed law, namely the Health Insurance Act 1973, be affirmed. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission Bill 1 973. [More…]

• Health Insurance Bill 1973. [More…]

• National Health Bill 1974. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Does the Government intend to establish a Bureau of Animal Health; if so, when. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present the annual report of the Director-General of Health, 1973-74. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a report from the Hospitals and Health Services Commission entitled ‘Continuing Medical Education’, dated August 1974. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 32 of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Act 1973 I present for the information of honourable members the Hospitals and Health Services Commission first annual report 1973-74. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a report prepared by the Hospital and Health Services Commission entitled ‘A proposal for a Scheme to Accredit Pathology Services in Australia ‘. [More…]

• These groups are normally involved with charitable, educational, health, welfare or like activities. [More…]

• Central Health Laboratory at Woden, Australian Capital Territory [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Royal Australian Nursing Federation, in submissions to the Hospitals and Health Services Commission and its Committee on Health Careers (Personnel and Training), sought unspecified funds in support of nurse education and training initiatives. [More…]

• RANF, on behalf of the Working Party on Goals in Nursing Education, has already received funds under the Health Services (Research and Planning) Program to enable a survey of proposals for changes in nursing education to be undertaken. [More…]

• These proposals will be evaluated and discussed in a report by the Commission later this year on health manpower generally. [More…]

• However, this situation is now being corrected following the creation within the Department of Health of a special section to collect this type of information in the future. [More…]

• In addition the Government has established through the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, a Committee on Health Careers (Personnel and Training) to advise the Government on the implications of the material collected. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) What is the establishment of the Hospitals and Health Commission. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission; [More…]

• the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The Governor-General has appointed Miss Mary Patten, a Secretary of the Royal Australian Nursing Federation, as a part-time Commissioner or the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• I am currently considering the appointment of an eminent lay woman to the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• 1 ) The establishment of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission is set out under Section 9(1) of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Act 1973. [More…]

• A small Secretariat to assist the Commission is provided on the establishment of the Department of Health. [More…]

• The Secretariat staff provided to the Commission by the Department of Health is included in the overall ceiling applicable to the Department [More…]

• The Commission and the Department of Health work closely together. [More…]

• This arrangement has efficiently facilitated the implementation of the Commission’s Community Health Program and will apply to other programs sponsored by the Commission. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Department of Health, Department of Repatriation and Compensation, and Department of Social Security (together). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Quarantine is a responsibility of the Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The question of allowing income tax deductions for ambulance charges and subscriptions was considered during the 1974-75 Budget preparations but the Government’s expenditure proposals, including those relating to health, and the general income tax reductions announced in the Budget were judged to merit higher priority. [More…]

• Australian Radiation Laboratory at Yallambie, Victoria; Animal Health Laboratory at Geelong, Victoria. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Department of Health [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Was the request by State Health Ministers for tax deductability of ambulance charges and subscriptions refused by the Government; if so, why. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a report prepared by the Australian Department of Health entitled ‘Workshop on Aboriginal Medical Services; Albury, New South Wales, 5-7 July 1974’. [More…]

• I inform the House that the Minister for Health, Dr Doug Everingham, who left Australia on 16 November to lead the Australian delegation to the 4th Commonwealth Medical Conference in Sri Lanka, will be returning on 2 December. [More…]

• In his absence the Minister for the Environment and Conservation, Dr Moss Cass, will act as Minister for Health. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a document entitled ‘Proposed Requirements for the Advertising of Therapeutic Goods recommended by the National Theraputic Goods Committee’ which the Australian Health Ministers at their August 1974 conference agreed to take back to their respective governments. [More…]

• The Committee therefore sought clarification from the Department of Health as to the levels of radiation emission from the proposed Laboratory. [More…]

• The Committee were advised that the ‘dose limit’ for members of the public who might receive radiation from a controlled source such as the Australian Radiation Laboratory is established by the National Health and Medical [More…]

• Typical of the service provided to my Department are the analyses being carried out at present by the Australian Government Analyst as part of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s surveys on pesticide residues and metallic contaminations in foods and on the microbiological status of foods. [More…]

• Co-operation and co-ordination in this area exists between my Department and the State Departments of Health through the food committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council, particularly the Food Analysis (Reference) Sub-committee and the Food Microbiology (Reference) Sub-committee. [More…]

• In relation to the disease rabies, a draft contingency plan has been considered by the Commonwealth and States Veterinary Committee of the Australian Agricultural Council and the Veterinary Public Health Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What co-operation or co-ordination exists between his Department and State Departments of Health in this area. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for the Environment who is representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In speaking to the Health Insurance Levy Assessment BUI 1974 1 mentioned that the levy is to be imposed on people residing in Australia and that its collection is to be integrated with the collection of income tax. [More…]

• This Bill will ensure that the arrangements for relief of double taxation apply to both income tax and health insurance levy. [More…]

• Benefit in respect of a particular child for a particular day is not payable both under this Pan and under Division 5a ofPartV of the National Health Act 1953-1974. [More…]

• The simple reason for moving this amendment is that there is an amendment before the House to the National Health Act which will ensure that benefits are not paid under both that Act and under the Handicapped Persons Assistance Act to the same child. [More…]

• The volume of business is such that it may be some weeks or even longer- one cannot anticipate this with any complete sense of confidence- before the amendment to the National Health Act is passed by both Houses of the Parliament. [More…]

• In introducing the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill 1974 1 outlined basic features of the proposed health insurance levy. [More…]

• These are contained partly, in that Bill and partly in this Bill-The Health Insurance Levy Bill 1974. [More…]

• and (3) The following areas of the Department of Health are involved in activities which bear directly or indirectly on consumer protection: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 7 1 7 of 3 1 May 1973 in which the Minister for Science indicated that the Department of Health undertakes activities which bear directly or indirectly on consumer protection, which section or sections of his Department are involved in such activities. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I have with me a letter from the Queensland Minister for Health dated 3 December from which I quote in part. [More…]

• Discussions did take place between officers of the Department and the chairman and other representatives of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission, concerning this State’s forward planning program for hospitals and institutions. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -The point is, Mr Deputy Chairman, that this is highly relevant because the Minister has assured us that he seeks to see the private health funds continue and we believe that the Bill which has been amended by the Senate makes it clear that ultimately the Minister seeks to destroy the private health funds if they do not serve his purpose. [More…]

• The private health funds must be seen in the context of Labor’s aim, which is to destroy non-government health insurance in this country and to destroy, therefore, patients’ freedom of choice- the choice of funds, of doctors and so on. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Social Security seen Press reports lately of statements by major private health insurance organisations defending their recent fee increases? [More…]

• Has the Minister noted that one of the main reasons why the health insurance funds say that their fees have increased is that the Australian Government has refused to increase its hospital and medical benefit subsidies? [More…]

• Are these health insurance funds which are so keen to urge the Government to increase spending on health subsidies the same funds as say that Medibank is undesirable because it will lead to increases in Government expenditure? [More…]

• The security of dangerous drugs is the main consideration which exercised the minds of Ministers for Health in their conference when they discussed this matter earlier in the year, and no doubt they will be discussing it again at their meeting in April this year. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• This work can relate to scientific programs as in the Australian Radiation Laboratory, National Acoustic Laboratories, Australian Dental Standards Laboratory, National Biological Standards Laboratory, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Institute of Child Health and the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission or to overall departmental policy formulation in relation to, for example, health delivery systems. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• That the resolution of the House this day on the third reading of the National Health Bill 1974 be rescinded and that the question- That the Bill be now read a third time- be again put to the House forthwith. [More…]

• -I wish to point out, with your indulgence, Mr Deputy Speaker, that members on this side of the House are totally opposed to the National Health Bill 1974 (No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• My question is to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• While the Minister says that this might be necessary for a health commission in Canberra, the amendment is presumably not restricted to that circumstance and would facilitate movement of people in and out of the Public Service under differing circumstances. [More…]

• In his absence the Minister for Health, Dr Doug Everingham, will act as Minister for the Environment and Conservation. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is he aware of any proposals for a re-imposition of punitive health insurance contributions following the introduction of Medibank from 1 July? [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a report made to the Hospitals and Health Services Commission entitled: Australian Health Manpower’. [More…]

• Appointment is subject to the employee undergoing medical examination to ensure that his health and physical fitness are such to justify his acceptance as a contributor to the Commonwealth Superannuation Fund or to the Provident Account. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice [More…]

• Specific laboratories for which lam responsible, namely the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Sydney, and the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, Melbourne, are also able to diagnose the four (4) internationally prescribed quarantinable diseases: smallpox, cholera, plague and yellow fever. [More…]

• Before the debate is resumed on this Bill, I would like to suggest that it may suit the convenience of the House to have a general debate covering this Bill and the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• -The Opposition broadly supports the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• On Tuesday a joint Press announcement by the Ministers for Health for New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia was to the effect that those States would not enter the Medibank hospital arrangements before 1 July. [More…]

• The proposal is stage 2 of the development of the complex to eventually supply the support services needs in a central facility for all present and future hospitals and other health institutions in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -Can the Minister for Health verify whether the New South Wales State Government has not agreed to pay its contribution towards the cost of community health centres run by voluntary organisations? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) What was the cost of the (a) attitudinal/motivational research and (b) advertising testing programs undertaken with respect to (i) the Health Insurance program, (ii) the Naional Savings program, (iii) the Emergency Telephone Interpreter Service program, (iv) the Army general enlistment program and (v) the Treasury Loans program since 1 January 1973. [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Will the Minister confirm or deny that officers of the Health Insurance Commission are attempting to force on the Canberra Hospital Board arrangements for Australian Capital Territory hospitals under Medibank after 1 July that will discriminate against patients who wish to retain their own doctor, and which is contrary to the Minister’s public assurance that Medibank will not interfere with this basic right? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the average cost of a consultation at the Melba Health Centre for the months of July, August, September and October 1974. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: (1-2) Since the introduction of the Australian Government’s Community Health and Community Mental Health, Alcoholism and Drug Dependency Programs, some hundreds of applications for financial assistance, including requests from voluntary organisations, have been received by my Department and by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• National Life Line Association- which has received assistance under the Community Health Program [More…]

• Recovery- which have received assistance under the Community Mental Health, Alcoholism and Drug Dependency Program [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has he stated that the health insurance funds will be encouraged to provide insurance for intermediate and private ward patients after the Government’s health insurance scheme commences. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a report by the Hospital and Health Services Commission entitled ‘A Report on the Integration of Health Services and Health Education Facilities in the Illawarra Region’. [More…]

• I address a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I inform the House that the Minister for Health, Dr Doug Everingham, left Australia on 10 May to attend the 28th World Health Assembly being held in Geneva. [More…]

• In his absence, the Minister for Environment, Dr Moss Cass, will act as Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• With reference to his answer to a question without notice on 16 October 1974 (Hansard, page 2391) in which he stated that he has been adopting a much tougher line in negotiations with the drug manufacturers than his predecessor, (a) what are examples of his successes, (b) what was the proportion of purchases from drug manufacturers where Australian prices were double the prices in other countries, (c) what was the comparative prices table set out by the Department of Health in evidence to the House of Representatives Select Committee on Pharmaceutical Benefits appointed in 1970, and (d) what are the comparable figures for the items in this table for each of the years since its compilation. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 76a of the National Health Act 1953-1975 I present a report on the operations of the registered medical and hospital benefits organisations for the year ended 30 June 1974. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Research of this type is being carried out in Darwin and Alice Springs and also at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, University of Sydney. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I ask: Is it correct to claim that the Medibank program, which is Australia’s universal health scheme which will be operational from 1 July, has been radically altered to discriminate against private bed patients in public hospitals in comparison with public bed patients in those hospitals? [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a report of a committee of review on the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Was the Nursing Mothers’ Association of Australia refused a community health grant; if so, why. [More…]

• and (2) Health Services Planning and Research Program [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -There are a number of interesting aspects to the inclusion of optometrical benefits in the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health Commission building. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• and (4) An Interdepartmental Committee was established by the previous Government to examine the recommendations of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare in its report on Mentally and Physically Handicapped Persons in Australia. [More…]

• The Interdepartmental Committee did not complete its examination and report on the ‘Survey of Handicapped Children’ and therefore it was never presented to the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare. [More…]

• The report of the separate survey of Invalid Pensioners aged 16 to 20 years m New South Wales and Victoria headed (‘Handicapped Children in Australia’) was submitted to the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare and was incorporated in its Hansard of 1 970-7 1 . [More…]

• I will be prepared to discuss further with the Minister for Health the possibility that the National Association of Testing Authorities might be responsible for accreditation of pathology services. [More…]

• 1 ) Has he had discussions with the Minister for Health or his officers on proposals for the accreditation for pathology laboratories in Australia. [More…]

• Will he make representations to the Minister for Health on behalf of the National Association of Testing Authorities so that this body might be responsible for accreditation of pathology services. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• When will cleft palate surgery be included in the Health Insurance Scheme. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission employed Community Systems Foundation to prepare a paper reviewing literature on hospital efficiency and staff utilisation. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The paper referred to forms pan of a report prepared in 1966 by a departmental working party on benefits available at that time under the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) The Working Party on Medical and Surgical Aids and Appliances has a membership of nine comprising six senior officers of the Department of Health (one of whom is Chairman), two of the Department of Social Security and one of the Department of Repatriation and Compensation. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present the first edition of a ‘Handbook on Health Manpower’ prepared by the Australian Department of Health. [More…]

• But the point I should like to deal with today- I have not raised it with the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) previously- deals with prescriptions. [More…]

• The tables are from the official journal of the Australian Department of Health, volume 25, for the third quarter of 1 975, under the heading of ‘Pharmaceutical Benefits’ and are at pages 42 and 43. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and is supplementary to that asked by the honourable member for Scullin. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: ( 1 )-(2) There is no item in the funds available to me that is exclusively for advertising community health centres. [More…]

• However, provision is included under Division 270.2.02 (Department of Health) and Division 271.1 (Hospitals and Health Services Commission) for publicising the Community Health Program. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Where in Departmental Estimates is there provision for expenditure for advertising the Government’s Community Health Centre program. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health satisfied that his announcement on medical research of Tuesday evening will end the crisis in medical research caused by the 50 per cent Budget cut for this year? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council will be meeting on the 20th of this month and I hope that we will have a firm decision before that time as to any adjustments that can be made. [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Last April approval was given by the Australian Government for the establishment of community health centres at Eden, Ulladulla and Sussex Inlet. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What are the details of the decision reached at the recent Health Ministers Conference to restrict cigarette advertising. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The distribution of Medibank material, including Health Insurance cards and publicity material has been handled either by the Post Office, the Department of Social Security, or by the Health Insurance Commission itself. [More…]

• Further to the answers to questions Nos 2343 and 1658, concerning administration of Aboriginal affairs policies, in which he indicated that responsibility for control of health services of Aborigines rests at present with various Australian Government and State Departments of Health, statutory commissions and a variety of similar organisations, some of which are associated with academic institutions, will he list all bodies to which he refers. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present the annual report of the Director-General of Health for the year ended 30 June 1975. [More…]

• In addition the Department administers payments to the States for housing, education, health, welfare and employment responsibilities. [More…]

• The remaining $50m of the total of the estimated $192m for Aboriginal expenditure by departments other than the Department of Aboriginal Affairs is the responsibility of the departments of Education, Housing and Construction, and Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I gave the justification for that in the following words: ‘It would be self-defeating if the system of wage indexation were to attempt to insulate the community from tax measures designed to redistribute resources for the benefit of the community in the form of improved public facilities in fields such as education, health, welfare, personal benefits, urban improvement and so on. [More…]

• The establishment of an Advisory Dental Council of Australia was considered by the Australian Health Ministers at their Conferences in August 1974 and May 1975. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is the present position of the Hobart Eastern Shore Community Health Centre. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) How many delegates attended the recently concluded Women’s Health Conference at Queensland University. [More…]

• How many of these were selected on (a) a health professional, (b) Government department, (c) social welfare, (d) consumer organisation, (e) women’s organisations and (f) political, basis. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Is it considered that asthma research is receiving an acceptable percentage of the research funds of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) How many delegates from Western Australia is the Australian Government assisting financially to attend the conference at Queensland University between 25 and 29 August 1975 with the theme- Women’s Health in a changing Society. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What steps is the Government taking to assist the World Health Organisation in its endeavour to make 1977 World Rheumatism Year. [More…]

• Will the Government co-operate with the International League Against Rheumatism to make 1977 a valuable year by upgrading the standards of treatment, increasing the finance for research, and educating health professionals and the public in the need for and value of treatment. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Who is financially responsible for the physical maintenance of buildings constructed under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• Where premises are constructed by the Australian Government with funds provided under the Community Health Program and the Australian Government makes the use of those premises available to another organisation for the provision of community health services, the cost of maintenance of the premises would be the responsibility of the Australian Government. [More…]

• Where funds are provided under the Community Health Program for the construction of premises to be owned by a State Government, a local government authority or a nongovernmental organisation, the cost of maintenance of the premises is an item of expenditure towards which the Australian Government would generally provide financial assistance under the Program. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission set up by this Government established a Working Party to examine patient transport and mobile health services. [More…]

• A discussion document entitled “Health Transport Policies for the 1970 ‘s and 1980 ‘s” has been distributed by the Working Party for comment by interested authorities, organisations and individuals. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to the difficulties faced by the Adelaide Women’s Health Collective in setting up a health centre at Hindmarsh, South Australia. [More…]

• How much finance was approved for the Adelaide Women’s Health Collective by his Department and the South Australian Department of Health in November 1974. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Salary is a most important factor because of the great disparity that exists between the current levels of salary of medical officers in the Australian Public Service, the various States and the Capital Territory Health Commission. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• There is opposition to the proposed introduction of uniform legislation by the Australian and State Governments in respect of health warnings to accompany all forms of cigarette advertising, and consequently, the genuine cooperation needed for an effective voluntary Australian code may not be present. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon Notice: [More…]

• 1 ) What steps have been taken by the health authorities in Darwin to prevent refugees inadvertently introducing human or animal diseases to Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Has the National Health and Medical Research Council established any maximum safety levels for lead in the atmosphere and in the bloodstream of adults and children. [More…]

• 1 ) At the Conference of Australian Health Ministers in May 1975 in Perth, it was agreed that a joint working party of State and Australian Government officers be established to draw up model food legislation suitable for application throughout Australia. [More…]

• The formation of this working party is under active consideration by my Department and the State Departments of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Does his Department, because of its public health responsibility, have a role in the prevention of the increasing air pollution in the Australian Capital Territory caused by motor vehicle exhaust emissions. [More…]

• ) Does his Department have an advisory role in this area of public health with State Health Departments or other Australian Government Departments. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health upon notice: [More…]

• In building up the support team for the general medical practitioner to make his a more specialist occupation/ vocation, can he and the Government assist to make the pharmacist a more effective member of the health team; if so, how. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What action is he taking to implement the World Health Organisation recommendations on protecting non-smokers from exposure to smokers. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How is it proposed to implement the decision of the Health Ministers at the recent conference in Penh to improve the supervision of food standards in Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health: Precautions in Darwin (Question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• When will the report of the Health Transport Working Party be made public. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -Will the Minister for Health inform the House how many Australian Government health centres have been built throughout Australia? [More…]

• What services are available at these health centres and at what cost to the patients? [More…]

• Will he resign decently in the interests of the political health of Australia? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The amendments are consistent with proposed amendments to the National Health Act for which provision is made in the National Health (Nursing Homes) Bill 1 975. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• What effect will the action of the Senate in blocking the Budget have on Australian Government health services? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice. [More…]

• Doctors, pharmacists, dentists, medical teaching staff, medical libraries, hospital matrons and senior tutor sisters, medical students in their final three years, pharmaceutical companies, and member countries of the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a discussion paper entitled Provision of Health Services in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• All Medibank premises are leased; the Health Insurance Commission does not own any premises. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 32 of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Act 1973 I present the annual report of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission for 1974-75. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 42(3) of the Health Insurance Commission Act 1973 I present the first annual report of the Health Insurance Commission for the period to 30 June 1 975. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Did the National Health and Medical Research Council provide a research grant for the investigation of the ‘cot death phenomenon’ at Sydney University. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -A few days ago I inspected the flood areas with the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Futhermore, is the Minister aware of the fact that alcoholism is a major health problem in this country? [More…]

• I call the Minister for Health. [More…]

• -The drafting and preparation of such standards are currently undertaken by the Food Standards Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council and also by the Standards Associations of Australia. [More…]

• In due course the Medibank Review Committee will be reporting to the Government, through the Minister for Health, as a consequence of the many submissions that it has received. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Health Policy Development Task Force of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission first met in September 1975. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) When is the Health Policy Development Task Force of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, established under the previous Government, expected to report to him. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• As this statement has created a lot of confusion amongst this age group, will the Minister for Health consult with the Minister for Social Security with a view to making a further statement and so clear the air on this all-important question as to whether a pension free of means test is available at 69 years or 70 years of age? [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Did the scheme for subsidies for elderly nursing home patients, which was introduced by the McMahon Government, provide support so that the gap to be paid by patients was less than the single pension and left at least $6 in the hands of pensioners for their personal expenses? [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health who will know of a report in today’s Australian concerning the Liverpool Women’s Clinic in New South Wales. [More…]

• Government Health and Welfare Committee about looking at a range of options that we can consider in trying to overcome the problems to which the honourable member for Isaacs has referred. [More…]

• The amounts were made available in the form of a 100 per cent grant with the approval of the New South Wales Health Commission. [More…]

• The funds have been channelled via the New South Wales Health Commission, which has the primary responsibility for the activities of the clinic. [More…]

• Should there be health and consumer standards to protect the consumer from imported adulterated wine; if so, what action is being taken. [More…]

• As to the second part of the honourable member’s question, very strict quarantine restraints are imposed through the administration of my colleague the Minister for Health on all imported foodstuffs. [More…]

• Can the Minister for Health inform the House whether the Rural Health Working Party has identified as a particular problem of country people the difficulty in obtaining access to specialist health care for people to whom such care is a necessity- for example, to those suffering from leukaemia and other cancer diseases? [More…]

• No arrangements have been entered into with States for the provision of statistics of National Health Scheme drugs dispensed by hospitals as opposed to drugs outside the scheme. [More…]

• I wish to raise a matter which concerns the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• It concerns the Bayer Pharmaceutical Company in my electorate which was very concerned to receive advice that certain of its products are no longer listed as being available on the national health scheme. [More…]

• For example, a product with a list price on the national health scheme of 70c formerly could have been dispensed at $1.77- less than $2. [More…]

• In Queensland, drugs are dispensed in accordance with the Poisons Regulations of 1973 under the Queensland Health Act 1973-75. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the percentage of National Health Scheme drugs dispensed in hospital outpatients departments increased since the introduction of Medibank; if so, by how much. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Was the National Health Act amended to allow prescription drugs to be dispensed in hospitals by other than doctors or pharmacists, excluding emergency situations in isolated areas. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 3069 (Hansard, 1 October 1975, page 1597) what action is being taken to enforce a health standard for the sale of imported wine in Australia similar to that which is required of Australian wine, that is, the prohibition of the addition of sugar to wine, other than sparkling and flavoured types. [More…]

• -As no Minister in the present Government has been clearly identified as the Minister responsible for sport, I ask the Minister for Health: Has his attention been drawn to the serious injury suffered by a professional boxer from the United States of America while participating in a professional contest last week at the Blacktown Returned Services League Club in [More…]

• If so, has he given any consideration to the banning of professional boxing on health grounds? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) The Commonwealth Government of the day entered a formal and public commitment to construct a community health centre on Eastern Shore, Hobart, at the request of the Tasmanian Government. [More…]

• The State health authorities will have responsibility for the conduct of this centre, including decisions as to the categories of services to be provided from it. [More…]

• You will be aware that our Government’s stated policy is to ‘encourage the development of a community-based health system throughout Australia’. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is the Government’s attitude to the establishment of a community health centre on the eastern shore at Hobart. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I understand that some States are investigating possible courses of action and I have asked the National Health and Medical Research Council to consider what actions can be taken to discourage misuse of these substances. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Does the Government intend to review the Health Insurance Act to close the loophole whereby insurance companies can claim for straightforward medical costs of injured workers, and avoid calling on their workers’ compensation insurance cover. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The standard for wine recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH and MRC) covers imported, as well as locally produced wines. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The report to which the honourable member refers is presumably one which, I am informed, was prepared for the former Minister for Health, Dr D. N. Everingham, by the Department of Health Working Party on Medical and Surgical Aids and Appliances. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What are the anticipated capital and recurrent costs of the School Dental Health Scheme in the various States for the year 1975-76. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 23, indicates that the final purchase price of the Fawnmac companies will be more than the various figures given by the previous Minister for Health, and in fact contradicts statements made to Parliament by that Minister. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Three women’s health advisers were attached to the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Broken Hill, Mt Isa and Kalgoorlie for 3 months in 1975. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is the present student capacity in each of the training institutions in Australia for the training of (a) therapists, (b) health assistants and (c) aides. [More…]

• What contact and co-ordination is there between the Department of Health and the Officials responsible for the financial allocation to the various colleges training therapists. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has he discussed this matter with his colleague the Minister for Health? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Whether or not foreign fishing vessels pose problems of a fishery or health nature falls within the jurisdiction of my colleagues the Ministers for Primary Industry or Health. [More…]

• Foreign Vessels: Fisheries and Health Hazards (Question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• If so, was this proposal evaluated by a working party established by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission; if so, with what result. [More…]

• Does the Hospitals and Health Services Commission support the proposal to establish a Graduate Medical School at the now autonomous Wollongong University; if so, will the matter be considered in the context of the next Federal Budget. [More…]

• The economic effects of both brucellosis and tuberculosis can be placed into 3 main areas: Human health, farm productivity and threatened loss of export markets. [More…]

• A transfer of this responsibility to the Department of Health is under consideration. [More…]

• Can I take it from what the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) said earlier that we have a very firm commitment that by the end of the fiscal year 1977 this program will be fully discharged? [More…]

• I seek guidance from the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in relation to clause 3, which amends sub-sections (2) and (3) of section 6 of the Principal Act. [More…]

• Would it be more satisfactory for the Department of Health to assume control of the construction as well as the maintenance of incinerators at airports. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What pharmaceutical benefits have been removed from the schedules to the National Health Act since 1 1 November 1975. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will he also give an assurance that the action has not been taken because of differences between the Director of Health, Western Australia, Dr J. [More…]

• What actions concerning the retirement of Mr Toomer have been taken by Dr Mathieson or any staff of the Department of Health, Western Australia. [More…]

• What recommendations concerning the retirement of Mr Toomer have been made by Dr Mathieson, or any staff of the Department of Health, Western Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 242 1 (Hansard 5 June 1 975, page 3538), and page 773 of Hansard of 10 October 1975 of the Senate Estimates Committee D, where in the former it is stated that no officers of the Department of Housing and Construction are presently engaged in hospital design and construction studies, but in the latter it is stated that work is continuing as a joint activity of the Department of Health and the Department of Housing and Construction. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -I ask the Prime Minister: Do the Government’s proposals for Medibank mean that people on middle and higher incomes will be forced out of Medibank and into the private health insurance funds? [More…]

• If New South Wales law does not apply to shipments of meat from interstate, will he take steps to ensure that all meat delivered to New South Wales undergoes the necessary health inspection. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• What are the privacy implications of the continuous transfer of information between private health funds and Medibank and between the Taxation Office and the Health Insurance Commission, made necessary by the new 2-class universal system of health care? [More…]

• Has the Prime Minister seen the statement by the New South Wales Minister for Health, Mr Stewart, describing the Commonwealth Government’s proposal to increase intermediate and private ward charges as ‘bushranger tactics’ that New South Wales would not go along with? [More…]

• If there are to be any reductions in the staff of the Health Insurance Commission appropriate steps will be taken to ensure that nobody is unduly harmed. [More…]

• The Bill is needed because the proposed Health Insurance Levy will be collected through the income tax system and is for many technical purposes to be treated as an income tax. [More…]

• In substance, however, the levy is a payment for health insurance. [More…]

• When introducing the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill I outlined the basic features of the Government’s scheme for introduction of a Health Insurance Levy. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Levy Bill declares the basic rate of levy. [More…]

• I was saying that health care costs have been growing rapidly both in Australia and most countries overseas. [More…]

• The Government expects the profession to establish review arrangements in close consultation with the Department of Health. [More…]

• Has his Department advised the Department of Health that facepieces of the Normalair type should be used instead of facepieces of the Siebe Gorman Vista type. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Advice received from the Western Australia Medical Department (Hospitals) has revealed that there has been no further planning of the new hospital as there is an urgent need for a Community Health Centre. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notices: [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health noted suggestions that the income tax levy for Medibank might vary from State to State? [More…]

• -f direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I believe that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) does not have an answer at this stage. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Those of us who have been here for a number of years can recall vividly the repeated hangup of honourable members opposite in their attitude towards private health funds. [More…]

• The truth is that the Nimmo report of 5 or 6 years ago stated that a proliferation of private health funds in no way increased the cost of administering health care in this country. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) whether he has considered the position of people with preexisting illnesses who have opted out of Medibank and joined private funds. [More…]

• 1 indicate that the Opposition is opposing the Health Insurance Commission Amendment Bill 1976, but we do not intend to divide the House on it. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, - upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• National Fitness Funds were provided under the Health policy; and some sporting bodies received grants as part of foreign policy for exchanges with neighbouring Asian countries. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present the report of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission entitled Review of the Community Health Program, together with a summary of that report. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -My question is to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is it a fact that the legislation establishing Medibank enables him to make regulations for those persons who transferred from private health funds to Medibank to have that service taken into account in the acquisition of Commonwealth long service leave rights? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• hospital and health centre. [More…]

• I understand the Director of Health, Western Australia, did request the assistance of the Commonwealth Police during October 1975 to ascertain whether Mr W. F. Toomer, Quarantine Inspector, was still at Port Hedland. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Did the Director of Health, Western Australia, Dr J. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a report by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission entitled ‘Rural Health in Australia’. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Funds will continue to be made available for housing, education, employment, health, legal aid etc. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is it a fact that a pensioner holding a pensioner health benefit card will not have to pay a Medibank levy? [More…]

• From memory, the health funds have reserves of the order of $ 1 75m. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: What amount of reserves are at present held by registered medical benefits and hospital benefits organisations? [More…]

• Before I call the Minister for Health, I point out to the Leader of the Opposition that the inclusion of a number of questions in a so-called single question may make it difficult for the Minister to give an answer to all the questions. [More…]

• I call the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I do not think any fault lies with the private health funds. [More…]

• I understand that it takes some time to collate all the information from the private health funds. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health a question. [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Health: What suggestion or direction has the Minister given to Medibank for the inclusion of dental and prosthetic benefits such as spectacles in its schedules to allow it to compete on equal terms with private health funds? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Health: Is it true that most private health insurance funds are undercutting Medibank Private contribution rates for intermediate and private ward cover by in many cases in excess of $1 a week? [More…]

• Will the Government review the contribution rates set by Medibank Private and provide it with funds to match the reserves of the private funds or abolish the equivalent payment of State taxes so that Medibank Private can compete effectively with private health insurance funds? [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health whom I assume subscribes to the belief that free enterprise should be allowed to flourish within the bounds of honest business practice. [More…]

• Will the Minister assure the House that where private health funds are more efficient and offer lower rates than Medibank, they will not be persecuted because they are doing what free enterprise is all about? [More…]

• This suggests that the concept of peer review is not alien to Australian health care. [More…]

• The system of health insurance in Australia and the traditions of medical practice in Australia form a set of conditions which do not lend themselves to totally adopting any seemingly comparable scheme overseas. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health a question. [More…]

• A working party established by the 1975 Australian Health Ministers’ Conference has met with representatives of the following sections of the liquor industry to discuss the voluntary advertising code applicable to the whole liquor industry: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Has his attention been drawn to a report in the West Australian of 12 May 1976 in which the Director of Health, Western Australia, Dr J. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I desire to inform the House that during the absence of the Opposition Whip, Mr M. H. Nicholls who has been given leave of absence on the ground of ill health, and the Deputy Opposition Whip, Mr James, who will today depart on parliamentary business overseas, Mr L. R. Johnson will act as Opposition Whip and Mr L. K. Johnson as Deputy Opposition Whip. [More…]

• Before the debate is resumed on this Bill I would like to suggest that it may suit the convenience of the House to have a general debate covering this Bill, the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) and the Health Insurance Commission Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• -Again we have before the Parliament legislation dealing with a national health system. [More…]

• -The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is rapidly losing his composure. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has never grasped that. [More…]

• The Government has perverted the scheme of health insurance in this country and no one on this side of the chamber would be happy to see the word ‘Medibank’, which We associate with a noble scheme well accepted in Australia, go into a description of funds that are registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The National Health Act was never posited on the existence of any private organisations whatsoever. [More…]

• -A little earlier tonight the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) introduced what he proposed was a new point in relation to the reinsurance pool. [More…]

• In view of the provocative way in which the Minister deported himself, he may care to indicate to the House how much will be supplied by the private health insurance funds or from what sources money will be supplied, and of what order, to that reinsurance pool, apart from the income that will Come from the Government. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present the annual report of the DirectorGeneral of Health for the year ended 30 June 1976. [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Before the debate is resumed on this Bill I would like to suggest that it might suit the convenience of the House to have a general debate covering this Bill and the Health Insurance Levy Bill (No. [More…]

• After paragraph (a) insert the following paragraph: “(aa) by inserting after paragraph (b) of sub-section ( 1 ) the following paragraph: ‘(ba) during the whole of that period the person was entitled to pensioner health benefits; ‘ “. [More…]

• Our view is that pensioners entitled to pensioner health benefits should be explicitly mentioned so that there is no doubt about their position. [More…]

• I think the honourable member is probably covered by the fact that this is a Bill for an Act ‘To amend the law relating to Income tax in relation to the imposition, assessment and collection of a Health Insurance levy’. [More…]

• He said that it does not matter how much health care costs. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• and (2) In the Division of Batman as at 1 September 1976 there were twelve premises approved by my Department as nursing homes under either the National Health Act or the Nursing Homes Assistance Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Messrs Armstrong and Ballard are permanent officers of the Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• and (2) Printing of the Health Department publication How to choose the health insurance cover that’s right for you is now under way in six languages- Greek, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Arabic and Serbo-Croat- and distribution will commence shortly. [More…]

• Advertisements prepared by the Department of Health and the Health Insurance Commission concerning the changes to the health insurance system have been placed in all ethnic newspapers. [More…]

• In addition, Ethnic liaison officers employed by the Health Insurance Commission have been continuing to communicate directly with migrant groups and are broadcasting on ethnic radio stations. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Has the Department of Health publication entitled How to Choose the Health Insurance Cover That’s Right for You not been printed in a wide range of languages; if so, why. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• (4) Do all the State Health Ministers accept the code. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• (a) Australia has been a member since 1927; (b) Australia’s annual membership fee is $17,600; (c) The Australian representative is Mr R. W. Gee, Director of the Australian Bureau of Animal Health. [More…]

• The question of the compliance by all health insurance funds, both public and private, with the provisions of the Trade Practices Act has been raised in the House before. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Because of the current necessity for restrictions on public expenditure, funds are available under the Community Health Program during 1976-77 for previously approved projects only. [More…]

• The future availability of Community Health Program funds for new projects will depend upon future developments in the Australian economic situation. [More…]

• -Is the Prime Minister aware that the Minister for Health stated on 20 May that the Government had decided to eliminate the tax rebate for all health insurance premiums from 1 October to avoid the confusion that would inevitably result if some premiums were tax deductible and others were not? [More…]

• Can he assure the House that the Government will introduce amending legislation which will ensure that all health insurance premiums, including premiums for health insurance in excess of standard ward cover, paid before 1 October will not be tax deductible this financial year? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Is money made available for the Community Health Program during 1976-77 only for currently approved projects. [More…]

• Will the Minister for Health inform the House whether any studies are being undertaken into radiological services in Australia? [More…]

• 1 ) Has the Treasury given approval for the deduction of contributions to Medibank private health funds from the salaries of Commonwealth employees; if so, when. [More…]

• 2 ) Has similar approval been given in respect of contributions to the private health insurance funds; if so, when. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Why will future Commonwealth financial assistance for community health projects take the form of annual block grants for State programs as a whole. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Does the Hospital and Health Services Commission issue statements indicating that certain community health programs will receive money during 1 976-77 and is it unable to substantiate these claims. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is the Minister aware that recently several letters have been written to the Editor of the Canberra Times suggesting that this Government is progressively destroying the concept of the community health centre in Canberra? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health seen reports of claims by Mr Hawke, made yesterday in Melbourne, that Medibank will collapse under the Federal Government’s health insurance system? [More…]

• 2), the National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 3), the Health Insurance Amendment BUI (No. [More…]

• I strongly disagree with the remarks about the health services in Central Australia. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health whether it is a fact that more than a decade ago Professor Ida Mann of the University of Western Australia discovered a cure for trachoma which almost eliminated trachoma at that time from Aboriginal children. [More…]

• Can any action be taken to recruit doctors to work temporarily as a task force, as they do in the north of Western Australia, without committing them to joining the Commonwealth Public Service, to attack trachoma and other health problems among Aborigines in the Northern Territory? [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to the report by Professor Hollows that health services for Aborigines in Central Australia are appalling and that eye, ear, nose and chest diseases together with other systemic disorders are present in an alarmingly high proportion of Aboriginal children and adults? [More…]

• Since Aboriginal health funds were reduced in the Budget and since announcements following the Government’s consideration of Mr Hay’s report did not specify any grants for Aboriginal health programs, has the Government decided to make additional provision for those purposes? [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a report prepared by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission entitled Health Transport Policies for A ustralia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) With regard to his comments, as reported in the Courier Mail on 7 September 1976, on the possibility of the Government registering private funds, companies or community groups which want to set up health maintenance organisations based on preventive medicine, what investigations have been made by his Department into the feasibility of the proposals. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will the Australian Council on Hospitals Standards receive a grant from the Hospitals and Health Services Commission for the year 1976-77 as in earlier years; if so, to what extent. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will the Minister for Health request the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee to consider the addition of fertility pills to the pharmaceutical benefits list since oral contraceptive pills-are already on this list? [More…]

• In recommending that the maximum quantity of Mogadon available as a pharmaceutical benefit be 25 tablets, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee was in agreement with the National Health and Medical Research Council that the continuous use of sleeping tablets (such as Mogadon) is not generally desirable. [More…]

• It is recognised that for some patients the maximum quantity of 25 tablets may not be sufficient and provision exists to cover such cases whereby a doctor may, if he considers it to be in his patient’s interest, apply to the Director of Health in his State for authority to prescribe a quantity in excess of the listed maximum. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Government finances medical research through the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The Department of Health has advised that orchid flowers, other cut flowers and greenery, provided they are not capable of propagation, on arrival in Australia are inspected by plant quarantine officers and treated if it is found necessary. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• When will work on the National Animal Health Laboratories be resumed? [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• If so, what co-ordination is there with the National Health and Medical Research Council to avoid duplication and obtain the most cost effective use of Government research money. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In which of the organisations registered under the National Health Act as hospital benefits or medical benefits organisations are contributors entitled to vote for the directors of the organisations. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What co-ordination is there between his Depanment and the National Health and Medical Research Council on this matter. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Does he remember stating on a number of occasions that the level of consumption in the economy was too low for the health of the economy because the savings ratio was too high? [More…]

• If this is so what sort of measures has he in mind to offset it in the interests of a healthier economy? [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health the following question: Is the ophthalmological expedition under Professor Fred Hollows still moving among Aboriginal communities, engaging in treatment of their eye diseases? [More…]

• If the expedition is continuing, is it receiving the cooperation of State governments in relation to access to Aboriginal communities and has it the support of State health departments? [More…]

• 1 ) I am advised that the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health is working towards presenting its first report before the end of the year. [More…]

• The 1976-77 allocation for Health is: [More…]

• 1 ) When is the Task Force into health, welfare and community based programs to submit its report. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• My Department does not maintain statistics on the withdrawal of pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 42 of the Health Insurance Commission Act 1973, I present the annual report of the Health Insurance Commission for the year ended 30 June 1976. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 32 of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Act 1973, 1 present the annual report of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission for 1975-76. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare, Health and Community Development has produced an interim report only and a full examination of its implications is still being undertaken. [More…]

• What new grants for 1976-77 will the Australian Government now make under the program for Capital Assistance for Leisure Facilities as a result of its examination of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health (Hansard, 6 October 1 976, page 1611). [More…]

• $64.9m is available to the States in 1976-77 for the Community Health Program as a whole, including community health centres and women’s refuges approved under that Program. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is the total Australian Government assistance available to the States for Community Health Centres and Women’s Refuges $64.9m in 1976-77. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Department of Health: Expenditure in Division of Macarthur (Question No. [More…]

• The Committee has also sought to complete its reference from the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs (Mr Viner) on the impact of alcohol on Aboriginal communities contemporaneously with its new health brief. [More…]

• In view of the importance of the health inquiry and the progress made, the Committee recommends that the reference be again given to the Committee by the House in the new session. [More…]

• -I present a report from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, being a report that the Committee has been unable to complete its inquiry into the health problems of Aborigines. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• In view of reports that the Capital Territory Health Commission has no powers to control the establishment and conduct of free standing abortion clinics in the Australian Capital Territory, what action can the Minister take to ensure that the activities of such clinics are subject to public scrutiny? [More…]

• In view of the fact that no powers are available to the Capital Territory Health Commission to prevent the establishment of abortion clinics in Canberra, I have asked the Commissioner of the Capital Territory Health Commission to confer with the principals of PSI- Population Services International, which is a strange name for such an organisation- and to advise them to defer the opening of the abortion clinic until all the health and legal aspects have been given full consideration. [More…]

• Until sufficient time is given to enable these matters to be appropriately debated by people at the local level and all the health and legal aspects are given appropriate consideration, PSI would be very wise to defer the opening of its clinic If it does go ahead without these things being done, it could well do so at its own risk. [More…]

• -Does the Minister for Health support the rigorous evaluation of the qualifications and experience of salaried specialists before they can be appointed to practise in Canberra hospitals? [More…]

• Is this practice of allowing such unsupervised medical practice in Canberra hospitals in keeping with a proper concern for high quality health care in these hospitals or for that matter in any public hospitals in Australia? [More…]

• -Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to the advice given by the Tasmanian Government urging all people travelling to Queensland to have a cholera injection? [More…]

• Can this be substantiated as a genuine health requirement or is it simply a case of the Tasmanian Government trying to influence tourists to remain in Tasmania? [More…]

• I know that responsible people and organisations from the Newcastle region have communicated with the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) on this matter and I hope that he will see his way clear to set up an artificial limb factory in the Newcastle region. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware that vaccinations and inoculations for overseas travellers are being provided free of charge at Department of Health offices in Brisbane and elsewhere in Australia? [More…]

• For the benefit of the House, the facts are as follows: Professional sportsmen, as all Australians, are entitled to health insurance benefits from Medibank Standard or from any other fund. [More…]

• However, health insurance benefits may not be paid where persons are covered by workers’ compensation. [More…]

• This amendment to the Health Insurance Act was passed by this House and became effective as from 1 October. [More…]

• However, a number of private health insurance organisations offer supplementary benefits. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health seen recent Press reports concerning alleged ineligibility of professional sportsmen for Medibank benefits? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 March 1977: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) With reference to the statement, appearing on page 6 of the second Annual Report of the Health Insurance Commission, that the Treasurer was asked to authorise a payment of $294.Sm to the States on 28 June 1976 under the States Grants (Hospital Operating Costs) Act, what was the reason for this request. [More…]

• -I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• All these people will of course be subject to the normal health and character checks. [More…]

• Health considerations in relation to this fact must be taken very carefully into account. [More…]

• 1 ) Has his attention been drawn to paragraph 1 60 of the Report of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health. [More…]

• Medibank meant free automatic universal health insurance for every Australian, and enabled a great part of the worry and expense of illness to be removed. [More…]

• Under the pretence of giving the people a choice of health funds, Mr Fraser has made Medibank so expensive and unattractive that millions of people have been driven back - [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) Has his attention been drawn to recommendations 26, 27 and 28 of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Health Commission. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977: [More…]

• Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health: Recommendation 24 (Question No. [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister been drawn to recommendation 24 of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health. [More…]

• Details of the Health Program Grants payments by the Health Insurance Commission in 1975-76 are as follows: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1 977: (1)HashenotedTable12,appearingonpage41ofthe Second Annual Report of the Health Insurance Commission, which indicates that, for the Australian Capital Territory, the average benefit for service paid for operations was $44.90 and for assistance at operations $42. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977: [More…]

• Will he provide details of the Health Program Grant payments by the Health Insurance Commission which amounted to over $7m in 1975-76. [More…]

• I draw the attention of the House to page 6 of the statement of evidence which indicates that the proposal presented to the Committee has been referred to the Blacktown Municipal Council, the State Department of Health, the Department of Main Roads, and the Metropolitan Water, Sewerage and Drainage Board. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 March 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 March 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 March 1977: [More…]

• The domiciliary nursing care benefit has been the subject of examination by 2 Government established enquiries in the health and welfare fields- the Committee on Care of the Aged and the Infirm and the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health. [More…]

• The Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health proposed in its report that the domiciliary nursing care benefit, with envisaged possible modifications, be included in a Community Health and Care Program. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 March 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 15 March 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 7 March 1 977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 March 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) How many doctors in each State were convicted of breaches of the National Health Act during 1976. [More…]

• In selecting its banker the Health Insurance Commission followed normal business practice. [More…]

• 1 ) Residential restrictions on the use of health centres in the Australian Capital Territory are imposed by some health centre committees but only in relation to continuing family medicine type practice. [More…]

• All health centres treat emergency cases without reference to area of residence. [More…]

• In addition the City Health Centre accepts people from any residential area on a drop in basis. [More…]

• Phillip Health Centre takes patients for continuing family medical care from all areas except those served by another health centre but there is no after hours service available from this Centre. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) Are there residential restrictions imposed on attendance at Australian Capital Territory Health Centres. [More…]

• If so, does this result in some residents of the Australian Capital Territory being prevented from attending any of the Health Centres; if so, what is the justification for this. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977: [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware of speculation in the community that the Government may withdraw subsidies to private health insurers? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977. [More…]

• the Community Health Program; [More…]

• Health Program Grants; [More…]

• The aim of the School Dental Scheme is to provide free dental care including health education to all children under 1 5 years of age with initial emphasis on the primary school children. [More…]

• Can the Minister for Health advise the House at what rate the Commonwealth Government is funding women’s refuges in the States under the community health program? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 26 April 1977: [More…]

• What nursing homes approved under the Nursing Homes Assistance Act and National Health Act are situated in the Electoral Divisions of (a) Hughes, (b) Cook and (c) Cunningham. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 April 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 March 1977: [More…]

• ) What requirements must be satisfied before a person is denied a passport on mental health grounds. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 May 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 19 April 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 March 1977: [More…]

• 1 have been informed that the Queensland Department of Health informed the Hospitals and Health Services Commission by letter of 20 July 1976 that women’s refuges in Brisbane and Townsville would be excluded from consideration when financial allocations under the Community Health Program were determined. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 March 1977: [More…]

• For the purpose of answering this question, the definition of a ‘community health centre’ is consistent with the definition in my answer to question No. [More…]

• The following information has been provided or confirmed by the relevant State health authorities: [More…]

• 983, it was expected that there would be 7 community health centres operating in Western Australia as at 30 June 1977. [More…]

• Accordingly it is expected that, at 30 June 1977, there will be 8 community health centres operating in Western Australia. [More…]

• No other Community Health Program funded community health centres have ceased operations since 1 December 1976. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 19 April 1977: [More…]

• Will there still be 207 community health centres operating in New South Wales, 41 in Victoria, 21 in Queensland, 17 in South Australia, 7 in Western Australia and 8 in Tasmania with Australian government assistance at 30 June 1977 (Hansard, 1 December 1976, page 3098). [More…]

• 1 ) and (2) Statistics of taxpayers who elected to pay the health insurance levy or to join private funds are not at present available. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 1 November 1976: [More…]

• As a single claim may include one or a number of services, I provide hereunder details of the proportion of services bulk billed to the Health Insurance Commission in the quarter ended June 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 May 1977: [More…]

• What proportion of (a) all claims for medical services and ( b ) claims for pathology services is bulk billed to the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 15 March 1 977: [More…]

• 1 ) What health centres in what States and Territories provide a free medical service, and what is the cost to the Commonwealth Government. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 May 1977: [More…]

• Are staff shortages in the Australian Public Service affecting the services provided by his Department and others operating in the Northern Territory such as the Department of Health and the Department of Social Security? [More…]

• My colleague, the Minister for Health, who in this chamber represents the Minister for Social Security, is not in the House at the moment. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 9 of the Medical Research Endowment Act 1937 I present the report of the National Health and Medical Research Council on Medical Research Projects 1975. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 June 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977. [More…]

• Do the Commonwealth Pathology Laboratories charge patients insured with private health funds. [More…]

• 1 ) The second report of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health is expected to be received in October. [More…]

• Under the administrative arrangements applicable to the Community Health Program, primary responsibility for governmental supervision of projects such as the Liverpool Women’s Health Centre rests with the State health authoritiesin this case, the Health Commission of New South Wales. [More…]

• If the Health Commission of New South Wales has no reason for concern, I see no necessity for my personal inspection of the Centre. [More…]

• Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health (Question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• When does he expect to receive the second report of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 June 1 977: [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware of notices being issued by the Health Benefits Council of Tasmania that the Government intends withdrawing subsidies to public and private hospital patients and nursing home patients? [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Why was there no proper and adequate consultation with the Victorian Government before the Federal Government unilaterally altered the cost sharing arrangements with that State in relation to the hospital development program and the community health and school dental programs? [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 May 1977: [More…]

• The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works recommended the construction of an animal health laboratory at Geelong- a laboratory to research animal diseases and prepare vaccines. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is a member of the National Country Party. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977: [More…]

• What nursing homes approved under the Nursing Homes Assistance Act and National Health Act are situated in the Electoral Divisions of (a) Chifley, (b) Macarthur, (c) [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 May 1977: [More…]

• Before the debate is resumed on the Bill I would like to suggest that it may suit the convenience of the House to have a general debate covering this Bill and the National Health Amendment Bill as they are related measures. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• What would be the estimated net cost to the Commonwealth of including patients in acute psychiatric hospitals, as defined at the 1976 Health Ministers Conference, under the Medibank cost-sharing arrangements. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• Does section 130 of the National Health Act ensure the privacy of individuals insured with the Health Insurance Commission only. [More…]

• If so, when will he extend this protection to persons insured with private health insurance funds. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) Section 1 30 of the Health Insurance Act 1973 requires the observance of secrecy by officers acquiring information in the course of the performance of their duties or in the exercise of their powers or functions under that Act. [More…]

• This provision, insofar as the payment of medical benefits by the Health Insurance Commission is concerned, applies in respect of information in claims by persons covered by Medibank Standard. [More…]

• The matter of privacy of individuals insured with private health insurance organisations registered under the National Health Act, including Medibank Private, will be examined in the light of findings of the Law Reform Commission. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 26 May 1977: [More…]

• Is the Gollins Holdings Ltd, to which the Health Insurance Commission made a health program grant payment of $21,558 in 1975-76 (Hansard, 20 April 1977, page 1074) one of the group of companies from which Mr Keith Compton Cale, according to reports submitted by Mr John Spender, Q.C, pursuant to appointments by the Lewis, Willis and Wran governments under the Companies Act of New South Wales borrowed over $900,000 in August 1974 and subsequent months while he was managing director for his private purposes and for quite impermissible uses. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 19 April 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) What was the total expenditure in Australia on health as (a) an aggregate amount, (b) a percentage of gross domestic product and (c) a percentage of gross national expenditure for each of the last 1 0 years. [More…]

• What was the rate of increase over the earlier year in (a) health expenditure, (b) GDP and (c) GNE for each of those years. [More…]

• Will he group health expenditure into its major components showing (a) the amount spent in each component and (b) expenditure as a proportion of total expenditure for each of those years. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 June 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) Which members of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission have been (a) re-appointed or (b) not reappointed and what are their qualifications and present positions (//anion/, 25 May 1977,page 1795). [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• For the information of honourable members, I present the annual report of the DirectorGeneral of Health for the year ended 30 June 1977. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 August 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 September 1977: [More…]

• People working in the social welfare and health areas, voluntary and services organisations, government departments, politicians, parliamentary and tertiary libraries, churches, hospitals and individuals who have a special interest in social welfare. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) How much was expended by each State on community health services and faculties in 1976-77 and how much will be allocated to each of them for this purpose in 1977-78. [More…]

• How much was expended by each State in 1976-77 and will be allocated to each of them in 1977-78 for (a) community health centres and (b) women’s refuges. [More…]

• The following figures relate to Commonwealth funds provided for community health services and facilities approved under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• Did he assure me on 20 May 1976 (Hansard, page 2275) that he would consider introducing legislation to ensure to contributors of health insurance funds a democratic right to elect managing boards. [More…]

• 1) On 20 May 1976, 1 undertook to give consideration to the possibility of introducing legislation to ensure contributors do have a democratic right to elect directors to boards of health insurance funds. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 13 September [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• Were the administrative costs of the Health Insurance Commission $5 1.867m during 1975-76 and over $60m during 1976-77. [More…]

• Has he taken any action to ensure that the failure of the Victorian Minister for Health to take firm action on the salmonella infection in Victorian milk factories does not threaten primary producers’ exports in future. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 7 August 1 977: [More…]

• Did the Director, Department of Health, Western Australia, by letter of 4 August 1977, order Mr W. F. Toomer, Quarantine Inspector (a) not to enter any establishments or premises controlled by the Department of Health in Western Australia and (b) to return all identity documents including his Certificate of Authorisation, Authority to Drive, and Department of Transport Security Card. [More…]

• Is he satisfied that the orders do not prejudge the charges under the Public Service Act laid by the Director of Health, W.A., against Mr Toomer. [More…]

• 1 ) Has the design and construction team for the National Animal Health Laboratory project been dismissed. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 18 October 1977: [More…]

• Has Victoria received less than any other State under the 52 for $1 grants of the Health Services Planning and Research Program; if so, why. [More…]

• The Australian Health Ministers at their conference in May 1975 agreed to establish a Joint Working Party of State and Australian Government Officers to draw up model food legislation suitable for uniform application throughout Australia. [More…]

• The work of the Task Force has been substantially completed and I expect that model food legislation suitable for application throughout Australia will be referred to Health Ministers for consideration at their 1978 conference. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question concerning the $ 1,000m of Health expenditure removed from the consolidated revenue area is that the figure of $ 1,000m is an indicative figure only and covers the period since the Liberal-Country Party Government was returned. [More…]

• Expenditure in 1976-77 was some $404m below the amount appropriated, and, in addition changes to the health insurance arrangements in October 1976 were estimated to reduce Commonwealth expenditure in 1976-77 by approximately $450m (as mentioned in the Treasurer’s Press release of 20 May 1976). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 4 October 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 7 August 1 977. [More…]

• When speaking at a National Party meeting at Horsham on 27 July 1977, did he say that during 1976-77 approximately S 1000m of health expenditure through Medibank and associated programs in the health area have been removed from the Consolidated Revenue area. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 September 1 977: [More…]

• These figures are shown in tables 74 and 92 of the Annual Report of the Director-General of Health for 1976-77 tabled on 21 September 1977. [More…]

• 1 ) The maximum weekly amounts of the Government subsidy per contributor in each State for ‘hospital only’ insurance are referred to in section 82aa of the National Health Act and are as follows: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1 977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 15 September 1977: [More…]

• and (3)1 refer the honourable member to the answer of my colleague the Minister for Health to question No. [More…]

• If so, is it also a fact that the cost of these calls has been charged to Mr Toomer personally by the Depanment of Health. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• How many applications have been received from private health funds, including Medibank Private, to raise their medical and hospital insurance premiums in the near future? [More…]

• If not, is this part of the Government’s policy to maintain artificially low health insurance premiums until after the December elections in an attempt to hide the real costs of private health insurance from the public? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• On 20 May 1976,I undertook to give consideration to the possibility of introducing legislation to ensure contributors do have a democratic right to elect directors to boards of health insurance funds. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 September 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 September 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 6 September 1977: [More…]

• Pursuant to section 76a of the National Health Act 1953, 1 present the annual report on the operations of the registered medical and hospital benefits organisations for the year ended 30 June 1976. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• For nursing homes approved under the National Health Act, what was the median weekly fee for each State, when last surveyed. [More…]

• Can the Minister for Health inform the House of the action the Government is taking to control Australian encephalitis? [More…]

• -I present a report from the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs being a report that the Committee has been unable to complete its inquiry into health problems of Aboriginals. [More…]

• 2), the Income Tax (Individuals) Bill, the Income Tax (Companies and Superannuation Funds) Bill, the Health Insurance Levy Bill, the Income Tax (Film Royalties) Bill, the Income Tax Assessment Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• How many community health centres were operating with Australian Government assistance in each State on 30 June 1977. [More…]

• In relation to (a) the information requested is not available within my Department and State Government health authorities were approached to obtain the necessary information. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 31 May 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 September 1977: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 25 August 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) What are the names of the persons who are the members of the governing boards of the private health funds in Victoria. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• What are the names of the persons who are members of the governing boards of the private health funds in New South Wales. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) What are the names of the persons who are the members of the governing boards of the private health funds in Queensland. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) What are the names of the persons who are the members of the governing boards of the private health funds in Tasmania. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1 977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 13 October 1977: [More…]

• What progress is being made with the development of health maintenance organisations on an experimental basis. [More…]

• Why are Commonwealth car drivers subject to security checks and regular health checks when these checks are not required for hire car drivers anad taxi drivers. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 October 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, Valley hospitals. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Where some medical problems have been discovered action has been taken to overcome any possible risk to public health that they may represent. [More…]

• If so, does this indicate that the Government has broken its promises to national and international organisations and handed over its responsibilities to charitable organisations and State health authorities? [More…]

• It is thought only fair and equitable that, in a system in which we have universal health insurance, some provision should be made to try to remove that financial disability from people living in isolated areas. [More…]

• I address a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister for Health who will remember issuing a challenge in May 1976 to the Australian Medical Association and the medical profession to introduce a voluntary system of professional standards of medical audit known as ‘peer review’. [More…]

• June last year the Minister for Health advised me that Mr Brych had been struck off the New Zealand medical register owing to the fact that his claim to be a doctor had been investigated very closely by the New Zealand medical authority and they had found against his claim. [More…]

• Following that advice from the Minister for Health, I required that before entry to Australia Mr Brych should sign an undertaking not to practice medicine in Australia or undertake activities which were within the province of the medical profession. [More…]

• My question, which is directed to the Minister for Health, arises from advice that Mr Milan Brych will be entering Australia in the near future from the Cook Islands. [More…]

• Those matters have been examined by myself and my colleagues, the Minister for Health, the Minister for the Northern Territory and the Minister for Education. [More…]

• The Health Ministers have given the project a very high priority and I am hopeful that the Act will be completed for the 1979 conference. [More…]

• The Health Ministers have also directed that Uniform Food Regulations be developed to accompany the Act. [More…]

• m asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• Did the Health Ministers at their conference on 9 and 10 February 1978 approve the model food legislation which they initiated at their conference in May 1975 (Hansard, 18 October 1977, page 2126). [More…]

• -Can the Minister for Health inform me of the percentages of successful appeals to the social security appeals tribunals in each of the States? [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• What arrangements have been made to resume the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program in Queensland. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• Departments who participated in the interdepartmental committee were Attorney-General’s, Business and Consumer Affairs, Health, Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, Administrative Services (Commonwealth Police), ASIO, Prime Minister’s and Cabinet and Home Affairs. [More…]

• -Can the Prime Minister inform the House what steps the Government is taking to review ways in which health care is paid for and ways of containing its cost? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 March 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) Who are the members of the National Committee on Vital Health Statistics, what are their duties and why were they appointed. [More…]

• What progress has been made with the collection of national health statistics. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• What nursing homes approved under the Nursing Homes Assistance Act and National Health Act are situated in the Electoral Divisions of (a) Hughes and (b) Cook. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 32 of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Act 1973, 1 present the annual report of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission for 1976-77. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 February 1978: [More…]

• With what frequency are Queensland’s peanut crops subjected to examination to safeguard the health of consumers and what are the results of the most recent studies. [More…]

• The Departments of Foreign Affairs, Health, Education, Aboriginal Affairs, Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, Home Affairs and Finance are currently represented on the interdepartmental committee. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• Which recommendations has the Government accepted in the report on Rural Health in Australia which the Hospitals and Health Services Commission submitted to him in June 1976. [More…]

• Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• What measures did the National Health and Medical Research Council recommend at its meeting on 24-25 November 1977 for the elimination of the lead hazard revealed in the Petroleum Royal Commission ‘s fifth report tabled on 16 November 1976. [More…]

• Because of the necessity to consider subsequent recommendations by other bodies such as the National Energy Advisory Committee, the National Health and Medical Research Council has not yet finalised its own recommendations. [More…]

• That includes housing, health, education and so on. [More…]

• One of the bodies that one might expect the Minister would have to consent to being involved in providing its services would be the Queensland Department of Education and, similarly, the Queensland health authorities. [More…]

• Health aware of the very heavy expenses involved in orthodontic treatment in cases of cleft lip and palate for which rebates are not available under the medical benefits scheme? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 15 March 1978: [More…]

• What programs has the Government developed for reducing the number of industrial accidents and the incidence of occupational health problems in Australian industry. [More…]

• Yes, as a consequence of which the Commonwealth is represented on a Working Party that has been established by the Health Commission of New South Wales and, through the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, is providing technical advice to the Commission. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 March 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 March 1978: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 March 1978: [More…]

• Department of Health: Expenditure on Travel and Subsistence (Question No. [More…]

• The Departments of Business and Consumer Affairs, Employment and Industrial Relations and Health are represented. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 March 1978: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 April 1978: [More…]

• What was the total cost of the inquiry set up by the Public Service Board which investigated the case of Mr W. F. Toomer, formerly Quarantine Inspector, Department of Health, Western Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1978: [More…]

• However, the Government is currently looking at all possibilities in regard to health insurance. [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Health: Is it a fact that the administrative expenses of Medibank Standard were 4.2 per cent of benefits paid? [More…]

• If this is the case will the Minister agree that the collection of all health contributions by means of a tax levy would appear to be a most efficient method of lowering health costs? [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware of the great hardship being experienced by elderly pensioners, particularly those in convalescent homes, due to the decision of the National Acoustic Laboratory in Sydney to discontinue home visits for the purpose of testing and subsequent fitting of hearing aids? [More…]

• On 20 April 1977, 1 advised Mr Old of my support for the CSIRO view that resources of the Division of Land Resources Management should not be diverted, but that studies should continue in CSIRO’s Division of Animal Health. [More…]

• It is only in recent years that Australian medical schools have introduced into their curricula consideration of the economics of health care. [More…]

• It is pleasing to note that the present deficiencies have been recognised and that increasing prominence is being given in undergraduate medical education to the economic implications of health care with particular emphasis on the issues associated with medical services. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 April 1978: [More…]

• ) What role in the management and policy decisions for that station will his Department and the Bureau of Animal Health be allocated. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 15 March 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 March 1978: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) The honourable member will be aware that the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health recommended that negotiations be commenced for the transfer of the laboratory at Port Pirie to South Australian administration. [More…]

• Were absolute propriety and unquestioned integrity, which he claimed in his broadcast on 12 March 1978 as a hallmark of the Menzies years, exhibited by (a) Sir Harry Brown when, on resigning as Director-General of Posts and Telegraphs under the first Menzies Government, he became chairman and joint managing director of British General Electric, (b) Sir Harry Brown’s successor, Sir Daniel McVey, when, on resigning, he became chairman and managing director of Standard Telephones and Cables Pty Ltd, (c) Sir Percy Spender when he held a directorship in an Americanowned company while Minister for External Affairs and Minister for External Territories in the fourth Menzies Government and while ambassador to the United States under the fifth and sixth Menzies Governments (Hansard, 5 April 1978, page 1078), (d) Sir Giles Chippendall when, on retiring as Director-General of Posts and Telegraphs under the sixth Menzies Government, he became a director of Telephone and Electrical Industries Pty Ltd (Hansard, 10 September 1958, page 1115) and of a commercial radio station, (e) Mr M. R. C. Stradwick when, on resigning as DirectorGeneral of Posts and Telegraphs under the seventh Menzies Government, he became general manager for the Far East, Pacific and Australia for International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, (f) Dr A. J. Metcalfe when, on retiring as Director-General of Health under the seventh Menzies Government, he became a consultant to Lederle Laboratories (Hansard, 5 September 196 1 , page 793; 12 September 1961, page 1083 and 4 October 1961, page 1648), (g) Sir Tasman Heyes when, on retiring as Secretary of the Department of Immigration under the seventh Menzies Government, he became a director of a shipping company tendering for the carriage of migrants and (h) Sir Harold Raggatt when, on retiring as Secretary of the Department of National Development under the eighth Menzies Government, he became consultant geologist to the Broken Hill Pty Co. Ltd. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 4 May 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) What are the plans of his Department with regard to the Commonwealth Health Laboratories at Port Pirie, South Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 May 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 13 April 1978: [More…]

• What surveys have been undertaken on the dental health of children after they have ceased to be under the care of the ASDS. [More…]

• We are not abolishing bulk billing for the pensioners who hold pensioner health benefit cards, and their dependants. [More…]

• But we are abolishing bulk billing for other people in the Australian community because we believe they should have some knowledge of the cost of their health services and we believe that the doctor should have some responsibility for the way health services are provided in the community. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I remind the Minister for Health that he has estimated that the extensive new changes to our health insurance scheme will save the Government $24m over a full 12-month period. [More…]

• What is the estimated saving to revenue during 1977-78 due to the abolition of tax deductibility of health insurance contributions. [More…]

• When was the level at which a pensioner ceased to be eligible for the Health Benefits Card last amended. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 5 March 1 978: [More…]

• I want to draw the attention of the House to a sentence in the speech of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) of a week ago in which he announced without any justification that bulk billing would be abolished and I want to point to the answer to a question which I received yesterday - [More…]

• I do not think the Minister for Health will be laughing too much. [More…]

• and (3) The National Health and Medical Research Council has a standard code of ethics for the use of animals in research. [More…]

• Responsibility for the Council is vested in my colleague the Minister for Health. [More…]

• 1 ) When is it expected that a formal report will be provided by the medical team from the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Sydney University which undertook an analysis of medical surveys which have been in progress for several years into the health of workers at Lucas Heights Atomic Research Establishment. [More…]

• The health insurance funds have a responsibility to pass on to the contributors the saving that will accrue as a result of their having to pay a lesser percentage of the benefit than they would otherwise have had to do. [More…]

• Therefore, the health insurance funds will be facing some very serious problems, so far as I am concerned, if they do not pass on that benefit to the contributors. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is he aware that spokesmen for private health insurance funds have stated that there will be no such reductions? [More…]

• What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that medical insurance contributions to private health funds are reduced in accordance with his promise? [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health concerned about the payment of medical benefits by the health insurance funds and by Medibank by means of ‘pay doctor’ cheques on the abolition of bulk billing when the cheque is sent to persons who may not understand the mechanics of passing on the cheque to the doctor? [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice.on 9 May 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 April 1978: [More…]

• On the assumption that the visitor is not covered by Australian private health insurance, the State Hospital Authorities have provided the following information: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 March 1978: [More…]

• Before the debate is resumed on this Bill I would like to suggest that it may suit the convenience of the House to have a general debate covering this Bill, the Health Insurance Amendment Bill, the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Amendment Bill and the Hospitals and Health Services Commission (Repeal) Bill as they are associated measures. [More…]

• I think the reason for the gap has been to encourage a sense of personal responsibility in respect of the way in which both the providers and users of health care use these services. [More…]

• My Department will make certain that Medibank Private, indeed any health insurance fund, confers upon the contributor the benefit from what the Department has calculated to be on average a 46c per week family reduction in the health insurance premium rate. [More…]

• We all agree that we do not have enough information on it, whether it is beneficial or the opposite, as far as health insurance and health care costs are concerned. [More…]

• In reply to the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), in giving consideration to questions relating to bulk billing- indeed, its abolition- the Government felt, once the decision was taken to abolish bulk billing for all but pensioners and their dependants, that it would not make sense to abolish it for Medibank and leave it available for the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• There has been no evidence whatever, apart from general slogans about abuse, which could in any way have been taken as significant enough, worthwhile enough, to lead to this very significant change in the method of carrying out health insurance and paying for health care. [More…]

• I must quote from the report that was produced by the Hospitals and Health Services [More…]

• The one system most devoid of incentives to induce efficiency in the production of health care services and to encourage economy in the consumption of those services happens to be bulk billing. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 24 May 1 978: [More…]

• How many holders of pensioner health benefit cards are there at present in Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 May 1978: [More…]

• Staff recruitment (nursing) Aboriginal Advancement Trust Account (1975-76); 120.4.02 (1976-77) Grants-in-Aid-Health [More…]

• ); $44,000 Staff Recruitment (Health) [More…]

• -Can the Minister for Health give an indication of the likely considerable savings to families now covered by Medibank Standard consequent upon the announced changes in health insurance in the Budget? [More…]

• How many persons were unable to meet health requirements normally applied to persons seeking entry into Australia. [More…]

• Are normal health requirements applied to these applications. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 March 1978: [More…]

• Since 1 July 1975, the Capital Territory Health Commission has been issued by the Minister with a directive to provide public hospital services under precisely similar conditions and restraints as have been applied in the States. [More…]

• Expenditure by the hospitals conducted by the Capital Territory Health Commission is subject to the scrutiny of the [More…]

• Expenditure by the hospitals conducted by the Capital Territory Health Commission is subject to scrutiny by a Standing Committee in the same way as is the expenditure of hospitals in the States. [More…]

• health costs, and [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 3 1 May 1978: [More…]

• I am advised that records available to the Capital Territory Health Commission show the nursing work force for the last five years to have been: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 April 1978: [More…]

• I have arranged for a copy of the statement issued by the National Health and Medical Research Council at its 85th Session in June 1978 referring to this substance to be placed in the Parliamentary Library for the information of honourable members. [More…]

• and (2) The principal programs administered by my Department under which funds are made available within the St George electorate are: the Community Health Program the Home Nursing Subsidy Scheme the Hospitals Development Program; and the Australian School Dental Scheme. [More…]

• Health Programs in St George and Adjoining Electoral Divisions (Question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 May 1978: [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: (1), (2) and (3) The National Energy Advisory Committee report in question made no claim that independent studies are being conducted into the effects on human health of lead emissions from motor vehicle exhausts. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: ( 1 ), (2) and (3) In 1973 the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recommended that as a prudent measure total lead emissions from motor vehicles should not be allowed to exceed the 1973 levels. [More…]

• 1 ) Did the National Energy Advisory Committee report entitled Motor Spirit: Octane Ratings and Lead Additives claim that independent studies are being conducted into the effects on human health of lead emissions from motor vehicle exhausts. [More…]

• I understand that VENSAC has drawn upon a range of material from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the motor and petroleum industries, and overseas studies into the effectiveness of lead catchment devices, but I will not be able to provide detailed information on these sources until VENSAC has completed its task. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 August 1 978: [More…]

• 1 ) Why were samples for the 1977 National Health and Medical Research Council Market Basket Survey drawn during only 2 seasons, rather than all 4 seasons as in previous years. [More…]

• What proportion of gross domestic product was (a) social security spending, (b) health expenditure and (c) educational expenditure, in all cases by all levels of government, during (i) 1974-75 and(ii) 1975-76. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 May 1 978: [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware of reports that inducements are still being paid to medical practitioners to encourage them to seek unnecessary pathology tests for patients? [More…]

• Is the Minister taking any action to review the operation of the relevant section of the Health Insurance Act to make such inducements illegal? [More…]

• Administrative Services; Attorney-General’s; Business and Consumer Affairs; Employment and Industrial Relations; Finance; Health; Home Affairs;* National Development;* Northern Territory; Postal and Telecommunications; Primary Industry; Prime Minister and Cabinet; Special Trade Representative;* Trade and Resources;* Treasury; Veterans’ Affairs. [More…]

• 2), the Income Tax (Individuals) Bill 1978, the Income Tax (Companies and Superannuation Funds) Bill 1978, and the Health Insurance Levy Bill 1978. [More…]

• 2]; Income Tax (Individuals) Bill 1978; Income Tax (Companies and Superannuation Funds) Bill 1978 and the Health Insurance Levy Bill 1 978, being forthwith called on together; [More…]

• Where the Commissioner finds a pensioner’s health so restored as to enable the performance of suitable duties (having regard to his employment before retirement) appropriate Commonwealth employment will be sought for the pensioner. [More…]

• Taxation is like a great big funnel: Money from taxation is taken in one end from the people who can afford to pay taxes and is filtered out the other end for community services such as education and health. [More…]

• I would like the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) to explain to us the significance of the change that I read into Hansard last night. [More…]

• Before the debate is resumed on this Bill I would like to suggest that it may suit the convenience of the House to have a general debate covering this Bill, the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2), and the Health Insurance Commission Amendment Bill as they are associated measures. [More…]

• Section 1 7 of the Health Insurance Act 1973 prohibits the payment of medical benefits by the Commonwealth where a medical service is rendered on the premises of an organisation in receipt of a health program grant under Part IV of the Act. [More…]

• Patients who would be bulk billed by private doctors, that is, pensioner health benefit patients and their dependants and patients classified as disadvantaged, will not be charged. [More…]

• The cost of these services to pensioner health benefits patients and the disadvantaged will be met by means of health program grants. [More…]

• To enable the Commonwealth and the fund benefits to be paid for the charges made by family planning associations and other health program grant organisations where applicable, it is necessary to amend section 17 of the Act. [More…]

• I indicate that the Opposition opposes the clauses of this Bill which deal with the removal of the Medibank Standard functions of the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• We agree with the other provisions which have been included in the Bill, which are partly machinery matters and partly matters of reconstituting the Health Insurance Commission, but we oppose the removal of the Medibank Standard functions. [More…]

• We believe that payments ought to be made by the Health Insurance Commission and not by the private funds. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 August 1 978: [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to a statement by Mr J. Y. Hancock of the Northern Territory Medical Service in the report ‘Alligator Rivers Region: Environmental Fact Finding Study- Health and Health Problems’ of October 1973 that it has been reported that the incidence of carcinoma of the lung and acute leukaemia is higher in the population centred around Oenpelli, Northern Territory than would be expected. [More…]

• Have any studies of the health of people living near Oenpelli been conducted since October 1973 to determine whether these reports are accurate. [More…]

• What future programs are planned to monitor the health of the general population in the Oenpelli region. [More…]

• Grants are also made to the States for the provision of health, education and other services and for the provision of housing. [More…]

• Two subscribers used CUDN in Queensland, TAA and the Department of Health. [More…]

• TAA has now centred its national operation on the Melbourne CUDN centre, which provides the connection to its reservations computer also located in Melbourne, while the Department of Health terminals in Queensland are now connected via private lines to the Sydney CUDN centre. [More…]

• Department of Health will operate their own computer system using Telecom leased lines early in 1979. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 19 September 1978: [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present the report of the Director-General of Health for the year ended 30 June 1978. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• 1 ) How many persons, including dependants, lost their entitlement to pensioner health benefits on each occasion when disability and other pensions were increased during the last 2 years. [More…]

• 1533 (Hansard, 16 August 1978, page 423) I indicated that in appearing on the program Four Corners on 6 May 1978, Dr E. J. Fitzsimons was a spokesman for my Department and not for the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Dr E. J. Fitzsimons is the Director of the Toxicology Section in the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• He is also the Chairman of the Poisons Schedule Committee and Chairman of the Pesticides and Agricultural Chemicals Subcommittee of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice on 27 September 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) Did he say in reply to a question without notice on 8 May 1978,(Hansard, page 1959) that Dr E. J. Fitzsimons was the spokesman from the National Health and Medical Research Council on the program Four Corners of 6 May 1978. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 August 1978: [More…]

• If no collection is maintained, (a) on the basis of what data or investigations did the National Health and Medical Research Council conclude that it could find no substantial scientific evidence of a causal link between the use of 2,4,5-T and human birth defects and (b) is present knowledge of any possible link adequate. [More…]

• I have promised the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) that my comments will be brief. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 1 September 1978: [More…]

• What was the cost to the Capital Territory Health Commission for cancer sufferers being treated in Sydney during 1977-78. [More…]

• The document 1 referred to is a draft World Health Organisation document being circulated among W.H.O. [More…]

• On behalf of the Minister for Health, for the information of honourable members I present the report of the Fawnmac group of companies for the year ended 30 June 1978. [More…]

• On behalf of the Minister for Health, pursuant to section 44 of the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Act 1961 I present the report of the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission for the year ended 30 June 1978. [More…]

• There has been no demonstrated need in view of the recommendations of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1978: [More…]

• Agency arrangements initiated by the then PostmasterGeneral’s Department on behalf of the Health Insurance Commission were taken over by Australia Post in July 1975. [More…]

• Since then, Australia Post has provided at selected post offices, certain agency services, on behalf of the Health Insurance Commission, including the issue of Medibank application forms and claim forms. [More…]

• In addition since 31 January 1978 Australia Post has provided expanded agency services on behalf of the Health Insurance Commission at seven Tasmanian post offices. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 November 1978: [More…]

• A health insurance fund has sought to use a rule to the disadvantage of health insurance contributors to a table. [More…]

• I do not think that legislation which has wider powers has been introduced into this Parliament in the time that I have been responsible for the health insurance area. [More…]

• Because of this the effects on individual suburbs were not identified but rather the overall public health impact up to a radius of 24 kilometres of the Research Establishment for all conceivable weather conditions. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 November 1978: [More…]

• What is being done to overcome the lack of uniformity in health requirements and standards for the production of cheese in Australia. [More…]

• The Capital Territory Health Commission employs apprentices. [More…]

• The Capital Territory Health Commission offered apprenticeships over the last 6 years as follows: [More…]

• Pursuant to section 72 of the Health Commission Ordinance 1975 I present the annual report of the Capital Territory Health Commission for the year ended 30 June 1976. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 November 1978: [More…]

• What is being done to overcome the present lack of uniformity in health requirements between imports and exports of cheese. [More…]

• 1 ) Has his attention been drawn to complaints from employees of his Department or statutory bodies for which he is responsible, or from members of the public dealing with them, about the discomfort and hazard to health resulting from the volume of cigarette smoke in their offices. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 November 1978: [More…]

• See the reply of the Minister for Health to Question No. [More…]

• 1 ) Have any studies been carried out into the health of personnel who worked at Maralinga and the Emu and Monte Bello Islands during or after the nuclear tests performed at these locations during the 1950s and 1960s. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 August 1978: [More…]

• The following information is provided following consultation with the Health Commission of New South Wales. [More…]

• Four, viz, women’s health centres at Leichhardt, Liverpool, Bankstown and Mayfield (Newcastle). [More…]

• In addition to these projects, the Rape Crisis Centre (Surry Hills), the Pregnancy Help Centre (Strathfield) and the Central Coast Women’s Health Services Co-ordinator (Gosford) also receive financial assistance under the Community Health Program, but the latter projects are not classified as women’s health centres. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 November 1978: [More…]

• How many Women’s Health Centres are there in New South Wales, and where are they located. [More…]

• 5 ) Is he able to say what has been the amount of the New South Wales Government’s financial (a) allocation to and (b) expenditure on the Women’s Health Centre program during each of the last 4 years and in 1 978 to date. [More…]

• Is he able to say whether the services being provided by the Women’s Health Centres in New South Wales are being cut back; if so, what effect is this having on those persons using the services. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 4 November 1 978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 February 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 February 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) What sum was paid by the private health funds under items 6469 and 274-275 since the introduction of these items or for any period for which the information is available. [More…]

• 1 ) For the year ended 30 June 1978, it is estimated that private health funds other than Medibank Private paid approximately $1.4m in medical benefits under these items. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 February 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 February 1 979: [More…]

• What approaches have been made to the Minister or the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and when were they made by (a) the Minister for Health, (b) the Department of Health, (c) the National Health and Medical Research Council, (d) the research personnel concerned and (e) others regarding the (i) planning, (ii) approval or (iii) implementation of the proposed Bathurst and Melville Island otitis survey. [More…]

• What co-ordination will be sought between the survey procedure and other surveys and evaluations aimed at assessing different methods of improving environmental factors in health and methods of health care delivery and administration. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 November 1978: [More…]

• Are asbestos products identified with respect to the possible health hazards from their use. [More…]

• What health regulations apply with respect to persons employed in asbestos mining in Australia. [More…]

• What is the expenditure of Commonwealth and State public health authorities on the treatment of asbestos caused diseases. [More…]

• What procedures are followed, and by which Government departments, to monitor or control the importation into Australia of equipment, technology, chemical or pharmaceutical preparations or formulations which may be hazardous from the points of view of safety, health and environmental impact. [More…]

• I call the Minister for Health. [More…]

• is of the opinion that medical benefits should not be provided by the Commonwealth for the termination of pregnancy (i) unless the termination is performed (A) to protect the mother when her life is endangered by a physical medical condition, or (B) where it is certified by 3 medical practitioners that her mental health would otherwise be seriously endangered, or (ii) unless the pregnancy was a result of incest or rape, or the mother has been subject to disease or physical conditions which could reasonably be expected to result in serious deformity to or retardation of the child; and [More…]

• That all words after ‘That’ (first occurring) be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: ‘This House is of the opinion that medical benefits should not be provided by the Commonwealth for any surgical procedure unless such surgery is certified to be medically essential to the health of the patient and is performed in accordance with the la w of a State or Territory. ‘ [More…]

• British veterans in receipt of Australian Service Pensions are eligible to receive Pensioner Health Benefits on the same basis as Australian veterans. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 February 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 March 1 978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 February 1978: [More…]

• Are British ex-servicemen receiving Australian service pensions entitled to the pensioner health benefits; if not, why not. [More…]

• 1 ) The Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Asbestos was set up by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH & MRC) on 24 August 1978. [More…]

• To enquire into and report to the Public Health Advisory Committee of the NH & MRC on risks to health caused by exposure to asbestos or products containing asbestos of: persons at work members of the public exposed to asbestos from work activity members of the public exposed to asbestos from consumer products and from asbestos waste. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 February 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) When was the Tripartite Committee on Asbestos constituted by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Has any action (a) been taken or (b) not been taken by any member of the Working Party on Occupational Health and Safety Legislation which has jeopardised the future activities of the Committee in formulating recommendations on the control of asbestos-related diseases. [More…]

• 1 ) The Working Party on Model Occupational Health and Safety Legislation was established on 1 0 May 1978. [More…]

• The Public Health Advisory Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH and MRC). [More…]

• To enquire into and report to the Occupational Health Committee on draft model occupational health and safety legislation for use in Australia. [More…]

• Professor D. Ferguson, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Sydney (Chairman). [More…]

• Bell, Health Commission of New South Wales (Deputy Chairman). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 February 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) When was the working party on Occupational Health and Safety Legislation established. [More…]

• Would any report assist in insuring national action to improve health and safety legislation for the protection of workers; if so, what action has he taken, in co-operation with other interested Ministers, to solve the stalemate at present confronting the working party. [More…]

• What action does the Minister for Health propose to take in response to the growing anxiety in the community about the use of asbestos in consumer products and the possible effect on human health? [More…]

• Can the Minister inform the House of the types of asbestos products which are dangerous to health or the form in which asbestos is dangerous to health? [More…]

• 1 ) There is no impediment in the National Health Act to registered medical and hospital benefits organizations investing reserves in debentures, stocks and shares. [More…]

• (a) The rules of every registered organisation are required, under the National Health Act, to provide that the whole of the income arising from the conduct of business as a registered medical or hospital benefits organisation, shall be credited to the fund. [More…]

• Where an organisation has invested in debentures and/or preference or ordinary shares, these are shown in total in tables 8 and 18 of the report on ‘Operations of the Registered Medical and Hospital Benefits Organisations’ as required under section 76a of the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 February 1 979: [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware that a new low alcohol content beer is now on the market? [More…]

• and (2) The recommendations of the Royal Commission on Human Relationships concerning rape and other sexual offences have been considered by a Working Party comprising officers of the Attorney-General’s Depanment, the Depanment of Home Affairs, the Australian Capital Territory Health Commission and the Australian Capital Territory Police. [More…]

• Health and medical education. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 February 1979: [More…]

• However, this increase was connected in no way with the changes to the health insurance arrangements brought about by the Government, effective from 1 November 1 978. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 March 1979: [More…]

• 2805 (Hansard, 20 February 1979, page 1 14), is it a fact that pensioners contributing to the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia, as a result of the 1 November 1978 health insurance changes, are now required to pay approximately $5 more (at the medical benefits fund monthly family rate) for 100 per cent cover for the scheduled fee plus extra cover. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 1 February 1 979: [More…]

• 1 ) Is it a fact that the first report on the survey of health of employees in the Australian Atomic Energy Commission Research Establishment undertaken by Professor Ferguson is not a good index on the occurrence of cancer because it is a prevalence study and by its nature the disease on recognition usually leads to action such as the temporary or permanent removal of the subject from the workforce. [More…]

• If so, what studies or research programs on workrelated health hazards and the incidence of cancer does the Government intend to instigate to overcome this stated limitation of current studies. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 September 1978: [More…]

• The Fraser Government’s decision to press for the deferral of the third stage of Austraiian Design Rule 27a amounts in short to a sell-out to financial interests of the shareholders of foreign-based motor vehicle manufacturers at the expense of the health of millions of Australian urban dwellers and urban employees. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 26 October 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 3 April 1 979: [More…]

• I inform the House that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) left Australia on 21 April to attend a meeting of Commonwealth Health Ministers and to attend the 32nd World Health Assembly. [More…]

• During his absence the Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs (Mr Fife) is acting as Minister for Health and will represent the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) in this chamber. [More…]

• The information required by the honourable member is recorded in the answer provided by the Minister for Health to question number 3303, which is recorded in the Hansard dated 28 March 1979. [More…]

• The information required by the honourable member is recorded in the answer, provided by the Minister for Health, to question number 3302 which is recorded in the Hansard dated 28 March 1979. [More…]

• 1 ) When was the tripartite committee on asbestos constituted by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Has any action (a) been taken or (b) not been taken by any member of the Working Party on Occupational Health and Safety Legislation which has jeopardised the future activities of the committee in formulating recommendations on the control of asbestos-related diseases. [More…]

• 1 ) When was the working party on Occupational Health and Safety Legislation established. [More…]

• Would any report assist in insuring national action to improve health and safety legislation for the protection of workers; if so, what action has he taken, in co-operation with other interested Ministers, to solve the stalemate at present confronting the working party. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members, I present the report of the Australian Bureau of Animal Health for the years 1974-78. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 March 1979: [More…]

• I refer to the draft resolution of the present assembly of the World Health Organisation in Geneva which proposes to suspend Israel from the World Health Organisation and terminate the services to Israel from that Organisation. [More…]

• That this House commends the Carlton United Brewery for its introduction of a low alcohol content light ale, and, in the belief that such a product could be beneficial in helping lower the road toll and also in raising the level of community health, this House recommends that the excise tax for lower alcohol beer be reduced in order to make it less expensive and thus more acceptable to the beer drinking community. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 March 1 979: [More…]

• What are the details of (a) capital cost, (b) annual expenditure, (c) number of staff and (d) services provided under the (i) Community Health Program and (ii) School Dental Scheme for each project in each Federal electoral division. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 72 of the Health Commission Ordinance 1975 I present the annual report of the Capital Territory Health Commission for the year ended 30 June 1977. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 May1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 May 1979: [More…]

• These figures are based on sample surveys of medical benefit claims processed by health insurance funds and Medibank. [More…]

• ) All persons except those in possession of a Pensioner Health Benefits Card and their dependants are required to pay a patient contribution, currently $2.50, towards the cost of each supply of a pharmaceutical benefit. [More…]

• (a) Aged pensioners in possession of a Pensioner Health Benefits Card and their dependants receive pharmaceutical benefits free of charge. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 May 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) The figures for Australia quoted by the honourable member relate only to medical research supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council and cannot be directly compared with the overseas figures quoted as the basis of calculation for these is unknown. [More…]

• The overall expenditure on health research in Australia is believed to be of the order of $40-50m per annum. [More…]

• Despite the need for restraint in public spending, the Government has increased its total allocation to medical research to the National Health and Medical Research Council from $9. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1 979: [More…]

• -by leave- The Treasurer (Mr Howard) has briefly outlined certain measures which the Government has decided to take in the health sphere. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 March 1979: [More…]

• Which synthetic chemicals or other substances presently in use in Australia are being investigated as a possible cause of birth defects, genetic disorders, cancer or other diseases amongst exposed populations by (a) the National Health and Medical Research Council, (b) the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Health and Safety Administration or Food and Drug Administration and (c) any Australian university or medical institution. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 May 1979: [More…]

• It is a matter of general concern for the community that it must get the best value possible in terms of health care for each dollar spent. [More…]

• I circulated the discussion paper to the State and Northern Territory Health Ministers on 2 March this year as a basis for further discussion. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 May 1 979: [More…]

• What steps have been taken to implement recommendations of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare concerning drug abuse, in particular the adjustment of excise to ensure that the cost of beverage alcohol does not decrease relative to average consumer costs or incomes. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 May 1979: [More…]

• What is the membership of the subcommittee of the National Health and Medical Research Council on health risks associated with exposure to asbestos and what are the qualifications of the members. [More…]

• 1 ) My Department does not insist on the use of asbestos based materials for fire resistance purposes in laboratories, and where used, it is in the form of a highly compressed asbestos cement sheet coated with an epoxy glaze which is not a health hazard. [More…]

• This does not include asbestos cement sheeting which is not considered to be a health hazard. [More…]

• At the Department of Health Hearing Centre, 68 Macquarie Street, Parramatta, there are: [More…]

• Department of Health and Medibank Offices, Parramatta (Question No. [More…]

• 3711) Mr John Brown asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 May 1979: [More…]

• How many (a) temporary and (b) permanent staff are currently located at the office of (i) the Department of Health, 68 Macquarie Street, Parramatta, New South Wales, (ii) Medibank, 55 Phillip Street, Parramatta, and (Hi) Medibank, Westfield Shopping Town. [More…]

• They are not based on the priorities of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), the Minister for Education (Senator Carrick) or the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle). [More…]

• If so, has consideration been given to the use of alternative fire-retardant materials, given the serious health risks associated with the use of asbestos. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 March 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 21 March 1979: [More…]

• Is the National Health and Medical Research Council making any investigations into the side effects of this insecticide. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 May 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) Can he state whether the United States Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare recently stated that it was his opinion that a full 20 per cent of cancers may be caused by occupational exposure to industrial carcinogens. [More…]

• Does (a) his Department, (b) any State Department of Health or (c) any other government authority keep occupation-specific records of the incidence of cancer or birth abnormalities; if so, what periods of time and occupational categories do they cover. [More…]

• To assist them in this matter, the National Health and Medical Research Council in 1978 approved Model Carcinogenic Substances Regulations and recommended that they be adopted by the States. [More…]

• The reports referred to a bioassay of toxaphene for possible carcinogenicity conducted for the Carcinogenesis Testing Program, Division of Cancer Cause and Prevention, National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 March 1 979: [More…]

• What provision is made in each of these procedures for assessing (a) environmental and (b) health effects of the use of those chemicals. [More…]

• 1 ) My Department is currently considering the proposal for a National Black Health Program. [More…]

• My colleague, the Minister for Health, also received a copy of the proposal. [More…]

• I have not received any correspondence on this matter from the State health authorities. [More…]

• 1 ) Has the Minister and have other Ministers examined the National Black Health Program submitted by the National Aboriginal and Islander Health Organisation; if so, what action has been taken as a result. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 3 May 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 February 1 979: [More…]

• 1 ) What action has been taken by the Commonwealth Government to investigate and monitor the effects of urban air pollution on the health of residents of Australia ‘s major cities. [More…]

• What are the health effects of breathing air containing (a) oxidants and (b) carbon monoxide, and at what levels do these effects occur. [More…]

• Before the debate is resumed on this Bill, I would like to suggest that it may suit the convenience of the House to have a general debate covering this Bill, the National Health Amendment Bill 1 979 and the motion to take note of the papers on health care costs, as they are related measures. [More…]

• -Is the amendment to the Health Insurance Amendment Bill 1979 seconded? [More…]

• I would just remind the Opposition members that the runs are on the board and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has produced the goods. [More…]

• I join with the honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd) in congratulating the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Government on this most excellent initiative. [More…]

• It is good to see that the present Minister for Health has taken heed of the representations that have been made to him. [More…]

• I just indicate, so as to save time in respect of going into Committee at this late hour, that there is obviously no point in dividing again at the Committee stage of the National Health Amendment Bill. [More…]

• We have moved this amendment so that, as we indicated in respect of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill, registered health insurance funds will no longer have to contribute the $40 a day to those contributors who have been in hospital for more than 60 days. [More…]

• Those contributors are declared nursing home-type patients and the health insurance funds then have to contribute only a varying amount, depending on the State in which the patient is in hospital. [More…]

• The net result is a transfer of money from the pensioners to the health insurance funds. [More…]

• I congratulate the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) for implementing a commitment made by the Government during an election campaign. [More…]

• -The Opposition supports the amendment moved by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 3 May 1 979: [More…]

• What percentage of GDP was Federal health expenditure in(a) 1976-77,(b) 1977-78 and(c) 1978-79. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 May 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 May 1979: [More…]

• The Parliamentary Counsel has advised me that ‘shall’ was changed to ‘may’ so as to give a new judge of the Tribunal a discretion to take new evidence and argument as well as giving consideration to the earlier evidence and argument presented before the earlier judge was unable to continue because of ill health or for some other reason. [More…]

• the Government has failed to demand that the company make changes to its extraction procedures and provide for the regular monitoring of radiation levels by independent health physicists located at the site in the interests of protecting the health of mine workers; and [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 February 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 1 February 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 June 1 979: [More…]

• What progress is being made with the introduction of health maintenance organisations in Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 June 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 June 1 979: [More…]

• How many persons in the Electoral Division of Batman were not in private health insurance schemes as at 30 April 1979. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 June 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 June 1979: [More…]

• The spiralling and inequitable costs of health care for the average family, caused by the Government’s erratic and illconsidered policies. [More…]

• 1 ) Agricultural chemicals, therapeutic goods, food additives and poisons have been assessed and regulated for a number of years by Commonwealth and State Health and Agricultural authorities in regard to their efficacy and potential adverse effects. [More…]

• These activities will be covered by the Minister for Health in answer to Question No. [More…]

• ) What provision is made in each of these procedures for assessing (a) environmental and (b) health effects of the use of those chemicals. [More…]

• Blue asbestos has been found at studios in William Street, Melbourne, but the Department of Health has indicated that it is not hazardous unless worked on in the course of building modifications. [More…]

• Yes, asbestos is potentially dangerous to human health; see answer to ( 1 ) (b) above. [More…]

• Is asbestos potentially dangerous to human health; if so, what steps will be taken to remove the ceilings. [More…]

• Government, when health costs in this country exploded out of all proportion. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Does basic Medibank medical insurance in New South Wales cost $130 for a single person and $260 for a family in a year, allowing for the necessary 25 per cent patient contribution? [More…]

• Would this fall to $69 for the single rate and $ 138 for the family rate if allowance were made for a taxation rebate of health service costs? [More…]

• Therefore, is it a fact that as most Australians have good health and their average health care costs and utilisation rates are well below those given in the Minister’s departmental annual reports, and bearing in mind reasonable expectations of good health, they would be better off financially without any health insurance? [More…]

• -There are just two brief comments I would like to make on the outburst of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) at the end of the second reading stage. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware of concern expressed by administrators of women’s refuges in New South Wales that Federal Government funding of existing refuges would be cut to enable new refuges to be established? [More…]

• For the information of honourable members, I present a report entitled Promoting HealthProspects of Better Health Throughout Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 May 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) Has his attention been drawn to a ruling by a judge of the United States of America Federal Trade Commission that the American Medical Association’s restriction on medical practitioner advertising had caused substantial injury to the public, served to deprive consumers of the free flow of information about the availability of health care services, deterred the offering of innovative forms of health care and stifled the rise of almost every type of health care delivery that would potentially pose a threat to the incomes of feeforservice physicians in private practice. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 6 June 1979: [More…]

• Has he made any public suggestion that (a) women’s health centres should have their funds cut, (b) funds be cut for the women’s health centre at Liverpool, NSW and (c) women ‘s health centres should in future charge patients on a fee-for-service basis. [More…]

• 1 ) The Health Insurance Commission has awarded a contract to TNT Group 4 Security Pty Ltd for the computer processing of salaries for Medibank staff. [More…]

• One of the part-time Health Insurance Commissioners is the Chairman of Thomas Nationwide Transport Ltd, He was unaware of the grant of the contract to TNT Group 4 Total Security Pty Ltd. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 1 August 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) Has the Health Insurance Commission awarded a contract to Thomas Nationwide Transport involving payment of Medibank staff previously carried by the Department of Finance. [More…]

• Are any of the part-time health insurance commissioners also employees or directors of TNT. [More…]

• Earlier this year, I advised the State Ministers for Health, who have primary responsibility for the administration of community health projects, including women ‘s health centres, of the Commonwealth’s policy concerning the charging of fees for medical services provided by general practitioners employed on a salaried or sessional basis in centres funded under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• This advice was to the effect that Commonwealth policy is that, for Schedule medical services rendered by or on behalf of salaried or sessionally paid general practitioners employed in any community health centre funded under the Community Health Program, charges should be made at the Schedule Fee level for all clients except Pensioner Health Benefit card holders and their dependants, and disadvantaged clients. [More…]

• In relation to women’s health centres specifically, an exception may also be made for clients who, because of the nature of their private domestic arrangements, might experience problems if the consultation were made known to other members of the family. [More…]

• However, the administrative arrangements for the Community Health Program are such that the States have a significant degree of flexibility in matters of administrative detail such as this. [More…]

• The Commonwealth’s approach is considered to be reasonable in principle, since it places the client of a health centre in generally the same position as the client of a general practitioner at another health centre. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 72 of the Health Commission Ordinance 1975 I present the annual report of the Capital Territory Health Commission for the year ended 30 June 1 978. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 March 1979: [More…]

• Has the Australian Atomic Energy Commission or any other Federal agency established a trans-uranium register of persons who have come into contact with uranium or its radio-active products so that the long term effect on health can be monitored: if not, why not [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 12 September 1979: [More…]

• What progress has been made in implementing the recommendations of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs reports on alcoholism and health since those reports were presented. [More…]

• 3 ) Would this move greatly reduce the risk not only to the health standards of workers but also to family and community health standards. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 1 September 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) What statistical information is available on the incidence of asbestos-related diseases as they relate to occupational health. [More…]

• Has his Department undertaken any research into the question of asbestos-related diseases as they relate to occupational health; if so, what are the results. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 May 1979: [More…]

• What is the estimated impact on the CPI during 1979-80 of the (a) changes to health insurance arrangements, (b) abolition of the trading stock valuation adjustments, (c) 2 per cent indirect levy on most duty free imports announced on 24 May 1 979 and (d) crude oil levy. [More…]

• The Task Group comprises representatives from the Departments of Employment and Youth Affairs, Education, Finance, Health, Industry and Commerce, Prime Minister and Cabinet and Social Security (Social Welfare Policy Secretariat). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 June 1979: [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware that student nurses in New South Wales have been told that they will not obtain jobs after graduation? [More…]

• I have already introduced the National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• This Bill contains a further measure to give effect to the Government’s decision, as announced by the Treasurer (Mr Howard) in the Budget Speech, to extend eligibility for pensioner health benefit cards to supporting parents. [More…]

• By virtue of section 10 of the Health Insurance Act 1973, eligible pensioners, as defined in the Act, are entitled to Commonwealth medical benefits at the rate of 85 per cent of the schedule fee, or the amount of the schedule fee less $5, whichever is the higher. [More…]

• As honourable members will realise, the effect of the amendment will be to entitle supporting parents who satisfy the pensioner health benefits income test to Commonwealth medical benefits at the level applicable to eligible pensioners generally. [More…]

• As I stated when introducing the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• In introducing the Social Services Amendment Bill 1979 1 referred to the Government’s decision to extend the eligibility for pensioner health benefit cards to supporting parents. [More…]

• Under the National Health Act the holders of pensioner health benefit cards are entitled to free pharmaceutical benefits and hearing aids. [More…]

• Clause 3 of this Bill amends the definition of ‘pensioner’ in the National Health Act to include supporting parent beneficiaries. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 25 September 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 May1979: [More…]

• Which State Governments have not implemented packaging recommendations or restrictions agreed to by the National Health and Medical Research Council for weedicides, pesticides, over-the-counter drugs and food, and what are the recommendations or restrictions which have not been implemented. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 August 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 August 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 September 1 979: [More…]

• Their condition has deteriorated and the Shire Council has been considering a report by a consultant health inspector on the condition of housing in the Shire. [More…]

• 1 ) Were 8 concrete block houses built at a cost of between $50,000 and $87,000 per house by Bakanji Ltd of Wilcannia and opened officially by the Prime Minister in 1976 condemned by the Central Darling Shire following a report from their Health Inspector. [More…]

• Mr Deputy Speaker, may I have your indulgence to suggest that the House have a general debate covering this Bill, the National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 3) 1979, the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• I reply very briefly to the debate which has taken place this evening on the social services and health amendment Bills. [More…]

• -I refer the Minister for Primary Industry to a report that 300 pigs have been destroyed, under the direction of animal health authorities, on a farm in northern Tasmania because of suspected disease. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 October 1979: [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present the annual report of the DirectorGeneral of Health 1978-79. [More…]

• Department of Health [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 October 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 12 September 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 June 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 May 1 979: [More…]

• What is the ownership of each of the private health funds in Australia. [More…]

• How are the boards of management of each of the private health funds in Australia chosen and how often do they face election. [More…]

• ) Who votes for (a) the boards of management and (b) the executives, of each of the private health funds in Australia. [More…]

• 1 ) The Capital Territory Health Commission has not decided to discontinue the two-year nurse education course administered by the Royal Canberra Hospital. [More…]

• Like all other State and Territory health authorities the Commission is examining its nurse education programs in the light of the recommendations contained in the Report of the Committee on Nurse Education and Training submitted to the Tertiary Education Commission in August 1 978 and the changing needs of the profession. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 August 1979: [More…]

• Has this anomaly prevailed since my inauguration of the Free Limbs Scheme in 1973 when I was Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 1 September 1979: [More…]

• I will look at the transcript of the Estimates Committee and the answer of the Minister for Health, but I do not see it as a matter of privilege at this point. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 June 1 979: [More…]

• The Government’s repeated changes to health insurance which have destroyed the community rating principle and will mean that the elderly, large families and the chronically ill will be unable to afford adequate cover. [More…]

• The Government’s repeated changes to health insurance which have destroyed the community rating principle and will mean that the elderly, large families and the chronically ill will be unable to afford adequate cover. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a report entitled ‘Health Promotion in Australia 1978-79’. [More…]

• The numbers of (a) dependent children and (b) students eligible for pensioner health benefits are not available separately. [More…]

• What is the estimated number of (a) dependent children and (b) students who will be eligible for pensioner health benefits after the changes coming into force on 1 November 1979. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 42 of the Health Insurance Commission Act 1973 I present the annual report of the Health Insurance Commission [More…]

• -For the information of honourable members I present the interim report of the Capital Territory Health Commission 1 978-79. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 November 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 13 November 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 November 1 979: [More…]

• Are premiums paid to life insurance companies, for hospital insurance policies, a tax deduction as claimed on page 1 of the ‘Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia Bulletin of October 1979. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 September 1979: [More…]

• During this Session legislation will be introduced to improve the health scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health will make a full and detailed statement to the Parliament on these matters early in the present Session. [More…]

• My Government has decided that families on low incomes should be helped to meet the cost of health insurance by a graduated subsidy designed to pay the full cost of health insurance for families with incomes not in excess of the average minimum wage, and part of the cost of meeting health insurance for families whose incomes are little in excess of the average minimum wage. [More…]

• Measures will be introduced directed towards simplification of the procedures of health insurance funds, the more effective employment of their financial reserves, the maintenance of their management expenses at reasonable levels, and the improvement of their operational efficiency and economy generally. [More…]

• by leave - Mr Speaker, His Excellency the Governor-General has already foreshadowed major changes in the Government’s health insurance programme during this Parliament. [More…]

• As long ago as February 1968 the Prime Minister (Mr Gorton) clearly indicated his intention to review thoroughly and, where necessary, extensively improve the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) has had almost 55 minutes in which to discuss the Government’s proposed approach to restructuring the health insurance scheme in some areas. [More…]

• Secondly, I hope that the fact that the Minister has gone to a great deal of trouble in order to express to the House in a general way, not a specific way, proposed changes to the health insurance scheme will not encourage him to indulge in lengthy delay before- amendments are introduced. [More…]

• Quite clearly there is need for urgent reform in quite a number of areas of the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• It is quite clear that his speech is a public confession of the Government’s humiliation on health insurance. [More…]

• It does not represent the acme of what should be done in the field of health insurance in this country. [More…]

• The Government asserted within its terms of reference that the Committee had to bring down findings that fitted into the present structure of health insurance. [More…]

• It could not go out and experiment and investigate the appropriateness, efficiency and general desirability of the sort of propositions the Labor Party has been recommending^ So, the first point is that the Nimmo report represents a restricted view - restricted by Government fear - of health insurance in this country. [More…]

• Under the Government’s proposals a family man earning $42.50 a week and supporting a wife will receive full protection under the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The Melbourne Survey of poverty clearly showed that a number of people in the low income area have grave problems in meeting the cost of health insurance. [More…]

• Therefore there is no end in sight for this spiralling cost burden which is inherent in the present structure of health insurance. [More…]

• One asks the question, quite reasonably, having heard the Prime Minister (Mr Gorton) say that he proposed to reduce taxation by $200m before the end of 1972: How does the Government propose to do this considering the pressures for increased expenditure in education, housing and other areas of health?’ [More…]

• Where is the Government going to get the money, if it reduces taxation by S200m, to meet all of these increased demands and to discharge its responsibilities within the area of health insurance? [More…]

• One therefore has some appreciation of the enormity and the massing nature of the cost of maintaining this scheme and this is in spite of the proposed improvements which the Minister for Health has put forward. [More…]

• In the course of his speech the Minister for Health spoke about the equity of the scheme. [More…]

• After tax deductions are claimed he pays $41.64 net a year for his health insurance. [More…]

• It is quite clear that the Minister for Health, who is a doctor of philosophy and not of medicine, as are five of the doctors on the Opposition side of the House, has based his philosophy on the biblical injunction of St Matthew, chapter XXV, verse 29 which states: [More…]

• This would mean in turn that a growth factor would be built into the fund so that as Income grew the total sum of money available to a national health scheme for distribution through a regionalised scheme of insurance funds operating close to the people would grow according to the need. [More…]

• According to the Health Insurance Council the best that can be hoped for is a retention rate of about 15% in management fees. [More…]

• There are Ministerial Members for Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries, Education, Labour, Posts and Telegraphs, Public Health, Public Works, and Trade and Industry. [More…]

• This is a matter related to the responsibilities of the Ministerial Member for Health. [More…]

• The purpose of this Bill is to bring into operation for repatriation service pensioners the election promise of the Prime Minister (Mr Gorton) that the Government would introduce legislation providing increased pensions for married means test pensioners who lose the economies of living together because of failing health. [More…]

• I will talk to the Minister for Health about this matter and see whether he can get some report, some expression of opinion, from the Professional Divers Association, from physiologists or whichever kind of medical practitioners would be interested in this subject, so that perhaps something more finite could be made known to those parents who may be worried about the safety of their children. [More…]

• In view of the excessive difference between the two charges will the Prime Minister give Victorians free air fares to Tasmania, which would save the Government 100 an operation, or will he ask his colleague the Minister for Health, when he returns, to examine this situation and explain to the House why there is a difference of nearly 300% between the two costs? [More…]

• I will be glad to draw this question to the notice of my colleague the Minister for Health and ask him either to confer with the honourable member or to advert to it in the House and give the House some further information on the difference in the costs concerning whatever that operation was. [More…]

• The advice of the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Health and the Department of Education and Science was also taken by the Australian delegation. [More…]

• The selection procedures will provide for an assessment by Australian officers of the general suitability, health, character and the potential of the individual to conform to Australia’s concepts of political and social behaviour. [More…]

• Having almost lost an election it is now in the process of attempting to do something about the crises that have existed in many areas such as the health and rural fields in an attempt to salvage some of its tattered image before the Senate elections later this year. [More…]

• Having studied the many forward looking changes introduced by the Minister, such as the creation of the Office of Aboriginal Affairs, the setting up of the Capital Fund for Aboriginal Enterprises, the Study Grants for Aboriginals, the employment programme to assist Aboriginals and the amounts of money passed on to the States for disbursement throughout the fields of education, health and housing, one would have expected to see some radical changes already taking place in the standard of living of the vast majority of Aboriginals. [More…]

• All Aboriginal problems are inter-related and none is more obvious than that of health. [More…]

• The deplorable housing conditions create unsatisfactory conditions for personal hygiene, with the subsequent high rate of ill health amongst Aboriginals, particularly children. [More…]

• The medical officer at Collarenebri District Hospital, Dr Kalokerinos, put forward the theory that lack of proper nutritional diet, together with lack of immunity to European diseases and the appalling housing conditions that continually cause re-infection once a child has been brought back to health, were major factors in the high incidence of ill health and infant mortality among Aboriginal children. [More…]

• In an address to the Australian College of Physicians on Aboriginal Health Dr Coombs quoted Dr Moodie .of the School of Tropical Health, Sydney University, who reported that compared with births representing 2% of the population, total Aboriginal deaths in the appropriate category represent 10% of all infant deaths, 28% of all deaths in the 1 to 2 year group, and 9% of all deaths in the 2 to 4 year group. [More…]

• 1 stress this matter because if the Government is genuine in its desire to advance the Aboriginals to the level of the rest of the community, it ought to get to the root cause of Aboriginal backwardness and attack the problem where it begins - through ill-health caused by inferior and scandalous housing conditions and lack of proper postnatal care and education. ‘ [More…]

• Education - ignored almost entirely; in the health field - a wilful stubbornness in propping and patching up at vast additional expense an unjust and inadequate scheme; the literally vital matter of hospitals ignored; cities ignored utterly; in a passage which acknowledges the growing burden of State debts, the far more onerous burdens on local government and semi-government authorities altogether disregarded; total nonrecognition of the intolerable burdens of land costs and interest rates on home buyers; the critical need for long term restructuring of our primary industries is by-passed; nothing of the sense of urgency about aboriginals which the national disgrace and the national mandate of 1967 alike demand; refusal to acknowledge that in New Guinea our international reputation is absolutely at stake. [More…]

• The clearest indication of this is in three of the most important domestic items in the Address: The proposals on taxation will presumably be central to this year’s Budget; Commonwealth-State financial relations will dominate discussions in seven parliaments in this year when a new financial agreement has to be framed; and the health proposals form far and away the most important legislation in this session. [More…]

• The health proposals provide the clearest example of all of how this Government is dedicated to propping up privilege and perpetuating inequality. [More…]

• The Minister for Health devoted four columns of Hansard of his statement to a philosophical defence of what he called the ‘voluntary’ principle. [More…]

• The Government’s intention is that the vast majority of wage and salary earners will undergo automatic deductions; and we are asked to believe that there is a great difference in principle and in effect between a deduction made by an employer at the instance of the Government in its role as the proposed Health Insurance Commission, and a deduction made by an employer at the instance of the Government in its role as the Taxation Branch. [More…]

• This is blamed on Commonwealth activity or inactivity in the health field. [More…]

• I have no confidence that a slavish adherence to the voluntary health insurance system is going to provide any solution, yet onethird of that State’s deficit is from workers compensation and motor accidents - in other words, insurance cases where simple legislation by the States requiring forward funding by insurance companies would easily solve this without major economic upset. [More…]

• Increased welfare services are also being forced on local government by subsidy in the way of baby health centres, elderly citizens’ clubs, creches and so on. [More…]

• The States are moving more and more to regionalisation of services such as health and education. [More…]

• Nor is it possible to have any realistic confidence in the proposed changes to the health scheme. [More…]

• In the judgment of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) - I refer to the Honourable Minister’s statement at page 36 of yesterday’s Hansard - the success of the amended health scheme depends on a suitable arrangement for periodic adjustment of fees and benefits. [More…]

• The other is to consider a conscious and orderly transfer of power to the Commonwealth, especially in such areas as transport, education, health and housing, where the Commonwealth increasingly is required to foot the bill on matters over which it has no direct control. [More…]

• 1 address a question lo the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Finally, in the event that the co-operation of the medical profession is not forthcoming, is it the Minister’s intention to implement recommendation IS of the report of the Nimmo Committee on Health Insurance, which allows for the exclusion of doctors from the scheme under given circumstances; and what other action is the Minister considering to cover this situation? [More…]

• It is clear from the statement, which I have seen, that the AMA proposes certain variations from the suggestions which it had previously submitted and which have been incorporated in the Government’s health benefits plan. [More…]

• I cannot emphasise too strongly that the Government’s first concern and responsibility in health are to the patient. [More…]

• The basis of assessment in our selection procedures, as honourable gentlemen know, includes the individual’s general suitability, health, character and, I mention particularly for the information of the honourable gentlemen, the potential to conform to the social and political norms of Australia. [More…]

• Whatever controversies there may be about the assimilation or integration of Aboriginals or about Aboriginal land rights, there ought to be no controversy about their health, especially the health of their children. [More…]

• For social and economic advancement the personnel requirements are also pre-school, kindergarten, primary school, secondary and technical school and adult education teachers, infant health sisters, homemakers, youth counsellors and supervisors, em ployment counsellors and supervisors, cottage parents and hostel managers, all with understanding and skills required to deal with Aboriginal and part-Aboriginal people and situations. [More…]

• There should be some kind of three-pronged attacked from the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) whose Department must be involved in a finding 60 devastating as that published in the Medical Journal of Australia, the Minister for the Interior (Mr Nixon), so far as the Northern Territory is concerned, and the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• If those three Ministers work together I think they can produce some new sort of scheme which will show a totality of view of Aboriginal health, education and well being, and allocate to it the resources that should be allocated. [More…]

• The honorable member for Fremantle (Mr Beazley) was good enough to say that I was sincere in regard to Aboriginal health and welfare. [More…]

• The article in the journal, was, I think, very largely the outcome of a conference held a couple of months earlier - early in December 1969 - at Sydney University which was sponsored by the Commonwealth Department of Health and my own Office of Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• It was called ‘ a workshop on the health and nutritional status of Aboriginal children’. [More…]

• Many of them are already in the condition which the honourable member for Griffith forecast for the Minister - elderly and in failing health. [More…]

• They enjoy their television and their radio, but the zoom of jets flying overhead has practically destroyed their health and welfare and the enjoyment they obtain in their old age from such things as television and radio. [More…]

• He said that because of the passage of aircraft overhead the health of persons in the homes for the elderly that he conducts at Leichhardt was suffering. [More…]

• Our health becomes impaired. [More…]

• Again, what are we doing through the international organisation - the International Civil Aviation Organisation - to pressure manufacturers and operators to produce and purchase aircraft that do not cause this discomfort and ill health to millions of people throughout the world? [More…]

• The main emphasis of the debate falls on the domestic issues of the economy, namely, health, housing, primary industry, education and social welfare. [More…]

• For the purpose of expedience he chose to muddy the policies of the Australian Labor Party on health and social welfare rather than to debate the alternatives. [More…]

• Of the doctors who replied 77% considered that the laws relating to abortion should be liberalised and 88% of doctors felt that abortion should be legalised if there was risk to the physical or mental health of the mother. [More…]

• Many men and women in the community break the law not because they are promiscuous and irresponsible but because they are married, over stressed and desperately seek abortions as the only way out in a perfectly respectable family situation where an unexpected pregnancy threatens the health or welfare of the mother and her whole family. [More…]

• It tried this with the health scheme in the second half of last year and the only consequence was that the public was well and truly aroused against the Government. [More…]

• Melchior Tomot, until he had a breakdown in health, was studying for the priesthood. [More…]

• Residential development is curtailed because of this as the local authority institutes a water table criteria which prevents development in the interest of public health, only allowing development when sewerage and drainage becomes available. [More…]

• This is an appaling situation of lack of government initiative and finance to assist this very important arm of public health and development. [More…]

• Federal Government grants for the purpose of development are needed not only in the interests of public health and development of near city land, which is so urgently needed to be released, but to assist in cheaper land development for the intending home owner. [More…]

• In any other industry it would be subject to health regulation enforcement and be made to provide rest rooms for the female staff, which of course do not exist there at the moment, and proper sick room amenities for the pupils. [More…]

• They are offered no relief in this inflationary period but most exist on totally inadequate pensions which do not reach even the Government’s recognised minimum wage standards as set out in its health legislation. [More…]

• To emphasise the dissatisfaction with the Government’s policy by all sections of the community I shall quote from a summary of the retail chemists’ case for an increase in remuneration for dispensing national health prescriptions. [More…]

• Chemists have not had an increase in the fee for dispensing National Health Service prescriptions since March 1961. [More…]

• I wish to speak on the subject of Aboriginal health and housing. [More…]

• Having listened to the reply of the Minister in Charge of Aboriginal Affairs (Mr Wentworth) to the matters raised by the honourable member for Fremantle (Mr Beazley) yesterday, I would like to say that I was not impressed with his statement that he has no accurate figures relating to Aboriginal health. [More…]

• We need to know the exact state of health of Aboriginals throughout Australia, the types of disease they suffer, and how prevalent those diseases are. [More…]

• Information about Aboriginal health is fragmentary. [More…]

• Since Aboriginals are not recorded separately it is impossible to make comprehensive comparisons of their health experience as compared with that of the community generally. [More…]

• Nearly 3 years have elapsed since the Government was given the responsibility for Aboriginal welfare and still no accurate figures are available about almost any area that requires concentrated attention - health, education or housing. [More…]

• The honourable member for Fremantle outlined in detail various deficiencies in Aboriginal health and the appalling situation that prevails at the moment. [More…]

• Once again 1 want to quote a description of the health of Aboriginals given by Dr Coombs. [More…]

• If it reaches adult age it is likely to be lethargic, irresponsible and, above all, poverty stricken - unable to break out of the iron circle of poverty, ignorance, malnutrition, ill-health, social isolation, and antagonism: If it lives in the north it has a good chance of being maimed by leprosy and, wherever, its search for affection and companionship may well end only in the misery of VD. [More…]

• 1 detailed in my maiden speech the appalling conditions of housing in the north west of New South Wales and I said that if the Government were really fair dinkum on the question of Aboriginals it ought to get to the root cause of this ill-health and that is the housing conditions which exist within this country. [More…]

• The question of health as you know, Sir. [More…]

• I ought to mention at this stage that all that this Act proposes to do in the case of the former standard rate of pension where people are separated because of ill health is to formalise a practice which has been upheld for some time by the Department of Social Services and the Repatriation Department. [More…]

• I want to make it quite clear that we on this side of the House do not believe that this proposal will provide an adequacy, or even a sufficiency at a minimal standard, for the people who will benefit from the provisions of the standard rate in the circumstances of separation through ill health and so on. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) has told us that only one-third of people committed to nursing homes will obtain this benefit; two-thirds will be in receipt of the subsidy of S2 a day. [More…]

• The Minister might be interested in a statement made on 17th May last year by the Victorian Minister for Health, who said: [More…]

• 09 a week for a spouse who is trying to retain his own health and not be committed to a nursing home? [More…]

• I am basing this calculation on a New South Wales Health Department estimate. [More…]

• When I say ‘before’ I mean before the Government commenced the practice of providing the standard rate of pension for married couples separated because of ill health or some other form of infirmity. [More…]

• We shall pay pensions at standard rates instead of at married rates to aged couples who lose the economies of living together by reason of failing health, for example, if one or both of them enter a nursing home. [More…]

• Of course, the Bill will raise the property limit and affect the supplementary assistance eligibility of a married pensioner who is separated from a spouse for health reasons. [More…]

• We shall pay pensions at standard rates or at married rates to aged couples who lose the economics of living together by reason of failing health - for example, if one or both of them is in a nursing home. [More…]

• Now, the discretion here as to whether the service was equivalent to hospital treatment was at the discretion of the Commonwealth Director-General of Health, just as the interpretation of the word ‘indefinitely’ will be at the discretion of the Commonwealth Director-General of Social Services and, in the same way, there is little hope of reversal or appeal. [More…]

• However, despite this statement of a highly qualified specialist geriatrician, the private hospital was considered an approved nursing home and .referral of the claim by the hospital benefits association to the Commonwealth Director of Health led to the determination that she was not entitled to receive the benefit. [More…]

• So, here we have a conflict of opinion between a competent geriatrician and an officer of the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• We shall pay pensions at standard rates instead of married rates to aged couples who lose the economies of living together by reason of failing health - for example, if one or both of them is in a nursing home. [More…]

• It is to amend the Social Services Act in relation to certain married persons suffering illness or infirmity and it provides for the payment of pensions at standard rates or single rates instead of married rates to aged couples who lose the economies of living together by reason of failing health. [More…]

• It is intended to increase the married rate pension to that of a single rate in cases where married couples are separated and do not have the financial advantage of living together, or, in the words of the Minister for Repatriation (Mr Holten), to provide ‘increased pensions for married means test pensioners who lose the economies of living together because of failing health’. [More…]

• He remained in the Parliament to become a Cabinet Minister in the Government of T. J. Ryan, and on his death in 1916 there was universal1 lament that, after a long period of doubtful health, his passing had left a blank in the first strong Labor Government which Queensland had produced. [More…]

• Let me remind honourable members opposite of the cruel, contemptible propaganda which this Government waged during the last election campaign against Labor’s free health scheme. [More…]

• Even as late as the recent statement to the House by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) there was no mention of the Government’s intention to comply with the recommendations of the Nimmo Committee was denying Queensland hospitals many and Medical Costs, which had drawn attention to the fact that the Commonwealth millions of dollars. [More…]

• In Queensland a large or the Senate Select Committee on Health percentage of people choose not to pay into a hospital benefit insurance fund. [More…]

• I turn to health and hospitalisation. [More…]

• I look forward to comparing my Party’s equitable health proposals with the hotchpotch being served up by the present Government in its attempts to patch its existing inequitable health scheme. [More…]

• It should inquire into an average family’s needs in respect of clothing, food, recreation, entertainment, housing and health. [More…]

• I direct my remarks to all members of the House, and in particular to the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), the Minister for Customs and Excise (Mr Chipp) and the Attorney-General (Mr Hughes). [More…]

• Even though we may enjoy the distinct advantage of geographical isolation in this matter, it is because of this and because of the diligence of our health authorities that we do not experience the problems of smallpox, yellow fever and such diseases. [More…]

• I know that our health authorities and our customs authorities have already launched a nationwide campaign against drug abuse, but I am firmly of the opinion that, with our scattered population, it is physically impossible for our Federal authorities and our State Health and Police Departments to cover every avenue which this illegal traffic may flow through. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Did the Australian Medical Association, as part of its submission to the Nimmo Committee, advocate a scheme of differential benefits for medical procedures commonly carried out by both general practitioners and specialists? [More…]

• The Government’s health proposals were criticised. [More…]

• My mind goes back to the late 1940s- 1948 or 1949- When Senator McKenna, who was Minister for Health in the Chifley Government, endeavoured to introduce a health scheme but failed because the government of the day got off side with everybody in the community whom it was necessary to have on side in order to implement a proper health scheme. [More…]

• It was left to governments of the persuasion of the present Government to devise and introduce successfully a national health scheme for the benefit of the people of Australia. [More…]

• It is all very well for the honourable member for Lalor to criticise the Government’s health programme but I remind him that we will soon hear from the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) details of proposals now being formulated in association with the medical profession. [More…]

• I stress that the Government must have the medical profession on side if it is to implement a successful set of health proposals. [More…]

• I want to put a question to him in relation to health. [More…]

• I saw the honourable member for Oxley in a television interview, which he handled very effectively, but when he was asked what a Labor government would do about the nationalisation of health he replied - and I hope I quote him correctly, but this is the gist of the reply he made on the interview on Channel 9 - There is no authority to nationalise health or anything else’. [More…]

• If there is no authority for nationalisation of health or anything else, why does the Australian Labor Party still keep in its platform a nationalisation plank? [More…]

• It is distressing to see the situation which has developed in the parliamentary procedures of this country whereby Ministers work so assiduously to avoid informing the Australian public, as it is their elected responsibility to do, on what developments have taken place in the administration of important national matters such as health, the economy - which is most important of all - primary industry, defence and the other subjects which the honourable member for Lalor mentioned when speaking to the amendment which is before the House. [More…]

• For example, in the last Parliament the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) with great devotion avoided every effort by the Opposition to bring him. [More…]

• into the Parliament to discuss health policy as.it is administered by the Federal Government. [More…]

• One wonders how recreant the Government must be in its implicit assumptions when even now, after the election, it fails to discuss in this House .and to outline to the people what its objectives are and what its progress has been in handling the development of health policies. [More…]

• After all, 54% of the Australian public according to a fairly recent gallup poll supported the Labor Party’s policy on health insurance. [More…]

• Just how will the Government mobilise ils health policy under the new proposals? [More…]

• We are assured by the Minister for Health that the AMA is sewn up and that the medical profession is in his pocket. [More…]

• It seems rather odd for the Minister for Health to come into the House and blandly assure us that there are no problems with the Government’s proposed health scheme. [More…]

• He brought into the House a few weeks ago a statement on his proposed health policies in which he made certain assertions. [More…]

• I have some queries that I would like to direct to the Minister for Health if I had the opportunity. [More…]

• Again, in spite of all the claims of the Minister for Health, the hard fact is that a patient receiving treatment in a doctor’s surgery will be still required to pay 23% of the cost of that treatment and a patient will be still required to pay 24% of the cost of a home visit by a doctor. [More…]

• It is quite apparent that the Minister for Health has been far from candid with this House and with the Australian community in discussing this matter. [More…]

• Does he propose to apply recommendation 15 of the report of the Commonwealth Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, commonly known as the Nimmo Committee Report, which reads: [More…]

• There is no suggestion, not even a murmur, from the Minister for Health as to how he proposes to handle this point. [More…]

• Is this the end of the spiralling cost of health insurance in the community? [More…]

• Already it is anticipated, according to the statement presented to the House by the Minister for Health, that further changes to hospital insurance will occur. [More…]

• A contributor in New South Wales on the cheapest scale for hospital treatment - and that is in the public ward section - will be required to pay $1.45 per week if he wishes health insurance to cover him. [More…]

• The Minister for Health says that this will be a matter for protracted discussion. [More…]

• That the Commonwealth and State Governments work toward the integration of outpatients services into the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health cannot suggest seriously to this House and to the public that there would be any delay on the part of the Queensland Government in negotiating on this recommendation. [More…]

• In fact, when the report of the Nimmo Committee was released originally, the Queensland Minister for Health was wildly enthusiastic. [More…]

• If we calculate it in another way, it was the equivalent - I am using figures from the submission by the Department of Health to the Senate Select Committee on Medical and Hospital Costs - of 8.31 million bed days in 1966 and in 1966 the total number of bed days used was 14.6 million. [More…]

• We are used to having the Government and the Minister for Health trying to justify the rather feeble argument that the enormous amount of money is held in hospital reserves on the basis that one day we might be afflicted by some sort of huge epidemic, but on the basis of these figures clearly the resources available in this country would be incapable of absorbing that sort of money in any event. [More…]

• I would like to know from the Minister what contingency plans he has in hand to prop up his scheme of health insurance in the event of a significant number of withdrawals. [More…]

• Health insurance contributions are already as high as most people are prepared to pay. [More…]

• Quite clearly our scheme will provide lower costs for 4 out of 5 people for comprehensive health services. [More…]

• These are arguments that we want to debate with the Minister for Health and we regret his reluctance to appear in this House to do so. [More…]

• House Ministers have refused to report to the Parliament on the negotiations concerning Commonwealth and State finances, the national health scheme, the problems of productive marketing and reconstruction of primary industries, the state of the economy, the development of New Guinea and the failure of the Fill. [More…]

• The next claim made in the amendment is that Ministers have refused to report on the national health scheme. [More…]

• In case the honourable member for Lalor (Dr J. F. Cairns) has not seen it I have brought into the chamber a statement, comprising 26 quarto pages with 12 quarto pages of attachments, which was delivered by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) in this House on 4th March, the day after the Parliament was opened. [More…]

• There have been a bare 3 questions on national health. [More…]

• My colleague, the Minister for Health has announced what the Government proposes and has said that legislation will be presented during this session, and legislation will be presented in this session. [More…]

• I turn to the question of the negotiations with the doctors and State Health Ministers. [More…]

• Of course, there was a statement on health benefits and, with typical elegance, the Leader of the House (Mr Snedden) throws it across the chamber and, with typical dexterity, he misses at the first throw. [More…]

• Since then, there have been negotiations with all the State Health Ministers and since then - the most recent occasion being yesterday - there have been negotiations with the Australian Medical Association. [More…]

• Discussions would have taken place, I would have thought, with the State Health Ministers on the subject of hospitals. [More…]

• Hospitals are the core, the basics, of any health scheme. [More…]

• This practice applies apparently to the negotiations on hospitals with the State Health Ministers at the end of last week. [More…]

• I brought into the House a statement made by my colleague, the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes). [More…]

• I find it hard to understand how the question of health came into this amendment, because 1 had the task of posting away quite a number of health statements issued by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) and I know what the postage bill was. [More…]

• I refer to the last election and draw attention of the House to the remarks of the spokesman for the Australian Labor Party on health matters, the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden). [More…]

• He is an appointed spokesman for the Australian Labor Party on health matters but I would like to draw his attention as a fell’ow Queenslander and somebody who I would like to believe is interested in the welfare of the people of my State to a statement made by his leader during the last election campaign. [More…]

• The proposal of the Leader of the Opposition meant that every Queenslander would have had to contribute i% of his taxable income for health insurance. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition was prepared to sacrifice the free health scheme of the State in which a man holds the highest office at present held by the Labor Party. [More…]

• I am sure that this attitude will commend itself to all Australians as a middle term objective since it will result in greater export income, more employment opportunities for highly economic industries and, consequently, more funds available for State expenditure on education, social services and health. [More…]

• He gave of his best during the whole of his service, and this included a period of time when he was not blessed with good health. [More…]

• Malnutrition sets in and it is difficult to restore the persons concerned to the state of health that we would like them to enjoy. [More…]

• Those people who can spend a lot on the education of their children or on the health of their children are the ones who attract government subsidies. [More…]

• The League of Home Health provided over 38,000 meals in 1969. [More…]

• We have to try to assess how far the basic services of Meals on Wheels, pensions, housing, health and welfare services are specifically designed and effectively directed towards meeting the needs of old people. [More…]

• Mr Fraser then joined the Department of the Interior and worked there until he became public relations officer for the Minister for Health in 1948. [More…]

• The Papua and New Guinea Malaria Control Ordinance 19S7 authorises Administration health workers, after at least 24 hours notice in writing specifying the intended date and time of entry, to enter any building and to take such steps as may be necessary for the eradication of mosquitoes and the prevention of their breeding. [More…]

• Yes.I understand the undertakings were made following representations to the U.S. airlines by officials of the Departments of Transportation and Health, Education and Welfare. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What are the names of registered health benefit organisations in Victoria which direct contributors who need physiotherapy to Australian Electronic Services. [More…]

• The following registered health benefit organisations have an arrangement with Australian Electronic Therapy Services to provide physiotherapy services to members: [More…]

• Industrial safety in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea is provided for by the Industrial Safety, Health and Welfare Ordinance 1961, and orders made under the Ordinance; the Industrial Safety, Health and Welfare Regulations 1965; and sections of other Ordinances, such as the Papua and New Guinea Electricity Commission Ordinance 1961-69. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was (a) the combined annual income of the health insurance funds from contributions and (b) the amount of the funds’ combined reserves at the last date for which accounts of the funds are available. [More…]

• The combined annual income of the registered health insurance funds from contributions for the 1968-69 financial year, was $182,907,752; [More…]

• the combined reserves, including the Outstanding Claims Provisions, of the registered health insurance funds as at 30th June 1969 were $119,157,204. [More…]

• By industry, they were distributed as follows: 5 primary production 2 mining 18 manufacturing 12 building and construction 7 transport 14 commerce 6 health, hospitals 29 other services. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Which voluntary health insurance funds will be sending representatives to the World Conference of Health Insurance Funds to be held in the United States this year. [More…]

• The next meeting of the International Federation on Voluntary Health Service Funds is to be held in Chicago, United States of America, in August 1970. [More…]

• However, the voluntary health insurance organisations do not consult my Department in determining those who will be attending. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What requests or suggestions were made at the Health Ministers’ Conference in Hobart in March for legislative or administrative action by (a) the Commonwealth, (b) the Territories and (c) the States. [More…]

• In what respects and with what results did theConference consider (a) the uniform recognition of the qualifications of doctors, dentists, pharmacists and nurses (Hansard, 22nd May 1969, page 2221), (b) the establishment of a hospital planning bureau (Hansard, 20th August 1969, page 509), (c) Commonwealth assistance for patients and institutions after the States Grants (Mental Health Institutions) Act expires on 30th June (Hansard, 11th September 1969, page 1259) and (d) Commonwealth assistance for State hospitals which provide free out-patient and inpatient treatment for pensioners (Hansard, 10th September 1968, page 874). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What have been the aggregate reserves of the hospital benefits organisations at the end of each year since they were first registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The aggregate reserves, including the Outstanding Claims Provision, of the hospital benefits organisations at the end of each year since they were first registered under the National Health Act and detailed hereunder, together with the percentage of contributions which the increase in these reserves each year represented: [More…]

• Commonwealth medical benefits for medical services are set down in the Schedule to the National Health Act. [More…]

• Commonwealth hospital benefits are available to patients who receive treatment in public and private hospitals approved as hospitals under the National Health Act [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What have been the operating expenses of the hospital benefits organisations in each year since they were first registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The operating expenses, including Special Account, of the hospital benefits organisations in each year since they were first registered under the National Health Act are detailed hereunder, together with the percentage of contributions these expenses represented: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• At what rates were daily charges imposed in (a) public wards, (b) intermediate wards and (c) private wards in each State and Territory in the first year that hospitals were approved or recognised under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The rates of daily charges imposed in (a) public wards (b) intermediate wards and (c) private wards in each State and Territory in the first year that hospitals were approved under the National Health Act, are as follows: [More…]

• Health seen a report in a Sydney newspaper which is closely associated with this Government - The Paper You Can Trust’ - claiming that the Minister has suggested a ‘face saver’ in his discussions with representatives of the Australian Medical Association? [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), who represents the Minister for Housing (Senator Dame Annabelle Rankin) in this House, and who wears his badge with pride, is sitting at the table. [More…]

• In all cases normal immigration requirements of health and character must be met. [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Will he undertake to consider the inclusion in the national health scheme of a category of benefit to cover these services so as to assist the day to day work of the centres in the same way as it is proposed to assist their capital expenses by means of the provisions of the Handicapped Children (Assistance) Bill? [More…]

• There is some suggestion in the representations which have been made in relation to medical treatment covered by our health insurance scheme that there is some differentiation against spastics. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) used it in this way. [More…]

• The Minister for External Affairs and other Ministers including the Minister for Health - not all Ministers are in this category, but certainly those two Ministers are - abuse the Standing [More…]

• Members of the Opposition used delaying tactics the whole time because they did not want a Bill to go through just as they do not want the proposed health Bill to go through. [More…]

• No, members of the Opposition would rather have the proposed health Bill delayed for many months so that people in indigent circumstances will not be able to have this advantage. [More…]

• The point I want to make is that working class bosses are the worst bosses of all, and that members of this Parliament who by some fortuitous circumstance find themselves here have no right to demand that the employees of the departments shall serve us to the detriment of their health and to the danger of their lives and our lives. [More…]

• In 1964 he was appointed Minister for Repatriation and served in this portfolio until he resigned in November 1969 on account of ill health. [More…]

• It was not an easy portfolio at a time when costs in health and living were rising and men on repatriation benefits were suffering the pinch of fixed incomes or only spasmodically assisted incomes. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• On 4th March last I was privileged to announce in the House the details of the Government’s decision to implement its new health benefits plan. [More…]

• This decision was influenced to a very large degree by the recommendations of the Commonwealth Committee of Enquiry into Health Insurance - the Nimmo Committee - and the plan will bring into effect the major recommendations made by that Committee relating to medical benefits and the administration of the voluntary health insurance organisations. [More…]

• At the same time the new health benefits plan will retain the basic principles which the Government believes are essential in any national welfare measure. [More…]

• The Bill now before the House provides the machinery for the payment of higher rates of Commonwealth and fund medical benefits, introduces new measures concerned with the administration of registered medical and hospital benefits organisations and provides assistance on a wider scale towards the cost of health insurance for families on low incomes. [More…]

• The First Schedule sets out the new rates of Commonwealth benefit payable for each medical service and replaces the schedule of Commonwealth benefits contained in the present National Health Act. [More…]

• The Government believes that patients will continue to respect the judgment of their general practitioner as to whether they require specialist attention and that the protection against the cost of specialist treatment afforded by the new health benefits plan will not in any way prejudice the traditional relationships between patients and their general practitioners. [More…]

• Upon the conclusion of those discussions a decision will be taken regarding any referral conditions to be prescribed by regulations - one proposal to be examined in this regard is that, to be valid for the purposes of the National Health Act, a referral should be in writing and on an official form. [More…]

• The identification of specialists for the purposes of the health benefits plan has also received the Government’s attention. [More…]

• However, not all Stales have implemented legislation providing for the registration of specialists and because of this, the Bill provides machinery for the recognition of specialists for the purposes of the National Health Act. [More…]

• As in the past, proposals to vary contribution rates will be examined by the Registration Committee established under section 70 of the National Health Act and approved by the Minister for Health before being put into effect. [More…]

• As I have stated on many previous occasions and emphasise again now, the Government strongly supports the common fee concept primarily because we earnestly desire to provide the Australian people with a substantial degree of security against the cost of medical treatment The Government is also cognizant of the desirability of conducting the health benefits plan in such a way that the standards of medical practice and the legitimate interests of the medical profession are effectively safeguarded. [More…]

• I wish to turn now to the position of low income families under the new health benefits plan. [More…]

• In October 1969 the National Health Act was amended to provide free health insurance for persons receiving unemployment and sickness benefits, for families with weekly incomes not exeeding $39 and for migrants during their first 2 months in Australia. [More…]

• As a result of the increase in the Commonwealth minimum weekly wage in December 1969 it is proposed to increase the eligibility level for full health insurance for low income families to $42.50 per week. [More…]

• The Bill also provides for graduated assistance toward the costs of contributing for health insurance to families with weekly incomes not exceeding $48.50. [More…]

• In conclusion, I wish to advise honourable members that to facilitate the understanding of the amendments proposed by this Bill, it is intended to make available to the House a memorandum containing a consolidation of the National Health Act as it would appear after amendment by this Bill. [More…]

• I therefore urge the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) to ask the appropriate people in his Department, possibly in co-operation with the Minister for the Interior (Mr Nixon), to set up such a unit in Canberra where, 1 think we all would agree, so many valuable lives could be saved and to see whether money could be given to the States or to teaching hospitals to enable city hospitals and ambulance services to establish such emergency units. [More…]

• I commend this matter to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• the Board is satisfied, after he has undergone a medical examination approved by the Board, as to his health and physical fitness; [More…]

• That regulation 2 of the amendments of the Public Health, Medical and Dental Inspection of School Children Regulations as contained in the Australian Capital Territory Regulations 1970, No. [More…]

• 2, made under the Public Health Act 1928-1966 be disallowed. [More…]

• Mr Jago, the Minister for Health in New South Wales, pointed out in 1968 that the best that State could do towards providing funds for public hospital works in 1968 was $20m, and yet the magnitude of the need for funds in this area was $200in. [More…]

• Yet hospitals are undoubtedly the most important area of our health service to the community. [More…]

• As important as improved health or medical insurance is, more important is the need for adequate provision to be made in the area of public hospital services because we want to overcome grim situations that exist in relation to antiquated buildings which, very loaded as they are, are serving as public hospitals. [More…]

• It is a grave situation and it is the result of a continuous rundown in the standard of services and of the deficiency in the finances of the States for the provision of health services. [More…]

• This calls for some sort of rational planning of national health services in Australia. [More…]

• T say ‘health services’ because it is more than a matter of merely providing hospitals in the community. [More…]

• I am talking about health services in their totality for the total man. [More…]

• The Labor Party’s approach would be to establish a national health services commission which would work in conjunction and close co-operation with the States. [More…]

• It would set about establishing criteria on priority development of community health services according to need. [More…]

• Ancillary to the development of hospitals on a regional basis would be the focussing of attention on community health centres. [More…]

• The health centres would require the development of paramedical services as’ an ancillary part of the functioning of those centres. [More…]

• These are absolutely essential if we are going to provide comprehensive community health services for the public. [More…]

• The Labor Party would investigate ways in which assistance could be provided for the doctors operating these health centres to employ paramedical services for the benefit of the community. [More…]

• Clearly what is required in Australia is some sort of commission of inquiry such as a Royal commission into the health services and needs of the Australian public, and this information would serve as the basis for the development of our programme. [More…]

• There is no parallel between this system and the United Kingdom situation - a system so admired by the Australian Labor Party - where everything is tax financed, where there is no contribution by the patient to hospitals and where for 20 years after the introduction of the national health service not one new hospital was built. [More…]

• I am not surprised at all, because what the Labor Party wants to do is to divert public attention from the very attractive new health benefits plan proposed by the Government which is enshrined in the legislation that I introduced into the House yesterday - a health benefits plan which on the medical side is so much better than the one that the Labor Party put forward last year on the basis of a scheme proposed by a couple of academic economists. [More…]

• The members of the Labor Party must raise a hue and cry now before our equally attractive arrangements in respect of hospitals are worked out after we have consulted fully with the States on the basis of the recommendations of the Commonwealth Committee of Inquiry on Health Insurance, commonly known as the Nimmo Committee. [More…]

• 1 call the Minister for Health. [More…]

• This was the outcome of the 1969 conference of Health Ministers. [More…]

• I would like to deal with one or two of the comments made by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes). [More…]

• If one judges it just on buildings, then the Minister might be quite correct in claiming that in the 20 years following the introduction of the national health scheme in that country no new hospitals had been provided. [More…]

• The simple reason, which he seems to forget, is that the national health scheme was financed and run by a Conservative Government which had no intention of doing anything about this aspect of health care. [More…]

• I would be interested to learn whether a welt-known medical author stated this as a criticism of the health scheme in Britain. [More…]

• In any case, the Australian Labor Party is not advocating the British health scheme. [More…]

• The second recommendation of the Committee includes these words: employer deduction of health insurance premiums from employees’ pay is of great value in reducing the cost of collecting premiums and in saving employees from suffering loss of coverage through omission to pay contributions; [More…]

• The next point I refer to in the report reads: competition for membership between insurance organisations adds considerably to the cost of providing a health insurance service and for this reason is being terminated in the Canadian system: [More…]

• There should be a national health insurance scheme run by the Government. [More…]

• Of course, the Committee could not say that because under its terms of reference ils recommendations had to be within the framework of voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• On the subject of hospital deficits I would point out that it has been traditional for costs that might occur between budgets and between adjustments in benefits under the national health scheme to be part of the financial responsibility of the States. [More…]

• The fact that the only positive proposition put forward by the honourable member for Oxley was a community health centre system is evidence of the Opposition’s desire completely to nationalise every aspect of health and hospital administration in Australia. [More…]

• Let me deal with the community health centres proposed by the Opposition. [More…]

• This is the kind of proposition that has been seen to fail in the United Kingdom under its national health scheme. [More…]

• The proposals advanced by the honourable member for Oxley with regard to health and medical services are hopeless. [More…]

• I think it is very clear to all honourable members, and certainly to the community at large, that the Opposition does not have a health policy. [More…]

• I pay a tribute to the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) for his patience this afternoon. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) has said that in Australia patients can obtain a bed almost at will at any level at which they desire. [More…]

• The Government is very fond of accusing the Labor Party of dragging in red herrings by comparing with a scheme in Canada or some other country any aspect of the health scheme. [More…]

• With regard to the attitude of the people of the United Kingdom to their health scheme - I am not saying that complacent people are always correct - they are fairly satisfied over there, according to gallup polls, while only a minority are satisfied in this country. [More…]

• 78% of the people were satisfied with’ the national health service as it then Was, [More…]

• So this is bo argument against the British health scheme. [More…]

• As the honourable member for Maribyrnong has just told us, this is not health; finance is not health; insurance is not health and government is not health. [More…]

• We need a little more than what the Nimmo report can give us if we are to have adequate hospital and health care in this country. [More…]

• In other words the Government cannot improve the hospital benefits scheme until it has improved the health scheme altogether. [More…]

• The Minister said that the States have to consider the Nimmo proposals among themselves before the council of Health Ministers can act any further on this scheme. [More…]

• I would like to ask the Minister whether the State Health Ministers met on this. [More…]

• I would like to know when the Minister met with these State Health Ministers. [More…]

• Did it ever occur to the Minister that the State Health Ministers would not confer and bring matters to him white they were waiting for him to convene this conference and that they had not got together? [More…]

• Would it be right to give Queensland some compensations for all along having thrown a spanner in the works of the health scheme of this country by not joining the Commonwealth in an endeavour to provide this country with a really workable hospital and medical scheme - a total health scheme - which will give the people of Australia the service that we believe they deserve? [More…]

• The medical side was improved by the Bill that was introduced by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) only yesterday. [More…]

• The responsibility for handling the hospital side of the health scheme is inherently and inevitably in the province of the States. [More…]

• This point was made very strongly by the Minister for Health, who is extremely conscious of the whole situation. [More…]

• to it that the best possible health service is provided for the people who are in need. [More…]

• I remind the House that in the great majority of health benefit tables a refund is made of the total amount of the hospital bill. [More…]

• It is only now that measures- are being provided to enable people on the lower income scale to have their hospitalisation and medical treatment handled by the health benefits . [More…]

• This side of the House thoroughly supports the Minister for Health in trying to shape a very much better scheme for the people than they now have. [More…]

• I maintain, and will continue to maintain, that the system that we have at present is so good that anybody who would look to the Socialist health schemes of England and Canada as a means of improving it just does not understand the interpretation of the individualistic spirit of the Australian people. [More…]

• I recall then referring to the words of the English essayist, Sidney Smith, who in 1843 said that a comfortable house is a great source of happiness, health and good conscience. [More…]

• I notice that the Minister for Health is taking notes of these points and I know that he will refer them to the Minister for Housing in the very near future. [More…]

• I remind the Minister for Health, who is sitting at the table, of my personal dissatisfaction with the home valuation cutoff point of $17,500 as it affects people who have paid a wee bit more than that figure and also with the diminishing value of the $500 grant which is made. [More…]

• I think - and I say this advisedly to the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) who is at the table and who has had a lifetime of experience in these matters- [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware that patients in mental hospitals in South Australia are being denied both hospital and pension benefits purely on the ground that they are unfortunately suffering from a mental illness and not a physical illness? [More…]

• Finally, will the Minister table in the House the charter adopted by the State Ministers for Health at their conference last year on this particular matter? [More…]

• My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• ask: Has the Minister in his meetings with representatives of the medical profession on the new health proposals discussed in any way with them a common time for consultation in association with the common fee? [More…]

• Since there is every reason to believe that the situation revealed in Queensland Government settlements for Aboriginals is widespread - namely, that there is a dangerously high mortality rate among infants after weaning, and permanent health and brain damage ensues for many survivors - will the Minister take steps to create a service to doctors, infant health officers and nutritionists to remedy the situation as rapidly as possible? [More…]

• We called it the Workshop on Aboriginal Health, lt was held last December under the joint sponsorship of the Department of Health and the Office of Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• The conference discussed the position of Aboriginal health and came up with a large number of proposals for investigation and . [More…]

• Professor Maxwell and Dr Elliott in the Northern Territory have a project going concerning Aboriginal health. [More…]

• In New South Wales we have put in $25,000 for community nurses in various rural outback areas, sessional fees to medical practitioners for ante-natal and postnatal care of Aboriginals, and we have got $36,000 which is going out in subsidies to the Far West Children’s Health Service, Bush Nursing Association, Western Shire Dental Service, Daughters of Charity at Moree. [More…]

• It follows therefore that the problems of Kingsford-Smith are virtually the problems of the nation, whether they relate to health, housing, pollution or any other matter. [More…]

• The New South Wales State Government has to spend more on education and health alone than it receives from the Commonwealth. [More…]

• This is an indictment of any federal system which has a responsibility for health. [More…]

• 5m to health? [More…]

• The standards of health and education in Asia are poor. [More…]

• I feel that the Committee would be remiss if the Minister in charge of this legislation at the table now, the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), did not take the opportunity to convey publicly the reason why the Government has resisted the overtures made on behalf of the credit union movement. [More…]

• I am quite certain that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) who is representing in this place the Minister for Housing (Senator Dame Annabelle Rankin) interprets the term ‘by way of housing loans’ to mean not loans for assistance in the purchase of homes which credit unions are providing at present but complete loans for the purchase of homes. [More…]

• May I say, before commenting on those clauses, that the Minister for Health, who is in charge of the Bill in this Committee, has not seen fit to reply to Opposition members’ contentions or views. [More…]

• By way of example, I should like to refer to a comment made by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), representing the Minister for Housing (Senator Dame Annabelle Rankin), in the debate on land prices on 19th March 1970. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), who is at the table, did not introduce this legislation, but since he is acting in this place at the moment for the Minister for Housing (Senator Dame Annabelle Rankin) perhaps he will answer a query that I have concerning the Bill. [More…]

• I will be brief but before we move out of the Committee stage 1 desire to ask the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), who is at the table, not to make cross-interjections but to answer the question asked by the honourable member for Banks (Mr Martin). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What fee was granted to chemists in 1961 for dispensing National Health Service prescriptions. [More…]

• Since 1961, chemists’ remuneration for dispensing National Health prescriptions has comprised a dispensing fee of 30 cents for a readyprepared benefit and 55 cents for an extemporaneouslyprepared benefit, together with a mark-up (calculated on the wholesale price of the benefit) which is 33&% for ready-prepared benefits and 50% for extemporaneously-prepared benefits. [More…]

• and (4) Chemists’ remuneration for dispensing National Health prescriptions was last reviewed in mid-1969, when the Government decided that payments to chemists for dispensing National Health prescriptions would remain unaltered. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health able to say how many major Australian public hospitals have intensive care units and resuscitation units with the latest monitoring and resuscitation equipment? [More…]

• But it appears to me that my remark has rather stung honourable gentlemen opposite who for their own political purposes have represented the Australian hospital and health system in the worst possible light. [More…]

• I address a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Among other places, I will refer the question to the Morbidity Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council which, I am sure, will be interested in it. [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I will make the additional point that in general if these points that honourable members opposite are making from the depths of their technical knowledge are valid and relevant ones in relation to the hospital systems no doubt they will be brought forward by the State Ministers for Health and their departments in the discussions thar are currently going on but it is their responsibility to run the hospital systems and it is their responsibility to decide if these points are .significant in relation to the standards of their hospitals. [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• 1. see the present recommendation before us as symptomatic of the general failure of the Government to plan adequately for health services for the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• Construction of the Calvary Hospital has been shifted to an indeterminate date, if we can accept the public statement of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) released in February this year. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has been saying ‘as soon as possible’ to the people interested in the Calvary Hospital for about the past decade. [More…]

• The Minister for Health said: ‘Is the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden) suggesting that we build both hospitals together?’ [More…]

• Is this not typical of the whole pattern of health and hospital services in Australia? [More…]

• We will not promise the community that death duties can be lifted because there are great calls on the Government for finance for education, health and other things that we know about. [More…]

• 1 would like to refer to a remark made by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) on 15th April in this House. [More…]

• The medical audit deals with the life and health of people: The financial audit is concerned only with money. [More…]

• The most recent available document which surveys the types of social security schemes operating overseas is the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare’s publication ‘Social Security Programmes Throughout the World 1967’, which gives the principal features of schemes inthe following countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Ceylon, Chad, Chile, China (Nationalist), China (Communist), Colombia, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Dahomey, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Germany (Federal Republic), Germany (East), Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea (South), Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Luxembourg, Malagasy Republic, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Arab Republic, United Kingdom, United States of America, Upper Volta, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam (South), Vietnam (North), Yugoslavia, Zambia. [More…]

• The complexity and diversity of the schemes operating in the countries surveyed by the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare are such that it is not possible to provide a concise and accurate summary, and hence the publication mentioned above is recommended to the honourable member. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is it true that the Department of Health is preparing a large scale leaflet campaign to explain the Government’s health scheme? [More…]

• As I explained in the statement J made to the House early in March and in my second reading speech on the National Health Bill, it is the view of the Government that, for the common fee system to work, it is vitally important that everybody have a knowledge not only of the common fees themselves but of the way in which the system works. [More…]

• I would make the point in relation to the remainder of the honourable gentleman’s question that the benefits which will be obtained by the public, when the new health benefits plan is operating, will be immeasurable, and in order of importance this is very much greater and has a very much higher priority than the matters which the honourable member chose to raise. [More…]

• I would also like to ask a question of the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is it a fact, as alleged recently by the Victorian Graziers Association, that in August 1969 a report on tenders for incinerators called by the Melbourne Harbour Trust was submitted to the Commonwealth Department of Health and that a particular tender was recommended for acceptance? [More…]

• Department of Health has informed the Melbourne Harbour Trust that an incinerator of only half the size need be constructed if the garbage is sorted before being placed in the incinerator, a process thought by many to be either very difficult or virtually, impossible? [More…]

• Has the Minister for Health seen a report of the Victorian Civil Ambulance’s bed bureau which slates that one Melbourne hospital has shut down completely due to staff shortages and that more than 250 hospital beds in Victoria are out of action due to lack of staff? [More…]

• In the normal course of events in relation to my responsibilities as Commonwealth Minister for Health the facts of this situation would not be brought to my attention. [More…]

• They would be brought to the attention of the person who is responsible for this matter, that is, the Victorian Minister for Health. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health a question supplementary to that asked him by my Deputy. [More…]

• I point out that his Department has in the past issued pamphlets on health matters, such as medical benefits, in the same way and form as the Department of Social Services and the Repatriation Department issue pamphlets relevant to their activities and that these pamphlets are made available, in the case of his Department, to doctors for distribution in their surgeries. [More…]

• If a corporation board is operated to give advice in an area of health services in the community quite clearly qualified people will be needed to sit on it. [More…]

• One could not object to a doctor sitting on the board on the basis that he has a special interest in that section of the health services and would therefore seek to give a loading in support of that area in which he is interested. [More…]

• Again I would like to draw attention to the health hazards that are experienced by many surfers who use the beaches around our urban areas. [More…]

• More and more we are coming to appreciate that the preservation of our environment is a factor in public health and mental hygiene, and in the Indian, Southern and. [More…]

• They were against him on the health scheme, against him on the Industrial Development Corporation, against him for excessive gagging on debates in the House and against him for his treatment of mc States in the offshore minerals legislation . [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Commonwealth benefit of $2.00 per day in respect of qualified patients accommodated in premises approved as nursing homes under the provisions of the National Health Act, without the need for the patients to be insured, was introduced on 1st January 1963. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Do the members of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s sub-committee (in medical research in Aboriginals include (a) a physical anthropologist, (b) a dental scientist and (c) a pediatrician. [More…]

• The Medical Research in Aborigines (Reference) Sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council considers proposals for medical research projects, involving Aboriginals, referred to it by the Chairman of Council or the Medical Research Advisory Committee of Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The effect which relaxations of the means test have on the use and cost of State hospital facilities was discussed at the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference held in Adelaide on 1 8th- 20th June 1969. [More…]

• At that stage it was considered that the question of increasing benefits for hospitalisation of pensioners was a matter which could be more appropriately dealt with in conjunction with the relevant proposals of the Commonwealth Committee of Enquiry into Health Insurance (Nimmo Committee). [More…]

• The question was again discussed at the Australian Health Minister’s Conference held in Hobart on 4th-6th March 1970. [More…]

• It was agreed that the Commonwealth Government’s plans to reconstruct the medical benefit schedule cleared the way for closer consideration of other aspects of health insurance in which the Nimmo Committee had made recommendations, including the matter of Commonwealth payment to State hospitals for treatment of pensioners. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What have been the operating expenses of the medical benefits organisations in each year since they were first registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The operating expenses, including Special Account, of the medical benefits organisations in each year since they were first registered under the National Health Act are detailed hereunder, together with the percentage of contributions these expenses represented: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What have been the aggregate reserves of the medical benefits organisations at the end of each year since they were first registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The aggregate reserves, including the Outstanding claims Provision, of the medical benefits organisations at the end of each year since they were first registered under the National Health Act are detailed hereunder, together with the percentage of contributions which the increase in these reserves each year represented: [More…]

• Medical and hospital benefit organisations registered under the National Health Act are not required to have a specific rule dealing with the disposition of their assets and reserves in the event of winding-up. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health upon notice: [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has stated that health education is probably the most effective way to attack the smoking problem, and my Department has co-operated in the provision of this education to school children within the Commonwealth internal Territories. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon novice: (J.) [More…]

• Did the National Health and Medical Research Council recommend to Commonwealth and State Ministers for Health (a) that all cigarette packets should carry a warning of the danger of smoking and a statement indicating the tar and nicotine content of the cigarette and (b) the restriction on all forms of advertising of cigarettes. [More…]

• The Governments of all States except New South Wales have indicated their intention of taking action in respect of 1 (a) for warning labels, and Victoria has passed an amendment to its Health Act to enable the making of labelling provisions by Regulation. [More…]

• A sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council has been set up, at the request of the Health Ministers’ Conference, to consider standard analytical methods for determining the ‘tar’ and nicotine content of tobacco smoke. [More…]

• The Medical Research in Aborigines (Reference) Sub-committee of the Natonal Health and Medical Research Council considers proposals for medical research projects, involving Aborigines, referred to it by the Chairman of Council or the Medical Research Advisory Committee of Council. [More…]

• Whilst not opposing the Bill because it represents some improvement this House is of opinion that a National Health Insurance Commission financed from graduated contributions would pay for medical and hospital services for all more equitably and economically’. [More…]

• If nothing else has been established by the manner in which the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) has handled his portfolio so far at least 2 points become irrebuttably identified. [More…]

• Can the nation have faith and trust in a man who, until his Party’s trau matic experiences at the last election, asserted frequently, loudly and overbearingly the unqualified virtues of the Government’s so called voluntary health insurance scheme? [More…]

• Indeed, can there be confidence in the claims of such a man when today we have what is a major recasting of the National Health Act which covers that insurance scheme? [More…]

• What credibility can be invested in a Minister who engineers an election promise of his Party - reform of the health insurance scheme - based on the fundamental principle of making it more expensive for those able to remain within its framework as contributors, and then after the election blandly admitting his costing of the alterations was. [More…]

• The Minister’s statement in March and his second reading speech on this Bill are public admissions of the Government’s humiliation on health insurance policy. [More…]

• His statement refers to adherence to the common fee as a factor vital to the success of the new health benefits plan. [More…]

• If this is in tact true the promises of the Government and its dogmatic assurances to the general public, as distinct from undertakings by the Minister for Health to the general practitioners, mean completely different things. [More…]

• The Bill does not deal with the Minister’s promise, made somewhat earlier in the session, that a health insurance commission would be set up. [More…]

• be kept down h health insurance in Australia? [More…]

• By the very nature of health services costs will increase at a faster rate than comparable costs for other services in the community. [More…]

• To a large extent this is unavoidable because of the complex and extremely expensive nature of research - of improved treatment in health services - but this is no justification for allowing completely unfettered increases to occur. [More…]

• From all the evidence one can gain by international comparisons, voluntary health insurance schemes are inherently inflationary and the inflation occurs at a much faster rate than is the case where universal schemes operate. [More…]

• The experience is that universal schemes hold down the rate of increase much more successfully than do voluntary health insurance schemes. [More…]

• As a percentage of the gross national product the cost of health services in the United Kingdom in 1948 was 3.54%. [More…]

• What must be remembered in all this is that Great Britain not only has been more successful than the United States in holding down the rate of increase in the cost of health services but also gives a comprehensive cover to all members of the community. [More…]

• So one can readily comprehend the comparative advantages favouring a universal system of health insurance. [More…]

• Let me compare the American scheme with ours because it will be seen that the American scheme, which is based on voluntary health insurance, is collapsing. [More…]

• After 1 have done this I will move on to a comparison of the Labor Party’s proposals for universal health insurance and the Canadian scheme, thus upholding my argument that universal health insurance is more successful in containing cost increases than is a so-called voluntary health insurance scheme based on a multiplication of competing insurance organisations, each involving unnecessary cost which is a dead loss to the contributor and to the scheme. [More…]

• The clamour for some kind of national health plan is already drowning out the shouts against Socialism and it has been heard on Capitol Hill. [More…]

• Perhaps as early as 1971 Congress will start formulating a national health care programme. [More…]

• In America the national health bill per capita has increased by $293 - more than twice the level of a decade ago - and is still climbing at a breathtaking rate. [More…]

• Since 1966 the cost of health in the United States has been rising at an average of 7% per annum, which is well above the rate of increase in other consumer prices. [More…]

• In his publication Economic Policy in Australia’, Mr B. Mc Far lane points out in a table that in 1959-60 the per head cost of health was $58 and in 1965-66 it had increased to $90 - an increase of 55% in 7 years. [More…]

• Firstly, one gains an appreciation of how significantly rapid is the rate of increase in the cost of maintaining health services. [More…]

• Certainly this is true in the field of health services. [More…]

• of medical insurance or even of hospital insurance we are only skirmishing around the periphery of a very big problem which involves an approach towards community health services based on an integrated arrangement of those services focused on regionalised public hospitals. [More…]

• Perhaps I ought to revert to the case of the United States where the Committee for National Health Insurance has recommended universal cover in health insurance and a regionalisation of services based on a fund to which contributions would come from the employer, the employee and the Federal [More…]

• It is amazing then that we find the conservative Government of Australia appalled at any suggestion that we ought to introduce universal health insurance to the community. [More…]

• As Dr Salkind, former Secretary of the British General Practitioners Association, has stated: ‘We must have national health. [More…]

• Private health is just too expensive.’ [More…]

• In 1967, the year referred to in the latest figures I could obtain, we spent 5.5% of the gross national product on health services and the United Kingdom spent 4.18%. [More…]

• The latest national opinion polls show that in Great Britain 78% of the public is well satisfied with the national health system. [More…]

• In interpreting statements made from time to time in this House by the Minister for Health in reply to questions, it would seem that either the Australian system is twice as deficient as the British system or that it is only half as satisfactory as the British system. [More…]

• I want to make it quite clear at this point that the British scheme is not related to the Australian Labor Party’s scheme, contrary to the windmil’l which the Minister for Health likes to joust out from time to time. [More…]

• Our scheme merely is concerned with the funding of health insurance in Australia to make sure that adequate money is available in this important area. [More…]

• Clearly it is a case of public responsibility to ensure that adequate health cover is available for the public. [More…]

• It seems that not only the Minister for Health is intent on misrepresenting the proposals of the Australian Labor Party. [More…]

• It seems that Sir Clarence Rieger is playing a rather droll Cervantes to the rather dull Don Quixote of the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Government’s proposal aims at making the health service more expensive to the public. [More…]

• That is the magnitude of increased cost which must be borne by the unfortunate contributor and taxpayer in Australia to resuscitate temporarily a flagging medical and health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Practitioners Association that it had an assurance from the Director-General of Health in Australia speaking on behalf of the Government. [More…]

• It clearly conflicts with undertakings given by both the Minister for Health and the Prime Minister to the Australian public. [More…]

• If the association is correct, this takes us back to square one in this unhappy game of trying to keep the health insurance system operating. [More…]

• The Minister for Health groans. [More…]

• Health insurance contributions are already as high as most people are prepared to pay. [More…]

• If the Nimmo Committee - this expert Committee which, after its broadside, left the Government in a state of shell shock and the Minister in a state of numbed silence, although not many people detected much difference - made this finding how can the Government justify its latest step of increasing the cost of health insurance to the Australian consumer? [More…]

• What it is trying to do is ration health protection according to means and the slipshod half measures which are put before the Government at present can at best only temporarily defer the collapse of the scheme. [More…]

• What the Nimmo Committee was trying to get at was that if we regionalise the activities of the open funds to some extent we can eliminate some of the unnecessary cost factor and contain costs which are the bugbear of health services in the community. [More…]

• MacLeans Journal of 18th September 1965, not long after the health insurance scheme began operating in Canada, said: [More…]

• This again is a reply to the claims of the Minister for Health and bis unthinking supporters on the Government side who like to echo the thoughtless words the Minister uses as criticism of our scheme. [More…]

• been , a justified increase arising from people having a need fulfilled which in the past they have been unable to satisfy because they could not afford health protection. [More…]

• We should contrast this with the experience in the United States of America which has a similar voluntary health system. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, as is his wont because he works to a high misrepresentation factor on a lot of these issues when it suits him, said in the House of Representatives on 9th September when relating the Canadian scheme to the Australian Labor Party proposals: [More…]

• Because of what the Minister for Health said here, I wrote to the Canadian Minister for Health, Mr Munro, and he replied with some sense of passionate feeling as follows: [More…]

• The experience in Canada under that universal scheme compared to that of the United States of America is further evidence for my argument that universal schemes are more successful in keeping down costs of health insurance. [More…]

• In the period 1963-66 in the province of Saskatchewan the per capita cost of physicians’ services under the new arrangements for health and medical1 insurance increased at an annual rate of just under 4.9%. [More…]

• I like to quote from official documents from the Canadian Government because it saves the Minister for Health from making the error, as is his characteristic, of misunderstanding and therefore misreporting what the Canadian experience has been. [More…]

• The other problems we are confronted with in Australia today are the problems which the Hall Commission, a royal commission on medical and health services in Canada, grappled with. [More…]

• It is a concept for the funding of health protection in Australia and it is the sort of proposal which would be accepted by any reasonably minded and responsibly directed government. [More…]

• With universal health insurance we can get a better distribution of doctors because they know it will still pay them to go into the poorer areas. [More…]

• Under universal health insurance these risks are eliminated and adequate income is guaranteed. [More…]

• Health protection for all people in the community, regardless of means, is available. [More…]

• Our scheme would provide treatment according to need and would not be inhibited by the cost factors preventing low income earners who, although they may be above the margin provided by the government subsidy, nevertheless find cost to be an inhibiting factor in obtaining health protection. [More…]

• We are not talking about state health. [More…]

• We are talking about a public responsibility to ensure that all people have adequate health protection. [More…]

• I regret that I cannot deal with this any further, nor can 1 deal with what I feel is the real central issue - the real challenge before Australia today - that is, the total supply of health services. [More…]

• What are we to do about the provision of community health services? [More…]

• We need a foundation to foster investment in research and development of health services. [More…]

• The health care of a developing community such as ours is one of the most important and, at the same time, one of the most difficult tasks of government. [More…]

• In considering a health plan one has to steer a course between 2 dangers. [More…]

• The third principle is that the national expenditure on health must rema n in balance with our expenditure in other areas such as education, national development and social welfare. [More…]

• This new health benefits plan has had some vicissitudes and there are still some anomalies in the proposed fees which will have to be corrected; but basically the plan is sound. [More…]

• In this country, where we are endeavouring to achieve an efficient voluntary health scheme the co-operation of many parties is required. [More…]

• If this co-operation can be maintained a voluntary health scheme will work better for the community than any compulsory socialistic scheme, but if this co-operation falters there will be pressures from the community for a system of nationalised medicine, and this would be a disastrous step for the health care of the community. [More…]

• To avoid the muddle and inefficiency of nationalised health services we must all work together to sustain and improve the voluntary scheme, of which this new health benefits plan is a vital component. [More…]

• The first principle of the voluntary health scheme is that no-One shall be denied reasonable medical care because of his financial status. [More…]

• Although this new health benefits plan greatly improves the fairness of the health scheme, one great anomaly remains. [More…]

• This deduction, coupled with the assistance given to low income families who pay their insurance premiums, produces this situation: People on below $42.50 a week get Government assistance to pay all their health insurance premiums; people on less than $45.50 a week and more than $61.50 a week get two-thirds of their insurance premiums paid for them; people on less than $48.50 a week and more than $70 a week get one-third of their insurance premiums paid for them; and the people in the middle - that is those on between $48.50 and $70 a week - get least. [More…]

• The best estimate the Legislative Research Service could provide for me was that the deductions allowed for health benefits contributions reduce Treasury revenue by about $30m a year. [More…]

• I think we should consider eliminating the income tax deductions for insurance premiums and use the $30m increase in Federal revenue to increase the Commonwealth contribution to health benefits and thus reduce the insurance contributions of everyone equally. [More…]

• No matter how good our health insurance arrangements are, they will avail us little if we do not have enough doctors, lt has been suggested that this new health benefits plan will cause a decline in the prestige of general practice and a fall in the number of general practitioners. [More…]

• The decline in general practice is a world wide trend, and the trend is most advanced in the United States, the country the health policy of which is most under the control of the medical profession. [More…]

• Although the three suggestions I have made concerning the general practitioners are primarily the constitutional concern of the States, I believe the Federal Government must act as an initiator and catalyst in trying to solve the problem, because the general practitioner is an essential component of an efficient and satisfying health system. [More…]

• This new health benefits plan will minimise the financial problems of the patient. [More…]

• We must supplement these financial provisions with initiatives aimed at ensuring that the general practitioner remains, as the family doctor, the keystone of the health system. [More…]

• Today we are debating this Government’s panic amendments to prop up the failing health legislation. [More…]

• Until about 3 years ago the Australian Medical Association and the Minister for Health talked about Australia’s leadership in this sphere of health schemes. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Whitlam), with the help of such medical economists as Messrs Scotton and Deeble from the Institute of Applied Economic Research at the University of Melbourne, not only exposed the iniquities of the Liberal scheme but went further and proposed Labor’s alternative national health programme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, a man with impressive academic qualifications, has doggedly defended the present scheme. [More…]

• I feel that his statements often have obviously been briefs from the Voluntary Health Insurance Council, a pressure group financed by some of the larger funds. [More…]

• We have reached the stage where Sir Clarence Rieger, Federal President of the AMA, is also a director of one of the South Austraiian medical funds and the President of the Voluntary Health Insurance Council. [More…]

• We never know when he is speaking as the Federal President of the AM A and when he is speaking as the representative of the Medical Benefits Fund, but I feel, as a member of the AMA, that more often than not he is speaking as a representative of the Voluntary Health Insurance Council. [More…]

• Some weeks ago I asked the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) to supply these. [More…]

• Suddenly doctors all over the country are realising that the leadership of the AMA, which until recently they had supported as being ‘establishment’ and anti-Labor, is really acting in the interests of the highest echelons of the largest health funds. [More…]

• Although the Government parties had a majority on the Committee the Government panicked and on 18th April 1968, a fortnight later, appointed the Nimmo Committee to review the voluntary health insurance system in Australia. [More…]

• The Government’s aim was to divert attention from the Senate Select Committee and to take the heat off health insurance as an issue. [More…]

• The operation of the health insurance scheme is unnecessarily complex and beyond the comprehension of many. [More…]

• The cost of illness may include, in addition to hospital accommodation and treatment and medical services, a wide range of other services which have never been covered by the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Whilst future increases will be necessary from time to time as costs rise, health insurance contributions are in present circumstances as high as most people are prepared to pay and as many people can afford to pay. [More…]

• One of the questions that had been asked at the gallup poll in August was: Do you support the present system of health insurance, or do you support the ALP’s scheme?’ [More…]

• When challenged on this he rather characteristically did not bother to check w th his Minister for Health. [More…]

• He has allegedly had discussions with the AMA, the funds, dissident doctors - that is, those who have not received knighthoods for their services to medical politics - and State Health Ministers. [More…]

• There is how no reference to our National Health Insurance Commission to administer the health insurance programme and employers will now nor be obliged to collect and remit contributions on behalf of employees who elect to pay their contributions in this way. [More…]

• What the doctors opposing this are saying is that the poorer people should be financially, deterred from seeking specialist treatment in order to preserve the jam on the butter of general practice, lt opposes a fundamental concept of an effective national health service, which is that the best medical care should be available to everyone regardless of his financial resources. [More…]

• No health scheme such as this one will ever be fair or even effective and apparently only a Labor government will provide these changes. [More…]

• Even in the case of pensioners the Commonwealth, which pretends to shoulder financial responsibility for their health, only contributes $5 per day which is only 25% of the cost. [More…]

• What started off as a serious exercise in social engineering with the avowed purpose of removing the financial penalty that occurs through Hi-health, has become a battleground of pressure groups with the public left forgotten on the side lines. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, Dr Forbes, who is not even a member of the inner Cabinet, apparently interprets his position to be that of an adjudicator between pressure groups that have been institutionalised by Government machinery - listening to the health funds here, tut-tutting at the Australian Medical Association there, speaking sternly to hospitals everywhere. [More…]

• I can remember what happened when the national health scheme was introduced. [More…]

• When the Government first introduced this national health scheme the main thought was to see that the doctor’s bill was paid. [More…]

• I believe that many honourable members are better acquainted with this problem of health benefits than the Nimmo Committee has shown itself to be. [More…]

• Earlier today we heard the honourable member for Oxley, who led for the Opposition, move an amendment to the motion for the second reading in which he sought the appointment of a national health insurance commission to run medical and hospital services. [More…]

• Faced with the necessity to amend the structure of the medical side of the national health scheme the Government decided to go ahead firstly with the medical scheme. [More…]

• They are not prepared to face up to the fact that they have to make decisions concerning the health of people. [More…]

• The AMA had many consultations with the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) and the Minister addressed many AMA meetings. [More…]

• 1 wind up by saying that I have always maintained in this House that the national health scheme, as we understand the basis on which it works, gives the people of Australia a better health service than any I have been able to examine, whether in Canada or the United Kingdom, and certainly a lot better than the United States of America. [More…]

• We should stick to the principles upon which our present national health scheme is based. [More…]

• In doing that, I must confess that there are one or two matters in this National Health Bill about which I have some doubt and some query as to their success. [More…]

• However, following the establishment of the Nimmo Committee and what is now known as the Nimmo report’, it was obvious that the Government had to take steps to improve our national health scheme. [More…]

• I am sure that anybody who listened this afternoon to the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden) leading for the Opposition in the debate on this piece of legislation would, from the moment that the honourable member for Oxley finished, have been more confused than previously as to what the Australian Labor Party’s policy on health was, and I am sure that they would have nothing to do with any of the suggestions or ideas of the Opposition on this Health Bill. [More…]

• Even though I disagree with 1 or 2 things in this Bill, I congratulate the Minister on the task that he has performed and on the fact that he has made himself available to have discussions with various groups of people who are concerned with health matters. [More…]

• In fact, the concluding portions of the second reading speech of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), when he mentioned the position of low income families, bring home to us some of these problems. [More…]

• As a result of the increase in the Commonwealth minimum weekly wage in December 1969 it is proposed to increase the eligibility level for full health insurance for low income families to $42.50 per week. [More…]

• The Bill also provides for graduated assistance toward the cost of contributing for health insurance to families with weekly incomes not exceeding $48.50. [More…]

• 1 believe that 1 of the weaknesses in the national health scheme in the United Kingdom has been shown to be the fact that there is literally no responsibility on the people. [More…]

• But I believe that in any contributory national health scheme there should be an acceptance of a degree of responsibility by some of those who are receiving the benefit. [More…]

• But in the very large majority of cases the concern of the medical profession is that the health scheme work for the maximum benefit of the patient. [More…]

• First of all - no doubt the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), or. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party has no intention of waiting until the Constitution has been amended by referendum before it undertakes to do something about a national health scheme. [More…]

• If the hint - it is a very broad hint - contained in the Nimmo report is that a national health insurance scheme would be the best thing for the country, then I would suggest that that is probably what the facts show. [More…]

• One has to consider the purpose of this whole expensive exercise, the national health scheme. [More…]

• The Americans spend over 7% on their health service. [More…]

• The only point I want to make out of that is that health services are expensive wherever you go. [More…]

• Because you have a seemingly free health scheme, in the sense that you pay for it in tax rather than by direct contributions as the British do, it does not necessarily mean that therefore it will be more expensive, that there will be runaway expenses and that people will over-use the medical profession. [More…]

• Is it to ensure that the community has the best health services, or is it to ensure that the people can pay for whatever it is that they get? [More…]

• The exercise then is to ensure that the health service providers - the doctors and the hospitals - are paid for their services, irrespective of whether the person who receives the service is rich and able to pay for himself, or poor and clearly unable to pay for himself. [More…]

• I am concerned only with the specific payments for health insurance purposes. [More…]

• In the handling of payments to the providers of the health services, even if we do not improve on the present system one can accept the expenses of the so-called closed benefit funds now operating and show that the cost will be cut in half. [More…]

• This would be the effect if we were using in essence one closed fund, namely the national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• But the tragedy with all this discussion about money, money, money is that it is irrelevant to what should be the real concern of a national health scheme - that is the availability and quality of medical and hospital care. [More…]

• The data was obtained, Dr Lawson says, from the medical benefit organisations in New South Wales and Victoria and from the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• In the United Kingdom where there is a free health service, the operation rate was only 3.6 per 1,000. [More…]

• Once again, are British children much healthier than Australian children? [More…]

• In conclusion I should like to suggest that the whole business contained in this massive document - pages and pages of fee schedules - is irrelevant to the real problem facing this community in terms of health care. [More…]

• At the outset, therefore, I should congratulate the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) and his departmental officers who have worked so hard on the preparation of the broad scheme now embodied in the legislation and the detailed administrative machinery that it establishes. [More…]

• So it is with Labors proposed health scheme. [More…]

• This is certainly a misleading description of the Opposition’s health scheme lor it is nothing more nor less than Socialism and at its basis in practice is the nationalisation of the medical profession, despite assertions to the contrary by the honourable member for Maribyrnong. [More…]

• In its July-August 1969 number this publication set out the Labor Party’s health policy and described it with dewy eyed enthusiasm. [More…]

• I am in a quandary to this extent, that the honourable member for Maribyrnong asserted quite positively that the basis of the Labor Party’s health scheme was not one of nationalisation. [More…]

• Having disposed of the Labor Party’s health scheme - it is perhaps significant that I was able to do this in about 5 minutes - I would like to turn to two of the criticisms of this legislation that have been made by general practitioner bodies. [More…]

• 1 would have thought that by now there would be little argument about this, but I find that this is not so for the Section of General Practice of the New South Wal’es Branch of the Australian Medical Association has said in a document very recently sent to honourable members that the Government has misused the concept as originally presented by the AMA; that the concept was developed by the AMA as a guide for the Government and the health insurance funds in setting rebates - in other words, a private matter, as they describe it. [More…]

• With the establishment of such a schedule of benefits complaints from contributors about the amount to be paid in addition to rebates should disappear, except in an occasional case where a more than customary charge has been made; and here the complaint might well be levelled at the particular doctor, rather than at the National Health Scheme or the Funds. [More…]

• I must admit he left me speechless with his modesty with regard to his breadth of appreciation of relevant health services. [More…]

• The first is the very breadth of the subject matter which has been opened up and the second is my complete contempt for the theory of payment, the theory of revision of medical and health services contained in this Bill. [More…]

• It arises out of an investigation by a committee that was restricted in its terms to examine only voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• That committee did a good job within those terms but there are many other aspects of financing health services that should have been considered. [More…]

• Was the Government frightened when laying down the terms of reference that it would find its wailing over many years that this was the best type of health service was completely false, and was shown to be by a committee which it appointed? [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), figuratively dressed in the flowing robes of a Ph.D., gave a preliminary oration earlier and today we have dissected the whys and wherefors of the Government’s and medical profession’s responsibilities for financing. [More…]

• What is this patient concerned about in the provision of health services? [More…]

• Surely it cannot be said that this type of health Bill is just a measure for financing where the agreement is primarily between the Government and the patient. [More…]

• As he pointed out, these measures were used particularly in the Kaiser Prepaid Health Scheme. [More…]

• In addition, it provides for research and all the other factors that make a complete health service. [More…]

• This is something that this Bill does not propose although it is called a National Health Bill. [More…]

• I regret that the Minister for Health has no knowledge of this type of procedure although it is now pretty common knowledge amongst hospital administrators and doctors. [More…]

• Simple and all as it is, and with his wide discussions on these matters, the Minister for Health is unable to answer that question. [More…]

• What we have is really not voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• How can it be voluntary health insurance when there is such a large government contribution to make it viable? [More…]

• We hear that if our scheme for health services, paid for by a compulsory type insurance scheme, was instituted the payment by the Government would destroy the doctor-patient relationship. [More…]

• 1 remind the House that under Lloyd George there was a pretty substantial voluntary health insurance scheme in Great Britain between about 1911 and 1948. [More…]

• A royal commission on national health insurance in 1926 had this to say: [More…]

• The ultimate solution will be … in the direction of divorcing the medical service from the insurance system and recognising it, along with other public health activities, as a service to be supported from the general public funds. [More…]

• As long ago as 1926 voluntary health insurance was given that type of critique. [More…]

• There are only 4 ways of financing health services. [More…]

• Then there is voluntary health insurance, with all the defects that my colleagues have pointed out,- with all the inequities and with the cost bearing mostly on the lower income earner instead of being on a graded scale. [More…]

• Then there is compulsory health insurance. [More…]

• Under a compulsory health insurance scheme the moneys would come, as we have suggested, from a social security levy on taxable income or, as others have suggested from time to time, from the public purse. [More…]

• The sort of thing that is being forced through under the present voluntary health insurance scheme is shown in the reports of last year’s annual meeting of the Hospital Benefits Association, lt had 773,716 contributors at that stage. [More…]

• The contributors are the life blood of the voluntary health insurance organisation. [More…]

• This is the situation in which the voluntary health insurance organisations have been put under the present scheme. [More…]

• If I had time I could also cite from this document the amount of money used by the voluntary health insurance funds in straight out political manoeuvring. [More…]

• They say that they reserve the right to answer unfair criticism or to correct misunderstandings of the present system of health insurance. [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to the statement in the answer which the Minister for Health gave me on 26th September 1969 (Hansard, page 2162) that reliable figures on the number of registered nursing personnel in Australia are not available. [More…]

• The Statistician has advised that he is examining the practicability of obtaining separate classifications of ‘certified nurses’, ‘probationers or trainees’ and ‘nursing personnel not elsewhere classified’, for purposes of both the next Census and the annual returns from health and welfare institutions. [More…]

• The metropolitan governments responsible for Melanesian territories promote co-operation between them in the fields of health and economic and social development through the South Pacific Commission which was established in 1947 on the initiative of Australia and New Zealand. [More…]

• Border liaison arrangements are in force between Papua-New Guinea and the Indonesian Province of West Irian, and the administrative authorities of the two territories co-operate in such practical fields as health and quarantine procedures. [More…]

• Professor Sunderland’s recommendation against any substantial involvement by Australia in the Public Health field has been accepted. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• If so, will this tend to accelerate the relative decay of general practice and needlessly inflate the cost of the national health service. [More…]

• and (2) lt is proposed that higher benefits will be payable in respect of a number of services specified in the First Schedule to the National Health Act when they are carried out by a specialist in the practice of his speciality to whom a patient has been referred by another medical practitioner. [More…]

• In accordance with the practices ordinarily followed within the medical profession, the referring doctor will usually be the patient’s family doctor, lt is the Government’s objective that this proposal, which has been developed in the interests of patients, will be operated in such a way that it docs not have an adverse effect on general practice, or needlessly inflate the cost of the national health service. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the National Health and Medical Research Council made any recommendations relating to the free supply of oxygen to pensioners when required for medical reasons. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has not made any recommendations relating to the free supply of oxygen to pensioners when required for medical reasons. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In (960, the National Health and Medical Research Council recommended restrictions on television, press and radio advertising of cigarettes and tobacco, directed towards the younger age groups. [More…]

• The text of the Code, which resulted from discussions between the then Minister for Health, the Federation and the cigarette manufacturing industry is as follows: [More…]

• No advertising may claim special health properties for, or reduction of any ingredient from smoke of any cigarette unless backed by scientific authority. [More…]

• Cigarette advertising may use attractive, healthy looking models, or illustrations or drawings of persons who appear to be attractive and healthy, provided that there is no suggestion that their attractive appearance or good health is due to cigarette smoking. [More…]

• A sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council has been established at the request of the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference lo consider methods of analysis of cigarette smoke, for ‘tar’ and nicotine content. [More…]

• However, the National Health and Medical Research Council has stated that health education is probably the most effective way to attack the smoking problem. [More…]

• Education is generally the responsibility of State Governments, but the Commonwealth is co-operating in the provision of health education within Commonwealth internal Territories. [More…]

• I have not had an opportunity to read the transcript carefully but my recollection of what was said during the inquiry, reinforced by a quick examination of the transcript, leads me to the view that the Department felt that there could be some way to remedy the situation by the installation of architectural aids if it were found, as a result of the investigations of the special committee that is applying itself to this matter, that such a problem did represent a hazard, an inconvenience and a detriment to the health of the personnel concerned. [More…]

• As far back as February 1968 the Prime Minister (Mr Gorton) indicated to the House and to the people of Australia his intention of thoroughly reviewing and, when necessary, extensively improving the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• This was stated by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) when he made his statement in the House on 14th March of this year. [More…]

• As we all know, the GovernorGeneral in his Speech referred to the health scheme to be introduced during this session of the Parliament. [More…]

• We all know that the Nimmo Committee for 12 months or so investigated the question of public health in Australia, particularly the role of the Federal Government. [More…]

• I think all the people of Australia and the members in this Parliament realise that something does need to be done in the present circumstances in Australia to improve public health schemes. [More…]

• In such matters as health, social services and repatriation, what is needed and what 1 hope will ultimately be done is a review of the overall schemes starting from the ground roots, looking at the problems that confront us as a nation, looking for a solution and perhaps re-writing the whole programme of health services, repatriation and so on. [More…]

• Great problems in respect of health are brought about by the system of federation under which we live. [More…]

• Some aspects of health are under the control of States and some are under the control of the Commonwealth, and it is rather difficult to get a unanimous viewpoint on an improvement which will work for the betterment of the people as a whole. [More…]

• I appreciate particularly the work that the Minister for Health has done in bringing this legislation before the Parliament. [More…]

• The end result, as far as I can see, is a certain amount of confusion within the medical profession as to what is the best and most workable system for a health scheme such as is proposed by the Government at this time. [More…]

• I feel that both the medical profession and the Government as well as all responsible people realise that a health scheme will be workable only as long as the co-operation of people in the three spheres is obtained; I refer to the patients, the medical profession and the Government. [More…]

• Now, as we know, the Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, commonly known as the Nimmo Committee, did have over 12 months in which to consult and to investigate. [More…]

• Indeed, it was suggested by honourable members on this side of the House that the National Health Bill should be introduced and should be allowed to lie on the table so that the medical profession itself - those in its various spheres - would have time to consult and to be able to bring forward suggestions as to where it thought amendments should be carried out or where improvements should be made. [More…]

• lt is something that I feel the Minister for Health may well be prepared to do. [More…]

• 1 hope that the Government will be prepared to accept my suggestion and that it will allow at least a short time before the Bill passes through the Committee stages so that lay members of this Parliament may consult both with the Department of Health and with individual doctors and so bring about a health scheme which will be of advantage to Australia and to the patient and that will permit co-operation with the medical profession and solve some of the ills which are operative at present. [More…]

• It is the general practitioner who knows the circumstances of a family and the background of the children’s health, and who has treated that family for years and knows the ailments from which members of that family suffer. [More…]

• If this legislation is to encompass all the things that are necessary to assist people in meeting the cost of ill health, surely physiotherapists should have been included. [More…]

• The discusisons about the national health scheme during the 1969 election campaign involved a fairly pedantic consideration of costs. [More…]

• Whilst I believe that the medical profession is entitled to consideration in the formation of a new health scheme, it seems to me that it is one thing to afford consideration but that it is another thing to go overboard and to bc led by the nose to such an extent that the welfare of the community of this country has to take second place. [More…]

• This current crop of hastily prescribed antidotes to the nation’s ailing health scheme first and foremost, in my view, is a reflection of the recklessness of the Prime Minister (Mr Gorton) and the fact that he went into the election campaign without having properly prepared the grounds for the submissions he made on behalf of his Party. [More…]

• He was confronted by a carefully contrived and comprehensive health scheme that had been put forward in a lucid and documented form by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Whitlam). [More…]

• The Opposition’s proposals were designed to provide adequate coverage for a wider and more comprehensive range of health services than had ever before been contemplated in this country. [More…]

• Health services were to be financed on a fair and equitable basis by the utilisation of the taxation system. [More…]

• This survey of health care under the voluntary health insurance scheme and the evidence put before the Senate Select Committee on Hospital and Medical Costs highlighted the wasteful and extravagant features of the health scheme that has developed under 20 years of Liberal administration and under some years of the administration of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes). [More…]

• Left to placate the rising resentment of both the public and the medical profession is a harrassed and exasperated Minister for Health who does not seem to know where he is. [More…]

• It perpetuates the gross deficiencies in the existing health scheme. [More…]

• Among the many services still excluded from the health scheme of this country but included in the health schemes of other countries are a full and adequate dental and optical service, home nursing, physiotherapy, chiropractic services, geriatric and rehabilitation services, a variety of domiciliary services, and support for an effective outpatient system in hospitals. [More…]

• Instead we have but a facade of a health service, the principal purpose of which is to ensure the payment of doctors. [More…]

• Why was the Nimmo Committee denied the terms of reference necessary to enable it to undertake a comprehensive inquiry into all facets of Australia’s health services? [More…]

• Why was it prevented from inquiring into alternative methods of financing health services instead of being limited to the consideration of voluntary insurance? [More…]

• But the significant fact is that they are not covering 23% of the population, and among that percentage of course are the people who need health services most of all - the sick, the impoverished, those suffering from malnutrition, those who receive sickness benefits and the Aboriginal. [More…]

• These figures have been extracted from the annual report of the Department of Health. [More…]

• Over the last 8 years $100m in health insurance contributions has been diverted info activities which are not related to health services in any way at all. [More…]

• Is it pursuing the myth that there is some high principle in allowing people to be unprotected against the high cost of health services? [More…]

• Surely this is the possible sequel or product of a voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Perhaps a more equitable approach is to finance health services from taxation just as we finance education, social welfare and most other public services in this country. [More…]

• Why does the Government in relation to health matters and most social service matters take the view that everybody should pay the same amount regardless of their income. [More…]

• This is what the Government calls an improved health service. [More…]

• I think that this is an unnecessary doctrinaire encumbrance to this or any other health scheme. [More…]

• I believe that the day is fast approaching when a Labor Government will be called on to introduce an Australian health service which will be complete, equitable and humane. [More…]

• I am sure that when that day comes the important principle that will operate for the benefit of the people of this country will bc the availability of high quality health services. [More…]

• It is concerned not simply with financing a health scheme but with ensuring that there is quality in medical care and regard for the patient’s welfare. [More…]

• To that extent the proposal of the alternative scheme, the health scheme put forward by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Whitlam) at the last federal election, will represent a benefit and advantage to the entire Australian community. [More…]

• The Government is proposing, and this Bill will give effect to the proposal, a very positive approach to one problem area of the health services of this country. [More…]

• One of the early propositions of the Gorton-McEwen Government was that a careful study would be made of the areas of real need in the health and hospital services of this nation. [More…]

• All of this would be easily resolved if in fact the Opposition’s nationalisation approach to health in this country were adopted.’ [More…]

• 1 base my contention on the simple observations that one can make of the operation of the national health scheme of the United Kingdom where the estimates time and time again were found to be far short of the eventual requirement and where all of the operation, particularly on the medical side, turned out to be vastly different from what was foreseen in the initial proposition. [More…]

• lt is for this reason that Government supporters have proposed further discussions and the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) very clearly enunciated ari approach which will give a full and open opportunity for negotiations with the medical profession far further deliberations on the various categories in terms of the schedules to the Bill and in particular on matters upon which the profession has expressed some concern. [More…]

• They have submitted quite definitely that they are in accord with the forward thinking of the Government to try to improve the overall approach to health and medical services. [More…]

• In introducing the measure the Minister for Health made it clear that the Government was conferring with the profession in this regard. [More…]

• They have done so with the implication all the while that this would be resolved if the Opposition’s proposal for a national health scheme based on a special rate of taxation were implemented. [More…]

• But the Nimmo Committee’s report has made some positive recommendations about hospitals and, as the Minister for Health indicated recently, these have been referred to the States which have a particular interest in them to the extent that they run the hospitals. [More…]

• I do not believe that we can consider hospital problems separated from health services generally but one total decision will not solve all the problems. [More…]

• We are debating a Bill for an Act to amend the National Health Act 1953-1969. [More…]

• The National Health Act is described as an Act relating to the provision of pharmaceutical, sickness and hospital benefits and of medical and dental services. [More…]

• It does nothing about the general problem of national health. [More…]

• We of the Opposition feel that the title ‘National Health Bill’ is somewhat grandiose and pretentious, lt is applied to something that was conceived in haste as a result of political pressure put on the Government prior to the last elections. [More…]

• Anything pertaining to the health of the Australian people in this legislation is purely accidental. [More…]

• Until a few months ago this Government defended its health scheme as being the best in the world. [More…]

• Tt pointed to what it saw as deficiencies in those schemes, particularly in the British national health scheme. [More…]

• Anybody who has examined in any way the history of the British national health scheme will know that any faults in that scheme are clue to the 13 years of tory rule in Great Britain, during which a systematic attempt was made to bankrupt the scheme established by a Labor government. [More…]

• The Government has schemed; it has contrived to put forward this document bearing the pretentious title National Health Bill. [More…]

• In fact it does nothing really for the health of the people of Australia. [More…]

• Before the last election no campaign on health was really necessary. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party campaigned very strongly on the question of health insurance, but debate on the subject was redundant and superfluous because everybody in Australia knew that the scheme was no good. [More…]

• They knew that they were paying twice for their health insurance. [More…]

• They were paying once by way of contributions to a health fund, believing they were adequately covered, but when the bill came from the doctor they found that in many cases they also had to pay a good percentage of the bill. [More…]

• The National Health Bill takes no account of the whale question of the health of the Australian people. [More…]

• It is not sufficient for the Government to say that health is the responsibility of State governments The State governments are saying this already. [More…]

• However, this does not apply only in the sphere of health. [More…]

• It is pointless to argue that health is the responsibility of the States or to talk about State rights. [More…]

• According to my information, from South Australia, the State governments and their health departments have been waiting for the Commonwealth to do something positive about the situation that is facing hospitals in all States. [More…]

• Now there is to be an election in South Australia and the Liberal Minister for Health, realising that the next South Australian Government will be a Labor government and will have to implement such a scheme, has said that the Liberal Party would implement the payment of consultants at the public hospitals as from January 1971. [More…]

• Two weeks ago the honourable member for Batman (Mr Garrick) asked the Minister for Health whether he was concerned about 250 hospital beds in Victoria be ng out of action due to lack of staff. [More…]

• However the State governments cannot be left to run health services by themselves. [More…]

• We need a national health commission and a national hospitals commission. [More…]

• We would certainly not subject our National Health Bill to the strictures of mere hospital and medical insurance. [More…]

• The principal criticisms of the health scheme that were put forward by the Opposition last year were, first of all, that the voluntary health scheme as it operates is costly and inefficient to run. [More…]

• There are various ways in which health insurance schemes can be financed. [More…]

• Another method that was suggested in the Labor Party’s health proposals at the time of the last election was that the scheme should be financed by a flat levy of 14% of the taxable income of a family up to a maximum of $100 per family. [More…]

• The way the existing voluntary health scheme is financed is worse still because of the system of taxation deductions. [More…]

• The proposals that the Opposition put forward were based on one simple premise, lt was that with the advances in medical knowledge and technology we are bound to spend a greater percentage of our gross national product on health. [More…]

• If we are not going to penalise the people on lower incomes and create a wider gap for them to pay, if we intend to give everybody the same health care regardless of their means, we must have some sliding scale of contributions. [More…]

• Accordingly, as is well known now, the Australian Labour Party proposed that it would introduce a national health insurance commission with which everybody would be universally insured. [More…]

• Before the Parliament was dissolved for the election last year the Minister for Health was denying all the criticisms that were made of the scheme by the Opposition. [More…]

• A person who is earning $42 per week is not required to make any contribution towards health insurance. [More…]

• I wish to refer here to one paragraph from the report of the Canadian Royal Commission on Health Services. [More…]

• the number of individuals who would require subsidy to meet total health services costs is so large that no government could impose the means test procedure on so many citizens or would be justified in establishing a system requiring so much unnecessary administration. [More…]

• So these really are all restraints in a voluntary health system, lt has been said that the new universal health insurance system proposed by the Australian Labor Party implies compulsion. [More…]

• In fact, the voluntarism as applied to health insurance is a restraint. [More…]

• In that regard I think he is very foolishly advised or is quite ignorant of the history of the health services of this country. [More…]

• It is a fact that the Government, in comparison with any other government in the history of Australia, is noted for the attention it has paid to our health services. [More…]

• No government has ever contributed so much to the advancement of health services and to the establishment of worthwhile health services in the community than this Government has. [More…]

• This was a feature which was established by the late Sir Earle Page when he was Minister for Health in the Menzies Government, lt is to his eternal credit that the scheme has grown to the proportions that it has grown for the benefit of the people of Australia. [More…]

• Certain improvements have been made from time to time and I do not want to touch upon them, but it became necessary recently to have a comprehensive look at the whole of our health services. [More…]

• The Labor Party’s record in the field of health is possibly the most deplorable of all. [More…]

• When the Labor Party was in office in 1948-49 it failed to bring about any improvements in health services. [More…]

• I do not want to quote the amount that we are spending on health at present, but it runs into some hundreds of millions of dollars. [More…]

• So the Labor Party really has contributed nothing to the health services of Australia. [More…]

• In New South Wales at that time there was a Labor government and the Labor Minister for Health, Mr Bill Sheahan, conceived the idea of a compulsory scheme for hospital benefits. [More…]

• The committee consisted of Mr Cameron, the Under Secretary of the Department of Public Health in New South Wales; Mr Love, who was the Deputy Member of the Hospitals Commission; Mr Fairlie, who was in the Budget Branch of the Treasury in New South Wales, and Mr Miller, who was then Director of the Hospitals Contribution Fund of New South Wales. [More…]

• They have carried the burden of the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• They will need to be watched carefully to see that the Government is keeping pace with what is going on in the medical world and what it costs to maintain a health service. [More…]

• Nor would any future committee on health matters so describe him. [More…]

• I think this Bill is a splendid advance in our health scheme. [More…]

• I feel it incumbent upon me to make certain remarks as to the Australian Health Insurance Scheme and the recent Commonwealth Committee of Inquiry instituted by the Hon. [More…]

• 2.0 The Government’s Responsibility 2.1 I believe it to be the Government’s responsibility and prerogative to secure the best possible health treatment for all members of the community. [More…]

• 4.0 Comments in the Existing Medical and Hospital Benefits Schemes 4.In order to obtain the benefits of these schemes tinder their present method of administration, the individual must join a Friendly Society or similar organisation registered under the National Health Act 1953-1968. [More…]

• 4.1.2 To join such a scheme I actually insure my health thus taking myself out of the pathway of confidence in God. [More…]

• Finally, I would like to congratulate the Government for having so boldly brought about changes to the health scheme. [More…]

• Nevertheless, I want to make some reference to aspects of the National Health Bill that is now before the HouseFor years it has been obvious to us in the Australian Labor Party and to many observers in academic circles, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of people who have had to bear the costs of the existing health insurance system, that the system is out of date, costly and inefficient. [More…]

• Under pressure from the Labor Party the Government was with the greatest reluctance forced to inquire into the existing system of health insurance. [More…]

• Firstly, the Government tied its hands in such a way that its findings could only be within the framework of the reforms to the existing complexities of the obsolete so called voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The Committee was not allowed to make recommendations on alternative methods of financing health insurance. [More…]

• But has the Government acted out of concern for the taxpayer, the contributor to health insurance and the patient? [More…]

• It is not preserving it on economic grounds because it knows only too well, as economists have proven, that Labor’s system gives better health insurance at a price lower than that of the present system. [More…]

• This system of health insurance affects the patient not only as a patient but also as a taxpayer and as a contributor to health benefits, to which he is compelled to contribute if he is to gain the benefit of his own taxation. [More…]

• Let us examine the additional costs which the patient both as a taxpayer and as a contributor to health insurance is now compelled to pay to bolster up this obsolete edifice. [More…]

• ls this the way to maintain costs - to peg costs - of health insurance? [More…]

• One of the major grounds for opposition to this National Health Bill is the injustice of the system of private health insurance as we have bad it in Australia for so long and essential I think to the injustice of the system is the fact that people do not pay according to their ability to pay but instead they pay flat rates. [More…]

• The amount that one pays in the first place is a flat rate and by the time taxation deductions are taken out of it the person on the lower income is actually paying more for his health insurance than the person on the higher income. [More…]

• But by the way these things have been going so far in the escalating cost of health insurance it is pretty clear that people are going to be forced to again pay higher amounts for their hospital insurance. [More…]

• The Nimmo Committee looked at the complexity of the system of health insurance and saw a vast number of contribution schedules that had to be paid. [More…]

• subject to future increases which will become necessary from time to time as costs and incomes rise, health insurance contributions are already as high as most people are prepared to pay. [More…]

• Health insurance contributions are in present circumstances as high as most people are prepared to pay and as many people can afford to pay. [More…]

• One aspect of the Government’s legislation of particular concern to me is the measure that the Government introduced to deal with the costs of health insurance presently being borne by the lower income earner. [More…]

• They are the people who will find it most difficult to bear the cost of health insurance and also to bear the cost of hospitalisation and treatment by doctors. [More…]

• The people who would just miss out in this category I am referring to would then pay taxation for their health insurance according to their means. [More…]

• The first related to exemptions and concessions for health insurance. [More…]

• The system of health insurance being maintained in Australia is very costly. [More…]

• Although the Government has taken some action under this Bill I do not think that what it has done will seriously tackle the causes of high costs in the health insurance system. [More…]

• It is a fact that for every $4 which a contributor pays to a health insurance association $1 is taken up in the cost of administration and in maintaining the association’s reserves. [More…]

• To some extent this situation is being tackled because some action is being taken to cope with the reserves, but how this action will affect the cost of health insurance is yet to be seen. [More…]

• 1 do not think the Government is seriously tackling the causes of high health insurance costs. [More…]

• In particular the Committee referred to the extent of costly and extravagant competition amongst the health insurance associations and it recommended that this situation should be tackled by a concept of regionalisation which would limit the large open funds to operating only in certain regions. [More…]

• In its report the Nimmo Committee made a fundamental criticism of the cost of health insurance with which the Government has not yet dealt. [More…]

• I have referred to some aspects of this National Health Bill. [More…]

• I do not think it deals seriously with the problem of the cost of insurance against ill health because it still relies upon the antiquated concept of the so-called voluntary principle. [More…]

• This Bill, which amends the National Health Act 1953-69, is a very important measure. [More…]

• In view of what the honourable member for Bendigo had to say I think I should read a portion of the second reading speech made by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) when he introduced this Bill. [More…]

• To be successful any health scheme must have the full co-operation of the medical profession. [More…]

• Obviously a measure of this magnitude, which is quite different from the previous National Health Act, will have some problems. [More…]

• After all, the health of the nation is really of prime importance. [More…]

• If one does not have good health, life is not much good because one cannot do anything. [More…]

• Not only does the health of a nation reflect within the family unit and the individual; it reflects also right throughout the economy of the nation. [More…]

• The healthy nation gets things done; the healthy nation has a good record of attendance at industry. [More…]

• Therefore Bills on health are extremely important to any nation. [More…]

• Firstly, it should bc heartily challenged because of its gross unfairness and injustice in charging the less well off sections of the community somewhat more than the wealthier sections for their health benefits. [More…]

• Secondly, the Bill should be opposed because it retains so much of the completely discredited and decrepit so-called Liberal-Country Party national health scheme that has been operating for the last 18 years. [More…]

• This has been a scheme characterised by gross greed in many cases, inefficiency, clumsiness and scandalous waste at the expense of the community’s health. [More…]

• Scattered right through the second reading speech of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) and in his previous statement are vague promises that something is ‘being reviewed’, ‘actively con.sidered’ or will be the subject of future regulations when the Government can complete its negotiations and make up its mind. [More…]

• I say that it is an insult to this House that the Minister for Health should present to it such a half-baked, ill-considered and thoroughly doubtful measure. [More…]

• Inevitably, one returns to the conviction, as did the majority of electors at the last election, that Labor’s scheme of universal insurance based on capacity to pay and operated by an efficient national health insurance commission is far preferable to the scheme put forward by the Government. [More…]

• I refer to the Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, the Nimmo Committee. [More…]

• Yet this will not deter the Government, I am sure, on any future occasion from coming out and again costing Labor’s proposals as far as health, education or any other matter might be concerned. [More…]

• This scheme still retains a multiplicity of health insurance organisations. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health and the Government will take notice of that gentleman’s informed criticism. [More…]

• Of course, we still have no comprehensive coverage under the Government’s so called national health scheme. [More…]

• The Nimmo Committee made a special plea that physiotherapists be included in the national health scheme. [More…]

• Mr Jago, the Minister for Health in New [More…]

• The Prime Minister made reference at that time to a number of facts of history which relate to the national health scheme that the Government has developed over the period since the former Minister for Health, Sir Earle Page, introduced the scheme in the early 1950s- The improvements that have taken place over that period have allowed us to establish and identify some of the facts which we repeated to the people of Australia in our policy speech of 1969. [More…]

• This has been clearly revealed in the United Kingdom over the last 15 or 16 years and it has been reflected in the hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds sterling which have been wasted on that appalling national health scheme that was inflicted upon that unhappy country. [More…]

• Some people after paying health insurance contributions for many years find that they are obliged to spend long period? [More…]

• We shall negotiate with the health insurance funds to arrange for the payment of increased benefits, properly related to reasonable nursing home fees, for persons who have been regular contributors to health insurance funds and who need intensive nursing home care. [More…]

• He then spoke about the improvements in the national health scheme, and he concluded by using the executive series of phrases in his policy speech. [More…]

• There is no doubt that in this wealthy, prosperous country which is entering the 1970s with advantages that are without parallel in the world, the population may consider itself to be cared for in the extreme and provided with a standard of health services which 25 years ago would have been regarded as impossible. [More…]

• 1 want to turn now to a particular aspect of this National Health Bill which has been introduced by the Minister for Health, lt has attracted a good deal of attention in the medical profession and amongst those in the general public who are interested in these matters. [More…]

• The Government’s view, as I understand it, is that if these proposals do lead to a marked diminution of the number of general practitioners within Australia, the Government aware of the fact that the success of its national health scheme must depend upon the co-operation and the existence of sufficient general practitioners, will then take steps to rectify the position. [More…]

• He has done a first class job for the Government and he deserves congratulations from all who are interested in seeing Australia have a valuable national health scheme that will not create a country full of hypochondriacs. [More…]

• After listening to the honourable member for North Sydney (Mr Graham) I could not but think that if he represents the advanced thinking of members of the Government side on health and welfare schemes it is no wonder that the national health scheme is in a hell of a mess. [More…]

• Of course, anyone who would praise the present Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) at the conclusion of his speech is either looking for friends or has never read the record of the Minister. [More…]

• Australia’s national health scheme seems to be in a shambles - a makeshift jerry built structure erected in the quicksands of conflicting principles and held erect by the opposing pressures of many vested interests. [More…]

• Having read that statement, let us have a look at the approach of the Minister for Health to the medical profession on which he depends today for the success or failure of this scheme. [More…]

• Another one is ‘Govt, gives in on health bill’; ‘You’ll pay more for health, says PM The doctors will make sure of that under this Government. [More…]

• In the middle of the election campaign, without having given it any consideration whatever, the Prime Minister was forced to answer Labor’s great policy on health by promising for $5 any treatment that one wanted. [More…]

• We are well advanced in negotiations with the medical profession and the health insurance funds so that all patients will be assured of medical benefits more closely related to doctors’ charges. [More…]

• Publicity it seems would rapidly make it clear to people which doctors were falling in with the health scheme and which were not. [More…]

• Or would it accept that the whole scheme was completely under the control of the doctors, that they could charge what they liked without the Government being able to do anything but complain to the public that the reason there wasn’t an adequate health scheme was that the doctors were sabotaging it? [More…]

• Under this miserable Bill the Government is allowing only $3m for the poorer section of the community in subsidy of medical and health benefits. [More…]

• The publication which I now hold was distributed a few years ago bv the MBF, which attacked, among others, Mr W. Sheahan, MLA, who was Minister for Health in the New South Wales Labor Government. [More…]

• This week Minister for Health Mr W. F. Sheahan made a number of statements in Parliament and to the Press.’ [More…]

• The organisation may do the same thing to this Government’s Minister for Health. [More…]

• A Labor government will establish a system of universal health insurance. [More…]

• As the Leader of the Opposition said during the last campaign, Labor’s scheme will suit Australians who want a health scheme that will provide proper services at a cost which the community can afford. [More…]

• Australians pay more for health insurance than people in any other country. [More…]

• This Government, which says that it is determined to protect the health of Australians, refuses to pay a Commonwealth benefit to a patient unless he belongs to a medical benefits fund. [More…]

• I did not wish to say more tonight other than to condemn, as other honourable members on this side of the Parliament have condemned, the approach of the Minister for Health to settling this problem with the medical profession and in not getting the co-operation he wanted. [More…]

• I see no hope whatever of the schedule in the Bill being fulfilled under this Government and while the present Minister for Health maintains his present attitude towards the medical profession. [More…]

• I believe that Australia wants a health scheme which will provide a proper service at a cost which the community can afford to pay - a scheme which meets the Deeds of the entire community regardless of age or income. [More…]

• I hope that this amendment will be a further step towards putting a Labor government in office in order to give effect to the great health programme outlined by the Leader of the Opposition. [More…]

• Married couples whose total incomes exceed $43 a week are excluded from the pensioner medical scheme and therefore must pay the full cost of insurance in a health scheme. [More…]

• The hour is late and there has been much debate on this Bill but I want to say - and I say it quite sincerely - that I hope that before the Government goes ahead with patching up what is in fact an outdated philosophy on health it will have another look at this Bill and the ramifications of its health policies. [More…]

• Health is too important for political dogma to be allowed to continue a system which does not give the level of service and does not provide the level of coverage that the Australian public is entitled to expect for the money that is being expended. [More…]

• I believe it is time that we had a responsible approach, and a responsible inquiry into all sections of our health services should be undertaken. [More…]

• This Bil] is an attempt to bring into operation a health proposal which was put forward in panic during an election campaign, lt was not well thought out and it is quite clear that this Bill contains enough anomalous material to fill a number of volumes of Hansard. [More…]

• The National Health Act which this Bill proposes to amend has never been satisfactory and never will be satisfactory in its existing form for several very good reasons. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) has always endeavoured to create the impression that the Nimmo Committee was set up simply because the Government was not satisfied with the existing National Health Act. [More…]

• It was not until 18th April 1968 that the Minister for Health announced the appointment of a special committee, which we found subsequently was the Nimmo Committee, to review the voluntary health insurance system in Australia. [More…]

• As a matter of fact, the Nimmo Committee by its recommendations has suggested that the Government’s health scheme should be scrapped altogether [More…]

• I well remember the introduction of the national health scheme back in the early 1950s - the Earle Page scheme as it was first called - which very quickly came to be labelled as the ‘doctors’ benefits scheme* because, in the main, doctors were the people who received the protection. [More…]

• This was not protection against ill-health but was protection against bad debts. [More…]

• would like to see a provision in the National Health Act which would assure doctors of payment for the whole of the services rendered and not leave any portion of a charge to be met by a patient at all. [More…]

• If we are to suffer a system whereby people are obliged to be contributors to a fund, it must be appreciated that that fund cannot operate as it should and give its members proper insurance against ill health unless the fund management is in a position to know for some time ahead what its liabilities will be in relation to doctors’ charges. [More…]

• The Minister for Health admitted that this was so in the statement that he made on 4th March last when he said: [More…]

• The co-operation of the medical profession in adhering to the list of most common fees submitted by the Australian Medical Association is, of course, a vital factor to the success of the new health benefits plan. [More…]

• I was one of the original members of a committee which was formed on the eastern goldfields of Western Australia following the introduction of the health scheme in the 1950s. [More…]

• I also wish to add that we received almost complete co-operation and assistance from the doctors, particularly in the early stages when the doctors who had been on the goldfields for many years had a proper appreciation of the value of community spirit and also of the value of a good health scheme. [More…]

• This to my mind is a very important requirement in any health scheme, particularly where children are involved. [More…]

• This, I think, is not only important for the future health of the people concerned but also would act in a way that would protect the Commonwealth and these fund benefit organisations against excessive payouts for the treatment of serious illness. [More…]

• Even for these very simple reasons I think it should be one of the first necessities in a health scheme that visits to a doctor for diagnosis and advice should be completely free of any charge over the insured benefit. [More…]

• Of course, with the charges for consultation, like the additional cost for any other service, the higher the income of the person concerned, under the Government’s health scheme and the amendments proposed, the greater is the ability of that person to pay. [More…]

• The courses are concerned largely with the introduction of new food crops and cash crops, improvements in diet and health education; the promotion of women’s interests and activities: the detection and control of diseases of humans, animals and crops; and improving production methods to provide money income. [More…]

• In the Northern Territory we have carried out special surveys and an organisation has been set up within the Department administered by my colleague the Minister for the Interior, and with the co-operation of my colleague the Minister for Health, to cope with this problem. [More…]

• In Western Australia and Queensland the State departments, in conjunction with the Commonwealth Department of Health, are paying special attention to this matter. [More…]

• It would be interesting to know whether he could talk about any other subject, for example, pollution, environment, pensions, health or any other 1 of the tremendous issues that the people of Australia are concerned about other than the anti-Communist tactic. [More…]

• Now that the Moratorium has gathered a ground swell throughout Australia the Government, in the midst of the debate on one of the most important pie;es of legislation for the health of the people of Australia - the National Health Bill - has decided to postpone that debate and to reintroduce the debate on the Moratorium. [More…]

• The National Health Bill is 1 of the great measures we have been hearing about from this Government. [More…]

• It concerns the health of the people of this nation. [More…]

• I do not want to stress only my views on this matter so 1 will read from the ‘Age’ a statement by Mr Lokoloko the most distinguished Ministerial Member for Health, who said: [More…]

• I support the National Health Bill and oppose the amendment moved by the Opposition. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), the chief architect, is to be congratulated for his diligence, assiduousness, patience, tolerance, forthrightness, and energy and, above all, his understanding of this most complex and difficult Bill. [More…]

• I was appalled at the genuine and sincere fear of the doctors that as general practitioners their position and influence in the community was deteriorating and that the implementation of this health scheme would further aid and abet this decline. [More…]

• However the Minister for Health has given an assurance that consideration will be given from time to time to updating rebates. [More…]

• Mr Speaker, the advantages that are to be brought into effect by the introduction of the National Health Bill 1970 are accepted by the Opposition. [More…]

• We are pleased to see that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) obviously has been converted to the view that his outworn and outdated scheme needs overhauling and replacing. [More…]

• I remember hearing the Minister some years ago argue that the National Health Act did not need any alteration and that it was the best in the world. [More…]

• As one who is aware of the plight of people on low incomes, I know that many of these people belong to health schemes because they dare not remain outside them. [More…]

• These people belong to hospital benefit schemes not because they cannot afford the payments, not because they agree with their purpose but because they fear the cost of hospitalisation, medical care and so on without the protection of the private health funds. [More…]

• The Government’s health scheme has been proved by the Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, commonly known as the Nimmo Committee, to be run down, ramshackle and in need of complete replace- ment. [More…]

• The Government, before the last House of Representatives election, introduced a Bill to amend the National Health Act. [More…]

• But the Minister for Health himself has said in this session that to take 1 section of the National Health Act and to introduce legislation amending that section would be completely irresponsible. [More…]

• I believe that the people who will benefit from its introduction have been greatly in need of just this service for as long as this health legislation has operated. [More…]

• Allowance is not made in this legislation for this sort of thing and for these people to qualify for the benefits of this National Health Bill. [More…]

• I believe that a need exists to bring within the scope of this health scheme persons who are single and who are at the level which has been laid down by the Government with respect to its subsidised medical scheme. [More…]

• Preventative measures must be taken to see that people in circumstances of poverty, in lower income brackets or in areas where people are grouped together on low income have available to them measures to help prevent them becoming ill. More consideration should be given to these people in legislation introduced in this Parliament relating to health and social services. [More…]

• First, of course, is the Government, which is initiating the procedure; then there is the Opposition; then the medicos and then the health funds. [More…]

• 1 for one would suggest to the Minister for Health that, as he well knows, he will need to keep it constantly within his purview. [More…]

• Minor and marginal problems in health are major tragedies and disasters for the family who is afflicted with them. [More…]

• I look at the Bill and see that it amends the National Health Act. [More…]

• lt is a national insurance system of sorts; it is not a National Health Act. [More…]

• It is not a national health system at all. [More…]

• It is not a nat onal health system at all. [More…]

• We on this side of the House believe that what this country needs is a national health system. [More…]

• The philosophical concept of private enterprise, of looking after yourselves, is incidental to the protection and the development of human happiness and human health. [More…]

• It would seem to me that research, the capital development of hospitals and so on would be part of a national health scheme. [More…]

• If we can have a total involvement of the fire brigade, if education and the police services are universal, why can health services not be universal as well? [More…]

• Of course, there has always been the fear of cost, lt is true that health services are very expensive undertakings, that hospitals are very expensive to run, that doctors are very expensive to train and probably equally as expensive to maintain because they deserve the best resources available for the job that they have to do. [More…]

• ft seems to me that our society has arrived at the stage at which the effort we put into giving totality and universality to education ought to be put into health services too. [More…]

• Let us examine for a moment some of the criticisms that have been expressed in relation to the development of the British health system. [More…]

• The British health system has been the victim for some 20 to 25 years of vigorous hostility from people who have come to this country and from honourable members on the other side of the House who see in this scheme some insidious evil Socialist force which will overwhelm the good health of the community. [More…]

• The national health scheme in Britain was one of the great contributions to British society. [More…]

• There is no doubt that before the last war British health services were inadequate and their hospitals were inadequate. [More…]

• The health of the British people on the lower incomes was at a very low level. [More…]

• health plan is ‘misunderstood’. [More…]

• There is greater misunderstanding of the National Health scheme in Britain by Australians than any other people in the world. [More…]

• The average working class man who arrives in Australia with his family is struck by the inordinate costs of social welfare in Australia both in the field of education and in the field of health, lt would pay honourable members to make a study of the advantages and disadvantages of the British medical service. [More…]

• An article which I have before me points out some achievements of the British national health service. [More…]

• The third achievement was that it encouraged closer links between the mental and other health services. [More…]

• 1 ask: ls there anything wrong with an integrated health service? [More…]

• For 20-odd years the national health service of Britain has been under constant attack in this country through the vested interests of people opposite who believe in the sanctity of private enterprise. [More…]

• I believe that we will not have a total system in the community until we have such a national health scheme. [More…]

• The Opposition believes, and it is obvious from the experience of the past, that a voluntary system in this field is not good enough, lt is the right of the person who is in serious want because of ill health or chronic disease to be attended to. [More…]

• A week or 2 ago my colleagues on this side of the House sent a series of 5 questions to the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes). [More…]

• The question before’ us is: Does the National Health Bill comply with the requirements of the community? [More…]

• [3.10J- Mr Speaker, I think that the honourable member for Wills (Mr Bryant) has placed on record what is really in the mind of the Australian Labor Party should it ever come into office and introduce a health scheme. [More…]

• A medical practitioner who is registered as a specialist or consultant physician under State or Territory law is also entitled to be recognised as such for the purposes of the National Health Act. [More…]

• I might add that at the recent conference of Health Ministers the Ministers of the other 3 States, that is, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, which have not registered specialists, indicated that they proposed to introduce registration in the near future. [More…]

• In each State and Territory, including those which have specialist registration laws, a specialist recognition advisory committee will be appointed to advise the Director-General of Health on applications by medical practitioners for recognition as specialist and consultant physicians under the National Health Act. [More…]

• Honourable members will also note that provision has been made for a practitioner to appeal to an independent specialist recognition appeal committee against a refusal to recognise him as a specialist or consultant physician under the National Health Act. [More…]

• Certainly they receive no inspiration from their mini-minded shadow Minister for Health, the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden). [More…]

• The best he could do in this debate was to open it with a vituperative attack on me, proceed to make a series of ill informed and utterly irrelevant comparisons between Australia’s health scheme and those of other countries and conclude by proposing an inane amendment totally in conflict, with a Bill he says he will not oppose. [More…]

• The shadowy shadow Minister for Health who supports the Bill yet indulges in an orgy of selfjustification by paying lip service to the hopeless hypothesis which Labor hopes lo pass off as a health scheme proudly labels himself as a Democratic Socialist. [More…]

• This Bill is based not on some high flown Democratic Socialist ideology - or whatever the honourable member for Oxley calls his Party’s alternative scheme - and not on some hideous hybrid mutation in the minds of those who would hopefully pluck for indiscriminate transplant here, aspects of overseas health schemes which appeal to them; it is based on the facts. [More…]

• By proposing his amendment that a national health insurance commission financed from graduated contributions would pay for medical and hospital services for all Australians more equitably and economically than the health benefits plan as proposed in this Bill, the honourable member for Oxley is rehashing his leader’s confidence trick of the last election. [More…]

• The proposition, you will recall Sir, was that a specific set of health proposals could be introduced on the basis of a i% levy on taxable income plus a matching Commonwealth subsidy. [More…]

• Yet here we have the honourable member for Oxley again wheeling up Labor’s goon type cardboard replica of Deeble and Scotton’s health insurance commission. [More…]

• In other words, the deterrents that Deeble and Scotton recommended but which the Labor Party brushed aside now turn out to be what the Canadians whom it professes to admire in relation to their health scheme felt to be essential to make the scheme work and keep it within bounds. [More…]

• The amount to be met by the patient for general practitioner services under the health benefits plan proposed in this Bill are 80c for a surgery consultation and $1.20 for a home visit, where the doctor charges the common fee. [More…]

• The Labor Party’s proposed commission would not be able to process medical benefit claims more economically than do the health insurance funds at the present time, despite the assertions to the contrary. [More…]

• It is well established that mere size of health insurance funds is not synonomous with economic operation. [More…]

• Apart from the administrative difficulty in assessing the amounts that would he paid bv the husband and by the wife there is the consideration of the loss of revenue to the proposed health insurance fund that would result. [More…]

• In the case of a major operation the net cost of the operation and associated services could well be $60 compared with $5 under the new health benefits plan. [More…]

• The Labor Party has also proposed to replace the present insurance organisation with a national health insurance commission. [More…]

• We would probably soon reach the position that is applying in Canada, where the Minister for National Health and Welfare has announced that reductions of 25% in votes for both emergency health services and emergency welfare services will be effected in 1970-71. [More…]

• Other areas involved are the combined general and national health grants, which will be reduced by $4m from the 1969-70 level. [More…]

• I believe that the Australian people will be rightly sceptical whether the alleged economies promised from a government health insurance fund would ever eventuate. [More…]

• If we transfer the conduct of health insurance to a single government fund we have established one more area where freedom of individual choice is denied - a freedom which all of us would value and the loss of which we would lament if it ever occurred. [More…]

• But much of what other members of the Opposition said in the debate left us in a great deal of doubt as to whether even this basic right would continue to be enjoyed if the Labor Party were entrusted with the management of our health system. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• In the debates that have preceded the present debate we have applied ourselves to the consideration of questions concerning the nation’s health and the housing and education of our people, and in every regard, no matter what test one applies, this Government is found wanting, that it has let the Australian people down. [More…]

• My answer to the last part of the honourable gentleman’s question is that I would agree with the social worker, who must be respected because, as I understand it, he has had a great amount of experience with young people taking drugs, if he said that health education wrongly directed or in the hands of amateurs can be counterproductive or can be more harmful than useful. [More…]

• So the only conceivable answer is health education and the provision of the appropriate amount of money to support the kind of health education programme that is needed. [More…]

• The kind of health education we need would be not only the education of parents so that they will be aware of the possible dangers and how to alert their children to those dangers, but also the education of the community itself to look for things such as the quality of life rather than the material things which tend to drive people on to seeking false methods of gaining euphoria. [More…]

• There is still in Gladstone no adequate control of venereal disease, a matter which I have brought to the attention of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes). [More…]

• The Opposition’s Health and Welfare Committee considered ways in which we could most expeditiously handle the proposed amendments but the time allotted is altogether too short. [More…]

• The Opposition is alarmed at the casual and perfunctory manner in which the Government is treating this important measure which proposes amendments to the National Health Act. [More…]

• lt indicated that if the Government could settle a brawl over the National Health Bill in its own Party rooms the House would be discussing proposed amendments in thi Committee stage. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) was having a rough time. [More…]

• We were advised to prepare ourselves to debate the Handicapped Children’s Bill in the afternoon, and then at about 20 past 1 or half past 1 we were advised that it appeared likely that the Health Bill would be discussed. [More…]

• The honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden), who is the shadow Minister for Health, has indicated to the Minister that Opposition members would not want to take more than the minimum time required to explain the amendments that will be put to the Parliament by the Opposition. [More…]

• For weeks now Government members have been dissatisfied with the form in which this legislation was presented to the Parliament by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes). [More…]

• Apparently the Minister for Health - one would think with the assistance of others who perhaps have more responsibility in his Party - was able to prevail on the honourable members on the Government side to allow the Bill to reach the Committee stage this afternoon. [More…]

• Having said that, I point out that the National Health Bill is regarded by honourable members on both sides of the House, one assumes, to be of extreme importance not only to members of Parliament but also to people outside who have some interest in these matters. [More…]

• Now they will deny honourable members an opportunity to consider fully the important amendments that have been proposed by the Health Committee from this side of the House. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) is almost a nervous wreck in regard to the presentation of the Bill. [More…]

• Not one member on the Government side will have time to speak in the period allowed for discussion of the clauses except the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Government knows that penetrating amendments that would have been moved by the Opposition would show up the incompetence of the Minister for Health and the features of this Bill which are not in the public interest. [More…]

• Obviously, the health of the community will suffer. [More…]

• The Commonwealth has sought to remove discrimination by a provision in the National Health Act under which consultations with medical practitioners in consequence of which spectacle lenses are prescribed are not eligible for Commonwealth benefits. [More…]

• If it seems to change the situation, which has proved a problem to the Government over many years, I have undertaken to take this question to the Government and, if the Government agrees, to sponsor an appropriate amendment next time the National Health Act is amended. [More…]

• If the report of the Nimmo Committee is to be cited to use as an authority for simple things like this we will find it very hard to come to any conclusions about what should be done with a health scheme. [More…]

• The Minister may disseminate information relating to health or the prevention of disease. [More…]

• But a very unhappy trend has been developing in recent years and we would not like to see it applied to the National Health Bill. [More…]

• I may say as an aside that some honourable members here will recall what was probably a precedent, the occasion when the Government circulated material at public expense through the schools of this country in regard to a matter which was even more controversial than the National Health Bill, namely, our intervention into the Vietnam war. [More…]

• The Minister in a statement on health benefits on 4th March, under the heading ‘Dissemination of Information concerning Medical Fees and Benefits’, said: [More…]

• When we put this with the guillotining that is going on and the suggestions that are being made around the lobbies that this printed material of the Government in connection with the National Health Bill might be brought out in such a way as to be used to the Government’s advantage at election time, there is good reason why the amendment that we have proposed should bo enthusiastically supported and carried. [More…]

• We would hate to think that the Government is to use this technique to disseminate and propagate information in regard to basic philosophical matters concerning national health. [More…]

• A short time ago as I left the Library I glanced at a publication giving the result of a public opinion poll as to whether it would bc better to have voluntary insurance or a health scheme based on taxation. [More…]

• I would not want the Government to seek to justify its exclusion under the National Health Act of such services as dental and optical services. [More…]

• In my view it is bad enough to have a Dr Forbes running the national health scheme of this country without also having a Dr Goebbels. [More…]

• It is not confined to medical and hospital benefits or to the other benefits provided under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The Minister may disseminate information relating to health or the prevention of disease. [More…]

• The proposed publicity about the new health benefits plan will not be of a political nature. [More…]

• It will follow the pattern of ordinary departmental publicity directed to ensuring that the general public is fully aware of the health benefits plan and what the individual needs to do in order to participate in the plan. [More…]

• Further, why should a restriction of this kind be proposed only for the National Health Act? [More…]

• If it is suitable for the National Health Act it could be argued that it is suitable for all legislation, because a great deal of legislation carries through it in basic principle the philosophical approach of the party which forms the government. [More…]

• of the National Health Act 1953-1969 and had been such a contributor for a period of two months or more), Commonwealth benefit is not payable in respect of medical expenses incurred by the person during a period of two months commencing - [More…]

• of the National Health Act 1953-1969- on the day on which that person became a contributor within the meaning of that Part; or [More…]

• This is especially so with a complex Bill such as the National Health Bill 1970 which is one of the more important and complex [More…]

• I am not suggesting that any of the amendments that we have proposed and those which I have moved already are indicative of the way in which the Australian Labor Party would write its National Health Bill. [More…]

• The proposal from the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) is to reduce that period to 2 months. [More…]

• We believe that if the Government is genuine about trying to establish a national health insurance scheme it will cover people who are ill, whether they have pre-existing illnesses or illnesses which arise within that period of 2 months. [More…]

• This is a ridiculous bar to apply against people, lt should not be tolerated in an enlightened civilised society because it is a discrimination against those who suffer ill health and. [More…]

• In some cases at least, persons with compensation claims pending have been deprived of any hospital or health benefit. [More…]

• The amendment that we seek to have written into this Bill is that the Minister for Health in fact shall arrange that these people can be provided with the fund benefit. [More…]

• But the Government should not fulfil the role of coercive agent forcing people into inflated, inefficient and unnecessarily costly health insurance funds. [More…]

• 1 am sure that the Minister for Health has not thought about this, ls the dentist to be regarded as a specialist in this particular instance? [More…]

• After listening to the comments of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) on these amendments and on various aspects of thi Bill, it almost looks as though this Bill is as open ended as the original contract for the Fill aircraft. [More…]

• In fact, the need for this review was 1 reason why the Committee put forward the concept of a national health insurance commission. [More…]

• The proceedings of the last 40 minutes have been quite farcical if we are to give the impression that this Parliament is trying to consider a health Bill. [More…]

• lt is quite incomprehensible to me why the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), the Government, the Department of Health or whoever else is responsible would put into a Bill such a provision relating to prescribed medical services rendered by a legally qualified dental practitioner or approved dentist, i presume that immediately this Bill is passed the patients of oral surgeons will be eligible to receive a benefit. [More…]

• The allocation of the time for the discussion of this National Health Bill in the Committee stage was a decision of the House, and it is not for the Chair to question or alter a decision of the House. [More…]

• The Bill provides that the Specialist Recognition Advisory Committee and the Specialist Recognition Appeal Committee will comprise medical practitioners appointed by the Minister for Health from the panel of names supplied by the Australian Medical Association. [More…]

• From the panels of names the Minister will nominate the recognition committees and the appeal committees whose advice will form the basis of the listing of specialists for the purpose of the National Health Act. [More…]

• The amendment proposed by the Minister for Health encompassed practically everything that the Opposition foreshadowed in its amendment. [More…]

• 1 would like to persist with Labor’s suggestion that perhaps there could be a clause (f) in proposed new section 298A to include someone nominated by the State Health Departments. [More…]

• The committees will be established in each State and they ought to work in collaboration with and not be separate from the State health authorities. [More…]

• The State Health Departments will be responsible for or should play a large part in keeping an eye on the registers of various specialists. [More…]

• We must not forget that the State Health Departments are responsible for the employment of most of these specialists, because they are working in the large public hospitals which are the responsibility of the State Health Departments as well as of the Commonwealth. [More…]

• Therefore [ feel that it is reasonable to include on the committees someone nominated by the State Health Departments. [More…]

• For the sake of completeness I would suggest that the State Health Departments ought to be incorporated and that the Minister, in his further deliberations, ought to think about the oral surgeons and who they really are. [More…]

• In the short time available to me I would like to ask the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) whether he could explain to the Committee the reason why he has departed from his own proposals in the Bill so far as the composition of this Committee is concerned. [More…]

• I think it is important, in view of the fact that the Opposition has not had the opportunity to outline clearly the amendments they propose to put and discuss, for the Minister to say what he has rejected, if in fact he has rejected, the proposal that the State Ministers for Health participate in these committees. [More…]

• I believe it is worthy of some explanation by the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) :n his second reading speech I think referred to something like 300 items. [More…]

• They asked why we do not include a representative of the Stale departments of Health. [More…]

• Contrary to what they would say, the reason is that it would appear to me to be inappropriate to include such representatives when we are only establishing a specialist register purely for the purposes of the National Health Act. [More…]

• This is all it is, a specialist register for the limited purposes of the National Health Act. [More…]

• State departments of Health play their parts in the committees set up in the States to perform a similar purpose where there is a State register of specialists. [More…]

• The honorable gentlemen will notice from the Bill that all medical practitioners placed on the State specialist register are automatically recognised for the purposes of the National Health Act, the health benefits plan, as specialists. [More…]

• The 3 other State Ministers for Health have indicated to me that they propose introducing State registers in the near future. [More…]

• These committees of approval and appeal had to be worked out at the last minute - so much at the last minute that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) has now had to move an amendment. [More…]

• If we had an Australian Labor Party health scheme, of course, this whole sorry business of differential rebates could very quickly be tipped into the ashcan, because we propose to make specialist services at a high level of efficiency available free to those who want them free - not by pushing anybody into any kind of conscription, not by forcing specialists to accept salaried services, but by making conditions so attractive for them that that is what they would want to do, as 1 explained in the second reading stage of the debate. [More…]

• What we should be doing is setting up highly specialised academic committees to advise this Government on a proper health service for this nation, on proper health standards for this nation, on the accreditation of doctors, on quality control, on accreditation of hospitals and on the audit of medical care in clinics, private or public. [More…]

• 1 would like to develop this theme because it is vital to the whole concept of a national health scheme. [More…]

• 6, moved by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) seeks to insert a new section 29E, which will read: [More…]

• What steps will the Government take to ensure that the common fee is upheld by all doctors, particularly in view of the statement published in the most recent issue of the journal of the General Practitioners Society that members of the Society have been given an undertaking by the Director-General of Health, Sir William Refshauge, that the common fee concept is just a guide and that doctors are not obliged to uphold it? [More…]

• However, I have also said on many occasions that unless a substantial proportion of the medical profession does in fact charge the common fee our health benefits plan will not achieve the degree of patient satisfaction which is the Government’s objective. [More…]

• Did I understand the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) to say that his circulated amendment No. [More…]

• lt makes reference to the fact that the Minister for Health on behalf of the Commonwealth may enter into an agreement with the Australian Medical Association for and in respect of the provision by medical practitioners of medical services for pensioners and their dependants. [More…]

• Five weeks ago the Minister for Health in a letter to the Australian Medical Association dealt with this matter. [More…]

• We know what happened when the national health scheme of this Government was first introduced after the decent legislation that operated under the Chifley Government was disposed of by this Government. [More…]

• Sir Earle Page proposed that contributors would receive by way of refund up to 90% of the cost of all health services. [More…]

• The Minister for Health spent much of his time tonight looking at his reflections. [More…]

• There is one other point I would like to raise with the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Labor Party proposals with the health policy in the United Kingdom. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party has no association with the United Kingdom health system. [More…]

• Here again, quite clearly, is evidence of the wrong-headedness of his approach in condemning the United Kingdom health services. [More…]

• Secondly, his reply to that question on notice seems to be an indication that, in spite of all the failings he asserts are in the United Kingdom health service, it is still superior in providing hospital beds for the public. [More…]

• In any event the United Kingdom health service is able to obtain 78% of public support at national opinion polls whereas the latest opinion poll shows only 38% of public support for this Government’s health policy. [More…]

• There have been all sorts of court cases for the purpose of trying to bring the Minister, the Director-General or the Deputy Director-General of Health to the court so that a doctor who has his claim disallowed may have some avenue of appeal. [More…]

• But let me say that there are few matters for which I have been responsible as Minister for Health which have troubled me and my Department more than this question. [More…]

• Four of them arc nominated by the Australian Medical Association in the State concerned and one of them, who is also a doctor, is nominated by the Commonwealth Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Government says to the public after raising it from them - after extracting it from them, because they do not have any choice - ‘We will refund it to you in the case of ill-health but only provided you join some of these health insurance schemes that we are propping up’. [More…]

• Over 100 health insurance schemes operate in Australia today. [More…]

• I think I will take this opportunity, wilh the forbearance of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), to reply to a proposition made, but not fully, by the Minister in the closing stages of his second reading speech. [More…]

• People are in fairly good health when they join these schemes. [More…]

• Our scheme is based on a universal contribution to a single health insurance system. [More…]

• Before I divert from that on to the further points on the subsidy I would like to refer to statements made by the Minister in his second reading speech in the House in which he claimed there had been substantial cuts in the expenditure on health in Canada last year. [More…]

• The first thing he referred to was a 25% cut in the votes for emergency health and emergency welfare services which were effective during this financial year. [More…]

• He next referred to cuts in expenditure in general health gi ants. [More…]

• In spite of that - and the Minister will be well aware of this because I brought this point to his notice as a result of communications I had with the Minister for Health in Canada - the health services in Canada operate on a provincial basis and their nature varies from province to province. [More…]

• In fact there will not be a reduction in the expenditure on provincial health services and this is the essential nature of the point T was discussing. [More…]

• This covers health expenditure. [More…]

• The system in Canada is that there is a statutory commitment by the Federal Government to fund the health programmes operated by the provinces. [More…]

• In any event, the point I am making to the Minister is that what he pointed out the other day, while I am sure it was pointed out in good faith, did not fully investigate health expenditure in the provinces. [More…]

• What I am quoting now clearly explodes the assertions he made that the universal health system operating in Canada had failed. [More…]

• The provincial health schemes have not slashed their expenditure at all. [More…]

• It is wrong in our opinion that a person should be compelled to join a private health insurance fund. [More…]

• If they want further protection they should be allowed to become members of a health insurance scheme - that is, while we have the system as the Government presently operates it. [More…]

• In his second reading speech the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) indicated that there will be some tightening of supervision of hospital funds. [More…]

• If members of the public do not belong to a fund they cannot receive the benefits of the contributions paid by way of taxes to the Commonwealth’s health scheme. [More…]

• The Government supports the Nimmo Committee’s view that the adoption of standard forms of accounting by health insurance funds is desirable in order that the activities of the funds may be better compared and so that areas where economics are possible may be identified. [More…]

• For example some health insurance organisations by excessive self-promotion have paid insufficient attention to the object of the ‘non-profit’ feature of the scheme. [More…]

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself and ot his family, and the right to security in the event of old age and other circumstances beyond his control. [More…]

• This is proved as we pick up the papers daily, to say nothing of the injury that is being caused to people’s health; and it is mainly for this reason I am writing- [More…]

• That a man does not meet the required Army standards does not necessarily mean that he is unfit by normal civilian standards or that he is unable to pursue his normal civilian occupation or that he should be unduly concerned about his health. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health whether he is aware that a great many people mistakenly believe that if the National Health Bill becomes law they will never have to pay, in any circumstances, more than $5 for even the most complicated operation. [More…]

• It has been made perfectly clear by the Government, commencing with the policy speech delivered by the Prime Minister for the last election, that its new health benefits plan and the benefits proposed under it are related to the common fee principle - that is, the fees most commonly charged by doctors. [More…]

• Not only did the Prime Minister make that point; I made it, clearly, in my statement to the House on 4th March and in my second reading speech on the National Health Bill. [More…]

• 1 think it is also worthy of note that in my statement to the House on 4th March on this matter I made it perfectly clear that the success of our health benefits plan will very much depend on the cooperation of the medical profession in adhering to the list of most common fees. [More…]

• I have also said that I see no reason why this should not be done, because the most common fees on which the health benefits plan is based are, after all, the fees which doctors are most commonly charging at the present time. [More…]

• This has always been and always will be a keystone in the Government’s policy and its approach to health. [More…]

• Can he say what is the situation regarding this advice in the Health Nursing Section of the Northern Territory Medical Service? [More…]

• Therefore last night 1 took the step of asking my colleagues, the Minister for Health and the Minister for the Interior, to have a look at this matter to see what could or should be done in regard to it. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health a question supplementary to that asked him by the Government Whip. [More…]

• If he could indicate to me those of the hundreds of questions he asks to which he attaches priority, I am prepared on that basis to ask my officers to give priority to those, but I cannot countenance a situation in which all of the senior officers of my Department are to be taken off everything affecting the health of this country to answer questions many of which are placed on the notice paper clearly for political purposes. [More…]

• My question is also directed to the Minister for Health and is on the same subject of common fees. [More…]

• The common fees which are in the Schedule attached to the Bill and on which our health benefits plan is based are the fees most commonly charged by doctors for the particular procedures listed in the schedule, whether they are procedures undertaken by specialists or general practitioners. [More…]

• The arrangement might still stand, but by moving his motion he has eliminated the time slot that was available for it, that is, from 12.45 to1 p.m. Not onlydid he do that, but by pursuing this course he is running the risk of eating very deeply into the time allotted for the committee stage of the National Health Bill. [More…]

• I will then not introduce the Bills that were on the notice paper so that the committee stage of the National Health Bill can be resumed by at least 2.30. [More…]

• The amendment proposes to place some obligations on the Minister for Health in relation to the way in which he carries out certain business. [More…]

• Where a report is made to the Minister in respect of an application for registration by an organisation in a State or Territory as a health insurance scheme, the Minister has certain powers. [More…]

• I am in no way casting a reflection on the present Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) or members of his Department. [More…]

• These health insurance organisations are propped up quite generously by public money - money from the taxpayers - provided by the Government. [More…]

• I know of instances where information has been sought, even by members of the Health Committee, but it has not been forthcoming. [More…]

• People have written to some of the health insurance organisations asking for information about the regulations that have been established for the conduct pf the affairs of these organisations, but the organisations have refused to give that information. [More…]

• 1 strongly support the amendments, having personally had trouble with these health insurance funds. [More…]

• As discussed previously, there is some difficulty in establishing the names of directors of health funds. [More…]

• all, whether we have voluntary health insurance or universal health insurance is now a political issue in this country. [More…]

• The only people who would be affected adversely by Labor’s alternative health scheme are the directors of those funds. [More…]

• I suggest that the statement by the Minister for Health in reply to what I said earlier was a preposterous evasion. [More…]

• We do not know what it is doing as far as Australia’s health service*, are concerned. [More…]

• If one asks the Minister for Health a question in relation to hospital services or, to give a more explicit example, the allocation of funds for hospital services operated by the States outside the Commonwealth subsidy, until quite recently the argument was that details could not be provided. [More…]

• The point that I am trying to get to is this: Too much of public health administration in the Australian community, most especially at the Federal level, proceeds under a cloak of secrecy. [More…]

• We are talking about public rights, not privileges, which have been consolidated by Government legislation for these private health organisations. [More…]

• These amendments do not relate in any way to the health programme of the Australian Labor Party. [More…]

• In other words, I have changed the wording from ‘Minister’ to ‘Parliament’ so that members of Parliament who are representing the people can have access to information about the way these funds operate and to the annual financial statements of these voluntary health insurance funds. [More…]

• I was concerned about the middle of last year at the way some of the funds were operating, because as honourable members know there was a great deal of publicity about the excessive administration costs of these voluntary health funds and also the excessive amount of reserves that they were accumulating. [More…]

• I was informed that in 1937 before the implementation of the Basle Page scheme for health insurance 300 prominent families in Adelaide set this fund up. [More…]

• As we know the reserve funds of these voluntary health insurance funds were excessive. [More…]

• They can decide where the reserve funds of each health insurance fund can be directed. [More…]

• We will invest some of the reserves of this health insurance fund in my finance company’. [More…]

• All we ask is that the funds make available the names of the shareholders of each fund; the directors; the equity they hold; where the reserves of each fund are to be invested: and if companies in which reserves are invested have common interlocking directorships with health insurance funds, this should be stated in the annual report which should be given to the Parliament. [More…]

• In considering this amendment - and I think it is important to put the matter in perspective - it is relevant to keep in mind the various types of organisations that are registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• It follows that the majority of organisations and certainly all the larger ones, are to a greater or lesser extent subjected to dual control; that is, by both the Commonwealth under the National Health Act and a particular State or States under appropriate State legislation. [More…]

• The vague explanation given by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) for the Government’s refusal to accept the amendment is in keeping with the Bill generally, which is quite vague. [More…]

• The purpose of the amendment moved by the honourable member for Kingston is to afford some protection to the public against the ramifications and activities of the health benefits organisations. [More…]

• A couple of years ago we had the situation of the Hospital Contribution Fund paying for large advertisements in newspapers to argue its case in opposition to the action proposed at that time by the New South Wales Minister for Health. [More…]

• By refusing to write into the legislation the proposal which the honourable member for Kingston has put forward the Minister is leaving himself open to the type of treatment that has been meted out by the funds to other Ministers for Health. [More…]

• The health scheme is clouded in mystery. [More…]

• What is it that the honourable member for Kingston has proposed and which apparently the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) is going to reject? [More…]

• Why is it that the Minister for Health and the Government which he represents want to withhold that information? [More…]

• I refer the Committee to the warnings given by the Commonwealth Committee of Enquiry into Health Insurance, the expert committee appointed by the Government and headed by Mr Justice Nimmo, which analysed the investments of a representative group of organisations. [More…]

• Accordingly the people who fall within that category and who were to benefit from subsidised insurance in our universal health insurance scheme, as distinct from the present inefficient scheme operated by the Government, would pay nothing at all. [More…]

• Our feeling is that once it has been established that low income earners live within an area, which is identified as one of want or of poverty, it is irrational then to say that they are to be charged for health protection. [More…]

• These are the people who, more than most people in the community, need the benefits of a comprehensive range of health services. [More…]

• We do not uphold the report of the Nimmo Committee as an outstanding examplar of what ought to be done in health insurance. [More…]

• We draw attention to it only because it was a rather vigorous broadside blasting the deficiencies in some areas of the Government’s health insurance scheme, while at the same time restricting itself the recommendations consistent with the operation of the present scheme. [More…]

• Under these recommendations, a person with more than 2 children, on the minimum wage would be allowed an additional $4 a week per child- and would obtain cover for health insurance. [More…]

• It is quite unreasonable of the Government to expect that a person in these circumstances will be able to surrender this extra $1.26 a week to try to cover himself and his family with health insurance when he knows very well that in any event he will still have to meet some of the expense. [More…]

• The main function of this Committee is to advise the Minister for Health on those items which shall be included as subsidised prescriptions or as free medicine for pensioners. [More…]

• First of all, there is a maximum quantity which may be put on any one prescription, and this maximum quantity is set in a way that no Minister for Health has ever made clear. [More…]

• Well over 12 months ago I suggested to the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) that a full 5-day course of antibiotics should be available on 1 prescription, as was recommended in the prescribers journal provided to every doctor by the Government. [More…]

• The more expensive of these are further restricted as to which disease they will be approved for, and the written authority of the State Director of the Commonwealth Department of Health is required before some of these drugs can be made available. [More…]

• Department of Health in the State and ascertain his criteria for denying people this drug as a free drug. [More…]

• On the first occasion that butazolidin was removed from the pharmaceutical benefits list the then Minister for Health said, in answer to a question, that it was a very dangerous drug. [More…]

• Subsequently, while the same Minister for Health was in office, the drug was put back onto the free list for pensioners only. [More…]

• The names of the directors-general of health are made public. [More…]

• I remain unconvinced by the remarks of the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Let us look first of all at the kind of people who are on this yet another secret society attached to he health scheme. [More…]

• This is a matter that affects the health of not thousands but literally millions of people in our community. [More…]

• The personnel of the Committee comprises a pharmacist from the Commonwealth Department of Health appointed by the Director-General, 6 medical practitioners appointed by the Minister from among 10 medical practictioners nominated by the Federal Council of the Australian Medical Association, and a pharmaceutical chemist appointed by the Minister from among 3 pharmaceutical chemists nominated by the Federal Pharmaceutical Service Guild of Australia. [More…]

• What kind of recognition is there for a doctor who is convinced out of his own experience over a period of time dealing with many cases that a particular drug is the one that will give relief to and maybe even restore the health of his patient. [More…]

• We do not seem to have any quibble about public inquiries when we are dealing with public mental health or education. [More…]

• One was the honourable member for McMillan who, I understand, walked out of the House in utter frustration and the other was the Minister for Health. [More…]

• We know their grievances with the national health scheme but no opportunity of any consequence is given for us to debate this matter. [More…]

• I would like to discuss this Bill from the point of view of the quality of medical care and what it is we are seeking to do when we have a committee looking into the drugs that should be available under the national health scheme. [More…]

• I do not really feel that pressure from the drug firms would alter the situation one iota, if they are in fact the best people for the job, because their opinion should be based upon the sort of research work which the Americans are prepared to accept with their Food and Drugs Administration which goes into a very detailed analysis of all these aspects before anything is released for use by doctors and health authorities in America. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) may laugh. [More…]

• The amendment merely calls for some recognition of those who are engaged in an important area of medicine and health which this Bill overlooks and ignores. [More…]

• It is a pity that the Bill is not as representative of the health needs of the nation as it is of the boards of directors who are concerned with investment and what can flow to them from the Bill. [More…]

• Can anybody suggest that the Bill is representative of the health needs of the community? [More…]

• The Minister for Health interjects and refers to the matter of rules. [More…]

• Members opposite say that every cocky, wheat grower or anybody who scrapes the earth shall be represented on all sorts of committees and bodies but in respect of the health of the nation, particularly as it applies to medicine, they say that doctors shall not be so represented. [More…]

• At the same time the Bill is completely unrepresentative of the health needs of the community generally. [More…]

• The Liberal Party sees fit to refer to this as a national health scheme. [More…]

• It is not a health scheme and it is not likely to be while honourable members opposite look at it as they have done right up to now. [More…]

• Under that section the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee is appointed to make recommendations to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• We on this side of the Committee are perfectly satisfied, even if the Opposition is not, with the procedure by which the AMA, which was spoken of in such disrespectful terms by the honourable member for Sturt, nominates 10 medical practitioners of whom 6 become members of the committee and by which the Pharmacy Guild of Australia gives the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) a list of 3 persons from whom he chooses 1 to be the member who should work on this committee which gives the Minister advice. [More…]

• I believe that the care of the health of the people of Australia is in the hands of the general practitioner who must be available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day - that is, at all hours, including very early in the morning - and who sometimes receives no pay whatsoever for his services. [More…]

• I am asking the Minister for Health to look at this matter quickly. [More…]

• He is dedicated in the first place to the health of the community. [More…]

• What started off as a serious exercise in social engineering with the avowed purpose of removing the financial penalty that occurs through ill-health, has become a battleground of pressure groups with the public left forgotten on the side lines. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, Dr Forbes, who is nol even a member of the inner Cabinet, apparently interprets his position to be that of an adjudicator between pressure groups that have been institutionalised by Government machinery - listening to the health funds here, tut-tutting at the Australian Medical Association there, speaking sternly to hospitals everywhere. [More…]

• I appeal to the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) to take a very early opportunity to have a further look at the Schedule which we are discussing at the present time. [More…]

• I would like to pose some questions to the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes). [More…]

• On 11th May 1961, Dr Cameron, the then Minister for Health, stated in this House: [More…]

• This section of activity is carried out at the direction of the Minister for Health and involves work which no commercial enterprise would undertake. [More…]

• It has to use labour and technical know-how, to provide storage and all the apparatus necessary for storing biological drugs, and to stockpile them as part of what can be interpreted as a public health service. [More…]

• If a loss is sustained in what I have described as the public health service sector of the work of the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories it is absorbed in any overall profit made, assuming there is one. [More…]

• In effect the consumers of the commercial output of the Laboratories, the Australian taxpayers, are asked to subsidise the public health section of its work. [More…]

• Consumers of the products of the commercial sector are people who suffer from some form of ill health. [More…]

• Drugs are expensive enough now without requiring these people to make more than a fair surrender of their living standards to purchase drugs and in order to generate a surplus to cover losses on the public health sector. [More…]

• If there is a loss on the public health side - the stockpiling and research side dictated by the Government - that is covered by aGovernment refund. [More…]

• It should do that or somehow the accounts of the organisation ought to be clearly identified in 2 separate parts so that a more reasonable demand could be made on the organisation to carry this public health service responsibility and not to impose the charge unfairly upon the public. [More…]

• However, this does not obviate the argument which I am putting forward, that there is provision within the Act to have consumers prop up the public health service sector of the activity of the Serum Laboratories and this should not be so. [More…]

• It should not be a charge on unhealthy people, lt should be a charge which is equitably borne by the community. [More…]

• There is no requirement that the Minister for Health must consent to its borrowing, and no provision is made regarding the rate of interest which ought to be accepted on funds borrowed. [More…]

• I pointed out that in 1968-69 there was the greatest increase in absolute terms in national health spending for pharmaceutical benefits. [More…]

• In 1968 a survey by Health Economics Services Ltd indicated that 141 drug companies were operating in Australia. [More…]

• Again it was the honourable member for Hughes who participated in an earlier debate on the National Health Bill and who pointed out in about 1965 that one of the reasons, amongst many others which he quoted, why drugs were so expensive to the consumers was that we had 1 salesman for every 5 or 6 doctors. [More…]

• Following on this the Commonwealth Department of Health was forced to admit in its annual report for the year 1965-66 that this was in fact so. [More…]

• If the Government has in mind any arrangements whereby it will demand that the activities of the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories be placed on a commercial basis, I would suggest that the Laboratories be not placed, as they are currently, at a disadvantage, by having to carry under section 19 of the Act this research, production and stockpiling requirement for what is in reality a public health service. [More…]

• Under section 22 the Minister for Health determines the prices for products supplied to the Commonwealth. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Serum Laboratories have an essential function in the public health field in Australia but expansion beyond the production of biological products is a matter which the Government is not prepared to consider at this stage. [More…]

• It will improve the health of the industry as a whole. [More…]

• Yet the gradual phasing out of these inefficient industries cannot take place unless employment opportunities are created in efficient industries so that the labour may be absorbed, if this Corporation assists in the development of efficient Australian industry, its contribution to the economic health of this country will be very tangible indeed. [More…]

• She is in reasonable health but is very often unable to secure suitable employment. [More…]

• I conclude by stating that the Government is discriminating against most of the people by ignoring their needs, their welfare, their protection, their health and their security and imposing at the same time a taxation burden from which the country gets scant and reluctant government benefit. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I have attended many meetings at which Mines Ministers were present to discuss off-shore oil legislation, meetings of Attorneys-General and meetings of Health Ministers, and I cannot recall one at which this type of discussion about the time of the next meeting did not take place. [More…]

• We remember that the former Minister for Defence, Mr Fairhall, found it necessary to resign and gave as his ground ill health. [More…]

• 1 preface the question by stating that I understand following the late sitting last Friday night the Minister for Health returned to South Australia in a VIP aircraft in which he invited his Liberal colleagues, the honourable members for Boothby, Wakefield and Angas to accompany him. [More…]

• After reviewing the problem in 1965, the Government approved the creation within the 4 responsible departments, namely, the Department of the Interior, the Attorney-General’s Department, the Department of Health and the Treasury, of special groups of officers to be assigned exclusively to the task of reviewing the laws of the Territory and to keeping those laws up to date. [More…]

• 108) Mr Whitlam asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: (!) [More…]

• I address a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• No pamphlets relating to the new health benefits plan have been printed for distribution to the public. [More…]

• It should be the aim in providing and maintaining health services to strike a high standard of excellence in this essential public service. [More…]

• Adequate public health services of this standard should be available to all according to need. [More…]

• Figures given to the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Whitlam) today by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) show an appalling wastage rate of 45% in the Australian Capital Territory and 64% in the Northern Territory for the 3-year training period ending in 1969. [More…]

• Health services lean especially heavily on State Budgets. [More…]

• Each year the cost of the State health services spirals wildly. [More…]

• There is an SOS loud and distinct being sent out from all States, seeking Federal Government co-operation in funding and developing health services. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Government is responsible for health services, and therefore for employing nursing staff, in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. [More…]

• It has an interest and a concern about the provision of health services and therefore of nurses in the States but it is not constitutionally responsible for those services. [More…]

• nursing and health services, the Commonwealth would be irresponsible to regard the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory as islands to be artificially insulated from the States. [More…]

• The Canberra Hospital Board and the Minister for Health were parties in the case as employers, as were the Canberra Mothercraft Society and the Commonwealth Public Service Board in respect of other groups affected by the claims. [More…]

• To assist in this objective 1 have also recently asked the Nursing Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council to make any recommendations it feels may be appropriate. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council exists to advise both the Commonwealth and the States as appropriate. [More…]

• According to the report prepared for me by the Australian Capital Territory Committee on Nursing Education it seems there may have to be a change in emphasis away from hospital oriented nursing training towards a more generalised nursing and public health basic education. [More…]

• The problem of maintaining nursing staffs and of providing working environments which adequately reward nurses is one which is related to the whole question of hospital and health services, As I have already pointed out health services, as distinct from health benefit payments, are constitutionally the firm and primary responsibility of the States. [More…]

• The Australian and New Zealand Hospitals and Health Services Year Book 1969 shows that in the previous year the Canberra Community Hospital had a daily average of occupied beds of 409 and a nursing staff of S30. [More…]

• This is the attitude of the Liberal Government in South Australia where a deputation from the Royal Australian Nursing Federation was recently received by the Minister for Health in that State. [More…]

• Evidently that was more important than- the care of the patients with whose responsibility he, as Minister for Health, is charged. [More…]

• We had the same attitude expressed recently by the Queensland Minister for Health on the ‘Four Corners’ television programme in which he virtually stated that the problem was being rather overstated by the nurses and that we really had to balance their claims up with the taxpayers’ interests. [More…]

• I point out that I had quite a bit to say, and my colleagues on this side had also quite a bit to say, during the second reading debate on the National Health Bill about the quality of medical care in Australian hospitals. [More…]

• But the Minister for Health passed it off as what he called a lot of soporific waffle. [More…]

• I do not know why the Minister for Health even wants to be the Minister? [More…]

• He just does not seem to be interested in prosecuting a decent policy of health. [More…]

• At one stage he said that he wondered why the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) had accepted the portfolio of Health and why he really was holding on to it because he did not seem to be interested and did not even seem to be doing the job. [More…]

• Also, I think one should consider what the Minister for Health did during the preparation of the recent National Health Bill, the time that he spent in travelling around Australia and discussing the situation and matters relating to the Bill with those who were interested and ascertaining whether people agreed with the Bill. [More…]

• I am sure that even the people who oppose some of the provisions of that Bill accept the fact that the Minister for Health at least devoted a tremendous amount of time and effort to endeavouring to ascertain the conconsidered opinion of many of the people associated with health matters. [More…]

• I think that effort on the part of the Minister answers the criticism of the Minister for Health by the honourable member for Kingston. [More…]

• I cannot remember the exact words but the Minister expressed the view that, while he believed that this matter of public importance brought forward by the Opposition could not be supported in strength, nevertheless the discussion was of value because matters of concern and the complexities of health care could be discussed. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) answered the points put forward by the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden) about other duties performed by nurses. [More…]

• Not all hospital authorities require nurses to perform exactly the same type of duty outside the direct sphere of nursing, lt is accepted that the problems of health are complex. [More…]

• The Commonwealth has taken steps to have discussions with the States about this matter in an endeavour not only to uplift the general standard of nursing but also to make a valuable contribution to hospital and health services throughout the country. [More…]

• Associated with nursing are home nursing, meals on wheels and all the other activities that are part and parcel of a nation’s health service. [More…]

• The honourable member said that the Minister for Health was not interested in the conditions of work of nurses and other related matters. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party believes that an absolute fundamental to the success of a national health scheme is the availability of an adequate supply of effectively trained and professionally contented nurses. [More…]

• Quite frankly, I was very disappointed in the statement made today by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes). [More…]

• The Commonwealth should have gone to the Commission and drawn attention to the fact that the Government’s great investment in the whole of our national health scheme could be seriously undermined because of the inadequate number of nurses in our community. [More…]

• Thirdly, he mentioned the fact that national health schemes surely aspire to making it easier for more people to get the kind of medical and hospital care that they need. [More…]

• To review the role of the nurse and the midwife in the hospital and the community and the education and training required for that role, so that the best use is made of available manpower to meet present needs and the needs of an integrated health service. [More…]

• This sort of inquiry, to which public testimony of all kind can be made, could do nothing but a lot of good for our health services. [More…]

• The honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden), the shadow Minister for Health, presented a fairly statistical type of address today, with figures and comparisons of our nursing system with those of other countries. [More…]

• He made the claim at the beginning that this Parliament only some days ago set the salaries of the doctors by adopting the new health scheme, lt is a pity that the honourable member did not understand the Bil that was introduced. [More…]

• The honourable member said that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) passed the buck to the Slates, yet he did not say what the Commonwealth should be doing. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health, while he cannot directly interfere as some of the Opposition members would suggest because it would be unconstitutional, will work in closely with the State Health Ministers to try to bring about an agreement on what is an acceptable standard of nursing training throughout Australia. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) may be encouraged to assist the States to reach these standards which have been reached in nurses’ conditions in Canberra Hospital. [More…]

• The only other thing that I should say - and I say it in complete fairness - is that none of these improvements which have been made in Canberra Hospital through my own work as Chair man of the Management Board and through the work of my colleagues on the Canberra Hospital Management Board could have been put into effect without the approval of the Minister for Health, who is at the table, and f thank him for what he has done. [More…]

• Examples such as the reform of our archaic system of health insurance and a satisfactory resolution of the issue of Commonwealth, State and civic financial relations spring readily to mind. [More…]

• permanent ill health [More…]

• 114 of 1967 and this Act also reduced from 8 to 4 years the qualifying periods in respect of cessation on account of death and permanent ill health. [More…]

• irns asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Advice of the quarantine release of each consignment is conveyed to the State Departments of Health for any action considered necessary by it under the relevant State legislation. [More…]

• The State Department of Health advises that to its knowledge all of the consignments of whale meat removed from cold store have been transferred direct to the factory for processing into pet foods, and that Department has no evidence that any of the whale meat has been diverted lo small goods manufacturers or the retail meat trade. [More…]

• As well, the importation of whale meat from the Antarctic poses no threat to the livestock industry, and the Victorian Department of Health advises that it does not consider that any risk to public health is involved. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will he give consideration to the claim by chemists for an increase in the fee for dispensing national health service prescriptions. [More…]

• I recently received a new submission, dated 5th March 1970, from the Pharmacy Guild of Australia requesting an increase in National Health dispensing fees and I referred this submission to the Joint Committee on Pharmaceutical Benefits Pricing Arrangements for examination and advice, as this is the normal procedure. [More…]

• Remuneration for dispensing National Health prescriptions is paid to chemists by way of a dispensing fee plus a markup on the wholesale price of the drugs supplied. [More…]

• These remuneration rates have not changed since 1961 but the amount of remuneration per prescription has increased and the number of National Health prescriptions has increased substantially since 1961. [More…]

• The information on National Health dispensing costs from the past survey relates to 1964-65 and the only way to obtain current information on the costs of dispensing National Health prescriptions is to have another survey. [More…]

• When the Government, after examining the report from the last survey, advised the Pharmacy Guild in mid-1969 of its decision not to increase National Health dispensing fees, it also invited the Guild to participate in a new survey so that a further review of chemists’ remuneration could be carried out in the light of changing cost structures. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• O.B.E., Federal President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, to Federal Members stating that the Minister had consistently declined the Guild’s invitation to negotiate chemists’ remuneration for dispensing national health prescriptions. [More…]

• I have not received any request from the Federal Pharmacy Guild for a meeting with me on chemists’ remuneration for National Health dispensing since the meeting I had with an official Guild deputation on 18th July 1969, at the request of the Guild, in relation to the Government’s decision (as advised to the Guild in my letter of 20 June 1969) on the Guild’s application for increased diepensing fees. [More…]

• (a) The Government and the Guild jointly had a survey carried out by an independent firm of consultants on the costs of dispensing National Health prescriptions and in mid-1969 the Government decided, after examining the survey report, that National Health dispensing fees would remain unaltered. [More…]

• The Government was exercising a right under the then existing arrangement with the Guild when, in 1961, it advised the Guild that, because of the ‘freakish’ result yielded by the updating formula, it wished to negotiate a new arangement for future adjustments in National Health dispensing fees. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• When was the last increase granted to chemists for dispensing national health service prescriptions. [More…]

• National Health dispensing fees were in creased by 10%. [More…]

• In addition to dispensing fees chemists also receive, as part of their remuneration for dispensing National Health prescriptions, a markup on the wholesale price of the drugs supplied. [More…]

• The Pharmacy Guild has applied for a 20% increase in National Health dispensing fees but this bore little relationship to the increase in actual costs during the period concerned, being the previous year. [More…]

• The Government granted a 10% increase in dispensing fees in 1961 but at the same time it exercised a right under the then existing arrangement with the Guild when it advised the Guild that, because of the “freakish” result yielded by the updating formula, it wished to negotiate a new arrangement for future adjustments in National Health dispensing fees. [More…]

• (5 and 6) The Government and the Guild jointly had a survey carried out by an independent firm of consultants on the costs of dispensing National Health prescriptions, and in mid-1969 the Government decided, after examining the survey report, that National Health dispensing fees would remain unaltered. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Can he say what was the total amount spent on health services in Australia in each of the years 1950, 1955, I960, 1965 and 1969. [More…]

• Comparable estimates of expenditure upon health services in Australia are only available in respect of total recurrent expenditure in the years 1960-61, 1963-64 and 1966-67. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• and (2) The last survey conducted by the Department was in 1968 and the methods used by the registered health benefits organisations and the Australian Medical Association in 1969 did not differ in any significant way from those used by the Department [More…]

• The results of the last survey conducted by the Department in 1968, were given to the representatives of the registered health benefits organisations and the Australian Medical Association at the meeting of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Council held on 27th and 28th November 1968. [More…]

• On health grounds I see no reason to object to it, but the American authorities consider it objectionable and they will not allow it to come into the country. [More…]

• With every respect to speakers on both sides of the House, was there really anything said in the speeches of the 26th, 27th and 28th speakers at the second reading stage of the National Health Bill that had not already been said amply and, indeed, several times by the time we had heard the 8th, 9th and 10th speakers in that debate? [More…]

• There has been some very serious bungling in the administration of the Mental Health Authority and other departments that have been concerned with it in the development of this psychiatric centre at Bendigo. [More…]

• I point out that originally in 1957 the Mental Health Authority said that there was an urgent need for a psychiatric hospital in Bendigo. [More…]

• In January 1964 the Victorian Minister for Health said that a psychiatric hospital would start with a first stage of 400 beds. [More…]

• Anyway, in 1964 the Minister for Health said that he hoped work would begin in June 1964. [More…]

• In 1966 the ‘Age’ reported that the chairman of the Mental Health Authority had stated that a new psychiatric centre would be built in 2 years, the first stage to include an early treatment unit of 48 beds and 2 rehabilitation wards to accommodate 98 patients and ancillary services. [More…]

• In 1964 the Victorian Minister for Health said that he hoped that building would commence in June 1964. [More…]

• In 1966 the chairman of the Mental Health Authority said that the facility would be built in 2 years. [More…]

• 1 should like to quote from a report entitled Menial Health Services in the State of Victoria Controlled or Supported by Mental Health Authority’, written in January 1967. lt states: [More…]

• Within the Mental Health Authority there is a 28.5% undercutting of trained psychiatrists. [More…]

• It is very important for the people of my electorate to have the general range of health facilities provided. [More…]

• He retired from that position on the grounds of ill health. [More…]

• 1 believe the responsible health authorities have been treating the citizens of this important city, which is the industrial heart of the nation, in a mean, shabby and contemptible way. [More…]

• I believe that, because these people are predominantly working class, the health authorities have got away with gross neglect in the matter to which I am referring. [More…]

• No real consideration was given by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) who represents in this chamber the Minister for Housing (Senator Dame Annabelle Rankin) and the Government to the sincere and practical suggestions which were put forward by representatives of the credit union movement. [More…]

• A representative of the water board has said at a public meeting that it is not concerned with any health hazard; its main problem is to dispose of sewage and if it does not dispose of effluent effectively there are so many people waiting for further sewerage extensions that there will be a greater problem. [More…]

• The test used by the Department of Health in New South Wales is called the coliform count or the biological oxygen demand test. [More…]

• In the area which I represent a large hospital disposes of its sewage untreated, lt is an infectious diseases hospital for both polio and hepatitis patients and the people in the area are justifiably concerned that this method of disposal is not in accordance with the best standards of health. [More…]

• You will not find a baby health centre. [More…]

• There is no baby health centre notwithstanding that there are probably more children in the area than in any other similar area in Australia. [More…]

• There is no baby health centre and no dentist. [More…]

• After all, it is possibly the most important aspect of government outside health. [More…]

• There are others in regard to transport, local government finance, the great need for adequate baby health centres, health facilities and the like. [More…]

• I ask a question of the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Committee also recommends that the Department of Health regulations be amended to allow milk processed outside the Australian Capital Territory to be brought in in cartons. [More…]

• He said that one-tenth of that amount would be of immense help to him in New South Wales for works associated with health, education and so on. [More…]

• Teaching will never have the professional recognition that I saw doctors receive in this House last week when we were discussing the national health scheme. [More…]

• In respect ofthe Pensioner Medical Service and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, doctors have been excluded by the Minister for Health following inquiries held by the Medical Services Committees of Inquiry. [More…]

• These committees are established in each State under Section 110 of the National Health Act. [More…]

• Other exclusions have taken place in accordance with Section 133 of the National Health Act subsequent to a doctor being charged before a court. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The new Health Benefits Plan will provide for the payment of medical benefits at the specialist rate for certain sen-ices when rendered! [More…]

• For this purpose, it will bc necessary that the specialist or consultant physician be recognised as such under the National Health Act. [More…]

• This House guillotined the National Health Bill and proposed circulated amendments were never debated. [More…]

• It has been a considerable disappointment to me that Labor efforts to secure Senate select committees since 1967 have succeeded in only one case - on health costs - and that committee led to the Nimmo Committee. [More…]

• At the next Senate election, and at the House of Representatives elections, I shall propose joint standing committees - for example, on Aboriginals, science and technology, health, education and welfare and technical change as my Party’s platform ordains, and, as I have often advocated, on such matters as law reform, Commonwealth-State agreements and New Guinea. [More…]

• In March he suggested committees on external affairs and defence; transport and communications; trade, industry and labour; legal, constitutional and home affairs; health, welfare, education and science; and national finance and development. [More…]

• 1 do not find it reassuring that the Health Ministers conference does not choose to release any news about its deliberations on hospital treatment tot pensioners, the planning of hospitals or mental hospitals. [More…]

• The Government was $13.5m or 67% out in the case of costing of health insurance. [More…]

• Given the secrecy which shrouds so much of what is done by Government departments which are noi associated with strategic factors, such as defence - health cannot be put into this category, nor can social welfare - and given the fact that when the Government does make an inquiry it keeps its information confidential, it is awfully difficult for ordinary members of Parliament - back benchers on the Government side, and front and back benchers on this side - to delve out the sort of information they need if they are to make valid conclusions on important matters of legislation in this House. [More…]

• The New South Wales Department of Public Health backed up the Council of Social Services of New South Wales, but that Council is an unofficial body and it was charged with the responsibility of making a survey in that State. [More…]

• I wish to quote now from the Third Interim Report of the New South Wales Health Advisory Council on Intellectually Handicapped Persons. [More…]

• According to the third interim report of the New South Wales Health Advisory Council there are 14,750 handicapped children in that State yet there are only a little over 3,000 facilities provided for them. [More…]

• 1 have in my hand a document entitled ‘Demography of Disability’ produced by the New South Wales Department of Public Health and the New South Wales Council of Social Services. [More…]

• In the preface to this book the New South Wales Minister for Health states: [More…]

• There are 11 such regional advisory committees in New South Wales consisting of representatives of education and public health bodies and child and social welfare officers, to help guide and advise the New South Wales Government and local workers for the cause. [More…]

• Last year the association made representations, through myself, to the Commonwealth Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) about the restrictive criteria under which the Commonwealth Government’s benefit for handicapped children was granted. [More…]

• It is significant that in lengthy and closely reasoned submissions to the Commonwealth inquiry into health insurance and the Senate Select Committee on Medical and Hospital Costs the Australian Association of Organisations for the Cerebral Palsied (Spastics) did not mention the need for capital assistance at all. [More…]

• The Minister has pointed out that there is already indirect Commonwealth assistance to these bodies by way of social service and health scheme benefits, but all these incidental Commonwealth benefits combined still amounted last year to only 7.1% of operational costs, and that appallingly low percentage contribution will not be increased by so much as a single decimal point as a result of the present legislation. [More…]

• These extracts come from his submissions to the Commonwealth committee of inquiry into health insurance and read as follows: [More…]

• All hospitals of importance throughout the world employ therapists, and we earnestly seek the inclusion of therapeutic remedial treatments within the scope of the National Health Act provisions. [More…]

• It may be suggested, as Mr Michell himself indicates in that extract, that the appropriate source of support for the maintenance of such centres should be the Department of Health rather than the Department of Social Services. [More…]

• It is a problem throughout Australia which should call for the attention and co-ordination, not only of the States and the Commonwealth, but of the Department of Social Services, the Department of Health, the Department of Education and Science and the Treasury. [More…]

• Normal children are held back and the health of the parents is undermined by the tremendous strain of caring for the retarded member. [More…]

• There should also be compulsory medical examinations under the national health service for all 4-year-olds to enable earlier assessment of children with special needs due to a disability and hostel accommodation for the aged, orphans, and others unable to live at home for any reason, such as illness, age of parent, distance from a facility, condition of handicapped person in relation to other members of the family, size of family, etc. [More…]

• In its report this panel of experts saw mental retardation as a national health, social and economic problem affecting in that country 51 million adults and children and involving from 15 million to 20 million family members. [More…]

• First, it should provide for the establishment of a handicapped children’s education and health authority which has the responsibility landed on its table. [More…]

• Of course the Commonwealth completely disregards the fact that health authorities and education authorities throughout Australia are in desperate financial straits. [More…]

• I leave the thought with the Minister that he might consult with his colleague the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) to see how the co-operation of their .2 departments can best be used for the benefit of these children who need assistance so very much. [More…]

• 1 think there are deficiencies in the National Health Act. [More…]

• I recognise that the National Health Act is administered by the Commonwealth Department of Health and that this Bi’l is to be administered by the Director-General of Social Services. [More…]

• The point I make is this: Under the National Health Act there is paid what is known as a supplementary benefit. [More…]

• At the administrative level of the Commonwealth Director-General of Health intensive care has been interpreted to mean intensive medical care. [More…]

• The cost per child is S50 per week to which at the present, time the Commonwealth contributes the ordinary’ benefit, as it is called through the Commonwealth Department of Health of S2 per day. [More…]

• The other States have provided financial assistance to enable parents and health departments lo co-operate in providing ‘training centres’ and more recently, to enable parents to provide schools staffed by education department teachers. [More…]

• The Government has agreed to the setting up of an inter-departmental committee consisting of my own Department of Social Services, the Department of Health and the Department of Labour and National Service to survey this whole field. [More…]

• Nevertheless I believe that by and large the States, in terms of the responsibilities that they still have to undertake - responsibilities such as education, health, public law, public transport and so on - really are inadequately reimbursed by the Commonwealth in relation to their responsibilities. [More…]

• What was the total of deductions claimed by taxpayers on account of (a) contributions to health insurance funds, (b) medical expenses other than those covered by (a) and (c) donations to charities and appeals qualifying for tax deductions, for the last year for which figures are available. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What would be the cost to (a) contributors and (b) the Commonwealth of providing benefits at the level and on the basis (i) recommended by the Nimmo Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance in March 1969, (ii) adopted by the Standing Committee of the Health Funds and Federal Executive of the Australian Medical Association in July 1969 and (iii) recommended by the Senate Select Committee on Medical and Hospital Costs in September 1969. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• At a Conference between Commonwealth and State Ministers for Health in February 1964 it was agreed unanimously that a campaign would be undertaken jointly by the Commonwealth and Suites to inform young people of the hazard’s of smoking. [More…]

• In respect of implementing that agreement, it was subsequently agreed at later CommonwealthState conferences on the subject, that health education programmes should be instituted and directed mainly towards school children. [More…]

• The Code resulted from discussions between the then Minister for Health, the Federation and the cigarette manufacturing industry. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has he made any decision regarding these services and their relevance to the national health scheme. [More…]

• Is he able to say whether these services are economically insurable under voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• Since my appointment as Minister for Health 1 have had numerous discussions with representatives of such organisations as the Australian Dental Association, the Australian Physiotherapy Association and the Australian Optometrical Association. [More…]

• The question of extending the National Health Scheme to cover ancillary services is under examination by the Government. [More…]

• It was the opinion of the Commonwealth Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance that it would not be feasible to bring these ancillary services within the operation of the insurance scheme unless they were heavily subsidised by the Commonwealth Government In view of the great increase in expenditure in other areas of National Health currently being introduced it may be difficult to arrange for further extensions of the National Health Scheme at this stage. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Various alternatives within the Government’s agreed level of commitments were discussed between the Department of Health and the Little Company of Mary. [More…]

• The Department of Health could not, of course, vary the level of Government commitment. [More…]

• After planning had proceeded for another year, two factors were reported by the Department of Health to be causing concern. [More…]

• The design of the hospital was judged by both the Department of Works and the Department of Health to bc uneconomic, largely because the services designed into it were apparently sufficient for close to a 300 bed rather than a 200 bed hospital. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The only form of free medical treatment at present provided under the National Health Scheme is that available to eligible pensioners and their dependants through the Pensioner Medical Service. [More…]

• This comprises a free medical service of a general practitioner nature, such as that normally provided by a doctor in his surgery or in the patient’s home, but does not extend to the provision of specialist treatment or to allied health services such as those provided by optometrists. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has his Department ever sought to obtain agreement with the respective States for (a) establishing mandatory occupational safety and health standards, (b) enforcement of such safety and health standards, (c) providing for research into occupational safety and health, (d) training programmes for personnel engaged in the field of occupational safety and health and (e) clearly delineating the responsibilities of the Commonwealth and the respective State governments in relation to occupational safely and health. [More…]

• (a), (b) and (c) There is effective liaison between the State and Commonwealth Departments through the Departments of Labour Advisory Committee and through the Occupational Health Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Courses and training programmes in various aspects of occupational safety in various aspects of occupational safety and health are conducted by the Commonwealth and by the State Departments concerned. [More…]

• The responsibilities of the States in regard to occupational safety and health are defined in the legislation of each State. [More…]

• Has the work force normally engaged in the health keeping services at Woomera been suddenly reduced by 30 per cent. [More…]

• The work force engaged: in the health keeping services at Woomera has not been reduced suddenly by 30 per cent. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Perhaps if people realised the health benefit of milk in relation to the other products I have mentioned, they would be prepared to pay a higher price. [More…]

• Answering the last part of the honourable gentleman’s question first, I wish to inform him that the Government has made a decision on that particular proposal and I conveyed this decision to the State Health Ministers at their conference as long ago as March. [More…]

• The Government rejected the application by the States on the long standing policy ground of the Government that responsibility for mental health is a responsibility for the States. [More…]

• In relation to the first part of the honourable gentleman’s question, the Government is currently giving consideration to what, if anything, will replace the States Grants (Mental Health Institutions) Act on its expiration at the end of this month and when the Government has made a decision an announcement will be made. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health, ls it a fact that at present there is no Commonwealth Government financial support for research into the disease of multiple sclerosis which is a chronic disease of the central nervous system? [More…]

• Practically all the money that the Commonwealth makes available for medical research is made available through the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is it intended to give early but belated effect to the recommendations of the Senate Select Committee on Medical and Hospital Costs and the Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, known as the Nimmo Committee, regarding the reduction of the massive reserves held by hospital and medical benefit funds? [More…]

• He introduced the first of the modern public health acts which revolutionised sanitation in England. [More…]

• It may be a new health scheme. [More…]

• During these 2 decades chaos has continued to grow in specific sectors of our community - in education, housing, roads, health and hospitalisation. [More…]

• The functions of government are to ensure the well being, comfort, health, education and betterment of people wherever they may live. [More…]

• Mindful thai such acts may endanger the life and health of passengers and crew in disregard of commonly accepted humanitarian considerations, [More…]

• The serviceman lays his life, his future, his health and welfare on the line. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The survey showedin the Government’s view that no increase in the Commonwealth payments to chemists for dispensing National Health prescriptions was justified. [More…]

• The survey information related to 1964-65 and in June 1969 the Government offered the Pharmacy Guild a new survey to obtain current factual information on National Health dispensing costs so that chemists’ remuneration for dispensing National Health prescriptions could be reviewed in the light of changing cost structures. [More…]

• Health dispensing fees. [More…]

• Health Services Office. [More…]

• Does he realise that vast population increase, once considered highly desirable, is now being questioned due to the pressures it places on education, health and social welfare services, housing and land prices and the consequent diminution in the quality of life that over-crowded cities have on our environment? [More…]

• On the Daily Programme issued for the general guidance of honourable members there is a reference at the top of the second page indicating that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) would be seeking leave to make a ministerial statement in connection with the National Health Bill 1970. [More…]

• Sir, it also appears from the Daily Programme that the statement which the Minister for Health will seek leave to make on the National Health Bill will be immediately followed by consideration of that Bill in Committee. [More…]

• However, as the Senate also passed amendments in the Committee stage, the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) proposes to make a statement which will put the whole matter in context and deal with the requests and amendments. [More…]

• Mr WHITLAM (Werriwa- Leader of the Opposition)- by leave - Since I raised this matter the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) has been good enough to supply my colleague the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden), who will represent the Opposition on this Bill, with a copy of the statement which the Minister will seek leave to make. [More…]

• It knows that it is guilty for having had such a long recess and it does not want measures like the health legislation, matters relating to tariff reform and numerous other Bills on the business paper to be debated when the public can hear the debate. [More…]

• In any case, Mr Speaker, when you are worn out and dejected in the early hours of the morning, when the health of the Clerks and other staff is affected, when the attendants are worn out and wearyand have not seen their wives and children for a few days, and whenthe other staff members are walking in a tranceI hope that honourable members will realise that it has been caused by the. [More…]

• by leave - Mr Speaker, I wish to make a statement concerning the National Health Bill before it is considered again in Committee. [More…]

• As honourable members are well aware, the parliamentary procedures for dealing with requests and amendments made by the Senate to a single Bill - as is the case with the National Health Bill - provide for the requests only to be dealt with by this House as a first step. [More…]

• It could be inferred that the relatively large number involved is a reflection of the unacceptability of the Bill - and therefore the new health benefits plan - to the Senate. [More…]

• Firstly, the basic principles of the health benefits plan as framed by the Government and as contained in the Bill have remained unchanged. [More…]

• The decisions of the Government are evidence of its determination to improve the health benefits plan in all its aspects as well as its wish to have this Bill passed speedily and given royal assent so that needless delay does not occur before increased benefits are payable to those in the community who incur expenses on medical treatment. [More…]

• by leave- The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) commenced his statement by talking with some satisfaction about what the requests and amendments represent as an endorsement of the principles of the National Health Bill. [More…]

• Health Bill as presentedby the Government. [More…]

• It is a misnomer to talk about a national health bill when in fact the Bill almost exclusively refers to health insurance and ignores the wide range of ancillary services which must be part of a national health plan as distinct from health insurance. [More…]

• Given the opportunity, which we expect fairly soon, to legislate on health insurance in this country the Opposition will certainly be adopting a different approach from that which the Government makes. [More…]

• I would ask honourable members to recollect that when proposed amendments to the National Health Bill were being discussed in this House the Minister applied the guillotine. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has been rather reticent in discussing this aspect. [More…]

• In earlier discussions on health Bills the Minister rejected any suggestion that the S2 a day could be provided for Queensland, despite recommendations by the Nimmo Committee and subsequently by the Senate Select Committee on Medical and Hospital Costs known as the Wedgwood Committee. [More…]

• We ought to be having a close look at the way in which funds are provided for health services and indeed at public responsibility generally to ensure that more efficient use is made of people’s energy, time and resourcefulness instead of trying to raise money in such a round about uneconomic manner. [More…]

• At present any person who obtains medical treatment from a medical practitioner will obtain the benefits of the medical health insurance scheme except when he goes to an ophthalmologist and in the course of that consultation spectacles are prescribed. [More…]

• it raises an important principle connected with the overall philosophy of the Government’s amended National Health Bill. [More…]

• That is, as a result of the changes which the Government has proposed to this health insurance scheme, the cost will be almost twice as great as it is currently. [More…]

• This seems to be clear and convincing evidence that this substantial increase that has developed as a result of the amendments to the health insurance scheme - more than $50m for medical insurance alone without concerning ourselves with the extra Slim as subsidy for the low income earners - has come about because of the increased charges by doctors. [More…]

• Of course, I have already asked the Minister, as a result of a statement he made in the House, what are the improvements and additions he has included in the health insurance scheme to those which he outlined at the last election. [More…]

• Did the Australian public get a 70% increase in coverage and benefits under the health insurance scheme? [More…]

• It seems that there is always a high degree of precision demanded of the Opposition whenever it puts forward a proposition in any field, particularly health, but the greatest degree of waffle and inaccuracy appears to be fair average per formance for the Government - $ 1 3.5m out in election promises. [More…]

• Yet they will be included as income under the National Health Act. [More…]

• In fact, in the health committee we did give serious consideration to opposing the whole Bill. [More…]

• We could not see the argument that this was an improvement for the general population when what was proposed was to make health insurance tremendously more expensive to the public purse and considerably more expensive to the contributor without in any way radically affecting in a positive sense the efficiency of health insurance in the community. [More…]

• The provision not to pay benefits for eye specialists in these cases, as the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden) pointed out when he made his statement, was first included in the National Health Act in 1953 as a result of strong objections by the optometrical profession to the proposal to pay Commonwealth benefits for sight-testing examinations if they were carried out by medical practitioners. [More…]

• As 1 indicated in the statement I made to the House, the Government is not prepared, nor is it reasonable to expect it to do so, to change a long standing policy of this kind without having an opportunity for investigation of the proposed change in detail, along with questions of a similar nature, such as the provision generally of ancillary medical services under the health benefits plan. [More…]

• Who can decide objectively at this point of time whether benefits for patients who have had spectacles prescribed should be provided before benefits for patients receiving other costly health services such as physiotherapy and home nursing? [More…]

• As I explained in speaking to the previous request for an amendment, the definition of professional service’ varies from that in the principal Act in that it recognises for the purposes of paying medical benefits certain services rendered in operating theatres of hospitals by dentists or dental practitioners approved by the Director-General of Health. [More…]

• Perhaps I could point mit the Government’s attitude by saying that the Act at present provides for low income families to be assisted with the cost of contributing for medical and hospital benefits and, as honourable members ure aware, the Natonal Health Bill proposes extensions to this assistance. [More…]

• The National Health Act, however, provides for these forms of income to be included when calculating the ‘means as assessed’ for low income families. [More…]

• Means as assessed for the purposes of the National Health Act would then not include any income falling within the categories I have mentioned. [More…]

• (b) of the National Health Act which excludes pensioners enrolled in the pensioner medical service from low income family assistance. [More…]

• The real point at issue is that the amendment would create anomalies by providing assistance with the cost of health insurance for some applicants whilst other applicants in similar financial situations would be denied assistance. [More…]

• 6 (Table as referred to by Minister for Health) [More…]

• I did say that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) was deceitful. [More…]

• Accordingly my colleagues on the Health Committee, all of whom want to speak on this matter, are not prepared to do so. [More…]

• The Minister will be aware that in the Committee stage of the Bill various honourable members who were members of the Health Committee moved different amendments. [More…]

• The Bill is referred to as a National Health Bill but it ignores all the ancillary services such as para-medical services, including optometry, and medical services such as ophthalmology, and tries to perpetuate some sort of myth in the community. [More…]

• I put the proposition again to the Government that it ought to be moving in a gradual way to try to expand the coverage of the health services into ophthalmic, optometrical and dental treatment. [More…]

• The National Health Bill will develop towards something that can really be said to provide for a national health service. [More…]

• Firstly i would like to say that i am grateful for the acquiescence of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) in making available the copies of the statement about which there was discussion prior to dinner this evening. [More…]

• It seems to me to be an alarming situation when patients over the country and doctors in many circumstances are contending that refraction treatment should be the subject of benefit by way of the national health scheme, when the Opposition has favoured this proposal as have some Government supporters in this House and when, in addition, a favourable response has come from senators in another place about the matter, that the Minister finally says ‘No, we are not going to give effect to this suggestion because we have not yet contrived the means by which we give equal treatment to the 2 professions which engage in the provision of refraction treatment’. [More…]

• In other words, because of the inadequacy of the Government in this matter and because it has failed to apply itself to the need to register people to demonstrate their capacity so that the public at large can be protected, and because there has been a lack of uniformity in training requirements and matters of this kind, the Government is now saying ‘We are not prepared to include refraction treatment in the benefits system under the national health scheme’. [More…]

• I believe it is now necessary for the Government to apply itself to this matter more earnestly than it has in the past in order to provide registration arrangements so that in the not too far distant future the message which has come from the Senate on this occasion can be given effect to and by this means the national health scheme can be made more effective in regard to optometrical and ophthalmological treatment. [More…]

• The optometrist service has been described as an ancillary service and apparently the Government is not at this stage prepared to bring in a comprehensive coverage of such service within the national health scheme. [More…]

• In describing the optometrist service as an ancillary service I remind the Minister for Health and the Government that even in this Bill the services of an optometrist are given professional recognition. [More…]

• I do not want anything that I say to be construed as a suggestion that patients attending ophthalmologists ought not to be getting the protection of the national health scheme. [More…]

• The health schemes in overseas countries do give widespread recognition to the services rendered by optometrists. [More…]

• In the United States of America, Canada and in various parts of Europe, optometrists have professional service to render under the health care schemes operating in those countries. [More…]

• After all, these funds operate within the province of the National health scheme. [More…]

• Mr MAISEY (Moore) 1.8.21]- I am supporting the course of action proposed by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) in respect of these proposed amendments. [More…]

• Since 1953, when the national health scheme began, there has been the peculiar exclusion of the patients of eye specialists from receiving benefits for consultations with their doctor. [More…]

• The original intent of the National Health Act was to have the consultations of all doctors covered by medical benefits. [More…]

• Failure to do this would be admitting that the Government is failing to support a vital medical service to an estimated 300,000 health scheme contributors a year for the purpose of supporting the economic interests of optometrists who are unqualified to supply the best and a complete service. [More…]

• –In declining to recognise the need to provide a benefit for the prescription of glasses, the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) may be underrating the importance of this to patients. [More…]

• In conclusion, I would like to quote something the Minister for Health said earlier today. [More…]

• As Chairman of the Labor Party’s Health Committee long years ago 1 see around me tonight many colleagues, with whom I have always opposed the decision of the Government nol to provide a benefit for refraction because of a difference of opinion between the optometrist and the ophthalmologist. [More…]

• However, the point I rose to make was that while national health benefit should undoubtedly be provided for refraction, and while I believe the Government made a very serious mistake way back in 1952 in deciding that no benefit should be paid for refraction either to ophthalmologists or optometrists, 1 also believe that the only proper remedy is for an equal provision to be made for both groups of professional men in this respect. [More…]

• I ask: What kind of debate have we had ;n this Committee on the National Health Bill? [More…]

• As 1 recall it, we have heard from 2 members of the Liberal Party, the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) and the honourable member for McMillan. [More…]

• Here is a National Health Bill which one would have thought would interest every honourable member in this chamber. [More…]

• The National Health Bill, as t was presented to the Parliament, was inadequate enough, but the fact that this House because of the guillotine provision was prevented from dealing with the Bill clause by clause is an insult to the Parliament. [More…]

• One of the best criteria for illustrating its importance is the contribution it makes to our export income which is the economic lifeblood so important to the health of our society. [More…]

• A surcharge of 50% applies where a person is entitled to a benefit under the National Health Act of the Commonwealth. [More…]

• first speech in this House that I had addressed a gathering of farmers on one occasion in the electorate of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) and I had told them in very blunt fashion that it was time they., got off their posteriors and helped themselves. [More…]

• Has this percentage of reimbursement meant a very severe restriction of State facilities, including education and health? [More…]

• T believe, on the other hand, that constant rainfall and low temperatures are a greater threat to health than the conditions experienced in those zone A areas. [More…]

• Lung and throat complaints mean a definite loss of labour to the mines and are serious enough to have caused the Commonwealth health authorities to check on the high incidence of hospital patients there compared with the rest of Australia. [More…]

• This is the problem of people - exservicemen of your age and my age and perhaps a little older - getting to a stage where although they have worked fruitfully and well have no prospect in many cases of getting any equity if ill health were to overtake them. [More…]

• These committees may be formed from nominees from a variety of bodies who have an interest in the health scheme. [More…]

• Throughout our health services we have a number of such committees. [More…]

• Dr FORBES (Barker- Minister for Health) [5.481-1 move: [More…]

• We are dealing with people who support the Liberal Party which is in office - the people who are completely, devoted to the Government’s so-called voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The whole crux of the matter can be seen in the action of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) in not accepting the proposition that the register shall be open for public inspection. [More…]

• The point made in that report was that although the Hospital Contributions Fund does not do anything of the sort the other funds contribute to the Voluntary Health Insurance Council. [More…]

• The Hospital Contributions Fund runs its own organisation called the Office of Health Care Finance and spends more than $20,000 each year of its contributors’ money there. [More…]

• An appraisal of voluntary health insurance as the ideal method for financing the costs of essential health care. [More…]

• The booklet is straightout propaganda for the Liberal Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• In the case of the Voluntary Health Insurance Council, which is the propaganda organisation of many of these funds, the President and spokesman is Sir Charles Rieger who, until last week, was Federal President of the Australian Medical Association. [More…]

• One of the main issues at the last Federal election was the question as to whether Australia would have a so-called voluntary health insurance scheme or the Labor Party’s alternative health insurance scheme. [More…]

• As I said in the House on 14th May it is relevant to keep in mind the various types of organisation that are registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• It follows that the majority of organisations, and certainly the larger ones, are to a greater or lesser extent subject to dual control under the National Health Act and under appropriate State legislation. [More…]

• I am reminded that the honourable member for Barton (Mr Reynolds), when this Bill was before the House on a previous occasion, raised in a very trenchant manner the question of the timetable proposed by the Government for its undertaking in respect to a review of the various services or a review of the possibility of bringing into the national health scheme those services which are paramedical in nature. [More…]

• Also, consideration must be given to the means by which it would be most desirable to bring these matters into the national health scheme, should the Government eventually decide to do so. [More…]

• 1 can say, however, that we are giving a great deal of time to the matter and I shall take the curliest opportunity to put the results of this review before the Government so that it may decide ils attitude to this possible expansion of the national health scheme. [More…]

• It might also be a fair attitude if this were voluntary health insurance in the true sense, but it is not. [More…]

• The contributor, that is, the patient, is compelled to contribute to a voluntary health scheme if he is to receive any benefit from the Government. [More…]

• I think the shareholders and the people represented by voluntary health insurance funds also have an expectation of receiving a higher yield, if that is the way the country is to be run. [More…]

• What people do not realise or what the Government refuses to realise is that the real mystery men on the Australian business scene are the directors of the health and medical’ benefit organisations. [More…]

• Firstly, the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) in his statement said that because these gentlemen, who are directors of the funds, give very substantial time in a voluntary capacity to them - no one will deny that perhaps they do give substantial time in a voluntary capacity - it would be an unfair intrusion into their private affairs to expect their holdings, or those of their families, in any organisation in which the fund’s reserves have been invested to be revealed. [More…]

• These officers can go along and say, and I am sure that this is what happens, although Ministers of Health consistently have denied it: ‘You know this is rather an expensive drug. [More…]

• I had good advice from people who were well informed on the matter, and it received a lot of attention from the then Minister for Health, who has since passed on. [More…]

• According to the annual report of the Department of Health the total cost of pharmaceutical benefits in 1968-69, including patients’ contributions on prescription benefits available to the general public, amounted to $136m. [More…]

• Because of the major deficiencies in housing, education, transport and health there is no doubt that this percentage will increase at the expense of the rural sector and possibly at the expense of the manufacturing sector. [More…]

• The information requested has been provided by Schedule A - public hospitals, and Schedule B - private hospitals, both Schedules containing the numbers of hospital beds in institutions approved under the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• These are the fees on which the medical benefits included in the National Health Bill 1970 are based. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Are the health requirements which he introduced some months ago relating to cheese imported into Australia, and which were temporarily suspended, now being applied. [More…]

• The Commonwealth health requirements in respect of imported cheese have been suspended because of further recommendations on this subject which were made by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the dispensing fee for ready prepared prescriptions under the National Health Scheme for those same years. [More…]

• Salary ranges (actual) for Pharmacists and Pharmacists (Inspection) employed by the Department of Health, for each year since 1958, are set out hereunder. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The honourable member may be interested to know that a subcommittee of Ihe “National Health and Medical Research Council has been established, at the request of the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference, to consider standard analytical methods for determining the ‘tar’ and nicotine content of tobacco smoke. ‘ [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Was the Government’s proposal to give dental therapists in the Australian Capital Territory total patient responsibility originally based on a recommendation to the National Health and Medical Research Council by the Dental Health Advisory Committee. [More…]

• Has he referred the matter back to the National Health and Medical Research Council because of a dispute over the interpretation of that recommendation. [More…]

• Has the National Health and Medical Research Council referred the matter to the Public Health Advisory Committee on which no dentist is a member [More…]

• Is it a fact that the National Health and Medical Research Council has not referred the matter back to the Dental Health Advisory Committee which made the original recommendation; if not, why not. [More…]

• In October1965 the National Health and Medical Research Council adopted a report from the Public Health Advisory Committee prepared by the Dental Auxiliary Personnel Sub-Committee of the Dental Health Committee. [More…]

• These principles included; that auxiliary dental personnel are complimentary to and not a substitute for the qualified dentist; that auxiliary personnel must serve as an integral part of a dental health team with appropriate status and conditions and in view of the limited knowledge and scope of the individual dental auxiliaries the direction and control of their services should be vested in a registered dentist. [More…]

• The Chairman of Council bad this matter referred to the Public Health Advisory Committee, which meets before Council. [More…]

• The Chairman of the Dental Health Committee, a dentist, who was also the Chairman of the Dental Auxiliary Personnel Sub-Committee, attended the Public Health Advisory Committee during the discussion. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has not referred the matter back to the Dental Health Committee as there would not have been time to convene a meeting before Council met. [More…]

• The matter was discussed with the Chairman of the Dental Health Committee. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What recommendations of the Nimmo Committee, which he indicated in his statement on 4th March 1970, the Government would undertake, have not been covered by the current amendments to the National Health Act. [More…]

• follows: (1), (2) and (3) The measures based on Nimmo Committee recommendations which I indicated in my statement on 4th March 1970, would be undertaken or considered, and which were not encompassed by the National Health Bill 1970 as introduced into Parliament or by administrative arrangements associated with that Bill, are - [More…]

• The decision to establish a National Health Insurance Commission (based on .Nimmo Committee recommendation- 1) - As indicated in my statement, it is necessary for the Government to give detailed consideration to the composition and functions of the proposed Commission. [More…]

• The proposal to provide for disciplinary action to be taken in relation to any abuses of the health insurance system (as referred to in Nimmo Committee recommendation 19) - As indicated in my statement, the Government is examining appropriate methods of implementing such action. [More…]

• The provision of facilities for the deduction of health insurance contributions from employees’ wages or salary (based on Nimmo Committee recommendations 27 and 28) - The details of implementation of this proposal are under consideration by the Government. [More…]

• The proposal to provide for penalties to be imposed on the officers of health insurance funds for serious neglect of their responsibilities (as referred to in Nimmo Committee recommendation 37) - As indicated in my statement, this proposal is under consideration by the Government. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What estimated amount was provided for health expenditure in Australia from (a) private, (b) public, and (c) total sources for the last year for which figures are available and the year 10 years earlier. [More…]

• Estimates of total recurrent health expenditure in Australia have been made by my Department only in respect of the years 1960-61, 1963- 64 and 1966-67. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• If so, has he given any consideration to the Department of Health becoming a client of the Commission in respect of all section 19 (b) production and research activities so as to ensure that undertakings accepted under this section are, in fact, covered on a commercial basis. [More…]

• It has always been recognised by the Government that the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories have an important role to perform in the field of research associated with public health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the Joint Committee of Public Accounts in its Report on the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission state that the Committee was surprised to find that representatives of the Department of Health, which had framed the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories legislation, were unable to define the meaning of a reasonable return on funds as used in the 1961 Act. [More…]

• Did the Joint Committee of Public Accounts in its Report on the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission recommend that the Department of Health and the Department of the Treasury should seek to clarify, for the guidance of the Commission, the meaning of the expression ‘reasonable return on capital’. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the Joint Committee of Public Accounts in its Report on the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission comment on the necessity for the capital employed by the Commission to be dissected so as to isolate the capital employed in commercial activities in order to determine a reasonable return on such capital as distinct from that capital used for public health services under section 19 of the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Act 1961. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• used to enable a Commonwealth Director of Health to decide whether authority should be granted. [More…]

• The recommendations of the interim report follow, in the areas of voluntary health insurance, to some degree the recommendations of the Commonwealth Committee of Enquiry into Health Insurance (the Nimmo Committee). [More…]

• The Minister for Health in a Statement to the House on 4th March 1970 set out the Government’s considerations of the Nimmo Committee recommendations and an examination of the relationship between the recommendations in the 2 reports will indicate the Government’s views on those of the Senate Committee’s recommendations in the health insurance field. [More…]

• on “Women Workers in a Changing World” in 1964 contended that the traditional measures adopted with the objective of protecting the health of women workers may now be discriminatory rather than protective. [More…]

• No evidence has been produced to show that night work is a health hazard to women or that it is more harmful to women than to men. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In addition to the inspection of premises for the purpose of ensuring the maintenance of acceptable standards of hygiene, the State Public Health authorities exercise a general surveillance over the wholesomeness of all foodstuffs at the retail level. [More…]

• Mr Bowen is expected to return to Australia on 13th September and during his absence the Minister for Health, Dr Forbes, will be Acting Minister for Education and Science. [More…]

• I ask the Prime Minister whether he has had the opportunity to consider the reported statement by Mr Justice Nimmo to ihe effect that the inquiry into health insurance over which he presided produced evidence of ‘appalling social and economic distress in this affluent country’? [More…]

• The Commonwealth, of course, and indeed the Parliament, has considered the report of Mr Justice Nimmo on how to best provide the best health scheme for the people of this country and the Government and the Parliament have taken action to do so. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) who will act as Minister for Education and Science during the absence of the Minister for Education and Science at a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation meeting told us in the House that the Commonwealth would not conduct a survey of educational needs because if it did it would commit the Commonwealth Government necessarily to heavy expenditures because of the expectations it would raise. [More…]

• To put it bluntly, the economic health of this nation is dependent on prima rj’ industry and the mineral industry. [More…]

• Firstly, he is required to be here as often as he can while his health permits him to do so, and if his health deteriorates to the extent that he cannot be here then the sooner he resigns the better. [More…]

• In accordance with a long-standing arrangement, the matter was referred for consideration to the Occupational Health Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, and the Occupational Health Section of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. [More…]

• Advice from the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine is that workers exposed to airborne asbestos fibres can be exposed to the risk of developing pneumoconiosis (asbestosis), and the danger of lung cancer. [More…]

• The degree of health hazard depends upon the severity and duration of exposure to asbestos and the protective methods adopted. [More…]

• The Occupational Health Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council is continuing its research on this problem with a view to recommending a hygiene standard and encouraging the development of the most effective methods both for the prevention and control of dangerous exposure to airborne asbestos fibres in the work environment. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• My Department and the Office of Aboriginal Affairs have made special efforts to assist the States in determining the most effective ways to improve the health of this section of our community and recently in an effort to determine the major factors responsible for the production of subnormal health, particularly in Aboriginal children, and ways to correct them, convened a meeting or Workshop’ at which representatives from the States and Territories and experts in fields of anthropology, nutrition, paediatrics, nursing, welfare, administration, public health and medical research were present in Sydney in December 1969. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What are the20 professional services specified in the Schedules to the National Health Act for which the largest number of individual services were recorded during the last full year for which figures are available. [More…]

• and (2) Figures for a full year for individual professional services covered by the National Health Act are recorded only for general practitioner consultations (item 1 of the Schedule). [More…]

• There are no participating organisations in the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory, as the Home Nursing Services in those Territories are a part of the Commonwealth Department of Health Activities. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Careful consideration has been given from time to time to extending the scope of the Service to include allied health services such as those rendered by dental practitioners but it has been decided not to extend its scope. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health upon notice: [More…]

• 1 have recently asked the Nursing Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council to make any recommendations on nursing in Australia which it feels may be appropriate. [More…]

• The problem of maintaining nursing staffs and of providing working environments which adequately reward nurses is one which is related to the whole question of hospital and health services. [More…]

• Health services are constitutionally the firm and primary responsibility of the States. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In August 1968, the Australian Dental Association submitted identical proposals to the Commonwealth Committee of Enquiry into Health Insurance (Nimmo Committee) and to the Senate Select Committee on Medical and Hospital costs. [More…]

• That (he Commonwealth Government should establish a Division of Public Dental Health within its Department of Health with the following main functions: [More…]

• The co-ordination of present pro grammes of dental health education and promotion of additional ones. [More…]

• That because of the magnitude of the dental health problem Government School Dental Services should concentrate upon the treatment and maintenance of pre-school and school children on an incremental age basis with particular priority to the ‘dentally indigent’. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the National Capital Development Commission retain the services of an overseas firm of architects, hospital and health planners to undertake a study of the health needs of Canberra in the future. [More…]

• The study is being carried out on behalf of the National Capital Development Commission and the Department of Health jointly. [More…]

• The consultants’ proposal for the study, which was accepted by the Commission and the Department, provided for the submission of a report, consisting of five parts each representing a particular aspect of the provision of health facilities in the A.C.T., namely [More…]

• the machinery for delivering health care to the population of the A.C.T. [More…]

• ; (b) the special services which are required to back up these health facilities, and to maintain them; [More…]

• the staging and phasing of health facility provision to meet the needs of the extremely rapid growth which is occurring throughout the A.C.T. [More…]

• the need for a comprehensive health and welfare service for the ACT. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Any move to extend the scope of the National Health Act to include colostomy and ileostomy appliances must be considered in relation to the fact that there are other aids, such as trusses, spectacles, artificial eyes and limbs, for which no Commonwealth Assistance is available. [More…]

• As yet, however, it has not been found possible to provide such aids under the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did he tell me on 4th June (Hansard, page 2938) that at the Health Minister’s Conference in March he had conveyed the Government’s decision to reject the application by the States for hospital benefits to be paid for patients in mental health institutions when the States Grants (Mental Health Institutions) Act expires on 30th June. [More…]

• the Government had rejected the States’ proposal and its decision had been conveyed to the State Health Ministers at their Conference in March 1970; and [More…]

• the Government rejected the application by the States on the long standing policy ground of the Government that responsibility for mental health was a State responsibility. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many patients in each State would have benefited from the request by the State Health Ministers for hospital benefits to be paid for patients in mental health institutions when the States Grants (Mental Health Institutions) Act expires on 30th June (Hansard, 1 1th September 1969, page 1259). [More…]

• At which Health Ministers’ Conferences have the State Ministers made this request. [More…]

• As the honourable member is aware, the extension of the States Grams (Mental Health Institutions) Act for a further 3 years was announced by the Treasurer in the Budget Speech on 18th August 1970. [More…]

• In addition to those conferences there are conferences of Commonwealth and State Attorneys-General, Agricultural Ministers, Health Ministers and Education Ministers. [More…]

• The honourable member for Wills (Mr Bryant) who was very vocal in opposition to this item has a motion before the House seeking standing committees on foreign affairs and defence, finance and trade, health and welfare, primary industry and national development, transport and communications, education, science and the arts, legal, home and internal territory affairs. [More…]

• My suggestion to the House is that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) who represents the Minister for Housing might as a matter of urgency look at the situation. [More…]

• Health, Immigration and Customs procedures covering passengers arriving at the new international terminal are not causing confusion. [More…]

• My only comment on the speech of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) is that the Government is so barren of ideas on housing and urban living that there was only a slight mention of housing in the Budget speech, even though the home building sector of the building industry is in a chaotic condition. [More…]

• Shops (to provide day-to-day needs); play areas, infant health and pre-school child welfare centres; meeting hall; and schools. [More…]

• The Standing Committee on Health and Welfare; [More…]

• So the following divisions are suggested: A standing committee on foreign affairs and defence, a standing committee on finance and trade, a standing committee on health and welfare, a standing committee on primary industry and national development, a standing committee on transport and communications, a standing committee on education, science and the arts, and a standing committee on legal, home and internal territory affairs. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware that some thousands of people throughout Australia are prevented by religious belief, based on a literal interpretation of the Bible, from becoming members of the Commonwealth health benefits plan? [More…]

• Is he aware that these, people - and I base this assertion on representations made to me in Hobart - are prepared to pay the equivalent of health scheme subscriptions into consolidated revenue in order to qualify for benefits? [More…]

• Can he say what effect this might have on the Government’s decision not to implement the Nimmo Committee’s recommendation that religious or conscientious objection to joining voluntary organisations such as the health scheme should be accommodated? [More…]

• I should like to assure him that the Government gave it long and careful consideration before deciding to reject that particular recommendation, because one of the Government’s basic purposes in the national health scheme is to encourage people to make appropriate provision, through a system of voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• it would be contrary to the basic concept of the scheme if Commonwealth benefits were to be made available to persons who, for various reasons - any reasons - were unwilling (o undertake health insurance. [More…]

• Health Tax [More…]

• The most notable - notorious, rather - imposition flows from the Government’s determination to prop up its costly and inefficient health scheme and its refusal to set up a single public fund to which contributions are determined by ability to pay. [More…]

• In practice, there is greater compulsion to pay the new charges for health than to pay any of the indirect taxes in the Budget. [More…]

• The health tax is almost as unavoidable as the income tax itself. [More…]

• So increased health contributions have to be added to the charges of this Budget. [More…]

• Nobody regards it as particularly discreditable for a Prime Minister to assert that a health scheme will cost an additional Si 6m while his Treasurer - the one he picked out - tells us it will be $3 5m and while all indications are that its cost will be many millions of dollars more than that. [More…]

• Money spent on pollution control, because it is government money, is regarded only as a cost while the loss to the community and the community’s productivity and therefore to government revenue through the ill-health that pollution causes is disregarded. [More…]

• Costs of Health Scheme [More…]

• The health appropriation illustrates how political decisions by the Government distort the national Budget. [More…]

• Let there be no mistake: The extra $31m in taxation and the extra $24m in increased contributions to medical funds is not a payment for better health; it is the cost of propping up the failing structure of the Liberal health scheme. [More…]

• Australia’s 114 separate health insurance funds are to go their opulent ways for yet another year. [More…]

• Six million dollars of the additional, needless health impost will be plucked from contributors who hitherto have subscribed to the lower fund tables just so that they could qualify for Commonwealth health benefits under the system called ‘voluntary’. [More…]

• According to the latest figures with which the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) has been able to supply me, 39% of all contributors have until now been enrolled for tables other than the ceiling table. [More…]

• Eighteen million dollars will be squeezed from contributors to the ceiling table, whose weekly rates have been increased by up to 25% despite the Nimmo Committee’s conclusion that health insurance contributions are in present circumstances as high as most people are prepared to pay and as many people can afford to pay’. [More…]

• Since the introduction of the Liberal health scheme, contributions for medical insurance have doubled in 4 States and trebled in 2. [More…]

• All this additional outlay from taxation and all the additional burden newly imposed upon contributors could have been avoided if the Government had been magnanimous enough to admit its past mistakes and adopt Labor’s proposals for a system of universal health insurance financed by a l% surcharge on taxable incomes. [More…]

• Labor’s alternative health programme will cost Australians no more than the still unfair and inadequate Liberal health scheme cost before its latest ineffectual and costly renovation. [More…]

• Australians must now appreciate that while in matters such as health and rural industries it would be possible to achieve much better results for the community and for individuals without increase in our present financial outlay, the provision of proper opportunities in education for all Australians is an undertaking which will cost very much more than any government has so far been willing to find. [More…]

• I shall refer to his health principles a little later. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition seems to suffer from the delusion that centralised bueaucratic control of such matters as health and education would result in economy. [More…]

• The deduction for medical insurance premiums, coupled with the assistance given to people on low incomes to pay their insurance premiums means, in effect, that we have this situation: People on incomes below $42.50 per week get government assistance to pay nl] their health insurance premiums. [More…]

• These deductions allowed for health benefit contributions reduce Treasury revenue by about $31m a year. [More…]

• Also, in the new health scheme there is what is called a deterrent fee to prevent abuse of the service. [More…]

• If is a vital requirement of the new health scheme that treatment should be reasonably available to patients at the most common fee. [More…]

• The only time these income tax deductions can be changed is when there is a reassessment of income tax rates or when the benefits are being changed as is happening with the health benefits at the moment. [More…]

• Our ability to do all the things we wish to do - to maintain our security, to improve our housing, health and education, to eliminate poverty, to improve the quality of life - ultimately depends on a steadily increasing national income. [More…]

• I conclude on this note: Australia may now look to the Australian Labor Party for urgent attention to pensions, health, housing, education and the reconstruction of primary industries, all of which are more depressed than ever after 20 years of government by the Liberal Party encouraged and maintained by the continuous support of the Country Party minority. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Attorney-General and in doing so make reference to the letter he wrote to me some days ago informing me that he would not be prosecuting Mrs Margaret Berman firstly because of her health and secondly because of the protection afforded her by the Victorian Evidence Act. [More…]

• The physical health of the people who are affected cannot be measured in terms of millions of dollars. [More…]

• This matter is a very important one; it concerns the health, efficiency and wellbeing of members of this Parliament. [More…]

• lt is most appealing for its wearing qualities, appearance and health reasons and it far outperforms any man-made fabric. [More…]

• This Government denies the obvious needs of the less fortunate and those battling for an existence, people who seek only the right to live decently and to ensure their children good health and a decent education. [More…]

• Their commitments include the education of their children, looking after the health and welfare of their families, paying off their homes and providing their families with what most Australians would consider to be the standard of living to which they are entitled. [More…]

• If be examines the Budgets of 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1949 it will be clear to him that when the economic health of the country was at stake the leaders of his Party, when in power, acted in what could only be described as a prudent and discreet way. [More…]

• Imports are prohibited except with the permission of the Minister for Customs and Excise but before he can make a determinaion on a matter of this kind it goes before an interdepartmental committee consisting of officers of my Department, the Department of Health, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Treasury and the Department of Customs and Excise. [More…]

• The honourable member for Angas, my colleague the Minister for Health and the honourable members for Riverina and Sturt have made representations to me about this. [More…]

• But let us face it: No-oneI am sure would have liked the job of the Treasurer (Mr Bury) of framing this Budget which had to restrain the inflationary pressures that were existent in the economy yet increase aid to rural industries by 55%, provide finance for the new health scheme which will bring tremendous benefits to the community throughout Australia, provide for an increase in education by 25% and yet relieve the lower and middle income groups of taxation to the extent of $280m in a full year. [More…]

• One need hardly add the present deficiencies that exist in the field of education, social welfare and health, coupled with the spiralling cost of land and housing - and we have just had an example of how little is being done for people such as pensioners - to know that a continually increasing population has created a gap for many millions of Australians between the myth of the affluent society and the reality of the deficiencies they are facing in almost: every facet of their day to day existence. [More…]

• This has been necessitated, no doubt - we have to face it - by the need to find additional funds to pay increased amounts to the States as general revenue and the need for further large sums to meet the bill for education, health services and national welfare generally. [More…]

• 1 have heard reference in the House to-day to the pressures on the provision of services - the millions of dollars required for education, the provision of water supply facilities, the National Health Bill and the provision of power, housing and many other like facilities for the migrants as they come in. [More…]

• While these people are on the waiting list their mental and physical health is deteriorating. [More…]

• It was discussed by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) in February. [More…]

• The Victorian Minister for Health has said that about 80% of people in nursing homes are not getting the maximum benefit of $5 but in fact are getting $2, so it becomes impossible to run the Slate nursing homes. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition spoke about his belief - as he did in the last election campaign - in the nationalisation of health services in the country. [More…]

• They are not even as much as the minimum wage or the benefits the Government provides under the health insurance scheme for other citizens of this country. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• On the initiative of the New South Wales health authorities, this was considered by the committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council which exists for the specific purpose of evaluating methods of medical treatment. [More…]

• Now Dr James has disputed that and has since said that the committee of the National Health unci Medical Research Council did not have the full information in relation to this matter before it. [More…]

• In respect of the specific matter of whether the Commonwealth Government will make available a grant to set up clinics, I make the point to the honourable gentlemen that the provision of health services is a matter for the States and that any particular request along those lines should be directed to the State governments. [More…]

• This includes the honourable member for Angas, the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) and others, though not many of course - to take action in the Federal Parliament to protect employment and development in South Australia from the impost on the sale of wine of SOc per gallon and from an increase of 2i% in sales tax on motor vehicles and electrical goods which are proposed in the Federal Budget and which will adversely affect South Australia far more than any other Stale. [More…]

• These requirements are designed to protect the health and safety of the community in. [More…]

• that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman or of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman or any existing children of her family greater than if the pregnancy were terminated (and in determining whether the continuance of a pregnancy would involve such a risk of injury to health, account may be taken of the pregnant woman’s actual or reasonably foreseeable environment); or [More…]

• The honourable member may be assured that I am taking a very deep interest in their health. [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to the report of the Truskott Committee, tabled in the New South Wales Parliament, recommending the establishment of colleges of advanced education for the training of nurses? [More…]

• If I take random headings from the Treasurer’s speech, I see: ‘Defence’, ‘Payments to the States’, Social Welfare’, ‘Sheltered Workshops’, Repatriation Benefits’, ‘Mental Health Institutions’, ‘External Aid’, ‘Assistance to Woolgrowers’ and ‘Aboriginal Advancement’. [More…]

• They cling to an unnecessarily expensive system of health insurance which must collapse, because of its costliness, within 5 years. [More…]

• In health and welfare Australia led the world nearly 50 years ago. [More…]

• In short, local government is expected to provide modern amenities, to provide swimming pools, sporting ovals, libraries, baby health centres and many other projects, lt is expected to provide these on an outmoded method of finance. [More…]

• The honourable members for Wakefield and Angas, the Minister for Health and the honourable members for Riverina, Sturt and Paterson have made representations to me concerning the initial levy of the excise which might affect the industry’s capacity to pay in the short run. [More…]

• The purpose of my question to the Minister for Health is to clear up a point that was raised at a meeting in Brisbane at which I was present. [More…]

• The purpose of this Bill is to extend the operation of the States Grants (Mental Health Institutions) Act 1964-1967 for a further period of 3 years from 1st July 1970 to 30th June 1973. [More…]

• Under the States Grants (Mental Health Institutions) Act 1964-1967, capital assistance grants have been provided to the States iri respect of mental health institutions, on the basis of Si from the Commonwealth for each $2 expended by the States. [More…]

• which is being extended by this Bill, applies in respect of mental health institutions’ which are defined as being institutions ‘carried on exclusively or principally for the care and treatment of mentally ill or mentally defective persons’ and which are conducted by or are in receipt of maintenance grants from a State. [More…]

• Assistance is made available by the Commonwealth in connection with expenditure made for the acquisition of land and buildings to be used as mental health institutions, the construction and alteration of buildings used for this purpose and the acquisition of equipment for use in mental health institutions. [More…]

• There is o doubt that the Slates have derived great benefit over the past 15 years, as a result of the Commonwealth’s participation in this particular area of mental health, which has in turn enabled the States to provide greatly improved facilities for mental patients. [More…]

• However, the Government is aware that the various States are now placing more emphasis on expenditure on community mental health projects, such as early treatment psychiatric centres, day centres and hostels and on integrated services, lt also recognises that the emphasis on capital expenditure in traditional mental health institutions is declining in favour of such projects, a large proportion of which qualifies for Commonwealth assistance under the legislation which this Bill proposes to continue. [More…]

• The development by the States of community and integrated mental health services will be kept under observation by the Commonwealth so that, at the end of the 3 year period, the Government will be in a position to consider what future role the Commonwealth should play in the mental health field. [More…]

• However, I would suggest that the House might consider that one reason for this is that in this welfare field 1970-71 is the year of health services. [More…]

• Our available resources this year are being concentrated on our health scheme which is important not only to pensioners but to the whole community. [More…]

• Next year, with the health plan consolidated behind us, it will be possible for us to resume what I would call our pensioners’ progress. [More…]

• This also applies to the health scheme and the fear of illness - the threat that hangs over the heads of elderly people. [More…]

• The Minister gave the lame excuse that the health plan will be behind the Government next year and then it will be able to resume its social services programme. [More…]

• The health plan will bc behind the Government? [More…]

• 1 thought the Government still had a monumental task io face up to as far as its health programme was concerned. [More…]

• Let the Minister for Social Services (Mr Wentworth) not kid the people that the matter of health insurance is finished. [More…]

• Health benefits and other items within the social welfare field also give them security and this is what they need. [More…]

• 1 ask him why and his simple answer is: ‘Because I can go back to my country of birth when I am due for retirement and I can get a better system of social services and health and other benefits there than 1 can in Australia. [More…]

• In his reply to the Budget speech the Leader of the Opposition had a great deal to say about the additional cost of the new health scheme introduced by the Government. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition also claimed that Labor’s alternative health programme would cost Australians no more than the existing health scheme before the Government’s recent improvements. [More…]

• The additional costs of Labor’s proposed health scheme would now be (ess because of the Government’s recent improvements in the health scheme. [More…]

• However, even when the proposed t per cent surcharge on taxable incomes is taken into account there is little prospect that Labor’s universal health scheme could be financed without a significant additional Commonwealth contribution. [More…]

• It is the instrument for carrying out the Government’s policies in the fields of social welfare, health and education, defence, the development of the nation’s resources and other essential areas. [More…]

• The health scheme, for example, in Labor’s plan is also to be paid for in proportion to income. [More…]

• My Government and, no doubt, insurance companies rely on the impeccable verdict of an expert committee of the World Health Organisation which met on this subject as late as last year. [More…]

• I refer to his recent advice to me that the question of nursing home fees and appropriate Commonwealth benefits had been examined by the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The question of nursing home costs has been and is under consideration by the Minister for Health and the Government. [More…]

• The list of drugs available under the pensioner medical service includes all drugs on the health benefits list plus some extra. [More…]

• But this is a Budget for consolidation and for the major adjustment of the health benefits proposal and I have no doubt that before long we shall resume the pensioners progress, whether in increases in the real value of the base rate or in the provision of new fringe benefits or in both directions. [More…]

• Sure, this year our welfare programme concentrates on consolidating past gains and getting the new health scheme under way. [More…]

• No-one likes these increases - I do not - but the money must come from somewhere to meet necessary increases of expenditure such as in health and social services. [More…]

• Still playing politics, he referred to a health tax although there is no mention of a health tax in the Budget. [More…]

• This gave him an opportunity to parade his Party’s scheme for a compulsory health fund. [More…]

• It means centralising all health controls in Canberra. [More…]

• The effect of this kind of health service on the individual is dreadful to contemplate and I hope that people will never be deceived by the scheme the Labor Party has put forward. [More…]

• One thing that has always had an appeal for me is the characteristic of regularity, which I think is very conducive to good health. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council at its Seventieth Session in April 1970made the following statement: [More…]

• Pesticides in use in Australia are kept under a continuing review by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• In the New South Wales Legislative Assembly the other day, the Minister for Health, Mr Jago, said that the wearing of the Moratorium badge was disloyal and treasonable. [More…]

• In this regard, will the Minister consider having discussions with, and perhaps using the services of, the new medical committee established under the auspices of the Austraiian Council for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled and headed by Dr Burniston of Sydney to investigate medical and health aspects of this most vital of subjects? [More…]

• Will the Minister confer with the Minister for Health to ensure uniform treatment of citizens and non-citizens alike in respect of travel arrangements to Australia and. [More…]

• Naturally l will discuss the details with my colleague, the Minister for Health, if the honourable gentleman will provide me with the names of the persons involved. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health, ls the Minister aware that most canned pet foods are based on meat from kangaroos, working horses and cattle rejected for human consumption? [More…]

• Health Advisory Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, but the discussions by the Public Health Advisory Committee have not reached any finality yet. [More…]

• Apart from the 3 hour period for Repatriation and Social Services the alloted times for other groupings are as follows: External Affairs, 5 hours; Customs, Primary Industry and Trade and Industry, 5 hours; Defence Services, 5 hours; and 2i hour periods for Civil Aviation, Education and Science, Health, National Development, Postmaster-General’s Department and Shipping and Transport. [More…]

• We have decided th;”.t the new Parliament House is to be sited on Camp Hill - for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health. [More…]

• The subjects of these committees will be foreign affairs and defence; finance and trade; health and welfare; primary industry and national development; transport and communications; education, science and arts; and legal, home and internal territory affairs. [More…]

• Health is not adequately and properly taken care of and education is in a shocking condition. [More…]

• There has been criticism by bodies that purport to represent education in this country and by numerous other bodies demanding more and more government services in health, education, defence, roads and social services. [More…]

• It is not always true in looking, for example, at education or health that twice the expenditure results in twice the benefit. [More…]

• The health services in urban areas lacking sewerage are a positive disgrace to the nation. [More…]

• We all know that there has been a change in the health scheme of the nation. [More…]

• Only now are the authorities considering building a public health centre. [More…]

• So I ask the Treasurer once again to pick his own team and spend one day with me in those areas alone to have a personal look at the problems that exist, because I think it would change his attitude on these important issues of the reconstitution of the Grants Commission, the problem of local government interest rates, the need for grants to the States specifically earmarked for these problems of local government finance, the questions of education, health facilities and all the rest that is needed in these areas. [More…]

• Incidentally, another matter of vital importance right throughout that area is the provision of sewerage which is vital for health reasons alone. [More…]

• There, once again, the health hazard to the public is very decisive indeed. [More…]

• It means, does it not, that we are told that nothing more can be done for anybody, whether in education, health or social services, because this is the maximum amount that can be paid out. [More…]

• How ridiculous it is to have what might be termed the centralist power of money, which the Government has, and the paralysis we have and at the same time have this anaemic condition that applies on all the perimeters - that is, in the States, lt is important that the people receive proper housing, education, health and other amenities that the States provide. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is the (a) number and (b) percentage of members of registered hospital and medical benefits organisations who have had their contributions wholly or partly paid by the Commonwealth as a result of the National Health Act 1969. [More…]

• At 30th June 1970 there were 11,763 hospital benefit members (0.29 per cent of total hospital benefit members) and 12,336 medical benefit members (0.33 per cent of total medical benefit members) who were enrolled with registered organisations for the benefits of the Subsidised Medical Services Scheme provided at result of the National Health Act 1969. [More…]

• I desire to ask the Minister for Health a question. [More…]

• It is true that as from 1st November patients who wish to claim the specialist rate of benefit under the health benefits plan will be required to attach a notice of referral to the claims that they send to their fund. [More…]

• That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into and make recommendations on all aspects of the provision of, and arrangements for the supply of, pharmaceutical benefits under the National Health Act 1953-1970, with particular reference to- [More…]

• the effects of the scheme on the health and welfare of the community. [More…]

• This is an ever present element in the operation of any national health scheme and it is the Government’s responsibility to ensure as equitable a balance as possible between the interests of the various parties. [More…]

• If we had standing committees charged with the responsibility of a continuous in-depth inquiry into aspects such as the health services in Australia then this particular subject, concern for which has apparently caught up with the Government, would have been one about which a thorough report could have been compiled by this time. [More…]

• This is not to say that the scheme is not justified but it is evidence that, because of the abnormally large amount of money being put into the scheme in comparison with other sectors of health expenditure, there ought to be some close scrutiny of the way in which the money is being used. [More…]

• This represents 37 per cent of the total expenditure proposed in the Budget for the national health scheme. [More…]

• To put it in plainer words, more than $1 in every $3 spent for health services under the Commonwealth Budget will be provided to support or maintain the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. [More…]

• This is the most expensive sector of all our areas of health expenditure. [More…]

• The statistics available in the last annual report of the Department of Health show that between 1961 and 1969 there was a 60 per cent increase in the number of prescriptions per head of population provided under this scheme. [More…]

• Even allowing for the fact that costs in the area of health services increased at a faster rate than general cost movements in the community, a cost increase of 74 per cent compared to the consumer price index cost increase of 18.8 per cent in the same period seems to indicate that there is something quite wrong, that there is some deepseated problem affecting cost movements in the supply of pharmaceuticals under this scheme. [More…]

• There are 2 prominent features which come out of a quick review of the statistics available in the annual report of the Department of Health. [More…]

• This may be clearly justified on the basis of health needs which in the past were neglected or because with the development of new drugs some people find that drugs are now available and can be supplied for treatment of their particular problems. [More…]

• From what one can extract from the statistics in the annual report of the Department of Health it does not seem that the pharmacists are responsible for this increase. [More…]

• On 19th August of this year the Minister for Health replied to a question which I posed about the number of pharmaceutical manufacturing companies operating in Australia. [More…]

• I repeat that I hope the sources of information available to the Minister are improved considerably if the Department of Health is to supply data to the Committee. [More…]

• This is not a reflection on the people who are manning the Department of Health; it is rather a reflection on the facilities available to them and the instructions under which they operate. [More…]

• The evidence of this practice was so overwhelming that the 1965-66 annual report of the Department of Health in fact endorsed the honourable member’s criticism and indicated that official pressure bad been brought to bear on the drug companies to try to cut down this sort of wasteful cost which, as is the nature of all costs in industry and commerce, is passed on finally to the consumer and in this case to the Government, because of the degree to which it supports the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. [More…]

• 1 also support the motion moved by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes). [More…]

• As the Minister for Health has mentioned, the cost of the scheme concerns many people including those engaged in the pharmaceutical industry and the chemists themselves. [More…]

• I suppose that $200,000 would solve that problem and make a tremendous difference to the physical comfort and the health of 40,000 people. [More…]

• I would like to take only a couple of moments to raise 3 anomalies in the new health scheme. [More…]

• I feel that some attempt should be made to improve the refund when the Government reviews the National Health Act. [More…]

• I would urge the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) when these matters come to his notice to ask his Department to reconsider the proposition that certain doctors are classified in a very narrow specialty. [More…]

• National Health Act 1953-1970 [More…]

• Following inquiries from the State Health Authorities I understand that in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania, beds in public and private hospitals are not, at present, closed due to the shortage of nurses. [More…]

• According to the 1968 United Nations Year Book on National Accounts, Australia spent 10.4 per cent of its gross national product on the provision of health, education and welfare. [More…]

• With these requirements in mind, the Australian Labor Party has pledged itself to undertake a wide ranging social welfare programme, not only aimed at rooting out poverty but also aimed at progressively removing the very real disadvantages of social discrimination and at establishing economic security for all in ill health, unemployment, invalidity, widowhood and age. [More…]

• The comprehensive social security approach will also include universal health insurance. [More…]

• The increase in pensions would have been higher had we cut down on our expenditure on defence, on national development, on education, on overseas aid, on Aboriginals, on housing or on health. [More…]

• Secondly, the Government needed to honour its promise to reduce income tax, and thirdly it also had to honour its pledge to reform the health scheme. [More…]

• It is because of the large allocation from the national welfare fund to health this financial year that more has not been available to keep up the pace of improvement in the pension rate which this Government has maintained since it came into office. [More…]

• To this end my Government will set up a standing Cabinet committee, including the Ministers for Health, Social Services, Repatriation and Housing, and that Committee will direct its attention to coordinating the approaches and proposals qf the various departments concerned with social welfare. [More…]

• I wonder whether the Minister is aware that it costs about $4 a week to provide the special foods and care recommended for babies by baby health centres. [More…]

• The introduction of the health legislation will also be of great benefit, particularly to this section of the community. [More…]

• Let me quote again from ‘Health and Welfare in Canada 1969*. [More…]

• It extends federal sharing to include the following costs, which were not shared under the Unemployment Assistance Act: The cost of assistance to needy mothers with dependent children, maintenance of children in the care of provincially approved child welfare agencies, health care services to needy persons, and the extension of welfare services to prevent or remove causes of dependency or to assist recipients in achieving self-support. [More…]

• Health care services may include medical, surgical, obstetrical, optical, dental, and nursing services, drugs, dressings, prosthetic appliances; and other items associated with the provision of such services. [More…]

• He contended that we needed a government White Paper on development of local health and welfare services. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Services (Mr Wentworth) has described it as a health Budget, with the emphasis on health. [More…]

• In relation to the health benefit, pensioners receive free treatment in public wards of public hospitals together with the ancillary medical services which go with such treatment. [More…]

• The list of drugs available under the national health service includes all drugs on the health benefits list plus some extra ones. [More…]

• It depends so often upon economic circumstances, upon the health of the individual and upon so many other factors, such as the marriage concerned, the money earned and the number of children they had to bring up. [More…]

• I was saying that expenditure on social services and health benefits and associated matters in 1949 amounted to $161 m. Today that expenditure has grown to $l,472m. [More…]

• Social services extend far beyond the ambit of the Department of Social Services and intrude into the realms of taxation, health, education, housing and transport. [More…]

• Again he is ineligible for an invalid pension because his state of health is evidently much the same as when he arrived, and is not due to any particular reasons since that time. [More…]

• The invalid pension may be out of the question as his health is much the same as when he arrived, and he said that he was 94 years of age at that time. [More…]

• In addition, if honourable members will look at paragraph 4 of the Professor’s scheme, it will be seen that he wants to add a little over 40 per cent to this to cover invalidity and other health benefits. [More…]

• It interviewed also the Indonesian Foreign Minister, the Indonesian Minister for Trade and the Governor of Djakarta as well as port officials, health directors, military governors and business men. [More…]

• I preface my question to the Postmaster-General with a complaint from a widow in ill health who is being worried at all hours of the day and night by telephone calls from business houses peddling their wares. [More…]

• We are dealing with his wife, who is probably in not much better health. [More…]

• The question I asked concerned a complaint from a widow in ill health, who was being worried at all hours of the day and night by telephone calls from business houses peddling their wares, and I emphasise that. [More…]

• While I was in Alice Springs over the weekend 1 read an article which stated that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) has had his plans for the Alice Springs Hospital approved. [More…]

• It is necessary for all of us interested in the re-development of our country areas to explore every opportunity and every avenue in order to return to a healthy state this important contributor to the health of the nation and the prosperity of the countryside. [More…]

• Nobody would doubt the fact that milk, for example, is one of the most healthy foods given to children and we continue to enjoy it for the rest of our lives. [More…]

• The Budget position would then have to be adjusted by one means or another, perhaps by reducing Government expenditure on things such as pensions, education, defence, national development and health. [More…]

• The Opposition might not object to a reduction in the spending on defence, but I think they would be the first to squeal if that reduction occurred in pensions and health. [More…]

• We are told - or, rather, it is inferred, for we are not told anything - that some of the Australian abattoirs are health hazards. [More…]

• There was a time when we were prepared to accept the story then being told that meat works were struck off the list for health reasons. [More…]

• But more and more people are coming to doubt whether it is for health reasons or whether there are not political pressures as well being applied by the producers in the United States who fear too great an influx of Australian meat into the United States. [More…]

• It has two forces hammering against it - firstly, a lack of inspectors and, secondly, the American intransigence towards our abattoirs and the health standards required. [More…]

• I am arguing whether the honourable member for Lilley was right in saying that they had increased the rate by 60 per cent in 5 years and I should imagine that even the Minister for Health, who often finds it difficult to take a dose of anything, would be able to understand that. [More…]

• That due to higher living costs, including increasing charges for health services, most aged persons living on fixed incomes are suffering acute distress. [More…]

• For too long the development of public health services in Australia has been shaped and promoted on the auction block of election expediency. [More…]

• In consequence public health services are fragmented and lack balance. [More…]

• There is a remarkable lack of order, balance and integration in public health services. [More…]

• In 1968-69 total expenditure on public health services by all public authorities and enterprises was $730m, that is, about 2.6 per cent of the gross national product. [More…]

• Australian public health services are burdened with extensive and somewhat self-defeating imbalances in the supply structure. [More…]

• Thus, in Australia in spite of the proven fact that domiciliary services are cheaper to operate per patient than public hospital beds this area is relatively neglected in the provision of our health services. [More…]

• The biases in the structure of our health services lead to many unnecessarily costly, and from the point pf view of the public’s best interest, many odd incentives. [More…]

• Again, imbalances arise through the varying facility of access of different areas of the health care industry to the sources of finance. [More…]

• Patient utilisation of public health services has been deterred by price penalties. [More…]

• Additionally, the so-called improvements’ by the Government in its health insurance in face make the scheme enormously more costly, involving an average price increase through the common fee concept of about 20 per cent. [More…]

• Rather surprisingly, after setting up the Nimmo Committee to inquire into the extensive and deep-seated defectiveness of its health insurance, the Government shunned the Committee’s cautionary advice that contribution rates were already as high as most people are prepared to afford. [More…]

• It is quite clear that Labor’s scheme of universal contributory health insurance could not be more expensive than’ the Government’s scheme, no matter how hard we tried. [More…]

• Indeed the’ Government pours money into its health insurance scheme with the abandon of a person who churns his money out of a counterfeiter’s press. [More…]

• If public health services in this country are to be adequately supplied according to rationally identified criteria of priority need, if public money is to be efficiently used so that service and benefit to the public is maximised, and if structural distortions on the supply side of those services are to be erased and balance established and maintained in the pattern of those services provided and in their expansion, there will have to be a clear Commonwealth commitment. [More…]

• The Commonwealth commitment must not only be through an improved health insurance scheme which gives universal protection but also involves the Commonwealth financially and physically in co-operative action with the States in the planning, provision and evaluation of public health services. [More…]

• In the meantime, apart from the deterioration in public hospital services, there is not the broadening, quantitative and qualitative uplift of public health services which should be provided for the public. [More…]

• That is, we are not doing what we are capable of, physically and financially, to provide adequate public health services. [More…]

• As the United States National Commission on Community Health Services noted: [More…]

• We have the knowledge to prevent more disease than we prevent today; we have the knowledge to treat more illness than we treat; we know more about controlling environmental health hazards than are put into practice. [More…]

• This situation of defective and deficient public health services is unacceptable to the Labor Party. [More…]

• We believe that in a prosperous, advanced society such as ours a comprehensive scheme of public health services should be available to all. [More…]

• Every individual should have access to social, preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitative health services. [More…]

• Labor accepts this principle and proposes 2 thrusts to its campaign to establish comprehensive health services for all of the population. [More…]

• Firstly there will be universal contributory health insurance. [More…]

• All Labor proposes is an equitable and an adequate method of funding plus an efficient use of those funds, for health insurance purposes. [More…]

• Thus under the Government’s scheme a man supporting a wife and 2 children on $50 a week currently pays 3.91 per cent of taxable income for private health insurance, on $75 a week he pays 2.45 per cent of taxable income and when we get into the higher income brackets we find the cost amazingly less onerous. [More…]

• The basis of the scheme is very similar to the one which I recently studied in Sweden where health services, comprehensively available to the public, are superior in every way to those available here. [More…]

• In Australia administrative costs of the health insurance scheme, that is, medical and hospital cover, as a percentage of contributions was nearly 13 per cent in 1967-68, the latest year for which I have been able to obtain details, lt is twice as expensive to operate a fragmented, inadequate system in contrast to the comprehensive one in Sweden. [More…]

• In the light of these figures the Minister’s exaggerated costing of our scheme is as ridiculous and as unreliable as his costing of the Government’s election promises on its health insurance scheme proved to be. [More…]

• When in Canada a few weeks ago 1 checked on this claim with top officials of the Canadian Department of National Health and Welfare. [More…]

• It transpires that all provinces barring Quebec, which is in the process of entering the scheme, participate in the universal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Labor’s second thrust will involve the setting up of a national hospitals and community health services commission. [More…]

• The commission membership will comprise Federal and State representation and will establish hospital and health services planning procedures. [More…]

• Taken together these two things seem to indicate this could mean a grave under-provision of hospital beds and therefore considerable neglect of the public’s health needs in Victoria. [More…]

• respect and will devise practical means to assist the financing of public hospital and community health services developed according to a balanced, integrated plan. [More…]

• I have often tried to follow the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden) in his gross distortions of the facts in relation to what he claims are the deficiencies in the National Health Scheme as administered by this Government and his attempts to bolster a scheme which the Labor Party has tried to foist on to the public for many years. [More…]

• I had the misfortune to be absent when the Government Members Health Committee had a couple of meetings, but ‘ I understand it has accepted as reasonable the latest payment that has been offered by the Government. [More…]

• My interest in this has been developed over many years of having examined a lot of the health problems in my association with our health committee. [More…]

• I am very happy about most aspects of the national health scheme. [More…]

• I had an enormous amendment ready when the national health scheme was introduced in the last session but no amendments were allowed. [More…]

• The estimates debate in its restricted time scarcely allows for a wide ranging debate on health matters. [More…]

• Admittedly, we have quite recently had a debate on changes in voluntary medical insurance, which is only one facet of the matters dealt with by the Department of Health. [More…]

• I believe that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) should make a ministerial statement on the Commonwealth Government’s across the board attitude to its whole range of responsibilities in the health field and should allow full debate on it. [More…]

• I am prompted to deal with the first matter because of the general feeling in the community that doctors are more interested in material reward and their claim of great privileges for themselves than in the setting up of a proper health scheme. [More…]

• The 1969-70 report of the DirectorGeneral of Health indicates an increase of nursing home benefits by $ 1 5.7m to $47 . [More…]

• The nursing home system for the chronically ill and the aged is the most shameful facet of our health services today. [More…]

• I regret that with my time expiring 1 cannot take up a plea for some of the special groups under the health scheme. [More…]

• 1 rise to speak on the estimates for the Department of Health in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• His figures were probably correct but he overlooks the fact that the Northern Territory hospitals - of which there will be five when the one at Nhulunbuy is built - carry almost the entire health scheme of the Northern Territory. [More…]

• I would like to commend the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) and the Government on some of the things that have been done recently in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• I notice that works in progress for the Department of Health in the Northern Territory amount to $7.7m. [More…]

• It is just as well to give the Minister for Health a pat on the back sometimes because I very often attack him about things that are wanted in the Territory. [More…]

• As I said before, I have been critic of the activities of the Commonwealth Department of Health in the Northern Territory, but I must give credit where credit is due. [More…]

• I urge the Minister for Health to continue with his Department’s recruiting campaign for nurses. [More…]

• That due to higher living costs, including increasing charges for health services, most aged persons living on fixed incomes are suffering acute distress. [More…]

• Let us go back to August 1964 when the Minister for the Army, now the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), made his first comprehensive statement in this House on national service training. [More…]

• I have quoted extracts from speeches made in this House and elsewhere by the former Minister for the Army, now the Minister for Health. [More…]

• A. J. Shard, M.L.C., Chief Secretary- and Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Section 76 of the National Health Act 1953-69 required each registered health benefits organisation to furnish its annual returns to the DirectorGeneral of Health within 3 months after the expiration of the organisation’s accounting year or within such further time as the DirectorGeneral, on the application of the organisation, allowed. [More…]

• Under the National Health Act 1953-70, commencing with the year ending 30th June 1971, all registered organisations must adopt a common financial year ending 30th June so that all annual returns, unless an extension of time is granted, will be submitted by 1st October. [More…]

• I rise to continue my speech on the estimates for the Department of Health from last Thursday evening. [More…]

• I noticed in the report of the Department of Health for 1969-70 under the heading of ‘Mental Health’ that there has been a steady overall increase in the number of mental health patients in the Northern Territory, both European and Aboriginal. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) will hear my call for increased psychiatric services in the Territory which are becoming more necessary. [More…]

• I refer to the report on urban public health. [More…]

• The problem is becoming a health hazard. [More…]

• With these soil conditions I would recommend that the Government should look at the problem of sewerage in these communities from a health point of view. [More…]

• Another matter contained in the report is rural public health. [More…]

• I urge the Minister for the Interior (Mr Nixon) to assist the Minister for Health to see whether it could be arranged that the community hospitals are run from the base hospitals at Darwin, Alice Springs, [More…]

• I urge the Government and the Minister for Health to consider using the outlying hospitals. [More…]

• The estimates for the Department of Health have been criticised ably by my colleagues. [More…]

• The plea by members of the Government in reply to our health proposals, as always, has been: *Where will you get the money?’ [More…]

• Then not only would we be able to find the funds necessary for ancillary services such as optometry - I remind the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) that the Government has promised to provide for these - and not only would we find that we could make up the deficiencies that the Prime Minister (Mr Gorton) mentioned in our health services, namely care for the needs of those with chronic illnesses in nursing homes, but also we would be able to foster and investigate adequately the work of pioneers in health care who are being fobbed off by academics and medical journalists and, I fear, also to some extent by the National Medical and Health Research Council which has made some rather perfunctory investigations into the work of Dr A. James of Wollongong on asthma. [More…]

• I am hoping that we will be able to present evidence of his work before the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare. [More…]

• I believe that the debate on the estimates for the Department of Health is the right occasion to discuss the war budget for the following reasons: On 1 5th May last the Minister for Health offered me the services of a very able psychiatrist to advise me on the psychiatric difficulties of policy makers as contributory causes of war. [More…]

• That is what I am protesting about tonight, because I feel that this is the major health problem for every nation, particularly a nation involved in a destructive war as we’ are. [More…]

• The DEPUTY CHAIRMAN (Mr Hallett) - I remind the honourable member that we are debating the estimates for the Department of Health. [More…]

• I will do that briefly, as I did at the beginning, by saying that the biggest deficiency in the estimates for the Department of Health is the lack of money to do what is essential to this nation to restore health and to promote health. [More…]

• The biggest public health problem is the act of war in the minds of men, particularly in the minds of honourable members who make the policies of this Government. [More…]

• This is the most unhealthy thing that has happened and this is the main deficiency in our health budget. [More…]

• I ask the honourable member to confine his remarks to the estimates for the Department of Health which are before the Chair. [More…]

• Mr Deputy Chairman, I am attempting a psychiatric examination of the insanity that promotes our health policy in the biggest public health question of our time, which is the killing of humans in body and in mind, destroying their health- their physical and mental health - and their future. [More…]

• If that is not relevant to the estimates for the Department of Health, 1 would say that all the other health matters are trivial compared with it. [More…]

• 1 trust that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) will see that this is relevant to the estimates of the Department of Health. [More…]

• I must say that I compliment you, Sir, for your tolerance in allowing him to speak on such a wide range of topics in view of the fact that the Committee is discussing the estimates for the Department of Health. [More…]

• So much for the contribution made to this debate on the estimates of the Department of Health by the honourable member for Capricornia. [More…]

• Looking at the estimates for the Department of Health we see that the estimated expenditure for 1970-71 has increased by $83,779,914 over the expenditure for 1969-70. [More…]

• I take this opportunity to congratulate once again the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) for the role that he has played in the implementation of this scheme. [More…]

• The most important ingredient of all in the new medical health scheme is the need for the co-operation of doctors. [More…]

• By this method the people of this country who have chosen to be members of the health scheme will never carry a burden of more than $5 in respect of each medical service. [More…]

• An individual has the right to choose to belong to a medical health scheme or, alternatively, an individual has the right to stay out and to take advantage of Queensland’s free hospital scheme. [More…]

• What the Australian Labor Party proposed virtually would force every member of the community - and I underline the word force’ - to make a contribution out of his or her weekly pay envelope towards the upkeep of Labor’s health scheme. [More…]

• Honourable members who have done some research in this field and who have looked at the history of the British national health scheme and the way in which its costs rose so quickly over the years will have to admit that the figure given by the Leader of the Opposition as the cost of his scheme is only a very nebulous figure and that there can be no guarantee that the cost would be anything like the estimate df the Leader of the Opposition. [More…]

• The Minister for Health will recall my efforts on behalf of pharmacists in my electorate seeking to have something done about the payment for prescriptions. [More…]

• I want once again to make reference to the inception of the new health scheme and the system of setting up in the States specialist recognition committees to examine the qualifications, habits or practice of various doctors to determine whether they will be regarded as general practitioners, consultant physicians or specialists. [More…]

• In conclusion I take the opportunity to congratulate the Minister again for the manner in which he has handled the inception of the health scheme during this year. [More…]

• [ am sure that with the co-operation of the medical profession those people in Australia for whom the new health scheme was designed will receive the full benefits to which they are entitled under the scheme. [More…]

• I look forward in the not too distant future to the Minister having a close look at the system of hospital charging so as to ensure that the present Liberal Government will go on record as having introduced a scheme to meet this situation which will be as successful as the Minister’s new health scheme will be. [More…]

• I take the opportunity of this debate on the estimates for the Department of Health to raise a mater which is, admittedly, of minor importance when considered against the health scheme as a whole but which at the same time is of great significance to those directly affected, as well as in other areas, which 1 might be able to indicate in passing. [More…]

• On 18th August the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) issued a Press statement indicating that the Government had granted an increase of 2c per prescription in dispensing fees, at an annual cost to the Commonwealth of $1.4m. [More…]

• I suspect that the significance of this approach will not be lost on the other and more powerful bodies in the health scheme, so that the manner in which the Government has disposed of the present problem may well encourage far more difficult and intransigent problems in the future. [More…]

• In this respect it is only fair to the Minister for Health and his Department to say that whatever responsibility there is for the delay must be shared by the Pharmacy Guild itself. [More…]

• By way of example, let me quote a comment which the Minister for Health supplied as background to his statement on 18th August. [More…]

• More relevant for consideration however is the fact that due to a considerable increase in the number of National Health prescriptions, the amount- [More…]

• On the one hand there is the desirability of keeping public health service economical. [More…]

• For some time a large part of the community has been waiting patiently to hear the completed report of the National Health and Medical Research Council on the request from Dr James for a proved and successful form of asthma treatment. [More…]

• It has been interesting to note that the National Health and Medical Research Council has already, at the request of State Ministers for Health, given some consideration to this matter and, in fact, has acknowledged it as ‘notably successful’. [More…]

• Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Here again we have the attitude, which has been expressed in a letter from the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) about this particular matter, that there is some kind of constitutional barrier which prevents the Commonwealth from assisting in a matter of this kind. [More…]

• Yet we have seen much greater problems involving health matters assailed by the Commonwealth. [More…]

• Asthma is not a question that simply concerns the State Minister for Health in New South Wales, or any Minister in any other State. [More…]

• He has not very long to go, regardless of the comparatively good health that he enjoys at present. [More…]

• This investigation is being undertaken in conjunction with the work which is being carried out by the Department of Health, which is well known to all honourable members. [More…]

• In view of the very sorry record of Australia in the treatment of Aboriginal children and in the consideration of health matters affecting Aboriginal people generally, in particular the high mortality rate of young Aboriginal children, I ask that the work which has been carried om by Dr Kalokerinos - be has already obtained proven results - be extended so that other people in the medical profession may obtain the knowledge and the techniques which possibly can save the lives of many Aboriginal children. [More…]

• that the management of the station complies with the standards and procedures approved by the Australian Atomic Energy Commission in relation to nuclear health and safety, the release of radioactivity into the environment, and such other matters as related to the safe operation of nuclear facilities at the station; [More…]

• I preface my question to the Minister for Health by reminding him of my numerous letters concerning a decision of a panel of 5 doctors at Springwood, New South Wales, to withdraw from the pensioner medical service in protest against his Department’s restrictions of pensioner treatment. [More…]

• I understand that the doctors in question - I and my Department have not been told this by the doctors - object to the fact that their activities in connection with the pensioner medical service are the subject of an examination by a committee of inquiry set up under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The role of the committees of inquiry is to decide whether, in fact, the services provided by doctors are medically necessary and to make recommendations to the Director-General of Health or myself in relation to them. [More…]

• They are committees which consist of 5 doctors, 4 doctors nominated by the Australian Medical Association, all of whom themselves are members of the pensioner medical service, and another doctor who is the Director of Health in my Department in the State. [More…]

• Our system includes pre-selection on the basis of the written application and other documents, a direct interview with the applicant, health and radiological examinations, character and other checks. [More…]

• This does not include items related to the Department of Education and Science and the Department of Health. [More…]

• If we are to use base families in this, the Department of Health and the Department of Social Services must review their attitude to standards for elderly and ailing members of such families. [More…]

• It seems that while it might involve greater social service and health expenditure it may increase the economic productivity of the family unit in a way that more than compensates for this. [More…]

• It would be wrong not to question what particular skills or qualifications are in short supply; whether there is a danger of developing ethnic groups within major cities, cut off from and falling behind the mainstream of Australian society by educational or language barriers; whether our educational, health and housing facilities are being dangerously over strained; and whether we are, in fact, as a community doing all we can to derive the maximum mutual benefit from our migration programme. [More…]

• The migration problems associated with health, housing, education and cultural and social activities were analysed. [More…]

• I want again to place on the record the remarks which the present Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) made in this House on 20th August 1964 when referring to universal national service. [More…]

• That was said by the present Minister for Health who was then the Minister for the Army. [More…]

• Then and only then will our people be informed of the crucial matters relating to the degree of radiation emissions, and their possible effects on health and the environment, and the dispersal of radioactive wastes. [More…]

• Fourthly, factors involving health and safety both in the environmental and technical sense must be considered. [More…]

• On the fourth question, which is the criteria relating to health, safety and radiation, our people have a right to condemn this Government and the AEC for its failure -to publish or declare the facts. [More…]

• The AEC must be stripped of all functions having anything to do with public health or safety; and, thirdly, a determined principle must be adopted that the only acceptable tolerance dose for the health of our people, radioactive or otherwise, is zero. [More…]

• That due to higher living costs, including increasing charges for health services, most aged persons living on fixed incomes are suffering acute distress. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Primary Industry: Is it a fact that health standards insisted upon by the United [More…]

• Is the presence of American meat inspectors in our abattoirs not an insult to our own inspectors and a slur on our own health standards? [More…]

• There were to be expanded services in Papua and New Guinea to improve the health, education and social status of the natives. [More…]

• I know that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) was another sturdy freedom fighter for the primary producers, but he is the most silent man in the House on the subject. [More…]

• Cigarette smoking has continued to increase even in the face of medical opinion that it is injurious to health. [More…]

• Commonwealth Government grants to autonomous health, education and welfare organisations in Australia for capital purposes totalled $14m in 1969-70. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the Report of the Commonwealth Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance recommend that special arrangements be made under which persons who object to being members of health insurance funds on grounds of religious conviction be’ paid amounts equal to Commonwealth hospital benefits (at present $2 a day) and Commonwealth medical benefits. [More…]

• However, as announced in my statement to this House on 4th March 1970, this proposal will not be adopted as it is considered contrary to the basic concepts of voluntary health insurance to make available Commonwealth insurance benefits to persons who for various reasons are unwilling to undertake voluntary insurance. [More…]

• The Government’s purpose in the Health Benefits Plan is to encourage persons to make appropriate provision to cover their medical and hospital costs. [More…]

• It houses a number of economists, social scientists and political scientists who are working on a lot of the subjects that are being dealt with within the British Treasury, the British Department of Health and the Department of Social Services. [More…]

• Whilst it is the right of the Opposition and the right of any citizen to make such a request, the Government has the responsibility of deciding where the priorities will go and how much will be spent on the major heads of education, social services, defence and health. [More…]

• Their hospitals are established on a regionalised basis with health centres focussing in on them from various sections of the community. [More…]

• These seem reasonable restrictions and reasonable delays, looking at it from the point of view of the Government and especially the Department of Health but - and I emphasise the but - what happens? [More…]

• I appeal to the companies concerned, the clinics taking part in the trials, that is, the large public hospitals, and the Department of Health to co-operate in order te enable patients who have been helped te obtain the drug free until it is formally added to the list of drugs available under the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) to take the appropriate steps to make it possible for the companies and clinical units which are taking part in this work to continue treating with the drug, until such time as the Government makes a final decision on whether it will admit it to the free list, those people who, for financial reasons would be unable to continue to finance their own treatment. [More…]

• Whenever my attention or the attention of the Department of Health has been drawn to the position of patients who could benefit from treatment by this drug we have put them in contact with the doc tors or institutions undertaking these clincial trials. [More…]

• A minister of religion and a doctor have said that if her third son has also to serve it will most certainly be extremely detrimental to her health and could mean the loss of her life. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council conducted an investigation and reported in November 1969, that: [More…]

• 1 ask the Minister for Health a question. [More…]

• In a ministerial statement made at the beginning of the year the honourable gentleman told the House that the Government had decided to adopt the proposal which the Nimmo Committee had made in March last year for the establishment of a national health insurance commission and that the Government was considering the composition and functions of the Commission. [More…]

• I might add that the fact that the commission has not yet been set up has not made any difference to the implementation of the Government’s proposals in respect the new health benefits plan which has been undertaken expeditiously and efficiently in the normal way by my Department. [More…]

• Similarly, it is equally absurd to believe that the United States Government has suddenly reached the profound decision that the health of the American people is in danger because of imports of Australian meat. [More…]

• We also need to know where the responsibility lies for the implementation of the regulations on health in these abattoirs. [More…]

• The first thing that needs to be made perfectly clear is simply that the Australian Government does not control the health regulations covering the entry of meat into the United States. [More…]

• I think the first thing we have to understand is that there has been a great change in consumer demand in respect of health regulations covering pure foods not only in America, to which country this discussion is directed, but throughout the world and certainly in Australia. [More…]

• The people of Australia have every right and justification to expect that the health regulations that govern the supply of meat to the Australian people set as high a standard as the health regulations in any other country. [More…]

• The facts are, of course, that we are selling meat on the United States market and the people of the United States would expect the Australian Government therefore to meet the health regulations designed by the United States Government covering the sale of meat in that market, and we have to be sure that when we are selling meat in that market we do in fact meet those regulations. [More…]

• I think this proves the point that the American authorities are equally determined to bring their abattoirs up to a proper standard to meet the health requirements that are demanded by Congress as they are to make sure that Australian, New Zealand or any other export abattoirs that supply the American market maintain proper standards. [More…]

• Of course, in changing circumstances where health regulations could be altered it is a simple fact that because of the distance between the point of export and the market this can happen. [More…]

• They are learning and sturying proper practices of abattoir efficiency and health standards. [More…]

• If I could leave the question of Aboriginal housing, I could say that apart from housing the main expenditure through the States are in education, health and employment. [More…]

• In the health field, while we have made some contribution to the provision of more bricks and mortar in the States, my office and the Commonwealth Department of Health have been primarily interested in helping the States to improve health services in the areas where Aboriginals are located, and to this end we are financing for a limited period the salaries and costs of community health nurses, public health officers and others in Aboriginal areas. [More…]

• The Department of Health and the Council for Aboriginal Affairs last December organised a workshop of Commonwealth and State health officers and persons engaged in Aboriginal health research in an attempt to pool knowledge about Aboriginal infant health and nutrition and much previously unpublished and uncorrelated information was brought together in this workshop. [More…]

• It is encouraging to be able to report that already some States are seeking financial support within our grants for health projects based on the recommendations of this workshop. [More…]

• As I understand it, the proposed legislation requires that those people who are not in receipt of an invalid pension or sheltered workshop allowance are obliged within the provisions of the Sheltered Employment (Assistance) Act or alternatively the Social Services Act to be assessed as being 85 per cent incapacitated, and that such assessment must be carried out by medical officers of the Minister’s Department or of the Department of Health - 1 am not sure which. [More…]

• On this consultative panel are Professor Cramond, Professor of Mental Health at the Adelaide University, Dr Cornish, a specialist in orthopaedics, Dr Pjumfer, Medical Director of the Heart Foundation of South Australia and Dr Norma Kent, Assistant Director of Mental Health in South Australia. [More…]

• This would overcome the problem of these people having to attend an examination by doctors of the Minister’s Department or of the Department of Health. [More…]

• I wish to put the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) correct on his interpretation of the policy of the Australian Labor Party. [More…]

• All we have said is that there are clear areas of public need in Australia in health, hospital and welfare services. [More…]

• In respect of hospital services and public health services, our policy has been to state that we would co-operate with the States through a national public hospitals and a public health services commission so that a similar sort of planning could take place. [More…]

• Our mental or psychiatric health services would be part and parcel of this plan. [More…]

• It is utter nonsense for the Minister for Health to suggest, as he did during the course of his tirade, that States have no problem with finances as the present legislation operates. [More…]

• It is no good suggesting that the psychiatric health services in the community are of a satisfactory standard. [More…]

• The State psychiatric health services have difficulty in retaining professional people such as psychiatrists because of their dissatisfaction with the restrictions in the service and with the drought within the service which prevents a fertile development of thought, of policy and of services in the community. [More…]

• There has been much theorising and certainly many exciting projects have been undertaken in the field of community psychiatric health services. [More…]

• It is clear that the attitudes of those in the professional field associated with the provision of psychiatric health services indicate that the objective of these health services ought to be. [More…]

• All of this has been ignored except for a fairly vague and fleeting reference in the concluding paragraph of the statement of the Minister for Social Services (Mr Wentworth) to the effect that the Government would maintain a watch on the development of community psychiatric health services by the States over the next 3 years. [More…]

• We believe that the community psychiatric health services ought to be developed on a regional concept and that adequate finance for this purpose ought to be provided by the Federal Government. [More…]

• That all words after ‘that’ be omitted with a view to inserting the following words in place thereof: whilst not opposing the provisions of the Bill, this House is of opinion that provision should be made by the Commonwealth for adequate financial assistance to allow the development of community and integrated mental health services on a regional bans’. [More…]

• I will develop to some further extent later in my speech the aspect of how we will apply this approach, but firstly I would like to mention some of the historical facts and some of the background to mental health services in the community. [More…]

• The Stoller inquiry was conducted because of the somewhat scandalous conditions existing in mental health services in many parts of Australia. [More…]

• It was clear at that stage that this was an extremely neglected area of health services in the community. [More…]

• This is true today with respect to an adequate expansion in the community integrated mental health services. [More…]

• For instance, the provision of a federal mental health division within the Department was recommended. [More…]

• There is clearly a need for national planning, research, evaluation and development of facilities and methods at the national level but in co-operation with the State governments, if for no other reason than to provide the financial resources which are required to develop satisfactory mental health services in the community which are pretty much beyond the capacity of the States. [More…]

• Stoller said of the suggested federal mental health division: [More…]

• It would act as a catalyst in fostering new mental health developments according to the needs of each State. [More…]

• By now, 16 years since that report, Australia could have had one of the best developed mental health systems in the world. [More…]

• This was driven home to me after I had the good fortune recently to investigate mental health and social welfare services overseas. [More…]

• Australia has the highest standard of health and welfare policies in the world. [More…]

• I have no doubt that some aid in the form of research grants at federal level filters out for applied and basic research in mental health and mental health services. [More…]

• The only provision the Government is making at the federal level for mental health services is on the basis of a capital grant of $1 for every $3 that is spent. [More…]

• The system of mental health services in the community seems to have broken down here. [More…]

• So, I give further accentuation to the point I was making to the Minister, namely, that this is one of the important areas and that until the Federal Government is prepared to provide more finance in this field the provision of mental health services in the community will be defective in a very important area and, as a result, overall we will suffer an inefficiency in the services provided in the community. [More…]

• In New South Wales at February 1970 the number of registered psychiatric nurses represented 40.5 per cent of the total number of nurses working in mental health institutions and the number of psychiatrists represented 32.8 per cent of the total number of medical officers working in such institutions. [More…]

• So, one sees a clear picture of a very uneven distribution of qualified people in the mental health services field in each of the States. [More…]

• From my discussions with people involved in the operation of these health services, it is quite clear that too often psychiatrists feel restricted in the sort of work they can do. [More…]

• There is not enough opportunity for flexibility and for innovatory policies to be developed within the mental health services. [More…]

• For too long mental health has been the neglected and relatively impoverished relation in our health and hospital services. [More…]

• Hs is a man who, if given the opportunity through adequate financial support, will develop an extremely valuable community psychiatric health service. [More…]

• It always amazes me to think that in this country our responsible representatives - especially the people at the Federal level but excluding members on this side of the House because we are not responsible for the restrained way in which the Federal Government supports mental health service programmes - can be so casual about the need of mental health services in the community. [More…]

• So, this is not a field of minor illness in the community; it is a field of fairly major demand for health services. [More…]

• President Kennedy proposed a national mental health programme in which the States would be aided by grants to set up mental health centres. [More…]

• The essential requirements of those centres were that they provide in-patient and out-patient care, diagnostic and evaluative services, emergency psychiatric units, day and night care, foster home care, rehabilitation, consultative services to other community agencies, and mental health information and education. [More…]

• In addition, the legislation sought to set up a State mental health advisory council and area boards of citizens representing mental health associations, mentally retarded persons and representatives of the areas concerned. [More…]

• The main problem is arising probably because of a failure to mesh in the mental health services concept with the concept of social welfare services, also on a community basis. [More…]

• As our proposed amendment indicates, in Australia we need the development of community integrated mental health services on a regional basis. [More…]

• The 1964 analysis of the Office of Health Economics in Great Britain estimated that for every patient suffering from mental illness in a hospital, there are 2 in the community. [More…]

• Our approach would be to develop further the provision of psychiatric services within the general hospital concept; in conjunction with the States to establish the pattern of mental health in the community; to provide the sorts of services required for treatment of that ill health; to base this approach on the regionalised community concept; and to aim to reduce the size of mental hospitals as we develop the community health services. [More…]

• We would accept a responsibility in conjunction with the States to support the setting up of hospitals as half-way houses, not only for the acutely ill but also for the manageable long term cases; to set up conveniently placed psychiatric health services staffed not only by psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatric nurses, but also by people employed in domiciliary services such as social workers, home visitors, home help and home nurses, occupational therapists and counsellors. [More…]

• In the final result it must be appreciated that if we do not spend more public money in the provision of adequate health services and if we do not evolve in the community the psychiatric health services concept on a regional basis, as I have mentioned, we must bear tremendous indirect costs. [More…]

• Rice in a publication ‘Estimating the Cost of Illness’, issued by the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1966, estimated that mental illness alone in the United States cost $7 billion in 1963. [More…]

• It is quite unreasonable in a civilised community and a prosperous community inadequately to fund the adequate development of psychiatric mental health services in the country. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party does give a commitment that it will work in co-operation with the States through its national hospitals and public health services planning commission to do exactly this and to ensure that adequate finance will be made available for this purpose. [More…]

• The principal one is that having some experience of Victoria’s mental health services over the last few years it has been borne upon me more and more that the Commonwealth subsidy system of $1 for the State’s $2 places too great a strain on the State’s financial structure for adequate provision to be made in the mental health institution field. [More…]

• Another reason is that in my electorate are situated the mental health institutions of Mont Park, Larundel. [More…]

• Probably in the last 25 years the most significant facets of mental health services in Australia have been, firstly, the report of the late Professor Kennedy to the Victorian Government in 1948 which led to the setting up of the Mental Health Authority in that State. [More…]

• The fourth facet was the role of Dr Cunningham Dax, Chairman of the Mental Health Authority in Victoria from 1952-69, whose book ‘Asylum to [More…]

• Community’, published in 1961, summarised the development of mental health services in the past and offered a blueprint for the development of such services in the future in the light of changed community attitude, changed methods of treatment, and so on. [More…]

• It is also the subject of the amendment in the suggestion for the development of community and integrated mental health services on a regional basis. [More…]

• It was indicated for the first time by a Commonwealth Minister for Health in the second reading speech of the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) that the Commonwealth would, over the 3-year period in which this legislation will apply, take an interest in what the States were doing. [More…]

• The development by the States of community and integrated mental health services will be kept under observation by the Commonwealth so that, at the end of the 3-year period, the Government will be in a position to consider what future role the Commonwealth should phty in the mental health field. [More…]

• The Stoller report, from which arose the decision of the Commonwealth Government to initiate a capital grants programme to assist States in constructing mental health institutions, also contained a number of other important recommendations by which the Commonwealth could have played a positive initiating role in the mental health services instead of being purely purveyors of pelf. [More…]

• Where, if any, has there been a stimulus to the States to provide proper mental health services? [More…]

• I know that it has been an article of faith for successive Conservative Ministers of Health to say that mental health services in all their aspects, except financial assistance, are matters for the States. [More…]

• The amounts received by Victoria under States grants legislation in recent years for mental health services were as follows: In 1966-67, $1,192,374; in 1967-68, $1,381,403; in 1968-69, $1,200,065. [More…]

• If we break them down to the amounts spent on residential training centres for the mentally retarded and on other mental health institutions and the amount recovered from the Commonwealth during the 3-year period, a rather interesting picture emerges. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health what this payment of Commonwealth grants has meant in each State in each of the last 10 years in supplying, for example, firstly, new residential institutions for the treatment of acute mental cases, and how many beds in them; secondly, new residential institutions for the treatment tff chronic mental cases, and how many beds; and, thirdly, new residential institutions for the treatment of the mentally retarded, and how many beds in those. [More…]

• I only wish that the Minister for Health would visit some of the institutions in that State. [More…]

• I am disappointed to see both Commonwealth and State governments artificially separate mental health services so widely from general health services, but time does not permit me to develop this theme. [More…]

• It is a field for Commonwealth initiative, which has not been taken, to integrate more and more the mental health services with the general health services. [More…]

• There should be a common use of facilities with mental institutions in close proximity to general health institutions. [More…]

• Instead, mental health institutions generally are in isolated areas far removed from general hospital facilities. [More…]

• One could not reasonably oppose this Bill when it deals with such an important subject as mental health. [More…]

• I am grateful to be able to join in the debate, but I am disappointed that the debate has not been more wide ranging and that only members of the Opposition have spoken on the matter, although I appreciate that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) will close the debate. [More…]

• As the 2 previous speakers have said, we are dealing with an area of hygiene and health that affects the whole community. [More…]

• In my opinion it is an anachronism that society today in the last third of the 20th century should still look upon mental health as people did in the days of the notorious Bedlam. [More…]

• The Bill provides that the Commonwealth will pay to the States $1 for every $2 spent by the States on mental health institutions. [More…]

• An answer given to a question in the Victorian Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, 23rd September, reveals that approximately $7m has been provided by the Commonwealth Government to Victoria to supplement the $22m that has been spent by that State on mental health institutions. [More…]

• It seems to me that it would not be very much, and if that is the case the Commonwealth will spend even less on mental health in the future than it is spending now. [More…]

• There is a great need for the Commonwealth to have second thoughts about whether it will apply its resources only to capital areas or will accept its share of the responsibility - as the conscience of the community in the area of mental health - in areas other than capital works. [More…]

• It cannot continue this laissezfaire, ad hoc approach to this, that and the other with the Commonwealth boasting of its magnanimity, saying ‘In 6 years we have provided $22m to the States for mental health’, without ever saying a word about what has been achieved with that money - especially when we know that the appalling conditions that existed years ago still exist and will continue to exist until there is an injection of Commonwealth funds into the States to correct the conditions. [More…]

• I am disappointed in the Government for not taking this excellent opportunity when the Bill is being reviewed to extend its provisions - the Government, of course, is to be commended for what it is doing - and to consider the whole question of mental health. [More…]

• The amendment moved by the honourable member for Oxley states: whilst not opposing the provisions of the Bill, this House is of opinion that provision should be made by the Commonwealth for adequate financial assistance to allow the development of community and integrated mental health services on a regional basis’. [More…]

• The fact is - I believe this to be the main reason why the amendment should be opposed - that the State governments which under the Constitution are responsible for mental health, have not asked for what the Opposition has proposed. [More…]

• All of the Stales have competent mental health authorities in accordance with their responsibilities under the Constitution. [More…]

• The views, attitudes and priorities of the State mental health authorities do not come from that source; they come from actual experience of running the services in a practical way and conducting mental health services on the spot. [More…]

• The States, at this stage anyway, have not asked the Commonwealth to provide money for the provision of community health services.I shall suggest to the honourable member in a moment why they have not done so. [More…]

• However, I am making the point that what the States have asked for is integral to their charter on mental health. [More…]

• I have attended 4 or 5 Health Ministers Conferences and they have brought this point forward every time. [More…]

• In 1970 the State Health Ministers had this to say: [More…]

• The Suite Ministers for Health reaffirm their insistence that the charter for the mentally ill and intellectually handicapped adopted at the Health Ministers’ Conference of 1967 be the basis for the future of mental health services in Australia. [More…]

• I regard the Opposition amendment as another attempt by honourable members opposite, sitting in their ivory tower in Canberra, to tell the States what is good for them, how to run their mental health services, to intrude their judgment gained at second hand or through reading material written by someone else, into matters which are clearly the responsibility of the States. [More…]

• We know that if the Australian Labor Party were to gain office it would intrude into every field, not just the field of mental health but also the field of health services generally. [More…]

• The Labor Party would ruthlessly use the financial power of the Commonwealth to impose its views on what it considered was the most desirable way in which to run health services in Australia. [More…]

• This would not be the way that the authorities in Queensland or in remote Western Australia think that mental health services should be run. [More…]

• The honourable member for Scullin (Dr Jenkins) demonstrated this when he said, as if it were just a little thing, that the Commonwealth should be at least setting targets for development in the mental health field. [More…]

• It is suggested that community health services would have been developed to a greater extent than they are now if the Commonwealth had provided more money. [More…]

• The States have said that they have significant programmes of work still to be carried out, and the State Health Ministers recommend a continuation of the States Grants (Mental Health Institutions) Act. [More…]

• The Health Ministers then went on to say: [More…]

• The Ministers consider that the future of mental health services involves a much greater emphasis on the development and maintenance of community mental health services and propose to examine and present a comprehensive programme for assistance in this area. [More…]

• The next point I make is, as I pointed out by way of interjection when the honourable member for Oxley was speaking, that there is no barrier in this legislation to prevent the States from using the money which will be made available under this legislation for the capital requirements of the development of community mental health services. [More…]

• These are all projects for the development of community mental health services. [More…]

• In South Australia there is the community mental health centre at Woodville and the day centre for mentally retarded children at Toorak Gardens. [More…]

• The point I am making is that in no way is the provision of assistance in this form preventing the development by the States of these - and I agree with the Opposition on this point - most desirable projects in the development of community mental health services. [More…]

• But the fact is that this is generally recognised, and it was recognised by us when, as the honourable member for Oxley mentioned, we decided to go flat out to institute a community mental health service in Canberra. [More…]

• We did this not only because, in the light of modern thinking, it was the right development, but also because it is probably the most economical type of development in the mental health field. [More…]

• It is very much cheaper than maintaining mental health patients in institutions. [More…]

• If the development of community mental health services is cheaper than the provision of the traditional mental health services, then obviously there can be no financial barrier to their development. [More…]

• I have confidence in your health, hut not in your product. [More…]

• the Board is satisfied, after he has undergone a medical examination approved by the Board as to his health and physical fitness; [More…]

• The report of the Nimmo Committee on medical and hospital costs was held in limbo for many months by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) because of the embarrassing contents of the report, and then it was released only because of public pressure. [More…]

• It has pledged itself also to: Provide War Service home entitlements to all servicemen after 2 years regular service or 6 years of CMF service; minimise the incidence of postings so as to give more stability to home life; provision of health services from the Repatriation Department to servicemen and their dependants; scholarships to children whose education would be disrupted otherwise by shifts; availability of adequate life assurance and elimination of special loading charges which currently penalise our fighting men: injuries sustained other than on active service would be covered by the Repatriation Act and not the Commonwealth Employees’ Compensation Act which is less generous; and non-contributory pensions to all exservicemen to replace the present costly, unwieldly and unintelligible DFRB contributory system. [More…]

• There is not a person on this side of the House who would not prefer, if we lived in the kind of a world in which it would be practicable, to spend all our resources on national development, welfare, health and education which are matters of great concern to all honourable members in this Parliament. [More…]

• However, after being discharged and if his removal from hospital is considered to be detrimental to his health, further treatment can be authorised. [More…]

• We want to get them out where the fresh air and clear streams abound, for the good of their health and for the good of this nation. [More…]

• We were told by the former Minister for the Army, now the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), that the best advice which the military could give us was that conscription ought not to be introduced, and be is a member of the Government which has always preached the value of good military advice. [More…]

• Preferential issues of shares in Comalco were made to these members of the Queensland cabinet: Mr Chalk, the Treasurer, 1500 shares; Mr Rae, Minister for Local Gov.ernment and Electricity, 1500 shares; Mr Hodges, Minister for Police and Works, 1200 shares; Mr N. Hewitt, Minister for Conservation and - note - Aboriginal Affairs, 1200 shares; Mr Tooth, Minister for Health, 1200 shares; and Mr Campbell, Minister for Industrial Development, 700 shares. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health a question. [More…]

• It has made it possible for officers of the States and of the Commonwealth Department of Health to insist on standards which it was not possible to insist on previously. [More…]

• As to the third part of the question, the honourable gentleman will be aware that the Prime Minister in his policy speech before last year’s House of Representatives election undertook to examine the possibility of bringing into the health insurance field intensive care nursing home patients who had been members of an insurance organisation - I forget the exact phrase - for some time. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Services (Mr Wentworth) said earlier this year that with the consolidation of the Government’s health plan it will be possible next year to resume what he called ‘pensioner progress’. [More…]

• As an ex-serviceman in Australia the British migrant is on the same footing as an Australian who is not an ex-serviceman and who has to participate in the contributory national health scheme. [More…]

• We heard in this chamber today the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) answer a question by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Whitlam) and I must confess that I think that answer means that nothing will be done to relieve the problem of medical care for the aged. [More…]

• We ought to be telling them that they have full rights of tenancy unless they become unsuitable as tenants; unless their behaviour or health makes them incompatible with the best interests of the other people who live in the aged persons home or village. [More…]

• The anxiety and tension which many families endure over this situation must contribute in no small measure to the nation’s health problem. [More…]

• The alternative, the antithesis, would be to say: ‘Every right of tenancy is created unless your state of health or your behaviour ceases to be compatible with the best interests of people who live here.’ [More…]

• He spoke about the National Service Act, the National Health Act and State receipts tax. [More…]

• be disposed - from dry cardboard boxes to liquids - has presented an enormous problem to both aviation and health authorities. [More…]

• That is to say, while I am talking mainly from the point of view of Tasmania’s benefit or otherwise in this matter, I point out that the shipping traffic provided by Tasmania is a very important facet of the total coastwise shipping operations in Australia, and not only is the health of Tasmania involved but the health of economic activity in the Port of Melbourne is involved, and its hinterland of Victoria is consequently affected. [More…]

• The purpose of the legislation, according to what the Minister-in-Charge of Aboriginal Affairs (Mr Wentworth) said in 1968, was to make available better housing, education and health facilities for Aboriginals immediately. [More…]

• For instance, in Victoria last year only 1 per cent of the total amount available was used for health purposes and 1 per cent for employment purposes. [More…]

• For instance, Queensland spent 19 per cent of its allocation for health purposes. [More…]

• But irrespective of who was responsible or where they came from, I am sorry to see such small amounts set aside for health purposes. [More…]

• It seems to me that the subject of health has been placed on a low rung of the ladder when it should be placed on the top rung. [More…]

• I am of the opinion that the field of health requires the most substantial and concentrated effort to achieve positive results in the future. [More…]

• Of course health includes hygiene. [More…]

• While health and hygiene to my mind are first in importance, I appreciate that this does not necessarily mean that they should receive the greatest amount of money. [More…]

• But it does mean that the health programme should never be watered down or stopped due to lack of funds. [More…]

• I was dismayed to find that the Government proposes that only $697,000 will be provided for health matters for the whole of the States, more than half of which will go to Queensland. [More…]

• I am most disturbed to see that for Western Australia, where there are serious health problems amongst the Aboriginals, particularly in the north to which I will refer later, only $105,000 has been allocated. [More…]

• If I am correct in saying that the greatest progress will come from the young people, we must do all that is possible to ensure their healthy entry into the world and their healthy state from then onwards. [More…]

• From the information I have gained from the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) it appears that in the Northern Territory the mortality rate of Aboriginal infants is approximately 75 per 1,000 live births in the north and as high as 112 per 1,000 in the south. [More…]

• I note that the figure given for the mortality rate is a little higher than that given to me by the Minister for Health’ and the comment is made that it is very high’ by world standards. [More…]

• According to figures available from the Departments of Health and Native Welfare in Western Australia, about 13 per cent of the- fullblood Aboriginals in the Kimberleys now have or have had leprosy and, according to Dr Davidson of the Health Commission, it is never claimed that they are cured. [More…]

• It is also important to ensure that the children in particular receive adequate food and a balanced diet which will provide them with the necessary vitamins substantially to improve their health, their physical condition and their resistance to infection. [More…]

• This means a very substantial improvement both in general health and general living conditions must be obtained. [More…]

• In conclusion I suggest that what I have said supports my contention that much more money is required, that much more should be spent on health, that distribution of funds should be on the basis of the requirements of the Aboriginals rather than population and that the Bill before us is quite inadequate, I support the amendment. [More…]

• The same applies with respect to education, health, social status, economic status and the abolition of discriminatory legislation. [More…]

• In health, infant mortality in Aboriginal people is amongst the highest in the world. [More…]

• I turn to the field of health. [More…]

• The poverty and ill health of too many Aboriginals is a blot on Australian society. [More…]

• I believe that in consideration of these matters to which I have referred and others referred to by my colleagues, such as the deficiencies in educational opportunities and the shortcomings as far as health and housing are concerned, it is not good enough to make this limited amount of money available. [More…]

• We are concerned about 4 matters - housing, health, education and employment. [More…]

• As I say, there are 4 matters to be considered - health, education, housing and employment. [More…]

• There is a finance coordinator, someone specially allotted to deal with housing, someone for education, someone for health, someone for legal aid and someone for employment. [More…]

• It is after that stage when they are living under such shocking housing conditions that their health starts to deteriorate because of their continual reinfection. [More…]

• The same thing can be said in relation to the Department of Immigration and the Department of Health. [More…]

• Accommodation for Hearing-aid Centre for Pensioners (Department of Health). [More…]

• Accommodation for Pathological Laboratory (Department of Health). [More…]

• Will the Prime Minister clearly state whether it is the intention of his Government to extend the national health scheme to this area of need in order to overcome the crushing financial burden of these organisations, and if so, will he assure honourable members that Commonwealth financial assistance will be made retrospective to 1st September this year? [More…]

• All I can say is this: We have, of course, in the field of health done a number of highly beneficial things. [More…]

• We have, if I may say so, brought in a health scheme infinitely better than the one which was put forward by the Opposition and which does much more for the people of this country. [More…]

• What a great thing it would be for the health of the nation and the future of the Commonwealth if we could get people out to where the water is clear and the air is fresh. [More…]

• 1 take now, if I may, 2 examples of State capital expenditure - education and public health. [More…]

• In 1965-66 the aggregate expenditure for capital purposes on education and public health was $222m. [More…]

• The projected expenditure for 1969-70 was $2 10m on education and $85m on public health. [More…]

• I ask in all seriousness, as I have asked before: What logic is it that says that it is a proper allocation of capital resources to spend S3 3 6m on the Post Office and 5210m on education or to allocate $64m to civil aviation and $85m to public health? [More…]

• It has a programme which has been more extensive than any other programme in a similar period of time, and it has done more in these fields than I can think has happened at any other time at all - not only in the field of which the honourable member speaks because thai is confined to pensions alone, but also in providing such social services as vastly improved health schemes with which the honourable member who asked the question will, I hope, agree. [More…]

• For example, what we have done in this field is to provide a scheme where the individual pays less than he would have done under an alternative scheme and gets back more than he would have done under an alternative scheme, which must help the whole spectrum of people requiring health benefits. [More…]

• One does not need to have a medical degree to appreciate the potential health hazard presented by this creek. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has for some time been concerned with many aspects of this problem. [More…]

• Of major importance has been the contribution of the liaison sub-committees created following recommendations from a conference of Health Ministers as far back as 1968. [More…]

• The reason why I stress this is that a similar campaign is now being engaged in and is, I am sorry to say, largely supported by members of the Australian Country Party, once again to mislead the wool growers of this country about the steps which are necessary to restore economic health to the industry. [More…]

• Under these provisions, a Commonwealth ambulance service such as operated in the Australian Capital Territory by the Department of Health would be entitled to duty-free petrol. [More…]

• I instance the infant health clinics which local government bodies establish in fixed buildings or, in some cases, in mobile clinics. [More…]

• It is not unreasonable to ask that this scheme be further widened to take into account grants to local governments to enable them to expand and maintain their infant health clincis and kindergartens. [More…]

• I also call on the Commonwealth to make special grants for infant health clinics, kindergartens and other community services, the need for which is there now and is increasing. [More…]

• I think that anybody who regards this dispassionately must agree that what is required in this country are new amenities, new schools, new roads and, at the same time, new health and social services and increased living standards. [More…]

• If so, is there any reason why the law should not be amended to provide that persons or organisations affected by aircraft noise at all hours of the day and night should be entitled to take similar action against the Government or the airline companies responsible for this menace to their health, homes and welfare? [More…]

• Their meeting discussed the effects of aircraft noise on education in the district, the fact that school lessons came to a complete stop, the fact that health hazards which created neuroses existed, and that adverse effects were caused to television reception, radio reception and the use of telephones. [More…]

• For the Com monwealth they are defence, if we should continue to go on spending and spending, social services and health. [More…]

• The Government can spend the entire national income on health if it wants to, and in this field the more successful a doctor is in prolonging our lives the more we have to have a need for a doctor over a longer life. [More…]

• So we can go on with indefinite increases in that expenditure in the health’ fields. [More…]

• The States have possible bottomless pits such as education, roads and health and again there is the expenditure on hospitals. [More…]

• T think it is a trend which is inevitable and in the interests of the patients, but it is certainly a trend which must be considered by the Government in conjunction with the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes). [More…]

• The surgeons are probably able to look after themselves reasonably well because of the general bias in fees under the National Health Scheme towards surgeons; there is a return of most of the expenditure of the patients. [More…]

• Such a project will embrace not only material educational provisions but also other associated matters involving social workers, housing, health provisions and so on. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In addition, the National Health Act currently makes no provision for the supply of apparatus and appliances necessary in administering oxygen. [More…]

• Has the Minister yet learned that a survey by members of some of the medical disciplines of the University of Western Australia, just completed, has revealed serious health problems among Aboriginals in the Kimberleys, especially relating to hookworm, respiratory infections, and, I understand, poor nutrition? [More…]

• Can the Commonwealth, after examination of the findings, finance a health and educational compaign to rectify these sub-standard conditions in the Kimberleys? [More…]

• I do, however, agree with the general nature of the findings, and they bear out the findings of the school on Aboriginal health, particularly Aboriginal infant health, which was sponsored by my own Office of Aboriginal Affairs some time ago. [More…]

• With last year’s death toll at more than 3,000 people and with more than 80,000 people seriously injured in motor vehicle accidents the whole question of motor vehicle safety and the difficulties associated with it tends to be one of our principal social health problems. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What (a) interest, (b) redemptions, (c) revenue, (d) grants, (e) gifts and loan moneys has the Commonwealth (including its banks) in the last financial year (i) paid to and (ii) received from (A) State, local or semi-government authorities, (B) autonomous health, education and welfare organisations and overseas aid recipients and (C) private interests, including interest paid to overseas lenders less Australian tax thereon. [More…]

• Repayments received from autonomous health, education and welfare organisations, and overseas aid recipients were negligible. [More…]

• Grants to autonomous health, education and welfare organisations and overseas aid recipients totalled $169m in 1968-69, while transfer payments in the form of cash benefits to persons, subsidies to enterprises and other overseas contributions were $1,664 million. [More…]

• Advances to autonomous health, education and welfare organisations and overseas aid recipients were negligible in 1968-69. [More…]

• His declining health decided him not to seek re-election last November. [More…]

• A full scale public inquiry into all aspects of post-retirement and income provisions on the same lines as the recent Nimmo inquiry into Commonwealth health services; such inquiry to examine the present pension provisions, consider alternatives such as various forms of national superannuation, and report to the Government on its findings. [More…]

• That pollution is dangerous to public health and could be better controlled if bottles were made returnable so as to reduce ike titter problem caused by non-returnable bottles: if coloured tissue and toilet paper could be banned until they can be made to disintegrate; if fumes from aircraft could be reduced; and if city councils could collect and dispose of rubbish and dead leaves in pits [More…]

• That due to higher living costs, including increasing charges for health services, most aged persons living on fixed incomes are suffering acute distress. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Will action be taken to adjust the levels of subsidised health insurance accordingly? [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health a question. [More…]

• The Board advised me that my instructions for restraint on establishment increases could benefit the health and soundness of administration in the Commonwealth Service, and it suggested that a limitation should be placed on the increase in Service employment. [More…]

• We have relegated them to poor environments, crowded houses, inadequate recreation, insufficient public services, high interest rates, sub-standard health schemes, and we have often sent them off to do the toughest jobs in the most oppressive areas. [More…]

• Some went because of inadequate housing, deficiencies in the health scheme and all kinds of things, but many must have gone because of the deficiencies of the education system and our failure to convey an understanding of the English language to them. [More…]

• In addition the Government is advised on some aspects of health and safety from the National Radiation Advisory Council (responsible to the Prime Ministers and the Commonwealth X-ray and Radium : Laboratory (responsible to the Minister for Health). [More…]

• Finally the Commonwealth has access to the views of State Departments of Health universities, etc., on various aspects of nuclear development. [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to recent happenings in (a) Tokyo and New York, when the health and properly of citizens were greatly damaged because of air pollution and (b) the United States, where the smog spread in a 1,000-mile belt across the country; if so, has the possibility of similar occurrences in Australia in future been considered by the Government and, if it has, with what result. [More…]

• What action is taken by export authorities regarding pest infestation and the possibility of damage to health as a result of it, including the action taken to ensure that the carrying vessels are clean. [More…]

• The Minister for Health will be aware that the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States of America recently have banned cigarette advertising on television channels. [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to the recent discovery of widespread excessive lead content in culinary earthenware, reported in ‘Time’ magazine of 12th October 1970 as being responsible for some deaths? [More…]

• This will mean that a family with an income of up to $46.50 a week will receive a full subsidy from the Government for its health insurance; those with an income of between $46.50 and $49.50 will receive a two-thirds subsidy; and those with an income of between $49.50 and $52.50 will receive a one-third subsidy. [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I say advisedly that the Department deals wilh such matters as speedily as possible because, under the National Health Act, statutory obligations are placed on the Department and on the Registration Committee to examine the viability of any proposals that are made by a fund. [More…]

• He had some sort of odd constitutional theory in respect of migration and he felt that we could in some way or other get around the Constitution and feed money into hospitals, health services, mental institutions and local government. [More…]

• They do not appreciate fully the type of health scheme we have. [More…]

• Many of them come here expecting the type of health scheme they had in their own countries. [More…]

• Has there been any alteration to the plan to erect a health hostel for Aboriginal women at Port Augusta in September 1970. [More…]

• The Commonwealth approved the erection of a health hostel at Port Augusta in 1968-69. [More…]

• The factors which are considered are the circumstances of the particular offence for which the person was charged, the person’s antecedents which include his age, state of health, personal and family history and any circumstances which may have any special bearing on the commission of this particular offence, past offences or the possibility of his committing further offences. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• On what dates have there been meetings of the interdepartmental committees established to consider (a) public health and medical planning, (b) medical fees and health insurance and (c) drugs and therapeutic substances. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to remarks made recently by the President of the Australian -Council on Smoking and Health concerning the need for legislation to stop cigarette advertising. [More…]

• Did the Australian National Health and [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: (.1) Are certain antibiotic pharmaceutical benefits not produced by the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the” Minister for Health, upon notice.’’ [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Tuesday night that the Public Service Board had advised that restraint on establishment increases could benefit the health and soundness of administration in the Commonwealth service and had suggested that a limitation should be placed on the increase in service employment. [More…]

• I emphasise the need for the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) to place on the pharmaceutical benefits list certain drugs essential to children similarly suffering or to make special provision for free drugs to be issued to parents who have children in a similar state of health. [More…]

• I therefore hope that ihe great human qualities allegedly possessed by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) will rise to an unprecedented height and that immediate steps will be taken to aid these unfortunate children and their parents and others similarly situated in bearing the crushing burden of medical costs in keeping their near and dear ones alive. [More…]

• Health insurance contributions are up, upon Commonwealth insistence. [More…]

• In what way is this threatened exaction more appalling than the 20 per cent extra contributed to doctors’ incomes over the last 6 months as a direct result of the new health scheme? [More…]

• Can the Prime Minister deny that the great private bureaucracies of the Liberal health funds are wasteful? [More…]

• The costs of providing education, health services and public utilities are increased. [More…]

• There must be no cut in health services and housing for the average citizen, but there has been a cut in health services and housing for the average citizen. [More…]

• In his statement on Tuesday night the Prime Minister made these 3 points: Firstly, the Public Service was to have grown by 10,534 in the current year; secondly, this figure has now been, trimmed down by 2,735; and, thirdly, and most significantly, I suggest, the Public Service Board has advised that the ‘restraint on establishment increases could benefit the health and soundness of administration in the Commonwealth Service’. [More…]

• If that is so - if a recruitment of 7,800 public servants can be expected to produce a Commonwealth Service that is actually healthier and sounder than one increased by 10,500 officers - how is it that the recruitment of the larger number was ever contemplated? [More…]

• Moreover, as the original contemplated increase this year was in line with proportionate increases in previous years, what inferences are we being invited to draw as to the efficiency, health and soundness of our vast administrative complex. [More…]

• Clearly, the needs of the cities, education, health and welfare will suffer through these programmes. [More…]

• This is a time for shibboleths, prejudices, and narrow regionalism to be sunk by statesmen concerned about the economic health of the community. [More…]

• Hospitals and health services cannot meet their commitments. [More…]

• I noticed that while a prominent newspaper proprietor whose main distinction in life had been to pour money out like a madman churning it off a counterfeit press in an abortive attempt to win a sailing race, another man, a community doctor in the field of public health services was able to rate only a mention in dispatches in the Honours List. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is he able to say whether the New Zealand health and quarantine authorities have decided to establish a total quarantine station for that country. [More…]

• In some countries cyclamatic acids have been banned as a health hazard. [More…]

• These people cannot reduce their standard of living, further without seriously affecting their health and their ability to continue living in our community. [More…]

• The report did suggest that all the health, education and welfare activities were to be phased out as soon as possible. [More…]

• My question, which is directed to the Minister for Health, arises from his statement last week that doctors’ incomes had risen by 20 per cent since the inception of the new health scheme. [More…]

• Finally, in this context, can the Minister yet say whether the health scheme is operating within its budget and, if not, what the apparent variation is? [More…]

• I conclude my answer by reading from a report made as late as 1969 by an expert committee of the World Health Organisation that was set up specifically to examine the question of marihuana. [More…]

• This Committee strongly reaffirms the opinions expressed in previous reports that cannabis is a drug of dependence, producing public health and social problems, and that its control must be continued. [More…]

• The loss of self-respect, the degrading environment in which too many of these beneficiaries find themselves unavoidably moving as a result of their circumstances, are counterproductive to their speedy return to health or to the workforce. [More…]

• In view of the announcement of increases or proposed increases in health fund contributions, hospital charges, doctors’ fees, motor car prices and State and Federal taxes, I ask the Government: Where are we heading? [More…]

• These fringe benefits are of great importance to the pensioner, particularly health benefits. [More…]

• The elderly citizen has reached that stage in life where he perhaps puts health before anything else and it means a great deal to him, particularly if he is in need, to be able to go along to the chemist’s shop and be provided with free pharmaceutical benefits. [More…]

• England Board for Social Responsibility has just done, must take account of the fact that a growing body of expert opinion is inclined to give pornography a clean bill of health. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• In formulating these texts, the Department of Immigration had the advice of the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Attorney-General’s, Treasury, Labour and National Service, Social Services, Health, Education and Science and Civil Aviation. [More…]

• The new Migration and Settlement Agreement has the following principal elements: lt describes the facilities for settlement of Maltese citizens, lt records the rights they enjoy and the obligations they undertake in common with Australian citizens and other citizens; it affirms that Maltese citizens resident in Australia will receive social service arid health benefits which Australia provides to Australian citizens, and that both Governments will make efforts towards reaching agreement on reciprocity in payment of each other’s corresponding social security benefits. [More…]

• The selection procedures provide for an assessment by Australian officers of the general suitability, health, character and the potential of the individual to settle here satisfactorily. [More…]

• The Commonwealth has the luxury .of being able to choose freely what it can and cannot do in respect of ‘ what are essential projects, looked at on a national scale, but the States find increasingly that their revenues, both ordinary and loan funds, are taken up more and more in providing essential services like education, health, upkeep of roads, public transport, social welfare and so forth. [More…]

• It poses as a government which is most concerned with the health of the nation, yet it consistently refuses to take any notice of and ignores scientific evidence which classifies cigarette smoking on the one hand as a monstrous killer and alcohol on the other hand as a major contributor to road deaths, social tragedies and other problems. [More…]

• If the Government is fair dink uni about the health of Australians it will do something about tobacco and alcohol, lt has leads from America and Britain, and the latest medical reports from Britain show a staggering picture. [More…]

• At the same time the American Government is compelling al) tobacco companies to print health warnings on cigarette packs. [More…]

• I suggest that if we kept quiet about these drugs and concentrated more on the real problems in Australia today we might do more for the health of the nation. [More…]

• Quarantine requirements to protect animal and human health exist in both countries and are administered by our respective Departments of Health in a manner designed to avoid health hazards only and not to act as economic barriers. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation rates alcohol as the fourth largest medical problem in the world. [More…]

• However, I was impressed the other day by the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) who said that prohibition on advertising had been implemented in certain places in the United States of America and that this did not make one iota of difference to the consumption of cigarettes. [More…]

• As a result of my concern about that, I, in company with my colleague the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes), have appointed a very distinguished Australian Sir William Kilpatrick toact as chairman of the national education sub-committee on drugs. [More…]

• Sir William is drawing to him top businessmen and health experts from the States to make sure that the $500,000 that the Government has hypothecated towards this cause will be spent not only well but also wisely and will be used not in a counter productive way as the honourable gentleman fears. [More…]

• I might say that the difficulties of this sector are important not only to that sector but also to the good health of the nation as a whole. [More…]

• With the co-operation of health insurance organisations in that State, principles have been introduced which closely reflect the recommendations of the Nimmo Committee. [More…]

• The quality and quantity of water available involve the life of every man, woman and child in the nation and decide the conditions of health and happiness in which they live in every town and village. [More…]

• Paragraph 46 states that the British Ministry of Health reported 82 cases admitted to hospital in 1966 with a diagnosis of drug addiction where cannabis seemed to be involved. [More…]

• I have quoted before the Expert Committee of the World Health Organisation which reported in 1969 in unequivocal terms. [More…]

• Dr E. A. Babajan, Head of the Department for the Introduction of New Drugs and Medical Technology, President of the Psychiatric Council, President of the Committee on Narcotics, Ministry of Health of the USSR, Moscow, USSR [More…]

• Dr N. B. Eddy, Consultant on Narcotics, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., USA (Chairman) [More…]

• Health and mental health; [More…]

• There has been speculation as to what changes will be made in the Cabinet or the Ministry, lt is suggested that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) is in jeopardy. [More…]

• Our health scheme has been improved. [More…]

• We have increased the assistance under our national health scheme. [More…]

• The amount paid by this Government for welfare - that is, for social services, repatriation and health - represents a much higher percentage of the total Budget than that paid by Labor in its last year of office. [More…]

• Health insurance is provided free for low income families. [More…]

• We did introduce a health scheme which has removed the fear of expensive operations for Australians. [More…]

• We have achieved a new and more comprehensive health scheme. [More…]

• Temporarily his health would be endangered to to come here. [More…]

• The Commonwealth has assumed the sole or major role in all the other important fields which used to be described as State responsibilities, lt provides all the finance for housing and rail standardisation and half the finance for road construction, health services and universities. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) who was Acting Minister for Education and Science on 11th September 1970 wrote to each of the Ministers for Education asking for details of these categories. [More…]

• These oils are not only imported free of duty but I understand that in America the importation of fish oil has been banned on health grounds. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health, 19:112-123, (July) 1969 [More…]

• Health, 20, 202-210, September 1959. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council, which advises Commonwealth and State governments on matters of a public health nature, seeks to attain uniformity in the legislation controlling poisonous substances by its recommendations concerning the scheduling of poisons. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has made recommendations on the scheduling of dichlorvos as a poison (including labelling requirements) and is currently examining other aspects of the sale and use of dichlorvos. [More…]

• Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many beds were there in each State and Territory in 1970 in (a) public wards (b) intermediate wards and (c) private wards in hospitals approved under the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What allocations were available for each of the States under the States Grants (Mental Health Institutions) Act and when was the total amount available under those allocations finally taken up by each of the States during each triennium. [More…]

• Representatives of the Department of the Interior, Department of Works, Department of Health and National Capital Development Commission formed into an ad hoc committee in April 1969 for the purpose of ensuring and maintaining close and effective liaison between the Departments and Authorities concerned with the quality of waterways in the A.C.T. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health, ls it a fact that a compromise has been negotiated between the South Australian Labor Government and that State’s branch of the Australian Medical Association concerning proposed increases in medical fees? [More…]

• He criticised the practice that then existed of having departmental officers from the Attorney-General’s Department, the Department of Health, the Department of Interior and other departments trying to concern themselves with law reform. [More…]

• The Commonwealth can certainly give financial assistance, but it is not as necessary to have Commonwealth financial assistance for the States to provide adequate law enforcement and research services as it is for the Commonwealth to give adequate financial assistance to enable the States to play their part in providing adequate educational, health and environmental services. [More…]

• This is true in the field of health and welfare where people carry out very fine research work, but because the results of the research work could be offensive or embarrassing to somebody or to the Government they are suppressed. [More…]

• 1 like the practice in Britain where reports are published not only on various aspects of health and welfare services but also on the broad span of public responsibility. [More…]

• The Commonwealth grant to the National Health and Medical Research Council totals $l.8m, and the sum of $250,000 has been allocated for advanced education research for the 1967-69 triennium. [More…]

• Is is non-violent to deny a human being the right to vote, the right to free choice of employment or the rights to equal wages, equal justice, education, health and social welfare, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, equal participation in cultural activities, freedom to choose his own spouse, the right to strike, freedom of movement, of religion, of political views, and the hundred other rights enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights? [More…]

• lt is important to know that these remarks have been confirmed by Dr Cummins, the Director-General of Public Health for New South Wales who today is attributed with having said that readings many times higher than the safety level are in evidence in regard to mercury at Botany Bay. [More…]

• We know that there is a threat to health and even to the very existence of life itself yet this Government, unlike the national governments of the United States and Canada, is failing to concern itself with these problems. [More…]

• Now we have had brought to our attention in a most dramatic form today in the Sydney ‘Daily Mirror’ through announcements made by Dr Cummins, the Director-General of Public Health in New South Wales and another very distinguished expert, a development which is exceptional to this country. [More…]

• Under the constitutional arrangements introduced late last year for the transfer of greater responsibility to Ministerial and Assistant Ministerial Members in Papua and New Guinea, health matters, including malaria control, come within the final authority of the Ministerial Member for Public Health. [More…]

• I am told that the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) may be departing from the Ministry shortly, as may be the Postmaster-General (Sir Alan Hulme), the Minister for Works and Minister in Charge of Tourist Activities (Senator Wright), the Minister for the Army (Mr Peacock), the Minister for the Navy (Mr Killen), the Minister for Social Services, the Treasurer (Mr Bury), the Minister for National Development (Mr Swartz) and the Attorney-General (Mr Hughes). [More…]

• Holten; Minister for Health, Senator the Honourable [More…]

• Minister for Civil Aviation by Mr Swartz; the Minister for Air by Mr Holten and the Minister for Health by Dr Forbes. [More…]

• My question, whichI address to the Prime Minister, relates to his Government’s attitude to the regime in Rhodesia and arises from the recent visit to Rhodesia as guests of the regime by 3 Government senators, including the new Minister for Health. [More…]

• I doubt whether the departments concerned - the Department of Health or the Department of Customs and Excise - would think that this was a reflection on them because, really, this gentleman makes so many statements on so many things that they just take that statement for granted. [More…]

• Honourable members who represent Murray River electorates know full well the great importance of regional development and the economic consequences if anything goes wrong with the financial health of a specialised industry. [More…]

• That is one reason why the Opposition will always support the Government in any constructive plan to increase the economic health of a basic Australian industry, be it primary or secondary industry. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I would say firstly that the conduct of mental health institutions is a function of and a responsbility of the State governments. [More…]

• It has moved fairly satisfactorily in the view of the advisers from the health departments of the different States. [More…]

• Next we have the Department of Health which has an enormous responsibility in this field. [More…]

• The Department organises meetings of Health Ministers which are held periodically. [More…]

• The Department of Health is responsible for the National Health and Medical Research Council which provides advice on radiation, pesticides, hazardous materials, atmospheric pollution and lead poisoning. [More…]

• It is interesting to note that, together with proposals and action to restrict the use of DDT, the World Health Organisation itself has pointed out that a complete ban could have disastrous effects on the programme to eradicate such scourges as malaria. [More…]

• Pollution may in some cases introduce health hazards which also extend beyond boundaries of a State. [More…]

• To realise this one has only to look at a table showing percentage expenditures on health and welfare in this and other countries. [More…]

• I was disappointed - I am sure the Minister was disappointed - that the Government decided, when considering the last Budget, that because of the state of the economy and because of the money spent on the new health scheme, it could increase pensions by only 50c. [More…]

• Are they suggesting that we should cut down on health services, national development, defence, housing or aid to underdeveloped countries? [More…]

• The miscellaneous health benefits cost the country $2. [More…]

• Last year the total cost of these social service benefits, which include health services, was in excess of $230m. [More…]

• shelter, vocational training, household supplies, tools of trade, health care and welfare services. [More…]

• No father and no mother does this except for the reason that present day costs of living, of housing, and of health and education render it impossible for the average family to live on the wage which the average worker receives. [More…]

• Many of Australia’s most urgent needs are in the fields of education, health and public welfare, urban development, and financial assistance to underdeveloped countries. [More…]

• It wants, and must be given, a better health plan for its sick; and it wants, and must be given, greater social security and dignity for those who are sick or too old to work. [More…]

• The level of productivity thus affects what we obtain for expenditure on education, health, social services, defence and so on. [More…]

• Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care, and necessary social services and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, and other lack of livelihood beyond his control. [More…]

• Natural resources are unevenly spread and in many cases barely developed, inferior education, inadequate housing and incomplete health services range in stark contrast alongside the fruits of privileged private schemes. [More…]

• These credit notes will express themselves in the improved social and physical health of the population and in the reduction of wastefulness of human resources with ils resultant loss in productivity. [More…]

• The letter, a fairly long one, included a paragraph saying that at a subsequent dale he might be called up again for medical examination to see whether his state of health had changed. [More…]

• So the Government’s concern is for the mouse which could contaminate, not the nation’s health and not surely, in the face of the figures, our balance of trade. [More…]

• Without the unit she would suffer a marked deterioration in health and the consequences could well be fatal. [More…]

• It seems to us that an air-conditioning unit sold commercially for general purposes cannot be described as a medical or surgical appliance, or as some other type of appliance, depending upon the particular circumstances or the health of its user. [More…]

• I ask the Minister representing the Minister for Health whether it is correct that staff reductions have recently been ordered and carried out at the Commonwealth Health Laboratories? [More…]

• Finally, are the staff and salary reductions the result of the Government’s anti-inflation campaign and, if so, why has it been found necessary to interfere with and disrupt the smooth running of such important health centres? [More…]

• Is the Minister representing the Minister for Health aware of repeated reports circulating in the Northern Territory that the Government economy cuts are having a serious effect on the health services in the Territory? [More…]

• This matter was raised with me by the honourable gentleman while I was still Minister for Health. [More…]

• At that stage - ‘and I am sure that the position is still the same, although I shall relay his question to my colleague - the position was that a great deal of trouble had been taken by my Department to consider the cuts that had necessarily to be made in the Northern Territory activities of the Department of Health as elsewhere to ensure that these should have no effect on the standards of essential health and medical services in the Territory. [More…]

• Has there been established an interdepartmental committee representing the Department of Health, the Department of Social Services and the Department of Education and Science which are all vitally concerned with this matter? [More…]

• I am very pleased - I hope you will bear with me, Mr Deputy - Speaker - that the Department of Health has made a pronouncement in regard to a wonderful drug called L-dopa. [More…]

• The Commonwealth assists development generally by helping to create a climate for investment, by making available grants and loans, by establishing special financial channels to assist private enterprise, and by investment in such responsibilities as civil aviation, telecommunications, health, social welfare, basic research and exploration programmes, in none of these things does the Government act unilaterally. [More…]

• The range and extent of the measures involved, whether they be in the fields of finance, tariffs, health or development, emphasise the co-operative nature of the relationships both between the Commonwealth and State governments and between public and private enterprise. [More…]

• Let me touch briefly on other examples of co-operation, such as the CommonwealthState Housing Agreement which is shortly to be renegotiated at a conference between Commonwealth and State Housing Ministers and the regular meetings of the State Ministers for Transport, of AttorneysGeneral, of Health Ministers, of Ministers for Primary Industry and, as we saw yesterday, of Premiers with the Prime Minister (Mr McMahon) and the Treasurer (Mr Snedden). [More…]

• There is also the Health Ministers Conference. [More…]

• Certainly there is a case for this, but surely these areas, which are some of the poorer areas of Australia, are entitled to retain some of the royalties for the basic development of roads, power, education and health. [More…]

• Some of the important matters which the States administer include housing, decentralisation, urban development, education, health, social welfare and transport. [More…]

• Standards of living, standards of education, standards of health and standards of leisure which would have seemed Utopian a few generations ago are now within our reach, but these goals will not be reached by a mere redistribution of a static national wealth. [More…]

• We have no chance of achieving the huge sums we require for all the needs of our community from a near static gross national product - the funds we need for health, for education or for pollution control or for any of our other goals. [More…]

• Is he also aware of the considerable and lasting damage which has been done to this reputation and to individual well-being, both in relation to health and in the economic sense, by the strike of certain employees of the Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board in Sydney? [More…]

• Has the Minister made any assessment of the economic damage - not forgetting the public health hazard - caused by the actions of the strikers? [More…]

• Indeed, it is not only regrettable but it is also (o be deplored that strike action of this type should put in jeopardy the national asset to which the honourable member referred as well as the health of many Sydneysiders who live in areas adjacent to these beaches. [More…]

• No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order, the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. [More…]

• 1 am aware that these responsibilities are generally undertaken by the State Health authorities. [More…]

• Medical Practitioner, National Health and Dr J. C. Lane. [More…]

• The Vietnamese Ministry of Social Welfare and Refugees and the Ministry of Health have advised that, generally speaking, the Government of Vietnam does not favour the adoption of Vietnamese children in foreign countries. [More…]

• So that honourable members and the public can be informed of the basis of the claims, which his predecessor found appalling, will the right honourable gentleman table the AMA document and also the results of the surveys of the Department of Health which have shown that last year doctors received an increase of 20 per cent in their payments from the medical benefits funds? [More…]

• Subsequently I was given some figures by the medical authorities - that is, the Department of Health. [More…]

• This figure of $10m as being the maximum, as advised to me by the Department of Health, has not been agreed to by the Government nor have the various percentage increases that have been proposed for the various States and in special circumstances by the AMA been agreed to. [More…]

• What has been agreed to is that the Minister for Health will have consultations with the AMA on Friday of this week in order to get a clear statement of what is meant by the words ‘for the time being* and to try to finalise the figures for general practitioners’ fees. [More…]

• I want to make it abundantly clear, first of all, that the Government’s primary goal is to provide an effective health scheme for the benefit of the Australian community without unnecessary cost to those who have to contribute to the health or medical benefits funds. [More…]

• In my book, pollution is the unnecessary, ugly or dangerous change in the environment which is not in the best interests of the community; not just in terms of finance and economics but culturally and physically in terms of its health or in terms of the real security of people. [More…]

• Is it dangerous to health? [More…]

• Is it not in the best interests of the community in terms of economy and of their physical health, culture and security? [More…]

• I would challenge anyone to point to one area of potential pollution of the water supply of the area or to say that reasonable caution and care have not been taken against the coal dust menace or other factors which could be a menace to health. [More…]

• Surgeon General Jesse L. Steinfeld disclosed all of the actions at a hearing of a Senate Commerce Sub-committee following their approval by the Secretaries of Health, Education and Welfare, Agriculture and Interior. [More…]

• A circular on 2,4,5-T was published by the United States Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, and Department of Health, Education and Welfare on 15 April 1970. [More…]

• The Chairman of the Sub-committee charged with this responsibility was Dr Stanley F. Yolles, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health. [More…]

• There is no question that the widespreaduse of marihuana represents a significant mental health problem. [More…]

• In a report to the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr Vincent de Paul Lynch, Professor at St John’s University in Jamaica, Queens, New York, said his studies indicated that the ‘use of marihuana could have very serious consequences’ for human reproduction. [More…]

• A report which I regarded as being of particular significance was that of the Expert Committee on Drug Dependence of the World Health Organisation to the 23rd session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in 1969. [More…]

• The Committee strongly reaffirmed the opinions expressed in previous reports that cannabis is a drug of dependence, producing public health and social problems, and that control over it must be continued. [More…]

• With the concurrence of honourable members I incorporate in Hansard recommendations of the Commonwealth Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance and the Senate Select Committee on Medical and Hospital Costs relating to nursing homes and nursing home benefits. [More…]

• Also, if the woman suffered bad health at this point of time and was 80 per cent incapacitated for work she could be granted an invalid pension which would include allowances for the children even though she had been deserted by her de facto husband in the same circumstances as have already occurred. [More…]

• The various voluntary health schemes do not cover the entire cost. [More…]

• As I pointed out recently, can anybody in Australia at the moment seriously say that in the name of inflation, or in the name of damping down inflation, we should restrict expenditure on education and public health? [More…]

• At least this points to One considerable defficiency at the level of public health. [More…]

• Some time ago, as one exercise here I compared the expenditure at the Commonwealth level on civil aviation and the Post Office with expenditure at the State level on education and health, and it was surprising to find that on the capital side as much was spent on the Post Office plus civil aviation, both in the hand of the Commonwealth, as was spent by the States at the 2 levels of education and health. [More…]

• I suggested that if the States had had the same sort of financial initiative as has the Commonwealth I would have been very surprised indeed if there had not been more expenditure on education and health and less on civil aviation and the Post Office. [More…]

• Department of Health. [More…]

• 2553 from the then Minister for Health. [More…]

• What arrangements have been made with the States to label cigarette packages with the warning that smoking is dangerous to health? [More…]

• At the June 1969 conference of Commonwealth and State Health Ministers it was agreed that Ministers would recommend to their Governments that consideration be given to the adoption of a National Health and Medical Research Council recommendation that the label Warning, cigarette smoking is dangerous to health’ should be placed on cigarette packets. [More…]

• Of course, the vested interests in cigarette manufacturing claim that there is no absolute proof that cigarette smoking is a health hazard. [More…]

• In the recent 108 page report entitled ‘Smoking and Health’ by the Royal College of Physicians, British doctors called for all-round bans on cigarette advertising and the introduction of legislation to compel cigarette manufacturers to print warnings on their packets about the possible dangers of smoking to health. [More…]

• The Imperial Tobacco Co. which dominates 67 per cent of the British cigarette market estimates that the overall sale of cigarettes has fallen by 10 per cent since the January report of the Royal Colleges of Physicians on smoking and health was made public. [More…]

• Our Governments have admitted that smoking is harmful to health, but the opportunities for stalling on the issue seem to be endless,’ he said. [More…]

• We ought to be making a king-size attack upon these interests which for profit are prepared to destroy the -health and cause the early deaths of many thousands of young Australian people. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Government should take the initiative in its own territories by adopting the recommendation of the National Health and Medical Research Council and compelling the placing on cigarette packets of a label reading: Warning. [More…]

• Cigarette smoking is dangerous to health’. [More…]

• Many of these countries face tremendous problems - problems of hunger, illiteracy, over-population and active Communist parties, not to mention health, housing, education, transport and many other domestic problems. [More…]

• The new Minister for Health (Senator Greenwood) enters today into negotiations with Australia’s toughest trade union having conceded in advance that its claims are reasonable and that the Government is powerless in any case to resist those claims even if it felt justified in doing so. [More…]

• The Commonwealth’s own submission to the Senate Select Committee on Medical and Hospital Costs shows clearly that the rate of increase in doctors’ fees relative to average weekly earnings was reasonable throughout the first decade of the Liberal health scheme, although even at that stage fees rose faster than consumer prices. [More…]

• They achieved this result either by pulling the wool over the eyes of successive Liberal Ministers for Health, or conniving with those Ministers. [More…]

• argues and which the new Minister for Health has described as within bounds amount in fact to another $1,000 annually for a section of the work force which charges already for its labour 3i times the average national price. [More…]

• I can see no reason why taxpayers and health fund contributors should finance a further widening of the gap between prices charged for labour by general practitioners and prices charged by other sections of the work force. [More…]

• The Minister for Health insists that governments have no power to establish the incomes of doctors, but in fact few members of the Australian workforce are dependent on doctors not for income alone of which 75 per cent is derived from taxes collected or forgone by governments but for the Commonwealth scholarships which see 74 per cent of their number through university courses and the hospitals on which their practical training depends. [More…]

• The high cost of Liberal election gimmickry is nowhere more evident than in matters of health. [More…]

• In October 1969 the former Prime Minister said in his policy speech that it would cost $19m to give a Gorton look at the ailing Liberal health scheme with its 114 separate insurance bureaucracies. [More…]

• In March 1970 the former Minister for Health revealed in his second reading speech on the National Health Bill that the $19m had risen to $45m, an additional $26m being required, as I have said, to sweeten the specialist-dominated governing body of the AMA into accepting his modified scheme. [More…]

• Taxpayers and health fund contributors are now asked to underwrite a further subvention of at least $10m which, as I have shown serves no other purpose than to restore income relativities within the medical profession itself. [More…]

• The new Minister for Health clearly has no stomach for attempts to break this vicious cycle. [More…]

• Before I refer to the argument of the Leader of the Opposition and to the justification which he has given for raising this matter this morning, let me remind the House that fae has raised this matter this morning when the Minister for Health (Senator Greenwood), is on behalf of the Government, meeting in Sydney, the leaders of the Australian Medical Association for crucial discussions on which the whole viability and future of the health scheme might depend. [More…]

• Does the Leader of the Opposition believe that the raising of this matter in a party political sense and in a highly provocative and highly antagonistic sense so far as the medical profession is concerned will contribute towards the objectives which the Minister for Health and the Government seek, that is, to continue a viable health scheme? [More…]

• The Opposition chose to raise the matter today - the very day on which the Minister for Health, on behalf of the Government, is undertaking this difficult task. [More…]

• It is a difficult task because it concerns all the patients and all the contributors to the health insurance scheme in Australia. [More…]

• This figure of $1Om as being the maximum, as advised to me by the Department of Health, has not been agreed to by the Government nor have the various percentage increases that have been pro posed for the various States and in special circumstances by the AMA been agreed to. [More…]

• What is more, the Prime Minister went on to say to the Leader of the Opposition that this was one of the matters about which our colleague, the Minister for Health, was going to see the AMA today. [More…]

• The negotiations and discussions which are taking place today between the Executive of the Australian Medical Association and the Minister for Health (Senator Greenwood) are directed towards this very point. [More…]

• The second point that I made concerned the motives of the Opposition in bringing this discussion forward on the very day on which the Minister for Health has gone to Sydney to undertake a difficult task in the interests of Australia and of contributors to the health scheme. [More…]

• This is that the Opposition is desperately worried because the health scheme that the Government has introduced has worked so well in the protection of Australians against the cost of illness. [More…]

• The Opposition is worried also because its members, aided and abetted by the Press, have made a deal of political mileage out of misleading the Australian public with respect to the Opposition’s so called free health scheme. [More…]

• I remind the public that the scheme proposed by the Opposition as a free health scheme is dependent entirely on the medical profession in Australia agreeing to charge 85 per cent of its common fee. [More…]

• This is why I believe members opposite have raised this matter of public importance today, on the very day in which the Minister for Health is going forward to negotiate with the medical profession. [More…]

• The former Minister for Health, now the Minister for Immigration (Dr Forbes) - perhaps a less controversial, or at least for him less controversial, portfolio - seemed to make a Freudian slip in the course of his discussion. [More…]

• He frequently referred to the subject of terror, exposing almost a preoccupation on a personal level or probably a hangover from his previous experiences as Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Minister proceeded in his speech with further nonsense, for which he is a past master, and talked about the free health scheme of the Labor Party. [More…]

• What the Opposition has been talking about in its approach to health insurance is a more efficient use of the public’s money. [More…]

• Over the Easter weekend I had to go to Melbourne for some work to further the cause of democracy and while I was there I noticed a gallup poll finding in one of the Melbourne daily newspapers which indicated that the Labor Party has something like a 20 per cent lead on the Government as far as public popularity and public opinion of the relative merits of their health schemes are concerned. [More…]

• If I were the ex-Minister for Health I would feel no balm from the fact that the national health scheme in Great Britain, which he frequently stigmatises, is able to attract something like 75 per cent popular support in the national opinion polls when his Government’s scheme can attract only about 15 per cent. [More…]

• But last night the Health Minister (Senator Greenwood) said that doctors had set up a new fees scale and “we have to live with it”.’ [More…]

• I have a copy of a transcript of a television interview with the Minister for Health (Senator Greenwood) on an Australian Broadcasting Commission programme in which he said: . [More…]

• Now, what Government must do is, as far as possible, see that the cost of our health scheme ,is kept within bounds. ‘ [More…]

• The fact is that the Government’s health insurance scheme is a model T performance in the space age. [More…]

• To speak only in terms of fees and medical benefits when dealing with this great area is to ignore the main issue if any government, regardless of where it may be, concentrated solely on the financial aspects of medical health and forgot the real personal and social aspects, I believe that it would be heading for trouble. [More…]

• They almost entirely - and this certainly applies to the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden) - spoke about the fees related to medical health, doctors fees and so on. [More…]

• This is not to say that fees in respect of medical health and doctors are unimportant - they are important. [More…]

• The Government has a responsibility to -participate in any medical health scheme in this country. [More…]

• I have mentioned - let me return to them to some extent - the facts of life in the field of health today in Australia. [More…]

• If they cease to work together and the main responsibility falls on the Government to administer all aspects of health through the public purse and by Act of Parliament, I fear that the health of the people will be in jeopardy. [More…]

• We should not discuss the subject of health only from the point of view of the funds and the benefits that are available from a government or anywhere else. [More…]

• It does not deal with what I think are the major health issues; it deals with only one area. [More…]

• I hope that this Government will never look at only one area when it is dealing with health matters, whether it be in negotiations with doctors or whether it be in negotiations with the States or anybody else. [More…]

• I would expect a matter of public importance relating to health to cover a broad area. [More…]

• I have read the booklet which as I recall arose out of the conference which my Department, in association with the Commonwealth Department of Health, convened on Aboriginal infant mortality some time ago. [More…]

• Sir William Refshauge, Director General of Health (Chairman) [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister representing the Minister for Health been drawn to the banning by the [More…]

• Japanese Government of DDT and pesticides containing cancer-causing kinds of hydrocarbons, on the ground that they have effects of long lasting contamination of vegetables and dairy milk and are gravely injurious to human health? [More…]

• Is any legislation contemplated by the Government to ban these health hazards along similar lines to the Japanese Government’s action in view of the conclusive results of Japanese research? [More…]

• I will refer the question to my colleague, the Minister for Health, and ask him to let the honourable member have a detailed reply. [More…]

• 1 could perhaps make these points: The first is that we have committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council, which is an expert body set up to advise both the Commonwealth and the States on these matters. [More…]

• By all means we should be aware of what happens in other countries, and these committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council are aware of and are in constant touch with equivalent bodies overseas. [More…]

• Once upon a time that was what happened in public health. [More…]

• We have now established various measures of public health control which have eliminated most of these epidemics that used once to sweep the world but we still believe in epidemics in trade. [More…]

• Professor Paton, who is also Chairman of the Home Office inquiry into the effects of cannabis said recently ‘If one were to view cannabis simply as a new drug which might be introduced into medi.ine, the evidence we already have of health hazards would rule it out’. [More…]

• The Council on Mental Health and the Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of the American Medical Association in a joint statement said recently: [More…]

• During most of the time that I was Minister for External Affairs and Foreign Minister I religiously pursued the objective of trying to find out the whereabouts of Francis James, what his state of health was and when we could expect that he would be released. [More…]

• Health and education are 2 areas where Commonwealth expenditures over recent years have literally leapt forward and now constitute a very significant portion of Commonwealth budgetary expenditures. [More…]

• It adversely affects health of mind and body, retards recovery of the sick and reduces the capacity to learn and the quality of work done. [More…]

• The last two savings are not ones which can be measured in cost but only in the value of man’s health and of man’s survival. [More…]

• In brief, they are reduction in quality or variety of goods available; reduction in the number of retail outlets; increase in prices; danger to health; and reduction in availability of after-sales services. [More…]

• It further said that the section of the Department of Health - which is the responsible department in Victoria - responsible for the supervision of pre-school centres in Victoria is understaffed and that there is a need for a substantial increase in the staff available. [More…]

• Many of the existing child minding centres breed boredom, insecurity, poor intellectual development, sometimes poor health, frustration and conformity. [More…]

• I believe it is this field of manufactured and capital goods that Australia’s economic health lies in the future. [More…]

• Honourable members might recall that the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Whitlam) has criticised the voluntary health insurance funds from time to time because their administration costs were of the order of IS per cent of their annual turnover, yet the administration costs of this Corporation are over 33 per cent of its turnover. [More…]

• I turn my attention to the field of national health. [More…]

• Under the National Health Act, a man who earns the minimum wage or below is entitled to certain benefits. [More…]

• At the same time, the health benefits that the Government provides for aged persons in this country are inadequate. [More…]

• Apart from this it is essential for the health of the industry that it should not be fully insulated from the effects of changes in demand as reflected in price. [More…]

• This country is still languishing to a degree because there has been excessive private investment in some directions - I do not say in all - and there certainly has not been sufficient public investment in other directions, and in particular in the fields of education and health. [More…]

• Before leaving Europe he was told by his doctor that he could come to Australia only on the condition that he could enter without receiving a smallpox injection because if he was subjected to one it would endanger his health. [More…]

• I continued to press his case after his induction and his psychiatrist in Perth, on hearing that he was in the Army, wrote immediately to the Department saying that it was his opinion that this lad should not be in the Army because that would be extremely detrimental to his health and welfare. [More…]

• His doctor has said that the court proceedings themselves will have an extremely detrimental effect upon his health. [More…]

• He is a most unhealthy individual, again a person with bad psychiatric tendencies, and the doctor has said that it is impossible for him to go into the Army without it having an extremely adverse effect upon him. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minilster for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council at its Seventieth Session in April 1970 recommended that the use of 2,4,5T should not be permitted in areas where water contamination could occur. [More…]

• All pesticides, including 2,4,5T, are kept under a continuing review by expert committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• Yesterday, the Victorian Minister for Health announced a cabinet decision to increase hospital fees by 50 per cent from 1st July next. [More…]

• On 18th April 1968 the former Minister for Health, Dr Forbes, announced the appointment of Mr Justice Nimmo’s Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance and on 25th March 1969 that Committee’s report was tabled. [More…]

• When I asked the former Minister for Health on 16th September last year the number and percentage of beds in each State and Territory closed for lack of nursing staff he told me that [More…]

• In order to ensure that Australia’s health care resources are utilised in the most effective manner, and that decisions on future development of health services are soundly based, plans should be developed for the Commonwealth, the State and appropriate organisations and groups to participate in a co-ordinated national scheme for the collection and dissemination of uniform statistics relating to health economics and for general health economic research. [More…]

• The Nimmo Committee proposed in its recommendations on an independent National Health Insurance Commission that: [More…]

• The Commission would be empowered to conduct research in relation to hospital and other health costs. [More…]

• The former Minister for Health announced in his statement on 4th March last year that the Government had accepted the Nimmo recommendation and that legislation to establish the Commission would be introduced. [More…]

• The new Minister for Health says that he regards the whole matter as one for ‘review’. [More…]

• I have quoted from official Senate and Nimmo Committee recommendations and I have quoted answers which the former Minister for Health has given me. [More…]

• Whatever the former Minister for Health who will follow me in this debate may say, all the matters whichI have quoted should be well known to him. [More…]

• Similarly, Labor will see that hospitals are compensated in full for all their patients including pensioners and compensation cases under Labor’s alternative national programme of family health care. [More…]

• Hospital planning on a regional basis and insurance coverage on a universal basis are the keys both to Labor’s health programme and to relief of that disastrous predicament to which all our public hospitals have been reduced by Liberal parsimony and the Liberal rhetoric of States’ rights. [More…]

• I cite this to demonstrate the way in which the honourable gentleman misquotes figures in relation to health matters. [More…]

• Twelve months ago when this subject was raised in this House, on the initiative of the Opposition, the former Minister for Health said in an attempt to rebut the Opposition’s argument that the public hospital services in Australia were ‘as good as I have seen anywhere in the world’. [More…]

• Today we have a different approach by the Minister for Immigration (Dr Forbes) who represents the Minister for Health (Senator Greenwood) in this place. [More…]

• Fortunately the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) was present in this House at that time and he was able to nail the arrant dishonesty of the Minister in this respect and point out that this was purely a temporary feature and that additional funds were injected into the special account system because of a transition related to adjustments in the voluntary health insurance scheme which came about last year. [More…]

• And of course as par for the course whenever the Minister is swinging his stick in a debate on health there was an attack on the Opposition’s proposals on health insurance and public health services. [More…]

• I will give him an undertaking, which to me has many attractions because in spite of all his misrepresentations the Australian Labor Party still has 25 per cent more popularity in gallup polls for its health insurance scheme than has the Government. [More…]

• Let us look at the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The United Kingdom works on a planning arrangement of 3.3 and is proposing 2 per 1,000 of population in a report entitled ‘Building for Health’. [More…]

• A recent President’s commission in the United States of America cleared the Kaiser system as the most effective, most efficient, least costly and yet the most satisfactory in the delivery of personal health services in the United States of America. [More…]

• A year or two ago subsidised health insurance was introduced and this takes care of those people who have an income, I think, not exceeding $42.50. [More…]

• Over the last few years the Commonwealth has assisted greatly in health matters. [More…]

• The honourable member for Canning (Mr Hallett) joined the Minister for Immigration (Dr Forbes), who represents the Minister for Health in this chamber, in quibbling about the concept of nationalisation. [More…]

• The most efficient way out surely would be to establish a national health insurance fund with financial collections via the Taxation Office, as is already the case with all other social services financed by the community. [More…]

• It seems to have overlooked completely the subsidised health insurance scheme under which the Commonwealth pays Commonwealth and fund benefits - both benefits - in respect of low income earners, persons on the unemployment benefit, persons receiving the sickness benefit, and migrants. [More…]

• Because of the fact that hospital rates have been increased in Victoria by 50 per cent, next year this amount of $16m plus approximately $4m in respect of the subsidised health insurance scheme will rise by 50 per cent. [More…]

• This may not be direct expenditure on hospitals, but the very fact that thousands of beds are available in the health field to this section of the community means that the Commonwealth is making a great contribution. [More…]

• I conclude by pointing out that, with co-operation between the States and the Commonwealth - apparently the Opposition does not appear to believe in this - slowly and surely our health scheme is being improved all the time. [More…]

• It is still better than any health scheme anywhere else in the world. [More…]

• When the Government wanted a Minister for Health it appointed a barrister. [More…]

• The abdication of responsibility by this House, which was evident the last time the guillotine was applied on the National Health Bill, will continue. [More…]

• Social services of various kinds and health and education programmes also are operating over the whole of the Territory. [More…]

• ‘Health?’ [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• Therefore, I suggest it is vitally necessary to distinguish between the very important social and political measures needed for many growers and the measures needed for the health of the industry itself. [More…]

• The health of many farmers will be endangered, as men who sold out a few years ago or who let their sons carry on the farm now find themselves back on the farm facing health troubles, financial nightmares and work without reward. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• If a comparable analysis is not being undertaken in Australia and in view of the dangerous levels reported by Dr Jervis will he seek the advice of the National Health and Medical Research Council on this matter; [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council through its expert committees is aware of the possibility of the occurrence of mercury residues and continues to keep the matter under review. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following, answer to the honourable member’s question. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did he state on 16th February that the incomes of doctors had increased by approximately 20 per cent since the inception of the new health scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• This information is used by the National Health and Medical Research Council in order to determine appropriate tolerances for the chemicals and also by the State authorities in deciding on the registration of the chemicals. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Department of Health is currently conducting an extensive survey of the pesticide residue levels in the total diet of the community in all States during the four seasons of the year. [More…]

• In addition, the care of children born with congenital deformities as a result of the drug, Thalidomide, is undertaken in conjunction with the respective State Health departments. [More…]

• In the case of limbs and appliances provided for children deformed through Thalidomide, half the cost is borne by the Commonwealth, with the other half being recoverable from the State Health departments. [More…]

• provides that the Trade Practices Tribunal can exempt goods from the provisions of this Bill if it is satisfied that either the quality or variety of goods would be reduced by the elimination of resale price maintenance, that the number of selling outlets would be excessively reduced, that the retail price would ultimately rise, that retail conditions would be likely to cause danger to health or that necessary pre or after sales services would cease. [More…]

• I point out that this is not just a matter of wage justice and conditions; it is a matter of the health and efficiency of every person concerned with the Parliament, including the drivers who are waiting outside. [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• Whitlam having given me leave because of ill health. [More…]

• I was not absent because of ill health. [More…]

• I may suffer from ill health occasionally, but I do not like that to be used against me. [More…]

• Remodelling the central sterile supply and theatre block to provide a public health laboratory; [More…]

• Remodelling the administrative building for a regional office for the Department of Health; and [More…]

• New staffing proposals for the hospital form part of a comprehensive re-assessment of overall needs for the Northern Territory hospitals and medical services and are being examined by the Department of Health and the Public Service Board. [More…]

• The special health needs of the Aboriginal people featured very significantly in the planning of the Alice Springs hospital. [More…]

• The Committee was intent on making the point that this was the first line of defence and that unless this was done great success would not be attained in alleviating the health conditions which many Aboriginal people experience. [More…]

• We were told that there was not 1 person in Central Australia properly trained in public health. [More…]

• We wonder why the hospitals are full to overcrowding with cases of gastro enteritis and other similar illnesses; these could be alleviated if public health facilities were installed and provided in these places. [More…]

• I am talking about central Australia and the neglect of the Aboriginal people there from the standpoint of health. [More…]

• Then, the Commonwealth Department of Health is responsible for another area of administration, as is the Commonwealth office of Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• I will be more impressed when the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs (Mr Wentworth), the Minister for Health (Senator Greenwood) and the Minister for the Interior show that they are concerned and stop adopting the placatory attitude that they have adopted. [More…]

• They receive this only from the health service. [More…]

• No compensation procedure can ever be allowed to take charge of the efforts being made to restore a man to health and gainful employment. [More…]

• by establishing mandatory occupational safety and health standards applicable to businesses affecting commerce; [More…]

• by providing for the effective enforcement of such safety and health standards; [More…]

• by providing tor research relating to occupational safety and health; [More…]

• by providing, tor training programmes to increase and improve personnel engaged in the field of occupational safety and health; [More…]

• by more clearly delineating the responsibilities of the Federal Government and the States in their activities related to occupational safety and health; [More…]

• by providing grants to the States to assist them in idenitfying their needs and responsibilities in the aiea of occupational safety and health, to develop plans in accordance with the provisions of this Act, and to conduct experiments and demonstration projects in connection therewith; and [More…]

• by providing for appropriate accident and health reputing procedures which will help achieve the objectives of this Act. [More…]

• Is it a sign of great economic health that most of our property is purchased on mortgage and that we have to borrow funds to sustain it overseas at 9 per cent with advantages that sometimes reside in the way in which Australia’s internal tax law is drawn? [More…]

• Should they cover health, invalidity, retrenchment, reemployment and so on? [More…]

• As I said earlier, honourable members on both sides of the House have had quite numerous representations made to them recently by local governing authorities suggesting that payments should be made directly from the Commonwealth to the local authorities to assist them in such works as the abatement of rates to people in receipt of age pen sions, the provision of certain social welfare services such as child minding centres and baby health centres, and the various kinds of relief work that local authorities are called upon to perform in the nature of social services but for which no direct payment is made to the local authorities and which has to be met out of their rates. [More…]

• I am not knocking the scheme in itself, but of course it has caused great needs in the fields of education, housing, health and hospitals, urban renewal and a lot of other areas which are being poorly treated in this country at the present time and which are causing great hardship particularly for the lower income groups of our country. [More…]

• That is the reason why the Government makes such gross defects in its health policy. [More…]

• The honourable member will also be aware that the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare is currently taking evidence. [More…]

• The company involved was informed , the Department would not object to the material being dumped at sea providing the State Departments of Fisheries ‘anil Public Health ‘ agreed and oh the condition that the dumping would take place in a recognised manner outside the limits of the continental., shelf. [More…]

• I am not aware of any case in which instructions given by the Department of Health or my Department as to how or where waste is to be disposed of at sea have been ignored and it has not been felt that at this stage further con-‘’ rols should be . [More…]

• to (3) The Departments represented on the Inter-departmental Committee are: ‘ Prime Ministers, Treasury, Social Services, Education and Science, Health, Immigration, Interior and Labour and National Service. [More…]

• What percentage of the gross national product was spent on health, education and welfare and what percentage was spent by (a) all public authorities and (b) all private sources, during each of the past S years. [More…]

• Can he state for the latest years available those countries in which the total expenditure on health, education and welfare expressed as a percentage of their gross national product exceeds that of Australia. [More…]

• Complete information is not available for personal consumption expenditure on health and no estimates are prepared for private sector expenditure on welfare services. [More…]

• which cannot be ‘ regarded’ as expenditure on health, and a satisfactory estimate of the health expenditure included in this item cannot be mads at present. [More…]

• Estimates of public authority current and capital expenditure on public health and welfare are published jn Australian National Accounts (tables 64 and 74 of the 1968-69 issue), and an estimate of private gross fixed capital expenditure on new buildings for health services is available from the building statistics collection. [More…]

• The estimates of expenditure on education and public health in the accompanying table may of course be compared with similar figures for other countries, and the honourable member is referred to the United Nations Yearbook of National Accounts Statistics’, which shows for many countries, current expenditure oa education and health, and public authority current expenditure on welfare. [More…]

• Many of the observations in that paper apply with equal force to international comparisons of expenditure on health services.’ [More…]

• Is it a fact that lump sum compensation for industrial incapacity and impairment of health is exempt from income tax while periodical pay ments are not; if so, what are the reasons foi these apparently contradictory attitudes. [More…]

• Is the income of retired dusted miners, who are receiving pensions for permanent impairment of health, subject to income tax. [More…]

• Statistics that would enable a reliable estimate to be made of the cost of exempting from income tax pensions received by retired dusted miners for permanent impairment of health are no available. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• These authorities have now supplied the following information relating to mental health institutions in their respective States. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many (a) partly and (b) fully subsidised health fund contributions were there in each State on (i) 1st September 1970, (ii) 1st December 1970 and (iii) 1st February 1971. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• However, the following tables set out available information concerning the number of contributors enrolled in health insurance organisations through the Subsidised Medical Services Scheme. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Why are these basic health requirements denied to pensioners. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable members question: [More…]

• to (5) The National Health Act limits the provision of pharmaceutical benefits to drugs and medicinal preparations. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What are the names of registered benefit organisations which have (a) been denied registration of (b) voluntarily ceased operation in any State since the proclamation of the National Health Act 1970, and what percentage of its contributors was lost by each organisation in each case. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question. [More…]

• 1971, on authority of the Commonwealth Director of Health in each State and Territory, for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourables member’s question: [More…]

• Section 4(4) of the National Health Act specifically precludes the payment of Commonwealth benefit for a professional attendance at which an examination of the patient’s eyes is made in consequence of which spectacle lenses are prescribed. [More…]

• This matter was the subject of considerable discussion in both Houses of Parliament last year during the debate on the National Health Bill, as a result of which the Parliament decided to make no change in the situation. [More…]

• The nature of the service for which the health insurance organisations provide an ancillary benefit and the conditions under which organisations pay, such benefits are matters for organisations management Committees to determine. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is it a fact that the Department of Health pays for general anaesthesia at the prescribed rate in connection with a series or combination of professional services only to the extent that these services do not include assistance at an operation or series or combination of operations. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What are the details of (a) public and (b) private expenditure on health expressed as a percentage of the gross national product in each of the last 10 years. [More…]

• What are the details of expenditure (a) in aggregate and (b) as a percentage of the total expenditure on health under the main heads of expenditure by <i) the Commonwealth (ii) the States, (iii) local authorities, (iv) private sources and (v) other sources in each of the last 5 years. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (il) At present comparable estimates of current account expenditure on health services in Australia are only available for the 3 years 1960-61, 1963-64 and 1966-67. [More…]

• On the basis of these estimates (a) public and (b) private current account expenditure on health services expressed as a percentage of gross national product would be: [More…]

• Estimates of current account expenditure on health services in Australia are only available in respect of 1 of the last 5 years, namely 1966-67. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Mnister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• I wish to point out that the 1970 amendments to the National Health Act required that the registration of medical benefits organisations was to be conditional on their rules stipulating, among other things, that: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Low calorie foods as defined by the National Health and Medical Research Council are foods having a restricted calorie content, and include - soft drinks, cordials, biscuits, bread substitutes, jams, sauces, soft drinks basis in powder or solid form, jelly crystals - tablets - cubes and mix, fruit and vegetable juices, confectionary, and ice block mixes in powder or solid form. [More…]

• However, the National Health and Medical Research Council, which advises the States and the Commonwealth on health matters recommended at its 69th Session (November 1969) that cyclamates should continue to be permitted in low calorie foods and beverages in the amounts at present prescribed in the Standard for Artificial Sweetening Substances as published in Appendix VIII to the report of the Sixty-third Session of Council, provided that such foods and veverages are labelled “TAKE ON MEDICAL ADVICE ONLY” ‘. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the Australian Medical Association submit to the Senate Select Committee on Medical and Hospital Costs that catastrophic expenses in relation to health are very largely due to inadequate hospital benefits, particularly for long term hospital admissions. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Subsidised Medical Services Scheme was introduced on 1st January 1970. and was extended to provide tapered health insurance contribution subsidies from 1st July 1970. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Does the report Future Health Care Services in the A.C.T. [More…]

• state that, unless immediate action on the recommendations of the report is undertaken, Canberra’s health services will lag far behind its physical plan and by the end of the decade could be in disarray. [More…]

• If so, what action is in hand to implement the recommendations of the report, and when will a definitive statement on a proposed programme for the development of health care services in the Australian Capital Territory be made by the Government. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will the Department of Health provide to honourable members the tables it provided to the Australian Medical Association, showing the number and the cost of medical services, extracted from claims processed by medical benefit funds in each State during the quarter ended 31st December 1969 and the quarter ended 31 December 1970. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The National Health Act (section 56) provides that the $2 per day nursing home benefit is payable in respect of each qualified nursing home patient accommodated in an approved nursing home. [More…]

• In accordance with section 57A of the Act, the supplementary nursing home benefit of$3 per day is payable only if the Director-General of Health (or his delegate) is satisfied that: [More…]

• asked the Minister represent ing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon noitce: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will the Minister consider divorcing Australian Capital Territory health services from the administrative control of the Department of Health and placing them under the administration of a localised health authority charged with their maintenance and with their balanced, planned and integrated development [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The future management and control of hospitals and other health services in the Australian Capital Territory is being considered by the Minister for Health and it is expected a submission will be placed before the Government shortly. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the total cost of the inquiry, report and publication of the report by LlewelynDavies Weeks Forestier-Walker & Bor of London on the future health care services in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• If qualifications were seen in this group above and beyond those available from Australian authorities, can the Minister say why it has failed to produce one original proposition on the development of future health care services in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• Is there,in fact, sufficient expertise in the Department of Health to have furnished findings of at least the same standard as were submitted by this group. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• In addition the group had recently carried out other similar extensive health care studies for regions in Canada and the United Kingdom. [More…]

• There is no shortage of new ideas for the development of health care services, and many are being tried out all over the world. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and (hat all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• that the World Health . [More…]

• Senator the Honourable Sir Kenneth Anderson has been appointed Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health will continue to be represented in this House by Dr Forbes, and the AttorneyGeneral will be represented by Mr N. H. Bowen. [More…]

• But because of the continuing public concern I have arranged for the officers of the Departments of Works, Health and the Interior to confer and to bring to me a report on this and alternative but more costly proposals for treatment works. [More…]

• Did the right honourable gentleman tell a number of journalists between the 27th and 30th of last month that the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, the honourable member for Wentworth, was about to be dismissed from the Cabinet because of his ill health? [More…]

• We hoped that the Budget session would be devoted to constructive measures for the development of this country and that a maximum contribution would be made to the quality of life, social services and health services. [More…]

• 2 parties, which must be healthy if we are to have parliamentary democracy in this country, are the Labor Party and the Liberal Party. [More…]

• The health of the Liberal Party and its survival as the representative of the great, real and legitimate conservative forces in our country is essential for the survival of parliamentary democracy in this country. [More…]

• The portfolios of AttorneyGeneral, Health and Education and Science have each had three Ministers in 5 months. [More…]

• A Basic Agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) was signed on 17th March 1969. [More…]

• A Territory representative attended a UNICEF Training Course in Child Health in December 1967. [More…]

• From World Health Organization (WHO): [More…]

• WHO Regional Malaria Adviser visited the malaria eradication services at Rabaul; and WHO Regional Adviser on Health Education visited TPNG in connection with the development of health education in TPNG during 1965. [More…]

• Three WHO Dental Consultants appointed to provide dental health advisory services for TPNG [More…]

• Territory representative participated in the First Regional Course on the Health Aspects of Population Dynamics in Manila, November 1970. [More…]

• Territory representatives attended 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24lh World Health Assembly. [More…]

• WHO consultant visited TPNG in 1968 and submitted a report on a Public Health Nursing Project. [More…]

• Territory represented at 3rd Regional Training Course on National Health Planning. [More…]

• Forty-three WHO fellowships awarded to TPNG for special study and training in health matters not available in the Territory or Australia. [More…]

• joint SPC/WHO projects on health problems and conditions found in the territories including - [More…]

• course on Vital and Health statistics, [More…]

• community health education, [More…]

• training of health workers. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Dr Forties ; The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• a specialist drawn from each of the 4 disciplines, chemistry, agriculture, fisheries and wildlife and human health [More…]

• Would the extension of tax deductibility to the cost of effluent and sullage services provide a desirable incentive to householders to contribute to personal and community health through the frequent removal of waste materials form residential and commercial areas? [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• That there is a place in the National Health Scheme for qualified psychologists and that being so provision should be made for benefitstobe payable on services rendered by them,especially as patients are deferred to them by local qualified medical practitioners. [More…]

• Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that the Commonwealth Government will take immediate steps to include qualified psychologists in the National Health Scheme. [More…]

• Labor would provide war service bornes, repatriation health benefits, civilian rehabilitation training, scholarships for their children and generous re-engagement, retirement and resettlement allowances for members of the forces. [More…]

• Civil aid has been given mainly in the fields of education, agriculture, health and public works. [More…]

• It is true to say that they have sufficient food to sustain them for a short period of time but it is equally true that the small children who are there and are suffering from malnutrition, cholera, typhoid and other diseases are not being given that extra food and those extra vitamins or drugs which would enable them to return to full health. [More…]

• No single authority in Australia is charged with the responsibility for (a) regulating and controlling the release of these metals into the environment or (b) measuring their concentrations in food produce; however, with respect to (a) State and Commonwealth Departments of Health exercise a general supervisory role and with respect to (b) State Health Departments, the Department of Customs and Excise and other Laboratories perform this function. [More…]

• While no Commonwealth authority has set out to conduct specific investigations of the type the honourable member’s question would seem to envisage, it is to be expected that some evidence of the level of concentration of these metals will be revealed in the ‘market basket’ survey being conducted under a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council by Commonwealth and State Departments of Health in conjunction with the Customs laboratory. [More…]

• However, State and Commonwealth Departments of Health and the Department of Customs and Excise check the quality of water, air and food. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• I am very conscious of the criticism that has been levelled against the Australian Capital Territory and the sewerage system outfall here by various shire councils, particularly by the Goodradigbee Shire Council health inspector. [More…]

• I did arrange for medical officers, including the Chief Health Surveyor from New South Wales and other Department of Health inspectors, to come to Canberra on 12th and 13th August last to discuss this very question with officials from the Department of the Interior and the National Capital Development Commission. [More…]

• Statistics lacking include those on refugees and civilian casualties in Indo-China, enemy losses, the effects on health of herbicides used in Vietnam, the significant inflationary effect of the war on the United States economy, and the long range costs of Vietnam veterans benefits. [More…]

• When I was there I asked the Chinese people why they were arming themselves when they should give higher priority, I thought, to health and education. [More…]

• Why, you cannot make representations on Health matters. [More…]

• Every week you walk in, there is a new Minister for Health. [More…]

• The former Minister for Health, now the Minister representing the Minister for Health in this chamber is in the chamber now. [More…]

• The health of Aborigines is of major concern to Government and special health and hygiene services including infant welfare clinics are provided in Aboriginal communities. [More…]

• In addition the Department of Health undertakes surveys, provides special assistance as required and evacuates cases of particular concern for intensive care and treatment in base hospitals. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical list. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• Also that customs duties he removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health; upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• However, the Department of Health approved 163 applications for the import of new drugs and new formulations during the .financial year 1969-70. [More…]

• asked the Minister represent ing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (2) Commonwealth grants for medical research are provided on the recommendation of theNational Health and Medical Research Council from the Medical Research Endowment Fund. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: - Will he bring up to date the answer which he gave me on 12th June 1970 (Hansard, page 3577) on the number and payment of doctors? [More…]

• The Minister for Health has supplied the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What steps were taken to ensure thai Australian merino rams sold to foreign countries left Australia in good health? [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• All Australian merino rams exported have been covered by appropriate health certification following examination. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Registration Committee has been in existence since the inception of the National Health Scheme and has been making frequent reports to the Minister on changes to the rules of medical and hospital benefits organisations. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Australia has a complete prohibition on the importation of meat from all countries in the world excepting New Zealand (which has a similar disease status to Australia), unless the product is contained in hermetically sealed cans and accompanied by a health certificate which must state that the product has been heat treated to a temperature of at least 100 C throughout the contents of the can. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Section 57(1) of the National Health Act provides, in effect, that (unless the Director-General of Health otherwise directs) this benefit is payable only where a medical practitioner (usually the patient’s own doctor) certifies that ‘the nature of the illness or injury from which the patient is suffering necessitates nursing home care’. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the Minister’s attention been drawn to a statement by the Victorian Health Minister, Mr Rossiter, in December 1970, that the implementation of the 12 months old Health (Amendment) Act, which requires printed warnings on cigarette packets, would break down the ‘Federal principle? [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The position regarding legislation for the labelling of cigarette packets with health warnings is that the individual States are responsible for such legislation within their boundaries and the Commonwealth is responsible for similar legislation in the Territories. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Government has taken no specific action on this recommendation; however it was aware that the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare had received a referral related to this subject. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Bureau of Census and Statistics is developing the collection of uniform statistics in a number of health areas. [More…]

• A principal role of this unit is to work in close co-operation with the Bureau of Census and Statistics to develop and maintain national systems of collection and dissemination of uniform statistics specifically related to the functions of the Department of Health. [More…]

• Three sub-committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council namely the Hospital Statistics (Standing) Sub-Committee and the Disease Classification Sub-Committee, which report to the Medical Statistics (Standing) Committee, and the Mental Health Records SubCommittee, which reports to the Mental Health (Standing) Committee, are engaged in the investigation of the collection and interpretation of . [More…]

• At the 1970 Conference of Australian Health Ministers, a Hospital and Allied Services Advisory Council was established comprising two representatives from each Stale and the Commonwealth. [More…]

• The primary function of the Council is to co-ordinate he approach in the field of research into health services. [More…]

• 3351) - Mr Hayden asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• As a result of over insurance for hospital benefits what amounts were paid out by health insurance funds over the actual charged cost of treatment in each State and the Commonwealth in each of the last5 years? [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Commonwealth Committee of Enquiry into Health Insurance (Nimmo Committee) stated in its report that the total amount involved for Australia in respect of hospital fund over-insurance could be as high as $9m per annum. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What percentage of the population in each of the States and the Commonwealth was covered by (a) hospital and (b) medical insurance (i) in total and (ii) at maximum benefit rates at the commencement of 1970or at the nearest date prior to the 1970 amendment of the National Health Act for which this information is available, and in each case what proportion of those insured under each category was insured at single rates. [More…]

• When did the percentage in respect of hospital insurance stand at its highest level since the introduction of voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The use of cyclamates in foods is under constant review by expert Committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Can the Minister supply and index for each year since voluntary health insurance has been fully operative the movements in the most common fee charged in each State by general prac titioners for (a) a surgery consultation and (b) a home visit? [More…]

• Can he also provide the consumer price index for the same years using the year of introduction of voluntary health insurance as 100? [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• There are no details available concerning the fees charged by general practitioners for surgery consultations and home visits at the commencement of the National Health Scheme. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• (2) and (3) Inquiries made with the major health insurance organisations operating in each State indicate that these organisations have not encountered any problems in regard to delays in the presentation of benefit cheques to banks. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What would be the cost to the (a) Federal Government and (b) pensioners if the fees charged for those at present accommodated in approved nursing homes were covered by provisions comparable to those which apply to hospital costs under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Dr- Forbes - The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the total number of prescriptions dispensed by approved pharmacists under the National Health Act during the year 1969-70? [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The total number of prescriptions dispensed by approved pharmacists under the National Health Act during the year 1969-70 was 65,227,800. [More…]

• asked the Minister represent ing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What degree of contributor participation is there in the supervision and control of (a) open and (b) closed health insurance funds, in what manner is this participation available, and how do contributors obtain the opportunity to participate? [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• I do not wish to deal with this issue at great length, but I believe that if an opportunity were given to study this matter seriously and to examine the statistics relating to sittings extending into the early hours of the morning following a lengthy sitting during the day, I am sure that it would be found that the health of many honourable members has been impaired over the years. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• Tenders have just been called for laundry services at the Army School of Health, Healesville, Victoria, for work formerly done by local industry. [More…]

• I think most of us have given the new system a try and I think that those of us on both sides of the House who have had a period under the old timetable and a period under the new one consider that the old timetable was the most workable and fair to the Parliament, to the electorate and to the health and happiness of all people concerned. [More…]

• The taxpayer, the parent, the patient, the consumer, the commuter, the ratepayer, the contributor to health funds is one and the same person, the one and the same*” Australian. [More…]

• 5m and hospital benefits by $17.7m - an increase of more than $45m - to prop up the Liberal Party’s inequitable and inefficient health scheme. [More…]

• The Budget nowhere mentions the crippling increases in health insurance contributions to which I have made reference already, it takes no account of increases amounting in the case of letter rate postage to 17 per cent and of local call telephone charges to 19 per cent announced separately by the Postmaster-General (Sir Alan Hulme). [More…]

• Education, health and so on suffered but there was no shortage of building construction on every corner of every city square. [More…]

• So the strategy is to dampen down Australia’s economic growth - already one of the lowest among the advanced nations of the Western world - ignore the needs for upgrading education, health and welfare services and to take no effective remedial action to end the rural slump. [More…]

• Also that customs duty be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• I address a question to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I can say from my experience when I was Minister for Health that there is complete, open and most frank discussion between New Zealand and Australia on all matters affecting quarantine, and both countries have great confidence in each other. [More…]

• The Committee acknowledged however that this view might not be shared by all; and that there would be some people mindful of the shortcomings of the present facilities, who would be apprehensive about the possible pollution of the water and foreshores of Darwin Harbour, and the resulting health risks. [More…]

• It was envisaged that this committee would comprise representatives of the Departments of Health, Works and Interior. [More…]

• A week later the Assistant Director-General of the Hydraulics Division of the Department of Works and the Director of Health for the Northern Territory discussed the scheme with elected members of the Northern Territory Legislative Council, the Darwin City Corporation, trade unions, the Port Authority, Darwin doctors, the Darwin Chamber of Commerce, the National Council of Women and the Press. [More…]

• It admits that there is no completely scientific and objective means of making such an analysis, but that these difficulties must not prevent us from reaching decisions about the benefits of cleaner air and water, less noise and a pleasant countryside, compared with the benefits which might result in meeting claims on resources in such fields as houses, health and education. [More…]

• All honourable members will be aware of cases where a husband has reached 65 years of age, is in reasonable health but had to retire and because his wife is under the age of 60 years they are therefore entitled to nothing for her. [More…]

• It is also noted that in the Budget there is an increase in the amount allocated for Aboriginal advancement to $ 14.35m, mainly for special grants for education, health and housing, but when one can see how much really needs to be done in this field one is convinced that not enough is being done. [More…]

• State Government health officers are working through the areas where the Aboriginal population is large but their duties keep them fully taxed and it is impossible for them to do all that needs to be done. [More…]

• There is a great need for trained people to be available solely for the purpose of health education. [More…]

• Sometimes we have 2 or 3 families crowded into a house with all the problems that that brings in terms of social behaviour, standards of health and the like. [More…]

• Assuming that the economy settles down and gets on a fairly even keel again so that financial landmarks are not continually eroded by the process of increased prices, one of the things that impress me is this: If in the future governments are to play a larger part in the economic life of the country by undertaking some of the new things that have been proposed in the fields of education, health and the environment- [More…]

• 1 wish to comment on health and education. [More…]

• and all other health personnel a financial interest in ill health can only lead to excessive use of the system. [More…]

• I refer to the report of the Health Manpower Commission of the United States Government. [More…]

• So much for health services. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition spoke of a national health scheme. [More…]

• I have placed before the Minister for Air a proposal that this sum be deducted in instalments from his compensation payments which I think is little to ask in view of this man’s mental health. [More…]

• This young man’s father, who is an ex- naval man, is now not enjoying the best of health - mainly due to war service - and he is finding the management of his business affairs becoming very difficult. [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• I have asked my colleague, the Minister for Health, to see whether the views of Dr Kalokerinos can be placed before an expert panel of medical officers. [More…]

• But that would have to go first to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Assistance is given to families via the National Health Act where the family insurance rates for a family with children - however many children - are pegged at the rate applicable to a married couple without children; special assistance is also provided for handicapped children and children of pensioners, the last a matter which I shall deal with more fully in a moment. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• That due to higher living costs, including increasing charges for health services, most aged persons living on fixed incomes are suffering acute distress. [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• The honourable member’s question contains material which relates really to the portfolios of 2 of my colleagues - the Minister for Health and the Postmaster-General. [More…]

• That part of the question which affects me affects that aspect of drug education which the Minister for Health and myself administer jointly on behalf of the Government and for which the Government has hypothecated $500,000 this year for a national education campaign. [More…]

• I think that anyone would now express little doubt that cigarette smoking is a dangerous health hazard. [More…]

• Expenditure of the $500,000 which has been given for education relates mainly to those drugs which are denned by the Single Convention of the United Nations as narcotics and other dangerous drugs and is, as I said before, administered by my colleague the Minister for Health and myself. [More…]

• We should question whether it is in the interest of Australia to continue our assisted immigration programme in view of the pressure of immigration on the States, on education, on health and our hospitals, on local government, on spiralling land and housing costs; in fact on all aspects of government. [More…]

• Need 1 mention the chaos in our health and hospital systems? [More…]

• Some of them are highly reputable but they are not here for the good of their health or because they like the colour of our eyes. [More…]

• We believe, however, in a cooperative federalism, in which full recognition is given to the role of the States in providing the educational, housing, health and other facilities that are so important in improving the quality of life. [More…]

• He will ignore the real issues affecting Australia and endeavour to run an election on false and despicable issues ignorning the mess in foreign affairs, education, health services, social welfare, etc. [More…]

• This will take the people’s minds from the rural problems, education deficiencies, costly and inadequate health schemes, etc. [More…]

• There should be committees such as a standing committee on health and welfare set up in this place. [More…]

• How much of the funds of the health benefit organisations has gone into rural industry and how much can they not get back? [More…]

• Is this one of the reasons why health benefits contributions have been increasing over the last few years? [More…]

• Let us set up a committee on health, a committee on social welfare and a committee on trade practices. [More…]

• He knows that the strength and the health of the United States economy is of vital importance to the welfare of the free world and he knows that the future of Australia is to a very significant degree dependent upon the proper discharge of those responsibilities which have been accepted by the United States Government during the last 30 years. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition knows that the President is deeply concerned about the health of the United States economy, in particular with the inflation and the degree of unemployment that is evident today in the United States of America. [More…]

• Also, although we have what the Government claims to be the world’s best health scheme which for some reason or other needs major running repairs, we have had no fewer than 3 Ministers for Health at the helm within 6 months. [More…]

• A notice purporting to be given under the Public Health Act 1902 of New South Wales by the Shire Clerk of the Goodradigbee Shire Council has been received and is receiving consideration. [More…]

• has recently met and had discussions with the medical officers of the New South Wales Department of Public Health from the Riverina and Southern New South Wales Districts. [More…]

• Medical and Hospital Costs are similar in substance to recommendations of the Commonwealth Committee of Enquiry into Health Insurance (Nimmo Committee) which have progressively been implemented by the Government. [More…]

• In regard to the recommendation concerning an inquiry into the problems associated with the special care and treatment of the physically and mentally handicapped of all ages, this recommendation is closely related to the series of recommendations made by the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare in its Report on Mentally and Physically Handicapped Persons in Australia which was tabled on 5th May 1971. [More…]

• When will the Department of Health and the Office of Aboriginal Affairs commence the [More…]

• Australia-wide study into the health problems of Aborigines. [More…]

• At the present time no specific survey into the health problems of Aborigines either on an Australiawide basis or in Aboriginal communities and fringe settlements is under consideration by the Department of Health and Office of Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• Much of the current thought on future planning stems from the many recommendations made at a Workshop on Health and Nutrition in Aboriginal Children held in Sydney in December 1969 and which was .attended by representatives of Universities, Public Health Departments and workers from welfare and social organisations. [More…]

• Commonwealth interest in this matter involves the funding of a number of research studies approved by the National Health and Medical Research Council and conducted by medically trained research workers. [More…]

• It is expected that these and similar future projects will substantially increase existing knowledge of problems associated with Aboriginal health and will also be of early and direct benefit to the Aborigines themselves. [More…]

• The more localised health problems of Aborigines are of course matters for the individual States and Territories. [More…]

• The Commonwealth provides funds each year to assist States to further their programmes for Aboriginal health through the Grants to the States for Aboriginal advancement. [More…]

• Although there is at present no proposal for a wide-ranging survey, the Commonwealth Department of Health advises the Office of Aboriginal Affairs on matters relating to Aboriginal health and wherever possible implementation is advocated of the recommendations of the 1969 Workshop. [More…]

• My colleague, the Minister for Health, has indicated on a number of occasions that it is the Government’s policy to educate the public in the health dangers of cigarette advertising rather than to completely ban cigarette advertising. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• While commending the Government for its proposed expenditure, under the various heads in the estimates for the Department of Civil Aviation, on airport extensions at Alice Springs, Darwin and Gove and also for its proposed expenditure on health projects and education and science projects, I deplore the decision to increase by 2c a gallon the price of motor spirit and, more particularly, the price of automotive distillate and aviation gasoline. [More…]

• 1 should like to refer to the matter of public and rural health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) was recently in the area and he has seen the position at first hand and beard about the shortcomings at the Alice Springs Hospital. [More…]

• These families are desperately in need of health and hygiene education and education on family planning, ft has been reported that 50 per cent of Aboriginal children are under the age of 15 years. [More…]

• I urge the Government to plan for the reorganisation around the base hospitals in the main areas and to put the whole public and rural health plan under the one management - that is, the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• Only from a sound and expanded industrial base can come the improvements to society that we all want to see - improvements in education, health, social services, local government and, in fact, in all of the areas of government activity. [More…]

• I propose to quote some pertinent extracts from correspondence addressed to me from the superintendents of 2 non-profit nursing homes in South Australia in the sincere hope that the Government will take heed of the plea for help from the practical experts in this field of health. [More…]

• I appreciate the presence in the House of the Minister for Immigration (Dr Forbes), representing the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) to whom I indicated that I would be talking on this topic. [More…]

• I want to protest at the sort of answers I have been getting from the Minister for Health and the PostmasterGeneral (Sir Alan Hulme) on this matter of advertising. [More…]

• I have not time to go through all of them or to go through ad of the health aspects of this question. [More…]

• I have no doubt it could build up quite a clientele and it could justify this by saying: ‘We have put out pamphlets through all the Health Departments. [More…]

• If people are silly enough to use it to such an extent that it threatens then- health, what is that to us? [More…]

• The first is the subsidised health insurance scheme for low income earners and the second is care of the aged. [More…]

• I am particularly concerned about the subsidised health insurance scheme for low income earners because although this scheme has been in operation since January 1970 the Parliament still has no idea of how successful the scheme is. [More…]

• I asked a question on notice on 17th February this year about the subsidised health scheme for low income earners. [More…]

• Can the Minister state the number of people in each State and Territory in each of the categories of (a) unemployed, (b) migrants, (c) sickness beneficiaries, (d) other eligible beneficiaries and (e) families with weekly incomes of (i) below $42.50, (ii) between $42.45 and $45.50 and (iii) between $45.50 and $48.50, who have applied for subsidised health insurance by registering with (A) the Commonwealth Department of Social Services and (B) a hospital and medical benefits society since the introduction of the subsidised medical services scheme? [More…]

• Those receiving up to $49.50 have twothirds of their costs paid for the insurance, and those with incomes of up to $52.50 have one-third of their health insurance costs paid. [More…]

• Some people who qualify for, say, the intermediate benefit - the two-thirds subsidy or the one-third subsidy - might still find the cost to be so high that they prefer to take the risk of going without health insurance and of paying later if things do not work out well. [More…]

• Such a contingency fund could be operated by a reprenentative of the Department of Health, a representative of the Department of Social Services and perhaps a social worker at the hospital concerned. [More…]

• Of course, a family group earning that income, which it must earn to be just above the poverty line, would be immediately placed beyond eligibility for this subsidised health insurance scheme. [More…]

• I do recommend the comments I have made to the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson). [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• I want to protest at the sort of answers I have been getting from the Minister for Health and the Postmaster-General (Sir Alan [More…]

• If people are silly enough to use it to such an extent that it threatens their health, what is that to us? [More…]

• The Labor Party’s programme is for national superannuation, national compensation and national health insurance as the first phase of a comprehensive scheme of social security. [More…]

• Also I do not think the value of free medical services could ever be accurately assessed for those people who do not keep good health and depend on them. [More…]

• This has made life much easier for many people on the low wage scale, particularly those who do not enjoy the best of health and who have the ever present fear that their dependants will suffer if they become ill and temporarily lose employment. [More…]

• The latest comparative figures available in respect of general Government expenditure on health and welfare as a proportion of the gross national product are the figures for 1968. [More…]

• They show that as a proportion of gross national product - that is, the value of all the goods and services any country produces in a year - Denmark spends 20.S per cent on its health and social welfare programme, the Federal Republic of Germany spends 18 per cent, Sweden spends Hi per cent, France spends 16.8 per cent, Italy spends 1S.8 per cent - honourable members will be wondering where Australia comes - the Netherlands spends 13.3 per cent, the United Kingdom spends 11.2 per cent, Norway spends 10.2 per cent, Canada spends 10.7 per cent and Australia spends 7 per cent. [More…]

• If we confine ourselves to expenditure on social services as distinct from social services and health and if we compare our expenditure with that of the European Economic Community, we find that it spends 1S.2 per cent whereas Australia spends 5.5 per cent, which is again onethird. [More…]

• These may be linked also with the Labour Party’s programme for a genuine national health scheme and a national hospitals commission. [More…]

• We urge too that consideration be given to the welfare of the mentally and physically handicapped and I hope that full notice will be taken of the recent inquiry carried out by the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare into this subject. [More…]

• The provision of social services, repatriation benefits, health services, housing and other welfare activities will require an expenditure of $2,095m. [More…]

• I believe - and I genuinely say this - that this Government has, after careful investigation and consideration, granted increases to pensioners after having listed government priorities in order of national importance, having had due regard to other important items of government such as education, defence, health, housing and matters concerning the development of Australia. [More…]

• Assistance is given to families through the National Health Act. [More…]

• Health insurance rates for a family with children - however many children - are pegged at the rate applicable for a married couple without children. [More…]

• It is still in the field of health care for the aged. [More…]

• They also had grounds for hoping that nursing home accommodation in the future would be covered within the system of voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• In 1958 the $2 a day was made available to those who had private health insurance. [More…]

• It was also reasonable to expect that nursing home hospital care, in the framework of this Government’s philosophy, would have been included in the voluntary health scheme. [More…]

• It is clear that parents with large families are not being assisted to the extent that they should be and that in turn the whole family is suffering in the areas of health and education. [More…]

• Elderly people in receipt of the pension but without any supplementary assistance, who have a home, who are fortunate enough to retain good health and who live on, will in time have their assets depleted. [More…]

• Of course, 1 have an interjection from the Opposition’s shadow Minister for Health based on his own family code policies. [More…]

• Later, on 14th May 1947, Senator Tangney asked the Minister for Health this question: [More…]

• Following on a question I asked last Thursday, and the answer given by the Minister for Health and Social Services, I now ask the Minister whether in view of the fact that the Opposition is still on strike in connection with its representation on the Social Security Committee, will the Minister consider appointing a conciliation commissioner to arrange for the reconstitution of that committee, so that some of the many social problems awaiting solution may be investigated during the next parliamentary recess? [More…]

• Expanded measures assist Aboriginals with housing, education and health, and encourage viable Aboriginal businesses. [More…]

• Any significant reduction in Australia’s road toll would mean a reduction in the amount required to provide medical and hospital facilities, even if the present health scheme was maintained in its present form. [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• The Minister for Health and the Leader of the Government in the Senate will be assisted by Senator Marriott. [More…]

• I ask the Minister representing the Minister for Health: Is it a fact that restricted imports of the drug prostaglandins have been authorised for use in Australia? [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• I am unable to give the honourable member information about the methods of meeting these problems because they lie mainly within the domain of my colleague the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The latest figures - that is, the figures for the March quarter of 1971 - available to the Department of Health concerning the observance of the common fee indicate that the proportion pf medical services charged at or below the common fee was 78 per cent in New South Wales, 76 per cent in Queensland, 87 per cent in South Australia, 88 per cent in Western Australia and 70 per cent in Tasmania. [More…]

• Because State governments already face crises in health, education and other fields, contributed to in no small part by the indifference of Liberal-Country Party Federal governments, an urgent need exists for the closest liaison between State and Federal governments to meet the problems that currently exist and that are developing. [More…]

• This increase is not likely to affect those people who do not get sick but it is a tragic situation for persons who do, even if they are able to afford to cover themselves with health insurance under the scheme which was introduced by the Government. [More…]

• Employer organisations, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, pensioner organisations, health organisations and individuals all have voiced strong criticism. [More…]

• We are dealing with the sick of our community and the families of our community and a better scheme for public health in Australia must be introduced. [More…]

• The grants to the States will account for $2,93 lm, social services - taking in repatriation and health - $2,095m, and defence $l,252m. [More…]

• To give him a small example in the field of health, we want regional administration of health services. [More…]

• We force the States and local authorities into the loan market for funds for health, houses and schools instead of realising that these are national assets which should be paid for out of national revenue when it is available. [More…]

• The cost of the Labor Party’s proposed national health and superannuation insurance scheme could be met by measures like this and no-one would object to the small compulsory premiums which would replace the very high premiums that are currently required for voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• Many of the country’s health problems were being met. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I address a question to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• In many instances the cash incomes of a couple on superannuation were only marginally better than those of a pensioner couple and they were missing out on the health benefits, concessional travel facilities and so on available to pensioners. [More…]

• I have noticed that Mr Morris our State Minister of road transport has openly stated that anything over 80 decibels is dangerous to the people’s health. [More…]

• What is more important than the health of citizens, their right to sleep at night, their right to carry on their employment without being interrupted and the right for churches and schools to carry on their work? [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• It refers to the subsidised health insurance scheme for low income families. [More…]

• Did he also say last year that changes in the national health scheme would help to provide financial protection for every person in the community? [More…]

• Is he aware of figures produced this week by the Department of Health which show that only 6,402 families, or fewer than 16,000 persons, were receiving help at 30th June - in other words, less than 4 per cent of all eligible persons? [More…]

• I am aware that the honourable gentleman has a question on the notice paper addressed to my colleague, the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I would like to address a question, not quite without notice, to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• 1 believe it is time that the Opposition came into the open and told us precisely what it Intends to impose on the Australian public in relation to its health scheme because there is absolutely no doubt in my mind from the information provided to me that the Opposition could not put into operation its own health scheme at the cost claimed for it without abandoning the fee for service system. [More…]

• In other words, I believe it is the intention of the Opposition, if it forms a government, to honour the promise to introduce a health scheme by nationalising medicine in Australia. [More…]

• Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation because the Prime Minister (Mr McMahon) and, later, the Minister for Immigration (Dr Forbes), who represents the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson), misrepresented me during question time. [More…]

• The purpose of this Bill is, firstly, to give effect to the Government’s Budget proposals in relation to the contribution payable by the patient for pharmaceutical benefits and, secondly, to incorporate in the Schedules of the National Health Act variations made to certain items of those Schedules during 1971 by regulations. [More…]

• However, the contribution payable by persons receiving assistance under the Subsidised Health Insurance Scheme - now to be known as the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan - will be maintained at 50c. [More…]

• The drugs and medicinal preparations made available as pharmaceutical benefits are determined by the Minister for Health on the advice of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee established under section 101 of the National Health Act. [More…]

• As honourable members are aware, pharmaceutical benefits are the most expensive component of the Government’s overall health benefits plan. [More…]

• It is not proposed that these benefits be deleted from the schedule of benefits, as the Government recognises that such items should be retained and made available for the use of pensioners and persons receiving assistance under the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan. [More…]

• The present provisions of the National Health Act relating to the treatment of chronic diseases or conditions will also continue to apply. [More…]

• As I have already mentioned, beneficiaries under the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan will not have to meet the increase of 50c for national health prescriptions. [More…]

• This decision is in keeping with the Government’s policy under the Health Benefits Plan to assist where possible those special groups in the community to meet the cost of medical care. [More…]

• The subsidised health benefits plan which has been in existence since January 1970 provides assistance, in meeting the cost of medical and hospital treatment, to persons receiving unemployment, sickness and special social service benefits, to migrants during their first 2 months in Australia and to low income families. [More…]

• It is essential, therefore, that persons who believe they are entitled to subsidised health benefits should make application to the Department of Social Services or, in the case of migrants, to the Department of Health as soon as possible. [More…]

• The rebate on the 50c patient contribution is met by the friendly societies and under the provisions of section 92a of the National Health Act this rebate is limited to members and their dependants who joined societies prior to 24th April 1964. [More…]

• The National Health Act was therefore amended in 1964 to ensure that persons who became members of friendly societies on or after 24th April 1964, the date of operation of the new legislation provisions, paid the 50c patient contribution. [More…]

• The second purpose of the Bill is to incorporate into the Schedules to the National Health Act variations made to those Schedules by the National Health (Variations of Benefits) Regulations in accordance with section 13A of that Act. [More…]

• This particular section was inserted by amendment to the Act in 1970, as part of the reconstruction of the medical benefits segment of the new Health Benefits Plan. [More…]

• The National Health (Variation of Benefits) (No. [More…]

• The National Health (Variation of Benefits) (No. [More…]

• These amendments from April 1971 resulted from recommendations of the Medical Benefits Schedule Advisory Committee which is a body appointed by the Minister for Health to consider and recommend changes in the benefits schedules. [More…]

• The Committee consists of representatives of the Australian Medical Association, the registered medical benefits organisations and the Department of Health. [More…]

• We have done that but even these measures have not been sufficient for the State governments to be able to cope with the tremendously increased demands on their services - services which I think should have the highest priority, those that happen to fall within the responsibility of the State governments, namely health, many aspects of social welfare, and, most particularly, education. [More…]

• At the present time we do not know how far we are advancing in the various programmes which the State governments are trying to formulate in health and education. [More…]

• The share of gross national expenditure going through Government hands is still far too low in order to provide adequately for the community’s needs in such areas as education, health and welfare. [More…]

• Since March we have had 3 Ministers for Foreign Affairs, 3 Ministers for Defence, 3 Ministers for Health, 3 Ministers for Education and Science, 3 AttorneysGeneral, 2 Treasurers, 2 Ministers for Labour and National Service, 2 Ministers for Immigration, 2 Ministers for the Navy, 2 Ministers for Housing, 2 Ministers for Aboriginal Affairs and 2 Ministers for Supply. [More…]

• What I am concerned about is the failure of this Government to do something positive about housing, health and social services. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Statistics in relation to the Subsidised Health Insurance Scheme are compiled in respect of the following groups: (0 low income families; [More…]

• As from 1st July 1970, the National Health Act was amended by extending this assistance, on a graduated scale, to low income families whose gross weekly income did not exceed $48.50. [More…]

• These income limits for eligibility under the Subsidised Health Insurance Scheme have been adjusted from time to time, and at present the eligibility limits applying to each class of low income beneficiary are as follows: [More…]

• By joining a health insurance fund and verifying their first date of entry into Australia, migrants are eligible for assistance with medical and/or hospital expenses incurred in the first two months from the date of entry. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Did he witness her calculated evasiveness when asked about the condition of her health? [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• As he well knows, the Minister for Health is in another place. [More…]

• On that previous occasion I undertook to convey the context of his question to the Minister for Health and said that in due course the Minister for Health would provide him with the information direct. [More…]

• I have found out that the way in which the honourable gentleman has represented this matter, to imply that the low income or the subsidised health scheme has been a failure, has been completely misleading. [More…]

• It is no good having the most gold plated social services policy, health policy, education policy or any other domestic policies if in our anxiety to improve these fields we neglect the very foundation of the country’s security. [More…]

• My authority for that statement is a former Minister for Health and former Minister for the Army. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• That due to higher living costs, including increasing charges for health services, most aged persons living on fixed incomes are suffering acute distress. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Indeed, when I was the Minister for Health I did what I could to publicise the efforts of the Australian Kidney Foundation to bring this to public attention. [More…]

• In relation to the last part of the honourable gentleman’s question, I am not aware whether any efforts have been made on the lines suggested by him, but I will bring the matter to the attention of my colleague, the Minister for Health, and no doubt he will discuss it as a very practical suggestion with our colleague, the Minister for Shipping and Transport. [More…]

• That leave of absence for one month be given to the honourable member for Macquarie (Mr Luchetti) on the ground of ill health. [More…]

• The matters referred to fall within the authority of the Ministerial Member for Health in the House of Assembly for Papua New Guinea. [More…]

• The Administrator on the advice of the Ministerial Member for Health has provided the following information: [More…]

• The establishment of Maternal and Child Health Centres throughout Papua New Guinea to advise mothers on health matters including nutrition. [More…]

• Health education programmes under which trained health educators inform villagers and school children about basic health and hygiene including nutritional matters. [More…]

• Community education courses are conducted by the Department of Social Development and Home Affairs in many parts of Papua New Guinea with participation by health workers. [More…]

• It is the Health Department’s policy that nutrition improvement programmes must be based on locally available foods. [More…]

• Through its Technical Assistance Service it continued to provide experts and commodities to the public services in public health, technical and agricultural education, industry and handicrafts, and to many national medical and educational institutions. [More…]

• I recently announced that three bores have been successfully sunk at Wave Hill and that, in the interests of health, this supply will be connected to the Wattie Creek camp to provide an assured supply of water for domestic purposes as soon as funds become available. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• The Minister for Health will be represented in this House by the Minister for National Development, Mr Swartz. [More…]

• In addition to the amounts which it is intended to apply to housing, health, education, employment and vocational training and similar purposes through the States grants, it is proposed to apply $3,850,000 to the continuation by the Department of Education and Science of the study and secondary grants schemes and $173,000 to smaller projects, particularly in health and education, through Commonwealth departments. [More…]

• Thus of the total budgetary provision in the Aboriginal Advancement Trust Account for 1971-72 of $14.35m, no less than $13,223,000 will be devoted primarily to efforts in the fields of housing, health, education, and employment and vocational training. [More…]

• Funds for health work provided through the Trust Account are making possible an improvement of rural health services in areas of Aboriginal population. [More…]

• The development of programmes of health education and preventive medicine by professional and sub-professional people should reduce progressively the pressure on the curative services provided in hospitals in the major centres. [More…]

• In the Northern Territory the Department of Health will, on the basis of funds provided from the Trust Account, establish mobile health facilities for the substantial Aboriginal communities in the Borroloola and Timber Creek areas; and, by agreement with the Western Australian authorities, will provide health and medical services for the Aboriginal community at the small mining camp at Wingellina in Central Australia. [More…]

• Notwithstanding past and present efforts the health status of Aborigines remains a cause for concern particularly in respect of infant mortality and malnutrition. [More…]

• The problems will not easily be overcome, for they require the improvement of living conditions and the extension of medical and health knowledge and understanding amongst Aboriginal parents including increased voluntary use of family planning techniques. [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• I am aware of the serious health problem confronting Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory, particularly at Alice Springs, and I have had discussions with my colleague, the Minister for Health, in regard to this matter. [More…]

• Like the entire voluntary health insurance system that the scheme was aimed at helping to prop up, it is on the point of collapse. [More…]

• The failure of the subsidised medical scheme is yet further proof that the Australian Labor Party’s system of automatic insurance through the pay packet, levied according to ability to pay and with exemptions for low income groups, is not only the most equitable means, but also the only effective means of insuring the entire community against the cost of ill health. [More…]

• The Government’s objective was to perpetuate the existing system of health insurance. [More…]

• With this major criticism of the Nimmo Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance posing as a threat to the Government’s system, the appearance had to be given that something was being done. [More…]

• Yet in inflicting on the community the continued survival of the voluntary health insurance scheme, all that the Liberal Party was doing was inflicting on the poorer people of Australia the massive jungle of paper work and red tape which had already made the system wasteful and irrelevant for the majority of people. [More…]

• According to a written answer given to a question on notice on 16th September last by the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson), only about 40 per cent of all those people receiving social service benefits in 1970 were insured with a private benefits organisation. [More…]

• Of over 100,000 migrant families and individuals who arrived in Australia in 1970, only about 27,000, or 1 in 4, applied for registration with a health benefits organisation. [More…]

• Figures given in 1969 and 1970 by the former Minister for Health - the present Minister for Immigration (Dr Forbes) - who introduced this scheme indicated that there were approximately 184,000 specifically low income families living on the minimum wage or $6 above it - these figures are in black and white - who would have been entitled to full or partial subsidy for the cost of health insurance. [More…]

• But the figures given by the Minister for Health indicate that only about 13,000 or 7 per cent of these people had registered with the Commonwealth Government and that only one-half of this number had taken the step to register with a private benefits organisation. [More…]

• I have quoted publicly these statistics, derived from the Minister for Health himself, to point up the collapse of this scheme. [More…]

• The superseded Minister for Health, the present Minister for Immigration, says that the figures are misleading. [More…]

• Little wonder that the former Minister for Health so deceitfully resorts to distorted figures to cover up the failure of the scheme of which he spoke so highly when in the House on 14th April last year he said: [More…]

• Firstly, the figures given by the Minister relate to people who signed up with a health benefits organisation in the course of a whole year. [More…]

• Had the Minister been honest enough to examine the number of people registered with a health benefits organisation at a given time he would have admitted that as at 30th June of this year a total of only 21,000 members were registered with a hospital benefits organisation and only about 22,000 were registered with a medical benefits organisation. [More…]

• The only way in which it is possible to insure- every person in the Austraiian community is to have a national health insurance scheme in which people are insured through their pay packets. [More…]

• They were formerly provided for by a Government grant of about $20,000 a year made to doctors to care for the health of aborigines. [More…]

• The honourable member criticised, amongst Other things, the low income benefits and referred, as the basis for authority for his comments, to recent Press statements which alleged that because by 31st December 1970 only about 12,000 low income families had applied for assistance under the subsidised health benefits plan, which was introduced on 1st January last year, the plan had failed in its objective. [More…]

• For the purpose of the subsidised health benefits plan the 3 groups have been recorded separately. [More…]

• In the year ended 30th June 1971, 82,000 unemployment, sickness and special beneficiaries became members of health insurance funds, about 11,000 low income families became members and about 28,000 migrants became members. [More…]

• It is also relevant that the original estimate was that 184,000 families would become eligible for health insurance assistance. [More…]

• Notwithstanding this, the Commonwealth Deportment of Health has not been idle in facing the situation and revised procedures to operate from 1st November 1971 will make a very real contribution towards some of the problems being experienced. [More…]

• At the present time the Department of Health is examining suitable avenues, such as more use of social workers in the community to support the normal publicity measures. [More…]

• But I think I would be performing a useful- and factual - service if 1 were briefly to outline certain aspects of the health benefits plan as they apply to low income families, to those receiving unemployment, sickness or special benefits, and to migrant settlers for medical or hospital expenses incurred during the first 2 months in Australia. [More…]

• Benefits now available through Australia’s health scheme have taken much of the worry out of health costs for people on low incomes. [More…]

• If a family income is below $52.51 a week, the plan gives special help in paying health expenses. [More…]

• There are 3 categories of assistance: Firstly, where a family income is $46.50 or less, free medical benefits and public ward hospital cover are available; secondly, where a family income is above $46.50 but does not exceed $49.50, medical benefits and public ward hospital cover are available for only one-third of the normal cost of health insurance contributions; and thirdly, where a family income is above $49.50 but does not exceed $52.50 medical benefits and public ward hospital cover are available for two-thirds of the normal cost of health insurance contributions. [More…]

• A person is allowed 4 weeks free health insurance after his unemployment, sickness or special benefits terminate to allow him time to become a regular contributor to a health insurance fund of his own choice. [More…]

• To qualify for this benefit he must first become a member of a health insurance fund and begin paying contributions. [More…]

• I mention these things because they are inherent in the Opposition’s matter of public importance and because they are facts of achievement and service under the national health benefits plan, which everyone in Australia should know. [More…]

• The honourable member for Bendigo (Mr Kennedy) is to be commended for his diligence and industry in exposing the almost total failure of the Government’s subsidised health insurance scheme. [More…]

• He did this well before the data in the annual report of the Department of Health was released publicly. [More…]

• 2550 which was supplied to the honourable member for Bendigo shows that this figure of 11,000 can be quite grievously misleading, lt represents double counting, because when one looks at the breakup of membership of health insurance organisations for low income families one finds that it is a total figure covering people registered, in the first place, for medical insurance and, in the second place, for hospital insurance. [More…]

• The next point I wish to make concerns the Minister’s reference to the diminution in the number of people who will be drawing on the benefits of the subsidised, health insurance scheme. [More…]

• As the honourable member for Bendigo said, we need a universal health insurance scheme to do this. [More…]

• After a bare 18 months the scheme for subsidised health insurance cover for low income earners is a shambles. [More…]

• According to the annual report of the Department of Health the scheme cost marginally over $7m. [More…]

• In fact, what evidence is available suggests that the health needs of these people are probably greater than the community mean for the simple reason that social and economic disadvantages cause these needs to be neglected and to worsen. [More…]

• In any event, the cost to the Government, covering the equivalent of fund benefit payments, if its scheme had been fully taken up by those it was supposed to help, would have exceeded $10m - a substantially greater sum than that disclosed in the annual report of the Department of Health. [More…]

• Then there must also be added contribution rates to health insurance funds borne by classes B and C of the low income categories. [More…]

• Our universal health insurance plan is well publicised. [More…]

• Labor’s scheme will cost about one-third of the Government’s scheme for subsidised health insurance, but it will cover nearly twice as many families - about 325,000 families. [More…]

• The total cost of Labor’s scheme includes an assumption, in making calculations, that there will be as high a degree of doctor participation in billing the proposed health insurance commission direct for services rendered to low income beneficiaries as the Canadian health insurance programme has enjoyed in general support from doctors. [More…]

• In sum, then, the Government’s subsidised health insurance scheme has failed miserably. [More…]

• It is a further symptom of the inappropriateness and of the excessively costly and inefficient so called voluntary health insurance scheme which the Government is determined to impose on the public at too great expense to contributors and taxpayers in terms of the services offered. [More…]

• In practice it does no such thing, as the many refugees from Britain’s health scheme now living in Australia will attest. [More…]

• The subsidised health benefits plan is fully in accordance with these principles. [More…]

• Families in that State, therefore, would not need to enrol under the subsidised health benefits plan. [More…]

• The Government decided finally that health insurance should not be used as the vehicle for assistance to large families because other welfare measures such as taxation concessions and child endowment currently provide assistance of this nature. [More…]

• I have not time to quote in great detail from the speech made by the then honourable member for Corio on 4th May 1938 when introducing into this House the National Health and Pensions Insurance Bill, which is still on the statute book but has never been proclaimed, in which he extolled this very concept of the Government taking on a national health insurance scheme for all wage earners. [More…]

• But if these people mislay their pamphlets, heaven help them when they reach Australia because the Department of Health provides information written in one language only, English. [More…]

• The AMA contacted the State Government and the State Government contacted the Department of Social Services and the Department of Health in Canberra stating that it was not working and with the request that the Commonwealth continue to subsidise Western Australia under the scheme whereby it provided medical services to Aborigines. [More…]

• There was a lot of correspondence and consultations between the Department of Native Welfare and the Department of Health in Western Australia, the AMA and the Commonwealth departments concerned. [More…]

• In this Budget it is estimated that an amount of $504.6m will be expended this year on health services over a wide range of activities in assisting the people of Australia to overcome their health problems which is, as everybody will admit, a great responsibility not only of the Commonwealth Government but also of the State governments, which have their part to play in the overall health of the people of Australia. [More…]

• The Government’s subsidised health benefit plan now under debate is, I believe, a part of that overall responsibility. [More…]

• So it can be seen that there has been a substantial increase in the amount of money to be paid out by the Commonwealth for improved health services. [More…]

• A matter which is a worry to many people in Australia, especially the family man, is the cost of health services. [More…]

• When these people realise that this scheme is available to them I do not doubt that they will take advantage of it because the cost of health services is a great worry lo the people of Australia. [More…]

• Surely the health service which we are debating this afternoon is one in which we should assist those who need assistance. [More…]

• The fact Ls that it is being made available by the Commonwealth together with many other health benefits throughout the country. [More…]

• What is interesting however is the fact that the National Health Bill, which was to have been debated last week, has been withdrawn and, at this point, is in a state of suspension while the situation is ironed out within the Government ranks. [More…]

• I shall deal with why we have this high rate of nursing home beds in a few minutes, but it seems to me that there is mounting evidence that such a high rate of provision may very well be deleterious to the wellbeing, the good health and to the future prospects of aged people. [More…]

• It has been estimated that an adequate provision of hostels, for instance, can reduce the demand on nursing home beds by about 20 per cent, lt is obviously cheaper to operate good standard hostels than to load everyone into nursing home beds with, I repeat, the tendency to institutionalise the aged people and to create an unnecessary deterioration in their health. [More…]

• From the figures available from the annual report of the Commonwealth Department of Health it is to be noted that between the years 1963 and 1971 there has been an increase of one-third in the number of public homes and one-quarter in the number of private homes. [More…]

• I have grave doubts whether in our society health or welfare services should be part of the profit making system. [More…]

• I refer to services such as health physiotherapy, occupational therapy, chiropody and a range of other services that should be provided for aged people so that in fact they wilt keep an interest; so that they will not degenerate into vegetables, but will have a sort of dynamic interest in what is going on around them in their society. [More…]

• Health and welfare should be a public responsibility. [More…]

• If people want to go to private nursing homes they ought to be allowed that right, but we ought to make sure that they are not squeezed into that sector, as is obviously the situation now when one makes an analysis of the provision of these nursing homes, as indicated by the statistics provided in the annual report of the Department of Health. [More…]

• In these circumstances does the Minister think that the voluntary code is a serious attempt to reduce the exposure of young people to advertising of this drug of addiction which is a known health hazard? [More…]

• The Government has been advised through the Department of Health, which in turn has received advice from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and the views . [More…]

• Discussions have taken place between the Department of Health, the Australian Broadcasting [More…]

• It is a totally unsatisfactory situation when matters concerning the AttorneyGeneral’s Department, which is a primary department, or the Department of Health cannot adequately be dealt with in this House because the responsible Minister is not in this place but is represented here by another Minister. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• That due to higher living costs, including increasing charges for health services, most aged persons living on fixed incomes are suffering acute distress. [More…]

• Has the Prime Minister’s attention been drawn to statements by the Western Australian Minister for Health to the effect that from a position where the Commonwealth provided free hospitalisation for pensioners the stage has now been reached where free hospitalisation is provided by the State with merely a small Commonwealth subsidy? [More…]

• Yet; the’ husband’s state of health and/or the risk undergone in his employment are scarcely considered when assessing the couple’s eligibility for a loan. [More…]

• I shall mention some other aspects, commencing with health services. [More…]

• What private company would dare contemplate increases half as sudden or as drastic as those imposed this year by the McMahon Government in the price of ill-health? [More…]

• Anything that increases the burden on the export industries automatically diminishes the health of the economy and our ability to create employment. [More…]

• What is probably the most current and authoritative body of information is the report of the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare issued on 3 1st January 1971. [More…]

• It is then a matter for each of the State governments to set its own priorities with regard to education, health and all the other fields of government for which they are responsible within their own borders. [More…]

• But even if there were enough medicines, the chronic ill health problem still would not be solved because the refugees are so completely overcrowded that re-infection will occur. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (b) (ii) to (viii) The information sought for the countries mentioned in parts (ii) to (viii) of the honourable member’s question is tabulated below and has been derived from the latest issue of World Health Annual Statistics which was published by the World Health Organisation in 1970 and relates to the year 1967. [More…]

• It should be noted that the figures shown below, particularly those relating to hospitals, are not strictly comparable with each other or with the Australian figures due to variations in definitions and differences in patterns of delivery of health care in the various countries concerned. [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits list. [More…]

• The law of the Territory relating to mentally ill persons is contained in the Lunacy Act 1898 of New South Wales, the Insane Persons and Inebriates (Committal and Detention) Ordinance 1936-1937, and the Mental Health Ordinance 1962. [More…]

• The provision to be made for the treatment of mentally ill persons is a matter for my colleague,, the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) and any amendment of the law in this field will depend on the development of psychiatricpsychiatric services which is currently progressing. [More…]

• As honourable members were informed on 7th October the Government has withdrawn the National Health Bill 1971 which was presented and read a second time in this House on 16th September 1971. [More…]

• The purpose of the present Bill before the House is, firstly, to provide for an increase in the patient benefit for ordinary nursing home care from $2 a day to $3.50 a day; secondly to give effect to the Government’s Budget proposals in relation to the contribution payable by the patient for pharmaceutical benefits; thirdly, to incorporate into the schedules of the National Health Act variations made to certain items of those Schedules during 1971 by Regulations. [More…]

• The nursing home benefits made available by the Commonwealth Government apply to patients accommodated in nursing homes approved for such purposes under the provisions of the National Health Act. [More…]

• However, the contribution payable by persons receiving assistance under the subsidised health insurance scheme - now to be known as the subsidised health benefits plan - will be maintained at 50c. [More…]

• The drugs and medicinal preparations made available as pharmaceutical benefits are determined by the Minister for Health on the advice of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee established under section 101 of the National Health Act. [More…]

• As honourable members are aware, pharmaceutical benefits are the most expensive component of the Government’s overall health benefits plan. [More…]

• It is not proposed that these benefits be deleted from the schedule of benefits, as the Government recognises that such items should be retained and made available for the .use of pensioners and persons receiving assistance under the subsidised health benefits plan. [More…]

• The present provisions of the National Health Act relating to the treatment of chronic diseases or conditions will also continue to apply. [More…]

• As I have already mentioned, persons eligible for assistance under the subsidies health benefits plan will not have to meet the increase of 50c for national health prescriptions. [More…]

• This decision is in keeping with the Government’s policy under the health benefits plan to assist where possible those special groups in the community to meet the cost of medical care. [More…]

• The subsidised health benefits plan, which has been in existence since January 1970, provides assistance in meeting the cost of medical and hospital treatment to persons receiving unemployment, sickness and special social service benefits, migrants during their first 2 months in Australia and low income families. [More…]

• The present clauses relating to the supply of pharmaceutical benefits to patients under the subsidised health benefits plan put beyond doubt the availability of the concession for such benefits during the period for which a person is either eligible for unemployment, sickness or special benefits under Part VII of the Social Services Act or is classed as a low income earner under section 82u or 82zc of the National Health Act. [More…]

• The Bill also defines those persons who as dependants of persons eligible for assistance under the subsidised health benefits plan are also eligible for the pharmaceutical benefit concession. [More…]

• It is essential therefore that persons who believe they are entitled to subsidised pharmaceutical benefits should make application to the Department of Social Services or, in the case of migrants, to the Department of Health as soon as the changes become effective. [More…]

• The third purpose of the Bill is to incorporate into the schedules to the National Health Act variations made to those schedules by the National Health (Variation of Benefits) Regulations in accordance with section 13a of that Act. [More…]

• This particular section was inserted by amendment to the Act in 1970, as part of the reconstruction of the medical benefits segment of the new health benefits plan. [More…]

• The National Health (Variation of Benefits) (No. [More…]

• The National Health (Variation of Benefits) (No. [More…]

• These amendments from April 1971 resulted from recommendations of the Medical Benefits Schedule Advisory Committee which is a body appointed by the Minister for Health to consider and recommend changes in the benefits schedules. [More…]

• The Committee consists of representatives of the Australian Medical Association, the registered medical benefits organisations and the Department of Health. [More…]

• But they are doing this by cutting down on other areas of essential spending such as health, law and order and public safety. [More…]

• According to these figures recurrent spending on education has increased quite significantly while resources devoted to health and law and order have declined. [More…]

• In the same 10 years spending on law and order and public safety dropped from 12.4 per cent to 10.6 per cent, and spending on public health from 22.1 per cent to 19.9 per cent. [More…]

• What is the good of Government members continually rising and saying that as far as education and a whole host of other matters, including hospitalisation, health and what-have-you - if I may transgress for a short moment, Mr Deputy Chairman - are concerned, the problem is one for the States? [More…]

• Health services are better than they used to be. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• I refer to an announcement by the Minister for Health concerning the Government’s decision to purchase a motel to be used as a child care centre for Aboriginal children at Alice Springs. [More…]

• Shortly afterwards 1 discussed the matter with my colleague the Minister for Health. [More…]

• At the same time I have received a notification from the Public Service Board of a special request by the Department of Health for the provision of 45 extra positions for nurses and other supplementary people in order to man the hospital. [More…]

• The Opposition has already indicated that it wishes to proceed with the debate on the National Health Bill 1971, which deals with matters which are of vital concern to so many people in this country. [More…]

• In the limited time that I have I want to refer to the intensive care subsidy On 3 occasions I have raised the matter direct with the Prime Minister (Mr McMahon) and with the respective Ministers for Health requesting that a line of demarca- tion between the ordinary care subsidy and the intensive care subsidy still remain. [More…]

• In both cases they provide physiotherapists and occupational therapists-, the net result being that because patients are ambulatory and not bedridden, which is the normal basis for assessment insofar as the Department of Health is concerned, the ratio between intensive care patients and ordinary bed patients drops to about 33 per cent. [More…]

• I would suggest, with respect, that if any member of the Opposition has any information to back up the sweeping statements that have been made, he has a duty and an obligation to go to the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) and to name those particular hospitals. [More…]

• In the brief time available to me, I should like to deal with the whole concept of the national health scheme, since the Bill that we are discussing is the National Health Bill. [More…]

• Around these regional organisations would be satellite hospitals in areas where people live and where the general practitioners could be organised in health centres. [More…]

• The point is that we all pay for the health service. [More…]

• You would collect the same amount of money through the Taxation Office through a national health insurance fund based on taxable income, which is what our policy is, just by changing the print on the back of the taxation form. [More…]

• In other words because of the way our present health scheme functions we punish the people for being sick by charging them fees. [More…]

• On the other hand many of these national schemes which involve salaried medical service cost less and yet the results in terms of the quality of medical care are better as judged by such things as the infant mortality rate and illness of children, which are very sensitive barometers used to measure health services in underdeveloped countries and so on. [More…]

• Under the regulations, a doctor is not supposed to use the national health scheme form for anything but an NHS prescription. [More…]

• But most of them are too lazy to help the chemist by using a separate form for non-national health scheme prescriptions. [More…]

• I suggest that the next batch of forms, which are provided free for the convenience of doctors, should contain a series of squares with the designations NHS, PMS and SHP - the latter meaning subsidised health plan - and that the doctor be required to mark the box to indicate under which heading the prescription is to be dispensed. [More…]

• so has its usefulness and so has its contribution to economies in other sections of our national health scheme. [More…]

• The annual report of the DirectorGeneral for Health for 1970-71 clearly indicates how this situation arises. [More…]

• It was quite clear that this was the view of the Department of Health as it was presented to the House of Representatives Select Committee on Pharmaceutical Benefits. [More…]

• For example, the Department pointed out that the average consumption of national health scheme drugs by non-pensioners is 4.5 per year and by pensioners approximately 18 per year. [More…]

• I. also want to make a brief comment on the 50c concession which is being offered to ‘those eligible to receive assistance under the subsidised health benefits scheme. [More…]

• Neither the Minister for National Development (Mr Swartz) who introduced the Bill in this chamber, nor the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) who made the original announcement, nor the Minister for Immigration (Dr Forbes) who in this place represents the Minister for Health, ever explained exactly what will happen to all of the pharmaceutical benefits which are at present costing the Government between 50c and $1. [More…]

• I would appreciate it and the House would appreciate it also if we could obtain some kind of explanation from the Minister for National Development who is representing the Minister for Health in this place. [More…]

• The points that I wish to make are firstly that it is over a year since I and the surgeons involved in Queensland referred to more than one of the previous Ministers for Health these items 971 and 976 which are not performed under that name in Queensland and are certainly not charged for in Queensland at the rate set out. [More…]

• This matter has been brought up again and again with the Minister for Health but all we are told is that it has been referred back to the committee. [More…]

• The proposed changes to the National Health Bill put to this Parliament by the Government have the following effects: They will penalise the sick, especially the chronically sick, for their misfortune; in future essential drugs will be twice as dear to them when prescribed under the national health scheme. [More…]

• The changes aim at legitimising again the unconscionable plundering of taxpayers’ money and contributors’ funds in health insurance schemes in an effort to camouflage the fraudulent nature of the Government’s grotesque voluntary health insurance programme. [More…]

• The changes gloss over the 96 per cent failure of the Government’s subsidised health insurance programme and the need for a regular adjustment of the income groupings which draw on benefits under the scheme. [More…]

• Nowhere do they consider preventive medicine and they ignore totally a national dental health programme. [More…]

• The Government seemingly is unaware of the pressing needs for Commonwealth initiatives in the development of an adequate public hospital system backed by community public health services, including paramedical services. [More…]

• In 1964 the then Minister for Health, who is acting for the Minister for Health in this House at the moment, said of the prescription charge imposed on patients: [More…]

• If we use the figures which are provided in the statistical section of the annual report of the Department of Health we find certain data for 1970-71. [More…]

• The effective increase in demand after we have eliminated these unusual features - unusual in their nature because they are additional to previous rates for services under the scheme - was about 9.5 per cent and this does not include any allowance for population increase or for the abnormal upsurge in demand for compounding in the winter period, a point specifically referred to in the annual report of the Department of Health. [More…]

• Frankly, I believe the health needs of the public are such that these benefits are justified and the Government obviously believes this too or it would not have extended benefits under the scheme in this particular way. [More…]

• To what extent, one would ask, are prescribing fees a deterrent as was asserted by the Minister for Health in this House in 1964? [More…]

• Again I refer to the statement made by the Minister about the large proportion of total health costs to the Commonwealth which expenditure in this area represents. [More…]

• This is another misleading argument because the total expenditure by the Commonwealth in the area of health is not really such a large amount in terms of the total community expenditure, public and private, in health. [More…]

• To this we can add personal consumption expenditure in the field of health of $1,2 13m. [More…]

• Pharmaceutical benefit costs for the Commonwealth represent less than 7 per cent of the total health expenditure; so they are not an abnormal factor such as the Government is trying to establish. [More…]

• I recall that when the Select Committee on Pharmaceutical Benefits was formed I was rather persuaded by the argument of the then Minister for Health when he was pointing out the cost movement factor and the need to contain it. [More…]

• As a proportion of Commonwealth expenditure it seems great, but only because the Commonwealth is so limited in its commitment in the field of health. [More…]

• When we are talking about this area of health service, that is the provision of drugs, it is impossible to do so unless we do it in terms of a total health service. [More…]

• This is why it is anomalous to refer to the Bill before the House as a national health Bill, lt is not a national health Bill. [More…]

• Primary care given by health centres - general practitioners leading a team of allied health personnel; secondary care consisting of community hospitals with diagnostic facilities; tertiary care in academic medical centres with highly specialised facilities. [More…]

• This is the way in which health services have to be developed. [More…]

• It is pointless talking in an ad hoc or piecemeal way about health in the Australian community. [More…]

• It seems to me that this is a highly essential service which ought to be available to the general practitioner who, as far as we can see into the future, will be the most important man in the medical team - I stress the word ‘team’ - which provides public health services in the community. [More…]

• It will aim at the development of public health services which focus out, as I have said here several times before, from a central teaching hospital complex through a district hospital. [More…]

• This could radiate further into the smaller convalescent nursing centre and then into the community health centres which provide day facilities in terms of medical practitioner services, paramedical services and so on. [More…]

• That is only one aspect of the approach of the Opposition to a national health scheme. [More…]

• About 74 per cent of the community is covered by the present voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• This still leaves something like 13 per cent to 15 per cent of the community - between 1.6 million and 2 million people - who have no cover at ali under the voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• This is the sort of imbalance which is presented by the current system of health insurance. [More…]

• From calculations I have made from statistics provided in the annual report of the Department of Health, the introduction of the common fee has meant an extra $32m income for medical practitioners. [More…]

• This is no way to operate a health insurance scheme. [More…]

• This operation cost her $5, but it cost the health insurance funds and, therefore, the Commonwealth and the contributors to these funds the difference between the total cost of the operation and $5, which was $295. [More…]

• From the figures provided in the annual report of the Department of Health it can be seen that patients are paying 26 per cent of the cost of medical services. [More…]

• I will not deal with aspects of the low income health insurance subsidies scheme. [More…]

• As I mentioned on Tuesday night of last week, this should be seen as part of the total development of health and welfare services in the community - an integrated, balanced plan for the provision of adequate health and welfare protection for the community. [More…]

• The honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden) did not say very much about it and T hope that other speakers will talk about the Bill and not about health services in general, which could cover a very wide field because to do so would waste a lot of everybody’s time. [More…]

• As I have said several times over the years this national health scheme, which was introduced by Sir Earle Page a long time ago, was introduced purely and simply for the benefit of the doctors so that the doctor’s bill would be paid and he would be protected all along the line. [More…]

• I remind the House that the La Trobe Valley Health Services provide limited pharmaceutical benefits as do the friendly societies, and there is no reason why this practice cannot be extended so that the rest of the community can take advantage of it. [More…]

• I take one little exception to the description of this facet as the most expensive component of the Government’s overall health benefits plan. [More…]

• The subject of nursing homes is one of the really bad spots in our whole health scheme. [More…]

• The other solution to the problem is to bring the cost of this accommodation within the scope of health insurance in the same way as I have suggested pharmaceutical benefits should come within the scope of health insurance. [More…]

• At the present time, hospital benefit contributions have been streamlined quite rightly on the basis of the recommendations of the Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, commonly known as the Nimmo Committee. [More…]

• From the figures that I have been able to obtain - and they would require a lot of checking, but I put them forward for consideration by honourable members - the injection of an extra 10c a week per contributor into hospital contribution funds would provide $5 a day in health insurance benefits for nursing homes, and that would cover the present gap which exists between charges and the combined benefit. [More…]

• As seconder of the Opposition’s amendment I wish not only to concentrate on the points that we make in our amendment but also to make some general criticism of the National Health Bill. [More…]

• One would have thought that when the Government had an opportunity, such as it has now, to amend the National Health Act- this Bill in fact is amending it - it would have gone much further than it has. [More…]

• It is important to realise that this answer which was given last week by the former Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) was given after the Prime Minister (Mr McMahon) had made his announcement regarding the increase in the nursing home subsidy. [More…]

• What answer did we receive from the former Minister for Health? [More…]

• I am not blaming the present Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) who probably knows very little about health or health administration. [More…]

• After all, the portfolio of Minister for Health had to be moved into the Senate and I feel that at least the present Minister for Health is basically a more decent and reasonable person than the last 2 Ministers for Health, Dr Forbes and Senator Greenwood who were completely hopeless and, in addition, in my opinion did not have any sort of humanity or sensitivity about them, which I think the present Minister for Health possesses. [More…]

• This is the sort of attitude which is adopted by the Department of Social Services and, I suppose, the Department of Health. [More…]

• I turn now to deal with the subsidised health benefits plan and the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for National Development (Mr Swartz), who in this place represents the Minister for Health, in his second reading speech referred to the proposition that under the subsidised health benefits plan people are also eligible to receive pharmaceutical benefit concessions. [More…]

• in the case of migrants, to the Department of Health as soon as the changes become effective. [More…]

• That proposition is quite ridiculous when already we have seen that the subsidised health benefit plan is- not working for the very reason that there is too much bureaucracy involved. [More…]

• The honourable member for Bendigo (Mr Kennedy) who conned the figures from the Minister for Health will no doubt deal with this point. [More…]

• 2790, on 8th September 1971 the Minister gave the figures, giving a completely wrong impression, on the question of democracy in the health funds - what we call medical and hospital benefits organisations. [More…]

• For example the Hospital Benefits Association in Victoria, which is the main health insurance organisation in that State, has only 4 elected contributor representatives out of 52 members. [More…]

• The cost of health insurance has gone up at a terriffic rate compared with the Commonwealth basic wage and the minimum wage in New South Wales. [More…]

• Secondly, there is a proposition - and this is something with which the Department of Health should certainly deal - that there is pressure on doctors to keep the costs of their prescriptions down. [More…]

• Some 6 or 8 years ago when I was in practice I had a visit from 2 gentlemen from the Department of Health who looked like detectives. [More…]

• The Minister for Immigration (Dr Forbes), who usually represents the Minister for Health in this place, was, to my mind, obviously wrong in his estimates of the effect of the proposed increases in patient contributions on the total amount involved. [More…]

• I cannot accept that proposition because, as table 37 of the 1970-71 annual report of the Department of Health shows the patient contribution on general benefit prescriptions was $24.4m last year and the contribution rate has been doubled since then. [More…]

• The honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) made some sneering remarks about the present Minister for Health, Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson. [More…]

• So to say that the Minister for Health does not know anything about the health problems that exist in Australia is ludicrous in the extreme. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Department of Health, which administers the nursing home benefit scheme, also maintains a degree of supervision of nursing homes but this is concerned largely with the payment of patient benefits. [More…]

• Unfortunately, 2 Ministers of Health have ruled that the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia was right in its refusal. [More…]

• I wish to devote my speech to the health needs of the poor in Australia. [More…]

• I believe that the situation is so important that a committee of this House should be established to investigate the health needs of the poor and the under privileged groups in Australia and to make recommendations on how their needs should be met. [More…]

• Although this has been disastrous in itself nevertheless it exposes to the public only the financial side of the health care of low income families and groups in Australia. [More…]

• As at 30th June this year, just 18 months after the scheme came into operation, only 6,102 families in Australia earning less than $46.50 a week were registered with private benefits organisations and thereby protected against the costs of ill health. [More…]

• The nine-tenths of the iceberg that 1 am afraid will not be seen, and has not been seen in the past, represents the overall health needs of the poor. [More…]

• Firstly, it will see only the insurance problem and not the overall problem of health care and, secondly, it will resort to a few gimmicks of public relations to resuscitate artificially a scheme which requires not sticking plaster but major surgery. [More…]

• The Government would be in the position of having to justify not having a single compulsory health scheme. [More…]

• This is one of the reasons why the Canadian royal commission on health recommended that for a health scheme to be effective and economically to exempt low income families, it would have to be a single compulsory scheme, that is, a scheme along the lines proposed by the Labor Party. [More…]

• How effective would attempts to revive the health scheme be? [More…]

• The 1966 poverty survey in Melbourne showed that in Melbourne, 75 per cent of Greeks and Italians surveyed who arrived over the previous 5 years were not in a health benefits organisation. [More…]

• Health of a Metropolis’, said that their survey of Prahran in the last few years showed that cultural factors were a massive influence alongside the family’s low income status in preventing these migrants from protecting themselves. [More…]

• While it took United Kingdom settlers in Australia 10 years to reach the Australian average of 77 per cent of the community being covered, in 10 years only 53 per cent of Greeks and Italians were enrolled in a health insurance organisation. [More…]

• Thus any improvement for the 2 months eligibility of migrants - during which period they are probably healthiest of all - will be virtually of no significance as a means of enrolling certain groups of migrants in the benefits scheme and of protecting them. [More…]

• Yet even if we were able to include every newcomer into the health benefits system, we would still be faced with the fundamental question which demands investigation by no less important a body than a select committee of this House: that is, what sort of problems do the migrants arriving have, and how well are we meeting them? [More…]

• Just how vital this question is has been highlighted by the article in the ‘National Times’ on Monday entitled ‘The Rising Migrant Health Scandal’. [More…]

• The article by Eric Walsh paints a grim picture of large scale neglect or ignorance of the health needs of migrants. [More…]

• It dramatically highlights the disastrous consequences for migrants in leaving the nation’s health facilities and provisions unchanged despite the special and great needs of migrants. [More…]

• It lends support for my belief that under this Government the Department of Health has had its functions narrowly circumscribed within the ideological dogmas of the Government; that is, the Department does very little to examine and improve the health care of the nation, because it is preoccupied with making the Government’s health insurance scheme stave off failure and because it is afraid of cutting across Liberal dogmas about State rights. [More…]

• The fundamental questions of the quality and availability of health care for the Australian people and, in particular, for such groups as migrants, have to be made subordinate to the question of the cost of care and the primary question here is the cost of insurance. [More…]

• And what of the health needs and the health care of the aged and others who are either enrolled in the pensioner medical scheme or are excluded from it by the tapered means test? [More…]

• The scheme has numerous defects and the gap is growing between the services offered to one minority in the community and the superior and more extensive services offered for those enrolled in the voluntary health insurance scheme as a whole. [More…]

• One could talk at length about the health needs of the aged, the low income families, migrants and the Aborigines, yet of all these groups it is difficult to speak effectively. [More…]

• It is difficult, if not impossible, to discuss the problem of the health care of the poor in Australia. [More…]

• There is an appalling ignorance, both among the community at large and in the Government itself, of the health needs of the poor. [More…]

• The collapse of the Government’s subsidised scheme shows clearly that its interest was not in the welfare of the poor but in the continuation of its health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Similarly, the Department of Health is allowed to show little interest in health care outside the programmes of public health and the battle to prop up the Government’s health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The Government sees its Department of Health largely as a disburser of moneys to the States. [More…]

• So we know that as an initiator of forward looking plans of comprehensive health care for the community the Government has failed dismally. [More…]

• As a result, we know very little about the following: Firstly, the distribution and accessibility of general practitioners in poorer areas; secondly, the extent to which the poor are forced to use outpatients departments of public hospitals which are not designed to meet such needs; thirdly, the efficiency and economy of the use of outpatients departments by the poor; fourthly, the incidence of illness among the poor and the nature of this illness, especially chronic illness; fifthly, the connection between the ill health of the poor and the general pattern of their life style such as diet, hygiene, social and psychiatric problems and their promptness in seeking medical care; and, sixthly, the need to link health, education and social welfare services. [More…]

• By comparison with our appalling ignorance here, overseas - especially in the United States - the problem of the health care of the poor has received a tremendous amount of attention from governments and medical personnel. [More…]

• In particular they have recommended the establishment of special community health centres in poor areas containing not only general practitioners but also social workers, psychiatric social workers, home nurses, health educationists, community liaison officers and so on to provide not only care but also prevention and education. [More…]

• The theory behind these centres is that they concern themselves with general social problems of the poor which have a direct bearing on their health. [More…]

• Such centres, hopefully, will attract the poor to them so that they will have a more positive attitude towards their health problems and will seek care as early as possible rather than leaving it till later when the situation is worse. [More…]

• An extremely important part of such research would be to establish experimental community health centres, especially in poor areas, so that overseas theory and practice can be tested in Australia. [More…]

• This has become common in the United States, and the Federal Government there makes special grants for foundations to set up community health centres. [More…]

• I strongly urge the Government therefore to give all the financial support necessary to the venture by the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine of Monash University in co-operation with the University of Melbourne to establish a community health centre in Prahran. [More…]

• The centre will co-ordinate and integrate community health and social services. [More…]

• Finally, to reiterate, there is an appalling ignorance of the health needs of the poor in Australia and of other underprivileged [More…]

• That this House is of the opinion that a select committee should be set up immediately to investigate and recommend on health care needs of underprivileged groups in Australia. [More…]

• What is most distressing is that I believe that this Government does not know what are the health needs of the poor and it does not know how these needs should be met. [More…]

• It is most striking that while it is clear that it is necessary to have a changing pattern of health care for the people of Australia as a whole and for the poor in particular, and while it is clear that overseas there is much experimentation going on in this sphere, nevertheless in Australia the Commonwealth Government continues to regard health as being merely a question of pouring money into State systems and of propping up its own voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• By comparison with the imagination that has been exercised by the United States Federal Government in paying States, institutions and universities to go into the field of community health services, in Australia we are still in the backwoods. [More…]

• In the Melbourne ‘Herald’ of 4th October it is reported that a community health centre is being planned at Prahran by the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in conjunction with the Melbourne University. [More…]

• Having made nursing home care a charge on the public purse, the cost should be kept within reasonable bounds by upgrading the scope of hostel care and domiciliary care which will mean an improvement in the quality of health care and a lesser charge on Government revenue. [More…]

• The second principal feature of this Bill is the doubling of charges on national health service prescriptions. [More…]

• Whether there is a deterrent effect or not,, a charge of Si on national health scheme prescriptions can amount to a considerable sum if a number of different medications are prescribed and if repeats are prescribed also. [More…]

• According to the figures of the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson), 10 years ago the average price per item was $2.18. [More…]

• We are at the crossroads in health insurance as we are in the care of the chronically ill, about whom I was speaking earlier. [More…]

• So also for health insurance. [More…]

• During the 12 months between December 1969 and December 1970, the period during which the revamped national health scheme was introduced, doctors’ incomes rose by 25 per cent - not this doc tor’s income. [More…]

• The document which was circulated to honourable members today by the Minister for Health indicates that public ward charges in South Australia are $16 a day. [More…]

• The percentage of our gross national product which we are spending on health services is also rising. [More…]

• I have some figures here which I obtained from the Bureau of Census and Statistics today, which show that excluding chemists’ charges, 3.3 per cent of our gross national product was spent on health in 1959-60, 3.7 per cent in 1964-65 and 4.1 per cent in 1969-70. [More…]

• If one includes chemists’ charges, 4.9 per cent of the gross national product was spent on health in 1959-60, 5.4 per cent in 1964-65 and 5.8 per cent in 1969-70. [More…]

• So we must really ask the same question as we asked in relation to pharmaceutical benefits: We are spending more on health, but are we getting any healthier? [More…]

• It is quite possible that expenditure on health will continue to increase without it really doing anybody much good. [More…]

• It is quite clear that a first reform must be to abolish the present system of voluntary health insurance, and this is the first thing that a Federal Labor government will do in this field. [More…]

• We will abolish the system of voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• We will introduce universal health insurance with contributions based on ability to pay. [More…]

• A system of comprehensive community health services .will be set up with the family doctor as one of the team, with nurses, physiotherapists, medical specialists, social workers, dieticians and so on. [More…]

• if we believe it to be true that the range of experience of the doctor-in-training should be broadened, then we should be creating elective attachments and a teaching atmosphere in a spectrum of institutions which have not hitherto been regarded as being worthy of affiliation with medical schools - industrial health clinics, geriatric day-centres, rehabilitation centres, psychiatric clinics and day-centres, clinics for drug addicts, child guidance centres, and remedial centres for autistic and dyslexic children. [More…]

• And the answer to the problem of rejuvenating interest in general practice and the elevation of its prestige is not only to attach students to individual practices, desirable though this may be, but to create pioneering academic units in community health … [More…]

• and to experiment with the design and organisation of health centres, something which we have scarcely begun to do in Australia. [More…]

• In the final analysis what really matters is deciding where best to spend our money to achieve a high standard of community health. [More…]

• He spoke about universal participation in the health scheme and said that up to 15 per cent of the people do not take advantage of the voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The honourable member for Oxley believes that nursing homes should be part of a whole health scheme. [More…]

• Opposition members have taken the opportunity in this debate to range over a host of matters concerning the health scheme. [More…]

• They have used this occasion for propaganda purposes to put forward their socialist ideas for a health scheme. [More…]

• I hope this never happens - it would introduce a centralist scheme of control over all health matters. [More…]

• They want everything done in regard to health to be on a compulsory basis. [More…]

• The Opposition wants, hospitals, nursing homes and all related health facilities to be Government-owned and Government-controlled, including the doctors themselves. [More…]

• If I had sufficient time in this debate I would go over the whole history of health services in Australia but unfortunately time does not permit. [More…]

• Prior to this Government coming into power literally nothing was done in regard to health from the Commonwealth viewpoint. [More…]

• The then Minister for Health in New South Wales, Mr Sheahan, set up that committee to investigate the possibility of creating a compulsory hospital insurance fund. [More…]

• The health scheme at present operating was established by Sir Earle Page when this Government came to power. [More…]

• Labor’s health record is pitiful. [More…]

• Act for the introduction of a health scheme of a compulsory nature, but that Act was challenged in the courts and found to be illegal. [More…]

• Labor ended up its term in office doing precisely nothing for the health of the people of Australia. [More…]

• As the Prime Minister (Mr McMahon) said, the Bill is only an interim measure; R is not intended to be the final say on our health scheme. [More…]

• I think this Government can be trusted - certainly Labor cannot, be trusted - to make a further extension to the assistance which is provided under the national health scheme. [More…]

• Give the people a chance to decide what kind of health assistance they want. [More…]

• They should operate in conjunction with health centres, comprehensive units where one can go along and see one’s general practitioner and get the assistance of social workers, occupational therapy and X-ray facilities. [More…]

• In other words, they have adopted the very policy that the Labor Party is proposing of an integrated health scheme with satellite hospital beds associated with health centres. [More…]

• The Kaiser health service costs from onequarter to one-third less than the same package of services would cost outside the system. [More…]

• If this were done the country might save enough from the elimination of waste to do a creditable job with the same 6.8 per cent of gross national product which it now spends on its health services. [More…]

• The Department of Health through such organisations as the National Health and Medical Research Council is responsible for a whole host of items from biodegradability of detergents to mercury concentrations in food. [More…]

• was formed a year ago it took over organisations’ from 6 federal departments, including the National Air Pollution Control Commission, the Bureau of Solid Waste Management, the Bureau of Water Hygiene, the Bureau of Radiological- Health, the Air Quality [More…]

• There is, admittedly, no completely scientific and objective means of making such an analysis, but these difficulties must not prevent us from reaching decisions about the benefits of cleaner air and water, less noise and a pleasant countryside, compared with the benefits which might result in meeting claims on resources in such fields as housing, health and education. [More…]

• It is not good enough to allow States to put the needs of Aboriginal people, these deprived people, under the various headings of housing, health, education and so on, right at the end of the queue. [More…]

• Naturally if the problem is to be solved the Commonwealth Departments of Health, Housing and Social Services will also need to be involved. [More…]

• Information supplied by the then Minister for Health, Dr Forbes, in reply to questions asked of him last year regarding infant mortality makes it fairly clear that until such time as living standards are substantially raised the mortality rate and the incidence of leprosy is unlikely to diminish and other complaints will flourish. [More…]

• For instance, the then Minister for Health told me: [More…]

• So it seems quite certain that the causes leading up to mortality, as spelt out by the then Minister for Health, are closely associated with as I said earlier, deplorable living conditions which could in turn largely be removed if the conditions were raised to a much higher standard. [More…]

• The eradication of leprosy amongst Aboriginal people of Australia is seen by the Commonwealth as being within the framework of the general improvement of the health of Aborigines. [More…]

• My Office of Aboriginal Affairs and the Commonwealth Department of Health are planning an Australia wide study of these health problems that will produce a programme to improve the problem areas that we know exist. [More…]

• At the present time no specific survey into the health problems of Aborigines, either on an Australiawide basis or in Aboriginal communities and fringe settlements, is under consideration by the Department of Health and Office of Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• So we have a situation in which we were told in February that the 2 departments were actually planning an Australia-wide study of Aboriginal health problems, and then in August we were informed that such a study was not even being considered. [More…]

• If the Government’s record is so good, why is it that legislation which is known as the subsidised medical health scheme has been introduced into this House on behalf of another Government Department? [More…]

• The fact is that the whole intent of that legislation is to afford some form of protection, health-wise, to low salary and wage earners. [More…]

• If the Government was so concerned about the legislative environment, there would be no need in this country to introduce such shocking legislation as the subsidised medical health scheme. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the National Health” Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• that the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2603 XXIV A (December 1969) declares that the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which Australia has ratified, prohibits the use in international armed conflict of any chemical agents of warfare - chemical substances, whether gaseous, liquid or solid - employed for their direct toxic effects on man, animals or plants; 29 that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• I address a question to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I do know from past experience, as I was Minister for Health some years ago, that the scheme at that time was very successful and that the provision of something as a substitute for milk in areas where milk was not available was being considered. [More…]

• I have no personal knowledge of the process that has been mentioned by the honourable member, but as it is a matter which concerns the Department of Health I will see that it is referred to my colleague, the Minister for Health, in another place and a suitable answer provided. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for External Territories: Is it a fact that the World Health Organisation has identified Port Moresby as one of 4 places in the Pacific having a serious health problem, in particular a rising incidence of tuberculosis? [More…]

• Health matters in Papua New Guinea are now a local responsibility. [More…]

• When from time to time these factors reach a serious stage and we or the Territory believe that it is unable to cope with the situation, we usually get assistance from the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• I personally am not aware of what is being done but 1 will endeavour to find out from the Ministerial Member for Health and advise the honourable member. [More…]

• It is a matter of nursing back to financial health farms that are potentially viable. [More…]

• Is it right that the Australian Medical Association which is running a lot of sheep - you know that, if you want to examine it further - ought to be able to touch the Government on this matter as it touched them with regard to the health scheme? [More…]

• They include air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution and food pollution to name just a few - all of which have developed into a major health hazard. [More…]

• For instance, the very air we breath is becoming polluted by the gases and fumes from industry and vehicles in closely settled areas to such an extent that it must be injurious to the health of our population. [More…]

• The extensive use of detergents and pesticides also plays no small part in assisting to create this health hazard. [More…]

• I would rather see half a dozen major centres with a healthy environment free from pollution than one major city complete with every known hazard to the health of the population. [More…]

• In the field of health, for instance, as I understand it, the highest infant mortality rate in the world is found amongst Aborigines in some areas of the Northern Territory, and the number of Aborigines attending university is extremely low. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What has been the (a) amount and (b) percentage of total funds paid by (i) the Commonwealth, (ii) the medical benefit funds and (iii) patients as medical costs to (A) specialists and (B) general practitioners in (I) each of the States and (II) the Commonwealth in each year during which medical health insurance has operated. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (1), (2), (3) and (4) The information requested by the honourable member has not been recorded by the registered medical benefits organisations or my Department and accordingly is not available. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What steps have been taken, as recommended by the Senate Select Committee on Medical and Hospital Costs in its reports of 25th September 1969 and 2nd June 1970, (a) to establish a standing committee of permanent heads of Commonwealth and State Health Departments, (b) to develop plans for the Commonwealth, the States and appropriate organisations and groups to participate in a co-ordinated national scheme for the collection and dissemination of uniform statistics relating to health economics and for general health economic research and (c) to achieve collaboration between the Commonwealth and the States in the sharing of knowledge relevant to the construction and servicing of hospitals. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (c) Following the 1970 Conference of Australian Health Ministers a Hospital and Allied Services Advisory Council was established comprising 2 representatives from each State and the Commonwealth, these representatives being Permanent Heads and Senior Officers of Health departments. [More…]

• The possible application of computers in Health and Hospital fields. [More…]

• The Bureau of Census and Statistics is developing the collection of uniform statistics in the number of health areas. [More…]

• A principal role of this unit is to work in close cooperation with the Bureau of Census and Statistics to develop and maintain national systems of collection and dissemination of uniform statistics specifically related to the functions of the Department of Health. [More…]

• Three sub-committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council namely the Hospital Statistics (Standing) Sub-Committee and the Disease Classification Sub-Committee, which report to the Medical Statistics (Standing) Committee, and the Mental Health Records SubCommittee, which reports to the Mental Health (Standing) Committee, are engaged in the investigation of the collection and interpretation of uniform statistics in the fields of hospital morbidity, the presenation of hospital records, the classification of diseases and the recording of mental illness. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Mr SWARTZ- The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many items available to non-pensioners under the National Health Act are valued at less than the proposed $1 charge. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the Minister’s predecessor, in a statement to Parliament on 4th March 1971 indicate that examination was being made of arrangements for the provision of ancillary benefits under the National Health Scheme, including paramedical services. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (3) A working party has been established within my Department to consider the inclusion of paramedical services within the National Health Scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The newsletter quotes an estimate made by the Royal College of Physicians that there is an annual death toll in Great Britain of 27,500 men and women, aged 35-65, from the ‘burning of tobacco’, which figure is considerably less than the overall figure given by the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Sir George Godber, of 100,000 deaths annually. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Commonwealth is guided in these matters by the advice of the National Health and Medical Research Council, which to date has made no recommendation that alcoholism and its complications should be included in the list of notifiable diseases. [More…]

• In the Territories under its control, the Commonwealth has instituted health education programmes in schools using methods aimed at developing an awareness of the public health aspects of cigarette smoking and the use of alcohol. [More…]

• These health education programmes have recently been intensified in the Australian Capital Territory to promote co-operation and education of parents and school teachers. [More…]

• In addition a series of seminars has been introduced, involving Health Services personnel in all areas having contact with the public, on drug abuse in the community - smoking and over indulgence in alcohol being two facets of this subject. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the National Health and Medical Research Council’s recommendations on the use of mono-sodium glutenate in baby foods been written into the legislation or regulations of any, of the States or Territories of Australia. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare. [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is the Minister aware that any claim by a medical practitioner for health insurance reimbursement in respect of treatment given to his own child is disallowed under a ruling of the Department of Health? [More…]

• Will the Minister encourage his colleague in the Senate to review the stringent application of this ruling with the aim of leaving judgment as to the propriety of any claim to the health fund concerned, as is generally the case? [More…]

• 1 can recall this matter being raised some years ago when I was Minister for Health. [More…]

• The decision made at that time was that in view of the special circumstances treatment of their own children by medical practitioners would not be recognised under the National Health Act. [More…]

• Dr Kirk in his thesis, which I would recommend to anybody, points out that some 50 per cent of Aboriginal children never reach the health parameters - the height and weight, etc.- which are normal or average for less than only 2 per cent of the Australian population. [More…]

• There have been tragedies in Aboriginal health. [More…]

• Maybe the tragedies in Aboriginal health became apparent only when Aboriginals concentrated in settlements. [More…]

• As a bare minimum, as a beginning, let us look at health. [More…]

• One was the matter of health. [More…]

• I spoke with a health officer about this. [More…]

• The problem of the health of Aborigines in the north west area reserve is the same as the problem existing just over the border in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• On the question of health, the South Australian Aboriginal Affairs Department does have health officers moving through this area. [More…]

• Their main job is to point out the various health hazards that arise in various situations. [More…]

• But there is an obvious need for a health education programme - different from the health education given by these officers - under officers who can move through these areas and spend more time helping the Aborigines to overcome the hygiene and health problems that do occur. [More…]

• The present health officers can only go from place to place and give advice on drainage and matters like that, whereas a health education officer can teach the people the way in which they can protect themselves. [More…]

• They have moved into missions and Government reserves and are not as before moving from place to place where health hazards did not arise to the same extent as they arise now. [More…]

• In their old way of life they would have stayed there for some time and then moved on, not creating a health hazard. [More…]

• But because they are now clustered around these settlements a great health hazard does exist. [More…]

• The Ministerial members and the Assistant Ministerial Members make the final decisions in many areas such as education, public health, tourism, co-operative societies, business administration, posts and telegraphs, Territory revenue, taxation, shipping, civil defence, and corrective institutions, which is a tremendous responsibility that they carry out very well indeed. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• The future economic growth and health of Tasmania is in large measure dependent on improving existing transport systems, both sea and rail. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has supplied the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The topics mentioned in your question are included in the health education section of the curriculum. [More…]

• In the Northern Territory, a health education specialist has recently taken up duty with my Department. [More…]

• Under his guidance, a complete and expanded programme of health education is currently being developed. [More…]

• TAA, AAA, EWA, Qantas, Australian Air Freight Forwarders Association, the Oil Companies, the Association of Commercial Flying Organisations, the Royal Federation of Aero Clubs of Australia, the State Planning Authority, the Departments of Health, Customs. [More…]

• What are the general findings in the report of the Institute in relation to general health and mortality rates among Aborigines. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the National Health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the National Health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• That due to higher living costs, including increasing charges for health services, most aged persons living on fixed incomes are suffering acute distress. [More…]

• Is he aware that entitlement cards must be produced in most States as a qualification for train, tram and bus concessions and that he is therefore depriving many elderly citizens not only of proper access to health care but also of proper opportunities for travel? [More…]

• I give the ‘Sydney’ a clean bill of health in the problem under survey. [More…]

• There are the side effects from the fact that the family is financially overcommitted, and of course this is when the Government has to do something about social welfare, social services, health or in some other field. [More…]

• Welfare, health services and local government facilities present grave problems to the Australian people. [More…]

• The real question to be investigated is why the Commonwealth in continuing the immigration programme has thrust its responsibilities in housing, education and health services on to the States and has not provided adequate financial resources resulting in shortages and deficit budgets. [More…]

• In this they include urban congestion, poor health services, poor schools, shortage of housing, pollution, traffic hold-ups and urban crime. [More…]

• Has not the Government legislated to provide a subsidised medical health scheme for migrants who come into this country as a sort of a stop-gap measure to make up for some of the conditions which they have left behind so far as that particular national aspect is concerned? [More…]

• The Minister .for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is it a fact that (a) in one particular week in July 1971 the Maternity Ward 2 at Alice Springs Hospital, which is designed to accommodate 14 patients, held 25 patients, (b) as a temporary expedient to meet this situation which will not be finally resolved until the new hospital is completed in 1975-76, a building known as New Ward 3, will be re-opened shortly, (c) to avoid expenditure on staffing, New Ward 3, which is some distance from Maternity Ward 2, is to be opened as an annexe of that ward to avoid salary commitments for an additional senior Sister and that there is no plan otherwise to increase the total nursing establishment to enable the reasonable operation of the additional ward, (d) the staff from the old Ward 3 has been used to open a special isolation ward 7, and this will place unreasonable burdens on already seriously over-taxed senior Sisters, (e) there are only 15 positions for senior Sisters at Alice Springs Hospital, causing such a strain that not more than one can be on leave at any one time, (0 senior Sisters cannot afford to be sick and that their responsibilities are being imposed on junior nursing staff, (g) New Ward 3 has been used for the training of nursing assistants and that the hospital authorities are now forced to shift this training centre to a small building previously used as a store-room by painters and carpenters, (h) the United States community at Alice Springs, the breadwinners of which staff the Pine Gap Space Research facility, have made such representations about inadequate hospital facilities at Alice Springs, that as a result, a medical practitioner appointed and financed by the United States Government is to commence duty at Alice Springs Hospital on about 4th September 1971, (i) the St John’s Ambulance Brigade in Alice Springs, which provides ambulance services for the Alice Springs Hospital on Saturday nights and otherwise attends at sporting fixtures, is facing difficulties in meeting operation and maintenance costs, (j) the Northern Territory Director of Health has refused to recommend the allowance to the Brigade of a subsidy of $50 per month and (k) the St John’s Ambulance Brigade will cease operationif this subsidy is not received within the next few weeks. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Director of Health, Darwin is currently waiting for an estimate of the cost of the alterations necessary to bring this building to the required standard to care for the type of patients concerned. [More…]

• In the early stages of the Pine Gap project the American authorities offered the Department of Health the services of a surgeon because of the large number of people they were adding to the community. [More…]

• The details necessary for proper consideration to be given to such an application have not yet been received by the Director of Health, Dar win from the St John’s Ambulance Brigade in Alice Springs although Departmental officers have offered to assist in the preparation of an appropriate submission. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• This Sub-Committee met twice,on 14th September 1970 and 19th March 1971, and completed its task at the 72nd Session of the National Health and Medical Research Council in May 1971 and it will not meet again. [More…]

• Under the provisions of the Broadcasting and Television Act 1942-71 the Director-General of Health must approve all advertisements for proprietary medicines on radio and television. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Also that customs duty be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• We in the Commonwealth are responsible for defence and also for the health of the people in terms of such essentials as quarantine. [More…]

• These figures represent cash social service benefits and do not take into account non cash benefits including the free health scheme in the United Kingdom and the near free health scheme and the free dental care scheme for children under 16 years of age in New Zealand. [More…]

• In Australia we have neither of these benefits, apart from a poorly subsidised and inefficient health scheme which operates with rising contribution rates. [More…]

• For those reasons I am not at all happy with the present method of offering family assistance or concession and am of the opinion that a straight forward allowance of direct taxation deduction irrespective of income would be a much more equitable and acceptable system, but even this would not help those people who, because of their circumstances, pay next to nothing in tax in any case and yet who at the same time are the very people who require assistance for the education of their children or to ensure their good health. [More…]

• But, by using home dialysis units, these people can get themselves to a state of health in which they have 75 per cent to 80 per cent of their normal work capacity. [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical benefits List. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical benefits List. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• 2m, nor does it include division 925, subdivision 4, item 02 on account of the Department of Health or various other items under the same grouping for a soils testing laboratory in Alice Springs, improvements to materials testing laboratories in Darwin and Katherine and stores in Katherine. [More…]

• I urge the Government to consider carefully the advisability of taking over the medical side of the settlements in the Northern Territory, staffing them, stocking them, and putting them under the management of the Department of Health. [More…]

• The doctors are employed by the Department of Health. [More…]

• The honourable member for Prospect raised the question of the administration of the health facilities for Aborigines in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• This matter, of course, has been the subject of some concern and it is the subject of discussions between my Department and the Department of Health at present. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) and I have had discussions about the very serious problem of Aboriginal health in the Territory. [More…]

• This raises very serious health and social problems which cannot be solved until something positive is done by way of providing essential facilities. [More…]

• The matter of drug research is primarily one for my colleague the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I understand, however, that on the advice of the National Health and Medical Research Council, funds for drug research are made available by the Government for approved research projects. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefitslist. [More…]

• Safeguarding public health and preserving other resources. [More…]

• Then we have Senator Marriott assisting the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson). [More…]

• Minister for Customs and Excise (Mr Chipp), the Minister for External Territories (Mr Barnes), the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) and the Minister for Housing (Mr Kevin Cairns). [More…]

• I know that the Minister for Immigration (Dr Forbes), who usually represents in this chamber the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson), is away at the present time. [More…]

• But I would request the Minister who is at present representing in this chamber the Minister for Health to let the House know as soon as possible - early next week if it is at all possible - the precise amount owed at the beginning of this month, let us say the 1st of this month, by the Hospital Contributions Fund to the various hospitals throughout New South Wales; how far behind these refunds are; and when it is anticipated that these refunds will be made. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• We have been assured that he is in good health. [More…]

• Also, the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare is to inquire into all aspects of repatriation. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• I ask: Have the recommendations of the National Health and Medical Research Council with respect to cigarette smoking being passed on to him by the Minister for Health? [More…]

• I am not aware of the Minister for Health passing on to me a report of the National Health and Medical Research Council in relation to this matter. [More…]

• My memory is - I may be very much mistaken - that when the portfolio of Health was held by a Minister in this House that Minister indicated that the Council had said that there was a danger in smoking but it believed it was desirable to have an educational policy rather than the complete abolition of cigarette advertising on television. [More…]

• I will inquire of the Minister for Health whether my recollections are correct or whether I am under a misapprehension in relation to this matter. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• As far as I am concerned, our national interests can be served only by talcing into account the proper treatment, proper health and proper aid for our neighbouring countries. [More…]

• Department of Health [More…]

• It had been my intention on this occasion to discuss the delivery vehicles for better health services in the community. [More…]

• It is quite clear that if we are merely going to talk about the financial side which allows people to pay for health services but do nothing about maximising the efficiency with which we use resources probably the most expensive sector of public service is involved in its expenditure of the public’s money, then we are neglecting a very important public responsibility. [More…]

• There is a great deal of research work available which shows how, by applying more advanced methods of economic analysis, it is possible to ensure that the dollars of the taxpayers’ money that we spend in public health services provide greater benefits for them, that is, as I have said before in this House, every dollar provides more mileage and gets greater return for the general public. [More…]

• For instance, in the provision of health services it is quite clear from what is being done in quite interesting work overseas, that operations research has a vital role to play. [More…]

• So if through the proper framework of services, inter-related so that we have a comprehensive health service delivery vehicle, we are able to get the non-acute people out of hospital beds and into some alternative and appropriate system of health service then we are making savings. [More…]

• I would like to have developed a discussion of the Commonwealth-State relationship in the development of a community public health services and to relate this to concepts of planning and evaluation in the development and maintenance of these services. [More…]

• But I find myself diverted from this purpose because of statements which have been made quite malevolently by the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) in another place. [More…]

• On 9th November the Minister, in reply lo what we call here a Dorothy Dix question, gave what he claimed to be costing of some aspects of the Government’s health scheme and of the Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• The Government has a notorious record in the field of health in putting forward completely unreliable costing estimates. [More…]

• Before the last Federal election for this House the then Minister for Health was saying that the Government’s proposed improvements’, as they were called, in the health insurance scheme would cost Si 6m. [More…]

• So it was not a bad effort on the part of the Minister for Health- nearly 100 per cent out. [More…]

• Earlier, just before the 1968 election, we had costing presented publicly by the Minister for Health which was allegedly of the Labor Party’s proposals on health insurance. [More…]

• The Government under-estimated collections by about $22m and it completely neglected to make any allowance at all for a cost factor of between $45m and $50m which is the cost of tax collections forgone through the income tax concession system covering the costs borne by people in their contributions to health insurance schemes. [More…]

• I sincerely hope that the misrepresentation comes from the Minister for Health and is not a serious error on the part of those people in the Department of Health responsible for these calculations. [More…]

• On 9th November we had a statement from the Minister in which he referred to the costing of some proposals of the Labor Party on dental health as a programme and specifically in relation to statements made by the honourable member for Kingston (Dr Gun). [More…]

• Another point which he raised in relation to Labor Party health proposals concerns our proposal to provide contraceptive means on a doctor’s prescription free of charge. [More…]

• However, if we make allowance for the fact that the Government through the Department of Health is fairly effective in bringing about reductions in costs, I would expect a 10 per cent reduction in cost because the sort of buying power that the Department of Health would represent would not be unreasonable. [More…]

• Perhaps this costing of the department was made on the assumptions which the Department of Health has been given and upon which it has based its essential movements when it made its costing of this proposal. [More…]

• Finally, we have from a Minister who does not even understand his own Government’s programme the completely fatuous statement that the cost of the Government’s health insurance will be $250m per annum and that the cost of the Labor Party’s proposal will be $420m per annum. [More…]

• The cost of our health insurance would be the same as the total cost of the Government’s scheme but, I repeat, we aim at getting more mileage for every $1 we spend of the public’s money. [More…]

• Preventive medicine is probably the most important aspect of community health care. [More…]

• Australia’s health standards are amongst the highest in the world, perhaps the highest. [More…]

• Smoking is one of the great health hazards in Australia today. [More…]

• Yet we are doing very little to prevent cigarette promotion, although cigarettes are a known health hazard, and it is not only lung cancer. [More…]

• It has been reliably estimated by the Chief Medical Officer of Health in Britain that approximately 10 per cent of all deaths in the community are due to smoking-associated diseases. [More…]

• These findings in Britain are corroborated by parallel studies conducted by the United States Department of Health. [More…]

• There is no longer any serious doubt that smoking is a substantial health hazard. [More…]

• I think that education on the perils of smoking is valuable, but on its own it is far from sufficient to combat this serious health hazard. [More…]

• 1 am sure we must, on health grounds, impose a complete ban on television advertising of cigarettes. [More…]

• But the Government has an over-riding responsibility for community health. [More…]

• We have taken action to ban other addictive drugs in the interests of community health. [More…]

• If we are to refer credibility in these fields, and in the interests of community health, we must ban all promotion of cigarettes as contining a drug of addiction which is a known health hazard. [More…]

• In debating the estimates for the Department of Health I would like to make one point in passing. [More…]

• It is interesting to note that the great authority quoted by the Association as having carried out the research for this booklet - and it has taken the Association a long time to produce it - is the Health Economics Service which is a division of the Australian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association. [More…]

• There is a significant number of people in the community who are unable to pay for health insurance. [More…]

• Taking the original figures for 1955 when the scheme was first introduced, and taking the cost at the lowest scale of medical benefits and the lowest scale of hospital insurance, as a proportion of the basic wage in New South Wales at that time the amount required for health insurance was 1.03 per cent. [More…]

• I have only a few minutes left to me in this debate and there is so much to attack as far as the health scheme is concerned. [More…]

• It is deplorable that the Government, having found out during its first year in office after the 1969 elections, that the then Minister for Health, Dr Forbes, a member of this House, was unable to cope with the sort of propositions put to him and the sort of questions asked of him because we had on the Opposition side a number of people who were able to understand the health scheme, transferred the portfolio of Health to the Senate and it has remained hidden in that chamber. [More…]

• I strongly deplore this action because health is an important subject not only to this Government but also to the people of Australia. [More…]

• I have previously raised the matter of psychiatric patients in regard to health benefits. [More…]

• This Government’s record on health services is one of its most outstanding achievements in the whole of its career. [More…]

• Compare that expenditure of $ 14.2m a year with the total expenditure on health by this Government last year of $476,313,000. [More…]

• It is of great interest to me discussing these Health estimates to see the difference of approach between the Government and the Labor Party to health services. [More…]

• The show that the Labor Party’s present attitude has not changed I would like to quote a statement made by the Labor Minister for Health, Senator J. M. Fraser, in 1945. [More…]

• I think it is appropriate that I quote the words of the founder of the Government’s health policy. [More…]

• The great danger in any government-aided health scheme is the tendency to develop a psychology of dependence and diminished personal and community responsibility. [More…]

• I think that this fully expresses the attitude that this Government takes and the difference between this Government and the Labor Party in relation to health services. [More…]

• We have had a lot of publicity all over Australia about the Labor Party’s policy on health as we have had about its policy on education and other things. [More…]

• The Labor Party policy is that all health services be free and compulsory. [More…]

• The people are to be taxed to pay for the extraordinary cost of Labor’s scheme which, as the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) mentioned the other day, would no doubt involve about S240m in excess of the cost of our scheme. [More…]

• We would be getting towards a health expenditure of SI, 000m. [More…]

• This is all I ask, because members opposite cannot support with logic what they propose to do in the field of health services in this country. [More…]

• The honourable member for Bennelong (Sir John Cramer) spent all of his time attacking the proposed health scheme of the Australian Labor Party. [More…]

• One would have thought, because of the many constituents he represents and the number of complaints that he must receive from them about his Government’s health scheme, that he would have spent a little time suggesting improvements to the present scheme which is in operation in Australia. [More…]

• I should like to discuss 2 aspects of the present health scheme. [More…]

• I represented the case to the Minister for Health and asked that he make a special benefit available in this case. [More…]

• I also requested that the National Health Act be amended to allow for the payment of a Commonwealth benefit for physiotherapy when it is certified by a specialist medical practitioner as an essential treatment for an injury. [More…]

• Commonwealth medical benefits are available only in respect of those professional services listed in the First Schedule to the National Health Act. [More…]

• From time to time, consideration has been given by the Government to extending the National Health Scheme to include the payment of benefits for such services. [More…]

• The decision as to whether health insurance organisations pay benefits for ancillary, services, such as physiotherapy, is a matter for the management committee of the particular organisation to determine. [More…]

• They are employed in hospitals and very often, in hospitals and in other areas, they do as much to restore the patient to health as does the doctor who performed the operation or who commenced the treatment. [More…]

• I think that physiotherapists should be recognised under the National Health Act, even if this recognition is limited to the degree that I suggested, namely, that the physiotherapy treatment must be certified as being essential by a specialist medical practitioner or, if the Government wishes to widen the range, by a general medical practitioner. [More…]

• I ask the Minister at the table to suggest to the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) that if he will not recognise physiotherapists, special provisions should be made in cases like this for ex gratia payments. [More…]

• The injury to his daughter’s hand has cost this man over $320, yet the honourable member for Bennelong neglected to make any criticism at all of the national health scheme that be and his Government have fostered. [More…]

• Under the present health scheme, where multiple operations are involved, there is a reduction in the amount of common fee that can be charged by the doctor. [More…]

• Animal quarantine is a responsibility of the Department of Health, and it is this part of the Department’s work to which I wish to address my remarks. [More…]

• From a position of no semen imports from the United Kingdom we have moved to one where we allow imports after 2 years quarantine of the semen after certain health tests on the donor bull before semen is taken from him, and, since September of this year, imports are allowed after 12 months quarantine following health tests. [More…]

• I have been encouraged by the report in the Queensland ‘Country Life’ of 28th October last of a speech by Mr R. W. Gee, the Assistant Director-General (Animal Quarantine) of the Department of Health, which he made to the University of Queensland Veterinary Students Association. [More…]

• I was pleased to read in the annual report of the Department of Health that a veterinarian from New South Wales visited Gross Isle in Canada last year. [More…]

• Dr CASS (Maribyrnong) (5.36>- With the increase in technological changes in medical practice the costs inevitably are soaring and this holds for any country whether it has our particular brand of national health scheme or the American variety, which is supposedly wedded to the fee for service private enterprise system or the system in the United Kingdom and other European countries which has a tendency towards salaried service. [More…]

• I wish to speak on the estimates for the Department of Health. [More…]

• Of all our possessions, good health is our most precious or most valued, or it should be. [More…]

• I agree with the honourable member for Lang (Mr Stewart) that therapists should be brought under the national health scheme. [More…]

• I referred the matter twice to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Even if it did not require treatment, the mere fact that it was signed in should have meant that it was encumbent upon the health insurance organisation, whichever one it was, to pay the benefit. [More…]

• I did not receive any assistance from the Department of Health which upheld the fund’s contention. [More…]

• I wish to spend my few minutes speaking about the proposals of the Australian Labor Party to establish a dental health care scheme. [More…]

• I wish to speak on this subject because the Government in its 22 years of office has committed many sins of omission and commission, but I can think of no greater sin of omission, certainly on the domestic front, than its total failure to do anything to try to improve the dental health of the Australian community. [More…]

• The study concerned the dental health of women attending the antenatal clinic there. [More…]

• So apart from the financial problems, a great problem is the lack of concern that some people have for the state of their dental health. [More…]

• I seek leave to incorporate in Hansard a table setting out the difference between the different socioeconomic groups in the standard of dental health. [More…]

• There is quite a significant difference in the dental health of children at the schools in the high socioeconomic group - that is, in the affluent suburbs - compared with those in the poor suburbs. [More…]

• If employers want to insure people’s dental health I have no objection. [More…]

• They have a scheme which provides dental health insurance, to which each employee contributes a small amount each week. [More…]

• But I do not think that this should be regarded as the basis for a scheme for dental health care in the community because, if the Government decides to come in and say: ‘We will back this system of voluntary dental insurance’ I think we will have the same terrible difficulties we have had with this Government’s voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• It was remarkable to hear the honourable member for Bennelong (Sir John Cramer) eulogising the voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• I hope that no-one will be tempted to try to do the same thing in the sphere of dental health. [More…]

• A voluntary dental insurance scheme would mean the same spiralling costs as are involved in the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The so-called improvements to the health scheme in 1970 have been described as a golden handshake lo the doctors. [More…]

• We do not want the same thing to happen in dental health. [More…]

• The dental health of the community would not improve as a result of it. [More…]

• So the answer to this problem does not lie in having a system of voluntary dental health insurance. [More…]

• The answer lies, as it does in every sphere of health, in preventive medicine. [More…]

• In dental health this means we must reduce the incidence and prevalence of dental disease. [More…]

• This is why the Australian Labor Party’s proposals for dental health are based on preventive dental health and dental education particularly for school children. [More…]

• Their function would be to carry out the control of dental disease by treatment and secondly, but more importantly, they would be directed towards prevention by education and motivation of children to patterns of behaviour that are favourable to good dental health. [More…]

• As the scheme progressed we would expect the standard of dental health in the children’s community throughout Australia to improve considerably. [More…]

• It is not really doing anything to improve the community standard of health unlike the policy which will be implemented by the Australian Labor Party after the next Federal election. [More…]

• Our policy is to do something to really improve the community standard of dental health. [More…]

• The Government has done nothing for community dental health over the past 22 years, and for that reason deserves to be roundly condemned. [More…]

• Listening to the honourable member for Kingston and, indeed, to all Labor speakers, not only in respect of health but also repatriation, social services, pay for the Services, assistance to the States, assistance to local government and assistance to State governments - in respect of just about everything - we hear what the Labor Party is going to give the public of Australia. [More…]

• There is only one source from which money to pay for such a dental scheme or health scheme etc. [More…]

• Someone interjected during the debate today about the great health scheme of the United Kingdom. [More…]

• New Zealand also has a great, free health scheme. [More…]

• I wish to speak on 3 matters in relation to the health estimates. [More…]

• I have written to the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) and have raised this matter which concerns people who have a permanent malady. [More…]

• Perhaps this is a reasonable charge in view of the increasing health costs which are being borne, not by the Government, but by the people of Australia. [More…]

• In addition they might have added expenses because of ill health caused by other maladies to which they are susceptible. [More…]

• I have requested the Minister for Health to ask the Medical Review Committee to see whether it is possible to allow the number of bottles of insulin obtainable on the present prescription to the doubled - that is, from 36 to 72. [More…]

• But he also seems to over-minimise the afflictions which affect other people and which, in my view, are not the subject of the consideration they ought to be under the health scheme operating in Australia. [More…]

• I would like to talk about the Labor Party programme for a national health scheme. [More…]

• I suppose by the middle of next year we might have had an opportunity to make an assessment of her health. [More…]

• No thought appears to be given to the added noise and air pollution, and in this particular case even expensive, health giving, pollutionfree sporting fields are no exception. [More…]

• ls it to ensure that the unfortunate people who have been reduced to near bankruptcy by the Department or worried into ill health are the first to accept a ridiculous price for something which they cannot hope to replace in size or amenity or at a similar value? [More…]

• In the Estimates for this year we see, under division 925.4.01, that it is proposed that the Department of Works in the Northern Territory shall control expenditure of $6,220,000 on behalf of the Department of Education and Science: under division 925.4.02 an amount of $7,610,000 on behalf of the Department of Health; and under division 925.4.03, $27,250,000 on behalf of the Department of the Interior. [More…]

• This Committee, comprising Commonwealth and State health and enforcement officials, is responsible to Ministers for the coordination of all agencies engaged in combatting drug abuse. [More…]

• It must be seen as part of a total outlook on physical health. [More…]

• The state of health of Australians was revealed recently when we were informed that about 49 per cent of those who registered for national service in Australia were rejected because they could not pass the medical tests. [More…]

• Does the report conclude that (a) economic but not moral resources are adequate to eliminate tragic, and intolerably costly, rural poverty in a prosperous country, (b) relief plans must be a joint local, State and Federal government responsibility, (c) public enterprise must be used where necessary to give equal employment opportunities and check the drift to cities, (d) the poor must be actively involved in regional economic planning encompassing rural and urban area’s using Federal grants, loans and development subsidies and State and local tax reform, (e) the impact on individuals of schemes for rural amalgamation, submarginal land retirement and moratoriums on new farm land development until demand warrants increased production, must be investigated, (f) food supplements should be available to the hungry, (g) community health centres should be provided to overcome the shortage of rural medical care and (h) pre-school, school, drop-out adult and teacher education facilities should be of the best national standards. [More…]

• Is it because of Government policy (Hansard, 28th September 1971, page 1602) that the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare, in inquiring into the problems of, and the provisions for assistance to, mentally and physically handicapped personsin Australia, did not have the benefit of access to reports of the interdepartmental committee established to make a survey of handicapped children and the facilities available for their use (Parliamentary Paper No. [More…]

• tea and health breaks for the operators account for 10 minutes non coding time in each hour per position; [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• That due to higher living costs, including increasing charges for health services, most aged persons living on fixed incomes are suffering acute distress. [More…]

• Under the heading of health and welfare the Government evidently does not consider public road safety important enough to receive individual attention in the Budget Papers. [More…]

• Mr Health and I agreed - and this was followed up later in my talks with the Minister for Defence and the Foreign Secretary - that even closer consultation and communication should be effected between the two Governments. [More…]

• I wish him good health to have many more such tours, preferably in sone sort of Opposition capacity, but I do not want the impression to be left that anything he did on this tour in a practical sense in terms of positive results other than high expectations on his part and lofty words on the part of others has any relevance to the real problems which are facing the Australian community today. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Have officers of the Department of Health attended meetings of the Presidents of State and Territory Medical Boards since a former Minister’s answer on 22nd February 1971 (Hansard, page 471); if so, whenand where. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: (1)How many persons in receipt of (a) sickness and (b) unemployment benefits during 1970-71 qualified for free health insurance premiums. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The following sets out the total number of unemployment, sickness and special beneficiaries who enrolled in a health insurance fund during the year ended 30th June 1971: [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• that the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• This represents the economics of automated technology and was a decision made on the recommendation of the Medical Benefits Schedule Advisory Committee, which consists of representatives of the Australian Medical Association, the benefit funds and the Department of Health. [More…]

• Professor McDonald, of the Faculty of Child Health at the University of Western Australia, has stated that an Aboriginal baby has 6 times more chance of dying before age 1 than a white baby. [More…]

• We cannot hope to eliminate poverty, or to derive full benefit from improved health and education services without making proper provision for housing. [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties bc removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• My question Ls addressed to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is he aware that the Department of Health has no discretion in the matter, irrespective of whether the private hospital was used inadvertently or on medical advice, and whether the condition was in urgent need of treatment? [More…]

• I am quite certain that all honourable members are aware of the danger that brucellosis presents to the health of all animals. [More…]

• I have dealt with many cases, as other honourable members have, in which people have to sell their present war service home for such very valid reasons as health or transfer in employment or because their family has multiplied and the home they are living in is no longer adequate. [More…]

• Other cases of extreme hardship were brought about by bad health - in asthma cases, for instance - necessitating a move to another place. [More…]

• It is logical that if a person has to move because of his employment, for health reasons or because his home is no longer adequate for his family he should not be placed in a position of having to renounce his war service loan and borrow at very much greater rates. [More…]

• From an analysis of other policy measures of the Opposition we can see that an extra $780m a year would be involved in expenditure on health and education proposals. [More…]

• But I point out to the Parliament just how far these medical practitioners, supposedly possessed of great humanitarian qualities, were concerned about the future health of their patients. [More…]

• If the position is as stated, will he arrange for the Department of Foreign Affairs to advise the New Zealand High Commissioner in Australia that Australia refuses to recognise any validity in the claim of the New Zealand Government that any Indian, Fijian, Samoan, Tongan, Cook Islander or Asian- who has been granted New Zealand citizenship has an automatic right to bs admitted to Australia in the same way as a European New Zealander or a Maori New Zealand citizen is automatically admitted if not debarred on health or security grounds, or because of a criminal record. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Since the introduction of the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan, extensive publicity has been accorded ils operation, both in campaigns directed solely towards the workings of the Plan and by its inclusion in other Departmental literature. [More…]

• As from 1st November 1971 it is proposed to introduce a simplified application form for use by low income families when applying for assistance, and provision will be made on the form to enable a responsible person, such as a hospital secretary, to assist a person incapable of completing the official application form and in taking the necessary steps required in applying for the assistance available under the Plan and enrolling in a health insurance fund. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• As the honourable member is aware information which may be divulged concerning the nature of discussions at Australian Health Ministers’ conferences is limited to the text of press releases authorised by the Health Ministers. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• For the purposes of determining the eligibility of low income families, ‘income’ includes the income of the claimant and members of his family, other than child endowment and certain allowances specified in regulation 20A of the National Health Regulations. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is the common fee accepted by the Department of Health for (a) a surgery consultation and (b) ahome visit by a general practitioner in each State and Territory. [More…]

• We are tired of the continual fobbing off by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer in particular as the two who ought to be the custodians of the overall economic health of the community. [More…]

• Labor shall provide war service homes, repatriation health benefits, civilian rehabilitation training, scholarships for their children and generous re-engagement, retirement and re-settlement allowances for members of the Forces. [More…]

• This should disturb the national Government which is concerned with the health and welfare of its community, and also with its labour force. [More…]

• More than half the increase in the total index in the September quarter was contributed by the miscellaneous group - and it adds - due mainly to increases in the prices of health services and fares. [More…]

• Or, the Government could get back to the old device of expanding public works particularly in the fields of education and health. [More…]

• Three months after the Budget what do the figures show as being the health of the economy today? [More…]

• Finally, an easing in wage push forces - indeed in all income demands - is essential to the long term health and stability of the economy. [More…]

• They were industrial affairs - 1 am sure the Labor Party has not forgotten about that one; defence; immigration - the honourable member lor Grayndler (Mr Daly) would not have forgotten that one; cities and decentralisation; education; and health. [More…]

• Refusal of entry is not mandatory, however, and discretion is exercised on the basis of a number of factors including risks to public health, the probability of the person’ concerned becoming a charge on public funds and the capacity of the person concerned to integrate into the community. [More…]

• Applicants for assisted passages are requiredto meet even more exacting criteria, including higher physical and medical standards, but generally the consequences are that migrants on arrival are free of disabilities which would make them unemployable or lead to such deterioration of health as would require prolonged institutional care or medical attention. [More…]

• Department of Health refers details of such cases to State Directors of Tuberculosis for action. [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• He has also, it will be remembered by honourable members, discharged with distinction within the terms available to him and his colleagues, the task of chairing the Commonwealth Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, which was appointed in April 1968 and which reported in March 1969. [More…]

• As the health of the ,ural industries concerned improves, this will contribute over period to the alleviation of nonmetropolitan unemployment The current rural reconstruction scheme and the retraining programme and rehabilitation assistance associated with it will make a useful contribution. [More…]

• Those are historical kinds of assumptions, but in later times more and more has it been expected of the local authorities that they should go into the fields of health and social welfare services. [More…]

• For the year 1969 in Brunswick - these were figures given in a 1971 submission - out of a total expenditure by the Municipality of Brunswick of $1,420,000, an amount of 8165,000 - that is, close to 12 per cent of the available income of the Municipality of Brunswick - was spent on health and welfare. [More…]

• In saying this 1 do not criticise the efforts of State Government employees who look after the health, education and social welfare of the islanders. [More…]

• Allocations to the States are made under 6 headings: Housing, education, health, employment, special works projects and regional projects. [More…]

• The allocation for health is rather misleading. [More…]

• This officer is a competent and dedicated man, but it is not appropriate that he should be regarded as providing health services. [More…]

• In every other State, the allocation for health provides public health and nursing services; in some States it provides dental services. [More…]

• I have referred to a number of them - the question of education on the island and the question of health services. [More…]

• Some improvement has been effected, but in relation to housing, education and health services, to which I have referred. [More…]

• In this regard I feel that an important part of the Bill is the allocation to the States under the 6 headings of housing, education, health, employment, special work projects and regional projects. [More…]

• When they were all working on drought relief it was noticeable that the drunkenness amongst the Aborigines reduced, absenteeism was just about nil and their general health standard rose. [More…]

• The other 3 are education, health and employment. [More…]

• But whilst not being an expert on this I would say that these dwellings probably create a health hazard. [More…]

• Previously when the Aborigines were on the move they did not create an unhealthy situation. [More…]

• But now that they are not on the move but clustered around the settlements a health hazard arises. [More…]

• I feel that there should be some research into this matter in order to work out what would be a suitable type of dwelling which could be used by these people so that they can get away from the health hazards which are at present created, while at the same time retaining some of their own ways of life, which of course they would not want to lose. [More…]

• I now come to the question of health. [More…]

• Here again the Commonwealth has already done a great deal to encourage expenditure of matters concerning the health of Aboriginal children. [More…]

• Further, it must not be thought that we are dealing with only the general question of improved health and medical services and facilities for Aboriginals, particularly in the remote areas. [More…]

• Our aim, above all, is to develop preventive health measures as opposed to curative sources which have been reasonably satisfactory. [More…]

• The really important task is to take preventive health measures to the remote parts of Australia. [More…]

• They are people who are deeply conscious of their need for more education, more health, the influx of more ideas from outside. [More…]

• All the areas of concern, such as primary and secondary education, health, local government and the land situation, are there for the decision of the elected members of the House of Assembly. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Commonwealth Legislation - Sections 100 and 122 of the Broadcasting and Television Act 1942-1971 contain provisions to the effect that the approval of the Commonwealth Director-General of Health is required for any radio or television advertisements relating to medicines or talks on medical subjects. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• However, for the year ended 31st March 1971, it is estimated that in England 138 anti-depressant prescriptions per thousand head of population were provided under the British National Health Service. [More…]

• Is the smoking of this drug causing concern amongst parents of young people throughout Australia and affecting the health of such smokers? [More…]

• The detailed regulation of working conditions including such matters as a contract of employment, paid public holidays, overtime rates and safety, health and welfare matters are further illustrations of the benefits that have been achieved through our Federal and State systems. [More…]

• The Government itself says that nobody is entitled to get the benefit of medical benefit funds or health funds unless he joins a medical benefit fund; and yet here it says that a person can get the benefits of trade unionism without paying anything at all. [More…]

• What BHP has been able to do, every other industry could do because BHP is an industry where the element of risk to life and limb and to health is very great. [More…]

• Towards this end a Federal Labor government will act to establish mandatory occupational safety and health provisions applicable (o all employees who constitutionally can be brought within Commonwealth jurisdiction, and will assist the States to do the same in areas of State jurisdiction. [More…]

• With this information to guide it, a Labor government would provide research relating to occupational safety and the provision of training programmes to increase and improve personnel engaged in the field of occupational safety and health. [More…]

• We do not allow pacifists to opt out of paying any taxation that goes towards defence; or allow single people and childless couples to opt out of paying taxation used to finance child endowment and education; or permit a man who is healthy to opt out of paying taxation to meet the cost of the health scheme. [More…]

• But this is a proposal that is equivalent to allowing all who benefit from defence, child endowment, education and health to opt out of meeting their share of the cost of these benefits simply by expressing their disapproval of paying compulsory taxation. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Does his Department issue and recall Pensioner Medical Service Entitlement cards on behalf of the Department of Health. [More…]

• Will he make a statement to the House on the report by the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare and the recommendations touching on the care and education of handicapped children; if so, when. [More…]

• and (2) I refer the honourable member to the reply given by the Minister for Health on 23 November 1971. [More…]

• That the World Health Organisation Report (January 1970) confirms the above definition of chemical agents of warfare; [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is he aware that the heavy cost of this treatment by registered physiotherapists is not covered by the Government’s health scheme, thereby causing considerable financial hardship to a large number of people? [More…]

• Finally, what possible reason could there be for not including in the Commonwealth health scheme as a Commonwealth benefit treatment by registered physiotherapists on the direction of a registered medical practitioner? [More…]

• My question, which is addressed to the Minister representing the Minister for Health, relates to the recent increases in Commonwealth nursing home benefit. [More…]

• So I think I can say that, although the matter is not my direct responsibility, my colleague, the Minister for Health, would not be in a position to give a final answer to some of the questions asked by the honourable gentleman until that examination has been completed. [More…]

• 1 address a question to the Minister representing the Minister for Health, ls he aware that a constituent of mine who had bat ears had an operation to correct the deformity? [More…]

• The Opposition support this proposal as being a positive and a good move for the benefit of the Australian cattle industry and the health of the Australian people in general. [More…]

• I stress that a pedlar with a habit - to use the argot of the drug scene - should be seen as a health case rather than as a penal subject. [More…]

• The question I ask is:Is this a proper subject for police and prisons or is it a proper subject for medical authorities and health services? [More…]

• for medical authorities and health services. [More…]

• In the United Kingdom, the problem is seen essentially as a health one and in the United States it is seen essentially as a criminal one. [More…]

• Using figures in an article by Richard L. Worswop entitled ‘Heroin Addiction’ produced in May 19 0 - these are the only figures I can obtain from any source, including the Parliamentary Library - one can make a rough calculation that the incidence of drug addiction in the United Kingdom, where this problem is treated as a health one, is about one addict to every 18,500 of population. [More…]

• On this evidence, it would seem quite clearly that the repressive legislative or penal approach has been a failure in comparison to the more enlightened health approach adopted by the United Kingdom. [More…]

• I refer to an address which was given by Health Minister Munro of Canada in Montreal on 22nd May 1969 and in which he refers to statements made by Mr John Ingersoll, the Director of the United States Justice Department’s Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs to the Committee on Drug Dependence of the National Academy of Science. [More…]

• Canadian Health Minister Munro also added: [More…]

• Mr Munro, the Canadian Minister for Health, to whom I referred earlier, said in his speech in reference to the point that I am now making: [More…]

• On the face of the evidence available, the penalising approach of the United States is a dismal failure compared to the approach of the United Kingdom where the problem is treated as a health one and where one does not feel that one is an outcast from society, which by definition is one’s position when the problem is treated as a criminal offence. [More…]

• I think that the treating of the problem as a health matter is the most effective way in which to handle it. [More…]

• I believe that one of the most positive ways in which to destroy a country is to undermine the mental and physical health of its youth. [More…]

• I take notice of the people from the World Health Organisation who are engaged in this research and who have said that they too are not sure. [More…]

• While I agree with the Opposition statement that the users need treatment, I cannot vote for the amendment because, as I have stated, the penalties as 1 read them in the Bill are still not harsh enough for these characters who would undermine the health, both physical and mental, of the youth of our country. [More…]

• These programmes do not relate to any particular drug or drugs and are, where possible, integrated within existing health education activities in the various States. [More…]

• Unlike Dr Ribusch of the Queensland Department of Health, who during the last few days has received some publicity for his comments on the question of marihuana because of a letter in the Medical Journal of Australia, I do not know of any doctors who use marihuana. [More…]

• The American Health, Education and Welfare Committee, which published its report early this year, reached the same sort of conclusions. [More…]

• What is probably the most current and authoritative body of information is the report of the Secretary of Health. [More…]

• Education and Welfare issued on January 31 1971, titled ‘Marihuana and Health’. [More…]

• In America to get one’s supply of drugs it may cost from $300 to $500 a week, but in Britain it costs, at most, $2.16 a week because the drugs can be obtained under the national health scheme. [More…]

• They will wait until the day when there are so many addicts around and a great public outcry arises for the establishment of certain hospitals and centres at which these people can be cared for and, if possible, restored to health. [More…]

• People can get these pamphlets quite easily from the Australian Capital Territory Health Services in Darwin Place, Canberra. [More…]

• South Wales Health Department entitled The Use and Abuse of Drugs’. [More…]

• I must stress that this official is not from the Department of Customs and Excise but from the Department of Health, as are the pamphlets. [More…]

• I refer to Mrs Jean Nolan, a psychologist with the Department of Health, who spoke to the National Council of Women on the drug problem in perspective on 9th September this year. [More…]

• All my questions over the years to successive Ministers for Health have failed to elicit any attempt to discover any kind of statistics relating alcohol to disease. [More…]

• But what it does propose is that at meetings of the World Health Organisation Australia should advocate that a more reasonable proposition should be accepted, as far as the classification of drugs is concerned. [More…]

• This feature of the general problem has engaged the close interest of the Board since the early sixties and in 196S it gave warning of the dangers which such misuse represents to public health. [More…]

• In addition, there has been a specific recommendation from our own Senate Select Committee on Drug Trafficking and Drug Abuse which ties up with recent suggestions from the World Health Organisation that is, that cannabis, cannabinoids and cannabis resin should not be included with narcotics for the same reasons that amphetamines, and some of the other drugs already in this list, should not be included. [More…]

• The Government relies on the World Health Organisation and the United Nations. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• If this is so I would think it is more a matter for the Department of Health. [More…]

• I do not favour the use of revenue procedures to encourage or discourage something which relates directly to the health of the community. [More…]

• In any case for the future health and welfare of this community in terms of its intellectual and emotional development it is vital that we should develop this new form of communication. [More…]

• In saying our official farewell to Alan Turner after a lifetime of service to this House, I assure him that he leaves with our sincere respect and gratitude and we wish him and Mrs Turner health and happiness for the future. [More…]

• 1 wish Mr Turner very good luck and good health in his retirement. [More…]

• He has had to take control of this House on many occasions when you have been away, Sir, either overseas or through ill health. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Applicants should be in sound health and of good character but no physical examination or inquiries are required. [More…]

• Funds for health and social services for Aborigines in the Territory are provided under appropriations in the Budget of the responsible Departments. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What amount has been allocated for research into health services in each of the last 5 years. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (1), (2) and (3) The health services field is extensive, covering such areas as hospitals, nursing homes, mental health institutions, medical services, community health, environmental health and quarantine. [More…]

• Research in these fields is being undertaken in universities, government departments and agencies, voluntary health and welfare agencies and private commercial organisations, as well as by private individuals. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• In August 1970, the Director-General of Health wrote to all approved chemists, drawing their attention to a statement by the National Health and Medical Research Council at its 70th Session, in April 1970. [More…]

• The DirectorGeneral of Health drew attention to the fact that there are containers of a type which was referred to by Council available in Australia and that, insofar as pharmaceutical benefit prescriptions are concerned, such containers come within the allowance provided by the Commonwealth for reimbursement of container costs. [More…]

• The DirectorGeneral urged chemists to give serious consideration to the problem of poisoning in childhood and to the feasibility of implementing the recommendation of the National Health and Medical Research Council concerning the use of safety closures for dispensed medicines. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5). [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did an amendment to the National Health Act in 1964 provide that (a) co-operative pharmacies, established after 23rd April 1964, could not dispense National Health Scheme prescriptions except to members even when an associated pharmacy with unrestricted National Health Scheme approval ceasesto operate in another State and (b) rebates to members of these pharmacies could not be paid unless membership started before that date. [More…]

• If the position is as stated, were these restrictions designed as a deterrent to the over use of National Health Scheme prescribing although employees of the Bank of New South Wales may claim a 75 per cent rebate of medical and hospital charges beyond insurance fund rebates. [More…]

• Will the Government extend the right of patientsto choose their type and degree of health insurance cover not only for hospital and medical costs but also for pharmaceutical costs. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (1)(a) and (b) Yes. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is the composition of the Hospital and Allied Services Advisory Council established in 1970 by the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference and on what dates have meetings of the Council been held. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Formal membership of the Hospital and Allied Services Advisory Council comprises 2 representatives from each of the State Health Departments and the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Does the National Health and Medical Research Council advise the Commonwealth and State Governments on matters concerning the health of the public and on all matters of public health legislation and administration. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• One of the functions of the NH & MRC is to inquire into, advise and make recommendations to the Commonwealth and the Slates on matters of public health legislation and administration and on any other matters relating to health, medical and dental care and medical research. [More…]

• The Council has since met at least twice a year, with advice and recommendations on a wide range of matters affecting the health of the community flowing from these sessions to both Commonwealth and State Governments. [More…]

• controls over the possession, use, storage and labelling of drugs and poisons; industrial hygiene and occupational health; maternal and child health; dental health; environmental factors which may affect health; prevention and control of mental illness, and the care and rehabilitation of patients with menial illness; traffic injuries; health education; recruitment and training of nurses, and the practice of nursing; matters relating to ionising radiation; the promotion and preservation of health in the tropics; and medical statistics on human morbidity and mortality. [More…]

• 3682) Mr Whitlam asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Health Insurance: Information for Migrants (Question No. [More…]

• 4234) Mr Kennedy asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• (i) air and (ii) ship are informed of their eligibility for the subsidised health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (2) Information concerning health benefits, including specific information on the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan, is included in a booklet printed in 20 languages which is provided by the Department of Immigration to migrants before embarkation for Australia. [More…]

• A programme of advertising was carried out by the Department of Health in foreign language newspapers and in foreign language radio sessions late in 1969 and early in 1970, to assist in the introduction of the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan. [More…]

• The major health benefits organisations in all States have co-operated in producing information brochures especially for migrants. [More…]

• Several of the major health benefit organisations have migrant advisory officers who visit Commonwealth hostels and, on request, provide migrants with information concerning the health benefits system. [More…]

• and (3) Economy measures have had a bearing on the deferment of proposals for further advertising of the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan in foreign languages. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the Australian Health Authorities’ study of new quarantine methods developed in New Zealand, to which the Minister referred in his statement of 21st September 1971, encompass the need for Australia to up-date its quarantine methods in line with the New Zealand initiative. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• This policy was implemented for medical benefits organisations in conjunction with the introduction of the Health Benefits Plan on I July, 1970. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will cigarette packs be manufactured after 1st April 1972 with a printed warning that excessive cigarette smoking may be dangerous to health. [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to a Bill brought before the House of Commons by the Canadian Health Minister proposing (a) to ban all forms of cigarette advertising, (b) a stricter caution on cigarette packets giving a warning that the danger to health increases wilh the amount smoked and lo avoid inhaling, (c) that packages state tar and nicotine content levels of smoke from cigarettes contained therein, (d) that cigarettes be marked indicating length of butt and (e) that the Cabinet be empowered lo periodically set new ceilings for tar and nicotine levels. [More…]

• If the Government is not prepared to ban radio and television advertising, will it consider the imposition of a special tax on all radio and television advertising of cigarettes and tobacco aimed at raising in total an amount equal to that expended on this form of advertising by cigarette and tobacco companies with (he proceeds from this tax to be allocated to an education programme through radio and television which will point out the dangers to health directly related to cigarette smoking; if not, why not. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (1), (2) and (3) Yes. [More…]

• The Canadian Minister for National Health and Welfare announced an increase in the budget for the ‘Smoking and Health Programme’. [More…]

• This Programme covers research into the effects of smoking on health and the dissemination of information about those effects. [More…]

• Arising out of this review, it was decided that lo reinforce health education programmes on the hazards of smoking, the voluntary code governing the advertising of cigarettes should be revised. [More…]

• and (10) The Government is guided in these matters by the advice of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: (.1) On what date did the subsidised health insurance scheme for low income earners, migrants, etc., come into effect. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Subsidised Health Benefits Plan commenced operation on 1st January 1970. [More…]

• As from 1st July 1970, the Plan was extended to provide graduated assistance with health insurance contributions to low income families whose weekly income slightly exceeds the eligibility limit for full assistance. [More…]

• In January 1970, 500,000 copies ot a pamphlet titled ‘Subsidised Medical Services’ were distributed to health insurance organisations, hospitals and doctors. [More…]

• In April 1971, 750,000 copies of a pamphlet titled ‘Help with Health Insurance’ were issued when income eligibility limits for assistance under the Plan were again revised. [More…]

• In addition to publicity directed solely at the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan, this assistance has been outlined in material publicising health benefits generally. [More…]

• In July and August 1970, an advertising campaign was carried out through Press, radio and television following the introduction of the new Health Benefits Plan. [More…]

• Similarly, during July and September 1970, 4,500,000 copies of a booklet titled ‘A Guide to the Health Benefits Plan’ were issued and 4.000.000 copies of a pamphlet titled ‘Your Guide to Medical Insurance’ were distributed. [More…]

• A prominent section on subsidised health benefits was included in both the booklet and the pamphlets. [More…]

• However, the table below compiled by the Department of Health, shows the average weekly fees which pensioner patients in nursing homes were charged during June 1971, as revealed by a survey of all nursing homes in all States. [More…]

• An interdepartmental committee has been established to examine in detail the recommendations made by the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare in its Report on Mentally and Physically Handicapped Persons in Australia. [More…]

• I also refer the Honourable Member to the reply given by the Minister for Health on 23rd November 1971 (see Senate Hansard at page 1960). [More…]

• The following organisations connected with the United Nations normally operate in East Pakistan: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); World Food Programme (WFP): World Health Organisation (WHO); Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO): United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): International Labour Organisation (ILO); United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Bank Group. [More…]

• Did the recent Annual Report of the Department of Health stale that during the past 25 years it has become increasingly apparent that cigarette smoking is a major cause of ill health. [More…]

• Can he say whether cigarette manufacturers in Canada have agreed lo cease all radio and television advertising after 1st January, 1972, as a result of concern expressed by the Canadian Government and the serious threat lo public health caused by smoking. [More…]

• Does he still defend and uphold the right ot television and radio advertising of cigarette and tobacco smoking on the basis that it is profitable to these media of communication: if so, why docs he enshrine the right of profit-making ahead of the interests of public health. [More…]

• Initially it mu-i be understood that the question of any controls on cigarette advertising or distribution is basically one for my colleague, the Minister for Health, and his department. [More…]

• The mailer has been considered several times by the National Health and Medical Research Council, and the implementation of some of the recommendations made by that body is a matter for Slate Government* s far as the Federal Government is concerned, the Cabinet has carefully considered the submissions made to it, and has firmly decided that the situation is best handled by tin education cam> i”n regarding the hazards of smoking, and by a voluntary agreement regarding some forms nf advertising. [More…]

• In the light of this information it is apparent, that any action to ban cigarette advertising on radio and television would only have the effect of very substantially redistributing advertising income among the media, which depend on that revenue for existence, without bringing about any change in the total volume of such advertising 1 should add that the voluntary code governing the advertising of cigarettes, recently revised by the industry, in consultation wilh the Department of Health and the Control Board, appears to have achieved its object in that no advertising of this nature is now broadcast or televised in proximity to programmes which are addressed to young people. [More…]

• It is not for me, of course, as PostmasterGeneral to determine the matter of any health hazards which may accompany the smoking of cigarettes. [More…]

• If so, has this reduction caused a large accumulation of uncleared rubbish throughout the Woomera Village area, resulting in health hazards from flies. [More…]

• Will the Government ascertain from the Government of Pakistan (a) the present whereabouts and state of health of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, President of the Awami League and (b) whether or not Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has been charged with any offences and, if so, whether he had been tried, by what tribunal or court was he tried and what was the result of the trial. [More…]

• The Australian Government has no information about his present state of health, (b) Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has been charged with ‘waging war against Pakistan’. [More…]

• Will he and the Minister for Health, review the position with a view to using citrus juice as an alternative to milk where milk supplies are not available to the disadvantaged children. [More…]

• and (3) According to information provided to the Department of Health. [More…]

• Prior to the introduction of the States Grants (Milk for School Children) Act limited school milk schemes were in operation in several States and it was decided that the extension of these schemes would be an effective means of promoting the health of children through improved nutrition, lt was considered that milk as an ‘all round’ food best served this purpose. [More…]

• What arrangements exist for making financial provision for (a) capital expenditure and (b) current expenditure on (i) baby health centres, (ii) pre-schools and (iii) family stores at Australian Army bases where these facilities are not available in nearby civilian communities. [More…]

• Baby Health Centres. [More…]

• No authority exists for expenditure provision for baby health centres in Army establishments in Australia. [More…]

• (i), (ii) No authority exists for expenditure on maintenance for Baby Health Centres and Pre-School Centres, (iii) Financial provision for expenditure on maintenance of approved Family Stores is made in the normal Repairs and Maintenance Programme procedure. [More…]

• How many (a) doctors and (b) other ancillary medical staff were employed by his Department in each of these countries to screen the health of prospective immigrants. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The respective State Governments are responsible for the provision of State health services including community health ‘ centres. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: - [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• However, provision has been made in the National Health Act for the recognition of specialists and consultant physicians. [More…]

• At 30 September 1971, there were 5,782 specialists and consultant physicians recognised under the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Commonwealth Committee of Enquiry into Health Insurance recommended that the Commonwealth and State Governments should work towards the integration of outpatient services into the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• On ‘24th June 1971, relevant recommendations ‘ by the Nimmo Committee were discussed at the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference, the proceedings of which are generally confidential. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• In the recent amendment to the National Health Act the rights of persons who joined friendly societies prior to 24th April 1964 to receive rebates up to’ the full amount of the new patient contribution, viz., one dollar, have been preserved. [More…]

• Health: Hospital Benefit Organisations - Reserves (Question No. [More…]

• 3681) Mr Whitlam asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• What (a) amount, and (b) percentage of these costs was met by (i) the Department of the Army, (ii) the Victorian Department of Health, (iii) the parents, (iv) the local council, and (v) any other bodies. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council in July 1968 prepared a sort of minimum budget for the food intake - the protein and calorie intake - of a man, his wife and 2 children where the male head of the family was involved in fairly demanding physical work, such as a skilled labourer. [More…]

• The increases in gross incomes for doctors under the health insurance scheme operated by the Government for the 4 successive financial years to the end of last financial year were 7 per cent, 9 per cent. [More…]

• There must be automatic registration of the unemployed for the subsidised health insurance scheme. [More…]

• One company which has undertaken research in waters surrounding the discharge points for treated effluent from its chlorine/caustic soda plants has reported that the maximum concentrations of mercury in fish are well below the minimum safety levels set by the United States Food and Drug Administration and the recently recommended standards of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• State and Commonwealth Departments of Health and the Department of Customs and Excise check the quality of water, air and food’. [More…]

• Is it a fact that atmosphere radiation from these tests produces a cumulative danger which jeopardises the health of all people, particularly children, that radiation particles build up in the bones and thyroid glands of children, hence subjecting them to the dangers of bone cancer, leukemia and thyroid carcinoma, that the radioactive elements can remain in the body for many years and that they can result in the mutilation of the reproductive cells leading to the birth of deformed and diseased children. [More…]

• Details of the effects of ionising radiation on health arc contained in the Committee’s report to the Prime Minister of November 1965. [More…]

• December 1967, March 1969, and March 1971 that the fallout does not constitute a hazard to (he health of the Australian population. [More…]

• This data, however, is broadly similar to that obtained in 1970 and which the National Radiation Advisory Committee found to be of no significance as a hazard to the health of the Australian population. [More…]

• is completely prohibited unless the product is contained In hermetically scaled cans and accompanied by a health certificate which must sta:e that the product has been heated lo a temperature of a least 100 C throughout the contents of ‘he can. [More…]

• There is no litter and there is no health problem. [More…]

• On the reserves they are learning useful skills in a training scheme which pays them a training allowance and they are benefiting from a better diet, health services and education for their children. [More…]

• In health matters and so on, the Commonwealth is belatedly doing something in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• It has ensured that their children can get to school and that the people have adequate health services. [More…]

• It is all there in the newspaper cuttings - education, health, welfare and social advancement. [More…]

• The honourable member for Wills (Mr Bryant) mentioned the health of Aborigines in the Northern Territory and the health situation at the Alice Springs Hospital. [More…]

• The provision of education and health facilities, housing and employment must be reviewed and considered. [More…]

• When there are areas of need - be they unemployment or deficiencies in education, health or anything else - it is the function of the Opposition to make these needs political issues because that is the way in which needs are met and injustices rectified. [More…]

• We have heard no proper account tonight of the disgraceful health situation of Aboriginals. [More…]

• The Government sees the maintenance of a viable alternative system of schools with assurances of continuing financial support as essential to the health and vigour of Australian education generally. [More…]

• I wish him, his wife and family many long years of happiness and good health together, but I am not wishing him a long political life. [More…]

• If so, did the Attorney-General see a recent television programme in which Mrs Berman, displayed calculated evasiveness when asked about the condition of her health. [More…]

• Will the Attorney-General review the Berman case to ascertain whether a health problem still exists or whether a prosecution can now proceed. [More…]

• This benefit is two dollars per day in respect of an insured person, and eighty cents per day in respect of an uninsured person other than a pensioner or dependent of a pensioner covered by the Pensioner Health Service. [More…]

• 1 am informed that various matters relating to maternity leave in respect of employees of the Commonwealth have been the subject of representations to the Government and that they are under review in relation to other employees in the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, in the latter case as part of a general review of legislation on health, safety and welfare in work places. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duty be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• But the 1966 10 per cent sample census showed that about 23 per cent of unemployed men and well over 40 per cent of unemployed women in good health did not register their unemployment. [More…]

• The Commonwealth has been forced, protesting and reluctant, to take an increasing role in the planning of rail and road networks, health and the whole field of education. [More…]

• Sir William Refshauge of the Commonwealth Department of Health led a team to Vietnam. [More…]

• Since abandoning that course of study because of ill health, 1 have continued to develop my theoretical knowledge of my own particular field. [More…]

• 1 do nol mind cigarette packages being branded with the slogan that smoking is injurious to health or that one smokes at one’s own risk. [More…]

• If cigarette and tobacco packages are branded with the slogan that smoking ls injurious to health it would be up to the smoker to decide whether he will continue to smoke. [More…]

• Many people were in certain fields because of health or for other reasons. [More…]

• The new Mount Gillen Hostel was opened on 5th February by the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson), allegedly to help Aboriginal mothers to learn about hygiene and also to assist with adequate accommodation for Aboriginal children who are convalescing. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• It is assumed that the honourable member’s question relates to the number of families on low incomes who have enrolled in health insurance organisations and thereby received the support available under the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan. [More…]

• It should also be noted that a significant proportion of those enrolled in health insurance organisations under the Subsidised Health BenefitsPlan, by virtue of being in receipt of unemployment, sickness or special benefit from the Department of Social Services, could also be regarded as families on low incomes. [More…]

• It is not necessary for these persons to pay any health insurance contributions to obtain the assistance available under the Plan. [More…]

• For the year ended 30th June 1971, 82,593 such persons were registered with health insurance organisations. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• (a) and (b) The National Health and Medical Research Council which is an expert advisory body on health matters to the Commonwealth and Stales, at its 70th Session in April 1970 made the following statement: [More…]

• In so far as the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory are concerned, the authorities responsible for control of catchment areas in respect of public water supplies have been informed of the National Health and Medical Research Council statement, with particular reference to that section of the statement relating to water contamination. [More…]

• I am informed that, in the near future, the question of listing 2,4,5-T in the Uniform Poisons Schedules will be considered by the Poisons Schedules Sub-Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• All pesticides, including herbicides, are kept under continual review by expert committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• In replying to Senator Jessop on 9th November 1971, 1971, I stated that the additional costs to the Commonwealth involved in the Opposition’s revised proposals would be between$239m and $249m for three items - medical and hospital benefits, school dental health, and the listing of oral contraceptives as a pharmaceutical benefit. [More…]

• Of these items, school dental health was estimated at$45m. [More…]

• This figure for school dental health was an estimate included in Dr Gun’s proposal. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the Minister objected to the advertising of a product as a stimulant or as giving a quick lift that lasts on the grounds of good health practice and avoidance of drug dependence and abuse of drugs when not properly prescribed. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• (b) Commonwealth benefits are payable in respect of patients in approved hospitals receiving hospital treatment as defined in the National Health Act, that is, accommodation and nursing care for the purpose of professional attention. [More…]

• A major consideration in any proposal to expand the present benefits is the additional burden which would necessarily be placed on Australian taxpayers who, in 1970-71, provided from the National Welfare Fund $427m for expenditure on National Health alone. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Section 59 (3) of the National Health Act enables provisional payments of Commonwealth hospital benefits to be made in circumstances when it appears that a qualified hospital patient may have an entitlement to compensation or damages but has not established that entitlement. [More…]

• and (4) The integration of third party, workers’ compensation and voluntary health insurance would be very complex and would involve both the Commonwealth and the States. [More…]

• In practice, provisional payments of Commonwealth hospital benefits under Section 59 (3) of the National Health Act are made in the same types of circumstances as provisional payments of Commonwealth medical benefits under Section 21 (3) of the Act. [More…]

• Entitlements under third party or workers’ compensation insurance are thus more fundamental than any secondary entitlements which may arise in the voluntary health insurance context. [More…]

• I ask the Minister representing the Minister for Health whether he has noted the decision of the Society of General Practitioners in New South Wales to increase fees of general practitioners for surgery visits and home visits with all sorts of surcharges. [More…]

• What does he intend to do to stop the abuse of the Commonwealth’s health scheme by these medical brigands? [More…]

• My colleague, the Minister for Health, as most honourable members will know, went last night to Queensland to attend the Commonwealth and State Health Ministers Conference. [More…]

• The Minister for Health goes on to say: [More…]

• We have many industries ‘that are very capable of producing satisfactory products which are essential to the health and welfare of this .country. [More…]

• Health, for not telling him that I intended to speak on this matter tonight. [More…]

• I wrote to the then Minister for Health explaining to him that Mr Tompkins was forced to purchase oxygen cylinders every week so that he could get relief from asthma. [More…]

• With reference to the provision of oxygen and respiratory appliances, would you again approach the Minister for Health and press for these appliances to be provided as a medical benefit to pensioners. [More…]

• The late Minister for Health, Dr Forbes, promised you some time ago that he would inquire into the matter and see if the provision of oxygen could be supplied to pensioners as a medical benefit. [More…]

• We would appreciate lt if you would again take the matter up with the Federal Health authorities in an effort to have oxygen supplied to pensioners who need it. [More…]

• There is correspondence back and forth involving successive Ministers for Health. [More…]

• Each time I received what 1 regard as a most silly reply because in each case the Minister told me that under the Act the Department of Health could not supply the equipment. [More…]

• I wrote to the present Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kennth Anderson) on 26th October 1971 and 1 pointed this out to him. [More…]

• In your letter you stated ‘In the terms of the National Health Act it is not possible to provide equipment, apparatus and appliances as benefits. [More…]

• Whilst it would be possible under the National Health Act to provide the oxygen gas as a pharmaceutical benefit, you will appreciate that an adequate domiciliary service could not be provided since the supply of the necessary ancillary equipment cannot be made within the scope of the existing Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme*. [More…]

• His needs vary depending upon his state of health but he uses approximately 3 cylinders per month which now together with delivery charges cost him $11.16 which you no doubt will agree is a substantial amount out of a pension of approximately $68 per month. [More…]

• Surely a country as rich as Australia can afford to amend the National Health Act, if necessary, in order to provide oxygen for pensioners or for any group of people who find it difficult financially to buy oxygen from their own means. [More…]

• I repeat for the benefit of the present Minister for Health, the previous Ministers for Health and no doubt the future Minister for Health, that it is not the equipment but merely the oxygen that is required. [More…]

• It is a measure of the peculiarities of Australian government that today in our country the standard refund under our so-called national health scheme for consultations or confinements is 80c. [More…]

• This incredible fact applies to the major medical and health funds when they deal with the Bush Nursing Association of New South Wales. [More…]

• I raise the matter tonight and ask the Minister for Supply, who is at the table, directly to raise with the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) the legality of funds refusing to pay for treatment that is carried out at these essential centres which have served so well for 2 generations. [More…]

• I have made directly and personally to the Minister for Health 9 different submissions. [More…]

• While the New South Wales Minister for Health is con.idering improving this tiny contribution, the crisis continues. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson), in his last advice to me. [More…]

• The only legislation administered by the Commonwealth Minister for Health under which financial assistance could be provided to the association by the Commonwealth appears to be the Home Nursing Subsidy Act. [More…]

• I make a request tonight to the Minister for Health, firstly, to recognise the bush nursing centre as an approved place for the treatment of pensioners under the national health scheme - it is obvious that that should be done; secondly, to take action to ensure that all medical and hos pital funds properly recognise the treatment given - let us end the 80c charge for a confinement; and, thirdly, to ensure that there is adequate Commonwealth compensation for the thousands of Aborigines treated over the years. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Comonweallh revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• I have ensured also that the President of the Australian Medical Association has been informed, and this has been done by my colleague, the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The form and the terms of reference of the arbitrator are now under consideration and the Minister for Health will be making a statement about this matter probably today or, if not today, later on tomorrow. [More…]

• Did he also say that the Aborigines had observed every request that the police had made of them, that there was no litter or health problem and that the Government saw no great cause for concern about the Aborigines? [More…]

• Financial assistance has been granted for travel by rural workers under certain circumstances; subsidies have been paid to employers taking more than the normal number of apprentices; goods and services have been provided in decentralised areas by the Commonwealth in the areas of cultural and recreational facilities, public health, welfare and housing. [More…]

• This was not regarded as a very good measure either of truancy which in the primary schools anyway is low, or of the physical health of the children. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the proportion of contributors to voluntary health insurance funds for hospital insurance in (a) the Commonwealth and (b) each State and Territory who are insured at a level which attracts benefits that are (i) below standard rate charges, (ii) at standard rate charges, (iii) above standard rate charges but below intermediate rate charges, (iv) at intermediate rate charges, (v) above intermediate rate charges but below private ward charges and (vi) at private ward charges in the latest year for which figures are available. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• -The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Government at present provides assistance at a rate of $1.50 a day for children, under 16 years of age, who are accommodated in handicapped persons homes approved as such under the National Health Act. [More…]

• However, the honourable member may be interested to know that an interdepartmental committee has been set up to study and report on the recommendations of the Report on Mentally and Physically Handicapped Persons in Australia made by the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon ‘ notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• These surveys are based on the various services listed in the First Schedule to the National Health Act, rather than being related to the person rendering the particular services. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the Department of Health calculate the provisional cost estimates of the Opposition’s health proposals to which the Minister referred on 9 November 1971. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (3) The Department of Health did calculate the provisional cost estimates of the Opposition’s health proposals to which I referred on 9t*i November 1971. [More…]

• The basis of the costing of the Opposition’s health proposals were provided to the honourable member on 11th November 1971. [More…]

• ESTIMATED COST OF LABOR PARTY’S MEDICAL AND HOSPITAL HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME 1971-72 [More…]

• Estimates of the cost of the health scheme proposed by the Labor Party have been made for the year 1971-72. [More…]

• The estimates show that the expenditure to be met by the National Health Insurance Fund under the proposed scheme would be: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• With the introduction of the new Health Benefits Plan on 1st July 1970, there was a general increase in contributions with effect from that date. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The Government’s present policy in this area is mainly directed towards the education of young persons in the health dangers of smoking, rather than towards the prohibition of cigarette advertising on television. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Was he informed recently by the South Australian Minister for Health that the South Australian Government has before it 2 proposals which qualify for Commonwealth assistance and which provide an additional 600 nursing home beds costing $ 13.3m. [More…]

• Is it a fact thai these 2 projects will impose a crippling strain on loan funds available to the South Australian Government for health and hospital services and that all that is available by way of assistance from the Commonwealth Government under the States Grants (Nursing Homes) Act 1969 is $465,000. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• If so, can the Minister say whether the inquiry was prompted by the failure of the Branch to obtain relief from discussions with Health Ministers concerning problems of nursing in such matters as staffing, standards, experience and education. [More…]

• Did the Committee represent the best obtainable expertise in the fields of medicine, nursing and health administration. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research [More…]

• Recommendations arising out of National Health and Medical Research Council committees are discussed by the full Council in Session, which includes representatives from all State Health Authorities and from my Department. [More…]

• asked the Minister represent ing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The nature of financial assistance provided by the Commonwealth under the National Health Scheme was fundamentally changed from 1 January, 1952. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person- languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Shortly my colleague, the Minister for Health, will be making a statement about this matter, and I am sure that the difficulties will be resolved then. [More…]

• I can only repeat what the Prime Minister said earlier, namely, that the Minister for Health will be making a statement on this matter - I hope tonight - and that any questions that honourable members might have in relation to it should follow the making of that statement. [More…]

• I address a question to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Having been forced by the doctors into referring to an arbitrator the questions of the fee which a doctor is entitled to receive for his work as it relates to payments by benefits funds under the national health scheme in general, will the Minister extend the same courtesy to the pharmaceutical industry? [More…]

• We have no active manpower policy such as in Sweden where sociologists, industrial psychologists and a whole range of specialists are quickly moved into regions suffering manpower problems so that steps can be taken to restore the health of ailing industries or, if need be, shift people to other areas. [More…]

• The matter of health is concerning ‘his Government very greatly. [More…]

• In reporting favourably on this proposal the Committee also recommended that: (A) the Department of Works should take any steps possible which will accelerate completion of the work in this reference; and (B) the Department of Health should examine the means of maintaining a satisfactory linen and sterilising service with the existing resources in the period prior to completion. [More…]

• The Department of Health has already taken steps to ensure an adequate supply of linen and sterilising supplies from existing sources. [More…]

• The food service, which is mentioned in Health’s document, is experimental in England. [More…]

• As the honourable member for Hughes said, there was some conflict between members of the medical profession and officers from the Department of Health when they testified before the Parliamentary Standing Committe on Public Works as to whether it would be satisfactory to send important and valuable medical instruments away from a hospital to be sterilised. [More…]

• I have examined the chart or appendix that accompanied the submission of the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• I am arguing that there is a significant difference between the health services which will be provided in the Australian Capital Territory and the health services which are being provided in other areas of Australia. [More…]

• The debate is strictly limited to that and does not extend to a general debate on health matters. [More…]

• Perhaps at limes a passing reference is made to a particular matter relevant to the point, but I point out to honourable members that the debate does not exend to the general matter of health services or any other matter. [More…]

• I point out to the honourable member for Prospect again that a general discussion on health matters is not relevant to this debate on the presentation of a report of the Public Works Committee. [More…]

• I think that the kernel of what the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) was putting to the House was this: How did the responsible authorities - I exempt the Committee, which was asked merely to make a considered judgment on a Commonwealth works undertaking and that alone: it was not given a broader brief - sitting in Cabinet and in the Department of Health make the decision that this centralised feature will provide not only greater economic but also greater social advantage to the community? [More…]

• I have here an excellent statement, which is relevant to this matter, by the Harvard economist John T. Dunlop who, in talking about health services, said: [More…]

• It is a further indication of a perpetuation of the weaknesses and defects in the health delivery system which have blighted this country’s health services in the past. [More…]

• If we can make some sort of adjustment in these bed rates effectively through a re-structuring of the health services, it may well be that significant savings could be made in this area. [More…]

• It is of no good giving gold plating to our health services in Canberra and allowing an inferior standard to apply to the rest of the Australian population. [More…]

• I appreciate the fact that in Canberra, as in many other places, what we seek to achieve is a standard of excellence in various services - health services, educational services and so on - to indicate to the rest of the Commonwealth the sort of standard which should be the norm. [More…]

• In my opinion, it is not good enough in a wealthy country such as ours to have a gold-plated standard of services, whether they be in health, education, welfare or any other field - urban environment is probably the outstanding example - in a national capital such as Canberra and then to find in the capital cities far greater aggregations of the nation’s population living in slums or resorting to slum standards of facilities such as our public health services. [More…]

• I believe that a national hospitals and public health services commission must be established. [More…]

• The Federal Government must work in conjunction with the State health authorities and the State governments. [More…]

• It is a matter of planning and projecting the needs of the community into the future, not only for hospitals but also for public health services. [More…]

• The Commonwealth has the responsibility for the health services of the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory and only those health services. [More…]

• The former Minister for Health would be well advised to stay quiet in view of the ineffectual way in which he handled matters affecting health and is now handling immigration matters. [More…]

• But we have brought in a vastly improved health scheme. [More…]

• The Victorian Department of Health’s contribution was $10,301 or 56.2 per cent. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, special, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• 10 per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• I ask the Minister representing the Minister for Health whether he is aware of a report that the Drug Evaluation Committee has reversed the attitude of the Director-General of Health to have the anti-depressant drug imipramine withdrawn from sale, on the ground that only one mother has given birth to a physically deformed child and not 3 mothers, as was originally believed. [More…]

• The first part of the question asked by the honourable gentleman was whether I was aware that the Drug Evaluation Committee had reversed the attitude of the Director-General of Health. [More…]

• Because a number of days were to elapse, as a holding operation the DirectorGeneral of Health sent telegrams to doctors throughout Australia asking them to refrain from prescribing the drug to women of child-bearing age pending consideration by the Drug Evaluation Committee. [More…]

• I would like to take the remainder of my time to deal with the collapse of the Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• Let us see what the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) said in the Senate yesterday after announcing that an arbitrator had been appointed to determine fees. [More…]

• Let us see what is actually happening in regard to medical benefit funds under the health scheme of this Government. [More…]

• There is complete incompetence not only on the part of the present Minister for Health but also the previous Ministers for Health. [More…]

• It took the Department of Health until 7th March to supply the answer. [More…]

• Obviously we are getting a very peculiar sort of response from the Department of Health. [More…]

• Let us have a look at the Minister’s costing of the Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• putting the oral contraceptives on the pharmaceutical benefits list because, according to the Minister for Health, another 820,000 women in Australia would like to use oral contraceptives but at present are unable to do so because they cannot afford the pills as they are unavailable on the pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• As I have previously pointed out in this House, there is no cover for psychiatric patients under the present health scheme. [More…]

• The Government claims that it has an effective health scheme. [More…]

• I appeal to the Government in the final few weeks or months of its existence, depending on how long the Cabinet can keep together, not to let the health scheme collapse completely because it will make it extremely difficult for us to establish ours quickly after the election if the present scheme collapses completely in the time that is left to the Government. [More…]

• Recently the Minister for Shipping and Transport (Mr Nixon) announced the establishment of a coastal surveillance service for the protection of our fisheries and to assist with matters of concern to the Departments of Customs and Excise, Health and Immigration. [More…]

• Last night’s statement by Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson, Minister for Health, on arbitration of common fees is a sneaky confidence trick on the long suffering Australian taxpayer. [More…]

• In the face of this wilful and considerable abuse of the underpinning principle of the Government’s health insurance the Minister for Health responded by fatuously asserting that in general there was a high level of observance of the most common fees. [More…]

• Additionally, without a system of extensive health insurance, medical practitioners generally would find work less rewarding financially and professional satisfaction would be diminished because of the continuing concern they would have to maintain as to whether a patient could afford medical treatment and the rationing of this treatment, not according to need but according to wealth, which would follow. [More…]

• In short, doctors have as much to gain from the successful operation of health insurance as has anyone else. [More…]

• Where the rules are wantonly flaunted, as.is the case today, and where the public suffer as a result, and especially where the Government’s health insurance programme is jeopardised by this abuse, the Government has a bounden duty to guarantee that the rules are adhered to. [More…]

• Taxpayers have a right to expect that their hard earned money will not be poured unquestioningly into a system which, because it moderates medical costs for the individual by spreading the total outlay among the healthy as well as the unhealthy, allows some grasping doctors to charge more than they could ever hope to gain from a situation in which market forces determined remuneration. [More…]

• That is, that significant proportion of doctors who are abusing health insurance to extract greater returns than they could otherwise get without health insurance must be curbed. [More…]

• It is required to provide swimming pools, children’s playgrounds, baby health centres, libraries, aerodromes and sporting ovals. [More…]

• I also want to discuss the fiasco of the Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• Yet, the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) said last night in his statement that the Government is not even going to seek an agreement with the AMA on the matter until after Mr Justice Kerr has made his decision. [More…]

• The Prime Minister and the Minister for Health referred to a participating doctor scheme - the Minister hinted at this last night. [More…]

• I very much regret that the whole debate on health in Australia now has gone on to the question of how high the doctors fees should be. [More…]

• The question should be whether the people are getting healthier, and T think you will find that this is not so. [More…]

• There has been an enormous increase in various types of morbidity in Australia, in spite of a tremendous increase in expenditure on health. [More…]

• The fee for service system has no regard for the broader aspects of community health, such as preventive medicine. [More…]

• I commend to everybody the Australian Labor Party proposals for providing an integrated health service on a salaried basis. [More…]

• This will provide, not on a compulsory basis but parallel with the existing private medical service, an adequate salaried structure which will enable an overall programme of total community health care. [More…]

• I do not know about representing the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson), Mr Deputy Speaker. [More…]

• Opposition speakers on the question of health and fees would have been much more credible if the Opposition had indicated what it proposed to do about the question of doctors fees. [More…]

• It has been widely accepted that the Australian Labor Party health scheme has solved in some way the problem which has vexed the Government - I have no hesitation in admitting it - of the level of observance of doctors fees. [More…]

• Only last Monday, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Whitlam) wrote an article in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ which purported to set out the Opposition’s health scheme. [More…]

• Yet, the Opposition purports to criticise the Government and to represent that it has a health scheme which has somehow solved this problem. [More…]

• There is also the very important related issue of catering for the health needs of old people. [More…]

• They had to be reasonably healthy people who did not require hospital treatment. [More…]

• Elderly persons in their sixties could enter aged persons homes in a reasonable state of health and capable of considerable independence. [More…]

• As they got older the health of these people deteriorated and they became more dependent on proper nursing and medical care. [More…]

• The initial concept of provid ing homes and hostels for aged people in good health was expanded to include an additional responsibility for the treatment and care of the frail and infirm aged who needed nursing care. [More…]

• Many homes now face the choice of abandoning their nursing home component and reverting solely to the care of aged people in good health. [More…]

• The pension has increased by $1.25 a week and subsidies under the National Health Act were raised in October from $35 a week to $45.50 a week for intensive nursing care and from $14 a week to $24.50 a week for elderly ill people. [More…]

• Undoubtedly many of the homes have been successful and have brought comfort to thousands of older people, but it is not possible to look at the Act and the aged persons homes scheme without looking at nursing homes subsidised under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The honourable member went on to say that at chat time there was not an effective medical plan for the aged, in fact, the government of the day had provision for a very wide and comprehensive health plan. [More…]

• Schemes take account of the kind of buildings in which the teaching takes place and of the various ancillary staff available to it by way of clerks, counsellors, health care people and so forth. [More…]

• The Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare tabled a report on 5th May 1971 - nearly 12 months ago - in which it indicated the needs of the schools catering for the handicapped. [More…]

• I would ask honourable members to compare the brevity and poverty of this reply with the lengthy if tendentious costing of our health proposals which appeared in Hansard 2 days ago as an answerto a question by me. [More…]

• Such a minister could liaise closely with government departments, particularly the Department of Education, the Department of Health and the Department of Social Services. [More…]

• I am also of the opinion that such a committee could investigate ways in which such a ministry could liaise closely with the Health, Social Services and Education Departments, and the Armed Forces. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other applicances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other applicances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Why is there reluctance to take effective action, despite, according to the editorial, the recommendations of the world’s leading health authorities? [More…]

• As the Minister for Health has admitted that the medical evidence that cigarette smoking has a causal relationship with carcinoma of the lung - and the Minister admits that this has been accepted by the Government - what is the Government’s reason for delaying action on trying to discourage cigarette smoking which, according to the Royal College of Physicians of London- [More…]

• As to the second and third parts of the honourable member’s question, I wa refer the matter to my colleague the Minister for Health and 1 am sure that he will be only too anxious to give him a reply. [More…]

• I address a question to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• This excellent publication referred, for example, to the following items: School meals; free milk; health services; national cultural activities - in this country they are subject to another department; scientific research and development - again financed separately through the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and other such bodies; sport; leisure activities; civil education; youth activities; child welfare; public libraries: in-service industrial training; basic nursing training; armed Services colleges; rehabilitation and repatriation training; sponsored foreign students - for instance, the entire implications of the Colombo Plan - radio and television, and interest payments on loans used for school buildings. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners- hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general actitivies which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our peoplelive in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person -lan guishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Also that customs duties be removed, and that all contraceptive devices be placed on the national health scheme pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• But I would make the general point that the Government’s method of financing medical research in Australia today is primarily through the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• In relation fo the detailed particulars in the honourable gentleman’s question, I will ask the Minister for Health to give him a reply. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person -lan guishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person- languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of beinginconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary, for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• Then there are the questions of housing and health costs and urban conditions and, not least, social services. [More…]

• I had attributed this partly to the lack of recognition given to trade qualifications, partly to the cost of health services, partly to the state of urban facilities but also, very largely, to our failure to do what this Bill sets out to do, namely, to provide comparable social services. [More…]

• My authority is a volume publised by the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare which I obtained from the Parliamentary Library. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many, thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs for social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• -I ask a question of the Minister representing the Minister for Health who was previously the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I ask the Minister whether his attention has been drawn to a statement by Mr Jago, the New South Wales Minister of Health, in the Legislative Assembly - I shall paraphrase the statement - that many people might not know that though belonging to a voluntary health insurance scheme they were not covered if they were in a psychiatric hospital; the State Government, therefore, was not developing any more psychiatric hospitals; it was developing psychiatric wards in public hospitals in order to make the patients in those wards eligible for Commonwealth subsidy. [More…]

• Is the Minister satisfied with the position under the Government’s health scheme in which the financial treatment of psychiatric patients depends on whether they are admitted to psychiatric wards of public hospitals or psychiatric wards of psychiatric hospitals? [More…]

• When will the Government accept the recommendation made to the Commonwealth in 1968 by the State Health Ministers, who said that there was no justification for discrimination between the physically ill and the mentally ill in relation to health and welfare benefits? [More…]

• I should explain here that at the time the health insurance scheme came into being there was a very good reason for this policy. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Government makes its contribution through the States Grants (Mental Health Institutions) Act. [More…]

• However, the Commonwealth Government has no desire to discriminate against mental patients, and where the State governments, which are responsible for health institutions, do not discriminate - that is, where they treat mental patients in genera] hospitals - we do not discriminate in relation to health insurance. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Most people enrolled in the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan probably have done so as a result of extensive publicity campaigns conducted by my Department and health insurance organisations, and through - contact with social workers and other welfare organisations. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Statistics in relation to the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan are compiled in respect of the following groups: [More…]

• The figures for eligible persons as determined by the Department of Social Services are taken at the last Saturday of each quarter and may not coincide with the enrolment figures as supplied for the end of each quarter by health insurance organisations. [More…]

• Some health insurance organisations do not maintain detailed membership records and the membership figures which have been supplied are, to some degree, on an estimated basis, for example, some organisations do not take into account changes arising from lapses in individual membership until some time after an individual membership lapse has occurred. [More…]

• In the case of unemployment, sickness and special beneficiaries, the National Health Act provides them with an additional 28 days free entitlement to medical and hospital benefits after their Social Services entitlement expires. [More…]

• I (4) In the case of migrants lt is necessary to take into consideration that the total figures for migrant settlers do not represent the number of persons entitled to be enrolled in the Subsidised Health Benefits Flan because in the case of families, enrolment by the head of the family provides Subsidised Health Benefits entitlements for the whole of the family. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Arrangements are at present proceeding towards the publication of another series of advertisements on Subsidised Health Benefits in Australia’s foreign-language press, and towards the translation of information pamphlets in foreign languages. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (1), (2) and (3) One such application was received on 24th February 1972, and is currently under consideration. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human personlanguishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, bearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• Also that Customs Duties be removed, and that all Contraceptive Devices be placed on the National Health Scheme Pharmaceutical Benefits List. [More…]

• One of the points of urgency about this sewerage scheme arises because Tennant Creek is in a very dry area in which each year there is the worry of a health hazard from flies and mosquitoes. [More…]

• The general question of the length of time needed by a person before and after confinement is dependent on the physical comfort of the person and her health advantage. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Immigration who represents the Minister for Health in this chamber. [More…]

• The matter was raised subsequently and there is on the file a letter dated 12th May 1948 signed by Senator McKenna, who was then Minister for Health and Minister for Social Services. [More…]

• If it is suggested from this side of the House that we should be doing something about augmenting social services or a health system or something of that kind, the Government says: ‘Where will the money come from?’ [More…]

• Inquiries have been made with the Victorian Health Department, which has indicated that it neither received any approach regarding the Cosmopolitan 11’ nor gave any directions concerning that vessel. [More…]

• The newspaper report to which the honourable member has referred was concerned with the experiences of Turkish migrants and in particular with the health of Turkish children who had come to Australia in the very early stages of the operation of the scheme. [More…]

• Since then steps have been taken to ensure that all migrants travelling to Australia under the migration arrangements we have with the Turkish Government are medically screened by Australian doctors and that particular attention is paid to the health of children. [More…]

• 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth , revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• When one comes to look at the great fields that the States are still called upon to fulfil - education being a principal one, health to a degree, public order, public transport, irrigation, public utilities like electricity and so on - and particularly when one looks at what might be called ‘capital expenditure’ as well as expenditure of an annual kind, the States plus the local authorities become more significant spenders than does the Commonwealth itself. [More…]

• Mr Rossiter happens to be the Minister for Health in the Victorian Parliament. [More…]

• He said that all the Health Department in that State could do about it was warn people not to drink the water or swim in it. [More…]

• Unless grants can be applied to these purposes, the community will be faced with 2 problems: Firstly, a lack of facilities in the way of physical buildings for the training of appropriate doctors to man the health services and, secondly, a lack of appropriate buildings to accommodate sick persons. [More…]

• Is it suggested, for instance, that adequate finance has been provided lor such vital State services as education and health and other vital projects? [More…]

• Any man who has served overseas and whose health may not be as good as it might be, whether because of a war caused disability or not, by virtue of the fact that he has served his country may receive a service pension at the age of 60 which takes the place of the age pension for which a person has to wait until he reaches the age of 65. [More…]

• Their children have health problems which do not apply to other children in the area. [More…]

• The planning of an Australia-wide study of Aboriginal health problems mentioned by my colleague, the then Minister in charge of Aboriginal Affairs, on 17th February 1971 referred to action being taken to implement the recommendations of the Workshop on the health and nutrition of Aboriginal children held in Sydney in December 1969. [More…]

• Action was by way of assisting State and Northern Territory Directors of Health to develop and implement health programmes including an offer to them to consider providing funds for any surveys necessary. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Department of Health is co-ordinating the work of individual States and the Northern Territory and in addition has a continuing role as co-ordinator for the CommonwealthState Conferences on Aboriginal Health Services. [More…]

• Health measures undertaken by the States partly with funds provided by the Commonwealth in the 1970-71 and 1971-72 financial years include the improvement of rural health services and facilities, the training and employment of Aboriginal health workers, health education programmes and research studies and surveys. [More…]

• Some current programmes which have important although indirect effects on Aboriginal health include increased expenditure on housing and education, both of which were considered by the Workshop to be necessary pre-requisites for change in the present health situation. [More…]

• A number of individual studies have been and are being supported by grants from the Office of Aboriginal Affairs on the recommendation of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Studies on aspects of child health are being under taken in various areas of Australia, some on a longitudinal basis. [More…]

• Other aspects of Aboriginal health, including family nutrition, ear disease and deafness and dental health are also being examined. [More…]

• Such studies will provide a basis for the development of existing programmes to further improve the health of Aboriginal Australians in all areas of Australia. [More…]

• A further seminar to review existing knowledge and propose the most effective health services for meeting the problems of Aboriginal health is being conducted by the Monash Centre for Research into Aboriginal Affairs in May with financial support from the Office of the Aboriginal Affairs as well as from the Victorian Government, the Myer Foundation and the Secondary Schools Aboriginal Affairs Fund, and the organisers hope that other organisations also will make financial contributions. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• In a statement to the House of Representatives on 4 March 1970, the then Minister for Health indicated that a number of recommendations of the Nimmo Committee had been adopted by the Government. [More…]

• The Government has since decided not to proceed with those recommendations relating to the establishment of a National Health Insurance Commission (Recommendations 1 and 2) and the deduction of health insurance contributions from employees’ wages (Recommendation 27). [More…]

• asked, the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the estimated cost of the subsidised Health Insurance Scheme for a full 12 months at the time of its initiation. [More…]

• Can the Minister give cost estimates in each case of operating the subsidised Health Insurance Scheme if the eligible income groupings were adjusted in accordance with parts (6) and (7) of this question. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to’ the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The original estimates made in 1969 and 1970 indicated 184.000 families would become eligible for subsidised health insurance contributions. [More…]

• Experience has shown that, in 1970/71, 82,000 unemployment, sickness and special beneficiaries, about 11,000 low income families, and 28,000 newly arrived migrants became members of health insurance funds under the subsidy arrangements. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the Department of Health yet prepared tables of the total number and cost of medical services in each State in the quarters ended 31st [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for health and wellbeing. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs, of social service pensioners- hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical; hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy’, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• That is to say, the Council asserted that iodine 131 would not endanger health, pro- vided the dose accumulated by children over a period of a year in consuming milk did not exceed 840 millirad. [More…]

• These doses are very small when compared to the National Radiation Advisory Committee guide level of 840 millirad, which, for a year of continuous exposure, would not endanger the health of the population. [More…]

• The levels of nuclear fallout in Australia - both old and new - are very low indeed and do not constitute a hazard to health. [More…]

• The International Commission on Radiological Protection has undertaken detailed study and has adopted a level of concentration of plutonium 238 in the environment to which the general population could be exposed continuously without significantly endangering its health. [More…]

• The current concentrations of plutonium 238 in the Australian environment, which are generally representative of the southern hemisphere are between one ten thousandth and one thousandth of the International Commission on Radiological Protection levels and can in no way be considered a hazard to health. [More…]

• The second point I want to look at is (he Minister’s insistence on amounts of radiation which present no health hazard. [More…]

• In August last year the United States Public Health Service issued a warning that there was no lower level to harmful doses of radiation, either to the individual or for future generations. [More…]

• The Bill before the House, while not confined to migrants, is the latest of a series of measures introduced by this Government to assist migrants who have need of Australian social security in their widowhood, ill health or old age. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensioners - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• This is a worthwhile change but it is useless unless the Parliament is later informed what action has been taken on the petition, in many cases petitioners have worked hard on questions of great public concern such as health, education, defence, social services and many more. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• Health Service clearly demonstrated a relationship between the patient contributionand prescription volume. [More…]

• It was never expected that large numbers of widows would seek training under the scheme for a variety of reasons including family commitments, slate of health, age, availability of suitable training or the fact that the widow may prefer to use a previously acquired skill when this is permitted by her domestic situation. [More…]

• What questions are asked and what other procedures are used to screen the mental health of prospective immigrants. [More…]

• What research has his or any other government department undertaken into the mental health problems of migrants resident in Australia. [More…]

• The application form contains a formal question requiring the disclosure of information about mental health. [More…]

• During the course of selection interview selection officers are alert to detect indicators of actual or past mental health problems (which can be referred for further investigation by the medical examining officer). [More…]

• The medical examination form completed by the medical examiner in the course of the medical examination of the applicant contains specific questions relating to ‘nervous system’ and (for British assisted migrant applicants) ‘mental state’ or (for other applicants) ‘mental conditions and intelligence’ and medical officers are alert to detect mental health problems. [More…]

• • subject to any special observations, the above-named is in good health and of sound constitution and not suffering from any mental or physical defect which would cause inability to earn a living in Australia; [More…]
• • the above-named suffers a mental or physical defect as quoted and/or is NOT in good health. [More…]

• Yet, 23 years later, in our country of great national wealth and abundance it is to the nation’s shame that many thousands of our people live in a state of being inconsistent with the dignity and worth of the human person - languishing in poverty and want, neglect and the lack of proper care necessary for their health and well-being. [More…]

• Completely free health services to cover all needs of social service pensions - hospitalisation, chronic and long-term illness, fractures, anaesthetics, specialist, pharmaceutical, hearing aids, dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody, surgical aids and any other appliances. [More…]

• Ten per cent of Commonwealth revenue to local government for general activities which now include social welfare, health, conservation and other community needs. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• If so, are officers of the Department of Health investigating this case? [More…]

• Finally, does the Commonwealth Department of Health play any monitoring role in the release of new therapeutic agents in Australia, particularly regarding the adequacy of clinical trials before such releases? [More…]

• Honourable members know of our support on the civil side of operations - in hospitals and in the health field, in the supply of food and in the supply of roofing after the cyclone. [More…]

• Those who do not will stand condemned for their disregard of their own health, their own length of life, their own family and dependants and the welfare of this country. [More…]

• They will have to take the consequences of the effect on their health of lengthy hours of sitting. [More…]

• But during the years after he became Prime Minister his health failed badly and he said that looking back he believed it was due to the endless hours spent in all-night sittings during the troublesome years of the depression. [More…]

• Apart from the effect on our health, we are working for rates of pay which people in private industry, employed in a 9 to 5 job, would not accept. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Immigration representing the Minister for Health in this chamber. [More…]

• Is the Commonwealth Department of Health taking sufficient precautions with persons entering Australia to prevent any outbreak of this disease? [More…]

• I know that the Department of Health is giving some consideration to such a station being established on .one of the islands off the Australian coast. [More…]

• I am advised by my colleague in the Senate, the Minister for Works, that several evaluations are being made of this scheme by the Departments of the Interior, Works and Health and that an announcement on the scheme is expected at an early date. [More…]

• Their marketing is largely confined to specialist health food shops. [More…]

• Sometimes I think that in some respects the States, with a certain amount of justification, complain a lot about the constitutional responsibilities which they are still asked to bear, and this is true in such significant fields as education, health, public transport, irrigation, electricity generation and so on. [More…]

• It was intended that the meeting would discuss the question: Do we need a health, education and welfare authority in the Australian Capital Territory? [More…]

• After the discussion was over, the point was made that a number of the participants in the audience were public servants and the fact that they were public servants had hindered and made it difficult for them to participate in discussion on the subject of health, education and welfare. [More…]

• -I direct my question to the Minister representing the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Immigration, who represents the Minister for Health, a question. [More…]

• Is he aware that cortisone tablets under the trade name ‘Decortisyl’ dispensed for a return of $1.32 for 30 under the national health scheme are being sold to chemists, at least in Queensland, at $28 for 1,000 plus 1,500 as a bonus provided free? [More…]

• Would the Minister arrange with his colleague in another place for immediate investigations to be made to establish the true price of these tablets and to effect what appears to be a potential substantial saving for the outlay of drugs under the national health scheme? [More…]

• In general terms the Department of Health has been very successful over the years in negotiating with drug manufacturers the prices of drugs supplied under the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. [More…]

• I mention first education and health. [More…]

• In the matter of health, people who must obtain specialist attention cannot get it in many rural areas. [More…]

• People in this area urgently need a phone to enable them to arrange for the marketing of their goods, to help their children who are going to school, for the health of their families and for all of the other purposes for which one would require a telephone. [More…]

• This service would allow our people to play their rightful part in the fields of health and education. [More…]

• This represents a huge charge against the national health fund, and against our social service funds in the form of sickness benefits and invalid pensions. [More…]

• What is particularly interesting is the way in which the Queensland Minister for Health, Mr D. Tooth, M.L.A., a rather quaint old man, has been running around Queensland saying: ‘We do not need the proposals of the Federal Labor Party on health insurance. [More…]

• If I remember rightly, the honourable member for Oxley said that the Government had turned down some of Labor’s propositions and that it did not want Labor’s health proposals. [More…]

• 1 do not blame the Government for not wanting Labor’s health proposals. [More…]

• The Government’s health proposals are very much better and that is a very good reason for not wanting Labor’s proposals. [More…]

• We have the ridiculous position where the Minister for Health in Queensland, who is responsible for hospitals, has poured scorn on the Labor Party’s health scheme which would increase assistance to Queensland’s free public hospitals by $22m a year. [More…]

• For example, research of high scientific merit is supported financially through the Australian Research Grants Committee; industrial research and innovation are assisted through the Industrial Research and Development Grants Board; and scientific work in the fields of medicine and health services is supported through the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Nor is it intended that the Committee’s activities extend into fields of medical research which are the responsibility of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• It will benefit from an additional $22ra a year that has been referred to recently in public statements by my colleague the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden) as part of the comprehensive ALP health scheme. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• However, figures on a comparable basis have been extracted from claims processed by the Department of Health during the other periods mentioned by the honourable member. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• In his statement to the House of Representatives on 4th March 1970 the then Minister for Health stated that the Government had decided not to adopt the proposals by the Nimmo Committee relating to the regionalisation of activities by ‘open’ organisations. [More…]

• to eliminate those practices of health insurance organisations which were considered as unnecessarily increasing some funds’ operating expenses, should be pursued by other measures. [More…]

• To this end, sections 67 and 68 of the National Health Act were amended in 1970 to provide that each registered open’ organisation must have separate approval for each State in which it operates enrolment, collection or payment facilities. [More…]

• 89 doctors engaged in screening overseas the health of prospective migrants applied for and undertook language training during the years 1965-71 which represents 6J.5 per cent of the total number of doctors engaged for this purpose during the period. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 4715 (Hansard, 7th March 1972, pages 665-7), which estimates the cost of the Australian Labor Party’s Medical and Hospital Health Insurance Scheme, include fees for medical services for persons covered by compulsory insurance. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (1), (2) and(3) In accordance with my Department’s programme for detection of tuberculosis in the Northern Territory, 25,864 persons (including full-blood Aboriginals) in various Northern Territory centres were X-rayed during 1970. [More…]

• Will the Minister, in the interests of the health and safety of Australians and other peoples in the Pacific area, show some real act of opposition to the French test firstly by denying port facilities to all French vessels and secondly, by refusing landing rights to the French ~ Concorde on its proposed visit next month? [More…]

• Aged people by the thousands reside in those areas, and their health is affected by the menace of aircraft noise. [More…]

• You will remember, Sir, that there have been similar inquiries in regard to the repatriation system and the health system in Australia. [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Health given consideration to the question of medical benefit payments to contributors to medical benefits funds in isolated areas where the only means of receiving medical treatment is from hospitals without medical officers or where no doctors are available? [More…]

• We have universal child endowment, age pensions subject to a means test and health benefits disbursed through voluntary insurance funds on a flat rate contributory basis. [More…]

• The Government destroyed utterly the credibility of its interest in living standards when it decided on 27th January 1970 to omit from the 1971 census questions on life assurance, health insurance, housing, transport and retirement incomes which had been included by the Statistician in his trial survey in July 1969. [More…]

• I quote from the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare report of May last year on mentally and physically handicapped persons in Australia. [More…]

• I was even told that under the McMahon Ministry policy, we cannot be told which departments constitute the interdepartmental committee although in a breach of Cabinet solidarity at the end of last year, the then Minister for Health did reveal the membership of this committee. [More…]

• Frankly I do not believe there will be an investigation into poverty, or if there is it will be set up in a most dilatory manner and, like the Nimmo Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, will be fettered in the findings it can make because of the terms of reference given to it. [More…]

• The honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden), who regards himself as the shadow Minister for Social Services and Health, tried to denigrate Australia’s performance in social services compared with that of the rest of the world. [More…]

• The purpose of this Bill is to require licensees of commercial radio and television stations to arrange that every advertisement on radio or television for cigarettes or cigarette tobacco is followed immediately by an announcement warning of the dangers to health of cigarette smoking. [More…]

• The relationship of cigarette smoking with pulmonary and cardiovascular disease, including lung cancer, heart disease, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, is accepted beyond doubt by major international and Australian medical organisations and the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• With cigarette smoking so widely indulged in throughout Australia the health hazard presents a public health problem of such a dimension as to impose a significant social cost on the community in both resources and money. [More…]

• In deciding on a programme of action which will contribute effectively to alleviation of the problem without, at the same time, unduly trespassing on people’s personal liberty of choice the Government has decided that its proper role is that of taking steps available to it to ensure that all people are fully and properly informed of the dangers to their health of cigarette smoking. [More…]

• It is this Government’s view that the most effective contribution to the problem is a concerted programme by both the Commonwealth and the States to educate and inform the population, particularly young people, of the danger of the health hazards of cigarette smoking. [More…]

• Firstly, it will conduct through the Commonwealth Department of Health, in association with the States, an education programme aimed at informing the public of the dangers to health of cigarette smoking. [More…]

• Secondly, it has decided to legislate within the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory to require health warning labels on cigarette packets, and thirdly, to legislate to require warning announcements on radio and television immediately after cigarette advertisements. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council warns that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health. [More…]

• How would they like it if there were no penalties for refusing admission to an arbitration inspector, for providing employment under sub-standard conditions and rates of pay, or for the dozens of other provisions which are all designed to protect the safety, health and working conditions of employees? [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• In addition to the qualifications referred to above, applicants for registration must be of good character, be over 20 years of age, and be of sound health. [More…]

• The Department of Health establishment for public health work in the Alice Springs area is an Assistant Director (who is a Class 3 Medical Officer), 5 medical officers. [More…]

• 3 health inspectors and 26 nursing sisters. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• More than one hundred written requests have been made to the Head Office of the Department of Health; there is no record of the number of similar requests to State Departments of Agriculture or of verbal requests to the Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Firstly, assistance has been given under the national health scheme to pay the premiums of those on the minimum income and, secondly, the Government has given help in housing. [More…]

• Is the Minister representing the Minister for Health aware that there are now 50 per cent more handicapped children at the Mount Eliza Special School in Victoria than the school was designed to accommodate? [More…]

• Can he say which recommendations for the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare on mentally and physically handicapped children have been accepted by the Government and when these recommendations win be given effect to? [More…]

• lt will be clear that, in this general conte.st, the decision to accelerate the tariff review has important implications for the health of the Australian economy.’ [More…]

• Is the Minister representing the Minister for Health aware of the pitiable plight of a silky terrior who answers to the name of ‘Woofa’? [More…]

• The Minister for Health in another place has indicated that he may, after a month at sea on the return voyage, have to spend another 2 months in quarantine. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• It is conducted by staff from the East Arm hospital, the Rural Health section, and the Aerial Medical section, all of whom are trained in the early diagnosis of leprosy. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the Multiphasic Health Screening Services Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia completed its report. [More…]

• -The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and (3) The report is to be presented to the National Health and Medical Research Council at its 74th Session on 11-12 May 1972. [More…]

• New Zealand has also granted assistance in education, defence, civil aviation, meteorology and health to Fiji. [More…]

• In conclusion, I would like to express my personal regret that a very well known and loved member of the Public Accounts Committee, Senator Joe Fitzgerald, was forced to resign today from the Committee due to ill health. [More…]

• As I understand it, the proposals of the Labor Party for health alone include a proposal to increase income tax by 10 per cent. [More…]

• the Institute is satisfied, upon medical examination, as to his health and physical fitness; and [More…]

• Paragraph (b) requires the Institute to be satisfied, upon medical examination, as to the health and physical fitness of an applicant. [More…]

• The Departments of Shipping and Transport, Customs and Excise, Navy, Interior, Health, Primary Industry - all relevant departments interested in the problem of coastal surveillance - met during that month. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members, I present a report on the inquiry into the fees to be adopted for general practitioner medical services in New South Wales (Items 1 and 4) for the purposes of the National Health Act. [More…]

• My view, for what it is worth, is that the health of this measure, which is an exercise in high national politics, will not suffer from its temporary change of place. [More…]

• That all words after ‘That’ be omitted with a view to inserting the following words in place thereof: while not opposing the Bill the House is of the opinion that the Bill should ban all cigarette and tobacco advertising by commercial broadcasting and television stations and the Commonwealth should undertake a vigorous advertising campaign through broadcasting and television to educate the public, especially young people, on the serious health hazards associated with cigarettes and tobacco’. [More…]

• In the meantime many people have died and many more have suffered serious ill health, mostly of a chronic nature, as a result of the effects of cigarette and tobacco smoking in the community. [More…]

• The tobacco industry is not being asked to pay additional tax to support the health system to treat people who are affected by these sorts of chronic diseases that arise from the use of cigarettes. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council, as far back as 1957, warned of these dangers. [More…]

• In 1968 the National Health and Medical Research Council warned in its report of the increased risk of perinatal mortality among pregnant women who smoked. [More…]

• That was the crucial point referred to not only in the National Health and Medical Research Council’s reports in the past few years, but also by the numerous authoritative research workers who have reported on the dangers of cigarette and tobacco smoking. [More…]

• In the face of this, there was compelling evidence, linked with the urgency felt about this matter by the National Health and Medical Research Council and other organisations and qualified bodies, to indicate that the Government had a moral responsibility to the community fully to inform it of the dangers of cigarette and tobacco smoking. [More…]

• We believe it is completely immoral to have allowed the cigarette and tobacco interests in Australia to have operated for so long as they have operated and to have been responsible for so many deaths in the community, for so much chronic ill health and for so much unnecessary and excessive demand on scarce and very expensive public health services. [More…]

• First, is smoking a serious health hazard? [More…]

• On the first question there is no doubt that cigarette smoking is one of the great health hazards in Australia today. [More…]

• Every reputable medical organisation in Australia, America, Canada and Britain certifies that cigarette smoking is a major health hazard. [More…]

• In Australia this opinion has been stated by the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian College of Physicians, the Royal Australian College of Surgeons, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Australian Cancer Society, the National Heart Foundation, the Australian Tuberculosis and Chest Association and the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• So much for the intensity of medical opinion that smoking is a health hazard. [More…]

• It has been reliably assessed by the Chief Medical Officer of Health in Britain that approximately 10 per cent of all deaths in the community are due to smoking associated diseases. [More…]

• These findings in Britain are corroborated by parallel studies conducted by the United States Department of Health. [More…]

• It is a health risk only to a very small proportion of the community - a small proportion of unborn foetuses. [More…]

• So I think we must say that the answer to the first question concerning whether smoking is a major health hazard must be a resounding yes. [More…]

• A licensee shall not broadcast or televise an advertisement relating to a medicine unless the text of the proposed advertisement has been approved by the Director-General of Health or, on appeal to the Minister under this section, by the Minister. [More…]

• In his notes to radio and television companies the Director-General of Health says that no person should advertise any preparation which contains drugs in dangerous quantities. [More…]

• The Director-General of Health already has the power, which he freely uses, to ban or control the radio and television advertising of preparations whose promotion he believes would be injurious to public health, although the actual sale of these preparations remains perfectly legal. [More…]

• Before we rose for dinner I had raised the question whether smoking is a serious health hazard, and I hope I satisfied the House that it is. [More…]

• The one to which I attach most importance is that the Director-General of Health already has the power, which he freely uses, to ban or control radio and television advertising of preparations whose promotion he believes would be injurious to public health, although the actual sale of these preparations remains legal. [More…]

• I think the inescapable conclusion is that the Government has to take action to control promotion in the interests of community health. [More…]

• From the health point of view, what we want to do is divert the inevitable smokers away from cigarettes, which are very dangerous, to pipes and cigars, which are less dangerous, and conceivably even to chewing tobacco, which is completely safe. [More…]

• The relationship of cigarette smoking with pulmonary and cardiovascular disease, including lung cancer, heart disease, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, is accepted beyond doubt by major international and Australian medical organise tions and the National Health and Med:c:il Research Council. [More…]

• Let me go further and say that I recall a Press handout from the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) in another place as late as March of this year in which he made it perfectly clear that legislation of the type now being introduced certainly would not be introduced nor had it then been contemplated. [More…]

• Be that as it may, one can only agree with the general proposition that certainly cigarette and tobacco smoking is a health hazard. [More…]

• However, the legislation does not go far enough or is wide enough in grappling with the problems of a very terrifying health hazard especially to young people in the community. [More…]

• Secondly, there should be a positive Commonwealth programme on national health - an advisory programme which will utilise the forcibly abandoned time - on radio and television. [More…]

• Here we can do something positive to develop health programmes which are badly needed. [More…]

• I think that the whole Parliament should get behind the positive programme we have put for-, ward - to invest in valuable time - in the interests of the health of the people. [More…]

• Secondly, the Government should initiate positive public health programmes on television and radio to take up the slack in time and finance. [More…]

• There is no doubt where we stand on this matter, but I feel that it is an exercise in humbug to say that this is something less than a total ban and to say that there should be fair play - these statements came from honourable members on the Government benches - when in fact all Government supporters are pledged to vote for something which, as we see it, is inequitable and may well be a farce and not in the interests of either country, media or of the health of the nation. [More…]

• As my time is somewhat limited, I should like first of all to commend those people who are anxious to improve the health of the Australian community. [More…]

• I know that there is a need to take into consideration the health of the nation, but this is not the only aspect of the problem. [More…]

• I am strongly of the opinion that the most effective measure which could be taken to achieve the objective of assisting the health of the people through the reduction of lung cancer is the first measure which was mentioned in the Postmaster-General’s second reading speech. [More…]

• to conduct through the Commonwealth Department of Health in association with the States an education programme aimed at informing the public of the dangers to health of cigarette smoking. [More…]

• I believe that this is the key to the situation and the method we should adopt because not only will it be effective, if anything will be effective, in achieving this objective, but also we will be able to apply it to any other health hazard that faces this country without infringing on the rights of anybody in any other field. [More…]

• I emphasise that I do not place even the highly desirable service of commercial radio stations above the health of the nation. [More…]

• My argument is that a restriction on radio and television advertisements will not serve in any significant way to improve the national health level. [More…]

• We are tackling just one health hazard per medium of radio and television. [More…]

• There are other health hazards and one wonders where this sort of restriction will end. [More…]

• If we are to have an education programme we could include in it not only the danger of cigarette smoking but also other health hazards. [More…]

• A public health service study in the United States of America has referred to this possibility and said it was obvious that progressive reduction of tar and nicotine content of cigarette smoke would be of great assistance. [More…]

• I believe in maximising opportunities but when the evidence is overwhelming, as was stated in the second reading speech of the Minister, and the relationship of cigarette smoking with pulmonary and cardiovascular disease, including lung cancer, heart disease, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, is accepted beyond doubt by major international and Australian medical organisations, including the World Health Organisation and the National Health and Medical Research Council one must face facts. [More…]

• The Government wishes to substitute for the words ‘National Health and Medical Research Council’ the words ‘the Australian Government’ and so indicate that the Australian Government warns that smoking is a health hazard. [More…]

• I take it from that that the Australian Government accepts not that someone else has an opinion that it is a health hazard but that the Australian Government itself has that opinion and is of that opinion. [More…]

• He showed clearly that smoking is a major health hazard and that most of the responsible health organisations of the world support that view. [More…]

• However, if the legislation can be responsible for convincing young people that smoking is a health hazard and that they should not smoke, it -will be well worth while. [More…]

• I want to refer to an answer that was given to me on 20th August last year by the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson). [More…]

• I had asked him whether the Victorian Health Minister had given an excuse in December 1970 for not implementing the law in that State, which was 12 months old, to provide warnings on cigarette packets. [More…]

• The relationship of cigarette smoking with pulmonary and cardiovascular disease, including lung cancer, heart disease, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, is accepted beyond doubt by major international and Australian medical organisations including the World Health Organisation and the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The relationship between the drinking of water with pulmonary and cardiovascular disease, including lung cancer, heart disease, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, is accepted beyond doubt by major international and Australian medical organisations, including the World Health Organisation and the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• I believe I can stand here and say that it is established beyond all reasonable doubt that all people who suffer from these misfortunes of health drink water. [More…]

• I will accept it only when the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) rises in the other place and says, on the integrity and the professional capacity of a man equivalent to General Refshauge, ‘These are the facts of life’ and this, so far, has not been done. [More…]

• Some time ago the Government through the Commonwealth Department of Health removed restrictions on the prescribing of anti-depressants under the national health service. [More…]

• It seems ironic that on the one hand the Minister for Customs and Excise (Mr Chipp) is fighting a losing battle against drug smuggling while on the other hand the staff of the Minister for Health unconsiously and indirecly is encouraging the demand for drugs among our youth. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council warns that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health.’ [More…]

• Medical authorities warn that smoking is a health hazard.’ [More…]

• I would suggest that if we accept this amendment it would lessen the impact because to me the original phraseology which read The National Health and Medical Research Council warns that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health’ is succinct. [More…]

• 1 agree that it will shorten the message but it will lessen the dramatic impact of it because my experience is that viewers’ reactions to a warning by the use of the words ‘Medical authorities warn that smoking is a health hazard’ would not be as great as they would to the words now contained in the Bill. [More…]

• In the original proposition the Government is saying that smoking is dangerous to health. [More…]

• Personally I would have preferred similar wording to that which will be required to be placed on the labels of cigarette packets and that wording is ‘Warning - smoking is a health hazard’. [More…]

• First of all, we started off with a suggestion that the National Health and Medical Research Council would be referred to as the warning body. [More…]

• No-one in this House would disparage that Council, which has rendered great service to the Minister for Health and to the nation at large. [More…]

• Obviously the Minister’s first proposal was the sensible one because the National Health and Medical Research Council is a high status, highly respected public authority which is not cluttered up in any way with the trappings of government, the degeneration of Government parties or anything else. [More…]

• Does the Government want to use this technique to advertise itself, to give the impression that it is really interested in eliminating lung cancer and cigarette smoking by saying that the Australian Government warns that smoking is a health hazard? [More…]

• The original proposal was that the warning should refer to the National Health and Medical Research Council, and then it was to mention the Australian Government. [More…]

• Now there is a projected amendment referring to medical authorities warning that smoking is a health hazard. [More…]

• I think he would do much better to leave the matter in the hands of an authority which will stand the test of time, and an honest and irreproachable body such as the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• I am not sure whether I can refer even to the amendment of the honourble member for Isaacs, but he was talking about cigarette smoking being dangerous to health. [More…]

• I think it is a great tragedy if he is to commence talking about medical authorities instead of the prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council warns that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health. [More…]

• First of all 1 think it is very important to identify a responsible and public body that is accepting the responsibility to declare to the public that cigarette smoking ls dangerous to health. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council is well respected in the community. [More…]

• It is an organisation of some prestige, as for example is the Surgeon-General in the United States of America, whose statements on health matters are regarded as significant statements and ones to be acknowledged as most likely to be correct and not special pleading. [More…]

• 1 would submit to the Committee that the prestigious standing of the National Health and Medical Research Council casts it in a similarly eminent role to perform this function. [More…]

• My next submission is that it is potentially dangerous and open to misrepresentation to quote that medical authorities warn that smoking is a health hazard, because it will open up a never ending debate. [More…]

• There are some medical authorities, no doubt of questionable standing, who say that smoking is not a hazard to health Recently a medical gentleman arrived in this city with carton of cigarettes in his hip pocket and smoking profusely not only to indicate that he did not believe that smoking is a health hazard but also to demonstrate the firmness of his belief in this respect. [More…]

• There is no comparability between the standing of unidentified medical authorities and the very clear and prestigious standing of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• There is a feeling on this side of the chamber, and I share in it to a considerable extent, that we are watering down the statement when we change it from a warning that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health to a warning that smoking is a health hazard. [More…]

• I remind the Minister that when I spoke in the House today I quoted from a number of the reports of the National Health and Medical Research Council, which has stated quite definitely that cigarette smoking is a danger to health, that it is in fact related to morbidity and certainly related to a serious illness such as lung disease. [More…]

• So honourable members can see that on this issue I can speak as one who really believes in the health of the community. [More…]

• As honourable members look at my glowing health they will realise what smoking does to a lot of the Liberals we see as we sit opposite. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council warns that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health.’ [More…]

• The Australian Government warns smoking is a health hazard. [More…]

• The suggested wording is: Medical authorities warn that smoking is a health hazard’. [More…]

• That is right, and the honourable member wishes to insert: The Australian Government warns smoking is a health hazard’. [More…]

• Omit ‘The National Health and Medical Research Council warns that cigarette smoking ‘a dangerous to health’, insert ‘The Australian Government warns smoking is a health hazard’. [More…]

• I have endeavoured to point out to the honourable member for Grayndler that the amendment moved by the honourable member for Isaacs is to insert the words: Medical authorities warn that smoking is a health hazard’. [More…]

• Now we have come down to this innocuous statement: Medical authorities warn that smoking is a health hazard’. [More…]

• I have been in the United States where cigarette packets carry the warning that cigarette smoking will be hazardous to health. [More…]

• On 1.7th November last the Minister for Health spoke about another drug not nearly as important as the one we are discussing tonight, but on that occasion the Government went a lot further than requiring a 3-second warning. [More…]

• The term ‘health hazard’ is a watered down term and that is why we are being asked to reduce the time of the warning. [More…]

• That amendment, as the Committee knows now, substitutes for an amendment that was to be moved for a statement that medical authorities warn that smoking is a health hazard. [More…]

• We have accepted the amendment that medical authorities advise that smoking is dangerous to health. [More…]

• If it is dangerous to health, all we are arguing about is whether we should have 3 seconds or 5 seconds to tell the people about it. [More…]

• If we say smoking is bad - we all accept that it is bad for health; it is generally accepted that that is so - and we put a provision for a warning in the first part of the Bill, to say that the warning should be given only for 3 seconds and not for 5 seconds is not the kind of thing we should split the Parliament on, but I hope the Government will pause now and and have along cold look at the question. [More…]

• Above all it is a puny attack <n the whole general health problem of the use of socially accepted drugs in this community. [More…]

• A quarter of a century ago we were taught by our lecturer in public health - I have no doubt it is still being taught by experts in this field - that tobacco is a third rate food, a second rate drug and a first rate poison. [More…]

• I think it is a tragedy that the terminology of the original Bill - ‘The National Health and Medical Research Council warns that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health’ - was altered and those words eliminated; also that the time available to issue a warning was reduced. [More…]

• The Government began with a gesture which was to warn young people about the dangers to health of cigarette smoking. [More…]

• and (2) I note that on 7th March 1972 my colleague the Minister for Health provided information concerning these two questions. [More…]

• I note that on 10th May 1972 my colleague the Minister for Health provided information concerning general practitioners and specialists. [More…]

• I wish to inform the House that the Minister for Health and Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson, is leaving Australia tomorrow to have discussions with health authorities in Europe, the United Kingdom and North America. [More…]

• During his absence the Minister for Immigration, Dr Forbes, will be Acting Minister for Health. [More…]

• Another question asked by the Leader of the Opposition of the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) aims at trying to pry out of the Government the composition and meeting dates of the interdepartmental working party on the environment since 25th November 1970. [More…]

• We can see this in New South Wales where 4 departments - the Department of Health, the Department of Local Government, the Department of Transport and the Department of Environmental Control - are fighting each other about who has the right to monitor and control motor vehicle emissions and to manage the environment as a whole. [More…]

• Already we would have considerable consensus on what we want in terms of air and water quality and freedom from pollution, of housing, of access to recreation and work, of working hours and conditions, of education and health services, of access to and use of material resources, of cultural facilities, of wages and salaries as a proportion of the total wealth and so on. [More…]

• During the course of the last 2 weeks I directed correspondence to a Minister who is in the Senate - the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson). [More…]

• I received a letter back from a fellow in the Senate who signs himself ‘Senator Marriott’ and who says that he is the Assistant Minister assisting the Minister for Health. [More…]

• An invalid pensioner living overseas could recover his health and thus presumably lose his pension. [More…]

• One of the reasons why people who have migrated to Australia are now leaving Australia, and why there are so many leaving, particularly those from the prime source countries, is that Australia does not now compare with those countries in welfare, health and housing standards. [More…]

• For example, after contributing for 5 years to the national health scheme a male Maltese citizen qualifies for a pension at 61 years of age. [More…]

• Department of Health Plant Quarantine staff have been fully informed of the discovery and course of the disease. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Will the Minister representing the Minister for Health draw the attention of his colleague to this unnecessary drain on a pensioner’s meagre resources? [More…]

• Are they to encourage export and to discourage import, to combat pollution or to improve the nation’s health? [More…]

• Is the question of the country’s health and nutrition involved in such research? [More…]

• It has done nothing under its subsidised medical health scheme to lift the burden of health costs from the low and minimum wage earners. [More…]

• to (3) In connection with matters within my present portfolio I have attended meetings of the Australian Health Minister’s Conference held in Darwin in June 1968; South Australia in June 1969; Victoria in June 1971; Queensland in March 1972. [More…]

• It is understood that information required in connection with these Health Conferences has been sought by the honourable member from the Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Does the submission of the Department of Health to National Health Service pharmacists rely on experience in Australia and the United Kingdom as evidence to support its method of costing National Health Service dispensing. [More…]

• If so, is the United Kingdom’s National Health Service regarded as the best external reference model available for this purpose. [More…]

• Will the Minister make a reasoned reply to the Guild Chemists’ case for (a) regression analysis in place of random activity sampling and (b) an interim updating as for medical fee benefits as a basis for assessing National Health Service dispensing fees. [More…]

• It is incorrect to refer to the submission of the Department of Health to National Health Service pharmacists’, since no such submission has been made. [More…]

• During the Minister’s recent talks with Guild representatives the conduct of a new inquiry into National Health dispensing costs was discussed. [More…]

• Other arrangements agreed to in the discussions included the periodic updating of the rates of chemists’ remuneration for National Health dispensing, with special arrangements to operate until comprehensive information is available from the new inquiry. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Under the provisions of the National Health Act, medical practitioners may be recognised as specialists or as consultant physicians for the purposes of payment of higher rates of medical benefits to referred patients. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will the Government consider amending the National Health Act to provide for payment of both Commonwealth and fund benefit when visual aids are prescribed by a medical practitioner or optometrist. [More…]

• The National Health Act makes provision for the payment of Commonwealth medical benefits to contributors to registered medical benefits organisations who incur expenses in relation to services rendered by qualified medical practitioners, or prescribed medical services rendered by approved dentists. [More…]

• From time to time, the Government has given consideration to extending the Health Benefits Plan so that it includes ancillary services but, to date, such an extension has not been practicable. [More…]

• This raises a major consideration, namely, the additional burden which would be placed on the Australian taxpayer who, in 1971-72, is expected to provide some $510m from the National Welfare Fund for health services. [More…]

• However, most health insurance organisations pay ancillary fund benefits where spectacles are prescribed, and pay fund benefits towards the cost of spectacles. [More…]

• The question of whether, or the extent to which, health insurance organisations pay such ancillary benefits is regarded as essentially a matter for decision by the managements of the organisations. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What amounts have been paid (a) by the Commonwealth, (b) by medical benefit funds, (c) by patients and (d) in total to (0 general practitioners and (ii) specialists for services covered by voluntary health insurance during each of the last 10 years. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare recommend overall planning of rehabilitation for the handicapped to increase efficiency. [More…]

• The Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare made a number of recommendations concerning some areas of assistance to the handicapped where, in the view of the Committee, further governmental assistance both Commonwealth and State would be appropriate; and also concerning the co-ordination of Commonwealth activities in this field. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will the Minister provide details of (a) all Acts and (b) the relevant sections of those Acts in (i) each State and (ii) the Commonwealth which give legislative authority, for the setting up, administration and operation of voluntary health insurance schemes. [More…]

• The National Health Act provides the authority for the registration of . [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is there any provision in any of the Acts covering the operation and administration of voluntary health insurance funds which permits the distribution of surplus contribution income; if so, will the Minister give full details of the legislative authority. [More…]

• The National Health Act is the only relevant Commonwealth Act administered by the Commonwealth Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Dr E. H. Hipsley, Medical OfficerIncharge of Nutrition Section, Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• Although he himself has latterly refused to give information on interdepartmental committees (Hansard, 18th August 1971, page 284; 19th August 1971, page 387; 14th October 1971, page 2469; 2nd November 1971, page 2877 and 9th May 1972, page 2266) will he now give the names of the departments represented on the interdepartmental committee considering a number of the matters in his Department’s report (Hansard, 9th December 1971, page 4383) since such Ministers as the Ministers for Health (Senate Hansard, 9th December 1971, page 2360), Interior (Hansard, 28th September 1971, page 1607) and Primary Industry (Hansard, 29th September 1971, page 1703) continue to disregard the present Prime Minister’s ban on such information (Hansard, 7th September 1971, pages 888, 889 and 893). [More…]

• If so, did section 1 of the Bill declare that it is the public policy of the State that, in order to safeguard the life, health, property, and public welfare of its citizens, the production sales and use of motor fuels and the pollution caused by the additives in motor fuels is a matter affecting the public interest, and that a reduced tax on motor fuels containing grain alcohol as a substitute for lead additives is necessary for the reduction of pollution and will further serve as an incentive for the agricultural economy in the State. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What amount was paid by the Commonwealth to Queensland (a) under the ‘National Health Act as subsidies for both insured and uninsured occupied beds in public wards in [More…]

• Queensland public hospitals during 1969-70 and (b) under the amended National Health Act as a result of the requirement to pay a full $2 subsidy on all occupied beds during 1970-71. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many medical practitioners in each (a) State and (b) Territory of the Commonwealth have been accepted as (i) specialists and (ii) physicians for the purpose of medical benefit refunds under the National Health Act [More…]

• If the information sought in parts (2) and (3) is not available to the Department of Health, will the Minister take urgent action to obtain it. [More…]

• The number of medical practitioners recognised as specialists and consultant physicians for the purposes of the National Health Act as at 31st December 1971 is as follows: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is there evidence accepted by the Department of Health suggesting that the incidence of carcinoma of the lung is higher among smokers man non-smokers; if so, what are the comparative rates. [More…]

• Is it accepted that carcinoma of the lung is a disabling disease causing direct economic cost through lost productivity as a result of illness as well as making demands on expensive health services, and are there also indirect social costs caused by the distress, disorganisation and other tensions imposed on families of persons affected by terminal carcinoma of the lung. [More…]

• The Department of Health is aware of the content of authoritative reports such as those of the Royal College of Physicians of London and the United States Surgeon-General, and the relevant recommendations of the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• In a report to the Twenty-Third World Health Assembly in 1970 the main relationships revealed by prospective studies between smoking habits and mortality from all causes were presented. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: (,1) What are the names of the 2 (a) medical and (b) hospital benefits organisations in each State with the greatest membership. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many general practitioner services subject to National Health Scheme rebate were on account of (a) surgery consultations and (b) home visits in (i) die Commonwealth and (ii) each State and Territory in the latest 12 months for which figures are available. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Under the subsidised health insurance scheme, would a man supporting a wife and 6 children and paying rent or housing repayments at the rate of $10 a week from a wage of $72 a week be excluded from any benefits of the scheme, but be entitled to free public hospital outpatient treatment in the A.CT. [More…]

• If so, what is the basis on which the subsidised health insurance scheme means test has been constructed and why is it at sharp variance with the means test establishing eligibility for free outpatient treatment in the Canberra Hospital. [More…]

• 4162 (Hansard, 7th December 1971, page 4254) which show that only about 3,100 or 0.2 per cent of the nation’s adult male wage earners were earning in May 1971 the weekly income which qualifies a family for free health insuance under the subsidised Health benefits scheme. [More…]

• If the Minister is concerned at the small number of low income families who have applied for enrolment in the subsidised health benefits scheme, will he take steps to liberalise the means test which is now denying assistance to tens of thousands of families. [More…]

• The income limit applying to low income families under the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan, in respect of free health insurance, is based on the average minimum wage payable under Commonweaalth awards in the various States. [More…]

• In determining eligibility for free health insurance, no deductions are allowed from the gross weekly income amount. [More…]

• The question of varying the income tests applicable to applicants for subsidised health benefits will be reviewed by the Government at the appropriate time. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the estimated average payment per family by the Commonwealth for (a) drugs for (i) social service pensioners, (ii) persons paying a reduced fee for National Health Service prescriptions and (iii) other persons on National Health Service prescriptions, (b) hospital costs including dispensing for (i) standard bed patients and (ii) sub-intermediate, intermediate and private bed patients and (c) private medical fees for (i) social service pensioners and (ii) others in the latest year for which figures are available. [More…]

• The Department of Health does not record these details on a family unit basis, and I am therefore unable to provide the information requested. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In December 1968, the Mental Health Regulations in Queensland were amended to allow for a ‘maintenance charge for treatment, care and control of a patient accommodated in a section of a special hospital recognised by the Commonwealth Department of Social Services for the purpose of payment of Social Service Benefits.’ [More…]

• In Western Australia, section 19 of the Mental Health Act 1962-1969 of that State provides that the cost of maintenance and treatment may be recovered from a patient It also provides that these fees, except in certain specified cases, may be waived by the Director of Mental Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• and (2) The National Health Act provides that Commonwealth medical benefits are payable in respect of medical expenses incurred for medical services specified in the First Schedule to the Act which are rendered by or on behalf of a medical practitioner. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• and (2) The National Health Act provides that Commonwealth medical benefits are payable in respect of medical expenses incurred for medical services specified in the First Schedule to the Act which are rendered by or on behalf of a medical practitioner. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister represent ing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• It is noted, however, that a report on ‘Post graduate Education for Medical Personnel in the USSR’, published by the World Health Organisation in 1970, indicated that over 30,000 doctors, stomatologists and pharmacists graduate each year in the USSR. [More…]

• The need for newly graduated medical practitioners is dependent on a number of factors such as the current availability of manpower, not only in the medical, but in the paramedical professions; the health facilities available; morbidity in the population; and the system of delivering health care. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• When was a working party established in the Department of Health to examine the question of the inclusion of paramedical services within the scope of the National Health Scheme. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: (1), (2) and (3) An examination concerning the Inclusion of paramedical services within the scope of the National Health Scheme was commenced in the Department of Health following the Government announcement of its decisions on recommendations of the Commonwealth Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance (Nimmo Committee). [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The statements are based upon a review of the world literature on this subject, current in 1966, which was made as a preliminary to a survey of the smoking habits of Australian schoolchildren, conducted by an hoc sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council and published by Council in 1969. [More…]

• Awareness of the health risks involved in snicking was iiic most powerful influence in those children who gave up smoking. [More…]

• Health education campaigns have produced a tolerably wellinformed community among school children, but smoking among school children is still alarmingly high. [More…]

• The relationship between smoking and ill health is accepted by the Government. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What legislative and/or regulatory restrictions apply m relation to the use of reserve funds held by voluntary health insurance schemes for the purpose of investment. [More…]

• The National Health Act, under which medical and hospital benefits organisations are registered, does not specify any matters in relation to investments other than that the organisations must furnish the Director-General of Health with such financial accounts and statements as he requires to prepare his annual report under Section 76a. [More…]

• No regulations have been promulgated in relation to investments by health insurance organisations. [More…]

• On 27th October 1971, in answer to a question asked by Senator Willesee, the Minister for Health summarised the policy adopted in regard to investments made by health insurance organisations. [More…]

• The Government examined the question of the investment policies of organisations when considering the recommendations made by the Commonwealth Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance (Nimmo report). [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: (.1) Is it a fact that the Australian Consumers Association has published information which states that pest strip type insect control devices are dangerous to human health. [More…]

• and (3) The National Health and Medical Research Council, which is an advisory body to the Commonwealth and State governments, has for a number of years continually reviewed’ the use of dichlorvos pest strips. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• When will the House debate the recommendations of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare in respect of mentally and physically handicapped persons. [More…]

• The report of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare in respect of mentally and physically handicapped persons is very far reaching in its implications for both the Commonwealth and the States, and the recommendations of the report cover a wide range of issues which could affect questions of major policy in several Commonwealth Departments. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• On what dates since 21st July 1971 has the New South Wales Department of Health convened meetings of Commonwealth and State officers to consider the proposal to establish a hospital planning bureau (Hansard, 21st October 1970, page 2612 and 7th October 1971, page 2133). [More…]

• By agreement at the 1970 Australian Health Ministers’ Conference, a Council comprising the permanent heads of the State and Commonwealth Departments of Health, known as the Hospital and Allied Services Advisory Council, was created. [More…]

• I ask the Minister representing the Minister for Health: Will he, in the interest of economy, both of time and money, confer with his colleague in another place with a view to allowing members of the medical profession to prescribe larger quantities of approved drugs for chronically ill patients? [More…]

• Since its responsibility is to consider the effects of ionising radiation, including those which might arise from fallout from nuclear explosions, the membership of the Committee is biased towards the biological sciences - genetics, public health, experimental pathology, radiobiology - but also includes several physical scientists with particular expertise in the nuclear sciences. [More…]

• In part of its evaluation of the hazards to health of the 1971 French tests the National Radiation Advisory Committee followed a practice adopted by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, namely, that of comparing the radiation doses from nuclear weapons tests with the doses inevitably received by the community from natural background radiation. [More…]

• However, I believe that it is important to reassure the Australian population that, on the basis of the best independent advice available and contrary to some alarmist views, fallout from the French tests to dale does not constitute a hazard to the health of the Australian population. [More…]

• I raise an issue which concerns the question of the poverty survey that the Government has decided to institute and in particular the effect that the cost of health insurance is having on poor families in Australia. [More…]

• I refer especially to the failure of the Commonwealth Government’s scheme to offer subsidised or free health insurance to low income families. [More…]

• The Federal Government is crucifying tens of thousands of low income families in Australia on an outmoded and extravagant system of health insurance. [More…]

• 1 give just some quick indications of how this scheme of free and subsidised health insurance for low income families has failed. [More…]

• I am talking particularly about that section of families which is supposed to qualify for free health insurance when the family income is below $51.50 per week. [More…]

• These people are being cruelly punished by this Government’s scheme of health insurance. [More…]

• Originally the Government estimated that throughout Australia 180,000 families would be eligible for free health insurance. [More…]

• In Victoria only 750 families are fully covered with free health insurance, yet on the Government figures there should be 60,000. [More…]

• In other words, in Victoria only about 1 per cent of all the eligible families is actually covered by this health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Anyone with the slightest understanding of health and social welfare knows that this scheme simply cannot operate effectively; but then, of course, it never was intended to do so. [More…]

• It is window dressing to give the impression that the Government is dealing with a basic defect in its national health scheme - that is, thousands of people simply cannot afford to insure themselves. [More…]

• I suppose that in my own electorate there should be at least 3,000 to 5,000 families getting subsidised health insurance but the figures reveal that the position is nothing like that. [More…]

• Of those 5,000 outpatients and inpatients over those 2 years no more than 2 have been people who were qualified for free health insurance because of low income at the level of $51.50. [More…]

• The maximum number of families covered for free health insurance because of low income below $51.50 at the moment is 2. [More…]

• On 27th June this Committee commented that the situation with respect to this health insurance scheme had not improved over the previous 3 months. [More…]

• I calculated from the replies that only about 5 in every 1,000 people taking out prescriptions - only 1 in 200 or less than 1 per cent - were people who were receiving this free health insurance. [More…]

• For example,- in February the Federal Government, stung into action by criticism from the Opposition, sent representatives of the Department of Health to Wollongong for 4 weeks. [More…]

• The sole achievement of the attempt to publicise the scheme in the Wollongong area was that for one month the number of applications for subsidised health insurance rose by 52. [More…]

• If one takes the cost of advertising alone, one can see that each extra application for free health insurance in the Wollongong district cost $50. [More…]

• It has been sending Out with child endowment cheques posted through the mail a small notice informing the mothers receiving the cheques that they may be eligible for the subsidised health benefits plan, as it is now called. [More…]

• I was told 3 months ago by the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson), in reply to a question on notice, of plans for this scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the Minister’s attention been drawn to a statement by Dr W. Lopez of the New South Wales Health Department that two-thirds of the cases of typhoid fever occurring in Australia was among migrants and that until recently the disease was almost unknown among Australians. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• In addition, the health and safety standards and provisions adopted by the Commission in the operation of its reactors and the use of radiation, radioactive substances and toxic materials are subject to periodic review by an independent Safety Review Committee. [More…]

• This Committee is under the Chairmanship of Professor Sir Sydney Sunderland of the Faculty of Medicine, Melbourne University, Dr C. J. Cummins, Director-General of Public Health New South Wales and Mr D. J. Stevens, O.B.E., Director of Commonwealth X-Ray and Radium Laboratories. [More…]

• Two Occasional Care Centres for pre-school age children are operated in Canberra by the Canberra Mothercraft Society which is subsidised by the Department of Health. [More…]

• Women that under the National Health Act a qualified hospital benefit is not deemed to include a newly born child for the first 10 days. [More…]

• Submissions were made to the Commonwealth Director of Health and he relied on the National Health Act and said: [More…]

• We have approached the Government to amend the technicalities in the National Health Act so that this charge will be covered by benefits, but unfortunately considerable time has elapsed without appropriate amending regulations. [More…]

• Many years ago the Commonwealth Department of Health set up the Lady Gowrie centres. [More…]

• Ministers for Health, Ministers for Education and Science and Ministers for Labour and National Service have been involved in these matters. [More…]

• Mr Speaker, I wish to inform the House that the Minister for Health and the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson, is ill and is not expected to resume duty before 11th September. [More…]

• During his absence, the Minister for Immigration, Dr Forbes, will act as the Minister for Health. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Acting Minister for Health and concerns the reported finding in Victoria of mercurial contamination of shark to 4 times the legal limit, a finding which has removed from Victorian fish shops over one-third of the quantity of fish normally consumed in Victoria, threatened disaster for fishermen in 3 States including those in the Minister’s electorate, and disclosed a threatening public health hazard. [More…]

• Does the Commonwealth regard this matter as the concern of the Commonwealth Department of Health? [More…]

• I ask the Acting Minister for Health: Is it correct that hospital coverage for pensioners under the pensioner medical service is limited to hospitalisation in public wards in public hospitals? [More…]

• Another survey that is very relevant to this question was conducted by a subcommittee of the Industry Standing Committee of the New South Wales Association for Mental Health. [More…]

• If it is necessary for the ordinary, normal child to have pre-school education opportunities I say categorically that it is even more urgent and demanding that intellectually and physically handicapped children should have that opportunity, not only for the sake of the children but also for the mental health of their unfortunate parents. [More…]

• It includes not only the provision of educational facilities but also other such important services as health, nutrition and parent involvement, as well as the educational component that I referred to a while ago. [More…]

• I am told that the annual State budget of the administering authority - the Maternal, Infant and Pre-school Welfare Division of the Department of Health - will be about $5m this year. [More…]

• It is associated with the Department of Health rather than with the Department of Education and is financed almost totally, on a capital level anyhow, by local government and voluntary contributions. [More…]

• It is in fact a submission it made to the State Minister for Health. [More…]

• That all words after ‘That’ be omitted with a view to inserting the following words in place thereof: the House condemns the Budget because it fails to define adequate economic and social goals for Australia; and in particular because it provides no programme for restoring full employment, no means of checking the costs and prices of goods and land, no framework for improving the standards of education, health, welfare and public transport and no national plan for our capital cities and regional centres’. [More…]

• He is a citizen who must buy land, build a house or rent one, raise a family, keep them and himself in health, travel to work, pay State charges, pay municipal charges, pay insurance charges. [More…]

• But the typical Australian cannot believe he is living in a society committed to justice and equal opportunity when he sees his national government content to have 100,000 and more of his fellow-citizens unemployed, when he sees one million of his fellow citizens living near or below the poverty line, when he sees the operation of one law for wage earners and another for price fixers, when he sees men of great wealth able to avoid, through tax dodges, paying millions of dollars, when he sees the Aboriginal community suffering from the world’s highest infant mortality rate, when he sees millions of dollars spent on a handful of the wealthiest schools in Australia while most State and parish schools are struggling to meet basic standards, when he sees a health system which costs the richest man scarcely half as much as the average man has to pay. [More…]

• Increasingly, he and his family depend on local government to provide a whole new range of basic services in health, welfare, sport, culture and recreation. [More…]

• We have as a prime objective the; eradication of poverty, and in heading in that direction we have record spending increases in housing, health, pensions, child care, and repatriation. [More…]

• But whatever is done, the health of the economy will determine whether these payments are to have real purchasing value. [More…]

• At the moment the health of the economy is not good. [More…]

• They include economic growth, population growth including immigration, defence, development of industry, Aboriginal advancement, development of education, improvement of health facilities and equity in the tax system including estate duty and personal income tax. [More…]

• At the very time when there are widespread demands and needs for resources to meet Australia’s problems in education, health, social services and national development, the Labor Party supports a policy of working fewer hours. [More…]

• The Labor health scheme would result in enormous cost and enormous revenue raising. [More…]

• When we take into consideration the total scene of social service and health benefits, including homes for the aged, we find that the situation has improved immensely for the recipients of these benefits. [More…]

• I would appeal to honourable members to consider the convenience and health of some of those members who are not as young as they used to be. [More…]

• The same is true for other spheres such as in education and in health. [More…]

• Add to it great strides in health matters, especially in care for the aged sick. [More…]

• I believe that this is so important that I will have discussions with my colleague, the Acting Minister for Health, to see whether a statement can be put down in this House so that the Australian public can know how valuable the policy changes are, who will benefit from them and how they can go about getting the benefits. [More…]

• Is it a fact that lack of sewerage hygiene right across Australia is adding to pollution and undermining people’s health? [More…]

• I support the amendment moved by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Whitlam) which reads in part: the House condemns the Budget because it fails to define adequate economic and social goals for Australia; and in particular because it provides no programme for restoring full employment, no means of checking the costs and prices of goods and land, no framework for improving the standards of education, health, welfare and public transport and no national plan for our capital cities and regional centres’. [More…]

• There are major improvements also in relation to health, housing, child care, social services and repatriation. [More…]

• But associated with the Budget is the statement that there will be a proper inquiry into poverty and, presumably, the reasons for poverty in Australia and this will cover not just an area of pensions but also areas of health and other reasons which can lead people into conditions of poverty. [More…]

• When one in every 3 adults and one in every 4 citizens are over 60 years of age, when a large number of the remaining people are young families, when an area has over one million resident tourists per year, when it has the highest motor vehicle accident rate in New South Wales - caused by the Pacific Highway running through the area - and when it has a high incidence of marine accidents, then there is a great demand on its health facilities. [More…]

• There is no assistance to cultural pursuits, sporting and recreational activities, or the special health needs for the rehabilitation and care of the aged. [More…]

• There is now irrefutable evidence accumulating that lead in petrol is a major health hazard. [More…]

• This afternoon I should like to concentrate rather on social services and on the associated measures in the health field which deal with the same kinds of problems and take advantage of the same kinds of opportunities. [More…]

• Sick old people should be able to follow their own preferences; they should be forced as little as their health permits away from their normal living into dependent living. [More…]

• This is a principle which we should follow and will follow and hence we are giving the ailing aged help in their own homes, in hostels and in the nursing homes, covering the whole spectrum, partly through social services and partly through the measures which my colleague the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) is administering. [More…]

• This provision, which will be administered by my colleague the Minister for Health, will be brought into operation as soon as possible, although it will take some time to set up the administrative machinery. [More…]

• This plan is to be administered by my colleague the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson). [More…]

• It does, through the nursing home benefits which we have given, make so much difference to those people who would otherwise be in quite considerable hardship in their declining years of ill health. [More…]

• So we could go on with the neglect of this Government for the community as a whole - its refusal to correct the health scheme chaos, the lack of an Australian securities and exchange commission and so on and so on. [More…]

• With regard to health and social services it contains real assistance in many spheres. [More…]

• That does not include the amounts appropriated for expenditure in the Northern Territory through the Department of Education and Science, the Department of Health and the Department of Civil Aviation. [More…]

• The Government is facing up to the problem of providing housing, health services, education and other facilities. [More…]

• Even though this most recent effort of the Treasurer (Mr Snedden) contains a number of very objectionable measures; even though it aggravates still further many of the undesirable features of the general tax system which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer; even though it leaves so much unrecognised and uncared for in so many fields, such as educational opportunity and assistance for children in remote and isolated areas; even though it fails in regard to health, social services, repatriation, primary industry, decentralisation, northern development and so on; even though it will do nothing towards overcoming the serious and frightening unemployment situation; even though it does nothing to halt the continuing rapid increase in prices and the cost of living, it nevertheless would not be quite so bad if we could only trust the Government. [More…]

• I support the amendment moved by the Leader of the Opposition which states: the House condemns the Budget because it falls to define adequate economic and social goals for Australia; and in particular because it provides no programme fox restoring full employment, no means of checking the costs and prices of goods and land, no framework for improving the standards of education, health, welfare and public transport and no national plan for our capital cities and regional centres’. [More…]

• Further, it would make available more land near the city on which development has been stopped for health reasons. [More…]

• The situation is an urgent one in relation to both employment and health. [More…]

• I have read statements attributed to Dr Hecker which reportedly were made in Sydney yesterday when he was making a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare. [More…]

• The Australian Post Office will occupy all but the top floor, which will provide accommodation for the Departments of the Interior, Labour and National Service, Social Services, Health and Housing, and the Taxation Office. [More…]

• The Committee was concerned to note that the Commonwealth instrumentalities at present located in Bathurst were in most unsatisfactory quarters, and we are very pleased to see that provision is now being made for accommodation of the Taxation Office, the Electoral Office and the Departments of Social Services, Health, Housing and Labour and National Service and that the honourable member for Macquarie is to receive - deservedly, I would say - accommodation in this very fine complex. [More…]

• Branches of the Departments of Social Services, Health and Housing and of the Taxation Office will all be established in Bathurst and these offices will require space additional to that available at the present time. [More…]

• Health benefits, nursing benefits and most repatriation benefits are free of both the means test and income tax. [More…]

• Should we reduce grants to the States for education, health, housing and other services, or should we raise taxes? [More…]

• The amendment seeks to insert the following words: the House condemns the Budget because it fails to define adequate economic and social goals for Australia; and in particular because it provides no programme for restoring full employment, no means of checking the costs and prices of goods and land, no framework for improving the standards of education, health, welfare and public transport and no national plan for our capital cities and regional centres. [More…]

• Whilst I completely support everything that has been said about the various sections of the Budget, I make particular reference to the sections which deal with health. [More…]

• When the new Bill comes before the Parliament, the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) will announce the precise details. [More…]

• The benefit will be available on the basis of medical need in accordance with requirements determined by the Department of Health and will be paid at the rate of $14 a week. [More…]

• 1 am sure that many elderly people in the community who look forward with great concern to their ageing years and who pray and hope that they will not be beset by ill health, will be supported in the knowledge that there is to be an increase in financial aid to them from the Commonwealth Government as expressed in this Budget. [More…]

• I rise to support strongly the amendment moved by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Whitlam) which states: the House condemns the Budget because it fails to define adequate economic and social goals for Australia; and in particular because it provides no programme for restoring full employment, no means of checking the costs and prices of goods and land, no framework for improving the standards of education, health, welfare and public transport and no national plan for out capital cities and regional centres. [More…]

• Similarly, he seems to have abdicated in his own speech, as has the Government generally, from any proper application to such matters as overseas investment in Australia, inflation, rising prices, housing and health problems, or what have you. [More…]

• So, the cost of the schemes that the Labor Party wanted to introduce in 1969 - its national health scheme, its welfare proposals, its education policies and its national development policies - can be met because the money is available. [More…]

• It also contains an initial provision for domiciliary cars <n the field of health, and provides for the introduction of a national highways plan. [More…]

• I would like to devote most of my remarks to health services, with special reference to the most rapidly growing areas of the capital cities such as the outer western metropolitan areas of Sydney. [More…]

• Those health services have been completely neglected by this Government. [More…]

• This applies to housing, transport, schools and health services. [More…]

• the Budget about health care. [More…]

• Mr Jago, the New South Wales Minister for Health, had promised in July 1968 that the first part of Westmead would be completed by 1972 and that 1,100 beds would be in use by 1976. [More…]

• I emphasise that we on this side of the House do not believe that the vital area of community health services belongs to the free enterprise market place as though the mystical concept of perfect competition prevailed. [More…]

• We propose setting up an Australian Hospitals and Public Health Services Commission. [More…]

• Through that agency we would aim at achieving the optimum health delivery service for Australia. [More…]

• After the Budget was introduced the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) announced certain new arrangements for patients requiring nursing care. [More…]

• Compiled at request by the Legislative Research Service from statistics provided by the Commonwealth Department of Health in answer to Parliamentary Question No. [More…]

• Compiled at request by the Legislative Research Service from the ‘Annual Report of the Commonwealth Director-General of Health, 1971’. [More…]

• It therefore is quite clear as stated in the Labor Party’s proposed amendment that the Budget provides no framework for improving the standards of health and welfare and no national plan for our capital cities. [More…]

• We have to ascertain what sort of health services are needed in these communities. [More…]

• In February 1971 Dr William Langsford, the Director of the Northern Territory divisional office of the Department of Health, was ordered to slash his expenditures by $200,000 and it is reported that he noted in his diary that day ‘disaster day’ because he knew that the people who would surfer as a result of this reduction would be the unfortunate Aborigines of the Northern Territory where infant mortality rates are 6 times the Australian rate for the white population; where in that area tuberculosis is 60 per 100,000 population compared to IS per 100,000 for the rest of Australia. [More…]

• A person resident in the electorate of Mitchell who requires health treatment for herself or her children in case of sickness or injury probably has to go further than anybody else who would be said to live in Sydney. [More…]

• My colleague, the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson), in a statement to the Senate on 16th August outlined the results of the Government’s’ decisions following its comprehensive examination of the role of nursing homes in caring for the chronically ill aged and how best to extend furtherassistance to nursing home patients and to other aged people in the community who need nursing services. [More…]

• Ten thousand non-pensioner nursing home patients will be eligible, if insured, for the same weekly benefits through the health insurance system. [More…]

• For patients who do not have pensioner medical service entitlement cards the Government has decided to use the voluntary health insurance machinery as a vehicle to extend similar assistance towards nursing home costs. [More…]

• The Department of Health has in fact recently written to all nursing home proprietors advising them of the general grounds on which they may make application for fee increases. [More…]

• These new nursing home and domiciliary care benefits, taken together with the other initiatives in the field of social welfare announced in the Budget, demonstrate the determination of the Government to correct imbalances of opportunity within the community and to assist those who need it to receive health care and comfort without loss of dignity or independence. [More…]

• The statement by the Minister for Immigration (Dr Forbes) is in face a restatement, albeit in condensed form, of a statement made by the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) in the Senate the week before last. [More…]

• One cannot help but feel strong objections to the fact that what should be a key public service, as health and welfare in other areas are regarded as a public responsibility, is not regarded in that way. [More…]

• We would build nursing homes as part of public health services in the community, the aim there being to develop market forces which would restrain the speculative exploiting tactics of certain, but not all, private investors in nursing homes. [More…]

• The 2 Harvard economists mention also that there are strong indications that for the 200 or so corporations which increasingly determine the state of health of the economy, foreign profits are decidedly more important than those reflected in the statistical averages, impressive though they are in their own right. [More…]

• The Budget contains other very advantageous increments to the provisions for housing, health, education, child care and, not the least important, death duty which will benefit the interests of family people both in the primary industry sector and otherwise to a very remarkable extent. [More…]

• The Budget will provide for taxation reductions, pension increases, social services, the lifting of the means test, housing, health, education, child welfare, estate duty, Aborigines, defence, shipping, airlines, gift duty, nursing homes, special grants and fares for the unemployed. [More…]

• That is the part to which I would like to draw attention - and in particular because it provides no programme for restoring full employment, no means of checking the costs and prices of goods and land, no framework for improving the standards of education, health, welfare and public transport and no national plan for our capital cities and regional centres’. [More…]

• In this area we find health services and social services generally. [More…]

• The poor need health and welfare services, whilst those in better circumstances do not. [More…]

• Cities, factories and denser habitation bring enormous environmental problems and the municipalities, through their health inspectors and limited testing facilities, will undoubtedly be left to try to cope. [More…]

• The Commonwealth should be entirely responsible for the cost and provision of social services, health and social welfare programmes as advised by local councils and considered by a board or committee. [More…]

• A number of years ago I had the privilege of being a member of a committee that was set up by the then Minister for Health, Dr Cameron, to look into the assistance being given in relation to home nursing. [More…]

• I turn now to deal with health matters which should be considered by the Government. [More…]

• The first matter was raised by me with the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) a few months ago. [More…]

• Leaving education we come next in the Budget Speech to health. [More…]

• What is really necessary is a new comprehensive approach to the whole health scheme. [More…]

• It discusses scientifically the needs of general practice in this country and comes to the conclusion which the Labor Party has already accepted, that the way medical practice would best develop in this country would be to encourage the establishment of health centres. [More…]

• There is a supplement of the Medical Journal of Australia which discusses education of medical students and which comes to the same sort of conclusions and recommendations in relation to the place of these health centres in educating medical students to understand the problems of general practice. [More…]

• What about Labor’s national health scheme which, on present costing, will require an increase in income tax of 1.35 per cent? [More…]

• With the federal election imminent we shall undoubtedly be faced with attacks on the Australian Labor Party’s alternative health scheme. [More…]

• These attacks will come mainly from the Voluntary Health Insurance Council of Australia which is a front organisation representing the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia. [More…]

• It is equally correct that he has had some very had health in recent times. [More…]

• For example, only a week or so ago the attention of the people of Canberra was drawn to the fact that the carbon monoxide levels at peak hours in Northbourne Avenue approached a standard which is the significant danger to health level, as recommended by the Government of the United States of America. [More…]

• The level was far in excess of the levels recommended by the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• That all words after ‘That* be omitted with a view to inserting the following words in place thereof: “The House condemns the Budget because it fails to define adequate economic and social goals for Australia; and in particular because it provides no programme for restoring full employment, no means of checking the costs and prices of goods and land, no framework for improving the standards of education, health, welfare and public transport and no national plan for our capital cities and regional centres’. [More…]

• Increasingly, he and his family depend on local government to provide a whole new range of basic services in health, welfare, sport, culture and recreation. [More…]

• The reason for this is that, since local government is so very close to the people, councillors who do not do their jobs are very often quickly voted out, because this tier of government was concerned, traditionally, with proper drainage and the health of the city, and it was apparent to everyone when the councillor’s job was not well done. [More…]

• He said that there is no framework for improving the standards of education, health and welfare’. [More…]

• There would be a national superannuation commitment of $43 5m and also health proposals from an ALP document of $520m. [More…]

• It is time to pay: For the national superannuation scheme which the Labor Party promised - nearly $2 a week; for education, an Australian schools commission and a new Canberra bureaucracy more than $2 a week extra; for a national health insurance plan - more money for less - more than $2 a week extra; and for housing, helping with interest subsidies, Commonwealth bank financing, $2 extra a week. [More…]

• The Budget provides an extra $145m for pensions, an extra $17m for health benefits for the aged and an extra $72m for education. [More…]

• And it provides larger grants to the States to enable them to increase their own expenditure on education, health and all those services within their authority. [More…]

• It is a prospectus for a national company with growth prospects and the capacity to pay a healthy dividend for its shareholders, the people of Australia. [More…]

• As far back as May members of the Labor Party and political commentators were predicting that there would be across the board increases in social services and repatriation benefits, that there would be reductions in taxation, that the education commitment of the Commonwealth would be increased, that there would be improvements in the national health scheme, that there would be an increase in home savings grants, that there would be a few incentives to primary and secondary industries and a sop or 2 to the Aborigines. [More…]

• But for the last 6 years representatives of the Labor Party have been attempting wherever possible to put forward new ideas on health, decentralisation, urban development, the need for a national fuel and energy policy, education, the need for industrial research and development and the need for a science policy. [More…]

• the Liberal Party - have formed a sort of secretariat and are circulating excerpts from speeches made by the shadow Minister for Health, the shadow Minister for Trade and by me. [More…]

• In other words, there is a greater total for educational, health and insurance deductions and for land tax. [More…]

• In this case the average deduction for each person in that bracket for medical expenses - that is, for claims for medical and hospital fund contributions, doctors’ bills and hospital bills minus Commonwealth and health fund benefits - is $113 a year. [More…]

• I suppose that that should mean that he is twice as healthy but, unfortunately with the medical system we have in Australia cost does not seem to be related to health or anything else. [More…]

• Dr Forbes will continue to act as Minister for Health. [More…]

• I have given instructions for the Department to be on the lookout for it and, if any of it is brought in, it will be immediately referred to the Commonwealth health authorities for report. [More…]

• In this instance the decision about mercury content in shark has been based on a level set by the National Health and Medical Research Council of which a subcommittee last week reconsidered the matter. [More…]

• The Australian Fisheries Council, which met in Sydney yesterday, was concerned that the sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council should take into account all the facts that prevail in other countries where this 0.5 parts per million is established as the maximum permisible percentage. [More…]

• I understand that the World Health Organisation is expected to bring out a report on its analysis of mercury levels in fish some time next month. [More…]

• In the national context, a shorter working week must be set against the wishes of most people for improvements in social services, housing, education, health, and other services of a practical kind affecting the individual and the community. [More…]

• I can assure the House that this is one thing that will change tinder a Labor government; we will not go into a court and say that because nothing has been done about prices the worker is not entitled to get some additional increment by way of higher wages As my colleague pointed out, how could we take off the market the goods that the farmers produce or the goods that the factories produce unless there is adequate real purchasing power in the hands of the 90 per cent or so of the people who are classified as wage and salary earners who are losing out in the equation because prices are rising faster than are wages and because real consumer standards are declining and being reflected in the ill health of the economy. [More…]

• As a nation we have far to go and we have much to do in areas such as education, health, welfare and the development of human and natural resources. [More…]

• Let us consider new approaches, say, to health services. [More…]

• I realise that strong political views are expressed on the health scheme. [More…]

• He has pointed out that the physical fitness and wellbeing of a nation lis important to the health and ultimate happiness of its people, its level of affluence, education and cultural attainments and its technical and scientific achievements. [More…]

• For the Minister for Health the sum of $14,430 was expended. [More…]

• It is not included in medical and hospital entitlements under the so-called national health scheme, nor is there any provision for a taxation claim for such costs. [More…]

• and (2) (a) The Bill to amend the National Health Act to provide for the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan was introduced in the House of Representatives on 24th September 1969, at which time the weekly rates of minimum wage for adult males, as defined by the Commonwealth conciliation and Arbitration Commission, were: Sydney $39.60; Melbourne $38.80; Brisbane$38.40; Adelaide $38.40; Perth$38.90; Hobart $39.50. [More…]

• It was not possible to amend the eligibility level for low income families until the following parliamentary session as the change involved an amendment to the National Health Act. [More…]

• The eligibility limits for low income families under the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan have been altered on 3 occasions, 1st July 1970, 1st March 1971 and 5th June 1972. [More…]

• As from 1st July 1970, the Government decided to provide also graduated assistance toward the costs of contributing for health insurance to 2 additional groups of low income families. [More…]

• Under the new arrangements eligible persons are entitled to coverage under the Plan by the payment of one-third or two-thirds of normal health fund contributions. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In relation to the voluntary health insurance scheme, will the Minister state for each of the last 5 years (a) the sum provided as Commonwealth subsidy (i) to hospital funds, (ii) to medical funds, (iii) to pensioner medical services, (iv) to pensioner hospital services, (v) to the Repatriation Local Medical Officer scheme, (vi) to allocations covering benefits provided and administration costs incurred in the provision of the subsidised health insurance scheme and (vii) in total, (b) the amounts provided as benefits from (i) hospital funds anl (ii) medical funds, net of any transfers for the subsidised health insurance scheme or other Commonwealth source by the Commonwealth Government, and these amounts in total, (c) the fees met by insured members of voluntary health insurance funds for (i) hospital costs and (ii) medical costs covered by voluntary health insurance and (d) the amounts involved in (i) operation costs of (A) hospital and (B) medical insurance funds and (ii) allocations to reserves of (A) hospital and (B) medical insurance funds, and these amounts in total. [More…]

• Those figures may not coincide with the enrolment figures as supplied by health insurance organisations. [More…]

• Some health insurance organisations do not maintain detailed membership records and the membership figures which have been supplied, are, to some degree, on an estimated basis; for example, some organisations do not take into account changes arising from lapses in individual membership until some time after an individual membership lapse has occurred. [More…]

• With regard to migrants, it is necessary to take into consideration that the total figures for migrant settlers do not represent the number of persons entitled to be enrolled in the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan because, in the case of families, enrolment by the head of the family provides Subsidised Health Benefits entitlements for the whole of the family. [More…]

• At the Dental Nursing School in Tasmania the designation dental therapist’ is used in relation to personnel being trained for Australian Capital Territory Health Services, and ‘dental nurse’ for those to be employed in Tasmania. [More…]

• Was the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare in respect of mentally and physically handicapped persons in Australia tabled in Parliament 15 months ago - in May of last year? [More…]

• Did this report recommend a variety of educational, health and welfare measures for the benefit of the handicapped and their families? [More…]

• There is no Utter and there is no health problem. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Under Section 13 (1) of the National Health Act, the Director-General of Health may approve dentists or dental practitioners for the purpose of payment of medical benefits for prescribed medical services rendered in the operating theatre of an approved hospital. [More…]

• These Committees consist of dental practitioners nominated by the Australian Dental Association, and make recommendations to the Director-General of Health that the dentist or dental practitioner should or should not be approved for the purposes of the Act. [More…]

• I am informed that some health insurance organisations pay fund benefits under dental benefits schemes, which operate separately from their registered medical and hospital funds. [More…]

• As at 31st July 1972, there were 111 dentists and dental practitioners approved for the purposes of section 13 (1) of the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• My question which is addressed to the Acting Minister for Health concerns the mercury content in fish. [More…]

• Will the Minister please do everything he can to bring about most speedily a correction of the regulation concerning the mercury content in fish so that the valuable fishing industry may get back to normal and so that fishermen will be allowed to return to a trade that has flourished without devastation to human health for 50 years or more? [More…]

• In relation to the third part of the honourable gentleman’s question, as a result of the concern expressed by several Health Ministers, the Director-General of Health, who is the Chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council, called a meeting of the Public Health Advisory Committee as recently as 6th September, last Wednesday week, to consider the available evidence in relation to this matter. [More…]

• I appreciate the concern expressed by the honourable gentleman, which I share but apart from the health and scientific aspect, 1 do not think I can add anything further to what my colleague the Minister for Primary Industry said, I think, on Tuesday. [More…]

• In the Budget there is a comprehensive and balanced programme for assistance to the ailing aged - that is, those who suffer from impaired health in their declining years, and who need special care and attention. [More…]

• The Government’s programme in this field will be partly administered by my colleague, the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson), and partly through my own Department. [More…]

• This Bill represents but one component of a comprehensive programme being introduced by the Government in this session of Parliament to improve the health and welfare of aged persons. [More…]

• In addition, the Minister for Health has announced that he will be introducing new forms of assistance for patients who require nursing care on a continuous basis, together with other measures aimed at encouraging aged people, who might otherwise be admitted prematurely or unnecessarily to nursing homes, to remain in their domestic environment for as long as they are able to do so. [More…]

• It is consistent with the errors made by the then Prime Minister and the then Minister for Health during the last House of Representatives election campaign. [More…]

• On that occasion their estimates of the cost of changes to the health insurance scheme were nearly 100 per cent out. [More…]

• But it is obvious that no one person is able to fulfil all the needs that are so apparent in investigating the areas of social welfare, housing, health and the like as they bear on the aged pensioner section of our community. [More…]

• If anyone says that this legislation is ad hoc, partial or piecemeal I believe that this only indicates that he has not read properly the 2 second reading speeches of the Minister for Social Services, the Budget announcements or the statement by the Acting Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) on related nursing care measures which also must be considered in this context. [More…]

• Just in passing I refer to some of the points made in the statement of the Acting Minister for Health on nursing care benefits. [More…]

• I note that the health provisions will be a matter for debate later. [More…]

• As has been stated by the Minister, the Government’s programme in this fi eld will be administered partly by the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson). [More…]

• This Bill is a practical application of the Government’s desire to improve the health, contentment and well-being of aged persons. [More…]

• This is part of a scheme to help the ailing aged, the most comprehensive scheme, the most effective scheme, traversing the Department of Health and my Department. [More…]

• Of the total proposed Commonwealth provision of $55.3m for 1972-73 it is intended that, in addition to the $22.545m available in the Aboriginal Advancement Trust Account under my control, of which the $14.5m for the States forms part, $24.5m be provided in the votes of the Department of the Interior for expenditure on Aboriginal advancement in the Northern Territory, $305,000 in the votes of the Department of Labour and National Service, S3.73m and $75,000 in the votes of the Department of Education and Science for secondary and study grants and for the continuation of special projects in the Northern Territory, and $150,000 in the votes of the Department of Health for similar special projects in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• In previous years these amounts for education and science and health were, included in the Aboriginal Advancement Trust Account, and it would therefore be appropriate to compare last year’s provision in the Trust Account of $14.83m with the total provision this year of $26.5m for the same purposes; but it has been thought more appropriate that provision should be made from now on in the votes of the functional departments. [More…]

• I envisage allocating the $ 14.5m as between the various purposes for which the grants are made to the States on the basis of S8.25m for housing, $1,748,000 for health, $2,377,000 for education, $500,000 for employment and vocational training, $875,000 for special work projects and $750,000 for regional projects. [More…]

• Funds for health work provided through the Trust Account are making possible an improvement of rural health services in areas of Aboriginal population. [More…]

• Hospitals, dental clinics, nursing homes and rural health centres have been established and community health nurses have been placed in many rural and outback areas. [More…]

• Programmes of health education and preventive medicine being developed by professional people should progressively relieve the burden on the curative services provided in hospitals in the major centres. [More…]

• Supplementary food assistance has also been made available for children and expectant mothers on settlement communities throughout the State of Queensland, and New South Wales continues to subsidise, from our grant, voluntary organisations working in the Aboriginal health field. [More…]

• In addition, of course, the Commonwealth Departments of Health and Interior have over the past year expended substantial amounts on health through their own programmes. [More…]

• Clearly much remains to be done in the health field and the health status of Aborigines remains a cause for concern, particularly in respect of infant mortality and malnutrition. [More…]

• It is not merely a matter of providing more finance but also of continuing research into the root causes of some medical problems, and of involving Aboriginal communities, particularly mothers, in improved nutritional and health practices at the grass roots level. [More…]

• The transfer of all health responsibility in the Northern Territory to the Department of Health will I am sure result in a new approach to these important tasks. [More…]

• The housing programmes aim primarily to assist families, whose children will benefit thereby; a great deal of health activity is devoted to improving the health situation of Aboriginal infants and children; the bulk of expenditure in education is, of course, for younger Aborigines; while the employment training scheme and other activities of the Department of Labour and National Service seek in particular to assist schoolleavers. [More…]

• This will involve assisting them with accommodation, providing the means for them to overcome the health handicaps from which many of them suffer, giving assistance with education and employment, and providing legal assistance. [More…]

• If one looks at our major city, Sydney, one can see examples in all these fields: Either with the State or unilaterally we have provided hostels and houses, supported the Aboriginal health service in south Sydney, provided funds for schooling, pre-schooling and adult education facilities, assisted Aborigines to find and hold employment, and supported the Aboriginal Legal Service. [More…]

• It adversely affects health of mind and body, retards recovery of the sick and reduces the capacity to learn and the quality of the work done. [More…]

• The annual report of the ‘Department of Health is in the hands of honourable members so that when they deal with the estimates for that .Department they at least know what the Department has to say about its activities during the previous 12 months. [More…]

• It is inevitable, that such people go to a capita) city, Closely related to the problem of sickness and the field of administration of the Department of Health is the question of expense that falls upon a parent or husband. [More…]

• There is water, sewerage, housing and all the associated things such as school libraries, play centres, health centres and many of these additional responsibilities which local government is called upon to provide. [More…]

• Human health aspects of the products will also need to be considered by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Did the Chairman state that this was necessary due to the possible health hazard of seepage from septic tanks into the underground water supply, some of which is used for domestic purposes? [More…]

• Would the Prime Minister agree that the financing of such a scheme would not only prevent a health hazard but also provide urgent employment for Perth’s unemployed? [More…]

• And when one takes into account the fact that the States are still charged with the responsibility for such significant fields as education, health, road making, public transport, irrigation and power development and contrasts with that the limited scope of such functions that the Commonwealth has to perform, one can see that in some respects the great dependence that the States have on central finance perhaps does not make for the best pattern for reconciling the requirements of finance with the actual responsibilities of function. [More…]

• Public Health. [More…]

• However, in 2 highly important fields which fall within the responsibility of the States, namely education and health, the expenditures will be S275m and S99m respectively. [More…]

• The aggregate expenditure for education and health is S364m. [More…]

• If this matter were decided as between equal partners, who on any rational basis would spend twice as much money on civil aviation as is spent on the provision of capital extensions for health? [More…]

• The physical fitness and well-being of a nation is as important to the health and ultimate happiness of its people as its level of affluence, education and cultural attainment and its technical and scientific achievements. [More…]

• Between 1955 and 1959 the German Olympic Society developed what it refers to as the golden plan, not because it costs a lot of money but because man’s health is one of his most prized possessions. [More…]

• I am talking about the health and physical well being of the whole community. [More…]

• The Senate Select Committee on Health and Welfare which looked at the subject of handicapped people indicated that there was a great need for clear statistical data on the numbers and needs of handicapped people. [More…]

• But in this case, too often blocks are surrendered by ex-servicemen who, in some cases have reached the age of 60 and above - sometimes health forces them to surrender their blocks - and who frequently have no good will and no assets remaining against their debt. [More…]

• I can tell the House that the Australian Transport Advisory Council has a sub-committee known as the Committee on Motor Vehicle Emissions which is made up of Commonwealth and State representatives of environment, health, transport and national development portfolios. [More…]

• It was felt there would be a serious health hazard caused by pollution and that there could be long term ecological effects on Darwin Harbour and other waterways in the Darwin region. [More…]

• Provision has been made for the connection of the Doctors Gully sewerage system to the overall plan and the health authorities in Darwin are pledged to watch the situation very carefully. [More…]

• I hope that the scheme will now go ahead with great speed and that care will be taken to ensure that the Doctors Gully situation is taken into account and handled from a strictly health point of view and that if Doctors Gully is required to be hooked into the system, it will be done as soon as possible. [More…]

• Why should we make any move that would encourage another medical or social problem, especially in view of the fact that the World Health Organisation has not cleared the use of drugs of dependence such as pot and many other more harmful drugs? [More…]

• This problem becomes much more difficult for a government to control when men like the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden), who is Labor’s shadow Minister for Health, state that they would recommend to a Labor government the abolition of penalties for drug taking. [More…]

• This Committee, consisting of senior Department of Health and law enforcement officials from the Commonwealth and all States, was set up to co-ordinate activities in drug education and law enforcement. [More…]

• The cheese that we export and that which is used for home consumption must undergo strict hygienic tests and be subjected to pasteurisation but I understand that the health authorities do not insist on this with respect to imported cheeses because it is claimed that pasturisation would detract from the taste and quality of some imported cheeses. [More…]

• I would like to deal with a statement made by the Prime Minister (Mr McMahon) in relation to Labor’s health plans. [More…]

• On this, as on many other occasions, the Prime Minister is completely wrong when dealing with the Labor Party’s proposals on the health scheme. [More…]

• It is a health hazard and also a structural hazard should there be an earthquake. [More…]

• This answer relates to institutions approved under the National Health Act as (a) hospitals and (b) nursing homes. [More…]

• Institutions which are approved as hospitals for the purposes of the National Health Act and which operate units specified as rehabilitation units for - [More…]

• Institutions which are approved as nursing homes for the purposes of the National Health Act and which operate units specified as rehabilitation units for - [More…]

• As the honourable member may be aware the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Council is a statutory body established under the National Health Act to advise the Minister for Health on matters concerning the listing of pharmaceutical benefits. [More…]

• The basis on which this protest is persisted in is that we are opposed to the increase of nuclear weapons of war wherever they are; we are opposed to the cumulative effect of fallout as pollution in the atmosphere of the Earth; and we are opposed to the cumulative effect which may ultimately become a hazard to health. [More…]

• The Budget contains a far-reaching welfare programme, part of which will be implemented by my colleague, the Minister for Health Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson and part of which falls within my own responsibilities. [More…]

• As the House will recall, the administration of the most important of these lies within the province of my colleague the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson). [More…]

• There will be no registration, no prying means test and no need to negotiate complex arrangements with Departments or health insurance funds. [More…]

• I am alarmed that we would have some sort of variation of the present system of subsidised health insurance operated under the Health Act. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party is committed to that and to national health insurance, national superannuation, national compensation and a guaranteedincome to cover all the other forms of social security benefits. [More…]

• Expenditure on Commonwealth financed social security, health and housing is in excess of $l,900m a year. [More…]

• Expenditure by State and local governments and voluntary agencies adds another $400m to the nation’s health and welfare bill. [More…]

• The Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare furnished a report on mentally and physically handicapped persons about IS months ago. [More…]

• This aspect of Labor’s policy involves the expenditure of a further $220m, and does not even include the expenditure of the revenue from the 1.35 per cent additional taxation which the Labor Party claims would be necessary to implement its national health scheme. [More…]

• The greatest example of the inaction of this Government and its low sense of acknow ledgment of problems is that curious scheme under which it says to people: ‘If your income falls below a certain level we will pay your health insurance contributions until your income rises above that level’. [More…]

• Why not lift the income to the point where the person can pay his own health insurance contributions? [More…]

• One point which is worth reminding the House of is that the nursing benefits and the system of aged persons homes which are also part of the Government’s Budget plans have done a tremendous amount towards easing the anxieties of people who, in their old age, face declining health. [More…]

• One of the inquiries to which I just referred is in the hands of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare. [More…]

• The abolition of repatriation hospitals and medical treatment would throw an intolerable burden on existing health and hospital services which are already overstrained. [More…]

• When the Department establishes that nursing home care is necessary and arranges admission, the patients will be admitted on the payment of $18 a week - the same arrangements as are being made for pensioners and, through the health scheme, for old people who need to go into nursing homes. [More…]

• We have a debt of honour to those who have suffered death, injury or loss of health as the result of war service in the defence of our country. [More…]

• A man is either discharged from the Services fit to return to his normal style of occupation with all his health or he is not. [More…]

• I do not believe that the past policy on this aspect has, to say the least, shown a healthy attitude. [More…]

• For example, the United States provides for furlough leave as a recognition of the fact that ex-servicemen might be deprived of an element of health that other people may have. [More…]

• There is now irrefutable evidence accumulating that lead in petrol is a major health hazard. [More…]

• I want to refer now to what should be the role of the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• Here we are dealing with the vital subject of public health. [More…]

• As the honourable member for Reid (Mr Uren) said, vehicle exhaust emissions, which would be very much reduced in Australia if everybody switched to liquefied petroleum gas, are very much a public health concern and the emissions from vehicles run on pet.troleum products, particularly the emission of oxide of nitrogen, pose quite a severe health hazard as a respiratory irritant, an irritant of eyes and an important pre-disposing factor in the formation of photochemical smog. [More…]

• I would have thought that the role of the Department of Health would have been to keep a brief on this subject and to see that no action was taken as a result of political pressure from the automotive or oil companies which would be detrimental to public health. [More…]

• Department of Health to stand firm on these matters. [More…]

• But the Department of Health should move in and say: ‘If you make this decision it will be detrimental to public health. [More…]

• This should be done at the insistence of the Minister for Health and it is a great pity that it is not. [More…]

• I do not refer to the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) personally. [More…]

• I know he has been in ill-health and we all wish him well. [More…]

• At least we have an Acting Minister for Health. [More…]

• I believe that the Ministry of Health in this country should do something more than just try to foot the bills of all the country’s doctors and should try to do something about protecting the health of the nation. [More…]

• 4165 (Dr Klugman) provided by the Minister for Health on 7th March 1972 (Hansard, pp. [More…]

• The number of inpatients accommodated in public mental health institutions in South Australia at 30th June 1971 was 1,925, not 5,917 as shown in the table. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In particular, has he noted the improper and professionally offensive request in that letter that doctors should engage in active public condemnation of the Labor Party health platform in their consulting rooms? [More…]

• If one refers to the available information in relation to health, as in education, the striking thing that hits the observer is the shockingly high adverse statistics on Aboriginal health that are available. [More…]

• From time to time, as an explanation for the failure to achieve any improvement, the Government has said that the health problem stems from the nomadic background of the Aborigines - the fact that they are in mobile groups - but of course this is merely to say something about the problem and not to provide a justification for cbe problem not being more satisfactorily attended to. [More…]

• I think we can be satisfied that there is no upward trend in the statistics in relation to the health of the Aboriginal people in the last 5 years. [More…]

• The amount allocated for the training scheme also has been increased, as has the amount of the allocation to the Department of Health. [More…]

• There is no excuse for the inadequacy of education and health services anywhere in Australia. [More…]

• My colleagues have specified the difficulties existing in regard to health. [More…]

• Members of the Opposition have been talking about Aboriginal health for 15 years. [More…]

• I have a report about the health of the people living at Cunnamulla. [More…]

• I have heard an anthropologist say that this is the way in which they want to live and that a set environment could be unhealthy. [More…]

• The number of animals such as dogs around the place could cause a lot of the ill health that is experienced in this area. [More…]

• I certainly hope that with the efforts being made by the South Australian Government and with the provision of health services by the Federal Government, these mortality figures will be reduced considerably. [More…]

• We have a pretty bad situation when we link the problem of unemployment with poor educational opportunities that existed in the past, bad health conditions and so on. [More…]

• I do not think it does because one of the parts of the Opposition’s amendment asserts that we should provide more employment for Aborigines and that we should be doing more in the field of health so that the standard of health and the way in which health services are provided are similar to the bases of those provided to other Australians. [More…]

• If honourable members opposite say that education, health, employment and housing services should all be on those lines, surely they are advocating that in the long run we shall be moving towards one community, preserving distinctive cultures of Aborigines but certainly moving in the more material things of life to one common community. [More…]

• In the general fields of housing, education, health and employment the informa tion I presented in my second reading speech has shown that considerable advance was made over the last year. [More…]

• asked the Minister represent ing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• However, comparable figures for the 10 years as requested, are not available, as the basis of the voluntary health insurance scheme was changed with effect from 1st January 1963. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Acting Minister for Health. [More…]

• Director-General of Health, of the increasing cost of the national health scheme? [More…]

• All I can say is: What arrogance in relation to a great and responsible profession and what a way, on the part of a person who aspires to be a Minister for Health, to approach a profession without whose co-operation no health scheme can operate! [More…]

• Whatever the honourable member for Oxley may say, the Government makes no apology for the increase in expenditure mentioned in the Director-General’s report because it represents a deliberate decision by the Government to transfer more of the burden of the costs of health care from the patient to the Commonwealth. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Now that the Government, on the admission of the Minister in his reply to a question a few moments ago, has accepted the basic philosophy of the Australian Labor Party on health services, namely, that the cost burden must be shifted from the individual to the Government - I think the Minister mentioned that it had been shifted from 35 per cent to 19 per cent - does the Minister concede that the best way to collect these funds from the community is through a national health insurance fund, rather than through a multitude of inefficient and expensive so-called voluntary funds, which are compulsory anyway since failure to belong to a fund deprives one, if ill, of the Commonwealth benefit from one’s compulsory tax payments? [More…]

• If the honourable gentleman drew from my answer to the question asked by the honourable member for Ryan the conclusion that the Government accepts the Australian Labor Party’s philosophy on health, he is sadly mistaken, as I suspect he knows. [More…]

• The Government strongly believes, as do most of the people connected with the provisions of health care in Australia- [More…]

• And the patients too; that the sort of socialistic approach which the Labor Party proposes on health and which is inherent in its scheme would be absolutely disastrous and would lead in particular to a shortage of the provision cf health services in Australia and, above all and most importantly, would lead to a substantial decline in the quality of health services provided, in the freedom of choice- [More…]

• The Coast Guard Service could appropriately be placed under the control of the Department of Customs and Excise with provisions for adequate liaison with other relevant departments, for example those departments responsible for health, fisheries, immigration and rescue services. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Government makes some contribution to research into pre-school education but I wonder whether the scope of this research will provide enough information on the provision of pre-school education in the States, including whether such pre-school education is the proper responsibility of education authorities or health authorities. [More…]

• In the meantime, the doleful Doctor of Philosophy and former Minister for Health without emeritus, Dr Forbes, applauded this singularly inept and offensive soliciting of doctors. [More…]

• Clearly, the AMA and the medical profession have been gravely affronted by the Liberal Party action, and the affront has been doubly compounded by the brazen endorsement of that action expressed by the former Minister for Health, Dr Forbes. [More…]

• The Courier Mail* today reporting on the interview led its article ‘AMA In Swing Towards Labor Health Scheme’ and commented in the body of the article as follows: [More…]

• Dr Johnson’s statement is seen as a significant softening of the AMA attitude to the Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• The Nimmo report of less than 3 years ago was a savage indictment of the Government’s health insurance programme. [More…]

• The Liberals’ promise to establish a national health insurance commission - a key recommendation of the report - has been buried. [More…]

• Out-patient services have not been integrated into health insurance. [More…]

• People of religious conviction objecting to health insurance are still penalised by exclusion from Commonwealth medical and hospital subsidies of S2 a day in the latter case. [More…]

• There are several other proposals too which have been neglected in spite of a clear need for major overhaul of the Liberals’ faltering system of health insurance. [More…]

• Contributors provide their payments to the schemes for the provision of health services yet here, unknown to them, millions of dollars of their money are being diverted for other purposes. [More…]

• The Hospitals Contribution Fund of Australia recently produced a booklet aimed at bolstering the Liberals’ campaign on health insurance. [More…]

• Presently there are 20 such officials living it up at an international conference on health insurance. [More…]

• The cost of health insurance, pensioner medical, hospital and repatriation local medical officer services will probably exceed $650m for the year just completed and that is an enormous amount of money for the scheme to stumble and bumble its way along on. [More…]

• Department of Health I would first apologise for the absence of many of the doctors who sit on this side of the chamber. [More…]

• I would like to deal with some of the relative side issues that arise on the general question of health. [More…]

• The Labor Party health committee has received a deputation from the Federation of Private Hospital Proprietors. [More…]

• Doctors and the health insurance funds participate in the attack on the Labor Party scheme, and often they overlap in that the same people are involved on behalf of both the doctors and the funds in the publication of such things as the ‘AMA News’, the ‘AMA Gazette’, the Health Care Finance’ publications and the [More…]

• Voluntary Health Insurance Council publication, which are front organisations for the Hospitals Contribution Fund of Australia and the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia and its allies respectively. [More…]

• At present they are continually producing new booklets such as one entitled Doctors and Health Insurance’, an attack on the Labor Party, and ‘Labor Party’s Health Scheme’, another attack on the Labor Party. [More…]

• He is employed by the Hospitals Contribution Fund and its Health Care Finance organisation to publish one of its booklets called The Second Blessing’. [More…]

• The blessing is the Government’s voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The nation as a whole can be proud of the work done by the previous Minister for Health, Dr Forbes, on behalf of patients throughout this country. [More…]

• Families with incomes not exceeding $51.30 a week are eligible for free health insurance. [More…]

• The honourable member referred to voluntary health insurance as though it is something unique. [More…]

• Even the popular magazine ‘Life’ ran a story called ‘More than Compassion’ in its 11th August edition this year and invited readers to comment on their feelings about health services. [More…]

• Of the 41,000 readers who responded to the survey 55 per cent would favour national health insurance paid for by pay-roll deduction and administered by the government. [More…]

• Has the honourable member for Angas heard of the Kaiser health scheme in the United States? [More…]

• The Acting Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) in answer to a question this morning talked about the quality of care supplied under this system. [More…]

• Yet honourable members opposite talk blithely about the quality of health care without any criteria on which to assess it. [More…]

• We are told in this pamphlet that the Commonwealth Department of Health, which has a great deal of experience in this field, has done a costing of Labor’s scheme and has built into the costing an additional sum of $21m to cover a 25 per cent increase in general practitioner consultations, due to the fact that they would be free. [More…]

• There is just so much nonsense being talked on this question of what a great health scheme we have. [More…]

• It has not tried to adapt its health scheme to satisfy the needs. [More…]

• There are many reasons why the present health insurance system is unsatisfactory and why it must be completely scrapped and replaced by a universal health insurance scheme, as is the programme of the Australian Labor Party. [More…]

• I wish to deal with just one aspect of the present system to show why it is so unsatisfactory, namely, the inefficient use and the misappropriation of contributors’ money by so-called voluntary health funds. [More…]

• I believe that a salaried service is incomparably better from a public health viewpoint. [More…]

• I wrote to the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) about this matter. [More…]

• I received a reply from the Acting Minister for Health (Dr Forbes). [More…]

• I have had this matter examined and I would advise that the Commonwealth Director of Health, Adelaide, has advised the Assocaition that Commonwealth benefits are payable for medical services given by or on behalf of a medical practitioner at their Clinic but that payment of fund medical benefit was subject to the rules of the individual medical organisations. [More…]

• The funds operate under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The answer which I received from the Acting Minister for Health revealed that on 30th June 1970 the board of directors of that fund included 2 doctors, one of whom is a past president of the Australian Medical Association. [More…]

• It is small wonder that the Acting Minister for Health was so vigorous in defending such organisations earlier today. [More…]

• How many contributors to health funds realise that their money is being used for political purposes, by such bodies as the so-called Voluntary Health Insurance Council which is a political lobby trying to retain the present system and opposing Labor policies? [More…]

• How many people realise that part of the money that they contribute to purchase health care is being used for political purposes? [More…]

• It is imperative that a truly public, universal health insurance commission be set up which will be fully accountable and fully answerable to the public. [More…]

• I do not know on what basis he made that claim, but I think what we must really go on is the quality of health care and the standard of health in the community. [More…]

• As far as I can see we have no firm means of measuring the standard of health care in Australia. [More…]

• This is one of the big criticisms: We have not taken enough trouble to try to carry out an audit of the health care that is available in Australia. [More…]

• These age specific rates indicate striking differences which do not justify any complacency about our health care system in Australia. [More…]

• It is, of course, true that Sweden has a homogeneous population, it is a compact small country, and it has an advanced comprehensive health and social security system. [More…]

• All these factors play a part in its low mortality rate - Sweden does provide a challenge to younger countries like Australia to emulate its health standards by an aggressive programme of prevention of major public health problems such as accidents, heart and lung disease, as well as an improved system of health care. [More…]

• This paragraph sets out that there is quite a big leeway for improvement in the quality of health care for the people of Australia. [More…]

• He referred to the assertion by the Commonwealth Department of Health that if patients did not have to pay for medical services there would be an impossible increase in the utilisation of the medical services. [More…]

• I point out that the figures in the annual report of the Commonwealth Department of Health show that in the last 2 years there has been, as the Acting Minister for Health pointed out during question time this morning, a reduction in the proportion of medical fees paid by the patient from about 36 per cent to about 19 per cent. [More…]

• One would have expected, on the basis of AMA reasoning, that the utilisation of services would have increased; yet an examination of the annual report of the Commonwealth Department of Health will show that the number of services per person covered in that period increased by only just over 4 per cent, whereas there has been a much greater decrease in the absolute amount which has had to be paid by the patient. [More…]

• In any consideration of the estimates for the Department of Health several questions must be asked and explored. [More…]

• The first is: What is the basis of the relationship between doctor and patient in the health service in Aus tralia? [More…]

• It is a central theme and a central thesis of Labor’s nationalised health plan. [More…]

• It is therefore appropriate to ask: With what attitude would, say, the honourable member for Oxley, as Minister for Health, approach the thousands of general practitioners in Australia? [More…]

• This would be the mentality of a government with $ 10,000m of budget force to put into the balance against doctors, against the preservation of doctors, in our own health service. [More…]

• Private hospitals and private nursing homes are irrelevant to the Labor Party’s concept of a national health s:heme and the vast majority of people could easily be catered for in the public hospital sector. [More…]

• He has thrown his own philosophy into the balance with the honourable member for Oxley and with the honourable member for Maribyrnong concerning the Australian health service. [More…]

• The major act of nationalism in the traditional sense to be undertaken by a Labor government in the next term, will be through the establishment of a single health fund, administered by a health insurance commission . [More…]

• The remarkable feature is that the honourable member for Oxley, who portrays himself as the shadow Minister for Health, means to destroy 25 years of a Queensland public hospital system by imposing on Australia and Australians a new compulsory health tax - a tax which people in that State and throughout the nation have not previously paid, lt is a tax whose rate of imposition he has increased twice within the last 2 years. [More…]

• For that reason alone the rate of compulsory health tax will have to be increased even further. [More…]

• He will be paying a new compulsory health tax. [More…]

• And, under a new compulsory health tax, what could be destroyed? [More…]

• People who wished to utilise this system under a Labor government would have to pay not only the compulsory health tax but also everything in excess of $13 a day which is charged by the private, the charitable and the religious hospital system in Australia. [More…]

• The people who accounted for the 2 million bed days - some hundreds of thousands of people - would have to pay a new compulsory health tax. [More…]

• But perhaps the greatest enigma is that such a programme is proposed by a shadow Minister for Health from Queensland. [More…]

• The shadow Minister for Health would milk the people of his own State of Queensland in favour of some nationalised doctrinaire scheme. [More…]

• I would be delighted to hear a defence of what the Labor Party has proposed, especially concerning the home State of the shadow Minister for Health. [More…]

• I follow the Minister for Housing (Mr Kevin Cairns) with some interest because he asked for a reply on the question of the Australian Labor Party health scheme and what it will mean to Queensland, which has had free hospitals since they were introduced in the days of the Labor government quite some time ago. [More…]

• He expresses concern and surprise at the fact that the shadow Minister for Health, the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden), would bring forward a scheme of this kind because the honourable member for Lilley claims that it would adversely affect the free hospitals in Queensland set up by a Labor government. [More…]

• Of course free hospitals in Queensland pose a special problem for the Labor national health scheme in the short term only. [More…]

• There was a conflict between the State Labor Government of Queensland led by Senator Gair, as he is now, and Mr Moore, the Minister for Health and Home Affairs. [More…]

• The Labor Party health scheme is a fair, equitable and efficient scheme. [More…]

• I would be the first to agree that there will be a difficult transitional period because honourable members opposite are trying to pretend to the people of Queensland that there is nothing for them in the Labor health scheme. [More…]

• I wish to contribute briefly to the debate on the estimates of the Department of Health mainly because an attempt has been made to raise a political storm supposedly about medical ethics, and perhaps political party ethics. [More…]

• Let us put this matter exactly where it ought to be in relation to the alternative health schemes proposed by political parties or now in operation in this country. [More…]

• He included the multiple medical benefits funds, taking of course absolutely no cognisance of what was read to the House this morning by the Acting Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) from the Nimmo report. [More…]

• We now seek your support in active public condemnation of the Labor Party health platform in your consulting rooms . [More…]

• Should this eventuate the retail prop to pharmacy dispensing could eventually be lost for all but the very best situated outlets and if that occurred, retail pharmacy, as at present organised, could survive only on the basis of a massive and unjustifiable increase in national health scheme reimbursement rates. [More…]

• Honourable members may have noted that one of the Committee recommendations is for a system to be devised between the Government and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia to limit future dispensing approvals for national health service purposes. [More…]

• In the long term it seems unarguable that a reduction in the number of pharmacy outlets, firstly, is inevitable; secondly, would allow economies of scale that would assist to keep the cost of national health service prescriptions within reasonable bounds and, thirdly, would not be to the public detriment in terms of adequacy of service only if it were properly organised rather than done in a haphazard manner. [More…]

• Admittedly he has tabled the letter, but what he omitted to say when he quoted from the letter a moment ago was that the President of the Liberal Party in Western Australia asked members of the medical profession to use their influence to oppose the Labor Party’s health scheme in every possible way consistent with the ethics of their profession. [More…]

• The suggestion that members of the medical profession should not, in every way open to them, oppose the implementation of the Labor Party’s health scheme is just so much hypocritical nonsense. [More…]

• Australian Medical Association is now completely onside with the Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• The AMA has not wavered for one second in its opposition to the Labor Party’s health policy which threatens the medical profession with creeping nationalisation. [More…]

• Mr Hayden, Labor’s health spokesman, appeared on the same programme and was indulging in wishful thinking when he said I had endorsed his policy. [More…]

• But instead of receiving payment from patients whose calls are covered by voluntary health insurance Labor proposes that doctors would receive a monthly cheque from the government. [More…]

• For them 1 believe Labor’s Health Scheme would be a disaster. [More…]

• Labor’s Health Scheme will seriously affect patient welfare. [More…]

• I quoted that statement because of the pathetic attempt of the honourable member for Oxley to suggest that in some way as a result of this television interview last night the AMA endorsed the Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• As everybody in this House well knows, I, over 5 years as Minister for Health, had my arguments with the AMA. [More…]

• Although the Government and I do not always agree with what the AMA does and with AMA policy, its comments on the Labor Party’s health scheme in that statement made by Dr Johnson represent exactly and with great precision what this Government believes, is in the interest of the best patient care and the best health system for Australia. [More…]

• If we raise more funds by way of taxation it will be only so that people need pay less money to voluntary health insurance funds and less money directly to doctors. [More…]

• That is the problem with the British health scheme. [More…]

• Whilst our check up on health regulations has been first class, I feel that in the screening of migrants we have fallen down. [More…]

• Only a few days ago in this House we witnessed the attitude of another Minister as expressed through the Minister for Immigration who is the Acting Minister for Health and former Minister for the Army and God knows what else. [More…]

• We heard in the debate on the estimates for the Department of Health the Opposition’s suggestion that we should not have a number of medical benefit funds but one great national fund and that we should have no choice. [More…]

• If the Opposition wanted to impose compulsory health taxes it would apply them across the board. [More…]

• In 1970 the new Health Benefits Plan was introduced under which medical benefits were related to the most common fees charged by medical practitioners. [More…]

• The measures that have been taken by the Commonwealth in the hospital benefits area have brought about the highly satisfactory voluntary health insurance scheme which the Nimmo Committee recommendations were designed to achieve. [More…]

• In general terms, therefore, further consideration of the matters raised in those recommendations referred to in the honourable member’s question is not necessary except to the extent that they may become relevant at any time in the process of the Government’s continuous review of the National Health Scheme. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Was a submission put forward by the Department of Health in 1971, based on the Llewellyn Davies report on the AjC.T. [More…]

• Health Care Services, recommending that alt health services in the A.C.T. [More…]

• be controlled by a National Capital Health Commission. [More…]

• Was a report on a proposed ambulance scheme made by the Department of Health in 1971 which recommended bringing the A.C.T. [More…]

• However, 1 should direct the honourable member’s attention to a statement by a previous Minister for Health on 29th April 1971, concerning approval for planning directed to the establishment of an A.C.T. [More…]

• health authority. [More…]

• My interjection did not refer to the Minister’s statement that the Nimmo Committee had no criticism that the multiplicity of health funds was inefficient or more costly. [More…]

• A Labor government will consider the public’s health first and not automobile companies, towards which this Government has been leaning. [More…]

• The present New South Wales Government when it took office transferred to the Liberal Party’s advertising agents, Masius Wynne-Williams, the agency I mentioned a few moments ago, the advertising accounts of the State Lotteries Department, the Premiers Department and the Health Department. [More…]

• The competing demands of social welfare, health, education, housing come readily to mind. [More…]

• I have said previously in debates in this House that housing, education, health and employment are the 4 main areas which require full and urgent attention in the interests of the Aboriginal people. [More…]

• They need to be shown what is required and what particular forms or lines should be followed in their own interests and the interests of their children, even the unborn children, in relation to such matters as malnutrition and health generally. [More…]

• Very little progress will be made in some of these areas towards correcting malnutri tion, infant mortality diseases and general health matters if we simply sit back and wait for the people to come to the hospitals or medical centres. [More…]

• For this purpose, ‘children in special need’ is defined in the Bill - Clause 12 - as children of one parent families, of families in the first 3 years of settlement in Australia, of families where one of the parents is sick or incapacitated, and of families eligible to receive assistance under the subsidised health benefits scheme. [More…]

• What is the reason for not allowing the Health, Social Welfare and Repatriation Committee of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party to see the video-taped programme. [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In view of the Minister’s decision to attempt to publicise the existence of the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan through posting out notices on the scheme with child endowment cheques, what measures have been planned to study the effectiveness of this move. [More…]

• Will the Minister arrange for the local offices of the Department of SocialServices to add an appropriate attachment to applications for subsidised health benefits so that the number of applicants influenced to apply by the posting of these notices can be recorded. [More…]

• How many additional applications for subsidised health benefits does the Minister expect to obtain through the posting of these notices to mothers. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: (1), (2) and (3) As indicated in the reply to question 5100 of 30th May 19.72, the posting of notices with child endowment chequeswas one of a number of measures designed to further publicise the Subsidised Health BenefitsPlan. [More…]

• It is not considered appropriate to try to assess the number of applicants influenced to apply, for subsidised health benefits in the manner suggested by the honourable member, nor has any estimate been made of the number of additional applications likely to flow from this measure specifically. [More…]

• Is the Minister representing the Minister for Health aware that a number of small hospital benefit funds have shown substantial losses in the past year? [More…]

• The honourable gentleman referred to me as the Acting Minister for Health. [More…]

• He is performing a public service because members of the Opposition, and particularly front bench members of the Opposition, have repeatedly attempted to lure( the public into a sense of false security by claiming over and over again that the Constitution would prevent the nationalisation of health services. [More…]

• Therefore, not only have they the power to nationalise health but also I believe, on the basis of the statements they have made and their actual scheme itself, they also have the will to nationalise health, and indeed I believe that they intend to do so. [More…]

• What other interpretation can one .-put on (he statement by the Leader of the Opposition in respect to the proposal to establish on’e great bureaucratically run government health fund? [More…]

• What other interpretation can one put on his statement that this would be nationalisation in the traditional sense than that they propose to nationalise health in Australia? [More…]

• Their proposal to establish health clinics staffed by salaried medical practitioners would have the effect of nationalising the general practitioners of this country by forcing them to work for salaries. [More…]

• Is the Minister representing the Minister for Health aware of statements by some medical authorities that animal fats are not the major contributor to the incidence of heart disease in the Australian community? [More…]

• As rapeseed oil is used in both France and Australia mainly as a cooking oil, will the Minister request the National Health and Medical Research Council to investigate immediately the possible health hazard in human consumption of this vegetable oil and, if confirmed, will the public be informed of this danger? [More…]

• In relation to the last part of the honourable gentleman’s question, I can inform him that the National Health and Medical Research Council has the matter under consideration at the present time. [More…]

• The major act of nationalisation in the traditional sense to be undertaken by a Labor government in the next term will be through the establishment of a single health fund administered by a health insurance commission with contributions made according to each taxpayer’s means and treatment according to each patient’s needs, but health insurance is only one aspect of the health problem. [More…]

• The Liberal-Country Party Government has argued that the health of the cities is a State matter, that the Commonwealth Government cannot and should not involve itself directly in the planning of Australia’s urban settlements. [More…]

• I might mention also that proposed expenditure of $4.4m by the Department of Health is not included in the amount of $1 12.9m, which is to be administered by the Northern Territory Administration. [More…]

• I believe that the Department of Social Services and the Department of Health pay an average of about $4.35 a square foot per annum for accommodation in the AMP building. [More…]

• As pointed out by the Chairman of the Board, there is a risk to health through pollution of our water supply. [More…]

• If the Australian taxpayers and electors are without things which they desperately need, whether it is pensions, education or health, they can say that to some extent that problem is persisting because of the incompetence that is being displayed in matters such as these relatively unprincipled propositions which are coming before the Parliament in the form of developmental proposals. [More…]

• So the honourable member for Reid (Mr Uren) at least will be gratified to know that this project has a clean bill of health and there do not seem to be any environmental problems about the Tennant Creek power station. [More…]

• However, the 1969 Conference of Engineers decided to put to the Authorities represented, as well as to the State and Commonwealth Health Authorities, a proposal that a set of criteria and objectives for water qualify for Capital Cities be recognised for Australia wide conditions. [More…]

• Drafts have been prepared but as yet have not been fully endorsed by all major water and health authorities concerned. [More…]

• The reason for the loss of the entitlement card is the definition of a pensioner in section 4 of the National Health Act. [More…]

• This is the fourth measure that I have been privileged to introduce during the current session of Parliament as part of the Government’s far-reaching programme for the purpose of improving the health and welfare of aged people. [More…]

• In addition, the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) is introducing 3 new measures: Firstly, to give additional assistance to chronically ill aged patients in nursing homes; secondly, to increase the Commonwealth subsidy paid to organisations providing home nursing services; and, thirdly, a new domiciliary care benefit to encourage families and relatives to accept responsibility in their homes for the provision of professional nursing care and supporting services required by an aged infirm person, in order to reduce the demand for nursing home treatment. [More…]

• At the same time, the Minister for Health and myself are commencing discussions with the States for the purpose of working out with them a co-operative scheme for improving throughout the community the services which are available to the sick and the elderly who still live in their own homes. [More…]

• These organisations, honourable members will no doubt agree, play an important role in looking after the health and welfare of aged or invalid people in their own homes, not only by ensuring that they obtain adequate meals for a nominal charge, but also by providing a necessary contact between people who may be frail and lonely and supportive services such as home nursing, paramedical, housekeeping, emergency transport, shopping, gardening, hairdressing, chiropody, library and general counselling. [More…]

• Quantity-food preparation is known to destroy a large percentage of the vitamin C content of food and when such meals are also overheated in order to be delivered hot by meals on wheels services and are kept in containers during transport they are particularly susceptible to loss of vitamin C. Observations based largely on the measurement of ascorbic acid in their blood plasma indicate that many elderly people suffer from a deficiency of vitamin C which is sufficient to depress their general state of health. [More…]

• One point about meals on wheels is that not only should they be nutritious and health-giving but also people should enjoy them. [More…]

• Our vitamin C programme will be kept under constant review in co-operation with the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• As I told the House when introducing the Aged Persons Homes Bill recently, one of the most important aspects of this year’s comprehensive programme to improve the health and welfare of aged people is to encourage and assist people who might otherwise be admitted prematurely or unnecessarily to nursing homes or other similar institutions to remain in their domestic environment for as long as possible. [More…]

• I compared 2 Commonwealth levels of capital expenditure, namely, the Post Office and civil aviation, with 2 State levels of capital expenditure, namely, education and health. [More…]

• This year, the total capital expenditure on the Post Office and civil aviation - that includes those magnificent places, such as Tullamarine, which most people never see - will be 50 per cent higher than the capital expenditure on education and health or school and hospitals. [More…]

• If any honourable member in this House were making an allocation of capital on the basis of function rather than the priority of finance - and the Commonwealth has priority of finance - would he arrive at the end result that he would spend li times as much capital on the Post Office and civil aviation as he would on education and health? [More…]

• The proposition which the Labor Party makes in respect of this social service is to tax the people of Queensland by the introduction of a new compulsory health tax which will enable them only to have their own free hospitals. [More…]

• I refer now to the compulsory health tax which it is proposed to levy on citizens and which would have been levied on them under the Labor Party’s programme over the last 3 years. [More…]

• In 1970-71 he would have paid $47 a year under the compulsory health tax for admission to his own free hospitals. [More…]

• The Labor Party shadow Minister for Health said that the present formula discriminates against Queensland because it has free hospitals’. [More…]

• Senator Gair, a former Premier of Queensland, fought to keep free hospitals within the voluntary health system. [More…]

• Instead of the hospital scheme being a disadvantage to the State - that is the excuse Opposition members want for a compulsory health tax - there could even be, for this purpose alone, a financial advantage to the State of Queensland. [More…]

• This Grants Commission report makes perfectly clear that in the terms of hospital expenditure it will be the per capita system of expenditure as between States that will determine their adjusted field of hospital and health expenditure. [More…]

• If Opposition members examine page 154 of the appendix to the report they will see the cost for health, hospitals and charities; and if they take the average between New South Wales and Victoria they will see that it is slightly higher than the figure for Queensland. [More…]

• I go further than this to say that if this Grants Commission has been of such great advantage to Queensland, why does Labor try to utilise it as a reason for introducing its own malevolent, nationalised Labor health scheme? [More…]

• The Opposition wants to make it a reason for surrendering them and the entrance fee is its own compulsory Labor health tax which will lie upon each person individually. [More…]

• The honourable member for Brisbane should consult his Leader and his shadow Minister for Health. [More…]

• He dealt at some length with the effect that the Australian Labor Party’s national health scheme will, in his mind, have on the free hospitalisation scheme. [More…]

• I turn now to the subject of the Australian Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• Under the Labor Party’s health scheme the same rate of hospital bed benefit would be payable to every occupied bed irrespective of whether it was in a public ward, an intermediate ward or a private ward in a public hospital or a ward in a private hospital. [More…]

• The Minister for Housing has tried to say, as he has said quite incorrectly on numerous occasions, that there is nothing in the Labor Party’s health scheme for Queensland. [More…]

• V. C. Gair and Bill Moore, the then honourable member for Merthyr as Minister for Health, fought the Menzies Government to retain free hospitals in Queensland. [More…]

• Queensland would have more to gain under the Labor Party’s health scheme than any other State. [More…]

• The myth is being spread by Government supporters that what people contribute to the so-called private health and hospital schemes pays for the medical benefits provided.. All of us in this place know that more than half of that money comes from the taxpayer. [More…]

• The Minister for Housing referred to a 12 per cent increase in the cost of the Labor Party’s health scheme over a 3-year period. [More…]

• He failed to take into account the 30 per cent increase to the taxpayer last year in the cost of the national health scheme provided by his own Government. [More…]

• When I last spoke in this chamber - I am now drawing to a close - I was asked by way of interjection by the Minister for Housing as to what effect the Labor Party’s health scheme would have on the Grants Commission. [More…]

• The point that has been made that Queensland has something to lose from the Labor Party’s health scheme is completely wrong. [More…]

• I very much regret that Queensland has not gained more from the Grants Commission but I look forward to the implementation of the Labor Party’s health scheme next year when Queensland will gain an additional $22m more than any other State because of the burden it carries. [More…]

• Precisely, and that is why we tell the people what the Labor Party’s health scheme will cost them. [More…]

• It is not good enough that people who require telephones for health or employment reasons have to wait so long to have them connected. [More…]

• Invariable they are compelled to go by economic necessity or in search of employment, for education or for health reasons, because the cities have greater facilities and specialisation in medicine. [More…]

• We are being asked to believe that the Country Party is not just a mouthpiece of the big grazing and farming interests but has always been concerned with the health, education, housing and social welfare of Australians and is dedicated to solving the growing problems of the environment, namely urban congestion pollution, conservation and decentralisation. [More…]

• Banks, hire purchase companies and health insurance funds are spending up to $70m on a single project. [More…]

• So the question of relinquishing the card involves rather more than loss of entitlement to medical treatment and the added expense of joining a health fund. [More…]

• This implies very strongly that there were serious flaws in the first letter, that it was rather peremptory and that it confused the pensioners about why they had lost their entitlements and what they would do for health cover. [More…]

• An amount of $1 a week for a health fund may look insignificant against $11.50 a week, but looked at in relative terms the enforced spending of another dollar a week looms much larger. [More…]

• On the figures he has given to the House, 3,250 pensioners who lost entitlement would have to pay out another $52 a year to give them a health cover. [More…]

• My secretary, who is an expert on all pensions, tells me that if the wife of a totally and permanently incapacitated pensioner is in reasonably good health her position is much better than is the position of others. [More…]

• But if she is in the unfortunate position where she is not in good health she is disadvantaged by the Government making this additional $11 a week available to the married TPI pensioner. [More…]

• I assure the honourable member for Mitchell that there are many aspects to be considered in changing- section 4 of the National Health Act - not the Repatriation Act. [More…]

• of course, pharmaceutical expenses which could cause concern to wives of some TPI pensioners who are not in the best of health. [More…]

• The development of these measures was described in some detail in a statement made in the Senate by the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) on 16th August last and also in a statement which I made to this House on 29th August. [More…]

• The certificate will need to be supplemented by the endorsement of a medical practitioner employed in the Department of Health. [More…]

• The new nursing home fund benefits are to apply to persons eligible for benefits under the subsidised health benefits scheme, that is, unemployment and sickness beneficiaries, low-income families and migrants within 2 months of arrival in Australia. [More…]

• Secondly, 5 sets of regulations promulgated since October 1971 are repealed and the provisions of those regulations incorporated in the schedules to the National Health Act. [More…]

• The regulations known as National Health (Variation of Benefits) (Nos. [More…]

• I refer, of course, to costs which are being covered by health insurance programmes. [More…]

• As the speech of the Minister representing the Minister for Health was related to the House, henceforth an application for admission can be based on the recommendation of a local private medical officer and, in some circumstances at least, the admission made. [More…]

• So, I ask the Minister representing the Minister for Health whether he will give consideration to this point and answer me when I conclude my speech so that the point can be cleared up. [More…]

• I have some criticism of the way in which it is proposed that private health insurance funds will provide nursing home benefits. [More…]

• But I think we should do a ‘ number of things to enlarge the provision of health welfare services in a way which will absorb or eat up the enormous amount of accumulated reserves which these funds have, and quite unreasonably have, given the fact that the money has been contributed for the provi sion of health services in the community. [More…]

• But in the meantime the health insurance funds, for doing nothing at all really, will receive an allowance to cover the costs of their administration. [More…]

• As in the case of the subsidised health insurance scheme, their costs of administration are inflated and, if I remember correctly, the amount which is allowed for these costs will include even an amount for allocation to reserves. [More…]

• Why should not the private health insurance funds, with these enormously inflated reserves, be required to continue meeting the full cost of nursing home benefits for these patients until these enormous reserves have run down to at least reasonable levels while this sort of system of health insurance continues? [More…]

• The amount that the health insurance funds are to put into the scheme is to be less than 19 per cent of the total cost. [More…]

• Given the fact that at present $148m is held in reserves, the proposal that the private health insurance funds should bear a cost of about $5m for a full year seems to suggest that it will be something like 30 years before we get a total run down of those reserves from this area of expenditure. [More…]

• Nearly another $6m is to come out of the health insurance funds’ reserves. [More…]

• That is fair enough, except that we have to bear in mind that that money has been provided by the public as a result of misrepresentation to the public, which believed that the money it provided was for health services. [More…]

• I will convey these questions to the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) and ask him to reply in detail in writing. [More…]

• He has suggested that there will be no real control over admissions by the Department of Health: That is incorrect. [More…]

• I assure him that it has been the intention of the Department of Health and the Government at every stage in which there has been an improvement in nursing home benefits by the introduction of intensive care benefits or by the other changes that have been made, to create a situation in which the quality of care provided can be improved. [More…]

• The other type of recurrent grant is in respect of children in special need of such care, such as children of single parents, of migrants in the early settlement stages, of parents eligible for assistance under the subsidised health benefits scheme and of parents who are sick or incapacitated. [More…]

• a child either of whose parents is a contributor in respect of whom section 82s of the National Health Act 1953-1971 applies or is a person in respect of whom a determination under section 82u of that Act is in force; or [More…]

• It is important that we do everything possible to try to restore people who are designated as permanently or totally incapacitated so that they regain health and strength. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• In this regard, the present provisions of the National Health Act are designed to ensure effective organisation management and effective protection of contributors’ rights. [More…]

• The honourable member will recall that the 1970 amendments to the National Health Act were specifically designed to tighten controls over the administration of health insurance funds in the interests of contributors. [More…]

• Each fund must register separately in each State and maintain separate financial records and the Government will not permit funds to continue operations under the National Health Act unless they can demonstrate efficient and economical operations; [More…]

• (This provision enables the Government to implement its policy of requiring health insurance funds to utilise accumulated reserves by increasing benefits without increasing contribution rates to contributors); Section 76 of the Act provides that all registered medical and hospital benefits organisations shall submit details of their financial operations and membership each year. [More…]

• the Registration Committee, which is constituted under Section 70 of the National Health Act, has a statutory obligation to consider and report to the Minister on proposals submitted by organisations to change rules affecting contributors’ rights. [More…]

• If the AMA will continue its attacks on and misrepresentations of the Australian Labor Party’s health policy and if the AMA will continue to peddle poison for the minds of general practitioners and other medical practitioners in its gazette in an effort to undermine confidence in the Labor Party’s proposals and in the hope of encouraging doctors’ surgeries and doctors in those surgeries to become political outposts or propaganda points for the Liberal Party of Australia, the McMahon Government will, if returned, feel obligated to provide an appropriate reward to the AMA for that sort of service well done. [More…]

• Of which immediately come to mind in relation to statements by the Government in the past when the issue of the spiralling cost of providing health services under the Government’s health insurance scheme is discussed. [More…]

• Firstly, there is the complete dishonesty of the common fee concept promised to members of the Australian public and the expectation by them following an assurance by the Government that they will be required to pay no more than a maximum of $5 for the most expensive form of health or medical services. [More…]

• In fact, what is actually happening to the general practitioner is that his status and prestige are being rapidly undermined by the policies that the Government is applying, by the sort of preference - a very rewarding preference - which the present health scheme, through differential rebates, gives to specialists at the expense of the general practitioners. [More…]

• Fifthly, and of equal importance, is the continued misrepresentation of the Labour Party’s policy by supporters of ttc: McMahon Government in an effort to avoid discussing the total bankruptcy of their own policy and in an effort to avoid facing up to the fact that there has been a complete loss of credibility in the McMahon Governments health insurance programme. [More…]

• The amount the Government has contributed by subsidising health insurance alone has gone from $79m to S227m this year. [More…]

• If I were to lump in contributions by the public for health insurance and to add to that pensioner medical service costs and local medical officer costs under the repatriation scheme, I would be talking of an expenditure of somewhere in the vicinity of S650m last year, if I can use the previous year to that as a guideline to the performance of health insurance funds. [More…]

• But it should be remebered that, even with this enormous outlay of money, the whole of the community is not covered by health insurance or the other forms of health benefits I have mentioned - the pensioner medical service and so on - and that an addittional cost of $40m would be involved in achieving a universal cover. [More…]

• So, if we were able to have a universal cover for health insurance, the pensioner medical service and repatriation medical services, under the Government’s scheme the cost would be in the vicinity of $700m. [More…]

• Those are the sorts of defects that are currently assailing the Government’s health insurance scheme. [More…]

• This is because our scheme is conceived in terms of efficient operation of the health insurance funds. [More…]

• One has to pay under the Government scheme for one’s health insurance - medical and hospital. [More…]

• I repeat that the amount of contribution, measured against the tax paid by that nearly 80 per cent of taxpayers covered by health insurance, is an increase of 15 per cent compared with Jess than 8 per cent under our scheme. [More…]

• After all, near enough to every second dollar that a doctor receives today is provided directly by the Commonwealth Government by way of Commonwealth subsidy to health insurance, medical insurance, local medical officer repatriation services or pensioner medical services. [More…]

• At the conclusion of these arrangements the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) said: [More…]

• The Minister for Health, Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson, spoke toughly. [More…]

• On many occasions his only reaction to the health problems for which he has responsibility as the Opposition shadow Minister for Health has been to put up the medical profession as a bogy and to attack, in universal terms, a great and honourable profession. [More…]

• That will not be for some time yet; the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) will give the figures for the June quarter in the Senate today, as I understand it. [More…]

• The honourable member for Oxley should not try to hoodwink the Australian public that there is something inherent in the Labor Party health scheme to provide some method of dealing with this particular problem of doctors’ fees which has bedevilled every country in the world where there is a fee for service system. [More…]

• It seems to me absolutely extraordinary that members of the Australian Labor Party, of all people, in view of their approach to health, should bring to this House a motion which condemns the Government. [More…]

• The spiralling cost to the public of health services under the Government’s health insurance programme. [More…]

• I say it because the very people and the very Party which is criticising us as a Government in those terms proposes itself to inflict on the Australian community a health scheme which will be enormously more costly, both to the taxpayer and the individual, than the scheme we have at present. [More…]

• But before talking about the Labor Party’s proposals I shall deal quickly with the suggestion put forward not only by the Labor Party but also by some newspapers that in some way health costs in Australia are increasing out of all proportion to health costs elsewhere in the world. [More…]

• In 1960-61 in Australia the total expenditure on health services was $684m. [More…]

• In the United Kingdom in 1959- 60 the total expenditure on health services was Stg902m. [More…]

• In other words, just taking those 3 comparisons, health costs in Australia are increasing at about the same rate as they have in the United Kingdom and the United States of America - that is, the total expenditure on health services, whoever it is expended by. [More…]

• Let us have no more of this nonsense that there is something inherent in our health scheme or the health situation in Australia which suggests that we are out of line with health costs elsewhere. [More…]

• There are very good reasons on a wide front why health costs have increased substantially in all countries in recent years; for example, increases in technology, the change in the status of nurses, the improvement in procedures in hospitals and the development of new and costly drugs - things which are common to all advanced countries that have advanced health services. [More…]

• Would they reduce the quality of health services in Australia to contain costs? [More…]

• I now turn to the scheme of the Australian Labor Party, the Party that is putting forward this motion and criticising the Government for spiralling costs of health fees. [More…]

• Calculations which have been made very conservatively on the Labor Party’s health scheme show that it will cost general revenue SI 68m more than is paid from general revenue at the present time. [More…]

• Otherwise why is it that the doctors came back only last week to see the Prime Minister (Mr McMahon) and the Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson)? [More…]

• I think it is time that the people of Australia were fully informed of the significance of last week’s meeting between the Prime Minister, the Minister for Health and members of the Australian Medical Association because it was a very smelly business - a very smelly business indeed. [More…]

• Last week senior officials of the AMA slunk furtively into this House to the office of the Minister for Health and then slunk over to the office of the Prime Minister to attend a meeting which nobody was supposed to know anything about. [More…]

• The AMA representatives will be in touch with the Minister for Health after the Federal Council’s weekend meeting and the Government will then consider the situation further. [More…]

• I do not understand, unless he wants to bring up red herrings, why he consistently distorts the position of the ALP in relation to its health insurance proposals. [More…]

• But in addition our proposals do not just cover the ground of reforming health insurance, and this really is the essence of the whole problem because what we have to do is to provide an improved quality of health services within Australia. [More…]

• I do not think the people of Australia would mind increased costs of health services if this really were to result in a healthier community. [More…]

• The Minister referred to what he says is not an inordinate increase in health costs throughout Australia. [More…]

• We are getting an increase in health costs but the increase is going in the wrong direction. [More…]

• We are faced with great public health problems in the community now - the problems of the pollution of air, water and soil, problems of road accidents as well as other problems such as the rising incidence of mental disease which results in a huge increase in the prescription of drugs, and the rising incidence of heart disease. [More…]

• Instead of spending money on solving these great health problems, the Government for some reason seems to equate health service* with just feather-bedding this inefficient system and propping up the medical profession to go on to provide more business as usual. [More…]

• The result is that we are getting this escalating cost of medical services and the Government’s only answer has been to pay more and more without any improvement in the health status of the community. [More…]

• It is worth noting a report contained in the Australian Medical Association’s political broad sheet which says that Canada is giving serious attention to the problem of properly organising health care in medical health centres. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party government which will be on the treasury bench after the next Federal election will look at properly organising health care not just in the Australian Capital Territory but throughout the whole community. [More…]

• One is loathe to answer the Opposition’s latest absurdities about doctors and the health scheme. [More…]

• The real question is: Why do we have a health insurance scheme as part of our Australian health scheme? [More…]

• It is to spread the burden of costs without sacrificing the power and freedom of the patient to receive first class medical and health care. [More…]

• So the health insurance scheme has been built up and modified, and will be further modified as research and new needs arise. [More…]

• So the pensioner medical service scheme has been introduced and the subsidised insurance scheme has been created to pay the health insurance costs of low income families. [More…]

• The whole question of contemporary health and medical care is a complex, vexed and fascinating one. [More…]

• Certainly the tremendous advances which have been made in the Government’s health scheme have been costly. [More…]

• But the Opposition’s health scheme, one of its particular policies, does sow the seed of disaster for patients. [More…]

• The Labor Party’s health policy would put Australia well on the road to nationalised health which has produced such misery for so many in Britain. [More…]

• This Labor policy would lead to medical treatment by the egg timer, as was so often the case under the nationalised health scheme in Britain. [More…]

• So Labor would destroy the fee relationship and so destroy the power of the patient over his doctor and his health scheme. [More…]

• One day the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Whitlam) talks of Labor’s first major act of nationalisation in the health field and then on another day he denies that Labor will nationalise anything, or he denies tha: it will nationalise anything much. [More…]

• In the health area, which we are talking about today, by making grants to the States on condition that the States effectively nationalised surgeries, health centres, doctors and the lot, a Labor government could legally, constitutionally and fully nationalise every doctor’s surgery and hospital in Australia. [More…]

• What matters more to Australians than just about any other question is the freedom to choose a doctor, the freedom to choose first class medical care, the freedom to choose a health fund and the freedom to choose in respect of so many matters in related fields which are close to the hearts of the Australian people. [More…]

• The main point made in the speech of the Minister for Immigration as Minister representing the Minister for Health was: What would the Australian Labor Party do?’ [More…]

• I point out to the Minister - I suppose that, being only the Minister representing the Minister for Health in this House, he does not have to know all the facts - that Mr Justice Mason made no such finding. [More…]

• One would have thought that the Department of Health would have appeared to oppose the proposition. [More…]

• What Mr Justice Mason found was that the Department of Health was unable to supply adequate figures which could distinguish between the proposition put forward by the Australian Medical Association and the proposition which I put forward. [More…]

• I would argue, firstly, that it is scandalous for a government that has been in power for so long and for a department of health that uses up a large amount of money on administration to be unable to supply a definite base line figure for Mr Justice Mason to work on and, secondly, that it is scandalous for the Government not to appear and oppose the proposition advanced by the AMA. [More…]

• In fact the cost in New South Wales is slightly higher, according to the figures we have received from the Department of Health. [More…]

• The speeches of the honourable member for Prospect and the honourable member for Kingston (Dr Gun) remind me of a statement by a prominent politician in the United Kingdom who is quoted as saying that an army general did not necessarily make the best Minister for Defence, and a doctor not necessarily the best Minister for Health. [More…]

• The spiralling costs to the public of health services under the Government’s insurance programme. [More…]

• He quoted figures for health costs in Australia and compared them with increasing costs in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. [More…]

• They completely refute the suggestion that the spiralling costs of the Government’s health insurance programme have not been in line with the increases in costs in other countries. [More…]

• It is very easy to state that the cost of health services is on the increase. [More…]

• Everyone with the slightest knowledge of the subject knows that the rising cost of health services is a fact of life in every country in the world, as was clearly illustrated in the figures that were cited by the Minister in his speech. [More…]

• Particularly in developed countries such as Australia the continually rising standard of the health services must contribute something to the cost of those health services. [More…]

• It is totally misleading also to suggest that the increase in health costs which has occurred in Australia is a consequence of any unwise action on the part of this Government. [More…]

• In the short time available to my colleagues they dealt adequately with the Government’s health policy. [More…]

• Its health scheme, of course, is based on a health tax. [More…]

• I am concerned that the shadow Minister for Health in the Labor Party is a Queenslander. [More…]

• 1 would expect the Labor Party to want to nationalise health by whatever means possible - whether by the squeeze or otherwise - to achieve that end. [More…]

• If one examines the Labor Party’s health scheme one can appreciate that this will be the basis upon which, by the squeeze as it is sometimes called, there will be a nationalisation of Australia’s health services. [More…]

• Under the Labor health scheme there will be a system whereby the amount of benefits received by people will be such as to make the cost of private hospitalisation beyond their financial capacity. [More…]

• This is one factor that must come into consideration when one examines the Labor Party’s proposed health scheme. [More…]

• -It is just that I should pay a tribute to a man who has devoted much time to sorting out the problems of health services. [More…]

• If the Australian public wants the nationalisation of health services it can get it by electing a Labor government.If it wants to squeeze the private hospital system throughout Australia it can do so by the same means. [More…]

• I guess that the justification for this protection is directly related to the cause of decentralisation but it is worth remembering that throughout Australia the cause of decentralisation will be damaged because the health of the primary industries and other industries which use chain will suffer because of the. [More…]

• This has posed a very serious health hazard and it has resulted in a very devastating effect on the important fishing in Victoria. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson) was asked about this matter in the Parliament a month ago. [More…]

• He said that the Public Health Advisory Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council had formed a sub-committee to consider whether the permissible maximum levels of mercury should be increased. [More…]

• I spoke to the Minister representing the Minister for Health in this House about this matter and he did not even seem to be aware that there was a problem at all. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the (a) name, (b) appointment held at time of award, (c) project for which award was made and (d) duration of award of each person who was awarded a World Health Organization Fellowship through the Department of Health during the last 10 years. [More…]

• What we ought to do is to see that all the health and welfare facilities of the Repatriation Department and the facilities of the War Service Homes Division are made available for people who are already serving, and they should be made available at least to those who have received an honourable discharge. [More…]

• I wish him good fortune and good health. [More…]

• But in building this nation we will make a contribution which will help the less fortunate people in this world and bring health, happiness and satisfaction to the people of our country. [More…]

• Since the corresponding occasion 3 years ago there have been 2 changes in the positions of Treasurer, Attorney-General and Ministers of Health, Labour and National Service, Immigration, Navy and Army and 3 changes in the portfolios of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Education and Science. [More…]

• To the men retiring one cannot wish better than that they should have in their retirement health and happiness for themselves and for their wives as well. [More…]

• I do join with all those who have wished honourable members who are leaving the best of good health during the years that they will be in requirement. [More…]

• I wish all members good health and a happy Christmas with their families. [More…]

• I wish Charlie and his wife, and Hee and his wife, many years of retirement and good health. [More…]

• I wish Winton Turnbull, Charlie Adermann and ‘Ceb’ Barnes many many years of happy retirement and good health. [More…]

• To Mr and Mrs Calwell, Mr and Mrs Griffiths, Mr and Mrs Mclvor and all of those people on the other side, good luck and good health for the future. [More…]

• Somebody said good health. [More…]

• Each stack is fitted wilh a radiation monitor and is the subject of a separate discharge authorisation given by the New South Wales Department of Health. [More…]

• He is at present Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland, Chairman of the Advisory Medical Council of Australia, nominee of the Universities on the National Health and Medical Research Council and a Councillor of the Royal Australian College of Physicians. [More…]

• What progress has been made in the plans to establish a health hostel for Aboriginal women at Port Augusta in conjunction with the South Australian Government. [More…]

• In 1969-70 the Commonwealth granted $6,000 to South Australia for the purchase of land for a health hostel for Aboriginal women at Port Augusta. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• and Intermediate Rate War Pensioners and their equivalents, War Widows and World War I nurses will, as from 1st January 1973, be eligible for nursing home care for chronic conditions not related to war service subject to a patient contribution of $18.00 a week; service pensioners who qualify for VMS benefits will be eligible for similar benefits under Department of Health arrangements. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The National Radiation Advisory Committee considers that radiation doses of this magnitude are of no significance as a hazard to health. [More…]

• The National Radiation Advisory Committee is not aware of any reports from Public Health Authorities in Australia or the Pacific area of cases of death or illness attributable to radiation from fallout from the French nuclear tests in the Pacific. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has advised that in the reply to Question No. [More…]

• If so, is this one of the reasons why an inquiry into health services in the Northern Territory has been set up, one of its specific objects being to inquire into and report on all aspects of medical services provided to the Territory’s Aboriginal people. [More…]

• Isolated examples for particular communities based on a fictional figure of 1,000 live births are a misleading and unreliable way of expressing the problems of infant health particularly when the communities include groups living on remote pastoral properties where the natural environment and social hygiene standards are complicating factors. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In announcing details of the Government’s study of the nursing home arrangements in the Senate on 16th August, my colleague the Minister for Health stated that the Government would be seeking the co-operation of the States in the formation of Commonwealth/State Committees to examine proposals for the construction of new homes and/or the addition of new beds to existing homes and to work towards further improvements in standards. [More…]

• Full details will be announced by the Minister for Health as soon as negotiations with the States have been completed. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• This request followed a report from the Minister for Health that the Economic Advisory Committee of the AMA was contemplating recommending to the ‘Federal Council that fees for general practitioner consultations and home visits and for some other services might be increased shortly. [More…]

• During 1971 Papua New Guinea received assistance from United Nations bodies in the form of (a) loans and credits from the World Bank group (IBRD and IDA) and from the Asian Development Bank (ADB); (b) technical assistance consisting of expert services, oversea training fellowships and equipment from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other UN agencies. [More…]

• Assistance from the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• Public health administration. [More…]

• Dental health. [More…]

• Health education. [More…]

• National health planning. [More…]

• Child health. [More…]

• Maternal and child health Preventive and social medicine. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• in part paid under the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan (Hansard, 28th March 1972, page 1285). [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Did the Minister claim in a Press statement on 22nd February 1972 that the Department of Health was conducting an operation in Wollongong to publicise the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan. [More…]

• -The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: (1), (2) and (3) Yes. [More…]

• A taped interview with the Assistant Minister for Health, Senator the Hon. [More…]

• Station 2WL devoted its entire 70-minute ‘open line’ programme to the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan. [More…]

• The campaign and the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan in general, were featured by WIN4 in 3 successive Saturday morning migrant education programmes, and were also discussed in an interview in a women’s programme on that channel. [More…]

• Other Media- 59,000 leaflets and 520 posters were made available throughout the Wollongong/Port Kembla area by enlisting the support of doctors and chemists, and organisations such as health funds, bank migrant advisory services, post offices, trade unions, local, State and Commonwealth Government Authorities, migrant organisations and social welfare groups. [More…]

• The Wollongong campaign achieved significant success in terms of percentage increase in the number of applications received for Subsidised Health Benefits from persons in the area to which the campaign was directed. [More…]

• 6283) Mr Kennedy asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health upon notice: [More…]

• 6367) Mr Grassby asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is the publication recently produced by the Department of Health called Tables of Composition of Australian Foods causing unnecessary confusion in the medical profession because of the incompleteness of the table on page 51 which gives the cholesterol content of various foods. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the Minister’s attention been drawn to letters from his colleagues, the New South Wales Minister for Health and the Minister for Customs and Excise, lo Canberra Consumers Incorporated referred to in a letter published in The Medical Journal of Australia of 19th August 1972. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• The alcohol limits in wines, spirits and liqueurs were recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council in the exercise of its function of making recommendations on matters of public health legislation. [More…]

• Second, the clear failure of existing social and economic structures to meet the needs of modern society, particularly in relation to education, social security, health, industrial relations and urban and regional development. [More…]

• Universal health insurance will be introduced and a planning committee will now work on the details for its introduction. [More…]

• A National Hospitals and Health Services Commission will be established to survey and develop regional co-ordination of health care delivery. [More…]

• My Government recognises that the worst social inequalities, the worst poverty and the worst health problems bear upon the Australian Aboriginal people. [More…]

• Health and of Education will be working in close and continuing co-operation to develop national programs to preserve and promote Australian recreation resources, Australians’ access to them, and Australians’ ability to use and enjoy them. [More…]

• He served as Minister in charge of war service homes from 1934 to 1936, as Minister for Defence from 1937 to 1938, as Minister for Civil Aviation from 1938 to 1939 and as Postmaster-General and Minister for Health from March 1940 to October 1940. [More…]

• It was somewhat pitiful to endeavour to speak to a man about matters that he was interested in - subjects in the political arena - knowing that, while he understood what was being said to him, the heavy toll that that stroke had taken of his health meant that he was barely able to answer. [More…]

• But the rigours of the 30 years of effective and efficient representation that I believed he gave the electorate of Kennedy at last took its toll on his health and on 15th January he succumbed to a second stroke and peacefully passed away from this life in the Princess Alexandra Hospital, South Brisbane. [More…]

• Other Commonwealth Acts such as the Compensation (Commonwealth Employees), the Social Services and the National Health Acts recognise additional categories of these dependants. [More…]

• There will be a basic reform of the Australian Education system, the development of a schools commission and a pre-schools commission, the abolition of university fees, the overhaul of our social welfare system, the introduction of a universal health insurance system, the establishment of a school dental service, the establishment of Aboriginal land rights and the setting up of a cities commission. [More…]

• I think the Health Department owns some 6 Doves which must surely be in need of replacement. [More…]

• I can cite other instances where bush fires have surrounded a home - this is not drawing a long bow; it has happened - and women have endeavoured to keep the fires back and have suffered very seriously In health as a result of having to do so. [More…]

• But at least in dealing with legislation over a reasonable spread of hours their health will not deteriorate, their senses and minds will not become befuddled and the legislation will receive the proper consideration that it should. [More…]

• Although such a system did not eventuate until some years later, it might be noted that there was no mention of parks, libraries, community centres, town planning, health services or baths, let alone such modern day concepts as meals on wheels, immunisation campaigns, etc. [More…]

• What is iniquitous is that a system of taxation, devised for limited means, is now expected to finance, on an equalityofquality basis, social, health and welfare needs for everyone from all areas, irrespective of their capacity to pay. [More…]

• The Government intends to press for the establishment of Aboriginal land rights, far better health services and better nutritional standards for Aborigines so thu no longer will they be the poverty-stricken section of this Australian community with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. [More…]

• Their health was so bad that they had to be carried on stretchers. [More…]

• This has effectively stopped the production of chemicals vital not only to my fruit growers but to the top end of the Riverland area in South Australia and to the health of people who rely on chlorinated water supplies. [More…]

• It is not good enough in this day and age - I say this seriously, not in anger or with rancour - when a very big section of the population has not only its health but also its livelihood held in jeopardy by people who, putting it most generously, have not thought through the complete consequences of their action. [More…]

• I believe that we need to start thinking of education not only as a service for the young but as a service to the whole community, to be used as and when necessary - like health services. [More…]

• I trust that he and his wife will enjoy good health in their retirement and that the fellowship of the many friends they made while serving in 6 parliaments will remain with them always. [More…]

• This means social security and welfare, and public health. [More…]

• The General Agreement on Trades and Tariff Secretariat a little time back identified some 800 forms of non-tariff obstacles to international trade, such as quotas, import controls, export subsidies, restrictions in the name of health standards and so on. [More…]

• The program outlined by the Governor-General demonstrates that this young Government will not allow responsibility vacuums to develop and be filled by extra-parliamentary groups in matters of social security, health, industrial relations and equality of opportunity. [More…]

• One of the more important tasks for which this Government was given a mandate is to provide a comprehensive public health service available to all as the fundamental right of every citizen. [More…]

• To achieve this objective there will need to be a change in thinking by all those concerned with health services, away from professional and commercial profit and towards a government sponsored and private co-operative community service. [More…]

• But now, under this Government’s program, this fast growing sector of Melbourne may soon experience the security of adequate health care. [More…]

• The proposed establishment of a National Hospital and Health Services Commission will survey and develop regional co-ordination of health care delivery so that no person will be jeopardised unduly by where he lives. [More…]

• The range of health initiatives by this Government is wide, and as a pharmacist I am particularly pleased to refer to the Government’s intentions to reduce the cost of pharmaceutical benefits as part of that scheme. [More…]

• It will be our task to cut down the annual cost of drugs to the national health scheme, now standing at over $160m a year. [More…]

• It has been estimated that the expanded CSL could save the taxpayer as much as $80m each year, or 18 per cent of the total cost of the present national health service bill of $420m. [More…]

• By entering into the manufacture of more important and commonly prescribed drugs, and incidentally those of greatest profitability, we can save the taxpayer almost 20c in each $1 he now outlays on the national health scheme. [More…]

• Prices paid by the Department of Health to drug manufacturers are assessed on cost structures, but detailed information of local cost figures cannot be demanded from them. [More…]

• There are 8 commissions in all to cover education, preschools, health, cities, transport and urban and regional development. [More…]

• By their very nature, with the Commonwealth economic power behind them, they are likely to reduce State governments to mere appendages instead of healthy legislative organs vital to a healthy nation. [More…]

• The national compensation scheme will prevent an injury at work or leisure from dragging a family into penury, as will the scheme for universal health insurance which will guarantee all citizens freedom from fear of mammoth hospital bills and other medical expenses. [More…]

• I believe the reason for more members not being returned from Queensland to this side of the House was the type of campaign which was entered into by the opponents of the Labor Party, particularly the type of campaign and the attacks which were made on the Australian Labor Party’s progressive health policy. [More…]

• It was with pleasure that I listened to the speech of His Excellency the Governor-General setting out the progressive plans for the future of Australia and dealing with health insurance - a policy which this Government is pledged to introduce on behalf of the people of the nation. [More…]

• For instance, the ‘Australian’ newspaper recently ran a series of articles dealing with the hospital and health scheme in Queensland. [More…]

• The threat of a Health Department ‘black list’ hangs over Queensland doctors and nurses who complain about the Slate’s health system. [More…]

• Dr Crawford, a Wickham Terrace surgeon, has incensed some of his fellow Liberals in State Parliament with his fearless comments on Queensland’s health system. [More…]

• This section of the series of articles refers to an attack on the Queensland health system, not by the Labor Party but by a member of the Liberal Party in the Queensland State Government. [More…]

• They expose the Country Liberal Party Government in Queensland and the way that it has allowed a health and hospital scheme, which was introduced in 1946, and which served the people of Brisbane very well, to deteriorate. [More…]

• We have had suggestions of grants to ease the States transport problems, providing the Commonwealth has representation, a situation repeated in the realms of education and health. [More…]

• To establish mandatory occupational safety and health standards applicable to all employees of the Commonwealth, of Commonwealth authorities and of Commonwealth contractors, in the Territories and in interstate trade and commerce; [More…]

• to provide for the effective enforcement of such safety and health standards; [More…]

• to provide for research relating to occu pational safety and health; [More…]

• to provide for training programs to increase and improve personnel engaged in the field of occupational safety and health; [More…]

• vo delineate more clearly the responsibilities of the Commonwealth Government and the States in their activities relating to occupational safety and health; (fi to provide grants to the States to assist them in identifying their needs and responsibilities in the area of occupational safety and health and to develop plans to conduct experiments and demonstration projects in connection therewith; and [More…]

• to provide for appropriate accident and health reporting procedures which will help achieve the foregoing objectives. [More…]

• One of the most devastating areas of neglect - it could be called a disaster area - is that of health. [More…]

• Throughout Australia we have not attempted to produce for the Aboriginal communities the same health services as we produce for the rest of the community. [More…]

• Australia is a community that places great stress upon health services. [More…]

• But health is not concerned only with infant mortality. [More…]

• It is not concerned just with health services as such. [More…]

• I .am sure that some members of the Labor Party, particularly the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), have a great deal of concern also. [More…]

• In the comparatively short space of 3 months the Minister for Health has seen his Department decimated by the power hungry Minister for Social Security. [More…]

• He has been in office for only 3 months and in that time the Department of the Minister for Health has been decimated. [More…]

• 1 understand that hundreds of public servants have had to transfer from the Department of Health to the Department of Social Security. [More…]

• The opportunity and indeed the challenge will then be faced of tackling questions of greater complexity, such as how to integrate cash benefits with community welfare services and health services, housing policies and education programs, to mention just a few. [More…]

• I think of the introduction of age and invalid pensions, child endowment, homes for the aged, the national health scheme, the easing of the means test and, of course, the foreshadowed abolition of the means test. [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Care Commission, as it has now been termed, will be established I hope, before the end of the year. [More…]

• Several eminent people with expertise in the fields of hospital administration and medical planning have indicated their willingness to serve on this commission, and arrangements are being finalised for the secondment of Dr Sidney Sax, who has been Research and Planning Director with the New South Wales Health Department, to take on the chairmanship of the interim committee. [More…]

• It will be charged with the task of evaluating health care delivery at all levels, not just in hospitals but also in the community outside hospitals, with setting guidelines for the States, denominational hospitals, private hospitals, and, of course, hospitals in federal territories. [More…]

• It will not of itself administer health care except in limited regions for limited periods in pilot projects. [More…]

• It will be concerned rather as a research and resource organisation to coordinate and advise, on request, existing hospital and health care authorities. [More…]

• When it will make reports will depend on how its deliberations proceed, but I hope there will be some substantial report before the end of the year on specific areas needing federal help, particularly grants to States for hospital authorities and for health care delivery. [More…]

• The States may at any time approach the Commonwealth if they feel there is need for an especially urgent grant, but the Government is not disposed to grant assistance on the basis of projected bed needs on the basis of the sort of health care that has been going on for many years past, that is, on the assumption that the same sort of care - tow-away medicine - will continue. [More…]

• We believe that there must be far more emphasis on community health care, on preventive care and on keeping people out of hospitals. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has supplied me with the following information: For the 12 months period from 12th October 1970 to 12th October 1971 the number of pregnancies terminated - that is really the same expression - was 55. [More…]

• One of the serious effects of the delay in processing the application to which I just referred was that certain medical, hospital and pharmaceutical benefits to which the deceased would have been entitled were denied and the widow subsequently was faced with rather substantial accounts that should have been the responsibility of either the Repatriation Department or the Department of Health. [More…]

• Other Commonwealth Acts, such as the Compensation (Commonwealth Employment) Act, the Social Services Act and the National Health Act recognise additional categories of these dependants. [More…]

• He certainly could not live on the single Service pension and this was having an effect upon his general health. [More…]

• I hope that the negotiations between the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden), the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and the Australian Medical Association may achieve some means by which these people can receive their entitlement. [More…]

• I believe we ought to take a sample of people, say an infantry battalion, and run the rule over them as far as their medical condition is concerned and find out whether there is any significant difference between their current health and that of the rest of the community. [More…]

• But, if personal consumption is not to be reduced - and this the Government has said it will not do - the only way we can afford increased expenditure on education, social services, health, care of the aged, housing and urban renewal, improved transport and environmental control is through increased productivity. [More…]

• Those pensioners who may have good health also suffer the loneliness of flat living and band together in many organisations to provide companionship and sporting facilities. [More…]

• Increasingly, a citizen’s real standard of living, his health and that of his family, his children’s opportunities for education and self-improvement, his access to employment opportunities, his ability to enjoy the nation’s resources for recreation and culture and his ability to participate in the decisions and actions of the community are determined not by his income or by the hours he works but by where he lives. [More…]

• The Governor-General continued: the dear failure of existing social and economic structures to meet the needs of modern society, particularly in relation to education, social security, health, industrial relations and urban and regional development. [More…]

• I notice that the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) is in the House. [More…]

• It has been very obvious in recent years that the existing health schemes will not be able to cope and that people, particularly in the lower income groups, will not be able to afford the necessary insurance to provide them with the benefits of a proper health and hospitals scheme. [More…]

• I am quite sure that in a very short space of time this Government will again show leadership in this regard and will be in a position to provide an alternative scheme to the people so that they will be able to get proper health services. [More…]

• Health services in the home will be made available to people who previously would have had to go into hospital. [More…]

• The core paragraph of the GovernorGeneral’s Speech to which I address myself is where he so rightly points to the clear failure of existing social and economic structures to meet the needs of modern society, particularly in relation to education, social security, health, industrial relations and urban and regional development. [More…]

• And we should add to all this the immense step which this Government has taken towards centralisation in the spheres of housing, health, education and urban development, to name only a few, and we have a very unhappy picture indeed. [More…]

• Of this sum, $7,500,000 will be made available to the States to supplement funds already provided by the Commonwealth to cover expenditures in such fields as housing, education and health. [More…]

• Section 51, giving specific powers to the Commonwealth, has allowed a hotchpotch of health and eduction systems to develop when it is increasingly obvious that we should be aspiring to a unified nation with standards that do not suffer by reasons of place of residence. [More…]

• We believe that Government policy in this area should be designed to encourage and strengthen the capacity of Aborigines to manage their own affairs; to increase their economic independence; to reduce their handicaps in health, housing, education, training and employment; and to promote their enjoyment of civil liberties. [More…]

• Discriminatory clauses were contained in health Acts of the various States and in the Post and Telegraph Act of this Parliament. [More…]

• Has the Minister’s attention been drawn to Mr Schneider’s article in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ today claiming that the Federal Government’s health insurance scheme will cost far more than anticipated, and that rising doctors’ and hospital fees have turned and will continue to turn the Government’s costing of its health scheme into an underestimate? [More…]

• It seems that Mr Schneider conceives the health bill for this nation in static terms. [More…]

• I have said consistently that the cost of our scheme which will give universal cover, will be about the same as the total cost of the present system of health insurance which was introduced and maintained by previous governments. [More…]

• The present system of health insurance at best covers about 80 per cent of the population, even allowing for the cover provided from pensioner medical services, pensioner hospital benefits and repatriation local medical officer services. [More…]

• The point I make is that Mr Schneider seemed to see the estimated cost of the health program conducted by a Federal government as something that is static although this figure was set some considerable time ago. [More…]

• Cost benefit studies which were carried out in 1972 by Political and Economic Planning for the British Family Planning Association established that averting the birth of an unwanted child saved in public health and welfare services alone $1,350 in the case of a child born fourth in its family, $1,510 in the case of a child born fifth in its family and $8,728 in the case of the illegitimate child. [More…]

• Health authorities expect that as a result of that single initiative, the number of women reliably protected against unwanted pregnancy by oral contraceptives will rise from 750,000 to lm. [More…]

• Already local government bodies have established - I hope I use the correct term - baby health clinics to which all young mothers can take their children. [More…]

• During that Budget debate Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson, the then Federal Minister for Health indicated that removal of the sales tax would cost between $3 .4m and $3. [More…]

• When the importance of birth control is considered in the wider context of the world’s problems, having a tax on contraceptives is like putting a luxury tax on antibiotics or on health. [More…]

• The previous Government has been guilty of enforcing a tax on health items. [More…]

• In other words, at that time there was operating a luxury tax on health. [More…]

• In terms of the current provisions of the National Health Act, pharmaceutical benefits are confined to drugs and medicinal preparations, and thus diaphragms and intra-uterine devices, which are quite widely used, could not be included in the list of pharmaceutical benefits. [More…]

• I believe that with modern contraceptive methods available there would be fewer abortions and much less of the unhappiness and ill-health which results from unplanned pregnancies. [More…]

• I quote from an article in the ‘Australian’ of 1st February in which the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) stated that he wanted to make clear that the Government did not intend to discriminate against buyers of male contraceptives. [More…]

• I further understand that negotiations between the Department of Health and manufacturers of contraceptives, in association with the placing of the pill on the pharmaceutical benefits list, have reduced the cost to about $1.38 a month. [More…]

• The second double standard, if I may use that expression, under which the Labor Party is operating may be seen from a comparison of the so-called health policy of the Labor Party with its immigration policy. [More…]

• No matter what any honourable member opposite says, the health policy of the Labor Party is to seek ultimately to control the natural increase of the Australian population. [More…]

• I refer to some papers which were used at the Labor Party Conference in Launceston in 1971 as the background upon which the Labor Party your Party, Mr Deputy Speaker based its health policy. [More…]

• This is the philosophy upon which the Labor Party is basing its health policy the control of the natural increase of Australian children. [More…]

• The Committee recommended that, under certain conditions, oral contraceptives should go on the national health scheme. [More…]

• In the same way, I would like to see some of this money and other money being used to establish child minding centres and for the expansion of such organisations as the Mothers and Babies Health Association Incorporated of South Australia. [More…]

• On the same day details of the position in Western Australia were published by the Department of Health in that State. [More…]

• The Acting Deputy Commissioner of Health in Western Australia stated: [More…]

• 1 draw attention to the costing by the previous Government of the Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• I referred to proportions in the allocation of cost between the amounts met from the levy on taxable income and from the Consolidated Revenue in funding our health insurance proposals. [More…]

• In fact I have not had the opportunity of calculating the proportions, but the other things I said stand: Namely, that the levy on taxable income will be 1.35 per cent of taxable income - that stands and is a firm undertaking - and the amount of money from Consolidated Revenue, according to the projections made - they are preliminary, of course - by the working committee indicate that that amount of money will be about the same, as the amount which would have had to be provided under the present system of health insurance. [More…]

• ls it a fact that in a despatch of press releases received by, Members on or about 30th January 1973 there were several pages of what appeared to be a transcript of an interview with either the Minister for Social Security or the Minister for Health which was without any heading or indication of who the questioner or answerer was. [More…]

• We do not even know whether the health certificates we get from some of the countries of origin can be taken on face value. [More…]

• A great deal of Health activity is devoted to improving the health situation of Aboriginal infants and children; the bulk of expenditure in education is, of course, for younger Aborigines; while the employment training scheme and other activities of the Department of Labour and National Service seek in particular to assist school leavers. [More…]

• That means assistance with accommodation, health programs, education and employment. [More…]

• Housing, employment and health - all these things are important and they should be supported. [More…]

• A prolonged reading of figures becomes tedious and boring but in a couple of areas we should take cognisance of what is provided; for instance, in the field of health. [More…]

• In Queensland an additional $866,000 is to be expended, partly as follows: $60,000 on food assistance for children under 6 years; $250,000 for child health clinic at Bamaga; $240,000 for water supply and sewerage works at 5 places in Queensland; and $1.55,000 for hospital facilities at Normanton. [More…]

• The running of educational, health and job opportunity functions of the Department. [More…]

• There was a complete disregard for the health problems created by such conditions and we failed to meet the educational needs of the children or provide employment opportunities for the adults. [More…]

• We still see many areas where our efforts have only scratched the surface of what needs to be done to rectify all the injustices, the shocking health problems that exist in some areas, the lack of decent housing, the provision of full educational opportunities for the children and also, of course, employment opportunities. [More…]

• On the important question of Aboriginal health, the Government has accepted the responsibility of leaving no stone unturned to get to grips with this grave problem. [More…]

• In my own area covering the Northwest Aboriginal Reserve, the South Australian Government has recently taken steps to reorganise health services. [More…]

• We certainly hope that, coupled with the benefits available from this Bill, great inroads can be made into the overall health problem. [More…]

• The extra $7m has been allocated as follows: Housing $2,484,000; health S 1,440,000; education $510,000; special work projects $2,555,000; and regional projects $511,000. [More…]

• This type of living may not have been the cause of health problems when the people were completely nomadic and moved from hunting ground to hunting ground, but this traditional way of life has now been drastically altered. [More…]

• In this situation I believe that the traditional type of dwelling made of spinifex in itself creates a health hazard. [More…]

• Many of the people have not liked to move into the normal European type house, so there is a great need for a transitional type of house that allows these people to maintain their traditional ways but also provides accommodation that greatly reduces any health hazard. [More…]

• Since, the cotton industry provides itinerant workers with employment which lasts for only a short period each year, there is a special problem in respect of adequate housing, health and hygiene among the itinerant workers. [More…]

• Approximately $100,000 has been granted already to improve the camping areas and health facilities. [More…]

• More and more funds will be required to provide an increasing population of Aborigines and part Aborigines in this area with adequate housing on an annual basis and to provide more health facilities, adequate pre-school facilities and so on. [More…]

• I pay a tribute to the Sisters of Charity at the Pope Pius Mission who, for the past few years, have been providing pre-schooling for more than 100 children and a health clinic for those children. [More…]

• If this document were available it would show that there have been many dedicated people in education departments and other Government departments, social workers and health officials who have been concerned with these matters. [More…]

• In late January of this year a conference nf the Australian and Ne,v Zealand Student Health Association and the Australian Association of University Counsellors was told that hoth student counsellors and physicians should check students who sought to drop “tit from tertiary education. [More…]

• lt is perhaps fitting that the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) should be sitting at the table at present because one of the problems in the Australian community is, it is suggested, a relative shortage of doctors. [More…]

• We have seen recently a statement that this Government, through its Department of Health, wishes the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories to expand into the pharmaceutical industry. [More…]

• 1 should like now to refer in passing to a matter in regard to the Department of Health, and that is the provision of home kidney dialysis machines. [More…]

• The second statement was made by the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) who, at a recent meeting of primary producers at Biloelain central Queensland, proved himself rather naive and impotent in respect of currency alignments. [More…]

• My reason for speaking is to protest at the indicated attempts to erode the primary producer’s rights to negotiate for his survival and to correct the wrong impression that was conveyed by the Minister for Health at the Biloela meeting on Saturday, 3rd March. [More…]

• The Bill provides an appropriation of $10,850,000 to be allocated to the Aboriginal Advancement Trust Account to improve the health, education and housing of Aborigines and to make legal representation available to those Aborigines who appear as defendants in courts. [More…]

• This means that provided a child did not consume more than 840 millirads of iodine 131 per year in its milk its health would not be endangered. [More…]

• At the levels of fallout registered in Australia it would seem to be unnecessarily alarmist, in my view, to suggest that they constituted a serious health hazard. [More…]

• I note that the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) has been reported as saying that he would like to see the banning of all advertising of aspirin on radio and television. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware of the widespread dissatisfaction of people who are unable to obtain adequate medical attention after hours? [More…]

• My Department is looking at the possibility of encouraging medical schools which are making moves in this direction, of increasing the content of general practice in undergraduate courses and of making available Government sponsored community health centres staffed by salaried or fee-for-service doctors with ancillary workers and other team facilities to upgrade the standard of general practice. [More…]

• This whole question will come within the sphere of interest of the Sax Committee, which has already made some preliminary investigations of health needs and priorities in this country. [More…]

• It is true also that retired people in the community feel that for health reasons a telephone is an essential aspect of living and is required in order to obtain urgent medical assistance. [More…]

• Minister for Health: Have outbreaks of foot and mouth disease occurred in some European countries? [More…]

• I regret that I have no confidence in their maintaining the health of that economy. [More…]

• The report contains a couple of tables which show what the Commonwealth Department of Health has been able to achieve in the field of prices. [More…]

• The benefits to be granted were announced to the particular patients but now it is found that the Repatriation Department has a different scale of fees which it approved in relation to approved nursing homes to the scale of fees approved by the Department of Health. [More…]

• Further, under the existing provisions of the National Health Act a handicapped children’s benefit of $1.50 a day is payable to eligible non-profit organisations conducting approved handicapped persons homes in respect of each handicapped child under 16 years who is accommodated and cared for in the home. [More…]

• Further, under the existing provisions of the National Health Act, a handicapped children’s benefit of$1.50 a day is payable to eligible non-profit organisations conducting approved handicapped persons homes in respect of each handicapped child under 16 years who is accommodated and cared for in the home. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health who will be aware that his Department removed 6 brands of pain killing sedative tablets from the pharmaceutical benefits schedule. [More…]

• In perspective I do not know whether we can look on this as a very major or startling public health problem. [More…]

• Psychiatrists and other experts in the fields of public health and epidemiology are showing increasing concern over the use of sedative drugs. [More…]

• In the short time that I have been here I have made 32 representations to the Postmaster-General’s Department, 19 to the Department of Repatriation, 44 to the Department of Social Security, 35 to the Department of Education and 14 to the Department of Health, as well as many other representations for individual cases that [More…]

• Is his Department responsible for minerals and energy, forestry, beef, education, health, environment, conservation, beef roads and development? [More…]

• I believe that this is vital to the health of the committee system. [More…]

• I beg the Minister to examine this criticism, as it comes from a person who has had an active interest not only in the Northern Territory but also in the health and welfare of the committee system. [More…]

• The Government also looked at the 6 official members of the Legislative Council and, against the backdrop that it thought the Northern Territory should have a much greater degree of attention than it has been given before, the Government decided that rather than have the 6 official members from the Department of the Northern Territory, and as the new approach is specialisation with special attention being given to health, education and Aboriginal welfare, that each of those specialised departments should be represented on the Legislative Council. [More…]

• They spoke of fragmentation in the context of the area known as the Northern Territory now being the subject of these specialised departments - Education, Health, Aboriginal Affairs, Minerals and Energy - with the extremely important co-ordinating role with the Department of the Capital Territory with its other areas of concern as well. [More…]

• I asked a question of the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) on Tuesday of this week and I am encouraged by his interest in this matter. [More…]

• The quarantine service operated by the Commonwealth Department of Health has so far proved a remarkably effective barrier against the accidental introduction of these diseases, but no quarantine service, however efficient, can hope to provide forever an absolute guarantee against their entry. [More…]

• The Department of Health is currently investigating the establishment of a quarantine station on Norfolk Island so that livestock can be imported into Australia to improve the productivity of our animal industries. [More…]

• By comparison, the CSIRO Division of Animal Health, because it possessed the necessary diagnostic reagents, was able to confirm the diagnosis in 12 hours. [More…]

• Those charged are being held in Chi Hoa prison in Saigon and are believed to be in good health. [More…]

• Their health was so bad that they had to be carried on stretchers to the prison. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Health received further complaints about influenza vaccine supplies, as reported in today’s ‘Australian’? [More…]

• When we consider the number of conditions which could apply to the definition I have just read out it is not hard to visualise the significant decline that will take place in the health of public servants if they are subjected to the unprincipled actions of senior Ministers who arc trying to get out from under by blaming public servants. [More…]

• In common with other speakers I welcome the reference to the need for continuing efforts to be made to reduce the number of accidents and to improve the health of the community. [More…]

• I think immediately of the effect on health. [More…]

• The other organisations are the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, the World Health Organisation and the South Pacific Conference. [More…]

• I quote from an article headed ‘Benefits Paid Abroad Under OASDHI’ which is a publication of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. [More…]

• The main reasons why they return to their country should also be examined for it will be found that the most often mentioned reasons are homesickness, loneliness or the lack of health services available in this country compared to those in their home country. [More…]

• I will not have time to go through them all but some of them were: The running of educational, health and job opportunity functions of the Department; the running of settlements at Hooker Creek, Beswick and Roper River - these places are in the local area and naturally enough the people would be interested in them; the allocation of funds to the Department and the way they are expended; the questioning of the lack of supervision of the spending of welfare cheques paid to Aborigines for specific purposes. [More…]

• If money is used excessively and unjustifiably in one area, we deprive other areas of need - education, other areas of health, welfare services, community services, environmental factors and so forth. [More…]

• It will also of course abolish the means test within the life of this Parliament and will provide a national health scheme. [More…]

• The United Nations Organisation, the International Labour Organisation, the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and various other world groups also were represented. [More…]

• First of all I want to make it clear that I will not enter into any debate about the relative merits of the former Director-General of the Department of Social Services as it then was, Mr Hamilton, and the present Director-General of the Department of Social Security as it is now called, Dr Wienholt, except to say that the reputation of Mr Hamilton is extremely high with all those people who worked with him, and it is unfortunate that through ill health he found it necessary to retire. [More…]

• Those Asian residents who are not contract - fixed term - workers and who are not Australian citizens will be accepted for residence in Australia on application subject to availability of employment and accommodation and to health and character checks where deemed necessary. [More…]

• I regard the provision for health and character checks referred to as one aspect of the Minister’s statement as being essentially a control measure and not necessarily a means of excluding from entry to Australia applicants who might, as a consequence of the checks, be the subject of adverse reports. [More…]

• The demand for hospital beds for victims of road accidents must adversely affect the health of persons who cannot be admitted to hospital immediately for treatment which they require because of the demand on beds created by road accidents. [More…]

• But in point of fact, the Minister for the Environment in New South Wales, Mr Beale, and the Minister for Health, Mr Jago, both of whom have responsibilities in this area, had in fact done considerable studies on the river and they received the co-operation of business to a considerable degree. [More…]

• Furthermore, an examination should be made of the financial resources of councils to ascertain the amount that they can afford and the amount that is necessary by way of loans to enable them to provide amenities such as recreation areas, baby health centres, swimming pools, access roads, footpaths and bus shelters at the same time that the Housing Commission is building homes. [More…]

• In Mount Druitt where 47,000 people were housed it was 6 years after completion of the housing project before the Council was able to provide a footpath, a community centre and a baby health centre. [More…]

• In these new areas today we must provide baby health centres, pre-school education facilities, kindergarten centres, parks and recreation areas at the same time as the project is being undertaken. [More…]

• With all the improvements that have been made in the field of health and with all our ability to prolong life we are still not as a nation looking at the problem of providing decent housing for people in their twilight years. [More…]

• The point I made was that the previous Government had concealed the excessive costs of the present unsatisfactory system of health insurance, by making the funds absorb the increases from reserves to the degree that reserves held by medical funds in Victoria were practically depleted and funds had been placed in a critical financial position. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Social Security: In the Minister’s announced scheme for a socialised health service, which he assures us can be financed on a taxation levy of 1.35 per cent of taxable income, is it proposed that doctors will render their accounts direct to the Government? [More…]

• Has the Minister seen the comment of Dr Maurice Le Clair, Deputy Minister of Health in Canada, in which he said: ‘We have come to the inescapable conclusion that we have the wrong system’? [More…]

• I will be tabling the report of the Health Insurance Planning Committee a little later in the day. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members, I present a report from the Health Insurance Planning Committee which was established on 22nd December 1972 to prepare detailed recommendations for implementing the new universal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The Committee was chaired by Dr John Deeble and the membership included Dr Richard Scotton and officers of the departments of Health and Social Security. [More…]

• The Government hopes to be making its decision on the details of the universal health insurance scheme as soon as possible. [More…]

• I refer to a set of circumstances when, perhaps for health reasons, a returned serviceman has to leave his business which contains his dwelling place as part of that business. [More…]

• It has been brought to my attention that a returned serviceman who has followed a farming occupation all his life and who has not utilised his war service home entitlement may find, because of ill health that he cannot continue with his farm. [More…]

• The increase provided for in the Bill is most welcome also in that field- I trust that the increase will also play an important role in the development of community health services and the like - choose whatever label you wish to describe them - with particular reference to social and preventive aspects of community medical care. [More…]

• It seems to me that much of the present confusion and concern about the state of Australia’s abortion law would not arise if these types of highly trained and qualified people were available locally to the various counselling services, community health services and all sorts of community care services at the local level. [More…]

• A similar problem exists in relation to hospitals and health and the disposition of elderly patients and the chronically ill, for which social workers are needed. [More…]

• The development of community health centres will create a greater demand for them. [More…]

• At the present time Federal authority is split between the Department of Primary Industry and the Department of Health, with the Department of Science involved in research through the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. [More…]

• Overall authority is also divided between Federal and State governments, and at State level some States have divided control between Departments of Agriculture and Health. [More…]

• Another field in which a veterinary service or a bureau of animal health could have a function is in an animal progeny testing scheme. [More…]

• More than $3m is spent each year by the British government on supplying wigs free on National Health Service to people whose doctors consider they need them. [More…]

• For the future, I sincerely hope that the Government will go much further and that wigs together with many other items that are prescribed for medical reasons, such as spectacles and false teeth, will be included in a comprehensive national health scheme. [More…]

• Papua New Guinea Ministers are finally responsible for such matters as education, health, works, finance, labour, agriculture, stock and fisheries, district administration, local government, information, social development and transport and thus now have effective control over virtually all aspects of the internal government of Papua New Guinea. [More…]

• Tasmania’s Mental Health Services Commission runs a course for welfare officers. [More…]

• They undergird and give practical support to facets of the health and social security program. [More…]

• is health and social security legislation if it cannot be implemented because of lack of professional expertise? [More…]

• The ministries of Education, Health and Social Security are working in the closest co-operation, with Education providing the tools. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has supplied the following answer: [More…]

• The Ministers for Health and Primary Industry have supplied the following answer: [More…]

• There is extensive literature on the effects of organo-phosphorus insecticides on the health of operatives and from data obtained from this literature, guidelines for the safe use of these insecticides have been drawn up. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has issued a booklet ‘Poisoning by Organo-Phosphorus Compounds’ which has been widely distributed. [More…]

• If it has no intention of so doing, will the Prime Minister publicly state that the election Press statement of 2nd November 1972 by the honourable member for Riverina of the Labor Government’s policy of $500m to be lent at 3 per cent interest was, as the Minister for Health stated in answer to a previous question, a cheap pre-election political trick? [More…]

• However, I also recall when we were dealing with a Health Bill, surely one of the most important items of legislation ever to come before this Parliament, the present Opposition, which was then in government, gave us 6 hours to discuss that measure. [More…]

• They are contained in the National Health Act 1972 introduced by that Government in the 1972 Budget Session of Parliament. [More…]

• Accordingly, under the provisions of the National Health Act, the patient must, because of his disability, be in need of continuing professional nursing care and receive such care on a regular basis from a registered nurse. [More…]

• The present Government endorsed the concept of a domiciliary nursing care benefit and therefore arranged for the proclamation of the National Health Act 1972 so that payment for benefits could commence on 1st March 1973. [More…]

• If so, is it the intention of the Government in the proposed compulsory health scheme to constantly increase the percentage of taxable income required as a compulsory contribution rather than increase contributions from general revenue. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• At the moment, valium happens to be the biggest volume prescription under the national health scheme and its cost, therefore, is of some concern to the Government, particularly as it is approximately twice the price which has been condemned in the United Kingdom. [More…]

• Over recent years, my Department has obtained more favourable terms in the pricing of drugs available under the national health scheme. [More…]

• Who will ever forget the health Bill of a couple of years ago when dozens and dozens of amendments were pushed through this Parliament under the guillotine but none was allowed to be moved by the then Opposition? [More…]

• Who more than these in our society see the need for better housing, better welfare provisions, better health and better planning for the future? [More…]

• In this regard, I would refer to a report of a sub-committee of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Council which considers the procedures for the new nursing home arrangements. [More…]

• In my statement of 5th March 1973 I criticised the previous Government for concealing excessive costs of the present unsatisfactory system of health insurance by the discreditable tactic of making funds absorb the increases into reserves to a point where the reserves were practicaly depleted and the funds were placed in such a critical financial position as to endanger their continued operation for the benefit of the public. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Planning Committee has recommended that the maximum annual contribution under the proposed universal health insurance scheme be fixed at the rate of levy (expressed as a percentage) times the average weekly earnings for employed male unit. [More…]

• lt should be noted that the final decision on how the new health insurance scheme is to be introduced will be made by the Government. [More…]

• Such matters as the maximum levels of health insurance levy will be decided at that time. [More…]

• As a preface to my question which I direct to the Minister for Health, I would like to say that I wanted to direct this question to the Minister for the Capital Territory to try to put his previous answers and statements into perspective. [More…]

• But the Minister for Health is responsible for the administration of health laws. [More…]

• If the Australian Government and the health funds are properly to assess the fee increase proposals in terms of any proposed increases in Commonwealth medical benefits, a minimum period of 3 months is required for this sort of consideration. [More…]

• In the second 3 months of pregnancy the state may regulate abortion procedures in ways that are ‘reasonably related to maternal health’, such as the licensing of doctors and clinics. [More…]

• When the foetus becomes ‘viable’, that is when it could exist outside the woman, that state has an interest in protecting the unborn child and ‘may go so far as to prohibit abortion during that period, except when it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother’. [More…]

• Towards the end of last year Sir George Godber who is the Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health and Social Security in a letter appearing in the British ‘Medical Journal’ complained that there has been selective and incomplete quoting from his report on maternal deaths. [More…]

• It is interesting to note that these figures from Britain show an improvement in the position despite the fact that if a woman applies to an unsympathetic doctor she may well find that she cannot obtain an abortion under the national health service and subsequently is forced to go outside the law. [More…]

• We should not allow the health and the lives of women to be threatened by these people. [More…]

• Sir George Godber, the Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health and Social Security in the United Kingdom, published a letter in the British ‘Medical Journal’ of 18th November 1972 in which he stated: the number of legal abortions has increased greatly but seems to be reaching a more stable level. [More…]

• But to confine one’s thinking to this single absolutist principle is to ignore the many other rights inherent in the situation, such as the rights to health and welfare of the mother and her existing family, the rights to choose whether to bear children or not and the right of the child to be wanted. [More…]

• It attempts to deal with a question of major social importance - a matter with a wide range of associated questions of medicine, social welfare, the physical and mental health of mothers, basic human rights, and the rights and freedoms of doctors, nurses and hospital staffs. [More…]

• It is an attempt to use the medical profession and the subterfuge of legal clarification to introduce a major change in social legislation, which would have far-reaching effects on the future status and health of women, and on the basic civil liberties of all citizens. [More…]

• lt should be stressed that a royal commission into abortion - this is my opinion; of course, every member will take his own view in relation to this question - is not justified when there is ample international evidence to reveal the full extent of its harmful effects - of the toll on the woman’s health, especially on the health of young women, as the College of Obstetricians’ report evidenced in detail to the Lane Committee; of the psychological damage done to abortees; of the disruption to hospital facilities and services; and most importantly of the steady erosion of civil liberties involved in destroying the life of the unborn. [More…]

• In the name of liberation it imposes new burdens on women, and for the unsuspecting single girl who is aborted those burdens in ill-health can be life-lasting. [More…]

• If Parliament legalises this, it must logically provide for it under national health legislation. [More…]

• In the Northern Territory these can mean the saving of Aboriginal child life, for children in such centres are seen by infant welfare sisters and, as a consequence, their health problems are treated. [More…]

• In my opinion, but perhaps not in the opinion of others, it raises matters of law, of health, of responsibility, of social justice, of ethics, of morals and of personal and community standards and values. [More…]

• I think all of us would agree that there are circumstances in which the judgment has to be made as to whether first consideration must be given to the life, or health of the mother or that of the unborn child. [More…]

• I think it might be well worth while asking a committee consisting of, say, representatives of the Department of Health, the Department of Social Security, the various hospitals, the Australian Medical Association, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and other appropriate people to look into this matter. [More…]

• An overwhelming majority of these abortions are being performed under conditions which exacerbate the dangers to life and health and future fertility which are associated inescapably with all abortion procedures and which, as I said, were very properly outlined by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. [More…]

• Twenty-one per cent believe that abortion should be legal if the mother’s health, either physical or mental, is in danger. [More…]

• The mother can find her life threatened or her health very seriously threatened by a number of medical causes, the 2 obvious ones being cardiac or renal disease, of her life can be threatened by her own hand in some circumstances. [More…]

• Essentially that amounts to balancing the health or life of the mother against that of the unborn child. [More…]

• (b) the person is of the opinion that the continuance of the pregnancy would Involve greater risk to the life of the woman, or injury to the physical or mental health of the woman than if the pregnancy were terminated; [[More…]](https://historichansard.net/hofreps/1973/19730510_reps_28_hor83/#subdebate-21-0)

• So long as termination of pregnancy involves an operation it must mean a risk to life and health. [More…]

• Under the ruling of Mr Justice Menhennit, abortion can be legally carried out by a qualified medical practitioner if the life or mental or physical health of the mother are in danger. [More…]

• However, these aspects will be dealt with by the proposed Schools Commission and the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• Under our health insurance proposals there will be free public ward treatment in all States. [More…]

• However, to the extent that people use outpatient services, those outpatient services will be covered by our health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The present health insurance scheme discriminates against people using these services. [More…]

• Finally, as regards the last point which the honourable member raised, we have said consistently that pensioners will receive the same standards of treatment and the same rights and privileges as do other members of the community and, accordingly, they will have a full entitlement to private specialist medical services and those private specialist medical services will be covered by our health insurance proposals. [More…]

• As the honourable member, and indeed all honourable members will know, under the present system if pensioners wish to obtain specialist services, short of paying the full cost themselves or belonging to a health insurance scheme, which is scarcely a welcome proposition to them, they have to go to outpatient clinics of public hospitals. [More…]

• I think that what we were referring to, and what people certainly understood us to be referring to, was the need to spend large sums of money on transport, sewerage, drainage, health services, education facilities and so on. [More…]

• Inadequate education, health care, social welfare and law enforcement as well as a deteriorating physical environment are the price of our having chosen to move so far so fast within such narrow confines. [More…]

• I think it is true to say that for very many years it was believed that it was the responsibility of the Government to reduce or to eliminate freedom from fear and freedom from want and that consequently the pensioner should be entitled to have confidence in the fact that he would in moments of anguish and trial be assured of a base pension that would cover, first of all, the basic necessities and later on the conventional necessities such as housing, food and clothing, health and welfare services and similar types of necessities. [More…]

• Many are forced to retire earlier on account of poor health or some form of physical limitation. [More…]

• Owing to delays in the delivery of materials, caused by unfavourable weather, contractors at present at Ngukurr have been unable to proceed with the construction of the new rural health centre and are assisting the Association with supervision. [More…]

• and (2) Ten nursing homes with 168 beds that were approved under the National Health Act were closed in the 4 months from 1st January 1973 to 30th April 1973. [More…]

• If the proprietor is dissatisfied with the determination, he may appeal to an impartial Review Committee established in each State in accordance with the National Health Act to inquire into such appeals and report to the Minister. [More…]

• Win he consider including the parents of handicapped children in the domiciliary care scheme where the children are unable to be accommodated in a special home or institution and are therefore ineligible for any of the forms of assistance under the National Health Act? [More…]

• Senator Fitzgerald, as we all know, is in a poor state of health and because of that he has a permanent pair. [More…]

• I enter the debate this morning to speak on some matters of health, particularly as they affect my home State of Victoria. [More…]

• Australia is a federation and the states have the responsibility for most of the activities which are closest to the lives of people - Education, Health, Housing, Conservation and a wide range of others. [More…]

• In no field is this dictatorship more obvious than in Health Services. [More…]

• It is misrepresentative in the sense that while it admits that the States have a responsibility in those activities which are closest to the lives of the people - it names education, health, housing and conservation - it does not mention that these are fields in which the Victorian Parliament would have one of the worst records in Australia. [More…]

• If the tone of this letter is correct, does it mean that the Premier of Victoria will reject any of the help which Victoria would receive through the operations of the national health insurance scheme or through the Australian Hospitals Commission that has been set up? [More…]

• Will he refuse to receive finance to prop up the sagging hospital services and health services in Victoria? [More…]

• I hope that the Victorian people will support that rehabilitation wing, because after all it might rehabilitate some of the health services that Sir Henry Bolte, as Premier of Victoria, allowed to run down so sadly. [More…]

• An announcement was made about mental health. [More…]

• The Victorian Government always says that more will be provided in the mental health field. [More…]

• How can one expect anyone associated with health services to support a government that has made so many promises yet has done so little? [More…]

• This is the record of health services that I was asked, in this letter, to support. [More…]

• Only through proper and professionally researched examination of health services can we expect to see well financed health services in Victoria. [More…]

• Unless there is to be a fully researched and professional approach, as the campaign committee and authors of this letter suggest, the program certainly will not produce health services of the standard that is required. [More…]

• I felt that I should bring this matter to the notice of the Australian Parliament because it is a reflection on the very forward thinking that is being done in the Australian Parliament at present in the field of health. [More…]

• In the past, there have been embargos for health reasons on, for instance, toys that had a high lead content in the paint that was applied to them. [More…]

• These toys have been withdrawn from the market at the request of the Department of Health. [More…]

• I take the opportunity while the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) is at the table to heap praise upon him for his recent announcement that he intends altering the regulations in the Australian Capital Territory to allow contraceptives other than oral contraceptives to be available through various retail outlets rather than, as under the old concept, just the pharmacist. [More…]

• It came to power after promising extensive and expensive programs in almost every aspect of our affairs - health, education, social security, housing, urban development and protection of the environment. [More…]

• Ti not, there is neither health in it nor hope for it. [More…]

• Rapid expansion of the population in areas like Boronia, Croydon, Montrose and Scoresby and the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges has meant that the demand for services such as those provided by local government, community services and drainage, as well as health services has greatly outstripped the supply. [More…]

• These complaints have come to my notice - not through the Press but directly - and have been referred for attention not to the Hospital and Health Services Commission, because unfortunately the Commission as such, has not yet been established but to an interim committee which has been set up and which depends on my departmental officers for servicing. [More…]

• We envisage that when the national health insurance scheme is fully operative in the middle of next year approximately half of the costs of State hospitals will be met by the Commonwealth, which should be of considerable help to those hospitals in which these problems arise. [More…]

• Pending the outcome of negotiations with the Australian Medical Association concerning the pensioner medical service, supporting mothers may be covered by the subsidised health benefits plan. [More…]

• The Bill proposes to amend section 9a of the National Health Act 1953-1972 to make available to supporting mothers who require them, hearing aids on the same bases as apply to pensioners. [More…]

• We could even have established the Charlie Jones health camps run by that sympathetic PT instructor, the honourable member for Hunter (Mr James). [More…]

• I do not object to their taking chartered Qantas aircraft or BAC-11 ls to the places they went, but I object very strongly to their returning to Australia and flouting the normal health and quarantine regulations of this country. [More…]

• If the health and quarantine departments and officers did not put the ruler over VIP flights in the same way as they ought to do with ordinary commercial flights, we will have the Australian Prime Minister bringing into this country foot and mouth disease or bluetongue, if he has not already introduced his own particular form of foot in mouth. [More…]

• It failed in so many other areas as well - social services, repatriation, health, education, arbitration, housing and others too numerous to mention. [More…]

• Public works, health and immunisation services, garbage collection and disposal, maintenance of municipal property, and the care of parks and reserves are major items of expenditure. [More…]

• functions such as education, roads and transportation, and health and social security, but hitherto there has been no overall policy attempt that seeks to co-ordinate the work of [More…]

• Perhaps more important than anything else it is a product that almost unanimously, from the point of view of medical opinion, is in the interests of their good health - polyunsaturated margarine. [More…]

• I hope that subject to consultation and discussion with the Australian Agricultural Council, because that is the purpose of that Agricultural Council, in the not too distant future the quota system will give way to a better system which will allow the consumers of Australia to have access to the spread of their choice, whether it be butter or margarine, polyunsaturated or otherwise in the interests of their health, their pocket and their freedom as individuals. [More…]

• My Department has been in correspondence with Dr LeClair, the Deputy Minister for Health and Welfare in Canada, about this quotation which, incidentally, has been used by those bodies in Australia in reference to the Canadian health insurance program. [More…]

• When this remark was made I was referring to the health care delivery system being too hospitaloriented (and thus expensive) and not to our major health insurance programs. [More…]

• The professional letter writers and the people with special interests who are using this quote, also used it in conjunction with a claim of uncontrollable cost escalations besetting the Canadian system of health insurance. [More…]

• Is he aware that health services in the area are not coping with this emergency? [More…]

• I shall discuss the matter with my colleague, the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I might point out that this situation was passed on to us by the previous Minister for Health who appreciated the problems associated with trying to give a precise definition of a remote situation. [More…]

• The only distortion in fact has been in statements by representatives of the health fund referred to. [More…]

• 4946 Mr Keogh: To ask the Minister representing the Minister for Health- [More…]

• What amount was paid by the Commonwealth to Queensland (a) under the National Health Act as subsidies for both insured and uninsured occupied beds in public wards in Queensland public hospitals during 1969-70 and (A) under the amended National Health Act as a result of the requirement to pay a full $2 subsidy on all occupied beds during 1970-71. [More…]

• 4959 Mr Klugman: To ask the Minister representing the Minister for Health - What was the saving to (a) the Department of Health, (ft) hospital funds and (c) medical funds by treating psychiatric hospitals and their patients differently to other public hospitals in (i) non-payment to patients and (ii) non-payment to hospitals, in each of the last 10 years. [More…]

• 4946 Mr Keogh: To ask the Minister representing the Minister for Health - [More…]

• What amount was paid by the Commonwealth to Queensland (a) under the National Health Act as subsidies for both insured and uninsured occupied beds in public wards in Queensland public hospitals during 1969-70 and (6) under the amended National Health Act as a result of the requirement to pay a full $2 subsidy on all occupied beds during 1970-71. [More…]

• 4959 Mr Klugman: To ask the Minister representing the Minister for Health - What was the saving to (a) the Department of Health, (b) hospital funds and (c) medical funds by treating psychiatric hospitals and their patients differently to other public hospitals in (i) non-payment to patients and (ii) non-payment to hospitals, in each of the last 10 years. [More…]

• The World Health Assembly in Geneva has just adopted by a vote of 87-4 with 10 abstentions, a resolution deploring all nuclear test ing which results in an increase in the level of ionising radiation in the atmosphere and urging its immediate cessation. [More…]

• We cannot hope to eliminate poverty, or to derive full benefit from improved health and education services, without making proper provision for housing. [More…]

• As the Minister for Social Security persistently has denied that the Australian Labor Party health scheme, particularly the medical benefits aspect of it, has any connection with the Canadian scheme I ask him: Are senior members of his Department now in Canada or on their way there? [More…]

• With that assurance from the Agricultural Council, Marrickville Holdings, which was the first to express an interest in the subject, came in and took an option on premises in Fyshwick which were suitable from the point of view of the health requirements of the Australian Capital Territory and the purpose clauses in the leasing system of the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• It can be the most marvellous leveller in a healthy, democratic community. [More…]

• This, like our recreational program, will cost money, but not nearly as much as our social security or health programs. [More…]

• I believe that with the help of my colleagues in the Cabinet and Caucus and this Parliament, with the full support of my own Department, as well as the necessary co-operation I am seeking from the States, municipalities, recreational and sporting organisations and all others concerned with the health, fitness, well being and happiness of our people, we will be able to make a meaningful start in the right direction. [More…]

• In particular these investigations are centred on the equipment which will be needed to help in the administration of the new Health Insurance Scheme. [More…]

• Two of these officers are making a particular study of the type of computer equipment being used in health insurance administration in Canada. [More…]

• The IBM company has supplied most of the equipment which is being used extensively in health insurance administration in Canada and the officers concerned have been inspecting such installations. [More…]

• In all other legislation this Government has brought in in the fields of health, education, new cities, urban development, local government grants, gas and oil distribution, mining exploration and off-shore rights, the central control has been vested in Canberra. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: What is the number of doctors in practice in Australia? [More…]

• I am aware that there is a very serious problem of poverty, and indeed, a serious health problem among Aborigines in Australia. [More…]

• The systems of social security benefits and health and welfare services will be vastly improved as the Government explores new horizons for the benefit of the community. [More…]

• We cannot afford to ignore in the context of that responsibility the way in which the health of Aboriginal children in East Gippsland is undermined and their education is disrupted by an outbreak of scabies which threatens to reach epidemic proportions. [More…]

• We cannot ignore the massive cover-up which is being mounted in this matter by the Victorian health authorities. [More…]

• On Friday morning the Assistant Chief Health Officer of the Victorian Health Department was quoted in the Melbourne ‘Age’ as denying the existence of a scabies outbreak in East Gippsland. [More…]

• Should we accept in this matter the view of the Assistant Chief Health Officer, sitting in his Melbourne office, or the view of Mrs Cockrell and Mr South who are on the spot? [More…]

• Dr Fysh from the Department of Health came up between the first and second outbreaks. [More…]

• He went to both Worthy and the State Director of Health. [More…]

• No amount of evasion on the pari of the Victorian health authorities can conceal the fact that the state of Aboriginal children in East Gippsland is a disgrace to Australia. [More…]

• This is a situation for which existing health services provide no answer. [More…]

• His staff and the nursing staff of the Victorian Department of Aboriginal Affairs do not seem to be equipped, either by training or by temperament, to provide the health care services of which Aboriginal children stand in grave need. [More…]

• In particular, trained nursing sisters employed by the Victorian Department of Aboriginal Affairs as ‘health educators’ will neither treat Aboriginal children nor advise their mothers on treatment. [More…]

• Medical officers are not employed by the Ministry, and where opinion is required, the Department of Health provides advice. [More…]

• Nursing sisters are unable to treat patients without the supervision of a doctor, as it is contrary to medical professional practices and nursing training, lt would, therefore, also be of detriment to the health of Aborigines, and the Ministry will noi provide a second-rate service to Aboriginal people. [More…]

• I can assure that Minister that almost any sort of health care service for Aborigines would be better than the service available to them at present in Nowa Nowa. [More…]

• Mothers with up to 7 sick children and no income other than social security benefits have been told by departmental health educators to make this journey. [More…]

• The mother took the child to the health educator, who happened to be on (She spot; but, in conformity with the policy of (She Department by which she is employed, [More…]

• The importance of health is understood by the Ministry, and a number of research projects have been financed and initiated by the Ministry in relation with the Health Department and Melbourne and Monash Universities. [More…]

• We are all in favour of research, but in East Gippsland there is a desperate need for health services of the most elementary kind. [More…]

• The health of Aboriginal children in East Gippsland may not be bad by comparison with the health of those in some areas where infant mortality has won this country international notoriety. [More…]

• Neither of these factors justifies the inadequate or inappropriate nature of health services provided at present in East Gippsland by the Victorian Government. [More…]

• The questions df education, health and other welfare problems were clearly defined in the. [More…]

• As an example of future taxation measures I mention the proposed national health insurance scheme which provides for direct taxation at the rate of 1.35 per cent of a person’s total income, not taxable income. [More…]

• The Government must recognise that a shorter working week coupled with increasing costs of materials and labour and recurrent strikes will cripple us and remove our capacity to improve health, education and social welfare standards in Australia. [More…]

• He does not like our health policies. [More…]

• Before lunch the honourable member for Casey (Mr Mathews) raised the question of the health of the Aboriginal people in Gippsland. [More…]

• It is depressing that at this time people in such an environment should be suffering a deprivation of health services. [More…]

• We have raised this matter with the Victorian Department of Health. [More…]

• Dr Langsford, who is the Director of Aboriginal Health hi the Commonwealth Department of Health, will go there next week. [More…]

• He has already had’ discussions with the Victorian Department of Health. [More…]

• As soon as the matter was raised with me by the honourable member for Casey, I had conversations with my colleague, the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham). [More…]

• It was concluded that fall-out over Australia from these series of French nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific did not constitute a hazard to the health of the Australian population. [More…]

• The Opposition believes that society has a direct responsibility to ensure that the dual role of the working woman who becomes pregnant does not affect her health or that of her child. [More…]

• One of the important aspects is the position that one’s dependants might be in if one were to suffer premature illness or, either by way of accident or ill health, to die at a time when one was still exercising one’s parliamentary role. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In the first case, because of an oversight, a bouquet of flowers was not declared to either customs or health officers on arrival of the Prime Ministers party at Canberra Airport. [More…]

• I ask, therefore, in view of the greater leisure hours confronting most people and compounding the health problems of the nation, will be when framing the Budget consider abolishing sales tax on sports equipment to encourage people of all ages to participate more in active sport? [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to recently published reports on air pollution and fallout in Australia and the possible effect on the health of Australians? [More…]

• I rise tonight to say a word of thanks to the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs (Mr Bryant) for the expedition with which they acted in the matter of the health of Aboriginal children in East Gippsland, demonstrating that at least on the part of the Australian Government there is a readiness to recognise problems when they occur. [More…]

• The truth about the health of Aboriginal children in East Gippsland has begun to emerge despite the efforts of health authorities in Melbourne to suppress it. [More…]

• The Health Officer of the Tambo Shire, Dr H. M. L. Murray, revealed yesterday that in the East Gippsland hamlet of Nowa Nowa alone there are 16 children under the age of 11 who are infested with scabies. [More…]

• This is the condition which the Assistant Chief Health Officer of Victoria, Dr B. P. Mccloskey, regards as ‘not a serious health problem but a minor health nuisance’. [More…]

• While Dr Murray was making his disclosures, Dr Mccloskey continued to insist that there was no health problem. [More…]

• The Assistant Chief Health Officer of Victoria should be giving more time to improving the health care delivery for which he is responsible and less to public controversies which are properly responsibilities of the Victorian Minister for Health and the Victorian Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• The Aboriginal people of East Gippsland have no faith left in health services provided by the Victorian Government. [More…]

• They regard officers of the Victorian Department of Health and of the Victorian Department of [More…]

• Dr Mccloskey was quoted this morning in the Melbourne ‘Age’ as calling on the Federal Government to provide his Department with finance for which it asked on 6 April ‘to appoint a medical officer as a health educator in the area’. [More…]

• We asked for finance to provide a health educator through the State Department of Aboriginal Affairs to the Commonwealth Department about seven weeks ago, but we haven’t even received an acknowledgment of the request. [More…]

• It was requested not to provide the health care services for which a need so clearly exists but to provide yet another health educator of the sort already familiar to the Aboriginal people and rejected by them. [More…]

• It was not ignored but rather made the subject of discussions between the Australian Government Departments of Health and Aboriginal Affairs and their Victorian counterparts. [More…]

• I rise tonight, as I said at the outset, to thank my colleagues the Minister for Health and the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs for the action that has been taken already in the light of my request that Australian Government medical staff should be sent as a matter of urgency to the East Gippsland area. [More…]

• The Assistant Director-General of the Department of Health, Dr W. A. Langsford, will visit Lake Tyers and neighbouring centres next week to inquire into the health of their Aboriginal citizens. [More…]

• At the request of Dr Langsford, a medical officer of the Victorian Department of Health went to Nowa Nowa today to investigate the incidence of scabies among the children at the Nowa Nowa school and the Save the Children Fund kindergarten. [More…]

• I hope that this activity will lead before long to the establishment of the permanent medical centre through which alone an adequate standard of health care can be made available to the Aboriginal people of East Gippsland. [More…]

• One is titled Community Health Program for Australia’ which is a report from the National Hospitals and Health Services Commisson Interim Committee. [More…]

• The Australian Hospitals and Health Services Commission will be headed by Dr Sidney Sax, who is at present the Chairman of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission Interim Committee. [More…]

• On the question of the community health program for Australia set out by the Committee headed by Dr Saks, I believe this report commends its attention to everybody in Australia and I would particularly commend it to those gentlemen from the Australian Medical Association whose contribution to community health resources will be announced tomorrow when they announce their fee increases. [More…]

• I hope that when they announce those increases that they will give some indication that they are paying regard to what is after all the purpose of a health policy, namely, to provide a system of integrated community care for the whole community. [More…]

• Queenslanders are suggesting that the retraction was at the request of the Minister for Health, Mr Tooth, a man who apparently cannot bear to hear the truth about the discredited system for which he is responsible. [More…]

• It suggests a deterioriation in the standard of health care in Brisbane’s leading hospital. [More…]

• One would have thought that Mr Tooth, as the Health Minister, would have moved quickly to rectify this potentially dangerous situation, especially the lack of staff at night. [More…]

• Mr Tom Burns, the Labor member for Lytton in Queensland and Labor’s shadow Minister for Health in the State Parliament, painted out that Mr Tooth did not even deny the shortcomings, inadequacies and problems outlined by Dr Knyvett. [More…]

• Commission, the Labor Government will give the Queensland hospitals an extra $30m under the proposals of the Health Insurance Planning Committee. [More…]

• There will be some opposition to our health plan and a lot of false propaganda will be levelled against it but I am confident that the people of Queensland, with knowledge of the finance that will be made available by this Government to Queensland, will fully support our plan. [More…]

• Section 100(6) gives the Director-General of Health power over advertising of medical material on radio and television subject to appeal to the Minister for the Media. [More…]

• The Minister for Health is responsible for health laws in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• Other relevant health laws for the Australian Capital Territory include regulation 13 of the Public Health (Sale of Food and Drugs) Regulations which authorises the Minister for Health to prohibit the advertising or sale of food, drugs, articles or apparatus which, in his opinion, are injurious to life or health. [More…]

• In addition the Director-General of Health is given a responsibility under Section 100(6) of the Broadcasting and Television Act 1942-1972, which requires the texts ofradio or television advertisements relating to medicines to be approved by him. [More…]

• In forming plans for the Government’s National Health Scheme, has the future of many thousands of employees in the various hospital and medical benefit funds been taken into account; if so, what is their future. [More…]

• Positions will be offered to some of the employees of private health insurance funds by the National Health Insurance Commission which is to be established to administer the universal fund. [More…]

• In staffing the Health Insurance Fund, employment preferences will be given to the employees of the present private funds, who will enjoy the entitlements, status and conditions and terms of employment accorded Commonwealth public servants’. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In those cases where it is the practice of the dentists to refer patients to a medical practitioner, the saving to a private patient if dentists were authorised to prescribe pharmaceutical benefits would be the difference between the medical practitioner’s consultation fee and any health insurance refund. [More…]

• If so, is this view, in essence, supported by the National Radiation Advisory Committee and does it regard the fall-out from the French tests as of no hazard, or of insignificant hazard, to health? [More…]

• Members of the services should be given War Service Homes, repatriation health benefits, civilian rehabilitation training, scholarships for their children and generous retirement and resettlement allowances. [More…]

• Increased expenditures in the area will be directed through other departments, including the Department of Housing through the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, the Department of Education, the Department of Social Security and the Department of Health. [More…]

• In the finish it is the aggregate that is important and what this Budget does deliberately is to shift the balance in the direction of more public spending which will go on welfare, health, housing and other sorts of things, and less on private spending. [More…]

• This contact ensures that frail or isolated people receive a daily check on the state of their health and provides them with an entree to many other welfare service that are available in the district. [More…]

• Elderly people often reduce the range and variety of the diet necessary for good health, either by reason of personal choice, physical ailments, inertia and failing judgment, or by just the sheer financial inability to purchase an adequate diversity of fresh foods with the vitamin content intact. [More…]

• In between these 2 extremes is the major segment of the aged community whose vitamin deficiency is not sufficiently acute to cause them to display obvious clinical symptoms, but is sufficient to reduce their enjoyment of good health and their resistance to illness, particularly the winter ailments. [More…]

• The Western Australian Department of Public Health recently conducted such a survey in its State and has kindly made the data available to my Department. [More…]

• The State departments channel a substantial proportion of these funds through other State departments in areas such as health, education and housing. [More…]

• The Australian Government does not seek the transfer from the States of particular responsibilities in the fields of health, housing, education and other functional areas, which in its view should preferably be carried out by the appropriate Australian or State departments having responsibility in these areas, partly on the basis of the continued provision of funds by the Australian Government. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Government has no wish to assume total and direct control of all programs and believes that in fields such as health and education the State authorities should continue to provide services for Aborines as for other citizens, with such special assistance as may be necessary being supported with Commonwealth Government grants as at present. [More…]

• If the honourable member wishes to read the Budget he will find that a great deal of money has been made available in various fields in the northern part of Australia - in the fields of health, education, Aboriginal development, public works, water conservation– [More…]

• Has the Minister for Social Security seen the letter written to the Adelaide ‘Advertiser’ by the former Minister for Health, the honourable member for Barker? [More…]

• If so, does he agree with the proud contention of the honourable member for Barker that his Government’s approach to health care was the best in the world? [More…]

• Finally, does he agree with the judgment of the honourable member for Barker that the Australian Labor Party has adopted the Scotton and Deeble health proposals with indecent haste when, firstly, the Government has not accepted them yet and, secondly, the Australian Labor Party and the Minister have worked on health reforms for at least the past 6 years? [More…]

• With characteristic behaviour a former Miinster for Health, now the Opposition spokesman on, 1 think, defence, although I am not sure we have heard from him on that subject, was exaggerating when he wrote that letter. [More…]

• No one could be happy with the present system of health insurance in this country, lt is inequitable. [More…]

• I think that the whole criticism of the present system can be summed up by the Nimmo report, which was a scathing condemnation of the present system of private health insurance. [More…]

• That was bad enough but the last Government did not even take up the key recommendations of the Nimmo report, for instance, the proposals for a participating doctors’ scheme, the zoning of open funds, the establishment of a national health insurance commission, arrangements for employers’ group deductions of contributions for employees, cessation of commission paid to employers for deductions, means test-free availability of standard or public ward accommodation, the integration of public hospital out-patients’ services and health insurance, the gradual elimination of honorary and concessional services- [More…]

• The truth is that we cannot have real advances in the public sector - education, cities, pensions or health - without real advances in the private sector where the wealth is built. [More…]

• This involves striking a proper balance between the demands of the public sector, which distributes social welfare, against the health of the private sector, which creates the means of financing public spending. [More…]

• Either is most harmful to the economic health of the nation. [More…]

• It goes beyond prices - staggering though they are - to the basic health of the economy. [More…]

• He is a citizen who must buy land, build a house or rent one, raise a family, keep them and himself in health, travel to work, pay State charges, pay municipal charges, pay insurance charges. [More…]

• It is these settlers on low incomes who have to pay for the provision of roads, sewerage, lighting and other basic essential services such as libraries and public health facilities, and who have to subsidise the new educational complexes. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Honourable members would be aware, of course, that the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) has already given an undertaking that the recommendations of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare on the mentally and physically handicapped relating to sheltered workshops and other matters, insofar as they are an Australian Government responsibility, will be implemented by this Government. [More…]

• It effects a substantial transfer of payments from the productive sector of the economy to welfare, social services, health and education. [More…]

• This Budget gives great emphasis to the areas of education, health, social security and welfare, housing and community amenities, culture and recreation, Aboriginal advancement, sport, tourism, aid for States, transport and communications. [More…]

• Many people are becoming aware of the fact that in spite of the predictions that the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) is making the ultimate plan will be for Australia to become a country in which only the Government will be permitted to run anything to do with industries associated with medicine and health and that all the medical practitioners will be part of a salaried scheme as though they were in the Navy, the Army or the Air Force. [More…]

• The Government has recklessly slashed rural reconstruction funds, the butter and cheese bounty, free school milk, and taxation incentives for primary industry, and has imposed an export tax on meat to pay for health measures in the form of livestock testing for brucellosis and tuberculosis. [More…]

• Whether one examines the fields of health, housing, education, social welfare, conservation, urban development or repatriation, one will have little trouble detecting evidence of our ambition and aim to improve the lot of our people not just in material terms but in every way. [More…]

• Both recreation and tourism help you to regenerate your run down batteries, to improve your health and to enjoy your life more. [More…]

• I congratulate the Treasurer (Mr Crean) for an excellent document and an excellent program of social reform in a wide sphere of activity including health, education, urban transport, other urban problems, social welfare and many other fields. [More…]

• We have important initiatives in the field of community health. [More…]

• At last we are moving towards establishing community health services according to the priorities laid down by the Sax Committee. [More…]

• With those community health services, with heavy emphasis on preventive medicine and with rehabilitation we will make an important break with traditional medical practice in this country and I believe it will be a great breakthrough for the welfare and health of the people of Australia. [More…]

• There have been many problems in the past in the treatment of mental health. [More…]

• The provision in the Budget for the establishment of community mental health centres is, I believe, a tremendously important initiative. [More…]

• From now on we will be providing incentives for health services to be provided in community mental health centres. [More…]

• The Budget also provides for an important outlay to be made for the promotion of dental health. [More…]

• If the States that have not adopted fluoridation of water supplies - Victoria and Queensland - can be persuaded to introduce that most important public health measure, I think we can confidently expect that this plus the dental health scheme will mean that dental decay will become virtually a rarity. [More…]

• The aspirations, determination and self-respect of the Aborigines of Lake Tyers, no less than the health of Aboriginal children throughout East Gippsland- [More…]

• There must be better provision for the health care of the community and better incentives for its young people over the school leaving age to persist with their’ education. [More…]

• The Budget gives notice of the establishment of community health centres which supposedly and hopefully will help people, but so many things that are supposedly for all of Australia never seem to get through to the country cities and towns. [More…]

• One adverse effect that the development of community health centres or medical centres could have is that even fewer general practitioners and medical services could be available in many country communities. [More…]

• This problem occurs also with special features of social security and health expenditure. [More…]

• Health is another very important aspect of our whole social life. [More…]

• The same applies to health services. [More…]

• We all know about the patched up, crumbling health service that this country has at the moment which was a legacy from the previous Government. [More…]

• The Government would be loath to continue with a scheme that leaves a very large section of the community unable to contribute to it and so having no health insurance for their families. [More…]

• Let us look at the national health scheme. [More…]

• Expenditure on social security and welfare is next, and then there is health with an increase of $196m or 25 per cent more than was provided in 1972-73, followed by transport and communications. [More…]

• Sometimes these expenses are referred to as health costs or the cost of health in our community. [More…]

• In fact they are the costs of poor health, the costs of trying to correct illnesses rather than the cost of achieving good health. [More…]

• A study undertaken recently by a task force in the United States of America for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare has found that coronary disease is directly attributable to the work style and mode of living. [More…]

• I ask a question of the Minister for Social Security concerning the Australian Labor Party’s proposed health scheme. [More…]

• Can he also give similar assurance that in no circumstances will they be paid on any form of capitation basis as is done in the United Kingdom health scheme? [More…]

• The present system of health insurance tends to discriminate against medical practitioners who may wish to take up another form of remuneration apart from that of fee for service. [More…]

• For instance, many of the private health insurance funds will pay no benefit at all where a service is provided by a medical practitioner on contract, on salary or on a per capita basis of remuneration such as is found in the American concept of health maintenance organisations. [More…]

• This is an opportunity that very clearly does not exist today because health insurance has been designed in a way that discriminates against medical practitioners who wish to do that. [More…]

• By the end of this Parliament Australia will have a comprehensive and generous system of social security benefits with universal health insurance, national superannuation, national compensation and a system of guaranteed income, as the key ingredients of that program. [More…]

• Conveniently sited health or welfare centres providing a range of integrated services relevant to the community needs in which the centres are set up are as keenly sought by the middle class as the working class. [More…]

• The Australian Government has committed itself to the concept of forward planning - planning of our cities, our health policies, our education policies and our welfare policies. [More…]

• The regional councils for social development will advise other regional planning bodies on the social implications of their policies - for example, health planning or urban and regional planning. [More…]

• seems to be 180 degrees from their philosophy in implementing the health scheme. [More…]

• Should it be in the area of education, health, urban affairs or primary industry? [More…]

• It is worth emphasising that the increase in departmental running expenses will be almost as great as the increase in health expenditure, will be greater than the increase in transport and communication expenditure and, indeed, will constitute the fourth largest single growth area of Commonwealth Government expenditure in 1973-.4. [More…]

• No-one questions the good intentions of the Treasurer in rapidly expanding Government spending on welfare services, education, health care and similar matters. [More…]

• If that happens then we must fear not only for the economic health of this nation, but also for its social stability. [More…]

• The announcement that $10m will be made available in 1973-74 to assist the States and eligible organisations to meet the capital and operating costs of providing community health facilities and services is certainly welcome. [More…]

• As these people are concentrated in areas at the out skirts of Brisbane, there are certainly great benefits to come to those people from the introduction of such a scheme as will be implemented in due course in accordance with the program that has been laid down in the report on a community health program for Australia which was tabled in this Parliament recently by the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham). [More…]

• The injection of such amounts of money as will be forthcoming from this Government with the introduction of the national health scheme will be needed greatly in the city of Brisbane. [More…]

• The matter to which I should like to devote most of my attention is the national health scheme. [More…]

• During question time today I received some sort of unsatisfactory answer from the Minister for Social Security, about inaccuracies in the costing of the health scheme. [More…]

• I shall relate some figures dealing with the cost to the person who is really under attack in this health scheme. [More…]

• A married couple with 2 children seeking non-public hospital accommodation and earning $100 a week now pay $1.55 but under the national health scheme they will have to pay $1.82 and will be forced to go into a public hospital. [More…]

• If there are any single people listening or interested in what it will cost them I point out that if a person earning $80 a week is unfortunate enough to go to hospital under the nationalised health scheme whereas he now pays 60c a week, it will cost him $1 a week to ‘go to a public hospital. [More…]

• In this respect, I turn to provisions for health services. [More…]

• Community health centres were given some prominence in the Budget. [More…]

• Initially, an amount of $10m has been allocated to enable a start to be made on community health centres. [More…]

• We certainly hope that in the future we will see spread throughout Australia community health centres of the standard of those which have been opened at Melba and in one other suburb in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• Certainly this is money which can be well spent because Aboriginal people in many areas have a need for advancement with respect to welfare, health and education. [More…]

• In the interests of the health of school children, if the supply of milk was to be discontinued it would have been appropriate if fruit juice had been supplied and the cost offset by the savings made as a result of the lifting of tax concessions on soft drinks containing fruit juice. [More…]

• The Government has increased the appropriation for health from $783m to $979m, an increase of 25 per cent. [More…]

• It wants to keep the economy going and it wants to fix priorities, which it is doing for schools, health, education and other matters. [More…]

• Fourthly, the health needs of our people ought to be given top priority and be provided for properly. [More…]

• As the community becomes more aware of our universal health scheme, that scheme will be applauded by an overwhelming number of Australians. [More…]

• We believe in giving priority to preventative health measures over curative health measures. [More…]

• We will allocate $7.5m to assist the States to develop communitybased mental health, drug and alcoholism dependency services. [More…]

• Further, $ 1.75m is provided for mental health institutions and $500,000 is appropriated for anti-smoking campaigns. [More…]

• Spokesmen for the Australian Medical Association and for the General Practitioners Society refer repeatedly to the importance of the doctor-patient relationship and assert that under the new health insurance arrangements proposed by the Australian Government that relationship will become a thing of the past. [More…]

• They emphasise the importance of maintaining a high quality of medical care and assert that under the Australian Government’s health insurance program quality will be a thing of the past. [More…]

• The pretensions of the Australian Medical Association and the General Practitioners Society to be able to devise a better system of health insurance than that of the Australian Government might be taken more seriously if those organisations were to display more competence in respect to arrangements which are properly within their sphere of responsibility. [More…]

• I am glad the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) has been present in the House tonight to hear my brief remarks. [More…]

• I noticed today, on reading through an AMA gazette, a report that was made recently by a member of the AMA Council, Dr Lugg, in Perth in which he emphasised the Association’s unwillingness to participate in negotiations with the Australian Government on the matter of health insurance. [More…]

• He has, however, been able to provide the estimates of expenditure on health services set out in Table 1, which are taken from estimates prepared for inclusion in the Australian National Accounts. [More…]

• While the coverage of the figures relating to the public sector is reasonably complete, full information is not available in relation to private final consumption expenditure on health services and private capital expenditure on health facilities. [More…]

• In relation to the former, the Australian National Accounts (see table of the 1970-71 issue) do show an item ‘chemists goods’, but this item includes much expenditure which cannot be regarded as expenditure on health, and a satisfactory estimate of the health component cannot be made at present. [More…]

• With regard to the latter item, an estimate of private fixed capital expenditure on new buildings for health services is available from the building statistics collection. [More…]

• Additional information on public sector expenditure on health services is available in other publications of the Commonwealth Statistician, in particular Public Authority Finance: Commonwealth Authorities’ (Ref. [More…]

• My Department has undertaken some special surveys to complement other information available on which to make its own estimates of current account expenditure on health services for the years 1966-67 and 1969-70 (see Table II). [More…]

• Estimates of capital account expenditure on health services (e.g. [More…]

• new buildings for health services) have not been compiled by my Department. [More…]

• They have been compiled as an interim measure pending the development of collections by the Bureau of Census and Statistics which will enable health expenditure estimates to be made on a more uniform and comparable basis than at present. [More…]

• One was a national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• If this computer is to run the health system, heaven help the patients, because recently the computers in the Department of Social Security broke down and thousands of pensioners did not receive their cheques, files were lost and computer print-outs told people that their pensions had been reduced or stopped. [More…]

• One can imagine what it will be like when this computer for the national health program gets under way. [More…]

• Next year there will be another levy on our taxable income to finance the Government’s grandiose national health scheme. [More…]

• He said he had been disappointed that the 3 Liberals had spent so much time discussing aspects of Federal Labor policies, particularly the national health scheme. [More…]

• For the first time the Commonwealth has given funds for medical health centres in areas which lack these facilities today. [More…]

• The ramifications and the probable repercussions of the universal health insurance scheme are too wide to cover at the moment. [More…]

• I want to make some passing remarks about the health field. [More…]

• It is with absolute disgust that I see the process of misrepresentation and dishonesty with regard to the Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• When I was handed back my book and refund I was handed also a politically oriented health scheme pamphlet on which had been spent part of my contributions for the more than 22 years that I have belonged to this health fund. [More…]

• I have heard the argument about the use of the computer in the new health scheme. [More…]

• As a member of a voluntary health insurance organisation my family unit has a number. [More…]

• Perhaps the Opposition wants to return to the use of the abacus in recording health finances. [More…]

• Let us settle down and realise that people want decent health facilities and can get decent health facilities. [More…]

• In health, despite the remarks of the honourable member for Scullin (Dr Jenkins) Labor continues to state without either convincing argument or proof that the present health scheme is inequitable and inefficient. [More…]

• Whilst the present scheme has some imperfections which will require attention, this Government is obsessed with socialist and centralist policies, and against growing public concern it allocates in the Budget funds to commence the implementation of its national health scheme. [More…]

• Before the suspension of the sitting I had given the House some detail of Labor’s duplicity in key policy areas particularly in housing, education and health, and its irresponsibility in increasing Government expenditure this year by 19 per cent and thereby unleashing the forces of inflation, disadvantaging many sections of the community and attacking private enterprise, particularly the primary producer and the mining industry. [More…]

• Health schemes and superannuation schemes yet to be introduced for consideration by this House can be financed only by increased taxation, whether labelled so or not. [More…]

• Now, Mr Speaker, I will take the opportunity to speak during this Budget debate on 2 matters that are of important interest to me and which affect all Australians generally, namely the fiasco of the present health discussions and the criticisms by a minority of the people of the Labor Government’s policy on education. [More…]

• Government’s proposal to introduce in 1974 a national health scheme to replace the present unfair, inefficient voluntary health scheme of the previous Tory governments, the doctors, together with other people who have a direct commercial interest, have unleashed a tirade of abuse, for the express purpose of creating confusion and doubt within the community as to the benefits and protections which would be enjoyed under a national health scheme. [More…]

• I can recall this same atmosphere when the Chifley Labor Government in 1947 introduced and passed legislation for a free national health scheme. [More…]

• On that occasion the same interest which is loudly denouncing Labor’s health policy - namely the Australian Medical Association - took an injunction against the legislation to the High Court of Australia. [More…]

• I do so because from the first time the Federal Labor Leader announced Labor’s policy to introduce a national health scheme - for which subsequently the people of Australia by their vote gave a mandate - the Australian Medical Association, individual doctors, representatives of hospital benefit funds and the Press have launched a campaign to vilify and abuse the scheme for the express purpose of creating an area of confusion amongst the Australian people as to the true purpose of our health scheme. [More…]

• Notwithstanding those critics, the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) will next year introduce Labor’s health policy and it will in the main provide the fundamental principle that health care is a basic right to be provided according to need and not rationed according to wealth; that 4 out of 5 people will pay less for health insurance coverage than they do now; that as patients they will be guaranteed a free choice of doctors; their doctors will be paid for each service they perform and will continue as private practitioners. [More…]

• This is most unfair as it means that those earning more pay less for their health care after claiming tax concessions. [More…]

• Say, for the sake of argument, the Government had allocated in the Budget additional money for pensions, health, housing, education, social security, conservation and urban and regional development - you name it - amounting to many more hundreds of millions of dollars than has been allocated under this Budget and it had balanced its budget by dipping still further into the private sector. [More…]

• Provision is made in the Budget for a community health centre in the Australian Capital Territory, in the new suburb of Melba. [More…]

• In Scullin, an adjoining suburb, a similar community health centre is operating on a different basis, using doctors on a fee for service type system to give an alternative and a freedom of choice to the people of Canberra. [More…]

• We would like to see these facilities in all Australian communities, along with the more traditional health centres. [More…]

• An amount of $20,000 has been allocated to extend the activities of the Family Planning Association beyond the present 2 centres for advice in Beauchamp House and the Woden Plaza to Canberra’s 2 public hospitals, to the health centres and to Jervis Bay. [More…]

• Record expenditures are contained in this .Budget in the fields of education and health services and substantial increases have been provided for community facilities in the north. [More…]

• I am pleased that so many have accepted this point and have acknowledged that if we smoke a little less because of it our health will be improved, and if we use a little less petrol because of it the resource tends to be conserved, there is less pollution, less of the costly traffic problems, greater use of public transport and so on. [More…]

• In health, $7.5m is provided to assist the States to develop community based mental health, alcoholism and drug dependency services, and $7 .9m for the national school dental scheme. [More…]

• There is an overall doubling of expenditure on Aboriginal advancement in the areas of housing, health, education and employment. [More…]

• The honourable member will be aware that apart from myself, my colleagues the Minister for Transport and the Minister for Health, have a vital interest in the regulation of automotive emissions. [More…]

• I remind the Minister for Health that the pharmacy ordinance of the Australian Capital Territory has been changed so that it now allows any preventive of contraception, other than those contraceptives requiring a prescription, to be sold by any person instead of only by pharmacists as formerly. [More…]

• This Act was introduced in 1969 on the basis of a recommendation made at the 1968 Health Ministers Conference. [More…]

• This calls for the development of an integrated program of welfare services, complementary to income support programs and the welfarerelated aspects of health, education, housing, employment, migration and other social policies. [More…]

• Let us take the next Minister, the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham). [More…]

• I believe that we had one of the best health schemes in the world. [More…]

• I am glad to see that the Minister for Health - I think he spells it Helth - is at the table today. [More…]

• To my way of thinking, only 2 problems existed in the health scheme under the previous Government and they were 2 fairly minor problems which could have been overcome and, undoubtedly, this would have created an extremely good scheme. [More…]

• In fact, it has been shown by polls that the proposal of the Labor Party in respect of health is not acceptable to the majority of people in Australia. [More…]

• Does the Leader of the Opposition suggest that country people do not share in the benefits of improved social welfare or the benefits flowing from our contributions to housing and health? [More…]

• Funds are available under the social welfare assistance plan and it is possible to get a grant of $20,000 for a regional director and planning staff to draw together the myriad social welfare and health activities which are now run by so many different government agencies without any over all planning. [More…]

• The first of the 2 broad objectives is rapidly to expand the public sector by direct spending on goods and services, education, hospitals - or at least one hospital, in Parramatta - health services and the cities, but not defence. [More…]

• Among the numerous advances in the field of health care and social welfare provided for is the amount of $7,675,000 in grants for the school dental scheme in 1973-74. [More…]

• That will result in a much needed improvement in the dental health of the children of this country, a matter which has hitherto been sadly neglected by previous governments. [More…]

• The service wai offer free dental care and treatment to each child at least once a year and dental health education would be provided to ail school children. [More…]

• Whilst the state health authorities will he responsible for the actual implementation and administration of the service, the Australian Government will be responsible for providing overall leadership and coordination of the scheme. [More…]

• The amount allocated for cultural recreation is an investment in good health. [More…]

• On 31 July the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) announced that he would be allocating $250,000 for the purpose of advertising not the Australian health insurance program but the proposed Australian health insurance program - a program which has not as yet been submitted to the scrutiny of this House or this Parliament, a program which has not yet been translated into legislative form and which may not ever be translated into legislative form. [More…]

• The Minister said that he proposed to use the facilities of the Australian Post Office to distribute the leaflets that he had published to promote the Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• Sir, we have been concerned to receive a pamphlet through the post regarding the Government’s National Health Scheme. [More…]

• Sir, Mr R. G. Baldock of Saddleworth expressed concern (4-9-73) that a New Health Insurance Plan leaflet available on post office counters should, under instructions, be delivered and placed in private boxes, when not a postal article. [More…]

• As you have already distributed pamphlets concerning the present Government’s proposed health scheme (a scheme which has not yet been approved by Parliament) I would be pleased if you would similarly distribute the enclosed pamphlet which sets out reasons why the proposed scheme should not be introduced. [More…]

• Apparently he was also not aware that the former Government distributed by post to every person in Australia details of its health schemes on at least one other occasion. [More…]

• There has been and continues to be a campaign mainly waged on behalf of private insurance companies and mainly financed out of funds provided by or supported by taxpayers, funds of the private health insurance groups and funds of foreign owned drug companies. [More…]

• I would suggest that the foreign owned drug companies are pouring money in very large quantities into the campaign against the Government’s health scheme because they feel that their interests and their profit margins may be threatened if more adequate scrutiny of their activities becomes possible. [More…]

• I am rather surprised that the honourable member for Sturt and other honourable members on the other side of the House seem to feel that it is all right for health insurance funds to use contributor’s funds without their permission to put out publicity which contains more half truths and deliberate untruths than any honest organisation should be allowed to publish whilst denying the Government the opportunity to put forward the facts about its scheme. [More…]

• The funds claim that they are able to service the Australian community’s health costs economically. [More…]

• It is said to be wrong that money should be collected by means of taxation for a Government health scheme but it is said to be right for the same money to be channelled to private organisations so that they can distribute the money. [More…]

• The Government is providing information on a proposed health scheme. [More…]

• We are faced by a rising tide of human misery for which our present social welfare, health and law enforcement agencies can provide no remedy. [More…]

• The number of children at risk appears to be increasing - increasing to the point where it would appear that their plight and number constitute the largest single public health problem awaiting solution. [More…]

• On 30 May this year the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) listed for me no fewer than 1 1 aspects of family planning over which approaches had been made repeatedly to the Australian Government. [More…]

• (The document read as follows) - “Mr Mathews asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• It said that much evidence emphasised that the prevention of pregnancy in the unmarried teen-age girl is a much more complex problem than can be solved by a simple provision of contraception and that sex education should be provided not as a subject in isolation, but as part of health educational programs, and of education for responsible human relationships and family life. [More…]

• If honourable members look at the Bourne case which was dealt with in 1938 they will see that it clearly shows that it was 35 years ahead of this Parliament because for the first time in regard to what was deemed to be lawful or unlawful it was found that it was not unlawful to terminate a pregnancy where a medical practitioner performed it and it was in the interests of the mother’s health. [More…]

• If honourable members look at the statistics on how many charges are laid and convictions obtained they will see that there has been none in the last 12 months in New South Wales because there is a complete let-out - and it is a valid one - if the person performing the abortion is a medical practitioner and the abortion is done in the interests of the woman’s health. [More…]

• What I would like to see is an inquiry into the circumstances which cause an abortion; the consequences of it; the action required to assist women in avoiding it; the action required to deter people from aiding and abetting it; the adequacy and effectiveness of family planning techniques; the action required to ensure that medical practitioners always act in the interests of the woman’s health; the action required to ensure that all services are available free of cost; the action required to establish the necessary supportive services; and, generally, the action required to ensure the preservation of the lives of the mother and her unborn child. [More…]

• The commissioners should have access to the records of all Federal authorities, including health, social security, matrimonial causes and income tax authorities, and should have power to seek the cooperation of the respective State authorities in these jurisdictions, including the State law enforcement and child welfare agencies; as far as practicable, the commissioners should comprise a mother who is experienced in social welfare work, a medical practitioner and a criminologist; and the commissioners should be assisted by senior counsel and have power to sit in camera. [More…]

• The medical and social consequences of abortion including the health, security, well being and future enjoyment of life by the woman concerned; [More…]

• The adequacy and effectiveness of existing family planning techniques; (0 The action required to ensure medical practitioners will always act in the interest of safeguarding a woman’s health and well being when abortion is sought. [More…]

• That the Commissioners have access to all Federal authorities’ records relating to health, social security, matrimonial causes and income tax and have power to seek the co-operation of the respective State authorities in these jurisdictions and including the State Law Enforcement and Child Welfare agencies. [More…]

• Protection against hazards to safety and health; [More…]

• Principal responsibility for coordination of Australian Government action in the development of uniform standards for consumer products, including advisory and policy functions in relation to Codex Alimentarius and Commonwealth food standards, but not including standards based on health criteria on drugs and foods, that would remain the responsibility of the Department of Health; [More…]

• Health (drugs, and therapeutic materials) and the Department of Transport (motor vehicles); [More…]

• The new system will be reinforced by national superannuation, national compensation and a universal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• 1 have in my hand, to illustrate that it is no dis covery at all, a paper presented to the very first meeting of the Health and Social Welfare Committee of the Labor Caucus held after the last election. [More…]

• The only consolation is that the Minister for the Capital Territory and Minister for the Northern Territory (Mr Enderby) and the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) are in the House tonight. [More…]

• Certain proposals have been outlined in the report of the planning committee on the universal health insurance program to be introduced next year. [More…]

• In order that the nation may make an assessment of the overall cost of the proposed national health scheme to the taxpayer, will the Minister state what are the amounts of the second and third means of financing the scheme, which are described in the pamphlet “The Plain Facts’ as the levy on workers compensation and third party motor vehicle insurance? [More…]

• The costs covering medical and hospital services related to workers compensation and third party insurance under the universal health insurance proposals are exactly the same as those which would have to be met by the systems operating now. [More…]

• I suggest to those spokesmen or parrots of the private health insurance funds that they produce some figures to back up their assertions about my statements, rather than generalise. [More…]

• I can only assure all recipients of repatriation benefits that the Repatriation Department will not be dispensed with and integrated with other departments such as the Department of Social Security or the Department of Health when the Liberal and Country Parties are returned to government. [More…]

• There is also in the Bill the extension of benefits to members of the regular forces, and there is an indication of the interlocking of repatriation benefits with general health and social welfare services in the community. [More…]

• I can only assume that this matter of interlocking repatriation services with other health and social welfare services gave rise to that rumour. [More…]

• But there is considerable expertise in the Repatriation Department which has much to add to community health and social welfare services, and I do not .think those with that expertise should be prevented from giving that assistance. [More…]

• The RSL is concerned at a spate of rumours drifting round the corridors of power that the Repatriation Department may be absorbed into a Health and Welfare complex, and Repatriation hospitals transferred to either Commonwealth or State control. [More…]

• We have already written to State health ministers alerting them to the withdrawal of doctors from the pensioner medical service, indicating areas where there are no other doctors participating in the service and seeking assistance from the State health ministers to ensure that adequate health and medical services are provided for these pensioners. [More…]

• Finally, there are difficulties if one were to extend the subsidised health insurance program to pensioners. [More…]

• The Department of Social Security has advised me that because of the income cut off point and because of the way in which the subsidised health insurance benefits are described to benefit families as distinct from individuals, a great number of pensioners would be excluded from subsidised health insurance benefits. [More…]

• So really, the subsidised health insurance benefit plan is not the answer to the problem. [More…]

• I hope that in the interim period, after which we will bring in our program, the State health ministers will be able to co-operate with us in the way in which I have indicated. [More…]

• Would they have cut down the improvements in the health field or the grants to the States? [More…]

• Of course, the performance of the private sector of the economy is vital to the overall health of the economy of the nation. [More…]

• There is a fair amount of evidence of the health of the rural economy at present. [More…]

• When the honourable member refers to the health and state of the Australian wheat industry I think that he would be well advised to have a look at the actions of his own Administration which caused widespread hardship in recent years. [More…]

• -I preface my question to the Minister for Health by congratulating the Government on its decision to provide $4m in this financial year towards the cost of planning the Westmead Hospital, which is to be built on the Parramatta Showground. [More…]

• As the Minister is no doubt aware, the New South Wales Liberal Minister for Health, Mr Jago, originally promised that Westmead Hospital would be functioning by 1972, and in fact of course nothing has happened. [More…]

• We have formal submissions on the community health care program from 2 other States, and I am sure we will have one soon from New South Wales. [More…]

• In developing new goals, implementing long term planning and setting priorities in the welfare field, the Commission is charged with the task of taking an overall view of social policy, which encompasses such areas as education, housing, health services, emplovment policies and other matters, as well as the more specific issues of income-security payments and personal welfare services. [More…]

• The aim of the Australian Assistance Plan is to assist in the development at a regional level, within a nationally co-ordinated framework, of integrated patterns of welfare services, complementary to income support programs and the welfare related aspects of health, education, housing, employment, migration and other social policies. [More…]

• Reference was made to the attitude of the honourable member for Capricornia (Dr Everingham), who is the Minister for Health, towards the increase in petrol prices. [More…]

• If this Parliament is to tolerate a Minister’s using what purported to be an exchange of correspondence between Ministers and their colleagues in former administrations, there is no health in them nor hope for them. [More…]

• I am glad that the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) has come into the chamber. [More…]

• Mr Burns, the shadow Minister for Health in Queensland, has not said one thing. [More…]

• My colleague, the Minister for Health, Dr Everingham, has offered his services to mediate in this dispute, should he be called upon. [More…]

• The Departments of: Labour (Chairman), Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General’s Education, Environment and Conservation, Health, Housing, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Science, Social Security. [More…]

• At its initial meeting the Committee decided to set up a smaller Working Group which comprises representatives from the Departments of Labour, Education, Environment and Conservation, Health Housing, Social Security, Treasury, Urban and Regional Development and the Bureau of Census and Statistics to draw up a program for formulating a system of social indicators in Australia. [More…]

• National Health Federation of Australia (unspecified) [More…]

• He said in this House only this week words to the effect that there are 1 million people in Australia who at present have no protection under the health scheme. [More…]

• The fact is that 83.2 per cent of the population of Australia at the moment are members of voluntary health funds and 9.6 per cent of the population- [More…]

• Recently the Minister paid a visit to Geelong to investigate a site for the new $42m National Animal Health Laboratory. [More…]

• The purpose of the Animal Health Laboratory is to prevent the outbreak of exotic animal diseases. [More…]

• There are several other matters to be resolved before I can make a recommendation to the Cabinet on the site and the further implementation of the recommendations for a national health laboratory which, I might add, was initiated by the previous Government and which this Government fully supports. [More…]

• I think one of the difficulties in relation to animal health in Australia has been that it has been more by good luck than good management that Australia has been spared the impact of quite serious diseases such as foot and mouth disease. [More…]

• The intention behind the animal health laboratory, is to ensure that Australia will be free from these diseases and, therefore, make a great contribution to the livestock industry of Australia. [More…]

• The Minister for Health in Victoria has expressed some misgivings about the fact that the advisory dental committee is responsible only to the Australian Minister for Health. [More…]

• He believes that this should be a joint responsibility of all Health Ministers. [More…]

• The reports of the task forces indicate that there is a great need to upgrade the standard of interpreter services, to provide for proper training and above all to seek co-operation now in all spheres between the Australian Government and the State governments, particularly in the fields of health and justice, and this I will do. [More…]

• We need to ensure that health services are properly provided and that justice is done. [More…]

• In November and December 1970 the State Department of Health in Queensland and the Department of Social Security, respectively asked the proprietor of the home what were her intentions as to the future operation of the home, especially in relation to the report by the Fire Brigade Board. [More…]

• In July 1972 the State Department of Health renewed the licence for this home to 15 October 1973 and requested advice from the proprietor about her intentions in respect to the continued conducting of the premises. [More…]

• On 11 August 1972 - well before the system of free justification which was introduced by the previous Government was legislated for and, of course, well before it was applied by the present Government, which was from January of this year - the proprietor of the home advised the State health authorities that in accordance with the Fire Brigade report she would close the home when the licence expired. [More…]

• We as a Government have sponsored membership by Papua New Guinea of such international organisations as the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, the Asian Development Bank, the World Health Organisation, the South Pacific Commission and the International Labour Organisation. [More…]

• Other reforms will come from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the Department of Health and my own Department of the Northern Territory. [More…]

• The Minister has said that the State departments responsible for Aboriginal affairs have received an increasingly large part of their funds from Commonwealth grants and that they have channelled a substantial proportion of these funds through other departments in areas such as health, education and housing. [More…]

• But I ask the Minister in this respect: Does he intend his Department to take over the State departments in areas of health, education and housing, eventually or does he expect the States to continue administering these responsibilities as far as our coloured people are concerned? [More…]

• During the period between 1968 and 1973 the Commonwealth Government has recognised that persons of Aboriginal descent experience a number of disabilities in comparison with the rest of the community and that special measures are needed to overcome their disabilities, lt has been said that programs have been evolved which are designed to encourage and strengthen the capacity of persons of Aboriginal descent to manage their own affairs as individuals, groups and local communities to increase their economic independence and to reduce social and other handicaps facing them in health, housing and education. [More…]

• With this kind of money being made available both by the Commonwealth and the States one would have thought that considerable improvement would have been evident in the Aboriginal way of life and that the aims and objects of previous governments with regard to health, education and housing would have resulted in greatly improved conditions over the last 5 years. [More…]

• Most of the areas visited by the Minister were ones of devastating neglect, and disaster areas as far as health is concerned. [More…]

• Health is very important, lt is vital that something be done in this field immediately. [More…]

• The general health of Aboriginal children is exceptionally low. [More…]

• There is better liaison, very often, between State departments when the matter being dealt with concerns the health, education or housing of Aborigines. [More…]

• I think that when the investigation is carried out it will be found that the health situation of the child and the actual feelings of the parents for the child at the time were discussed between the foster parents and the Welfare Branch as it then was, of the Northern Territory Administration. [More…]

• The other matter that causes us a great deal of concern is health. [More…]

• No matter where one goes, it is evident that the health of the Aboriginal population generally is much lower than that of white populations anywhere in our community. [More…]

• So there is a great need for us to be able to improve their quality of life and their health so that the children will have an equal opportunity and so that when they grow to adults they can grow to healthy adults and in turn will be able to raise their children. [More…]

• The people contract this so easily because of their condition of health. [More…]

• It is the intention of the Australian Government to develop a healthy co-operation with the States. [More…]

• The expenditure for this year for Aboriginal advancement is: Education, $4,600,000; health $9,il 34,000; social security and welfare, $3,230,000; housing and amenities, $14,786,000 - a total of $31,750,000. [More…]

• Anyone who suggests that we are in the business of excluding the States is being quite unreal, when so many basic services such as health, education, housing and the like in our community are financed through State Governments. [More…]

• It does mean 10 houses, a street made, a health centre or specialist assistance. [More…]

• Those of us who are over 16 years of age can take some comfort from the fact which I have just quoted from the New York Family Health Magazine of March 1970. [More…]

• What is unseen is the many thousands who sit at home, lonely and bored and with their physical and mental health being impaired. [More…]

• An abundance of social research is available from studies done elsewhere to illustrate the improvement in the mental and physical health of the aged community where such centres are created. [More…]

• Incidentally, a by-product of such a program will be a lessening of the strain on our present health resources. [More…]

• Owing to the fragmented nature of our health and welfare facilities, people needing assistance are often unable to locate the source and they wander through a bureaucratic maze of government, semigovernment and voluntary agencies, becoming more and more distressed as they fail to overcome their emotional or financial problems. [More…]

• It meant, too, that more of the residents were able to live a normal life within the limits of their health, frail though it might have been. [More…]

• We have seen in other areas where subsidy has been given in a way that is dependent upon a person’s state of health that this sometimes operates in a manner which is counter productive to the objectives now aimed at, namely, the attainment of full rehabilitation or rehabilitation to the maximum of a person’s capacity. [More…]

• I feel sure that the Henderson inquiry will reveal that whilst there are pockets and many individual casen of real poverty amongst the aged, the major hazards will prove to be caused by, loneliness, fear, boredom and insecurity, which in turn induces a wide range of psychological, emotional, physical and general health problems. [More…]

• From them, by the opportunity they present for people to meet in suitable and peaceful surroundings, these people draw strength and renewed confidence and enthusiasm to resist the pressures that are thrust on them from economic, social, health and family worries. [More…]

• Yesterday, people in my office in this building drew my attention to 2 bundles of letters which had been received protesting about the health insurance scheme - one from, I think, Bundaberg and the other from Gympie. [More…]

• I repeat what I said before: I am prepared to consult and negotiate on the range of proposals which are included in the universal health insurance program. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Social Security seen a report of a statement by Mr Justin Fleming, the President of the Australian Association of Surgeons, in which he associated himself or expressed agreement of his association with the Liberal Party spokesman on health and social welfare, the honourable member for Hotham, who had accused doctors’ organisations of deplorable taste in their attacks on the Federal Government’s proposed national health scheme? [More…]

• Secondly, has the Minister seen in the same report a statement that Mr Justin Fleming, following the Minister’s announcement last week of a relatively minor change in the health insurance proposals, has expressed his support for what he called Mr Hayden’s scheme? [More…]

• The honourable member referred to comments by the honourable member for Hotham, the spokesman for the Opposition on health and welfare matters. [More…]

• I believe that the community will achieve superior health and welfare services as a result of this sort of approach. [More…]

• The Prime Minister will be reminded of them if he thinks of the Minister for the Environment and Conservation (Dr Cass), the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), the Minister for Northern Development (Dr Patterson) and, in the other place, the Minister for Repatriation (Senator Bishop), the Minister for Primary Industry (Senator Wriedt) and the Special Minister of State (Senator Willesee). [More…]

• I raised the question of interpreter services in State government administration and health and legal institutions with State ministers for immigration at a conference on 11 May 1973. [More…]

• This contact ensures that frail or isolated people receive a daily check on their state of health. [More…]

• This is important as the people delivering the meals can see at first hand the health of the aged people. [More…]

• We have vast quantities of coal, but the extraction and use of coal have presented such persistent environmental problems that, today, less than 20 per cent of our energy needs are met by coal and the health of the coal industry is seriously threatened. [More…]

• Or are we going to be entertained by the same performance as we have had when Ministers of the Federal Government in the areas of housing, transport and health and welfare have taken proposals to the State Government? [More…]

• The Report of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare on Mentally and Physically Handicapped Persons in Australia of May 1971 noted the absence of accurate data on the numbers of handicapped people’, in Australia. [More…]

• The Committee agrees with this logic and considers that the planning of future workshops should be on a regional basis and a matter for discussion between the interested voluntary organisation and authorities responsible for planning of community health services. [More…]

• An estimate of the World Health Organisation states that between 1 per cent and 3 per cent of the world’s population is mentally retarded. [More…]

• The figures given to the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare, dealing with retardation, in 1971 put the number of mentally retarded Victorians at between 70,000 and 71,000. [More…]

• In Victoria, the Mental Health Authority is the agency responsible for subsidising most voluntary bodies to provide education and training for moderately and severely intellectually handicapped children. [More…]

• The delegation of responsibility for the education of intellectually handicapped children to health authorities appears to represent a carry-over from the traditional belief that such people are in need of constant medical supervision. [More…]

• The Committee notes that in recent years Great Britain has transferred the educational responsibility for these children from health to education authorities. [More…]

• Sixty new cases came on the list in the 6 months up to about May, according to the medical health authority. [More…]

• to advise the Minister for Health, through his Director-General, on matters relating to the establishment, organisation and operation of the Australian School Dental Service; [More…]

• to review and report progressively on the effect of the Service on the dental health of its patients; [More…]

• Is the publication entitled’ The Australian Health Insurance Program’ descriptive of a program which at 18 September 1973 had not been approved by the Australian Parliament. [More…]

• If so, would it have been more accurate if the publication had been entitled ‘A proposed Australian Health Insurance Program’. [More…]

• Did he say that he was anxious that there should be full public debate upon the Scotton and Deeble Report which contains an outline of a proposed Australian health insurance program. [More…]

• If so, does not such willingness confirm the fact that the description contained in ‘The Australian Health Insurance Program* relates to a proposed program. [More…]

• The publication does outline points of public interest in the proposed Australian health insurance program, the legislation for which has not yet been approved by Parliament. [More…]

• In this respect it is similar to a booklet printed and distributed to all householders in Australia in January 1953 by the LiberalCountry Party Government of that time to explain a proposed voluntary health insurance scheme, the legislation for which was introduced some six months later and did not receive Royal Assent until December of that year. [More…]

• In the context of public debate and public interest in which the publication was published it seemed a fair assumption that all people interested enough to read it would know it related to the Government’s proposed health insurance program. [More…]

• What is more the publication of ‘The Australian Health Insurance’ pamphlet was intended to assist in ensuring worthwhile public debate on the matter and, in particular, to help the public to get an accurate picture of what is in fact being proposed in the face of a deliberate campaign of public deception and misrepresentation by some medical organisations and private health fund managements. [More…]

• There was no reason whatever for the Prime Minister to refer to the recent health of the honourable member for Mackellar (Mr Wentworth) and make nasty insinuations about it. [More…]

• The Commission has been functioning for some months now, virtually without the authority of Parliament, as has that other child of the Minister, the Health Commission. [More…]

• The plan has as its stated aim ‘to assist in the development, at a regional level within a nationally co-ordinated framework, of integrated patterns of welfare services, complementary to income support programs and welfare - related aspects of health, education, housing, employment, migration and other social policies.’ [More…]

• Theoretically, a council will have to work in liaison with the Australian Department of Social Security or the State offices of it and up to 13 other Australian Government departments, such as Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-Generals’, Capital Territory, Education, Environment and Conservation, Health, Housing, Immigration, Labour, Northern Territory, Repatriation, Tourism and Recreation and Urban and Regional Development; the State Government in its various departments concerned with welfare services; local governments - there are 900 of them; the Australian Council of Social Services and the State Council of Social Services; various planning boards in existence and to be set up; and local bodies and charities concerned with welfare services. [More…]

• He has just spent more than Sim of the taxpayers’ money on putting out a pamphlet supporting his health scheme but he would not spend a couple of hundred dollars advertising the position of Chairman of such a far reaching and important body as the Social Welfare Commission. [More…]

• What is going to happen to the departments of Social Security, Health and Repatriation - to name 3 of them - which have social workers working for them? [More…]

• The aim of the Australian Assistance Plan is to assist in the development, at a regional level within a nationally co-ordinated framework, of integrated patterns of welfare services, complementary to income support programs and the welfare-related aspects of health, education, housing, employment, migration and other social policies, having regard to the following matters: [More…]

• In addition, through the Department of Health various services are provided. [More…]

• Other organisations include local hospitals, domiciliary health care clinics, nursing homes, nursing care services, aged persons’ homes and the various voluntary agencies such as Legacy, the civilians widows’ organisations, the Returned Services League, the war widows’ organisations, the handicapped children’s organisations, sheltered workshops and various community service clubs such as those catering for age and invalid pensioners and senior citizens together with the parents without partners and birthright organisations. [More…]

• The sight of voluntary workers being forced to beg in the streets to provide basic health and social welfare amenities I find intolerable as, I am sure, do most sections of the community. [More…]

• There is no co-ordination throughout the whole community to analyse and to dissect the welfare and health problems and what is required in a total community program to bring them to fruition over a period to meet the requirements. [More…]

• in reply - I should like to commend the Opposition spokesmen on health, the honourable members for Hotham (Mr Chipp) and Mackellar (Mr Wentworth), and the honourable members for Robertson (Mr Cohen) and Holt (Mr Oldmeadow) from this side of the House for their thoughtful contributions to the debate on the Social Welfare Commission Bill which is now before the House. [More…]

• The Opposition spokesman on health and welfare matters, the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp), raised questions about clauses 7 (4) and 17 (4) of the Bill. [More…]

• He said that this Government is spending over Sim in distributing pamphlets in the community on the health insurance program. [More…]

• When the present health insurance program was introduced by the late Sir Earle Page, he in fact arranged for a fairly compendious document to be printed at public expense and to be distributed to every household in Australia at public expense. [More…]

• He said something about the health scheme pamphlets and he drew attention to the proposals of the scheme. [More…]

• I scarcely think it is worth delaying the Committee further by repeating the things which have been said by me not only today in this Parliament but also on previous occasions when I have discussed the subject, or the statements of members on the Government side and members of the Opposition, including its spokesman on health and welfare matters, the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp). [More…]

• I turn next to health where expenditure has been increased from $783m last year to $979m this year - an increase of 25 per cent. [More…]

• When we look at the massive additional expenditure on health, social welfare, housing and all these other things, I think that for the man in the street the increased fuel charges, which probably could be absorbed by the petrol companies anyway, and the increase on spirits and cigarettes is only a very small price to pay for the additional services given to him through health services, to his children through better education and all the other facets of Government expenditure in the way that they affect people. [More…]

• I doubt very much whether that will be done because one speech made in this House this afternoon from the Government benches indicated that the reason for these taxes was for other things such as education, health, home building, etc. [More…]

• Of course, honourable members opposite always mention social services, health and education programs. [More…]

• The honourable member for Corangamite (Mr Street), an Opposition spokesman, has said that the Government should have increased the health vote by $90m to pay for increased doctors’ fees. [More…]

• How right he was, because they have to look after education and health - or should do - as well as look after the fire service, the roads, irrigation and all the other things that happen within the State boundaries, but the present Government is prepared to take over these responsibilities and negative the activities of the State governments forever. [More…]

• The present Treasurer also said - this is something which I have already said - that the States are responsible in such significant fields as education, health, public transport, power, irrigation and roads. [More…]

• Does the Minister recall that he said he had received a bundle of letters from Gympie in Queensland protesting against the proposed national health scheme and that he said many were written on the same note pad and that one person ‘had written more than one of the letters? [More…]

• Is the Minister really conscious of the very widespread concern existing in Gympie over the national health scheme proposals and the Deeble report, evidenced by a hundred letters I have received over the last 2 days? [More…]

• If honourable members opposite want me to debate now the health insurance program which we are about to bring in, I will be very happy to do so, but I would not have thought that this was a proper course at question time, although I am being invited to do so. [More…]

• To make up the difference in expenditure on Aboriginal affairs to the figure of $117m which I previously mentioned there are of course amounts which have been appropriated for the Department of the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, the Departments of Education, Labour and Health and for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies under the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• We read a lot about malnutrition and how this is caused through lack of utilising the proper foods available and in the method of preparation, and in fact a lack of knowledge of the foods that are available to assist in rearing strong and healthy children. [More…]

• Our reports in this same area tell us that there is a definite lack of knowledge regarding proper hygiene and matters of health. [More…]

• For all the money that has been spent over the years on these matters by having our white people move amongst these coloured people to instruct them in the proper use of foods and matters of health and hygiene, this problem still persists - and therefore, to my way of thinking, it is not being tackled correctly. [More…]

• In this regard I would like to see this finance directed towards the training of coloured people chosen from all the areas in which they live, so that after their training is completed they could move among their own people and be readily understood, to teach them this desirable know ledge on matters of malnutrition, health and hygiene. [More…]

• Another area which could be explored to assist the coloured people is the establishment of community centres, complete with trained welfare staff, again comprising coloured people, who would run these centres and be available for advice on matters dealing with health, hygiene, social welfare and job opportunities. [More…]

• Throwing in the expenditure on education and health, in addition to the amounts that were being disbursed by my good friend the Minister for the Capital Territory (Mr Bryant) when he was Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, the expenditure provided for in this Budget will be well over double whatever was spent before. [More…]

• These areas are housing, employment, education and health. [More…]

• I would use the Department of Health. [More…]

• When there is an incidence of child mortality that is 20 times higher than that for comparable European communities, there is a need to bring every possible health resource to bear on the problem - not just in the hospitals but in the treatment and provision of sewerage systems, water supplies and things of that kind. [More…]

• We need all the resources of the Department of Health and the Education Department in this area. [More…]

• Therefore one does not set up housing services of his own, health services of his own and education services of his own. [More…]

• There will be special assistance of $1.2m for health programs. [More…]

• As I pointed out in my explanation of the Aboriginal Trust Account the funds are going in various directions in the encouragement of community enterprises, in the development of housing, in the setting up of employment opportunities and in providing backstops to education, health and other services. [More…]

• We have 2, almost 3, community health centres. [More…]

• The professional qualifications of the staff are similar to those of the Melbourne centre staff except that a child health specialist will be employed instead of a psychiatrist at the outset. [More…]

• I wish to refer now to the Government’s proposed national health plan and also the plans of my Party. [More…]

• I wish to compare the Government’s proposed health scheme with our own plans in order to indicate positive and non-positive policies. [More…]

• I wish to refer to part of the National Health Act which indicates particular areas where, if my Party had been permitted to stay in government, it would have been able to improve its own scheme. [More…]

• Part of the National Health Act deals with the 3 areas where perhaps our scheme could have been improved. [More…]

• The big advantage of our scheme and the philosophy of it is that the healthy pay for the sick. [More…]

• The figures I have indicate that 83.2 per cent of the Australian community is in voluntary health funds. [More…]

• The big problem today is that the Minister for Social Security has succeeded in getting public debate about the health scheme into the area of doctors’ fees. [More…]

• That heading arose out of the tabling in the New South Wales Parliament yesterday of the 1972-73 report of the Air Pollution Advisory Committee by the Minister for Health, the Honourable H. Jago. [More…]

• The report states that the major cities of New South Wales had average air pollution levels exceeding those already offered by the World Health Organisation as long term goals. [More…]

• At this stage I pay tribute to the dedication of the staff and officers of the Newcastle City Council who have been associated with the activities of its Health Division in the long struggle to improve the quality of air in Newcastle. [More…]

• Whilst I commend the company on its activities in regard to antipollution control measures taken in respect of other plant, the history of the operation of the ferro alloy plant and the latitude extended by the New South Wales Minister for Health, Mr Jago, to that company through the Clean Air Branch must cause concern. [More…]

• This plant, constructed in 1941, emits thousands of tons of fine metallic dust into the air over Newcastle every year and has the permission of the New South Wales Department of Health to do so. [More…]

• Having in mind that the New South Wales Clean Air Act came into operation 12 years ago and that polluting industries were given a 5-year period in which to comply with its provisions, since 1969 the Newcastle City Council has sought definitive action from the BHP Co. and the New South Wales Department of Health to control the emissions of the plant. [More…]

• However, a further exemption was granted and, by letter of 24 July 1973, the then acting Minister for Environmental Control in New South Wales, Mr Lewis, advised that he had been informed by the Minister for Health, Mr Jago, that the company had informed the Health Commission that it would not install air pollution control equipment on the obsolete plant and that, if required to do so, it would close the ferro alloy plant. [More…]

• On receipt of this advice, the Council resolved on 7 August 1973 to inform the Minister for Health: . [More…]

• that the report be received and the Minister for Health be advised that the Council strongly disapproves of his allowing the plant to continue to pollute without control until June 1974, having regard to the time which has elapsed since the promulgation of the Clean Air Act in 1961. [More…]

• In July the Minister for Social Security offered the Queensland Minister for Health a government grant amounting to $1.2m on a $1 for $1 basis. [More…]

• The Queensland Minister for Health continues to ignore the danger to these people. [More…]

• I appeal to the State Minister for Health to cast aside the political considerations which so far have caused him to reject or refuse to accept the offer of this Government and to see the offer for what it is worth. [More…]

• The balance is expended by the Department of Education for study grants and secondary grants, the Department of Health in the Northern Territory, the Department of Labour under its employment training scheme and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. [More…]

• Funds for health services and community amenities, especially water and sewerage supplies, provided for in this Bill total $10.3m compared with $3.7m in 1972-73. [More…]

• These funds will enable a big expansion of effort in providing community health services in rural and remote areas. [More…]

• This Government established a special study group of Commonwealth and State health authorities which recommended a co-ordinated program covering establishment of local health committees, delivery of health care - including much wider deployment of doctors and community health nurses - administrative re-organisation, education, family planning, research and other special programs. [More…]

• I do not pretend that even this effort will rapidly improve things since in areas where traditional practices are still strong the concepts of nutrition, health care, public health and sanitation which the non-Aboriginal community take for granted have still to find a place in the thinking of the Aboriginal people. [More…]

• Does he remember what the previous Government did not do about the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare which was tabled in May 1971 in respect of the welfare of the mentally and physically handicapped children in Australia? [More…]

• That, in particular, is why we are so concerned to ensure the maintenance and the health of the independent school system. [More…]

• Here the overwhelming part of the gross product is comprised of wages and salaries paid to government employees in such areas as education, health, law, welfare and so on. [More…]

• A total of 2,250,000 copies of the pamphlet: The Australian Health Insurance Program The Plain Facts’ have been printed. [More…]

• It is in question and answer form and the answer material was mostly drafted by Dr R. B. Scotton, Chairman of the Interim Executive of the Australian Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• It was explained by me on the program ‘Federal File’ last Sunday night and it was reported in the Press this morning, that I had indicated that although tenders had been called, no steps had been taken nor would any be taken to enter into any contract until legislative effect had ‘been carried through this Parliament to allow the health insurance program to proceed. [More…]

• In spite of this, I notice that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and now the Opposition spokesman on health and welfare matters are trying to beat up an angle on this action of mine. [More…]

• When the legislation proceeds through the Parliament we can then take steps to enter into contracts This will allow us to expedite the whole of the processes for introducing the universal health insurance program. [More…]

• It requested earlier this year that we delay the introduction of legislation for some months to allow it more fully to assess the proposals of our health insurance program. [More…]

• But then again, there has been no protest from either of these groups in the past in spite of the fact that most of us who are members of health insurance funds have to carry some sort of membership card which is numbered and which we have to return to the fund when we make an application for medical or hospital benefits. [More…]

• In the ‘Australian’ of even date is an article headed ‘13 million health cards’ with the sub-heading ‘Details kept secret - promise by Hayden’ which refers to 13 million health insurance cards which will be required for the universal health insurance program to be introduced next year The article specifically states: [More…]

• Achievement in various facets of Australian life - industry, health, education, leisure and so on - will depend increasingly on Australians being able to find their way to and through relevant areas of recorded knowledge. [More…]

• and (2) Under the provisions of the National Health Act, those patients in approved nursing homes who need and receive intensive nursing home care are entitled to a higher rate of nursing home benefits. [More…]

• Interim Executive of the Australian Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Workshop on Aboriginal Health Services and Aboriginal Health Workers. [More…]

• I draw the attention of the Minister for Health to the Budget proposal to phase out the issue of free milk to primary school children. [More…]

• Can the Minister inform the House of the health and medical reasons behind the decision, the views of State Health Ministers on the proposal from a health and medical point of view, what criteria will be used for a continuation of the scheme in some areas and whether the decision was in any way prompted by waste of milk involved in the scheme? [More…]

• The first concerns the health aspects associated with the phasing out of the provision of milk to school children. [More…]

• The State Health Ministers have been told that we will consider the needs of special schools and classes on their merits and they have agreed to report to me along these lines by the end of this month. [More…]

• In circumstances where the maximum quantity is insufficient for one month’s treatment of a chronic condition at the prescribed dosage level, a doctor may, if he considers it to be in his patient’s interest, apply to the Director of Health in his State for authority to prescribe a quantity of a benefit in excess of the listed maximum. [More…]

• I will finish my answer by saying that trade unions do not pay tax any more than do the health funds which make contributions to Liberal Party funds. [More…]

• The role of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs is unique because unlike the Department of Health - I choose that Department because of the presence of the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) at the table - which has a clearly defined responsibility, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, given the joint Commonwealth and State responsibilities in this area, has not only the responsibility for expending money on its own Estimates but also the problem of acting as a catalyst for co-ordinating the work of the other Commonwealth departments in the field and for coordinating with State departments and other organisations. [More…]

• The Bill will expand the involvement of the Australian Government in mental health and related health fields. [More…]

• It replaces the States Grants (Mental Health Institutions) Act under which grants were made towards the capital cost of mental health institutions. [More…]

• The Bill adopts a different approach, while taking on a much wider view of mental health, than that of the earlier Act. [More…]

• It outlines forward looking and visible action, starting with some of the most neglected health areas and most care deprived groups in the Australian community. [More…]

• Under the Bill the Minister for Health will approve schemes and projects submitted by the States, local governing bodies and voluntary organisations. [More…]

• Research shows that community health care is often more effective than institutional care. [More…]

• We must abandon the institutionalised and quite often inflexible approach to health care. [More…]

• This approach, which unfortunately has almost grown to acceptance through habit rather than reason, involves ad hoc responses to urgent requests for health care along with the hope that things will work out. [More…]

• This has not been, nor will it ever be, a satisfactory approach to Australia’s health needs. [More…]

• As the community health program gets further under way and as the Australian Hospitals and Health Services Commission completes its recommendations on hospitals and all other forms of institutional care we can expect to see similar developments accelerated in Australia. [More…]

• Decentralised services in local communities will be staffed by specialised, but not starch-fronted, personnel such as mental health visitors, psychologists, social workers and psychiatrists, all of whom will work closely with general medical practitioners and other community health people. [More…]

• Alongside community health programs will be an expansion of hostel and ‘half-way house’ accommodation for persons with chronic mental problems or social handicaps, who need residential care but not the more costly care of mental and general hospitals and nursing homes. [More…]

• The addition of community based services for alcoholism and drug dependency along with our new emphasis on other aspects of community mental health is a vital forward step in combating those serious community problems in a systematic way. [More…]

• In the next few years, further increasing local integration with community health, education and welfare services will remove more of the old stigma attaching to those need-, ing help which is not just physical. [More…]

• The Bill provides for allocations of up to $7.5m for each of the years 1973-74 and 1974-75 after which such services will continue to be supported under, and will be integrated with, the broader Australian community health program. [More…]

• The Bill will bring, in a more effective and ‘flexible way than the former assistance in the field of mental health, bridges to the developing broad community health field being expanded by the Government on the advice of the Interim Committee of the Australian Hospitals and Health Services Commission, whose first report on this subject I was privileged to table on 30 May last. [More…]

• We had a year or two ago - many members will remember this - the proposition of the present Minister for Immigration (Mr Grassby) and the present Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) to attempt to raise funds to buy a portion of the Simpson Desert. [More…]

• The implementation of the policies of the Government is creating a considerable number of employment positions within the public sector, which means, of course, in the fields of education, housing and health. [More…]

• In May 1971 the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare recommended that: [More…]

• Some officers who must be retired on the grounds of invalidity later become sufficiently restored to health to return to full-time employment and are reappointed. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Social Security seen reports attributed to the Victorian Miniser of Health, Mr Scanlan, that some of the Australian Government statements on its universal health insurance program were fraudulent, if not misleading? [More…]

• But I thought a more pointed comment was made by the Opposition spokesman on health and welfare, the honourable member for Hotham, on 21 September in Melbourne at a meeting of the Australian Dental Association when he said: [More…]

• Perhaps the observation in the last part of the honourable member’s statement might be noted by Mr Scanlan so as to help him to take a more objective and more informed view of our health scheme. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation issued a warning in 1971 which I should draw to the attention of the Committee. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation lays down an E. coli count limit of 10 parts per 100 millimetres and the count for Yarra Brae waters published in the 1967 report of the Victorian Public Works Committee was up to 10,000 parts per 100 millilitres. [More…]

• Of the samples of Yarra Brae water tested for turbidity 98.3 per cent exceeded the World Health Organisation’s highest desirable level and 54 per cent exceeded that Organisation’s maximum permissible level. [More…]

• The major cities in New South Wales had average pollution levels exceeding those recently offered by the World Health Organisation as long term goals. [More…]

• But the real issues are what this Government has done on education, cities, health, consumer protection, social welfare and foreign investment, and it is this last subject which is the nub of the matter. [More…]

• If there is ever an area of public responsibility in this country which is falling into disarray it is under the administration of this man, who has failed to create any certainty in the minds of the Australian public as to what is the new health policy of the Government. [More…]

• This man has not given us a positive health policy; I believe he has given us a negative health policy. [More…]

• I believe it is impossible for us to have the significant changes which are envisaged in the health system of this country without our having a positive statement of how these changes are going to affect the average citizen. [More…]

• This arises not only from the enunciation by the central government of programs in such areas as health and education, but also from the increasing fields of uniform Satte laws and the tendency for the areas in which uniformity is desirable to increase. [More…]

• I believe that these are disturbing facts, not from a narrow political point of view but from the broad viewpoint of the health of our political system. [More…]

• This aid will assist the Papua New Guinea Government to finance important development projects as well as to complement vital services such as education, public health, and law and order. [More…]

• The Government regards it as its bounden duty to further to the utmost the advancement of the people and considers that that can be achieved only by providing facilities for better health, better education and for a greater participation by the people in the wealth of their country and eventually in its government. [More…]

• I point out that the health insurance program which we are putting forward is a scheme to raise money from the community which will be distributed back to the community to cover the cost of medical and hospital services. [More…]

• At this stage we are putting forward a universal health insurance program which, as I have mentioned to honourable members, supports private enterprise in medical and hospital services as well as public enterprise. [More…]

• What we are putting forward in fact generously supports that section of the health delivery system whereas, for instance - I cite this only as an example - the sort of alternative which was put forward in the ‘National Times’ would not be helpful at all. [More…]

• For example, the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) attacked some of the doctors’ campaign tactics with respect to the proposed national health scheme. [More…]

• Enlarged allocations in the 1973-74 Budget for education, community health, public housing, sewerage services, land management, urban transport and growth centres evidence our strong beginning on that task. [More…]

• Under the Australian Assistance Plan, special aid will be made available to local government authorities to enable them more effectively to provide welfare and health services to their communities. [More…]

• The Government had to make an assessment of whether the health of the children of this nation is more valuable than $10m or $12m. [More…]

• The Government has gone for the money instead of the health of the children. [More…]

• I want to raise as a matter of public interest some questions about the very devious means being employed to attack this Government’s health insurance program - a program for which we were given a clear mandate at the last election. [More…]

• The program is of course being openly attacked by those people in the medical profession who believe that health care is a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder rather than a social utility which should be available as a right to everybody in the community. [More…]

• It is also under attack from the czars of the big business health funds who are so desperately clinging to millions of dollars of contributors’ money they have managed to lock away as reserves’. [More…]

• That a health insurance program which aims to provide coverage against medical and hospital costs on the equitable basis of ability to pay should come under attack from local groups with vested interests in maintaining a system which offers the most benefits to those on the higher incomes is perhaps understandable. [More…]

• Now it seems that, apart from some of the big business health funds and the more militantly conservative members of the medical profession, nobody in Australia wants to finance the project of attacking the universal health insurance program. [More…]

• So, apparently by way of demonstration that multi-nationals will finance any venture, the international drug companies have decided to attack our health program. [More…]

• This brings me to an organisation calling itself the Australian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association and 2 publications - one called the Health Economics Service Bulletin’ and the other the ‘Australian Health Education [More…]

• The Health Economics Service Bulletin’, without revealing who its real publishers are, has embarked upon a blatantly biased campaign against the health insurance program. [More…]

• The Health Economics Service Bulletin’ lists the address of its editor as 45 Macquarie Street, Sydney, that, by coincidence, is also the address of the so-called ‘Australian Health Education Advisory Digest’, which upon examination turns out to be published by the Health Economics Service - a division of the Australian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association. [More…]

• Again by coincidence the misleading material appearing in the mysteriously published ‘Health Economics Service Bulletin’ pretty well replicates opinions and assertions which have been published in newspapers over the name of Dr Gibbs and which curiously enough also coincide with the Australian Medical Association’s propaganda planks. [More…]

• The AMA has also been engaging in a deliberate smear campaign against the health plan. [More…]

• In conclusion, I would like to stress the underhand tactics being used by opponents of the Australian Government’s health insurance program. [More…]

• What we do mind is the deliberate misrepresentations, character assasinations, the machinations of big business and the overseas influence being brought to bear on the health debate, which is after all a debate on the best possible health insurance system for Australia, not on what is best for big business, or people who only profit from peoples’ ill health. [More…]

• I understand that Australian governments have not to date taken active steps to ensure that doctors prescribing for patients who are entitled to workers compensation or third party insurance cover write such prescriptions on other than national health prescription forms. [More…]

• In view of the imminent introduction of a scheme of national health insurance which will incorporate third party and workers compensation insurance as national responsibilities, I think this question will resolve itself in the course of negotiations between the Department of Social Security and the insurance bodies concerned. [More…]

• He must clean his trees, anyway, for health reasons. [More…]

• The Mental Health and Related Services Assistance Bill 1973 indicates a new and commendable approach in the area of health care. [More…]

• There is much to be done in research into the problems of mental health. [More…]

• There is a conscious attempt to remove the stigma associated with mental health, but the underlying factor is that the mentally ill are among the most seriously disadvantaged section in the community. [More…]

• It is noted that the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) in his second reading speech stated that after the years 1973, 1974 and 1975 the services referred to in the Bill and continue to be supported under and will be integrated with the broader Australian community health program. [More…]

• The Bill envisages a more humanitarian approach to mental health care. [More…]

• We applaud this modern day approach to this problem of treating these people initially in their homes where no embarrassment is felt and where, through the participation of the whole of the family in the healthy environment that is created, the patient can probably readjust himself and overcome his problem, whether it be an inability to cope, a problem with drink or a problem with drugs. [More…]

• Basically this Bill aims to inject more funds into providing mental health services. [More…]

• We submit that the solution to the problem of mental health is one that can be accelerated by the injection of money to provide specialised community services through the provision of half-way houses whereby people do not have attached to them the stigma of ever having been an inmate of an institutional home. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), whilst observing the new changes and these new concepts, will also give consideration to updating the present facilities to care for people in institutions. [More…]

• The Country Party, therefore, associates itself with the amendment that I have been given to understand since I started my address the Minister for Health will move. [More…]

• The positive note which has been struck at the outset of this debate by both the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) in his second reading speech, and by the honourable member for Darling Downs (Mr McVeigh), speaks well for the future of mental health institutions in this country. [More…]

• In their book entitled ‘The Health of a Metropolis’ Krupinski and Stoller found that psychiatric morbidity was to be found among 12.8 per cent of children, 14.8 per cent of male adolescents, 13.5 per cent of female adolescents, 16.5 per cent of male adults and 23.8 per cent of female adults. [More…]

• I would like to concentrate particularly on those sections of the Bill which refer to assistance being given to voluntary agencies in the community for the establishment of new mental health facilities. [More…]

• I was heartened therefore when parishioners associated with the Church of Saint Stephen in East Ringwood in my electorate decided to take the step of setting up a mental health service for their neighbours. [More…]

• lt is not enough that community mental health services of this kind should restrict themselves to the provision of services for those people who are already mentally ill. [More…]

• If the resources that we currently devote to the rehabilitation of the victims of road accidents and to the restoration of their vehicles were diverted to the mental health program and made available to organisations such as the St Stephens Clinic, the saving to our community in the long run would be very substantial indeed. [More…]

• We must recognise that mental health services at the local level in this country are a field of community activity as yet very little explored. [More…]

• Here again, I do not believe that any psychiatrist, psychologist or specialist working in the field of mental health and mental morbidity is worth his salt or indeed is able to maintain his professional competence unless he is constantly engaged in the sort of research that promotes an open-mindedness to new concepts in his field, that promotes the sort of acute sustained observation which so often is lacking in other fields of health care in this country and which constantly prompts him to challenge the dogmas on which his specialty is based. [More…]

• The Australian Government is a very imperfect instrument indeed for providing mental health services. [More…]

• This Bill represents a very real step forward on the mental health measures which we have debated in this House in earlier years. [More…]

• The Opposition completely supports this Bill and commends the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) for introducing it in the form in which he has. [More…]

• The Bill is intended to replace the States Grant (Mental Health Institutions) Act which expired on 30 June 1973. [More…]

• The Bill reflects the fact that community health care is often more effective than institutional care. [More…]

• The addition of communitybased services for alcoholism and drug dependence along with our new emphasis on other aspects of community mental health is a vital step forward in combating those serious community problems in a systematic way. [More…]

• I compliment the Minister for Health for virtually accepting an amendment that I foreshadowed to him earlier this morning. [More…]

• Now, before an application for a grant by a voluntary organisation, say the Buoyancy Foundation in Melbourne or some group like that, comes to the Minister, that application must first go to the State Government health department or to the responsible Minister before it comes to the Federal Minister for Health. [More…]

• I would have thought that it was common sense for the State Minister for Health in the State concerned to say: ‘Look, just a moment. [More…]

• The alternative is for the Federal Minister for Health to develop an enormous bureaucracy which will inquire into every application from a local government body. [More…]

• My amendment did not mean that the Federal Minister for Health must necessarily take any notice of any objections that a State Minister might make. [More…]

• It simply proposed that before an application came to the Federal Minister for Health at least it would be sifted and the views of the State Minister for Health or the appropriate Minister would be obtained. [More…]

• I made it perfectly clear in what I said that I was not suggesting that the Federal Minister for Health should allow an application from a local government body to be vetoed by a State Minister for Health. [More…]

• My ministerial experience indicates that in some States a State Minister for Health may want to build his own empire, his own mental asylums and institutions. [More…]

• I completely support a Minister overriding a State Minister for Health who might say: ‘Do not give it to that local council. [More…]

• I do not think that the Minister for Health would disagree with that. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation rates alcohol as the fourth largest medical problem in the world, and a White Paper of the British Parliament rates alcohol as the third largest killer of mankind. [More…]

• I commend to the Minister for the Media (Senator Douglas McClelland) and the Minister for Health 2 companies which abuse that kind of privilege in acting in this way. [More…]

• First of all it portends a break from traditional methods of institutional care for mental illness in that money will be provided exclusively for community health services that are of a non-institutional nature. [More…]

• This is one of the most important firsts of the Sax Committee, as it is known, which is the Interim Committee of the national hospitals and health services commission which will become a reality, we expect, in this session of the Parliament. [More…]

• I believe that this very exciting innovation of this Government in setting up that commission will mean that there will be many exciting developments in the field of public health and community health services to follow this measure that we are debating today. [More…]

• By the provision of community health services we will be able to provide not just the conventional treatment that is available at the present time in the community, which is mainly private psychiatric treatment by specialists who are practising on a fee for service basis, but also a co-ordinated system of community health care, and thus we will be able to integrate the activities of trained social workers in their counselling activities with all the other conventional measures such as group therapy, occupational therapy, drug therapy and other types of treatment where they may be indicated. [More…]

• I believe that once again in the community health centres themselves - that is, those outside the formal institutions - we have a potential problem in that even they can possibly become excessively dominated by people who are orientated solely towards traditional forms of psychiatry. [More…]

• At this stage I should like to refer to an article in the ‘Nation Review’ of 3 May of this year by William De Maria who worked in and ran a couple of mental health centres in Sydney. [More…]

• I should like to read a few paragraphs from this article because I think they are important as they indicate how mental health centres should work but how, in some cases, they do not necessarily work as we would like. [More…]

• We should watch out that this type of attitude towards mental health and mental illness does not permeate Australia. [More…]

• The great problem of the so-called psychiatric industry has been referred to in an extensive report entitled ‘The Mental Health Complex’ by Ralph Nader. [More…]

• I think we must ensure that there is not an excessive domination of traditional psychiatric techniques in our community mental health services to the exclusion of other factors which should be looked at when somebody comes with a problem. [More…]

• I believe it is important to note that by this measure money will be allocated for research and evaluation of community health services. [More…]

• It is not a question of simply looking at the people who present themselves with mental health problems; we must look at the society that produces such problems. [More…]

• When I visited China recently with a parliamentary delegation I had some discussion with the Chinese public health officials. [More…]

• Another aspect at which we should look is the avoidance of excessive formality in our community mental health services. [More…]

• One area in particular in this report to which I think we ought to give special consideration is the provision of evening clinics for community health centres because at present there are no real such facilities. [More…]

• I am pleased to note that after 1974-75 mental health and related services will be integrated with the total community health care program. [More…]

• It is important also to note that in this respect the introduction of the Government’s national health insurance plan will play a very important role. [More…]

• From the national health insurance income - from the total cake - the Government will enable these community mental health organisations and other community health services to contract with the fund for a certain amount to be paid to provide these types of services. [More…]

• This is a very important matter and it is one other reason why it is absolutely fundamental for the Government to introduce its national health insurance plan. [More…]

• It is a question of being able to fund, on a equitable basis, the best type of health services that we can get. [More…]

• Under the present voluntary health scheme it is impossible to fund any services of the type we are debating today because the funds can only pay money for private psychiatric services which are given on a fee for service basis. [More…]

• Under the health insurance plan which the Government seeks to introduce, organisations such as community health centres and mental health centres can contract for a grant to operate a total plan of mental health care. [More…]

• This, of course, will mean a reduced cost of community health centres because these types of bodies can place a heavy emphasis on the preventive aspects whereas the present management for the treatment of mental illness pre.dictates too heavily towards the very problems we are trying to treat, namely, the problems of drug ingestion which in their wake bring other problems of habituation and drug induced disease. [More…]

• Although I do not think that it is actually a voluntary organisation I should like to refer to a nongovernment organisation which acts in New South Wales and is run by Dr Stella Dalton, whom the Minister for Health was good enough to bring along to meet the Government member’s Health Committee. [More…]

• I commend the Government and I commend the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham). [More…]

• But in South Australia the Mental Health Services Department has drawn up a program which will move to meet the anticipated appropriation provided under the Bill as it affects South Australia in the current financial year. [More…]

• It involves a mental health visitors course to commence next year. [More…]

• The seventh project is the District Mental Health Clinic which will involve a behaviour therapy unit at Port Adelaide. [More…]

• Mental Health Services Department. [More…]

• I have discussed this matter with officers of the Mental Health Services Department in South Australia. [More…]

• We all ought to be co-operating with these people who work in the field of mental health and who have led the way to enlightenment. [More…]

• He mentioned that the World Health Organisation classifies it as the fourth public health problem. [More…]

• They were given by various bodies such as the National Health and Medical Research Council for postgraduate work and they were rather meagre in amount. [More…]

• The Australian Government is proposing to effect economies in health insurance. [More…]

• When the Minister for Health sits there he assumes all the appearances of an owl. [More…]

• The pressure on the Government is such that the front bench members have all suffered serious ill health. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security has denigrated the private health insurance organisations and claimed that they are inefficient. [More…]

• Mr Speaker, I seek your indulgence and the indulgence of the Leader of the House (Mr Daly) to raise a point of procedure in relation to the White Paper on the Australian Health Insurance Program tabled by the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) a moment or two ago. [More…]

• There will be a debate this morning on the question of health on a motion that will be moved by one of the members of the Party of the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp). [More…]

• There will be an opportunity during the debate on a health Bill that is to be brought in to cover the issues raised by the White Paper that has been presented, and all the contents of the White Paper will no doubt be under discussion when the legislation to be brought down by the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) is being debated. [More…]

• As honourable members know, the White Paper is an extensive one, but I imagine it will be properly debated in conjunction with the health legislation that is coming down. [More…]

• We do not mind it being debated but time will not permit us to debate it outside the debate on the health legislation that is coming down. [More…]

• Mr DALY (Grayndler- Minister for Services and Property and Leader of the House) - by leave - I can understand the concern of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr Lynch) but may I point out firstly that this morning a debate will be taking place on a health matter in which this White Paper could be covered and during which the Deputy Leader of the Opposition could make the points he wishes to make. [More…]

• In addition the estimates for the Department of Health still have to be considered and the White Paper could be debated then. [More…]

• The Committee also recommends that the National Health Act be amended to make it mandatory for companies to provide the Department of Health cost and financial information in respect of products in the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. [More…]

• That a Select Committee of the House of Representatives be appointed to inquire into and report on the effects on the Australian community if the present voluntary health insurance scheme is replaced by a compulsory, tax financed health insurance scheme as recommended by the Health Insurance Planning Committee and, in particular, to determine - [More…]

• its effect on the national economy and the quality of health care for present and future generations of Australians. [More…]

• This motion seeks to establish a joint committee of members of this House to examine all aspects of health insurance. [More…]

• I refer to paragraph 1.14 on page 13 of the White Paper which states that the Government accepts the essential elements of the recommendations of the Health Insurance Planning Committee. [More…]

• There are ample precedents of the experience in other countries to suggest that the Government’s scheme is a bad one and that it will permanently damage the quality of public health care to which Australians have become accustomed. [More…]

• On 14 August in Perth the Minister said that the cost of Commonwealth benefits for health care during the years 1969 to 1971 - when we were in government - had risen from $350m to $670m. [More…]

• Such initiatives include the establishment of a standing independent Tribunal regularly to review doctors’ fees and the provision of proper publicity for an expansion of the subsidised health benefits plan, which will positively ensure cover for those under-privileged or newly arrived in Australia, as spelled out in items 17 to 19 on page 3 of the second annual report of the National Health Act, which I ask for leave to have incorporated in Hansard and which I have already shown to the Minister. [More…]

• Subsidised Health Benefits Plan [More…]

• There are three categories of low income families whose eligibility is determined by weekly gross incomes; Class A beneficiaries are exempted from paying health insurance contributions for the level of assistance provided; Class B beneficiaries need only pay one-third of normal contributions; Class C beneficiaries need only pay two-third of normal contributions. [More…]

• Migrants need not apply for assistance but are eligible for medical and hospital benefits during their first two months in Australia by enrolling in a registered health insurance organization and producing evidence of their date of first entry into the country. [More…]

• I would like to see the subsidised health benefits plan further expanded so that those on the lower scales of income could be phased into the voluntary funds at discounted premiums which would be related to such factors as family income and number of dependants. [More…]

• By preserving the existing funds and applying a sort of tapered means test from full contribution to part or none at all, we can improve the quality of health care for the less fortunate in our community and still maintain freedom of choice both of doctor and of hospital. [More…]

• I believe that this is entirely consistent with Liberal philosophy, which seeks to encourage the individual to stand on his own feet and to reap the rewards of his own diligence while always remaining conscious of his obligation to help those less fortunate or capable than himself and, applying this view to social security, those less healthy and less fortunate than himself. [More…]

• We feel justified in attacking the stifling, heavy- handed, dehumanising theories of socialism exemplified in this phoney ‘free’ health scheme, which is not free, which does not provide freedom of choice, and which in fact is none of the things the Government claims it is. [More…]

• You will be able to take out private health insurance to cover the rest. [More…]

• He says: ‘You will be able to take out private health insurance to cover the rest’. [More…]

• Now that he is the Minister he should explain to the community what it will and will not get under Labor’s nationalised health scheme. [More…]

• Disproportionate dependence on immigrant doctors will also become a feature of this Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• The Health Minister in Canada, Mr John Munro, on 19 April 1972 had this to say: [More…]

• there is ‘scandalous waste’ in Canada’s health services . [More…]

• Health insurance. [More…]

• National health scheme. [More…]

• This is what Dr Clarke said about point 4, the national health scheme: [More…]

• Honourable members should bear in mind that our public hospitals are the most important services in the health delivery system in the community and that our teaching hospitals are most important of all because this is where the full range of facilities is available. [More…]

• It is a range of facilities which no private hospital or, indeed, no small public hospital could supply for the public but which are absolutely essential if we are to have available in the community adequate health protection. [More…]

• It has been lauded by none other than Mr Kelly the chairman of a private charitable religious hospital in Queensland, the Mater Misericordiae in Brisbane, who has asserted that this is the first occasion on which an Australian Government has taken positive steps to support financially a public hospital system and generously support the health delivery system overall. [More…]

• As is clearly set out in this White Paper, we will take steps to ensure that the contributions to private hospitals insurance funds to cover the additional cost of private ward or private hospital care above the subsidy of $112 a week which will be granted by the Government will be at a level competitive with current rates of private health insurance. [More…]

• I and everyone else in this place pay much less for an equivalent cover of health insurance under the present scheme than the great bulk of people in the community. [More…]

• Because we will eliminate waste and the cosy little rackets that have been worked between the AMA and the private health insurance funds to their mutual benefit, because there will not be allocations of massive amounts of money to reserves - at last count, this amount was $124m - and because we will cut down on wasteful duplication leading to unnecessary costs of operation, IS per cent of collections for the latest year having gone into the cost of operating medical funds, we will be able to do much more for the same total cost under the new scheme. [More…]

• The total net cost to the Budget, including the effect of tax deductions, will be approximately the same as would have been the case under the existing health insurance scheme. [More…]

• No doubt - although he never quite made the point in relation to inflationary effects - when referring to this matter he was thinking of the spurious argument put forward by the AMA about the increasing cost of health services in Canada as compared to this country. [More…]

• It does not matter because the annual increase on average in the cost of health services covered by health insurance and associated services for pensioners and repatriation beneficiaries in this country since 1969 has been somewhere near 20 per cent. [More…]

• Canada spends 7.3 per cent of its gross domestic product on health services and it covers everyone in the community. [More…]

• The United States spends about 7 per cent of its gross domestic product on health services and a person has to be virtually a millionaire to obtain medical and hospital services in that country. [More…]

• Let me quote what Dr LeClair, the Deputy Health Minister in Canada, said in a letter recently to my Department. [More…]

• 17.7 of 31 May this year, not the questionable statistical returns that come from health insurance funds to the Department of Social Security which cannot check their veracity. [More…]

• Even the Opposition spokesman on health and welfare, the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) has said - and I have the statement here if anyone wishes to contest it - that our scheme is not nationalisation. [More…]

• In relation to the effect of our scheme on the national economy, I have indicated that the total cost is no greater than the present scheme but because we do not waste money, because we do not stand aside and ignore the crooked little deals that have gone on for too long between private health insurance funds and the governments of the post, and the Australian Medical Association to some extent because it has been in this to a large extent through the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia and also certain other arrangements, we will cover all the community at the same cost and with greater efficiency. [More…]

• The motion urges that this House approve of the appointment of a select committee of the House of Representatives to inquire into and report on the effects on the Australian community if the present voluntary health insurance scheme is replaced by a compulsory, tax financed health insurance scheme as has been recommended by the Health Insurance Planning Committee and, in particular, to determine any likely inflationary effects, any over-utilisation of medical and hospital services, the cost to individuals, particularly in relation to hospitalisation, any discriminatory aspects for certain categories of taxpayers, any erosion of an individual’s freedom of choice of doctor or hospital and its effect on the national economy and the quality of health care for present and future generations of Australians. [More…]

• It is a whitewash of a proposal contained in the so-called Green Paper’, a most deficient and defective document which sets up a glorious economic plan for the rearrangement of the financing of health care in this country. [More…]

• But in rearranging the finance of the health care program of the Australian nation it ignores the most important person in the whole scheme. [More…]

• What the people of Australia want their governments to do is to devise ways and means whereby the quality of health care can be improved. [More…]

• So much of health care depends upon personal relationships. [More…]

• Much of what is proposed by the Government denies those features which will maintain and improve the high quality of health care in this country. [More…]

• Let us look at the cost that people will have to bear for a less effective scheme and one which shows less concern in terms of the contribution that it makes to their health care. [More…]

• The amounts that are to be collected under this levy will not be related directly to the cost of the nation’s health care program. [More…]

• In the second year the rate can be increased according to the relationship between the cost of the health care program and average weekly earnings. [More…]

• If the levy is raised to 1.5 per cent because of the increased costs in a runaway cost program of health that delivers no greater quality health care - in fact, it will be a more inefficient scheme than that operating at the present time - the ceiling limit will rise not by $13.50 a year but by $31.50 a year. [More…]

• This report would lead one to believe that every pensioner who has income over and above his pension will be liable to a levy under the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• If it has been referred to an inter-departmental committee, why can that and other matters not be referred to a select committee of this House so that we can examine the whole question of the philosophy behind the proposals of this scheme; so that we can demonstrate this Parliament’s concern for the patient, for the patient’s health and for the patient’s personal relations; so that the patient does not simply become a punchcard in a Government computer which is the basis upon which the Scotton-Deeble report is founded. [More…]

• If that person has not voluntarily joined a voluntary health insurance fund, that person cannot get any refund from the fund. [More…]

• The answer surely is to say that health services are a service for the whole community. [More…]

• Why not let us say that the whole community through its taxation contributions will maintain the health service so that if any one of us should be unfortunate enough to become ill we can receive the treatment that we need in a service which is maintained to an adequate standard and not at the same time suffer by being forced to pay for the luxury of receiving that specific treatment? [More…]

• We have a lot of braying about how efficient the present health scheme is. [More…]

• There is no real measure of the efficiency or quality of the health care in this country. [More…]

• Is the Opposition suggesting that our women are twice as unhealthy as the women of America and England? [More…]

• One of the main points made by the Minister for the Environment and Conservation (Dr Cass) related to the social injustice and double payments that supposedly occur with the existing health scheme. [More…]

• Both will be taxed on the full amount they earn irrespective of what their health care needs are. [More…]

• The Government’s proposals for a new health scheme are revolutionary; they are not evolutionary. [More…]

• The basis of the Government’s claim that it has to bring in this revolutionary change, or try to bring in this revolutionary change, is that there is not universal health insurance cover at the present time. [More…]

• We were confronted with this approach when the Government tabled a White Paper on the Australian health program today. [More…]

• Rows are going on in the Department of Social Security about it and there are problems about whether or not the health funds will be needed to help the Government out of its trouble. [More…]

• At the same time all it will do is create confusion in the minds of the people about the most essential service that any community can provide, health service. [More…]

• We have been refused an opportunity to debate the White Paper on the Australian health program. [More…]

• It will allow other people to provide expert viewpoints on health care. [More…]

• A whole area of health expertise in this country has had no opportunity at any time of presenting to this Government its views properly considered on what should be the best health scheme for Australia. [More…]

• Why does the Government not slow down for its own political good even if it is not worried about the uncertainty it will create with respect to health care throughout Australia? [More…]

• If such a committee were established, during its investigations it could examine some other aspects of health care that Scotton and Deeble did not consider, including a more adequate cover for ancillary services in Australia. [More…]

• If people want to talk about a more universal health care service and wider cover, this is an important point; which has not been made by Scotton and Deeble. [More…]

• I am sure that if this happens the Government will become aware of the growing opposition to its proposed national health scheme. [More…]

• I hope the message will sink in and that the Government, for its own political future if not for the good of health care in Australia, will slow down and do the decent thing by improving the existing scheme rather than throwing it out of the window for something that is completely uncertain and extremely costly. [More…]

• It is like their approach to health services and everything else. [More…]

• The Bill before the House establishes the Health Insurance Commission as a statutory authority to plan and establish an organisation to administer the Government’s health insurance program. [More…]

• Those details of the Government’s health program relating to medical benefits and hospital payments will be contained in other legislation to be introduced into the House in the near future. [More…]

• At that time the House will be able to fully consider the Government’s proposals for universal health benefits coverage, which have been outlined in the White Paper titled ‘The Australian Health Insurance Program’, which I tabled today. [More…]

• The creation of this authority implements an undertaking given by the Prime Minister in his policy speech that ‘in staffing the Health Insurance Fund, employment preference will be given to the employees of the present private funds, who will enjoy the entitlements, status and conditions and terms of employment accorded to Commonwealth public servants’. [More…]

• As I have indicated previously, authority for the Commission to make payments by way of medical benefits and hospital payments will be contained in the main body of the legislation governing the Government’s universal health insurance plan. [More…]

• I would point out to honourable members that the information the Commission will need will be less in content and less invasive of privacy than that now required and held by the present private health funds, whether in computer or manual systems. [More…]

• Further to this, I would like to draw the attention of honourable members to the special committee which has been appointed by the Attorney-General to advise on the protection needed to ensure privacy under the Government’s health program. [More…]

• The Executive recommended, after consultations with the private health funds concerning transitional arrangements, an arrangement whereby the present private health funds act as agents for the Commission for periods up to 3 years for receiving claims and paying customary ‘over the counter’ benefits. [More…]

• Initiatives of this Government in the fields of health, education and welfare are making heavy demands on the Commission which is actively involved both in the formulation of policy concerning the education of professionals in the areas mentioned, and in the implementation of other decisions and initiatives supported by the Government in respect of the colleges of advanced education. [More…]

• The need for a national approach to reduce costs and at the same time set standards of safety, health and amenity in housing is urgent. [More…]

• Health Committee with respect to the report of the Committee on medical schools to the Australian Universities Commission. [More…]

• This decision was a bitter blow to members of the Illawarra Regional Health Committee, as a wide cross-section of the community had participated in forwarding its submission. [More…]

• The Committee’s submission concentrated on the regionalisation of comprehensive health services and the integration of medical education with the delivery of health care to be achieved by services to be delivered to the community by an integrated health care team. [More…]

• It maintained that a new type of doctor was needed - a person trained as a clinician of the highest order, sure of his role in society, willing to learn and teach and capable of working with other health personnel. [More…]

• In circumstances where the maximum quantity is insufficient for one month’s treatment of a chronic condition at the prescribed dosage level, a doctor may, if he considers it to be in his patient’s interest, apply to the Director of Health in his State for authority to prescribe a quantity of a benefit in excess of the listed maximum. [More…]

• I ask the Minister: Is he aware that his colleague the Minister for Health, in a letter to the Australian Sugar Producers Association, has described sugar as a second rate food, a third rate drug and a third rate poison? [More…]

• Br PATTERSON - I am aware of the personal views expressed by the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The program for universal health insurance which the Government will be introducing is a most generous one. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Minister’s much publicised expression of opinion on the danger to public health of the consumption of sugar would now appear to be fully supported by another member of the Australian Labor Party - a very well-known member, Mr Barry Jones, MLA, from Melbourne. [More…]

• (Quorum formed) I want particularly to draw attention to the tremendous reforms that have already been introduced by the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) and the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham). [More…]

• Without a doubt, already in a period of only 11 months, they have created a completely new perspective and completely new horizons in the fields of social welfare and health services. [More…]

• I compliment the Minister for Health on the job he has done for community health services. [More…]

• In my own area, at Mount Druitt quite recently a community health complex worth $528,000 was opened. [More…]

• The Fairfield-Penrith community health back-up services cost $103,000. [More…]

• A specialist conslutative team for the whole region is provided at a cost of $276,750 and a health education team services the whole region at a cost of $22,550. [More…]

• There is a very strong move in Mount Druitt by the medical profession to try to stop the community health complex in that area having an outpatients’ section, that is to say, a section where people can go to get treatment. [More…]

• Apart from that, I think that most honourable members would agree that both the Minister for Health and the Minister for Social Security have already done a wonderful job. [More…]

• Mr BOURCHIER (Bendigo) <8.>10)- In speaking to the estimates for the Department of Health, the Repatriation Department and the Department of Social Security I would like to mention firstly the community welfare centres that were introduced this year. [More…]

• I understand that the Department of Health has received some 500 applications for these welfare centres and that now, unless there has been some alteration, something like 120 applications have been approved. [More…]

• Some expert from the Department of Health comes around, looks at a patient and says: ‘Oh, yes, you are sitting up’. [More…]

• One of the most important areas of responsibility which desperately needs Australian Government attention is that relating to the health services of this nation. [More…]

• I noticed that not one member of the Liberal Party of Australia entered the chamber after the quorum was called for, although I am speaking about a very important subject, that is, the health program. [More…]

• That shows the Liberal Party’s interest in the health needs of this nation. [More…]

• I was pointing out that the Australian Labor Party was the only political party until recently to examine and campaign on the quality and accessibility of health care and health insurance. [More…]

• In government the Liberal-Country Party coalition caved in to any Australian Medical Association pressure and ignored the recommendations of its own committee of inquiry into health insurance - the Nimmo Committee. [More…]

• Its plans for rationalisation and reform of health insurance in Australia were swept under the carpet by the LiberalCountry Party coalition for fear of opposition from the powerful private insurance funds. [More…]

• Until recently I was unaware that it had even appointed a spokesman on health and welfare. [More…]

• But even he has failed to differentiate between health insurance and health care and delivery. [More…]

• Many of his criticisms have failed to take into account the pioneering work being proposed and carried out by Dr Sax and his National Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• Mr Chipp is honest in his ignorance of the realities of health care today and in his doubts as to whether things are as bad as the AMA claims. [More…]

• But he, too, falls victim to the shockhorror forecasts of the AMA and the General Practitioners Society as to what is going to happen to health in Australia under our proposals. [More…]

• Closer to home, the Director of the Melba Health Centre was reported in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ of 12 November as having said that there was no sign that people were using the free service unnecessarily. [More…]

• Finally, Mr Chipp is at his most naive when he talks about the quality of health care and its deterioration under the proposed health scheme. [More…]

• The changing patterns of medical care and the future use of paramedical and allied health workers are important areas of study which Mr Chipp has failed to mention in his critique of our plans. [More…]

• The same applies to the Country Party spokesmen on our health plans, but with even more reason. [More…]

• They have shown no sensitivity at all to the important question of health care. [More…]

• The honourable member talked about the Government’s health scheme, which is losing credibility with the public as time goes by. [More…]

• On this occasion I shall deal just with the issue of health. [More…]

• The Labor Government will introduce a universal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• It will bc administered by a single Health Fund. [More…]

• Somebody mentioned the Department of Health. [More…]

• I mentioned the pre-election policy speech of the present Prime Minister and the honourable gentleman’s deception of the public in relation to health. [More…]

• Tonight I would like to discuss a very important field of health care which has administrative and financial implications for 3 departments, the Departments of Health, Social Security and Repatriation. [More…]

• The Australian Government recognises the importance of hospital care within its total health plan. [More…]

• It has appointed the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, headed by Dr Sidney Sax, to recommend increased capital expenditure on hospitals, both new and established, and also alternative forms of health care which may serve to keep people out of these high cost, capital and labour intensive institutions, and to use more appropriate forms of medical care. [More…]

• This is well worth lengthy discussion itself, but I intend to examine mainly the impact of the Government’s White Paper on health insurance, and see how it will affect the present structure of hospital services in Australia today. [More…]

• Similarly in a country as wealthy as ours no one should be subject to the indignity of a prying means test to determine his or her eligibility for various forms of health care. [More…]

• While the Australian Government plans a great reform in the provision of availability of treatment in, and financial assistance to, State public hospitals, it recognises that private hospitals controlled by religious, charitable and community organisations play an important role within the nation’s health services. [More…]

• Their fees will be eligible for medical benefits from the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• For the majority, of Australians this will mean smaller contributions than they would have to make if the existing health insurance scheme were to continue. [More…]

• In addition to provisions for private hospital insurance there will be opportunities for people who wish to do so to take out supplementary private insurance against the portion of medical fees not covered under the Program and the costs of ancillary and allied health services. [More…]

• Thus $132m worth of meat would immediately be classed as a health hazard’ and would be unsaleable in most parts of the world. [More…]

• I know that this matter perhaps is not completely the responsibility of the Department of Health in the sense that that Department has the overall responsibility through the animal quarantine section and that the officers at the airports are customs officers and not officers of the Department of Health. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) to take this up with his officers to see that for the future of this industry which is important to Australia the procedures are strengthened and carried out as they should be with people coming in to Australia from foot and mouth disease affected areas of the world. [More…]

• Security and the Department of Health. [More…]

• However, his claims for recognition of war caused effects to his health have been rejected since 1943 by the United States authorities. [More…]

• He was known to be totally opposed to the DeebleHayden Health Scheme. [More…]

• Branch Council and outspokenly opposed to the proposed new Health Scheme, had appealed to doctors for funds for the campaign. [More…]

• I am of the opinion - and that is my problem - that where a member has a terminal disease, a problem of mental health, or some incapacity due to previous venereal disease infection, the reasons for his claim’s rejection as not being due to war service should be guarded, coded or clouded in some way - I do not care how it is done - in order to avoid embarrassment to his family. [More…]

• I wish to devote my time in this debate to the Government’s health insurance program and the question of privacy. [More…]

• More than 6 months public debate has taken place on the report of the Health Insurance Planning Committee. [More…]

• Since the Planning Committee’s recommendations were made, many false charges have been laid against the program by the Australian Medical Association, the General Practitioners Society in Australia, the larger private health insurance funds and by members of the Opposition. [More…]

• Mr Cade of the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia talks about ‘a health dossier on every Australian’ and ‘doctors will be facilitating the accumulation of medical dossiers on their patients’. [More…]

• If the Federal Government are allowed to force through their compulsory nationalised health insurance scheme, details of your personal and private life are no longer confidential. [More…]

• Firstly, I wish to emphasise that the records which the Health Insurance Commission will maintain will be for statistical purposes only. [More…]

• Nos 2.1 to 2.5, from the White Paper on the Australian health insurance program. [More…]

• 2.1 The benefits of the Health Insurance Program will be available to a-1! [More…]

• 2.2 For the convenience of beneficiaries of the Program, and as part of an efficient administrative system every adult in the community will be given a health insurance card. [More…]

• 2.3 It should be borne in mind that many existing health insurance funds require contributors to produce numbered membership cards or books to facilitate benefit claim processing. [More…]

• Indeed, one large fund is issuing to contributors membership cards similar to the health insurance cards proposed for the Program. [More…]

• 2.4 All people who can establish their identity as residents of Australia will be entitled to have their claims paid on presentation of these claims to the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• The Government is confident that the vast majority of Australian people will co-operate in the simple processes involved in administering the Health Insurance Program on an economic and efficient basis. [More…]

• 2.5 During recent months there has been gross misrepresentation of the purpose of health insurance curds. [More…]

• The legislation will contain provisions under which it will be an offence for any person or authority to require the production of health insurance cards as proof of identity other than for the. [More…]

• purposes of the Health Insurance Program. [More…]

• The information required for the processing of claims will bc less than is now required by private health insurance funds. [More…]

• The relevant measures decided on as a result of this study will be incorporated in the health insurance legislation at the appropriate time. [More…]

• I shall outline now the method by which the operation of the Health Insurance Commission will work so far as records are concerned. [More…]

• Data held by the Health Insurance Commission will relate only to the Department of Social Security card numbers and not to the names of patients. [More…]

• Under the existing system of health insurance, patient histories are held by the private funds in manual files for the most part, although there is a notable trend towards computerisation of claim processing. [More…]

• Also, under the existing system of health insurance, data is available to a wide range of private fund employees. [More…]

• The Commission’s health insurance number, which will aid data security, has been carefully designed to ensure that it cannot be manually assembled from personal details and that these details cannot be derived from an examination of the number. [More…]

• Although the Australian Medical Association is extremely critical of the Government’s proposals to supply such membership cards under the universal health insurance program, it has mtaintained a continuous silence when a private fund does exactly this. [More…]

• Safeguards will be included in the legislation to the effect that the use of health insurance cards will be restricted to programs administered by the Department of Social Security. [More…]

• It will be illegal for any person to ask another to identify himself for any other purpose by producing his health insurance card or by quoting his health insurance number. [More…]

• Its first task will be to make recommendations on the manner in which unwarranted invasions of privacy, which at present exist or for which there is potential in large scale administrative operations such as health insurance, may be guarded against. [More…]

• That is exactly the aim that we are pursuing for the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• It will indeed be safer than the present collection and storage of medical information by private health funds which operate without any legal limitations in this regard. [More…]

• The honourable member for Dension (Mr Coates) has dealt at some length with what he described as health dossiers and the impossibility of the information made available to Government departments being used against individuals. [More…]

• Last Thursday just a few minutes before the House dealt with a private member’s motion on health insurance this so-called White Paper entitled ‘The Australian Health Insurance Program’ - my colleague the honourable member for Sturt (Mr Wilson) referred to it as a whitewash paper - was tabled. [More…]

• Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) whether he will ask the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) to answer the 5 questions that I put to him in the debate last Thursday because he did not answer any of them. [More…]

• Fourthly, will he explain the estimate he made in October 1972 of the amount of $700m as the cost of the health scheme when the Labor Party got into office? [More…]

• According to figures I have, 83.2 per cent of the Australian population are voluntary members of health insurance funds; 9.6 per cent are in the pensioner medical service; 3 per cent are in the repatriation medical benefits service and almost one per cent are covered by defence forces benefits. [More…]

• I rise to speak on this matter of health insurance which I consider to be probably the most important social legislation that this Government will introduce into this place. [More…]

• Let me say at this time that of all those who contributed to the great amount of debate and discussion that has gone on since the Green Paper of the Health Insurance Planning Committee was introduced into this Parliament - I remind the House that this was one of the few occasions on which a scheme has been presented to the Parliament and to the people who are interested in it - one of the poorer contributions was that of the Australian Medical Association. [More…]

• Many people who are associated with health care in Australia were prepared to come forth to debate and discuss the matter sensibly and to give up a great deal of their time to see whether this health scheme, whilst it may not have been exactly what they would have chosen themselves, was something that would be to the benefit of the Australian people. [More…]

• Yet its members have decided to embark on a vast propaganda campaign against the Government’s proposed health scheme. [More…]

• One can only imagine, because of its slowing down now following publication of the proposal contained in the White Paper on the Australian health insurance program which has been tabled in the Parliament and the impending legislation that will be placed before the Parliament, that it did not get the anticipated result from doctors and others to its fast funding scheme. [More…]

• I refer to the health schemes in Great Britain and Canada. [More…]

• The British national health service has received a great deal of criticism in this country from people who evidently are bent on seeing its failure and many of whom do not truly appreciate the significance of the scheme. [More…]

• But there is no relationship between the scheme that the Australian Government is presenting to the Australian Parliament at this time and the British national health scheme. [More…]

• It said that the British national health service has ‘reached full adulthood not without blemishes but is virile and popular and indispensible’ and ‘that in every country, developed and developing, the growth in the costs of health services threatens to get out of hand’. [More…]

• So I think the first thing that should concern the Australian people is that in most countries, certainly in most Western developing countries, the costs of health services are taking too much of the national resources. [More…]

• I thought that the Minister for the Environment and Conservation (Dr Cass), when speaking recently, made a very valid point, that is, that it is most unlikely that in various areas people are healthier or unhealthier than in other places. [More…]

• Milton Ferris in his article ‘Crisis and Change in America’s Health system’ said this: [More…]

• The fact of the matter is that an over-utilisation of medical services can occur, and this has been the case in the United States where the costs of health services are totally out of proportion with what they oght to be in relation to the nation’s resources. [More…]

• It seems to be producing a far better health service than one would anticipate from the scheme we have in Australia at present. [More…]

• I rise to speak in the debate on the estimates of the Department of Social Security in relation to the important matter of the Australian health insurance program. [More…]

• He sought indefinitely to postpone the introduction of a universal health insurance scheme .that provided everyone with protection against health costs and that was financed by a 1.35 per cent levy which was based on an individual’s capacity to pay. [More…]

• The private health insurance funds, for so long a law unto their directors rather than their contributors, see the days of overseas trips and executive aeroplanes going and do not like it. [More…]

• The honourable member for Boothby has, by the use of false propaganda, indicated the lengths to which the Opposition will go to fight the proposed health scheme. [More…]

• If it is not, I challenge the Opposition’s spokesman on health and social security and the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Snedden) to repudiate this document on behalf of the Liberal Party of Australia or be equally responsible for the lies it spreads. [More…]

• We have heard an emotive claim that the management of the medical health funds has been running around the world on contributors money. [More…]

• Claims have been made that these people have been running around the world on contributors funds and that they have been spending money campaigning against the proposed national health scheme. [More…]

• I clearly recall some time ago - it could have been as far back as 1968 - the then Leader of the Opposition, Mr Whitlam, directing a question to the then Minister for Health, Dr Forbes, asking for an assurance from the then Government that the health funds would not be allowed to spend contributors money for the purpose of propaganda. [More…]

• At that time, the then Liberal Minister for Health gave an assurance to the Parliament and to the people of Australia that the Liberal-Country Party Government would ensure that this was not done. [More…]

• As a Queenslander, I have been a little concerned about the proposed health scheme. [More…]

• Government supporters have been particularly silent on the manner in which the proposed health scheme - a scheme that has been conceived in the womb of the Minister for Social Security, a fellow Queenslander - will affect the people of Queensland. [More…]

• But 1957 is a long time back and this health scheme is still in fashion in Queensland. [More…]

• Every scheme under government control, whether it be education, health or a host of other things, is open for improvement, and it becomes a question of examination and acceptance of a particular standard. [More…]

• But now, if the people of Queensland do not wish to belong to a health fund, they do not have to contribute. [More…]

• If people in Queensland want to belong to a health fund, they can do so. [More…]

• The proposed Australian health insurance scheme is just the end of a socialist dream and I am quite sure- [More…]

• As a Queenslander, I reiterate that I come from an individual State where you are allowed to do as you wish with health care. [More…]

• The honourable member for Griffith (Mr Donald Cameron) told us that the previous Government had the concern of the low income earner at heart, but an analysis of the existing health scheme would show how little regard it had for such people. [More…]

• The proposed health insurance program of this Government represents the most extensive reform in financing health services in the history of this country. [More…]

• Health services constitute one of the most technically complex and financially expensive areas of activity in any advanced country. [More…]

• The Government’s health insurance program will provide this overhaul. [More…]

• In looking at .the financial aspects ‘ of this scheme, we see, firstly, that health costs at the moment are of the order of $2,000m a year. [More…]

• In other words, something like $5 out of every $100 of income produced in this country is being expended on health services. [More…]

• The current health insurance scheme is inefficient, inequitable and inadequate. [More…]

• This is an extraordinary inequity in the very heart of the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• For $100 spent on contributions to a health insurance fund, a taxpayer in this category would save $67 that he otherwise would have to pay in tax. [More…]

• This absurd inequity shows the total disregard that the previous Government had for low income earners in relation to health schemes. [More…]

• Only 86.5 per cent of the population of this country are covered by a health insurance scheme. [More…]

• In other words, 13 i per cent of the population are not covered by a health insurance scheme or any other scheme of assistance. [More…]

• They will find, as I have said, that only 86.5 per cent of the population of Australia are covered by health schemes; in other words, 13.5 per cent are not covered. [More…]

• The Government’s proposed health insurance program will overcome these deficiencies. [More…]

• The basic level of health care will be provided efficiently, equitably and fully. [More…]

• So taxpayers will know that they are contributing to a health scheme that costs money and they will know exactly what they are paying. [More…]

• So if one takes into account the contributions which taxpayers on higher incomes make to the general revenue of Australia, substantial proportions of which come back in the form of medical benefits, one sees that the higher income taxpayers are paying more than their share towards the health services of the lower income groups in the community. [More…]

• The second point that the honourable member mentioned, and one that the Minister harps on continuously, is the small percentage of Australian people who are not covered by present health benefit schemes. [More…]

• If, as we have been told over and over again in this chamber, the Government has a mandate to bring in a national health scheme, if the people have spoken conclusively on the Government’s scheme, why does the Minister need to spend $250,000 advertising the scheme to the people who are supposed to have been convinced by his propaganda at the election and who voted for the Government, giving it, as he says, a clear mandate? [More…]

• And this is the same sort of massive bureaucracy that is now advocated for health insurance. [More…]

• Honourable members will know how many people in their electorate have come to them and pointed out that they will be paying increased costs under the new Labor health proposals because if the wife works she will pay. [More…]

• If the Minister is honest he will admit that doctors’ fees take up only a very small proportion of the total health bill to the country. [More…]

• The real cost is in hospitals and the cost of the equipment, the servicing and the staff involved in running the hospitals is enormous and increases year by year under nationalised health proposals because of the use made of these facilites by the community. [More…]

• So while the taxpayer might say that he is paying 1.35 per cent in the first year, he will be paying a devil of a lot more before he is finished with this nationalised health scheme. [More…]

• In his weighty remarks on the health scheme he mentioned feathers. [More…]

• This evening the people of Australia must wonder what stirs the Opposition to come forth and spend such money in opposing the introduction of a national health insurance program for which this Government has a clear mandate. [More…]

• They must protect the establishment, for behind the opposition to the universal health program are representatives of the vested financial interests of this country - the bastions of conservatism. [More…]

• I do not have time to talk about choice of doctors, which I wanted to discuss, but I shall refer to a pamphlet that is being distributed by one of these democratic organisations known as the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia. [More…]

• The next point made by the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia is as follows: [More…]

• I challenge members of the Opposition to go to the Newcastle region to see in operation the illustrious current health service under which patients have this wonderful choice of doctors. [More…]

• The Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia in its pamphlet states: [More…]

• By the way, the Government is also setting up its own health clinics and employing staff doctors on salaries. [More…]

• Then this honourable organisation, the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia says: [More…]

• For instance, I understand that the chimney at the hospital is the responsibility of my colleague the Minister for Health but the smoke from it is my fault. [More…]

• We shall certainly follow up the work that has already been done by the CSIRO and by the Government Analyst in another part of the Department of Science in ensuring that the health and welfare of the people of Tasmania are fully safeguarded. [More…]

• The honourable member for Boothby’s comments on health insurance are neither consistent nor reliable. [More…]

• It is unconscionable the way in which the Opposition as a government for some 20 years during which it had health insurance in operation subsidised most generously the wealthiest in the community and gave least to those least able to bear the cost of health insurance - the low and modest income earners. [More…]

• It is unacceptable to us that over a million people at any given time are not covered by some form of health protection supported by the Government either by health insurance benefits- [More…]

• Is the Minister for Social Security aware of today’s statement from a source not noted for its sympathy to the Government, that under Labor’s health insurance program patients will enjoy the widest possible freedom of choice? [More…]

• Of course, the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ editorial represents a fairly objective assessment, and a fairly correct one, of the implications of the White Paper and the program of universal health insurance that the Government is about to introduce. [More…]

• Yesterday we had the eloquence of the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) who disagreed with the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden). [More…]

• They are talking about expanding their discredited health insurance program to cover people now covered by the pensioner medical service. [More…]

• Last evening when I commenced my remarks on these estimates I was referring to the distribution of pamphlets by some voluntary health organisations. [More…]

• I should just like to bring the attention of the Committee to other expenditure being incurred by the Australian Medical Association and voluntary health organisations in relation to the printing and distribution of the pamphlet The Universal Health Program: The Plain Facts’. [More…]

• We all know that the AMA’s Sim fighting fund has been subscribed to by doctors to finance the campaign of misrepresentation, fear and deception that it is waging against this Government’s health care proposals which are just and which will bring into operation 2 great principles. [More…]

• The taxpayers will share the cost of the health proposals according to their ability to pay as expressed by 1.35 per cent of taxable income. [More…]

• The universal health insurance program will remove that fear. [More…]

• I find it is necessary tor me to take this action because of the impending Nationalisation of all Health Services in this country, by the Labour Government. [More…]

• The distribution of that kind of letter to aged people who worry about their health is indicative of the kind of campaign that is being waged. [More…]

• Before I move on to the health organisations’ pamphlets may I say that I would like to be certain that the funds that are being contributed to this campaign by the medical profession will not be listed as part of the advertising costs of their practices. [More…]

• Voluntary health insurance funds are spending a lot of money distributing pamphlets. [More…]

• I again raise a protest on behalf of the Opposition at the way in which I, as Opposition spokesman on health and social security, and all honourable members on this side of the Parliament are being forced to debate a document which is one of the most important documents that has been tabled in this Parliament in many years. [More…]

• I refer to the White Paper entitled ‘The Australian Health Insurance Program’ - a 71-page document written in first class English, with no waffle and well edited. [More…]

• What concerns me about it is that it does little to allay the fears of those on the Opposition side of the chamber about the Government’s proposed health scheme. [More…]

• There are a few extra dollars for private hospitals and so on, but the fundamental thrust of the Australian Labor Party’s health scheme remains in its naked form. [More…]

• We had an argument this morning about whether 87 per cent of Australian people were covered by health insurance or whether 92 per cent were covered. [More…]

• No matter what the figure is, for the sake of argument let us take the Opposition’s figure and assume that 90 to 92 per cent of Australians are already covered voluntarily by health insurance by going into an insurance fund at their own option. [More…]

• We will disregard the wishes of 90 per cent of the population and we will force those people to pay insurance into a Government health fund through the taxation mechanism’. [More…]

• If the Government had argued that universal health cover is desirable and that the 8 per cent to 10 per cent who at present are not covered by health insurance should be covered in some way and had set about devising some means of getting that 8 per cent to 10 per cent into the scheme, that would have had my total support. [More…]

• Maybe he would be better served in the pursuit he followed last week than in commenting on a health scheme. [More…]

• I conclude, though, with one statement in the White Paper that secrecy will be guaranteed in the data bank of the health insurance cards. [More…]

• The large scale IBM computers of the Department of Health in Canberra were churning through prescription data being sent down land lines, when their .printer stopped and began to list out airline reservations. [More…]

• I come now to the health insurance program. [More…]

• He queried something about the estimate of cost of the health scheme made in October 1972. [More…]

• What is comparable is the total cost of the present private health insurance scheme plus the cost of the repatriation and local medical officer services, pensioner medical services and pensioner hospital services. [More…]

• In the last sentence of the last paragraph it says - I have said this before; I guess I could say it another 100 times and the Opposition would still be asserting otherwise - that the total net cost to the Budget, including the effect of tax deductions, will be approximately the same as would be the case under the existing health insurance scheme. [More…]

• I ought to say, in fairness for the record, that the honourable member for Hotham was not the Opposition’s spokesman on health affairs during most of that period. [More…]

• He calls the private scheme ‘voluntary health insurance’. [More…]

• There is not such of a volun tary nature in the present system of health insurance. [More…]

• That is something honourable members opposite never explored when they were in Government, and it is something which they ought to have explored because they may have been able to make some sort of saving grace for the present system of health insurance. [More…]

• I point jut that it has been estimated that to cover those people presently enjoying pensioner medical service entitlements with the present private health insurance scheme would cost an additional J 160m. [More…]

• I think the things that went wrong and that the honourable member for Hotham talked about relating to the Department of Health and Trans-Australian Airlines probably went wrong under his Government’s administration. [More…]

• He smears the previous Government, he smears us, he smears doctors and the health funds. [More…]

• He smears anyone to suit has purposes because he knows very well that his precious health scheme is in tatters. [More…]

• The evidence of the health scheme toeing in tatters is the latest White Paper which he has put before this House and which he refuses to allow this House to debate. [More…]

• It is odd that the Minister can give us the costing of a Liberal proposal for the reform of the present health scheme. [More…]

• But he gave us no costings whatever in order to back up his claims about how the Government’s health scheme would be cheaper for 3 out of 4 people. [More…]

• Anyone who heard the Minister for Social Security speaking a few minutes ago about the problems of aged persons homes and hostels would, I think, clearly understand precisely what terrifies us about the Labor health scheme. [More…]

• That is what we face in that area; how much bigger is the health area as a whole. [More…]

• In Britain, for instance, where the health scheme is funded by the national Government, I understand that the percentage of the national income spent on health is smaller than in any comparable Western nation. [More…]

• That in itself would be part of the reason why in Britain they have such difficulty with their health scheme. [More…]

• The Minister said that he stands by his assertion that about 87 per cent of the community is covered by the present health scheme. [More…]

• The Minister simply cannot say that what is going on in Queensland with respect to the free health care that is available in that State is not relevant to the question of voluntary insurance. [More…]

• It is in this area that we have basic objections to the Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• Another point made toy the Minister for Social Security is that one of the main reasons why migrants will not stay in Australia is that we do not have a universal health scheme. [More…]

• Thousands and thousands of migrants came to Australia because they believed that this was a free country, a country where the individual mattered, where the private life, thoughts, beliefs and relationships mattered and could matter in the most intimate and important of human relationships such as health care, education and similar matters. [More…]

• They left places like Britain with its nationalised health scheme and still they tell us horrifying stories about that scheme. [More…]

• Stripped to its essentials and casting aside the verbiage, Labor’s health scheme is not a worthwhile effort to improve the quality of Australian health care. [More…]

• A Federal Labor Government will introduce a universal health scheme. [More…]

• It will be administered by a single health fund. [More…]

• It is to the everlasting credit of the Queensland Minister for Health, the Honourable S. D. Tooth, that notwithstanding pressure from informed groups to amend the method of its financing to bring the hospital scheme into line with that applying in other States in the Commonwealth, this step was never taken. [More…]

• The Minister in his various statements has made significant play on the fact that one million Australians are not covered by health insurance. [More…]

• I ask him whether this figure includes the 50 per cent of Queenslanders who, on account of the excellence of their system - ‘ a choice between free public and private hospitals, and freedom of choice of doctor - do not need to be covered by health insurance as provided by the private insurance organisations. [More…]

• This enables many people to take advantage of privately operated hospitals and still gain full benefits from health insurance. [More…]

• The proposed national health insurance scheme will tax all salary and wage earning Queenslanders an extra 1.35 per cent of their taxable income to provide an inferior choice of service for their hospital and medical needs. [More…]

• It is within the electorate of the honourable member for Capricornia, the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), but part of it eventually will also be in the electorate of the honourable member for Wide Bay (Mr Hansen). [More…]

• The honourable member for Wide Bay, the honourable member for Kennedy, the Minister for Health and I all think that it is an excellent proposition. [More…]

• What would honourable gentlemen opposite, including the Postmaster-General, say for instance if we on this side of the House applied the same system to health insurance and established a system that the greater the risk one was and therefore the more expense that was likely to be incurred on one, the more one would have to pay? [More…]

• I think of the times when perhaps for health reasons, sickness, fire and business you just cannot walk out your front gate and go around the corner to do your business. [More…]

• Interestingly enough, the last point made by the honourable member for Batman concerned the attitude of certain health insurance funds and their concern about confidentiality. [More…]

• There has been no previous plan to fund community health services from federal moneys. [More…]

• The Prime Minister will be aware of a letter which the Minister for Health wrote to the Australian Sugar Producers Association in which he said that sugar is a poison. [More…]

• I ask: Does the Prime Minister know that the Minister wrote another letter to another organisation - the Proprietary Sugar Millers Association Pty Ltd - in which he made some remarkably ill-informed comments on industry methods, efficiency, organisation, research and promotion, in which he repeated in part his charges about the effects of sugar on health and in which he made a not very thinly veiled threat to cause some problems for the industry? [More…]

• I am still assessing the views of my 2 col leagues, the Minister for Northern Development and the Minister for Health, on this matter. [More…]

• The honourable member for Port Adelaide and the Minister sought to discredit material on the health scheme that I have been circulating in my electorate and implied that it was false and untrue. [More…]

• The Bill before the House is the second National Health Bill for 1973. [More…]

• The first of these is to provide for the transfer of administration of certain parts of the Act from the Department of Health to the Department of Social Security. [More…]

• Its principal objective is to provide a basic range of medical services to persons whom it could reasonably be expected are unable to afford health insurance coverage. [More…]

• Clearly, any extension of these limits arising from further increases in the rates of pensioner benefits would create situations of inequity between such pensioners and the many non-pensioner families in the community who have weekly incomes less than these amounts but who are required to take out health insurance coverage. [More…]

• Honourable members will be aware that these provisions will apply only until the introduction of the Government’s universal health insurance plan. [More…]

• Perhaps I ought to state at this point that under the Australian Government’s health insurance program, legislation for which shortly will be introduced into this Parliament, medical services obtained by pensioners from a private medical practitioner will be fully covered. [More…]

• This will refer not only to consultation at home or in a doctor’s private surgery but also to procedural items which currently are excluded from medical benefit cover under the private health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• Pensioners, as will be the case with everyone in the community - that is, there will be no distinction, no second rate citizenry - will be able to obtain the services of a specialist of their choosing, no doubt with the assistance of a general practitioner, and medical services in the private surgery of that specialist and have those services fully covered by the Australian Government’s new health insurance program. [More…]

• Last Thursday night I spoke for 2 minutes in the adjournment debate, mainly in support of the Illawarra Regional Health Committee and its contentions regarding the report of the Australian Universities Commission Committee on medical schools - another Karmel committee. [More…]

• The main reason why I raised this matter was that some very good principles were inherent in the scheme which the Illawarra Regional Health Committee put to the Universities Commission for evaluation. [More…]

• Since that time the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) has announced that certain grants will be made to the States to develop mental health, alcoholism and drug dependency centres. [More…]

• I am pleased to say that much of what the Minister said regarding the aims and objectives of these various centres supports very much my contentions and the contentions of the Illawarra Regional Health Committee with respect to the sort of medical training that it proposes for the Illawarra area. [More…]

• In the field of mental health, for Wollongong he proposes the establishment of a main community centre which will provide front line community service for assessing and treating areas of psychiatric morbidity. [More…]

• In Warilla-Shellharbour the objective is to provide facilities for a rapidly expanding area with sparse health and welfare facilities. [More…]

• In Dapto it is proposed to establish a shop front centre which will initiate a mental health service in a rapidly expanding area. [More…]

• In Corrimal it is proposed to initiate a mental health service in the social centre of a large area. [More…]

• This is why I am so pleased that further emphasis is being given to my contentions with respect to the very detailed and vigorous work that has been carried out by the Illawarra Regional Health Committee. [More…]

• It was to provide a common training ground for general practitioners, specialists, nursing teachers, hospital administrators, health officers - both public and industrial - teachers college lecturers and various paramedical staff. [More…]

• The course was to have introduced the concept of co-ordinated community health services, such as geriatrics, mental health, rehabilitation, industrial health, community nursing and minimal care, drug dependency and alcoholism centres. [More…]

• A bachelor of education degree in health services could have followed from the diploma of medical education, but for general practitioners a further 4 years of in-depth vocational training selected by the diplomate would have followed, and it would have been to world standard and science based. [More…]

• I join with the Illawarra Regional Health Committee in its contention that insufficient attention was paid to its submissions. [More…]

• There would have been a unique opportunity for the proper integration of health education with the health service needs of the community. [More…]

• The particular needs of the region were carefully considered, and ways to offer appropriate migrant health centres and other community services were proposed. [More…]

• The probable amalgamation of the University of Wollongong and the teachers college offered an exciting possibility to involve teachers more in the health needs of the community so that effective health education and meaningful human relations leading to better mental health could have been fostered in all of the schools. [More…]

• It is lacking in many health and other services because of its rapid growth, and it is likely to become a disaster area. [More…]

• The fact that Townsville is also a growth centre, that hospital facilities and health services are needed to be developed there and that some tropical diseases are endemic were the 3 main reasons given by the Australian Universities Commission why Townsville should have a medical school, and I do not dispute the reasons. [More…]

• This applies not only to medicine but also to nursing and other members of the health team. [More…]

• In the final minute remaining to me in this debate I would like to refer to some of the specific objections raised in the report that I and the Illawarra Region Health Committee disputed. [More…]

• He suggests that we are wasting money on publicising the health insurance program. [More…]

• I have a little booklet of about 30 pages and entitled National Health’. [More…]

• It was several months after he embarked on this effort that he obtained the legislative enactment of this Parliament for his health insurance program. [More…]

• This extravagant claim that is being made by Mr Morris is typical of the extravagant claims being made by other New South Wales Ministers about what they will do in the fields of health, hospitals, education and so on. [More…]

• The letter has been sent by the Minister for Health, signed ‘Doug Everingham’, written on ministerial paper with the Commonwealth crest at the top and the words Minister for Health’. [More…]

• I have in my hand an identical document, presumably, to the one which the Leader of the Australian Country Party (Mr Anthony) has just brought into the House and which, as he said, has printed on the top the crest, the title ‘Minister for Health’ and the address ‘Parliament House, Canberra’. [More…]

• The point of order which was raised by the Minister for External Territories was whether, in view of standing order 76 and the explanation given by the Minister for Health, the right honourable gentleman is prepared to withdraw certain imputations. [More…]

• In the field of health we have community health centres and community mental health facilities. [More…]

• We have had several Bills on education and another has been introduced relating to health insurance. [More…]

• These include the provision of sporting ovals, libraries, swimming pools, baby health centres, a social service officer and many other facilities which local government is expected to provide. [More…]

• Those advertisements offer attractions like wages for metal workers of various categories of Stg75 a week with free fares and full social and health insurance free. [More…]

• In those countries governments have come to the correct conclusion that they are responsible not just for the formal scholastic education of their population but also for their physical and mental health. [More…]

• There is plenty of evidence in a number of Western countries that recreation and sport contribute materially and significantly to a nation’s overall prosperity, happiness and health. [More…]

• The decline was possibly caused by an overemphasis on sex and an under-emphasis on healthy recreation. [More…]

• Much work has been done by the New South Wales State Government and the Department of Health to raise the quality of the water flowing down the river, and certainly industrial pollutants are being restricted. [More…]

• Many factories and plants have installed machinery and extensive filters to ensure that industrial wastes are now removed from any water finding its way into the river - I think that the action of the Department of Health in this area deserves commendation - but the river itself is still ugly. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Government, under the leadership of the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam), has been responsible for a large number of new initiatives of reform such as the very great economic reforms introduced by this Government in the fight against inflation, in the areas of education and health, in the new area of foreign affairs, to the Constitution, and so I could go on. [More…]

• It has needs for assistance to provide access roads, for transport to remove the chaos from the roads, for improvements in education and health facilities, for recreation centres and for child care centres. [More…]

• Already, of course, we have received great assistance in the western suburbs of Sydney in the provision of health services in the last fortnight. [More…]

• Special medical health centres are to be built. [More…]

• Major items of expenditure by local governments today are public works; health administration, including garbage collection and disposal; public services; administrative and general expenses; the maintenance of municipal property; and the acquisition of assets. [More…]

• This access to grants from the Grants Commission will go far in assisting local councils in lesser privileged areas more effectively to provide municipal, health and welfare services for their communities. [More…]

• I refer to objections raised recently by spokesmen against the Government’s health insurance program about a Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics survey on health benefits cover which the Minister used. [More…]

• Last week in this House the Opposition spokesman on health and welfare matters questioned the accuracy of a reference in the White Paper on our health insurance program. [More…]

• 17.7 on the cover for health benefit type programs available in the community. [More…]

• If he said he was not covered by a fund he was further asked whether he was covered by any health insurance scheme which cost nothing. [More…]

• Is it a fact that spokesmen for the Liberal and Australian Country Parties and the Australian Democratic Labor Party have decided that the answer to the present second rate pensioner medical service, which they uncritically supported during the previous Government’s term of office, is to enrol pensioners in the subsidised health benefits plan? [More…]

• Will the Minister inform the House as to the cost of enrolling pensioners and other low income groups in the subsidised health benefits plan? [More…]

• If those pensioners entitled to benefits under the pensioner medical service were to be covered by the subsidised health insurance program - assuming that were possible because every effort to cover all people so far has failed with only four in every 100 low income families being covered so far - many of them would in fact be squeezed out because the income eligibility levels are much lower than they are for the pensioner medical service. [More…]

• Accordingly a higher limit would be set and many other people who are not currently covered would be covered by the subsidised health insurance benefits scheme. [More…]

• It will cover them all automatically, including groups which currently miss out on the subsidised health insurance scheme as it relates to the present system of health insurance, at no extra cost than the total cost of the present scheme which covers only 87.7 per cent of the population. [More…]

• The fact is that the payments were made without any demur at all by my colleague, the Minister for Health who - I commend him for this - is at last restoring proper, amiable and constructive relations between the pharmacy profession and the Australian Government. [More…]

• Did the Minister for Social Security tell the Prime Minister before the Prime Minister’s election speech that about $500m would be needed from Consolidated Revenue to finance the health scheme in its first year of operation? [More…]

• The fact is that the total cost of our health insurance scheme will be no greater than the total cost of . [More…]

• If the honourable member cares to read the White Paper on the Australian health insurance program - even though there are more than 3 pages in the paper, fairly simple words are used and the honourable member will not find them too difficult - and if he can persevere for long enough to reach the last sentence of the last paragraph of the last chapter, he will see that the paper states: [More…]

• The total net cost to the Budget, including the effect of tax deductions, will be approximately the same as would be the case under the existing health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Let us be clear that these are the people who had the present system of health insurance in operation for more than 2 decades and at the end of that time the scheme was still seriously defective and riddled with anomalies. [More…]

• The Longueville Presbyterian Church has not, publicly at least, been contriving to make a major political issue out of the subject of confidentiality of personal records held by Government agencies such as a health insurance commission. [More…]

• I am certain the Liberal Party and the Country Party would be distressed at any suggestion that the degree of access which they permitted to Department of Social Security files should extend to health insurance commission records. [More…]

• To be perfectly frank, if I had not received some letters from different employees of the Department pointing out the weaknesses of this system - and they did this in response to the current hysteria being whipped up on health insurance recording procedures - I doubt that I would ever have called the procedures into question. [More…]

• This is the very thing that concerns me and members of the Opposition about the Minister’s health insurance scheme. [More…]

• We are concerned because of the fallibility of human beings and, indeed, the fallibility of computers about which I spoke the other day in reference to an IBM computer belonging to Trans-Australia Airlines in Melbourne which, instead of tapping out airline reservations, tapped out health prescriptions from the Department of Health. [More…]

• One belonged to the Department of Health and one belonged to Trans-Australia Airlines. [More…]

• By some freak the TAA computer in Melbourne started tapping out health prescriptions and the Department of Health computer in Canberra started tapping out TAA airline reservations. [More…]

• To be perfectly frank, if I had not received some letters from different employees of the Department pointing out the weaknesses of this system - and they did this in response to the current hysteria being whipped up on health insurance recording procedures - I doubt that I would ever have called the procedures into question. [More…]

• They have done it in the context of the fears expressed by honourable members on this side of the House about the disclosure of personal medical records under the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• It has also been taken to exclude locums and the staff of the Australian Department of Health except those employed as Community Medical Practitioners. [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Will the Minister for Social Security table in the House all the information contained in the documents and calculations on which he bases his assertion that health insurance under his proposals will be cheaper for three out of four families and seven out of ten single persons? [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to protests by the Commonwealth Bank Officers Association against attempts to misrepresent the attitude of the Association to the Australian health insurance program? [More…]

• It has pointed out that, contrary to the claims of the AMA, the Bank Officers Association is not opposed to and has not criticised the health insurance program. [More…]

• The Church of England - indeed all churches have done so - has expressed concern about the rights of needy people who are not covered by the present system of health insurance. [More…]

• Finally, I remind you that Mr Don Chipp, M.P., the Liberal Party’s health spokesman in the Federal Parliament, has not only criticised doctors for their misrepresentation of what we are proposing but has said quite firmly, without any reservation at all, that our scheme is not nationalisation. [More…]

• I have said that this scheme is basically nationalisation of health insurance funds. [More…]

• The Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) has stated that the first act of nationalisation the Australian Labor Party would commit when it came to office would be to nationalise health insurance funds. [More…]

• I have gone on to say that the Labor Party’s health scheme will also lead to nationalisation of doctors. [More…]

• There have been many cliches spoken, in the hope that people are idiots, and based on the false premise that just because someone drops a cliche, everyone is going to believe it and therefore hate the Government, hate the Labor Party, and despise the health scheme. [More…]

• There are up to 1 million people in our community who are uncovered for health insurance. [More…]

• In talking about a national health scheme, my basic premise is that the national health scheme as introduced and practised by the Liberal-Country Party government was not only a good scheme, but one of the best in the world. [More…]

• .Mr Justice Spicer was originally to conduct the inquiry but he has informed me that due to ill health he will not be available until February. [More…]

• In some States, the new training schemes are being conducted by the Department of Health. [More…]

• Growth rates, health and the production of Green turtles have not lived up to expectations. [More…]

• It is true, as I said, that under the Government’s health scheme all will soon be eligible for free medical and hospital care, if there are enough doctors and enough hospital beds to accommodate them. [More…]

• The pensioners health card in the past has been a kind of passport to all good things. [More…]

• I have never been to the Mornington Peninsula but I have been to the Gold Coast and I have a shrewd idea that they are not forced to go there for reasons of health. [More…]

• Clearly this Government has taken such a sweeping decision without regard to the health and well being of Australia’s young school children. [More…]

• These schools will be selected on a needs basis to be decided by State health authorities. [More…]

• But can such a saving and such a blatant attack on the health and well being of school children be considered in entirely monetary terms? [More…]

• Firstly, it is apparent that State health authorities will have to follow the reasoning that country children with their economic standard and possibly greater access to protein from milk than, say, children in densely populated inner city areas will be the first to be able to forego the milk. [More…]

• There is substantial agreement among health authorities that continuation of the scheme cannot be justified on purely nutritional grounds and there are expert views to the effect that any benefits to the diet from a free milk scheme are likely to be minimal beyond the age of seven, even at ages up to and including 7 years of age, its general usefulness has been questioned on the basis of current income levels and on the grounds that adequate nutrition can be provided for children from other sources. [More…]

• In accompanying editorial comment the ‘New Scientist’ says ‘But the decision to withdraw free school milk for 7 to 11-year-olds in Britain is an outrageous sacrifice of straightforward fact and, more importantly, children’s health, to what looks like a simple but vicious principle of penny pinching*. [More…]

• In 1963 the New South Wales Department of Health carried out surveys of the daily diets of 1,000 ten-year-olds, and followed this in 1965 with a study of food eaten at school by 3,900 ten to twelve year olds in all socio-economic groups. [More…]

• The only sense of realism in this matter has been injected by the Secretary of the Building Workers Industrial Union who pointed out that unionists are likely to withdraw their labour because they take the view that an industry which is potentially dangerous to the health of people, or could have a deleterious effect on the environment should not be established until an environmental impact statement has been prepared and published so that the community can see it and comment on it. [More…]

• For example, according to Dr Coombs, proposed expenditure in relation to such matters as transport, communications, radio, television and health services could be delayed. [More…]

• I base my statement on the incontrovertible fact that our future social welfare, health, environmental and cultural development depend on the extent to which our effective growth and development are expanded to meet the demands of an impatient society, a society entitled to expect to benefit from and to share in the good things of life. [More…]

• When one thinks of the Government’s aims in regard to the Australian Assistance Plan - the health centres and the various other facilities in which there is a great need for social workers to take their place in the team - one can appreciate the great demand that there is for places in both colleges of advanced education and universities for the training of social workers. [More…]

• I believe that we need to start thinking of education not only as a service- for the young but as a service’ to the whole community, to be used as and when necessary - like health services. [More…]

• The fact is that there is opportunity under the National Health Act for the private hospital funds to pay hospital and medical benefits for designated acute hospital cases in situations such as this. [More…]

• On July 31, the institution becomes a surgical hospital - Commonwealth health authorities approve. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Social Security seen a statement by the Liberal Party spokesman on health that upon the implementation of the Government’s health insurance scheme, there will be an immediate shortage of 900 beds in Melboure alone? [More…]

• On the one hand I have had the assurance of the Minister for Health in Victoria, Mr Scanlan, that there are adequate beds for hospital needs in that State; everyone who requires hospital bed treatment receives it. [More…]

• On the other hand, given the assurance of the Minister for Health in Victoria that there are adequate beds in that State to meet all hospital requirements, this must mean that there will be a reduction in the demand for private or non-public hospital ward bed services. [More…]

• I do not think he would assert that there are people in the State of Victoria who are being deprived of hospital bed treatment at the present time, in conflict with the statement of the Victorian Health Minister to me; and on the other hand I do not believe he will assert that, when the new health scheme comes in, people will rush to hospitals to have hysterectomies, tonsillectomies and other services provided on the discounted for bulk service basis. [More…]

• What new game are the private health insurance funds up to now? [More…]

• Would this sort of mess arise under the new universal health insurance program? [More…]

• I make no apologies for the clumsy, inefficient system of health insurance that presently operates in this country. [More…]

• The fact is that the problems that are now confronting the community and upon which the health insurance funds are reporting in such a way as to try to gain advantage are inherent in this system of private health insurance. [More…]

• The Government cannot keep pouring the taxpayers’ money into this inequitable, inefficient system of health insurance to keep it going. [More…]

• The Minister has constantly debated this question of the national health scheme ostensibly in answer to questions. [More…]

• First of all, there was no misleading of a television audience on Sunday night when I said that there had been stacks of opportunity to debate our health program in this House. [More…]

• The only initiative taken here has come from a back bencher on the Opposition side who moved for a debate on our national health program. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Is he aware that the University of Melbourne has for 6 years or more been conducting research at the Royal Melbourne Hospital into a rare hereditary brain disease, Huntington’s Chorea, which is reported to affect one in 12,000 Australians? [More…]

• Since 1967 the group conducting this research has been receiving an annual grant of $13,000 through the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• In view of the fact that the Department of Health has budgeted for an expenditure of approximately $600m this financial year, will the Minister explain why such a miserly amount of $13,000 cannot continue to be paid for this very important research project? [More…]

• There has been a record allocation of money this year for medical research through the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Social Security: Is it a fact that under the proposed national health insurance scheme many people who prefer private hospitalisation, and now are insured for private hospitalisation in private hospitals and nursing homes, may be unable to afford the extra cost involved under the proposed plan and therefore will have no alternative but to accept public ward accommodation when it can be made available? [More…]

• The total amount provided for health is more man $8m, and Western Australia receives approximately half of that amount. [More…]

• I was mentioning that this money is being made available and that it means not only that we are able to erode away the bad health record in some of these communities but also that we are able to provide employment at the same time. [More…]

• In the massive new program of assistance in relation to health, the substantial amount goes to Western Australia which is to receive more than $4m. [More…]

• I think we would all agree that the solution of problems such as health lies not merely with the provision of money; it is a matter also of being able to employ the skilled staff who are willing to serve in country and isolated areas. [More…]

• Let me briefly say something about, the health of Aborigines and mention 2 matters which may seem peripheral and trivial but which I think are important. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall that Dr Kalokerinos working, I think, in Collarenebri, came up with the idea that much Aboriginal illhealth - particularly a great deal of Aboriginal infant mortality - was due to a deficiency in vitamin C, which is ascorbic acid. [More…]

• He put forward the theory that the Aboriginal, because of genetic factors, did not absorb this vitamin to the degree that other people do and that, as a result there was a chronic deficiency which led to illhealth. [More…]

• Following his action, a dramatic improvement in Aboriginal health occurred and a reduction in Aboriginal infant mortality. [More…]

• The Aboriginals could benefit, through their own work, in providing something for their own health. [More…]

• All matters with regard to health, education and housing for Aborigines remained as they were. [More…]

• This amount allocated by the Commonwealth to the States over the period 1968 to 1972 was such that one would have thought that considerable improvement would have been evident in the Aboriginal way of life and that health, education and housing over this period would have been greatly improved. [More…]

• Having regard to the problems confronting Aborigines - the vastness of the country, housing, health and education - we should ask ourselves whether we could have done the job any cheaper? [More…]

• On a recent trip to Moree, Dubbo and Mungundi as a member of the House of Rep resentatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs I found that health and sanitation in these places were at their lowest ebb. [More…]

• We feel that the NACC will play a major part in indicating what is best for the Aboriginal race and that it will keep the Minister advised in regard to health, education, housing and possible employment ventures. [More…]

• There is an allocation of $ 10.3m for health. [More…]

• It is an achievement for an Aboriginal to reach adulthood and to enjoy continued good health. [More…]

• It appears that with these people who move from tribal ground to tribal ground, or to various parts of their tribal ground, the custom is for the healthiest child to receive the major care. [More…]

• Hence the health of the very small and very delicate infants is very likely to decline and all the good work that takes place at the maternal and child welfare centres is lost. [More…]

• When we think of their health we think more particularly of the health of the infants and small children. [More…]

• If anything contributed to the health of Aboriginal children it was the half pint of milk, or whatever the quantity was, that they received each day. [More…]

• Of this year’s amount, $ 1.926m has been allocated for housing, compared with $690,000 last year; on community amenities $51,000 this year, compared with $86,000 last year - a small drop in that case; on health, an increase to $920,000 from $274,000 last year; and on education $1.3 15m this year, compared with $421,000 last year. [More…]

• These will assist the Aboriginal people and will also take them further along the way to being able to protect themselves in health matters. [More…]

• As honourable members know, the Bill to implement the Government’s new health scheme is to be introduced tomorrow. [More…]

• On 16 January last Cabinet authorised me to set in train arrangements for the establishment of a Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• This Commission would study Australian health care needs and make recommendations to the Government on the allocation of capital and operating funds for the development and maintenance of health care delivery systems in Australia. [More…]

• The need to set up this commission is based on the recognition that a high standard of health care is one of the fundamental rights of every Australian, and that the Australian Government must accept its full responsibility in this regard. [More…]

• It is our belief that health is a family affair and a community affair and that communities must look beyond the person who is sick in bed or who is in need of medical attention. [More…]

• The need for health services begins at birth and continues throughout our lives. [More…]

• In the past the emphasis in the delivery of health care has been on the provision of curative rather than preventive health and rehabilitation services. [More…]

• As an initial step it is the aim of this Government to correct this imbalance by encouraging the rapid expansion and co-ordination of community health services. [More…]

• The Government has committed itself to a policy of promoting the regionalisation and modernisation of hospitals, linked with the development of community based health services and preventive health programs. [More…]

• It is interested in the full range of services, facilities and funding arrangements required to promote a high standard of health. [More…]

• To make an immediate start on the work envisaged for the Commission, an Interim Committee on Hospitals and Health Services was appointed within my department soon after this Government took office. [More…]

• As a result of those recommendations positive action has been taken to improve the health services of this country. [More…]

• It will be a feature of the Commission’s examination of health needs for Australia to consult with the many authorities and organisations in Australia with deep interests in health care. [More…]

• And, of course, the Commission will have to rely heavily on the support that these bodies can give the Commission in ascertaining the existence and state of health services throughout the nation. [More…]

• As a practical example of this type of consultation and co-operation, the Commission is presently examining the hospital facilities position in Australia and is being actively assisted by such bodies as the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian Nursing Federation, the Australian College of Medical Administrators, the Australian Hospitals Association, the Australian Institute of Hospital Administrators, the Australian Department of Health, the Bureau of Census and Statistics and the health authorities in participating States. [More…]

• The Interim Committee’s first report, A Community Health Program for Australia”, was tabled in the House on 30 May last. [More…]

• This report has been exceptionally well received by health administrators in this country. [More…]

• That program has been endorsed by the Government and a sum of SI Om was allocated in this year’s Budget to meet capital and net operating costs of approved community health projects in 1973-74. [More…]

• The program should provide the required impetus for the establishment of much needed, but often overlooked, community based health services and should encourage communities and regions to examine their own needs and priorities and to express them to the relevant health authorities. [More…]

• To date assistance totalling $9m has already been approved under the community health program. [More…]

• This program is an indication of the enthusiasm and earnestness of the Interim Committee in tackling its responsibilities, and indicates the wholehearted approach and the concern for the health care of the Australian people that the Commission will bring to bear on its tasks. [More…]

• 2) within the Department of Health appropriations. [More…]

• It is intended that the Department of Health will be implementing the program of approved projects and be expending the moneys on Australia’s behalf. [More…]

• It recognised quickly that its own efforts were not enough but that it was necessary to encourage all administrations within the health services community to plan, research and evaluate their activities. [More…]

• The Government has provided funds of Sim a year and has given to the Interim Committee the overall co-ordinating role for an initial 3-year program for health services planning and research. [More…]

• Australia will continue to suffer from periodic shortages of various health professionals until a systematic approach is developed which anticipates requirements in the various skills to enable training facilities to adjust accordingly, which studies imbalances in the distribution of personnel and generally ensures that they are being both trained and used effectively. [More…]

• A special committee, which it is intended will report directly to the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, is already starting to examine some of these problems. [More…]

• Meanwhile, the Interim Committee has involved itself with plans for accreditation of health facilities and services, and it has recommended that funds be provided to the Australian Hospitals Standards Committee for a draft plan of a scheme for accreditation of Australian hospitals for consideration by the Commission. [More…]

• This Bill establishes the Hospitals and Health Services Commission on a permanent and sound legal basis, enumerates its functions and gives it all the powers necessary to enable it to operate effectively. [More…]

• to make recommendations to the Minister in relation to the provision of health services by the Department of Health; [More…]

• to ascertain the health care needs of the Australian community and to make recommendations to the Minister in respect of those needs; [More…]

• with the approval of the Minister, to make grants, including conditional grants, to government bodies, persons or organisations engaged in health care or research into health care; [More…]

• to investigate means of securing and, with the approval of the Minister, arrange for, representation of Australia or the Commission on governmental bodies involved in health care; [More…]

• to promote and take part in planning in relation to health services; [More…]

• to promote the provision of adequate health services; [More…]

• to review health care delivery systems and recommend changes to States, organisations or persons concerned with those systems; [More…]

• to undertake such other functions in relation to health care as the Minister approves. [More…]

• Establishment of the Commission is yet another step in the Government’s progress toward a total approach to the nation’s health care needs. [More…]

• The Interim Committee has already more than demonstrated its capacity for hard work and sound responsible judgement and recommended the means of tackling some of the inadequacies in our health care system. [More…]

• High quality health services do not just happen. [More…]

• Health care needs must be identified and services must be planned and financed in a co-ordinated manner. [More…]

• The establishment of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission by this Bill will ensure the continuation of the identification of those needs and provide the apparatus for planning and co-ordinating the resources necessary for their fulfilment. [More…]

• The allocation for health services has been increased from $3.7m to $ 10.3m mainly for water and sewerage purposes. [More…]

• I do not think any honourable member would dispute the fact that if we are to have good health amongst all sections of the community - which leads to contentment and satisfaction - essential services ought to be given some priority. [More…]

• But perhaps it is wrong to call it just a nuisance for it is a threat to health. [More…]

• World authorities recognise the threat to health and education by this nuisance. [More…]

• Has he or his Department studied reports of experiments by a lecturer in environmental health at the Papua New Guinea University? [More…]

• Apart from the debt of gratitude that the people of Australia owe to the natives of the Territory, the Government regards it as its bounden duty to further to the utmost the advancement of the natives, and considers that that can ‘be achieved only by providing facilities for better health, better education and for a greater participation by the natives in the wealth of their country and eventually in its government . [More…]

• Before that it became an associate member of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, the Asian Development Bank, the World Health Organisation and the South Pacific Conference. [More…]

• The Committee decided to press the urgent need for an integrated approach to the planning of health and welfare services in Albury-Wodonga; to bring to the notice of the Ministerial Council the acute shortage of social welfare workers in the area, particularly those experienced in youth work; to ask the Cities Commission for a study of the effect of the growth centre on the ecology; to press for the regular release of planning information so that Albury-Wodonga businessmen can plan for the future; and to ask that the Development Corporation consider the need for infant and child care facilities in commercial development and community facilities, as well as providing for the disabled. [More…]

• The Bill before the House provides for payments for medical benefits, hospital services and certain other specific services, and is the culmination of a great deal of investigation, planning and community debate concerning the most equitable and efficient means of providing health insurance coverage for all Australians. [More…]

• The Bill will enact principles for a health insurance program which were placed before the public at the last Federal election and for which the Government was given a clear mandate. [More…]

• The legislation the Government is now proposing represents a sincere endeavour to build a new health benefits system in a way which will meet the expectations of the public for high quality health services to be readily accessible to all, which will expand rather than inhibit the opportunities for freedom of choice, which will promote efficiency in the delivery of health services and which will assist in the upgrading of hospital and community based health facilities. [More…]

• I submit that the course of the debate on our health insurance proposals, including our deliberately ‘open government’ approach to our policy planning, speaks for itself about our attitude of listening carefully to responsible criticism and seeking to achieve the best balance possible between the legitimate interests of patients, doctors and hospital managements. [More…]

• Honourable members will remember that we published in April of this year the report of the Health Insurance Planning Committee which outlined a series of proposals on how a health insurance program could be introduced. [More…]

• Objective critics throughout the country have noted that the White Paper demonstrates the Government’s receptiveness to constructive criticism about the health insurance proposals. [More…]

• As far as I can ascertain, such an open government’ exercise has not been undertaken before in Australia and I feel it is a significant innovation and, although it has not yet attracted such widespread attention as the health insurance proposals, I would call the attention of honourable members to the fact that I have also tabled in this House a discussion paper on the Australian Assistance Plan. [More…]

• Before proceeding to outline the purpose of specific clauses within the Bill, I will mention in broad detail the salient points of the health insurance program which will result from this legislation. [More…]

• I must first explain, however, that this Bill is the main legislative instrument for the introduction and operation of our health insurance program. [More…]

• As honourable members are aware, a Bill has already been introduced which provides for the establishment of the Australian Health Insurance Commission, the main function of which will be to operate the program. [More…]

• Further legislation relating to the scope and operation of private health insurance organisations and the introduction of levies on taxable income and on motor vehicle third party and workers compensation insurers and the protection of individual privacy will be introduced in the autumn sittings of 1974. [More…]

• Together, this legislative framework will provide for a health insurance program such as I shall now outline. [More…]

• Adult residents will be issued with health insurance cards as a means of establishing entitlement to benefits. [More…]

• I draw the attention of honourable members to what the White Paper says on the matter of the health insurance cards and privacy of information. [More…]

• It should be borne in mind that many existing health insurance funds require contributors to produce numbered membership cards or books to facilitate benefit claim processing. [More…]

• Indeed, one large fund is issuing to contributors membership cards similar to the health insurance cards proposed for the Program. [More…]

• The information required for the processing of claims will be less than is now required by private health insurance funds. [More…]

• Within the health insurance program, there will be complete freedom of patients to choose their own doctors in private practice. [More…]

• Before doing so, however, I remind honourable members that the health insurance program is outlined in the White Paper which has been widely distributed and is available to all who are interested in the subject. [More…]

• Part IV, clauses 39 to 46, cover health program grants. [More…]

• While the Bill provides for all residents of Australia to be eligible for the benefits of the program, it also makes provisions which will allow, at some future time, the introduction of arrangements whereby non-residents of Australia may purchase Australian health insurance program coverage by payment of a suitable premium. [More…]

• Be billed by the doctor, pay the doctor and then claim benefits from the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Forward the unpaid doctor’s bill to the Health Insurance Commission and receive back the appropriate benefits in the form of a cheque payable to the doctor. [More…]

• The doctor would then claim his payment from the Health Insurance Commission and the patient would not have to pay anything. [More…]

• For such attendances the regulations will prescribe that the benefit which will be payable will be that part of the benefit specified in the Schedule which is financed by the health insurance levy. [More…]

• In practice, the Bill provides for the Health Insurance Commission to determine fees in such circumstances in accordance with the principles laid down by the Committee. [More…]

• We have indicated, in the White Paper on our health insurance program, that we will consult with the medical profession about appropriate forms of ‘peer review’ arrangements. [More…]

• In this context I would point out that all hospitals currently approved under the National Health Act must apply for approval under this legislation so as to become eligible for Australian Government payments. [More…]

• The financing of the program will take place through the mechanism of a Health Insurance Fund, which will be established under Part VI of the Bill. [More…]

• All payments authorised by this legislation will be paid by the Health Insurance Commission out of this Fund. [More…]

• I mentioned at the beginning of this speech that our proposals seek social equity in health insurance. [More…]

• And, we believe, the Australian Government not only has an obligation in this respect but it also has a clear duty, as the custodian of public funds, to ensure that taxpayers get the best value in terms of health services for the money they contribute. [More…]

• This, in turn, means we have a duty to see that money is not wasted on an inefficient system of health insurance. [More…]

• A great deal of this money will be spent in propping up the ramshackle, inequitable and wasteful private health insurance scheme - a scheme which can only retain any facade of respectability through the injection of more and more taxpayers’ money. [More…]

• One of the reasons for all this is simply that the 90 health funds, with their separate and often extravagant managements, are wasteful. [More…]

• So now, in pretending to have a policy on health insurance, they are proposing a $3 00m first aid job to patch up the low income family and pensioner sections of their scheme. [More…]

• What I must point out quite forcibly here is that this $300m would be additional to the total cost of the medical and hospital services covered by private health insurance and by pensioner medical and hospital services and repatriation medical services. [More…]

• But the time is past for ‘band aid’ health care expedients. [More…]

• Like other advanced countries of the world Australia needs a health insurance program which will truly provide the doctor and the hospital of the citizen’s choice at the price he can afford. [More…]

• It is an iniquitious method of ensuring that those who can best afford health care get it more cheaply than those who can least afford it. [More…]

• It is a program which rejects the belief that health care is a commodity to be traded rather than a social utility to be used to improve the quality of living. [More…]

• It is at the same time a program which acknowledges the professional and vocational aspirations of those who provide health services. [More…]

• It is indeed a program which must cause this Parliament to decide whether health care is to be a privilege to be purchased or a right to be enjoyed equally by every Australian. [More…]

• Their major objective will be to make land available for residential purposes and for other public purposes such as health, education, recreation and transport. [More…]

• But this control must be professional - as it is of course in other departments controlling professional disciplines, such as the Department of Health, or the Department of Foreign Affairs or the Attorney-General’s Department. [More…]

• It is held in high regard by all persons concerned with the provision of health services. [More…]

• The following visiting specialist medical services in medical care and orthopaedics are provided by Royal Newcastle Hospital to hospitals in the Hunter Valley: Full time physicians undertake care of medical patients in the public wards of Maitland Hospital; the orthopaedic department provides a regular clinic service to Maitland, Kurri Kurri and Cessnock Hospitals; the consultants of the obstetric department co-operate with the Department of Health in providing a consultant service to doctors in the area; and for the past 13 years the hospital has supplied Maitland Hospital with resident medical officers. [More…]

• It is only 2 years ago that the then New South Wales Minister for Health, Mr Jago, foreshadowed a medical school for Newcastle within 5 years, that is, by 1976. [More…]

• I strongly request the Minister for Education (Mr Beazley), supported by the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) to give the green light to the Australian Universities Commission to implement the recommendations of the Karmel Committee on medical education which gave Newcastle top priority for the next medical school in New South Wales. [More…]

• It has better developed facilities than any of the other applicant centres, which would mean early operation of the school, a point which the Australian Minister for Health has conceded is one of the strongest arguments in favour of Newcastle. [More…]

• However, the Department of Health also has a significant research program, while the Minister for Minerals and Energy (Mr Connor) is investigating several aspects of energy conversion. [More…]

• It will be required to conduct its operations in a proper and workmanlike manner and, in accordance with good industrial practices, to look after the safety, health and welfare of persons engaged in its operation, to interfere as little as possible with navigation, to have regard to conservation of the reserves of the sea and the sea bed, to have regard to operations being carried on by other persons engaged in similar activities and to consider in the exercise of its functions, factors connected with the ecology and the environment. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall that in 1971 in accordance with the wishes of the Senate the then Minister for Health, Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson, gave an undertaking that this practice would be followed in the future by the Government of which he was a member. [More…]

• I now pay a compliment to the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) who is not in the chamber tonight but who is being represented by the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden). [More…]

• I raised this matter with the Minister for Social Security, who referred me to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I then wrote to the Minister for Health, and I have had a prompt letter back from him saying that the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories in February or March of next year will have a device which I presume will also bc made available free to pensioners and which will cover this other kind of deafness. [More…]

• I commend the Minister for Health for his prompt reply and just hope that the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories device will be satisfactory to enable old people to hear who cannot hear at the moment with the device presently manufactured by the Laboratories. [More…]

• The Bill also includes a number of administrative amendments, including those that will transfer the administration of the medical and hospital benefits scheme and the pensioner medical service from the Department of Health to the Department of Social Security. [More…]

• I thank the Minister for that interjection and accept it, except to say that certain clauses of the Health Insurance Bill relate to the Medical Advisory Committee, as I think it is called. [More…]

• By this means, terrifying powers are put in the hands of the Minister with regard to fixing the fees that can be charged by doctors under his national health scheme. [More…]

• Honourable members will be aware that these provisions will apply only until the introduction of the Government’s universal health insurance plan. [More…]

• In the last 2 paragraphs of his second reading speech, the Minister referred to the updating procedures for the pensioner medical scheme and said that if the scheme was updated any further there would be a problem with regard to people on low incomes who were required to take out health insurance coverage. [More…]

• I believe that it is a great pity that in this Bill the Government did not take the opportunity to cover not only the abolition of the $10 charge for hearing aids - which I certainly support - and the other matters, such as the transfer of certain responsibilities to the Department of Social Security, but also to include the necessary amendments to update the present national health scheme and overcome its accepted weaknesses. [More…]

• By this one simple Bill, our National Health Act could have been updated and could have continued so that people could understand and be confident about the sort of health care they would receive. [More…]

• I repeat that this could have been achieved without all the turmoil and uncertainty that will eventuate if the whole range of the Government’s Bills on the national health scheme comes forward. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Health noted widespread comment in support of cheap, even free, and easily accessible vasectomy operations for men? [More…]

• These workers would be involved in the management and operation of single or multipurpose sports centres, youth centres, swimming centres, urban or national parks and commercial establishments such as health and fitness centres. [More…]

• Our fruit could go straight to Japan without any trouble and could fulfil all their health and quarantine requirements. [More…]

• Given the way in which certain interests in this community, including some of the spokesmen for private health insurance funds, have performed on the issue of confidentiality, I would have thought that in the last 20 years during which private health insurance has operated those funds would have taken adequate steps to write in guarantees of the preservation of confidentiality and a clear statement of the limited use which would be made of this very personal information. [More…]

• This sort of confidentiality of which we are speaking and about which we are concerned will be preserved under the new health insurance program. [More…]

• No steps have been taken by previous governments to preserve it in relation to the present system of private health insurance. [More…]

• I shall certainly take the opportunity now that the honourable member has drawn my attention to this situation, of drawing the attention of the private health insurance funds to their obligations to maintain confidentiality. [More…]

• It also has particular interest to all members of the House because I rather expect that we will get a reliable return of the degree to which there is coverage in the community from the current system of private health insurance. [More…]

• Does the Minister for Health know that he was reported by Mr Peter Samuel in the ‘Bulletin’ on 24 November last as saying that he- the Minister - saw- community health centres eventually catering for between 80 and 90 per cent of general practitioner services in Australia, leaving private practice fee-for-service doctors only 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the business? [More…]

• I ask him a simple question in 2 parts: Firstly, did he say it, or anything like it, and, secondly, because of the silence of his usually non-silent colleague the Minister for Social Security, am I right in assuming that the Minister for Social Security agrees with the Minister for Health? [More…]

• The report in the Bulletin’ was based on my statement to this effect: Everywhere in the world there is a move towards increasing community responsibility to meet the costs of health care. [More…]

• In Britain the doctor outside the national health service has no right to prescribe a subsidised medicine for his patient. [More…]

• The patient must meet the whole cost in Britain of any prescription written by a doctor outside the national health service. [More…]

• The Government health scheme would benefit only pensioners, migrants, indolents, no-hopers and alcoholics, the Liberal Party welfare spokesman, Mr Chipp, said yesterday’. [More…]

• I said the Labor health scheme- [More…]

• Mr CHIPP (Hotham) N(2.47)- We are presently debating 2 Bills concerning health care for the Australian people which the Labor Government hopes will become Acts of this Parliament. [More…]

• These 2 Bills taken together with at least 4 other foreshadowed Bills to be introduced in the autumn session, and which of course we have not yet seen, represent the Australian Labor Party’s alternative health scheme to the one now in existence which was brought in by the Liberal and Australian Country Parties. [More…]

• I say it is unfortunate because the real consequences of the result of this debate will not be some shallow transient victory for the side which enjoys the dubious success of scoring the greatest number of cheap political points against the other, but because the real issue here and the only important thing here is to adopt or to reject a scheme which can best care for people who become sick, injured or old, or who suddenly contract a disease which takes away their health. [More…]

• It is an inevitable result of living that all of us at some stage or other will lose even temporaily - hopefully only temporarily - that rare quality that we take for granted while we have it, good health. [More…]

• We appreciate good health only when we lose it. [More…]

• It is in this context and with this approach that I say, with the full authority of the Opposition Parties in this House, that we will oppose to the end the health scheme submitted by the Government as an alternative to the scheme now in existence. [More…]

• That all words after ‘That’ be omitted with a view to inserting the following words in place thereof: this House is of the opinion that the existing health scheme is one of the best and most efficient in the world- [More…]

• My amendment continues: and that therefore this Bill and associated Bills should be withdrawn, because the Government’s alternative proposals to the existing health scheme will (a) lower the quality of medical care for Australian families, (b) increase total costs for the Government and thus for taxpayers, (c) increase total costs for the majority of taxpayers, because they could only maintain the present quality of their health care by additional heavy commitments for private insurance, (d) reduce freedom of choice, (e) jeopardize the future of religious, private and country hospitals and (f) by design and intent be the first stage of nationalisation of health and medical care in Australia. [More…]

• We state that we have a positive policy at this time manifested in the health scheme which is now in force, in the main, with outstanding success. [More…]

• Our scheme features the opportunity for a person to have a doctor of his own choice and in most circumstances the hospital of his own choice, and in all cases the form and nature of health insurance. [More…]

• Our scheme allows flexibility in its administration and competition between doctors, hospitals, health funds and everyone conconcerned with health. [More…]

• It encourages voluntary involvement of citizens in the problem of national health. [More…]

• These deficiences need progressive reforms, which have been under intensive examination by the Liberal Party’s committee on social security, health and welfare over the past several months, and I know also by the Country Party’s health and social security committee. [More…]

• Some of the major guidelines submitted to working parties by my committee on social security, health and welfare are as follows: We believe as a committee that health care reasonably available is a right. [More…]

• Secondly, we believe that the present Liberal scheme is basically a good scheme and we wish to consider alterations which result in significant improvements in the quality of health care or its coverage or its cost or which would simplify the administration of the scheme. [More…]

• Thirdly, we wish to see the pensioner medical scheme and the subsidised health benefits scheme integrated into the present national insurance arrangements to ensure that all benefits of that scheme accrue to pensioners and other low income sections of the community. [More…]

• Fourthly, we wish to see insurance coverage for basic health care for the maximum number of people. [More…]

• Fifthly, we wish to see the survival of the independent health insurance funds for all areas of health service, including paramedical services, so as to allow people a free choice of health insurance funds. [More…]

• Sixthly, we wish to see appropriate deterrents to the abuse of the health scheme either by patients or by medical practitioners, provided that the deterrent does not make the health scheme unduly complicated and that people needing health care are not unreasonably deterred in seeking it. [More…]

• We accept that these scheduled fees are not binding on all medical practitioners, but if any health scheme is to succeed the scheduled fees must be adhered to by a substantial majority of medical practitioners. [More…]

• I mention the apparent - I emphasise the word ‘apparent’ - increased financial assistance to public hospitals; the proposals to enable visitors to Australia to participate in the scheme on the payment of an appropriate premium; the concept of special medical benefits for unusual or complex procedures; the right of doctors to appeal against the decisions of committees of inquiry; the proposed increase in payments to private hospitals; and the concept, as I have stated, that pensioners and receivers of subsidised health benefits will be integrated into the scheme and become entitled to the same benefits as are enjoyed by all other members of that scheme. [More…]

• In other words, we are saying that these things, which we concede, can be added immediately to the health care system of this country without decimating a scheme that is now running perfectly well and with outstanding success. [More…]

• Private hospitals and private nursing homes are irrelevant to the Labor Party’s concept of a national health scheme and the vast majority of people could easily be catered for in the public hospital sector. [More…]

• I understand that at that time the Minister was a member of the Australian Labor Party Health Committee and therefore he made that statement with the authority of that Committee. [More…]

• The Minister, myself and many members on this side of the House, have had some discussion and argument about how many people are now covered by insurance, by the pensioner medical service or other sorts of health insurance cover. [More…]

• We will disregard the wishes of that 90 per cent of the population and we will force those people to pay insurance into a Government health fund through the taxation mechanism.’ [More…]

• The Government says: To hell with the ex pressed wishes of 90 per cent of the Australian people to be covered voluntarily by a health insurance fund of their own choice. [More…]

• If the Government had argued that universal health insurance cover is desirable, that the 8 per cent to 10 per cent who are at present not covered by health insurance or other means should be covered in some way, and then set about devising some means of bringing in that 8 per cent to 10 per cent, leaving the 92 per cent to their own voluntary choice, that sort of move would have had my complete support. [More…]

• It is already looking at the ones who have voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• Let me conclude by referring briefly to the sixth point in my amendment which is the allegation, agreed to unanimously by all honourable members on this side of the House in the Party room, that by design and intent this Bill is the first stage of nationalisation of health and medical care in Australia. [More…]

• The major act of nationalisation in the traditional sense to be undertaken by a Labor Government in the next term, will be through the establishment of a single health fund, administered by a health insurance commission . [More…]

• But in its design and intent we believe that it goes far beyond the area of the nationalisation of the health funds. [More…]

• The great health debate has gone on for about a year. [More…]

• Its task was also to persuade the responsible organisations associated with health care that its alternative was better than ours. [More…]

• For the record let me state that the Australian Medical Association - the federal and 6 State branches, the National Association of Medical Specialists, the Australian Association of Surgeons, the National Association of General Practitioners, the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia, the National Standing Committee of Private Hospitals, the Association of Medical Superintendents of Australian Hospitals, the Catholic Hospitals of Australia, the Freemasons Hospital, the National Conference of Major Superiors of Catholic Religious Orders, the [More…]

• He suggested some positive aspects of the Liberal-Country Party health scheme as if they were something the Government had not thought of before and, what is more, that the Opposition had not thought of before either. [More…]

• For example, he came out with the statement that health care reasonably available is a right. [More…]

• The suggestion is that if health services are available free, for some reason or other people will go along and use them whether they need them or not - simply because they are free. [More…]

• We are hoping that by readjusting the present scheme and by doing away with the gross wastage of the multitudinous health funds competing with one another, with all their administrative costs, we will encompass these minor adjustments foi much the same expense with which we are faced at the moment, or with a relatively minor increase. [More…]

• Whenever the cost of the present health scheme is discussed it always strikes me as incongruous how no one takes into account or seems to notice the savings that would result from abolishing or doing away with the need for all these multitudious benefit funds - we are not going to abolish them because if people still wish to use them they are free to do so - which now spend at least 25c of every dollar they collect purely in administration. [More…]

• It does not mean that our scheme will require increased public service administration because the technique of collection can be wedded into our present collection schemes - the taxation system and the Department of Social Security which already handles much more money in the way of payments to pensioners and so on every week than health funds do, anyway. [More…]

• In Australia, where doctors are paid on a fee for service basis, he found on a sample of over 8 million services - he used all the health fund statistics - that the tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy rate, in this country, mainly for children, was seven per thousand. [More…]

• The Bills before the House are two of a number of Bills that are necessary to implement the Australian Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• The health scheme proposed by the Labor Party is a socialist political philosophy translated into a health scheme. [More…]

• The 2 Bills before the Parliament are not detailed enough in vital areas, particularly in Part HI and Schedule 2 of the Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• Some of the major areas lacking in detail are, firstly, the lack of definite guidelines for negotiation of agreements with the State governments in relation to accommodation and finance; secondly, the lack of precise definition of the functions of the Health Insurance Commission; and, thirdly, the lack of definition of doctors’ and patients’ rights and entitlements. [More…]

• The overwhelming evidence available to me and to the Country Party indicates that a wide range of organisations and individual people oppose the health scheme put forward by the Government. [More…]

• The medical people have indicated that thehospital proposals are vague and unrealistic; that they will not maintain the high standard of health care that presently is available in the majority of hospitals, public and private, around Australia. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security also has misled the House in many of his answers to questions and/ or has refused to give background statistical criteria to members of this House in order that those criteria could be compared by all concerned with estimates of the costs and ramifications of the health scheme as calculated by independent economists. [More…]

• It will lower the standards of health care for the majority of Australian families. [More…]

• It will increase the total cost of health care for the majority of taxpayers. [More…]

• It will increase dramatically the cost of health care in Australia to the Government - that is, the taxpayers - particularly as the scheme progresses. [More…]

• The position now is that the Bills relating to the levy on taxable incomes, the levy on workers’ compensation and third party insurance, the Bills setting out the terms and conditions for the voluntary health insurance funds and the Bill relating to privacy and confidentiality of information are not available to the House at all. [More…]

• The Parliament and the public are therefore in no position to assess the full effect of the overall scheme, but enough data is available to show that it just does not compare with our present excellent health program. [More…]

• The main areas which could be considered for change in the present excellent scheme are: The establishment of a standing full time committee to regularly review and fix fees for the 4000-plus medical procedures and services for benefit purposes; the upgrading of services to the pensioners; increased hospital finance; alterations to the subsidised health benefit scheme and an improved method of enrolment of eligible people - although it is maintained by many knowledgeable people that virtually no person in Australia is denied medical and hospital treatment no matter what his financial position may be and no matter whether he is insured or not. [More…]

• I personally have had hardly a complaint about the existing health scheme in the IS years I have been a member of this Parliament, and I know my colleagues in the Country Party have had a similar experience. [More…]

• So much for the mandate that the Labor Government says it has to bring in this health scheme. [More…]

• The most serious omissions from the Health Insurance Bill 1973 - which is one of the Bills under discussion - are guarantees of patient choice of medical practitioners, the type of accommodation with respect to treatment as hospital patients and the omission of any such guarantee of choice of medical practitioner from the Heads of Agreement in proposed schedule 2. [More…]

• On the figures supplied to me as at IS August 1973, the estimated cost of health insurance to a man on $70 a week is 62c a week; under the new scheme it will be 88c a week. [More…]

• People also lose the right to claim the health insurance costs as a tax deduction. [More…]

• No wonder people are saying that Hayden is a health hazard. [More…]

• To Mr and Mrs Average Australian I say: You have a very good national health scheme at the moment. [More…]

• We are now at the culmination of a long campaign of both publicising the health insurance program and refining it to provide the best possible services in Australia. [More…]

• This proposition would mean an enormous cost and would divert expenditure of public money from more important areas of health care. [More…]

• The aims of the health service are to prevent and to cure illness. [More…]

• I would go so far as to say that many of the traditions in medical practice run quite counter to community health. [More…]

• What is needed is an integrated health care program by a health team with adequate facilities and adequate recording systems. [More…]

• They will be eligible for specialist or general practitioner treatment in a private hospital, again without having to make any health insurance contribution whatsover. [More…]

• The Opposition parties recognise the responsibility of the Government to ensure that the people of Australia have available, by right, high quality health services readily accessible to all. [More…]

• The services so maintained should ensure freedom of choice, social equity and cost efficiency, whilst primarily retaining and enhancing the quality of health care so provided. [More…]

• The Opposition recognises that the existing scheme in Australia clearly requires certain alterations to meet our objectives with respect to health care. [More…]

• Any changes to the existing scheme should be concerned primarily to make material improvements in the quality of health care, its coverage and its cost and in the simplification of its administration. [More…]

• We reject this legislation, and we do so for the following reasons: Firstly, it will destroy the existing health scheme which is recognised as one of the best and most efficient in the world. [More…]

• Secondly, it will result in a lowering of the standard of health care for Australian families. [More…]

• Fourthly, it will increase costs for the majority of taxpayers, who could maintain their present quality of health care only by additional heavy commitments of private insurance. [More…]

• Not only will this legislation destroy the existing health scheme, but, paradoxically, it also will disadvantage those groups in the community which it aims to assist - the elderly, the poor and the migrant. [More…]

• In those countries in which nationalised health services have been introduced there has been an instant needless utilisation of free services. [More…]

• Any similar increase in the utilisation of Australian health services, such as is anticipated by the Government’s advisers, would seriously upset the balance of our current system. [More…]

• In other words, the quality of health care will be reduced directly and inevitably, to the marked disadvantage of the very persons for whom the Government has undertaken to care. [More…]

• Those individuals, in order to maintain their present standard of care and to continue to have the right to choose their own doctor in hospital, will have to undertake additional health insurance commitments. [More…]

• As with the provision of any essential service to the community, the quantity and quality of health services are determined by social, political and economic factors. [More…]

• The subsidy from Consolidated Revenue is tied to the levy on taxable incomes for the purpose of preserving the integrity of the Health Insurance Fund. [More…]

• Whereas inflation, giving rise to increases in taxable incomes, yields a more than proportionate increase in taxation revenue due to the progressive nature of the taxation scale, where a levy is involved it will yield only a proportional increase in revenue from the levy and the rate of levy will have to be increased to finance improvements in health care services. [More…]

• The likely trend in health care is for an increasing quantity and quality of service, at least over the medium term. [More…]

• This will involve increasing costs and, with the proposed system of raising revenue for the Health Insurance Fund, the financing of health care will be determined to a lesser extent by priorities for the use of taxation revenue - which itself would be expanding faster than the rate of inflation of taxable incomes - and more by the capacity of the Government to impose whatever explicit levy is necessary on the taxable incomes of individuals. [More…]

• The proposed revenue system therefore introduces the following important implications where a higher standard of health care is being sought by the community: First, the resulting need to increase the rate of levy could meet community resistance and this will tend to control unnecessary increases in demand, but it may go beyond cost control and depress the quantity and quality of the health care that the community expects at a level lower than the community should be receiving; and, secondly, if the community does not understand that necessary improvements in health care will result in the rate of levy being increased, doctors, hospitals and others engaged in health care may face unfair criticism of profiteering. [More…]

• A permanently fixed relationship between the main revenue sources of the health insurance program means that an increase in health care costs in real terms will cause an increase in the rate of levy and in the tied Commonwealth subsidy. [More…]

• All parties should appreciate the likely trends in the rate of levy as a result of qualitative improvements in health care and increased utilisation of health care services. [More…]

• The nature of the revenue system will inhibit the trend to improved health care. [More…]

• This is not consistent with the purpose of the health insurance fund which is to assure the community of the Commonwealth’s ‘commitment to meeting its share of the rising costs of health services’. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security has also sought to mislead the public about the extent of health insurance cover. [More…]

• Contrary to the Minister’s statements, it is reliably estimated that over 92 per cent of the population is covered: 79 per cent is covered by private insurance, 10 per cent is covered by pensioner medical services and about a further 3 per cent is covered by subsidised health benefits. [More…]

• Clause 130 of the Health Insurance Bill seeks to provide certain protections, but sub-clause (3) of that clause provides substantial opportunity for the waiver of such protections and clause 131 actually allows the Minister to delegate these powers of waiver to any officer of the Department of Social Security. [More…]

• It must be emphasised in this debate that the Opposition’s approach to health care in Australia is not one of negativism. [More…]

• I have stated that, although the existing health scheme is a good scheme, as clearly outlined by the Opposition’s spokesman on health, the honourable member for Hotham, and although the scheme is basically sound, we recognise the need to implement progressive reforms to achieve improvements in the quality of health care, its coverage, its cost and its administrative elements. [More…]

• The first is that health care, reasonably available, is a right. [More…]

• The second is the maximum insurance coverage for basic health care. [More…]

• The third is the maintenance of independent health insurance funds for all areas of insurance, including paramedical services, so as to allow people a free choice of health insurance funds. [More…]

• The fourth is the use of appropriate deterrents to the abuse of the health scheme, either by patients or medical practitioners, provided that the deterrent does not make the health scheme unduly complicated and that people needing health care are not unreasonably deterred from seeking it. [More…]

• The fifth is the integration of the pensioner medical scheme and the subsidised health benefits scheme into the present national health service to ensure that all the benefits of that scheme accrue to pensioners and other low income sections of the Australian community. [More…]

• We accept that these scheduled fees are not binding on all medical practitioners but, if any health scheme is to succeed, the scheduled fees must be adhered to by a substantial majority of medical practitioners. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Bill, arising from the White Paper, was introduced on 29 November - exactly one week ago. [More…]

• Many criticisms have been made of the proposed national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Much has been made of the fact that various professional organisations have opposed the national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• We have been told by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition that the cost of our scheme will escalate faster than the growth in taxed income, and that means also faster than the health insurance levy, and that therefore the 1.3S per cent levy will have to rise or more will have to be contributed out of general tax revenue. [More…]

• One proposition is that health care is a right that is readily available. [More…]

• We believe that we have met the first point of their plan - that health care is a right that is readily available. [More…]

• Thirdly, it wants integration of the pensioner and subsidised health benefit schemes with our insurance scheme. [More…]

• The Government’s national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• It is a strange thing that the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) who has just spoken should complain about the Opposition’s using the example of Britain or Canada or any other country. [More…]

• The reason why it is not the slightest bit strange for us to use the example of Britain is that the Labor alternative health scheme is based on the British and Canadian health schemes. [More…]

• If honourable members opposite want an authority for that, I refer to a discussion I had with Dr Deeble when I put to him the question: ‘Would you say that it was a fair characterisation of the Labor scheme to describe it as an amalgam of the British and Canadian health schemes?’ [More…]

• So, let us have no more of the Minister for Health or anyone else saying that we are drawing red herrings across the path because we are talking about what has happened in Britain to the kind of scheme the Government wants to introduce in this country. [More…]

• The Minister for Health foresees the Australian health pattern as it emerges as leading to the situation where Australians will be treated by private practitioners in only 10 per cent to 20 per cent of cases. [More…]

• During a recent trip to the United Kingdom I described in detail to many people involved in health care there the scheme that is practised in Australian health care now, and the response I received was: ‘You would not dream of moving from that kind of health care to the system we are trying to practise in this country, would you?’ [More…]

• One of the saddest features of the British health scheme - this is a great warning to anyone in Australia who talks of a Government takeover or a great extension of Government financing in the health system - is that if the Government becomes deeply involved in this area other people will move out of financing health care. [More…]

• In the United Kingdom less is expended on health care than is expended in Australia in total. [More…]

• In the United Kingdom the total private and government final consumption expenditure on health represents 4 per cent of the gross domestic product. [More…]

• Australia expends 5.7 per cent of the gross domestic product on health. [More…]

• Why not extend choice, private decision making and private involvement instead of taking that away from everyone in the interests of the final few who are still not covered by the present health scheme? [More…]

• This is a question of the power of the patient to affect his own health care. [More…]

• The power and the rights of the patient are at stake in the face of the alternative Labor health scheme. [More…]

• If the patient is in a personal relationship and takes out a contract for health care with someone he can see and to whom he pays fees - even if it is only a little - he can see what he is receiving and he has a stake in what he is to receive. [More…]

• When some of the individual’s resources are involved or invested in his own health care by his own choice, people are made more human and are that much better and happier people, because they are involved in these important and intimate areas of human care and relationships. [More…]

• In the technical area, of course, the consumer of health care is not able to know precisely the details of the specialist or technical treatment that he is receiving, and here his relationship with his family doctor is important because the family doctor is, if you like, his health broker who acts for him in the market place of health. [More…]

• In the non-technical area of health care - in the service aspects of care such as the choice of timing, of location, of convenience, of comfort and of attention to individual preference, things which may well have decidely important therapeutic value - the patient can learn to exercise the sovereignty of the consumer. [More…]

• The Government of course will always have to take action in areas of what we call public health. [More…]

• We would need to be shown that the health care which low and medium to low income earners are receiving is deplorable by contrast with the care which middle and upper-middle income earners are receiving before we would be prepared to consider some of the issues which the Government is advancing in this debate. [More…]

• The Australian on an average, ordinary income, whose wife works, will immediately pay more to get the type and quality of health care which presently he and his family are receiving in this country. [More…]

• As I have said, the whole theme of the Government’s alternative proposal is to forget what has been done over so many years in the reform of the health care system in Australia, is to foist on Australia a philosophy which, as I have described, is part of the fag end of an old socialist era, is to be immediately more costly for the average family in Australia and is in the long term to lead to a rundown in total community resources devoted to health. [More…]

• I say finally that governments should facilitate rather than frustrate personal sensitivity in sickness as in health. [More…]

• I am convinced that the people of Australia need the standard of health services that only this legislation can provide. [More…]

• What are the results of the present health scheme which has been so lauded by speakers from the other side of the House? [More…]

• I enclose a copy of a letter, sent recently to The Age but not printed, which I feel may be of interest to you as a piece of contrete evidence of the state of health services in your electorate. [More…]

• I feel I ought to bring to public attention the following performance of ‘the best health service in the world’. [More…]

• I do not wish to attack members of the medical profession by reading out that letter but I think it does indicate that all is not well with the present health scheme. [More…]

• The Opposition has revealed 2 main things in its attempt to pretend that it has a policy on health insurance. [More…]

• It has demonstrated that it is so bankrupt of ideas that its only recourse is to accept the role of mouthpiece for the Australian Medical Association, the General Practitioners Society and the big business private health funds. [More…]

• Moreover it has shown that the only ideas that appeal to it in the provision of health care stem from what can best be described as an ‘animal farm* philosophy - in other words, the concept that while we pretend that everybody is equal, we make sure that some are more equal than others. [More…]

• We hear much from the Opposition about voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• At the moment if anybody wants the benefit paid by the Government he must join a health fund. [More…]

• In their attempts to conceal the social inequity of their outmoded and so-called voluntary system of health insurance, the Opposition spokesmen have claimed that improvements in the provision of subsidised health benefits and the inclusion of pensioners within the insurance system will put everything to rights. [More…]

• What a coincidence that these simplistic sounding remedies are exactly the same as have been prescribed by the AMA and the managers of the big health funds in their efforts to preserve a system which is geared so much in their favour and so much against the ordinary citizen. [More…]

• What a truly demeaning position for an Opposition to find itself in - to be merely the echo of a reactionary group which has opposed any advance in social equity within the health insurance system. [More…]

• The AMA, in attempting to camouflage its elitist instincts, has circulated in its so-called appraisal of the health insurance program an argument more remarkable for its dialectic gymnastics than for any truth or relevance. [More…]

• The AMA claims that the rich man and the poor man are equal under the present health insurance scheme. [More…]

• No amount of word play can hide the fact that under the present health insurance scheme the rich man, because of the value of his taxation deductions, pays comparatively less for his health insurance coverage than does the poor man. [More…]

• The facts are that the price of so-called voluntary health insurance is different to different people and that fat cats in all ranks of life get more for their money than thin ones. [More…]

• The Opposition apparently sees that this is politically embarrassing and there”” accepts the AMA idea that the way to conceal the injustice of the whole system is to create a whole class of charity patients by subsidising low income people and pensioners into the present health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Australia does not want a health insurance system which divides people into classes. [More…]

• As I mentioned before, the Opposition spokesmen pretend that their scheme is voluntary and find abhorrent the idea of everybody in the community contributing towards an equitable and efficient health insurance program. [More…]

• Health insurance coverage for ordinary Australians is not a matter of choice; it is an economic necessity and, as a social utility, it should be financed in just the same way as is education or defence. [More…]

• Our proposal is that, through extra taxation and revenue payments equal to the amounts at present flowing through the inefficient private health insurance system, we will run a program which offers everybody access to high standard medical and hospital treatment. [More…]

• If the Opposition wants to apply the philosophy which they claim lies behind their voluntary* health insurance scheme then they will also have to allow people a choice about whether they pay any taxes at all. [More…]

• By claiming that a person should be free to contribute or not to contribute to the health care costs of the community, the Opposition is once again revealing its real feelings about health. [More…]

• It is quite plain that it simply does not believe health care services are a right which should be enjoyed by everybody and that instead it wants to ensure that health services should be marketed as a commodity and be available according to the financial resources of each person and family. [More…]

• In short the Opposition continues to see health services as a privilege to be bought and sold. [More…]

• This is what is behind its opposition, and that of the AMA, to the concept that provision should exist in any health insurance program for medical services to be free at the point of delivery. [More…]

• In Britain, which of course has a different scheme from ours and which, if you like to express the term, is much more socialist, such radical socialists as Sir Winston Churchill, Mr Harold MacMillan, Sir Alex Douglas-Home and Mr Heath have in recent years presided over a health scheme which has been maliciously slandered here in Australia. [More…]

• No country, literally no country, can afford more than one health service system. [More…]

• This reality, if nothing else, will sooner or later drive other countries to follow the example of the National Health Act of 1946 - Britain’s most important single item of social legislation in a century. [More…]

• The Australian universal health insurance program will not be a national health service in the same sense as the British scheme, since Australian doctors will still collect .a fee for every service they perform and will not work for the Government. [More…]

• But, like the British national health service and the Canadian insurance scheme, the Australian universal health insurance program will ensure that everybody in the community will receive health care as a basic right rather than as a purchased privilege. [More…]

• The Opposition spokesmen who seek to denigrate our proposals by pointing to Canada’s Medicare scheme should here and now take note of the facts that the Deputy Minister for Health in Canada, Dr M. Le Clair, and the Director-General of Health Insurance, Dr R. A. Armstrong, have recently sent in writing to Australia outright denials of statements made by medical pressure groups and spokesmen claiming that the Canadian system of universal health insurance is too costly and is being over-used. [More…]

• The facts are that in Canada the costs of medical care are rising more slowly than they are under Australia’s present ramshackle health insurance scheme and that the Canadian system is not being over-used even though it has made medical and hospital care equally accessible to everybody. [More…]

• I do not mean so much the formal procedure, although it would have been better if the Government had dared to have a debate on the White Paper on the Australian health insurance program before it prepared the Bills we are considering. [More…]

• When in Opposition, the Australian Labor Party, desperately looking for a health program of its own with which to try to counter the very successful national health scheme of the Liberal-Country Party Government, became aware of some research work by 2 economists, Doctors Scotton and Deeble. [More…]

• Its great defect is that it is an economists’, almost an accountants’, scheme and does not tackle the basic requirement of an alternative health scheme - how to improve the standard of health care in Australia. [More…]

• I do not want to give the impression, despite the remarks of the honourable member for Diamond Valley (Mr McKenzie), that I believe that health care is solely a matter for the medical profession. [More…]

• The United States of America, where the pattern of health care has been almost entirely dictated by the medical profession, is a salutary example of the danger of that course. [More…]

• What a sensible government does, what the Liberal-Country Party Government did, is to balance the views and interests of all those involved in health care and in particular the interests of the patients. [More…]

• The health scheme this Bill seeks to supersede has been outstandingly successful. [More…]

• It is to be cast away for an accountants’ scheme, for a political gimmick, that will do little to improve the standard of health care and a great deal to harm it! [More…]

• Even where there are alleged improvements, such as the increased grants to hospitals or the bringing of pensioners into full membership of the health scheme, this House should satisfy itself that these improvements would not be better achieved by simple amendments to the existing National Health Act. [More…]

• Firstly, the Minister is attempting to confuse in the public mind the question of health cover with the question of insurance cover. [More…]

• All Australians are now covered for health care. [More…]

• No Australian is refused reasonable health care because of lack of means or lack of insurance. [More…]

• Secondly, who are these people who are not insured under the present health scheme? [More…]

• Forcing these people to join the health scheme, bearing in mind that 60 per cent of benefits they will receive will come from Consolidated Revenue, is of very doubtful social advantage. [More…]

• Even in Britain, which has had a tax financed health scheme for a quarter of a century, nearly 5 per cent of the community still are not covered. [More…]

• Worst of all, of course, health insurance would be largely socialised, and freedom of choice would be eliminated. [More…]

• But, however one views these principles, one must bear in mind that 60 per cent of the cost of health benefits will be paid by Consolidated Revenue towards which the higher income earners pay a disproportionate contribution, I draw this to the attention of the honourable member for Diamond Valley - and even the Minister cuts out the progressive health levy - the super tax - at taxable incomes of a little over $11,000 per year, although this of course is only in the first year. [More…]

• An economic and market research firm, Philip Shrapnel and Co. Ltd, recently carried out a detailed costing of the present and proposed health insurance schemes. [More…]

• I have been through the arguments that have been advanced in favour of the Hayden health scheme. [More…]

• None gives a reason for dismantling the present highly successful national health scheme, with the inevitable chaos during the changeover. [More…]

• As well as having no real advantages, the Hayden health scheme has many very serious disadvantages. [More…]

• Bulk billing does have administrative advantages, but we are discussing a health scheme, not an accountants’ scheme - and the effects of bulk billing are likely to be serious. [More…]

• Without these checks our utilisation of health resources will be much less efficient. [More…]

• The Hayden health scheme also will change markedly the balance between public or standard beds and intermediate or private beds. [More…]

• These are, to me, decisive reasons why this House should not contemplate accepting this ill-thought-out Labor health scheme. [More…]

• But I do not want to give the impression that there are no good points in the Labor health scheme. [More…]

• I approve of the bringing of pensioners fully into the health scheme, and I approve of the increase in the daily bed rate subsidy to hospitals. [More…]

• But both these could, and should, easily be incorporated into the existing health scheme. [More…]

• Under the existing health scheme members of a fund may be transferred to the special account, where the Government pays their benefits because of a pre-existing complaint, or chronic illness, or hospital stays in excess of a specific period - about 84 days - in any one year. [More…]

• All the uproar and all the divisiveness, which have been caused by this ill-considered health scheme have diverted attention from real areas of health need. [More…]

• It reduces the availability of benefits for para-medical services from many health funds. [More…]

• It is high time we stopped wasting our effort on this illconsidered, counter-productive, ramshackle and wasteful Labor health scheme, and got down to the real task which this Government is evading - how to improve the standard of health care of the Australian people. [More…]

• As to the criticism of the White Paper on the universal health insurance program, let us examine what that august journal the ‘Can- berra Times’ said in its editorial of 9 November. [More…]

• In particular, we are talking about the AMA’s reaction to the Government’s proposed health scheme. [More…]

• That is the conclusive proof of Hayden’s syndrome: say ‘proposed health scheme’ to the AMA and back comes a Pavlovian shout of ‘nationalised medicine’. [More…]

• Someone convinced these people that under the Government’s health program they would no longer be able to see the specialist who had cared for them throughout their illnesses. [More…]

• It is a social tragedy and a disgrace that the Opposition parties - the Liberal and Country Parties - seek to perpetuate this sick system of health care. [More…]

• No matter how they and their supporters in the medical profession and the undemocratic health insurance funds try to conjure up” a picture of a special doctor-patient relationship, the people of Australia know from their own experience that it is a sham and a fantasy, and that it does not exist. [More…]

• Yet, when the Australian Labor Government seeks to introduce a health care system which is based on the capacity of the income earner to pay and which will bring complete freedom of fear from illness and improved quality of . [More…]

• Make no mistake, they are not fooling anyone with their campaign of fear and intimidation because, as I repeat, Australians know the poor quality of treatment and service they receive under the hotch-potch health system that was developed over a generation of Liberal-Country Party administration. [More…]

• This Government’s health proposals will bring justice and relief to these men, and I believe that they deserve it. [More…]

• Finally, what has been the result of the malicious, vindictive, selfish campaign of untruths, misrepresentations and denigration that has been waged by the Australian Medical Association, the General Practitioners Society, the undemocratic health insurance funds, the vested interests and their puppets in this place against this Government’s health proposals, against salaried medical staff, against the Prime Minister . [More…]

• But this Government, with the clear mandate given to it by the Australian people last December, will carry on with its responsibility to bring universal health care to all Australians and to remove from our society forever the fear of illness. [More…]

• The hastening will be accentuated by the growing impetus of opposition to what is not a health scheme but a political philosophy with scant regard for the quality of the health care of our 13 million people. [More…]

• All that is necessary is the polishing of the present scheme in the areas of pensioner care, subsidised health benefits and paramedical procedures. [More…]

• In Opposition the Minister uttered platitudes about his health proposals; he had a cut and dried concept. [More…]

• Any discussion on health must consider the following 5 areas: Firstly, the individual and his family responsibilities - I know that the Labor Government denies anyone individuality; it thinks people are mere cogs in a machine; secondly, the medical profession in its widest application; thirdly, hospitals - public, private, religious and charitable; fourthly, government responsibility; and fifthly, health insurance schemes. [More…]

• It is appropriate to dissect the present Bill and detail how it affects the above areas and how it fails to make a meaningful contribution to the improved quality of health care compared to the present free enterprise system. [More…]

• At the present time every Queenslander has the right to exercise freedom of choice as to doctor, hospital and voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• On 22 November last I asked the Minister to table in this House the documents and calculations on which he based his assertions that health insurance under his proposals will be cheaper for 3 out of 4 families and 7 out of 10 single persons. [More…]

• Page 64 of the White Paper on health insurance shows that the proposed rate for 1974-75 is 1.35 per cent of individual taxable income. [More…]

• He strives to make health public by destroying the very special relationship between doctor and patient by sending accounts. [More…]

• If they are to be reduced to a salaried service, the quality of health care will suffer. [More…]

• The system we have is good and the quality of health care is excellent. [More…]

• He has accepted the present system in Queensland, and the vote achieved by the Labor Government in Queensland at the last Federal election, when one of the election issues was health, indicated that the people of Queensland will not have a bar of this scheme. [More…]

• Queensland’s Government last year contributed $71,312,958 out of a total health vote for running the State’s hospital system. [More…]

• This must have a disastrous effect on the quality of health care. [More…]

• The Australian Government’s health insurance program has been the subject of intense debate which has featured attempts to mislead and confuse and to blur the essential features of the plan. [More…]

• The philosophical base of the program is that all Australians, irrespective of their means, should have access to a high standard of health care. [More…]

• This care should be available on the basis of medical need and not on the financial capacity of the individual to buy health services. [More…]

• The program provides for the establishment of the Health Insurance Commission which will provide insurance cover for all Australians, both for medical services and for hospital treatment. [More…]

• Then, when the application has run the gauntlet of the hospital boards, it can be vetoed by the Queensland ‘Department of Health. [More…]

• Dr Arthur Crawford, the member for Wavell, said 3 years ago that Queensland needed an additional $30m to make its health expenditure comparable with that spent in the southern States. [More…]

• Strangely enough this is the very amount - in fact it is more now due to cost increases - that Queensland is promised under the Australian Government’s health insurance program. [More…]

• This perhaps explains the strange silence of Mr Tooth, our Health Minister, and Premier Bjelke-Petersen who would have been expected to oppose the so-called socialist plan of the centralist Government in Canberra. [More…]

• In fact its previous medical roundsman, Peter McColl, now works for the Health Minister, Mr Tooth. [More…]

• As I have pointed out already, the second important implication of the Australian health insurance program for the people of Queensland is that it will lead to a very significant upgrading of hospital staffing and facilities. [More…]

• The White Paper on the Australian health insurance program deals in some detail with the support that the Government will provide for private hospitals. [More…]

• Hospital benefits for patients in private hospitals will be equal to the daily bed payments to be made directly to public hospitals from the health insurance fund. [More…]

• Together with the $16 a day under the health insurance program, these tables will provide cover for fees of $31 per day and $38 per day respectively. [More…]

• Why is the Government trying to throw out a health scheme which the overwhelming majority of them have found perfectly satisfactory, which has given them good quality health care at reasonable cost, with freedom of choice of doctor, hospital and health insurance fund, and with speed and compassion, and in which they have genuine confidence? [More…]

• If we are to talk about misrepresentation, which is a polite word for lying, let me say that this Minister and the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) have, in relation to health, engaged in a campaign of misrepresentation which, in intensity and duration, equals any similar exercise in Australian political history. [More…]

• To the extent that it gives specific undertakings that have been translated into this legislation - for example, the apparent climb-down on bulk billing - it undermines the very objectives which we were told so often it was essential to achieve if Australia was to have an efficient health scheme. [More…]

• Has the Minister forgotten how often he has railed against the administrative costs of the present health funds and used these administrative costs as the justification for wiping out the funds and establishing one great big monolithic, bureaucratic, government run fund? [More…]

• Of course, he was right - although I might mention in passing that exactly the same savings in administrative costs could be achieved by introducing bulk billing in the context of the existing health funds. [More…]

• Their tactics were clear: In order to clear the way for acceptance of their scheme they would denigrate the existing scheme and everybody associated with it, including myself as Minister for part of the lime - that was probably the only part of the denigration that was justified; the health funds and the people associated with them; the doctors; the private hosiptall; the profit making nursing homes; the State governments - you name them. [More…]

• It was only by constructing a scheme that was virtually entirely tax financed that, as they saw it, you could control health costs that were burgeoning everywhere in the world. [More…]

• That is how the United Kingdom has been able to keep expenditure on health below 5 per cent of the gross national product. [More…]

• The voluntary health scheme was going through a bad patch. [More…]

• It made some headway in the public mind, not on its merits, because the realities were hidden from the public gaze, but on the constant reiteration by the present Prime Minister that the then current difficulties of the voluntary health scheme were inherent in the scheme itself. [More…]

• We were able to produce the present arrangements which so many Australians have found so sensitively attuned to their health care needs without abandoning the basic principles of voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• Firstly, there are the health funds. [More…]

• I defy the Minister to deny that he and the Prime Minister quite deliberately set out to denigrate the health funds and that he set out to create in the public mind that the funds were profit making institutions operating for their own benefit, that the large number of closed and friendly society funds were a source of extravagance and inefficiency and that they squandered money on excessive promotion and selfindulgence. [More…]

• We want a health insurance scheme in which the citizen is always treated as an individual human being and not just as a cog in a medical care machine. [More…]

• I cannot think of any program which has been so wilfully misunderstood and so maliciously misrepresented as the health insurance scheme which is described in the White Paper and which is to be implemented by the Bills now before the House. [More…]

• Spokesmen for the Australian Medical Association and private insurance funds have endeavoured to portray the Government’s health insurance policy as a socialistic program to replace an existing private industry called ‘voluntary insurance’. [More…]

• Just about every developed country in the world - and some developing countries, too - have adopted comprehensive, universal health insurance as part of their social security systems. [More…]

• In Western Europe and Canada, universal health insurance is settled policy. [More…]

• In the long period of consideration of its health insurance policy, the Government has endeavoured to meet the legitimate objections and problems which participants in the health care system brought forward. [More…]

• The remedy proposed by our opponents is to extend the subsidised health benefits plan to bring in all the pensioners and low income earners. [More…]

• One would have thought that, if any aspect of the present scheme has been proved to be a complete disaster, it would be the subsidised health benefits plan, which covers about one person in twenty of those who are eligible for it. [More…]

• Under the subsidised health benefits plan, people with financial handicaps, some of whom have been deprived all their lives and who are often not very good at managing their own affairs, have to attend, fill out forms and go back and forth from department to insurance fund to produce evidence in order to get the same sorts of subsidies, in many cases, that a rich person gets automatically in the form of income tax concessions. [More…]

• That as the way the present health insurance scheme works because of the great importance of tax deductions. [More…]

• Now SI Om a year is perhaps not such a tremendous sum in these days of billion dollar public expenditure programs but it is a sum that can be very usefully applied elsewhere even within the health care system. [More…]

• With SI Om a year over a 10-year program we could bring into existence some hundreds of community health centres, which would be a much more efficient way to use money than keeping primitive accounting systems going in voluntary insurance funds, and paying commissions for collecting contributions. [More…]

• But an additional justification in the long term is that the new program will promote the development of a better health care system. [More…]

• Providing good health care means not only spending money - the present scheme does that in large measure - but also spending money and using resources in a rational and planned way. [More…]

• We all know that some health services are saleable and profitable and others are not. [More…]

• While the present scheme pays large subsidies for services which really have a minimal relationship to medical need it provides nothing for health centres in low income areas, which could bring primary care to people who are badly served by the present scheme. [More…]

• It is not the task of a health insurance program to say what the shape of the health care system should be. [More…]

• This is the function of people whose expertise is in health care administration and planning. [More…]

• The Australian Government has appointed a Hospitals and Health Services Commission headed by Dr Sidney Sax to advise it on the way the health care system ought to develop in a rational way in the future. [More…]

• When the money that people pay for health insurance is collected through a levy on the whole community into a common pot, it can be allocated in accordance with observed needs. [More…]

• What we are aiming to do through the health insurance program and the Hospitals and Health Services Commission is to steer the evolution of the whole health care system in a different direction. [More…]

• But the mechanism of the program will have changed the biases in the money flows, and our health care system in Australia will be very different in 1980 or 1985 from what it would have been if the present scheme were to continue. [More…]

• It is the consumers of health care that one hears so little about from the Opposition. [More…]

• I believe that the evolution will also be good for those who produce health services, even though they pretend not to agree that this is so. [More…]

• It has come out as the unashamed mouthpiece of the Australian Medical Association, the large health insurance funds and the small group of rich private hospitals, particularly in Melbourne, whose contributions to the shortage of beds in that city is to threaten to close their hospitals down. [More…]

• They are appealing, in the crudest terms, to the greed and self-interest of people who, under the present scheme, not only enjoy prvileged access to health care but also receive such large subsidies through the tax system that they pay less for it than people on lower incomes pay for public treatment. [More…]

• The Australian people should know the true reason why the Opposition is trying to prevent the enactment of the health insurance program. [More…]

• The Opposition’s real objectives in health insurance are the protection of vested interests and subsidies to the rich, as they have been over the 23 years up to last December. [More…]

• After being threatened for months with the introduction of a national health scheme we now have before us 2 Bills, namely, the Health Insurance Commission Bill 1973 and the Health Insurance Bill 1973, which we are considering in a cognate debate. [More…]

• If ever we have seen a piecemeal approach *o such a complete change of medical, hospital and health services we have seen it with the introduction of portion of the scheme in the form of these 2 Bills. [More…]

• As a committee, we found very little support - and certainly of little consequence - for a national health scheme as an alternative to the present successful scheme. [More…]

• The Country Party is firmly opposed to the proposed national health scheme as an alternative scheme. [More…]

• If we strengthen the existing scheme in this way and come to an agreement with doctors on cost predictability, the Australian system of health care will be the best in the world. [More…]

• Private hospitals and private nursing homes are irrelevant to the Labor Party’s concept of a national health scheme and the vast majority of people could easily be catered for in the public hospital sector. [More…]

• We want a health insurance scheme in which the citizen is always treated as an individual human being. [More…]

• I am quoting the remarks of Dr A. J. Forbes, former Minister for Health, which I understand he has quoted this evening. [More…]

• We want a health insurance scheme in which the citizen is always treated as an individual human being and not just as a cog in the medical care machine. [More…]

• already we have seen that the subsidised health benefit plan is not working for the very reason that there is too much bureaucracy involved. [More…]

• Costs will soar because health care becomes virtually free for all at the point of consumption, and responsibility for containing costs is removed from both patients and doctors. [More…]

• The Canadian scheme has been likened by Ontario’s Health Minister, Dr R. Potter to a Frankenstein creation, out of control. [More…]

• One needs to be a member of this House for only a short time to understand that the Liberals know nothing about the subject of health and to realise that they have done no research on it. [More…]

• In view of the fact that he has had 6 months in which to do his research he could have at least got his figures right The honourable member in presenting his case said that 4 per cent of the GNP of Great Britain is being spent on the health services of that country. [More…]

• But if any health scheme is to succeed the schedule of fees must be adhered to by a substantial majority of medical practitioners. [More…]

• One would suspect that not even he would think that suddenly everybody is going to get sick because a new health scheme is brought in. [More…]

• One can see this because the former Minister for Health in the previous Government will freely admit that over a period of time he was inundated with requests from the States for some special consideration in relation to hospitals where there were grave deficiencies. [More…]

• This week I handed certain reports to the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and asked him whether he would look at the position in my electorate in order to ascertain whether something could be done in next year’s allocation about making available some special grants to try to overcome the critical problem that is developing there in the public hospital sector. [More…]

• Because Queensland has expended its money over a period of years on health care, to the detriment of the buildings, it has been able to provide for its people. [More…]

• The Opposition must be terribly disconcerted by the success of the medical centres that have been established in Canberra by the Minister for Health, who is now sitting at the table. [More…]

• I would be delighted to be able to apply myself full time to the health care of the people’. [More…]

• The health centres that have been established in Canberra have been an outstanding success. [More…]

• Does the Minister for Health recall the strong representations that I have made to him both in a personal capacity and on behalf of many individuals and organisations about the provision of milk to school children? [More…]

• This meeting was attended by the Ministers for Health, Education and Primary Industry. [More…]

• I wish to ask a question of the Minister for Health in connection with his responsibility for health centres such as the one in the Canberra suburb of Melba. [More…]

• Is it a fact that those who are implacably opposed to the concept of health centres staffed by medical practitioners paid on a salaried basis include the Opposition parties? [More…]

• When the principle of using salaried doctors for community health centres was raised with the States following the setting up of the Interim Committee on Hospitals and Health Services, the initial reaction of the Minister for Health in Queensland was of course that the Queensland Government had a different ideology and philosophy in these matters from the Federal Parliament and would not be interested in the use of salaried doctors in these centres. [More…]

• I understand that in the event, having looked at the availability of doctors for some of the areas with a health care scarcity, for which the scheme gives preference, the Queensland Government is reconsidering this attitude. [More…]

• My question is supplementary to that asked earlier by the honourable member for Lyne and is also directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Does this mean that he now believes that no health disabilities exist among remotely located school children and particularly Aboriginals in Australia? [More…]

• A period of 10 hours will be allowed to debate the health insurance legislation, and I will speak about that later. [More…]

• But 20 or 25 honourable members on this side of the House have done an enormous amount of work on health. [More…]

• It is determined to guillotine the Health Insurance Bill, as well as several other Bills, through this chamber in a certain time. [More…]

• That in relation to the proceedings on the following Bills so much of the Standing Orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the House making one declaration of urgency and moving one motion for the allotment of time in respect of all the Bills: The Health Insurance Bill 1973, the Health Insurance Commission Bill 1973, the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bill 1973, the Petroleum and Minerals Authority Bill 1973 and the Sewerage Agreements Bill 1973. [More…]

• I regret that honourable members will not have had more time to debate the subjects, but when all is said and done, everybody knows that the Opposition has said that it will not have anything to do with the health proposal and that it will throw it out lock, stock and barrel, that was said even before the Opposition had heard the arguments from this side of the House. [More…]

• He has shamed his profession by saying that the Australian people are not interested in a debate on a matter that affects every person in Australia with respect to their health and health care. [More…]

• The Press over a period of months allowed honourable members to discuss the Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Bill will be quite inadequately debated. [More…]

• I know, for example, that some hundreds of things could come under proper and detailed scrutiny at the Committee stage of the Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• I believe that in, the health Bills and the first draft of the Petroleum ‘and Minerals Authority Bill there are a number of detailed points which I believe are very treacherous points put in by the Government and that the Government is trying to cover them up in this House. [More…]

• Health Insurance Bill 1973 - - [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission Bill 1973 - [More…]

• Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bill 1973 - [More…]

• I am astonished to see on the list that the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bill is to be guillotined by 10.30 tonight. [More…]

• It has massive implications for the health services in this country. [More…]

• The other day at a Press conference, with a view to being co-operative I stated that the Opposition would not be opposing that Bill at this stage but would reserve the right to amend it in the Senate after we, as an Opposition, had a chance of conferring with State Ministers for Health on it. [More…]

• I have just received a copy of a telegram which was sent to the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) by the Minister for Health in New South Wales asking the Minister to defer consideration of this Bill. [More…]

• The Bill gives the Federal Government power to establish health community centres virtually anywhere in Australia without reference to a State. [More…]

• I am not necessarily opposing the concept of health community centres. [More…]

• What I am stating, though, is that as far as I know the Federal Minister for Health has not discussed this concept with any State Minister for Health in Australia. [More…]

• I would have thought that in the sheer interests of equity the Government would at least have allowed the Opposition time to confer further with the State Ministers for Health to get their views on it. [More…]

• Already I have received 3 telegrams from 3 State Ministers for Health expressing deep concern about this Bill. [More…]

• I will be speaking more about that later in the day, but I want to foreshadow now the Opposition’s objection to the whole of this motion moved by the Leader of the House (Mr Daly) and also to point out particularly the insidious nature of including the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bill in this blanket guillotine. [More…]

• I will make my comments brief because the longer honourable members speak at this stage the less time there will be for the debate on the Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• As a Queenslander I would like formally to lodge my protest at the manner in which the discussion on the Health Insurance Bill has been curtailed. [More…]

• It is doing absolutely nothing for the people of Queensland in its health scheme, and as far as I am concerned- [More…]

• A great deal of this money will be spent in propping up the ramshackle, inequitable and wasteful private health insurance scheme - a scheme which can only retain any facade of respectability through the injection of more and more taxpayers’ money. [More…]

• One of the reasons for all this is simply that the 90 health funds, with their separate and often extravagant managements, are wasteful. [More…]

• It might have to meet such a demand if the present Australian Labor Party Government has to face the people with its national health proposals as the main issue [More…]

• Labor’s health proposals are full of faults. [More…]

• In September of last year an international conference of voluntary health service funds was held in London and the statement I have made was included in the report of the proceedings of the conference. [More…]

• This leads me to the Minister’s charge, which has been repeated by many members opposite, that people in the higher income brackets get their health insurance on the cheap at the expense of people on lower incomes. [More…]

• It will operate to the disadvantage of all taxpayers because the 1.35 per cent compulsory contribution that they make will not be an allowable taxation deduction as are their present contributions to health funds. [More…]

• The debate on this Bill has demonstrated with painful clarity that the Opposition has no real policy of its own on health insurance and health care and that it is reduced to the demeaning status of spokesmen for those people and groups who believe that health care is not a right which everybody should enjoy but a privilege to be purchased. [More…]

• We are sorry that Opposition members have so little real interest in health insurance and health care that they have been unable to do more in this debate than to reiterate unproven - and unproveable - assertions that health care will suffer if the means of financing it is rationalised and to demonstrate that they are more concerned about the material self-interest and the private ambitions of a small clique of people than they are about the welfare of Australians generally. [More…]

• We are sorry that the Opposition has shown that it does not really care that 1 million Australians have no coverage against health care costs and that an even greater number have inadequate coverage. [More…]

• We are sorry that the only kind of solution the Opposition can suggest towards providing these people with some coverage of their health care costs is one which would involve repeated examination of the private financial and domestic affairs of 1 million Australians and, depending on the results of those investigations, the classification of those who fail the income test into a special category of charity recipients. [More…]

• We are sorry that in 1973 the Opposition parties are revealed to hold social values which would require that a million Australians barter their dignity for their health and we are particularly sorry to note that the Liberal Party spokesman on social security has put those 1 million Australians together in one category and labelled them as ‘pensioners, the indolent, migrants, no-hopers and alcoholics’. [More…]

• We are sorry about all of those things and the attitudes they reveal because they have prevented the Opposition from offering any constructive criticism of our proposals for a health insurance program which will provide equal access to high standard health care to everybody in the community, which will share the cost of health care on the equitable basis of contributions being based on ability to pay and which will provide efficiency and value for money in the delivery of health care. [More…]

• It is absolutely clear that it has no policy on health insurance and health care but it may not be fair to say it has no policy at all. [More…]

• It does have one - and it is a blanket policy for health, education and everything to do with social and economic progress. [More…]

• A universal health insurance program is inevitably complex since it must be structured to allow for all contingencies and to cover many different forms of medical and hospital services. [More…]

• Health care is also a subject about which it is all too easy to arouse emotions and fears. [More…]

• An example of this kind of misrepresentation has been the claims which have been made in this debate that standards of medical and hospital care would fall under a universal health insurance program. [More…]

• The honourable member is flying in the face of the opinion of top hospital and health care authorities in Australia and abroad in support of a proposition which was only recently forced through as AMA policy by the most reactionary and unenlightened elements in the New South Wales branch of the profession, against strong and continuing opposition from representatives of most other States. [More…]

• In recent months I have had meetings with representatives of private religious hospitals following the release of the Health Insurance Planning Committee’s report. [More…]

• They stated that they felt the additional cost of private health insurance under the proposed universal program might deter all but the relatively wealthy from entering these hospitals, so that they would be reduced to catering for what could be termed an elite group in the community. [More…]

• Within 2 sentences he claimed to have defended me against misrepresentations and at the same time made fantastic allegations, based on an erroneous report commissioned by the representatives of the private health funds, that I had underestimated the cost of the program we are putting forward by $300m in the first year. [More…]

• As my colleague the honourable member for Perth (Mr Berinson) intends to point out, the report of the health fund consultants is wrong, and the honourable member has added his own errors to the errors in the report. [More…]

• Indeed, on the experience of the private health insurance funds a large amount of that $226m would have been absorbed in exorbitant operating costs and, accordingly, the quantity of pharmaceutical drugs supplied to the community greatly diminished. [More…]

• The program that we are putting forward is one which offers a fair deal, both to the consumers and producers of health services. [More…]

• It is designed to improve the efficiency with which health insurance is transacted and the efficiency with which health care resources are used. [More…]

• I support his concept that a high-quality health service should be readily available to all and that Australia’s health scheme should expand, rather than inhibit, the opportunities for freedom of choice. [More…]

• I also support the up-grading of hospital and community-based health facilities. [More…]

• The Government does have a mandate to see that high-quality health care is available, but the mechanisms the Minister is trying to introduce are destructive. [More…]

• We have tried to emphasise the fundamental point that to achieve the highest standards of health care there must exist a free partnership between governments and the institutions and professions which provide that care - and the present scheme is based on such a partnership. [More…]

• Before I speak of the Government’s proposals, Mr Speaker, I think it is worth asking these questions: What is so wrong with the existing health scheme? [More…]

• But the whole structure of health care should not be destroyed merely to allow the Labor Government to introduce its own brand of scheme with strong political and philosophical elements built into it. [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bril, which will come before the House shortly, will be the instrument for setting up free community health centres. [More…]

• The ultimate objective is the total control of hospitals through the Department of Social Security and of private medical practice through the Department of Health. [More…]

• It will, if passed, affect the lives of every Australian in the area of most importance - his health. [More…]

• It is because the Australian Country Party believes that health is a matter of vital importance to the individual that we oppose this Bill. [More…]

• Health is not a matter in which every Australian should be dependent upon the Government, and this is what the Minister aims ultimately to achieve. [More…]

• This means that about 3i per cent of the population are without any kind of health cover. [More…]

• No one would suggest that these people should remain outside the scope of health care. [More…]

• He wants to bring Australian health care down to the lowest common denominator - all this because the present scheme does not cover a small percentage of the community. [More…]

• But then we already knew there was no room for then under Labor’s health plan. [More…]

• I assert that the Opposition has a duty to oppose these Bills which provide for the destruction of the health care system in Australia as we know it today. [More…]

• The Opposition cannot support proposals that would destroy a health scheme which is widely regarded as one of the best in the world and which can be improved to make it even better. [More…]

• We cannot support proposals for a scheme which would reduce the quality of health care, and which would - despite the Minister’s denials - take away the freedom of choice which we believe the Australian people are entitled to enjoy. [More…]

• We cannot support proposals which will lead to the socialisation, and ultimately to the nationalisation, of health and medical care. [More…]

• Last Thursday week the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) introduced the Health Insurance Bill 1973, and we were advised at that time that the debate on it would ensue on the following Wednesday afternoon and Thursday - a day and a half in all. [More…]

• But among them I would not count this debate on the Health Insurance Bill, for this simple reason: There are only 2 practical purposes to be served by any debate in this House. [More…]

• The second was the equitable payment of costs of health insurance rather than the current inequitable system. [More…]

• Well, since we are on the exercise and since one cannot in this limited period cover the whole gamut of questions raised by the health insurance system, I propose to restrict myself to responding to a challenge issued by the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) in his capacity as spokesman for the Opposition on health matters. [More…]

• On the contrary, it was commissioned by the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia which claims to represent the great majority of open funds but is really a front for the big business organisations in the field, notably the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia. [More…]

• Its commission was to produce comparative estimates of the cost of hospital and medical services under the existing voluntary scheme and under the Government’s new health insurance program. [More…]

• Now, so eager was Mr Moon, President of the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia to obtain cheap publicity in his campaign against the Australian Government that he released the figures before the report was available to him or to anybody else. [More…]

• Mr Moon claimed in newspaper headlines throughout the country that the Shrapnel report showed that hospital and medical health services under the Government’s program would cost $181m more than was estimated in the White Paper and $382m more than the existing voluntary scheme. [More…]

• However, I have to say that once one has seen the Shrapnel report itself it becomes clear that the Voluntary Health Insurance Association has bought a damp squib. [More…]

• Whatever their expertise in other fields, the authors of this report reveal an ignorance of the working of the health care system and the way in which health services are funded. [More…]

• Hospital benefits days under the subsidised health benefits plan increased by 42.7 per cent in 1971-72 and by 27.7 per cent in 1972-73. [More…]

• The report assumes that no further increases will occur and that the total subsidised health benefits days under the existing scheme will remain constant at the 1972-73 level of 815,000 days right through to 1977-78. [More…]

• In the second place, even if it were, the impact would be minimal, since the subsidised health benefits plan and the pensioner medical service cater for 2 entirely different groups in the community. [More…]

• Indeed, the discrepancy between the Shrapnel estimates of $199m in 1974-75 compared with the Health Insurance Planning Committee’s figure of $60m might, one would think, have prompted second thoughts on the part of those responsible. [More…]

• In fact, the Health Insurance Planning Committee allowed for a rate of specialist attendances to PMS pensioners which was well above the utilisation of the rest of the insured population. [More…]

• The Liberal Party asserts that it is a fundamental right of every Australian to receive the best possible health care and we are determined, as Opposition Parties to achieve it. [More…]

• Because of this the Opposition Parties are opposed to the Health Insurance Bill and consequently to the Health Insurance Commission Bill which sets up the mechanism for the implementation of the Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• The most important principle to aim for in any health scheme is the interest of the consumer of the commodity, that is, the patient. [More…]

• The patient can so easily be overlooked, especially when a couple of economists get together to work out what the health scheme ought to be. [More…]

• The Liberal Party wants to maintain the present health scheme which has been built over the years into one of the world’s best. [More…]

• For those 8 per cent not now covered, arrangements can be made to provide health care without converting the 92 per cent already covered into a compulsory scheme. [More…]

• We have the remarkable situation that a Government, which ought to have as its primary task the delivery of the best possible health service to the people of Australia, has managed to achieve a scheme of which the medical profession will not have a bar. [More…]

• Have honourable members ever heard such nonsensical reasoning, that if the people of Australia are to be well served they have to be well served in health by an antagonistic hospital and medical service? [More…]

• Clearly there should be some degree of government involvement - even intervention - in the appropriate place in health services. [More…]

• However, this should be done within the context of the existing voluntary health benefits scheme. [More…]

• This was the basis upon which the report of the Commonwealth Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance - the Nimmo Committee - was based in 1969. [More…]

• The problem is that in a complex area such as health there needs to be other views - views of those people who actually work in the field of medicine - to offset those of just 2 men. [More…]

• The Ontario Health Minister - the man who will be running the scheme, the equivalent of our Minister for Social Security - is quoted as having said about the scheme: It is up to the politicians to reform the monster before it bankrupts the economy and destroys itself. [More…]

• In Sweden there is a mandatory health insurance scheme. [More…]

• There is a fee for service for doctors, and the hospitals consume 50 per cent of the expenditure on health. [More…]

• It is clear that there is a marked increase in the expenditure on health when a mandatory health insurance system is linked to fee for service arrangements and a high level of hospital expenditure. [More…]

• I have no doubt at all that the number covered by health insurance is 92 per cent. [More…]

• Let us make this clear - that is 92 per cent covered by health insurance, but 100 per cent are covered by health treatment. [More…]

• If somebody is not insured and is ill, is he to lie in bed and take a Bex, as honourable members opposite were saying last year in their famous ‘It’s Time’ health pamphlet? [More…]

• Certainly the Minister has no comprehensive knowledge of who those people are that are uncovered by health insurance. [More…]

• They undertake to cover their total expenses for medical and health services themselves. [More…]

• The Liberal Party is determined to maximise the coverage of the health scheme. [More…]

• It is especially important to make provision for community health services where there are now few, such as in some of the northern and western suburbs of Melbourne, some of the western suburbs of Sydney and certainly rural areas. [More…]

• But it is too simplistic to believe that a change in funding arrangements will automatically change the health care expectations of the great majority of the Australian people. [More…]

• I wish to emphasise that it is important to support and bolster the general practitioner as he will remain the first line health care deliverer to the people of Australia. [More…]

• The general practitioner delivering the first line of health care must be backed up by the specialist medical practitioner. [More…]

• If we are to have a scheme which is not accepted by the general practitioner, the specialist and the private community philanthropic and country hospitals, we are going to be in a terrible mess trying to provide health services to the people. [More…]

• Together with planned allocation of paramedical and nursing services, I believe that areas of need can be reflected without a gigantic change in health care funding arrangements and without alteration in the basic doctor-patient relationship. [More…]

• I advocate the establishment of a medical fees tribunal consisting of an independent chairman and representatives of the Government, the Australian Medical Association and the consumer of the medical health service - that is, the patient - to establish the fees. [More…]

• I have full confidence after discussions with the AMA that the medical profession will agree with a government to achieve predictability of costs of the medical health service. [More…]

• It is important that there be deterrents to the abuse of the health scheme either by the patient or by the medical practitioner. [More…]

• These deterrents must not unduly complicate the provision and availability of health care. [More…]

• Hospitals are fundamental to any health scheme. [More…]

• Here, needs will become more apparent on a national basis in co-operation with the States following the establishment of a hospitals and health services commission. [More…]

• It is important in the hospital area where health care is the most complex and expenditure the greatest that one equates the cost of hospital service to benefits accruing to the persons covered. [More…]

• We stress this not only in terms of economic argument; it is also better health care for the patient to be treated in a friendly and familiar environment. [More…]

• Private hospitals run by religious groups and allied organisations are ian indispensible and totally necessary part of our health delivery system. [More…]

• The totality and thrust of the DeebleScotton plan is a move by a socialist government towards complete nationalisation of the health care system in Australia. [More…]

• (Extension of time granted) Total health care expectations cannot be accommodated within the scheme proposed by the Government. [More…]

• Once competition of private end public health care is removed, another constraint on the cost of the scheme as a percentage of national expenditure will be removed. [More…]

• At present, the approximate appropriation for health care services is 5.3 per cent of gross national expenditure. [More…]

• When it went to election last year, it said that it was going to have a national health scheme and one of its first decisions in government was to set up the Deeble-Scotton committee to tell it what it ought to do. [More…]

• The scheme can and will be amended to maximise coverage of all the Australian community and to deliver the best health service. [More…]

• We have positive views in the field of health delivery and we are not opposed to the principles of a hospital and health services commission which attempts to set up a mechanism to examine the needs of a health delivery system. [More…]

• We are opposed to a scheme which is designed to set up an open-ended financial commitment in priority over the delivery of the best health care to the people of this country, and this is what the Labor Party’s scheme would do. [More…]

• We, the Opposition Parties, are more concerned about health than is the Government and we are more responsible, and on this basis we will be glad to conduct an election campaign on the issue. [More…]

• Do they want a continuation of a scheme devised over 20 years ago, giving rise to an increasing number of burdens on taxpayers and contributors to over 100 private health funds, or do they want a completely new scheme? [More…]

• The Australian Parliament has the authority tn pay benefits for sickness and hospital treatment, it has done this through the unique system of private health funds - over 100 private bureaucracies subsidised by the Australian taxpayer and covering only some patients but not those in direct need and not covering the total cost of medical treatment of most patients at all. [More…]

• We are told that the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp), the spokesman on health, and the Leader of the Opposition himself were giving attention to this matter and yet after long speeches by the honourable gentleman and the right honourable gentleman respectively we are told that all they can offer is a continuation of the Earle Page scheme devised 20 years ago to guarantee the incomes of doctors but not to cover the expenses of patients or of hospitals. [More…]

• Of all the issues for which the present Government devised such policies none stood out more than our policies on the cities, education and health. [More…]

• None of our policies was subjected to greater scrutiny than our proposals for an Australian health insurance program. [More…]

• Precisely because of the crucial and complex nature of the health question, I have regarded it as a particular duty to explain, discuss and argue our proposals over the past 2 years, especially with and through the medical profession. [More…]

• We propose a universal health scheme based on the needs and means of families. [More…]

• The taxpayer saw government subsidies for private health insurance - money drawn from his taxes - rise from S8Om to 3200m between 1969 and 1972. [More…]

• Every taxpayer has to contribute to Commonwealth benefits - medical and hospital benefits - but no taxpaper can get any benefits, hospital or medical, for which he has paid through his taxes except by contributing on top of those taxes to a private health fund. [More…]

• In 1972 our health insurance program was again a vital plank in our platform. [More…]

• The most notorious single instance of unequal sharing of burdens is the Liberals’ health insurance system. [More…]

• There can be no greater single weakness in the present health insurance system than the fact that well over one million Australians have no financial protection against the cost of illness. [More…]

• The survey of persons covered by hospital and medical expenditure assistance schemes, conducted last year by the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, shows that only 86.5 per cent of the Australian population has any coverage against health expenses through private insurance, the pensioner medical service and other assistance schemes. [More…]

• For them the cost of private health insurance is excessive. [More…]

• Even if one went to the expense of providing an efficient system of subsidised health insurance to cover the need of the very poor, under the present scheme the fundamental problem of unequal contributions would remain. [More…]

• Payments for health insurance must be based on the needs and means of Australians. [More…]

• The combination of flat rate contributions and income tax deductions must eventually mean that the rich pay less for health insurance thuan low and middle income earners. [More…]

• Australia will not have a just and equitable health insurance system until that principle is enshrined in its laws. [More…]

• Let there be no mistake: If the Liberal health system which we inherited continues, it will remain fundamentally unjust and inequitable, whatever improvements are made to it. [More…]

• If it continues, it will ‘become increasingly expensive to the taxpayer, in terms of both contributions to health funds and taxation revenue for Government subsidies through those funds. [More…]

• Yet our health insurance proposals, in conjunction with the work of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, will lead to a major improvement in Australian hospitals. [More…]

• On 18 April the former Minister for Health, the honourable member for Barker announced the appointment of Mr Justice Nimmo’s committee of inquiry into health insurance. [More…]

• Perhaps they forget that at the 1971 Australian Health Ministers Conference in Melbourne the Ministers, including of course the then Liberal Federal Minister for Health, and practically all Liberal State Ministers, issued a considered statement, which said: [More…]

• The abolition of the honorary system and the proper payment of doctors was, of course, one of the 42 positive recommendations of the Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, under Mr Justice Nimmo, which reported to the previous Government in 1969. [More…]

• The previous Government largely ignored those recommendations and the provision of health care has suffered as a result. [More…]

• The present Government has a mandate for its health program. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham, the Liberal spokesman on health, mentioned that various polls and so on showed that some confusion had been generated on this matter. [More…]

• He quoted some organisations selectively which, he says,, oppose the Labour Government’s health insurance program. [More…]

• He did not mention the hundreds of organisations who believe it will improve the quality of health care for Australians. [More…]

• The basis for legislation for our health insurance program does not rest on a couple of thousand people in a gallup poll. [More…]

• The Labor Government was elected to carry out this health program, in the same way as it was elected to provide equality of opportunity in education, to come to terms with the problems of our cities and to deal with other long neglected national problems. [More…]

• If one were ever presenting unlimited power to a Minister to dictate to the States so that he had their health care systems at his mercy, one is doing it in Schedule 2 of this Bill because it is so terribly vague. [More…]

• A grandiose scheme to cure all the ills of our health scheme has been set out in principle. [More…]

• Yet this Government, with its tremendous ability to overcome all the problems of health care services in Australia, has not been able to take one step forward to overcoming one of the minor weaknesses of the previous scheme concerning optometrists and ophthalmologists and to formulate a truly universal scheme which includes those people who have eye problems. [More…]

• I wish to explain the reasons why we on this side of the House see no alternative other than to oppose the Health Insurance Commission Bill. [More…]

• The Bill we are now considering provides the machinery which will ensure the implementation of Labors health scheme. [More…]

• Firstly, Queensland’s health scheme at the moment, which I readily concede was introduced originally by a Labor State government, gives all Queenslanders the right to completely free health treatment. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security, who is at the table, on frequent occasions has described the private health funds as inefficient. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, known as the Nimmo Committee, stated in its report of 1969 that there was no truth whatsoever in the claim that the private organisations were inefficient. [More…]

• I remind the honourable gentleman that he is now speaking to the Health Insurance Commission Bill. [More…]

• This is not a general debate on the subject of health insurance. [More…]

• It is a debate on the Health Insurance Commission Bill. [More…]

• If they go to him and say, ‘Our hospitals are only half full now because the people cannot afford private health insurance and we would like to use some beds for your health scheme’, lie can decide the number of beds which will be seconded to the Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• Under the Queensland health scheme one person in three has already indicated a preference of choice as an individual to use a private ward. [More…]

• I have asked the honourable gentleman to keep to the points relating to the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• The Government is prepared to upturn completely the ship of health care in this country to introduce its own scheme with the dream of covering a couple more per cent. [More…]

• In conclusion I would like to refer to the fact that the extra cost which is being projected is still an under estimation of the actual cost of the Government’s new health scheme. [More…]

• The truth is that a great percentage of doctors stand to make more money for themselves out of Labor’s health scheme than they do under the present system. [More…]

• This is going to be to the detriment of mental health care. [More…]

• But under the Government’s health scheme, these people will , think: ‘Well, the Government is. [More…]

• A situation will be reached where the hospitals and surgeons will be unable to cope with the problems which already exist in the field of health. [More…]

• This tax will not entitle Queenslanders to receive any more benefits than are now received by those people who presently do not belong to a health fund. [More…]

• There is, of course, a diverse range of other corporations operating in the financial sector, including life and general insurance companies, pension funds, terminating building societies, friendly and health societies, unit trusts, investment and trustee companies. [More…]

• We are debating the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bill 1973. [More…]

• It really legalises or formalises the Sax commission of inquiry into national hospitals and health services. [More…]

• I would like to make the point that the terms of reference and responsibility of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission were announced by the Minister for Health on 5 April 1973. [More…]

• When the Minister announced those terms of reference and responsibilities they were applauded by all sections and organisations responsible for the delivery of health care throughout the nation. [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bill embodies matters which were not included in the original terms of reference and which change radically the acceptability of the Commission under the terms of the legislation. [More…]

• The original terms of reference of the Commission were confined to areas of research and recommendations regarding planning and development of health services, recommending priorities regarding areas of need and recommending the allocation of project grants for the development of comprehensive community health services. [More…]

• As an Opposition we agree with the philosophy of the Bill because what it does is establish community health centres - sometimes with salaried doctors or salaried paramedical personnel - in those areas where people are poor, where people cannot understand if they or members of their family become ill, where they can go for medical advice and medical service. [More…]

• Therefore, we agree with clause 5 of the Bill insofar as it provides that the functions of the Commission will be to make recommendations to the Minister for Health in the Commonwealth Parliament in relation to the provision of health services. [More…]

• We agree that it should be the function of the Commission to ascertain the health care needs of the Australian community and to make recommendations to the Minister in relation to the needs and in relation to health care delivery systems, etc. [More…]

• We agree that the functions of the Commission should be to investigate means of securing and, with the approval of the Minister, to arrange for, the representation of Australia or the Commission on State, Territory, regional and local government organisations involved with health care, provided it is done after consultation. [More…]

• We agree with the Government that a function of the Commission should be to promote and take part in planning in relation to health services, etc. [More…]

• We agree that one of the functions of the Commission should be to achieve the avoidance of any unnecessary duplication in health services. [More…]

• We agree that one of the functions of the Commission should be to achieve efficiency in health services. [More…]

• In fact, it was regarded - to quote the medical profession - as the hope of the side to rationalise hospital and health care services throughout the nation. [More…]

• That virtually means that the Commission is to be given executive powers to spend money, with the approval of the Minister, in any place in Australia in order to establish a health centre which could employ salaried doctors paid for by the Government, salaried dentists paid for by the Government and salaried physiotherapists and practitioners of paramedical services paid for by the Government, without reference to any of the State governments. [More…]

• But we are concerned to read paragraph (c) in clause (5)(1) of the Bill in conjunction with the announced aims of the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), who is sitting at the table-, who in response to a question I asked last week confirmed that in his view -medical care and medical practice in Australia should be provided by such centres, and that the procedure of doctors attending patients in private practice, in a doctorpatient relationship, should, and will inevitably, be reserved for the very wealthy or those few odd cranky people who would prefer to go to their own doctors rather than to attend a free government clinic. [More…]

• I was very heartened by what was said by the Minister for Health today at question time. [More…]

• In response to a question from his own side of the House, I believe, he reaffirmed the view that the intent of the Government was to establish health centres only in those areas that I have mentioned - in areas of need - and I thoroughly support that. [More…]

• But I oppose with all the vigour I have the establishment of these kinds of health centres, out of taxpayers’ money, in those areas which are already well serviced by doctors and by paramedical services and where they would be in direct competition with the forces of free enterprise in those areas. [More…]

• I do register my disappointment that the Federal Minister for Health did not contact his State counterparts. [More…]

• In fact, it seems extraordinary that he should introduce a Bill which changes the terms and conditions under which the Sax Commission now operates into different ball game and does not have the courtesy to inform State Ministers of Health of what he is doing. [More…]

• But this still leaves at least State Ministers of Health with a worry. [More…]

• The first telegram, dated 6 December, is from Mr Scanlan, the Minister of Health in Victoria. [More…]

• Have received Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bill 1973 this morning. [More…]

• H. Scanlan, Minister of Health’. [More…]

• Mr John Waddy, the New South Wales Minister of Health, sent a telegram to the Federal Minister for Health and sent a copy to me. [More…]

• Have grave concern that Hospital and Health Services Commission Bill permits unwarranted extension of the Commonwealth into matters of State responsibility. [More…]

• -If I may interrupt the honourable member, I point out that it will be necessary for him to move in Committee the amendment which he earlier indicated he proposed to move and which he said the Minister for Health accepted. [More…]

• The following telegram has been despatched to Dr Everingham quote Following quick reading of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bill I desire to express my anxiety regarding a number of its proposed provisions and suggest deferment until views of States can be submitted for consideration stop As I understand it at the moment several of its clauses would be regarded as objectionable by Queensland unquote. [More…]

• It is signed ‘Tooth Queensland Health Minister’. [More…]

• The research hypothesis that the organisational structure of a health delivery system can significantly alter the pattern of medical care behaviour of its patient population was tested. [More…]

• The utilisation patterns of 31 multiproblem families were studied for 30 continuous months of comprehensive care provided by a family-oriented health tare team (physicians, nurse, health aide, and social worker), with continuity, co-ordination, and constant availability of care. [More…]

• The findings demonstrated a change from an illness response pattern to a health-orientation response pattern. [More…]

• There was an increasing use of health care services such as nurse counselling, psychosocial guidance, employment assistance, health education, marriage counselling, and rehabilitation, and a decreasing use of physician services for illness care. [More…]

• The changing pattern of medical care behaviour of these families created an effective utilisation of allied health personnel, with physician-sparing results. [More…]

• I would hope that the Minister for Health, who is at the table, would agree that this is a short summary of the philosophical thrust of what he is wanting to do in these health community services. [More…]

• But the intention of the Opposition was to ensure that the Minister, when instructing or authorising the Commission to make grants to an organisation, which he can now do under clause 5 of the Bill, would not only consult with the State Minister for Health or the appropriate person in a State, but would also prescribe the organisation to which he has instructed or allowed the Commission to give money. [More…]

• It would be anathema to the Opposition for the Minister to allow millions of dollars to build a health centre in those areas which are presently well serviced by private doctors, private dentists or private paramedical services. [More…]

• We wanted the added protection to be written into the Bill that when the Minister does hypothecate funds for the building of a health centre in any area, that hypothecation should come before the Parliament - this House and the other place - in the form that he has to prescribe the organisation. [More…]

• One thing that shone through his speech was the fact that he did make an endeavour to divide the things which the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) is proposing from those which the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) is proposing. [More…]

• But in doing so he did himself no credit because this Bill which proposes to set up a Hospitals and Health Services Commission is part of an overall pattern of health services and social services that is being put forward by the Government. [More…]

• To me the establishment of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission is one of the most exciting and stimulating areas of the total picture of health services that is going forward. [More…]

• One cannot help but feel that the Opposition is acting like a group of King Canutes trying to stop the tide, trying to stop the inevitable simply by trying to divide a comprehensive plan for health and social security up into a number of groups. [More…]

• I recall that only a couple of months ago the honourable member for Corangamite (Mr Street), who was at that time the Opposition spokesman on health, announced that the Opposition had a policy. [More…]

• But then, of course, there was a change in the shadow spokesman for health. [More…]

• Opposition spokesman on Social Security, Health and Welfare. [More…]

• I can see why some Ministers for Health were concerned about this Bill. [More…]

• I entered the Victorian Parliament on the same day as the present Victorian Minister for Health, so I know his performance well. [More…]

• Those State Ministers have much to fear from an investigation of health services in their States. [More…]

• One can accentuate the matter in Victoria by referring to the recent Press statement of the Minister for Health. [More…]

• In Victoria there is a serious situation in relation to health care facilities for 3 needy areas - the areas that the honourable member for Hotham said should be assisted. [More…]

• They are the Deer Park and Kingston areas of Melbourne and the Eaglehawk district of Bendigo where there is a serious shortage of doctors and other health services. [More…]

• The Federal Government has offered a grant of more than S2.5m for the community health programs in these areas but so far the Victorian Government has not acted on this offer. [More…]

• After all, these are needy areas and the people in these areas cannot wait to receive the basic health care facilities that they should receive. [More…]

• Members of the Opposition and others have adopted the unfortunate attitude of trying to discredit any health institution that comes under government auspices. [More…]

• Having read a lot of comments by a minority of doctors opposed to the health scheme proposed by the Labor Government, I would like to express mine. [More…]

• I interpose to say that this gentleman understands that the Government’s health plan is an overall, comprehensive one and cannot be divided into little compartments. [More…]

• This hospital is run on the same scheme as the Minister for Health proposes in his Bill. [More…]

• Health is the paramount concern of the Government, not wealth. [More…]

• The delivery of health services in our community has been artificially divided in the past. [More…]

• We have had some preventive health services, usually conducted by governments at various levels; quarantine services conducted at the Federal level; immunisation campaigns at both State and local government levels; and public health services also at those levels. [More…]

• There has been the curative field of health services, largely conducted on a private basis or in government institutions. [More…]

• Finally, there has been the provision of a separate group of mental health services. [More…]

• I believe that this is a tremendously artificial division of health services. [More…]

• In the Hospitals and Health Services Commission we have an instrument which may overcome much of this artificial division. [More…]

• In the past preventive medicine has been looked on as dealing with infectious disease or matters of public health, but we are becoming more and more aware of the stresses and strains of the environment, of the psychiatric factors that occur in the community, of the problems of inactivity of the housewife or other members of the community and perhaps the need for their retraining. [More…]

• We have to get over this question of separating our mental health services completely from the other health services. [More…]

• I recall when the mental health services in Victoria were at their lowest ebb and Dr Cunningham Dax took over and certainly improved those services He later had to give up in disgust and retreat to a new area in Tasmania. [More…]

• In that book he put forward the proposition that institutions for the treatment of mental disease should not be separate from the normal flow of health services but should be located in a physical way close to the normal health stream instead of having this artificial division. [More…]

• Perhaps this is one of the things that the Hospitals and Health Services Commission could investigate and report upon under the very wide powers it has. [More…]

• So we look with some pleasure to what this Hospitals and Health Services Commission may be able to do in identifying hospital needs and in identifying just how services can be provided most efficiently with the necessary finance injected into the system. [More…]

• In fact when we talk of community health centres we should note some of the experiences in country areas. [More…]

• That concept was changed more to the community health centre concept that was mentioned in the report of the interim committee. [More…]

• Much to the regret intially of the local people, it was suggested that the hospital should become one of these community health centres. [More…]

• I applaud the community health centre concept. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham criticised the Minister for Health for indicating the way in which he predicted the proportion of practice would develop in the future. [More…]

• But the Minister has indicated that we are looking for areas of need - areas of deprivation - in which to put these community health centres. [More…]

• He might even go and look at some of the Scandinavian countries and see how across-the-board health services are given. [More…]

• What the Minister for Health is proposing might preserve the personal type of physician in the community, even if the personal physician is in this horrible thing - this government community health centre. [More…]

• He will find that the Minister for Health has been very honest indeed in what he has expressed, because what he is doing is trying to preserve the doctor of first contact out in the community where people live. [More…]

• His initial effort is to supply this service for deprived and needy people such as those who live in the eastern part of my electorate where I hope he will put up one of his community health centres because there are no private practitioners there. [More…]

• The Minister for Health shows his compassion and his real concern for people when he admits that this sort of change is taking place. [More…]

• The other change that is taking place is that the community health services are disappearing out of the communities and going into centralised hospital areas under the most free-ranging private enterprise systems. [More…]

• I welcome the fact that this Hospital and Health Services Commission is to become a real entity and not just an interim one. [More…]

• I am disappointed that the Victorian Minister for Health should have held up the supply of services in Deer Park, Kensington and Eaglehawk where the honourable member for Bendigo took part in the discussions and where his colleague the Victorian Minister for Health by his obstruction is not allowing people who need doctors to get them. [More…]

• Health Services Commission although, as the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) has pointed out, we wish to see that its method of operation takes full account of the rights and responsibilities of State governments and of this Parliament. [More…]

• Despite the remarks of the honourable member for Scullin (Dr Jenkins), we must never forget that governmental responsibility for health care is a partnership between the Federal and State governments and that the responsibility of this Parliament under section 51 of the Constitution is limited to the provision of pharmaceutical, sickness and hospital benefits and medical and dental services. [More…]

• It is against this background of the constitutional position that this Hospitals and Health Services Commission must be considered. [More…]

• Anything this new Commission could do could already be done by the Health Department under appropriations by this House. [More…]

• For instance, $9m has already been approved under the community health program. [More…]

• It is important to recognise this, because some rather strident opposition to the Hospitals and Health Services Commission has been based on this misunderstanding. [More…]

• That is the reason for the suggestion by the honourable member for Hotham that where this Hospitals and Health Services Commission has the power to make grants under the approval of the Minister, the organisations to which the grants are given should be prescribed organisations so that the Minister would have to approve the grants by regulation which could if desired then be debated by the House. [More…]

• Although I believe the intentions of the Minister are good with regard to community health centres, for instance, it is possible that at some stage he may have an undesirable bias. [More…]

• It gives the Commission power, with the approval of the Minister, to make grants upon such conditions, if any, as the Commission determines, of financial assistance out of the moneys of the Commission to State, Territory, regional local government and charitable organisations, and to other persons involved in health care or in research related to health care. [More…]

• This obviously transgresses in the field which is rightly regarded as the field of the State health departments, and therefore we regard it as of great importance that the Federal Minister, before giving his approval to such grants, should request the appropriate State Minister of Health to consult with him on the matter and to have regard to the views expressed by that Minister. [More…]

• I should also like to direct attention to clause 5(1) which involves research into better methods of delivery of health care. [More…]

• The costs of health care are becoming of increasing concern throughout the world. [More…]

• There is almost no limit to what a government can spend on health care. [More…]

• But one of the difficulties of our present system of health insurance and health care - which is not in any way cured by the Hayden scheme - is the fact that there is little overall cost control. [More…]

• Health care is too compartmented. [More…]

• Hospital care is another area where the patient is not going to pay, the doctor is not going to pay and there will be little incentive to economising in the use of hospital care, which is an important section of our health costs. [More…]

• I believe that we should be feeling our way towards some system which will provide overall cost accounting and achieve the most economical use of our available health resources. [More…]

• The Americans, who have a much more serious deficiency in their health care than we have, have developed health maintenance organisations of which the best known, of course, is the Kaiser-Permante scheme, which is a capitation scheme which gives total health care. [More…]

• That is the incentive on the members of the Kaiser-Permanente scheme to keep their health costs low. [More…]

• They must service the total health care of an individual for an annual charge. [More…]

• I believe that in our major centres such an alternative system would be highly desirable and would provide a lead in reducing the rapidly increasing costs in health care which are occurring throughout the world. [More…]

• I would urge the Hospitals and Health Services Commission to have an early look at the system and judge its application to Australia. [More…]

• As a further point - I was interested in the enthusiasm of the honourable member for Kingston (Dr Gun) in relation to this - it is worth noting that such an alternative system will fit much more easily into the present health scheme than it would into the proposed alternative Hayden scheme. [More…]

• What we are dealing with tonight is the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• – The concepts of community health services and a health commission is one which is developing in a number of fields. [More…]

• I think that the most important feature of these bodies is that they are motivated by the needs of the community for service and their recommendations are recommendations by people who have something other than a political motive for developing programs of health care. [More…]

• It is all very well for people to say that we have a free choice of health services and that people have the right to go to the doctor of their choice and the right to choose the type of treatment that they want. [More…]

• There are 2 classes of people in Australia when it comes to health care - those who live in areas which are well served by doctors in private practice and those who do not. [More…]

• It can be pretty accurately estimated that those who live in areas which are well served by doctors are normally those people in the middle to upper income brackets, and those who live in areas where health care is not readily available are those in the lower income brackets. [More…]

• It may be only a coincidence that under existing health insurance, those people who live in the areas best served by medical practice are the people who pay the least for the care they receive because of the greater compensations they receive from governments in the form of taxation concessions and the like. [More…]

• I refer now to the concept of community health centres. [More…]

• I think modern thinking in health management would suggest that one would not build a second base hospital in the Geelong area in the near future and possibly not for many years. [More…]

• But the need for access to health care is very great. [More…]

• I seem to remember someone earlier today - I think, most likely, that it was the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Snedden) - suggesting that some people do not have health care available to them. [More…]

• The facts of the matter are, of course, that for some people access to a doctor in private practice is just non-existent because of the work load of those doctors who choose to continue to practise in what must be considered to be unfashionable areas, and community health centres would seem to be the best means by which health care facilities can be made readily available to these people in the best possible manner. [More…]

• The suggestion that if people are given free access to doctors or health services they will over-utilise the services is a one way suggestion. [More…]

• The argument in relation to consultation with the States is very interesting when we remember that late last year the then Government introduced a Bill relating to child minding centres which took no account whatsoever of State Departments of Health which were looking after that matter. [More…]

• In fact, it absolutely overrode them and did not even place those child minding centres within the Federal Departments of Health or Education and Science but in fact made them part of the Department of Labour and National Service, as it was then called. [More…]

• The other thing I wish to point out is that recently the Victorian Minister of Health, when he brought down a Bill which allowed private organisations access to statistical information on hospitals but denied the same access to the Commonwealth Government, did not consult the Commonwealth Government about that matter. [More…]

• The Victorian Minister of Health is now desperately trying to find a way around his own Bill. [More…]

• I support the concept of community health centres. [More…]

• I hope that all of the community bodies will co-operate in a proposal for a community health centre in the NorlaneCorio area because at the moment that area is under-serviced by doctors and will continue in that situation because it is not what is known as a fashionable area. [More…]

• This trend has evolved largely because of the Gorton amendments to the national health scheme which gave a very special position in the health scheme to specialists visavis general practitioners. [More…]

• I conclude on this note: The proposals before the House are to set up a Hospitals and Health Services Commission to investigate and make recommendations on health needs, hospital needs and community health centre needs. [More…]

• lt is an interesting coincidence, I think, that we should be debating the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bill tonight when referendums were held on Saturday. [More…]

• Until now the States have had the major responsibility for hospital and health care services, particularly the physical construction of these services, and yet here we have them, to a certain extent, being made redundant or bypassed and, until this amendment was promoted, not even being consulted, so that the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) has once again this direct power from Canberra over this most important aspect of our lives. [More…]

• An Interim Commission was set up to investigate priorities in this area of health care services. [More…]

• If this Interim Commission has not completed its investigative role of the priorities for health care services, why does it suddenly switch and have these extra powers given to it - and they are extra powers - in order to provide financial grants for these services? [More…]

• Clause 5 (1) (d) states that the function of the Commission will be: to investigate means of securing and, with the approval of the Minister, to arrange for, the representation of Australia or the Commission on State, Territory, regional and local government organizations involved in health care; [More…]

• One also reads with interest sub-paragraph (v) of paragraph (e) of clause 5 (1) which states that the function of the Commission is to achieve: the avoidance of any unnecessary duplication in health services; [More…]

• Subparagraph (i) of paragraph (e) of clause 5 (1) provides that the function of the Commission is to achieve: the organisation of health services on a regional basis; [More…]

• The Government has committed itself to a policy of promoting the regionalisation and modernisation of hospitals, linked with the development of community based health services and preventive health programs. [More…]

• Every country community deserves and needs, if it is to have a future, not only its own hospital but also its own medical, dental and other health care services. [More…]

• This would apply not only to doctors but also to the other health care services. [More…]

• But if in practice it means that in setting up these centres facilities are taken away from the country towns up to 100 miles around them, the quality of life of people in those areas will be severely limited and their capability to obtain modern health care services will be restricted. [More…]

• In supporting the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Bill I would like firstly to make a few remarks in reply to the speech of the honourable member for Isaacs (Mr Hamer). [More…]

• The honourable member mentioned the provision of health maintenance organisations. [More…]

• I know that this matter is close to the heart of the Chairman of the Interim Committee of the national Hospitals and Health Services Commission who, as I understand it, is also to be the Chairman of the Commission itself when it is founded. [More…]

• Those of us who read the excellent book written by Dr Sax last year know that he has given considerable attention to the provision of health maintenance organisations and how those services have operated in the United States of America. [More…]

• However, I would have to take issue with the honourable member in his claim that the health maintenance organisations would fit into the Australian setting much better under the the existing system of voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• It is my very strong conviction that this type of health maintenance would fit much better into a universal system of health insurance such as that which the Government is seeking to introduce at the present time. [More…]

• Although I know that we have already canvassed that issue in the House today, may I just say in reply to the honourable member for Isaacs that if health maintenance organisations were introduced in the existing context, there would not be a universal arrangement. [More…]

• This is because in a health maintenance organisation the participants must actually contract with the organisation that provides the health service. [More…]

• As is the case under the system we have at the present time individuals virtually must insure themselves with a health insurance organisation. [More…]

• There would be the same problem that exists under the present system if a universal health insurance system were not introduced first. [More…]

• If a person belongs to a well organised labour union in the United States that insures its members on a capitation system under a health maintenance organisation arrangement, he is in a sound position. [More…]

• But the people who do not have regular work, perhaps some of the less well paid and the less well off members of society, are the ones who tend to miss out under a health maintenance organisation arrangement, just as such people miss out under the present system of health insurance, fee for service, which we have in Australia. [More…]

• What I suggest is that if we introduced a universal health insurance system within Australia, individual organisations could contract with the universal health insurance plan for the provision of a prepaid medical service in certain geographical areas. [More…]

• For instance, I think that the sorts of organisations that could provide a prepaid medical scheme after the introduction of a universal health insurance scheme would be some of the health insurance organisations that already exist. [More…]

• They could contract under the national health insurance plan to provide a prepaid system. [More…]

• I think that is one of the areas at which our Hospitals and Health Services Commission could look and which would be of great profit to the people of Australia by providing a better quality health service. [More…]

• I think that what should be pointed out is that for the first time an Australian Government will be promoting an actual health policy within Australia. [More…]

• Really all that amounted to was the provision of a systematised flow of money to purchase the services of doctors and hospitals in the open market; there was no effort to organise the provision of health services, no effort to have an overall health care program, and above all no effort to have a preventive health care program. [More…]

• not see why we should not do that in the case of health services as well, and this is what we seek to do by. [More…]

• the establishment of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, the subject of the measure we have before the House tonight. [More…]

• I particularly congratulate the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) not only for getting about his business in establishing this Commission so early but also on his apointment of Dr Sax as the Chairman of the Commission. [More…]

• I think it is important that we have this initiative now in Australia actually to try to organise a comprehensive health care policy. [More…]

• I think the first speech I made on health care in this House about 4 years ago was on the subject of having a medical manpower policy. [More…]

• I think one of the major tasks for the Hospitals and Health Services Commission will be to evolve a medical manpower policy. [More…]

• I was also a little disappointed that the Opposition seems to think that all the Commission would do would be to establish health centres, overriding the political interests of State governments. [More…]

• The charter of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission will be very much wider. [More…]

• It is quite obvious that most Opposition members have not read any of the reports of the Interim Committee on Hospitals and Health services. [More…]

• Obviously very few of them have read the first report giving a general outline of a community health services program to be provided in Australia. [More…]

• He apparently believes that the establishment of health centres will somehow undermine the relationship between patients and doctors. [More…]

• Once we get in to the health centre context in which there is a more ready availability of paramedical services and other supportive services, such as welfare counselling, I think we will find that there will be far less recourse to drugs with the consequent problem of drug induced disease. [More…]

• Incidentally, one interesting sidelight of the things that did happen with 25 general practitioners is that six of them spent some of their time actively canvassing against the Government’s health insurance proposals. [More…]

• Another broad area al which I would like the Commission to look is the whole question of social priorities in the field of health care. [More…]

• In spite of the large amount of public money that is being diverted to these types of ventures, it appears as though there is not really very much return from them by way of the increased welfare or health of the community. [More…]

• It refers to the provision of a health centre in the Christies Beach area of South Australia, which is in my electorate. [More…]

• I know that the idea of the provision of a health centre in the Christies Beach area was mooted some time ago. [More…]

• I also know that the reasons for the delay in the provision of this health centre were unavoidable. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health will be able to ensure that the very real needs of this area will be met and that , we will be able to provide a community health centre in association with the Flinders Medical Faculty at the very earliest opportunity. [More…]

• I have very much pleasure in supporting the Bill, and I am sure it will herald a great improvement in providing a systematic flow of health services to the people of Australia. [More…]

• to promote the provision of adequate health services, including - [More…]

• information and education services for the preservation of health; <ii) services for the prevention of illness; [More…]

• domiciliary health care services; [More…]

• Those items really cover the whole gamut of a possible health service and, if the function of the Commission is simply to plan, it is proper that it should be covering that whole gamut. [More…]

• However, the introductory words state that it is to promote the provision of adequate health services. [More…]

• That does not say that it will promote the planning for the provision of adequate health services, and it would appear that this Bill, perhaps because of bad and obscure drafting, is not confining the Commission to the planning function. [More…]

• Paragraph (h) sets out one of the functions of the Commission and refers to ‘such other functions in relation to health care as the Minister approves’. [More…]

• It does not mention planning health care, as it should if the description of the Minister and the Government of this Bill is to be taken at face value. [More…]

• Let me give another example that occurred only today in respect of the Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• It was said in the Minister’s second reading speech that preference in employment would be given to members of the staffs of health funds That is right and proper. [More…]

• Mr CHIPP (Hotham)- by leave - When the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) is replying will he also answer the question asked by the honourable member for Isaacs (Mr Hamer) as to whether between now and the passage of this Bill through the Senate he will give consideration to amending the Bill to allow for reports under this Bill to be treated in the same way as are reports that are submitted to the Minister under the Social Welfare Commission Bill? [More…]

• The members of tha interim committee will become members of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• The fact that the amendments mentioned tonight - those that have been moved and those that have been discussed with me but not moved - were never mentioned in relation to the Bill which led to the setting up of the Social Welfare Commission suggests to me that this is a rather late, panic reaction in the hope that something will be done by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• Roughly the same regulations apply also in France - there is a mandatory period there - so that people will not be poisoned by wood alcohol or by other devious materials that are questionable on health grounds alone. [More…]

• The Minister for Health is not succeeding in his portfolio so he should not try to help me on a matter of privilege. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Social Security made any arrangements with suppliers of computer equipment for the operation of the Government’s health insurance program? [More…]

• The computer which is being considered is one which can be used by the Department and would be required by the Department in any event whether or not the health insurance legislation is enacted. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware that the pharmaceutical company, Imperial Chemical Industries of Australia and New Zealand Ltd, recently sent by airmail a fresh red carnation to every medical practitioner in at least some States to publicise the drug eraldin made by ICI and from which restrictions on prescribing have recently been lifted? [More…]

• On 6 December in this House I made a personal explanation, which is reported at page 4377 of Hansard, where I said that I had been quoted in the Melbourne ‘Sun’ of that morning “ as saying that the Government Health scheme would benefit only pensioners, migrants, indolents no-hopers and alcoholics. [More…]

• What clearer mandate could this Government have than the mandate we have for education or the mandate we have for health? [More…]

• We do have certain reservations with respect to the method of funding which is proposed but we nevertheless appreciate that the present backlog of unsewered properties is a major contributor to health and pollution problems in Australia’s cities. [More…]

• The community will benefit because of the earlier installation of this most essential health service. [More…]

• The positive environmental and health benefits that will result from the moneys provided in this legislation flow only from the initiative of this Government. [More…]

• The great backlog in sewerage services with which the Bill deals had had a detrimental effect on the health of the outer suburbs of our great capital cities inasmuch as it is in those areas that the incidence of diseases such as gastro-enteritis and hepatitis has risen most dramatically in the post-war period. [More…]

• The issues would include inflation, taxation, the development of this great country and what is not happening in it today, health, the Australian Industry Develop- ment Corporation Bill, centralism, socialism, pensioners and their plight in this inflationary situation and the industrial situation. [More…]

• I ask a question of the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Will he agree that, in addition to that fact, it is also of advantage to the nation to encourage the use and production of the health food of the nation? [More…]

• But we have decided, on the advice of experts in the National Health and Medical Research Council and in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in Sydney who have actually sponsored surveys in this area using school medical services and other sources, that it would be more productive to use the money which has been dissipated in this area to upgrade the services available to families that are in fact suffering from malnutrition. [More…]

• I ask: Has his attention been drawn to a subsequent statement by the New South Wales Minister for Health in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly to the effect that the entire financing of the proposed Newcastle medical school would be the responsibility of the Australian Government and that the New South Wales Government will come into the picture only to the extent that it will become, as desired by Canberra, some sort of administering agency for the Australian Government and that all the finance will come from Canberra? [More…]

• Further, will the Acting Minister liaise with the New South Wales Minister for Health to see that everything possible is done to ensure that the school will be ready for its first intake of students in 1977? [More…]

• I understand that Mr Willis is a bit upset because he is not happy with the way in which the Federal Parliament is running education and health affairs. [More…]

• The House will be aware that the sale of school shark over a certain size is now prohibited in Victoria owing to the mercury content exceeding that recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Some of the organisations have been given permanent statutory form, such as the Schools Commission, the Social Welfare Commission, the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, the Prices Justification Tribunal and the Pipeline Authority; others have had their statutory charter utterly transformed, such as the Grants Commission, the Cities Commission and the Industries Assistance Commission. [More…]

• When I speak of equality of opportunity I am not thinking simply of the removal of poverty or the redress of obvious injustices such as those in education or health. [More…]

• How striking it is, how revealing, how salutary a lesson for the Australian people, that the two areas of Government policy most fundamental to the people’s needs and aspirations - education and health - are the very areas where our opponents have resisted our reforms with the greatest determination. [More…]

• 2 May: Report of the Health Insurance Planning Committee - Tabled by Mr Hayden. [More…]

• 30 May: A Report from the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission Interim Committee - Tabled by Dr Everingham. [More…]

• 12 December: Medical Rehabilitation Program for Australia - Report of National Hospitals and Health Services Commission Interim Committee - Tabled by Dr Everingham. [More…]

• 1 hope that we all come back in excellent health and spirits. [More…]

• This provision is contained in Section 40AB (4) of the National Health Act. [More…]

• The National Health Act does not contain a definition of ‘institution other than an approved nursing home’. [More…]

• Applications are only rejected under Section 40AB (4) of the National Health Act where some alternative more suitable accommodation is available. [More…]

• One of the conditions applying to the eligibility criteria for the domiciliary nursing care benefit, under the provisions of the National Health Act, is that the Director-General must be satisfied that the infirmity or illness, disease, incapacity or disability of the patient is such that if he applied for approval of admission to a nursing home his application would be approved. [More…]

• What groups in the community as defined in the Australian Health Insurance Program, are not covered by the present health scheme, and how many people are in each group. [More…]

• and (3) It is assumed that the honourable member is referring to community and religious hos pitals that are approved under the National Health Act as private hospitals. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• If so, what standards are set by Health Authorities on their manufacture. [More…]

• and (4) There are no standards set by the Health authorities either in the States or in the Territories. [More…]

• The avenue for Federal/State co-operation in adopting uniform standards is the National Therapeutic Goods Committee on which are represented the Federal and State health authorities. [More…]

• In relation to the equipment mentioned under (b) and (c) in the preceding paragraph, I should point out that this equipment is designed for use both by the Department of Social Security in connection with its current responsibilities and for the proposed ‘Health Insurance Program. [More…]

• If the Health Insurance legislation is deferred, then it is proposed to give priority to the development of departmental applications. [More…]

• To support adequately the proposed Health Insurance Program, a second machine of the same size would be required in Canberra but no arrangements have been made with I.B.M. [More…]

• Will he seek details from the Public Service Board of the progress that has been made in implementing the system of reporting on the placement of physically handicapped persons which the Board indicated it was planning to introduce when it gave evidence to the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare in 1971. [More…]

• Is it a fact that under the proposed National Health Insurance Scheme a person desiring to use intermediate or private hospital facilities will need to subscribe to 2 organisations in order to have adequate cover, viz. [More…]

• The Government’s Australian Health Insurance Program will provide a basic cover of medical benefits in respect of private doctors fees plus free hospital accommodation and medical treatment in a standard ward. [More…]

• Under the present scheme a wealthier person’s’ health insurance contribution is worth more as a tax deduction than a poorer person’s contribution. [More…]

• Under the Australian Health Insurance Program a man earning $70.00 a week will pay about $33.00 per annum by way of levy. [More…]

• The rate of this benefit was increased to SS a day by the National Health Bill 1966. [More…]

• The Government’s Health Insurance Program provides for the net operating costs of public hospitals incurred in caring for all patients, including pensioners, to be shared with State Governments on a 50/50 basis. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Have site works commenced for the construction of the health centre at Canberra’s Civic Centre. [More…]

• Has each general practitioner in the area been offered a position at the health centre; if so, on what terms as to salary and conditions of service. [More…]

• Site works have commenced for the construciton of the interim health centre at Canberra’s Civic Centre. [More…]

• Health Services officers. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Can he say whether the Governments of West Germany, France and Italy have placed restrictions on the use of certain varieties of rapeseed oil foodstuffs because of the health danger from erucic acid. [More…]

• Will his Department place similar restrictions in Australia, and publicise the health danger resulting from the use of certain varieties of rapeseed oil. [More…]

• The absence of health regulations pertaining to erucic acid can be attributed to the inconclusiveness of the tests performed in France to date, and also the oilseed shortage which prevails in that country. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council, through its Food Standards Committee, has this matter under active consideration at the present time. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Interim Committee of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission is examining the operation of ambulance services in Australia with a view to recommending to the Government ways and means whereby such services may be assisted. [More…]

• Discussions will be held with the States as part of the Interim Committee’s examination of the provision of transport to and from health services. [More…]

• Particular note is being taken of health, transport needs in remote regions. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• <6) Is the medical course at Australian universities considered appropriate for Asian medical students returning to Asia, in view of its low emphasis on tropical medicine, public health and pediatrics. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• There are no arrangements for the Department of Health is supply oxygen to pensioners) in their homes, or to supply the equipment required to administer it. [More…]

• In keeping with its constitutional responsibilities to provide hospital benefits and medical services, my Government is determined to act on a national basis to give all Australians access to high quality health careat reasonable cost. [More…]

• A national hospitals program being developed by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission will be . [More…]

• The late Dr Cameron was Minister for Health in the Menzies Government from 1956 to 1961, Minister in charge of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation from 1960 to 1962 and Australian High Commissioner in New Zealand from 1962 to 1965. [More…]

• He had held the posts of Commonwealth Minister for Health and Ministerincharge of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. [More…]

• Dr Cameron’s quiet, gentle, unassuming nature belied the vitality and resourcefulness which he brought to ‘bear as a national figure in the Australian Parliament where he served as Minister for Health from January 1956 to December 1961. [More…]

• Dr Donald Cameron once described health as ‘one of the most fruitful fields of human co-operation’. [More…]

• He made that remark in addressing the tenth Assembly of the World Health Organisation in Geneva in 1957 and I think it provides perhaps the best single summation of his outlook to the field of endeavour to which he devoted his life. [More…]

• The fact that Dr Cameron, was the first Australian Minister for Health to address the Assembly, and his election as vice-president, illustrate the esteem in which he was held in health circles. [More…]

• The mass poliomyelitis immunisation campaign was launched in Australia in the year Dr Cameron became Minister for Health. [More…]

• After serving as Minister for Health he was Australian High Commissioner in New Zealand from 1962 to 1965. [More…]

• We were and are prepared to fight an election on the Conciliation and Arbitration Bill, on the Commonwealth Electoral Bill, on the Health Insurance Bill or the 4 Bills now before this House. [More…]

• Under the Australian assistance plan special aid is being made available to local government authorities to enable them more effectively to provide health and welfare services in their communities. [More…]

• Anyone who has had experience of unsewered suburbs, poor health services, poor planning procedures, inadequate local transport, neglected environmental standards, and the shortage of playing fields, community centres and opportunities for culture and recreation can understand why, because for too long local government has been a vassal of the States. [More…]

• But we have found in the case of the floods, we are finding in the case of the road grants which must be legislated for this year, we found in regard to pensioner rates, health centres and day care centres, to mention some specific instances, that it is a very clumsy way of promoting the activities which the community now expects from local government instead of from the Commonwealth or State governments. [More…]

• More recently, increasing emphasis has been placed - especially by IDA but also by the IBRD to a limited extent - on projects with greater social implications and more direct benefits for the masses of needly people in developing countries, such as urban renewal, population control, public health and sewerage, and improved agricultural credit and extension services for small farmers. [More…]

• Since coming to office I have endeavoured to see what could be done in respect of improving the possibility of providing honourable members with the opportunity to have their say, to have adequate debate and at the same time to fulfil the normal requirements for health and the commitments that I have mentioned. [More…]

• The Conciliation and Arbitration Bill, the Australian Industries Development Corporation Bill, the Health Insurance Bill and the Trade Practices Bill are only marginal reflections of the totality of the 19 Bills of very great substance and significance which were guillotined last year. [More…]

• A health plan has been presented. [More…]

• Good health for all has been the cornerstone of this Government’s policy in this area. [More…]

• Health and recreation are as important to this Government as investment and employment. [More…]

• The ideal of equal opportunity our Government strives for in many fields like education, health, social services and race relations is already inherent in sport. [More…]

• The health scheme gets very brief mention in the Speech and I suppose that is understandable because I do not think the Government itself is quite sure just what sort of a scheme it is going to end up with. [More…]

• We had to have some grand centralised bureaucratic approach to health. [More…]

• I refer to the loss of one’s health. [More…]

• It is amazing that people can see as the only answer to natural disasters a form of insurance controlled by the national government when in the field of health they do not recognise the need for a national scheme controlled by the national government. [More…]

• Perhaps they will in a very short time see the need for a national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• I ask honourable members to consider what has been done in the area of health. [More…]

• I instance the provision of community health centres, drug withdrawal facilities and necessary psychiatric facilities. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) has provided various other facilities, including the means of treating alcoholism. [More…]

• Indeed, as I have mentioned in public addresses that I have made on behalf of the health committee of the Liberal Party, the whole purpose of our consideration of a health scheme is not obsessed with what was known as the Hayden scheme of merely directing itself to ‘funding, but to the prevention of disease and sickness. [More…]

• In debates in this House we have heard examples cited of other countries in relation to their health system, their education system and other things. [More…]

• Now let us look at what is proposed for the people of Robertson in the health field - an area even more neglected by our predecessors than education. [More…]

• Last year, to its great credit the New South Wales Health Commission sent to the Central Coast a very well informed, progressive young doctor, Dr Howard Gwynne, to study the health facilities of the Central Coast and to make recommendations to overcome the glaring deficiencies he uncovered. [More…]

• Three factors were evident in his excellent report: The unbelievably high proportion of aged people, the growing numbers of young families with children and the need to provide improved health care in the community and at home. [More…]

• Health care is changing its emphasis to preventative methods and to treating people in their own homes rather than for prolonged periods in hospital. [More…]

• The Govern- ment has provided initial finance for 4 mental health clinics at Woy Woy, Terrigal, Wyong and Norah Head. [More…]

• A total of $96,750 has been provided for the establishment of these mental health clinics. [More…]

• However, the most exciting news is that the Government has agreed to finance the establishment of a series of community health centres commencing at The Entrance. [More…]

• Private practice doctors operating on a fee for service basis will be offered rooms in the centre so that patients will have available more complete community health care facilities. [More…]

• The Health Commission has placed an energetic and well informed young man, Mr David Briggs, in the area to oversee the implementation of this farsighted and enlightened program. [More…]

• Two further community health centres are planned for Woy Woy and Wyong. [More…]

• I remind the House again that under the Liberal-Country Party Government health care facilities of this nature received absolutely nothing. [More…]

• This Government has taken a number of new initiatives in the health and welfare sector, involving payments to the States. [More…]

• Some of these relate to community health facilities. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security has an unworkable health scheme which has been rejected not just by the Senate and this Parliament but by his own Party because, search as one would in the Queen’s Speech, one can find no mention of such a scheme coming back in. [More…]

• The health of the people living in the western area of metropolitan Sydney is at present cared for by 4 hospitals, situated at Penrith, Blacktown, Parramatta and - although to a lesser degree - at Windsor. [More…]

• One wonders what has been done in this connection by those concerned within the New South Wales Government, particularly the State Minister for Health. [More…]

• One might ask the question: What has the New South Wales Minister for Health, Mr Waddy, done with this money? [More…]

• Well, we do not know, but what we do know is that the Australian Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) has now decided to allocate $500,000 for extensions to the Liverpool Hospital. [More…]

• The Interim Committee on Hospitals and Health Services, which is known as the Sax Committee, has decided, following investigation, to transfer to other States another $1.5m of the $4m that was originally given to the New South Wales Minister for Health, Mr Waddy, so that immediate use can be made of this money which apparently the Minister for Health in New South Wales cannot use. [More…]

• In view of the fact that the population in this area is increasing at the rate of 25,000 people a year, the health situation to which we can look in this area in the years to come is one of chaos. [More…]

• for the Australian Minister for Health to decide, much against his will, to transfer money from the New South Wales Minister for Health to the extent of $1.4m because that money cannot be used. [More…]

• So this amount of money, which was so generously allocated to meet the tremendous problems of hospitalisation existing today in that area, has been reallocated because of the inefficiency of the New South Wales Government and particularly because of the inability of the New South Wales Minister for Health to foresee the situation and to give to it the attention that was necessary in order to speed up the construction of this hospital as much as possible. [More…]

• Now, as then, the honourable member and those who sit behind him show a complete disinterest in the reports on conditions in government and Catholic schools which have been prepared by bodies such as the Inner Suburban Education Committee, the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare, various organisations of teachers and parents, the migrant education task force and the Interim Schools Commission itself. [More…]

• Everywhere I go I find local government people speaking with excitement and enthusiasm about the functions such as social welfare, health care, conservation and the development of leisure facilities, which they can perform so much better than either the Australian Government or the State governments. [More…]

• I might say that the husband of the lady who wrote to me about this matter is not in good health and the family is concerned that the son should be allowed to come to Australia before anything of a fatal nature happens to the father. [More…]

• Very often an application is made by people in good faith - I do not refer to this particular case - and they give an assurance in their application that there are jobs, that there is accommodation and that their nominees are good people in good health. [More…]

• Infectious diseases, unless they are quarantinable diseases - this is not - are not the responsibility of the Australian Department of Health. [More…]

• A request was made by the Victorian Minister of Health, Mr Scanlan, and I agreed to make available the services of Professor David Lee, of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, who is an authority on the transmission of this disease and who participated in research into an outbreak in 1951. [More…]

• COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICES Mr BENNETT- My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is it a fact that more than Sim has been allocated to Western Australia by the Australian Government for community and mental health services? [More…]

• It depends on the funding arrangements entered into by the State and the local community health committee. [More…]

• The first question was whether further funds can be made available through the community health program. [More…]

• The nature of these mental health services depends upon projects proposed by the States. [More…]

• I should like to devote my time chiefly to just 2 areas in the whole area of government, .and they are the initiatives that we have taken in the fields of education and health. [More…]

• Firstly, in the field of health - [More…]

• I wish now to deal with the field of health. [More…]

• Labor’s critics have attacked the national health insurance scheme as a classic example of the Australian Government’s power hungry centralism. [More…]

• I believe that in the field of health we can show that this criticism is totally unfounded and totally uninformed. [More…]

• To substantiate this assertion we need only to look at the community health program. [More…]

• However, before speaking about that let me say a few words about the universal health scheme. [More…]

• We know that the doctors, the voluntary health insurance funds, the private hospitals and the nursing homes were successful in their hysterical campaign to block our legislation to implement this scheme. [More…]

• I know that at present many people in the community which I represent are at risk because they cannot afford to join a voluntary health insurance organisation. [More…]

• Already there have been - this is particularly so in Victoria - sharp rises in the rates payable by contributors to health insurance schemes. [More…]

• The present community health scheme certainly is not just a health scheme operating at the national level, nor does it operate even at the State level. [More…]

• The then Interim Committee of the Australian Hospitals and Health Services Commission in June last year tabled a community health program for Australia. [More…]

• I believe that the 2 words ‘community’ and ‘health’ are the key words. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), who has had wide experience in these matters, has said that the ideal is one doctor to no more than 3,000 people, plus para-medical help. [More…]

• Again I emphasise the word ‘community’ because it is at the community level where people at grass roots under our system of government are able to make known their health needs. [More…]

• Included in the people who attended that meeting were representatives of the Australian and Victorian Health Departments and the 2 doctors in the area, who were most enthusiastic supporters. [More…]

• The people, aware of the example of community health centres established and functioning well in the Australian Capital Territory and of the money set aside in Victoria, made it abundantly clear that they also wanted a community health centre in the DovetonHallam area. [More…]

• It is perhaps significant to mention in passing that wherever there is a great need for health services and a complexity of health problems doctors in the area seem to give their support. [More…]

• The submission of the community’s elected group will shortly be on its way to the Australian Hospital and Health Services Commission and the Minister in Canberra and also to the Victorian Hospitals and Charities Commission and the Victorian Minister. [More…]

• Given the strength of its case, which is due, in no small part, to the lack of concern and indifference of the previous Government and its failure to implement any comprehensive and adequate policy of health care, there is every likelihood that full approval will be given, with accompanying finance for the proposal. [More…]

• Of course, on a number of occasions the Minister for Health has outlined the alarming shortcomings of the present system which he has described in phrases such as haphazard and inefficient’ and ‘fragmented and wasteful’. [More…]

• I submit that this Government has given a whole new dimension in its approach to health care. [More…]

• This results from the premise, which is the basis of our approach to this subject, that we believe that we have both a right and a responsibility to give all Australians access to high quality health care at reasonable cost. [More…]

• In conclusion, 1 believe that what must be emphasised in relation to the whole of this community health program is that it is not something imposed from above. [More…]

• They support the proposition put by the Australian Democratic Labor Party in the Senate in relation to health insurance funds at a cost of $ 1,400m in one year. [More…]

• In the field of health we have done more than, any government has ever done. [More…]

• We have embarked upon community health programs with the State governments in order to provide much needed psychiatric centres for alcoholics and drug control which hitherto were not available. [More…]

• For years social workers and people engaged in preventive medicine and in other fields told the previous Government that these things were necessary, but we never had a Minister for Health with an inventive mind who was prepared to go ahead and introduce these policies. [More…]

• As much as it might hurt the Opposition for me to say this, the Government’s policy in establishing health centres in the Australian Capital Territory has been an outstanding success. [More…]

• I agree with him in regard to the health scheme. [More…]

• We on this side of the House know that the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) is searching the world for an alternative national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• He is trying to tap other people’s brains in order to produce a health scheme. [More…]

• I suppose that we would have got back to a 50c a week increase in pensions, to per capita grants in education when the system was collapsing and to no increase in funds for Aboriginal affairs or in health or other areas. [More…]

• Health centres are starting to come. [More…]

• Indeed, on alternate days the Opposition argues that there should be increases in public expenditure, for example, on defence, pensions or health services which it almost totally ignored when in office, and a range of other areas. [More…]

• I know that the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) is having difficulties in implementing the health scheme that he has so broadly advocated around the country, but I wish that he would bring himself up to date on some of those international comparisons of which he spoke. [More…]

• Massive campaigns have been waged by an ‘ organised minority of doctors, the health funds, industrial groups, education lobbies and others in such fields as tariffs, aid for wealthy schools, industrial relations and health. [More…]

• While we are mentioning the chemists I might add that the industrial pharmaceutical companies, of which 97 per cent are overseas owned, have headed one of the organised lobbies against bringing in the most urgently needed health reforms in this country. [More…]

• There are essential matters which the Opposition must not be allowed to obstruct, such as health, hospitals and so on. [More…]

• Three community health centres and 3 mental health clinics are to be set up. [More…]

• His second complaint was that this case was straightforward and should not have taken this length of time to determine, that the parents were in ill-health and that they wanted the son and family to join them, that this should not be delayed and the assisted passage should be granted. [More…]

• She told the honourable member there was ill health in the family and of course this gave edge to his concern, and I acknowledge it, but the son said the parents were both in good health. [More…]

• This was the applicant for whom an assisted passage was being sought at the expense of the Australian taxpayers to help build the nation - 29 convictions, 4 periods in gaol, unemployed for 4 years up until now, declined employment because the dole was better and was not even sure where his parents lived or what their state of health was. [More…]

• It is well known that the introduction of the proposed health scheme by the Government has been rejected by the Senate. [More…]

• But that has not meant that the Government has not improved the whole question of health care in Australia. [More…]

• We have seen the introduction of a community health scheme. [More…]

• In this regard I wish to refer to grants made to community health centres. [More…]

• Altogether an amount of approximately $400,000 has been granted to the electorate of Grey for the various health projects that have been submitted to the Government. [More…]

• West of that area there is no township other than the small township of Penong, which relies on Ceduna for its health services. [More…]

• The grant of $126,000 will enable the setting up of a mobile clinic at Ceduna to service this area and to provide health care to the people of the area. [More…]

• Another area which has benefited from the community health centres grant is Coober Pedy, which is an isolated opal mining centre approximately 400 miles by road from Port Augusta. [More…]

• It relies on a flying doctor service and a hospital run by dedicated nursing sisters for its health care. [More…]

• The granting of an extra $125,000 to this area will enable a better health care service to be provided. [More…]

• Altogether the amount that has been granted for community health services in the electorate of Grey is in excess of $400,000. [More…]

• The Australian Government is making greatly increased sums available to Western Australia for education, health and welfare, the cities and other areas in line with its national policies in these fields. [More…]

• This is also the case in the field of health where there was a tremendous opportunity for good work to be done by the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden). [More…]

• One has been the idea of evolving various sorts of health centres. [More…]

• But why should it destroy all of that with some revolutionary scheme fathered from other countries in the area of health insurance in a national health program? [More…]

• It is now searching out and destroying health funds. [More…]

• It latest ploys in that field could be aimed only at destroying the workings of the present health scheme and the health funds into the bargain. [More…]

• Very large funds are being made available by the Australian Government for such varied projects as health centres, through the Department of Health, and community recreation centres, through the Department of Tourism and Recreation. [More…]

• lt has taken a change in government - to an Australian Labor Party Government - to bring recognition of the need to provide funds for local government and to provide these kinds of funds for sewerage construction authorities for what is a basic, essential health service. [More…]

• It is also claimed that the Australian Labor Government’s plans, its intentions, much of its thinking and its history require it to redistribute resources away from areas of lesser importance towards areas of great national need - areas that include social welfare, the relief of poverty, education, health and the solution of quality of life problems in the cities - and that this will have an adverse effect on business in Australia. [More…]

• In the field of health there are new plans, new health centres. [More…]

• They intend to increase expenditure in health because they have no intention whatsoever of controlling the fees of doctors on the health funds. [More…]

• What will happen to the health centres? [More…]

• We do not have to be terribly imaginative to know what will happen to our program to bring free health centres to the people of Australia. [More…]

• I think that honourable members opposite will probably openly cut expenditure in this area because they have never really liked free health centres in the first place. [More…]

• I do not want to be unduly critical of the Minister for Social Security, who personally to me is the soul of co-operation, but I was astonished - if I may intrude this matter - to be telephoned by a representative of the Press tonight at 9 o’clock just before I was about to speak and asked: ‘Would you care to comment on a statement just made by the Minister for Social Security on private health insurance?’ [More…]

• What is the situation when Parliament is sitting and the Minister issues a statement on private health insurance which is a basic attack on the life insurance funds and does not make it to the Parliament? [More…]

• I would, however, be pleased lo refer specific proposals of this nature to the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• There were 2 further sites to be purchased - the baby health centre and a service station which is on the corner of George Street and O’Connell Street. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware that there have been 3 deaths recently in central Australia which are thought to have been caused by Murray Valley encephalitis? [More…]

• Is it a fact that the Department of Health in Darwin has issued a statement concerning the suspected outbreak of Murray Valley encephalitis in Alice Springs? [More…]

• I refer to health services and the provision of a range of health centres throughout the community. [More…]

• They need support from health and welfare services at the community level. [More…]

• We need health and welfare services to help many of these people. [More…]

• In addition to making spare bed capacity available, the Repatriation Department is working closely with a number of other health authorities to achieve greater use of some specialist facilities such as pathology, radiology and renal services. [More…]

• I cannot understand how it can be suggested that a man of 60 who has been on a TPI or TrI pension has suddenly improved in health to the stage where he can return to work. [More…]

• It is time there was some hard line policy that when a man reaches a certain age his pension should not be reduced because through the use of good medicine his health has slightly improved. [More…]

• In considering this matter I am reminded of the report from the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare concerning repatriation. [More…]

• The honourable member quoted at great length from the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and Welfare which investigated the Repatriation Act, in particular the provisions of the Repatriation Act relating to the payment of pensions. [More…]

• I understand that it is also engaged in an inquiry into a health laboratory project in Melbourne as well. [More…]

• and (2) Yes, some employees of the Bulli Brick and Tile Company qualified for assistance under the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan during the strike which ended in August 1973. [More…]

• These employees’ eligibility for assistance under the “low income family” provisions of the National Health Act was in no way affected by their direct participation in an industrial dispute. [More…]

• It is likely that employees directly involved in industrial disputes have, in the past, been assisted with the cost of health insurance through the Subsidised Health Benefits Plan. [More…]

• Through our related policies on roads, on making up the sewerage backlog, on urban public transport investment, on the environment, on education, on social welfare programmes and on health we are also seeking to bring an end to the isolated and incomplete development of new urban areas. [More…]

• They need more food, more jobs, better distribution of income, new labour-intensive technologies and better access to health and education facilities. [More…]

• We are now in the fourth year of the Second United National Development Decade, the objectives of which are set out in a strategy which was adopted at the United Nations General Assembly on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• All reports which the Government has commissioned have been tabled; for example, the Coombs Task Force report; the Priorities Review Committee report; the Green and White Papers on Health Insurance; the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission - First Report; the Protection Commission Inquiry; a report from the Social Welfare Commission concerning Aged Person’s Housing; the First Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Land Tenures; the Re-organisation of the Defence Group of Departments; the Care and Education of Young Children - a report of the Australian Pre-schools Committee; report of the Advisory Committee on CES Employment Statistics, and many others. [More…]

• More than 6 per cent of the total world output is devoted to the military - 2i times what all governments spend on health, li times what is spent on education and 30 times what is spent on development aid. [More…]

• These include $9m for pre-school and child care centres; $1.7m for health services, of which $0.5m is for blood transfusion services and $0.7m for the school dental scheme; $lm for grants to the apple and pear and canning fruit industries; and $l.lm for assistance in relation to natural disasters in previous years. [More…]

• What is needed for medical students in Asian countries is greater emphasis on matters of public health and community medicine where sophisticated surgery techniques and other drugs are not available and where some improvision in the basic practice of medicine is required. [More…]

• In the area of public health, once again a very basic area, we ought perhaps to be helping to bring elementary systems of sanitation into some of the very large cities of Asia where sewers empty straight into the gutter where the untreated effluent flows into the rivers that provide the water supply for the population of some very large cities. [More…]

• Perhaps we ought to be assisting in specific projects of public health in those areas and also in the general field of elementary education. [More…]

• It is using the principles of free enterprise and free competition to which they were not so exposed under our predecessors who were wont to ring up gentlemen in the Department of Health and say: ‘Please lay off our friends.’ [More…]

• I notice that none of the interjections I hear are coming from former Ministers for Health. [More…]

• Their problems are problems in the area of community health and hygiene. [More…]

• So often some of the people who are trained in Australia either stay here or leave Australia and go to other developed countries or return to the urban centres of the underdeveloped world when the places to which they need to return are the rural areas of underdeveloped countries so that the standards of the poor can be raised, so that health facilities can be improved and so that the opportunities for education can be expanded. [More…]

• More than 6 per cent of the total world output is devoted to the military - 21/2 times what all governments spend on health . [More…]

• It is good for your health. [More…]

• That is unhealthy.’ [More…]

• Here again I imagine that our own Department of Primary Industry and perhaps the Department of Health could be of considerable assistance in advising Papua New Guinea on standards required in processing plants and the testing of samples to make sure that they comply with international world health standards. [More…]

• If the rumours I heard prior to standing in my place to make this speech about supply being stopped or curbed there will be even further delays, as there will be delays in supplying this country with the necessary funds to get on with tasks in the fields of health, education and many other areas where this Government has made such a mark in such a short space of time. [More…]

• A person who suffers bad health is in the Provident Fund. [More…]

• The health scheme lies in ruins. [More…]

• This scheme was opposed by the medical profession, by the hospitals and by the health funds. [More…]

• The purpose of a health scheme is to deliver health care. [More…]

• How can you deliver health care when the people who are responsible to deliver it will have no truck with the scheme which is put forward? [More…]

• We would be concerned with social welfare, health and education programs, and we are determined that there would be no better systems of social welfare, health and education in any other country. [More…]

• It is quite wrong for Mr Whitlam or anyone else to claim that the Labor Party was given a mandate for a new health scheme, for making the Australian Industry Development Corporation an instrument for the socialisation of industry, for changing the electoral laws, or for any of the other things for which he claims a mandate. [More…]

• The Leader of the House making one declaration of urgency and moving one motion for the allotment of time in respect of a Health Insurance Bill 1973 and a Health Insurance Commission Bill 1973. [More…]

• A universal health scheme was a 1972 mandate endorsed by the Australian people. [More…]

• Even President Nixon is about to introduce universal health insurance. [More…]

• Ours is one of the few nations without an extensive universal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Undoubtedly it will be a major election issue and undoubtedly the Health Insurance Commission will be an important one. [More…]

• It should permit those gentlemen in another place to take their minds off ex-Senator Gair, their distinguished colleague to whom they object so strongly today, and let them discuss this matter of urgent national importance before the elections so that the people will know which is the party in this country that stands against good health insurance for the Australian people and so that they will know what is Labor Party policy. [More…]

• This is a chance for them to show they are statesmen - if they think they are - by supporting this motion and by letting the Australian people be the ultimate judges of these health schemes. [More…]

• It is an extraordinary procedure for the Government to move for the suspension of Standing Orders to enable two Health Bills to be debated without showing the courtesy of advising the Opposition spokesman on health. [More…]

• Health Bills which were before this House in the latter part of last year. [More…]

• Last year the Government indicated that should the Opposition parties refuse to pass the health legislation, then that would lead to a double dissolution. [More…]

• The tactic and the technique tonight is to seek to defer the Appropriation Bills which were before the House and to camouflage that particular issue on which the Opposition parties stand in total unanimity by the introduction of these health measures. [More…]

• It is no secret that there is disunity of purpose in the Government’s ranks with respect to national health legislation. [More…]

• That meeting was to be told of a new health proposition, not directly by the Minister but apparently by two of his own lackeys. [More…]

• Clearly what had happened, according to information directly from the caucus room, was that there was a major division about the national health scheme. [More…]

• If the Government wants to debate again on what is now a totally discredited health scheme, the Opposition parties are prepared to debate it tonight - that is, on the basis that it is the same legislation as that which came before the House in the latter part of last year. [More…]

• It is totally discourteous to the health spokesman on this side of the House. [More…]

• I should have thought that the very least the Minister might have done would have been to indicate to the Opposition health spokesman that this matter was to come before the House. [More…]

• The fact is that the Health Insurance Bill which will be presented in a few minutes is the same Bill which we introduced in the Parliament in the closing stages of the summer session of the Parliament last year. [More…]

• We are introducing the Bill again to demonstrate clearly to the public that it is not our fault that a universal health insurance program is not in operation in Australia today. [More…]

• The Senate, dominated by the Opposition and its acolytes in the Democratic Labor Party, sold out not to the public interest but to minority privileged interests in the community - to the Australian Medical Association, the Society of General Practitioners of Australia, and to the health insurance funds which are over stuffed with reserves which belong to the contributors [More…]

• -We intend to demonstrate to the Australian public that it does not have a universal health insurance scheme because of the intransigence, because of the political opportunism of the Opposition and its camp followers in the Democratic Labor Party in the Senate. [More…]

• As was pointed c it by the Minister for Services and Property, Australia is one of the few countries in the world without a universal health insurance program. [More…]

• The Minister for Services and Property also pointed out that the United States of America, which has a President noted for his conservative attitudes and many faults, nonetheless is moving towards a situation where it will have a universal health insurance program. [More…]

• But honourable members opposite and their partners in the Senate are not interested in community health. [More…]

• But one thing about the Opposition spokesman on health matters is that on these issues he is co-operative in preventing the taking up of the time of debate by the making of speeches such as the one I am making. [More…]

• This motion proposes that we will have until 9.45 tonight for the second reading debate on 2 major Bills - the Health Insurance Bill and the Health Insurance Commission Bill; and only 15 minutes is to be allowed for the Committee stage and for the third reading stage of the Bills. [More…]

• The health of the people is an urgent matter. [More…]

• Moreover, it will be no surprise to anybody in this House when I tell the House that the Opposition has decided already that, no matter what the Government says about the need for ensuring proper health cover for the people of Australia and no matter how long the debate takes place, the Opposition will reject our proposition. [More…]

• Everyone knows that, no matter how long the Leader of the House (Mr Daly) gives for the debate and no matter what is said in support of providing a proper health scheme for the people of Australia, the Country Party and the Liberal Party are going to reject it. [More…]

• It has been our intention, and we are fulfilling that, to reintroduce this Bill because we regard health as an important issue at any election, but not the only issue. [More…]

• When I mention a debate it reminds me of the fact that the honourable member for Hotham, who is the Opposition spokesman on health and welfare matters and who has followed these matters so closely in the last 18 months, would be well enough versed to enter into a debate of this subject without having a copy of what I might happen to say. [More…]

• We are doing this because the introduction of an equitable and efficient health insurance program covering all Australians was one of our major election promises and one which was clearly approved by the electorate. [More…]

• This Act may be cited as the Health Insurance Commission Act 1973. [More…]

• It is quite impossible for this Bill to become such an Act because the title is ‘Health Insurance Commission Act 1973’ and that calendar year has ended. [More…]

• The whole debate on health insurance has polarised opinions roughly according to whether people have a progressive and socially concerned outlook or whether they are so conservative as to resist all worthwhile change. [More…]

• But there is one point on which there is general agreement and this is that in some way or other all Australians should have health insurance coverage. [More…]

• It would, of course, be possible to tinker with the so-called voluntary health insurance scheme to provide a patchwork coverage for the more than one and a half million people who do not have insurance coverage at present. [More…]

• Nobody can pretend that the present health insurance scheme is either equitable or efficient. [More…]

• Under the proposals in these Bills - and I point out that the Health Insurance Commission Bill flows from the Health Insurance Bill - everyone in the community will be automatically covered. [More…]

• This would represent a very costly partial solution to the social challenge posed by the inadequacies of the present pensioner medical service and the plight of low income earners who are unable to afford coverage under the existing health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The fact is that the present means test for deciding eligibility for the pensioner medical service for a couple without children is $86.50 a week, whereas a couple without children cannot be admitted to the subsidised health benefits plan unless they have a weekly income of $69.50 or less. [More…]

• The Bill now before the House will enable the implementation of a program which will provide complete coverage, including specialist medical care, for all pensioners and low income earners for the same total cost as would be incurred in the continuation of the existing ramshackle array of health care schemes. [More…]

• Tinkering with the pensioner medical service to cover pensioners under the subsidised health benefits plan will exclude great numbers of people who would otherwise have enjoyed the benefits of the pensioner medical service. [More…]

• Tonight let us hear clearly and in quite concrete terms what is the Opposition’s alternative program and how the Opposition proposes to remedy the serious defects in the present health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Attempts have been made fo cause fear in the public mind about the use of health insurance cards. [More…]

• I should rather hope that we will see no more of this discreditable propaganda following the report, tabled in this Parliament on 7 March, oy the Committee of Inquiry into the Protection of Privacy on the question of patient privacy in health insurance. [More…]

• The Committee of Inquiry into the Protection of Privacy made recommendations which are in line with the Government’s intentions, as spelt out in the White Paper regarding the use of health insurance cards. [More…]

• We had, prior to the report by the Committee, made it clear that the recommendations of the Committee concerning confidentiality of patient information would be included at an appropriate time in the health insurance legislation. [More…]

• A close examination is being made of the Committee’s recommendations in preparation for the introduction of appropriate amendments to the health insurance legislation, whether embodied in the Bill now before the House, in complementary legislation, or in interim amendments to the existing National Health Act. [More…]

• The total costs of the program will be the same as those which will be needed for the present unco-ordinated series of health care assistance schemes. [More…]

• For individual members of the public the costs will be based on the equitable principle of ability to pay and they will mean that the great majority of the public will pay less for the benefits of the program than they at present pay for coverage under the so-called private health insurance system. [More…]

• The Opposition is welcome to the role of defending the present inequitable system by which those who earn least pay the most for health insurance coverage and those who earn the most pay the least. [More…]

• It is surely noteworthy that such groups as the AMA, the General Practitioners’ Society, the Association of Medical Specialists and the Voluntary Health Insurance Association, have vested interests in the continuation of the existing health insurance scheme. [More…]

• They may have ideological beliefs about the concept of universal health insurance financed through taxation, but it is very plain that their primary motivation is concerned with their perception of their own material interests. [More…]

• There are, of course, hundreds of unions and other organisations which support our health insurance program, many of them no doubt for reasons of ideology and because our proposals offer a materially better deal for their members. [More…]

• The plain fact of the matter is that they are people concerned with social equity and progress who, after honestly and dispassionately examining our proposals, have decided that the health insurance program will be for the general good of the community. [More…]

• All of the deceit and distortion which has been injected into the community debate on our health insurance proposals cannot alter the fact that this Government came into office with a clear mandate for its program. [More…]

• I should mention that while the Health Insurance Bill is the main legislative instrument for the introduction of the Government’s health insurance program it is the Government’s intention that complementary legislation concerning such matters as the scope and operation of private health insurance and the introduction of levies on taxable income and on motor vehicle third party and workers compensation insurance will be introduced at a later date. [More…]

• We will also, I repeat, introduce complementary legislation on the subject of the protection of privacy in health insurance operations. [More…]

• The equity of cover in the present scheme should be intolerable to any community that claims to have a social conscience in that those people who can least afford it pay most for their health cover, and those people who are most able to afford it pay least. [More…]

• Perhaps most importantly of all - we lose sight of this - is the way in which the pooling of funds allows the whole community to be covered and allows an expansion of the range of services available to the community to be provided at no additional cost to that currently outlaid under the present system of private health insurance, repatriation and medical services and pen sioner medical and hospital services. [More…]

• That can be done only by increasing taxation, by reducing outlays in other areas, by an amalgamation of those things or by forgoing important priorities which could be included in general programs if a more efficient system of pooling finances could be undertaken as the Government is proposing in this universal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• I was there recently and was advised by the Ontario Medical Association, amongst other representatives of the medical profession, that they preferred a universal health insurance scheme- [More…]

• The hundreds of thousands of people who are listening to this debate on the radio must be confounded when they turn on their radio and listen to a health debate, a debate identical to the debate conducted last year. [More…]

• I, as the Opposition spokesman on health and social security, have been challenged to deliver the health policy of the Opposition. [More…]

• I said that the Minister was a good guy, and he is, but in this sense he must have been really joking to expect me in 7 minutes to deliver the health policy of the Opposition. [More…]

• I would like to trace the history of this particular health scheme. [More…]

• When the Opposition announces its health scheme, which I undertake will be next week, it will be seen that it is not a scheme, as the Minister’s alleged scheme is, concerned purely with funding. [More…]

• The Labor Party is obsessed with funding, with how to finance a health scheme. [More…]

• That is not what a health scheme is. [More…]

• A health scheme is caring about the health of the Australian people and how to prevent people becoming sick. [More…]

• I have the Opposition’s draft health scheme in my hand. [More…]

• It will be a real health scheme, one that concerns itself with the health of the Australian people. [More…]

• There is hardly anything in the so-called Hayden health scheme that directs itself towards sick people. [More…]

• Then an amended version of the Minister’s health scheme started to appear around the place. [More…]

• Who the T is we do not know because it is not signed- a summary of the proposed amendments to the universal health insurance program, together with a copy of the present Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• At the conclusion of the meeting, I am informed reliably, several if not all of the representatives there said they would not have a bar of the Hayden health scheme, even with amendments. [More…]

• The thing has reached scandalous stages because similar approaches have been made to the health funds. [More…]

• Telephone calls have been made by the health funds. [More…]

• It has denied listeners the right to hear a debate on national issues and has diverted the debate on to health. [More…]

• In the brief time which is all that the Government has left us, I wish to deal with clause 34 of the Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• I must say that there are a couple of good features in this Bill but they could easily be incorporated into the existing health scheme without the destruction of all the good things in the existing scheme and without the incorporation of the many bad features that are also in this scheme produced by the Minister for Social Security. [More…]

• Under the existing health scheme members of a fund may be transferred to the special account scheme under which the Government pays their benefits in full. [More…]

• The divisiveness and uproar which this Bill caused when it was first introduced in this House and will cause again now have diverted attention from the real areas of health care, as the honourable member for Hotham pointed out. [More…]

• I am sure that when the honourable member for Hotham explains, as he will soon, the improvements that we have in mind for our health scheme it will be seen as a very much better approach to delivering health care to people in Australia. [More…]

• What this Government is doing is concentrating on one area of the problem, namely, the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• lt is ignoring the real problem, which is how to deliver better health care to the community in Australia as a whole. [More…]

• We in the Liberal Party believe this is the key area of health care and this we as a government will achieve. [More…]

• I agree that this legislation does not represent the perfect method but what I am saying is that there will be no significant change in that area of health care. [More…]

• The only change will be in the area of health care offered .to pensioners. [More…]

• For instance, the honourable member for Isaacs (Mr Hamer) was labouring the point that there is no provision for nursing home benefit cover, yet in the White Paper entitled “The Australian Health Insurance Program’, it is stated on page 26, paragraph 7.12: [More…]

• This is a cost item completely separate from the cost associated with the operation of the health insurance program. [More…]

• In Victoria, for instance, the State Liberal Government has refused to accept the principle introduced in the legislation of the last Government, which is now in opposition, that nursing home benefits for non-pensioner patients ought to be covered by health insurance at rates decided by the Department of Social Security, and the rates charged are considerably higher than can be justified. [More…]

• That is a legitimate description of the comments of both the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) and the honourable member for Isaacs in asserting that their concern is about the health care system, the health delivery system. [More…]

• We have always asserted that just as the present system of private health insurance is purely insurance and nothing more, our scheme provides more cover, gives more benefit, gives more security to people in need of health protection and distributes the cost equitably. [More…]

• To the extent that it pools the total volume of money available and gives more service, it improves the health services system. [More…]

• It improves the health delivery system immensely. [More…]

• In the case of health care in the proper context, I will do my best to accommodate the honourable member for Hotham. [More…]

• On the issue of a complete system of health care, has any member in the Opposition yet heard of the Hospital and Health Services Coommission headed by Dr Sidney Sax? [More…]

• Have they not yet discovered that a report has already been tabled in this Parliament on community health services; that we have already committed ourselves to expenditure of more than SI Om; that we are now meeting 90 per cent of recurrent costs and 75 per cent of capital costs in community health centres where doctors backed by ancillary medical professionals can work to provide a comprehensive range of medical services to the community in a confined location? [More…]

• Do they not know that in the field of psychiatric health services, drug abuse and alcoholism about S7.5m has been allocated for the development of community services and that the States have taken this up with a great deal of enthusiasm because the States realise that public hospital services - ‘broadly, public health services, but more specifically public hospital services - cannot be maintained at a high standard of service with the limited finances available to the States? [More…]

• If at the forthcoming elections we were to be returned as the Government in this House, with sufficient support in the Senate to carry out health insurance proposals, I would still want to negotiate with all concerned bodies. [More…]

• I would still want to discuss the proposals in finer details with the Australian Medical Association, with the private and public hospital authorities throughout the community, and with the health insurance funds because I will try my best to accommodate those people within the context of a universal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• This is the important point: It is a universal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The only member of the former Government who was ever prepared to confront the powerful interest groups in the health insurance funds and the medical profession, who had cosy arrangements and in many ways abused the system, was the right honourable member for Higgins (Mr Gorton). [More…]

• I am well aware, from private discussions I have had in various quarters, how determined he was and how much better the scheme of health insurance that we have today - the private enterprise scheme of health insurance that is so defective - would have been if he had been able to win out in his battle with the powerful vested interests in the community. [More…]

• Of all the pieces of legislation to be trotted out again this is the most symbolic because nowhere else in all the Government’s legislation does the Government show the cynicism it has towards the health of the 13 million people in Australia. [More…]

• At no time has this Government tried, in any constructive and practical way that had any chance of success, to update the many aspects of health cover and nursing home cover, which was mentioned by the honourable member for Isaacs (Mr Hamer), to keep pace with inflation, or to overcome some of the weaknesses which we all acknowledge to be in the existing scheme - if the Labor Government cannot see them, we on this side of the House can easily show them to it - so that the problems of inflation that this Government has caused will not bring undue suffering to the people who need health care. [More…]

• At no time during the period of office of this Government has the health of the people of Australia been put above the political opportunism of this Government in matters of health. [More…]

• Instead of getting on with the job of keeping the health of the people of Australia within their reach by updating the various factors involved in it as this Government should have been doing - for example, updating the subsidised health benefits plan limitations to keep up with inflation, keeping the Government’s contribution to medical benefits schemes and hospital benefits schemes at a satisfactary level also to keep up with inflation, and increasing the bed allowance so that the States are not overburdened financially and so that the scheme can continue to run - this Government says that it has some grandiose scheme which somehow or other will solve all the problems of the people of Australia. [More…]

• At the beginning of the remarks of the honourable member for Forrest (Mr Drummond) I was encouraged by his statement that the men of violence, the men who cut the microphone cord and the men who refused not only to listen to the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) but also to the Western Australian Minister for Health, were in the main not farmers. [More…]

• Why, last week 2 Health Bills were suddenly introduced. [More…]

• The whole nature of the debate last Thursday on the Health Bills was surely cast in the mould of a Government which was well and truly afraid of the implications of going to the people. [More…]

• These 3 Bills are being intruded on the parliamentary proceedings in an unexpected fashion, in exactly the same way as the Health Bills last week intruded on the proceedings of the House. [More…]

• Opposition which have a vital bearing on the well-being of the Australian people are the Health Bills, the Trade Practices Bill and the Australian Industry Development Corporation Bill. [More…]

• It has introduced several Bills into the House, including the health legislation, the Petroleum and Minerals Authority Bill 1973, the Australian Industry Development Corporation Bill 1973 and the National Investment Fund Bill 1973, so that it will have ample grounds on which to campaign and presumably when it goes to the people it will argue that it has done its best to have that legislation passed. [More…]

• It would continue to block the introduction of a national health scheme. [More…]

• But as the people are well aware, the relic Opposition majority in the Senate has continually blocked major items of our mandate - our policies on health, education, social welfare, urban living, land acquisition- [More…]

• I have been given to understand that last week the Minister for Social Security authorised two of his senior civil servants to negotiate with the National Standing Committee on Private Hospitals and the private health funds about amendments to his so-called health plan. [More…]

• Let us look at the history of the so-called Hayden or Labor health scheme. [More…]

• Later in the year a White Paper appeared containing the Labor Party’s health proposals. [More…]

• So there were 3 changes to the so-called Hayden health scheme in the one year. [More…]

• That is why a double dissolution will occur and not because of the rejection of the health Bills. [More…]

• Statements were made by the Minister for Social Security and the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) to this effect: ‘It is obvious that the Opposition will not allow the health Bills to be passed. [More…]

• We will think up a new health plan’. [More…]

• Certain proposals were put to private hospitals and subsequently to health funds to the effect that the Hayden Bills, which were introduced into this House in December, would be amended massively. [More…]

• But these proposals would mean a fundamental change to the Minister’s health scheme. [More…]

• These massive amendments would change the whole character of the so-called Hayden health scheme. [More…]

• These are the proposals which, as late as last week, the Government was trying to sell to the private hospitals and health funds. [More…]

• At 8 p.m. last Thursday, without any warning being given to anyone, including the Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr Lynch) and myself, the health Bills were reintroduced - dated, I might say, 1973. [More…]

• The Government reintroduced those health Bills as a panic measure and as a political measure, because of the changed political situation. [More…]

• I believe that the Minister acted on impulse to try to give the impression that the introduction of the health Bills was something that had been in the traps for a long time. [More…]

• As I said, he obliged the Government, in its panic, by bringing the health Bills on again quickly to get the Government out of a jam. [More…]

• by saying ‘Today’, he would have exposed the panic stricken way in which his Government had brought the health Bills on for debate. [More…]

• If the Minister had intended to introduce the Bills last Thursday, it was pointless to try to have massive amendments made to the Bills and for his officers to go to Melbourne to try to persuade the private hospitals and the health funds to accept those proposed amendments. [More…]

• I will speak a little more on this question of the meeting of officers of the Department of Social Security and the private hospitals and health funds. [More…]

• Why were the Minister’s officers negotiating for changes with the private hospitals and health funds in Melbourne? [More…]

• Was his second reading speech on the health Bills prepared and typed 2 weeks before the introduction of those Bills? [More…]

• I thought that this debate was to be the unveiling of the new health insurance program of the Liberal Party - the program which, for the past 16 months, the Liberal Party has been saying repeatedly is in the final stages of being tidied up and is about to be presented to the public. [More…]

• If the honourable member for Hotham or any other honourable member who is interested cares to examine page 1085 of the Hansard record of last Thursday night’s debate on the health Bills, he will see that I said - I will condense the quotation because- [More…]

• As I said last Thursday evening, Dr Deeble approached me and said that he believed that there was an area for communication and negotiation with people concerned about the health insurance program, specifically certain people who are concerned with private hospitals. [More…]

• If, after this election, we are introducing a universal health insurance scheme and people wish to approach us and put a point of view, accepting the changed situation where we no longer have a Senate which is impeding every major piece of legislation which we are bringing before this Parliament, I will talk to those people. [More…]

• The White Paper on health insurance was a marked modification of the Green Paper from the advisers. [More…]

• If the honourable member for Hotham cares to look at the Health Insurance Bill 1973 which I brought into this House last Thursday night he will note the Printer’s date is 19 March, 1974. [More…]

• That is why the health insurance legislation was prepared before 19 March, which is the date the Bill was printed. [More…]

• I have continually restrained myself in accepting the fourth table on hospital insurance because we are already paying $50m a year on special account to subsidise private health insurance companies. [More…]

• Private health insurance is a myth. [More…]

• I said that I would detail the Liberal Party health insurance program. [More…]

• They are now talking about universal health insurance, as recommended in paragraph 5 of the document. [More…]

• They are now talking about using the taxation system to compel people to join health insurance funds. [More…]

• Name of private health insurance fund to which the patient belongs. [More…]

• The overwhelming chances are that that person would be entitled to a fully subsidised health insurance premium benefit. [More…]

• It is talking about someone discovered with-, out health cover. [More…]

• The suggestion is that modification of the health insurance program is a sin. [More…]

• Honourable members opposite once spoke of the best health insurance scheme in the world. [More…]

• It is of extraordinary importance that a document entitled ‘Amendments to Universal Health Insurance Program’ which was presented to various people with whom the Minister’s advisers had discussions makes certain statements. [More…]

• The Government intends to re-introduce the Health Insurance Bill within the next few weeks. [More…]

• The Minister is prepared to amend the present program to allow those who prefer private treatment to ‘opt-out’ of the Government fund and to offset payments to private insurance funds against their liability for the health insurance levy. [More…]

• The document states that the Minister is prepared to amend the present program to allow people to opt out of the Government’s proposed health scheme. [More…]

• Therefore, in conclusion, let me say that this whole sordid affair involves a desperate attempt by this Government to save a failed health scheme. [More…]

• The actions of the Minister for Social Security in attempting to cover-up secret negotiations aimed at amending the Government’s proposed health scheme. [More…]

• This matter of public importance is directed against a Minister who could not have been more open in his dealings with the public, the profession and the health funds. [More…]

• If anything, as the Minister responsible for this very delicate question of an alternative health scheme, he has been too open for his own good. [More…]

• Members of the Opposition seemed to become terribly upset, irate and indignant when a document containing the policy recommendations of the Liberal Party’s Committee on Social Security, Health and Welfare, which they regard as confidential, was produced in the House today. [More…]

• It appears to me that members of the Opposition have 2 alternatives in respect of this draft document of their alternative health scheme. [More…]

• Perhaps we can reverse the subject matter of this debate and, instead of talking about cover-ups and secret negotiations in relation to possible Government amendments, talk about cover-ups and secret negotiations between the Opposition and interested parties leading to the Opposition’s draft health scheme. [More…]

• But, even more than that, I regret the raising of this matter because, in the limited time available to us not only today but perhaps in this Parliament if we are to discuss anything about health schemes, why should we not concentrate on the substance of the subject rather than peripheral and irrevelant matters such as possible further amendments? [More…]

• The trouble with honourable members opposite is that they have never been able to make up their minds in relation to health schemes whether to attack the Government for what they regard as its dogmatic and inflexible adherence to its alternative health scheme or, as now, to attack it for not being dogmatic and for being willing to accept alternatives to its original scheme. [More…]

• The House is debating today a very serious matter, a matter which is central to the forthcoming election - that is, that the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) and the Government have misled the House and the people of Australia over the Government’s health proposals which are supposedly to be one of the major features of the Government’s election program. [More…]

• While the Government was supposedly standing firm on its previous but discredited national health scheme it was secretly negotiating with private hospitals and health funds for a significantly different scheme. [More…]

• What is the Australian public supposed to believe - what is being trotted up again as the Government’s national health scheme, its perfect answer to the health problems of this country, while at the same time the Government is attempting to amend it significantly? [More…]

• What will happen to future relations with all sections of the health care industry in Australia when the relations between the Government and the industry are being poisoned and increasingly confused by secret negotiations, rebuttals, promises or assurances supposedly made on behalf of the Minister? [More…]

• After the secret negotiations, which were taking place the day after the socalled be all and end all of the health problems of this country had been re-printed for presentation to Parliament on 19 March, a letter dated 20 March was sent, setting up this meeting. [More…]

• So we had the subterfuge by the Minister misleading Parliament and misleading the people of Australia on this very important issue, showing the cynical attitude of this Government to the health of the 13 million people of Australian ever since it came to office. [More…]

• The Government has not attempted to deal constructively with the health care problems facing this nation but it is trying to force the people of Australia into a corner so that private hospitals, freedom of choice and the things that we have come to expect as being essential to a democratic society will end in domination by Canberra. [More…]

• Prior to the suspension of the sitting, we were debating the actions of the Minister for Social Security in attempting to cover up secret negotiations aimed at amending the Government’s proposed health scheme. [More…]

• We have a situation where, at the same time as the Minister was presenting a supposedly genuine reintroduction of the discredited Health Insurance Bill which was defeated last year - we were told that the Bill was reprinted on 19 March - on 20 March, at the Minister’s urging, a letter was sent from an official of the Department of Social Security to the National Standing Committee on Private Hospitals asking for a meeting for the purpose of making considerable alterations to this scheme. [More…]

• So, we have this confusion and this cynicism where on the one hand the Government is saying: ‘Here is the scheme that will solve our health problems’, while at the same time secretly trying to amend that scheme because it realises that it is not acceptable. [More…]

• What does the Government intend to produce as its health program - the scheme that has been rejected once and which will be rejected again or a scheme containing the considerable amendments which the Minister’s advisers have been trotting around to various people connected with the field of health care? [More…]

• What a deliberate hoodwinking of the Australian public as to what this Government really intends to do with its health care proposals. [More…]

• It is perfectly obvious why the Government is deliberately trying to alter its unacceptable health scheme. [More…]

• It is simply because the scheme is unacceptable to the broad categories of the Australian public - to the different groups of people that make up the Australian public, not just a narrow group of conservative general practitioners or some other section of the health care industry. [More…]

• Yet the Government forgets that principle when it comes to health care. [More…]

• system of health care in this country are the people who run the religious and charitable hospitals in Australia and nobody should be able to accuse them of having anything but the highest motives for the health care of this country. [More…]

• It is quite obvious that the Opposition does not want to discuss the real issues of employment and, for that matter, the real issues involving health care. [More…]

• We have heard discussions about a meeting that is supposed to have taken place a couple of weeks ago between Dr Deeble, an adviser to the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden), and certain representatives of health care connected, I think, with the private hospitals. [More…]

• We have a health insurance scheme which has evolved after many years of Liberal government which, by the Liberal’s own report, they now admit to be a momentous failure. [More…]

• On the matter of the so-called secrecy regarding the meeting in Melbourne which has been raised by a number of Opposition speakers in this debate, I think it is interesting to compare the secrecy surrounding the health policies of this Government with that surrounding the health policies of the Opposition. [More…]

• We know that the present health insurance proposals of the Government were first outlined in specific detail by the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) when he was Leader of the Opposition in a lengthy address which was printed in the Australian Medical Association’s Journal in July 1968. [More…]

• Even to the present time, members of the Liberal Party maintain that their health policy is a completely confidential one. [More…]

• I am sure that many honourable members will have seen the program ‘This Day Tonight’ last week on which the honourable member for Hotham was asked what his health policy was. [More…]

• He is not prepared to take, them into his confidence to explain what his health policies are. [More…]

• It is very interesting to hear discussion, particularly by the honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd), about the Government’s health insurance proposals. [More…]

• I think it would be very good if the people of Australia could have an explanation of the Liberal Party’s health insurance proposals because they make extremely interesting reading. [More…]

• Not the least of these is the proposed complete subservience that a Liberal Government would have towards private health insurance funds. [More…]

• The Opposition proposes that everybody will be conscripted into belonging to a private health insurance fund. [More…]

• Since we have had the Earle Page scheme, which has been in existence with modifications since 1951, every person, whether he wanted to or not, has been virtually required to subscribe to a private health insurance fund under pain of not having Commonwealth benefits given to him if he did not join. [More…]

• The Liberal Party admits that according to its own figures there are one million people who are not covered by health insurance under this so-called best scheme in the world. [More…]

• It proposes to garnishee wages and incomes of the 8 per cent of people whom it says are not covered by health insurance. [More…]

• Honourable members opposite talk about people having a choice between different private health insurance funds. [More…]

• In the case of these people who could have their wages garnisheed, what choice would there be about going into a private health insurance organisation? [More…]

• To whom would the health funds be answerable under the Opposition’s proposal? [More…]

• They would be answerable to nobody but the little clique of people who form the directorships of these private health funds. [More…]

• 2 of the Opposition parties health scheme which originally proposed that there should be democratic elections for the directors of these funds. [More…]

• Presumably it would go into the open files of the health insurance funds and any employee of those funds would have access to the details which could be used and which have been used in the past. [More…]

• But I drove away thinking of the men from the Brisbane City Council who were working not only an 8-hour day but also overtime and all through the weekend in order to get the household rubbish and other material that had been deposited in people’s yards carted away, thus averting health hazards and the like. [More…]

• There are many areas of social expenditure, educational expenditure and health expenditure that we on this side of the House support, but it is our belief that it is not possible to spend money unless one earns it. [More…]

• It has involved local resident groups in area improvement programs, in social welfare activities and in the establishment of community health centres. [More…]

• This would mean some increases in the power of government but if Australians want to see a solution of the problems in industry, in their community, in/their health services, in con- trolling their own country and in their own destiny, the national Government must have a little more power. [More…]

• He mentioned that we needed offices of the Postmaster-General’s Department, the Department of Labour, the Department of Health, the Department of Services and Property, the Department of Social Security and the Taxation Office in the electorate of Parramatta. [More…]

• That the proposed ‘free’ national health scheme is not free at all and will cost four out of five Australians more than the present scheme. [More…]

• Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that the Government will take no measures to interfere with the basic principles of the existing health scheme which functions efficiently and economically. [More…]

• I ask the Prime Minister: Is he going to dissolve the Parliament and call for a double dissolution now that the Health Insurance Bill has been rejected twice by the Senate, or is he deliberately delaying the processing of the appropriation Bills in the hope, as Mr Micawber would say, that something just might turn up? [More…]

• It is true that the Senate, by again rejecting the 2 health insurance Bills, has fortified the case for a double dissolution. [More…]

• Another report states that a Liberal Government would consider cutting expenditure in all fields, including education, health and transport. [More…]

• These recurrent sums, whether or not the States draw the whole$1 9.62m are 55 per cent to be spent at the States’ discretion and 45 per cent to go for curriculum research and development; the training of professional staff; the development of a central resource centre; publicity to raise the level of community awareness of the opportunities available; counselling services and social work; staff to direct and oversee safety measures - here I might interpolate that the low standards of safety in many technical colleges would not be permitted for one minute in factories - health and welfare of students; in-service training; for the formation of a unit to develop educational specifications for buildings; site plans; and master plans for capital works development and re-development; and for staff for statistical collections concerning student and teacher population and related matters. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall that in 1971 the then Minister for Health, the Honourable Sir Kenneth Anderson, gave an undertaking that remuneration and allowances paid on an annual basis to various statutory office holders would be specified by Act of Parliament. [More…]

• (a) The Council noted advice from the National Health and Medical Research Council that there was no data available to indicate that lead emissions from motor vehicles could cause poisoning. [More…]

• The Council’s Advisory Committee on such matters is currently discussing the problem in the light of recent advice from the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The Government is aware of the acute years-long shortage of nursing home facilities and I hope to table this week the first part of a report of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission on Hospitals in Australia which will propose a planned commitment of national funds and facilities to relieve this problem. [More…]

• Officers of my Department have examined the team’s report and have held discussions with the Queensland Department of Health. [More…]

• Those Bills provide for electoral reform, for Senate representation of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, for the implementation of the Government’s undertakings on health insurance and for a Petroleum and Minerals Authority. [More…]

• The Government will continue to improve the health care of Australians in keeping with its constitutional responsibilities to provide hospital benefits and medical services. [More…]

• In addition to the two Health Insurance Bills twice rejected by the Senate during the 28th Parliament, a Bill will be introduced to regulate private health insurance associated with the Universal Health Insurance program. [More…]

• The Community Health Program will be further expanded. [More…]

• High priority will be given to a full examination of the Report on Hospitals prepared by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• The Government recognises the link between the basic health and well-being of the Australian community and the opportunities for Australians to make better use of their increasing leisure. [More…]

• He was Minister for Health and Social Services from June 1946 to December 1949. [More…]

• His period as Minister for Health and Social Services was of particular importance to the Labor Government of the time and of particular significance for the welfare of the people of Australia. [More…]

• As the Prime Minister said, he was the architect of the first Australian national ‘health plan which foundered on the non-co-operation of the Australian doctors. [More…]

• The Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Australian Navy are watching the position very closely as are, of course, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and other associated departments. [More…]

• In particular, they found that quarantine security had not in any way been impaired by the decision of the Director of Health in Western Australia - a medical officer with long experience in quarantine work - to reserve to himself the authority to order the fumigation of vessels. [More…]

• The procedures were thorough and entirely in accord with recommendations made as late as 1972 by the World Health Organisation and were consistent with our high standards of quarantine security. [More…]

• Certain pieces of legislation are fundamental to the future of the health care delivery system in Australia. [More…]

• Those of us who were members of the last Parliament are well aware that the Health Insurance Commission Bill and the Health Insurance Bill which are to be reintroduced contain many features common to the health scheme in the United Kingdom. [More…]

• Anybody who has read our newspapers in the last day or two will appreciate the extraordinary mess that the health scheme is in in the United Kingdom. [More…]

• It is essential that this Parliament at this time be given adequate opportunity to relate what is proposed in the health care system which this Government is trying to force on to the Australian people to the problems which are only just starting to reach such an acute form in the United Kingdom. [More…]

• The Bill now before the House is one of 2 Bills - the other being the Health Insurance Commission Bill - which comprise the principal legislation to enable implementation of a new Australian health insurance program to replace the present inadequate voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• It is the Government’s firm commitment to put an end to the present notoriously inequitable and inefficient arrangements for providing individuals with protection against the costs of medical and hospital services by introducing a health insurance program based on the principles of social equity, universal coverage and efficiency. [More…]

• On its election in December 1972, the Government established a Health Insurance Planning Committee to develop in detail the proposals which had received such solid community support prior to and during that election campaign. [More…]

• In November 1973 the Government, after carefully considering both the Health Insurance Planning Committee’s recommendations and comment by individual and interested groups, published a White Paper which set out the Government’s health insurance program. [More…]

• Be billed by the doctor, pay the doctor and then claim benefits from the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Forward the unpaid doctor’s bill to the Health Insurance Commission and receive back the appropriate benefits in the form of a cheque payable to the doctor. [More…]

• The doctor would then claim his payment from the Health Insurance Commission and the patient would not have to pay anything. [More…]

• The agreements are to be in accordance with the Heads of Agreement contained in Schedule 2 of the Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• Patients seeking treatment as private patients in public hospitals or in private hospitals will be able to insure privately against the accommodation fees charged and private health insurance contributions will be all allowable taxation concessional deductions. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Bill also makes provision for special arrangements to be entered into with private religious, charitable and community hospitals, to enable such hospitals to choose, if they wish, to accommodate and treat patients free of charge. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Bill provides for the payment by the Australian Government of a supplementary bed payment to hospitals entering into these arrangements. [More…]

• AH payments authorised by the Bill now before the House will be made from the Health Insurance Fund established under Part VI of the Health Insurance Bill and will be paid by the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• As honourable members will recall, on the 2 previous occasions when the Health Insurance Bill was introduced into this House, I stated that it was one of a number of Bills which, together, would provide the legislative framework to authorise the complete implementation of the Australian health insurance program. [More…]

• Honourable members are already aware that Bills to authorities the health insurance levy will be introduced by my colleague, the Treasurer (Mr Crean). [More…]

• I have introduced again the Health Insurance Commission Bill. [More…]

• Once the Health Insurance Bill becomes operative and payments for medical and hospital services are being made under those provisions, it will be necessary to avoid the duplication which would be involved if payments were also made for these services under the provisions of the National Health Act. [More…]

• Consequently, it is proposed that, except for services received before the commencement of the new program, no further benefits under the National Health Act will be paid. [More…]

• Steps will be taken to ensure that no patient is disadvantaged over the period of transition from the National Health Act to the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• So that the legislation on the statute books expresses the intentions of Parliament clearly, it is proposed to introduce the National Health Bill repealing those redundant provisions relating to the payment of medical and hospital benefits under the National Health Act and terminating the pensioner medical service arrangements which will no longer be needed. [More…]

• The National Health Bill will also provide for the cessation of payments of medical and hospital fund benefits by providing for registered health insurance organisations to cease carrying on health insurance business under the National Health Act. [More…]

• (In future the operations of private health insurance organisations will be supervised under the provisions of special legislation to which I will refer shortly). [More…]

• the repeal of those parts of the National Health Act governing the operation of the existing health insurance scheme after all rights and obligations have been satisfied. [More…]

• the extension of the additional Commonwealth benefits payable in respect of nursing home patients with pensioner medical service entitlement, to all nursing home patients and the consequential elimination of the payment of nursing home fund benefits, the Minister to direct the Health Insurance Commission to operate a medical and/or hospital benefits fund in a State or Territory where this is necessary for the protection of the benefits entitlements of contributors. [More…]

• I have informed honourable members previously that it is the Government’s intention to introduce legislation relating to the scope and operation of private health insurance business under its program. [More…]

• I am able to foreshadow briefly for honourable members that private health insurance organisations will be able to offer insurance coverage against the fees, firstly, for treatment in public and private hospitals, secondly, for medical services to the extent of the difference between the fees in Schedule 1 of the Health Insurance Bill and the medical benefits payable and, thirdly, for an unrestricted range of ancillary health services. [More…]

• Organisations wishing to conduct private health insurance business will be required to obtain authorisation from the Minister for Social Security. [More…]

• The health insurance operations of authorised organisations will be subject to the Minister’s supervision. [More…]

• The administrative arrangements relating to authorisation and supervision will be broadly along the lines of those in the present National Health Act. [More…]

• However, to provide additional protection to the contributor provisions will be made for a court to appoint a judicial manager wherein its view an organisation is not being properly managed and there will also be provisions to enable an organisation’s health insurance operations to be wound-up by a court where this becomes necessary. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Bill is the principal legislation for a program which will give universal and comprehensive protection against health costs. [More…]

• People will bear the cost of the program according to their ability to pay, reversing the present situation in which the less fortunate pay most for their health services. [More…]

• The money spent by the community on health care will be efficiently pooled and distributed, eliminating the wasteful practices inherent in the existing system. [More…]

• Certainty of access to comprehensive health care without fear of the financial consequences will become a right for every Australian. [More…]

• The Australian health insurance program, together with other initiatives taken by the Government in the field of health care financing and delivery, represents a concerted, planned approach to this vital social issue - an approach combining efficiency with social equity. [More…]

• By this Bill, and 2 others that I shall shortly introduce, it is proposed to impose a health insurance levy of 1.35 per cent of the taxable incomes - as determined for income tax purposes - of people residing in Australia. [More…]

• The Bills complement other measures designed to implement the Government’s universal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The levy proposed in the present Bills was discussed in the White Paper on the health insurance program published in November 1973, which was preceded by the report of the Health Insurance Planning Committee. [More…]

• Introduction of the levy is timed to coincide with the coming into operation of the main health insurance legislation. [More…]

• An aged person exempt from income tax by reason of the special transitiona’l tax rebate will also be exempt from health levy. [More…]

• The general principle is, however, that whatever the level of the income tax rebate in 1975-76, an aged person who is exempt from income tax on account of it will also be exempt from health levy. [More…]

• I should mention, however, that while the levy will be administered and collected under the income tax system and payasyouearn deductions from salaries and wages will be increased in 1975-76 to take account of it, provisions in the legislation require a separate identification of the amount of a taxpayer’s liability that represents health insurance levy. [More…]

• I commend this Bill, the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill, to the House. [More…]

• 2) 1973, the Senate (Representations of Territories) Bill 1973, the Representation Bill 1973, the Healtlh Insurance Commission Bill 1973, the Health Insurance Bill 1973 and the Petroleum and Minerals Authority Bill 1973 be as follows: [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission Bill 1973 - [More…]

• Health Insurance Bill 1973- [More…]

• Has the Minister for Health received representations from the Victorian Minister for Agriculture regarding restoration of the free milk supply to Preston North East State School in my electorate because of the number of underprivileged children at the school? [More…]

• 1 held a conference to which not only Health Ministers but also Agriculture Ministers were invited, and the net effect was that they asked for retention of the scheme for certain broad categories of children - particularly children at the pre-school, infant, or early primary school levels, at schools for the handicapped and in areas where there are many Aboriginal children. [More…]

• It is significant I think that on this occasion the statement was made not by a Health Minister but by a Minister for Agriculture. [More…]

• This debate is on the Health Insurance Commission Bill 1973 and the Health Insurance Bill 1973 which represent the so-called Labor health scheme. [More…]

• I have the unanimous support of both parties sitting behind me in this House and the members of both parties who sit in Opposition in the Senate that we will go to the barricades - any barricades the Government wishes to mount before us - to fight these Bills and to prevent the Labor health scheme being inflicted on the people of Australia. [More…]

• We do this as a matter of principle wearing the full garb of a responsible Opposition because we sincerely believe that if these Bills are passed they will represent a disaster to the health of the Australian people, present and future.If sections of the pro-Labor Press want to label us as obstructionist and if the Labor apologists in this socalled Press gallery again want to accuse me of being non-progressive or of over-reacting in opposing this scheme, if the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) or his Leader want to repeat their threats about the dire consequences of our continued opposition, let them do it. [More…]

• We will accept those consequences whatever they are because the real issue here, and the only important thing, is how the people who become sick or injured, who are old or who suddenly contract a disease which takes away their health, are treated. [More…]

• No one can be guaranteed good health for ever. [More…]

• But perhaps this debate on the health scheme will prove to be even more historic than the debate on the other 2 issues because there is a unique circumstance accompanying this debate. [More…]

• However, these 2 health Bills we are now debating to implement the health scheme are not self-contained. [More…]

• The Government knows this and yet without consultation with the medical profession since the election, without consultation with the private hospitals, the States, the private health funds or with anybody else associated with the delivery of the health care system, the Government, with the persistence of the stupid, is pursuing this course of possible no return. [More…]

• Gallup polls show that of people having an opinion 56 per cent reject the Labor health scheme out of hand and only 44 per cent of people support it. [More…]

• Almost every professional body in this country associated with the health care delivery system- [More…]

• Everybody has condemned the scheme - all the associations of doctors, specialists, general practitioners, surgeons, private hospitals, nursing homes, public hospitals, the State governments, Catholic hospitals, the national conference of Junior Chambers of Commerce and almost all State Ministers of Health. [More…]

• Perhaps he would like to reiterate by telling us on this side of the House who the hell does support the Labor health scheme. [More…]

• To this I reply: The Opposition has a viable health scheme which was enunciated before the recent elections - a scheme which cares for the sick people and is not obsessed only with funding. [More…]

• We have conceded that there are deficiencies in the present health scheme brought about by changing conditions which inevitably occur in a dynamic and growing society. [More…]

• If the Minister wishes to introduce the Opposition health policy, which has been commended by most of the organisations which I have quoted as being opposed to the Labor Party health scheme, we will expedite its passage. [More…]

• I mention the increased financial assistance to public hospitals, the proposals to enable visitors to Australia to participate in the scheme on the basis of an appropriate premium, the concept of special .medical benefits for unusual or complex procedures, the right of doctors to appeal against decisions of committees of inquiry, the proposed increase of payments to private hospitals and the concept that pensioners and receivers of subsidised health benefits will be integrated into the scheme and be entitled to equal benefits with all other members of that scheme. [More…]

• However I repeat, we will not have a bar of this so-called Hayden or Labor health scheme because once it is implemented it will change the whole nature of medical care in Australia and will, in fact, produce an egg which a future government will find impossible to unscramble. [More…]

• Once this country has the Labor health scheme it has got it for ever. [More…]

• If these Bills pass, Australia will have the Labor health scheme for ever, as Britain is now finding to its cost, as New Zealand is how finding to its cost and as Canada is now finding to its cost. [More…]

• Labor’s health scheme would do 6 things which we sincerely believe would be bad for the people of this country. [More…]

• Firstly, it would lower the quality of medical care for Australian families; it would increase total costs for the Government and thus for all taxpayers; it would increase total costs for the majority of taxpayers, because they could only maintain the present quality of their health care by additional heavy commitments for private insurance after having paid the 1.35 per cent super tax; it would reduce freedom of choice and it would jeopardise the future of religious, private and country hospitals. [More…]

• Finally, by design and intent, it would be the first stage of nationalisation of health care in Australia. [More…]

• It is therefore a fact that there is no possible way by which the Labor health scheme can be introduced without conscripting the private hospitals either out of existence or into public service. [More…]

• It wants nationalisation of medicine; it wants socialisation of the entire system of the delivery of health care in this country. [More…]

• Private hospitals and private nursing homes are irrelevant to the Labor Party’s concept of a national health scheme and the vast majority of people could easily be catered for in the public and hospital sector. [More…]

• Social Security, the Minister for the Environment and Conservation and the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and say that he is a socialist and declare where he stands on the question of private enterprise in the health care delivery system? [More…]

• The Minister for Health, in answer to a question without notice from myself on 6 December last year, clearly stated - I ask the House to listen to this devastating statement of Labor policy - thai he believed that the future of medical care in Australia will see at least 80 per cent of all Australians attending doctors on government salaries or at government-owned hospitals, with only 20 per cent still being interested in attending private practice, going to a doctor in a private capacity or attending a private hospital. [More…]

• They sincerely believe that nationalised health is in the best interests of the country. [More…]

• In answer to interjections such as that by the honourable member for Kingston, I point out that we do take a progressive attitude to the delivery of health care. [More…]

• We do not want to see the dead hand of socialism, which has ruined everything that this Labor Government has touched since it came to office in this country, applied to our health system. [More…]

• The second reason is that very few people will be able to afford private health insurance over and above that provided by the 1.35 per cent super tax on taxable income. [More…]

• As far as the treatment of doctors is concerned, if we have a virtual end of the private hospital, if the growth of ‘free’ - I use the term with inverted commas - community health centres employing salaried doctors continues, if specialists are forced to work for the [More…]

• If the stated wishes of the Minister for Health are expressed in action - that 80 per cent of Australians will be attending salaried doctors - this will be the end of the doctor-patient relationship which we believe is the very foundation of good medical care. [More…]

• Well, for heaven’s sake, we are now in 1974 debating 2 health Bills. [More…]

• If it does mean that, all doctors will be completely dependent on the Government for their total income, unless they wish to be one of the sacred 20 per cent of the Minister for Health catering for the very wealthy. [More…]

• I say this for 2 reasons: If you have the source of doctors’ income resting solely with the Government, which I am sure is the Government’s intention, if at the other end you have that amount which they can earn by a compulsory schedule of fees further determined by the Government or an instrument of the Government, and if you coerce people into forcing doctors into a bulk billing scheme with one health fund owned by the Government, that is nationalisation of doctors. [More…]

• Let nothing I say on this point, Mr Acting Speaker, reflect in any way on the hundreds of doctors in this country who choose to work for a salary, be it in a government department, at a hospital, a community health centre or whatever. [More…]

• We concede there are problems in health in Australia, but socialism and nationalisation are not the answer. [More…]

• We have put up an alternative answer in our health scheme which is the antithesis of socialism and is best for the Australian people. [More…]

• At a time of raging inflation Australia needs the additional incredible cost on the public purse of a health scheme such as this like it needs a hole in the head. [More…]

• Let the Government learn from the tragic lessons of the spiralling costs of its health scheme in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• I interjected that the honourable member was the only one who knew anything about the health scheme and that is why the Opposition put him on for 45 minutes. [More…]

• Having listened to the honourable member for Hotham, he does not seem to understand our health scheme and he does not seem to understand the present scheme. [More…]

• In speaking about the propositions which we are putting up I make it quite clear that I do not think our scheme is the solution to the reorganisation of health care delivery in this country. [More…]

• But I do suggest that members who were influential on the side of the Liberal Party, either inside the parliamentary party or more likely in the Senate, and in the departed Australian Democratic Labor Party, received a significant amount of those consultant’s fees for advice on how best to defeat the Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• No assistance will be provided to salaried medical staff either in hospitals or health centres, in providing routine patient care, or in providing relief at nights, weekends or for annual leave. [More…]

• This means that no out-of-hours cover will be provided by private general practitioners to patients of salaried health centres. [More…]

• I think he is smiling in agreement because he was , once the Minister for Health in the McMahon Government or the Gorton Government. [More…]

• People can opt for the fee-for-service scheme or they can opt for what are called health maintenance organisations such as the Kaiser-Permanente scheme and others in New York. [More…]

• Hospital bed-days per 1,000 members ranged from 510 to 480 amongst the non fee-for-service people whereas individuals covered by Blue Cross or Blue Shield insurance or by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program have consistently had more than 900 hospital bed-days per 1,000 members. [More…]

• I think that is the important thing to remember when we are talking about health care delivery in Australia. [More…]

• Let us look at the alternative to the methods of health care delivery in our sort of country. [More…]

• We have firstly, the fee-for-service type; secondly, the salaried doctors; and thirdly, what are called health maintenance organisations. [More…]

• I would urge the Government at some stage to have a look at the matter and offer a third method of health care delivery to Australia, such as the type of scheme provided by the health maintenance organisations, on a competitive basis with the 2 schemes that are in use at the present time - the fee for service scheme and the salaried doctors scheme. [More…]

• What a wonderful result for all the disruption, reduction in freedom of choice and decline in standards of health care that will occur under Labor’s health scheme. [More…]

• When this Government came to office in December 1972 people started to get frightened with the imminent introduction of its health scheme. [More…]

• The Government found that people all round Australia were asking why the Government was trying to change a health scheme which the overwhelming majority of them have found to be perfectly satisfactory. [More…]

• It has given them good quality health care at reasonable cost, with freedom of choice, of doctor, of hospital and health insurance fund, with speed and compassion. [More…]

• If we are going to talk about misrepresentation then this Minister and the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) have engaged, in relation to health matters, in a campaign of misrepresentation which, in intensity and duration, equals any similar exercise in Australian political history. [More…]

• For example, I refer to the climbdown in relation to bulk billing, which undermines the very objectives which we have been told so often it was essential to achieve if Australia was to have an efficient health scheme. [More…]

• Has the Minister forgotten how often he has railed against the administrative costs of the present health funds and used them as the justification for wiping out those funds and establishing one great, big, bureaucratic health fund? [More…]

• Of course, he was right, although I might mention in passing that exactly the same saving in administrative costs, if it were desirable, could be achieved by introducing bulk billing in the context of the existing health funds. [More…]

• They set out to denigrate the health funds and the people associated with them, the doctors, the private hospitals, the profitmaking nursing homes, the State governments - you name it. [More…]

• Whoever was associated with the voluntary health scheme caw under the mr.-.t icious attack. [More…]

• It was only by constructing a scheme which was virtually entirely tax financed that there could be control of health costs which were burgeoning everywhere in the world. [More…]

• That is how the United Kingdom has been able to keep expenditure on health below 5 per cent of the gross national product. [More…]

• The voluntary health scheme was going through a bad patch. [More…]

• It made some headway in the public mind, not on its merits, because the realities were hidden from the public gaze, but on the constant reiteration by the present Prime Minister that the then current difficulties of the voluntary health scheme were inherent in the scheme itself. [More…]

• We were able to produce the present arrangements which so many Australians have found so sensitively attuned to their health care needs, without abandoning the basic principle of voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• Firstly, I refer to the health funds. [More…]

• I defy the Minister to deny that he and the Prime Minister quite deliberately set out to denigrate the health funds; that they set out to create in the public mind the impression that the health funds were profit making institutions operating for their own benefit; and that the large number of closed and friendly society funds were a source of extravagance and inefficiency and that they squandered money on excessive promotion and selfindulgence. [More…]

• However, when he comes into this House he realises that he has the eyes of his colleagues piercing into his back and that he must sound as conservative as possible and hence today we heard him berating the Government for what he called a socialist health scheme. [More…]

• The fact is that it is the present health scheme which has resulted in too few public hospital beds being available. [More…]

• That is the situation which has been thrown up by the present voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• This situation was very much encouraged by the system of health insurance which we have inherited. [More…]

• I, for the life of me, cannot see why a government should not take a major responsibility for health care. [More…]

• I believe the same thing applies in the case of health care where the community must accept a major responsibility. [More…]

• If that is a socialist health viewpoint I wholeheartedly support socialist medicine. [More…]

• After the Government’s national health insurance program comes in of course there will be no hospital charges or means test and there will be no need for hospital insurance. [More…]

• I believe the scheme will be of great benefit if it can be implemented quickly so that we can get on to devote more attention to some of the other problems of health care. [More…]

• The measure that we are bringing in today will continue the same type of assistance for patients, for example in nursing homes, already provided under the present voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The national health insurance fund will provide the same level of benefits for insured patients as the private funds provide at present. [More…]

• Quite frankly, I do not believe, although acknowledging that we do have a mixed economy of Government and private enterprise, that the area of health - perhaps like defence - is one that should be managed by private enterprise. [More…]

• It has done so for one of 2 reasons - either to hide the real intention of socialising Australia’s health care system or possibly - equally correctly - because it is an unworkable scheme and it has to be continually modified. [More…]

• Australia’s health care system will be thrown into confusion and the health of Australians will be jeopardised if the Government continues its headlong rush towards implementation of the health scheme. [More…]

• The vast majority of those who are in the health care system in Australia are opposed to the scheme and are more firmly opposed to it now than ever before. [More…]

• Any changes that take place to the health scheme should be evolutionary and not revolutionary because there are no grounds for revolutionary change to our health care system. [More…]

• The State Health Ministers disagree with that figure. [More…]

• As the honourable member for Barker has said, look at the escalation in health costs. [More…]

• We have had the Health Insurance Levy Bill before us with provision that the levy shall be 1.35 per cent up to a maximum of $150 for the first year. [More…]

• If people like to say that the scheme that the Government is proposing will cost less, one has only to look at the United Kingdom where a recent Press headline stated that $800m will have to be put into the United Kingdom national health scheme immediately to avoid its collapse. [More…]

• When that does occur in Australia it will mean that a disproportionate share of those who are required to provide the health system - the nurses, the doctors and the other technical experts - will move into that system out of the public system to the detriment of the middle and lower income groups of Australia. [More…]

• The Government is neglecting that principle when it is discussing its health scheme. [More…]

• It does not matter what Government supporters say or think of those responsible for the delivery of the system, without their co-operation the health scheme will not work. [More…]

• The Government is increasingly establishing more health centres in the A.C.T. [More…]

• But it is not establishing those new health centres in areas of need. [More…]

• I refer to his speech about the Labor health scheme meaning disaster not only for every man, woman and child in Australia but for generations yet unborn, generations not yet thought of and, one gained the distinct impression, even generations long since perished. [More…]

• The national health scheme legislatioin was not introduced into the House of Representatives in April until after rejection of the Supply Bill, which meant that an immediate election had already become almost certain. [More…]

• What this background adds up to is this: The national health scheme, which embraces the proposed new Labor health program, need not have been a causal factor in the double dissolution and hence it need not have been amenable to passage by way of joint sitting, as is now its inevitable course. [More…]

• That it did become the subject of these provisions can only be seen as a result of an Opposition decision, presumably deliberate, to again make the health scheme a major element in the recent election campaign. [More…]

• One thing that the Opposition has not done, of course, is to tell us how many people interviewed by the gallup polls were enthusiastic about the Opposition’s alternative health program. [More…]

• No questions were asked about the Opposition’s alternative health program because there is hardly anyone in the country who knows what it is. [More…]

• Again I emphasise that the Bill we are discussing today is not the outcome of some vaguely worded election undertaking to provide a better health scheme, or some other such generality. [More…]

• -The Health Insurance Bill 1973 is one of the Bills which will have to be passed if the Australian Labor Party’s health scheme is to be implemented. [More…]

• The Government’s health Bills have had a pretty lengthy and sordid history dating back before 1972. [More…]

• We are opposed in principle and in detail to the Labor health scheme. [More…]

• If the Minister had not been representing a safe seat he would have been in the same position as his colleagues the Minister for Northern Development (Dr Patterson) and the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) who are very lucky to be still members of this Parliament. [More…]

• The health of the community is an important responsibility of government. [More…]

• The Australian nation is entitled to a high standard of health. [More…]

• The Labor Party came into government with a health scheme which covered 92 per cent of the community. [More…]

• When the Labor Party came into office there was a health scheme which was successful. [More…]

• Not only is this document the product of considerable consultation but also it goes into detail about the problems of the low income earners, the pensioner medical service and the paramedical services concerned with mental health and with all sections of the Australian community, particularly children. [More…]

• We want society as a whole to have a very real role to play in health and not some centralised, bureaucratic control in Canberra. [More…]

• The scheme of the Labor Party will also require considerably more skilled professional people such as doctors, nurses and the wide range of people who are associated with health care in this country. [More…]

• Implementation of the Australian Labor Party’s health scheme, two of the Bills for which are before the House, will create great staffing difficulties in country hospitals. [More…]

• The latest gallup polls have shown that 56 per cent of the people reject the idea of Labor’s health scheme. [More…]

• It starts by saying: ‘Over 400 doctors support the Whitlam health scheme’. [More…]

• Here are the facts about the Australian Labor Party health scheme: You keep the right to choose your own doctor. [More…]

• Everybody, rich or poor, is fully covered for every single aspect of health care. [More…]

• The scheme will introduce a new era of total, family health care - with easier, quicker access to the profession. [More…]

• We have never had a scheme like this in this country, but anyone who takes the trouble to investigate access to professional health care in countries that have similar Health schemes will find that it is not the case that one has easier and quicker access to the medical profession and, by implication, to health care. [More…]

• In particular he has reduced the government percentage of contribution to the medical benefit funds from about 55 per cent to 47 per cent, which has meant that the contributor to the voluntary health insurance funds has had to be charged more. [More…]

• in reply - The speech which we have just heard from the honourable member for Indi (Mr Holten) is such an extensive and breathtaking misrepresentation of what the universal health insurance program is about that, coming from anybody else but him, I would say it would be wilful dishonesty. [More…]

• We are now taking the closing steps towards establishing a universal health insurance program in this country. [More…]

• By about the middle of next year Australia will have finished with the so-called voluntary health insurance scheme, with all the inequities, all the injustices, all of the waste and all of the extensive public dissatisfaction for which it has been responsible. [More…]

• We will have instead a universal health insurance scheme which covers everyone in the community, a scheme which gives some meaning to the loose talk of freedoms, we hear from honourable members on the other side of the House. [More…]

• Under this scheme there will be freedom for all, including those among that minority of 13 per cent of the community who do not have health insurance cover. [More…]

• More than 1 million people are without health insurance cover because of the expense and the difficulties attendant on the present scheme of so-called private voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• They said that they did not understand why they could have ever opposed the introduction of a universal health insurance scheme there. [More…]

• In fact, an official of the Ontario Medical Association told me that if anyone were to try to reverse the situation back to what existed before the introduction of universal health insurance, back to a system similar to the one operating in Australia, there would be a civil riot. [More…]

• The significance is that the medical profession in Canada supports a system of universal health insurance, as do not only Liberal governments and Liberal oppositions at the national an’l provincial levels but also the conservative oppositions and conservative governments at the national and provincial levels. [More…]

• Health costs are exploding. [More…]

• This afternoon and yesterday in this Parliament we witnessed a most deplorable incident when the Government introduced Bills to change the Commonwealth Electoral Act, the Health Act and another Act and set the guillotine’ on the proposals. [More…]

• More recently, increasing emphasis has been placed - especially by IDA but also by the IBRD to a limited extent - on projects with greater social implications and more direct benefits for the masses or needy people in developing countries, in such fields as education, urban renewal, population control, public health and sewerage, and improved agricultural credit and extension services for small farmers. [More…]

• I refer to the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), who is the honourable member for Capricornia, the Minister for the Environment and Conservation (Dr Cass), who is the honourable member for Maribyrnong, the honourable member for Kingston (Dr Gun) and the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman). [More…]

• I do so because they are doctors and they have had the courage to defy their union by giving support to the Government’s health Bills and the Government’s health program. [More…]

• It is only suggested that it might perhaps be taking a course of action which is perfectly legal but which would run counter to the Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• I had handed to me by the Federal President of the Australian Medical Association this afternoon what I would describe as an ultimatum on behalf of most of the private practice doctors in the Australian Capital Territory, not acting as a union on behalf of people who are negotiating conditions of employment but as a body delivering an ultimatum saying that they refuse the right of the elected Government of this country or indeed any authority in the Australian Capital Territory to increase the public sector of health care in this community. [More…]

• The Bill before the House is one of a number of Bills which together authorise implementation of a new Australian health insurance program. [More…]

• It contains the provisions necessary to suspend the operation of those provisions in the National Health Act which will cease to be required as the new Australian health insurance program comes into operation. [More…]

• The provisions in the Health Insurance Bill authorise the Health Insurance Commission to provide payments by way of medical benefits and for hospital services. [More…]

• Legislation will also be introduced to enable the Australian Government to authorise and supervise the operations of private health insurance business under the program. [More…]

• The principal elements of this Bill are the cessation of Australian Government medical and hospital benefits and the cessation of fund medical and hospital benefits payments by registered health insurance organisations. [More…]

• This means that as medical and hospital payments commence to be made under the new program they will cease under the National Health Act. [More…]

• These clauses will come into operation from the date that clause 10 of the Health Insurance Bill is proclaimed, from which date medical benefits will be payable under the Australian health insurance program in respect of services received or provided on or after that date. [More…]

• The date of operation of this clause is dependent on the date each State or Territory enters into the arrangements provided under clauses 30 and 32 of the Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• Clause 16 of the Bill provides for registered health insurance organisations to cease payments of fund medical and hospital benefits by requiring such organisations to cease carrying on health insurance business as registered medical benefits organisations or registered hospital benefits organisations under the National Health Act. [More…]

• Organisations ceasing operations under the National Health Act will be eligible to seek authorisation to conduct health insurance business under legislation which will be introduced to supervise private health insurance. [More…]

• This provision is necessary to increase administrative control during the period when the existing health insurance arrangements will be in the course of being terminated. [More…]

• Honourable members will be conscious of the need for provision to be made to ensure that contributors are able to continue to obtain satisfactory health insurance cover until the Australian Health Insurance Program is introduced. [More…]

• In this context authority has been included in clause 19 of the Bill for the Minister to direct the Health Insurance Commission to establish a medical or a hospital benefits fund in a State or Territory when he is satisfied that the health insurance needs of the people cannot be otherwise satisfactorily met. [More…]

• The National Health Act was amended in 1972 to provide additional Australian Government nursing home benefits for patients in nursing homes with Pensioner Medical Service entitlement and to introduce an equivalent fund benefit for persons insured with registered hospital benefits organisations. [More…]

• This provision will become effective on a uniform date throughout Australia, that date being the first date upon which a State or Territory enters into the hospital arrangements provided under clauses 30 and 32 of the Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• The provisions in this Bill are designed to ensure that no one is deprived of any right or entitlement under the National Health Act during the transition to the Australian Health Insurance Program. [More…]

• They are also designed to ensure that there will be no period of time during which medical or hospital services which attract benefits at present will not attract benefits or payments under either the National Health Act or the Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• There is, of course, a diverse range of other corporations operating in the financial sector, including life and general insurance companies, pension funds, terminating building societies, friendly and health societies, unit trusts, investment and trustee companies. [More…]

• It is not so much the areas in which the Government’s program seeks to give assistance - such as health, pensions, general welfare and amenities - about which I speak, but the extent to which it would embrace the life of every Australian. [More…]

• At what price will it be to future generations in terms of healthy concerned individuals? [More…]

• It is the product of a healthy individual’s mind and spirit. [More…]

• Also, jurisdiction under certain provisions of the Customs Act, the National Health Act and the Post and Telegraph Act would not be transferred to the Superior Court, as consideration is being given to vesting jurisdiction under those provisions in the new Administrative Review Tribunal to be established by separate legislation. [More…]

• This is the kind of thing that is happening today and is being completely ignored by this Government which is hell bent on forcing a socialist health scheme on this country. [More…]

• I think that this is clear evidence of just where we would find the needy sections of the community if in fact the overall health plan were to come into effect. [More…]

• For a very long time patients in New South Wales - those in the pensioner bracket anyhow - have been unable to find in full the balance between the fees set by the Department of Health and the amount contributed firstly by the Commonwealth benefit and secondly by the pension they receive. [More…]

• And the law, as my friend the Minister for Health says, because the law is in the Public Service Act. [More…]

• Treatment will include flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, chlorination and fluoridation to ensure a high quality water conforming in all respects to public health standards. [More…]

• We also had to take account of our commitments to other programs of high priority such as education, health and social welfare and above all of the general state of the economy. [More…]

• I refer to such matters as health, lands, finance and transport. [More…]

• Let me give an example with regard to health matters. [More…]

• The Department of Health is asked: ‘Do you wish health matters to be run by the Northern Territory Administration?’ [More…]

• Yet, what kind of selfgovernment is it that does not have control of the health of the community? [More…]

• There is a need for the national Government to involve itself, not by directly overseeing urban development projects and becoming a giant landlord and developer, but by providing additional funds to local government for capital works programs such as day and child care centres, recreational and care centres for children both after school and during holiday periods; parks, gardens and flora and fauna reserves; family and community counselling facilities, particularly among migrant communities; library and recreational facilities; health and welfare centres, including family planning and infant health centres; sewerage and drainage schemes; and road, street and bridge works. [More…]

• The regulations laid down by the various State health departments and the hospitals and charities commissions stipulate that these homes have to be operated by qualified nursing people and under very severe regulations. [More…]

• of a State legislature controlling functions such as education, health and law and order. [More…]

• I believe also that it is anomalous for Ministers who are responsible for over all nation-wide policy in a particular field, such as health or education, to be called upon to make decisions about domestic arrangements in their field in Canberra. [More…]

• an interim schools authority and an interim health authority. [More…]

• To claim that statutory authorities made up of local citizens in areas such as health and education should be responsible to the Minister is to say to our citizens that we do not trust their ability to elect representatives who can make responsible judgments about the local administration of health and education. [More…]

• I understand that the pig became considerably inflated before the question was resolved by top level conferences between 3 departments - the Department of the Interior, which controlled stock; the Department of Works, which controlled Lake Burley Griffin; and the Department of Health which was responsible for the quality of the water in the lake. [More…]

• One of the things that critics have failed to point out, of course, is that a much wider range of services is available in health centres than there is from isolated general practitioners who have not the team work available in health centres. [More…]

• One of the election opponents of the honourable member for Fraser, in comparing a private practice health centre with salaried doctor health centre, also made the error of comparing the number of patients registered at one centre with the number of attendances - patient visits - at the other. [More…]

• Finally, this Government will not rely on the cost per consultation as an adequate measure of the value of health care. [More…]

• With , these considered the centres will compare even more favourably with the traditional market place medicine, especially as delivered by the Society of General Practitioners, which says that health care is a luxury commodity and not a right except for human vegetables. [More…]

• We, as consumers, have first the right to be safe, the right to protection against products which could harm our health or endanger our lives. [More…]

• In consultation with my colleague the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) consumers have been brought into the work of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 76A of the National Health Act 1953-1972, I present the second annual report of the operations of the registered medical benefits and hospital benefits organisations for the year ended 30 June 1973. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), who is sitting at the table, also is involved. [More…]

• The Sax Commission brought down a report in April 1974 in which it recommended the expenditure of S260m for mental hospital facilities, public nursing homes and health hospitals. [More…]

• The Australian Health Department through geriatric care services, including follow-up services and the like, is funding the community health program. [More…]

• In various places around Australia today there are springing up community health centres which enable aged people to stay in their own homes. [More…]

• They have the assurance that if they take sick temporarily and need hospitalisation they can go to the local community health centre. [More…]

• If they need hospitalisation for only a day or part of a day they can go to the community health centre. [More…]

• Let it be clearly understood that if legislation of this sort is defeated it will mean that we will have less money for social services, less money for pensions and less money for health. [More…]

• This would leave more money to the Government for education, health and matters of that nature. [More…]

• With child endowment and free health insurance less income tax, the net weekly income for a married man - if he is working - on the minimum wage is $69.40. [More…]

• Perhaps the Minister will suggest that the pensioner medical scheme will be covered if he is successful in his endeavours to introduce a national health scheme. [More…]

• Consider the situation of a young person with a wife and several children, who has to pay off a house and pay for furniture, a car - an essential item for most people these days, just by the nature of labour requirements - education, health and a multitude of obligations which we all accept, and gladly accept, in our desire to give our families an opportunity. [More…]

• Central Health Laboratory, Woden, Australian Capital Territory [More…]

• That, in accordance with the provisions of the Public Works Committee Act 1969-1973, the following proposed work be referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works for investigation and report: Construction of central health laboratory, Woden, Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• The proposal is to provide the administrative and training headquarters for the Australian Capital Territory pathology services and to carry out a laboratory work for the Australian Capital Territory for public health and forensic services. [More…]

• The same applies with respect to the field of health. [More…]

• If self government does not mean being responsible for the administration of health matters and for looking after the health of the citizens what does it mean? [More…]

• I suppose everybody would say that health is something that must come within self government, but when one comes to thinking about the problems of attracting doctors to a separate health service and of keeping them in it one comes hard up against the problem of making the administrative system work. [More…]

• When Mr Snedden speaks of cutting back on government spending he means cutting back on schools, on health, on social security. [More…]

• That, in accordance with the provisions of the Public Works Committee Act 1969-1973, the following proposed work be referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works for investigation and report: Construction of animal health laboratory, Geelong, Vic. [More…]

• The animal health laboratory will be one of the major scientific institutions in Australia. [More…]

• I am not looking at the animal health laboratory to be established in Geelong as necessarily being a quarantine centre or the only quarantine centre, if it is to be one, in Australia. [More…]

• The Minister for Housing and Construction is referring to the Public Works Committee for scrutiny a proposal for an animal health laboratory to cost $56m. [More…]

• I trust that the very purpose of the animal health laboratory will be to look into the matter of transplantation of pre-fertilised ova, which is the modern method of importing strains into this country to the benefit of the entire livestock industry. [More…]

• Naturally, when we are talking about setting up an island quarantine station we are certainly not considering at the same time using the $56m animal health laboratory for that purpose. [More…]

• Before the debate is resumed on this Bill I would like to suggest that it may suit the convenience of the House to have a general debate covering this Bill, the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill, the Health Insurance Levy Bill and the Income Tax (International Agreements) Bill as they are associated measures. [More…]

• It seems as though I spend most of my time in the Parliament standing at this box and being confronted with the not unpleasant but harassed face of my friend the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) while talking about his health scheme, which is what this debate is about. [More…]

• The debate is on 4 Bills, all of which have as their purpose the implementation of the so-called Hayden health scheme. [More…]

• Two of the Bills - the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill and the Health Insurance Levy Bill - are designed to cover the collection of the money needed to finance the scheme. [More…]

• The fourth Bill is the National Health Bill, which provides for amendments to the National Health Act. [More…]

• The amendments are designed to block those benefits being paid under the present scheme which would represent double payment or which would be redundant if - I use the word ‘if advisedly - the Hayden health scheme does become law. [More…]

• My remarks will be relatively brief, but let that not be interpreted as meaning that my opposition to the so-called Hayden health scheme is not as intractable and intransigent as ever. [More…]

• We of the Opposition believe that the Government’s so-called health plan would represent a tragedy to the delivery of the health care system of this nation. [More…]

• Apart from all the other evils of what it would do to the delivery of the health care system it is highly inflationary. [More…]

• On top of that the Government plans to impose a levy of $1.35 on every $100 earned to pay for its extravagant health scheme. [More…]

• Out of any logic, apart from philosophical and other objections we have to this scheme, we would be entitled to oppose it because .we are being asked to agree to legislation which provides for the imposition of a levy without the Minister for Social Security telling the nation and the Parliament the cost of his health scheme. [More…]

• How pathetic is this Government which is pursuing with the persistence of the stupid the implementation of this health scheme. [More…]

• I think we are rapidly reaching a situation, created by the socialists on the other side of the House, where a person will collect his pay each Friday from Big Brother only after having paid all his health insurance, all his housing, and all his food. [More…]

• is his ploy to have his health legislation passed by the joint sitting of the Houses of the Parliament next Tuesday so that he can then go to the doctors, the private hospitals, the health funds and the private nursing homes and say: T have got you where I want you. [More…]

• I have got my health scheme through the joint sitting. [More…]

• They are the sorts of real stand-over socialist tactics which we are now seeing in relation to private health funds, the doctors, the private hospitals and the private nursing homes. [More…]

• I shall now deal with the last of the 4 Bills - the first one listed on the Notice Paper - which proposes amendments to the National Health Act. [More…]

• One of the intriguing and most charming features of this Bill is that it provides that if a registered private health fund- either registered now or registered when the legislation becomes law - carries on the business of private health insurance it will be fined the sum of $1,000 per day for every day it contravenes that provision. [More…]

• What sort of freedoms are left when, if any registered fund - I believe the Minister will, by some intrigue, induce the private health funds to become registered by holding out carrots here and there - dares to take on private health insurance for the purposes listed in clause 16, it will be penalised by being fined $1,000 a day for each day during which the contravention continues. [More…]

• He is asking us to accept this Bill with that provision in it, and yet he has the charm to say in his second reading speech that legislation will also be introduced to enable the Australian government to authorise and supervise the operations of private health insurance business under the program. [More…]

• We are being asked to approve a Bill which provides for a health fund to be fined $1,000 a day if it does not do what the Minister says. [More…]

• The Minister then says: ‘But we are going to allow the health funds to do certain things’. [More…]

• For .that reason alone we would reject this particular amendment to the National Health Act. [More…]

• Yet the Minister was frank enough to admit to me that at this stage he has not even had meaningful discussions with the State Ministers, let alone the State Ministers of his own political persuasion, as I understand it, about the heads of agreement as outlined in Schedule 2 of the Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• We reject this health scheme for the reasons that I have given. [More…]

• We have said to the Minister time and time again that a free health scheme of his description will result in over-utilisation. [More…]

• Does the Minister not know that the health scheme in Great Britain, which is very similar to his, is about to crash and to crumble? [More…]

• Does he not know that the health scheme in Canada, which is similar to his, is about to ruin that country? [More…]

• Over-utilisation is a feature of health schemes such as the Minister’s. [More…]

• The thing that disturbs me is that there are some features in the Health Insurance Bill and the Health Insurance Commission Bill with which the Opposition, in principle, concurs. [More…]

• We have not got the Hayden health scheme. [More…]

• We have an old health scheme which I have conceded needed updating, its deficiencies removed and refining because of the dynamic society in which we live. [More…]

• At present the people of Australia are not getting the Hayden health scheme. [More…]

• They are not getting the Liberal-Country Party health scheme. [More…]

• We especially favour the concept - it is incorporated in our health plan as well - that pensioners and receivers of subsidised health benefits will be integrated into the scheme and become entitled to the same benefits as are enjoyed by all other members of that scheme. [More…]

• I ask the Minister: If he is frustrated with the implementation of his scheme, as I hope he will be, will he not at least adopt a bi-partisan attitude on those aspects of national health on which there is agreement between the 2 parties? [More…]

• The attitude of the Opposition is that it looks at these 4 Bills simply as Bills to implement the so-called Hayden health scheme. [More…]

• These 4 Bills are associated with the introduction of our universal health insurance program. [More…]

• I think that the Minister, in all his goodwill, in allowing in 1973 a period of 6 months for public debate and discussion of our universal health insurance program made an error. [More…]

• The first is that it is the birthright of every Australian to have access to the best health care that this country can provide. [More…]

• The second is that the costs of providing for health care should be borne by all Australians based on their capacity to pay. [More…]

• I can think of no 2 more simple principles or more equitable principles than those in relation to health care. [More…]

• I cannot think of any fairer method of paying for health care than one based on capacity for payment. [More…]

• It had , been a serious illness and he was very fortunate that his wife had been able to have access to the highest quality health care available in New South Wales. [More…]

• I compared that case with a recent incident concerning a widow pensioner who came to me with her son who was temporarily unemployed, who had not registered for unemployment benefits and therefore did not have access to the subsidised health benefits plan. [More…]

• What it boils down to is this: Our scheme has to be financed by all Australians who are above the minimum taxable income limit and there ought to be equity of access to health care. [More…]

• What the Opposition represents are really the reactionaries in society or what we can only call the bastions of conservatism in this country - that is, the Australian Medical Association and the new associates of the voluntary health insurance funds. [More…]

• We are proposing under the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill that 1.35 per cent of taxable income be the contribution under the universal health insurance program with a maximum contribution limit for any one taxpayer of $150. [More…]

• The comparisons that the voluntary health insurance funds, the AMA and the Opposition are making in respect of our proposed 1.35 per cent levy would have looked much sicker, so sympathetic governments were prepared to let the hospitals operate at rates lower than they should have charged in order to facilitate and to try to enhance the appearance of the case that they, the Opposition and the AMA, were putting up. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham referred continually, as have other members of the Opposition, to a comparison between the United Kingdom national health scheme and the scheme which we propose. [More…]

• I am alarmed that the Opposition spokesman on health continually downgrades the quality of the Canadian scheme and tries to make a direct comparison with our proposed scheme, despite the fact that a Minister of the Canadian Government was here early this year and objected to what was being said and expressed the satisfaction of the Government at their scheme. [More…]

• If a member of a family is entitled to complete repatriation health care this will entitle the remainder of the family to a one-half reduction in the amount of levy to be assessed. [More…]

• I want to finish my remarks on the argument of the over-utilisation of health services. [More…]

• Over and over again the most common complaint that is brought forward by the Opposition is that if a health care service is introduced in which at the point of sale no money changed hands - not even a nominal amount of, say, 50c- ‘there would be over-utilisation of the service. [More…]

• Why is it that it has not been abused in the manner the Opposition suggests would happen with a universal health insurance program? [More…]

• A conservative government was in office in the United Kingdom for 13 years after the British health system was introduced and it saw fit to continue with it and expand upon it. [More…]

• Even though the Opposition makes an improper comparison between the British system and our program, the Opposition’s friends in the United Kingdom saw fit to continue with the British health care system. [More…]

• We are debating the National Health Bill which is designed to arrange for the transfer of the present system of Australian health insurance to the Australian Labor Party’s scheme. [More…]

• We are also debating the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill, the Health Insurance Levy Bill and the Income Tax (International Agreement) Bill, which provide for a health insurance levy of 1.35 per cent on taxable incomes of taxpayers. [More…]

• This, I would stress, will involve taxpayers who presently do not have to pay a separate or individual amount in paying an amount towards their health care. [More…]

• We are moving away from the notion of the family contribution to a system where all taxpayers who have certain incomes will have to pay 1.35 per cent of their taxable income for health care insurance. [More…]

• Providing that he belongs to a health insurance fund - that is nearly everyone and we regret that it is not everyone and our policy would have everyone in the voluntary scheme - he is entitled to the treatment by and the care of the best specialists Australia can produce. [More…]

• People who can believe that sort of thing are precisely the sort of people who are thrusting upon Australia a health insurance scheme which can only destroy the first-class health care which most - if not all, regrettably - Australians receive. [More…]

• If there are faults in the present health scheme they should be identified. [More…]

• One of the things I would have thought a government which had come fresh into office after about a thousand years in the wilderness would want to do would be to isolate precisely the areas of real need in health care. [More…]

• For instance, we should know whether there are significant groups and where those groups are in Australia who are missing out on health care services. [More…]

• If they are missing out on health care services we would co-operate in solutions to this problem. [More…]

• But to move from the basis of generalised observations and doctrinaire considerations about how health care ought to be delivered, to a massive scheme to change the whole basis on which the great majority of Australian people receive their health care, is an extraordinarily alarming procedure for a government to take in this age when the ideologies of yesterday ought to have died. [More…]

• We in Australia are in the very happy position of having a typically Australian solution to the problem of health care. [More…]

• In particular, we have developed in the Australian community a health care delivery system which is both public and private, which involves a mixture of private and public contribution, and private effort, relationship and involvement and public effort, relationship and involvement. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party, instead of noting the way the system has evolved, particularly in the last six or eight years, is seeking to turn the clock back to days before this evolution in Australian health care took place. [More…]

• It has not opened its eyes and talked to people involved in health care about what, in fact, has been going on. [More…]

• Let us take a lock at the situation in the United Kingdom, the system which this Labor Government with this levy as part of its health scheme would have Australia move towards if it had its way. [More…]

• The tragedy of nationalised health care is that it hurts precisely those whom the scheme first of all means to help; that is it hurts the poor and the low income groups generally. [More…]

• In the United Kingdom a poor person is left to the public provision of health care services. [More…]

• The ordinary, average Australian has some private involvement in his own health care. [More…]

• But this does happen to the patient in the United Kingdom who is on the public purse and in receipt of what is called free health care. [More…]

• If we move to a situation where the relationship is basically between a government insurance office, a government department of health and a doctor then, of course, instead of there being some financial and fiduciary relationship between the doctor and the patient, this crucial nexus is broken. [More…]

• If there is no close relationship between the individual who is in receipt of health care and the doctor- regrettably, perhaps, through a financial relationship or a contract for services rendered - then the relationship loses much of the merit which it otherwise would have. [More…]

• Tragically, that is the situation into which we in this country will plunge almost overnight if this insurance levy, which is the core of the Government’s scheme for the ultimate nationalisation of health care, takes off. [More…]

• Firstly, it has a consequence on the power of the individual patient to determine both the quantity and the quality of his health care. [More…]

• Secondly, there is the effect which I have noted on the power of the health care system to raise sufficient funds to do the job properly. [More…]

• I come back more precisely to the health care levy. [More…]

• There is something fraudulent about suggesting that this is to be the contribution for health care delivery for patients in this community. [More…]

• It also takes away the power of the patient to be a determining influence in the sort of health care he or she receives. [More…]

• In the United States, where the health services are not inhibited in any way by those aspects to which the Opposition has been referring this afternoon in dealing with our scheme, there were 4 tonsillectomy cases per 1,000 persons. [More…]

• The Government asserts that arguments propounded against its proposed health scheme are only arguments to protect vested interests. [More…]

• Government supporters are very keen to quote the example of the national health scheme in the United Kingdom when they refer to how their Government scheme will keep down health costs in Australia. [More…]

• They say that because of the overall government control of health and medical services exercised in Britain, the percentage of expenditure devoted to the operation of the health service has been kept down to an acceptable level and to a lower figure by comparison with costs in Australia. [More…]

• The reason is that the health scheme is being bankrupted. [More…]

• The honourable member should have a little closer look at the community health centre program that is being expanded very rapidly throughout Australia and also at the increasing number of salaried doctor services provided in those community health centres. [More…]

• The Bills before the House concern the financing of the Government’s proposed national health scheme; they do not concern the scheme itself. [More…]

• I believe that these Bills have to be considered in the context of the accelerating inflation in this country at the present time, particularly because a health care system that is labour intensive by nature has an accelerated inflation rate of twice to three times the ordinary inflation rate in the community generally. [More…]

• Where does the Government’s health scheme fit into the overall budgetary concept that a responsible government must have in the present inflationary situation? [More…]

• The White Paper, after referring to other sources of revenue for the funding of the scheme, states in paragraph 7.8 on page 69: 7.8 The remaining source of revenue of the Health Insurance Fund proposed by the Planning Committee was a special levy on workers’ compensation and motor verhicle third party insurance premiums including the notional premiums paid by organisations which carry their own insurance. [More…]

• The Government will study all aspects of this proposal with a view to developing suitable arrangements to recoup the amounts now provided from these sources which, under the new program, will be met by the Health Insurance Fund. [More…]

• I presume that the sources of funds available for a compensation scheme have been taken over and therefore the Government will have to find some other source of finance for its national health scheme. [More…]

• One has to add to the already out of date and incomplete figures in the White Paper a new dimension, and that is the widespread introduction of community health centres staffed by doctors on a salary and free of patient fees. [More…]

• I am not arguing that there should not be health centres. [More…]

• But there is the additional cost of ancillary services which are provided in these health centres by very laudable people. [More…]

• Otherwise why would he have said in the last couple of weeks that Australia could possibly have to pay out over twice as much of its gross national product on health care in 25 years time as it does now. [More…]

• If so, how does that fit in with the statement by the Minister on 10 July on the new limits for subsidised health benefits in which he said: [More…]

• Families with a gross weekly income of $68:50 or less will not have to pay health insurance fund contributions at all, provided they apply for the subsidy. [More…]

• The point I am coming to is that under the present health benefits scheme a person can earn approximately $3,500 and receive a health insurance cover free - he does not have to pay the insurance premium - but under the new scheme, if it were to start this year, a person would have to be earning only about $2,500, or about $1,000 less, before he would be up for the insurance levy. [More…]

• I admit that there are gaps and weaknesses in the present subsidised health benefits scheme, but the Opposition has stated quite clearly that it is its policy that the scheme should be amended and improved to allow the number of children and other factors to be altered so that a complete cover is provided for these people without any special taxation levy being imposed and without an insurance premium being charged. [More…]

• In the meantime, it is unnecessarily damaging the present scheme in the hope of forcing a desperate public to accept an untried, impractical scheme which, even if it were introduced, would not work, would add to inflation and would lower the standard of health care in this country. [More…]

• Whilst I appreciate that this additional legislation is necessary to bring about the introduction of the Government’s health scheme, basically the debate this afternoon has been along the lines of previous debates on this subject. [More…]

• When the honourable member for Barker occupied the portfolio of Minister for Health in the previous Liberal-Country Party Government he was probably one of the most incompetent Ministers to come from honourable members on the other side of the House, which was not an easy thing to be. [More…]

• The specialist will be reimbursed by the National Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• I think that it will be a significant improvement but I certainly do not feel that it will be the cure-all of the difficulties of delivering health care in this country. [More…]

• I do not think anybody has discovered the cure-all for the delivery of health care yet, any more than anybody has discovered the cure-all for inflation. [More…]

• When one is in opposition one has the benefit of being able to attack whatever the Government is putting up or doing, but that does not mean that the present health scheme is the best one or that what we propose is necessarily the best. [More…]

• The Opposition point of view in this debate has been adequately expressed by the previous speakers who have detailed the reasons why we should not have nationalised medicine and who have promoted the cause for a continuation of freedom of choice in all types of medical and hospital benefits and for the best possible quality of health care in Australia. [More…]

• I wish to tell the national Parliament and the people of Australia of the muddled thinking and incompetent execution of the Labor Party’s plans for nationalised medicine, to show that the proposals are riddled with myths and composed of prejudices and that all we have heard from the speakers from the other side of the House are the hoary old arguments of people who are dedicated to destroying the health system as we know it today. [More…]

• Health plan maths ‘a shambles’ [More…]

• The Australian Government’s proposed new health scheme will be ‘a mathematical shambles that in some cases will more than double health care costs,’ the Taxpayers’ Association said. [More…]

• Also there is the prospect that the future of our health care will deteriorate. [More…]

• It is also pertinent to let everyone know, notwithstanding what the honourable member for Cook (Mr Thorburn) said, that under the Government’s proposal to spend an additional $290m on health care in Australia the amount that will flow through to Queensland will be a mere $30m whereas under any formula which anyone may like to devise Queensland would be entitled at least to $66m. [More…]

• I want to tell the House that under this proposal the following people will be forced to pay more for an inferior service: Single taxpayers in all but the lowest income groups, family units where both the husband and wife are taxpayers, residents of that great State of Queensland, persons earning taxable income at the middle level or higher, persons requiring intermediate or private ward hospital accommodation, persons unable to obtain standard ward accommodation in public hospitals, and persons who now choose not to insure or have no need to insure for health fund benefits. [More…]

• It is remarkable to hear the various arguments that have been advanced during the course of this debate wherein some people are eulogising the nationalised health scheme in England, Canada and other places. [More…]

• Only recently I heard a news flash that the nationalised health scheme in England was in danger of crumbling unless $800m of national funds was injected into it. [More…]

• It seems to me to be a serious situation when anyone allows the quality of health care in a country to be directly dependent on the amount of Treasury funds that can be injected into the scheme. [More…]

• The quality of health care must at all times be allowed to increase with the demand that is being placed on it by adopting new techniques and by maintaining a system of incentive on the part of the people who are engaged in it. [More…]

• Previous speakers have detailed their opposition to this nationalised health scheme and the proposition that we have expressed which we feel can lead to an improvement in the quality of health care. [More…]

• Obviously the honourable member for Prospect realises that the quality of health care in this country will deteriorate to such an extent that we will have a system where the doctor is forced, in effect, to be on the common payroll and where his policies, initiatives and directions will be dictated to him by the person who holds the Treasury bag, and wherein any competition at all between private, charitable and public hospitals will be done away with. [More…]

• We are totally opposed to this deliberate plan of nationalisation of health care. [More…]

• We are totally opposed to the proposition that health care in this country should be expressed simply in economic terms. [More…]

• Perhaps one of the most interesting speeches this afternoon was that of the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), a member of the medical profession, a member of the Australian Labor Party, yet a member of the Parliament who has enough courage to suggest to his lay socialist Minister that he does not foresee happy times ahead with the Australian Labor Party’s health scheme as presently proposed. [More…]

• Yet the present Government persists in introducing in Australia a system of health care which is doomed before it starts. [More…]

• We are presently discussing Bills to implement the financial burden or Hayden’s health tax, as it is presently known throughout the country. [More…]

• The article deals with the crisis which faces Britain’s health services. [More…]

• Britain’s National Health Service - much envied by the world - is in a critical state. [More…]

• The Government lopped off 11 lm from this year’s health service allocation of 3378m. [More…]

• These poor people are being asked to wait because of the crumbling state of the health system in England. [More…]

• ‘We are continually protesting to the Department of Health about the appalling time lag and the everincreasing waiting list of NHS patients.’ [More…]

• Yet the Minister, this socialist is prescribing for this nation this system as a formula to rid Australia of its problems in the field of health care. [More…]

• It is noticeable that every time we have a health debate in this Parliament the Australian Labor Party members from Queensland remain silent. [More…]

• This does not mean that some light centralised campaign should not be waged from the South, but I’m sure the National Health issue in 1972 and rural problems, inflation and a number of other issues were positive proof that these matters had to be told at a State level in Queensland language, in the May 1974 campaign. [More…]

• The Minister has said that the National Health Bill will mean that Queenslanders ultimately will get an extra S34m a year for health care. [More…]

• The polls throughout Australia indicate that some 56 per cent at least of patients, if my memory serves me correctly, do not want anything to do with the Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• The health scheme of the previous Government needed some more attention, but it was not so bad that it needed to be completely overturned and destroyed. [More…]

• If, in the next few months, the Minister succeeds with his health scheme what is happening in Britain is likely to be the fate which awaits Australians in the future. [More…]

• In its own way this is a significant effort to try to contain the rate of increase in the cost of health services by using a more efficient system of collection and distribution. [More…]

• He asserted that the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) had said within the last week or so that the cost of the Government’s health scheme would, by the turn of the century, exceed 12 per cent of the gross national product. [More…]

• The Prime Minister has said, the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) has said on other occasions and I have certainly said on several occasions that if we project current growth rates in health costs into the future we will find that they will be about 12 per cent of gross national product. [More…]

• Accordingly, this presents a challenge for us to search around and to discover new and more efficient ways to provide health services while, at the same time, maintaining rights of choice, freedom of quality of care and so on. [More…]

• The delivery system will be effected through the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• There are community health centres, community psychiatric centres, school dental health services, treatment for alcoholism and for drug abuse and, of course, real money to the States for the development and improvement of existing and new public hospital services. [More…]

• Every State Minister for Health has endorsed that principle at conferences of Commonwealth and State Ministers for Health. [More…]

• It covers everyone and, most importantly, it minimises to a great extent the cost of the operation of health insurance. [More…]

• At the present time this sort of duplication is associated in the area of health insurance contributions. [More…]

• This collection system with the agency arrangements which are offered to private health insurance organisations prepared to co-operate in this scheme overcomes to an enormous degree the serious criticisms of the present system of private health insurance. [More…]

• In a dinosaurian way the present system of private health insurance is bogging down in a swamp of public dissatisfaction, inefficiency and unsatisfaction in the community. [More…]

• The spokesmen for the Opposition, the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp), has said in this general area - I think it is not without its gentle paradox: ‘What is the costing of the Government’s scheme of private health insurance?’ [More…]

• Obviously if we examine the record of the private health insurance funds we find that the contribution rate has increased as time has gone by. [More…]

• We will find out tonight or tomorrow just who is committed to the public interest and who has sold their soul to the private health insurance organisations. [More…]

• People now pay contributions to private health insurance. [More…]

• If a person wants to cover himself for health insurance purposes he has no choice. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall that this was a report from a commercial firm of actuaries on the costing of the health insurance scheme into the future. [More…]

• The Government would have liked that firm to have also carried out a comparable costing of the present system of health insurance, projected into the future. [More…]

• When we were in Opposition the best costing we could ever get of the present system of health insurance was 12 months out of date. [More…]

• I repeat for the record that it would have been better for E. S. Knight and Co. to have made a comparable costing of the present system of health insurance. [More…]

• Comparisons have been made between the Government’s proposed health scheme and the British national health scheme. [More…]

• NATIONAL HEALTH BILL (No. [More…]

• The Bill before the House has been introduced as a matter of urgency to correct a serious defect of the National Health Act. [More…]

• It deals with the controls over health benefits funds in relation to ‘benefits payable and contributions which they may charge and provides greater protection to members of funds who may be disadvantaged by the actions of fund managements. [More…]

• Recent events have made it abundantly clear that some funds intend to take every step within their power to ensure that, when the present system of private health insurance ends and the new universal program commences, they retain intact the vast and excessive reserves which they have built up through consistently overcharging contributors over many years. [More…]

• The Government’s view is that excessive reserves held by health insurance funds should be used for the direct benefit of contributors by holding down contribution rates to the lowest level compatible with the financial viability of the funds. [More…]

• On advice from the Registration Committee established under the National Health Act, I refused approval of the proposed contribution increases. [More…]

• One can reasonably apprehend that, if adequate action is not now taken to protect the public interest, health insurance funds throughout Australia may be encouraged to flout the reasonable instructions on contribution rates and benefit levels issued by the Government on advice from the Registration Committee. [More…]

• I would like to make it clear, however, that the health insurance funds generally are displaying a responsible attitude. [More…]

• In fact the Victorian health funds have announced that they will not seek to increase contribution rates before 1 January 1975 despite heavy increases in hospital fees in that State. [More…]

• Honourable members will understand from the facts which I have just outlined that MBF and HCF have deliberately flouted the intention of the National Health Act enacted by and administered for so many years by our predecessors that increases in contribution rates should be approved by the Minister before they are implemented. [More…]

• Government policy concerning levels of reserves has been in line with that of the previous Government, which in turn was based on the recommendations of the Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, commonly know as the Nimmo Committee, of 1969. [More…]

• In a major policy statement on behalf of the previous Government on 4 March 1970, Dr Forbes, the then Minister for Health, said in this House: [More…]

• These relate to the financial reserves of registered health insurance funds. [More…]

• Honourable members will note that, contrary to Press speculation, this Bill does not propose financial penalties against health funds. [More…]

• It is basically designed to clear up doubts about the authority of the Australian Government to control the benefits and contributions of health funds - an authority which the Opposition must surely support since, during its term as Government, Ministers of that Government showed concern about the enhancement of that authority and also about the principle that health funds should not amass excessive reserves but should use reserve moneys to avoid or to cushion contribution increases. [More…]

• In this respect, I again draw the attention of the House to the statement made on 4 March 1970 by the then Minister for Health, Dr Forbes, concerning consideration the then Government was giving to the introduction of penalties against health funds and their officers. [More…]

• Honourable members may also recall that in June and July of 1971 the authority of the then Minister, Senator Greenwood, to direct the health funds on hospital fund contributions and benefits was challenged by New South Wales funds led by MBF and HCF. [More…]

• I am sure all honourable members will agree that the legislation controlling health insurance should be amended to ensure that it is capable of achieving its intentions. [More…]

• In summary this Bill is designed to make certain that the intentions of the present National Health Act can be positively implemented in the interests of the public and that the avenue of appeal against the Minister’s decisions in relation to contribution and benefit levels should provide proper opportunities to have the whole question of what are adequate reserves judicially resolved. [More…]

• In conclusion, I wish to point out that, when this legislation has been passed by the Parliament, the contribution rates determined in accordance with the proper procedures provided, will give all contributors to health funds full entitlements to benefits without paying unauthorised contributions which fund managements may impose. [More…]

• Without this legislation, the Government’s legal authority to protect contributors’ interests is not as clear as it should be and the public could be gravely inconvenienced and unfairly imposed upon with illegal charges for health insurance coverage. [More…]

• It is, I repeat, a Bill to ensure that the policy declarations of past Liberal-Country Party governments on the matter of health fund reserves is achieved in the public interest. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The working party has a membership of nine and is constituted by six senior officers of the Department of Health (including the chairman), two of the Department of Social Security and one of the Repatriation and Compensation Department. [More…]

• It was formed to advise me as Minister for Health on alternative policies for the provision of medical and surgical aids and appliances. [More…]

• Child care is a preventive service to prevent emotional and health problems. [More…]

• Not their defence or foreign aid expenditure, not their new departments, increased salaries, health schemes . [More…]

• I have shown a table concerning payments under the marginal dairy farms reconstruction scheme to the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and to save time I seek leave to have it incorporated in Hansard. [More…]

• This Bill is the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• That means it is the second Bill brought in by the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) this session to amend the National Health Act. [More…]

• It relates to the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• The private health funds are organisations registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The present mock crisis has been orecipitated by the actions of 2 New South Wales health funds, the Medical Benefits Fund and the Hospitals Contributions Fund, plus several other smaller societies. [More…]

• When we are talking about private health funds we are talking about non-profit groups of individuals who join together in a cooperative, credit union sort of sense to insure themselves against the cost of sickness or injury. [More…]

• These funds as I said a moment ago, have to register under the National Health Act to receive the subvention from Commonwealth funds. [More…]

• Of course, if the Government is to be handing out taxpayers’ money to health funds it must have some say in or control over the administration of those funds. [More…]

• Any Minister, of whatever political persuasion he might be, would be very loathe to deregister a health fund because of the odium that would attract from people who contribute to the fund. [More…]

• As I understand it we never had any difficulties in administering the health funds. [More…]

• In the hands of a Minister who wants to destroy the private health funds - I am completely persuaded that this Minister and this Government want to do that - this is rather a strong power. [More…]

• We regard it as a grandstanding exercise by the .Minister who is using the present situation to embarrass, humiliate and demean the private enterprise health insurance funds - his bete noire. [More…]

• We heard from him of the greedy doctors and then of the rapacious health funds. [More…]

• The sad fact is that today, 1 August, in New South Wales literally thousands of people do not know whether they are covered effectively for health insurance benefits. [More…]

• If he did say that, I suggest it makes a mockery of his Registration Committee because according to the Act when an application is made for an increase in the contributions paid to health funds the Registration Committee advises the Minister whether the increases are reasonable. [More…]

• I am not opposed to forcing or influencing the health funds to run down reserves if they are regarded as being excessive. [More…]

• As I say, I hold no particular brief for these 2 health funds. [More…]

• The health funds have published figures which, if reasonable, need examination. [More…]

• Is that the way to start negotiations with the health funds, by telling them they acted illegally? [More…]

• I remind the Minister that it is not his favourite bete noire, the so-called rapacious health funds, that want this increase. [More…]

• Does the Minister know - I am sure he does - that other health funds are involved. [More…]

• That is the only way to keep down hospital costs and the costs of running friendly societies or health funds. [More…]

• This problem between the health funds and the Minister for Social Security will continue. [More…]

• Snedden, yesterday: I have no doubt that this Minister and this Government have the overt intention of destroying the private health funds, of destroying private practice in medicine and of destroying private hospitals and private nursing homes so that it can bring in its own discredited, miserable health scheme. [More…]

• The National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• The health benefit organisations were set up a number of years ago as mutual benefit organisations. [More…]

• If they want to insure to go to a private hospital or to attend a private doctor, they should be permitted to do so and there should be no legislation which enables a Minister to prevent Australian citizens from having that opportunity merely because he wants to force them into his nationalised health scheme. [More…]

• The Government supposedly is trying to help people with their health funds to provide cover against illness. [More…]

• If there is to be a prize for deviousness in this exercise it must go to the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) because he is pursuing a policy of denigrating the private health funds. [More…]

• However, in pursuance of section 73b (c) of the National Health Act 1953-1973, the Minister has directed that you shall cause alterations to be made to your organisation’s Queensland hospital fund rules to provide for the weekly contribution rate for -all members to the Private Table to be 63c (single) and $1.25 (family). [More…]

• On 18 June the New South Wales health funds received a preliminary circular from the Department of Social Security on this matter. [More…]

• How true it makes the charge directed at the Minister that he is out to kill everything that is private, charitable, or religious or community based in our whole health system whether they are hospitals, doctors, nursing homes or health funds. [More…]

• But if, the moment he receives this additional power from this legislation, he proceeds to act in an arbitrary manner, to penalise or attempt to penalise these organisations and, through them, the majority of the people in New South Wales, then he must be judged on this other basis of being out to kill anything of a private nature in our health system. [More…]

• If the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) is not prepared to accept my word on this, I suggest that he ought to speak with Senator Greenwood who was not without his difficulties a few years ago with health insurance funds. [More…]

• The next matter of substance raised by the honourable member for Murray referred to discussions between officers of my Department and representatives of the health insurance funds some weeks ago. [More…]

• I wish him health and happiness with his family in his premature retirement. [More…]

• Apparently he feels that there should not be any joint sitting on the Commonwealth Electoral Bill, the Health Bills or the Petroleum and Minerals Authority Bill. [More…]

• We know that the Health Bills are designed to bring about the nationalisation of medicine in Australia - to bring about a more expensive and less efficient system of looking after the health and welfare of the Australian people. [More…]

• Doctors are leaving the city and a serious confrontation is building up between the medical profession and the public health authorities. [More…]

• During the 1950s interest in activity developed in public health education programs, in certain areas of cancer registration and in cancer research. [More…]

• These include the training of young workers, environmental cancer, skin cancer in Australia, viruses and cancer, appli-cation of present knowledge to cancer man agement, professional education, social problems of cancer and health screening. [More…]

• Department of Health: Training in Financial and Auditing Procedures (Question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Colonel Charles Anderson, V.C., M.C., is enjoying good health and is still living in Hume. [More…]

• The first committee consisted of representatives from the Departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Attorney-General’s, Customs and Excise, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Health, Labor and Immigration, Northern Territory, Agriculture, Special Minister of State, Transport and Treasury and the Public Service Board. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission Act 1973 [More…]

• Health Insurance Act 1973, and [More…]

• Their needs are not only in respect of health, education and housing, the whole ambit of their needs, is carted into this Parliament on the basis of what would be good legislation or legislation in their interests. [More…]

• A little while ago in the House of Representatives we heard the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) say in respect of one of the measures that the Joint Sitting will discuss tonight or tomorrow- I refer to the National Health legislation which proposes a health scheme on which this Government campaigned and was elected; it was proposed first to the Australian people in 1968 and was restated in 1969, 1972 and 1974-that he and the Opposition would go to the barricades rather than yield one iota, one inch, to the will of the people. [More…]

• They said that they would do the same with health services. [More…]

• Mr Chairman, it is my honour to commend to the Joint Sitting of this Parliament for confirmation the Health Insurance Commission Bill 1973 and the Health Insurance Bill 1973. [More…]

• No Bills ought to be better known or better understood than the Health Insurance Commission Bill and the Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• Indeed, emotionalism reached great heights on the part of the Opposition when the spokesman for the Opposition on matters such as this, the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) said he was prepared even to fall at the barricades fighting against the proposal for a universal health insurance program. [More…]

• With the kindliest intent in the world I say to him that as one of the first casualties to fall at the barricades today he can be one of the first people to call on the benefits of the new universal health insurance program. [More…]

• It is based on equity; it is based on a sense of justice; it will ensure that every person in this community is covered for health insurance purposes; and, most certainly, it is based on a freedom of choice- a freedom to choose the private medical practitioner that one cares to use and a freedom to choose the type of hospital treatment that one cares to draw upon. [More…]

• Let me outline quickly the key points of the health insurance program. [More…]

• I point out that the Health Insurance Commission Bill is ancillary to the Health Insurance Bill in that the Health Insurance Commission Bill proposes an administrative structure that will ensure that the health insurance program operates properly. [More…]

• These are the benefits that the community stands to gain: For individual citizens our health insurance program will mean an automatic health insurance cover that is based on a more equitable system of payment and a freedom of choice of the doctor and the type of hospital care. [More…]

• There has been altogether too much dishonesty within this chamber from members of the Opposition who neither understand nor want to understand, and from the vested interests whether they are in certain representative bodies of the medical profession or whether they are in private health insurance funds, which generously subsidise their political activities, and which do not want this change to take place, in spite of the benefits that it will contribute to the people. [More…]

• That is a task that has been taken up by the Government within the Ministry of Health and mainly through the activities of the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• No previous Australian Government has committed itself financially to supporting the development of health services in the community on a national scale. [More…]

• Today community health centres are being developed so that people will have a range of health services- not just medical practitioners, as important as they are, and there is no disputing that fact, but also the people who should be backing them up and who have never had adequate encouragement to provide those services or an opportunity to fulfil that task, namely, the paramedics and the associated medical professionals, such as health social workers, home visit nurses, physiotherapists and technologists of various types. [More…]

• They are the people who are now staffing those community health centres. [More…]

• Similarly, psychiatric community health centres are being set up. [More…]

• People are being trained to be therapists so that the children of the nation- our children, the most valuable investment we will make in the future of this countrywill, among other things, have adequate health services available to them in the school grounds through the services being developed. [More…]

• The Australian Government, through Dr Everingham and the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, is providing money- not proposing to do so but doing so; it commenced to do so in the last Budget- to the State authorities that maintain our public hospitals so that they can upgrade them. [More…]

• I want to move back from the subject to which I have diverted because it relates to health services and I do not want any member of the Opposition to stand up and say that I have spoken only about an economic exercise. [More…]

• That is what the present system of health insurance is. [More…]

• But this is a superior system of health insurance as an economic exercise, as a financial exercise, because every dollar that is spent maximises the return in health services that are purchased. [More…]

• The essential thing about a health insurance program is that it should cover everyone in the community, there should be equity in the distribution of the cost of the scheme and people should be able to obtain the health services they need without concern as to whether the cost is going to be prohibitive in some way or other. [More…]

• It is an unchallengeable fact that many people are not receiving proper health care. [More…]

• The people on low incomes, especially migrants, are not receiving the level of medical and hospital care that they really need in the best interests of their health. [More…]

• To that extent, as we do these things we improve the quality of health care. [More…]

• Our basic position- and it is the primary intention of this program- is that health care services should be provided in the same way as is assistance for education; it should be provided as a social utility available as a right to every Australian rather than as a commodity to be traded or as a privilege to be purchased. [More…]

• Their proposal turned out to be a rather tattered ambulance service costing about $200m which would do very little to remedy the defects of the present system of health insurance. [More…]

• But the proposals were a confession that there is something wrongsomething dreadfully wrong- with the present system of private health insurance. [More…]

• The very fact that at any given time the present system of health insurance fails to cover more than one million people is one reason. [More…]

• The Australian Bureau of Statistics, which was known as the Bureau of Census and Statistics, and more recently Professor Henderson in one of his surveys for his poverty inquiry, have established that at any given time at least 13 per cent of the population is without any health insurance cover at all, and most of the people in this grouping are people who cannot afford to take the risk of not having adequate cover for their health needs. [More…]

• These are the people who are repeatedly shown up in social surveys as the people who have health needs which are not being met. [More…]

• It is a poor state of affairs that such a high number of people should have neglected health needs in a wealthy society such as ours. [More…]

• The subsidised health insurance program at best could cover only four out of every 100 low income families which it was supposed to cover. [More…]

• A man in this position who earns $80 a week after tax pays over $2 a week for his health insurance cover. [More…]

• But a man earning $300 a week pays only a little over $1 a week for his health insurance cover. [More…]

• Liberals privately, in the secrecy of their committee meetings, have confessed this inequity because at page 9 of the original document which one of the Opposition members was kind enough to send to my office anonymously before the last election- the document on the Opposition’s health proposals- the following remarks were made: [More…]

• For example, the case has been given that it costs the Prime Minister less to insure himself for health and medical care than it does for his chauffeur to do the same thing. [More…]

• Let me move on to another problem of the present system of health insurance, namely, the cost explosion. [More…]

• There has been a 152 per cent increase in the commitment by which the Australian Government has to finance private health insurance schemes and associated schemes like the pensioners medical service and repatriation medical services. [More…]

• The rate of explosion in health service costs in this area covered by and related to health insurance is far faster in Australia than in most other advanced countries in the world. [More…]

• We hear a lot about Canada from Opposition spokesmen, from the Australian Medical Association and from the health insurance funds. [More…]

• In the last 5 years the average annual rate of increase in costs in health services has exceeded 18 per cent per annum in Australia. [More…]

• As a proportion of gross domestic product the cost of Canada’s health services is at this point about the same as in the United States of America, but I repeat that in Canada everyone is covered. [More…]

• What the Government is trying to do by proposing a system of universal health insurance is to bring Australia up to this stage of the twentieth century and to give it what most other advanced countries of the world have. [More…]

• Even the United States of America is in the middle of a rather turbulent debate on the issue of universal health insurance. [More…]

• This is the fourth time that this socalled Labor health scheme has been debated in this place. [More…]

• It is a matter of principle, because we believe that this health scheme proposed by the Labor Party would be a disaster to the health of the Australian people. [More…]

• What the Opposition cares about is the health of the Australian people. [More…]

• It is a debate about human beings- Australian human beings- and the most important thing in their lives, their health. [More…]

• This debate concerns not only those people who are now living, but also those to be born, because once this Labor health scheme is impacted on the Australian people there is no getting away from it. [More…]

• It will be with us for ever, as the British socialised health scheme is with the British people, as are the schemes that exist in Canada and New Zealand. [More…]

• The inevitable result of living is that sometime all of us will lose that rare gift which we take for granted while we have it- our health. [More…]

• All of us can talk academically about health schemes, doctors and hospitals until we or one of our family need one. [More…]

• Mr Chairman, you know that I have ultimate respect for your rulings, but if the performance of this Government over the last 18 months is not relevant to what it promised to do in the field of health, I regard that as a rather curious ruling. [More…]

• This measure before the Joint Sitting will effect the health of every Australian. [More…]

• I would have thought that it was quite fair and proper for me to refer to the Government’s miserable record over the past 18 months to allow the Australian people to assess what hope this health scheme has. [More…]

• Now it proceeds with this health scheme which 56 per cent of the people surveyed in a Gallup poll said that they do not want. [More…]

• The Labor Party genuinely believes that the best health care system is by salaried doctors, with Governmentowned hospitals and Government-owned nursing homes. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) is on record as saying that he envisages that in a few years time, under the scheme, 80 per cent of people will be going to salaried doctors and that only 20 per cent will be able to afford to see a private doctor in his surgery. [More…]

• Private hospitals and private nursing homes are irrelevant to the Labor Party ‘s conceptt of a national health scheme. [More…]

• The major act of nationalisation in the traditional sense to be undertaken by a Labor Government in the next term will be through the establishment of a single health fund administered by a health insurance commission. [More…]

• Firstly, the Government says to between 92 per cent and 95 per cent of Australians who are already covered by voluntary health insurance: ‘We are going to upset the present situation. [More…]

• We concede that many people today are not covered for health insurance and should be. [More…]

• The Labor Party health scheme entitles all Australians to free hospitalisation in a public ward. [More…]

• I think that the great private hospitals run by philanthropic, charitable and religious organisations which have done a fantastic job for health care in this country are in immediate danger under this scheme. [More…]

• House of Representatives I have said to the Minister that the Opposition supports increased money for public hospitals, we support assistance for people on low incomes with their insurance premiums and we support a great number of proposals in his health scheme; and I have appealed to him to adopt a bi-partisan approach on these matters. [More…]

• It will not improve the nation’s health. [More…]

• It can meddle with and ruin everything else it touches, but I plead with it not to meddle with the nation’s health. [More…]

• It occurrs to me that when the founding fathers wrote in that provision they must have had something like these health Bills in mind because, especially having heard the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) and, for that matter, knowing in advance how I proposed to respond, I can only be fortified in the view that if there is one subject on which no good purpose can be served by further argument it is this subject of Labor’s alternative health scheme. [More…]

• In this context slogans are particularly good for short term political effect, if useless for real understanding, and whatever may be said about the opponents of Labor’s health scheme it could not be said that they have been short of slogans. [More…]

• There have been many cliches spoken, in the hope that people are idiots, and based on the false premise that just because someone drops a cliche, everyone is going to believe it and therefore hate the Government, hate the Labor Party, and despise the health scheme. [More…]

• It is said, for example, that the new scheme will be accompanied by sharply rising health cost. [More…]

• But that really proves nothing on its own, does it, because the present health scheme is also accompanied by sharply rising health costs, and the figures are clearly available to demonstrate it. [More…]

• The Treasurer’s statement of financial transactions for the 1973-74 year shows the outlay on health at $942m as opposed to $783m the previous year. [More…]

• Again, that is a 20 per cent rate of increase, and all on the basis of the present health scheme. [More…]

• The first was universal insurance instead of partial cover, the second was equitable payment of costs rather than the current inequitable spread, and the third was some predictability in medical costs both as related to total health expenses and as applicable to individual fee for service arrangements. [More…]

• Anybody who listened to him would realise that the essential message coming out of his speech was this: ‘For goodness sake, do not talk any more about this health scheme because the more it is talked about the more it is exposed for its essential badness.’ [More…]

• The objectives of any health scheme are basically the same, whether they are the objectives of the nation or the objectives of a person. [More…]

• What is needed is that when a person requires health care, he must have access to it. [More…]

• That is the objective of government, but we do not want instituted a national health scheme which will send us broke. [More…]

• We can- and a Labor Government would- build an alternative public health service within the limits of present health expenditures in Australia. [More…]

• He said that he would build this scheme within the limits of the existing costs of the health scheme in 1967. [More…]

• We all know that the Minister for Social Security, Mr Hayden, will not cost his health scheme. [More…]

• At present, health services cost our nation more than $2,000m a year, or about S.3 percent of gross domestic product. [More…]

• Their cost is increasing so dramatically that it has been estimated that our expenditure on health services could be more than 12 per cent of gross domestic product by the year 2000. [More…]

• The honourable member for Perth wants to stop the debate now, but the Prime Minister wants to talk about health services in the year 2000. [More…]

• He said that the present cost of health services is 5.3 per cent of gross domestic product and that the cost in the future would be 12 per cent. [More…]

• Compare those figures with his statement when he launched the proposal and said: ‘We can provide it within the limits of the present health expenditure’. [More…]

• Health services, representing 5.3 per cent of our gross domestic product, cost us $2,385m. [More…]

• In today’s terms the extra cost of $3,000m- that is the difference between $2,400m and $5,400mwould represent an increase of about two and a quarter- between two and two and a half- in the share of the gross domestic product given to health services. [More…]

• The money would be going to health. [More…]

• This health scheme would drag away all of that expenditure on those items of social security and welfare and of housing. [More…]

• The man who runs the Ontario health scheme- nowadays Canada is the criterion for all things, and Ontario is the place from where a lot of this health scheme was taken- said this: [More…]

• In Canada the spending on health services is one of the highest portions of gross domestic product in the world, and Canada still has not a health scheme which satisfies anybody. [More…]

• I am informed that half of the Swedes have to take out private insurance anyway notwithstanding the massive taxes they are paying to try to finance the health scheme. [More…]

• If the Government were going to produce a good health scheme we could make a choice and say: ‘A good health scheme we will have to pay for and we opt for it. ‘ [More…]

• But how can anyone declare this to be a good health scheme when the people who deliver the health scheme- the medical profession- will not have a bar of it? [More…]

• Are we to run a health scheme without doctors? [More…]

• If this health scheme goes through, this generation will be passing on a vast failure and those who vote for it will regret it. [More…]

• Britain has inflation, strikes, nationalised health, and its health scheme is falling about its ears. [More…]

• In fact, if the Government is to get the number of beds it requires for standard health care it will have to pinch them from the private hospitals to start with. [More…]

• Do not forget that a tremendous number of Britons have left Britain, not excluding a tremendous number of doctors who have left Britain because they could not stand the health system there. [More…]

• If we had not had those British doctors who have come to Australia we would not be able to deliver the health care we are delivering today. [More…]

• We have to get over this myth of free health care. [More…]

• We want hospitals that are efficient units and not for them to have taken away the example of the present health scheme, so that there will be a proper turnover and efficiency in the hospitals. [More…]

• Even if this amount of money were spent on the health scheme, we still would not have arrived at its cost. [More…]

• Apparently, he has decided to lend his voice to the propaganda war against the national health scheme. [More…]

• Thirty-six years ago a then senior Minister of the Government of the time- he was Treasurer in a United Australia Party Government- introduced a Bill into the Parliament dealing with national health. [More…]

• It is to the shame of previous conservative governments, governments of the same political persuasion as the Party to which the Leader of the Opposition, the honourable member for Hotham and all other members who are taking part in this debate from the Opposition point of view belong, that the nation’s so-called voluntary health scheme does not cater for at least a million Australians today. [More…]

• It is those people and their children more than anyone else who need the scheme to cover their health needs. [More…]

• Until they are fully protected and until they are fully covered, we as Australians will not have a truly national health scheme. [More…]

• We saw the previous LiberalCountry Party Government try to head off the establishment of a Labor sponsored Senate Select Committee to inquire into health and hospital costs. [More…]

• We saw the Nimmo committee advocate the establishment of a national health insurance commission. [More…]

• A previous Liberal Minister for Health, the honourable member for Barker, Dr Forbes, who I understand will be taking part in this debate, stated in a ministerial statement on 4 March 1 970: [More…]

• This is by the previous Liberal-Country Party Government - to adopt the Committee’s proposal that a National Health Insurance Commission be established. [More…]

• Red herrings have been spawned by the opponents of this Health Insurance Bill in a veritable ocean of propaganda that has almost swamped the real issues that are the subject of the debate. [More…]

• Yet there is again this false propaganda on the part of the Liberal Party and the Country Party and on the part of the health funds that in some way the doctors have to fight a so-called socialist plot to undermine doctor-patient relationships. [More…]

• The Bill really concerns the Government’s relations with the Health funds- the so-called voluntary health insurance funds. [More…]

• The Bill seeks to improve and rationalise the system of health insurance because it is the Australian Government that is the major contributor to the health funds. [More…]

• The majority of Australians are simply unaware that the Government subsidises very substantially the patients’ contributions to the health funds and that the funds are not simply private insurance organisations. [More…]

• In the Prime Minister’s policy speech he stated that the Australian Labor Government would introduce a universal health insurance scheme, that it would be administered by a single fund and that contributions would be paid according to taxable income. [More…]

• The Bill says, in effect, that no Australian should be placed in a position where his health or that of his family can be jeopardised by his lack of money or where his health or that of his children can be further jeopardised by worry over his ability to pay. [More…]

• The honourable member for Perth (Mr Berinson) at least gave some details but in doing so he gave away the devastating point, that under the Government’s proposed scheme people will still need to take out private health insurance and at a considerably increased cost. [More…]

• The points we made were, firstly, that it would lower the quality of medical care to Australian families; second, that it would increase the total cost to the Government and thus to the taxpayer; third, that it would increase the cost to an individual because, in addition to increased taxation, expensive additional private insurance would be required to maintain health care standards; fourth, that it would reduce the freedom of choice of doctors and hospitals; fifth, that it would jeopardise the future of religious, private and country hospitals; and, sixth, that it would be the first stage of nationalisation of health care in Australia. [More…]

• The Government is adopting a revolutionary rather than evolutionary approach to our health care system. [More…]

• After 30 years of a national health scheme Great Britain has managed to cover approximately 96 per cent- or 4 per cent more- of its population. [More…]

• Surely that is not a problem that requires drastic revolutionary surgery that will turn the whole health care system into confusion and chaos. [More…]

• One should add to that the fact that according to gallup polls a majority of Australians has consistently shown themselves to be opposed to it and that the vast majority of those involved in the health care system are opposed to it, including the doctors. [More…]

• The pensioner medical scheme and the subsidised health benefits plan for low income earners are not perfect. [More…]

• Under the present subsidised health benefits plan- imperfect though it is- with the recent alterations, a family man can earn up to $3,500 and be completely covered for hospital and medical benefits with the Government paying his contributions and he still does not have to pay any special tax levy. [More…]

• Third, it will polarise the health system in this country. [More…]

• Instead of having a reasonable community approach to health in Australia there will be a polarisation between those who, on the one hand, are forced to use the public system and the wealthy who, on the other and, can well afford to pay for special private hospitals and private facilities. [More…]

• Those wealthy people using private facilities will take with them a disproportionate share of our health delivery people- doctors, nurses and so on- so, in a situation of shortages, depriving people who use public wards and ordinary faculties of the services of these urgently needed people. [More…]

• The fourth point is that the community support which has been apparent for health and hospitals generally will be lost. [More…]

• This system provides a guarantee for long term patients and it also reduces the cost of health insurance. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition made the point very well that there will be an increase in the gross domestic product expended on health from 5 to 12 per cent. [More…]

• Shrapnel and Knight, 2 independent actuaries, have said that the Minister has underestimated the cost by $400m and State health ministers have said the same. [More…]

• Not only will there be an increased cost to the nation but there will also be an increased cost to the individual who will have to pay the special tax levy of 1 .35 per cent plus, as that percentage will have to be increased; he will also be required, out of ordinary taxation from general revenue, to pay for the deficit in the health fund. [More…]

• The Australian Government’s proposed new health scheme will be ‘a mathematical shambles that in some cases will more than double health care cost,’ the Taxpayers’ Association said. [More…]

• Their health insurance bill will jump 82 per cent under the new scheme, it says. [More…]

• The newspaper report states quite clearly that the health bill for the average family man will increase by 82 per cent. [More…]

• Mr Acting Chairman, the Government should stop its senseless, socialist stampede for a costly, unworkable scheme that will reduce health care standards, reduce freedom of choice and put many of our hospitals at peril. [More…]

• -Mr Acting Chairman, these health bills have been considered by the House of Representatives and passed by it on 3 occasions. [More…]

• So I fail to understand why the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) consistently confuses this proposed health program with the British scheme. [More…]

• The report of the Health Insurance Planning Committee outlining how the health insurance program could be introduced was tabled in the House of Representatives in April 1973. [More…]

• This legislation represents a sincere endeavour to build a new health benefits system which will provide high quality health services, accessible to all. [More…]

• Which will expand freedom of choice; which will promote efficiency in health services and which will upgrade hospital and community health centres. [More…]

• The legislation will make possible the establishment of community health centres. [More…]

• This was not possible in the 23 years that the Opposition had the chance to provide a health service to cover Australian people [More…]

• There are some groups within the community who obtain health services free, including pensioners. [More…]

• At present the bulk of the population must insure themselves and their families through one of the multiplicity of health insurance funds. [More…]

• If honourable members of the Opposition can visualise a situation in which a person cannot afford health coverage, they will realise that if he has the choice between paying the rent and eating, he will eat, and if he has the choice between paying health insurance and eating, he will eat. [More…]

• Let us face this fact once and for all: The existing scheme discriminates against the very people who most urgently need health insurance. [More…]

• The very basis of the program submitted here by my Party is to make sure that the hard-working family man is not plunged into poverty through his inability to afford health insurance. [More…]

• I repeat that people will eat before they take out health insurance. [More…]

• The honourable member for Chisholm (Mr Staley) made an unfortunate statement the other day in the debate on the health Bills. [More…]

• We in Australia are in the happy situation of having a typically Australian solution to the problem of health care. [More…]

• I submit that the right to good health is a basic freedom and that medical treatment should not rest on ability to pay. [More…]

• The honourable member for Chisholm also suggested in this House that the health program we are debating would do away with the close relationship between doctor and patient. [More…]

• Australians re-elected this Government and, in so doing, re-endorsed this national health program. [More…]

• Australia’s present private health insurance system is clearly to blame for the present situation. [More…]

• Disadvantaged people are being discouraged from belonging to private health funds because contributions to them are in no way related to a person’s ability to pay. [More…]

• In debating this Bill, the Parliament is really deciding whether health care is a privilege to be purchased or a right to be enjoyed equally by every Australian. [More…]

• In my opinion, a vote against this Bill is a vote against the rights of good health of one million Australians who are uninsured. [More…]

• Why should a monolithic health service be any different, any better, for the people of Australia than the one which has been developed as part of the Australian need? [More…]

• I think he acknowledges that nowhere is he talking about delivery of health care. [More…]

• The people do not want this health scheme. [More…]

• Why then do we have the obstinate introduction and re-introduction- round and round again- into this Parliament of a scheme which is a disaster to health care as we need it? [More…]

• It has been stressed in a cliche that health care is a right. [More…]

• Surely health care is a responsibility. [More…]

• Under the existing health scheme the Liberal-Country Party Government progressively closed the gaps as they were found to exist and it assisted those low income groups, such as migrants and pensioners, to have health care. [More…]

• Ours was not a government obsessed with taking over the health scheme. [More…]

• But really, it is not a health scheme that we are talking about; it is a social program. [More…]

• I am to become a card-carrying Australian for a public health system, a national superannuation scheme and a national compensation scheme. [More…]

• Is it in the interests of individual Australians to create a monopoly over health services? [More…]

• This national health scheme and other nationalised programs which we are seeing are not the way in which we will best express the will and the purpose of this nation. [More…]

• If it is not to provide a diminished health service, then, of course, there is no freedom of choice for us as to what the rate will be next year. [More…]

• Independent actuaries have told us that the 1.5 to 1 ratio which the Government initiated in the first place will in no way cover the needs of the present health program. [More…]

• If the Leader of the Opposition is correct in his figure of some 14 per cent being required for health care, what sort of a levy will we, as individual Australians, have imposed on our tax-paying income? [More…]

• The White Paper which was produced stated, in paragraph 7.15, that the total net cost of the Budget, including the effect of tax deductions, will be approximately the same as under the existing health scheme. [More…]

• Are we therefore talking about diminishing the actual health care that will be delivered? [More…]

• These things are provided in the existing health service. [More…]

• The various types of plans that any government department decides upon are plans with doors, doorways and passages of certain dimensions, and all manner of restrictive provisions- not necessarily what is needed to deliver the health service to the people but what some bureaucratic department decides is the type of plan that would best suit that purpose. [More…]

• I am not talking of that time; I am going back to 1944-45, in the days of a Labor government, when it was decided that the Federal Government had a responsibility in the matter of health care. [More…]

• At the time that Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson was Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister for Health we closed many more gaps. [More…]

• Progressively the system has been built to serve the Australian people and their health needs. [More…]

• If that were upheld by the High Court as an infringement of the Constitution with regard to civil conscription, can members imagine what the High Court of Australia may say not so long ahead with regard to sessional doctors who, under the Hayden health scheme, will be required to deal with government in the way in which this form-filling-in government always requires? [More…]

• Will it dismantle the health care program as it has done the child care program? [More…]

• Are we in the hands of a government which, for economic reasons, after having created this monopoly of health care, will plunge into discrimination against certain groups, against services which will be provided and against ancillary services? [More…]

• The dangers of the proposed health scheme on the medical profession, on the private hospital system and on the Australian people make me feel very concerned about the fact that the Government should persist in introducing a scheme which is not wanted. [More…]

• As was pointed out this morning, the Government has trimmed, schemed and tried to by-pass the problems that have been put before it, but at no time has the Government acknowledged that it was wrong; that the proposed health scheme was a theory of some economists. [More…]

• The proposed health scheme may be a superior economic system, but superior to what has not been acknowledged. [More…]

• Although we have been regarded as obstructing the wish of the Australian Government to introduce its health scheme, I believe that I represent the people of Victoria who have elected me to this place, and I assure them that it will not be my vote that will enable a nationalised health scheme to be introduced into this country. [More…]

• Her concept of free competition in the present medical benefits voluntary health scheme is a rather interesting one. [More…]

• Anyone who considers that there is competition between schemes which charge the same rates, which give the same benefits, which have the same forms and which have the same regulations has a peculiar concept of competition, as has someone who refers to referendum results as an indication that the Australian people do not want this proposed health scheme. [More…]

• The result of those referendums or elections put honourable senators and members on this side of the Parliament into power, and the proposed health scheme was part of our policy at those elections. [More…]

• These Bills produce for the first time a system of health insurance incorporating the principles of social equity, justice and universal coverage which are not present and not possible under the present health scheme. [More…]

• These proposals provide for a change in the method of funding health care in this country and, together with the other proposals for hospital and community care, represent a social reform- a reform to overcome the inefficiencies of the present system and to correct its malapportionment of the taxpayers’ money between the private and public sectors and its maldistribution of doctors and health services. [More…]

• During the last election campaign he said he supported the Liberal Party health scheme when, because of his membership of the General Practitioners Society, obviously he did not. [More…]

• The second most virulent opposition to the new health scheme has come from the friends of the honourable member for Hotham, the big funds with their $20,000 and $30,000 a year executives, whose boards are made up of people who have vested interests in the business of health, whose constitutions carefully preclude consumer representation on their boards. [More…]

• Not only were they active in the great health debate but also they were successful in having provision made for meaningful consumer and government representation on health funds removed from the Opposition’s policy on health, in spite of the opposition of the honourable member for Hotham who leaves to feed himself. [More…]

• Prior to the suspension of the sitting I was speaking about the false and unreasonable criticism of the Government’s proposed health insurance plan. [More…]

• It never concerned the Opposition in that other large field of public health carerepatriation medical services- when it was in power. [More…]

• I am sorry that the Opposition Parties may get less assistance from the large health funds in future, but there are plenty of other equally wealthy and equally unworthy causes for the Opposition to champion. [More…]

• All the criticisms of the present scheme are corrected in our proposed health scheme. [More…]

• Some of them were corrected in the hurriedly prepared Liberal Party health scheme produced just before the last election. [More…]

• For the first time the Liberal Party and the Country Party conceded that there were people not covered by the present health scheme, that the scheme was not universal. [More…]

• The only difference between the scheme proposed by the Opposition and our proposal is that we cannot see any sense in preserving the large voluntary health funds. [More…]

• In the original draft of the Opposition’s proposal there was provision for representatives of the contributors to be on the boards of the health funds. [More…]

• This legislation will improve health care in this country and will bring justice to it. [More…]

• -This is all about the health Bills. [More…]

• I have probably spoken more words about national health schemes than has anyone in these 2 Houses of Parliament, not because I am naturally verbose but because for 5 years as Minister for Health I presided over the development and operation of the existing voluntary health scheme which these Bills, in an act of wanton senseless vandalism, are designed to destroy. [More…]

• I learned how complex and delicately balanced were the relationships between the professionals and the institutions responsible for providing health care and, in turn, between those professionals and institutions and the recipients of health care. [More…]

• I learned how easily these relationships can be upset, how easily the quality of health care can decline if one wields the bludgeon, as the present Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) has done; if one attempts to let funding arrangements and economic considerations rather than efficient and sympathetic delivery of health care predominate in the health scheme; if in a search for something that is simple and easily understood one forgets that he is dealing with something that is essentially complex and therefore not conducive to such treatment; if one pulls down and destroys and starts again rather than build on what is proven and tried. [More…]

• I learned by observing what had happened in other countries that by adopting these criteria we had developed a health scheme which, although not perfect, was unique and, I believe, somewhat precious. [More…]

• At the end of my time as Minister for Health I expressed my convictions in these words: [More…]

• We want a health scheme in which the citizen is always treated as an individual human being and not just as a cog in a medical care machine. [More…]

• Honourable members and honourable senators will remember that, over the years, every time there has been an increase in doctors’ fees or an increase in hospital charges; every time there were complaints that the present scheme did not adequately cover paramedical services; every time there were problems about nursing homes; every time that other such problems arose, there were cries from the Prime Minister and his few servile supporters in the Press Gallery that we must have the Labor Party’s health scheme to fix them. [More…]

• In the light of all this there are people from one end of Australia to the other asking themselves why the Government is trying to throw out a health scheme which the overwhelming majority of them have found perfectly satisfactory, which has given them good quality health care at reasonable cost with freedom of choice of doctor and hospital and health insurance fund, and with speed and compassion, and in which they have genuine confidence. [More…]

• I constantly ask myself why these changes have become necessary or why there has been the denigration which the Australian Labor Party has undertaken persistently over the years of the health funds, the doctors, the private hospitals, the nursing homes and other such bodies. [More…]

• If the Labor Party’s health scheme was as good as honourable members and honourable senators opposite have been saying it is, why go into this denigration of decent, self-respecting individuals to the extent that they have. [More…]

• As they saw it, it was only by constructing a scheme that was virtually entirely tax financed that the health costs which were burgeoning everywhere in the world could be controlled. [More…]

• This is how the United Kingdom has been able to keep expenditure on health below 5 per cent of its gross national product. [More…]

• The voluntary health scheme was going through a bad patch. [More…]

• It made some headway in the minds of members of the public, not on its merits, because the realities were and are hidden from the public gaze, but on the constant reiteration by the Prime Minister that the current difficulties of the voluntary health scheme at that time were inherent in the scheme itself. [More…]

• We were able to produce the present arrangements, which so many Australians have found so sensitively attuned to their health care needs, without abandoning the principles of voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• Firstly, there are the health funds. [More…]

• I defy the Minister to deny that he and the Prime Minister quite deliberately, as an act of policy, set out to denigrate the health funds and to create in the public mind the impression that the funds were profit making institutions operating for their own benefit and that the large number of closed and friendly society funds were a source of extravagance and inefficiency and squandered money on excessive promotion and self-indulgence. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham went further in his misleading statement by saying that if this ever occurred- he almost implied that it was going to happen in a few years, in some inexplicable way, because of the present health scheme proposals- only 20 per cent of people would be able to afford doctors in private practice. [More…]

• He said the Prime Minister had forecast that the 5.3 per cent of the gross domestic product now going on health care would rise by the year 2000 to 12 per cent of the gross domestic product. [More…]

• He said, as I have said and as the Minister for Social Security, Mr Hayden, has said- as several of us have said- that the best expert extimates of the way the exponential growth of health cost is going now is that if it continues at the present trend it will reach 12 per cent by the year 2000. [More…]

• Those emotional phrases are not going to solve or stop this health debate. [More…]

• The Opposition is not going to stop the people of Australia from getting universal health insurance cover. [More…]

• As long ago as 1938 the founder of that once great Liberal Party said that the only solution to the problem of meeting health costs was a national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• What changed that great vision of Sir Robert Menzies and turned the Liberal Party away from a universal health insurance scheme? [More…]

• Much has been made of statements by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Social Security that our first nationalisation project would be health insurance. [More…]

• The Opposition has again misrepresented these statements by saying that the Government will nationalise all health services, and that of course is something very different. [More…]

• People on both sides of the House have stressed that nationalisation of health insurance is not nationalisation of medical services, that health services and health care delivery are not insurance and are not systems of payment. [More…]

• One of the biggest deficiencies in the present scheme is the inability, the unwillingness or the neglect of previous governments in any way to plan, to look ahead at the needs of health care delivery. [More…]

• In fact, when we made representations to former Ministers for Health they said consistently: ‘It is not a matter for us, it is a matter for the States.’ [More…]

• They did not even dream of community health systems and they had no approach to rehabilitation, with one honourable exception. [More…]

• I refer to a community health program, a medical rehabilitation scheme for Australia and a hospitals program for Australia. [More…]

• But what other government has done as much to help to decentralise these very functions and to insist that the local community committees and authorities and the voluntary organisations have a place in the regional organisation of health care? [More…]

• This problem extends into other health services as well as hospitals. [More…]

• At present health services cost our nation more than $2,000m a year or about 5.3 per cent of gross domestic product. [More…]

• Their cost is increasing so dramatically that it has been estimated that our expenditure on health services could be more that 12 per cent of gross domestic product by the year 2000. [More…]

• The proposed levy of 1.35 per cent on taxable income will prove cheaper than the present health insurance scheme for the great majority of Australians. [More…]

• I do not agree with that statement, but it does indentify what he was talking about, that is, the proposed Labor health scheme with the 1.35 per cent levy. [More…]

• He was referring to the health scheme legislation. [More…]

• We expect the health insurance program to become a reality in 1975. [More…]

• The other matter I wish to raise is that in his speech the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) said that I had said- and I certainly did- that the Minister for Health had not costed his scheme. [More…]

• I think that we all really want to know what effect the passage of these Bills will have on the patients, the doctors, the hospitals and the health industry overall. [More…]

• The role of the Senate is most pertinent to this health legislation. [More…]

• Queensland, the State which I represent, will be inimically damaged by the passage of this health legislation. [More…]

• I hope that with the health Bills all Queensland senators will vote together, as they have been clearly instructed to do, and reject them. [More…]

• Let us not have any misconception about either of these health Bills. [More…]

• They do not promise people any better health. [More…]

• They promise worse health. [More…]

• This high tax, ill-health Bill is the first step in destroying our private health insurance, our private general practitioner service, our private specialist service, our private hospitals, our private nursing homes and our private ancillary services. [More…]

• As has been stated during these debates, many countries have tried various forms of socialised health. [More…]

• Despite the claims of honourable members opposite, Australians are not generally dissatisfied with the health service they have at the moment. [More…]

• If we are to replace our health services and the good standard that we enjoy, we should replace them with something better, not something worse. [More…]

• It is maintained that there is social inequality in the cost of medical insurance simply because richer people can deduct their premiums from their income for tax purposes and get it more cheaply, but I would point out that the richer people pay more tax anyway and out of that tax a fair whack is taken for the provision of other health services. [More…]

• When we come to think of it, the whole health edifice exists for the patient. [More…]

• The promise of free health care to the consumer at the point of delivery is a wild one. [More…]

• The difference between the party to which I have the honour to belong and the Opposition Parties is that we represent those people and the Opposition represents the privileged in the community, people such as the doctors who are represented by the Australian Medical Association and the General Practitioners’ Society, the private hospitals and the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• One would have thought that some tinge of conscience would have been awakened under those modish suits and those stylish haircuts, some feeling of responsibility for the ordinary people whom the Opposition represents, the ordinary people who join one of the health insurance funds out of some 160 which exist. [More…]

• Even members of the Country Party represent consumers who should be represented on these health insurance funds. [More…]

• But consumers play a very small part in boards of management of health insurance funds. [More…]

• The private health insurance funds have failed to give the Australian people the protection they require. [More…]

• It would cost in the vicinity of $150m a year and would achieve nothing by way of desirable incentives for the future development of the health care system. [More…]

• We are not committed to innumerable private health insurance funds whose only concern is to build up their reserves so that when this Government’s scheme begins to operate they may escape with the fat funds. [More…]

• We are committed to giving the people of Australia a comprehensive health insurance scheme- a comprehensive health cover- because we believe in their intrinsic right to a life of dignity and decency. [More…]

• Within the constraints of time that are put upon me- they are quite severe- one or two things deserve to be stated concerning the proposed health scheme. [More…]

• When I look at the Government and when I consider the activities of the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) and the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden) over the last 5 years I am forced to accept the simple proposition that their aim has been to go down in Australian history as the gravediggers of Australia’s health system. [More…]

• This is certainly true in respect of health services. [More…]

• The commonsense of the Australian people was manifest when the Constitution was first -adopted, because in the matter of health only one power was conferred on the Commonwealth Government- the power of quarantine. [More…]

• When, after the Second World War, the social service amendments were made to the Constitution, further powers in respect of health, hospitals, medical benefits, etc., were conferred upon the Commonwealth Government, but not so as to authorise any form of civil conscription. [More…]

• The spirit of that veto is offended when, in terms of economic conscription and financial conscription, the Government, through the honourable member for Oxley and the Prime Minister, attempts to inter our present health system. [More…]

• Economic conscription, with all its compulsion and with all its direction, has always been anathema to the Australian people, but the Government intends to impose it on the Australian people in respect of health. [More…]

• Earlier this afternoon I listened to the speech of a former Minister for Health, the honourable member for Barker (Dr Forbes), and every word in his comments was correct. [More…]

• For 5 years the Prime Minister and his supporters have looked for the vulnerable elements in the Australian health system in order to utilise them as instruments with which to destroy the Australian health system. [More…]

• They have looked for the vulnerable elements in the medical profession; they have looked for the vulnerable elements in respect of hospitals; and they have used the weight of their propaganda and money to make vulnerable the voluntary health services of this nation. [More…]

• Under the proposed health scheme that payment will be an extra cost on her of several hundred dollars. [More…]

• Turning to the third element in respect of the voluntary health funds, accusations of deception upon deception have been laid at their doors for more than 5 years, and there has been no more cruel deception than that 25 per cent of the money paid out by voluntary health funds has in fact been spent on management expenses. [More…]

• In terms of health, which is the most intimate of social services, the Government does not want to put itself in the position of sharing power with anyone else. [More…]

• One is left only with the proposition- a simple proposition in this respect- that the Government and those people who propose this scheme will not be happy until they have the title of the successful gravedigger thrust upon them, and they will not be happy unless they see the body of a healthy, vital, voluntary, supported Australian health services interred. [More…]

• -There is nothing like a debate on a down-to-earth topic such as health to expose the gulf that separates the Liberal Party from the problems of an average Australian family. [More…]

• Every word we heard this morning from the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Snedden) and the Opposition spokesman on health and social security, the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp), showed clearly that they are out of touch with the health care services upon which an overwhelming majority of Australian families are obliged to rely. [More…]

• Every calamity which they predicted as a result of the health scheme which we are debating this afternoon is already part and parcel of health care arrangements for which the Opposition is responsible and with which every ordinary Australian family becomes involved in times of sickness or injury. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition said that under Labor’s alternative national health program patients would have to wait and wait in doctor’s surgeries for their medical attention. [More…]

• I will show him surgeries located for miles around his home, which is situated in my electorate, in which sick people, frightened people, crying children and victims of accidents waited hours this morning for medical attention, as they wait each day of each year under the Liberal health arrangements which did not occasion him any concern in 23 years. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition said that under Labor’s alternative health scheme people would have to wait, wait, wait until hospital beds were available before they could undergo elective surgery. [More…]

• It is utter presumption for Opposition members to pontificate, as they have today, on community health services of which they have never had personal experience. [More…]

• The criticisms which they made this morning were not based on the shabby congested surgeries and public hospitals of the outer suburbs on which ordinary people rely for health services. [More…]

• That the proposed law, namely the Health Insurance Commission Act 1 973, be affirmed. [More…]

• There are great and growing needs of the people for better housing, health, education and for the whole quality of life in which the modern city has failed so badly. [More…]

• These needs are so great and are growing at such a rate that they cannot be met from the proceeds of taxation on individuals, or from charges made in the public sector, or from charges made for health or education or housing. [More…]

• It will be required to conduct its operations in a proper and workmanlike manner and, in accordance with good industrial practices, to look after the safety, health and welfare of persons engaged in those operations. [More…]

• We saw that illustrated in our electoral Bills and in our health Bills, and now we see that same characteristic illustrated in this Petroleum and Minerals Authority Bill. [More…]

• Our health scheme is no State monopoly. [More…]

• Both are examples of public enterprise in healthy competition with private enterprise. [More…]

• There is even more merit in one being in healthy competition with the other. [More…]

• For example, average carbon monoxide levels taken over an 8-hour period in Sydney reached as high as 49 parts per million compared with a maximum of 9 parts per million recommended as long term goals by the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• 1 7 parts per million of petrochemical oxidants as compared with World Health Organisation recommendations of .06 parts per million. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council had examined the available data on air quality in Australia. [More…]

• The Council had agreed that in order to achieve and maintain satisfactory quality for health needs it would be necessary to take more action to reduce vehicle emissions. [More…]

• Many of the registered health insurance organisations presently provide benefits in respect of home nursing charges. [More…]

• Under the Australian Health Insurance Program, private health insurance organisations will be able to offer coverage against the costs of ancillary and allied health services provided by private practitioners. [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission will be given the opportunity of recommending a program of financial support through Health Program Grants for organisations providing ancillary and allied health services through contract arrangements. [More…]

• I would also remind the honourable member that there is also a subsidy paid to qualifying non-profit home-nursing organisations through the Home Nursing Subsidy Act, which is administered by my colleague, the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Briefly, the Convention commits ratifying states, in consultation with the most representative organisations of employers and workers concerned to determine periodically which carcinogenic substances and agents should be prohibited or controlled; to replace them where possible by non-carcinogenic or less harmful substances and agents; to reduce both the number of workers exposed to carcinogenic substances and agents and the degree of such exposure to the minimum compatible with safety; to prescribe protective measures; to provide workers with all the available information on the dangers involved and on the measures to be taken; to monitor exposed workers’ health during the period of employment and thereafter; and to give effect to these provision by laws or other methods. [More…]

• Department of Health: Fees (Question Now 257) [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has he received representations from the Victorian Minister for Health seeking additional Federal funds to build more accommodation for mental patients and, in particular, asking the Government to reconsider its policy of not providing in-patient accommodation for mental patients. [More…]

• Prior to its expiration on 30 June 1973, the States Grants (Mental Health Institutions) Act 1964-1970 provided Australian Government assistance on a $1 for $2 basis towards the capital costs of State mental health institutions. [More…]

• The present Government’s concern for the provision of residential facilities for the mentally ill and intellectually handicapped is reflected in the more flexible and more generous levels of assistance available under its Community Mental Health, Alcoholism and Drug Dependency Program and its Community Health Program. [More…]

• The Community Mental Health, Alcoholism and Drug Dependency Program is based on the Mental Health and Related Services Assistance Act 1973. [More…]

• It provides for 100 per cent Australian Government funding of community based mental health, alcoholism and drug dependency projects in 1973-74 and 1974-75, and allocates $7.5m for that purpose in each of those two years. [More…]

• After 1974-75, the Community Mental Health Program will be encompassed by the more broadly based Community Health Program. [More…]

• Australian Government funding of capital costs under the Community Health Program in 1974-75 and 1 975-76 will be on a 75 per cent basis. [More…]

• Shortly after that statement, the Victorian Minister of Health requested Australian Government funds for the purchase of two properties- one at Balwyn and the other at Middle Park- for use as mental health hostels. [More…]

• On 1 1 June 1974, 1 approved the allocation of $1,270,000 for that purpose, under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• The question of future support for residential accommodation of the mentally ill and intellectually handicapped has been considered by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission and is dealt with in its ‘Report on Hospitals in Australia’, which was tabled in Parliament on 10 April 1974. [More…]

• Food Standards Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (Question No. [More…]

• Members of the Food Standards Committee are appointed (or re-appointed), usually for three years, by the Minister for Health and are selected for the expertise and experience they possess in fields that have relevance to the work of the Committee. [More…]

• The Department of Health has advised thatState Mines Departments and Divisions of Occupational [More…]

• Health undertake occupational hygiene surveys in plants where asbestos is an atmosphere contaminant. [More…]

• The West Australian Department of Public Health has investigated the health status up to the present time of workers at Wittenoom Gorge Mine which closed in 1 966. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council in November 1973 endorsed its Draft Model Asbestos Regulations. [More…]

• Establishment of a Bureau of Animal Health (Question No. [More…]

• However, the honourable member will be aware that, as foreshadowed in its Rural Policy Speech, the Government has recently announced that it will establish a Bureau of Animal Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Government’s recognition of the urgent need to provide financial assistance for the treatment of alcoholics, as well as persons suffering from mental illness and drug abuse, is reflected in the provisions of the Mental Health and Related Services Assistance Act 1973. [More…]

• That Act authorises Federal grants of up to $7.5m each year in 1973-74 and 1 974-75 for approved projects under the Community Mental Health, Alcoholism and Drug Dependency Program. [More…]

• After June 1975, such assistance will continue to be provided, but under the more broadly based Community Health Program. [More…]

• Not only intake and assessment centres, but also community oriented facilities and services for the treatment and rehabilitation of alcoholics have been funded under the Community Mental Health, Alcoholism and Drug Dependency Program. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is it a fact that some chemists’ national health claims in Queensland were processed and ready for payment in the latter part of June 1974, but owing to no funds in the SubTreasury the claimants had to wait until early July to receive payments. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Why, and on what date, did the Director of Health order that cyanide fumigation should not be undertaken. [More…]

• Is trapping recommended by the World Health Organisation on older vessels of this type. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation in its publication ‘Vector Control in International Health’ 1972, does not specifically mention methods of vector (includes rodents) control on older vessels. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation considers that the presence of rodents on board a ship depends on the following factors- [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• These include such things as a suggested administrative structure for Aboriginal and Islander health organisations, the provision of funds for the expansion and extension of existing health and dental services, the training of staff working in Aboriginal health fields. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Are grants made direct from the Government to local government under the Mental Health, Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Scheme. [More…]

• 1 ) Although Federal grants may be made direct to local government authorities under the Community Mental Health, Alcoholism and Drug Dependency Program, no grants have yet been made to such authorities. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Has the survey undertaken by the National Health and Medical Research Council into the smoking habits of Australian school children been completed; if so, when. [More…]

• The survey undertaken by the National Health and Medical Research Council into the smoking habits of Australian school children, a comprehensive study involving over 26,000 children, has been completed. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What are the (a) types, (b) numbers and (c) costs of radioisotopic kits reimbursed to the manufacturers during the years 1970-71, 1971-72 and 1972-73 by the Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• This matter was raised with the Health Ministers at their recent conference. [More…]

• Special grants are to be available to specified universities to increase teaching and research in special education of the handicapped, to establish courses or chairs of community practice associated with community health centres, and to increase the number of social workers in training. [More…]

• The Government’s overriding objective is to get on with our various initiatives in the fields of education, health, social welfare and urban improvement. [More…]

• We propose a fully integrated approach to the needs of childhood, embracing education, health and care services. [More…]

• The Government is not prepared to vary its previous decision and allocate more from the Budget to the Post Office because this could only be at the expense of our priority programmes in the fields of education, welfare and health. [More…]

• Mr Speaker, the plain fact of the matter is that everybody in Parliament, Jerry on the front door- I am so glad to welcome him back and to see him in good health- every attendant in this House, every person around this place, every honourable member, every senator, the Clerks and Hansard know that there was no possibility of having yesterday’s program made clear to us yesterday. [More…]

• This is the principle for the allocation of funds for schools under the Schools Commission program, for child care, for local government under the Grants Commission, for community health centres and hospitals, for welfare housing, for area improvement programs, for the Australian assistance plan and for Aboriginal advancement. [More…]

• Many public initiatives are being taken in the area including a new health centre, a new primary school and high school, a new power station and sewerage in the town. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) mentioned another incident in his State. [More…]

• The Department of Health is, however, continuing to seek information on actual costs and other relevant financial information from pharmaceutical companies. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Government is not prepared to allocate more from the Budget to the Post Office because this could only be at the expense of our priority programs in the fields of education, welfare and health. [More…]

• Norfolk Island faces many of the investment problems of modern communities needing money to upgrade education, health, municipal facilities and social services. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Social Security noted the recent report in the ‘Bulletin’ of 21 September concerning a Morgan gallup poll survey of the preference of people for the present health insurance scheme or ‘a salaried medical service financed by a 1.35 per cent levy on taxable income’? [More…]

• Does that survey refer to the Government’s universal health insurance program which is to come into operation next July or to an imaginary scheme which has not been suggested for Australia? [More…]

• In fact, the universal health insurance program which will come into operation on 1 July next year is essentially based on the private practice of medicine, on the freedom of choice of one’s medical practitioner and on the payment of that medical practitioner by fee for service. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a report on hospitals in Australia prepared by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• It has established an animal health laboratory, which the previous Government rejected. [More…]

• The first is the health of our nation. [More…]

• The second aspect of this problem- a related aspect- is the aspect of health. [More…]

• Of course, this national Parliament has a responsibility for health in its national manifestations. [More…]

• Successive Ministers for Health cannot but have noted with concern the rising incidence in urban areas of those diseases which are primarily associated with faecal contamination, with the failure to provide proper sewerage arrangements. [More…]

• If one looks to the possibilities for the future in respect of what can be achieved in the urban environment by a national government under a responsible Minister, such as we now have, and one bears in mind the assistance given to local government through the Grants Commission and through the many other subsidy schemes now operating, and one sees other programs take shape and come to fruition eliminating problems associated with urban life- programs related to transport, health and social amenities- one realises the delays which have adversely affected progress in these matters. [More…]

• I beg to say that there would not be anybody within the precincts of this Parliament who would not be concerned about sewerage and the needs for homes to be sewered, the health of the community and all the other matters that have been raised by each of the members from the Government side who have spoken before me. [More…]

• The River Yarra is jeopardising the health of those who live downstream because of the amount of pollution that is carried from waste products and sullage. [More…]

• As well as presenting a health threat to swimmers, some of the constituents of sewage are blamed for environmental problems such as the killing of vegetation on our sand dunes and our beaches. [More…]

• I submit that the following five approaches might be made to the problem of setting standards: These approaches could be based, firstly, on health aspects, which would involve doctors and scientists; secondly, mental health aspects, which would involve psychologists and social scientists; thirdly, the number of complaints from the community; fourthly, cost benefits, which would involve economists; and, fifthly, absolutism, which would involve some environmentalists. [More…]

• -Mr Deputy Speaker, the provision of sewerage facilities is a basic health service and it is pleasing to note that the Opposition supports the Sewerage Agreement Bill 1974 which, on receiving royal assent, will provide $3. [More…]

• The facts are that it was the Australian Labor Party which years ago accepted Federal responsibility for the provision of this basic health service. [More…]

• Even important projects in the area like planting trees- there would be no local government area in the whole of the country with more trees than the Colo Shire- and even more important projects such as the building of civic centres, surely must pale into insignificance when compared with the lives, health and well-being of people. [More…]

• Private investment has been falling away rapidly and in the long term, particularly now that a tax has been placed on people who have made an effort in the past to be thrifty, this will cripple our ability as a nation to meet those payments of scale to our welfare programs, our health care programs and also to education. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• It supports research into deafness through the National Acoustic Laboratories and the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council supports research into deafness as part of its general support for medical research. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council support for Professor Clark’s group in the 1973-74 financial year was $6,600. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to the criticisms by the Australian Workers’ Union of the draft regulations that have been framed by the National Health and Medical Research Council concerning health dangers attributable to asbestos; if so, what is his attitude to them. [More…]

• The criticisms were referred to the Occupational Health Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, and a reply on that Committee’s deliberations has been made. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council Draft Model Asbestos Regulations were circulated to the A.C.T.U. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is it intended to allocate a one time grant of $80,000 to the Royal Australian Nursing Federation Research and Education Trust to set up an initial sinking fund, and to enable an interdisciplinary group, including nurses and other professionals in the health care field, to plan and recommend funding from the Trust for research and educational programs. [More…]

• The Royal Australian Nursing Federation approached the Interim Committee of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission in November 1973 for finance for a Nursing Research and Education Foundation. [More…]

• The Commission also has before it submissions from other non-medical health service and career groups for similar funding. [More…]

• The Commission ‘s Committee on Health Careers (Personnel and Training) is currently considering these submissions and the Australia-wide needs they propose to serve. [More…]

• The Committee will be making its recommendations on action in its first report on Australian Health Manpower, scheduled for release in late 1974. [More…]

• Is he saying the Government should cut expenditure in the fields of health and housing? [More…]

• There is another provision relating to the establishment of research faculties in universities and teaching institutions, and that deals with the research in community practice associated with community health centres. [More…]

• Community practice: Is it that the establishment of community health centres is going to create new problems associated with medicine? [More…]

• After all, are we looking at management or medical training of social workers in community health centres. [More…]

• I understand that the community health centres that have been established are finding more difficulty in obtaining medical assistance than they are in obtaining managerial assistance that is needed to run them. [More…]

• I think that honourable members realise that at the moment there tends to be a vast separation between the general practitioner practising in the community and the associated services that go to make up a health team. [More…]

• That working party, which was composed, I think, of the then president of the Victorian Branch of the AMA, several members of the AMA, the Dean of one of the clinical schools and as one of its co-opted members my colleague, the Minister for the Environment and Conservation (Dr Cass), presented a report which showed that community practice preferably should involve integrated services in the sense of community health centres. [More…]

• I believe that its most recent discussions have been to have a look at a system of medical records which, while preserving the confidential nature of their contents, would still allow a meaningful examination of the delivery of health care. [More…]

• So, the courses in chairs of community practice are intended to interest students and to train them in this comprehensive community health care aspect and in the use of the health team. [More…]

• The development of these community health centres has made this objective a much more viable proposition because they are there and they are able to be used. [More…]

• May I illustrate the point in this way: In my own electorate there is a proposition for a couple of community health centres in the West Heidelberg area and in the east Preston area. [More…]

• The Austin Hospital which is a major teaching hospital of the Melbourne University and the Preston and Northcote Community Hospital which is attached to the Medical School of the Melbourne University have both shown a great interest in what is going on at these community health centres. [More…]

• By this study we will be able to use our health personnel to the benefit of the community in the community itself. [More…]

• This Government has taken many initiatives in education, health and social security which require the support of social workers. [More…]

• This expression does not necessarily come from the existence of community health centres, about which there is controversy. [More…]

• It comes to education from discussions that are now taking place in the regions of health. [More…]

• I would say that community practice- the definition on which we operate- is eld to be concerned with the principles and practices of promoting health and the delivery of primary health care in situations outside of hospitals, that is, to the community. [More…]

• It includes general medical practice and aspects of geriatric and rehabilitation services, counselling programs concerned with drugs, alcohol and family welfare, community mental health and maternal and child health services, again outside of hospitals. [More…]

• Sidney Sax, the Chairman of the Interim Committee of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission, and Peter Karmel, the Chairman of the Australian Universities Commission , jointly stated: [More…]

• For this reason we do not propose that support should be provided for a program in community practice in a medical school which has no access to an appropriate community health centre. [More…]

• The Interim Committee of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission and the Australian Universities Commission have considered this matter and propose that: [More…]

• the Australian Universities Commission should seek special funds to support the academic component of departments of or courses in community practice in those universities which seek such funds, provided that the Interim Committee of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission has already decided to support new community health centres or to approve existing ones which could appropriately be associated with the medical school concerned. [More…]

• This program recognises the need for education, health and welfare components in child care. [More…]

• All children whether they be looked after at home or elsewhere will have access to local centres designed to take care of their educational, health and psychological development. [More…]

• Areas such as my own electorate will greatly benefit from the increases in health expenditure and on education because it is one of the needy areas. [More…]

• From expenditure on health, home nursing services, community health complexes, drug referral centres and other necessary requirements, outlying and vastly developing areas such as my own will benefit. [More…]

• Who ever heard of the Ministers for Health in the Liberal-Country Party Governments from 1949 to 1972? [More…]

• Nobody ever heard of them because the Ministers for Health of the Australian Governments during that period did nothing. [More…]

• This Budget provides for $35m to be spent on health and people know the name ‘Everingham ‘ because the Minister for Health, Dr Everingham, has been going round opening the regional hospitals and the regional health centres that have been established for the benefit of the health of the people of this country. [More…]

• Mr Snedden is on record from the last election as giving an assurance that growth of spending would be maintained in key areas such as health, education, urban improvement and social welfare. [More…]

• Who in our society has the most to gain from the initiatives in the field of transport, education, health services, social security and other public services which this Government has taken since it came to power? [More…]

• It is not possible for most people to provide sufficient health services for themselves. [More…]

• In this Budget, the Government has refused to deny the community its right to amenities, health services, urban services such as sewerage and transport, and education. [More…]

• The situation is that the health benefits, nursing home benefits and the social security benefits which have been paid have been constantly decried. [More…]

• Many of his friends in this House who knew that I was in touch with her and with him from time to time inquired after him and his health. [More…]

• With the introduction of our universal health insurance scheme there will be no need for this sense of discrimination and sense of injustice in that the pensioner medical service is available for some retired people but not for all. [More…]

• Many grants have been given for special purposes, such as social planning and health centres, which are extremely worth while and which we have supported. [More…]

• I seek leave to have incorporated in Hansard a document showing the results of the Government’s activities in the field of health and its program for Tasmania. [More…]

• Unlike the year by year ad hoc-ery of Liberal-Country Party attempts, the Budget is drawn up around carefully framed programs- education programs, health programs, social welfare programs, urban improvement programs and others. [More…]

• The Department of Health has begun community health programs for the area. [More…]

• Some $2m was allotted in the previous year and again this year, and extra money has become available for psychiatric health services. [More…]

• When we are dealing with the Department of Health I think it is important to mention again the Westmead Hospital. [More…]

• In 1968 the then New South Wales Minister for Health, Mr Jago - [More…]

• Australian workers and the Government cannot expect to have productivity, good wages, a goods standard of living and an expansion of educational, health, housing and other facilities, such as industrial amenities, and still have the luxury of cheap imports; in other words, the Government and the people of this country- the workers- cannot have their cake and eat it too. [More…]

• The Minister, because of his attitude towards national health, has indicated a desire for nationalisation or socialisation of everything to do with health. [More…]

• Not that the nutritional aspect has been overlooked, for this is a matter which has been of considerable concern to both the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and myself. [More…]

• In order to ensure that both the meals-on-wheels organisations and the aged persons are aware of the nutritional aspects, the nutrition section of the Department of Health has produced 2 publications. [More…]

• In such fields as health, social security and help for Aborigines and in other areas such as education, the Labor Government has tried in a way that the Liberals did not to introduce genuine social reform. [More…]

• There is a grant for community health facilities and services- a new program commenced by this Government. [More…]

• There are places in Queensland where community health centres are being built with Commonwealth money. [More…]

• When the Labor Party looked at the question of what could be done in the field of dental health some years ago it was put to us by the Australian Dental Association that the most constructive thing we could do was to ensure that every child in the course of his or her primary or secondary education was given adequate dental treatment and taught the principles of proper care of their teeth. [More…]

• It was said that if at the end of their compulsory schooling we turned out teenagers with healthy sets of teeth we would be getting better value for the expenditure of public money than we could get in any other area of dental health. [More…]

• The grant for health education campaigns is increased from $48,000 in 1971-72 to $160,000 this current financial year. [More…]

• The proposed expenditure relates primarily to new programs concerning drug abuse and smoking, both very much matters of enthusiasm for the Minister for Health, the honourable Doug Everingham, the honourable member for Capricornia. [More…]

• Of course, in this particular area of health education, considerable amounts of money have been given to private organisations quite apart from the Health Education Council. [More…]

• This assistance will be substantially welcomed by the people of Queensland and money so spent will contribute to the development of the economy of that State and in the provision of better services to its people by way of health, education, housing and the like. [More…]

• In education, health and other areas, they have done everything they could do to prevent our education policies being carried into action in the school grounds. [More…]

• I welcome the initiatives in the health field. [More…]

• They received no help from the previous Government, They approached the present Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) before the double dissolution. [More…]

• I welcome the community health program because it operates on a basis of need. [More…]

• The community health centre program there will provide hope for them, not only in individual general practitioner care but also in providing an integrated health service for a community that has need of the services and also an economic need. [More…]

• It is not our responsibility but I would be prepared, as an individual, to suggest and be responsible for a cut right across the board- in expenditure on health, education, welfare, culture and urban and regional development. [More…]

• Provision is made for the expenditure of $28m on health in 1974-75. [More…]

• Secondly, in my own State the people have been concerned about health. [More…]

• The National Drug Advisory Council will be formally established by Ministerial determination under the general powers of the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Council will consist of 2 1 members chosen by the Ministers for Health and Customs and Excise of whom seven have been directly chosen by those Ministers with the remaining fourteen being selected from State and Territory nominations. [More…]

• When we came to power in 1972 we inherited from the previous Government proposals for new nursing home benefits arrangements that were authorised by the National Health Act 1 972 for implementation from January of 1 973. [More…]

• Areas like the Central Coast where building booms had taken off were already years behind in basic amenities, such as water, sewerage, roads, drainage, kerbing and guttering, welfare, recreational, sporting, health and educational facilities. [More…]

• New initiatives are provided in the field of health. [More…]

• In the field of community health services we have never had any assistance at all before, and in this Budget a sum of $2m is provided. [More…]

• In the field of school dental health, of course, we must be particularly pleased because we got this year an allocation of $3m. [More…]

• It is proposed to amend the National Health Act to authorise the Minister to enter into agreements with religious, charitable and other non-profit organisations conducting nursing homes, under which the Government will meet the deficits incurred in running the homes. [More…]

• The main thrust of the Budget is directed to continuing the programs in social welfare, health, urban and regional development and many other areas. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) shortly after the introduction of the Budget- not in the Parliament because these men have given away the concept of making policy statements in the Parliament; these men no longer regard the Parliament as significant- decided that in excess of $600m over the next 3 years, or $200m a year, for the construction of public health facilties or hospitals will be spent by this Government. [More…]

• Particularly on the expenditure side we welcome the significantly increased outlays, for instance, upon education, health, welfare and urban and regional development. [More…]

• Department of Health: Officers Engaged in Quarantine Duties (Question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Formerly consignments of imported brushes were released if they were accompanied by a satisfactory certificate of disinfection issued by the health authority of the country of origin. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Department of Health: Inter-departmental Committees (Question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Consideration is also being given to a further recommendation of the Committee that an in-service qualification- as distinct from the present Health Surveyor qualification- should be developed. [More…]

• An earlier instruction of the Director-General of Health that the responsibility for technical matters concerning quarantine should be transferred from the Assistant Director (Executive Services) to the Assistant Director ( Medical) is now fully effective. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• My Department has not initiated any action as the Western Australian State Health Authority has vaccinated Aboriginals at One Arm Point and Aboriginals on the central west coast who are employed as waterside workers. [More…]

• I would also mention that the World Health Organization has reported that Indonesia is free of smallpox. [More…]

• What liaison exists between Department of Agriculture inspectors and Department of Health quarantine inspectors on (a) inspection and (b) vermin eradication methods. [More…]

• At Melbourne, Geelong, Portland, Darwin and Fremantle the inspectors are Australian Department of Health quarantine inspectors. [More…]

• At ports where officers of State Departments carry out ship inspections under the Exports (Grain) Regulations there is continuing liaison with Department of Health quarantine inspectors on matters of mutual concern. [More…]

• Decisions on methods of vermin eradication, however, are a responsibility of the Department of Health. [More…]

• I am advised by my colleague, the Minister for Health, that his Department recognises alternative methods of rodent control in different situations and degrees of infestation; and that in doing so it is in accord with World Health Organisation guidelines. [More…]

• We came back after the last elections to find the Government preoccupied with its socialist health Bills- we all know the problems they are creating within the medical and nursing professions- and obsessed with its electoral Bills because what the Government wants to do is get electorate redistributions through so that it can continue its havoc with the Australian economy somewhat less impaired than it is now. [More…]

• If we are socialists because we are going to do something substantial about the health facilities of this country, I think a lot of people will be darned pleased that we are socialists if this is what socialism means. [More…]

• Would it cut down on education, on social welfare, on health and on urban and regional policies? [More…]

• By contrast, the Opposition would cut back sharply on health, education, social welfare and urban and regional development. [More…]

• At the same time the whole community will benefit from increased community spending, including amounts for education, sewerage, hospitals, roads, protection of the environment and health. [More…]

• The fact is that nearly all families will benefit in areas of education, health and welfare. [More…]

• Under a Liberal Treasurer, then, we can expect cuts in defence expenditure, in education, in health, in housing, roads, sewerage programs, in law and order. [More…]

• Without this we could not hope to achieve our program for housing, social welfare, education, health services and the like. [More…]

• The opening was performed by the Honourable John Waddy, the New South Wales Minister for Health. [More…]

• We have also gone along with the State governments for a long time and with the experts of the various State health departments and health commissions with respect to mental health. [More…]

• Last year we introduced the Mental Health and Related Services Assistance Act 1973. [More…]

• There has been agreement between the 3 levels of government in all these things- the community health centres, the drop-in centres and the various forms of centres that have been created in a flexible manner. [More…]

• Of course, in the Budget there was the first allocation of money in terms of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission report, known as the Sax Committee report, of $28m to start a hospital program, a program to upgrade hospitals over the next 5 years. [More…]

• I have referred to 2 events- the opening of a health centre and the opening of a Social Security office on which there has been agreement largely between the levels of government. [More…]

• I mention such things as the extra funds to be paid in health benefits, to nursing homes, in social security payments and for education. [More…]

• The appropriation for the Department of Health has been increased from approximately $70m to $99m, for the Department of Housing from $130m to $160m, for the Department of Social Security from $89m to $141m, for the Department of Transport from $242m to $260m and for the Department of Urban and Regional Development from $llm to $14m. [More…]

• the collection and storage of data concerning individuals by both public and private bodies, especially in the fields of health and consumer credit; [More…]

• The Committee has presented a report on what safeguards ought to be adopted to protect the individual’s privacy under the proposed Health Insurance Program. [More…]

• Health Services Building is scheduled to commence immediately after completion of the temporary occasional care facilities which will be established early in 1 975. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I think that it is far better that a community properly provides an adequate health service, properly provides adequate retirement services or properly provides an adequate education system than allow some of the expenditure via taxation concessions which, however they are worked, can have only the inevitable result of meaning more to the person on the higher income than to the person on the lower income. [More…]

• The answer is that, during their incarceration, these people suffered abnormal hardships and privations which could affect their general health and well-being as they get on in years and, for this reason, they are obviously deserving of special consideration. [More…]

• It must be due to the introduction of the Government’s health scheme that there is a more optimistic approach to the subject of state funerals. [More…]

• The Australian Government has made certain promises with respect to health, education, employment and housing. [More…]

• The provision of these funds will permit more assistance to be given to the States to provide housing, health, education, employment, welfare and community services for Aborigines. [More…]

• There are more Aboriginal people receiving substantial health benefits now than ever before. [More…]

• The ones in Melbourne got out of their seats in Spencer Street and looked in Fitzroy to find what the legal service and health service centres were doing. [More…]

• To date only one member has been appointed namely Mr D. G. Dunlop formerly of the Australian Department of Health. [More…]

• persons who are unemployed for reasons such as health, incapacity, imprisonment, inadequate or inappropriate work skills or for lack of job opportunity; [More…]

• The question of hospital benefits for short-term patients in psychiatric hospitals was pan of a general request made by the State Ministers at the recent Australian Health Ministers Conference for increased Australian Government assistance in the mental health field. [More…]

• However, at the meeting of Health Ministers held in Canberra on 17 and 18 August 1974, all State Health Ministers urged that the Australian Government make ambulance subscriptions and charges tax deductible, and I undertook to take up this matter with the Treasurer. [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission is currently examining the needs of ambulance services. [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to a dispute between various psychiatric hostels and the Western Australian Minister for Health on an application for increase in the present State subsidy for such hostels of $ 1 per day per patient? [More…]

• As the possibility has been raised that as many as 700 or 800 residents of these hostels might be displaced, and as questions have also arisen as to the standards of the hostel system, particularly those sections of it which appear able to continue on the basis of the present subsidy, can the Minister say whether any inquiry into these hostels has been conducted by his Department in the context of its concern with mental health? [More…]

• Considerable amounts of money have been made available to States, under the community health program, largely- in fact almost entirely- in accordance with the States’ own priorities, for many community health services, including health hostels. [More…]

• However, the hospitals program for Australia envisages the setting of priorities by April next year for hospitals, nursing homes and health hostels in an integrated way. [More…]

• Will the Prime Minister accept the sensible compromise proposed by the Queensland Minister for Health that the Queensland money be used to reconstruct the Mater Hospital in Brisbane? [More…]

• -There should, of course, be preference for programs in the fields of health, social welfare, education and urban improvement. [More…]

• But there would be a reduction of government expenditure in areas which it has been the purpose of the Government to maintain throughout because we have a responsibility to ensure that people who depend upon social services do not lose through inflation, that people who expect a better education for their children should not have that set back during an inflationary period, that people who want to see development of a better health service in this community should not have that set back because of an inflationary period. [More…]

• I believe that new measures have to be adopted if the Government’s compulsory health insurance scheme is brought into operation in the attempt to substitute a compulsory health tax for a voluntary health payment. [More…]

• My colleague, the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) has written to me in this matter. [More…]

• Also, I would be remiss if I did not express my appreciation of the assistance of many people in those departments- the Comptroller-General of Customs, Mr Carmody, the collectors of customs in a number of places I have visited and officers of the AttorneyGeneral’s Department who administer health, quarantine and other aspects associated with customs. [More…]

• Meeting the flights at Darwin airport were officers from customs, health, quarantine and the narcotics sections. [More…]

• I imagine that the departments involved in the inter-departmental committee would include, naturally, the Department of Customs and Excise, the Department of the Environment and Conservation and, because of the threat of imported diseases and parasites, the Department of Health. [More…]

• Health Services Branch of the Department of Health. [More…]

• That, in accordance with the provisions of the Public Works Committee Act 1 969- 1 974, it is expedient to carry out the following proposed work which was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works and on which the committee has duly reported to Parliament: Construction of a central health laboratory at Woden, A.C.T. [More…]

• The proposal is to provide a facility to cater for the pathology services, public health and forensic laboratory services, and central blood bank for the Australian Capital Territory and surrounding districts. [More…]

• I think it has been justifiably argued that a person who was a prisoner of war, especially for any lengthy period, in nearly every case was in a very depressed physical and psychological condition during this period and that obviously this must have affected his general health, which in turn must have affected his ability to withstand and deal with what in other cases would have been a normal reaction to a potential disease. [More…]

• Would the Liberal-Country Party coalition take the money from the health field, which is fast running into a chaotic situation? [More…]

• If it intends going back to the proposition it put forward of maintaining the private health funds it will have to pour many millions of dollars into that area. [More…]

• I know it is easy when one has youth and good health on one’s side to say that everything is o.k. [More…]

• The lack of effort at that stage has meant the massive increase in expenditure we see now in social services, education and health and so on. [More…]

• It ill behoves us as members of society to expect a government forever to be giving total health and social security care. [More…]

• I was disgusted to hear one fellow say on the session of ‘Monday Conference’ to which I referred that he had heard about the $56m for the animal health laboratory before and did not want to hear it again. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Social Security noted a newspaper comment attributed to a Mr Gross, a full time commissioner of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, criticising the Government’s universal health insurance program? [More…]

• It pretty much canvasses issues which are well known to those who are involved in the discussion on how costs should be contained, the division of health services and how the quality of health services ought to be improved. [More…]

• The national health insurance plan could be cost inflationary in one area . [More…]

• What he is asserting is contrary to the evidence from experience in countries such as Canada where universal health insurance has been introduced. [More…]

• If his criticism were to be correct- I do not accept it is- it would be a severe indictment of the deficiencies of the present system of health insurance because the implications are that the present system is reaching nowhere nearly enough people and that there is extensive unmet medical care need in the community. [More…]

• Time does not permit me to detail everything in the Bill but I make the comment that general discretionary power is given to pay other benefits, but medical and hospital benefits are to be covered by the proposed national health scheme, which scheme is not yet law in its final form. [More…]

• That does not include administration in the health area, legal costs, the cost of collecting the levy, additional cost incurred by including the first week of injury, which was not recommended by the Woodhouse report, and it certainly does not cover the cost of the 46 amendments which we have not had time to study yet. [More…]

• There is the health scheme, which has been costed at the moment at around $ 1,500m. [More…]

• As I have said, the health scheme has been costed at around $l,500m. [More…]

• There is an interesting contradiction here with the health scheme in that all the medical and hospital costs incurred in relation to compensation are loaded on to the health scheme. [More…]

• But if one looks at the recommendations concerning the financing of the health scheme, one will see that quite an amount of the financing of the health scheme is loaded on to workers compensation and third party insurance, which are being abolished by this proposal. [More…]

• By adding all the costs- the $ 1,600m or more for compensation, the $ 1,500m for the health scheme and the $ 1,000m for complete abolition of the means test- and nothing else, one will come up with 25 per cent of the present total [More…]

• One group of people, albeit a substantial one, which is seriously disadvantaged by the present scheme consists of those who have received an impairment to their health or physical skills such that they cannot cope with life as they find it. [More…]

• When one is talking of costs, will the Minister undertake to give the Parliament a costing of the 4 major national schemes which are now proposed, these four being the Bill which is now before the House, and those which will follow concerning safety and rehabilitation, and health, training and superannuation? [More…]

• Many women in Australia need to work for economic reasons and tend to work as long as possible into their pregnancies, often to the detriment of their health, simply because they require the extra money. [More…]

• I think that that would be of benefit not only to the wool industry itself but also the long term health of the Australian economy. [More…]

• These matters include such aspects as economic affairs, health, social welfare and whatever a member’s interests may be, particularly in dealing with certain aspects of legislation. [More…]

• One of the more significant items is the allocation of $ 12.4m to the field of health. [More…]

• Then there is the provision that has been made for extensions to the Darwin Hospital, a new health clinic, health centres at Ludmilla, Adelaide River and Mataranka, extensions to the Katherine Hospital and a new hospital at Tennant Creek, as well as improved facilities at various Aboriginal settlements. [More…]

• The health of the community should at all times be considered and a standard of environment should be maintained. [More…]

• They have failed completely to realise that the private business sector, particularly the manufacturing group, involves the people who produce the goods, the wealth, the employment and the revenue which pays for the non-productive spheres of our society such as education, health, social welfare, industrial amenities and funds for Government housing programs. [More…]

• It is not just an educational matter; it is a health matter. [More…]

• It is a problem which with our present mechanism we ought to be able to identify, and, with a happy marriage of the educational field and the health field, solve. [More…]

• The honourable member will be aware that the Government has announced a 5-year program of capital grants for the development of public hospitals in the States as recommended by the report on hospitals from the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• Each joint council will consist of 3 representatives from the State and 3 representatives from the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, one of whom will be nominated by my Department. [More…]

• I have recently written to the Victorian Minister of Health seeking his agreement to convene the first meeting of the joint council for Victoria. [More…]

• But the Deputy Leader of the Opposition then went on to say that health, education and social welfare expenditure would be excluded. [More…]

• I cite, for instance, our membership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Health Organisation and the International Asian Exposition at Okinawa in 1975. [More…]

• -The estimates we are debating are those for the Department of Social Security, the Department of Health and the Department of Repatriation and Compensation. [More…]

• As the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) is sitting at the table and as the estimates for his Department are also under discussion I draw to his attention the very great need to upgrade his Department’s thinking on quarantine matters. [More…]

• It does not matter whether the disablement is from congenital causes, because of an accident or sport, or is caused in other ways, such as the deterioration of health, to such an extent that in certain circumstances only are they able to carry out fruitful and self satisfying employment. [More…]

• -In speaking to the estimates for the Departments of Health, Repatriation and Compensation, and Social Security I want to direct my remarks to one aspect of our approach and the approach of many countries which have similar societies to the provision of social services, particularly towards the care of the aged in our community. [More…]

• I think it was introduced by Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson when he was Minister for Health in 1972. [More…]

• -In rising to speak in the Estimates debate on health and social security I am mindful of the importance of this area to the Government. [More…]

• In both of these areas I have realised the importance of social welfare and health programs. [More…]

• The health budget is $ 1, 232m, or 7.5 per cent, and in total they approximate 30 per cent. [More…]

• I wish to make one point in relation to the field of health. [More…]

• I notice that the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) is present at the moment. [More…]

• Will it affect my entitlement to fringe benefits and the health insurance cover that flows on from those fringe benefits or will it affect my entitlement to a pension at all?’ [More…]

• Finally, I wish to make 2 points in relation to the the Department of Health. [More…]

• Firstly, I should like to congratulate the Minister, quite apart from the general work that he has done, for his work in setting up the Hospitals and Health Services Commission under Dr Sax and the work it has done to try to bring a bit of rationalisation to hospital and health care in Australia. [More…]

• Provision for community health program services increased from nothing under the previous Government to $9.9m last year and $34.6m this year. [More…]

• I think the honourable member for Mackellar (Mr Wentworth) would agree with me that just as we say that people should choose their country by voting with their feet, they should be entitled in this area to vote with their feet and should also be entitled to vote, in effect, with their beliefs in deciding what kind of health care delivery services they prefer. [More…]

• In the few minutes allowed to me in this debate I want to refer to some aspects of the Department of Health. [More…]

• The creation of the Hospital and Health Services Commission has no doubt been a major innovation of the Government in the health field. [More…]

• It heralds a more activist role in health delivery and I believe it will add to the overall knowledge of the hospital and health system in Australia with the information it will provide and the research that it is encouraging because such activity will be done on a national scale. [More…]

• The States fear a centralist health department and health delivery system through the Commission. [More…]

• I am not blaming the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) for this. [More…]

• In talking to some of the State health people I found that they claim that in some cases they do not have the updated edition and in other cases they have only one copy for their whole department. [More…]

• I believe in respect of some of these very expensive but also good proposals that the Government’s own Priorities Review Staff should look at some of them to ascertain where this huge amount of money- the total of which for compensation, social security and health in respect of the new proposals amounts to 25 per cent of the Australian Government Budget- fits in with the Government’s ability to pay and its priorities. [More…]

• I believe that the major bungle has been made possibly by the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) himself because he has committed himself to this rash program of building Australian Government hospitals within the States, which is completely contrary to the recommendations in the Commission’s report and which will endanger a successful co-operative attitude or working relationship between the Federal Department of Health and the State Departments of Health in this area and possibly in other areas as well. [More…]

• These functions have been updated in accordance with World Health Organisation and international recommendations. [More…]

• The honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd) has accused us of not making copies or alternatively of not updating copies or supplying the latest printed versions of the report of the Hospital and Health Services Commission to certain people in the States. [More…]

• My impression -I do not think I am very far off the mark- is that if a migrant seeks to come to Australia the screening procedures include examination of his employment record, examination of his state of health and previous health record, an examination of his criminal record if any, obtaining an admission that he intends to settle and determining whether he is capable of holding down a job. [More…]

• If such are found to be environmentally unsound or harmful to health such information might be attached to the product in much the same way as the smoking warning. [More…]

• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has indicated in its report on consumer policy in member countries that there is now general acceptance of the need for governments to take action to reinforce the consumer’s position with these objectives in mind: To protect the consumer against hazards to safety and health; to protect the consumer against deceptive and other unfair practices; to provide the consumer with adequate rights and means of redress; to provide information and education to facilitate a sound choice by the consumer, and to facilitate the proper exercise of the consumer’s rights; and to involve consumer representatives in the formulation of regulations or other elements of economic policies which concern them. [More…]

• Daughters of Australia, Church of Christ, Department of Social Security, Good Neighbour Council, Grail, Church of England, Homefield Aged Persons Home, Mackay and District Senior Citizing, Mackay and District Development Bureau, Mackay Home Help Services, Mater Hospital, Methodist Church, North Queensland Society for Crippled Children, One people of Australia League, Parents without Partners, Queensland Association of University Women, Queensland Bush Children Health Scheme, Right to Life Association, West Mckay Rotary Club, Mackay R.S.S.A.I.L.A., Seventh Day Adventists, Presbyterian Church, St Vincent de Paul, Young Women ‘s Christian Association. [More…]

• U.N. Organisation for Industrial Development, (f) U.N. Trust Fund to help the Victims of Apartheid, (g) U.N. Education and Training Program for South Africa, (h) U.N. Fund for Namibia, (i) World Health Organisation and (j) the World Food Program during each of the last three years. [More…]

• Because the Victorian Attorney-General has claimed that the activities of the Australian Government contravened the law, will the Minister tell this House in what areas the Australian Government’s initiatives are contrary to the Constitution and whether he expects a High Court challenge by the Victorian Government to Australian Government policies relating to education, health, welfare, legal aid and/or financial assistance for municipalities? [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Are representatives of the Hospital and Health Services Commission and the Australian Council of Trade Unions negotiating with the management of the Chevron Hotel in Melbourne for the purchase of that hotel as a trade union centre and a Commonwealth health centre? [More…]

• Will the Minister assure the House that the Hospital and Health Services Commission will not interfere with the Alfred Hospital negotiations by offering an exorbitant price and will he guarantee that if the hotel is purchased by the Commonwealth it will not be a vehicle for transferring several million dollars to the ACTU? [More…]

• The Hospital and Health Services Commission and the Australian Council of Trade Unions are in close and cordial co-operation in discussions with the Alfred Hospital on this matter. [More…]

• to examine the awareness of specific learning difficulties among the community generally and among the medical, health, teaching and social welfare professions in particular; [More…]

• Press Statement by the Minister for Health, Dr D. N. Everingham [More…]

• A Health Department officer has been awarded an Australian Government Postgraduate Scholarship to study communication disorders in children. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, Dr D. N. Everingham, said Mr Dermody ‘s study would be directly connected with the work of a new scientific group being established at the National Acoustic Laboratories, which will develop more detailed auditory testing procedures to detect children who have a learning difficulty. [More…]

• They boast frequently about the huge increases in expenditure that the Government has undertaken in other fields including education, health and the arts. [More…]

• It handles migration quotas and all the major infrastructures relating to telephones, employment, health, social services and to a lesser degree perhaps, education, roads and so on. [More…]

• Secondly there are the problems of people wishing to sell portions of properties to pay probate duty, for health reasons and for other personal causes. [More…]

• It is important, if we are to persuade people to live outside the major metropolitan areas, that they have proper transport links with the things that persuade people to live in major urban areaseducation and health facilities and the ability to go to a whole range of cultural facilities and activities from football through to art galleries. [More…]

• We are aware that children are happy to copy adults, and it is therefore to be expected that the pleasant chocolate flavour of the simulated cigarettes would not only confound the warnings that ‘smoking is a health hazard’ but prove a very subtle indoctrination at their most receptive age. [More…]

• 1 ) The restrictions on the advertising of pain-relieving preparations to be introduced by the Government are those agreed to, as part of a major proposal for the control of all advertising of therapeutic goods, by the Australian Health Ministers at their Conference in August 1974. [More…]

• For example, service clubs, local government, health, religion and social welfare. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: (1), (2) and (3) It was announced in the 1974-75 Budget that the Australian Government had considered the recommendations arising from the Hospitals and Health Services Commission’s Report on Hospitals in Australia and agreed to a five year program of capital assistance for the development of public hospital facilities in the States. [More…]

• Each Joint Council will comprise representatives from the State and the Hospitals and Health Services Commission and will consider the total public hospital development program for that State. [More…]

• On the basis of this consideration the Commission will make recommendations to me as Minister for Health concerning financial assistance to be offered to individual hospital projects. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Has the Nursing Mothers’ Association of Australia applied for a community health program grant to assist with administration costs. [More…]

• and (2) The Nursing Mothers’ Association of Australia has advised me of their intention to make a submission to the Hospitals and Health Services Commission for financial assistance under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In the absence of these Ministers I shall act as Foreign Minister, the Special Minister of State, Mr Lionel Bowen, will act as Minister for Overseas Trade and represent the Minister for Customs and Excise in this House, and the Minister for Health, Dr Doug Everingham, will act as Minister for the Environment and Conservation. [More…]

• -I address a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• What effect would such cuts have on areas such as education, social services, and health, as well as the inflationary situation of the State Budgets? [More…]

• If there were any reductions in the programs which this Government has initiated and with which it is pressing forward in education, health centres, transport and in general respect to urban and regional development, the people who would be hit most would be the people providing the supplies and services for those government expenditures which my Government has initiated. [More…]

• Is the Opposition going to cut health costs? [More…]

• If so, did he agree to the State Health Ministers’ request for an increase in the Australian Government pensioner bed day benefit from $5 per day to $30 per day; if not, why not. [More…]

• In regard to health care aspects, the honourable member will be well aware that the Australian Government has powers under Section 5 1 of the Constitution to make laws for the provision of certain benefits, allowances and services, including sickness benefits, hospital benefits and medical services. [More…]

• The Australian Government, by virtue of these powers, can assume certain responsibilities for the health care of the population generally, which of course, includes pensioners, but it does not have an exclusive or even dominant responsibility in that field. [More…]

• The National Health Act provides for the Australian Government to pay public hospitals $5 for each day that a pensioner eligible for the Pensioner Medical Service is provided with free treatment in a public ward. [More…]

• At the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference on 17-18 August 1974, the State Ministers for Health sought an increase in the pensioner day bed benefit. [More…]

• The State Health Ministers were informed that, if they so wished, I would approach the Prime Minister to have the pensioner hospital benefit of $5 a day increased, subject to a corresponding adjustment of the general finance allocations to the States. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, who directed the question to the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture upon notice: [More…]

• Has he appointed a Director to head the Animal Health Bureau. [More…]

• Mr Gee is a qualified and experienced Veterinarian with an extensive background in animal health. [More…]

• Immediately prior to his selection as Director, Bureau of Animal Health, Mr Gee occupied the position of First Assistant Director-General, Quarantine Division, Australian Department of Health. [More…]

• I have been informed that the agreements reached between Mr Clunies-Ross and myself, which covered not only the acceptance of sovereignty but also related to the codification of the criminal law, education facilities, health matters and the like, have been lost by the Department. [More…]

• The Bill also transfers the provisions relating to the handicapped children’s benefit, which is now administered by my Department, from the National Health Act to this Act. [More…]

• It provides a balanced and integrated program that is intended to serve an area of social need bounded on one side by the program of the Australian Assistance Plan and on the other by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• The proposal is stage 2 of the development proposed to supply eventually the support services needs in a central facility for all present and future hospitals and other health institutions in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• One might well ask how long it will be before there will be a conference of some other groups of Ministers- perhaps Health Ministers- who will be called together to establish some similar agreement which will similarly excise a portion of public spending at concessional rates of interest. [More…]

• I quote now from the Livingstone Shire Council which is in the Capricornia electorate held by the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham). [More…]

• Recently in Victoria the Victorian State Health Minister stated rather petulantly that child care centres that accepted Federal money would not get State money. [More…]

• Education, health and transport are all State responsibilities. [More…]

• In regard to education and, one might add, in regard to health services, Australia has some provisions of great excellence; they are of world quality. [More…]

• The Australian Government is determined to reduce those inequalities by upgrading and spreading these services in education and health. [More…]

• But none of them are abandoning their programs in education, health, urban and regional development, or culture and recreation. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council was approached 4 years ago with a view to rationalising labelling and giving the consumer some concept of the true value of the nutrients, if in fact there are any, contained in soft drinks and fruit drinks. [More…]

• We are jeopardising the right of choice of mothers, of invalids and also of people who are becoming conscious of their health in times of stress and high cholesterol levels. [More…]

• If they decide to consume something in their home that is not health giving, that is their decision. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) is nodding agreement and no doubt he is aware of the circumstances. [More…]

• When I rang the National Health and Medical Research Council this morning I was advised that there was no one there to answer my questions. [More…]

• The Minister for Health will no doubt be aware too that the States almost automatically follow directly the recommendations of the Council. [More…]

• I have made representations to the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), whose Department has made the necessary recommendations on the establishment of this Laboratory, asking that other sites which I felt were not considered by either the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works or the Department itself be looked at. [More…]

• I thank both the Minister for Health and the Minister for Housing and Construction, who moved the motion, for their consideration in delaying the moving of it until such time as the other matters which I brought forward have been properly considered. [More…]

• Two days were spent by the Committee investigating this matter and the tenor of the questions that were asked during the investigation was along the lines of protection of the health and well-being of people who already live in the area. [More…]

• In reply to a question asked by the honourable member the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) has said why he believes the site is desirable. [More…]

• That, in accordance with the provisions of the Public Works Committee Act 1 969- 1 974, it is expedient to carry out the following proposed work which was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works and on which the Committee has duly reported to Parliament: Construction of an animal health laboratory at Geelong, Victoria. [More…]

• It is not a time of relaxation but a time of scrimping and scraping to make ends meet, with a subsequent effect on health and living standards. [More…]

• -The sick are now in no doubt about the period for which the new hospitals and the better health facilities that they need will be postponed. [More…]

• Health centres, child care centres, pre-school centres, schools and universities [More…]

• In the field of health, the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) has committed a Liberal-Country Party coalition government to an amount of $200m in its first year for a further face lift of the aging, ailing Liberal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• He did say- I admit this- that there would be an across the board cut but he went on to say as well- I believe that this must be stated as a matter of accuracy and truth- that priority would be given in the fields of education, social welfare and health. [More…]

• He was supporting what one leader writer called Labor’s ‘cherished program for lavish expenditure on education, health, transport and social welfare generally’. [More…]

• The findings showed an overall desire to double education expenditure, health and foreign aid, increase social welfare outlays by one-quarter and slash- by two-thirds- defence spending and spending on economic development. [More…]

• That obviously means that there will need to be a cutback on the present increase which this Government has budgeted for and, if necessary, of course that will mean a cutback of 8 per cent across the board, but necessarily there will be very high preference and priority given to programmes in the fields of health, education, social welfare and urban and regional development. [More…]

• The Australian people are growing used to and becoming familiar with the Government’s new programs relating to schools, pre-schools, kindergartens, health centres, hospitals, sewerage, drainage, sports areas, sports amenities and art centres. [More…]

• The balance will be expanded by other departments such as the Department of Education for study grants and secondary grants and special programs in the Northern Territory, by the Department of Health in the Northern Territory, and the Department of Labor and Immigration under its employment training scheme. [More…]

• In summary, the policies of the Australian Government in respect of Aboriginal people might be described as seeking: to encourage and strengthen the capacity of Aboriginals to manage their own affairs and to increase their economic independence; to enable Aboriginals to have a real freedom of choice about their life style and the extent to which, particularly in the more remote communities, they maintain their traditional customs and culture- a freedom which can be exercised to the extent that communities have local authority, in particular through land ownership; to make equality a reality for Aboriginal Australians by working to overcome those handicaps which generally face them in fields such as housing, health, education, employment and civil liberties; in doing this, to help Aboriginals themselves to provide services designed to overcome handicapsfor instance through Aboriginal housing societies, medical services and legal services; and to act in the closest consultation with Aboriginal communities and individuals at both the national and the local levels. [More…]

• It has always regarded the provision of services such as health, housing, education, employment, legal aid and others to Aboriginals as being the responsibility of functional departments and authorities. [More…]

• It is not the Australian Government’s intention to assume permanent responsibility for the activities of State departments in fields such as health and education in respect of Aboriginal people. [More…]

• It is only a lay assessment of his health but I hope that it sustains and encourages the honourable gentleman in some small measure. [More…]

• Such higher priority areas as education, social security and health would be slowed down less than others. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -Yes, I accept that there is a difference of opinion on sugar between the Minister for Health and me. [More…]

• Without a strong manufacturing industry we cannot achieve our national objectives- national objectives of growth, improvement in our living standards, the provision of education and health services, the relief of poverty, aid to the poor, the provision of aid to overseas countries less well endowed with resources and people than we are. [More…]

• Government expenditure cannot be cut significantly without cutting expenditure on education, health and well being. [More…]

• Labor will not cut the standards of the people in social security, health and welfare because of economic pressures. [More…]

• This Government has tried successfully to put right the injustices of so many years of neglect in social services, health, hospital benefits, redress for the cities and so forth. [More…]

• I have had representations made to the Minister for the Media (Senator Douglas McClelland) through the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) on this matter to try to get some decent educational films made to publicise the school dental service, to educate people and give them an awareness of the need for proper dental hygiene and preventive care of the teeth. [More…]

• The Histadrut runs the health scheme. [More…]

• Children’s problems encompass health, education, social welfare, recreation and cultural development. [More…]

• By contrast, the Children’s Bureau under the LiberalCountry Party Government will provide a central source of input to a committee of Ministers who will retain the responsibility for the administration of programs within their specific portfolios- e.g., health, education and social welfare. [More…]

• It will establish advisory panels with wide representation to include educators, health experts, social workers, teachers. [More…]

• I would like to have some material incorporated in Hansard but I will not even bring myself down to the Minister’s level to ask for leave to do so having in mind the way in which he refused leave for my Leader to incorporate the responsible document of the Liberal Party ‘s policies in the area of sex education, women’s community health centres and the like. [More…]

• It is my personal hope that the States will be generous in allocating amounts to that purpose in clause 14 which is concerned with the provision of staff to promote safety, health and welfare in individual colleges. [More…]

• The balance is to be spent on education, health and other areas of need. [More…]

• However, in most situations the greatest needs are housing, employment opportunity, education and adequate health care. [More…]

• Every doctor in the town is an honorary doctor and, on a roster system, they attend to the health needs of the children. [More…]

• Some months ago a group of doctors in the East Bentleigh area in Victoria put a very detailed submission to the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) for a community health centre. [More…]

• A full debate on the proposal took place and a vote was taken on whether the community supported a health centre. [More…]

• The public meeting elected an interim committee of which I am a member and I, as well as many other people, believed that we were set to get the health centre. [More…]

• Regardless of what the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) has to say on this subject, we need a health centre. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham says that community health centres have a place but that priority must be given to putting them in areas where there are few doctors. [More…]

• We need a health centre very badly in this area. [More…]

• For how long do we have to put up with the fact that the AMA is telling this community who will have a community health centre and who will not? [More…]

• If there are 60 doctors in East Bentleigh and a health centre is built, the choice has been expanded. [More…]

• The health centre will serve something like 20,000 people. [More…]

• As there are 101,000 people living in Moorabbin where the health centre is being built, I do not think that the doctors will lack for patients. [More…]

• It was not a public meeting like the one called to discuss the health centre. [More…]

• What is important here- doctors’ profits or people’s health? [More…]

• Community health centres are a new concept. [More…]

• This health centre will go ahead because there are enough people in the community at East Bentleigh who are determined that this service will be offered. [More…]

• The hospital will provide its services and the health centre opposite will complement the services that are available in the hospital. [More…]

• The health centre will go ahead in spite of the opposition and people will use it in spite of the opposition. [More…]

• I feel that it would be a grave deficiency in our community if we were to revert to the vicious debate that we had last year when the national health scheme was being debated. [More…]

• I would not like to see the health centre I am speaking about divide the community. [More…]

• I refer to the Department of Social Security, the Department of Health and other departments which have been increasing their benefits and payments to people who really need assistance. [More…]

• Their health is not so good as the health of Europeans. [More…]

• Some of them went to the Community Health Section of the Department of Health. [More…]

• Aboriginal Medical Services which was conducted by the Department of Health in Albury in July this year. [More…]

• We seek to give the people who through age, infirmity or illness are hospitalised, or those who are permanent residents of aged persons’ homes or nursing homes, the opportunity to have once again the privilege that they enjoyed when they were in good health. [More…]

• The Committees were established after each Minister for Health was approached in July 1973. [More…]

• The respective State departments and authorities to be represented on the committees is a matter for the Minister for Health in each State. [More…]

• Senior Assistant Director, Health Benefits and Services Branch [More…]

• Department of Health [More…]

• State Director of Health, [More…]

• Committees- The functions of the Committees are: to examine applications for the construction or extension of hospital and nursing home accommodation where it is intended to seek approval of the premises subsequently for the payment of benefits under the National Health Act; to submit reports (to the Director-General of Social Security) as to the needs for the accommodation proposed in the particular locality and the number of beds which should be approved for the payment of benefits under the National Health Act; and to examine and submit reports on applications for assistance for the construction or acquisition of nursing home accommodation under the provisions of the Aged Persons Homes Act. [More…]

• As the submissions from the West Arthur, Murray, Ravensthorpe, Lake Grace and Kent Community Committees to the Southern Region Social Development Board for assistance under the Australian Assistance Plan concerns a health service, they were referred to my Department by the Department of Social Security to ascertain if financial assistance could be granted under any existing health program. [More…]

• The Department of Social Security has been advised that, although the Hospitals and Health Services Commission is investigating health transport services with a view to making recommendations which could include proposals for the orderly funding of such services, no funds are available in 1 974-75 for providing the assistance requested. [More…]

• 1 ) Australian Government contributions are provided by my Department under the Sheltered Employment (Assistance) Act, the Handicapped Children (Assistance) Act, the National Health Act, the Aged Persons Homes Act and the Delivered Meals Subsidy Act. [More…]

• National Health Act [More…]

• Statistics relating to benefits under the National Health Act (Handicapped Children’s Benefit). [More…]

• Would we have had the area improvement programs, the health centres and the development of the health scheme? [More…]

• No matter how much one tries to get the Leader of the Opposition into a corner he cannot deny that his policy would result in cuts not only in social welfare but also in education, health and all the other essentials that make up the greater part of government expenditure in this nation. [More…]

• The proposals of the Committee are, in effect, that all ‘State-type’ functions be transferred to the Territory Executive, except that major functions such as rural land, mining, education, health, companies and the supreme court be retained by the Australian Government and other major functions such as roads, ports, fisheries, national parks and the police be shared. [More…]

• The reality of the situation is that the Government is expected to provide certain services for its citizens- things like education, health services, welfare, payments to the States, cash transfer payment to citizens and so on. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What arrangement has he made to speed up the payments of chemists’ National Health Scheme claims. [More…]

• It would include expenditure on education, health and social welfare. [More…]

• Finally, discussions take place with State governments about integrating their programs regionally and the joint use of the regional organisations of councils as the core of a comprehensive, multifunctional regional planning body receiving support from the Australian and State governments and incorporating into its planning activities existing programs such as the Australian Assistance Plan, community health centres, legal aid officers and child care programs. [More…]

• For example, I mention regional councils under the Australian Assistance Plan, the area improvement programs, the community health program, employment and manpower planning and assistance to local government through the Grants Commission recommendations. [More…]

• The area will also need health centres, shops, office accommodation, hotels, social planning counselling, recreation facilities, roads, an airport, houses and serviced land. [More…]

• I shall not cover them all, but some of the vital ones are education, health, transport, law, food supply and hospital administration. [More…]

• Firstly, there is the health of the nation and, secondly, the very important matter of pollution if sewerage is not treated. [More…]

• We must make sure that we do not become a country of huge metropolitan areas, that we provide the necessary facilities in country areas to make life pleasant there, and that we provide the necessary health and education facilities in areas such as Geelong, Wangaratta and many other places in the various States. [More…]

• A few weeks ago when announcing the second substantial increase, within the space of 3 months, in the levels of nursing home benefits payable under the National Health Act, I reiterated the Government’s undertaking to introduce a system of deficit financing to meet the losses incurred by nursing homes operated by charitable or benevolent organisations as an alternative to the existing nursing home benefit arrangements. [More…]

• Charitable and benevolent organisations participate with vigour and dedication in the task of caring for the sick and the aged and indeed the care provided by these organisations has become an essential part of our overall system of health care. [More…]

• If it decides there would be no advantage for a particular nursing home it is free to remain outside the deficit financing arrangements and continue to receive the Australian Government nursing home benefits provided under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The Bill also contains machinery provisions similar to those in the National Health Act for approval of nursing homes under the new legislation. [More…]

• The Bill before the House contains provisions relating to a number of the Government’s activities regarding health insurance and benefits authorised by the National Health Act. [More…]

• Following the election of this Government to office at the end of 1972, we embarked on a diversified legislative program directed to various aspects of our health insurance initiatives. [More…]

• Our main effort, of course, was directed to the Government’s own health insurance program- culminating with the passing of the Health Insurance Act and the Health Insurance Commission Act. [More…]

• This main effort was supplemented by investigations as to the manner in which the legislation authorising the present voluntary health insurance arrangements could be improved. [More…]

• Proposals directed to improvements to the legislation authorising the present health insurance arrangements were placed before the Government recently. [More…]

• We were then faced with a decision as to whether they should be proceeded with, in view of the imminence of our own health insurance program, scheduled for introduction on 1 July 1975. [More…]

• The existing private health insurance scheme authorised by the National Health Act, in fact, is a system supported by extremely generous direct and indirect subsidy from the Australian Government and State governments. [More…]

• The health benefit organisations could not have grown to their present significance nor could they continue to operate, except for the very generous support that comes from Government sources, directly and indirectly. [More…]

• For instance, on average over 60 per cent of the cost of medical services covered by medical insurance is met by direct subsidy from the Australian Government through the health insurance scheme and by indirect subsidy from the same source through tax concessions, which of course are a cost borne by the Government. [More…]

• Therefore it is clearly in the interests of the people of Australia that the system of a private health insurance scheme should be properly supervised by the Australian Government and it is the clear responsibility of the Government to exercise this supervision. [More…]

• The most important provisions in the Bill, are designed to enable the responsible Minister to exercise more effectively this supervision of the operations of the health benefits organisations registered under the National Health Act in a way that will enable the Government of the day to achieve its objectives [More…]

• There was established the Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, the Nimmo Committee, which presented its report during 1 969 and the Senate also set up its own committee to inquire into medical and hospital costs. [More…]

• At that time a matter of major concern was the financial policies followed by some of the health benefits organisations. [More…]

• Following consideration of the report of the Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance, amendments to the National Health Act were introduced by the previous Government aimed at rectifying some of the unsatisfactory aspects of the health insurance scheme including the two I have already mentioned. [More…]

• The then Minister for Health, the Honourable A. J. Forbes, in his address to the House dated 4 March 1970, made the following statement: [More…]

• That organisations and their officers be subject to penalties for any failures to comply with the conditions imposed by and under the National Health Act. [More…]

• Following careful consideration of this situation, the Government has framed provisions similar to those in the Insurance Act to protect the interests of contributors which are compatible with the intentions of the previous Government as made clear in the statement by the then Minister for Health. [More…]

• As I stated earlier, the arrangements I have outlined are along the lines of arrangements provided for in the Insurance Act and I believe all honourable members will welcome their enactment as a positive step forward in the protection of the interests of contributors to health benefits funds. [More…]

• The rigidity arises mainly from sections 67 and 68 of the present Act which provide that the reserves must remain in the fund which has accumulated them and cannot be used for any other purpose, not even to support some other fund of the organisation that is also registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• It also provides that the Minister may direct the transfer of reserves in this way where the Registration Committee- the expert Committee established under the National Health Act- so recommends. [More…]

• These special accounts, which are authorised by Part VI Division 2 of the National Health Act, ensure that contributors continue to receive medical and hospital fund benefits which otherwise they would be denied by the pre-existing, chronic or maximum benefit rules of the organisation restricting the payment of fund benefits. [More…]

• This escalation in Government spending arising from underwriting the activities of health benefits funds through the special account mechanism has occurred at the time when there were extremely large reserves accumulated by the funds. [More…]

• It must be realised that the special account system was designed by the previous LiberalCountry Party Government to prop up the health benefits funds. [More…]

• What should be borne in mind in the discussion in this area is that the money being provided to prop up private health insurance funds through the special account is not money which belongs to the Government, the funds or contributors; it is money which belongs to taxpayers of Australia. [More…]

• One will represent the interests of health benefit organisations, another the interests of contributors to the organisations and that the third member would be a qualified accountant. [More…]

• The proposed new definition of ‘Government nursing home’ in sub-clause 3 (i) and other clauses provides for public nursing homes in the Australian Territories to be exempted from nursing home admission and fees supervision under the National Health Act as are public nursing homes in the States at present. [More…]

• Clauses 16 and 25 include provisions amending sections 57b and 73c of the National Health Act to provide for an increase in the nursing home patient contribution from $2.55 a day to $4.55 a day. [More…]

• Clause 42 provides for the incorporation of the rates of additional nursing home benefit, as currently prescribed by regulation, into the eighth Schedule of the National Health Act with effect from 15 October 1974. [More…]

• There are also a number of provisions in the Bill to effect machinery amendments to the National Health Act to delete provisions relating to the payment of handicapped children’s benefits, to clarify the provisions regarding directions by the Minister under section 73b and to enable provisions in the National Health Act relating to the supervision of registered organisations to override State laws where the statutes are inconsistent. [More…]

• I now turn to the 2 matters provided for in the Bill which fall within the portfolio of my colleague, the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham). [More…]

• This is yet further evidence of the Government’s determination to provide a high quality health care service and of its acceptance of its special responsibility to assist those members of the community who are sick or disabled. [More…]

• It also empowers the Minister for Health to arrange for the provision of such medical or surgical aids, appliances and equipment as are prescribed in regulations under the Act on such conditions as the Minister thinks fit. [More…]

• The National Health Act now restricts in some respects the services that can be given to the general public by some dispensaries run by friendly societies. [More…]

• If passed, the Bills will impose a health insurance levy of 1.35 per cent of the taxable incomes, as determined for income tax purposes, of people residing in Australia. [More…]

• The Bills complement other measures designed to implement the Government’s universal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The levy proposed in the present Bills was discussed in the White Paper on the health insurance program published in November 1973, which was preceded by the report of the Health Insurance Planning Committee. [More…]

• Introduction of the levy is timed to coincide with the coming into operation of the main health insurance legislation. [More…]

• An aged person exempt from income tax by reason of the special transitional tax rebate will also be exempt from health levy. [More…]

• The general principle is, however, that whatever the level of the income tax rebate in 1 975-76, an aged person who is exempt from income tax on account of it will also be exempt from health levy. [More…]

• I should mention, however, that while the levy will be administered and collected under the income tax system and PA YE deductions from salaries and wages will be increased in 1975-76 to take account of it, provisions in the legislation require a separate identification of the amount of a taxpayer’s liability that represents health insurance levy. [More…]

• I commend this Bill, the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill, to the House. [More…]

• The Minister mentioned the Australian Assistance Plan, the Hospitals and Health Services Commission and the Schools Commission as being related to and involved with this area of social need. [More…]

• As we know, State education departments receive direct financial assistance for education including special education for handicapped through Schools Commission funds and also receive funds for community health and mental health projects through the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• It seems to be most incongruous that States should be able to receive financial assistance for education and health programs for handicapped people but not for social welfare programs. [More…]

• There is also an inter-departmental committee which aims to ensure that for these kinds of programs no funds through the Hospitals and Health Services Commission are made available. [More…]

• The 2 previously mentioned Acts recognised that to establish health and education welfare services is a major undertaking and too great for some communities to initiate at all or to initiate within a reasonable period. [More…]

• A number of people on reaching 60 years of age or that age group decide for health reasons that they would like to retire to another area, be it the central coast of New South Wales, the Blue Mountains, the Gold Coast or some other region. [More…]

• However it will still be given only in special circumstances, but nevertheless it will give a greater opportunity to people who, through ill-health or reasons of hardship, require a second loan to shift to areas such as the Central Coast and acquire another property by taking up the balance of an existing loan. [More…]

• The Government accepts this belief, however, as was the case with previous Liberal/Country Party Governments, it sees real difficulties in providing Government health insurance benefits for physiotherapy provided on a feeforservice basis by private physiotherapists. [More…]

• For the purposes of the Australian Health Insurance Program, the Government has accepted the Health Insurance Planning Committee’s recommendation that Government support for physiotherapy services be directed to organizations which provide services on other than a fee-for-service basis. [More…]

• The Government will be prepared to consider contractual, sessional salaried or similar arrangements for the provision of physiotherapy services and under the Health Insurance Program will offer health services agreements to allow such services to be developed on a community basis. [More…]

• In this regard it will be guided by the advice of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission in allocating such grants. [More…]

• Additionally, private health insurance organizations will be permitted to offer benefits coverage towards the costs of ancillary and allied health services of the nature of physiotherapy provided by private practitioners where they demonstrate that such arrangements will be financially viable. [More…]

• An investigation of standards for this purpose is at present being undertaken in the Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Has he received any requests from State Ministers for Health, medical bodies or private individuals to rename Murray Valley Encephalitis. [More…]

• The matter has been discussed by the National Health and Medical Research Council which has recommended that the name of the disease be changed to Australian arbo encephalitis. [More…]

• The change has now been referred to the World Health Organization for consideration. [More…]

• Two of these have been unilaterally deferred by the Commonwealth, with no pressure from the State of Queenslandnamely, the National Health Scheme and benefits for deserted wives and unmarried mothers. [More…]

• I should like again to comment on the East Bentleigh community health centre to which I referred last week. [More…]

• Almost a year has elapsed since the announcement by Dr Everingham that a sum of $270,000 had been approved for the establishment of a community health centre in East Bentleigh. [More…]

• There has been continuing support for the project from the Commonwealth and State governments, leading health planners and administrators at all levels, the Victorian faculty of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, many doctors, both general and specialist, throughout Australia, academics, economists, health evaluators, allied health professionals and almost every member of the local community. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham has gone on record as saying that community health centres do have a place but they should be given a priority and put in areas where there are few doctors and few other health services. [More…]

• It was agreed also that health centres filled a community need. [More…]

• I think it might be to the benefit of the public if some of the protesting doctors and some of the Liberal members who were invited to the doctors’ meeting considered why the community needs a community health centre. [More…]

• Many people in the local community are desperately in need of the services to be provided by the health centre. [More…]

• The community health centre idea is not really a change. [More…]

• Perhaps if they examined the reasons why we want a community health centre they would change their attitude somewhat. [More…]

• We will get the doctors because there are enough doctors in East Bentleigh who have a concern for and an acceptance of the community health centre. [More…]

• Preventive activity can be carried on in a community health centre. [More…]

• There is a lot of community involvement with a health centre and the centre needs the feedback from the local community about all the aspects of care that it provides. [More…]

• But the common facility allows a similar identification of other health workers which is reinforced by their service activities emanating from the one building. [More…]

• Patients who require certain services such as psychiatric services and family planning are stigmatised when they are forced to attend a separate facility from that which serves other members of the local community with other forms of health care. [More…]

• By placing as many forms of health care as is possible in a given community in the one building this stigma is removed. [More…]

• For instance, we hope to set up a trainee education program in the health centre. [More…]

• The education of trainees- undergraduates and continuingfrom all of the health disciplines is facilitated and made more effective at the one site from which all members of the health team practice. [More…]

• The team concept of health care cannot be demonstrated under other circumstances. [More…]

• We are hoping to have medical students from Monash University training in our hospital and they will also have the advantage of education through the health centre that will be built. [More…]

• The preventive activities of a health centre are important. [More…]

• Effective preventive activity by health professionals in a one to one relationship remains minimal at present. [More…]

• Sharing of preventive work using support between health professionals is possible in a shared health centre facility. [More…]

• I believe that the people of East Bentleigh are entitled to have a community health centre if they have the need, and I do not agree that only the northern and western suburbs of the city have the need. [More…]

• If the communities can get the finance they are entitled to have a health centre, and this community has got the finance. [More…]

• If they want a health centre they are entitled to have one and they will have one. [More…]

• An amount of $56m has been allocated for an animal health laboratory in Geelong; $28m is to be made available to the dairy reconstruction scheme outlined in this legislation; $40m is being spent in the first advance on wheat $28m is being spent on rural reconstruction overall; $45 m is being spent on the National Disaster Fund; $ 11.5m is being spent this year on the isolated children’s allowance throughout country districts; $21m is being allocated this year to rural universities- it was only $6m in 1972; $47m is being allocated this year to colleges of advanced education in rural areas- it was only $ 12m in 1972; and $880m or 46 per cent of our expenditure on social security payments goes to rural districts. [More…]

• It is creating good housing, health - [More…]

• It is creating good housing, good schooling, education and health facilities in a rural atmosphere. [More…]

• The first was education, the second was social welfare and the third was health. [More…]

• The importance of these 2 Bills should be looked at in relationship to the Government’s total welfare program- schemes such as the Australian Assistance Plan, community health centres, child care, recreation and the like. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I refer to the continued procrastination of the Queensland Minister for Health in regard to the generous offer of the Australian Government to finance the building of an urgently needed major hospital in the southern outskirts of Brisbane. [More…]

• I ask the Minister: Has the Queensland Government yet come round to any responsible approach to this offer or is it to be left to the Australian Government to proceed with this project without the assistance of the Queensland Health Department and the Queensland hospital system? [More…]

• 151m for this financial year under the development program for Australian hospitals and that this would be devoted to the program of public hospital works submitted by the Queensland Health Department on the priorities the State nominated. [More…]

• He wants to reduce government expenditure by about 8 per cent across the board, which means that some areas of government expenditure must anticipate cuts of up to 25 per cent if we are to assume that health, education, urban development and other good expenditures are not to be cut by the full 8 per cent across the board target. [More…]

• One would think that it is not beyond the wit of State health authorities to devise some way in which methylated spirits, a cursed addictive substance, can be made unpalatable for human consumption. [More…]

• I see it as running in co-operation with the much needed community health centres which are now being set up. [More…]

• Such half way houses for the victims of rape, members of Parents Anonymous, homeless men or beaten women, will run very well pivoting around the community health centres because there they will have all the paramedical servicesphysiotherapy, counselling, social work and nursing treatment- that will be needed by the homeless, the disturbed and the battered. [More…]

• I hope that the honourable member for Hotham will take this into account when he is opposing the building of community health centres because such centres can be complementary to voluntary organisations and to the work that needs to be done among the homeless, the helpless and the hopeless. [More…]

• This, combined with certain problems of health and building regulations in some areas, has meant that the number of beds available for this unhappy group of people has actually declined. [More…]

• Undoubtedly those people who are aged need security of income; undoubtedly those people who are aged need security of accommodation; and undoubtedly those people who are aged need security in the possibility and actuality of ill health. [More…]

• For many aged people the concern about ill health is a fear. [More…]

• Out of the blue, we get something so fundamental which we believe is probably the greatest and most naked assault on the private health insurance funds that has ever been introduced into this House. [More…]

• Proposals directed to improvements in the legislation authorising the present health insurance arrangements were placed before the Government recently. [More…]

• This gives it authority to introduce the so-called notorious Hayden health scheme. [More…]

• The Minister’s departmental officers and ministerial advisers have been traipsing around the country trying to get support from the various parties interested in his health legislation to co-operate. [More…]

• I refer to the doctors, the private hospitals, the private nursing homes, and the private health funds. [More…]

• Nobody will have a bar of his health scheme. [More…]

• The power of the Minister to destroy private health funds was questioned, in fact torpedoed, by a judgment of that Court. [More…]

• Now we have the prospect of the Minister and the Government committed beyond any shadow of doubt to introducing its health scheme which will change the whole complexion of health care in this country by 1 July of next year; or now they are saying perhaps 1 October of next year. [More…]

• It is now quite clear that the Government cannot introduce its health scheme by October of next year without either the co-operation or the subservience of the people or the organisations that I have mentioned, that is, the doctors, the health funds, the private hospitals, the private nursing homes, the States, and so on. [More…]

• One of the main obstacles to the Minister in implementing his health scheme are the private health funds. [More…]

• The Minister and Government speakers have painted them as rapacious health funds, as private enterprise at its worst, profiteering out of the public. [More…]

• No dividends are declared by these health funds. [More…]

• The sort of people and organisations against whom this Bill is directed are the friendly societies which for years have traditionally been a body of people interested in grouping together to protect their own health and to protect themselves against, among other things, the cost of medicine. [More…]

• I cannot understand his fanatical obsession with the health insurance funds of this country. [More…]

• But what the honourable member for Robertson and the Minister want is the greatest empire of all time in the Australian Health Insurance Commission, a bureaucratic monster that will take over the whole of health insurance in this country, run by the Government or run by the big brother. [More…]

• The health funds obviously are the key to the implementation of the Government’s health insurance program we on this side of the House have s u we are intractably opposed. [More…]

• The Minister knows that he cannot get his health scheme without the co-operation of these organisations that I have mentioned, primarily the health funds. [More…]

• He has asked them to be agents temporarily, for 3 years, until the Australian Health Insurance Commission can take over. [More…]

• The health funds have refused. [More…]

• The Minister has given an extension of time to the health fundsuntil 3 1 December of this year- to make their decision. [More…]

• They have remained intractable in their opposition because the kind of offer that the Minister has made to the private health insurance funds of this nation has been such that, if they accepted his agency proposition, they would be signing their own death warrants and signing the death warrants of the millions of contributors that there are around Australia. [More…]

• The health benefit organisations could not have grown to their present significance - [More…]

• I would like the Minister to tell me- he is not even in the House while I am speaking in this debate- and I would like the interjectors on the back benches of the Labor Party who are apparently substituting for the Minister to tell me where is the justification for the statement that governments have propped up the health insurance organisations. [More…]

• Mr Speaker, that is basically not true because a few weeks ago this House passed an amendment to the National Health Act, with the support of the Opposition, giving the Minister increased powers. [More…]

• Trade unions have their own health funds. [More…]

• In other words, all the Minister has to do is to persuade himself that a health fund has to be investigated. [More…]

• This means that the onus of proof is on the organisation, the health fund - and he believes it to be in the contributor’s interest, he may appoint an inspector to conduct an investigation into specified matters relating to the affairs of the organisation. [More…]

• That simply means, in plain English, that if the Minister for Social Security believes that a health fund is not bowing to his wishes all he has to do is say: ‘You bow to my wishes because I will satisfy myself that you are not acting in the interests of the contributors and I will put an inspector into your organisation.’ [More…]

• This sort of Bill gives the Minister carte blanche to do whatever he likes with every private health fund in Australia. [More…]

• The health funds are the stumbling block to his implementing the infamous Hayden health plan for Australia- a plan to which the Opposition is intractably opposed. [More…]

• In other words, these private health funds have reserves. [More…]

• What is left over from their contributions after the medical expenses have been met by the health fund goes into a medical reserve fund. [More…]

• It is a contribution by the Australian Government to a health fund in respect of a contributor who went into hospital with an apparently benign disease, the consequences of which he could not foresee and therefore did not insure against, but who was subsequently discovered to have something fundamentally and chronically wrong with him and could not be discharged from hospital. [More…]

• The Minister then turns his attack on the private health insurance funds and says that in fact they have used and manipulated the special account to their own benefit. [More…]

• He wants to be able to transfer money from the reserves of the funds- again a naked assault on the reserves of health funds so as to impugn their independence. [More…]

• Before I do that and conclude my remarks, may I make a statement concerning the attitude of the Liberal and Country Parties towards the Australian Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• The Liberal-Country Party government would disband the Health Insurance Commission if returned to power at an appropriate time. [More…]

• The Opposition ‘s intentions also needed to be made public in fairness to contributors to voluntary health insurance funds, staffs of these funds and their managements. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission could eventually reach a stage of development when its abolition would create major administrative problems. [More…]

• That all words after ‘That’ be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: ‘whilst not opposing the positive sections of the Bill which relate to nursing homes, handicapped children and surgical appliances, this House is of the opinion that the Bill should be withdrawn and re-drafted to omit those provisions which relate to unnecessary ministerial control over health insurance funds and the additional provisions which relate to friendly society dispensaries. ‘ [More…]

• I cannot see why that should make him sick unless it is the health insurance people about whom he is so concerned and not the contributors’ interest. [More…]

• It does not fight the battles of the Australian Medical Association, the health benefit funds, the doctors or the General Practitioners’ Society, as the honourable member for Hotham takes it upon himself to do and as he has done ever since national health was thought of by this Government. [More…]

• This Bill is designed to take up the slack between what we have operating now and what will operate when the national health plan is implemented in July. [More…]

• He has been fanatical in his opposition to the National Health Bill and anything to do with the National Health Bill since it was first introduced. [More…]

• This means that he is prepared to go to the barricades to fight against the national health plan that was endorsed by the people of Australia in 1972, endorsed again in 1974 and endorsed at the Joint Sitting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham is prepared to go to the barricades to fight against it and is evidently prepared to fight in support of the medical health funds to get rid of the provisions - [More…]

• The honourable member is also taking part in assisting the doctors to oppose the building of a local community health centre in my electorate. [More…]

• A public meeting was held to set up the community health centre. [More…]

• But once again big brother, in the form of the AMA aided by the honourable member for Hotham, has told the people of East Bentleigh that they will not have a health centre. [More…]

• Then the doctors held their democratic meeting from which they excluded anyone who did not agree with them, including me, and I am on the committee for the health centre. [More…]

• When the honourable member for Barker (Dr Forbes) was the Minister for Health he stated: [More…]

• The recommendation of the Nimmo Committee to which the former Minister for Health referred reads as follows: [More…]

• That organisations and their officers be subject to penalties for any failures to comply with the conditions imposed by and under the National Health Act. [More…]

• I believe that until the national health plan of this Government is in operation it is as well- it is a watchdog for the Australian people and the Australian contributors- that health benefit organisations have some sort of eye put on them. [More…]

• Health benefit contributions are consistently increased. [More…]

• I do not know how often they have been increased but I know that my children, who are apprentices, are paying something like $29 every 3 months for health insurance. [More…]

• The health benefit organisations could not have grown to their present significance nor could they have continued to operate except for the very generous support that comes from Government sources directly and indirectly, and that is people’s money. [More…]

• The national health program and everything connected with it has been attacked and vilified by the AMA, the General Practitioners Society, individual doctors and all who have a vested interest in maintaining the present chaotic system that grew up under 23 years of Liberal government. [More…]

• The national health scheme has been the butt of a deliberate campaign of deceit and misrepresentation of the program such as seldom has been seen in this country. [More…]

• If the honourable member for Hotham is going to fight at the barricades against the proposal for a universal health program he will be fighting against the people’s decision. [More…]

• This health Bill and all connected with it have been endorsed. [More…]

• Health Bill was specifically mentioned in the reasons for a double dissolution- ‘Get a mandate from the people’ we were virtually told, and that is what we did do. [More…]

• The people endorse this concept of national health. [More…]

• They endorse the concept of community health centres. [More…]

• The contents of this Bill which will carry us through until we bring in our own national health scheme, will ensure that this Government will protect the contributors to the national health funds from the rapacious interests of the national health funds. [More…]

• -The honourable member for Henty (Mrs Child) talks about the people’s decision as though the people supposedly had spoken in favour of what appears now to be the Government’s still-born health policy. [More…]

• The Bill is a conglomeration of four or five separate health and welfare proposals. [More…]

• The major part of it concerns, first, the quest for dictatorial power for the Minister over the health insurance funds; secondly, matters relating to increased nursing home subsidies; thirdly, the correction of anomalies with the handicapped children payments; fourthly, the widening of the provision with respect to hearing aids to enable the supply of other surgical appliances by ministerial regulation; and, fifthly, the extension of full approval rights for certain friendly society dispensaries. [More…]

• The Opposition has made it quite plain that it is in favour of certain parts of this legislationthe positive provisions of the Bill which relate to nursing homes, handicapped children and surgical appliances- but it believes most emphatically that the Bill should be withdrawn and redrafted to allow these positive aspects to become law but to omit those unsavoury aspects concerning unnecessary ministerial control over health insurance funds as well as what we believe are unnecessary additional provisions relating to certain friendly societies in South Australia and Queensland. [More…]

• The major part of the Bill concerns the quest for power over the voluntary health insurance funds. [More…]

• He tried to inveigle the health insurance funds into accepting agency arrangements for his proposed national health scheme. [More…]

• To the credit of the voluntary health insurance funds, they are not silly enough to commit suicide. [More…]

• Special emphasis is placed on overpowering the central feature of Commonwealth support for the health funds through the special account. [More…]

• This same special account is to be abolished if the Government’s proposed health scheme is introduced. [More…]

• The Minister obviously is either aware of the need for continued private health insurance, or he has a complete lack of faith in the likelihood of the acceptance of his own legislation; otherwise, he would not be bothering at this time to introduce such legislation. [More…]

• If his scheme does ever get off the ground, it is obvious that because of the inability of many Australians to obtain a hospital bed they will be forced to continue with private health insurance, no matter how expensive it is. [More…]

• We reject these proposals as a completely unjust and unwarranted intrusion into the voluntary health funds. [More…]

• Approved colestomy and ileostomy appliances be made available, to all who need them, from hospitals operated by the State and Australian Governments; religious and charitable organisations; health centres; and stoma associations. [More…]

• I am sure that some people will try to do this if they can get away with it, and I hope that general rules will be provided for the instalment of this equipment in the home so that people will not burden the health scheme unduly by the use of this equipment. [More…]

• The National Health Act in 1964 froze the basic number of friendly societies in this country that would have full approval. [More…]

• Under the National Health Act, general pharmacies have to charge the prescription fee and they cannot give rebates. [More…]

• The Committee recommends that in the event of the Commonwealth approving any expansion of the rights of contributors to friendly society dispensaries to receive rebates for national health scheme prescriptions, other organisations should also be approved to provide similar benefits at private pharmacies on payment of a similar contribution. [More…]

• To sum up, the Opposition believes that there are both good and bad aspects of this conglomerate Bill and it will positively move in the Senate for the deletion of certain aspects covering the control of the voluntary health insurance funds as well as the extension of full approval to the 12 dispensaries. [More…]

• -Dealing firstly with the comments of the last speaker, the honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd), I have not discussed this matter with the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), but the honourable member made two or three points dealing with stomal appliances and whether or not they would be distributed to patients who have been operated on in private hospitals. [More…]

• He talked about anarchy and socialism and fanaticism when we are dealing with realtively minor alterations to the National Health Act. [More…]

• This is the case with the honourable member for Hotham when he is dealing with the subject of national health, the honourable member for Moreton when he is dealing with education and the Leader of the Opposition when he is dealing with the economy. [More…]

• Finally, when the honourable member for Hotham released what he called the Liberal Party’s policy on the National Health Insurance Bill, he said that anybody who went to work for the proposed National Health Insurance Commission could, in years to come, be sacked if there was a return of the Liberal and Country Parties to government. [More…]

• All I am prepared to say is this: I am sure that when election time comes along and this National Health Insurance Commission is established the Liberal and Country Parties, if they were returned to office, would be just the same as any other political party which gained office in this country. [More…]

• I will be interested to see what the Liberal Party’s policy is when an election comes along next time and when the National Health Insurance Commission is established. [More…]

• -The honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) and honourable members on their side of the House have been looking around in their customary way as they have been doing for so many years for an opportunity to denigrate the health funds in order to promote their particular scheme, conceived in infamy and by a couple of academics. [More…]

• In doing this, I am astonished that tonight of all the funds they have chosen to denigrate the health fund in Australia which has generally been acknowledged by the officers of the Minister’s DepartmentI ask the Minister to deny this- as the best run health fund in Australia. [More…]

• I challenge the Minister for Social Security to say that the officers of his Department who have had experience with this fund over the years would not acknowledge that this is the best organised, the best run and the most beneficial health fund in Australia. [More…]

• I also challenge him to say whether any of his officers would commit themselves to saying that a government run health fund could be run better and more economically than the Mutual Hospital Association of South Australia, because they darn well could not and the Minister knows it. [More…]

• The Minister took over from his leader, the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) 5 or 6 years ago this technique, this process of attempting to promote for his own political purposes a health scheme which will do enormous harm to the people of Australia- to the Australian taxpayers. [More…]

• In order to promote that he pursued a deliberate policy of denigrating these voluntary non-profit making health funds. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security did not conceive it; his present leader, the Prime Minister, conceived this process of denigrating the health funds in order to promote the great monolithic, compulsory health fund to be run by the Government which the Minister is in the process of foisting on us. [More…]

• I am astonished that this legislation is proposed at this stage when Government supporters boast that this great conception of theirs is coming to fruition, when we are going to get this great new health scheme which they have been promoting for so many years and in the getting of which they have been denigrating so many good people round Australia- the people who run the compulsory health funds; the people who do the work in the field, in the medical profession; the people in the public hospitals; the people in the private hospitals; the people in the nursing homes. [More…]

• In other words, the voluntary health scheme which they have denigrated over the years is to be phased out. [More…]

• Yet this Minister has thought it necessary to bring before the Parliament for the remaining 6 months of the scheme a Bill to introduce additional controls over the voluntary health funds. [More…]

• We are going to achieve the millenium in 6 months time, and for those 6 months we are to have these measures which will produce a situation in which any representative of a private health fund who defies the Minister’s directions can be subject to penalties. [More…]

• It has been found necessary to introduce for those 6 months something which has never been found necessary until now in the whole history of the voluntary health scheme since it was first introduced many years ago. [More…]

• The first purpose is to reduce the Government’s own subvention, which it has been paying ever since it came in as a government, to the voluntary health schemes- to use the contributors’ reserves to take over the obligations which should be accepted by the Government. [More…]

• He can use this as a device to expropriate the reserves of the voluntary health funds before his iniquitous social scheme is brought in. [More…]

• Government supporters have discovered something else in these dying hours of the voluntary health scheme, these last 6 months before it is to disappear forever according to them. [More…]

• I sometimes wonder whether they have any real confidence that the voluntary health scheme is going to disappear. [More…]

• It must be realised that the special account system was designed by the previous Liberal-Country Party Government to prop up the health benefits funds. [More…]

• I can remember that over the years first of all the present Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) when he was Leader of the Opposition and followed by the present Minister for Social Security when he was the shadow Minister for Health never used to talk about the special account. [More…]

• Now in the last 6 months, in the so-called dying era of the voluntary health scheme, they move to deprive the people most in need of the special account provisions. [More…]

• I would just sum up by saying: I believe that this Bill, brought in in the dying hours of the voluntary health scheme, as the Government sees it, is symptomatic of the deceit which has been exercised by the Labor Party in relation to the health scheme ever since 2 people called Deeble and Scotton came along and said to it: ‘We have got a nice tidy little compulsory socialistic scheme which you can sell to the Australian people and which will help you get back into office’. [More…]

• Ever since then it has been one continuous record of deceit, one continuous record of denigration of the voluntary health funds, denigration of the medical profession, denigration of the hospitals, denigration of the nursing homes - [More…]

• Most of them are people who are in it because they are committed and devoted to health carethe people who run the health benefit funds; the people whom the honourable member for Prospect denigrated tonight. [More…]

• This is true of any members of the boards of voluntary health funds around Australia. [More…]

• The Mutual Hospital Association was established long before the present scheme was devised, long before there was a health scheme at all because the people who established it had a feeling for the public. [More…]

• So let the Minister not denigrate people who are dedicated and have been working devotedly whether it be in the health funds, in the medical profession, in the nursing profession or in the hospital profession. [More…]

• Medical centres and occupational health services: [More…]

• In addition to these specific projects, the Department is responsible for developing detailed guidance to Government Departments and other bodies on the application of a new ‘Code of General Principles for Occupational Health & Safety in Australian Government Employment’. [More…]

• Health and welfare, roads and urban and rural development in Queensland are. [More…]

• My colleague, the Minister for Services and Property, is negotiating with the Parramatta City Council for the acquisition of a baby health centre which will be incorporated into the site. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I refer to the fact that the Hospitals and Health Services Commission has appointed a committee to examine health careers, personnel and training so that statistics and recommendations in this area, which have been sadly lacking in the past, can be obtained to help the Government in its planning of health services and thereby enable it to meet the real needs of the community. [More…]

• Is the Minister aware that professionals in the health fields are anxiously awaiting the committee’s report? [More…]

• It is true that previously there has not been a national survey of health manpower. [More…]

• The report should provide information not only to the professional groups who are awaiting the report but also to bodies like the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, the State governments and others who have to plan education, training and manpower in the health field. [More…]

• The King Island people have to rely now on a small twinengined plane for their flights to the mainland regardless of whether they are pensioners in ill health or school children trying to arrange excursions. [More…]

• Despite its efforts and concern for the needs of the people in this area of Brisbane, the Australian Government has been continually frustrated by the Queensland Minister for Health and by the efforts of other members of the Queensland Government, including the Premier of that State, who have supported the Minister in his failure to make any real effort to bring to fruition this project which is being sought by the people of this area and sponsored and supported by the Australian Government. [More…]

• Just prior to that State election, the Queensland Minister for Health, Mr Doug Tooth, made an announcement which was heralded in the Press by the headline: ‘New hospital for Mt Gravatt ‘. [More…]

• State Minister for Health Mr Doug Tooth has announced plans to build a new acute hospital for the Mt GravattSunnybank area. [More…]

• The interim report of the ad hoc committee was released recently following detailed investigation of the report by the Health Department. [More…]

• Queensland Minister for Health indicated that the State Government was not prepared to accept the proposals of the Australian Government but would proceed with this hospital at Mt Gravatt on its own. [More…]

• I was prompted to ask a question in this House yesterday of the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) so that I could obtain a true indication of the real position in regard to this hospital which is urgently needed, not only for the people of this area but also as part of the whole development in the area in which the Griffith University will be very soon, I hope, proceeding with a medical school. [More…]

• The Department of Services and Property is negotiating to determine whether the baby health centre can be incorporated in the development. [More…]

• I noted with interest also reports today that a study on suicide is to be instituted in Australia by the National Health and Medical Research Council and will commence in Canberra. [More…]

• The proposal is to provide a comprehensive laboratory service for the Northern Territory health services and, by transfer of the Pathology Department from the Casuarina Hospital to the proposed laboratory building, to allow for expansion of the outpatients services area of the Hospital. [More…]

• -The House is debating 3 health levy Bills the purpose of which essentially is to provide the funds for the notorious Hayden health scheme. [More…]

• These Bills will have the effect of adding to people’s income tax to the extent of 1.35 per cent of taxable income over and above what they are paying now so that the Hayden health scheme can be part funded. [More…]

• This 1.35 per cent will not, of course, fund the Hayden health scheme completely as the major proportion of the cost will be taken out of Consolidated Revenue. [More…]

• In the light of that we now have this added insanity of adding to the fires of inflation by representing these health levy Bills. [More…]

• He was talking about the compensation scheme, the superannuation scheme and the health scheme- is admirable in itself. [More…]

• What does it mean- these goodies included in the health scheme which we are now debating, the compensation scheme and the superannuation scheme? [More…]

• I refer to the health of individual Australians. [More…]

• I believe that this legislation will have a bad effect on health care and the health of Australians and their families. [More…]

• Now, it is going to ruin the nation’s health care system which will mean that it will interfere with the health of Australians. [More…]

• The ills within the National Health Service are serious and, by threatening standards, threaten the health and wellbeing of the community. [More…]

• Its health care scheme will do to Australians what the British Labor Party’s health scheme has done to the British people. [More…]

• This man works in the nationalised health service in the United Kingdom. [More…]

• That is the situation with nationalised health. [More…]

• This is what that kind of health scheme has done to British medicine. [More…]

• This is a basic facet of our medical health care system. [More…]

• I know that the Minister for Social Security is desperately trying to devise a means so that that present system in this regard can be maintained so that even under his health care scheme a woman will still be able to go to her own doctor. [More…]

• My inquiries through the public and private hospital systems and through the medical profession indicate to me that no matter what the Minister’s good intentions might be, it is just impossible and impracticable under the Hayden health scheme to do this. [More…]

• We have the concept of one government health fund proposed by this legislation. [More…]

• We will see the finish of friendly societies as they operate now and the finish of private health funds which are great community co-operative societies. [More…]

• We want to take you over and build one massive government health insurance fund’. [More…]

• I said on behalf of the Opposition that when we were re-elected to government, at the appropriate time we would disband the Government health commission while at the same time, whenever that time may be, doing all we could to facilitate its employees with other employment. [More…]

• What will this Government health fund do? [More…]

• In Australia 90,000 people make a medical or hospital claim every day- 450,000 a week- and all of those are to go into the one mammoth, giant, bureaucratic body of the Government health fund. [More…]

• I mention again- I have mentioned it at other times- that I am becoming increasingly concerned about the records that will be kept by the Government health fund. [More…]

• I respect what the Minister says, that it is his intention to give every protection to the records of the health fund organisation so that they will not be made public. [More…]

• By pressing one button you can get virtually the whole of the medical, dental, and psychiatric history of any human being who is registered with that health fund. [More…]

• I would accept the argument that that information is already in the private health funds now. [More…]

• Without wanting to demean any public servant or any private health fund official, the price of obtaining that sort of information- information which may ruin a person’s career, information which could be splattered across the front page of a newspaper- is the price of the integrity of one public servant, and we know that there are some people in the world who can be bought for a price. [More…]

• On the other hand, the Opposition has an alternative policy on health to that of Labor. [More…]

• Notwithstanding the vilification of the present health scheme, the Opposition says that this is still a good health scheme that we have operating at the moment. [More…]

• What disturbs us is the way in which the Minister in particular has vilified at every opportunity every person connected with the present health scheme. [More…]

• He has abused doctors, he has vilified the health funds, calling them rapacious. [More…]

• The Liberal Party’s policy is one of universal health care. [More…]

• We care for the 8 per cent of people who are not covered for health insurance and we have a policy to cover them. [More…]

• We care for the people on low incomes who cannot afford the now expensive private health insurance and we have a sliding scale by which they can contribute for their private health insurance according to the level of their incomes. [More…]

• We have checked our scheme with former experts in the Taxation Office, with constitutional lawyers, with State governments, with the professions and with the private hospitals, and although most of these people have slight criticisms and suggestions about our health scheme they are in fundamental agreement with it. [More…]

• The opposite can be said of the Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• There is not one reputable organisation concerned with health care in Australia which supports the Labor health scheme. [More…]

• Our health scheme is being updated all the time, and today I want to make a new announcement of policy which will be in the Press boxes in a moment or two. [More…]

• The Liberal and Country Parties recognise that the States face grave financial difficulties in developing their hospital and health services, because of the unwillingness of the Labor Government to increase Commonwealth support in line with inflation. [More…]

• A Liberal and Country Party Government will provide an immediate and large injection of funds into State Health systems. [More…]

• We will allow the States to maintain autonomy with their health services and with their hospitals. [More…]

• The Liberal and Country Parties recognise the pressing need for more State resources to be made available for the development of hospital and health services. [More…]

• An LCP Government will also enter into urgent negotiations with the States and the Voluntary Health Insurance Funds on a number of other matters, including- improving the presently inadequate SHBP for low income peoplemedical benefits cover for outpatients. [More…]

• -As the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) has said the 3 Bills before us are the same as those introduced on 10 July and they are part of the Government’s badly foundering health proposals. [More…]

• As day succeeds day, the only certainty in the whole of the Government’s proposals for its health insurance scheme is that it will not be introduced. [More…]

• Of some particular interest is that on 10 July when the Bills were introduced for the first time there were 4 Bills and the fourth Bill was the National Health Bill to repeal or to have the ability to repeal the present National Health Act. [More…]

• The Government does not need the 3 Bills to implement its health scheme. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham made the point so well that the 3 schemes- health, national compensation and superannuation- will require a 25 per cent increase on the present taxation level of this country. [More…]

• The health funds are against it as the honourable member for Hotham quoted from this morning’s Melbourne ‘Age’. [More…]

• The medical professionals who are required to service our health scheme are against it. [More…]

• What a farce of a supposedly uniform system which is claimed to be better than anything else when on the one hand in Canberra they are messing up an existing satisfactory arrangement and on the other hand in South Australia at the same time agreeing with a fee-for-service system as part of the supposed universal health scheme. [More…]

• The State Health Ministers, as the honourable member for Hotham said, have consistently at conferences recommended necessary but limited improvements to the existing scheme. [More…]

• But these should be made on an evolutionary basis not a revolutionary basis that will bring chaos to the health scheme. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham outlined the points that were made at conferences of Health Ministers. [More…]

• They are: Greater share of cost sharing for pensioner medical bed days- pensioners are an accepted Commonwealth reponsibility and it is right that we should not be loading the States at great cost to themselves with the cost of pensioners who are hospital patients; an improved subsidised health benefits scheme which would provide an automatic form of cover for low income people plus a greater degree of flexibility for family size; medical cover for outpatients; discussions on psychiatric patients and ambulance costs, etc. [More…]

• We in government will co-operate with the State Health Ministers to allow them and us at the same time to meet the health arrangements which the majority of Australians have so clearly demonstrated they want. [More…]

• In a number of discussions already held with the majority of State Health Ministers I believe we have already shown our willingness for Federal-State cooperation on this most important health issue. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham in a significant statement 2 days ago, which was not reported, made reference to the Health Insurance Commission in which at the present time thousands of people are being employed in addition to the Department of Social Security at a cost of some millions of dollars to the taxpayers of this country- we say unnecessary cost. [More…]

• The Liberal-Country Party Government would disband the Health Insurance Commission, if returned to power at an appropriate time, Mr Don Chipp, Shadow Minister for Social Security, said today. [More…]

• The Opposition’s intentions also needed to be made public in fairness to contributors to voluntary health insurance funds, staffs of these funds and their managements. [More…]

• In this time of a Queensland election some curious statements have been made about health. [More…]

• These statements have been made about Queensland accepting or not accepting money for health services. [More…]

• I remind everybody that of the total Queensland health bill- this includes pharmaceutical benefit payments etc.- only 16 per cent comes from Commonwealth Government sources. [More…]

• The vast bulk of expenditure on health in that State comes from Queensland itself. [More…]

• So for the Commonwealth to talk about what Queensland is not doing or what Commonwealth funds it is not spending on health is rather farcical. [More…]

• On Tuesday in this House the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) said in reply to a question from the honourable member for Bowman (Mr Keogh) … we have now managed to get the agreement of all States to the establishment of joint works councils to look at hospital building priorities. [More…]

• The Queensland Minister for Health has asked me to tell the House and the people of Australia that that is not correct. [More…]

• I repeat that the Queensland Minister for Health said that no works council has been agreed to by Queensland. [More…]

• Yesterday in Victoria exploratory discussions took place between representatives of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission and the Victorian Hospitals and Charities Commission on the possible establishment of a works council for that State. [More…]

• But Queensland and Victoria do not have hospitals works councils, in contradiction of what both the Minister for Health and the Prime Minister have said. [More…]

• The point is that, particularly at this time when referring to health care in Queensland, one should be careful about what are the facts. [More…]

• The facts are not as suggested by the Minister for Health and the Prime Minister. [More…]

• I think this reveals the more accurate position of health proposals as between the Commonwealth and the Queensland Governments at present. [More…]

• If the Government wishes to create a double dissolution situation on this matter and on health matters generally we will be happy to accommodate it. [More…]

• We see them as being no different from the Bills in relation to the national health scheme which we have opposed ever since the Labor Government came into power. [More…]

• These are simply more Bills to make possible the imposition of Labor’s health scheme. [More…]

• Furthermore, this levy is an extra payment required additional to what people in Queensland and everywhere else in Australia pay if they belong to a health insurance organisation. [More…]

• They will need to belong to a private health fund to qualify for that, just as they must today. [More…]

• Nobody yet has been able to tell us how much the Government’s health scheme will actually cost. [More…]

• I clearly recall reading articles in English newspapers which stated that the English health scheme was cracking at the seams and was falling to pieces. [More…]

• Let us take into account the cost of the Government’s proposed compensation scheme, superannuation scheme and health scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) stands in this House constantly and says that even though Queenslanders will have to pay this extra amount, it will mean about another $35m a year for the Queensland health scheme. [More…]

• The contribution now to a private health fund of a husband who is working covers the entire family. [More…]

• I ask the Government: Please leave us with the present health scheme. [More…]

• From time to time the Opposition has said that it will introduce minor changes to make the health scheme that much better. [More…]

• They were those implementing our universal health insurance scheme, our proposal for one vote one value, our Petroleum and Minerals Authority. [More…]

• With the passage of our health legislation Opposition senators proceeded to reject the ancillary Bills necessary to implement it. [More…]

• We have established our legal aid service and the first Australian Government community health centrethe first of many such legal aid offices and community health centres. [More…]

• One thing is clearly implicit in our opponents’ proposals- the slashing of basic public expenditure on schools, welfare, health and cities. [More…]

• This amendment has relevance to authorities to be established by ordinance in the A.C.T., such as the proposed Capital Territory Health Commission. [More…]

• No, but on 18 October, the Minister for Agriculture, the Minister for Health and I jointly issued a Press statement that allegations being made in Taiwan that southern hemisphere milk powders contained possibly high levels of radioiodine were quite unfounded. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In the Northern Territory, nurses of the Rural Health Division provide home nursing care from a mobile service based in Darwin and from a number of health centres and sub-centres. [More…]

• In the Australian Capital Territory in the same period, nurses attached to the District Nursing Service and to health centres made approximately 38,000 home visits. [More…]

• The total cost of $202,374 includes services provided by these nurses within health centres. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question: [More…]

• On landing in Alice Springs the aircraft was sprayed and an officer of the Department of Health asked each member of the party if they had visited any farming areas or meat works or saleyards. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many requests has he received for the restoration of the free milk scheme from (a) school and pre-school bodies and (b) State Ministers of Health, Education or Agriculture. [More…]

• Between 1 1 December 1973 (the date State Education Ministers were advised of the Government’s decision that no funds would be made available for the 1974 School Year), and 31 October 1974, my Department received 243 requests for the restoration of school milk from school and pre-school bodies, one from a State Minister for Health, one from a State Minister for Education and two from State Ministers for Agriculture. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• However, the Department and the Hospitals and Health Services Commission are approached for advice in relation to health matters by authorities undertaking investigations of potential and possible growth centres. [More…]

• In the case of Albury/Wodonga, the Department of Health and the Hospitals and Health Services Commission are funding and participating in a health planning team which was established early this year to prepare guidelines for the planning of health services for the Albury/Wodonga Growth Centre. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• and (2) Australian Government assistance for the redevelopment of Launceston General Hospital and for the construction of a new women’s hospital in Hobart have been the subject of correspondence between the Tasmanian Minister for Health, Social Welfare and Road Safety and myself. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What assistance is being provided to State Health Departments on technical or educational matters to promote the fluoridation of water supplies. [More…]

• (a) My Department and the National Health and Medical Research Council keep all aspects of fluoridation under review. [More…]

• The fluoridation of Canberra’s water supply was commenced in September 1964, and the dental health of children who have lived in Canberra since fluoridation commenced is assessed annually. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Copies of press releases issued by the Minister for Health are distributed from the Public Relations Section of the Department of Health by hand to the Press Gallery, by mail to individuals and organisations throughout Australia, and by publication in the Australian Government Digest. [More…]

• There is a list of people who regularly receive copies of the Minister for Health ‘s press statements, and this list is frequently changed. [More…]

• The cost of producing and distributing press releases for the Minister for Health is included in costs relating to salaries and administration of the Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) The major portion of Australian Government funds for medical research is made through the Medical Research Endowment Fund on the advice of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Were the recent mercury level tests on fish sold in Melbourne, conducted by the Analytical Laboratories, made in co-operation with the Victorian Department of Health or was that Department unaware of them. [More…]

• Was there any communication between his Department and State Departments of Health, before the tests were made, to ascertain if these Departments were monitoring mercury levels. [More…]

• The tests were undertaken at my direction without prior advice to the Victorian Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health Services and the Canberra and Woden Valley Hospitals. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1) to (10) Basic information on health manpower is to be provided in a single public reference document scheduled for publication by my Department in early 1975. [More…]

• Estimates of future manpower requirements in the health services will be canvassed in a report from the Hospitals and Health Services Commission also to be issued in early 1975. [More…]

• I would also draw the right honourable member’s attention to the fact that this Government is the first in Australia’s history, and one of the first in the world, to set up a committee on health careers, personnel and training. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What community health centres are operating in each State and Territory. [More…]

• The following information relates not only to projects specifically described as “community health centres” but also to other forms of community health projects involving the provision of preventive, diagnostic thereapeutic or rehabilitation services at or from premises or, in some cases, mobile units, on a non-residential basis. [More…]

• The information, which was compiled in association with State health authorities, applies to projects fully or partly operational as at November 1 974. [More…]

• Details of New South Wales projects which were established prior to the introduction of the Australian Government Community Health Program and Community Mental Health, Alcoholism and Drug Dependency Program and which are not currently funded under either of those Programs, are not yet finalised but will be forwarded to the honourable member as soon as they become available. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) to (4) The annual Health Ministers’ Conference holds discussions and makes recommendations on health matters in which the co-operation of the Australian Government and State Governments is required. [More…]

• The Advisory Council consists of the Chief Officers and Senior Administrative Officers of the State Health and Hospitals Departments or Commissions and of the Australian Government Departments of Health and Social Security. [More…]

• Department of Health [More…]

• The publications distributed to prospective migrants are: ‘Australia’ ‘Assisted Passages to Australia ‘ ‘Your Journey to Australia ‘ ‘Customs and Quarantine in Australia’ ‘ Migrant Accommodation in Australia ‘ ‘Employment in Australia’ ‘ Housing in Australia ‘ ‘ Education in Australia ‘ ‘Health and Social Security in Australia’ ‘ Wages, Prices and Taxes in Australia ‘ ‘ Health Insurance in Australia ‘ [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Grants Provided by the National Health and Medical Research Council [More…]

• Details of grants provided in the last three years under the Medical Research Endowment Act can be found in the last two annual reports of the National Health and Medical Research Council, and in the report of the Seventy-seventh Session of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• What is involved is not an economic crisis, painful and perhaps mismanaged as that may be, but precedents which will determine the health of our parliamentary processes for generations in the future. [More…]

• We are building community health centres. [More…]

• The absence of sewerage, water and power, the lack of accommodation and the fact that health facilities were strained to the limit for a city of over 40 000, all leading to a very real threat of disease, clearly justified my decision to evacuate the city which was discussed with the Acting Prime Minister (Dr J. F. Cairns) and the Leader ofthe Opposition (Mr Snedden) on Boxing Day. [More…]

• I turn now, Mr Speaker, to some account of the restoration and problems associated with matters such as communications, accommodation, transport, health, Aboriginal welfare, port facilities, works and services, education, business, social welfare services and sports and entertainment. [More…]

• How the Minister who is responsible for social service and health matters could be relied upon to bring in a health scheme when he comes up with an interjection like that is beyond my comprehension. [More…]

• Unfortunately, a proposal to allow existing friendly societies with restricted approval to expand their operations so that they can fully provide dispensing services under the National Health Act was rejected by the Senate. [More…]

• The people in this instance are people who are contributors to health insurance funds. [More…]

• The point has been properly taken by some of the major national inquiries into health insurance funds in this country that consumers do not have representation on open funds, and accordingly there is a bounden duty incumbent upon a government to ensure the protection of the community’s rights in the operation of those funds. [More…]

• That, shortly stated, was all that was being sought by the amendments embodied in this Bill relating to health insurance funds and which have been rejected by the Senate. [More…]

• They were not amendments which are essential to the introduction of Medibank- the universal health insurance program which will become operative on 1 July this year. [More…]

• They were amendments which are consistent with the recommendations of the Nimmo committee of inquiry into health insurance set up by the previous Liberal-Country Party Government at a time when the honourable member for Barker (Dr Forbes) was the Minister for Health, and they are consistent with recommendations from the major investigation carried out by the Senate into health insurance, among other things, in this country. [More…]

• If the Opposition believes that it has at least a sporting chance of being a national government in the future, it is these sorts of amendments which would have increased greatly the effectiveness with which it could have administered health insurance through private funds in this country. [More…]

• Such amendments would have to be put into effect if the Opposition believes that it is going to establish or re-establish a system of private health insurance in some way similar to the way in which it operates now. [More…]

• In any case, looking at the principle of the matters which were before the Senate, which the Senate rejected and which are now before the House again- we accept them as deletions from the Bill to allow at least some advantages to be achieved for the community- these proposals were consistent not only with the findings of the Nimmo Committee and not only with the recommendations of the Senate Committee of Inquiry, but also indeed with statements made by the honourable member for Barker when he was the Minister for Health in a previous government. [More…]

• Under the National Health Act as it stands at the moment- it was established, I repeat, by the Opposition at the time when it was a government in this country- a fund may transfer reserves from a hospital fund it conducts in one State into a hospital fund it conducts in another State. [More…]

• We propose that there should be liability of public officers for the various health insurance funds in this country. [More…]

• One ofthe disgraceful situations we find in private health insurance in this country is that really, with the exception of overkill legislative authority to control the funds, there is nothing available to ensure that funds behave in a proper way as directed by ministerial authority after advice by the legislatively established Registration Committee. [More…]

• Senator Greenwood, for instance, had at least one major confrontation with the private health insurance funds and he was in a very difficult situation because of the absence of effective legislative enforcement authority. [More…]

• In all these confrontations the best interests of the contributors, members of the community, cannot be guaranteed because of the weaknesses of the National Health Act. [More…]

• I think it ought to be put on the record, too, why the National Health Act is so defective. [More…]

• It was drawn up through lengthy sittings and in consultation with representatives of the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• We have the situation, for instance, in the State of Victoria where the Victorian statistician may give certain advice to the State Government and that advice may be passed on to the health insurance funds. [More…]

• It is exactly the same sort of problem with which a future Liberal-Country Party Government would be confronted at some time, whether it was administering a reestablished private health insurance fund or administering them in the fringe areas in which they expected to operate, namely, in the medical field or, in the area of private insurance, in the hospital field. [More…]

• I might add that this was consistent with our approach in this Parliament when a little while ago we had conflict with 2 private health insurance funds- the Hospitals Contribution Fund of Australia and the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia Ltd- in the State of New South Wales. [More…]

• On our initiative this Government moved to establish amendments to the National Health Act so that there could be a system of appeal. [More…]

• Honourable members would remember that the HCF and the MBF sought an increase of about $ 1.40 a week in their contribution rates for private health insurance. [More…]

• Because there was some dispute between the funds and myself we did, as I have mentioned, seek to have an amendment made to the National Health Act so that there could be a system of appeal. [More…]

• All that was proposed in these amendments which have been rejected by the Senate was to introduce proper methods to regulate the operation of private health insurance in this country, to regulate it according to the reasonable findings of the Senate Committee of Inquiry and Nimmo Committee. [More…]

• I relate the remarks to proposed new section 36 of the new Part VIA of the National Health Act as originally proposed by me but rejected by the Senate. [More…]

• It does imply that the Government has a real responsibility to act in the interests of the effectiveness of voluntary health insurance and of the contributors to the organisations which form such a major part of it [More…]

• That organisation and their officers be subject to penalties for any failures to comply with the conditions imposed by and under the National Health Act. [More…]

• We were even trying to follow the honourable member for Barker who, as Minister for Health on 4 March 1970, made this statement: [More…]

• But in the intervening period between 1970 and when this Government was elected in 1972, the honourable member for Barker and the Government of that period suddenly became exceedingly and, indeed, excessively amenable to the point of view of the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• I guess the honourable member for Barker finds himself flattered when people who are in control of the large open private heath insurance funds refer to him as a good bloke, as an understanding bloke and as a man who knows what it is all about from the private health insurance funds’ point of view. [More…]

• But I think he would feel more flattered and more satisfied and more achieving if he knew the contributors were getting a better deal, that their interests had been looked after and that they, instead of minority powerful groups controlling private health insurance funds, were saying those things about him. [More…]

• It is blind opposition of the members of the Liberal and Country Parties in this House and in the Senate, their total commitment to the private health insurance funds and their indifference to the rights of contributors which has caused them to obstruct the passage of those amendments which would have been so crucial to the effective administration of private health insurance. [More…]

• But I must say this: What the Minister does not seem to understand when he talks about my attitude and the attitude of the Ministers in a LiberalCountry Party Government is that we believed in voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• We were interested in making the voluntary health insurance work. [More…]

• But to relate a situation in relation to a government which believed in voluntary health insurance to the situation today where we have a Minister and a government who are dedicated to destroying voluntary health insurance, is absolutely absurd. [More…]

• How can he expect anybody to believe that when, as I said, the measure was brought into the Parliament for the first time in the dying hours of the voluntary health scheme which for years, the Labor Party has been dedicated to destroying? [More…]

• How can the Minister expect us to believe that he and his Government have anything but the most sinister motives in introducing measures which are designed to further control and to bring under the thumb of the Minister and the Government the voluntary health insurance funds? [More…]

• We have a government hostile to voluntary health insurance and it must expect that any measure brought in in the dying hours of the scheme will meet with opposition. [More…]

• What he wants to do, of course, is to completely take over the voluntary health insurance funds and to use their reserves, their assets, and their personnel to ease the transition of his compulsory health scheme which we know is opposed by the Australian people. [More…]

• As I have suggested, it is a cynical and a clumsy attempt to destroy the voluntary health funds for the Government’s own purposes. [More…]

• The Minister’s method was to combine in one Bill these measures related to voluntary health insurance with certain welfare measures which have a strong emotive content, including provisions for benefits for handicapped children and for the sufferers of kidney disease. [More…]

• These have nothing to do with the measures relating to voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• Indeed, as I understand it, some of these measures are the responsibility of the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), yet this legislation is to be administered by the Minister for Social Security. [More…]

• We would be coerced into accepting the Government’s measures to take over and destroy the voluntary health insurance funds. [More…]

• These matters, of course, were originally contained in the National Health Act and the Bill sought to amend that Act. [More…]

• -The Committee is discussing amendments which the Senate has made to the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• That which was bad relates fundamentally to part ofthe Labor Government’s desire to destroy the non-government health funds in this country in pursuit of its objective of a socialised health scheme in which all Australians would ultimately participate. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security made some comments about the emotionalism of this debate, but he himself was somewhat prey to this when he talked about one of the disgraceful features of the private health funds. [More…]

• I think that in a way that single word he used when describing the non-government health funds gave him away. [More…]

• That is his Government’s approach to the non-government health funds. [More…]

• That is why in the Bill that the Senate has amended we felt it was necessary to take away from the Minister powers which he was seeking to give him ultimate control over the non-government health funds. [More…]

• But in the prevailing debate, which is about the way the total health scheme of Australia is to be conducted, I am afraid that to take such a position would be a luxury. [More…]

• The Minister was simply seeking powers to enable him to destroy the non-government health funds which had, along with all other organs of the medical and health care professions of this country, refused to countenance his health scheme. [More…]

• That is the crux of this matter as it has been the crux of so many of the debates on health which have taken the time of this Parliament and which, indeed, have taken the time of this country for so long. [More…]

• The Opposition remains adamantly opposed to Labor’s socialist health scheme. [More…]

• We remain adamantly opposed to Labor’s health scheme for a number of reasons. [More…]

• Not the least of those reasons is the fact that the health scheme holds out the illusion of free medical and hospital care, not just for the very poor but for all Australians. [More…]

• Labor’s scheme would undoubtedly reduce the quality and increase the cost of health care in this country. [More…]

• But such a view is an illusion, as unreal as the lure of free health care. [More…]

• If there is one issue that is going to be of crucial importance in the next generation of health care in this country it will be the control of costs. [More…]

• The dedicated care of health professionals will be hemmed in by government bureaucracies. [More…]

• The Bill before the House is designed to provide for an orderly transition from the present health insurance scheme to Medibank. [More…]

• During that Sitting, the Health Insurance Act and the Health Insurance Commission Act were passed. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Act authorises the payment of medical benefits, the Australian Government to enter into agreements with the States for the provision of hospital sevices and the making of health program grants. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission Act establishes the administrative structure of Medibank. [More…]

• Medibank has been the subject of a prolonged campaign of deliberate misrepresentation conducted principally by those with vested self interest in the preservation of a present inefficient, inequitable and very costly health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Act makes special provision for pensioners whose financial means are within specified limits equivalent to the present pensioner medical service entitlement limits. [More…]

• For those choosing private treatment in either a public or a private hospital there will be a $16 a day subsidy towards hospital bed charges provided under the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• Where state governments decline to enter into agreements then, until such agreements are entered into, the present National Health Act arrangements will continue so far as hospital benefits are concerned. [More…]

• Firstly, the Bill provides for cessation of the payment of Australian Government medical and hospital benefits under the National Health Act. [More…]

• Secondly, it provides for the manner in which existing health insurance organisations will phase out their National Health Act operations. [More…]

• Of course, organisations ceasing operations under the National Health Act will be eligible to seek authorisation to conduct health insurance business under legislation supervising private health insurance which will be introduced later in these sittings. [More…]

• For those of us who remember saying the words ‘For richer, for poorer, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, till death do us part’ this Bill changes the whole concept of marriage. [More…]

• In the future we could well see young couples, perhaps our own children, standing before some paid appointee of this Government at a marriage ceremony, not entering marriage as a contract to be maintained for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, till death does them part. [More…]

• The CSIRO Division of Animal Health is studying the incidence and nature of flystrike in sheep to determine the predisposing factors favouring flystrike and devise control measures accordingly. [More…]

• CSIRO Division of Animal Health: [More…]

• The CSIRO Division of Animal Health has a group in Western Australia studying the pathological effects of phytoestrogens on various organs and body functions in ewes. [More…]

• CSIRO Division of Animal Health: [More…]

• The CSIRO Division of Animal Health is attempting to isolate and identify the toxic agent (toxin) involved and to characterise the nature of the disorder in sheep. [More…]

• In this regard, apart from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, responsibilities for specific Aboriginal programs are carried by the Departments of Education, Health, Labor and Immigration and Services and Property, the Public Service Board and the Australian Council for the Arts, which provide services in consultation with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• and (2) The provision of a new incinerator at Perth Airport to deal with quarantine or cross contaminated domestic food wastes is currently the subject of discussion with the Depanment of Health. [More…]

• At this stage a firm target date for the completion of the incinerator is unavailable but we believe that the Department of Health is aiming for commencement of construction in the 197S-76 financial year. [More…]

• 1 ) Has the Department of Health requested the construction of a new incinerator at Perth Airport. [More…]

• 1 ) The provision of a new incinerator at Perth Airport to deal with quarantine or cross contaminated domestic food wastes is currently the subject of discussion with the Department of Health. [More…]

• At this stage a firm target date for the completion of the incinerator is unavailable, but we believe that the Depanment of Health is aiming for commencement of construction in the 1975-76 financial year. [More…]

• Our advice is that the Department of Health is satisfied with the results obtained. [More…]

• Drugs are normally evaluated in order of receipt of a properly documented submission prepared in accordance with guidelines laid down following discussions between the Australian Depanment of Health and organisations representing the pharmaceutical industry. [More…]

• in respect of general marketing applications, where, in the view of the Austraiian Drug Evaluation Committee, together with senior officers of the Australian Department of Health, the drug appears to represent a major therapeutic advance. [More…]

• On 26 August 1974 a new Drug Evaluation Section was created within the Therapeutics Division of the Australian Department of Health to undertake evaluations of drug submissions for clinical trial or general marketing. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• the Australian Financial Review of 1 1 June 1974, that mercury contamination levels in whale meal and whale solubles used as stock and poultry feed additives are higher than critical levels prescribed by the National Health and Medical Research Council; if so, are these reports correct. [More…]

• Can he say whether (a) critically high mercury contamination levels are apparent in foodstuffs obtained from animals fed on whale meal and whale solubles supplied by Cheynes Beach Whaling Company, as claimed in submissions to the Metallic Contamination of Seafoods Subcommittee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, (b) mercury concentrations in persons consuming foodstuffs obtained from animals fed on whale meal and whale solubles could be of a critical level, (c) exports of whale solubles from Cheynes Beach Whaling Company to Japan and Hong Kong would have critical mercury contamination levels, (d) Cheynes Beach Whaling Company supplies approximately 4000 tonnes of mercury contaminated whale meal and whale solubles as additives for stock and poultry feeds to Australian farmers every year and (e) action can be taken to remove whale meal and whale solubles from the stock and poultry feed additives market if it is true, as stated by the West Australian Commissioner for Public Health to the Chairman of the Metallic Contamination of Seafoods Sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, that these products are contaminated by critically high mercury levels. [More…]

• Investigations by the relevant authorities in Western Australia have revealed no indication of products on the local markets containing mercury levels higher than those recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The mercury levels in exported whale solubles are similar to those in whale solubles used as protein supplements for Australian livestock without hazard to human health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I challenge it to state unequivocally whether abolition of the means test is or is not one of the casualties of the rather massive public expenditure cuts which it is proposing as part of its economic administration of this country in which major welfare fields, such as education, welfare housing, urban and regional development, welfare services, hospitals and community health services will all be cut back substantially according to a secret document circulating among a small number of senior members of the Liberal Party. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present the report of the Computer Services Planning Committee on the provision of computing facilities and systems for health services in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• Both of these situations are likely to be relevant to the proposed Capital Territory health commission. [More…]

• Several clauses are, for example, relevant to the proposed Capital Territory health commission, which is expected to be established by ordinance and whose staff will include personnel presently employed under the Public Service Act with the Health Services Division of the Department of Health. [More…]

• The health insurance funds have been better treated by this Government than by previous governments. [More…]

• The fact is that this Government has been extremely generous in its support of private health insurance in spite of the misrepresentation and the many provocative statements made by spokesmen of the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• These are the same people who are currently asserting, on the one hand, that the Australian Government should not undertake further public expenditure and on the other hand are demanding even further public expenditure from this Government to support a rather tottering and discredited system of private health insurance. [More…]

• The scheme of Medibank- the universal health insurance program- will come into operation on 1 July and will cover the whole Australian community. [More…]

• It will not incur the additional expenditure of several hundred million dollars which would be necessary under the present system of private health insurance to give universal cover. [More…]

• A determination by the Remuneration Tribunal relating to positions in the Health Insurance Commission, the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, the Law Reform Commission and the Social Welfare Commission. [More…]

• A recent public statement attributed to Dr R. Klugman, M.P., calling on contributors to transfer to other health insurance funds to avoid paying arrears, is a blatant incitement to ignore a decision by the N.S.W. [More…]

• A declaration that sub-sections ( 12), ( 13) and ( 14) of section 78 of the National Health Act 1933-1974 are not within the legislative powers of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia and are invalid. [More…]

• their servants and agents be restrained from counselling or procuring any person to pay contributions within the meaning of the National Health Act 1953-1974 to the defendants in excess of those determined by the Minister for Social Security on 28 July 1974 and of accepting contributions in excess of the same. [More…]

• I do not believe that the health of the legal system in Australia will be tremendously improved or, for that matter, tremendously restricted or hampered by the final abolition of appeals to the Privy Council. [More…]

• The Bill before the House provides for the removal or reduction of the waiting periods that must be served by 2 classes of new contributors to health benefits funds before they become eligible for fund benefits. [More…]

• This results from exclusion rules applied by the private health benefits organisations. [More…]

• The Bill enables a health benefits organisation operating a special account to transfer to that account a woman who becomes a contributor to the fund when pregnant. [More…]

• The National Health Act at present provides that these people must generally serve a waiting period of 2 weeks from the time they become unemployed or incapacitated before they are eligible for medical and hospital benefits under the subsidised health benefits plan. [More…]

• But I must remind the House that it is a Bill designed to destroy the legislative arrangements which give the voluntary health scheme, as we know it, its existence. [More…]

• The Opposition believes that it is supported in this action by a majority of the Australian people and it sees no reason to change its attitude on this Bill which is designed to administer the final coup de grace to the voluntary health scheme. [More…]

• It makes it illegal for organisations to continue to provide health insurance from a date to be proclaimed. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) has told us that the health funds will subsequently be re-registered, if they want to be, to provide benefits for intermediate and private hospital care, but we have not yet seen the legislation to do this. [More…]

• Given the consistent denigration and sheer hatred and vituperation which the Minister for Social Security has heaped on to the health funds, the Opposition could be forgiven for questioning whether that particular piece of legislation which will permit the private health funds to re-register will ever see the light of day. [More…]

• Nevertheless, in this legislation we are being asked to give to the Government a blanket power to prohibit the private health insurance funds from carrying on business after a date which the Government is able to choose at will. [More…]

• It authorises the Health Insurance Commission to carry on health insurance to ensure that contributors to funds which cannot meet their obligations are covered. [More…]

• The Bill provides for the Government to take over the funds’ liability for nursing home benefits and, finally, it repeals the National Health Act insofar as it related to the voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• He has been threatening the doctors, the hospitals and the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• The Government is introducing a health scheme which does not have the support of the Australian people. [More…]

• It is introducing it without first ensuring that it has the co-operation of the key people and institutions which are essential in the operation of any health scheme. [More…]

• The same thing applies to the States, the private hospitals and the health funds. [More…]

• If a person were running a health fundsome of them are great funds which came into existence long before any government health scheme existed- and he has been subjected to the sort of denigration and imputations of bad faith and motives that have been made, would he have any faith in the Minister’s assurances? [More…]

• The point I am making is that the Government is introducing this health scheme- it is committed to introduce it from 1 July- without assuring itself of the co-operation, even at the most elementary level, of those whose support and cooperation is absolutely fundamental to making it work. [More…]

• The Government has commenced an expensive and misleading publicity campaign which will have the effect of undermining private health insurance and, in particular, the willingness of people to keep up their contributions. [More…]

• In my view the public will blame the Government solely for the deliberate way in which it will create the chaos that will inevitably come in medical and health services. [More…]

• The 2 members designated by the Opposition to speak on health and social security, the honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd), and the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp), have decided that the usual parliamentary break is not long enough and have decided to stay away for another two or three weeks. [More…]

• It is depressing when we see around this House lobbyists for the Australian Medical Association and for the so-called Voluntary Health Insurance Council, personified by the former honourable member for Barton, Mr Arthur, who lives off that sort of lobbying. [More…]

• The question was along this line: ‘Do you support the present system of voluntary health insurance with a free choice of doctors or a system of salaried doctors paid for out of taxation?’ [More…]

• Medibank is the Australian health insurance program which will start on 1 July 1975. [More…]

• It is the name of the Health Insurance Commission’s medical and hospital benefits scheme. [More…]

• I pointed out that it was the name for the Health Insurance Commission’s medical and hospital benefits scheme. [More…]

• I would have thought that honourable members opposite would have been just as interested as the Government in giving a reasonable system of health insurance to this country. [More…]

• It cannot lower taxes, on the one hand, and promise on the other hand that it will introduce a new health insurance scheme called Medibank which will cost every taxpayer the equivalent of 7 per cent more in his personal tax. [More…]

• It has a vested interest in providing and continuing to provide good health care for the Australian community, and the Australian community is fortunate in having a medical profession which has been prepared to make itself unpopular by constantly drawing attention to the inherent dangers in Labor’s ultimately socialist scheme. [More…]

• Medibank is the new Australian health insurance program which will be introduced on 1 July. [More…]

• I draw the attention of the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) to the advertisement which, in the words of the honourable member for Prospect, who I believe is the secretary of the Government’s health committee, is plainly fraudulent. [More…]

• Medibank is the vehicle which puts the Government’s national health insurance program in action. [More…]

• What I believe it provides is what might be described as the lowest common denominator in health insurance. [More…]

• It is due to be introduced on 1 July and everybody who knows anything about the Department of Health, the Department of Social Security and the problems facing the Government knows that is would be only with intense difficulty that the scheme could be up and running by 1 July. [More…]

• In fact responsible people reckon that there is no way in which it could responsibly operate before very much later in the year because the Government has found that its ideas about health insurance dreamed up by a couple of academic economists- I am not against academics- in an economic vacuum and placed as policy in the Labor Party books has now become the policy of the Government which has simply and frankly found that all major groups in the Australian community involved in health care will not have a bar of its approach. [More…]

• I appeal to the Government even at this late stage, in the light of its difficulty in getting the scheme into operation, to take some time off to consider whether it can achieve some of its admirable goals in the field of health care by working with the health care community in Australia to provide Australians with a scheme which will work instead of battling on with a scheme which will not work. [More…]

• I ask the Government to consider the role of the private sector in the area of health, I suggest that with a moment’s thought the Government will understand surely how crucial the role of the private sector is in the area of health care because it seems odd that it would understand the role of the private sector in the normal business community but would reject it in the area of health which is to all people a most intimate area of important human relationships when private relationships, private trust and confidence between doctor and patient, nurse and patient, nurse and doctor, doctor and doctor, administrator and doctor, administrator and nurse and so on, are at the heart of a proper system. [More…]

• So I implore the Government before it is too late, before we have the greatest shambles in health care delivery which this country has ever seen to take a moment off, to swallow its pride, to forget those academic words of the doctors of philosophy in economics who advised it about this scheme, and to go and talk to the people who are delivering health care in this country to ascertain whether it cannot work out a scheme which will work because it is plainly possible to work out such a scheme. [More…]

• I give the Government credit for having understood that there is a need for extending health insurance coverage throughout the Australian community. [More…]

• There is an understanding among all parties in this House that it is a desirable objective to have all Australians covered for health insurance today. [More…]

• It is perfectly possible for a Labor Government to cover all Australians without destroying the nature and basic operations of health care as it exists in this country. [More…]

• The tragedy of the Government’s approach is that in order to extend coverage to all Australians it is taking away the rights and freedoms of choice of many Australian people and professional groups involved in health care. [More…]

• It has been out to destroy the health insurance funds. [More…]

• I say to the Government that it is not too late for it to go back to these people and to work out an ingenious way to cover the Australian community through the non-government health schemes. [More…]

• Australian have voted on this matter by means of their contributions to the health funds over the years. [More…]

• The great majority of Australians have voted not only to be in health funds but also for something more than public ward treatment in a public hospital. [More…]

• Faced with the great cost of taxation and with the great cost of contribution to health insurance funds, individuals will be driven to drop out of their private insurance schemes. [More…]

• If the Government encourages people to drop out of private health insurance before the entire Medibank scheme is in operation, it will deserve the gravest censure of this House because it will be utterly and completely defrauding the Australian people who will have no recourse to the array of choices of hospital cover, which they presently have, if they drop their nongovernment insurance contribution and are relying on the government. [More…]

• It is part and parcel of their view that fundamentally there is ultimately no role for the non-government sector in health care. [More…]

• So I implore the Government again to consider calling off the troops and trying another approach- an approach through reason, through conciliation, through working together with those groups in the Australian community which, warts and all, have provided a basically first class health system in this country. [More…]

• If we place the entire, or almost the entire, provision of health care on the shoulders of the Government of this country the people will be the losers in the long run, because a government - any government- on going to the people at an election will fail to find the money and will be unprepared to make the undertaking to find the money for the sort of open-ended arrangement in which we are involved when we move entirely to the provision of health care by the Government. [More…]

• They are the ones who will suffer, and that is the tragedy of Labor’s health scheme. [More…]

• This Bill will provide an easy changeover from existing arrangements for health insurance to the new Medibank plan. [More…]

• The one million people whom the Opposition consistently speaks about who cannot afford the ever increasing cost of private health insurance will benefit from Medibank. [More…]

• The honourable member for Barker (Dr Forbes) said that the Australian Labor Party does not help the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• So I think we can disregard the suggestion that we do not help private health funds. [More…]

• The socialists are not trampling over the community; we are setting up a program to protect the health care of every Austraiian within the community. [More…]

• Every time anything to do with national health is discussed the same old bogey man is dragged out and shaken out- he must be worn out by now. [More…]

• This is so much hooey and it is time the Opposition stopped trying to fool the people who are interested in national health and who have voted for national health. [More…]

• Firstly, it provides for the cessation of the payment of Australian Government medical and hospital benefits under the National Health Act. [More…]

• Secondly, it provides for the manner in which existing health insurance organisations will phase out their National Health Act operations. [More…]

• Organisations ceasing operations under the National Health Act will be eligible to seek authorisation to conduct health insurance business under legislation supervising health insurance. [More…]

• The failure to pass this Bill would cause some disadvantage, perhaps, to other sections of the community, but to the patients in nursing homes who are not pensioners or the pensioners who cannot get into nursing homes it is going to mean a capsizing of their hope of health for the future. [More…]

• It is not those of us who have our health now and those of us who can afford to contribute to medical and hospital benefit funds for whom we are legislating today; we are legislating for the pensioners and the one million Australians in our affluent country who cannot afford to cover themselves for medical and hospital benefits. [More…]

• 16)- I rise to oppose the National Health Bill. [More…]

• The present health scheme covers 90 per cent of the people of Australia. [More…]

• This Bill, which has been introduced by the Government, is based on a scheme devised by 2 academic economists, not by doctors or even by people experienced in health administration. [More…]

• The reason why it was devised had nothing to do with the quality of health care and it will do nothing to increase the quality of health care available. [More…]

• The original report of the 2 economists- the Deeble-Scotton report- in the 1960s was in fact a piece of economic research that was conducted in an attempt to find a method of controlling the expanding cost of the delivery of health care services. [More…]

• That perhaps can be best expressed in the health area by the statement that the availability of health care to all individuals free of cost at the point of consumption is a right of those individuals. [More…]

• Even if the number were large the Hayden health scheme would not provide the remedy. [More…]

• In opinion polls which have been conducted the majority of the Australians interviewed have shown very clearly that they prefer the present system of voluntary health insurance to that provided for in the Bill which we are debating. [More…]

• There has been no public demand for the changes envisaged in the health system at present in Australia. [More…]

• The second reason is that we of the Opposition object to a monolithic National Health Commission being established. [More…]

• What about the quality of the health care provided? [More…]

• I must make it quite clear that there can be no doubt that the quality of the health care provided is closely allied to the delivery and implementation of the health care services. [More…]

• An outstanding example at the present moment of a country in which the quality of the health care provided is being badly undermined by the introduction of a nationalised form of medicine is the United Kingdom. [More…]

• In the United Kingdom there has been a steady deterioration in the delivery of health care in the hospitals, and there have been continuous problems in the area of primary care outside the hospitals as far as the general practitioner and private specialist areas are concerned. [More…]

• Their consultants have virtually gone on strike and, according to the last reports, general practitioners were in the process of submitting to the British Medical Association their undated but signed resignations from the national health service. [More…]

• If the remuneration of general practitioners is once again frozen on the grounds that all other workers in the health industry have received salary increases and that there is not enough money left in the global pool to give legitimate fee increases to the doctors in this present inflationary period, resignations from the doctors will be forthcoming. [More…]

• The quality of health care must suffer under such circumstances. [More…]

• In Australia the quality of health care would inevitably be depressed as the result of the closing of the system which occurs in nationalised medicine. [More…]

• They are misleading and are likely to create chaos in Australian health services. [More…]

• The advertisements are likely to cause many people to abandon membership of voluntary health insurance funds before 1 July, and this could lead to a chaotic situation and cause great hardship. [More…]

• The advertisements state that Medibank will be a more efficient and simpler health insurance scheme. [More…]

• If the health insurance scheme is as efficient as the scheme under which the Department of Social Security is paying unemployment benefits, it will soon be christened ‘Muddlybank’. [More…]

• The extra money that the Government will have to raise to pay for the health insurance scheme is equal to a 7 per cent or 8 per cent rise in income tax. [More…]

• Taking into account the fact that present Commonwealth benefits would no longer be paid and that most health costs would no longer be tax deductible, this still would mean an increase of about $750m in Government expenditure. [More…]

• This health insurance scheme will cost the nation far more than the Government indicates it will cost in the figures that have already been cited by the Minister. [More…]

• We recognise that the States face grave financial difficulties in developing their hospital and health services, because of the unwillingness of the present Government to increase Commonwealth support in line with inflation. [More…]

• The present Opposition, if in government, would provide an immediate and large injection of funds into the State health systems. [More…]

• The Opposition recognises the pressing need for more State resources to be made available for the development of hospital and health services. [More…]

• When in government, we will also enter into urgent negotiations with the States and the voluntary health insurance funds on a number of other matters. [More…]

• These include improving the present inadequately subsidised health benefits scheme for low income people; extending medical benefits to cover hospital outpatients; increasing the $2 a day bed subsidy for insured patients which has been unaltered since 1963; extending hospital and medical benefits to include all psychiatric patients; and improving ambulance cost sharing arrangements. [More…]

• All of the measures which we would introduce would be part of the continuing reform of the health insurance system, which will ensure comprehensive coverage of the entire community while maintaining freedom of choice and a private system, not a socialised, nationalised scheme which financially is airy-fairy and could cost this country millions of dollars more than the present Government has estimated. [More…]

• The Bill before the House is designed to provide for an orderly transition from the present health insurance scheme to Medibank. [More…]

• The Bill provides for transitional arrangements for private health insurance organisations. [More…]

• It does not want the Australian people to know that it wants certain people to be disadvantaged and that it will sacrifice contributors to those funds on the altar of private enterprise health insurance. [More…]

• This Bill provides also for the repeal of the payment of- (Quorum formed) The effect of throwing out this Bill, which is what the Opposition is seeking to do, would be most curious in relation to the third provision of the Bill with which I wish to deal, that is, the payment of hospital and medical benefits to voluntary health funds. [More…]

• The effect of throwing out this Bill would be that, if people choose to go into the private ward and if they choose to take out additional private hospital insurance, in addition to receiving through Medibank the hospital benefit for their private hospitalisation they will continue to receive payment through the voluntary health fund in the form of a Commonwealth benefit. [More…]

• In other words, if the existing scheme is not repealed, the Commonwealth will be obliged to continue to pay medical and hospital benefits not only through Medibank but also through voluntary health funds if people remain insured by those funds. [More…]

• They do not want the public to know that they want the Commonwealth to pay 2 lots of benefits to people who go into private hospitals and that whilst this would increase the cost of the health scheme it would not increase the security of the people against hospitalisation or sickness. [More…]

• They do not want the public to know that they are out to sabotage this health scheme which has been adopted by a Joint Sitting of the 2 Houses of Parliament. [More…]

• I cannot understand why the Opposition must assume that all we have to do to have a proper health care scheme in Australia is to talk with the Australian Medical Association, as if everything that that Association espouses will coincide with the best form of health care in Australia. [More…]

• In other words, the Opposition assumes that the AMA is some sort of altruistic body whose concern is purely with the health care system, and if the benefits to the medical profession of any system that is provided happen to coincide with what is best for the health of Australians, that is pure coincidence. [More…]

• I refer to many places in the United States of America where people have tried to introduce pre-paid medical systems such as voluntary health maintenance organisations into various State legislatures. [More…]

• I think that the provision of health maintenance organisations is now in the policy of the Liberal Party. [More…]

• Even more remarkable is the fact that the Opposition seems to think that the interests of the private voluntary health funds coincide with the interests of Australians. [More…]

• We all know that these private health funds are not representative of their contributors. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party Government stands for a health scheme which will provide for the interests of all the Australian people. [More…]

• If it is inconsistent with the interests of lobby groups like the AMA or the voluntary health funds, we believe that the needs of the Australian people must have priority of place. [More…]

• Why scrap the present schemebecause that is the eventual aim of the Ministerwhy bring in a scheme to cover everybody in Australia, when we have a subsidised health benefits scheme to which the majority of people in this country are happy to belong? [More…]

• The Labor Government’s propaganda says that this is a free health scheme. [More…]

• Another statement attributable to the Minister is that Medibank would be smaller- do not ask me how it will be smaller- less bureaucratic, less costly and more efficient than the present enormously fragmented system of private health insurance. [More…]

• I cannot agree that the Government will run a more efficient service than the private voluntary health organisations. [More…]

• In Queensland one health fund has approximately 78 per cent of the business; 2 health funds together hold approximately 9 1 per cent of the business, and 3 funds in that State, in total, hold 95 per cent of the business. [More…]

• The Minister made the point in his second reading speech that the Bill provides for cessation of the payment of the Australian Government medical and hospital benefits under the National Health Act and, secondly, that it provides for the manner in which existing health insurance organisations will phase out their National Health Act operations. [More…]

• I shall mention also that Medibank at the moment is poaching a lot of staff for the same work from the existing voluntary health funds at a salary, I understand, of often more than $2000 or $3000 more than they are receiving at the moment. [More…]

• It has been stated that 8 per cent of Australia’s population is not covered by health insurance. [More…]

• I say to the Minister: Expand the existing subsidised health benefits scheme. [More…]

• I oppose the Bill and I urge the people of this country to reject Medibank and to stay with their own private health organisations. [More…]

• In speaking in support of the views of honourable members on this side of the House I feel it is appropriate to remind the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) that the LiberalCountry Party teams have been steadfast in their opposition to what he proposes since the day he arrived and set about to nationalise health in this country. [More…]

• Despite his protests, nobody could be convinced that what he has in mind for Australia is anything but a national health scheme based on socialist doctrines to which he himself adheres. [More…]

• Regrettably in his second reading speech on this occasion the Minister said that Medibank had been the subject of a prolonged campaign of deliberate misrepresentation conducted principally by those with vested self interest in the preservation of the present inefficient, inequitable and very costly health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Well, I can say to the Minister that the only vested self interest I have in health is the retention of a system whereby the people I am privileged to represent and I have access to the best possible health treatment. [More…]

• We on this side of the House do not believe that the Government’s type of health scheme is in the best interests of the people of this nation. [More…]

• Medibank is still another nail in the coffin of health care. [More…]

• As we have in the past we will continue to oppose all the measures that the Government takes to implement its health scheme. [More…]

• One has only to look at the United Kingdom to see how the health system in that country is ailing. [More…]

• It is claimed in that country that an injection of another Stg500m is needed to save the British health scheme. [More…]

• So all the talk and speculation in the early years that the Liberals would abandon free health in Queensland have proven to be incorrect. [More…]

• The fact is that the Minister is imposing upon the people of Queensland another form of taxation to finance his health scheme. [More…]

• As a member of a private health organisation I presently enjoy such coverage as will allow me to go into public wards, intermediate wards or private wards of a hospital. [More…]

• As I was saying before my sick friend interrupted me, the people of Queensland have this coverage by contributing to a private health organisation. [More…]

• If we want to go into an intermediate or a private ward we have to go to a private health organisation and insure for that right. [More…]

• The entire medical profession almost to a man- with the exceptions of the honourable members for Prospect (Dr Klugman) and Kingston (Dr Gun) and a couple of other burnt out medicos who have come into this chamber- is opposed to the introduction of Labor’s national health program. [More…]

• Yet, without the promise of co-operation which is necessary for the successful implementation of the program, the Government wanders along the path of socialism determined at all costs to impose its socialistic health scheme upon the people of Australia. [More…]

• The public will have to continue to seek other forms of health coverage. [More…]

• I know that the Minister uses as a justification for the scheme, the argument that there are a number of Australians who presently are not covered by any form of health insurance. [More…]

• It is true that if this legislation is rejected, as the Opposition promises it will be, we can still operate Medibank in spite of the fact that those parts of the National Health Act relating to the provision of hospital benefits and medical benefits by the Australian Government will not have been cancelled. [More…]

• It will not be any great problem for us personally but there will be some disorderliness with the transition from private health insurance to Medibank. [More…]

• It will not affect Medibank but it will disadvantage some private health insurance funds and the contributor members of those funds. [More…]

• It is not our fault because if the Opposition passes the legislation we will provide that money from the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Already in this country we have solid reliable information coming from research work for the poverty inquiry that people cannot afford the cost of health services, and that in one State 40 per cent of the cases in the petty debtors court in fact related to people who could not afford the cost of health services. [More…]

• These, by and large, are the unfortunate people among that 15 per cent of the public who are unable to afford or who do not have health insurance cover. [More…]

• We do not want to see numbers amongst those people sent to gaol because they cannot afford their health costs. [More…]

• Some of them will end up in debtors courts because they cannot afford the cost of health services, and some of them on the hard evidence that we already have from an objective dispassionate research project for the poverty inquiry, will go to gaol because they cannot afford to pay those costs. [More…]

• Yes, it could pay for the national health scheme for one year. [More…]

• I could go on to talk of the community health program, which is doing a great deal for the western suburbs, and the allocations from the Department of Tourism and Recreation and from the Department of Transport, which will meet two-thirds of the cost of the quadruplication of the Une from Auburn to Penrith as well as the cost of new rolling stock and signalling equipment. [More…]

• However, I am greatly concerned at the risk of introducing, particularly, foot and mouth disease and swine vesicular disease in swill, and my Department has been instrumental in having the feeding of swill reviewed by the Animal Health Committee. [More…]

• At these ports garbage is not permitted to be brought ashore except with the approval of the Director of Health in the appropriate State or the Northern Territory. [More…]

• Medibank will be a more simple and efficient health insurance system. [More…]

• That is the point and it is on that point that I asked the honourable member for Prospect to advise the Minister for Social Security to change the advertisements so that the fraudulent claim that the health insurance would be free would not be made. [More…]

• The whole scheme is funded 100 per cent by my Department on the recommendation of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• We tabled recently in this Parliament a report from the Hospitals and Health Services Commission on health careers, personnel and training. [More…]

• The Bill before the House provides for the more effective supervision by the Australian Government of the operations of medical and hospital benefits organisations registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The provisions in this Bill are identical to those, relating to the supervision of health insurance organisations, which were included in the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall that the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• However, during the debate on the Bill, the Opposition stated that it was not prepared to support the provisions in the Bill relating to the supervision of health insurance organisations. [More…]

• However, as I stated in this House on 11 February 1975, I regard the Senate’s rejection of the provisions in the Bill relating to the supervision of health insurance organisations as representing a severe setback in the attempt by this Parliament to establish the protection of people’s rights. [More…]

• The people in this instance are the contributors to health insurance funds. [More…]

• The point has been properly taken by some of the major inquiries into health insurance funds in this country, that consumers do not have representation on the bodies managing open funds. [More…]

• This responsibility is all the greater because of the Government’s financial involvement in the existing private health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The health insurance organisations could not have grown to their present significance, nor could they continue to operate, except for the very generous support that comes from government sources. [More…]

• For instance, on average over 60 per cent of the cost of medical services covered by medical insurance is met by direct subsidy by the Australian Government through the health insurance scheme and by indirect subsidy from the same source through tax concessions which are a cost borne by the Government. [More…]

• The provisions in the Bill before the House are consistent with the recommendations of the Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurance- the Nimmo Committee- which was set up by the Liberal-Country Party Government and with recommendations from the major investigation carried out by the Senate Select Committee on Medical and Hospital Costs. [More…]

• It is a grave deficiency in the provisions of the National Health Act at present that in an extreme case of a health insurance organisation flouting the reasonable directions of government, only the extremely punitive and unsatisfactory measure of deregistration is really available to government. [More…]

• As I stated earlier, the arrangements I have outlined are along the lines of arrangements provided for in the Insurance Act and I believe that all contributors to health benefits funds would welcome their enactment as a positive step forward in the protection of their interests. [More…]

• This is an extension of a principle incorporated in the National Health Act by the Liberal-Country Party Government. [More…]

• Division 2 of Part VI ofthe National Health Act. [More…]

• This escalation in Government spending arising from underwriting the activities of health benefits funds through the special account mechanism has occurred at the time when there were extremely large reserves accumulated by the funds. [More…]

• The specific provision is contained in new section 74c and visualises portion of any excessive reserves being credited to the organisation’s special account for the purpose of providing benefits to high drawing members who are the members usually most in need of protection of health insurance. [More…]

• One will represent the interests of health benefit organisations, another the interests of contributors to the organisations and the third member would be a qualified accountant. [More…]

• Medibank- the universal health insurance program. [More…]

• They are designed to enable health insurance organisations to be supervised in a manner that will result in the organisations serving the needs of contributors more effectively. [More…]

• The Prime Minister alleged that I would destroy the national health scheme, the national compensation scheme and the national superannuation scheme. [More…]

• Therefore I have to divulge the following report from the records in this file from the Commonwealth Department of Health, which I did not want to do: [More…]

• Paragraph (y) refers to the particulars of any arrangements made by the corporation during the financial year for protecting the safety and health of its employees. [More…]

• Paragraph (z) refers to the particulars of any arrangements made by the corporation during the financial year for protecting the safety and health of the public in relation to the activities of the corporation and for protecting the environment. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• He will pay more for health cover even though the sum will not be labelled ‘ health insurance ‘. [More…]

• The percentage of gross domestic product going to health is estimated by the Prime Minister to grow to 12 per cent. [More…]

• Therefore, even to add all education spending ($l,535m) plus all defence spending ($ 1,500m) would not pay Labor’s health services bill. [More…]

• Professor Downing last December, in speaking about the compensation scheme, the superannuation scheme and the health scheme said: ‘Each of them is admirable in itself. [More…]

• Professor Downing last December, in speaking about the compensation scheme, the superannuation scheme and the health scheme said: ‘Each of them is admirable in itself. ‘ [More…]

• About 8 weeks ago I made an announcement on behalf of the joint Opposition after having had it discussed in the Party room and having the unanimous support of everyone behind me that we would dismande Medibank and the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• By the same token, a female doctor, for example, would not be forced to work if she chose to remain within the house to care for the children, but she would be expected to work when the youngest child attained 18 years of age, provided that the woman’s age and state of health enabled her to do so. [More…]

• The matters referred to in clause 75(2) include any fact which the court thinks should be taken into account, including age and state of health of the parties, the care and control of children, the extent to which the party claiming maintenance has contributed to the income, earning capacity, property and financial resources of the other party, the duration of the marriage and the extent to which it has affected the earning capacity of the party whose maintenance is under consideration, and the property arrangements. [More…]

• Under the terms of such a limited qualification a man separated from his wife for 12 months by reason of military service, ill health in hospital or deten tion in prison could find himself divorced upon his return home. [More…]

• The New South Wales law, as set out in Smart’s case, satisfies me both in its liberal approach to abortion and its procedures to safeguard the health of the women concerned. [More…]

• They are Christian marriages and quite often we hear the words: ‘For richer for poorer, for sickness and in health, until death us do part. ‘ [More…]

• On the whole these matters are probably best left to conventional rather than legal control, although of course one can concede that there may be a case on the ground of public health for legal control of prostitution, but this is another matter. [More…]

• Twice it has excluded from a National Health Bill provisions which were recommended 6 years ago and which 5 years ago the honourable member for Barker, when Minister for Health, said that the Government of that time, the Gorton Government, would adopt. [More…]

• Fancy this coming from a front bench member of the Opposition, the gentleman who was a dismal failure as Minister for the Army, who was recognised as a dismal failure and who was transferred to become Minister for Health? [More…]

• He was a dismal failure as Minister for Health and was sacked. [More…]

• I hope the Minister will give us an explanation of the situation in which a person, who has bought a home but did not take advantage of the war service finance that he could have obtained in the past, because of changing circumstances or pressing exigencies due to health or change of employment desires to obtain a defence force homes loan to pay out his existing home loan. [More…]

• I refer to the proposed development of the Government’s health scheme- the one which is euphemistically called Medibank. [More…]

• There are a very great number of programs including those for aged and homeless and handicapped persons, isolated children, health centres, legal aid offices, meals on wheels and so on which will be brought down if the Liberal State governments’ challenges in the High Court succeed. [More…]

• I have noted comments, some with malicious misrepresentation as the main motive, coming from the Opposition that only 3 per cent to 4 per cent of the community would be uncovered as a result of private health insurance, the pensioner medical service and repatriation medical arrangements. [More…]

• 17.10, both point out that only 86.5 per cent of the Australian public is covered through either private health insurance or repatriation or pensioner medical type services. [More…]

• Few respondents had health . [More…]

• I remind honourable members that this disgraceful situation of a very high incidence of absence of cover for essential health needs exists most pointedly in the electorate of the Leader of the Country Party. [More…]

• -Has the attention ofthe Prime Minister been drawn to reports of new threats to obstruct the introduction of Medibank and the abolition of health insurance contributions? [More…]

• It ought to be possible in Australia, as it is possible in Canada, which is another federal system, and as it is becoming possible in the United States, which is yet another federal system, for the government to make it possible for everybody to receive medical treatment, whatever his means and whatever his place of residence; that is, the community’s health is the responsibility basically of the community. [More…]

• It pays the community to get people back to work, to be vigorous and healthy. [More…]

• It was 5 years yesterday since the then Minister for Health adopted the recommendations of the Nimmo committee of inquiry into medical and hospital insurance funds. [More…]

• One specific need is the provision of a health centre on the eastern shore. [More…]

• There have also been many changes in the management of functions of government for the Australian Capital Territory with new departures envisaged for the management of health and education. [More…]

• In regard to other important functions, the responsibility elsewhere of State government, such as health and education, we see no reason why they should not pass eventually to local control. [More…]

• As it happens, the Opposition will be supporting one Bdi, the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) 1975, and vigorously and resolutely opposing the other, the National Health BUI (No. [More…]

• The National Health BUI (No. [More…]

• 2) 1975 is a simple but good amendment to the National Health Act. [More…]

• Also, it covers and provides benefits to uninsured people who become eligible for unemployment and sickness benefits and who are currently required to serve a 2 week waiting period before becoming eligible for benefits under the subsidised health benefits plan. [More…]

• It is interesting to notice that the Minister is referring to the special accounts system this time in a commendatory way whereas, in the past few months, he has been vilifying the health funds for abusing the special account system and also knocking the concept ofthe special account anyway. [More…]

• Health Bill (No. [More…]

• The National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• This is the second occasion on which this House has considered the clauses of this Bill, which are identical to those contained in the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• Those amendments took the form of excising from the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) 1974 the provisions relating to the health funds and leaving in the Bill the matters to which I have just referred. [More…]

• So the Bill we now have before us is nothing but a naked assault by the Minister for Social Security on the administration and autonomy of the private health funds of Australia. [More…]

• But I am not charitable enough to suggest that it was fortuitous that the Health Bills were brought forward on a Wednesday. [More…]

• I think it is contemptible that the Government will be spending or squandering $1.5m of taxpayers’ funds on publicising Labor Party propaganda in the form of its discredited health scheme and yet not only refuses to give the Opposition one cent to publicise its own health plans but also, when an opportunity comes along when the debate in this chamber can be broadcast, manipulates the scheduling of the Bills to such an extent that every health Bill seems to be debated while the House of Representatives is off the air. [More…]

• If he is suggesting that a health scheme which on any reasonable estimate - [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security has stated in this House that his health scheme has been fully explained and debated. [More…]

• The ‘Australian’ of 10 December 1974 said that this was the Minister’s justification for gagging the debate on the health scheme in this House. [More…]

• I have been at the despatch box in front of me many times, debating the health scheme in this place. [More…]

• I think I have debated the health scheme or its allied legislation here about 7 times. [More…]

• But that did not stop the Minister from saying that the health scheme has been fully explained and debated. [More…]

• If he said on 10 December 1974 that the health scheme has been fully explained and debated, what is his justification for spending $ 1 .5m in advertising Medibank on radio and television? [More…]

• This Bill gives the Minister absolute power over every health fund in Australia. [More…]

• Let us look at the health funds. [More…]

• One term that he has been using is ‘the rapacious health funds’ or the greedy health funds’, trying to conjure up the view that the health funds are same multinational company out here to rip profits off the Australian people and to plough them back overseas. [More…]

• The private health funds are co-operative societies. [More…]

• Another point is that the powers that the Minister has in relation to the funds were increased in 1974 by amendment to the National Health Act. [More…]

• There are the private health funds such as the Hospitals Benefits Association of Victoria, in Sydney the Medical Benefit Fund of Australia Ltd, the Hospitals Contributions Fund of Australia or whatever, the health fund which is run by a trade union- there are a great number of those- and there are also the friendly societies and the lodge funds. [More…]

• There are 2 separate compartments in health funds. [More…]

• If the Minister wants- to use the vernacular- to knock off a health fund or to take it over he then says: This Bill gives me the power to indulge in an exercise of talking to myself. [More…]

• He has to ask himself the question: ‘Have I good reason to investigate that health fund?’ [More…]

• He asks himself: ‘Mr Hayden, do you think that that health fund needs investigation?’ [More…]

• That inspector then reports to the Minister on the condition of that health fund. [More…]

• If the inspector, the Minister’s stooge, believes that that health fund needs somebody sent into it the Minister then can send in a judicial manager who can have all the powers that the administration and boards of directors of the funds now have. [More…]

• This is part of the whole complex of the Labor Party’s national health scheme. [More…]

• I would like the Minister to tell me when he replies, although the technique usually adopted is that debates on health are gagged and the Minister uses that as an excuse for not replying to the questions raised and the points made by the Opposition, why we have not had any statements from him in the 2 years in which he has been in charge of this Bill so that the Parliament could debate the matters of policy. [More…]

• It is headed: ‘Statement by Chipp- Shadow Minister for Social Security’ and states that the Liberal Party-Country Party government would disband the Health Insurance Commission if returned to power at an appropriate time. [More…]

• I did mention earlier in my speech that it is absolutely vital that the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• Without it the Minister still has not the control over the private health funds that he must necessarily have if Medibank is to come into operation on 1 July. [More…]

• The main concern we have with the national health scheme of the Labor Party is that it will be a deterioration in the quality of health care provided to the Australian people. [More…]

• I have been provided with some figures by Professor Barbara Shenfield, a distinguished authority in the field of national health in Great Britain, who says that the British national health service was estimated to cost 170m a year. [More…]

• Official statistics say that the present British health scheme, which is very similar to this proposed scheme, now needs an additional 500m to be pumped into it immediately as a bare minimum to prevent the service from breaking down completely. [More…]

• This is the kind of lunacy which this Labor Government wants to lead Australia into- something openended; subsidised demand in the name of its socalled health scheme. [More…]

• I think it is good to remember that these are the results at the moment of the free national health scheme in Great Britain. [More…]

• There are fewer hospitals fully staffed now than before the beginning of their socalled health scheme. [More…]

• The taxpayers must now find 2,73 lm a year for their free health scheme in Britain. [More…]

• Even at this late hour on behalf of the Opposition I plead with the Labor Party and I plead with the Minister to stop this insanity because the Government will have not only an open-ended inflationary health scheme impacted upon us but something more serioussomething that probably would cause the most serious damage possible to the Australian people. [More…]

• It will affect their health. [More…]

• It has been obvious every time any aspect of the National Health Bill has been discussed inside this House or outside this House that the honourable member for Hotham becomes quite paranoiac about it. [More…]

• The provisions of the Bill relating to supervision of health insurance organisations were also passed in this House but defeated in the Senate. [More…]

• However, the Government believes that it must protect the rights of contribu- torsinthehealthinsuranceorganisations.Ithas re-introduced this Bill to make sure that the rights of the people are protected. [More…]

• It is all the more important that the government has some voice in the operation of health insurance funds when we remember the extremely generous direct and indirect government subsidies to such funds. [More…]

• The health insurance organisations could not operate without generous government support. [More…]

• While government money strongly supports such organisations the government is in a position whereby it cannot query any level of wages paid by the health insurance bodies. [More…]

• If a health organisation is closed up, deregistered or suspended once again it is the contributors who are hurt. [More…]

• Who will protect the contributors’ rights- the people’s rights- if it is not the Australian Government, which also contributes to the health organisations and keeps them going? [More…]

• All the health insurance organisations are effectively controlled by doctors. [More…]

• The whole of the build up of the health insurance funds is very adequately controlled by doctors, with very little voice from the contributors. [More…]

• All contributors to health benefit funds would welcome the enactment of this Bill as a positive step forward in the protection of their interests. [More…]

• Honourable members will readily appreciate that this Bill is not related to Medibank, although people listening may be a little confused as Medibank seems to raise the blood pressure of the Opposition just as the National Health Bill did in earlier times. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham also pointed out that the Government did not give the Opposition any time to debate the National Health Bills as they were always gagged. [More…]

• This Bill and its provisions are designed to enable health organisations to be supervised in a manner that will result in the organisations serving the needs of contributors more effectively. [More…]

• I am very glad to see that unemployed people will not now have to serve a waiting period of 2 weeks from the time they become unemployed before they are eligible for hospital and medical benefits under the subsidised health benefits plan. [More…]

• I repeat that the Government has a mandate from the people to introduce a National Health Bill. [More…]

• I would like to join with the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) in this debate and direct my comments firstly to the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• The Minister made great play of the fact that the Bill is consistent with the recommendations of the Committee of Inquiry into Health Insurancethe Nimmo Committee report- which was referred to ad nauseum by the Minister and which was referred to in the same context this morning by the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) during question time. [More…]

• In his earlier second reading speech, before the Senate rightly deleted the provisions of this Bill from the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) 1974, the Minister went to great pains to quote the former Minister for Health, the honourable member for Barker (Dr Forbes), as saying that he was giving consideration to the introduction of measures contained in this Bill. [More…]

• The then Minister for Health was giving consideration to introducing legislation, every the inference to be drawn from what the Minister for Social Security said is that the Liberal-Country Party Government was going to introduce legislation. [More…]

• The Minister makes the shallow excuse that the reason for his desire to have the power to appoint an inspector to investigate the affairs of a medical benefits or hospital benefits organisation is his concern that the only punitive action open to the Government under the National Health Act is the deregistration of the organisation. [More…]

• The only reason he wants this power is so that he will be able to dictate to, and pry into the affairs of, the voluntary health funds. [More…]

• What an intrusion this whole Part is into the already satisfactory functioning of the voluntary health organisations! [More…]

• This morning we heard the Prime Minister speaking a lot of nonsense about archaic voluntary health organisations. [More…]

• There are many people in this country who elect not to be covered by a voluntary health organisation. [More…]

• -That is right; the ALP health program. [More…]

• Finally, I wish to address a few remarks to the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• It provides for the removal or reduction of the waiting period before a person joining a health insurance organisation can claim a benefit. [More…]

• I very rarely rise to speak on any Bills connected with health because, like most honourable members in this place, I have my special interests. [More…]

• For the umpteenth time I have heard the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) rant and rave in this House and misrepresent the whole basis of the Government’s health program. [More…]

• Most of the speech of the honourable member for Hotham was devoted to the principle of the national health scheme- Medibank- and was not concerned with this Bill which deals with the supervision by the Australian Government of the operation of the medical and hospital organisations registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• But because there happens to be direct billing instead of going via the back door as it is now- the Government contribution is 50 per centthrough the private funds, because the private part has been eliminated from the scheme and the scheme is to be funded completely by the Government the doctors say that they are de facto Commonwealth employees, their independence is taken away, that the British health scheme is upon us with all the inherent problems. [More…]

• Every member of this House knows that this scheme is entirely different from the British health scheme. [More…]

• They do not realise that a lot of people, like the people in my electorate, cannot afford to insure themselves for health protection. [More…]

• But a lot of people were given no health protection at all because it was too expensive for them. [More…]

• I do not think they have any conception of what the national Parliament is about and what is national responsibility in terms of a thing like the health of the Australian people. [More…]

• How many pages of those proposals were on a national health scheme? [More…]

• As for talking about observing the law and the Constitution, the States have constitutionally and traditionally had a role in the delivery of health care in Australia. [More…]

• We are considering 2 contradictory Bills, the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) and the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• They are contradictory to each other and are contradictory to the avowed principles and purposes of the Government health program in general. [More…]

• At least National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• Together with the reduction provided for in the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) in the waiting period for those in that category there is to be reduction in the waiting period for those who are pregnant when joining a health fund. [More…]

• And there will be a few more pregnant pauses before the Minister’s health scheme comes into effect. [More…]

• The special account, which was introduced by the previous Liberal-Country Party Government, will be used in relation to the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) to pick up the expenses of those who are already pregnant when they join a health fund. [More…]

• Yet in the companion piece of legislationthe National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• 3)- the Minister has, by legislating against the health funds, also crippled the special account by depriving a health fund of its entitlement to the special account if the Minister considers that it has excessive financial reserves. [More…]

• So on the one hand the Minister is saying that the special account is a very valuable instrument of health policy and is adding to it and on the other he is taking away from it and adding to his own power over the health funds. [More…]

• However, the Minister already effectively sets the premiums that the health funds can charge and, in setting the premiums that the health funds can charge, he takes into calculation the amount of reserves that they have. [More…]

• Therefore he is trying to have 2 hits at the health funds at the same time. [More…]

• To show that the Minister has not actually been very generous in allowing the health funds to lift their premium rates I point out that in accordance with legislation introduced in this Parliament last year the funds have the right to appeal against the Minister’s decision and that two did appeal against the Minister’s decision and won handsomely. [More…]

• If we are not going to need the funds after 1 July and if we, as Australians, are not going to need private health insurance after 1 July, why is the Minister going to so much trouble with this eleventh hour bid to tie up the health funds in knots and make them instruments of Government policy? [More…]

• He is saying publicly at great expense to the taxpayer- at a minimum cost of $ 1 .5m- that there is no need for health insurance because the health millenium will arrive on 1 July, but by this legislation he is effectively making the point that he is aware that the millenium will not arrive on 1 July, that there will be a need for private health insurance and that he is doing his best to cripple the health insurance funds ahead of that date. [More…]

• That leads to the more important question of whether the Government’s health scheme or, as the Government calls it, Medibank will be introduced as advertised or whether the Government is guilty of 2 sins in this respect. [More…]

• It is guilty of many sins, but is it guilty of 2 sins in relation to these health Bills and health generally? [More…]

• The 4 non-Labor States have not agreed to the introduction of Medibank or the Goverment ‘s nationalised health scheme. [More…]

• People will have to pay more in total than they do now for their health benefits and their general health care and they will have to pay substantially more if they want more than a lowered standard of public ward accommodation at hospitals. [More…]

• They will have to pay dearly for the Government’s health scheme through the tax system- so dearly that the Government will not or cannot say how much its scheme will cost in total. [More…]

• Most outsiders believe that it will be about double the existing health scheme arrangement. [More…]

• Whenever the next election is held the respective health schemes will be a part of the competing policies of the 2 sides of the Parliament. [More…]

• The Opposition supports the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) and rejects the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• We believe that what is contained in this Bill will lead to the ultimate destruction of the private health organisations and thus facilitate the introduction into Australia of the Government’s scheme called Medibank, Medicare, or Medibotch, which many of us believe it will be. [More…]

• A study of what has happened in those places has led us to the conclusion that, whilst the Government may be well motivated in the belief that its health scheme will not get out of hand, in practice there is no way of containing the costs of a national health plan such as that proposed by the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) and that this in itself will be destructive not only of medicine and health care in Australia but also of the economy of this nation. [More…]

• The cost of the Government’s health scheme will be far greater than the Minister has told the nation. [More…]

• Looking at the situation in the United Kingdom, we find that that country is required to spend nearly Stg3,000m on its health scheme. [More…]

• The position in England today is that the British health scheme is being crippled and. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security cannot assure this House or the Australian people that the same will not happen to the national health scheme which is being proposed here. [More…]

• The concern that motivates me and other members on this side of the House in continuing our opposition to the Government’s proposal for a health scheme is that in the long term it will be the poor people, the little people, who will be hurt most. [More…]

• A situation will be created in which people will overuse the available health care and, as in other countries, the system will be subjected to stresses and strains with which it simply will not be able to cope. [More…]

• The Government is plundering the public coffers in using $ 1.56m to promote and advertise the Australian Labor Party’s health program. [More…]

• I recall clearly the present Minister for Social Security standing up when we were in government and asking the then Minister for Health whether action would be taken to ensure that the private health funds did not use one cent of the contributors’ money for the promotion of anti-ALP health scheme propaganda. [More…]

• The then Minister for Health rightly assured the questioner that this was not the case and the funds were not allowed to use contributors’ money for that purpose. [More…]

• Yet, today the present Government is prepared to plunder Australian taxpayers’ funds to promote its health scheme. [More…]

• I fear that many gullible people in our society will believe the assurances of the Minister for Social Security that his health program will be good, when in fact we already have all the signs that the introduction of such a scheme will be disastrous to the health care of this nation. [More…]

• The Bill which we are discussing in the third reading stage is simply a Bill to enclose private enterprise- this time the private health funds. [More…]

• The Government wants the private health funds destroyed because it lives m fear that if it loses the next election- and it cannot come quickly enough- a government formed from people now on this side of the House will tear down the Medibank system if it is under way by then. [More…]

• The Government is trying to destroy the framework on which we can rebuild a sane health care program. [More…]

• -The National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• It would be safe to say that this child, this National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• He knows full well that unless the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• 3) is carried Medibank cannot realistically become operativeunless, of course, he can get in the back door to the private health funds. [More…]

• But we will not recognise or have a bar of socialism, and national health and Medibank smell of socialism. [More…]

• in reply- The honourable member for McMillan (Mr Hewson) suggested that this health insurance debate is like a stillborn child receiving mouth to mouth resuscitation. [More…]

• Firstly, I find it rather curious that the Opposition is resisting the proposal in this Bill for the appointment of an inspector to investigate the affairs of what is obviously a failing health insurance organisation, the proposal for the appointment of a judicial manager of a fund and the provisions for the winding up of a fund. [More…]

• One day we will probably have the misfortune of a Liberal-Country Party government and accordingly it too would require this sort of authority which we are seeking in relation to the administration of private health insurance. [More…]

• Medibank can come into operation without this legislation, but the operation of private health insurance would be not only much more messy but also less responsible to the needs and the rights of members of the community. [More…]

• Already there exists under the National Health Act as a result of action taken by a previous Liberal-Country Party Government provision to transfer reserves from a hospital fund of a particular fund in one State to a hospital fund of the same fund in another State or similarly in relation to medical funds. [More…]

• Without this sort of authority we cannot approve that application, yet that fund is running in deficit in the medical fund and has a healthy surplus in its hospital fund. [More…]

• The Opposition established beyond any doubt that Australia would have a free universal health insurance scheme, a free Medibank program, because it rejected the legislation which would have imposed that levy. [More…]

• It seems as though the Opposition, having based its major criticisms of the health insurance program- Medibank- on the levy concept decided to tidy it up and to make the program free. [More…]

• Australians have the Liberal-Country Party Opposition to thank for a free universal health insurance program coming into operation in Australia on 1 July. [More…]

• Wc would not have suggested it but we accept the principle and we are curiously interested whence came the philosophical motivation on the part of the Liberal-Country Party to assert to the point where it is unchangeable that Australians will have free universal health insurancethe Medibank program free of contributions. [More…]

• For instance, Sir Earle Page introduced the present system of health insurance. [More…]

• In 1953 he had distributed to all households in Australia a 30-page booklet on his national health insurance scheme 6 months before appropriate legislation was introduced and more than 3 months before the gazettal of appropriate regulations. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham criticised the expenditure of $ 1.5m on explaining this national program, one of the biggest undertakings which has ever been accepted by any country in the world, to bring in for the whole of the nation a universal health insurance program. [More…]

• Compare the expenditure on a program to benefit every person in this country, to cover every Australian including more than one million people who are not covered by the present health insurance program, many of them in Country Party electorates where there is the greatest relative poverty in this country. [More…]

• Reported levels for the larger cities in Australia of carbon monoxide and oxidants are up to four and five times the World Health Organisation ‘s long term goals. [More…]

• As well, I would cite the inquiries being carried out by the rape committee and the excellent counselling and referral work done by the Women’s Health Collective at Collingwood. [More…]

• They also comprise, unfortunately, those who suffer from inadequate health care, who may be helped now that Medibank is coming in, and those who suffer from inequality within our education system. [More…]

• Rather than follow an ad hoc approach to the financing of health care as appears to be visualised in the honourable member’s question, the Government has developed a program, Medibank, aimed at improving the position of all residents of Australia who need medical and hospital care, including pensioners. [More…]

• The objective of Medibank is to provide every resident with the opportunity of receiving treatment as a hospital patient without charge, although achievement of this objective is dependent on the Government reaching agreement with State governments under the provisions of the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• I ask the Treasurer: What is the Treasury’s estimate of the cost of Labor’s health scheme? [More…]

• Does that estimate take into account that in other countries in which a similar so-called free health scheme has been adopted the costs in practice have proved to be extremely much more than had been originally estimated? [More…]

• If so, by how much will taxes have to be increased in order to finance Labor’s health scheme? [More…]

• The Minister for Health in South Australia- I take this opportunity of saying this, although we will be releasing a joint Press statement later in the daydisassociates himself entirely from comments made at a meeting earlier this week of Ministers for Health when Mr Healey, New South Wales [More…]

• Minister for Health, without any warrant at all attributed certain views to Mr Banfield. [More…]

• I ask the honourable gentleman again: Has the Treasury put a cost estimate on the national health scheme, and how much will be the extra taxation to be levied on individual people to finance this so-called free health scheme? [More…]

• How much of this is caused by the appropriation for the Labor Party’s health scheme, Medibank? [More…]

• Is the present parlous state in which the British national health scheme finds itself due to the fact that it is entirely tax financed and thus medical care and standards have become subject to the vagaries of annual budgets? [More…]

• The people of Australia have shown continuously over many years a very high degree of support for a national health scheme. [More…]

• The first Whitlam Government clearly stated its responsibility to establish a national health scheme. [More…]

• Moreover, if $ 1 .5m is being spent in propagating the advantages of this socalled Medibank free health proposal, the people of Australia need to know where these advertisements are inaccurate. [More…]

• They need to have an opportunity to have those misstatements corrected and they need to have the distortions that apparently occur in the interpretation of the health scheme by the Treasurer and those of the Minister for Social Security, reconciled. [More…]

• Claims for damages in respect of inconvenience, ill health, etc., will not be allowed. [More…]

• I am informed that the matter of payments by eligible pensioners while receiving inpatient treatment in the Hospitals Section of the Mount Royal Home and Hospital for the Aged was drawn to the attention of the Department of Health on a previous occasion. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: ( 1 ), (2) and (3) No instruction was issued to the Western Australian Division of the Department of Health to discontinue the spraying of cabins of incoming international aircraft. [More…]

• and (2) Representatives of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission and the Australian Department of Health will meet with State Officers in Brisbane on 17-18 March 1975, to consider the Queensland Hospitals Development Program for the period 1975-76 to 1978-79. [More…]

• On the basis of this examination the Hospitals and Health Services Commission’s representatives who attend the meeting will make recommendations to me concerning the extent of Australian Government financial assistance to be offered to Queensland for the development of public hospital facilities. [More…]

• If the Mater Hospital authorities in Brisbane have submitted a formal proposal to the Queensland Health Department for consideration at the meeting, it will be considered in the context of the total Queensland hospital program. [More…]

• Is he considering the United States Department of Health Education and Welfare Secretary’s Advisory Committee Report on Automated Personal Records Systems as a basis for licensing data banks under Government control. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• to (4) It is one of the responsibilities of my Department to ensure that the provisions of the National Health Act in relation to pharmaceutical benefits are complied with by doctors and chemists. [More…]

• Where an apparent contravention of the National Health Act or Regulations is revealed, the matter may be referred to a Committee of Inquiry or appropriate action taken through the courts. [More…]

• I desire to ask the Minister for Health a question. [More…]

• I preface my question by stating that Australian health regulations permit a maximum lead content of one per cent in paint used on children’s bicycles, toys, etc., manufactured in Australia, yet imports in this field have been found to contain up to 8 per cent lead content. [More…]

• Certainly, imported toys ought to be subject to a customs control at least as strict as anything that the States impose on local manufacture, because both the customs standards of the Federal Government and the standards for manufacture imposed by the States are set on the recommendations of bodies such as the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• -Because of the concern expressed in Victoria over the proposed Medibank scheme, can the Minister for Social Security advise the House what stage has been reached in negotiations with the Minister for Health or the Premier in Victoria regarding Medibank? [More…]

• I wrote a letter to the Minister for Health in Victoria in early September last year. [More…]

• Prime Minister had to write to the Premier of Victoria in December last year pointing out to the Premier that we needed some sort of advice as to whether Victoria intended to enter into Medibank, the free health insurance program the Australian Government is bringing in from 1 July. [More…]

• Within, I think, about 48 hours the Minister for Health in Victoria seemed to be wanting to stampede his way into the hospital agreements by 1 July. [More…]

• The upshot of all this is that I will be meeting the Health Ministers of those 3 States in Sydney on Friday for initial discussions, but I can assure those 3 Health Minister here today- as I have assured them in other ways- and, unfortunately, advise the people of those States that it will not be possible for their States to be covered by the hospital agreements from 1 July, which means that the people in those States will be paying much more for their private hospital insurance than they would be under the Medibank program. [More…]

• -It is true that Medibank is a free health insurance scheme, although some economists of international repute may dispute that, but it is free in the rather loose way that we use that word in this country. [More…]

• Because of their deep seated philosophical commitment, members of the Liberal and Country Parties have brought about a ‘free health insurance scheme which covers all Australians’- Medibank- and the community has no one else but them to thank for that. [More…]

• Is he further aware of the community health aspects associated with lawn bowls? [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission $3.5m is sought for the running expenses of the Commission. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission [More…]

• The Medibank Scheme, authorised by the Health Insurance Act 1973, will come into operation on 1 July 1975 and an appropriation of $335m is sought for payment into the Health Insurance Fund. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission will draw on the Fund to make payments to eligible persons and organisations and to State Governments participating in the cost-sharing arrangements. [More…]

• Over probably the past 3 years the more extreme groups in the profession have argued that doctors should not provide pensioner medical services at a great discount but that the Government should enroll all pensioners in the health funds that presently exist, with the doctors then being willing to treat the pensioners from the refund received from the health funds. [More…]

• The only people who will really suffer under the introduction of Medibank are the executives of the present health funds. [More…]

• I do not feel particularly sorry for them because the other day when I went through their assets contained in the last annual report tabled in this House I found that the assets of private health insurance organisations amount to over $200m at the present time. [More…]

• I therefore appeal to those who are not executives of the health funds but who are interested in providing reasonable health care delivery to the Australian people not to be associated with the spreading of scare stories especially where pensioners are concerned. [More…]

• The standard of medical care which is provided to the people of any country which is suffering- I use the word advisedly- under a nationalised health scheme is something which should concern everybody. [More…]

• We know what happens with a nationalised health scheme. [More…]

• I remember very clearly the 3-minute consultations which are the order of the day in general practitioners rooms, I remember the 3-year wait for non-urgent medical cases which is the order of the day under a nationalised health scheme. [More…]

• These are some of the many things which will be quite awesome possible effects of the introductions of a nationalised health service into Australia. [More…]

• If so, what requests from the Department of Health for incinerators are outstanding at the present time. [More…]

• Would it be more satisfactory for the Department of Health to assume control for the construction as well as the maintenance of incinerators at ports. [More…]

• However, it is now considered that the responsibility for the disposal of such wastes rests with the Department of Health and the generators of the wastes. [More…]

• The Department of Health is considering a new incinerator capable of destroying quarantine wastes for Perth Airport. [More…]

• The Minister for Health would be in a better position to provide a target date for its completion. [More…]

• It seems that it would be more satisfactory for the Department of Health to have the responsibility for the provision and maintenance of quarantine incinerators at airports. [More…]

• With regard to seaports, my Department is not the constructing authority for incinerators and questions relating to this area should be directed to my colleague, the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The project is of a humanitarian nature and involves provision of schools, health clinics, child care centres, agricultural training units and nutrition units for refugees from Southern Rhodesia, South Africa, Namibia and Angola who have temporarily settled in Zambia. [More…]

• Challenges are made constantly to the Minister for Health or the Treasurer to release something which is in the health records or the taxation records. [More…]

• -The Minister for Health will be aware that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works was instructed as a matter of urgency to investigate and recommend on the site for an off-shore maximum security animal quarantine station. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Social Security heard suggestions that the Government is preventing the National Health Services Association, a voluntary health fund in South Australia, from paying full hospital benefits to special account patients? [More…]

• This represents more than 20 per cent of the benefits paid by private funds and is an indication of the very substantial subsidy which is necessary to maintain the present inefficient and quite discredited system of private health insurance. [More…]

• One is Mr Moon’s fundthe National Health Services Association in South Australia. [More…]

• -Confirming the question, I take it that the honourable member is asking whether New South Wales has met its responsibility in contributing towards the cost of community health centres in that State. [More…]

• By and large the States have co-operated well in the community health program and are meeting 25 per cent of the capital cost and 10 per cent of the running costs of the centres that have been constructed. [More…]

• It ought to know that the fostering of community health care is one of the major ways it can save itself the enormous escalation of costs, particularly of capital costs, of hospital care. [More…]

• These are the things that are most necessary if the escalation of health costs is to be contained. [More…]

• It is my clear impression from communications we are receiving in my office and in the Health Insurance Commission and its State offices that a very high proportion of doctors will bulk bill and cooperate with the Medibank program, and that this proportion will increase rather rapidly over a short term. [More…]

• To this day she has never recovered her health. [More…]

• The inclusion of such matters as the age, state of health, income, property of the parties, a standard of living that is reasonable, the duration of the marriage and the terms of any property order, as well as the care of young children, seems to me to meet the objection of critics who claim that wives will be left without adequate means and without entitlement to maintenance. [More…]

• The working party will investigate these and other aids in collaboration with health professionals with direct involvement in the particular fields with a view to determining their suitability for use in Australia. [More…]

• 1 ) Increased costs in salaries and wages, equipment and research materials have rendered a given amount for medical research made available through the National Health and Medical Research Council less effective as the current triennium (1973-75) has progressed. [More…]

• An explanation of the above situation was given to research workers who were unsuccessful or only partly successful with their grant applications submitted to the National Health and Medical Research Council for support in 1975. [More…]

• In addition, the National Health and Medical Research Council has experienced an acceleration in the quantity, quality and sophistication of submissions for research funds. [More…]

• In all, people will be saying between $2 and $3 a week which they presently contribute to private health insurance funds. [More…]

• In saying that I would point out that it is consistent with a principle I propose to implement under Medibank whereby, following a report of the committee of inquiry into the protection of privacy affecting the Medibank program, after 1 July people in Australia will be able to have access to their personal records retained with the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• In fact the time is so short that it would not be possible to reopen offers to the private health insurance funds, whether they be open funds or friendly societies, proposing that they take up agency arrangements. [More…]

• I repeat, it is not possible to offer an agency arrangement for the Australian Natives Association or any other health insurance fund in Australia because it is too late; the boat has gone. [More…]

• I know that a committee has been instituted by the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) to inquire into chiropractic, osteopathy and naturopathy, intended to be a scientific evaluation of chiropractic, osteopathy and naturopathy, and to report to the Minister for Health on the desirability of registering practitioners and, if so, under what conditions. [More…]

• Should an election be forced again this year in the quite undemocratic fashion in which it was forced in 1974, and should postal voting be conducted in the way in which it has been conducted in the past, one can just imagine the role that will be played by the majority of doctors throughout Australia, in the light of their attitude to Medibank in trying to refuse the benefits of Medibank not only to all Australians but specifically to the 1 250 000 people who are not at present covered by health insurance. [More…]

• 1 ) (i) Australian Health Insurance Program [More…]

• The experience includes environmentally relevant work relating to water, sewerage, soil conservation, transport, industrial wastes, air pollution, biological ecosystems, urban planning, mathematical modelling, welfare economics, health physics, radio-activity, agriculture, forestry, fishing, plant pathology and natural history. [More…]

• The new health insurance, compensation and superannuation programs are to proceed at an annual cost, estimated by Professor Downing on 1973 money terms, of $4,900m or about 10 per cent of the gross domestic product. [More…]

• I point out that no Labor government at any rate would be worth support if in times of inflation it allowed the real standards of pensioners, of public and basic health and of education to fall. [More…]

• Secondary students are not being taught their rights under hire purchase agreements; how to buy a house; how to complete a tax return or what to claim as deductions; what rights they have if they are arrested by the police; the pros and cons of health insurance and life insurance. [More…]

• It is partially an education commission and partially concerned with health and welfare and family care for children at the pre-school stage. [More…]

• The employment of staff to be responsible for matters of safety, health and welfare and to provide student counselling services at institutions of technical and further education; [More…]

• Mr Hamer estimated it would take that long to prepare the Victorian health scheme so the people of Victoria could obtain the maximum possible benefit from the scheme. [More…]

• As I have indicated, he is more interested in playing politics than in looking after the health of the Victorian electors. [More…]

• I met the Health Ministers of those 3 States and also of Queensland, together with officials of their respective departments, in Sydney last Friday. [More…]

• For instance, who is to maintain and pay for the emergency health services? [More…]

• An Iroquois helicopter provided support for the Tasmanian health services from 7 January to 22 January. [More…]

• Anyone who has had the experience of unsewered suburbs, poor health services, inadequate local transport, neglected environmental standards, shortage of playing fields, shortage of community centres and opportunities for culture and recreation knows that higher rates are not the answer. [More…]

• 1 ) The estimated average monthly costs for consultations at Melba Health Centre for the months of July, August, September and October 1974 are: [More…]

• However, the business of health centres is not simply to provide consultations on a par with private, fee for service general practice work. [More…]

• Costs should be related to the type and quality of service provided and to the possible savings arising from reduced hospital admissions, referral to less costly and more appropriate health personnel and to reduced travelling time, time off work, etc., of patients. [More…]

• In addition health centre workers undertake a wide range of community health and welfare activities, other than consultations, which are not usually found in general practice and for which no deduction has been made in the above cost estimates. [More…]

• Evaluation studies of the impact of these activities on the general health and well being of the community and on the total cost of health services will be undertaken when the centre has been operating for a sufficient period. [More…]

• Other workers include District Nurses, an Infant Welfare Sister, Dentists, Social Workers, a Social Health Visitor, a Psychologist, a Physiotherapist and Pharmacist. [More…]

• It will be the intention of the Government throughout the work leading up to the preparation of the Budget to ensure that the deficit is kept at the lowest possible level for the health of the economy. [More…]

• Finally, the Health Insurance Commission has State offices. [More…]

• It has been suggested that they are in jeopardy because from time to time they have attended pensioners under the pensioner medical scheme or written prescriptions under the national health scheme and thereby have rendered themselves ineligible. [More…]

• Is the Attorney-General aware that, after prolonged investigations into the effects of marihuana, a report from the World Health Organisation of the United Nations now claims that there is conclusive evidence that the habitual smoking of marihuana can cause genetic imbalance resulting in a serious effect on a young woman’s- or any woman’s- reproductive organs and may similarly affect a young man; particularly is there the possibility of his becoming impotent? [More…]

• There is a proposal, with which I am associated, together with the Minister for Health in the Government, which would give effect to certain international treaty obligations that the Government has, flowing from the International Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. [More…]

• The new health insurance, compensation and superannuation programs are to proceed at an annual cost of around $4.9 billion in 1973 money terms. [More…]

• The cuts I have spoken of include the big spending but political sensitive areas of education, health, urban and regional development, and social security. [More…]

• The Government has built up expectations in many expenditure areas- health schemes, national compensation, urban development, national superannuation and so on. [More…]

• As the Minister for Labor and Immigration (Mr Clyde Cameron), said, of course the Government is going to pour millions of dollars into Medibank to ensure that every man, woman and child is covered by a health scheme and not by the patched up job that existed under the control of 113 private health insurance companies. [More…]

• Do they want to keep the same rotten old health system that was in existence for the 23 years in which they were in office? [More…]

• We have not been told whether members of the Opposition want expenditure reduced in payments to the Aboriginal Advancement Trust Account, independent schools in the Territories- these include Archbishop Cahill’s schools which I have already mentioned- adult secondary education assistance, assisted migration, child migration education, health insurance, victims of cyclone Tracy and handicapped children. [More…]

• The New South Wales Government already has agreed to our financing of the Bradbury community health centre, the one at Leumeah and the major one being built now in the centre of Campelltown [More…]

• The whole object of the personal income tax cuts, of our support for wage indexation and the substantial improvements we have achieved in the provision of health, education, public transport and community services has been to sustain and raise the real standard of living of families beyond that provided by the pay packet alone. [More…]

• If we are to believe the Minister we may be broke, we may be nationally bankrupt, but if we have the stamina to queue up for treatment we will at least be healthy. [More…]

• Its design is not to inform but to denigrate the health insurance funds which have served this nation so well for so long. [More…]

• It could be regarded as misinformation because, for all that the Minister tells us about free health care, the lack of necessity to continue insurance with a private health insurance fund and the guarantee of treatment by a doctor of the patient’s choice, the answer from the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) in this House during question time this morning shows how heavily qualified those assurances really are. [More…]

• It is not too high a quality of school, it is not too high a quality of health care services, it is not too high a quality of public transport, it is not even too much attention to salvaging what is left of our natural heritage which Australians demand, but a house which is finished and furnished too quickly, a car which is replaced too frequently, or literally thousands of products for which no need would ever have been recognised if it had not been invented. [More…]

• It is not too good a quality of school, it is not too good a quality of health care, it is not too good a quality of public transport, it is not the environmental concern, it is not those things on which overwhelmingly this country or this Government has spent money in the last 2 years which Australians demand, but a thousand and one frivolities for which demand has been invented or magnified in the most cynical way. [More…]

• The Government is asking for $22m for food aid, $43m for the Shipping Commission, $335m for health insurance, $33 m for Darwin compensation, and so on up to $2,600m. [More…]

• I charge the Minister with deliberately wasting $2m of taxpayers’ money through the flickering screen of television to try to inculcate in the minds of the Australian people an acceptance of a system of health care which is nationalisation and socialisation of health. [More…]

• I find it revolting that for so long national governments refused any commitment at all towards improving public health services in public hospitals or in community health services. [More…]

• Do they mean they will cut the funds available for health care or do they mean that they will reduce in real terms the level of social security and other pensions? [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party has been working on a national health insurance plan for many years- ever since I became a member of this chamber. [More…]

• When I was Minister for Customs and Excise we had many conferences with the State Ministers of Health and their officers, with the State Attorney-General’s Departments and with every expert we could find to determine whether marihuana was a dangerous drug and what was the best thing to do for the people of Australia. [More…]

• This proposition that is under study and being discussed between the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and myself- and I emphasise the Minister for Health because it is as much a matter for him as it is for a law enforcement officer or for anyone concerned with the criminal law- is to put the question of drugs on to a proper, rational basis. [More…]

• Indeed, the other courses of study that the Government has had under way are consistent with the same proposition, consistent with what I have said to the honourable member for Hotham, consistent with the problems that the police face in the Australian Capital Territory and consistent with the proposals that I have described on two occasions now that concern the Minister for Health and me and that I hope will be brought into this House for the consideration of this House when they reach their final form, which will not be in the too distant future. [More…]

• If those circumstances are brought about and if an amendment which will exclude from the consideration of the Commission under Mr Justice Else-Mitchell the payments made under the National Health Act is not proceeded with, what guarantees can be given so that the $ 10m to $30m- that is the amount of the various calculationsof the grant to the remaining claimant State will not be surrendered; in other words that the grant will not go into one pocket this year and be taken out of that pocket in 18 months time? [More…]

• The Government proposed to introduce a special bill directed specifically to the supervision of private health insurance and, as a complementary measure, to repeal those parts of the National Health Act which are directed to the supervision of registered medical and hospital benefits organisations. [More…]

• The honourable member will be aware that the amending National Health Bills were rejected by the Senate. [More…]

• The rejection of the amending National Health Bills has meant that not only are some aspects of the Government’s policy in this matter, as set out in paragraphs 5.1 to 5.14 of the White Paper ‘The Australian Health Insurance Program’, not achievable immediately, but that other measures providing for the protection of the community have also been lost. [More…]

• pensioners that are at present paid by hospital benefits funds, as was proposed in paragraph 5.4 of the White Paper, and also that any health insurance fund with inadequate reserves will not be able to be subsidised as proposed in paragraph 5.7 of the White Paper. [More…]

• The continuance of the National Health Act unamended will mean that the special account arrangements authorised by that Act will also continue so far as hospital benefits funds are concerned. [More…]

• In practice, the special account machinery constitutes a ‘back door’ method of providing substantial hidden subsidies to the health benefits funds. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health whether he is aware of claims that the drug laetrile is an effective cure for cancer. [More…]

• The main objective of the present Pensioner Medical Service is to provide a basic range of medical services for pensioners who could be regarded as unable to afford health insurance. [More…]

• -I draw the attention of the Minister for Health to my continuing interest in the Australian Government’s offer to finance the building of a major suburban hospital in the Brisbane suburb of Mount Gravatt and the prolonged negotiations with the Queensland Government. [More…]

• The Queensland Department of Health is planning a major hospital complex at Mount Gravatt adjacent to the Mitchell University, with a first stage of 200 obstetric beds. [More…]

• The States have agreed to the principle of their hospital programs being reviewed by joint hospital works councils consisting of State officers and representatives of the Hospitals and Health Service Commission, one of whom is a nominee of the Australian Department of Health. [More…]

• Persons who are unemployed for reasons such as health, incapacity, imprisonment, or inadequate or inappropriate work skills or for lack of job opportunity. [More…]

• The School Dental Scheme will provide a level of dental care, prevention and dental health education in Australia which has hitherto been unavailable. [More…]

• Subsequently, in more detailed announcements, the Deputy Prime Minister, Dr J. F. Cairns, and I have reiterated this Government’s intention that benefits for optometrical consultations would be introduced within our health insurance program. [More…]

• Benefits will be payable for services by participating optometrists in accordance with Part II of the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• The Bill provides for this to be achieved by the inclusion of four new items, relating to professional attendances by participating optometrists, in Part I of Schedule I to the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• They will also remove the limitation existing under the present health insurance scheme where Australian Government benefits are not payable for a professional service resulting in the prescription of spectacles. [More…]

• This will be achieved by the inclusion in the common form of undertaking of a provision whereby the participating optometrist will undertake to make arrangements, in accordance with sub-section 20 (3) of the Health Insurance Act, for the assignment of benefits in respect of these patients. [More…]

• These bodies are to have similar roles, and are to be established and function similarly to the Medical Services Committees of Inquiry and Medical Services Review Tribunals, already authorised by the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• It will be taken up as part of a comprehensive review of similar types of decisions, already authorised by the provisions of the Health Insurance Act, being considered by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. [More…]

• In conjunction with authorising the new optometrical benefit arrangements, the Bill also repeals existing section 13 of the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• In line with the philosophy of the Medibank legislation as a whole, the purpose of this Bill is to extend to all Australians an improved system of health benefits. [More…]

• We believe in universal availability of health services as a right and that belief commits us to make changes in the existing pattern of benefits. [More…]

• The lack of benefits for optometrical consultations has been an obvious flaw amongst the very many other deficiencies of the present scheme of health insurance but nothing had been done about it by the previous LiberalCountry Party Government. [More…]

• When we came to plan a national, equitable and universal health insurance program we saw that optometrical benefits not only should, but could, be included by a government which had a real commitment to progress. [More…]

• I refer to items such as assistance to parents in connection with the care of their sick children in their own homes at a time or times of the day when the parents are engaged in employment; such matters as meeting the needs of children suffering disadvantages for social, economic, health, ethnic, locational, cultural, lingual or other reasons and encouraging diversity, flexability and innovation in the provision of services for children. [More…]

• The Opposition is of the view, and will certainly carry it into effect when we return to the Treasury bench, that there should be established a Children’s Bureau which will provide a central source of input to a committee of Ministers who will retain responsibility for the administration of programs within their respective portfolios such as those of health, education and social welfare. [More…]

• Prior to the recent publicity over the excessive lead content in paint on imported toys, were officers of his Department instructed to check the paint content of these toys to ensure that the National Health and Medical Research Council recommendation was not exceeded. [More…]

• The resultant analysis showed a level of lead in excess of that recommended in the then draft National Health and Medical Research Council standard relating to paints and it is believed the importer did not proceed with the importation. [More…]

• In many areas of Victoria, if not most, we have the remarkable situation of superbly designed preschools and day care centres built to the extremely demanding standards of the Victorian Department of Health, yet those buildings are in use for only about 24 hours a week. [More…]

• It means meeting the needs of children suffering disadvantages because of social, economic, health, ethnic, locational, cultural, lingual or other reasons. [More…]

• The commissions of advanced education and other bodies, even universities commissions if we go into the question of research into the needs of children including their health needs, are financed directly from the Commonwealth. [More…]

• For example, in Victoria this area of care is run by the Victorian Department of Health. [More…]

• He might, on one occasion, be dealing with taxation; on another with compensation; on yet another with a matter relating to health. [More…]

• The Australian Minister for Health, that distinguished Minister Dr Everingham, has reported to this Parliament that the firm is charging the Australian Government twice the price for these products that it charges the British National Health Scheme. [More…]

• The Canadian Health Scheme is also charged a cheaper rate than Australia. [More…]

• If the delays are noticeable, is this further evidence of the inefficient and unsatisfactory nature of the present private health insurance scheme? [More…]

• It presented a case for an expanded chaner to the Senate standing committee on health and welfare. [More…]

• As I have emphasised, the Bill cannot be viewed in isolation and must be considered in the context of the proposed national compensation scheme, the national health scheme, the national superannuation plan and the possible reintroduction of the national investment fund. [More…]

• It has all the hallmarks of the Medibank campaign which saw doctors, private hospitals and health funds denigrated and abused by the Government and the Labor Party. [More…]

• I am speaking not just of health insurance or the Australian Government Insurance Corporation, but of other areas as well. [More…]

• Downing has estimated the total cost of the Government’s national health, compensation and superannuation schemes at $4,900m a year, of which $2,800m would represent additional expenditure. [More…]

• Bearing in mind that there will be health insurance and national compensation, the Committee recommended that: [More…]

• Now by the operations of this Government in introducing 4 Bills- I mention only the Australian Government Insurance Corporation Bill but there is also the Health Insurance Bill, the National Compensation Bill and the National Superannuation Bill, if they go through- an enormous amount of money in addition will be diverted from the private sector to the public sector. [More…]

• Consider the first three Bills, the one relating to workers compensation and the ancillary measures relating to the national health scheme and also the national superannuation scheme. [More…]

• Professor Downing has indicated that if the national compensation scheme, the national health scheme, the national superannuation plan and the National Investment Fund were all reintroduced they would require funds equal to around 10 per cent of the gross domestic product. [More…]

• I feel that I must, for my personal respect and health, obtain relief. [More…]

• worrying about his health, finances, their family . [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• We have pointed out that this expands the range of choice available to the public because in most cases State health authorities administering public hospitals prevent most people from entering public wards by the imposition of a severe means test. [More…]

• I refer honourable members to paragraph 4.2 of the White Paper of November 1973 which relates to the Australian health insurance program. [More…]

• Sub-clause (2) sets out the things that shall be taken into account, such as age and the state of health of each party. [More…]

• The Bill before the House contains provisions relating to the furnishing of information to the Department of Health by manufacturers or distributors of pharmaceutical benefits and is consistent with a recommendation of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Prices, which inquired into the effect of the December 1972 revaluation of the Australian Dollar. [More…]

• In its first report of November 1973 the Committee recommended among other things, that: the National Health Act be amended to allow the Department of Health to obtain cost and financial information in respect of products in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. [More…]

• At present there is no power under the National Health Act requiring manufacturers or distributors of pharmaceutical benefits to supply information about costs to the Government and consequently the Department of Health depends on negotiations to try and achieve fair and reasonable prices for pharmaceutical benefit items. [More…]

• It is a pity that the spokesmen for the insurance industry and the Opposition are taking the same course with this legislation as the Australian Medical Association took with the universal health insurance program. [More…]

• I think that the amendment is self-explanatory but perhaps I should give these facts to the Committee: Following the introduction of the Health Insurance Bill 1975 there became a need to amend clause 26 of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Bill. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Bill establishes an Optometrical Services Review Tribunal- one of the many which operate at the moment and to which it is sought to bring some kind of system. [More…]

• In his second reading speech the Minister for Social Security (Mr Hayden) said that the question of appeals under the provisions of the Health Insurance Bill being transferred to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal would be taken up when the tribunal commenced to operate. [More…]

• As the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Bill is now drafted there could be no legislative basis for consulting a tribunal along the lines of the Optometrical Services Review Tribunal under the present Health Insurance Bill. [More…]

• Will tax deductibility be allowed for each of the following items once the medical and hospital sections of the Government’s health insurance proposals are in operation: (a) private medical insurance to cover the 15 per cent consultation gap if the doctor does not bulk bill, (b) private medical insurance to cover consultation fees beyond the 15 per cent if more than the most common fee is charged, (c) private hospital insurance for intermediate or private ward cover, (d) private medical insurance to cover the additional cost of medical attention by a patient’s own doctor in hospital as in paragraphs (a) and (b), (e) private hospital insurance to cover any possible additional bed charge where a patient’s own doctor is retained and (f) direct cash payment to cover any of the above medical or hospital charges. [More…]

• I would also suggest to honourable members opposite that it is a danger to the health to force oneself to laugh and I might have to protect them against themselves. [More…]

• -I have seen a newspaper report that the Victorian Minister for Health has indicated that he considers that moneys to be paid to Victoria have no constitutional basis. [More…]

• We have set up an animal health disease laboratory. [More…]

• This Government has already made provision for at least $74m for one of the most modern animal health laboratories in the world. [More…]

• We have established a Bureau of Animal Health. [More…]

• In August 1974 the Government approved the establishment of the Bureau of Animal Health. [More…]

• The chief aim of the Bureau is to streamline animal health activities in Australia aimed at disease eradication and prevention. [More…]

• He is a man in robust good health, in his mid-80s, retired from politics but active in public affairs. [More…]

• Here I pay a compliment to the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), the Minister for Housing and Construction (Mr Les Johnson) and the Minister for Defence (Mr Barnard) who have seen fit, as I would say most Ministers generally have, to go out to the electorates, to the grass roots levels, to see the effects of their policies and to find out at first hand what is going on. [More…]

• -The purpose of the Health Insurance Bill 1975 is to provide benefits for services by optometrists and to provide that these benefits be available under Medibank from 1 July 1975. [More…]

• Firstly I wish to make some general comments on Liberal-National Country Party policy and approach to the nation’s health. [More…]

• One would think that all the initiatives in the health and welfare field had come in actual fact from the Australian Labor Party Government. [More…]

• I refer to the national health scheme, the pharmaceutical benefits scheme and other schemes which were improved, amended and upgraded as the nation could afford them. [More…]

• I suggest the honourable gentleman might relate his remarks to the Health Insurance Bill which is a fairly narrow measure. [More…]

• The Bill also provides for a domiciliary visit by an optometrist for those who find it difficult to get to an optometrist It also provides for committees of inquiry and review tribunals, similar to those set up under the Health Insurance Act for the medical profession, to be established in relation to optometrical services. [More…]

• The Liberal-Country Parties - or the Liberal-National Country Parties- believe that the problem of crippling para-medical costs, for example, physiotherapy after an accident, must be faced by a comprehensive health scheme. [More…]

• We will encourage the private health funds to provide an optional extras insurance cover for the provision of paramedical services. [More…]

• I should now like to draw a comparison between the provisions of the Health Insurance Bill and Liberal Party and National Country Party policy. [More…]

• For instance, the New Zealand Department of Health, in a publication entitled ‘Therapeutic Notes No. [More…]

• The Canadian Royal Commission on Health Services in 1964 said: [More…]

• Under the National Health Act in Britain optometrists are not recognised as being competent to detect ocular disease or abnormality. [More…]

• One has only to look at the national health scheme as an example. [More…]

• -I was delighted to hear the honourable member for Petrie (Mr Hodges) in so much accord with the contents of the Health Insurance Bill ( 1975) and I was very interested to hear him tell us what is the(Quorum formed) I thank the members of the Australian Labor Party for coming in. [More…]

• I point out that at the moment we have a shambles of a health service, produced by the former coalition government, in which ability to pay is the only thing which really matters. [More…]

• Optometrical consultations will be introduced into the health insurance program and participating optometrists will perform services which will become eligible for benefits in accordance with Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• They will remove the limitation existing in the present health insurance scheme where Australian Government benefits are not payable for a professional service which results in the prescription of spectacles. [More…]

• The Bill is designed to extend to all Australians an improved system of health benefits, one for which Australians have been waiting for very many years, virtually for a quarter of a century. [More…]

• We believe that health services should be available to all and not just to those who can afford to buy such services. [More…]

• The lack of provision of benefits for optometrical consultations has been a real deficiency in health care. [More…]

• The proposed Capital Territory Health Commission will occupy the building as a headquarters and will provide clinical facilities and a health centre on the ground and first floors. [More…]

• No plans for accommodating elements of Medibank in the building exist at present, but any administrative elements of the Medibank service which the Capital Territory Health Commission may be expected to handle for the A.C.T. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I am well aware of the risks to health incurred by smoking tobacco and of the problems and inconvenience caused to non-smokers who are compelled into passive smoking in such public places as aircraft. [More…]

• In his reply to the honourable member for Scullin on Tuesday last, he referred to paragraph 4.2 of the White Paper on health insurance, indicating that maternity patients will be able to have their own doctor and not be charged the $30 a day as private patients. [More…]

• That is stated in paragraph 4.22 of the White Paper on the Australian Health Insurance Program. [More…]

• Unfortunately no State hospital authority has indicated any interest in taking up this proposal which, like so many of the proposals in the White Paper or in the health insurance program, is open to negotiation. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, Dr Everingham, has advised me that it is the intention of his administration to take up this option in Canberra a little later. [More…]

• We face the unpalatable truth that health services in this area have lagged far behind the growth of the community. [More…]

• The Australian Government, through the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), has stated clearly that the Dandenong and District Hospital has top priority in Victoria after the western suburbs. [More…]

• It is not without some irony that this gravely critical situation affecting hospitals in Victoria has been brought so forcibly to light at a time when that State’s Health Minister is still only toying with the idea of accepting the hospital side of Medibank. [More…]

• This would be completely disastrous to the health of the economy. [More…]

• On the other hand, one of the most disastrous effects which could be induced into the economy at present would be for members of the Opposition to go about in the most determined way, as the Leader of the Opposition seems to indicate is his intention, to try to destroy confidence when the early signs are there of a pick-up in the economy and a move towards a more healthy condition. [More…]

• The Opposition says that we should not encourage people who are not in the best of health to get out early and so preserve their life and enjoy it to the full. [More…]

• It means that a lot of people who should retire, who feel they have done a fair share and whose health might not be the best, have had the incentive to retire at 60 removed by the Opposition. [More…]

• That any system of comprehensive health care in Australia should not be based upon salaried general practitioner or specialist services or allocated hospital staff as proposed by Medibank but upon the principle of freedom of choice of doctor at the surgery and in the hospital. [More…]

• By the introduction of Medibank, the Government does intend to introduce a system of health care in Australia which is based upon salaried general practitioner and specialist services. [More…]

• The Labor Government’s Medibank health scheme is to be based upon allocated hospital staff. [More…]

• What members of the Liberal Party and the National Country Party believe is that health care in Australia should be firmly based upon the principle of freedom of choice of doctor, at the surgery and in the hospital - [More…]

• The real issue of Medibank is that insurance for health was virtually not on the basis of guaranteeing health but of guaranteeing the payment of doctors’ fees. [More…]

• One million people were not even availing themselves of insurance, yet they were entitled to health. [More…]

• Let no one tell me that any reasonable Australian would regard that as being an effective health scheme. [More…]

• In a few words, I believe that the introduction of summer daylight saving time has meant an increase in the leisure time of adults at the expense of the health of children. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) to seek information on the impact of daylight saving on the health of school children. [More…]

• The committee includes Dr Mccloskey, of the Victorian Department of Health; Mr A. McVeigh, of the Victorian Department of Health; Mr E. Ryan, of the Victorian Department of Education; Mr H. McPhee, of the Victorian Department of Social Welfare; Mr D. Neville, of the Victorian Department of Youth, Sport and Recreation; Councillor Portingale, a local government representative; Mrs Mccaughey, a community representative and Mrs Witney King a community representative. [More…]

• Also on the committee were Miss B. Stubbs, an adviser-observer from the Victorian Department of Health; Mr J. P. Bradburn, an adviser from the Victorian Department of Health; and Miss E. [More…]

• I take this opportunity this evening to place on record my disgust at the paltry attitude of the Queensland Government in respect of the special grants allocated to it by the Australian Government for health projects in Queensland. [More…]

• The position can be summed up only by saying that the State Government Department of Health is pursuing a policy of complete deceit in relation to the grants it is receiving from the Australian Government. [More…]

• I know that the honourable member for Griffith does not spend much time in the House; but if he likes to spare a few moments and stay in the House I will give an instance of a community health project which is just on the border between his electorate and my electorate and which is a typical example of this deceit. [More…]

• Consequently, the deceit can be attributed only to the acute embarrassment felt by the Queensland Health Minister, Dr Edwards, who currently is presiding over the expenditure of more than $1 1.5m from Australian Government sources for these projects. [More…]

• The glaring examples on which I want to touch briefly this evening exists in my electorate and, as I indicated, the electorate adjacent to my electorate which included the community health centre at Cannon Hill. [More…]

• I was given this information by the Australian Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) some weeks ago in reply to a question I asked him in the House. [More…]

• The only reference that has been made to this very important project and to the health needs of all of the citizens, on the south side of Brisbane particularly, has been the statement made by the Australian Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) in this House in reply to a question I asked. [More…]

• Another example of the deceitful attitide of the Queensland Health Department and particularly Dr Edwards, the Minister, is the recent announcement of a site for a community health centre in Clara Street, Wynnum. [More…]

• But when the announcement was made Dr Edwards conveniently made no mention whatsoever of the role that had been played by the Australian Government in the establishment of this community health centre. [More…]

• The deceit of the Queensland Government goes further as far as community health projects in the Brisbane area are concerned. [More…]

• The Minister for Health made an announcement in this respect in November last year. [More…]

• But so far, very secretively, very quietly and carefully, whatever has been proceeding in regard to the establishment of this community health centre has just been kept very quiet, absolutely quiet by the Queensland Government. [More…]

• It has been kept so quiet, of course, that the people in the area who have been dependent upon this vital need for their health facilities do not yet know when the centre will commence operation. [More…]

• To add insult to injury, as far as this project is concerned, a very large sign now appears on the street frontage proclaiming that it is being built by the Queensland Government and lauding the great contribution that the Queensland Government is making to the health needs of our elderly citizens. [More…]

• It is not that the Australian Government seeks to receive notoriety about the provision of funds it has given for projects for the health care of the people of Brisbane. [More…]

• If the scheme is found to be successful after 3 months it will be a precedent on which I hope we will be able to build and we will have as a result the placement of similar health education professionals in remote regions. [More…]

• There are other actions which the Government is taking on health in rural areas and within a month or two I hope to get a report on rural health problems generally. [More…]

• In particular, of the 500 community health projects it has funded 170 are in rural areas. [More…]

• It may be by implication, of course, that Mr Lewis thinks he is less competent than Mr Bjelke-Petersen in administering public health services. [More…]

• The Australian Government’s Schools Commission program has become both the source of profiteering and the victim of bureaucratic holdups and mishandling at the levels of local government and State Health Departments. [More…]

• While we have State Education Departments foiling the program in their areas we have State Health Departments retarding the progress of the independent schools. [More…]

• In Victoria, the absolute minimum time it takes for a Health Department all clear is 6 weeks. [More…]

• A building permit cannot be gained without the all clear from the Health Department, and who knows how long that will take? [More…]

• Then of course there is the problem of the Victorian State health regulations for schools. [More…]

• However, the opportunity-cost of Health Department hold-ups, and the added expense their archaic regulations necessitate, are only the start of the non-government schools problems in regard to their building grants under the disadvantaged program. [More…]

• 1658 in which he provided a list of all Departments, other than the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, with some responsibility for Aboriginal affairs, which Departments are represented on the Bilingual Education Consultative Committee, the Aboriginal Community Committee and the Health Care for Aborigines Committee. [More…]

• What is the National Plan referred to under the Aboriginal Health Branch of the central office of the Department of Health. [More…]

• The Bilingual Education Consultative Committee comprises representatives of the Departments of Education and Aboriginal Affairs; the inter-departmental committee which co-ordinates activities relating to Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory comprises representatives of the Departments of Health Aboriginal Affairs, AttorneyGeneral’s, Education, Housing and Construction, Labor and Immigration, Northern Territory and Social Security; and the inter-departmental committee which co-ordinates the delivery of health care to Aboriginals in the Northern Territory is made up of representatives of the Departments of Health, Aboriginal Affairs, Education and Northern Territory. [More…]

• The Minister for Health announced the establishment of the National Plan in a press release of 13 August 1973. [More…]

• The National Plan is designed to raise the standard of health of Aboriginals to the levels enjoyed by their fellow Australians over a period of ten years. [More…]

• At present, responsibility for and control of health services to Aboriginals rests with various Australian Government and State Departments of Health, Statutory Commissions and a variety of smaller organisations, some of which arc associated with academic institutions. [More…]

• The Australian Department of Health has the responsibility of co-ordinating the National Plan. [More…]

• supervising health campaigns in the areas of need under (a) to ensure that Government moneys are used effectively and that full support is given to the Plan; [More…]

• establishing and maintaining a central recording and information service as a source of reliable data relating to Aboriginal health; [More…]

• f) stimulating the training of Aboriginal health workers. [More…]

• With regard to (e) the State authorities have been asked to assist in this task by furnishing on a uniform basis statistics on the health of Aboriginals. [More…]

• Raising the standard of health of Aboriginals requires consideration of and improvement in all aspects of their living conditions and their social and economic environment and, of necessity, greater participation and direct involvement of the Aboriginal people themselves. [More…]

• South Australia is in the final stages of accepting it, and only this week I concluded discussions with the Health Minister of that State. [More…]

• I have never suggested that we wanted to control the development of new hospital services and I am not interested in that aspect of the provision of health services at all. [More…]

• My colleague the Minister for Health, Dr Everingham, is interested in the development of those services and is developing a cost sharing program. [More…]

• We know that from time to time in Sydney and Melbourne the levels of carbon monoxide and other forms of pollution in the air have been far in excess of the levels recommended by the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• The attempts of private health funds to mislead contributors. [More…]

• I am raising this matter of public importance to draw to the attention of the House and the public the attitude of certain health funds which are making a sly attempt to mislead their contributors, both in relation to the provisions which will be made for Medibank after 30 June and, therefore, the best course of action that contributors should take after 30 June with regard to membership of private health insurance funds. [More…]

• I remind the House that the Government’s health insurance proposals have been put to the electorate as part of its election policy in the last 3 House of Representatives elections. [More…]

• The controllers of these private health funds are, therefore, acting anti-democratically by trying to frustrate the program of the elected Government. [More…]

• I emphasise the word ‘controllers’ because it is most important when talking about the health funds to distinguish between the controllers and the contributors. [More…]

• Since the introduction of the present health scheme, which was introduced by Sir Earle Page under the Menzies Government in the 1950s, people have been forced virtually to belong to a voluntary health insurance fund. [More…]

• Therefore, they were blackmailed virtually into belonging to the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• It could scarcely be called a voluntary donation for the reason I have stressed, because people virtually had to belong to a health fund to get the Commonwealth benefit. [More…]

• I would suggest that this responsibility on the part of the controllers of the health funds has been abrogated in the past and right up to the present time with regard to the transition into Medibank. [More…]

• The funds also could have told their contributors that this rebate would be available to pensioner patients as well as to everyone else in the community, unlike the rebate under the present voluntary health scheme. [More…]

• There was a statement in the Adelaide ‘Advertiser’ of 16 May, in which the President of the South Australian Association of Health Benefits Organisations, Mr W. K. Moon, announced that there would be reduced contributions. [More…]

• I hope he will co-operate in ensuring that members of the public have adequate control over and adequate access to their own money which they have been forced to contribute to these funds for many years under the iniquitous voluntary health schemes started under the previous Liberal-Country Party Government. [More…]

• The attempts of private health funds to mislead contributors. [More…]

• If there has been any misleading in the field of health or health schemes it has not been done by the private health funds; it has been done by the Government itself with $1.5m of taxpayers’ money that it has scandalously spent without mandate, without authority, on a public education campaign. [More…]

• One of the things in the Government’s $1.5m advertising campaign which has been splattered through radio, television and the Press is that it is a free health scheme- so the publicity says. [More…]

• What the honourable member for Kingston has done, as an MP, as a member of the medical profession, is to send thousands of these letters out asking people to welsh on a deal, asking them not to pay their debts but if they can get away with something from the health funds to do it I ask the honourable member for Kingston to stand up and deny that he has done this sort of despicable thing. [More…]

• He told us that the fact that private health funds are misleading contributors is not an important issue. [More…]

• They included school health care, funeral expenses, out-patient treatment, private hospital theatre fees and dental services- dental services with extreme restrictions. [More…]

• They will cover the repair of prosthetic appliances, the provision of wooden legs, the provision of overseas health care which is already, by the way, covered under Medibank. [More…]

• I reiterate it is a scandal the way the health insurance funds have tried to mislead their contributors. [More…]

• -If anybody should be on trial in the Parliament today for misleading the public of Australia on matters relating to health it should be the Government. [More…]

• Never has there been such a campaign of deception waged against people concerning their future health requirements and needs in this country than that engaged in by this Government over the last 12 months. [More…]

• The honourable member for Kingston (Dr Gun), in one of the few points he made in his tirade against the private health funds, spoke about the belated action by the private health funds in advising contributors about the situation after 1 July. [More…]

• This is quite interesting because until a certain document came from the Department of Social Security to the private health funds it was completely impossible for the health funds to know what would be the rules of the game after 1 July. [More…]

• Australian Government Department of Social Security Conduct of Private Health Insurance after 30 June 1975. [More…]

• This circular was sent to all health funds. [More…]

• So the charge about the private health funds misleading the contributors falls flat and is thrown right back in the honourable member’s face because the Government has not given the health funds the rules of the game to be played. [More…]

• To add to the confusion which private health funds must be under in relation to the situation on 1 July, one has to refer to an article which appeared in the Melbourne ‘Age’ on 22 [More…]

• Apart from discrimination against people in private hospitals this adds to the confusion of health funds. [More…]

• Will there have to be 2 levels of insurance by private health funds in relation to a person who decides he wants to go into a private ward in a public hospital or a similar ward in a private hospital? [More…]

• It has not told the health funds or anybody what will be the real situation. [More…]

• In a number of replies the Minister for Social Security has given to various people both in writing and in public statements he has pointed out a whole range of insurable items which the health funds could have after 1 July and which would be tax deductible. [More…]

• These were very important items for the health insurance funds, contributors and the people of Australia to know about. [More…]

• For the last 12 months the Government has embarked on a Goebbels-like attempt to mislead the Australian public in relation to the state of the health funds of this nation. [More…]

• What about the excessive reserve funds which the health funds were supposed to hold? [More…]

• Two health funds in New South Wales took up the challenge. [More…]

• I turn next to the question of long waiting time for rebate payments for health insurance contributors. [More…]

• The Government must have far more confidence in the ability of Medibank to repay rebates within 5 days than the chemists of this country have- or than the Department of Health itself has- in the ability in the Department of Health to repay pharmaceutical benefits scripts in 5 days. [More…]

• Let us look at the record of the Government in this other area of health repayments. [More…]

• Health are worried about this aspect- whether a person who has the temerity to go into a private ward of his .or her own accord will receive less cover and be charged far more than the public patient, and probably far more in a private hospital, or whether there will be no medical rebate for radiology or pathology services. [More…]

• We have the interesting case in Victoria where somebody came down from Canberra thinking that bush nursing hospitals were only health centres in Victoria and did not have beds. [More…]

• We have now been informed that as a result of a conference of State Health Ministers the hospital construction program will be cut. [More…]

• and (4) In accordance with Section 76a of the National Health Act a report ‘Operations of the Registerd Medical and Hospital Benefits Organisations’ is published each year, and provides financial details of medical and hospital funds. [More…]

• Has his attention also been drawn to indexed item 38- The register of health funds. [More…]

• When the Minister for Social Security grants approval to the registration of a medical or hospital benefits organisation under the National Health Act, details of the registration are entered in a register as required under Section 73 of that Act. [More…]

• Accordingly the removal of the restriction on the inspection of the registers will be considered when next the National Health Act is being reviewed. [More…]

• Australian Medical Association item numbers will be converted by the Health Insurance Commission for manual processing and payment of benefits for the equivalent Medical Benefits Schedule item numbers. [More…]

• Previous Liberal-Country Party Governments absolutely refused to make such a projection for the present system of health insurance on occasions when we sought that type of information. [More…]

• I repeat that the cost of Medibank in total is no greater than the total cost of the present system of providing health insurance and associated personal benefits such as the pensioner medical service, repatriation medical service and pensioner hospital benefits. [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to the excessive use of Valium and Librium as tranquillisers? [More…]

• The Government has launched a community health program, incorporating a community mental health program, which will correct this problem to the extent that people such as social workers, lay counsellors, domiciliary nurses and home helps can be brought into the community health team and, increasingly, the community itself can be brought in. [More…]

• Of course it is always very easy for those mental health experts on the other side to interject and say that this is brought about by the Party in power in Canberra, but what they consistently said when they were in power was that this is primarily a matter for the States. [More…]

• The Bill before the House is a Bill to amend the Health Insurance Act to incorporate into that Act provisions to protect the privacy of individuals under the Government’s Medibank program. [More…]

• The Bill provides that it is the duty of the Health Insurance Commission to take all reasonable measures to ensure that access, by any person, to medical records is limited to persons who require that access for a purpose in connection with, or incidental to, the operation of the Health Insurance Act or the Health Insurance Commission Act. [More…]

• The effect of the interpretative provisions is to make the Health Insurance Commission responsible for any accesses to a medical record where it is held by the Commission, an agent of the Commission, or a government department. [More…]

• The claims processing system that has been developed by the Health Insurance Commission involves the maintenance of information according to the recipient of the service. [More…]

• A statement concerning any such directions by the Minister is to be included in the annual report of the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• The Government recognises, as did the Committee of Inquiry into the Protection of Privacy, that the measures to be taken to limit accesses to information identifying individuals are so important that they should not be left to the Health Insurance Commission alone. [More…]

• The Bill also contains provisions relating to the issuing and use of health insurance cards. [More…]

• In so far as the use of the cards is concerned the provisions in the Bill are designed to ensure that the cards are used for the purpose intended, that is, to facilitate the claiming of payments under the Health Insurance Act, and for no other purpose. [More…]

• New section 126G provides that it is an offence for a person to make it a condition of the provision of a medical service or hospital treatment by him, or on his behalf, that a person produce a health insurance card or quote a health insurance number. [More…]

• It is further provided, in new section 126H, that it is an offence to request a person to produce a health insurance card or quote a health insurance number except for a purpose in connection with, or incidental to, the operation of the Health Insurance Act or the provision of a medical service in Schedule 1 to that Act or hospital treatment. [More…]

• The Privacy Committee in recommendation 3 proposed that where a health insurance card shows the name of a person the following wording relating to the use of the card should be printed on the back of the card: [More…]

• This card is to help you to remember your Health Insurance number. [More…]

• You need not produce it to obtain health services. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Act at present provides that such claim forms, other than for public hospitals, are to be prescribed and, further, section 133 of the Health Insurance Act provides a general power to make regulations. [More…]

• The Privacy Committee, in recommendation 9, proposed that the claim forms should not require a claimant to specify the nature of illness for which the service was given and the claim forms which will be used by the Health Insurance Commission do not require this information to be given. [More…]

• Firstly, there are cases where the correct assessment of the claim may necessitate the patient or doctor providing the nature of illness to clarify the nature of treatment rendered and this information is already sought by private health insurance funds. [More…]

• Secondly, there is a need for reliable statistical information in relation to illness patterns, and the use of hospitals and other health service facilities, particularly by regions, which could be most conveniently obtained through the Medibank program. [More…]

• This sort of information would be invaluable for medical research and undoubtedly the medical colleges and institutes of research would like to draw on the statistical resources, as would planners of health services. [More…]

• It is considered that this recommendation is adequately covered by existing offence provisions under the Health Insurance Act and other legislation and by the duty imposed upon the Commission, by new section 126B, to limit access to medical records. [More…]

• Recommendation 39, which proposes that the establishment of any linkages between health-related data bases should be deferred, has not been covered by a specific provision in the Bill. [More…]

• However, I am sure honourable members will agree that there are ample safeguards in the Bill to ensure that information identifying individuals collected for Medibank purposes is used only for the purposes of the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• The Government believes that it is equally important that the privacy of contributors to private health insurance funds should also be protected. [More…]

• Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Protection of Privacy with a view to including appro-‘ priate privacy provisions in future legislation to supervise the operations of private health insurance funds. [More…]

• Before I conclude my remarks I would make the same appeal as was made in regard to the Health Insurance Bill (No. [More…]

• One of the greatest problems that faces the dairy farmer today is the hazards that he must put up with, ranging from climatic and animal health hazards to the adverse effect that overseas markets have on the sale of his product. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) to investigate the possibility of giving sympathetic consideration to the establishment of community or Governmentadministered health resource centres in Perth suburbs. [More…]

• Honourable members might wonder why I ask the Minister for Health to give some sympathetic consideration to this problem. [More…]

• The Great Barrier Reef is not only a scientific wonderland, it is also a great centre of tourism, an area of great beauty and an area where people go to restore their health- to get away from the rush and bustle of our cities and perhaps the environmental problems there. [More…]

• What public initiative can achieve in health insurance it can achieve in fair competition in general insurance. [More…]

• The Parramatta City Council agreed that it ought to compromise, as it did on other matters when it agreed to give up the site for its baby health centre in a swap for road widening work that was being undertaken. [More…]

• It was necessary for the baby health centre site to be acquired for this project. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has his attention also been drawn to indexed item 25-Report of the 1969 Workshop on Health and Nutrition of Aborigines. [More…]

• Health and Nutrition of Aborigines which was held in 1969 is a Departmental summary of proceedings and was distributed to the participants and other interested persons. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has he studied the 8 points put forward by Mr Brian Ell who has resigned as the pharmacist at Melba Health Centre. [More…]

• 1 ) Neither I nor the Chairman of the Interim Committee of the Capital Territory Health Commission have received a copy of Mr Brian Ell ‘s paper in which the eight points referred to are listed. [More…]

• They do no coincide with the general views of the current pharmacist, the other professional staff, or the Community Representatives on the Management Committee at the Melba Health Centre. [More…]

• Furthermore, I query Mr Ell’s assertion that ‘The pharmacy is a failure’ (a statement which precedes his eight points) when on his own figures (in an earlier section of the paper) more than 90 per cent of the residents in some suburbs served by the Melba Health Centre use the pharmacy for advice or purchase of a prescription or other item. [More…]

• The pharmacy service at Melba is an important and in many respects unique aspect of community health care. [More…]

• However, there is probably need for at least one more pharmacy in the five suburbs served by the Melba Health Centre. [More…]

• at the Health Centre. [More…]

• No research into Huntington’s Disease is currently being supported by Australian Government funds available through the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• and (2) Two meetings between representatives of the Australian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association and officers of the Department of Health have been held with a view to arriving at mutually acceptable means of reviewing prices of pharmaceutical benefit items. [More…]

• The Standing Interdepartmental Committee on Rehabilitation (SIDCOR) comprises representative from the Departments of the Special Minister of State (chair), Education, Health, Labor and Immigration, Repatriation and Compensation, Social Security and the Treasury, and the Hospitals and Health Services Commission and the Social Welfare Commission. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has his attention also been drawn to indexed item 39- Department of Health surveys of medical fees. [More…]

• and (4) The Department of Health conducted ad hoc surveys of the fees commonly charged by doctors on the basis of information of medical benefits claims paid by the registered health benefits organisations in seeking reimbursement of the amounts of Commonwealth benefits paid during the years 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963, 1966, 1967 and 1 968. [More…]

• Information of the results of the 1968 survey was given to representatives of the registered health benefits organisations and the AMA at the meeting of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Council on 27-28 November 1968. [More…]

• The data of fees commonly charged, which were used to determine the fees on which medical benefits introduced in July 1 970 were based, partly belongs to the AMA and mostly to the health benefits organisations participating in the surveys. [More…]

• I have no objection to any interested organisation or person approaching the AMA and the health benefits organisations to seek access to the information. [More…]

• However, if any organisation or person gets the agreement of the AMA and the health funds concerned to study the information, arrangements will be made for any of the information held in my Department to be available for examination at the relevant office of the Department. [More…]

• Information of the observance of common or Scheduled fees is published in the annual reports of the Director-General of Social Security from 1972-73, and in those of the Director-General of Health prior to 1972-73. [More…]

• The information is restricted only where it may breach the confidentiality of the activities of the individual health benefits organisations currently supplying the information in a form which facilitates computer processing. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has his attention also been drawn to indexed item 40- Departmental calculations of an index of health costs. [More…]

• and (4) In his book Mr Spigelman quoted the DirectorGeneral of Health, in his Annual Report for 1968-69, when referring to the compilation of estimates of total health expenditure in Australia as saying ‘It is hoped to produce a series of similar estimates, thus providing the basis for an index of health costs’. [More…]

• Estimates for 1969-70 were subsequently prepared and published in the 1972-73 Report of the Director-General of Health along with previous estimates for 1960-61, 1963-64 and 1966-67. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Statistician is now publishing annual estimates of health expenditure thus obviating the need for the preparation of estimates by my Department. [More…]

• As stated, these estimates could provide the basis for an index of health costs. [More…]

• The Australian Government consults with the State Governments on uniform emission and effluent standards through the Australian Environmental Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has recommended national emission standards for a wide range of air pollutants. [More…]

• The average numbers of nursing home patients in respect of whom nursing home benefits were paid under the National Health Act each day in the period 1 July 1 974 to 3 1 March 1975 were [More…]

• The average numbers of nursing home patients accommodated in nursing homes conducted for private gain and accommodated in those homes conducted on a nonprofit basis in respect of whom nursing home benefits were paid under the National Health Act each day in the period 1 July 1 974 to 3 1 March 1 975 were: [More…]

• The average daily amounts paid under the National Health Act by way of Australian Government nursing home benefits in the period 1 July 1974 to 3 1 March 1975 in respect of each patient in participating (non-State) nursing homes were: [More…]

• In addition to the daily benefits paid to nursing home patients under the National Health Act the Australian Government meets the deficits incurred by religious and charitable nursing homes who have entered into agreements under the Nursing Homes Assistance Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• No food additives currently recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council and used in Australia for food processing and preservation have been demonstrated to induce cancer at their recommended levels of use. [More…]

• The data required by the Food Additives Sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council to assess the safety of a proposed food additive, include acute, short-term and long-term (chronic) toxicity studies and these require highly sophisticated techniques over a considerable period of time. [More…]

• The existing procedures for the admission of patients to approved nursing homes arose out of the 1972 amendments to the National Health Act which were framed by the former Liberal-Country Party Government and which came into operation on 1 January 1973. [More…]

• Medical certification that admission to a nursing home is appropriate has always been necessary for the purpose of paying nursing home benefits under the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has his attention also been drawn to indexed item 24- Systematic survey of Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is the accepted sampling and testing technique for residues in food used and/or recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has not recommended a general sampling and testing technique for residues in food. [More…]

• Individual surveys are coordinated by strict sampling procedures and guidelines drawn up by the Central Statistical Unit of the Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Australian Government (through the National Health and Medical Research Council); [More…]

• State Departments of Health; [More…]

• The details shown below refer only to research supported by the Australian Government During the calendar year 197S the National Health and Medical Research Council will support various projects related to Asthma totalling $75,000. [More…]

• Applications for research grants are not made direct to the Australian Government Under the Medical Research Endowment Act 1937 all medical research supported by the Government is funded through the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Some further details of the survey and results were announced jointly by the Minister for Education and the Acting Minister for Health in a media release dated 19 May 197S. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Provision does not exist under the National Health Act whereby dentists may prescribe drugs as pharmaceutical benefits. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Has the Priorities Review Staff had kindergartens referred to it for report with particular reference to any conflicts between the Department of Education and the Departments of Health and Social Security. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What further steps have been taken towards the implementation of a scheme to accredit pathology services in Australia, as outlined in the Hospitals and Health Services Commission’s Report of May 1974. [More…]

• 1 ) Since the tabling of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission’s report on ‘A Proposal for a Scheme to Accredit Pathology Services wervices in Australia’, the Commission has established the Joint Pathology Working Party. [More…]

• The Working Party consists of representatives of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, the Australian Department of Health, State Health Authorities (Victoria as an observer), the Royal College of Pathologists, the Australian Medical Associaton, the Australian Association of Clinical Biochemists and the Australian Institute of Medical Technologists. [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission has received a number of submissions from the Nursing Mothers’ Association of Australia for assistance under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What areas of health care do each of the hospitals specialise in providing. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• As the combination product is considered particularly with extended treatment, possibly to have serious side effects, has the Department s desire to obtain the cheapest product possibly endangered the health of many Australians. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• However, the Government, through the Australian Radiation Laboratory of the Department of Health has made arrangements to monitor levels of radioactivity in the atmosphere as a precaution in case of any fallout reaching Australia as a resul t of any incomplete containment of the underground nuclear tests being conducted by France in Polynesia. [More…]

• 2562) Mr Bungey asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Departments of Manufacturing Industry (Chairman), Health, Minerals and Energy, Special Minister of State, Science and Consumer Affairs, Transport, and the Treasury. [More…]

• We are trying to introduce in Australia a health scheme which the people want. [More…]

• We will continually review the activities of the medical profession and of chemists who act as agents under Medibank to see that the people of Australia receive the benefits of a health system to which they are entitled. [More…]

• Given the newfound concern which has been expressed by some supporters of the Government towards the economic health of the private sector we are frankly surprised that they have not paid more regard to this aspect of the argument. [More…]

• Incomes have risen, not only in terms of real personal disposable incomes but in terms of facilities provided to the whole community in health, in education, in social welfare. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The report of the Working Party on Medical and Surgical Aids and Appliances on hearing aids was prepared within the Department of Health to advise me as Minister for Health on implementation of the Government’s long standing policy to provide hearing aids free of charge to those who require them. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The Government is giving consideration to the provision under the National Health Act of orthoses to those who need them. [More…]

• 1 ) What sum will be spent in each of the media on advertising the Government’s community health centre program. [More…]

• Will this money be provided by the Department of Health, or is it part of a general allocation to promote Government policy. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What research is being conducted into rheumatological diseases in Australia, sponsored by the National Health and Medical Research Council and other bodies, and at what annual cost. [More…]

• to (3) Information available to me covers only research into rheumatological diseases supported by the Australian Government through the National Health and [More…]

• I have no information on research expenditure by other bodies such as State Health Commissions, Universities and private industries. [More…]

• Finally, Medibank represents an advantage or a saving of somewhere between $2 and $4 a week- depending on the varying costs in different States- in contributions to health insurance funds. [More…]

• If Medibank had not been introduced in this financial year but the rickety health scheme which the Government inherited had continued this financial year, the Government would have had to pay about $ 1,000m for that old scheme. [More…]

• One of the very great advantages of this year’s Budget will be that the contribution we make to our health schemes will be more equitable, more in accordance with our means than was previously the case. [More…]

• We both belonged to the same health scheme. [More…]

• At that stage my income was only two or three times his income, but because we both deducted the same amount from our taxable income I was able to get my health insurance at a very much less cost than he could. [More…]

• It is clear that the public gave increasing support to the notion that Medibank- universal health insurance- should be financed from a levy on taxable incomes up to a certain ceiling of levy. [More…]

• Medibank will eliminate the necessity for everybody who wanted any assistance from the Australian Government in paying his doctor’s and hospital bills to contribute to health funds, that is private bureaucracies, before he would get any public assistance whatever from his taxes. [More…]

• The Bill will amend the National Health Act by increasing patient contributions for general benefits from $1 to $1.50 and for benefits supplied to beneficiaries under the subsidised health benefits plan from 50c to 75c The increases will take effect from 1 September 1975. [More…]

• Fortunately, the rises in the wholesale prices of drugs listed under the pharmaceutical benefits scheme have not been as great as for the more labour intensive health services. [More…]

• There were 113 private health schemes. [More…]

• There were 1 1 3 separate and distinct administrations and 1 500 000 people living in this country with no health coverage. [More…]

• At the time of the introduction of Medibank, working people were paying as much as professional people for the right to have some sort of health cover. [More…]

• He says that he rejects enforced equality which will result from things such as Medibank, which will give protection to people who in the past could not afford to insure themselves against health expenses. [More…]

• Civil Aviation Organisation, the World Health Organisation and the World Meteorological Organisation Conference. [More…]

• A large group of members of Congress have warned WHO’s director-general that expulsion of Israel would undermine support and confidence in the international health organization. [More…]

• It has become clear that the Arab bloc- the greatest beneficiaries, along with the Third World nations, of UN aid and expertise- is willing to risk destruction of the specialised agencies even if this means depriving millions of people, including its own, of health, welfare, educational and other direct assistance. [More…]

• But what I will not become accustomed to is the way in which an anonymous letter writer or telephone caller can prey on people within the community to the very severe detriment of their health. [More…]

• But the Bill as it now stands gives frightening power to the Director-General of Health and through him to 3 unknown people in the Department of Health who form the pricing bureau and who decide what prices will be paid to drug manufacturers for prescription drugs dispensed under the national health scheme. [More…]

• In fact one could call the Director-General of Health a drug dictator when he received this power. [More…]

• Now a committee has been established on an informal basis between the Department of Health and some of the drug manufacturers to look at the possibility of increasing drug prices because of the implications of bankruptcy and unemployment in the drug manufacturing field. [More…]

• I think that the extent of the knowledge available to the Depanment of Health is not generally known. [More…]

• In addition to the Department of Health having this information available to it the Taxation Office has a special group which is investigating pharmaceutical companies. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) acknowledged this in his second reading speech on the National Health (Pharmaceutical Benefits Charges) Bill which he made in this House yesterday when he stated: [More…]

• Fortunately, the rises in the wholesale prices of drugs listed under the pharmaceutical benefits scheme have not been as great as for the more labour intensive health services. [More…]

• I mentioned earlier that presently there is actually a special committee comprising officers of the Department of Health and some manufacturers who are looking at this cost price squeeze of drug manufacturers in Australia. [More…]

• This Bill, as it is now, as I said earlier, gives frightening power to the Director-General of Health or to these 3 unknown people in the pricing bureau. [More…]

• In New Zealand, information is required on imported drugs, not by the Department of Health, but by the Department of Trade for other reasons. [More…]

• This was purchased by the Government recently and I have here a Press statement of the Minister for Health in which several things are stated. [More…]

• -The National Health Bill was introduced by the Minister for the Media (Dr Cass) acting for the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham). [More…]

• The recommendation said that the National Health Act should be amended to allow the Department of Health to obtain cost and financial information in respect of products in the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. [More…]

• There is at present no power under the National Health Act to require that the Government be given the details of costing. [More…]

• This is tantamount to the Government signing a blank cheque in the name of the taxpayer, who foots the bill, and it leaves the Department of Health dependent on negotiations with drug manufacturers and distributors to try to achieve fair and reasonable prices for pharmaceutical benefit items. [More…]

• If this legislation is deferred until a report is presented by the Industries Assistance Commission on the whole drug industry, very many consumers may have to pay the full cost of the drugs they need for their health’s sake. [More…]

• There is no reason for the Department of Health to delay negotiations with individual companies over the pricing of drugs marketed in Australia as this is a separate although it may be a related issue. [More…]

• If he knew what he was talking about, if he had a look at the figures as I will explain in a few moments in relation to a breakdown of the figures on total health expenditure for 1973-74, hie would know that drug companies in Australia are not making very high profits. [More…]

• I was not a member of the Committee when it brought down the report containing the section referred to in the second reading speech delivered by the then Acting Minister for Health, Dr Cass. [More…]

• I do not subscribe to this view and do not suggest that if a person is going to be the Minister for Health he should be a doctor or he should be a lawyer if he were going to be the Attorney-General or an engineer if he were going to hold a portfolio that had something to do with Works. [More…]

• As the Acting Minister for Health pointed out in the second reading speech, this Bill resulted from the report of the Prices Committee. [More…]

• In his second reading speech the then Acting Minister for Health referred to patented drugs and stated that the voluntary system had not always been successful in obtaining information from manufacturers on costs of patented drugs. [More…]

• Will it be the Minister for Health or some of his bureaucrats? [More…]

• I would hope that the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), who is a medical practitioner, would be interested in the quality of the drugs that we bring on to the market in this country. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health who is at the table will agree that quality control is of the utmost importance. [More…]

• If we look at the total expenditure for 1973-74 we find that a little over $3 billion was spent on health and yet prescription medicines required $299m. [More…]

• I believe we have to be extremely careful that we do not apply too many restrictions to drug manufacturers in this country because the country ‘s health is at stake. [More…]

• -I join inthe debate on the National Health Bill (No. [More…]

• Surely the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and his socialist government should take a reasonable attitude and try to promote the free enterprise system which has been the most successful way of producing goods in this country. [More…]

• Under the section dealing with health sub-section 1 7 reads: [More…]

• The initial speech of the Minister for the Media (Dr Cass) as Acting Minister for Health outlined the intentions of this Bill when he presented it. [More…]

• So do not let it be said that because we are extending health benefits to a wider range of people without so much direct cost to the patient and the consumer we are trying to disturb, destroy or displace the private sector. [More…]

• Surely the crunch comes in the extract he read from the first report in November 1973 of the Joint Committee on Prices- a joint committee, not a Government committee; it has Opposition members on it too- which stated that the National Health Act should be amended to allow the Department of Health to obtain cost and financial information in respect of products in the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. [More…]

• I draw the honourable member’s attention to section 135A of the National Health Act. [More…]

• Why is the honourable member prepared to say that he supports detailed investigation of the affairs of companies by taxation officers- he says that is good practice and he supports it- yet he is not prepared to have a similar and confidential investigation by officers of the Pricing Bureau of the Department of Health which has to disperse the public money that the Taxation Office collects? [More…]

• Why is it all right to trust the taxation officers with confidential information in taking tax money off the companies when it is not all right to trust officers of the Department of Health who are going to give tax money back to the companies? [More…]

• They belong to the Pricing Bureau of the Department of Health. [More…]

• 1 ) Belconnen Health Complex. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health,’ upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• When will the National Health and Medical Research Council refer to the Food Standards Committee the question of labelling alcohol beverage containers with the alcohol content of the beverage contained therein. [More…]

• The recommendations of the Food Standards Committee have now been referred to the Standing Committee on the Health Problems of Alcohol for consideration within the broader sociological context. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Have any requests been received from the National Health and Medical Research Council for an excise differential to encourage the production of a lower alcohol content beer. [More…]

• and (2) The National Health and Medical Research Council Health Problems of Alcohol (Reference) Committee has recommended that beers should be subject to an excise differential which favours those with a low alcohol content I have recently sent a copy pf this recommendation to my colleague the Minister for Police and Customs requesting him to consider this matter and to let me have his views. [More…]

• Contrary to claims by the MBF in New South Wales, receipts and accounts are not necessary and health insurance funds have sufficient information on the Medibank statement to enable them to pay ‘gap’ insurance. [More…]

• Fortunately, to thencredit, the other health insurance funds in Australia have chosen to take a much more constructive and helpful attitude to Medibank’ Senator Wheeldon said. [More…]

• If the health funds keep proper records of claims that they have paid it should be a simple matter to check that payment is not duplicated in future. [More…]

• This week at the University of Queensland there is one on Women and Health. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• He had previously cancelled his health insurance and was relying on Medibank and the Hospital Service Scheme for protection. [More…]

• In these circumstances can the Minister inform me whether the Capital Territory Health Commission can pay the account which the resident concerned received? [More…]

• Unfortunately, under the Medibank agreement the Capital Territory Health Commission can cover only the cost of an Australian Capital Territory resident’s stay outside the Australian Capital Territory for non-emergency treatment if the referral received the prior approval of a medical administrator with the Commissionfor example, if someone had to go to Sydney for treatment not available in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• Dr Jenkins is reported to be in bad health and to have agreed to stand down. [More…]

• Mention of bad health is made in the article. [More…]

• Many honourable members in this House have health problems. [More…]

• -The National Health (Pharmaceutical Benefits Charges) Bill 1975 increases the patient contribution for general pharmaceutical benefit from $1 to $1.50 and the subsidised health benefit prescription charge from 50c to 75c. [More…]

• The increases were announced by the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) on 24 July, but at the same time he announced the rejection of Sir Walter Scott’s recommendation on retrospective payments for pharmaceutical benefits to chemists for prescription fees or dispensing fees which date back to 1 July 1973. [More…]

• How does it also match this increased patient contribution in the pharmaceutical section of our national health scheme with its own insistence on having no patient contribution for the medical section of a national health scheme? [More…]

• I would be interested to hear how Labor resolves these quite apparent and quite serious contradictions, all contained in its own health policy. [More…]

• It is a scheme which provides for government financial support for the purchase of drugs necessary for the restoration of health or the return to normal life of those people who need such treatment through drug therapy. [More…]

• The chemists of Australia believed- I think rightly- that the present Minister for Health and the present Government would completely honour any recommendations made by Sir Walter Scott. [More…]

• The Australian Journal of Pharmacy of February 1973 contained a transcript of an interview between Mr Charles Hellier and the Minister for Health in his office in Parliament House, which stated: [More…]

• It appears that when it became obvious that the recommendations for retrospective payments for dispensing fees to chemists would be higher than had been originally anticipated the Department of Health unilaterally and arbitrally altered the criteria in the closing stages of the investigation. [More…]

• Of course, this substantially altered the view of the Department of Health on what the retrospective payments should be. [More…]

• Then the Minister was placed in a rather strange position because the only way in which the Department of Health was able to provide such a new set of criteria was with the agreement of the Minister. [More…]

• He was in the really strange position of going to Cabinet and arguing against himself, because we have been told that he said that he would put the case for the Department of Health, for the Sir Walter Scott compromise reached between the Department of Health and the Pharmacy Guild, and for the Pharmacy Guild. [More…]

• It was no surprise to anyone, seeing that the Minister was obviously supporting the Department of Health as he had agreed with it to make the change in the first place, that the Government accepted the Department’s ruling which had arbitrarily excluded three of the six levels of economic criteria for chemists in Australia. [More…]

• -The National Health (Pharmaceutical Benefits Charges) Bill seeks to increase the patient contribution for each prescription provided under the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. [More…]

• Currently that contribution is $1 for the general public and 50c for those holding a subsidised health benefits entitlement. [More…]

• In the light of the Government’s desire to cut down the rate of growth of government expenditure I believe that the decision by the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and the Cabinet is the minimum increase that could be granted and is thoroughly consistent with our Party ‘s policy and platform. [More…]

• They feel unsatisfied unless they come out with a certificate of ill health in the form of some medication to eradicate their illness. [More…]

• I compliment at this point the Minister for his attempt to increase the rate of graduation of general practitioners and their entry into that vital section of family medicine and family health. [More…]

• The Department of Health quoted the British experience which suggests a correlation between patient contribution and prescription volume. [More…]

• I suggest to the honourable member and to the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) that due consideration has not been given in this whole exercise to the number of small pharmacies in outlying suburbs and in smaller towns. [More…]

• This Bill seeks to increase the pharmaceutical benefit item charge from $1 to $1.50 for drugs under the national health scheme. [More…]

• The Bill also seeks to increase from 50c to 75c the charge for those patients who are catered for under the subsidised health benefits scheme. [More…]

• In answering the Minister’s speech on the reason why the patient contribution towards the national health prescription should be increased from $1 to $1.50 one must of necessity also look into the composition of the elements which make up the costs of the national health prescription and what has happened to these costs in the past 3 years, that is, since the financial year 1972-73, for it is in the years since then that the major increases in costs have occurred. [More…]

• The aim of the inquiry was that the Government and the nation would have available in great detail complete information as to the average cost of dispensing a national health scheme prescription. [More…]

• These were the major points of the inquiry which was conducted by a secretariat within the Department of Health directed by a sub-committee of the main joint committee. [More…]

• It must be remembered that the results we have are from an inquiry statistically designed for no other reason than to discover the average cost of dispensing a national health scheme prescription. [More…]

• The total income received by this stratum under the national health scheme in this period was $4,589 when assessed at $5 per hour. [More…]

• However, because these same departmental advisers manipulated only one set of figuresthat is the cost of national health scheme items- we have the most ludicrous and unbelievable situations where stratum 1 proprietors are paid at the rate of $1.25 per hour when dispensing national health scheme items but at the correct rate of $4.86 per hour when dispensing repatriation prescriptions. [More…]

• If one now studies the total picture of the cost of national health scheme items as a whole- here I can use only the combined total figures of national health scheme and pensioner prescriptionsone sees that since 1972-73 the total volume has increased from more than 74 million to more than 97 million- an increase of 23 million items or 33 W per cent. [More…]

• That is, a large proportion of this increase is brought about by alterations to items available under the national health scheme and so the increase is not a total income increase to the industry. [More…]

• So if we look at actual alterations in the gross income per national health scheme prescription- and here for convenience we look at the Government’s figures which include the 11c and 22c increases plus any other increase in the past 3 years- we find that at 1 January 1972, labour, expenses, and return on funds amounted to 113.57c. [More…]

• The honourable member for Petrie, when referring to another table which appears in the 1973-74 annual report of the Director-General of Health quite correctly referred to an increase in prescriptions a large proportion of which were due to bringing the oral contraceptives, anovulants on to the pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• Table 1 of the Annual Report of the DirectorGeneral of Health 1973-74, which is a table of life expectancy for the Australian population. [More…]

• Before that, each year the volume of prescriptions written under the national health scheme had risen steadily, but after the charge was increased from 50c to $1 the volume formed a plateau for some 12 months and then started to rise again. [More…]

• I think we should have a look at the proposal of health maintenance organisations for a pre-paid health insurance scheme under which a fixed amount is paid and there is an incentive on the part of the people providing the service to keep the costs of the scheme down. [More…]

• I support the Bill, but I ask the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and the Government to start looking around for more effective ways of deterring the over-use of drugs than financial penalties which can selectively hit low income earners with chronic illnesses or with large families. [More…]

• The Minister for Health in 1972, Sir Kenneth Anderson, undertook that if there were substantial differences between the negotiating partiesthe Government on the one hand and the retail chemists, dispensers, on the other- either side could ask for arbitration. [More…]

• Under this Government responsibility has been assumed for local government and health. [More…]

• The system of rebates, as it has been implemented, amounts to a cancellation of deductions for health and dental expenses, school fees and so forth for taxpayers who claim less than $1,350. [More…]

• When the impact of the rebates is added to the impact of inflation on the tax burden it is clear that this Budget is one more instrument to implement the Prime Minister’s philosophy of making everyone dependent on government for basic services such as health, education and retirement. [More…]

• We choose this course at the expense of some desirable government programs because we place first priority on restoring Australia’s health. [More…]

• There was nothing about health. [More…]

• But in one of his radio announcements not so very long ago he said that Medibank at $ 1,400m was half the deficit, quite forgetting that he was thereby suggesting that, at the moment, health expenditure was nil and that Medibank came in and added $ 1,400m. [More…]

• Health expenditure at the moment is $ 1,000m and if he wants to use arguments against Medibank in relation to the deficit he has only $400m to play with and not $ 1 ,400m. [More…]

• Tonight the success of the Budget strategy, and through it the health of the economy as a whole, rests with the groups the Treasurer addressed last Tuesday when he said: [More…]

• It is only fair to mention that the Budget now absorbs some of the payments previously made to health insurance funds. [More…]

• If the knowledge of the Leader of the Opposition of other items in the Budget is as good as his knowledge of the health items it will be a sorry day for Australia if he ever sits on the Treasury bench. [More…]

• I note that the Opposition spokesman on health is interested in putting up that margin of profitability. [More…]

• Because of its commitment to the production of unique products absolutely essential for the public health of Australia and unattractive or unprofitable for private enterprise it makes a loss in some areas such as the processing of free blood donations for the extraction of often rare components for use in life saving situations. [More…]

• The obsessive ideological extremism of the Leader of the Opposition and his spokesman on health matters would only terminate the manufacture of some products in Australia or lead to their manufacture by the private sector with substantial government subsidies. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition did not dare to specify any other areas in the health field which he would cut, yet health is the biggest single item in the Budget- one that we have rapidly increased. [More…]

• Would he cut the community health program? [More…]

• Will it enable or induce the private sector to turn its attention once again to growth, development and new horizons, with all that that means in terms of providing jobs for Australians and a higher standard of living and the very capacity the better to meet those aspirations in the education, health, welfare, defence and other fields where community demands have outrun the ability to provide? [More…]

• As I have said, the tragedy of this Budget and of the Government’s overall economic policy is the inadequacy of measures to restore the health of the private sector. [More…]

• Health in this context means a reasonable profitability which, of course, is just what industry is not getting. [More…]

• The truth of the matter is that if the Opposition were in power the fields of education, health and social services- areas of major expenditure by this Government- would have suffered disastrous cutbacks. [More…]

• Community health centres, schools, pensions and the like would have been areas in which the slack would have been taken up- the gap that is totally unexplained by honourable members sitting on the other side of the House. [More…]

• Food, shelter, security for old age, health, education, mental, cultural, spiritual and emotional fulfilment are the essential building blocks of our society. [More…]

• We probably have too many of them but they are a very real factor in the health of Australia’s economy. [More…]

• Basically, the people who are likely to gain anything from this Budget are those who have no deduction for health care, education and life insurance. [More…]

• We have tried to show with the Karmel Committee and with inquiries into the State health services how the States can improve the standard of living of Australians. [More…]

• After this Budget no one in industry, whether large, medium or small, can doubt that the Government is hostile to industry and does not intend to adopt policies which will assist industry to restore the economy to its proper state of health. [More…]

• Tasmania will get $4.5m for total health grants as compared with $2.9m last year making a total of over $ 16m more than last year and the Liberal MPs say there was nothing for Tasmania in the Budget. [More…]

• Because of the shortage of time I will not be able to itemise the complete list, but I point out that the Australian Government assists in meeting debt charges and in the fields of State emergency services, universities, colleges of advanced education, technical and further education, schools, pre-schools, child migrant educational research, Medibank, public hospitals, running community health services, television control, school dental health, health education, home dialysis, blood transfusion services, health planning agencies, housekeeping services, home care services, senior citizen’s assistance, assistance to deserted wives, employment grants, regional employment development schemes, social planning units, Aboriginal advancement, housing, area improvement, sewerage, local government, regional organisations, leisure and recreation tourism and, in Perth, the underground railway study and matters of that nature, going right through to the natural disaster area. [More…]

• Community needs would be adequate health services, adequate means of transport and communication such as roads, railways, and adequate means of verbal and written communication. [More…]

• I refer firstly to health. [More…]

• We notice that there is to be an increase this year in expenditure on health of $ 1,494.1m. [More…]

• Health is recognised by all as an individual and community need. [More…]

• For all of this money, will we get better doctors, better treatment and an improved health scheme? [More…]

• Socialised health is the keystone in the arch of a socialist state. [More…]

• So much for this Government’s handling of the community’s health needs. [More…]

• But the difference is that the priorities of the Labor Party and the Government lie in the area of quality of life, in the area of education, in the area of welfare services and in the area of community health. [More…]

• We are protecting them by means of sweeping reforms in the personal pay-as-you-earn tax system, by substantial pension increases, our free health scheme under Medibank, and improved education programs. [More…]

• He claimed that half the deficit was caused by the $ 1,444m appropriated for Medibank but failed to mention that $ 1,000m of this was to cover the cost of the old health scheme. [More…]

• According to them $400m spent on health brings about an economic problem. [More…]

• We spent extra money on health services. [More…]

• However, detailed studies of health manpower recently mounted by my Department are intended to assess the needs for medical specialties. [More…]

• In respect of allied health personnel needed to treat rheumatic disease, a recent report of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission has recommended an increase in supply of both occupational therapists and physiotherapists. [More…]

• The report, ‘Australian Health Manpower’, was tabled on 4 March 1 97S. [More…]

• In its quest to improve the quality of all kinds of health care, the Government, through its Community Health Program, is supporting a variety of services and facilities, for example, day hospitals, health centres, and domiciliary care teams. [More…]

• In addition, the Government, through its Hospitals Development Program, is directly involved in the development and improvement of public hospitals and other health care institutions. [More…]

• It represents a joint initiative between the Australian and State Governments and is aimed at co-ordinated planning of all health care facilities on a regional, State and national basis. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• When will the result of the survey of chemists’ National Health Service dispensing costs for the financial year 1972-73 be announced so that the Government can honour its commitment to make good any deficiency in payments to chemists for the period since 1 July 1973. [More…]

• Apart from the debt of gratitude that the people of Australia owe to the natives of the Territory, the Government regards it as its bounden duty to further to the utmost the advancement of the natives, and considers that that can be achieved only by providing facilities for better health, better education and for a greater participation by the natives in the wealth of their country and eventually in its government . [More…]

• I believe that all of us wish the people and the Government of Papua New Guinea health and strength in undertaking the enormous task of being responsible for their own government and their own administration. [More…]

• Would he abolish the health centres? [More…]

• We have been able to demonstrate here that we can establish cities somewhere other than on the eastern seaboard; that we can establish pleasant urban living facilities in the country; that we can have good education, good health services, good roads and at the same time enjoy the advantages of a rural environment. [More…]

• One area not adequately discussed is health expenditure. [More…]

• Good sense requires that we impose a charge on the users of the health scheme as they use it. [More…]

• The health scheme is not free and we should face that fact. [More…]

• To the extent that spending was relieved by the collection of contributions from the users of the health scheme, the gap between expenditure and revenue in the Budget would have been narrowed. [More…]

• -Mr Deputy Speaker, I do not want to be rude, but the speech of the right honourable member for Bruce (Mr Snedden) was just crammed full of meaningless generalities, such as the statements that social welfare must be paid for and that the health scheme is not free. [More…]

• Of course the health scheme is not free. [More…]

• So the health appropriations are now a part of the overall budgetary appropriations. [More…]

• Pensions will now be tied to the consumer price index and although health will receive double last year’s allocation and 28 new legal aid offices will be established, the Government staff growth rate and administrative expenditure will be severely curtailed. [More…]

• The health, welfare and comfort of the Vh million people in this country who depend on pensions and benefits could have been enhanced if we did not have to hold the hand of big business. [More…]

• Our policy in this year is to consolidate the reforms which have already been introduced through the major new measures we have taken with the programs of public expenditure in health, education and urban and regional development. [More…]

• He was honest enough to say to the people that unless we are prepared to be courageous enough to make a significant contribution to the recovery of the private sector- the sector of our economy which the Treasurer recognises is essential to our economic health- then economic recovery is simply not going to be achieved. [More…]

• Public Health (Prohibited Drugs) Ordinance and also restrict the sale of certain therapeutic substances. [More…]

• The amendment will also add to the Schedule of Prohibited Substances buclosamide, buniodyl sodium, desomorphine, tetrahydrocannabinol and triparanol in accordance with National Health and Medical Research Council recommendations. [More…]

• I understand that similar surveys are carried out by State Public Health Inspectors as part of their normal duties. [More…]

• There has been a long saga continuing over the whole weekend, also yesterday and now today by the spokesman on health for the Opposition to explain what he means about Medibank. [More…]

• Our concern that it will provide a lesser health service at greater cost remains. [More…]

• It is good to know that at last after all these years the Opposition and even its health spokesman will face up to the fact that Australia should now have a system of financing medical and hospital expenses such as every comparable country has had for years past and as Australia itself had for 5 years after 1947 before an incoming Liberal Government abolished it on that occasion. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I ask: Do the guidelines for the community health programs recommended by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission and adopted by the Australian Government as policy, clearly envisage that local communities should be involved in the planning, initiation and management of community health centres? [More…]

• If so, could the Minister inform the House of the funds made available to the Queensland Government for community based health services, the extent of community involvement in Queensland community health centres and particularly whether the Queensland Government is adhering to the Australian Government policy of community involvement in community health centres? [More…]

• It is true that guidelines for community based health services recommended by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission were implemented under 2 programs by the Australian Government- the community health program and the community mental health, alcoholism and drug dependency program. [More…]

• 9m for the 2 programs in Queensland which are now combined under the community health program. [More…]

• Administration of most community health centres is the responsibility of individual State governments. [More…]

• In response to the latter part of the honourable member’s question: Queensland does not have a good record of community involvement in community health centres, and a large responsibility lies with the Queensland Government. [More…]

• I should like to quote from a letter received from a senior officer of the Queensland Department of Health. [More…]

• This Department’s policy does not allow for community participation in the management of its community health service centres, and it does not establish management or advisory committees at the local level for this purpose. [More…]

• In contrast, I quote paragraph 19 of the report of the Interim Committee of the National Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• The community health services should be responsive to the needs of the people they are designed to serve. [More…]

• Within my electorate I called a public meeting to inform people of the objectives of the community health program, but State Government employees of the Queensland Community Medicine Division of the Department of Health were forbidden to attend in an official capacity. [More…]

• Here, the Inala and District Community Health Services Committee, elected from a public meeting, is encountering what can only be called obstruction from the Queensland Department of Health. [More…]

• I am becoming impatient with the attitude of both the Queensland Government and the Queensland Department of Health. [More…]

• My attitude is that if the Queensland Government is not willing to allow community participation in management of its community health centres it is accepting money from the Australian Government under false pretences. [More…]

• If the Queensland Government will not honour federal guidelines for community involvement it should be prepared to initiate its own program of community health. [More…]

• The seeming policy of the Queensland Department of Health is antiquated, bureaucratic, centralised and shortsighted. [More…]

• One only has to look at the success of the Deer Park community health centre to realise the applicability and success of community involvement in community health centres. [More…]

• At Deer Park the local community is responsible for hiring and firing of staff and recommends to my Department new health areas the centre could broach. [More…]

• Second-rate health services are good enough for the poorer taxpayers. [More…]

• We are told that the Opposition supports Medibank and then the Opposition spokesman on health, the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp), says that the Opposition would change Medibank. [More…]

• It is of the utmost importance that in social services, in education, in health, in the submerged lands and sea areaand in many, but not all others- there should be an expanding, not a contracting, role for the Commonwealth. [More…]

• In hospital and health care in the central coast electorate of Robertson over $6m has been spent in education it has been $3m; in welfare $1,650,000; in seen and telecommunications work almost $3m; in sport and recreation facilities $2.3m; in tourism $3.3m, with the acquisition of shares in the Old Sydney Town project; in major drainage works $1.5m; curbing, guttering and footpath paving- a lot of these projects carried out through the Regional Employment Development scheme- in excess of $lm; in water reticulation, $1,124,000; and in recreation, council parks and gardens, nearly $700,000. [More…]

• His program, in order to have any semblance of economic responsibility, would have to tear the heart out of the Government’s education, welfare, health and urban development and recreation programs that are designed to provide equality of opportunity, income security, good health and a more pleasant environment for all. [More…]

• They can afford to pay for the best schools, the best health care and the best urban environment and have no need of income security programs. [More…]

• There has been a great increase in the field of public health. [More…]

• -I want to restrict my comments tonight to health matters in the Budget. [More…]

• The major impression one gets from the Budget is that health care is not cheap and that there is no such thing as a free health scheme. [More…]

• Health costs inevitably increase at a faster rate than costs generally, so while inflation continues unchecked by this Government and unless new priorities in health care are established, the annual cost escalation in health care will be frightening. [More…]

• If government policy continues as it is the cost of health care will be such that we will reach the same position that Great Britain reached some years ago and that Canada has reached now, where health services are arbitrarily restricted by government ceilings on expenditure. [More…]

• The Canadian health scheme has 2 aspects. [More…]

• So Canada, once the great area for the present Government to look to in respect of health care, has its health scheme ending the same way as Britain’s with arbitrarily imposed ceilings on health care costs. [More…]

• This means that there is an urgent need to move health expenditure away from the most expensive end of the health care spectrum- that is, the acute shortage of hospital beds- to domiciliary arrangements, day care arrangements, community arrangements, prevention, early intervention and rehabilitation rather than maintenance. [More…]

• Nevertheless, I commend the innovative skill of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission and its chairman, Dr Sax. [More…]

• The greatest area of increase in health expenditure is Medibank. [More…]

• One point that does emerge from the Budget is that there are considerable cuts in health because, as in education where there are also considerable cuts, the Government’s program cannot be sustained. [More…]

• This is a tragedy for medical research in Australia and for the future health of the Australian people because that $8m provided last year was already a reduced level of research expenditure. [More…]

• Since the Budget announcement, due to pressure from medical research people aU over Australia, and I congratulate them on their constructive activity in this regard, and to pressure from the Opposition, the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) was forced to agree last Friday that there had been a blunder. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) yesterday predicted there was a ‘better than 50/50 chance’ of the Government boosting its $4m Budget allocation for medical research this financial year. [More…]

• ‘The people in the Health Department whom Treasury relied on for its estimates were not the ones they should have looked to for knowledge of research manpower needs,’ he said. [More…]

• The Opposition is considering moves to embarrass the Government and its Health Minister (Dr Everingham) over grants in the Federal Budget for medical research this year being cut to $4 million. [More…]

• At least pressure from the Opposition and the threat of a debate on a matter of public importance in Parliament this afternoon produced some results because tonight we have had released another Press statement in which one is told of the flap in Treasury and in the Department of Health yesterday to get a hurried decision in time for the debate on the matter of public importance that may have been held in Parliament this afternoon. [More…]

• The Press statement made by the Minister for Health a little while ago tonight indicates that the crisis in medical research will continue in this country. [More…]

• The Australian Minister for Health, Dr Doug Everingham, announced today that the National Health and Medical Research Council had been assured of an allocation of $4m for its research programs in the second half of the 1 976 calendar year. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has failed to obtain any additional money this financial year for medical research. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council asked for $47m for the coming triennium. [More…]

• What the Minister for Health has done is to fail on both counts. [More…]

• So much for the concern of this Government for medical research, the medical research workers of the country and the future health of Australians; and so much for this evenings Press statement from the Minister for health in which he claims that funds are assured for medical research. [More…]

• However, it is now considered that the responsibility for the disposal of such wastes rests with the Department of Health and the generators of the wastes. [More…]

• It seems that it would be more satisfactory for the Department of Health to have the responsibility for the provision and maintenance of quarantine incinerators . [More…]

• There are also moves within the Department of Health, at the behest of the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam), to end the co-operative Federal-State arrangements on animal and plant quarantine functions which have existed since Federation and to transfer the functions to completely Federal control. [More…]

• It is also a public health matter of some importance. [More…]

• I believe that it is most important for the Government to accept these recommendations and to get on with the job that is required from the point of view of public health and agricultural exports. [More…]

• My question which is addressed to the Minister for Health is supplementary to questions which he answered last week. [More…]

• The management of Fawnmac Industries Pry Ltd has told the Department of Health that there is no evidence that private enterprise customers of its tablet manufacturing subsidiary are taking their business elsewhere. [More…]

• -I remind the honourable member that the Bill before the House at the moment is not the National Health Bill. [More…]

• This Australian Labor Government places great emphasis on social security, education and health. [More…]

• An amount of $ 102.4m is contained in the Budget for grants to the States for health programs. [More…]

• Grants to Tasmania include the provision of money for the following purposes: Community health facilities, $1.8m; tuberculosis control, $305,000; school dental schemes, which of course are an innovation under this Government, $2.1m; health education campaigns, $51,000; blood transfusion services, $85,000; recurrent expenditure by health planning agencies, $20,000; home dialysis supplies and equipment, $114,000. [More…]

• I recall grants of $145,000 under the Aged Persons Homes Act for 4 projects at Smithton and Ulverstone; $8,200 for environment and conservation; $253,000 for community health and school dental services; $206,000 for tourism and recreation grants; $100,000 for child care centre grants; $12,000 towards the Australian Assistance Plan for salaries; and $91,000 for road safety improvements. [More…]

• One area that has again received some attentionthis is another of the new priorities set by this Government- is assistance to community health centres. [More…]

• The Budget allocates $65 m under the community health program. [More…]

• I am very pleased that the Australian Government, which is providing most of the finance, in conjunction with the South Australian Government has been able to establish community health centres in areas where previously health care services were either practically non-existent or left much to be desired. [More…]

• One area in which we would anticipate the official opening of a community health centre soon is the opal mining centre of Coober Pedy which is an isolated community with a population of up to 4000 people situated about 600 miles north-west of Adelaide. [More…]

• The Government in conjunction with the State Government provided a community health centre in this area. [More…]

• The building is finished and I would hope that we would have the pleasure of having the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) to perform the opening in the near future. [More…]

• A hospital was established there but the Australian Government, again in conjunction with the State Government, will provide the bulk of the finance to establish a community health centre in that area. [More…]

• It was opened by the Federal Minister for Health about 2 months ago and it should help to overcome the health needs of that community. [More…]

• The centre has a mobile servicing unit attached to it which will be able to visit the areas a bit further out in order to give the people in those areas a decent health service. [More…]

• There has been an allocation from the Australian Government for community health centres and there have been some educational grants. [More…]

• We aim to curb it, but we do not aim to throw away the great program of reform and change that this Government introduced into our community starting in 1972- the programs we have been following through steadily since in education, in community health, in social welfare. [More…]

• He did not mention health, social security, education or pensions. [More…]

• Social security, education and health are the traditional areas where the Opposition, when it was in government, always economised. [More…]

• Because they were not mentioned by the Leader of the Opposition or other honourable members opposite, do we take it that the Opposition endorses our policies on education, that the Opposition accepts the Schools Commission, our community health program, the hospital building program and Medibank? [More…]

• This Budget is one more instrument to implement ‘ the Prime Minister’s philosophy of making everyone dependent on government for basic services such as health, education and retirement. [More…]

• No single family unit can ever provide everything that is exactly necessary for the health and education of that family. [More…]

• Previously the provision of facilities for health services and education depended only on the ability to pay. [More…]

• This born to rule philosophy shows through very clearly in what Mr Malcolm Fraser had to say about people being dependent on government basic services such as health, education and retirement. [More…]

• Good health surely should be the right of every person who lives within the community, but as before with education, good health for 23 years had been determined by the ability to pay. [More…]

• Does Mr Fraser want us to go back to the situation where, if a person has the money, health services are available to him and if a person cannot afford to pay then devil take the hindmost? [More…]

• As far as I am concerned the speech of the Leader of the Opposition gave warning to all within the social services area and in the area of community health. [More…]

• It rejects the philosophy of people being dependent on government for basic services such as health, education and retirement. [More…]

• It was well known how neglected our pensioners, health services, education and the many social agencies were within Australia. [More…]

• If it likes to defer Medibank so that it has to meet greatly increased expenditure on health, that is its decision. [More…]

• Where other appointments have been available- such as in the Industries Assistance Commission, formerly the Tariff Board, the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Wool Corporation- we have appointed women for the first time. [More…]

• Where new bodies have been established, such as education commissions, the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, the Children’s Commission and the Australia Council, from the very outset my Government has appointed women to them. [More…]

• Indeed, it is the Government’s intention that they should be improved and that pensioners should get exactly the same treatment and opportunities as people who can afford private health insurance. [More…]

• Then there was the Honourable D. A. Cameron, a former Minister for Health who was appointed High Commissioner to New Zealand. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), would immediately outlaw boxing, which he proposes to do in future legislation, because of the tragic state in which the honourable member would be seen walking around this place. [More…]

• Department of Health, Department of Repatriation and Compensation, and Department of Social Security (together). [More…]

• In the field of health the States Grants (Hospitals) Bill will be introduced. [More…]

• This Bill will propose a 3-year program for capital assistance to States for the development of public hospital facilities, including nursing homes and mental health faculties. [More…]

• Incomes have risen, not only in terms of real personal disposable incomes but in terms of facilities provided to the whole community in health, in education, in social welfare. [More…]

• It should be realised, although I think a lot of people do not realise it, that public hospitals no longer charge fees and that it is no longer necessary to belong to a private health insurance fund if one goes to a public hospital in the participating States. [More…]

• This means that unless people want to insure specifically for private hospital accommodation, private health insurance is no longer necessary. [More…]

• The system of rebates, as it has been implemented, amounts to a cancellation of deductions for health and dental expenses, school fees and so forth for taxpayers who claim less than $1,350. [More…]

• Would they cut expenditure on health, which is a basic right of every Australian? [More…]

• Would they cut back on Medibank just for spite, to prove it would be a failure, and so jeopardise the health care of all Australians? [More…]

• The average employee’s real earnings- that is, after tax- rose 7 per cent in 1974-75, or almost 10 per cent when the unrecorded benefits from education, health and social security are added. [More…]

• When we asked whether they would slash health expenditure, they said: ‘Oh, no’. [More…]

• Though some routine coastal surveillance activity is required for specifically defence purposes, the major requirement is oriented to the support of the civil authorities -with particular concern for fisheries, health and customs. [More…]

• Quarantine matters come within the purview of my colleague the Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• to (4) Prices for pharmaceutical benefit items are reached by negotiations which are undertaken by departmental officers nominated by the Director-General of Health with senior executives of individual firms. [More…]

• and (6) On becoming Minister for Health, 1 had it made known to departmental officers who undertake price negotiations for pharmaceutical benefits that it was my wish that they achieve price reductions wherever possible. [More…]

• Negotiations were undertaken by departmental officers nominated by the Director-General of Health and they operated with my full support using to the fullest advantage our bargaining position in the market. [More…]

• 1 ) At the recent Australian Health Ministers’ Conference the following important decisions were agreed upon in respect of controlling cigarette advertising: [More…]

• WARNING- SMOKING IS A HEALTH HAZARD’. [More…]

• On 7 May 1975 a conjoint press statement was issued by the State Ministers for Health (Dr J. R. Maclntyre representing the Tasmanian Health Minister), announcing their agreement to include these decisions in uniform legislation to control cigarette advertising. [More…]

• In the area of health, the difference is of the order of $140m. [More…]

• Given the increase in unspecified grants and the fact that the Australian Government contributes 90 per cent of the operating costs and 75 per cent of the capital costs of community health projects, it is difficult to understand why this worthwhile program has been slowed down. [More…]

• Consistent with the Australian Government’s ongoing commitment to community health services, the Budget provides $65m for this year compared with $42.5m in 1974-75. [More…]

• In all, about 1 500 positions were created in New South Wales under the community health program. [More…]

• Not only is Mr Lewis threatening to stand down up to 600 employees of the Public Works Department; he is also failing to use grants available from the Australian Government to boost employment in the health field by about the same figure. [More…]

• I shall take up the matter with the New South Wales Minister for Health to find a way to ensure that these vital initiatives are taken in the community health field. [More…]

• If the honourable member cares to look at the Budget Papers he will see that the Government has provided almost $ 1 m for the establishment of a complete community health centre on the eastern shore to serve these people. [More…]

• As a result of the work of these men a community health service has been provided, an office of the Department of Social Security has been established, new roads have been put in to service the area- I will deal with the Old Beach Road at a later stage and will tell the House just what did occur in regard to that road- grants have been made to the Clarence Council, an office of the Department of Labor and Immigration has been set up as well as Social Welfare offices. [More…]

• The following Australian and State Government Departments are involved in the development of Aboriginal health programs: [More…]

• Australian Department of Health; Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs; . [More…]

• New South Wales Health Commission; Victorian Department of Public Health; Queensland Department of Health and Medical Services; Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement; [More…]

• South Australian Department of Public Health; Western Australian Department of Public Health; Tasmanian Department of Public Health. [More…]

• Several of these Departments have developed a close liaison with academic institutions, particularly in regard to research projects related to Aboriginal health. [More…]

• In addition, voluntary organisations, which are controlled and managed by Aboriginals, are funded by the Australian Government to provide health care. [More…]

• Aboriginal Medical Service, Sydney; Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, Melbourne; East Gippsland Aboriginal Medical Service, Bairnsdale; Aboriginal and Islander Community Health Service, Brisbane; [More…]

• Aboriginal and Islander Health Service, Townsville; Aboriginal Medical Service, Perth; Aboriginal Health Service, Alice Springs. [More…]

• In addition, funds have been made available to the Central Australian Aborigines Congress to enable it to undertake investigations towards the possible development of a communityorientated alternative health model, which has as its principal object the introduction of a more healthy way of fe for Aborigines. [More…]

• An offence is also provided under the Australian Capital Territory Public Health (Prohibited Drugs) Ordinance for the manufacture, preparation, use, sale, disposal or possession of cannabis for which Indian Hemp is a common synonym. [More…]

• To overcome these anomalies a Bill to amend the Public Health (Prohibited Drugs) Ordinance has been prepared and forwarded to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly for its comment. [More…]

• -Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to a report that a leading Sydney racehorse trainer has transported a champion racehorse named ‘Grand Memory’ to Singapore in mistake for a hack? [More…]

• A significant number of Ministers with portfolios concerning Darwin and involving not only local matters but national matters such as Aboriginal affairs, health and education also are involved. [More…]

• -I direct direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• -Medibank comes within the administration’ of the National Health Insurance Commission within the Department of Social Security. [More…]

• While budgeted outlays increased by 23 per cent and no doubt will increase beyond that, research through the Australian Research Grants Council was slashed from $9m to $3m and the National Health and Medical Research Council funds have been cut from $8m to $4m. [More…]

• The 1973- 75 National Health and Medical Research Council triennium allocation was a substantial lift for medical research in this country and credit should be given not just to the McMahon Government of that day but to the then Prime Minister himself, the right honourable member for Lowe (Mr McMahon), for his prominent part in lifting medical research. [More…]

• The triennium allocation to the National Health and Medical Research Council also provided stability and a long term planning ability which is essential for research. [More…]

• The 1976-78 triennium allocation for the National Health and Medical Research Council announced in this Budget was proudly heralded as a 39 per cent increase in medical research with $24m being provided for the 3 years. [More…]

• However, the National Health and Medical Research Council submission requested $47m. [More…]

• I think the tragic attitude of the Government to medical research is highlighted by the treatment which the National Health and Medical Research Council submission received. [More…]

• I am informed also that the National Health and Medical Research Council proposals were never presented to the Australian Science and Technology Council which is the Government’s proclaimed advisory board on research. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) increased the allocation of the $24m for the latter half of 1976 from $2.3m to $4m after medical research groups and Opposition protests. [More…]

• Two hundred out of 425 people employed under National Health and Medical Research Council grants will be out of a job at the end of this year. [More…]

• The future health of Australians will be in danger. [More…]

• Out of a total expenditure of $2,700m for health care allocated in this Budget- I include Medibank in that figure- and an increased figure of $171m, on the Minister’s Press statement, of funds available to the Department of Health for this year, medical research receives the princely amount of $4m. [More…]

• The cost benefit of this amount in relation to that total health expenditure far outweighs much of the other expenditure because of the future payoff in the health of Australians and the reduced health care costs in this country in the future. [More…]

• The ratio of medical research expenditure to total health expenditure in this country is the lowest of any Western nation. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, the National Acoustics Laboratory the Radiation Laboratories, the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, the Ultra-sonic Institute and the National Biological Standards Laboratory have not had to accept such expenditure cuts. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council is to meet on 20 September. [More…]

• This policy is also broadly similar to that adopted for the National Health and Medical Research Council program and is consistent with the concept of stringent restraint which forms the basis for the 1975-76 Budget. [More…]

• I turn to deal with the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Negotiations will continue with the Treasurer when he returns to establish that the National Health and Medical Research Council can be assurred of an adequate evening out of the flow of funds over the whole of the next financial year. [More…]

• This is the issue which we will iron out before the National Health and Medical Research Council meets in 10 days time. [More…]

• The information will be conveyed to the National Health and Medical Research Council in a week or so. [More…]

• The honourable member for Murray spoke about health research. [More…]

• With the decision on health, the decision on the ARGC and the attitude to the CSIRO, of course the science community throughout Australia has now become, like many other sections of the community, completely disenchanted with this Government. [More…]

• Not only should we be concerned as Australians with national progress; we have an international reputation and international contribution to maintain, particularly in the fields of health and food production in South East Asia. [More…]

• The debate was restricted first of all by the honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd), who was the first speaker, to 2 areas- the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Grants Committee. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) has already explained what has occurred with the triennial funding of the 2 organisations, the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Grants Committee, which have been mentioned by the supporters of this matter of public importance. [More…]

• I am sure that when the Treasurer returns and the Minister for Health and the Minister for Science and Consumer Affairs have discussions with him and point out an anomaly that has occurred- we accept that there is an apparent anomaly that needs examination- that the fears of those concerned in the field of medical and scientific research will be proved groundless. [More…]

• The Minister for Health can quite capably handle the problem. [More…]

• These were the deductions for education, health and insurance. [More…]

• It seems to me that the community of Australia would want Medibank irrespective of the cost because it provides great medical and health justice for all people in the community. [More…]

• Ever since I became a member of this Parliament, I have never heard a National Country Party member ask one question about education, one question about health or one question about poverty. [More…]

• Other departments have their say- the Departments of Education, Health, Housing and Construction, Northern Territory, and Urban and Regional Development. [More…]

• During his period in Parliament, the Minister has been active in many areas of social reform including housing, health, social welfare and education. [More…]

• One thinks also of the State departments through which programs in health, education, housing and, indeed, Aboriginal affairs themselves are financed. [More…]

• Like education and health, it obviously is one of the priority areas of the Government. [More…]

• The provision of housing, as with health, should not be an unmanageable problem. [More…]

• It cannot be emphasised too often that a successful housing program Will result in improvements in the social, economic and health status of our Aboriginal people. [More…]

• The husbands and wives and the families to whom I have spoken seek the same things for their family groups as any one of us would seek for our families; that is, education, decent housing and health services, to name a few. [More…]

• A serious health problem is arising. [More…]

• A serious health problem is arising. [More…]

• In so doing, special emphasis must be given to health, education, job opportunities and housing. [More…]

• Such an approach should not ignore the special need to improve their health, their educational facilities, their standard of housing and their ability to accept employment because they start from behind scratch. [More…]

• Certainly there is an urgent need to provide more housing and adequate health care although I must say that the Daughters of Charity have done a tremendous job in Moree in providing health care for the younger people. [More…]

• People such as school teachers, community health workers, social workers, draftsmen, engineers, architects, building workers, road workers and a host of other people would be affected by such substantial cuts. [More…]

• Would it be the end of the community health centre program? [More…]

• The fact is that Canadians enjoy a far better system of health services than is enjoyed in this country. [More…]

• The Canadian Government spends about the same proportion of gross domestic product on health services as does the United States of America. [More…]

• The rate of cost of health services in Canada has certainly escalated rather rapidly in recent years. [More…]

• If we can achieve the standards which have been achieved in Canada in the quality of health care and in the containment of medical and hospital costs, it will be a far superior achievement to the standards we had to bear with under the old discredited system of private health insurance. [More…]

• The spokesman for the Opposition on health and welfare services, Mr Chipp, has been roundly rebuked and disowned by the Leader of the Opposition for suggesting that Medibank would be dismantled. [More…]

• Problems are not so great in secondary industry or in the fields of education or health. [More…]

• We have also allocated $56m for an animal health laboratory in Geelong. [More…]

• I appreciate the remarks made by the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) who realises the tremendous health benefit one gains by consuming Queensland prime hard wheat. [More…]

• The present Government has initiated grants through the States under section 96 for sewerage programs, area improvement programs, land councils, growth centres, urban public transport, education and health. [More…]

• According to the last census figures quoted by the New South Wales Health Commission, the average age of all people in the Mount Druitt area is 1 1 14. [More…]

• Let us look first at the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Here is the chronology of events with respect to the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• On 27 June 1973 an Interim Executive of the Australian Health Insurance Commission was appointed by the then Minister for Social Security. [More…]

• I refer to the work of the Australian Assistance Plan and the work of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission in making sure that women are able to establish for themselves the community faculties which are required to meet their special needs- the women’s health centres which are springing up in the various States of Australia under the Hospitals and Health Services Commission program, the halfway houses which have been established in a couple of State capitals under the same auspices and the drop-in social centres which are growing up under the Australian Assistance Plan. [More…]

• I am glad to see that customs, health and quarantine officers probably by the end of this year will have much better and more adequate facilities at Brisbane airport. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware of allegations that two senior officers of his Department have been criticised by the Hearing Aid Council of Australia for misleading him and failing to inform him adequately of matters concerning Government policy? [More…]

• These are the same arguments put up against 2 popular initiatives of this Government- Medibank and community health programs. [More…]

• Just as the community health services have taken the excess load off the GP and mainly serviced those who normally would not have gone to a doctor through not being able to pay, so it is with the Australian Legal Aid Office. [More…]

• Who can have confidence in a Government with priorities so illjudged that the health of the private sector and therefore the jobs and the gainful, meaningful employment of thousands of ordinary Australians are put in jeopardy? [More…]

• The Department of Social Security was formed in December 1972 from an amalgamation of the former Department of Social Services and the Health Insurance and Benefits Division of the Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• However, they should be less inhibited in including in their product range of items which are important from the national health point of view but which may not offer a significant commercial return. [More…]

• The companies will produce and sell in healthy competition with other manufacturers but with the aim of reducing the cost of drugs to the Australian taxpayer. [More…]

• The Australian Department of Services and Property (Tasmanian Division) is in the process of acquiring for my Department land in Bayfield Street, Bellerive, on which it is proposed to construct the permanent Eastern Shore Community Health Centre. [More…]

• As expressed in paragraph 4.8 of the White Paper “The Australian Health Insurance Program”, the above provisions are in accordance with the Government’s policy that generally oupatient services should be available without charge, but that a means test may be permitted to ensure that dental services and spectacles are available without charge to persons who have been able to meet a means test and who, in the past, have relied on outpatient departments for dental services and spectacles. [More…]

• The current charges in respect of those persons who are eligible for compensation or damages in respect of the injury or disease being treated are as follows for each attendance and treatment by a medical officer-$10 for each attendance and treatment by a nurse- $3 for x-rays- rates equal to the medical benefits authorised by the Health Insurance Act, as amended for splints, appliances and prostheses- when of a personal nature- cost of item for returnable items- deposit only, to be refunded on the return of the items for items in demand (e.g. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council approved a standard for wine at its seventy-ninth session in November 1974. [More…]

• I will arrange for this matter to be referred to the Department of Health for their consideration. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to a report stating that large areas of Port Phillip Bay are heavily polluted with cadmium, zinc, mercury and other highly poisonous heavy metals? [More…]

• Is it a fact that the National Health and Medical Research Council has recommended a maximum content of 2 parts per million of cadmium in fish and fish products? [More…]

• In fact, very few of the standards for heavy metals recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council have been implemented in most States. [More…]

• The New South Wales Health Commission in a conservative estimate has claimed that it would cost some 3 times as much, that is another $140m, if the specialists were paid on a fee-for-service basis. [More…]

• The Minister for Urban and Regional Development (Mr Uren) is responsible for $633m; the Minister for Defence (Mr Morrison) for $l,800m; the Minister for Education (Mr Beazley) for $ 1,908m; the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) for $2,778m; and at the top of the list is the Minister for Social Security and Minister for Repatriation and Compensation (Senator Wheeldon) who is responsible for $4,772m. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation has warned us in these terms: [More…]

• No environmental health problem has greater significance than the disposal of man’s liquid and solid wastes. [More…]

• It is also in our interests to see that recreational faculties are improved in order to benefit the health of the nation. [More…]

• It would need to take into account also the social environment such as health, employment, safety, the community, recreation and privacy. [More…]

• We need to make contingency plans so that, God forbid, should this situation come about Australia will not be faced with both the humanitarian and the health problems which could arise as a result of large numbers of people coming here from nearby countries, introducing a very difficult element into the Australian Government’s reaction in terms of numbers, in terms of processing them, in terms of settling them or in terms of requiring them perhaps to return to the countries whence they came. [More…]

• Department of Health [More…]

• At present we are dealing with the Department of Health, the Department of Repatriation and Compensation and the Department of Social Security. [More…]

• The major thing I wish to speak on tonight is the community health program. [More…]

• The honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) will remember the day when we, along with the present Treasurer (Mr Hayden), at that time the shadow Minister for social security and health, toured the western suburbs of Sydney and we looked at the hospitals right throughout the area. [More…]

• On that day Mr Hayden stated that upon the Labor Party’s assuming power later that year it would immediately introduce a community health program and that for the first time a Federal government as it was called then- it is the Australian Government nowwould give funds towards that program. [More…]

• Right throughout the outer western suburbs of Sydney and various parts of Australia very worthwhile projects, such as community health centres, drug withdrawal units, antialcohol clinics, psychiatric centres and home nursing care services, have been undertaken. [More…]

• If the policy of the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Malcolm Fraser), who wants to cut out section 96 grants, is introduced, these community health programs would be in jeopardy. [More…]

• Not only would the education programs, including Karmel recommendations, of this Government be placed in jeopardy but also the community health program would be placed in jeopardy. [More…]

• It is the largest community health project in this country. [More…]

• Of course, the clinic was opened by the State Minister for Health. [More…]

• All the publicity in the local Press turned out from the Parramatta office of the State Health Commission implies that it is a purely State project. [More…]

• Health Commission with its funds, not Australian Government funds. [More…]

• The letter was sent to him by the Minister for Health in New South Wales, Mr Healey, and is dated 25 September. [More…]

• The letter states that this was approved under the New South Wales community health program. [More…]

• In actual fact, this is part of the community health program of the Australian Government. [More…]

• He would not be aware, of course, that this Government is the first government to finance community health programs. [More…]

• -Ten minutes is a very restricted time in which to talk about the $691,000,000 for the Department of Health, so I will try to cover 4 areas- administration, the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory and the pharmaceutical benefits. [More…]

• I think the most important comment that can be made about the estimates of the Department of Health is that the major health cost of this country, that is the $ 1,400m plus for the Health Insurance Commission or Medibank, does not come within the responsibility of the Department of Health. [More…]

• I believe that this is an absurd situation, because the Department of Health has no control over or input into this major health cost. [More…]

• It means there can be no control, priority procedures or positive health procedures to be introduced by the department responsible for health at the federal level. [More…]

• Medibank will gallop away with such a proportion of gross national product that there will not be sufficient funds available for the other important health and welfare services that the people need. [More…]

• In all of this area we have no Department of Health expertise. [More…]

• The estimates for the Department of Health indicate a decrease in the expenditure on both the Canberra and Woden Valley hospitals. [More…]

• Furthermore, of the salaried specialists recruited by the ACT Health Commission in its desperate determination to exclude private specialists, some have been accepted with doubtful medical qualifications. [More…]

• The implications for health in Canberra are quite serious. [More…]

• There is first of all a danger over a long period of lowering the medical standards of doctors available to people in Canberra and the danger, from the ability of these people to go elsewhere in Australia after registration under this procedure, of lowering medical and health standards throughout the country generally. [More…]

• I deal now with Northern Territory health. [More…]

• I am pleased to see the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) in the chamber. [More…]

• Pharmaceutical benefits constitute the major single item of expenditure in the Department of Health. [More…]

• I believe there has been a considerable underestimating by the Department of Health as to what the total costs will be. [More…]

• If one ignores the abnormal year of 1973-74, which one is suggested to do in the annual report of the Department of Health, the actual increase in both categories in 1974-75 was $10m or an 11 per cent increase on- 1973-74 figures to almost 98 million prescriptions. [More…]

• These companies are forbidden from using the Prices Justification Tribunal for prescription drugs because the Department of Health is the monopoly buyer and the setter of prices. [More…]

• If that is added to the increased utilisation that will take place, I believe that the Department of Health estimate in this area will be perhaps up to $40m out. [More…]

• I address my remarks to the estimates for the Department of Health. [More…]

• I am very pleased to see that the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) and the Minister for Science (Mr Clyde Cameron) have been able to make arrangements within the context of the Budget to ensure that sufficient money is made available for research. [More…]

• It was stated in a recent issue of the Lancet that it is difficult to find any scientist not actually employed or paid by the industry who does not deplore the global increase of lead and its implications for world health. [More…]

• Lead is a neuro-toxin as well as a general one so that it must cause mental and intellectual impairment as well as damaging general physical health. [More…]

• In this country considerable care is taken about substances that are only slightly suspect as health hazards. [More…]

• Recent work in Australia and overseas has proved absolutely and conclusively that the elimination of lead from the body makes for a tremendous improvement in physical and mental health as well as helping many and benefiting many of the sick. [More…]

• Surely it is more important to be healthy, vital and virile than to break the speed limit. [More…]

• I commend the estimates for the Department of Health to the Committee. [More…]

• Whilst it is true that no government would be foolish enough to claim that it is not guilty of mistakes, on the other hand it is absolutely true that we are a trading country which for its economic health is interdependent on the welfare of other nations. [More…]

• I want to discuss under the Department of Health estimates the proposed appropriation of $230,000 for the training of dental therapists. [More…]

• The annual report of the Director-General of Health sets out at page 240 some of the advances that have been made both in the number of static clinics provided for schools and in the increase in the number of personnel including dental therapists and others employed in the service. [More…]

• Quite recently I had the privilege of being associated with the South Australian Minister for Health in the opening of a large dental therapy training school at Somerton Park in South Australia in my electorate. [More…]

• I am sure that the end result of this will be a real improvement in human welfare in the form of better dental health for the next generation of Australians. [More…]

• The Government might be able to build more hospitals but it would not necessarily mean that we would have a healthier community. [More…]

• We might spend more on prescription drugs but it would not necessarily mean that we would have a healthier community. [More…]

• It means that there is better dental health for the next generation of Australians. [More…]

• In this respect the school dental health program provides a quality of children’s teeth of uniform excellence. [More…]

• If that were the case it would be a very sad day for the state of health of children’s teeth in Australia. [More…]

• I want to use the brief time available to me to speak in support of the appropriation for the Department of Health mainly, and in brief in support of that for the Department of Social Security. [More…]

• The increased involvement of the Australian Government has added a new dimension to health care. [More…]

• The assistance provided by the Australian Government has particular significance, I would suggest, in my own State of Victoria where health care services have been allowed to run down to a very low state. [More…]

• The maladministration of the present Victorian Health Minister is readily acknowledged as he bounces from one disaster to another. [More…]

• It is fortunate that my electorate has shared in the enlarged vision of health care held by this Government. [More…]

• Throughout the electorate one can see evidence of innovations introduced by the Australian Government that are adding to the quality of health. [More…]

• I suppose the most important group here is that made up of people who were not insured at all through no fault of their own in many cases but because they could not afford private health insurance. [More…]

• These people will now have health insurance provided for them, and rightly so, by the Government. [More…]

• I believe it is significant that the first medical appointment to the Doveton Community Health Centre was a community nurse. [More…]

• As was announced yesterday by the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) stoma appliances are now available free of charge to all who need them. [More…]

• Much has been done by this Government in the field of health care. [More…]

• The ATF supports this proposal because a retiring age of 60 provides most people with some years of continuing good health to enjoy their retirement after many years of conscientious work. [More…]

• The Capital Territory Health Commission has power under Section 74 (2 ) of the Capital Territory Health Commission Ordinance 1975 to remit or postpone, either in whole or in part, payment of an amount payable by a person to the Commission in respect of a service provided by the Commission. [More…]

• Advertising conducted by my Department (including advertising conducted on behalf of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission) is, in the main, of a service nature and involves advertising staff positions, calling for tenders, inviting applications for grants under programs such as the Community Health Program, advertising services available from the National Acoustic Laboratories and publicising Therapeutic Goods Standards. [More…]

• In the Northern Territory advertising is mainly directed towards the filling of vacant staff positions in hospitals and health services areas. [More…]

• The majority of advertising conducted by the Capital Territory Health Commission concerns the seeking of applications for vacant positions. [More…]

• In addition, there is some advertising of services available such as the opening of community health centres, family planning services and publicising immunisation clinics and public meetings in the A.C.T. [More…]

• 1) It is incorrect to state that the World Health Organisation is endeavouring to make 1977 World Rheumatism Year. [More…]

• During the 28th World Health Assembly in May this year the World Health Organisation passed a resolution which took note of the efforts being made by the International League Against Rheumatism to make 1977 the year of the rheumatic patient. [More…]

• It is therefore the International League Against Rheumatism which is proposing such a World Rheumatism Year and not the World Health Organisation although it is understood that the latter would have no objection and will indeed assist in the project. [More…]

• and (3) The Government will give full consideration to co-operation with the International League Against Rheumatism to make 1977 a valuable year by upgrading the standards of treatment, increasing the finance for research, and educating health professionals and the public in the need for and value of treatment. [More…]

• Two representatives of each women’s health centre in Australia. [More…]

• At the most recent Health Ministers’ Conference a Working Party was established to investigate, amongst other things, the advertising of alcohol. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In cases where chlorine is added to water supplies for health reasons, such as the water supplied to the northern Spencer Gulf area of South Australia, has any research been carried out as to any possible medical side effects from the use of this method of protection of water supplies. [More…]

• In view of the known toxicity of some of these compounds, the possible health hazards associated with their presence in water supplies is under consideration in the United States. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• These items are also available for persons with a subsidised health benefit entitlement excepting those marked with an asterisk which have a reimbursement price below 75c when prescribed as a packed line without instructions for use. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health when the Government’s promised free hearing aid scheme will be introduced. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Minister will recall recent serious allegations made in this House about health services in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• The Opposition still peddles inaccurate information in the House on health matters. [More…]

• Without our interest in the field of welfare and in the field of need of the handicapped, the psychiatrically disabled or ill dominating our decision making the Minister for Health would not have undertaken a most extensive program of community psychiatric health centres. [More…]

• These include the Parliament, Aboriginal Affairs, Agriculture, AttorneyGeneral, Foreign Affairs, Health, Labor and Immigration, Manufacturing Industry and the Media. [More…]

• As our health standards improve and people live longer, a greater demand will be felt for facilities for the aged. [More…]

• They have health and psychological problems which need attention but no government action has been taken despite comprehensive investigations by migrant task forces and a host of concerned organisations. [More…]

• Not only is there a continuing construction program but there is also a continuing program of advancement in health, education, Aboriginal affairs, social development and improvements in outback roadworks and other facilities. [More…]

• We have a national responsibility and an international responsibility, particularly in the areas of health, primary production and primary nutrition so far as our close neighbours are concerned. [More…]

• To control, and where possible, prohibit the advertising of products which represent a danger to human health, or which release into the environment toxic or indestructible materials, or which make unreasonable use of scarce natural resources, or which have other significant detrimental environmental impact; [More…]

• 1 ) On advice of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission the Australian Government has recognised the need to assist with the training of general practitioners. [More…]

• Since 1973-74, funds have been made available under the Community Health Program to support the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners ‘ Family Medicine Program. [More…]

• Following consideration of advice from the Universities Commission and Hospitals and Health Services Commission, the Australian Government provided special funds of over $ 1.2m during 1974 and 1975 to support the establishment of departments of community practice in eight university medical schools in association with community health centres. [More…]

• This program will enable medical students to participate in the practice of promoting health care delivery systems outside the hospital situation. [More…]

• The Government can assist to make the pharmacist a more effective member of the health team by; [More…]

• drawing attention to the need for changes in the education of pharmacists- as was done in the Report on Australian Health Manpower, submitted in February 1975. [More…]

• participating in meetings of such professional organisations to explore ways and means of improving the pharmacists’ contribution to the health team, as has been done frequently by members of my Department and of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• including provision for pharmacy services in some Community Health Centres, where appropriate, this has been done. [More…]

• bringing to the notice of those who administer community health services that provision for involvement of, or co-operation with, pharmacists is essential; this is done. [More…]

• Yes- by virtue of the advisory role through the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The direct activity in the Capital Territory which was formerly carried out by my Department is now one of the functions of the Capital Territory Health Commission. [More…]

• Yes- this role is carried out firstly through the National Health and Medical Research Council, in particular through the Committees listed below with their terms of reference: [More…]

• Public Health Advisory Committee (PHAC) ‘to inquire into and advise the Council on all matters of public health and preventive medicine and matters involving health legislation and administration by the Commonwealth and State Governments’. [More…]

• Environmental Health Committee (EHC) ‘to consider all environmental factors which may influence health and wellbeing and report to Council through the PHAC’ [More…]

• Ad hoc Subcommittee on the Effects of Lead in Air ‘to inquire into and advise the EHC on the effects of ambient lead m air on human health and the needs for research ‘. [More…]

• Membership includes representatives of the Departments of Environment, Health, Science and Consumer Affairs, Urban and Regional Development, Treasury, and CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and the Australian Government Analyst. [More…]

• The Committee comprises representatives of Australian and State Departments of Health, Environment and Transport and representatives of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries and the Petroleum Industry Executive Council for the Environment. [More…]

• The Committee’s function is to advise on motor vehicle emission standards, to keep a watching brief on overseas developments and to liaise with health and environment officials in Australia. [More…]

• Recently, the role played by my Department passed to the Capital Territory Health Commission when that authority was instituted. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has recommended in its publication Atmospheric Contaminates Threshold limit Values representing conditions under which it is believed that nearly all workers may be repeatedly exposed to lead in the atmosphere day after day at work without adverse effect. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has not made any recommendations relating to lead levels in air or in the blood which are applicable to the general community. [More…]

• Because a large proportion of Australians live in large cities the need to specify maximum permissible levels of lead in general ambient air has been recognised and is being investigated by appropriate committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Council considered available data on the effect on human health of the emissions of lead from motor vehicles. [More…]

• I assume that the question relates to the recommendations contained in the “Report of a WHO Expert CommitteeSmoking and its Effects on Health- issued under the Technical Report Series 568, Geneva 1975”. [More…]

• These recommendations and the general question of smoking in public places are receiving careful and continuing study in my Department and are under active consideration by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• My concern regarding smoking in public places and the associated discomfort and health hazard this causes to nonsmokers is well-known, and is supported by the great volume of representations received by me and my Department. [More…]

• The possibility of segregating portions of the Department of Health’s Central Office in Canberra, so as to protect the rights of the non-smoker, is being studied. [More…]

• An intensive advertising campaign using the broadcast media, the press and notices in public transport to warn people of the health hazards of smoking. [More…]

• -The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: (1)1 understand that there have been difficulties involved in the establishment of the Adelaide Women’s Health Collective Centre in a permanent building in Hindmarsh. [More…]

• In this regard, the honourable member will be aware that the centre is being funded through the relevant State health authority, namely, the South Australian Hospitals Department. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is the total cost of National Health Insurance, and how much of this is the cost of administration. [More…]

• What is the cost of dispensing in Government Health Centres. [More…]

• This information is presently being taken out by the Capital Territory Health Commission. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Does the Medical Services Adviser, Dr L. H. R. Drew of the Drugs of Dependence Section of the Australian Department of Health, also operate, in partnership with 2 other doctors in Melbourne, a private hospital known as the Delmont Private Hospital. [More…]

• If so, does this private hospital deal in alcohol and drug related cases, and is it a fact that Dr Drew’s special function with the Department of Health also relates to these matters. [More…]

• What are the terms of Dr Drew’s appointment with the Department of Health, what is his salary, and what is his history and current status with the Delmont Private Hospital. [More…]

• Dr Drew ‘s special function with the Department of Health also relates to these matters. [More…]

• Dr Drew is a Medical Services Adviser with the Department of Health, his salary is $21,681, and he was previously a psychiatrist, in private practice in Melbourne, who used the facilities of Delmont Hospital for the treatment of some of his patients. [More…]

• 1 ) Grants are available to Aboriginal communities and groups from funds voted to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs by the Parliament for a variety of purposes, including Welfare, Housing, Education, Health, Community Amenities, Aboriginal Land Fund Commission, Loans Commission and Legal Aid. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Evidence contained in the recently published ‘Report of the Standing Committee on the Health Problems of Alcohol of the National Health and Medical Research Council, April 1975’, and in a paper ‘Statistics of Alcohol’, prepared by the Central Statistical Unit, of my Department, 22 July 1974, gives further support to these conclusions so far as Australia is concerned. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware that tobacco manufacturers are diverting promotional expenditure into sponsorship and other forms of advertising to avoid the intent of restrictions on television and radio advertising of tobacco products? [More…]

• There is a long way to go yet; there is a difficult haul still in front of this country in restoring economic health, but if that projection continues and if we have even more success on the wage front, and this will reflect itself in the cost front generally and overall in a more successful economic result than we had predicted when we pulled the Budget together, the deficit will be larger than we had anticipated when we put the Budget together. [More…]

• But that would be a totally welcome result and consistent with a much healthier objective being achieved in economic management. [More…]

• Yesterday the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham) when replying to a Dorothy Dix question from the honourable member for Evans (Mr Mulder) claimed that the information I gave the House on Thursday night concerning Australian Capital Territory hospitals was incorrect. [More…]

• The Minister should check whether his figure relates to all ACT health expenditure, including Medibank, which comes from another department, and not to the hospitals. [More…]

• Other complaints concern advertising, floor con.verings, furniture, footwear, dry cleaning, laundering, hiring, insurance finance, education, health and fitness, packaging, dangerous and hazardous products, door sales, mail order sales, prices and professional services. [More…]

• We need to ask whether the one instrumentality can administer such disparate functions as the full regulation of the market place and the setting of standards for health, safety and other requirements. [More…]

• If a wide choice of doctors were available and the patient selected his own doctor from such a number for his treatment whilst in hospital I believe the patients, the hospital authorities and the government would have been well pleased and prepared to co-operate in providing a health care delivery system which allowed this to happen providing it did so at an economical cost to the Australian taxpayer. [More…]

• Since March 1974, 7 womens’ health centres have been established in Australia. [More…]

• From the time of the inception of this service some $365,000, or an amount in excess of that, has been made available mainly through my Department but also with inputs from the Department of Social Security and the Department of Health. [More…]

• These centres are making a most significant contribution to uplifting the health standards of Aboriginal people. [More…]

• That this House notes with satisfaction higher standards of health insurance cover provided for all Australians through the introduction of Medibank. [More…]

• I think that any health care delivery policy which any government introduces into this country ought to have a number of objectives. [More…]

• Secondly- and I think this is just as importantwe should improve health care. [More…]

• It is important that we improve health care as much as possible in this country. [More…]

• Firstly, the patients, the people of Australia, no longer have to contribute to health insurance schemes. [More…]

• Health insurance schemes cost different amounts in different States. [More…]

• There is no need for people now to take out any cover from private health insurance organisations as far as medical expenses are concerned. [More…]

• I have criticised him before for making nasty interjections, but if he makes the type of thoughtful contribution that he has made today he will encourage thoughtful debate on health care services. [More…]

• That this House notes with satisfaction higher standards of health insurance cover provided for all Australians through the introduction of Medibank. [More…]

• That all words after ‘House’ be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: ‘views with concern the fact that Medibank will provide a lesser health service at a greater cost and believes that reforms should be enacted immediately to overcome its weaknesses’. [More…]

• Indeed, if the honourable member for Prospect said anything in relation to his motion he spoke against it, because he spoke with his great knowledge and experience of health care about the Kaiser Permanente scheme operating in California. [More…]

• I remind him that to experiment with a health maintenance organisation of the type of the Kaiser Permanente scheme is already part of the Opposition’s health policy. [More…]

• We would not want to rush in and impact the health maintenance organisations- HMOs, as they are called- all over the country. [More…]

• I have conceded that merely by virtue of the health policy I announced on behalf of the joint Opposition in April 1974 when I said there were weaknesses in the existing health scheme. [More…]

• Although there was a subsidised health benefits scheme very few people understood it and even fewer people availed themselves of it. [More…]

• These were weaknesses and of course Medibank does offer universal health insurance. [More…]

• It does provide cover without cost to those who cannot afford their own health insurance. [More…]

• Just because Medibank is an improvement on the old health scheme does not mean to say that we accept it. [More…]

• In fact, as my amendment to the motion says, we believe it will provide a lesser health service at greater cost. [More…]

• I know that the cost of a health scheme is not the be-all and end-all of it. [More…]

• The basic thing the Government should be concerned with is whether it provides a health service to the sick and the injured people of Australia. [More…]

• We have consistently prodded the Government on the question of costs because there are things that a government should provide for people who are disadvantaged other than health care. [More…]

• As far as the processing of claims is concerned, again I speak to words in the motion moved by the honourable member for Prospect which read: ‘That this House notes with satisfaction higher standards of health insurance cover-‘. [More…]

• I have a sheaf of letters which are examples of why Medibank cannot be stated as providing a higher standard of health insurance cover. [More…]

• It would be dishonest or inaccurate to make a naked comparison between the Australian Medibank scheme and the British health scheme because they are not similar. [More…]

• I refer again to the motion which states that we note with satisfaction the higher standard of health insurance cover. [More…]

• I would have thought that one of the most fundamental things for an efficient health service is to have surgeons prepared to accept elective surgery in the public hospitals of Australia. [More…]

• That all words after ‘House’ be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: ‘views with concern the fact that Medibank will provide a lesser health service at a greater cost and believes that reforms should be enacted immediately to overcome its weaknesses’. [More…]

• I support the original motion as moved by the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), that the House notes with satisfaction the higher standards of health insurance cover provided for all Australians through the introduction of Medibank. [More…]

• The Opposition, with its proposed amendment, has said that Medibank will provide a lesser health service at a greater cost and believes that reforms should be enacted immediately to overcome its weaknesses. [More…]

• I should like the House to recall the previous health insurance scheme. [More…]

• So it is important to remind the House and to remind the people about the previous health insurance scheme that Medibank has replaced. [More…]

• The House will recall that at any one time under the previous scheme about 1 million people in Australia had no health insurance cover. [More…]

• About 1 million people were unable to have any of their health costs reimbursed by anybody. [More…]

• But perhaps the greatest problem with the previous scheme was the fact that people did not know from where their medical health insurance cover was coming. [More…]

• The part about it that was absolutely appalling was that those who did not pay a private insurance contribution were not eligible to receive their rightful amount of taxpayers’ funds for that proportion of health insurance costs provided by the Government. [More…]

• So it is undeniable that there has been an improvement in the health insurance cover for everybody in Australia. [More…]

• Reference has been made to education, transport, health and matters in the international field. [More…]

• I agree that there is an element of difficulty in regard to this matter, but I feel that advances have been made, for example in the fields of education, health and agriculture. [More…]

• The philosophy running through the major programs of reform introduced by our Government in the areas of health, education social security and others is a necessity to provide services to the people of Australia on the basis of needs. [More…]

• It is not just in terms of health security, as we have done with Medibank; it is not just in terms of social security benefits that give the people some sort of additional security above that which was not provided in the 23 years of Liberal-Country Party Government. [More…]

• I do not have the exact figures of the number of health centres in Australia but there are some hundreds. [More…]

• We had the spectacle of things like baby health centres, immunisation clinics, marriage guidance services and all kinds of activities trying to sustain themselves in isolation. [More…]

• We have set about following the guidelines in the first report which was brought down in the first 6 months of this Government’s office by the interim committee of the newly formed Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• We had a signal success in achieving integration, a new direction in health care, a new concern on behalf of the States and a new integration of their efforts and ours and those of voluntary organisations. [More…]

• We had a signal success in upgrading the job satisfaction of doctors and other professionals who work in this area, a significant success in involving the community in what is increasingly a matter of community responsibility- to take responsibility for its own health and not leave it to professionals in ivory towers, to move health care out of the highly expensive area of institutions and hospitals and into the community. [More…]

• Even a brief examination of the Canadian health care system would demonstrate the total absurdity of the Medibank estimates. [More…]

• For example, the Therapeutic Goods Act already makes provision for the Minister for Health to determine standards for therapeutic goods and for their packaging and labelling, and to prevent their distribution if they do not comply with those requirements. [More…]

• Samples of therapeutic goods subject to the Therapeutic Goods Act are examined, tested and analysed by the National Biological Standards Laboratory, a division of the Department of Health. [More…]

• It is intended that the Commission, in exercising its functions, will not disturb either the existing procedure for the determination and application of standards for therapeutic goods by the Minister for Health, or the functions of the bodies established under the Therapeutic Goods Regulations. [More…]

• The Food Standards Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, which includes representatives of State governments, consumer interests and the food industry, has for many years carried out the function of formulating food standards. [More…]

• Section 7 (2) of the Bill will enable the Consumer Protection Authority to take advantage of the expertise and experience, in the health field, of the Food Standards Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council; and in transport, the Road Safety and Standards Authority and the specialist advisory committees of the Australian Transport Advisory Council. [More…]

• b) Mr Bornstein has had considerable experience in the fields of health and social welfare research and policy as well as a close involvement with various projects and studies concerned with social, economic and physical dislocation. [More…]

• The level of activity in the Australian economy is very much influenced by the level of activity in world trade, by the health that is existing in the international trade situation. [More…]

• The purpose of the new arrangements is, of course, to improve the quality and availability of health care and to rationalise and make more equitable the financing thereof. [More…]

• Each department has concerned itself with its own functions whether they be transport, education, health, trade, manufacturing or postal. [More…]

• (a), (c) and (d) Financial assistance in the form of Direct Grants is available to incorporated Aboriginal groups and organisations in a variety of fields such as housing, health, education, employment, welfare, economic enterprises, town management, recreation and agricultural activities and legal aid. [More…]

• The provision of Aboriginal medical centres to provide minimum medical health services, such as at Alice Springs, would need to be deferred. [More…]

• He came to power inheriting 1 500 000 people who had no health coverage, 400 000 kids at school who were suffering serious disadvantages, people in 70 per cent of cases in the magistrates courts in New South Wales having no legal representation, and pensions at only 18 per cent of average weekly earnings- they are now at nearly 25 per cent. [More…]

• Two of these determinations relate to the Secretary to the Postmaster-General’s Department, the Australian National Railways Commission, the Commissioner for Community Relations, commissioners under the Environment Protection (Impact of Proposals) Act 1 974, the Road Safety and Standards Authority, the Director of National Parks and Wildlife, Aboriginal Hostels Ltd, the Schools Commission and the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• We would return to the situation which existed in 1972 when 1 500 000 people in our community were not covered by any form of health insurance. [More…]

• I rise to defend the economic health of that town. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• On several occasions since the presentation of the Budget, details of health allocations in Victoria and other States have been announced. [More…]

• An analysis of the figures involved compared with the populations suggests that Victoria has not received its rightful share of funds under the community health program, the school dental scheme, and health planning and research grants. [More…]

• Can the Minister explain the apparent discrimination against Victoria in the provision of funds by the Australian Government for health projects, and can the Minister indicate the future of health programs should the Budget be rejected or deferred in another place? [More…]

• The Australian Government does not discriminate against any State in its health programs. [More…]

• The Government has encouraged a more rational approach to the planning and provision of health services throughout Australia. [More…]

• The Department of Health and the Hospitals and Health Services Commission have depended on the cooperation and participation of State health authorities. [More…]

• Despite the Opposition’s fanning the claims of federalist confrontation, the health field is one of harmonious relationship with the States. [More…]

• Victoria has missed out in relative terms in allocations for health programs. [More…]

• For instance, Victoria received only $20,000 of the $500,000 made available for health planning and research this year that is, research into the delivery of health care, administration and so on. [More…]

• Community health projects in Victoria this year will absorb $15m compared with more than twice that amount $30.3m in New South Wales. [More…]

• Last year Victoria received about $5m for community health facilities compared with more than $ 14m for New South Wales, which is nearly treble that amount. [More…]

• Rather it stems from the archaic and fragmented structure of health administration in Victoria which has recently been alluded to in the SymeTownsend report. [More…]

• Shortcomings in the bureaucracy are aggravated by the Liberal tradition of relying on private initiative to satisfy health needs. [More…]

• Government guidance is essential; otherwise the inequalities in the distribution of health services are accentuated. [More…]

• Unlike this Government, the Opposition and its colleagues in power in Victoria rely mainly on private initiative even in the provision of essential public health services. [More…]

• A Liberal-National Country Party government at the national level would abandon our rational approach to the provision of health services. [More…]

• Those in the greatest need would be forced in due course to rely on second rate health services. [More…]

• In fact on all the figures that have so far been produced by the Leader of the Opposition and by the shadow Treasurer as to where their expenditure would go we would have to cut health spending by 12 per cent. [More…]

• What he did not tell the House yesterday was that under cross-examination in the Senate Estimates Committee officers of the Health Insurance Commission said that 500 additional temporary staff has been engaged. [More…]

• They admitted that the claims which have not yet been received by the Health Insurance Commission or its agents are not included in that figure. [More…]

• In December 1972 under the previous health insurance scheme pensioners were entitled to attend the general practitioner of their choice for medical consultation but if they needed specialist attention, as inevitably is most frequently the case among pensioners in comparison with other sections of the community, they were obliged to go to a public hospital to get that attention and they were obliged to accept the services of the specialist they found working in that public hospital. [More…]

• But these problems must be seen in perspective, both against the steps that the Government has taken to restore economic health, and relative to the experience of comparable countries abroad. [More…]

• The balance of approximately $50m is proposed to be expended on Aboriginal programs by the Department of Education for study grants, secondary grants, overseas study grants and expenditure in the Northern Territory; the Department of Health on health and medical services for Aboriginals in the Northern Territory; the Department of Labor and Immigration on the Aboriginal Employment Training Scheme; and the Departments of Housing and Construction, Northern Australia, and Urban and Regional Development on various services and facilities. [More…]

• Substantial funds will also be provided for the provision of such services as health, education, employment, legal aid and other social assistance programs to Aboriginals either by funding Aboriginal communities direct or by providing payments to State instrumentalities. [More…]

• Health programs rank in equal importance with the Australian Government’s approach to the housing, educational, and employment needs of Aboriginals. [More…]

• It has encouraged, as with education, the training of Aboriginals so that they may bring appropriate health services to their own people. [More…]

• It has made concerted attacks upon specific diseases and health problems which seem to be peculiarly prevalent in the Aboriginal community and in doing so has taken substantial steps to involve the affected Aboriginal community in the solution of its own health problems. [More…]

• Aboriginal medical services throughout Australia last year received almost $500,000 from the allocations of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, and State instrumentalities received over $10m for the improvement of State government-run health services for Aboriginal citizens. [More…]

• The basic benefit of $3.50 a day authorised by section 56 of the National Health Act and payable in respect of all qualified patients; the supplementary benefit of $3 a day authorised by section 57a and payable in respect of intensive care patients- that is, those patients in need of continuous nursing care and supervision or who are receiving intensive rehabilitation; and the additional benefit authorised by sections 57b and 73c. [More…]

• Including this additional expenditure, it is estimated that Australian Government assistance towards meeting the cost of nursing home care under the National Health Act and the Nursing Homes Assistance Act will be some $190m during 1975-76. [More…]

• In respect of the other areas of health, education, development and so on I can get my colleagues to answer. [More…]

• I would, however, make the point that the figures for this quarter benefit from decreases in the health services section of the index associated with the introduction of Medibank for medical services in all cities and for hospital services in all cities except Sydney and Brisbane. [More…]

• In the September quarter they will, via wages, be compensated for price increases, and they will reap the benefits of cheaper health care through Medibank. [More…]

• -On behalf of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs I bring up the report of the Committee on Aboriginal health and related matters in the south-west of Western Australia, together with the minutes of proceedings. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health (Dr Everingham), who is seated at the table, whether he is prepared to allow the Opposition parties- bearing in mind that on 3 occasions this week I have been gagged on raising a matter of public importance involving the loans scandal in which this Prime Minister is as intimately involved as the senior colleagues whom he sought to dismiss and sack and in so doing wash his hands- to table during the course of this debate the documents which I referred to this morning in this House. [More…]

• Whether a taxpayer in fact spends on superannuation, life assurance, education, health and so on to the extent of $ 1 ,350 or not each taxpayer is to get a rebate of $540. [More…]

• That is a philosophy that benefits those who can afford the best education, the best health services and the best environment. [More…]

• I recognise that the Authority should have that power but I put it to the Committee that at a time when a premium ought to be placed on responsibility in government expenditure and at a time when there already exists in the consumer standards field a number of bodies including the Standards Association and the Food Standards SubCommittee of the National Health and Medical Research Council- bodies which enjoy a very high reputation throughout Australia- I would hope and the Opposition would hope that any Federal Government activity in the area of consumer standards, whether it be through this proposed Authority or through any other mechanism, would draw as far as possible upon the expertise and the experience already offered by bodies such as the Standards Association and the Food Standards Sub-Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The details of the implications of blocking the Appropriation Bills have not been worked out for the Department of Health, and I doubt whether they have been worked out for any other department. [More…]

• There are untold hazards in the stoppage of the supply of money to pay for Federal Government services in the Department of Health, as in all other departments. [More…]

• An agent can also look after passports, health certificates, travellers’ cheques and an array of other minor problems. [More…]

• Through an associate body called the Institute of Travel, it has arranged courses at Sydney Technical College and the William Angliss Food School in Melbourne for would-be travel agents, covering subjects like law and the traveller, health, geography and accounting. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) When was the small working group established by the National Health and Medical Research Council to test the method for a survey of alcohol associated illness and facilities for its treatment in Australia. [More…]

• 1) A working group of the Standing Committee on the Health Problems of Alcohol of the National Health and Medical Research Council was set up in August 1974 to investigate the possibilities of surveying alcohol associated illness and facilities for its treatment in Australia. [More…]

• The questionnaire was to be tested through a research design and procedure to be devised and implemented by the Victorian State Mental Health Authority. [More…]

• An initial feasibility study of the questionnaire is just being completed by the Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Branch of the Victorian Mental Health Authority and the results of this study are expected at an early date. [More…]

• In the course of planning the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Health Problems of Alcohol of the National Health and Medical Research Council will be considered, including the setting up of a statistical team. [More…]

• In the 1974-75 financial year, $392,000 from the ‘Machinery of Government’ vote was expended on an advertising campaign which highlighted community response to Government initiatives in the fields of community health, child care and education. [More…]

• They cover matters such as: Salary and wages for public servants and other employees of departments and of statutory authorities; student assistance programs; health services, including amounts for the operation of the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory hospitals; employment training and assistance and expenditure on projects for the relief of unemployment; maintenance of Australian representation abroad; payments to international organisations; aid programs; grants for aged persons homes and hostels; defence services and the reconstruction of Darwin. [More…]

• I refer to the $707m for Medibank; the $47.5m for payments to preschools and child care; the $108m for payments to hospitals and health services programs; the $64m for community health programs; and the $275m for urban and regional development programs. [More…]

• Has he also noted a claim that the true increase in the consumer price index was 2.9 per cent of which increased health costs contributed 2.1 per cent? [More…]

• The honourable member said that the Government is cheating over the consumer price index figures by eliminating from the index the cost of health services. [More…]

• The practice of the Statistician in this matter is exactly the practice he has followed for many years and that is that the cost of health services which is included in the CPI calculations is the total cost minus the cost met by the Australian Government. [More…]

• In fact the evidence so far is that Medibank has been cheaper than would have been the previous system of private health insurance on projections which were taken out by the Department of Social Security. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission has identified other areas of need which still have to be negotiated with the States and brought to their attention for planning. [More…]

• While waiting with bated breath for another slip of the honourable member for Hotham’s tongue from which to piece together the Opposition’s health policy, this is the only conclusion we can draw. [More…]

• The Fraser federalism formula would be a great leap backward in meeting Australia’s health care needs. [More…]

• The Australian Government has a responsibility to help provide fairly distributed and accessible health facilities for all Australians, not just those fortunate enough to live in affluent, established suburbs where most outer city hospitals were built before this Government came to power and launched a national hospitals and health services commission. [More…]

• If Australians were beguiled into buying a Liberal-National Country Party government such a government would downgrade public health facilities as part of its incestuous romance with the private sector. [More…]

• The overall health care available to the average Australian would suffer from just one more example of the Opposition’s well established elitism. [More…]

• Tax indexation policies are vital to restoring the health of the economy, thereby boosting the real tax base and the growth of tax revenue. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Has the National Health and Medical Research Council investigated and made recommendations on the use of analgesics. [More…]

• 1 ) and (2) The National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) has had the matter of the use of analgesics under review for a number of years and has made the following recommendations: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• My colleague, the Minister for Urban and Regional Development (Mr Uren), myself as Minister for the Capital Territory and our colleague, Dr Cass, as the then Minister for Environment, conferred with 3 Ministers from New South Wales, the Minister for Mines and Energy, Mr Fife, the Minister for Public Works, Mr Punch, and the Minister for Health, Mr Waddy. [More…]

• Who can have confidence in a government with priorities so ill-judged that the health of the private sector, and therefore the jobs- the meaningful and gainful employment of thousands of Australians- is put in jeopardy? [More…]

• It is important that they be provided with appropriate health, education and housing services in the areas in which they are living. [More…]

• At Lake Tyers, a valuable property hitherto previously used as an Aboriginal reserve, was handed over to a group of Aborigines, broken in health, broken in spirit and deprived of self-respect, who were unable to take advantage of what had been given to them. [More…]

• Prior to the Government’s directive of 10 September 1974, relating to the application of the Code of General Principles on Occupational Safety and Health in Australian Government Employment, there was no requirement for Australian Government departments or agencies to record and report their accident experience. [More…]

• They must also explain where retrenchments would take place because they would be quite considerable, especially in the case of the proposals of the Opposition, and would involve teachers, health workers, road workers and architects and a whole range of people who would be measured not in hundreds but literally in tens of thousands and probably in multiples of tens of thousands. [More…]

• If the State governments were happy to allow Aboriginal councils to look after health, sewerage, water.supply and electricity, as clause 11(3) suggests, and other matters, well and good. [More…]

• It is extremely clear to anyone in this Committee that there is a necessity to ensure that if an Aboriginal group of people is to conduct an activity of the kind that is spelt out in the provisions of subclause (3) of clause 1 1- including such things as community amenities, welfare, garbage collection, roads, relief work, education or training, communications, electricity supply, water supply, sewerage, health and housing- it is our responsibility, since the States are ceding it to us and since we have in any case acquired it as a result of a referendum, to provide legislation which will make certain that such an organisation operates as legal entity. [More…]

• And health’, he says. [More…]

• In respect of the silent ravages of child malnutrition the Committee considers that all services in the fields of community health, welfare and education should be given and should accept prime responsibility to ensure that all children under their notice are receiving suitable and sufficient food. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What contact and co-ordination is there between his Department and the Commissions responsible to the Minister for Education on future health manpower requirements. [More…]

• Is it considered that the long term effectiveness of the Community Health Program and the School Dental Scheme will be reduced, unless there is an early increase in capacity in these areas of health manpower. [More…]

• 1) Analysis of future health manpower requirements and the making of recommendations thereon is being undertaken by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• The Universities Commission, the Commission on Advanced Education and the Committee on Technical and Further Education are all represented on the Committee on Health Careers (Personnel and Training), formed by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission to advise it on health manpower matters. [More…]

• Furthermore, initiatives by the Universities Commission to determine future health manpower requirements, specifically of medical practitioners and dentists, have both been conducted in close collaboration with the Department of Health. [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission, in its report ‘Australian Health Manpower’ which was tabled in Parliament in March 197S, recommended increases in the output of occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech pathologists. [More…]

• The Commission also recommended an increased output in other health occupations, not mentioned in the Question on Notice- viz., chiropodists, medical record librarians and optometrists. [More…]

• The long term effectiveness of all health services is dependent upon the availability of suitable personnel, and in this regard the Community Health Program and the School Dental Scheme are no exception. [More…]

• The recommendations made concerning increased supply in the various health occupations have been made having regard to the total demand on those personnel including that of the Community Health Program. [More…]

• This statement was that I, the Minister for Health, had misled Parliament with an unfounded claim that quarantine services would be endangered should the constitutional crisis in Canberra remain unresolved. [More…]

• The article then stated that in reply to a contact with the Health Department in Canberra, the reporter had been told that there was no question whatsoever of quarantine breaking down because quarantine services are operated by the States and paid for by the Commonwealth every 6 months. [More…]

• The next 6-monthly claim would not be due until well into the new year and the only immediate impact on the blockage of Supply, the officer was reported to say, would be when health funds ran out there would be no money to pay the small staff of the Quarantine Section of the Health Department headquarters in Canberra but that they would work without pay. [More…]

• Unless additional funds become available there will not be money in the near future to purchase supplies for such procedures as disinfection of aircraft carried out by personnel of the Health Department and this is irrespective of whether those officers are prepared to work without having received their salaries. [More…]

• Loans for private housing, reconstruction and the rehabilitation of small businesses will cease, as will funds for the whole range of public community services, including health, roads, power, water and sewerage. [More…]

• How many officers in the Sub-section have retired or transferred for reasons of ill health, and what has been the nature of the illness. [More…]

• The responsibility of the Government of China in 1949 to tackle the problems of some 600 million people, to get the industries going, to overcome the illiteracy, to overcome the enormous health problems, to overcome the poverty, then to face the trade embargoes, the hostility of much of the Western world, was a responsibility that fell very largely on the person of Chou En-lai. [More…]

• The internal problems of the cultural revolution took toll of his health and he came through that revolution in the same position as Premier of that country. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• -Pursuant to section 33 of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Act 1973 I present the AuditorGeneral’s report on the statement of receipts and payments for the Hospitals and Health Services Commission for the year ended 30 June 1975. [More…]

• There are great problems and difficulties ahead for the restoration of health in the Australian economy. [More…]

• There would be no cutback in the essential areas of education, social welfare, health and assistance to local government, he said. [More…]

• I, regrettably, will not be speaking about the economy on this occasion because I wish this House to appreciate the fact that the future of our country depends as much on our international standing and our defensive capacity as it does on the health of the Australian economy. [More…]

• When the Australian Labor Party first revealed its intentions to introduce a national health insurance scheme in the late 1960s the reaction from the Liberal-Country Party Government, the medical profession, as represented by the Australian Medical Association, and the so-called voluntary health insurance funds was intemperate and illadvised to say the least. [More…]

• During the course of the last Liberal-Country Party Government we continued to elaborate our views on a national health insurance scheme, fortified by the findings of the Nimmo inquiry into health insurance which had been published in 1969. [More…]

• For those who choose private hospital care private hospital insurance is available and in like fashion insurance cover can be purchased for the portion of the medical fees not covered by Medibank or the costs of ancillary and allied health services. [More…]

• In similar fashion their objections to other pieces of associated legislation simply complicated the transition from the old health insurance scheme to the new Medibank, deprived members of the public of protection of their rights as contributors to private health funds and stopped implementation of reforms in the supervision of health insurance organisations, as had been recommended by the Nimmo Committee inquiry into health insurance which was set up, honourable members will recall, by the then LiberalCountry Party Government in the late 1 960s. [More…]

• At no time does Medibank intrude any more than did the former Liberal-Country Party Government health insurance scheme intrude. [More…]

• Are you condemning the whole concept of health insurance? [More…]

• Do you forget that a mandatory condition for receiving the Commonwealth medical or hospital benefit was that one had to belong to a private health insurance fund? [More…]

• If our scheme, Medibank, can lower the quality of medical care, so did your health insurance scheme. [More…]

• They are in fact social economists, and I believe that is the basis of their scheme and its weakness- that they looked at national health in purely economic terms and not in an approach towards the best in medical care. [More…]

• We never claimed it was anything more than a method of health insurance. [More…]

• It would appear to be directed simply to establishing the cheapest, most efficient and easiest way of solving national health problems. [More…]

• Why else would it set up a 3-man inquiry into Medibank, then argue with one another about what the committee will inquire into, with the Minister for Health saying one thing and the Treasurer saying another? [More…]

• Does one take out private health insurance? [More…]

• If one opts for the Fraser model March 1975- remember the categorical promise not to block Medibank- one would not bother taking out extra health insurance. [More…]

• What is the Government’s policy on the health care of the community? [More…]

• In the view of the Government, the electorate on 2 occasions gave decisive answers to the concept of a national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Other members of the team will be Dr Sidney Sax who is being seconded specifically from his position as Chairman of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission for this purpose, and Mr Neil Hyden, an Assistant Secretary from the Treasury. [More…]

• The investigation team, which will be serviced by the Department of Health, will report in the first instance on opportunities for improved efficiency in the running of Medibank. [More…]

• The Department of Health estimate for 1976-77 is over $2,000m. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission, which closely monitors the scheme, is concerned about certain aspects of its operation. [More…]

• There will be a close involvement of the States in the investigation since they have a primary responsibility in the provision of health services. [More…]

• To examine the operations of the Health Insurance Program (Medibank) and to report to Cabinet through the Minister for Health on [More…]

• To have regard to the Government’s desire to provide the most effective and efficient system of high quality health services delivery. [More…]

• They have had discussions with State health officials, members of the Australian Medical Association and other interested people and groups. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, Mr Ralph Hunt, today announced that the Medibank Review Committee appointed by the Commonwealth Government to review the operations of the Australian Health Insurance Program (Medibank) was advertising nationally for submissions from all who might be able to assist the Committee in carrying out its review. [More…]

• The Medibank scheme as a national health insurance scheme has its good features in that it sets out to ensure that no one, regardless of social or financial status, is denied access to health care. [More…]

• However, any health scheme that will cost the Australian taxpayers somewhere between $l,400m and $l,500m, including administration costs in a full year, surely is in need of the closest scrutiny. [More…]

• The scheme brings the States, the Commonwealth Government, the medical profession, the nursing profession and those responsible for health care into one great partnership. [More…]

• A big responsibility falls on the Minister for Health and the Government to obtain the full cooperation of the States, the medical profession and those responsible for health care and the delivery of health services to ensure that the people have the most effective, efficient and economic scheme available to them. [More…]

• -In the view of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) the matter of public importance may be huffing and puffing, but having listened to his speech I can assure him that his speech was a lot of guffing. [More…]

• I am reliably informed that the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp), the only man in the Government ranks who really understands the issue of health insurance and health services, has washed his hands of any association with debate on welfare and health because of the unfortunate experiences he has had at the rather ruthless hands of the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser). [More…]

• The honourable member for Hotham was always a welcome participant in debates on health insurance. [More…]

• The facts are that the total cost of Medibank is no greater than the total cost of private health insurance if it was now operating with the pensioner and repatriation medical and hospital benefits which are associated with this general health service area. [More…]

• One of the most discreditable features of the old system of private health insurance was that not only did the public pay but it paid unfairly, quite inequitably. [More…]

• Because of the way in which there was further subsidisation through the tax scheme for net direct costs for health services, the middle class-and high income earners in this community were particularly well subsidised at the expense of the great mass of taxpayers. [More…]

• Nevertheless, even allowing for that as a significant qualification I predict quite confidently that by the end of this year at least $200m to $250m will be saved on the total outlay that was set aside for Medibank, which shows in fact that the total cost of Medibank is even cheaper than the total cost which the community would have incurred with an inferior, inadequate system of private health insurance with its attendant features of pensioner medical benefits and repatriation medical benefits. [More…]

• That is a significant improvement in the quality of health care available to people in the community. [More…]

• That is why its supporters are talking about a greater degree of the cost of a medical service being borne by individual patients- a reward for the faithful service of the private health insurance funds not only in financing to some degree the campaign funds of the Liberal Party but in supporting it in the electorate with the outrageous statements they have made from time to time. [More…]

• On the first point relating to conflicting statements, the statements by the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who are the only 2 people to make statements that one can say are statements that one can listen to, are quite clear on this matter. [More…]

• The Minister for Health quoted both those statements to the House this morning. [More…]

• Secondly, the review will be on the basis that we have to provide health care for Australians. [More…]

• The honourable member for Maribymong (Dr Cass) said there was a need on our part to clarify the relationship between private health insurance and Medibank. [More…]

• I think the people of Australia deserve to have this matter clarified because by continuing to belong to health insurance funds in massive proportions they themselves were saying that they did not accept the statements of the previous Government that there was no longer a need to belong to private health insurance funds. [More…]

• The fact that people continue to belong to private health insurance funds also shows up the false points in the argument put forward by the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden). [More…]

• The honourable member was saying that, added together, the cost of the private health insurance section and the Government section of health insurance would be more than the cost of Medibank. [More…]

• But the honourable member’s estimated cost of Medibank was based only on what the Government hoped it would cost without any belief or calculation or to the number of people who would continue to belong to the private health funds. [More…]

• If one does the same sums, which the honourable member for Oxley does not care to hear because he is now leaving the House, and adds together the Government cost of Medibank and the continuing private health insurance costs, the total cost for health care to the Australian public is massive compared with what it was before the introduction of Medibank. [More…]

• In the time remaining to me in this discussion I have only to cite a whole series of points to make it very clear that Medibank as it is operating now is not a clear health care program for Australia. [More…]

• Last week I learnt of a person who has written to the Health Insurance Commission on 2 occasions over the last 6 months but has not received a reply to either letter and still has not received a Medibank card. [More…]

• Quite definitely, one thing which this Government has already done but which Labor failed to do for a specific and clear future operation of Medibank and the whole health care picture was to bring the essential points of health care in Australia back under the one department instead of having the hopelessly fragmented arrangement that Labor had. [More…]

• At least now- I congratulate the Government on this- Medibank, nursing homes and general health are all back with the Department of Health. [More…]

• If we are going to have a health scheme in this country and a total health care picture we have to have a uniform policy on hospitals, medical care, nursing homes and health insurance. [More…]

• Let us have a look at a few other anomalies that this so called overall health scheme had set up. [More…]

• At that time we had the head of their health insurance commission out here saying how lovely the medical garden was back in Canada. [More…]

• I believe that it was a deliberate deceit by Labor when in government to cite the Canadian scheme to us as the be all and end all of health care when the Canadians were saying in their Budget that it was costing too much, that the provinces were being given notice and that a review would be undertaken. [More…]

• This Bill will amend the National Health Act to implement certain decisions taken after its review of expenditure in the public sector, and announced on 4 and 6 February. [More…]

• As in the past, eligible pensioners- that is those holding a pensioner health benefits card- will not be charged for their pharmaceutical benefits. [More…]

• Secondly, the Bill provides for the removal of the pharmaceutical benefits concession for beneficiaries under the subsidised health benefits plan. [More…]

• The introduction of these Medibank arrangements in all States and Territories throughout Australia has rendered the medical and hospital assistance component of the subsidised health benefits plan redundant. [More…]

• The Bill will remove the concession and will also repeal the redundant provisions of the Act authorising the subsidised health benefits plan itself. [More…]

• This increase, together with the removal of the concession for subsidised health benefits plan beneficiaries, will result in a saving of $5. [More…]

• Thirdly, the Bill provides for the termination from 1 April 1976 of Commonwealth hospital benefits, authorised by Part V of the National Health Act. [More…]

• With the introduction on 1 July 1975 of Medibank medical benefits authorised by the Health Insurance Act, the payment of Commonwealth medical benefits authorised by the National Health Act was ceased. [More…]

• The Government is using a new instrument altogether which is having and will have a tremendous impact upon that key industry, the building industry, which is a barometer of the economic health of this country. [More…]

• We see an assault on the pensioners and an assault on health which has received a cut of $7m this year. [More…]

• Subsidised health benefits which are provided at half-price are to be taken away from recipients of unemployment and sickness benefits. [More…]

• Clearly the Government was elected to provide honest and competent government again and above all to restore the economy to health. [More…]

• He did not say anything about protection of the health of the community or of the individual concerned. [More…]

• There were 2 criteria for illegal immigrants to become permanent residents: health and police record. [More…]

• The most important aspect of the Social Welfare Commission, which I would have thought would appeal to the present Prime Minister and the people behind him- it certainly appeals to me, although I do not share many of the Government’s views, but I hold the view, and I am glad that the Government at least expresses the view- that it is important for the welfare dollar or whatever it might be calledthis applies not only to welfare but to education and health etc.- to be spent in the most efficient and the most appropriate manner. [More…]

• Whether we rely on the market place, as happened for example with regard to Medibank, where people can go to any doctor they want and the Government refunds all or a proportion of the money that is required to pay the medical practitioner, or whether we provide services such as community health centres and so on, is basically the question in cash versus services; it is an important question for any government. [More…]

• It has major developments in health, transport and education. [More…]

• They are people with educational, recreational, vocational and health needs, needs that are not always as easily satisfied for the ordinary people as they are for the wealthy. [More…]

• In the area of health care, a community health centre was established in West Heidelberg and one is proposed for Northcote, which proposal may not be honoured by the present make-the-people-pay Government. [More…]

• Most important of course is that the health of every personman, woman and child- has become less of a worry with the advent of Medibank. [More…]

• Governments cannot guarantee good health but Labor at least legislated so that financial hardship caused by illness would no longer torment individuals and families. [More…]

• And if he is worried about bureaucracies and their extravagance, what about the bureaucracies in private health funds and private insurance? [More…]

• In whole areas of public policy- schools, health, the environment, industrial conditions, the National Estate, social welfare, local government- no body of fact or evidence existed. [More…]

• Neither State nor Federal public servants had the experience to handle the problems of health, transport, housing or sewerage. [More…]

• It will hand back to the States the blame for all the inadequacies in health, education, transport and other fields which the States have never been able to tackle and which this Government refuses to tackle. [More…]

• For over 20 years, pensioners, health services, education and many social changes in Australia were neglected and the social problems associated with this neglect were swept under the carpet by the rule of the Menzies Government and subsequent Liberal coalition governments. [More…]

• -These are the specific measures for which we sought the cooperation of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in withdrawing from the Bill; we agree with the bulk of the Bill. [More…]

• But the point is that it will permit the Department of Health to better advise the Government on the real cost of pharmaceuticals in this country. [More…]

• If there were the time and inclination we would suggest to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) that in our view the wisest thing would be to withdraw the Bill and re-draft it in order to cope with the objections we seek to discuss. [More…]

• The first objection relates to clause 12, which seeks to increase to $2 the general patient contribution for pharmaceutical benefits and to remove the concession for subsidised health benefit plan beneficiaries. [More…]

• That aspect comes into the question because the following clauses, clauses 13 and 14, making consequential amendments to sections 87 and 99, remove the right which up until now has prevailed for people registered under the subsidised health benefits plan to receive their pharmaceutical benefits at a reduced charge. [More…]

• Now, in one fell swoop, the Government is seeking to abolish the whole concession so that the people which even this Government conceded required special help, hence the subsidised health benefits plan, will now be expected to pay the full sum for their prescriptions. [More…]

• We certainly agree with the proposition that the overall subsidised health benefit plan should be abolished, because clearly its purpose is superseded by the implementation of Medibank which provides the medical care, without cost to people who could not afford it, that that plan sought to provide. [More…]

• The first is the part which abolishes subsidised health benefits. [More…]

• The subsidised health benefits plan, or SHB as it is commonly referred to, was instituted with a three-fold purpose, I believe. [More…]

• Firstly it was to assist with enrolment fees for medical services with a voluntary health insurance fund. [More…]

• Secondly it was to assist in a similar manner with enrolment fees for public ward hospital treatment with a voluntary health insurance fund. [More…]

• The Commonwealth was actually enrolling these eligible persons with a voluntary health insurance fund during the period of their eligibility and was providing them with a certificate of entitlement from the Department of Social Security to allow them to receive pharmaceutical benefits items at half the cost to the general public. [More…]

• Low income groups were informed by publicity campaigns, by the voluntary health insurance funds, by Commonwealth Employment Service officers and by social workers. [More…]

• Unfortunately the subsidised health benefit plan did not work as it was originally intended, when introducing this scheme in 1970 the then Minister for Health, Dr A. J. Forbes, stated that it was to be available to an estimated 100 000 families or 300 000 individuals. [More…]

• The Minister made reference in his second reading speech to the fact that Medibank renders the subsidised health benefits plan as it relates to hospital and medical benefits redundant. [More…]

• Clearly it would not be an easy matter to pull ‘out the figure of $ 1.3m as the cost of administering this subsidised health benefits plan. [More…]

• In many instances they will avoid getting the necessary health care, particularly those families in the low income and disadvantaged area that I mentioned earlier. [More…]

• Surely the scheme is not serving the purpose that it should if people deprive themselves of proper health care because the cost is too great. [More…]

• I remind the honourable member for Maribyrnong, who is the shadow Minister for Health, of this point. [More…]

• Whereas the cost is important, the health and the welfare of the nation are of paramount importance. [More…]

• The Pharmacy Guild has men and women with great expertise in this field who could combine with the Government and officials of the Department of Health as a working party on restructuring the scheme. [More…]

• The increasing cost of the scheme is obviously worrying the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), the Treasurer (Mr Lynch) and the Government. [More…]

• An inquiry commenced in 1972, when the Liberal and Country Parties were in government- Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson was Minister for Health- into the earnings, costs and profits of pharmacists. [More…]

• -I support the remarks of the honourable member for Maribyrnong (Dr Cass), who is the shadow Minister for Health. [More…]

• The honourable member for Petrie opposed most of the suggested amendments to the National Health Bill. [More…]

• I am referring now to the abolition of the subsidised health benefits plan for the purposes of the pharmaceutical benefits. [More…]

• The only argument that I can see against that proposition is that the Department of Health has been extremely efficient in keeping down the cost of pharmaceutical substances that are on this list. [More…]

• -I rise briefly in this debate to lend the support of the National Country Party to the program outlined by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• It is also worthy of note that the present Minister for Health, unlike previous Ministers for Health, has seen fit to have had a detailed study made of the position of pharmacists. [More…]

• Previous speakers from the Opposition side have made much play of the withdrawal of the subsidised health benefits plan. [More…]

• I believe that it is absolutely essential to consider the subsidised health benefits plan in the overall health and social security strategy of the present Government. [More…]

• We heard much chatter about what the Labor Government was doing in health and social security matters but one of the first acts of the new Minister was to get out the broom and sweep up the untidy house which the Australian Labor Party left. [More…]

• I deal now with the third point in the Bill, the tidying up of the hospital section of the National Health Act which is contained in Part V. Obviously this should have been dealt with when the previous legislation was introduced. [More…]

• This Bill sets out to amend the National Health Act to implement certain decisions taken after the Government’s review of expenditure in the public sector, and the provisions in the Bill were broadly announced on 4 and 6 February. [More…]

• The other purpose of the legislation is to remove certain redundant provisions of the National Health Act, and I refer principally to the payment of 80c a day in respect of uninsured patients in approved hospitals, the $5 a day payable in respect of pensioners in public hospitals and the $2 a day payable in cases where the hospital does not raise a charge for a patient. [More…]

• The subsidised health benefits plan was introduced on 1 January 1970 to provide free hospital and medical insurance to people who would suffer hardship in the payment of contributions. [More…]

• Assessment of eligibility under the subsidised health benefits plan and the issue of SHB entitlement certificates are carried out by the Department of Social Security, not the Department of Health, in respect of all these groups with the exception of migrants whose certificates are issued by the Department of Immigration. [More…]

• The $1.3m cost of administering the subsidised health benefits plan is met by the Department of Social Security which carries out assessments of the beneficiaries and issues the SHB certificates. [More…]

• There are some basic shortcomings in the present subsidised health benefits plan. [More…]

• For example, in many cases the entitlement for benefits is not clear cut at the time at which the application for benefits under the plan is made and there can be consequent delays in finalising the assessment and issue of a subsidised health benefits certificate. [More…]

• There are no provisions in the National Health Act for retrospective adjustments of the patient contribution to be made, nor is it considered to be practical to incorporate such provisions in the legislation. [More…]

• But in my view the Government has to adopt a basic position, and that is to ensure, firstly, that the system provides drugs essential to life and the welfare of every person regardless of his financial position, secondly, that pharmaceutical items are of the highest quality- I am sure that the Department of Health has done a tremendous job in that area- thirdly, that they are available at a reasonable price- nobody can claim that the Department of Health has not done a good job in that area- and, fourthly, there is also the necessity for the maintenance of a viable pharmaceutical manufacturing industry which has sufficient resources to carry out research and to keep pace with the needs of the community. [More…]

• That could result in increased costs of items that are not on the list but which are probably necessary for general health care. [More…]

• But we are suggesting that all the signs showed that that sick economy was on the way back to health. [More…]

• Then there are the cuts in the Department of Health in relation to pharmaceutical benefits. [More…]

• There has been a decrease in the amount of money available to the Department of Health, giving rise to the increase in charges for benefits in the pharmaceutical field. [More…]

• Last Saturday I had the privilege of attending the opening of a community health centre in a town in my electorate. [More…]

• Fourthly, Doveton expects some help- in particular, help for its health centres and to improve social services. [More…]

• I echo the sentiments of the whole of my electorate in wishing him health and success in the years ahead. [More…]

• Nor will we be able to build for the future, provide for the needy in our community, or improve all those things that need improving in this country such as health, child care, roads and so on. [More…]

• There are some in this House who no doubt thought upon consideration of my medical background that I would speak on health. [More…]

• I do not underrate the importance of health and the need for physical and social security. [More…]

• The national animal health project was approved by Parliament last year after it was scrutinised by the Public Works Department. [More…]

• The Department of Health leaves no doubt in anybody’s mind that cigarette smoking is a very serious cause of lung cancer and coronary heart diseases. [More…]

• I suppose it is one of the most serious health problems in this country. [More…]

• It is the fourth major public health problem. [More…]

• As soon as I heard this report this morning I contacted my department and my department contacted the New South Wales Health Commission. [More…]

• Advice has just been received as a result of these discussions that the hospital has a continuing responsibility to the child for the provision of an artificial eye and the New South Wales Health Commission is arranging for the boy to continue to receive the services of the hospital without charge, including the provision of an artificial eye. [More…]

• I have had to take unhappy decisions in my own area of responsibility- health. [More…]

• Speaking of health, I am pleased to say that there is close cooperation with the Interim Committee for the Children’s Commission in relation to areas within my own portfolio responsibility, particularly the community health program. [More…]

• A significant number of health services for children are being supported under that program at State request. [More…]

• In particular I would mention the early childhood development complexes in Victoria where both health and education services are contained. [More…]

• We have been told by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) that only 5 projects were involved. [More…]

• Now I challenge the Minister for Health again to come clean and tell us what criteria are to be used in supplying the funds to pay the salaries and wages under those circumstances. [More…]

• It is certainly taking a much more severe direction than we would have countenanced when we were in office or is desirable for the economic health of this country. [More…]

• Moneys standing to the credit of the Fund are applied under the National Welfare Fund Act in making such payments as are directed by any law of the Commonwealth to be made from the Fund in relation to health, social services and other welfare services. [More…]

• I would like to begin by asking the Minister Assisting the Treasurer, how closing the Welfare Fund off in the way suggested by the Government can be said to be serving the legal purposes of the Fund which are supposed to relate to health, social services and other welfare services. [More…]

• It seems to me that meat inspections are a public health benefit and a social charge that, as has been the case traditionally, reasonably comes out of taxation revenue. [More…]

• The other matter to which I want to refer briefly is health standards. [More…]

• The Green Paper states that the policy should be to ensure that health standards for local consumption are as high as those for the export market. [More…]

• This area concerns the health of the people and I think the Commonwealth should set standardshonourable members on the Government side would call this centralism- and maintain them on the same basis for both the local market and the export market. [More…]

• The principle benefit of meat inspection is associated with public health and as such the cost of maintaining the public health must be borne by the whole community, not by the producers or the meat works operators. [More…]

• That is an excellent principle if we want the public health of the Australian people to remain at the optimum level. [More…]

• That appointment will be seen as evidence of this Government’s capacity to back the needs of small businesses which do depend upon the total economic health of the business community. [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Transport whether his attention has been drawn to a recent Press report that a Trans-Australia Airlines captain, due to sudden ill health, was unable to continue in control of a jet aircraft he was piloting interstate. [More…]

• The restoration of economic health will be a slow process. [More…]

• Cuts in real living standards now in order to contain inflation and promote employment can only be traded off against firm commitments to a greater future for all, young and old, in housing, education, health, job satisfaction and creative leisure. [More…]

• For the time being, however, there will be massive cuts in the childhood service program, discontinuation of vital migrant services, though some will be hastily revived for a while, a softening in the commitment to the real value of pensions, prevarication about the delivery of effective legal aid and obfuscation leading to the dismantling of the health care program. [More…]

• The so-called right to property is central to the program of the Workers Party and its supporters characterise the rights of Australian citizens to education, health care and equal opportunity as privileges. [More…]

• With increased community wealth governments can spend more on pensions, schools, roads, health and other welfare programs and on government administration. [More…]

• Voluntary organisationswhether they be in the field of child care, preschool education, health, the aged, the handicapped or whatever- play a vital role in the delivery of assistance to those in need. [More…]

• Despite a hostile Senate and a media partial to the Liberal-Country Party coalition, the Labor Government after assuming office on 2 December 1972 had a magnificent record of achievement particularly in regard to social welfare, child care, education, health, legal aid and direct monetary grants to local government. [More…]

• A recent survey in Sweden, quoted in the United States magazine Business Week of December 22 last year, showed that many Swedes thought there should be more expenditure on health, care of the aged, education and the environment. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health reduced from 6 years to 18 months the age of eligibility for milk substitutes as a pharmaceutical benefit? [More…]

• to examine the awareness of specific learning difficulties among the community generally and among the medical, health, teaching and social welfare professions in particular; [More…]

• This was concerned largely with the effects of bauxite mining on the Aboriginal people in the area but also dealt with health and education- other matters of direct and personal concern to the community. [More…]

• The second report, published last year, examined the health situation of Aboriginal communities in the Perth, Collie and Gnowangerup areas of Western Australia. [More…]

• The report also covered matters which closely related to health, such as nutritional deficiencies and alcoholism as well as housing and education. [More…]

• It was done because it was only through specific purpose payments to the States that we could meet some of the needs of the people- needs for schools, needs for hospitals and health services, needs for sewerage and so on. [More…]

• We acted similarly on the needs of the cities and on the need for an adequate hospital and health service for our country. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Department of Health is not directly responsible for the viability of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. [More…]

• Our health, which is surely of paramount importance to all of us, has been seriously impaired by pollution, particularly air pollution. [More…]

• They place on the Committee a responsibility to inquire into the incidence of specific learning difficulties throughout Australia, to examine measures that are being taken at the present time to overcome these difficulties- the Committee will be reporting on the success of present measures- and to examine the public awareness and knowledge of learning difficulties and the awareness in the medical, health, teaching and social welfare areas. [More…]

• Another report concerned the health of a number of Aboriginal communities in Western Australia in far distant, isolated and remote places. [More…]

• I would like also to commend the work on committees of the present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), the honourable member for Mallee (Mr Fisher) and the honourable member for Deakin (Mr Jarman). [More…]

• However, I know that the members who served on that Committee were very anxious to come to grips with the problems of health and the problems in the education area which the Aboriginal people faced. [More…]

• In our later reports which followed the inquiry into Aboriginal health and related matters in the south-west of Western Australia similar recommendations were made in relation to this problem of alcohol. [More…]

• In addition we looked particularly at the questions of housing, education, recreation and health. [More…]

• The health services are not quite as expansive and the education systems do not work quite as well. [More…]

• We still have some steps to take in this city towards integration so that the health services, the education services and general government run in a totally co-ordinated way. [More…]

• It made recommendations on the National Capital Development Commission, the means of education in Canberra, the health system, housing and construction, and other, functions. [More…]

• -The matter I want to raise concerns the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and an announcement he made about amendments to the pharmaceutical benefits list in Press release No. [More…]

• That reduction of the age limit from 6 years to 18 months for patients eligible to receive cows milk substitutes as a pharmaceutical benefit under the schedules of the National Health Act will cause serious financial hardship to many families; [More…]

• I have talked privately to the Minister for Health and I am glad to acknowledge the genuine interest that he has displayed in this matter. [More…]

• I believe he should apply himself to this matter assiduously because the health of a large number of extremely unfortunate children is at stake. [More…]

• If parents cannot afford to pay the additional amount and have to stop giving their children the Soya Bean milk the children ‘s main source of protein is removed, with the resultant damage to the child ‘s health. [More…]

• It is true that as the Minister for Health I approved the recommendation of the statutory body in good faith. [More…]

• The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee is a statutory body which was established to advise the Minister for Health on matters concerning the listing of products on the pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• As the Minister for Health I have no power whatsoever to replace or to put on the pharmaceutical benefits list any item whatsoever. [More…]

• One of them in fact is related to health. [More…]

• I do not know whether the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is about to leave the chamber, but I would like to deal with the other matter first because it is related to a more specific problem, namely, the rating of Crown land. [More…]

• The second point I would like quickly to refer to the Minister for Health is one I have raised before. [More…]

• The Bulletin refers today to what was said by Dr William Barclay of the New South Wales Health Commission. [More…]

• There appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year a report of a meeting between Mr Healey, the New South Wales Minister for Health, and the Commonwealth Minister for Health, Mr Hunt. [More…]

• The Medibank Review Committee is to report to the Commonwealth Minister for Health. [More…]

• When the Minister discusses this matter with the State Health Commissions and the State Ministers for Health he should tell them that he is aware of the fact that even though doctors claim that fee-for-service- certainly surgeons in Victoria have claimed this in the past- does not cost any more than sessional fees, this is not true. [More…]

• A government which is trying to restrain expenditure must be very conscious of this when dealing with the medical profession and State Departments of Health. [More…]

• Such factors include tariff cuts; technological changes or other’ redundancy-causing situations; residence in an area where employment opportunities are limited or dedining; absence from employment for reasons such as health, incapacity, imprisonment, domestic responsibility or possession of inadequate or inappropriate work skills. [More…]

• The Government of the day has to recognise- I think this is the crux of the federalism policy which we will be introducing- that there are States and that those States have got massive responsibilities in the areas of health, education, Aborigines and a whole range of things, and that those States’ governments are charged with the responsibility of looking after those areas. [More…]

• They decided, I think probably for incorrect reasons, that dry white wines were better for executives’ health than dry red wines. [More…]

• Should something happen to the health of the wheat farmer or the wheat owner-operator and his ability to do the work himself, this provision could mean the success or failure of a wheat farm. [More…]

• The Minister for Health and the Minister for Post and Telecommunications will be making a statement about this matter, if it has not already been made, as a result of Cabinet discussion and decision this morning. [More…]

• How the tools of capital opposite can bear themselves in the knowledge that it is the pensioners, the Aborigines, the people in need of health care and pharmaceutical benefits, the migrants, those needing legal aid and others in depressed sectors who are affected by this program, is absolutely beyond me. [More…]

• How can they tolerate the knowledge that $7m has been sliced from Aboriginal Affairs spending, $34m from health care, $9m from child care and $30m from environment, housing and consumer affairs? [More…]

• During his career here he was Minister for the Army, Minister for the Navy, Minister Assisting the Treasurer, Minister for Health and Minister for Immigration. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• At the State Health Ministers conference last year it was agreed to work towards uniform legislation to control cigarette advertising in newspapers, magazines, handbills, pamphlets, leaflets, cinema slides, theatres and by any other means. [More…]

• I understand that the committee looking into this matter will be reporting to the Australian Health Ministers Conference in June this year on the progress it has made in achieving uniform legislation to cover the areas that are outside Commonwealth jurisdiction. [More…]

• We had to try to bring community centres, child minding centres and health centres into these places so that they could be made gentler areas in which to live. [More…]

• Primary and secondary education, social security, health, housing, transport and everything else must be submitted to discussion and bargaining. [More…]

• I believe that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who represents the Minister for Education (Senator Carrick) in this chamber, should be frank with this House. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health read reports in a number of today’s newspapers to the effect that he was advocating the banning of cigarette advertising in all forms of the media and that that would be carried out in conjunction with State governments? [More…]

• It was for that reason that at the State Health Ministers’ Conference in May last year the State Ministers agreed to set up a joint working party to examine a code for uniform legislation to control cigarette advertising in other areas of jurisidiction. [More…]

• At the State Health Ministers Conference last year it was agreed to work towards uniform legislation to control cigarette advertising in newspapers, magazines, handbills, pamphlets, leaflets, cinema slides, theatres and by any other means. [More…]

• I understand that the committee looking into this matter will be reporting to the Australian Health Ministers Conference in June this year on the progress it has made in achieving uniform legislation to cover the areas that are outside Commonwealth jurisdiction. [More…]

• If we are not to be parochial, if we look at Australian farms and do not give a damn whether we are considering 20 farmers, 20 000 farmers or 2 million farmers, there is no question that in this continent every incentive should be given to improving the health of our soil. [More…]

• He said: ‘Offhand, I cannot think of any incentive to the rural sector likely to return so much to the nation in both soil health for the future and in terms of straight economic return.’ [More…]

• Later reference was made to: the clear failure of existing social and economic structures to meet the needs of modern society, particularly in relation to education, social security, health, industrial relations and urban and regional development. [More…]

• Australia’s history is characterised not by examples of people seeking more and more dependence on government but by people with the courage, the ambition and the common sense to improve their lot, and in so doing play their role in contributing to the national resource- the fund from which general standards in health, education, welfare and other avenues can be improved. [More…]

• I particularly congratulate my long-standing friend, the member for Oakleigh and Victorian Minister for Health, the Hon. [More…]

• They have no health services and practically no education. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware of the article in this morning’s Press in which it is alleged that metropolitan dwellers, especially those connected with motor vehicle transport, are exposed to hazard due to high levels of lead in their bodies? [More…]

• What assurance can the Minister give the House that adequate steps are being taken to protect the health of persons in metropolitan areas from this lead hazard? [More…]

• I can assure him that both my Department and the National Health and Medical Research Council have for some years been aware of the possible health hazards from lead in metropolitan areas. [More…]

• The Health and Medical Research Council made 2 recommendations, one in May and one in November 1973, specifically related to lead. [More…]

• The honourable member for Franklin and other honourable members can be assured that the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Department of Health and a great number of other bodies have been working towards trying to achieve standardisation in legislation to ensure that lead does not injure health any more than cannot be avoided. [More…]

• Government policies which influence mortality are posited primarily on the desire to enhance the health, safety and welfare of the community and their effect on population growth is incidental. [More…]

• Consider the case of a breadwinner who for health reasons, related either to himself or his children, is forced to move from one area to another. [More…]

• When I was Minister I always said that I would not have a person forced to take work in a place that was dangerous, in a place where the environment was injurious to his health or in an industry where there was an unresolved industrial dispute. [More…]

• Nearly 7 per cent had been dismissed, while the rest had resigned for reasons such as ill health, moving to another locality or family crisis. [More…]

• We must reestablish the economy of this rich and vigorous country and then carefully press forward with social welfare, health and education policies which will ensure that this country is second to none. [More…]

• We must mobilise the resources of this bountiful country for the good of all and ensure especially that those who dp not have the opportunity to achieve, because of deprivation, whether through accident of birth, intellect, health or plain bad luck, are assisted to a more fulfilling life. [More…]

• It would be sad indeed if such sufferers were subjected to misery because of the precipitous removal of these agents from the national health scheme list. [More…]

• The Company makes the point, in dealing with Fabahistin formerly a listed product under the national health scheme, that the patient would pay $2 towards the cost of $3.87. [More…]

• Now that the drug has been removed from the national health scheme list the cost is $5.38, because of the increase in the mark-up and the dispensing fee, and the patient has to pay the entire amount. [More…]

• This will lead to an increase in the cost of Medibank as a result of more visits to doctors, an increase in the cost of the national health scheme and an increase in cost to the patient. [More…]

• Before I call the Minister for Health I draw the attention of the House to the fact that there is approximately 26 minutes remaining in the debate. [More…]

• I call the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The great difficulty, of course, that I experience and that former Ministers for Health have experienced, is section 101 of the National Health Act sub-section ( 1 ) of which provides: [More…]

• an officer, being a pharmacist, of the Commonwealth Department of Health appointed by the DirectorGeneral; [More…]

• The current membership of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee is as follows: Dr M. V. Clarke (Chairman), consultant physician, Melbourne- this is a very prominent position- Dr K. C. Crafter, general practitioner, Adelaide; Dr M. J. Eadie neurologist, Brisbane; Dr J. L. Frew, consultant physician, Melbourne; Dr D. G. Hamilton, paediatrician, Sydney; Dr H. L. Thompson, general practitioner, Sydney; Professor J. P. Chalmers, clinical pharmacologist, Adelaide; Mr K. E. Thomas, retail pharmacist, Sydney; Mr A. E. Shields, pharmacist, Department of Health, Canberra. [More…]

• In fact the former Minister for Health went to the PBAC in September of last year and made certain recommendations to it in the light of the current economic situation affecting the then Government. [More…]

• The PBAC went to work and made certain recommendations which ultimately came to me as the Minister for Health- recommendations which I approved. [More…]

• In the light of the economic review which took place in February of this year, recommendations were made to me as the Minister for Health. [More…]

• All I can say is that fortunately neither the Minister for Health, the honourable member for KingsfordSmith, Bayers nor the doctor the honourable member quotes is the arbiter. [More…]

• So, as I said some weeks ago, I, as the Minister for Health, am very conscious of the great cost to the taxpayers of Australia of the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. [More…]

• We will take decisions in accordance with the best interests of the health care of the Australian people. [More…]

• and (2) A World Health Organisation Expert Committee which met in December 1974 stated (‘Smoking and its Effects on Health’, WHO Technical Report Series 568, Geneva 1975) that there are no consistent data available relating cigarette prices to their consumption. [More…]

• It has not been policy under the Community Health Program to issue such highly detailed instructions on activities to be undertaken within funded projects. [More…]

• -I am pleased to advise the honourable member for Capricornia that the Hospital and Health Services Commission, through the Rural Health Working Party, is preparing a report on rural health services in Australia. [More…]

• It should be noted that the late Professor Downing in the 1974 George Judah Cohen Memorial Lecture estimated that the introduction of Labor’s compensation, superannuation and health insurance schemes would mean an increase in taxation of 25 per cent. [More…]

• Even if the Government believes that there are financial stringencies, it ought to consider the principles in the summary of the Toose report where it is suggested that repatriation hospitals be integrated with community health facilities and that to keep them viable they should be there for the benefit of the community as well. [More…]

• To integrate repatriation hospitals into community health services would be a darn sight cheaper than putting up with the problems that exist in those general hospitals. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is it a fact that expensive restricted drugs have been obtained by the passing of fraudulent national health prescriptions to chemists in Queensland? [More…]

• Under the terms of the National Health Act, it will not be possible to compensate the chemists who have been the victims of this fraudulent behaviour. [More…]

• -What arrangements has the Minister for Health made to guarantee the supply of insulin to people requiring it, following the fire which destroyed the insulin manufacturing equipment at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories in Melbourne? [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The statistical evidence that has now been derived from Medibank computer will undoubtedly enable the Health Insurance Commission to monitor claims and also to monitor services for which doctors are claiming. [More…]

• They planned to retire while they were still in reasonable health so they could enjoy reasonable retirement in economic security. [More…]

• Great strains are going to be placed on the health of these contributors because they will have to go back to work even though many of them are not in very good health. [More…]

• To achieve this the logical trend is towards shorter working hours and towards an earlier retirement so that people can enjoy their retirement in reasonably good health. [More…]

• I believe that this scheme is a tragedy not only for the many public servants who have served the people well over a long period and who want to retire in good health at age of 60 years but also for the Public Service itself, because the clock is being turned back on the considerable progress that was made under the Labor Government to make the Public Service a highly competent and well motivated organisation serving the Australian people. [More…]

• It is a pretty good example of what a national health service ought to be. [More…]

• I think the honourable member was drawing a very long bow in trying to equate the hospital system with a nationalised health system. [More…]

• It is a very far thing from a completely nationalised medical health system as the honourable member would like us to believe. [More…]

• There are major problems of identification and extreme difficulties of obtaining necessary checks of potential immigrants including health checks. [More…]

• In respect of the persons in the present eligible categories I have mentioned- that is spouses, dependant children and aged and dependant parents- it may be necessary to dispense with checks, including health checks, if conditions do not permit them to be undertaken. [More…]

• Leading nutritionists in the Federal Department of Health have criticised the program and called it a gimmick. [More…]

• If I think there is a case, I could well raise it at the Health Ministers conference later this year and I will do so. [More…]

• To dream the impossible dream and to strive towards its fulfilment are activities which indicate health and growth, but these human virtues are diminished or annihilated when the organisational pyramid becomes a tomb for people whose vitality has been stifled by the system. [More…]

• Patients in private hospitals which are approved hospitals under Section 94 of the National Health Act are entitled to receive pharmaceutical benefits from the hospital dispensary or the private pharmacy (where no hospital dispensary exists) upon payment of patient contribution, or if a pensioner free of charge. [More…]

• Patients in private hospitals which are not approved hospitals under Section 94 of the National Health Act are entitled to receive pharmaceutical benefits from an approved pharmacist upon the payment of patient contribution, or if a pensioner free of charge. [More…]

• It could be expected that the number of persons seeking outpatient treatment at hospitals will fall since pensioners and persons uninsured under the previous private health insurance scheme can now attend private practitioners and specialists instead of needing to attend outpatient departments of hospitals. [More…]

• However, Medibank benefits are payable on a consultation basis towards the cost of a professional service, as defined in the Health Insurance Act, associated with the fitting of an initial or repeat prosthesis or orthosis. [More…]

• State health authorities generally determine the services available from recognised hospitals. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware of a report in the Tasmanian newspapers at the weekend stating that the Tasmanian Minister for Health has advocated the banning of the advertising of alcohol on television as a follow up to the Government’s decision to ban cigarette advertising? [More…]

• That committee of inquiry will be reporting to the Health Ministers conference to be held later this year. [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Health whether he is able to provide any information on whether a decision has been made or when a decision will be made to continue the national animal health laboratories project at Geelong. [More…]

• I understand it is the practice of the Commissioner of Taxation to accept that payments to an approved nursing home are in fact rebateable under this provision if the nursing home is capable of providing the intensive nursing care necessary to attract the higher Commonwealth benefits payable under the National Health Act. [More…]

• A Bill was introduced in 197 1 by the then Minister for the Interior- the present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt)- proposing in effect that limitations on electoral expenditure be abandoned. [More…]

• I am not saying that the solution is as the present Minister for Health proposed when he was Minister for the Interior in 1971: Just to delete the qualification. [More…]

• Joint planning, and even conduct, of schools by educational, health, welfare, cultural and sporting agencies could provide additional facilities for the school, allow the community access to its resources, and thus generally increase its fruitfulness. [More…]

• Medibank was budgeted to cost $ 1,445m and health services were to rise by 1 16 per cent. [More…]

• It will then be up to the States to decide what share of the State funds will go to transport and roads and what share will go to health, education, legal services and so on. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health in a position now to inform the House, and in particular the residents of central Queensland, when supplies of influenza vaccine will be readily available to that area? [More…]

• May I say how delighted we are to see the honourable member for Braddon back in our midst and to know that he is fully restored to good health. [More…]

• Evidently section 96 grants, the tied grants which provide funds for schools, sewerage programs, growth centres, hospitals, health centres, aged persons’ accommodation, senior citizens’ centres and so on will be virtually obliterated. [More…]

• Arrangements are being made for consultation with the Minister for Health on this matter. [More…]

• At the University of Sydney there were 161 such students, all of whom were enrolled for diplomas in the Cumberland College of Health Sciences and were undertaking miscellaneous subjects at the University. [More…]

• No designation of health assistant or aide is used in relation to courses in colleges of advanced education and it is not possible to provide information in relation to these categories. [More…]

• During the next year 1973-74, the proportion of the funds for the National Warning allocated to State and nonstatutory health education authorities was increased in order to foster the educational component with advantages of more personal impact, long term effect and inbuilt capacity for feedback. [More…]

• With this increase in health education activities throughout Australia, and an increased awareness of the National Warning, the amount allocated to the media publicity component was reduced. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, documentation, could not be completed in time. [More…]

• World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculturaltions will be proposed in subsequent financial years. [[More…]](https://historichansard.net/hofreps/1976/19760427_reps_30_hor99/#subdebate-40-29)

• asked the Minister for Health, upon (Question No. [More…]

• ill) notice: Mr Hodges asked the Minister for Health, [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is there any requirement that only Australian goats’ milk be used in National Health Service prescriptions. [More…]

• The Department stressed the importance of the problem, which had already been under investigation by the CSIRO Division of Animal Health in a less acute form. [More…]

• A closely co-operative investigation was set up between the Department and the CSIRO Division of Animal Health and has continued as a matter of priority in both of these. [More…]

• There will be no more money for education, health services, transport, roads, hospitals, child care, universities and colleges or urban and regional development. [More…]

• Not until the Federal Budget in August will the States know the full extent of the cuts or restraints or ceilings on specific purpose grants for education, health, transport and urban and regional development. [More…]

• We know the only way he could reduce it significantlyforget about the tinkering and window-dressing of last February- is to put the axe through all the programs in health, education, transport and urban improvement originated and expanded by my Government. [More…]

• Commonwealth grants have been made to the Health Commission of New South Wales for the Wayside Chapel since the Community Health Program was introduced in 1973- 74. [More…]

• An amount of $40,288 has been allocated to the Health Commission of New South Wales for the Wayside Chapel in 1975-76, also on a 90 per cent basis. [More…]

• -The Minister for Health will be aware of the concern of the medical research community that this Government will continue the low priority the Labor Government gave to medical research when it reduced the already modest allocation in the last Budget. [More…]

• In 1974-75 it allocated $8.03m out of a total health budget of $1,1 88m, which represented 007 per cent of the total funds expended on health in Australia. [More…]

• 002 per cent out of a total budget of $2,400m for expenditure on health. [More…]

• Additionally we have received, for example, advice from the World Health Organisation that Mozambique desperately requires skim milk powder. [More…]

• The Prime Minister agrees with me here- I am very grateful because it will reduce my paper work- that we will be able to respond to the request by the World Health Organisation for skim milk powder for Mozambique. [More…]

• ‘Psychotropic substances’ is a term used to refer to substances that have the capacity to produce a state of dependence and central nervous system stimulation or depression resulting in hallucinations or disturbances in motor functions, thinking, behaviour, perception or mood and, in respect of which, there is evidence of a likelihood of abuse so as to constitute a pubhe health and social problem. [More…]

• -We have to restore confidence, purpose and forward thrust, particularly in the manufacturing sector of the economy as an important component in our program for economic recovery and for restoring health to the Australian economy. [More…]

• After all, the health standards applying to our domestic beef market are just as important- they are even more important, in my view- as those applying to the export market. [More…]

• I do not know of any reason why we should accept lower standards of hygiene or health in relation to beef which is consumed locally than we should in relation to beef which is exported. [More…]

• It must turn out a product which the people want and which is acceptable from both the health point of view and the nutrition point of view if we are to compete with, or to keep within due bounds the threat from, substitutes for fresh meat. [More…]

• The record shows that the Labor Government was responsible for setting up the Australian Bureau of Animal Health within the Department of Primary Industry. [More…]

• It also was a Labor decision to establish the animal health laboratories at Geelong. [More…]

• Regional planning bodies have been created for other functions of government such as education, health, electrical supply and sewerage. [More…]

• Other specific Commonwealth Government programs such as Community Health, Child Care, Community Arts, Tourism and Recreation, and the Aged and Handicapped Persons programs, for example, are the main source of funds for particular aspects of community welfare. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• B. Mathieson, Director of Health, Western Australia, against Mr W. F. Toomer, relating to statements made on television on 2 July 1974; if so, was this action initiated with the approval or aid of himself or his Department. [More…]

• The Committee recommended that the proposal by the University College not be supported but the Government deferred a final decision on this aspect of the report until further enquiries being undertaken by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission were completed. [More…]

• The proposal mentioned in ( 1 ) (a) was considered by a working party established by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission and the resulting report ‘A Report on the Integration of Health Services and Health Education Facilities in the Illawarra Region’, was tabled in Parliament 22 April 1975. [More…]

• The working party’s report recommended, inter alia, that the Australian Government should agree in principle to provide resources for the addition of facilities and services in accordance with the health care needs of the Illawarra Region, but in such a way that they could be adapted and used in a future approved educational program of the type envisaged in the Wollongong proposal. [More…]

• -I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Does he, like the Premier of Western Australia, favour this proposal, or will he prevent the country from becoming a dump for nuclear waste until it is clear that there will be no threat to the environment or the health and safety of the Australian people? [More…]

• -During question time the honourable member for Mallee (Mr Fisher) asked the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) a question which referred to a writ which had been issued by pharmacists in Australia. [More…]

• The fact that I feel it necessary to raise these questions suggests, I think, that it is incumbent upon the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) to give us a more clear definition of what the Government has in mind. [More…]

• The Minister for Health will discover, if he has not already, that the profit making people in the nursing homes know full well how to be quite ruthless and brutal in trying to mobilise emotional responses in the community against a government so that they can exploit the taxpayer by forcing a government into paying out more money. [More…]

• In the second reading speech of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) he stated that the Labor Government, in finalising approvals under this Bill so that they would be accepted in principle before the closing date, accepted 300 applications which amounted at that time to a liability of $ 134m. [More…]

• I draw the attention of the Minister for Health to an aspect of his ministerial responsibilitythe domiciliary nursing care benefitthat is very important in this area. [More…]

• On 15 April 1976 the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) issued a Press release under the heading ‘Domiciliary Nursing Benefit Care Extended’. [More…]

• I congratulate the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Government on this initiative. [More…]

• But the Minister for Health is now trying to turn over completely the whole purpose and the feeling behind what the honourable member for Mackellar did as the then Minister. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has not been able to explain it to the Committee. [More…]

• I would like to ask the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt)-I hope that he will reply- a question which relates to the speech he made last Tuesday, 27 April, which is recorded at page 1626 of Hansard of that date. [More…]

• Funding of the programs outlined above has been provided by the Department of Health. [More…]

• We must provide country residents, wherever possible, with basic services (education, welfare, health, culture and recreation). [More…]

• Without such assistance the city will never meet the demand for roads, sewerage, drains, transport, health, child care and other community facilities which its recent growth is creating. [More…]

• The main reason given for Sweden’s economic health is its willingness to spend its way out of potential trouble. [More…]

• The other project, which I think is of a more urgent nature, is the establishment of the National Animal Health Laboratories. [More…]

• The paper pointed out that growth gave us the opportunity to be better defended and the opportunity to have a better education system and a better health system. [More…]

• B. Mathieson, Director of Health, Western Australia, acting in his capacity as Chief Officer and in accordance with Section 67 of the Public Service Act and General Orders 3/E/4. [More…]

• The Director-General of Health supported this course of action. [More…]

• The specialist who examined Mr Toomer was selected by Dr Mathieson in consultation with the Director, Mental Health Services, Western Australia. [More…]

• -My question, addressed to the Minister for Health, is supplementary to that asked by my colleague the honourable member for Maribyrnong and is relative to the Minister’s answer. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• But let me repeat that I, as Minister for Health, am concerned about a decision that was reported to me to have been taken by the Australian Capital Territory Medical Association. [More…]

• In view of the number of complaints from elderly people required to complete Medibank claim forms, I ask the Minister for Health whether steps are being taken to replace the existing form with one less complex in detail and less cumbersome in size. [More…]

• The 1973 Budget established a new environment for so many things- education, health services, Aboriginal advancement and all the rest. [More…]

• Then there are the socially oriented enterprises, such as health, education and general welfare. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) will conduct an immediate and urgent inquiry into this episode and take appropriate action against such discreditable conduct. [More…]

• I give the honourable member an assurance that I have called upon the Australian Capital Territory Health Commission to furnish me with a report on the incident as a matter of urgency. [More…]

• House should all agree that if there is a substantial benefit that is virtually universal for all people in this country it is obviously a benefit that bears a cost, and health cover of high quality for all Australians is plainly costly. [More…]

• I have said repeatedly that essential programs in health, education, welfare and urban development will be maintained. [More…]

• You frequently use the expression ‘essential’ to say that we will not cut them back below the essential level … in respect of health care … 1 just wonder whether you have any feelings, whether your essential was a blanket essential or whether it had a cut-off point. [More…]

• The Prime Minister’s statement last night reveals that the central concept of Medibank- free universal health insurance- will be dismantled. [More…]

• The Government has caved in to the private health fund lobby. [More…]

• Health insurance will be divided into public and private sectors. [More…]

• All the inequalities and injustices, all the competitive snobberies and wasted energies built into our education system will be perpetuated in health insurance. [More…]

• The concept of universal health insurance has been repeatedly endorsed by the Australian people. [More…]

• They joined the doctors and the conservative health funds in a rearguard action. [More…]

• We all remember the evils and weaknesses of the old system- the multiplicity of inefficient and competing private funds, the waste, the plight of a million or more Australians who had no health insurance at all. [More…]

• As the article points out, Canada’s experience has shown that public health insurance schemes covering everyone can operate more economically than voluntary private funds. [More…]

• Similarly, Canadians are paying less per capita for public health, including universal health care, than United States citizens, who have no national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• It would not have driven higher income earners out of Medibank and created a dual system of health insurance. [More…]

• Medibank would not have become a poor man’s health fund for the infirm, the unemployed, the Aborigines and the migrants. [More…]

• Labor does not believe in a 2 -class system of health insurance- one for the rich and one for the poor. [More…]

• We believe in full, automatic health insurance for everyone. [More…]

• It is humbug for the Government to complain about the growing cost of health care to the community. [More…]

• The community will pay a far greater cost in the long run if health care is neglected. [More…]

• The cost of health is increasing in every country in the world. [More…]

• By undermining the basis of Medibank and restoring health insurance to private funds, the Government is ensuring that the ultimate cost to the taxpayer, to business, to hospitals, to society at large will be greater. [More…]

• Through inaction by the Federal Government people are compelled to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more through compulsory insurance for health, third party claims and workers compensation than they would need to pay to a truly national scheme in each sector. [More…]

• He is condemning the Australian people to a more costly, more inefficient system of health insurance. [More…]

• The Government stands condemned for its deception, incompetence, disregard for the true health needs of the Australian people and its threatened destruction of a great social reform. [More…]

• The then Opposition opposed that idea, and quite rightly so, because all the straight levy would have done would have been to lock into Medibank the rapidly rising cost structure of health care in Australia. [More…]

• It would have provided no opportunity to stabilise rising doctors’ fees or health costs. [More…]

• As the Prime Minister said last night, high quality health care for all Australians is plainly very expensive. [More…]

• The Government believes that payment of health costs should be made in a way that can be seen by the doctors and the individuals concerned. [More…]

• The Government has consistently made it plain that Medibank will be retained, that the principle of universal coverage for health care will be retained, that there will be no means test at the point of service, but because of Medibank ‘s great expense and because of alleged abuses, rip-offs and overuse, we have always reserved the right to review its operations and methods of financing the scheme. [More…]

• It will be well for the House to know something of the escalation of health costs and health care in Australia. [More…]

• Medibank has achieved universal coverage in its present form at the expense of very largely disregarding the need for economy and efficiency in overall health care expenditure by the individual and the community. [More…]

• It provides few incentives to economy in the use of health services either on the part of the consumer or, more particularly, on the part of the medical profession which has a key role in determining overall health costs. [More…]

• It does this not only for those who need assistance with their health care costs but also for those who can afford to pay for themselves. [More…]

• While funds for health services flowed from both the public and private sectors, the share of the burden accepted by the public sector has grown sharply in recent years- from 52 percent between 1963 and 1970, to 57 per cent in 1972-73 and to an estimated 74 per cent in 1975-76. [More…]

• Total expenditures on health in Australia are estimated at $4,700m in 1 975-76 and $5,400m in 1976- 77. [More…]

• Any government that did not look at the total rising cost structure and analyse whether in fact every dollar spent is being spent wisely and that the health of the community has improved as a result, would be failing in its duty. [More…]

• One of the great factors that has been contributing to increasing costs of health care in Australia has been the rising costs in the medical profession itself. [More…]

• However, it is characteristic of the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party to see no occasion to control costs or to attempt to achieve efficiency in health care to the advantage of the general public and certainly to the advantage of the more disadvantaged sections of the community. [More…]

• Notwithstanding the enormous task confronting the Government in restoring economic stability, the Government is not about to destroy Medibank or universal health coverage. [More…]

• We will maintain Medibank and ensure that the standard of health care does not decline. [More…]

• Before I go to the substance of other remarks I want to make, let me attend to some of the comments of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• We accepted that the greater the proportion of the total cost which was funded from general revenue, the more equitably the cost would be distributed between income groups because a progressive tax burden associated with general revenue raising is a much fairer and more equitable system of raising income than a flat percentage level which, in turn, is a much fairer and more equitable system of raising income than the old discredited and totally unsatisfactory system of private health insurance whereby a flat poll tax was imposed on all those who desired to join the funds- and there were not many who had anything but a sense of necessity because there was no alternative. [More…]

• The fact is that the abuses and ripoffs flourished under the old system of private health insurance. [More…]

• The Minister asserts, again falsely, that Medibank places the full burden of health insurance on to State governments and the Federal Government. [More…]

• The virtue of Medibank is that it raises money more efficiently, distributes it more efficiently and does not waste money on clumsy administrative requirements or on ripoffs for people in private health insurance funds who like to fiddle about the city with investment and grab whatever influence and prestige that may or may not give to them. [More…]

• If the Minister or anyone else wants to know, the State Health Ministers, regardless of their political affiliations, urged me to enter into long-term contracts with them on the cost sharing formula because they did not trust their colleagues in the coalition parties and they feared that if they came into office this would be one of the first agreements to be destroyed. [More…]

• Of course the cost of health care in Australia, in any way in which one likes to look at it, has increased enormously in the last decade. [More…]

• We will maintain Medibank, and ensure that the standard of health care does not decline. [More…]

• One should remember the second part of that statement, that the standard of health care will not decline, as well as the first part. [More…]

• We want to make quite sure that Medibank does not lower the health standards available to people in Australia and Tor the poorer people in particular, those who would have got priority in standard ward beds in public hospitals before, they now get no priority, they can’t afford to go to private hospitals, they have to take their queue with everyone else for the standard ward beds in public hospitals. [More…]

• It was the Opposition, the Labor Party, which introduced a dual system by which an elitist or very wealthy group had a disproportionate share of the health care resources of this country. [More…]

• The Government’s proposal will maintain a healthy balance in providing health care in this country. [More…]

• We would lose the services of these people who had made health care their vocation. [More…]

• They illustrate cost effectiveness in health care and they should be preserved. [More…]

• If I have any criticism to offer about what the Government may be doing it is that it would appear that it is more concerned in arguing the financing of health care on an illness basis than expending money to provide good health in this country. [More…]

• I turn now to the proposed saving of $93m on the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is speaking in the same way. [More…]

• There are two main systems of health insurance in the United States, namely, the health maintenance organisations such as the Kaiser Permanente organisations, and the Blue Cross organisation. [More…]

• With respect to the health maintenance organisations- the Kaiser Permanente organisation and similar organisations- a fixed amount is paid to the medical profession, which contracts to provide all the necessary health care to the people who belong to that scheme. [More…]

• The important point there is that when one matches exactly as to age, income and previous medical history the people who belong to the health maintenance organisation and the Blue Cross organisation one finds that the number of operations on backs, the number of hysterectomies and the number of tonsillectomies are 2 to Vh times as great in the case of those covered by the Blue Cross organisation. [More…]

• He compared the cost of health care in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. [More…]

• People from the Department of Health were at the seminar, as was Mr Austin Holmes, who is one of the members of the Medibank Review Committee. [More…]

• There will be no such thing as national health insurance in this country after Thursday night’s statement. [More…]

• Of course it will see that the people who earn most will be treated under private health insurance and that others will be looked after by Medibank, which will be looked upon in this country, after the Thursday night announcement, as a second class health system. [More…]

• They mean reduced services to the public in health, social welfare and education, and reduced employment opportunities both in the private and public sector at a time when hundreds of thousands are out of work. [More…]

• It is absolutely disgraceful that this Government should present an argument that money can be taken from health expenditure; not just capital expenditure but research and planning expenditure, areas where money is invested to save money. [More…]

• The planning and research section of the Health Department has also received the axe, as have the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, the 2 territories for which the Commonwealth Government is absolutely responsible. [More…]

• We find cuts in housing, health and child care right across the board, made without thought and with absolutely no relationship to the difficulties of the communities. [More…]

• Local government also has responsibility for health, road development and the development of recreational facilities for many people. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is sitting at the table, came to Queensland and had a look at the flood areas. [More…]

• Often criticised for its inability to eliminate the military excesses of its members, the United Nations does have some good- in some cases, spectacular- success stories to its credit, especially in the field of health and social care. [More…]

• As the convention says in its preamble, it is a convention concerned with the health and welfare of mankind. [More…]

• It notes with concern the public health and social problems resulting from the abuse of certain psychotropic substances. [More…]

• ‘Psychotropic substance’ is a term used to refer to substances that have the capacity to produce a state of dependence and central nervous system stimulation or depression resulting in hallucinations or disturbances in motor function, thinking, behaviour, perception or mood and in respect of which there is evidence of a likelihood of abuse so as to constitute a public health and social problem. [More…]

• I trust that the Minister will give them every encouragement in the future to rid Australia of the scourge of drug trafficking that is so detrimental to the health of an affluent nation such as we have in Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Following the Australian Health Minister’s Conference in May 1975, a joint Commonwealth/State Working Party was established to investigate, among other things, the advertising of alcohol. [More…]

• This draft code has been referred for consideration at this year’s Health Ministers ‘ Conference, on 30 June-2 July 1976. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) to (3) The honourable member will appreciate that, in respect of a State, my Department has no jurisdiction to investigate the professional activities of private health clinics, nor to provide information on the qualification for registration as a medical practitioner of a particular person. [More…]

• Both these matters are the responsibility of the State health authorities. [More…]

• Patients of these registered medical practitioners are entitled to claim Medibank benefits for services provided on the basis of the items of medical service in the 1st Schedule of the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• Enquiries have been initiated by the Health Insurance Commission to ensure that payments are being correctly made. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Do the stringent health requirements needed for the collection and storage of Canadian deep frozen semen exceed regulations governing the collection and storage of the American semen. [More…]

• 1 ) The United States Department of Agriculture and my Department have been in correspondence over a long period concerning veterinary health conditions which would be required to ensure safe importation of cattle semen from the United States. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• My Department with the co-operation of the Departmenof Health, CSIRO and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries conducted a suppression campaign using protein hydrolysate and malathion insecticide. [More…]

• Quarantine precautions recommended by the Australian Agricultural Council have been investigated and a report prepared by my Department and the Department of Health outlining staff and facilities required will be available shortly [More…]

• Funds for all aspects of the oriental fruit fly campaign have been provided from a $ 1.803m allocation made available by the Minister for Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Did the previous Minister Tor Health appoint an Australian Audiology Investigation Committee and was Dr Ronald J. Balthazor of the Lincoln Institute appointed as its Chairman. [More…]

• If not, what standing does this committee have with the Minister or the Department of Health. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• It will minimise Government expenditure, the money that governments can spend indirectly to assist people by raising their health standards and improving their hospital and education facilities, assisting with urban problems and social problems. [More…]

• The balance was to be expended by other departments with which my Department acts in close collaboration such as the Department of Health, the [More…]

• In conjunction with my colleagues, the Minister for Education (Senator Carrick) and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), [More…]

• Passports can be refused because of criminal records, for security reasons, health reasons, matrimonial reasons or any other reasons which we do not know of or for no reasons whatever. [More…]

• May I wish you good health, and every health and happiness in the future. [More…]

• Did officers of his Department seek advice from the Department of Health, Perth, concerning action to be taken and treatment of the shoes; if so, what advice was received and what action was taken on it. [More…]

• 1 ) At what ports and airports in the north west of Western Australia do officers and employees of his Department carry out work for the Department of Health. [More…]

• What is the nature of the work done for the Department of Health by each officer and employee, and what hours did each officer and employee spend on this work during the past year. [More…]

• Is any payment received from the Department of Health in respect of the work performed; if so, how much was received in the past year. [More…]

• Have any of the officers and employees undertaken courses of instruction, or other training in respect of their duties for the Department of Health; if so, who and what was the nature of the training. [More…]

• At all places some work is carried out on behalf of the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• They liaise closely with the Department of Health and do not release goods which may be subject to quarantine restriction before being satisfied that all requirements are met. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• In view of the fact that later today the Minister’s colleague, the Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations, will introduce legislation dealing with the election of trade union officials, has he considered the urgent need to introduce legislation to enable contributor members of so-called non-profit voluntary health insurance organisations, such as the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia and the Hospitals Contribution Fund to elect their office bearers, let alone do so by secret ballots? [More…]

• These will be adequate to ensure that contributors to health funds are protected. [More…]

• I will give consideration to the possibility of introducing legislation to ensure that contributors do have a democratic right to elect directors to national health funds. [More…]

• Air pollution levels in some of our cities are approaching, and on some occasions have already exceeded, safe community health levels set by the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• Where high levels of pollution occur, the cost Of such pollution is met by the community in the form of higher health bills and work absenteeism, lowered property values, and general loss of amenity. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Transport Advisory Council have also emphasised the urgency for improved air quality monitoring. [More…]

• In this connection the Government has agreed that the Minister for Health should pursue with State Health Ministers their proposals to work towards uniform legislation to control cigarette advertising in areas where the Commonwealth has no constitutional power. [More…]

• Health and Welfare programmes will be protected against inflation. [More…]

• These decisions should be seen as but the latest instalments of the Government’s continuing policy to restore economic health and at the same time to improve the living standards of less well-off sections in the Australian community. [More…]

• Health [More…]

• The decisions we have taken on health programs- other than Medibank which I will come to shortly- represent an overall reduction of more than $100m on the forward estimates. [More…]

• In line with the undertaking given by our predecessors, an amount of $ 108m- about the same provision as in 1975-76- will be made available to the States in 1976-77 as capital assistance for the development of public hospitals and related health care facilities. [More…]

• Grants to the States, local government authorities and other eligible organisations in 1976-77 under the community health program will maintain already approved services and facilities at a viable level. [More…]

• It places on the State and Federal governments virtually the whole responsibility for financing the basic level of hospital and medical care, not only for those who need assistance with their health care costs, but also for those who can afford to pay for themselves. [More…]

• It provides few incentives to economy in the use of health services, whether on the part of users of those services or on the part of the medical profession who, as providers, have a key role in the determination of overall costs. [More…]

• While retaining the principle of universal coverage, protecting the position of lower income earners and widening the choices available in the field of health care, these changes will also provide immediate savings to the federal Budget. [More…]

• This in effect sets a ceiling on the levy payable by those on higher incomes who wish to stay with the basic high quality health care provided by Medibank. [More…]

• The premium will be set by the Minister for Health and myself in consultation. [More…]

• The new arrangements will ensure that those in the community with higher incomes will pay a major proportion of the insurance cost of their health expenditures. [More…]

• In this way they will receive subsidies from Consolidated Revenue, additional to the amounts they have contributed through their levy payments, towards the total cost of their health care. [More…]

• Since purchase of approved hospital and medical insurance packages will provide exemption from the levy, existing tax concessions for health insurance will be withdrawn. [More…]

• So that pensioners will not be disadvantaged under these arrangements, doctors will be asked to accept the Commonwealth rebate in full settlement of the accounts of those receiving pensioner health benefits. [More…]

• Full details of these and other associated changes resulting from the Government’s review of Medibank will be announced by the Minister for Health. [More…]

• This Bill, in association with other Bills I shall shortly present, introduces the health insurance levy and other taxation arrangements necessary to implement the modifications to Medibank. [More…]

• The reforms were announced in the statement earlier today by the Treasurer (Mr Lynch) and are explained in some detail in the statement made by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• In brief, a health insurance levy of 2.5 per cent of taxable income is to be imposed. [More…]

• The Bill before the House is one of a number of Bills which are designed to authorise modifications to the health insurance program Medibank. [More…]

• The Government’s proposals follow a comprehensive review of the operation of the health insurance program. [More…]

• Funds for health services flow from both the public and the private sectors. [More…]

• These rises have been associated with an increase in the proportion of gross domestic product devoted to health from 5.2 per cent 25 years ago to an estimated 6.5 per cent. [More…]

• Total expenditures on health in Australia are estimated at $4,700m in 1975-76 and $5,400m in 1976-77. [More…]

• The health insurance program is not concerned with all health services costs. [More…]

• The Government is concerned to develop the most effective and efficient system of health services delivery and to ensure that every Australian has adequate access to high quality health care. [More…]

• It has achieved universal coverage, but at the expense of largely disregarding the need for economy and efficiency in overall health care expenditures by the individual and the community. [More…]

• It provides few incentives to economy in the use of health services, either on the part of the consumer or, more particularly, on the part of the medical profession which has a key role in determining overall health costs. [More…]

• It does this not only for those who need assistance with their health care costs, but also for those who can afford to pay for themselves. [More…]

• Indeed, voluntary health insurance contributed only 8 per cent of the money that went towards meeting health costs in 1975-76, while in 1973 voluntary health insurance contributed 14 per cent. [More…]

• These proposed changes are designed to provide immediate savings to the Budget by encouraging people to take out their own health insurance with private insurance funds, and by requiring those who choose to remain in Medibank and who are able to contribute towards the cost of their hospital and medical care, to do so. [More…]

• However, it is proposed, as a general principle, that those who choose to remain in Medibank will be required to contribute towards the cost of their health care by paying a levy of 2.5 per cent of their taxable incomes or by paying contributions to the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Briefly, people will continue to be eligible for the benefits of Medibank unless they have private insurance with a health benefits organisation registered under the National Health Act which will provide them with protection against the fees for the range of health services covered by Medibank. [More…]

• I want to emphasise that the only difference between coverage by Medibank and coverage under the standard private health insurance tables will be that Medibank will provide cover for treatment in public hospitals rendered by doctors engaged by the hospitals, whereas the standard private insurance tables will relate to shared accommodation in public or private hospitals with treatment by doctors engaged by the patient. [More…]

• It is consistent with the approach that medical benefits under the Health Insurance Act should be directed to assisting individuals, that Medibank, through the payment of medical benefits in cases such as workers compensation and third party cases, should not relieve insurers of their liabilities. [More…]

• It has been widely suggested that direct billing of Medibank by doctors, which is authorised by section 20 (3) of the Health Insurance Act, should be discontinued in order to reduce abuses. [More…]

• For pensioner health benefit recipients, practitioners will be asked to accept the Medibank medical benefits in full settlement. [More…]

• Section 18 of the Health Insurance Act at present prevents the payment of benefits for diagnostic services- pathology and radiology- to private patients in recognised hospitals. [More…]

• Visitors will in future be informed that they are personally responsible for any health costs and will be advised to take out appropriate private insurance to cover their stay. [More…]

• It is the Government’s policy that privately insured persons should meet, through the private health insurance arrangements, an increased proportion of the cost of providing hospital services. [More…]

• Health care costs have been growing rapidly both in Australia and in most countries overseas. [More…]

• This Bill relates principally to private health insurance organizations. [More…]

• Before I do this, however, I want first to outline the Government’s proposals as they will affect both the people who choose private health insurance and the health insurance organizations. [More…]

• People who choose to insure themselves and their dependants for benefits in accordance with the standard hospital and medical benefits tables provided by organizations registered under the National Health Act will be exempt from payment of the Health Insurance Levy. [More…]

• The changes being introduced by the Government will ensure a continuing role for private health insurance organisations. [More…]

• In the United States of America, health insurers have made substantial progress in developing methods of monitoring the usage of services, in co-operation with the medical profession, in order to eliminate unnecessary expenditure and so restrain costs to contributors. [More…]

• We have considered whether it would be desirable to permit commercial insurers to undertake health insurance business in Australia, in order to provide greater competition and to stimulate the adoption of new techniques to monitor usage and control costs. [More…]

• However, for the time being we have decided not to take this step and will restrict health insurance business to non-profit organisations. [More…]

• Provisions in the Bill will enable registered organisations to expand their activities to include the provision of medical, hospital and other allied health services to contributors. [More…]

• The provisions will assist in creating an environment in which health maintenance organisations might successfully operate. [More…]

• In future registered medical and hospital benefits organisations will be required to provide benefits for all contributors to the standard benefits tables regardless of their state of health. [More…]

• The Government’s primary concern is to ensure that the benefits provided by organisations to contributors to the standard benefits tables are adequate, and that funds do not limit membership so as to discriminate against people who are regarded as poor health risks. [More…]

• Although I would anticipate that they would be used only rarely, except perhaps at the instigation of organisations which might apply to have a fund wound up, I believe that contributors should have the security of such provisions under arrangements deliberately designed to achieve universal health insurance. [More…]

• There are many provisions in the National Health Act which have become redundant. [More…]

• I am confident the Government will obtain the ready co-operation of registered health benefits organisations which will have an important role to play in providing health care protection for a significant percentage of the Australian community. [More…]

• In my second reading speech on the Health Insurance Amendment Bill 1 976 1 explained that people would be able to choose to pay the health insurance levy of 2.5 per cent of their taxable incomes, contribute to the standard benefits tables of registered medical and hospital insurance organisations, or contribute to the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• The Bill before the House provides for persons to contribute to the Health Insurance Commission on behalf of themselves and any dependants. [More…]

• Precise contribution rates will be determined when the contribution rates of the major private health insurance funds are known. [More…]

• Australian Council for Health. [More…]

• Amateur Football League: member and former Secretary Australian Council for Health. [More…]

• 2 ) The criminal law in the Australian Capital Territory has since been changed by amendments to the Public Health (Prohibited Drugs) Ordinance which removed the previous weaknesses in the definition of cannabis that had made it difficult to secure convictions. [More…]

• -My question, which is addressed to the Minister for Health, refers to the mangling of Medibank. [More…]

• Will staff currently employed by the Health Insurance Commission have to remain at present levels, or more probably increase, to cope with the administrative burdens of recording each person’s health insurance status, administering a cumbersome premium scheme and running both the present and proposed arrangements until the end of the year? [More…]

• Will the Department of Health have to administer some of the new scheme? [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Will the Government’s Medibank proposals reintroduce a 2 -class system of health care in Australia, whereby those above a certain income level will be forced into private health insurance schemes and the remainder left in Medibank? [More…]

• What it does, firstly, is provide the widest ranging choice that any health scheme has ever offered the Australian people and, secondly, it identifies the charges for health care in this country. [More…]

• What is more, so much has been said about a free health scheme that never existed. [More…]

• Those in the higher income levels will be paying closer to the cost of their health care under this proposal. [More…]

• Pensioners and people on the lowest incomes will be getting their health care free to them at the point of service. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Queenslanders will enjoy the same wide ranging choices of the type of health cover that all other Australians will obtain. [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I remind the House, as my colleagues the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health have done so well today, that the changes to Medibank retain the principle of universality, protect the position of low income earners and widen the field of choice available in the area of health care. [More…]

• One fact remains, as my colleague the Minister for Health has made clear, and that is that Medibank must be paid for one way or another. [More…]

• Even if they do not have passports, for instance, we are accepting identity documents and we are carrying out health checks after the people arrive in Australia. [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Health: Is there a very serious shortage of influenza vaccine throughout Australia? [More…]

• At the present time in Australia, as a result of the recommendations of the National Health and Medical Research Council, we are limiting availability of the vaccine on the medical benefits list to children under 5 years of age, to pensioners and to people with chronic respiratory and cardiac diseases. [More…]

• The vast improvements to the lives of so many Australians brought about by the intervention of government in Health schemes, social security programs, welfare housing and so on are ignored. [More…]

• The result, today, is that one person out of every four in Australia is employed in the public sector, in various forms, such as public service, education, railways, electricity supply, health services, airlines, banking, insurance, telecommunications, broadcasting, housing commissions, CSIRO, public works, not to mention police forces, the judiciary, courts and the armed forces. [More…]

• In fact, let me place on record my view that it would be far preferable for the economic health of this nation if investment allowances were abolished in return for a commensurate cut in such indirect taxes as sales tax. [More…]

• Suffice it for me to say now that, apart from condemning the imposition of the levy, I regret deeply the creation of a 2-class system of health care in this country. [More…]

• Lastly, in summary, I draw attention to the lowering of the quality of life by the dismantling of sections of the public sector and by instituting 2 classes of health care, to the unnecessary penalties applied to large sections of the Australian community on modest incomes in reducing their take-home pay and to the increase in burdens on the States and local government- and thus on the people who pay State taxes and local government rates- in forcing more functions on those levels of government without providing the funds to carry out those functions. [More…]

• It served notice to the world that one of the richest and most fortunate nations on earth cannot afford to give its citizens the minimum decent standards of health care, public transport, urban development and social amenities enjoyed by the people of all other advanced Western democracies- all other well managed economies. [More…]

• On television last night he was asked about his undertaking that education, health, welfare and urban programs would be retained. [More…]

• By promising that health, education, welfare and urban programs would not be curtailed in the present financial year the Government was able to disguise its intentions for subsequent years. [More…]

• Medibank is not essential: Health care is again to become a needless worry and a needless financial burden. [More…]

• The longer we delay the building of necessary hospitals and health centres the greater the cost in sickness, rehabilitation and absenteeism. [More…]

• As with cities and growth centres, so with hospitals and health insurance. [More…]

• The Nimmo Committee in 1969 called for a thoroughgoing reform of the old health scheme and described the private funds as bureaucracies. [More…]

• Medibank will be made so expensive that half the people now covered for free, automatic, universal health insurance will be driven to join private funds. [More…]

• The Fraser Government has now decreed that precisely the same pattern of waste and high cost will afflict health insurance. [More…]

• Whatever arguments there may be for private health funds there can be no argument for a competing mixture of public and private funds. [More…]

• The Fraser Government is ensuring that private health insurance premiums will go on mounting year by year in the same way as third party charges to motorists. [More…]

• The destruction of Medibank will serve no purpose other than to revive the moribund private health bureaucracies. [More…]

• In April 1974 the Hospital and Health Services Commission presented to the Government a report on hospitals in Australia recommending an urgent program of capital expenditure on public hospitals, mental hospital facilities and public nursing homes. [More…]

• According to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) the allocation will be $43m less than the Department’s estimated needs. [More…]

• The massive cuts in expenditure on sewerage, the shutting down of community health centres, the dismantling of Medibank certainly have reduced their standard of living- reduced the standard of living of the majority of Australians. [More…]

• It is noted that there will be no tax rebate for health insurance premiums. [More…]

• Furthermore, the tax deduction for private health insurance payments is to be abolished. [More…]

• This will mean that people who now itemise their private health insurance payments and claim more than the current block deduction of $540 to get a tax rebate will not be able to do that any more. [More…]

• The negative elements are the fact that government expenditure is not presumed to rise in real terms over the next year and of course some health payments will have to be made. [More…]

• We must recognise that we are an important and an integral part of the world economy and that we depend importantly for our own economic health upon the policies adopted by the rest of the world. [More…]

• One of his Ministers, allegedly an expert in the area of health, said- and I quote, if I may: [More…]

• People in New South Wales would now be forced to carry the full burden for heavy cost of health care without any Federal financial assistance. [More…]

• It is extraordinary, it is unbelievable that a Minister of the Crown of a State would not only be ignorant but also would be deliberately disruptive, deliberately misleadingdisgracefully I believe- and determined to set out to mislead the people of New South Wales about Medibank, about its future and about what is I believe a right and a proper end to a situation in which the workers of this nation have subsidised the health care through their taxes of the silvertails of this nation, to use an expression of the gentlemen who sit opposite. [More…]

• Do they support the view that the workers of this country should be subsidising the unnecessary health care, as it is described by the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), that goes on in private and intermediate wards. [More…]

• However, with the increase in use of the River Murray for domestic and recreational purposes, health aspects have been gaining greater prominence. [More…]

• The action taken was in accordance with instructions issued by the Department of Primary Industry, acting in cooperation with the Department of Health, under the authority of the Exports (Grain) Regulations, and was considered sufficient to cope with any risk of introduction of insects and plant pests. [More…]

• 1 ) Did the Chief Superintendent, Materials Research Laboratories, Maribyrnong, Victoria advise the Department of Health on 1 April 1976 in relation to 5 facepieces examined at the request of the Department of Health that (a) three facepieces were unserviceable and (b) all facepieces required extensive cleaning to restore serviceability. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Sunshine- The Hospitals and Charities Commission of Victoria has advised that sketch plans for the first stage of the Sunshine Hospital and Health Services complex have been completed, detail design is proceeding. [More…]

• I address a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• By that time every Australian will be able to make an intelligent decision as to what suits him or her best of the wide ranging choices of health care cover that are available. [More…]

• -Can the Minister for Health explain how the Government’s decision to allow doctors who bulk bill to charge their patients the 15 per cent gap between the Medibank rebate and the scheduled fee, and at the same time not to allow patients to submit unpaid accounts to Medibank for payment in the doctor’s name, will assist low income earners? [More…]

• Will the Minister also inform the House what review mechanisms the Government proposes to control rises in doctors’ fees, bearing in mind that before the advent of Medibank the free play of competition between the health funds did nothing to curtail increases in doctors ‘fees? [More…]

• We will ask the Australian Medical Association, the private health funds, the Australian Hospital Association and other interested groups to become engaged in a peer review of medical standards in Australia. [More…]

• We hope to see developed an adequate peer review system which will result in a more efficient and, I think, a more desirable health care delivery process. [More…]

• Is the Department of Health objecting to the hasty preparation of the pamphlet because it does not want to be held to the figures it produced for the statement made by the Minister for Health last Thursday? [More…]

• Shortly before question time the Minister for Health and other people were in my office looking at a draft of a simplified document which will enable people throughout Australiawhether they be single people, married people with one income between the two, or 2-income families- to determine the choices available to them. [More…]

• It will allow them therefore to make the proper choice depending on whether they want universally available health care under Medibank, which will provide for all people in Australia the cheapest form of health cover of a good and high standard- both medical and hospital cover- or wish to make a decision which would enable them, for themselves as single people or for their families, to take out some additional insurance to enable them to be treated in hospital by their own doctor in either an intermediate or private ward. [More…]

• I hope they will show sufficient concern for their own electors, many of whom will want to know the specific choices available to them and to be able to relate those choices to the family income and circumstances and their predilections for the kind of health care that they want. [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• -If what the honourable member for Capricornia implied in his question is correct, it is a matter of serious concern to me as the Minister for Health. [More…]

• -Can the Minister for Health give the approximate cost to the taxpayer of recalling all Medibank cards and re-issuing cards before 1 October and the approximate cost to insurers in voluntary health funds of their reissue of cards under the new arrangements? [More…]

• 2), the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill, the Health Insurance Levy Bill, the Income Tax (International Agreements) Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2), the Health Insurance Amendment Bill, the National Health Amendment Bill and the Health Insurance Commission Amendment Bill, as they are associated measures. [More…]

• The Minister for the Capital Territory objects strongly because he upholds the principle of imposing a far higher penalty on people who want to stay with Medibank than on those who decide that because of this penalty they want to go into private health insurance. [More…]

• That is the reason why there will continue to be a $50 differential between the premium levels for those who wish to stay in Medibank and have only public ward hospital insurance cover and those who go into private health insurance for medical and intermediate hospital cover. [More…]

• Let me remind honourable members that at present if one is in Medibank and takes out intermediate ward cover with a private health insurance fund in New South Wales the additional cost is only of the order of $75. [More…]

• Why then is the Government imposing a charge of $135 a year on people under the new arrangements- a penalty rate of 80 per cent on what presently exists as a private health insurance charge? [More…]

• Medibank in total costs no more than the old private health insurance scheme cost; yet it covers everyone in the community. [More…]

• There will be no tax rebates for them for the contributions they make to private health insurance. [More…]

• The middle class people who largely will be going into private hospital and medical insurance will find that private health insurance will cost about $10 a week under these new arrangements. [More…]

• For instance, a widow on $70 a week will be paying 10c a week tax and $2 a week Medibank levy because, unlike the promise made on occasions by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), there is to be no graduation in the way the levy will be applied. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission will have to issue certificates and so will the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• I think many people do not realise- certainly many people on the Opposition benches do not realise- that the money we provide for spending on education, health and so on has to come from somewhere and the only area from which a government gets money is from taxation- the taxation that it takes out of people’s wages and the taxation that comes from company profits. [More…]

• The best way in which to have more money to spend on health, pensions and so on is to give confidence to the private sector, to encourage the private sector- not because we as a government want the private sector to get rich and make profits, which is only secondary, but because we want the private sector to make profits so that we as a government can obtain increased revenue. [More…]

• Once this increased revenue comes about and, as I have just been reminded, a reduction in unemployment takes place there will be more money for education, health and all the other things for which a government is depended upon to help those people most in need. [More…]

• We will gain additional revenue without having to overtax the people and the additional revenue that we gain will go out to the people in the form of increased social welfare payments, increased pensions, better health services and better education. [More…]

• I refer to such things as the cancellation of the rebate for dependants and its replacement with a family allowance or increased child endowment payments; the disbanding of Medibank and the forced return of people to the private health insurance funds, with a slug to taxpayers to pay for it; and income tax indexation as a trade-off to the Medibank tax or the Medibank levy- call it what you will, because it is one and the same thing. [More…]

• To add insult to injury he has done so at the express wish of the private health funds in Australia. [More…]

• Not only is he again pandering to his own views on small government but also he is pandering to the private health funds, which helped to put him in power, and giving them the pay-off. [More…]

• Even the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) had the temerity to say the other day that the Government gave no commitment that there would not be any cost increases in the Medibank package. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition (Mr E. G. Whitlam) talks about people having to pay for their health insurance. [More…]

• Is he suggesting that health insurance under his Government cost nothing; that it was free? [More…]

• The great majority of Australian people have enough commonsense to accept the fact that they have to pay for their health care one way or the other. [More…]

• They accept that those who can afford it should make a contribution towards health insurance, and that is what the Government has proposed. [More…]

• They do not accept the subterfuge of so-called free health care under a scheme which, if uncontrolled, will in the end impose a massive financial burden on the taxpayers of Australia. [More…]

• It introduced the Medibank scheme, community health centres, welfare rights officers, and translator and interpreter services. [More…]

• I now refer to the key area of health. [More…]

• The cut in the other health programs will be $100m. [More…]

• The reference to the community health program is brief and lacking in detail, but with a proposed cut in spending of $100m its future hardly looks hopeful. [More…]

• At best, we can hope that existing community health centres will continue to function while the plans for expanding and establishing new centres, so badly needed in the areas to which I have referred, will be shelved. [More…]

• Once again I stress the vital role that community health centres have begun to play in our ethnic communities. [More…]

• They are important for the medical services they provide and, for many people, community health centres are the only places where they can obtain medical advice in their own language. [More…]

• These community health centres are playing a vital social role as well as performing a medical function. [More…]

• It should also be remembered that the poor and the pensioners will not be affected by the introduction of a levy for health services. [More…]

• He said that the Government is ignoring health schemes, social security programs, welfare and so on. [More…]

• In doing so I realise that much advice would have been given to the Government, particularly to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• Certainly it would have consulted with the private health funds. [More…]

• The one million people throughout Australia who could not afford health insurance 2 years ago, and for which 13 million other Australians had to pay, now recognise that they get free treatment but beyond that the user pays. [More…]

• I am sure that the members of the Committee were not nearly as confident about the predictions made on Medibank as the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) appeared to be. [More…]

• What has happened in the United States- and we often follow the United States- is that fringe benefits in many organisations and institutions include the Blue Cross or health maintenance organisation subscriptions there. [More…]

• I made the point earlier today by way of interjection that under the rules which are proposed, if a person decides to join a private health fund that fund will clear him as far as the Taxation Office is concerned. [More…]

• The National Health Amendment Bill abolishes gap insurance. [More…]

• I should like to raise one point that struck me with regard to the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill. [More…]

• I agree with that proposition, as it has been stated repeatedly by the Prime Minster and the Minister for Health in the last few days. [More…]

• I have made the point that there are 2 grounds against single people- that the single person is to be charged a 2.5 per cent levy, even though to a lower maximum level, that it is unfair for the people who stay in Medibank and that it will attract to the funds the young, single, healthy people who obviously are the best from the insurers point of view. [More…]

• In his second reading speech on the Health Insurance Amendment Bill the Minister for Health referred to unnecessary work being done and said that he hoped that doctors will contribute to reducing the cost of medical services. [More…]

• One of the points that distinguishes personal health services from many other services, although not from all services, is that the customer does not know what he is buying, which is a terribly important point, and the major supplier can manipulate the demand. [More…]

• A meeting of representatives of the various health funds was held in Sydney yesterday and Mr J. F. Cade of the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia told the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) that he was going to get some Government senators to cross the floor to vote against the Medibank proposals. [More…]

• Furthermore, the Minister for Health raised this matter in the Government Caucus this morning. [More…]

• It was this socially unacceptable situation which led a Liberal-Country Party Government years ago to introduce the health scheme based on voluntary health insurance funds. [More…]

• This was a mixed private enterprise and government scheme where everyone paid taxes to provide Commonwealth hospital and medical benefits and many voluntarily paid contributions to so-called voluntary health insurance funds. [More…]

• A condition imposed by the Liberal-Country Party Government at the time was that no one could claim their Commonwealth medical benefits, for which everyone had paid their taxes, unless they belonged to a voluntary health fund. [More…]

• Medibank was devised to overcome this deficiency which was identified in the findings of the Nimmo Committee of inquiry into health insurance. [More…]

• The operation of the health insurance scheme is unnecessarily complex . [More…]

• The Special Study of the Medical Care Program for Steelworkers and their Families, a study encompassing over 1 million steelworkers, ‘corroborated the United Mineworkers of America findings by revealing that the 38 879 who obtained their health care through a prepaid, direct service, comprehensive group practice plan, where doctors were on salary, had similar experiences. [More…]

• Another study by the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York, a community sponsored prepayment comprehensive direct service movement, agreed with the other studies and showed ‘20 per cent less hospitalisation than a comparable Blue Shield population’ where the doctors are paid on a fee for service basis. [More…]

• In studies sponsored by the United States Department of Health Education and Welfare, comparisons between Federal employees who are covered by Blue Cross (where doctors receive a fee for service) and those enrolled in a prepaid group health plan (where the physicians are paid the same amount whether they operate or not) showed that - [More…]

• Dr Milton Roemer discussed in an article in the Journal of Health and Human Behaviour the relative merits of fee for service and salaried staffing. [More…]

• He gave the figures for this particular study of the health insurance plan of Greater New York. [More…]

• Six billion doses of antibiotics it is estimated are consumed in the United States each year and 22 per cent of these are considered to have been prescribed unnecessarily, and … 10 000 fatal and near fatal reactions to this unnecessary medication occur, according to the Food and Drug Administration, the Health Research Group and the Ohio State University. [More…]

• Using the same mortality rate, which is a conservative one, and judging the unnecessary surgery from the figures supplied by Dr Lawson, it is reasonable to suggest that through the voluntary health insurance scheme and the Commonwealth medical and hospital benefits system in 1967-68 we subsidised 52 000 unnecessary operations for tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, appendectomy and hysterectomy. [More…]

• Dr Lawson went on to suggest the introduction of the American surgical and medical audit which had then become compulsory in many United States hospitals before payment of hospital costs by health insurance organisations. [More…]

• Finally I should like to quote from the report of the Health Manpower Commission made in 1967 to the American Government which gives an assessment of the Kaiser Foundation Medical Care Program in which doctors are employed on a full-time salaried basis. [More…]

• I am glad that the honourable member for Holt has made that observation because, contrary to many comments made about the British health scheme and its cost, in total terms the cost of the British health scheme is not as high as that of the Australian health scheme or the American health scheme. [More…]

• In terms of administrative costs, the cost of Medibank will be less than the cost to the community of the multitudinous voluntary health insurance funds which now will get much more business. [More…]

• The reality is that that Committee showed that the running expenses of the health funds absorb something near 15 per cent to 20 per cent of every dollar collected. [More…]

• But, as I said, that is not what the real cost of health service is all about; the real cost is the cost of doctor services and hospital services. [More…]

• Nothing will be resolved in this dilemma of increasing costs of health services until we grapple with the basic way in which doctors provide their services. [More…]

• This House has to encourage the implementation of Labor’s pledges and policies in relation to housing, education, city planning and health. [More…]

• In answer to our Association’s request that the items taken off the schedule be replaced for those pensioners and their dependants who qualify under the means test for fringe benefits, the Minister for Health, Mr Hunt, MHR, makes it very clear that the Government’s action was to cut expenditure. [More…]

• The Government’s action means that many of these people will be compelled to pay for prescribed medicines, or do without and risk endangering their health. [More…]

• Not so long ago and he was in good health, too. [More…]

• I noted that according to the World Health Organisation advice that we had received, Mozambique desperately required skim milk powder and that Australia would be able to respond to a request for that commodity. [More…]

• It is against that background that the Government took a decision, on advice from the Bureau of Animal Health and also from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation which conducted an evaluation of the Plum Island - [More…]

• I think some Premiers are already aware that our proposal, which would add something to the revenue of the States in this regard, would in no way hurt or change the basic element of free treatment in standard wards, which is the Medibank approach to health care in these matters. [More…]

• These proposals, along with one or two others, were put to the States for negotiation between the Minister for Health and State Health Ministers. [More…]

• This will allow these matters to be looked at in more detail by the Minister for Health and his State counterparts. [More…]

• We believe that this is the best interim measure that could be introduced to overcome the problem, and it will enable the Minister for Health to sit down with his State counterparts and work out longer term arrangements which will be valid, which will be in compliance with legislation passed through this Parliament, and which will protect State hospitals and patients. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has been asked to discuss with State Health Ministers the agreements which will become effective from 1 October, which will be legal and which will not be challengeable. [More…]

• Are these figures exaggerated, or is Australia the easiest country in the world to enter illegally and a country that could be placed at risk because of obvious health dangers? [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health about his no risk policy for animals. [More…]

• Even if they do not have passports, for instance, we are accepting identity documents and we are carrying out health checks after the people arrive in Australia- if conditions do not permit them to be taken overseas. [More…]

• This coutry has been witness to, some of the most severe and, in many cases, quite unjustified expenditure cuts on very worthwhile community programs, in such areas as health, welfare, education and urban improvement. [More…]

• At the same time, a whole range of important community welfare programs-health services, health benefits- were cut back and made more expensive because they were given a lower priority in the eyes of the Prime Minister. [More…]

• This is one packet deal in which we could have spent $8m: We could have built 1 3 of the Kippax style health centres which are located here in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• We could have built one or two community health blocks such as those to be found at the Woden Valley Hospital with 222 beds for geriatric, psychiatric and rehabilitation patients, with the full range of therapy facilities. [More…]

• Under the National Health Act, medical services for pensioners cost $6m and domiciliary home care cost $8.3m. [More…]

• The Government’s own Queensland Institute of Medical Research studied the syndrome of protein calory malnutrition in Australian Aboriginal children and published the academic consequences in the school work of the Aboriginal children as well as the health consequences in the form of growth retardation and anaemia. [More…]

• These 2 missions left Queensland Government settlements for dead in terms of effectiveness for Aboriginal child health though their resources were less than Government settlements. [More…]

• The authors also wish to pay tribute to Sister A. Cameron of Aurukun mission and Sister I. C. Black of Doomadgee mission, the results of whose dedicated work in health and infant welfare over many years are recorded in this paper. [More…]

• Withering phrases will not exorcise the health research, unacknowledged by the Queensland Government, of course, not written for popular consumption, which I have cited and which is, in a way, a great tribute to Aurukun mission. [More…]

• Although the Commonwealth has had absolute authority in the Northern Territory there have been great difficulties in the field of health. [More…]

• One of the most serious findings of the Committee in this inquiry was the lamentable state of public health at Yirrkala among young children . [More…]

• The honourable member for Prospect also raised a point regarding the health insurance levy. [More…]

• -Because 9 Bills were debated cognately, I would like to remind the Committee that the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill amends the Income Tax Assessment Act to provide for the payment, in appropriate circumstances, of the health insurance levy and for its collection in conjunction with income tax. [More…]

• It grants exemptions to taxpayers who, in respect of themselves and their dependants, if any, pay an appropriate premium to Medibank or who nave appropriate insurance cover with a registered health benefit organisation. [More…]

• There was no provision for people to contract out, which would divide the Australian population into those who were covered by and contributed to Medibank and those who joined one of the private health insurance organisations. [More…]

• There are 2 aims, I would think, as far as health insurance is concerned, which must be taken into account by the Government, by the Opposition and certainly by the people who make the decisions. [More…]

• I think the basic aim must be to provide the best possible health care at the least possible expense. [More…]

• It is important that we do not suggest that the public ward sector of health care is second class. [More…]

• People are saying that there will be 2 sectors of health care. [More…]

• To some extent, of course, there have always been 2 sectors of health care because there was nothing to stop people subscribing to private insurance funds for private or intermediate hospital care until now. [More…]

• I also want to compare the health care situation with that of education, because very few people in the community would now argue aggressively that public school education is second class education, that state school education is not as good as private school education. [More…]

• I think the same argument applies in relation to health care, but I think it is even more important to realise that public ward health care which is in fact public hospital health care, is better than private hospital health care. [More…]

• If a person had some major health problem which required a major operation and he finished up in an intensive care ward, I am sure he would not like to be in a private hospital and he would not like any members of his family to be in a private hospital. [More…]

• He surely must know that one of the reasons the Government has taken this decision to impose a levy on those who wish to pay it- there are alternatives at both ends of the scale- is that the control on the expense of running the national health Medibank scheme became so great that the growth of public expenditure was totally open ended. [More…]

• It has nothing to do with the total cost of health services for the community. [More…]

• They can pay either by paying the doctor directly or they can insure themselves in a voluntary health insurance fund and pay via that. [More…]

• In the Government’s own Nimmo Committee inquiry report which was presented in 1969 it was shown that the open voluntary health funds were inefficient administratively when compared with closed funds. [More…]

• So in that case alone, if you were honest with yourselves, dear supporters of the Government, you would concede from a businessman’s point of view that the Australian community would be better off if all its health funds were collected via Medibank, purely on the grounds of efficiency. [More…]

• What is going up is the cost of health services. [More…]

• The voluntary health funds might pay for them. [More…]

• What the Government is in fact doing is forcing people to choose an inefficient system- a voluntary health fund system- which will have a higher administrative cost and, I can assure honourable members, much nuisance value when we try to work out all these bits and pieces to check on who is in and who is not in the funds. [More…]

• I can assure the Government that it is ensuring an increased cost for total health care for the community; it is forcing the people to indulge in the voluntary health insurance funds. [More…]

• We have no measure at all of the quality of health care in the luxurious motels that masquerade as private hospitals. [More…]

• The point that I really stood up to make is that there is no case for resurrecting this albatross, this monstrosity, this private health insurance fund system which, was discredited a long time ago. [More…]

• The Minister for Repatriation (Mr Newman), who was sitting at the table, is obviously more skilled with howitzers than he is in the consideration of health policy. [More…]

• He seems to be just appalled by the fact that the estimate of expenditure on health this year is in the vicinity of $ 1,400m. [More…]

• As the Minister said earlier during the second reading speech back in 1973, the entire ramification of voluntary health insurance contributed only 14 per cent to health costs. [More…]

• As a result, the decision was taken to minimise the involvement of health funds. [More…]

• The fact of the matter is that this entire concept, this great, cumbersome concept of voluntary health insurance is unnecessary. [More…]

• People are now going to be driven off into this area of voluntary health insurance which will sap the viability and the vitality of the funds that are available for health purposes in Australia. [More…]

• The Minister said that he wanted to emphasise that the only difference between coverage by Medibank and coverage under the standard private health insurance tables would be that Medibank will provide cover for treatment in public hospitals rendered by doctors engaged by the hospital, whereas the standard private insurance tables will relate to shared accommodation in public or private hospitals with treatment by doctors engaged by the patient. [More…]

• If we look at the Royal Newcastle Hospital which was run for many years under the administration of Dr Chris McCaffrey, we find the high principles which have motivated the objectives which the Labor Party pursues on health. [More…]

• We do not need to turn the people over to this great conglomeration of health funds, which will cause confusion. [More…]

• It will wreak havoc in the hospital and health delivery system of Australia. [More…]

• It is not in any sense possible to argue with any degree of reality that this Medibank package, this Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill, in any way prevents people, discourages people, induces people not to go to public hospitals to get the best treatment they can. [More…]

• It is essential for the people of Australia to realise this fact through the flak, the nonsense, the barrage of misstatements and deliberate distortions, particularly the nonsense coming from the New South Wales Minister for Health whose approach to his portfolio might simply be summed up as being sick. [More…]

• The health system is far too important to be played with politically by honourable gentlemen opposite. [More…]

• The rich are the ones who should pay most in tax to meet the general cost of keeping the whole of our population in good health, as they are now required to meet a greater share per dollar earned than the poor meet, for the cost of defence, roads, schools, and the other items of public expenditure. [More…]

• Having listened to the honourable member for Hindmarsh (Mr Clyde Cameron) it is obvious that the old Medibank health system is a complete failure. [More…]

• It is apt to remind my friend that over 1 7 members of his own Party in the House of Representatives decided to retain membership in the private health funds. [More…]

• There are only about 36 in this place now so it is safe to say that almost 50 per cent of Labor’s representatives in this place have retained private health insurance membership, and the honourable member for Hindmarsh is one of them. [More…]

• The facts are that the Australian Labor Party originally proposed a health insurance levy of 1.35 per cent on income. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hindmarsh said that the Treasurer (Mr Lynch), as well as paying, say, $18,000 tax on a $30,000 income, should pay another $900 towards Medibank or to a private health fund. [More…]

• It shows the truth of what I said about the old health scheme being a total failure. [More…]

• The system of levies and of private health insurance funds is carefully structured in a way which will literally force people, by coercion, out of the Medibank side of the scheme. [More…]

• If one wishes to exercise an option and take out private health insurance for intermediate hospital cover the extra cost is $135. [More…]

• I repeat that the total cost for Medibank cover, $300, plus private health insurance for intermediate cover, $135 extra, is $435. [More…]

• However if one opts out of the Medibank program and takes out cover with the private health insurance funds private medical and intermediate hospital insurance cover the total cost is $350. [More…]

• It is quite clear that this is a plot, a conspiracy designed for one purpose and one purpose alone- by coercion, to force people out of Medibank into private health insurance. [More…]

• The dishonourable nature of this whole exercise is that the Government does not give a damn about the way in which people meet the cost of health services. [More…]

• Firstly, I have to refer to section 30 (2) of the Health Insurance Act which states: [More…]

• I think the honourable member for Hindmarsh (Mr Clyde Cameron) has left the chamber now but he is one person of, I understand, something in the vicinity of 70 per cent of Australians who have kept private health insurance fund contributions going since Medibank was introduced. [More…]

• I would like members of the Opposition, not only the four or five in the chamber at the moment, to indicate whether the are insured with a voluntary health organisation. [More…]

• The voluntary health organisations have to be kept honest- the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in his second reading speech on this Bill mentioned this- and of course also the doctors have to be kept honest. [More…]

• Nothing is more important to anybody than his health. [More…]

• Whether a doctor is providing straight health care or is acting, as doctors often do, as a social worker, a comforter of people in a time of stress- indeed in distress- we need doctors, one could say, before the cradle to the grave. [More…]

• I commend the Minister for Health for this. [More…]

• But in the final wash up it is the medical profession which in many instances determines the cost to this nation of this important branch of health care. [More…]

• But so far we can see only where those cryptically described as prescribed would be those contributing to the independent private health insurance funds. [More…]

• It would seem to us inequitable that people contributing to private health insurance funds are not being charged if they use standard wards in public hospitals. [More…]

• I feel that this story should be told to the House because Medibank and health insurance deal with people. [More…]

• I am informed by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the departmental advisers that that insurance will still exist. [More…]

• The health funds have been charging $1.86 a week for that. [More…]

• The existing arrangement, under section 20 (2) of the Health Insurance Act, authorises, where a person claims medical benefits but has not paid medical expenses to which the claim relates, a cheque is to be drawn in favour of the practitioner which is forwarded to the claimant. [More…]

• arrangement has caused administrative difficulties for the Health Insurance Commission and for some practitioners, and those difficulties are reflected in the additional administrative costs. [More…]

• I understand that the Valentine health studios in Sydney was bought by a medical practitioner. [More…]

• Maybe from now on health studios will give preference to people who are covered under the private health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Maybe that will be an encouragement for people to join private health insurance schemes, because in addition to their health insurance cover they will also be able to get cover from body building studios. [More…]

• One point I wanted to raise also refers to section 18 of the original Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• Section 1 8 of the Health Insurance Act at present prevents the payment of benefits for diagnostic services- pathology and radiology- to private patients in recognised hospitals. [More…]

• I hope that some equitable method is found by which to avoid that situation, because the work is actually done by hospital staff who are paid by the State governments or the Hospitals or Health Services Commission, or whatever it may be. [More…]

• Increases in the cost of health in Australia have been a problem that has been of concern to us and, as the honourable member for Maribyrnong (Dr Cass) said last night, to most western countries. [More…]

• I think that by modifying Medibank to the extent that we have we may be able to put some of the brakes that are necessary on rising medical and health costs in Australia. [More…]

• The estimated health cost for Australia next year which will affect all governments, State and Federal, and the private sector is of the order of $5,000m. [More…]

• The reason for that, of course, is that people on lower levels of income are getting a much greater subsidy contribution towards their Medibank health cover than do people in the upper levels. [More…]

• I return to the other point which has exercised the minds of a lot of people who are interested in health costs in Australia. [More…]

• If we consume too much of the social dollar on health we are left with insufficient resources for education, for helping the underprivileged in the community and for providing assistance to the needy. [More…]

• -I should like to join with the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) in congratulating the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and also the honourable member for Petrie (Mr Hodges) for facing some of the problems in this area that have only been vaguely referred to in the past. [More…]

• But most important and significant is the question of the quality of health care in the community. [More…]

• Again I congratulate the Minister for his answer to the question of the increasing cost of health care. [More…]

• The Minister’s experiment is to offer the possibility that if doctors’ fees go up too fast and if voluntary health insurance fund premiums have to go up too fast, people will be forced back into Medibank. [More…]

• We started to nibble at this problem by establishing the health centres- not a revolutionary concept. [More…]

• It discusses the future of general practice in Australia and makes very cogent arguments in support of the concept of health centres. [More…]

• I referred to a study done for the American Government in 1967 on costs in America and a study of the Kaiser system, which is a sort of salaried medical staff health care organisation. [More…]

• I hope that the Government is able to stick to that intention and I compliment the Minister for Health for saying it. [More…]

• There are 3 questions I want to ask the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• My second question is this: If I apprehend the situation correctly in relation to the premium contribution for Medibank of $300 for a family or $350 to opt out and take private health insurance cover for private medical service and intermediate ward accommodation, if contributions to the private funds increaseaccording to my rough estimates from papers which I have kept concerning utilisation rates I calculate that the amount will not be $350 but will be closer to $400- do we have an undertaking that the $300 will not increase? [More…]

• Specifically it makes it possible to have some influence on the private so-called non-profit health insurance funds without actually deregistering them. [More…]

• I compliment the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) on introducing this legislation and on taking notice of what the Australian Labor Party tried to do in the past. [More…]

• This does not apply in the case of the health insurance funds. [More…]

• I am not sure whether that was one of the occasions on which the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp) threatened to go to the barricades and leave his carcass impaled if necessary in defence of the private health insurance fund, but it was one of those celebrated occasions of emotional opposition to the propositions we were putting forward. [More…]

• The hard fact is that administration of private health insurance cannot be adequately or responsibly discharged unless the sorts of authority set out in the BUI are available to a Minister. [More…]

• When I was Minister for Social Security I was always at a loss to understand the emotionalism injected into the Opposition to what we were proposing, because I knew full well from private discussions I had had with honourable members who had served as Ministers with previous Liberal-National Country Party governments that they had difficulties with the private health insurance funds not enormously different from the problems we had. [More…]

• I would Uke to congratulate the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) for having the guts to proceed with this legislation. [More…]

• I would be interested in the comments of the Minister for Health on this point. [More…]

• For all that, I repeat that we completely endorse the other aspects covered by this legislation because it is time the voluntary health funds were forced to be honest. [More…]

• I think the debate on this Bill is the appropriate place in which to raise the problem of those persons who left their old private health fund following the introduction of Medibank. [More…]

• Many of these people had been members of the private health funds for a number of years. [More…]

• During their membership of those funds many developed chronic illnesses which made them a burden on the private health funds. [More…]

• Following the advent of Medibank many of these people severed their connection with the private health funds. [More…]

• Now many will be in the position that it will be cheaper for them to opt out of Medibank and to rejoin those private health funds. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is listening to what I am saying while conversing with the honourable member for Hindmarsh (Mr Clyde Cameron). [More…]

• I hope they will get protection when they rejoin the private health funds and that the funds will not simply be able to say: ‘Look, you left us 18 months ago and we are no longer going to provide cover for that chronic illness’. [More…]

• At that stage it was fairly well documented that about 8 per cent of the population was not covered by voluntary health organisations. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in his second reading speech makes specific mention of this fact. [More…]

• In the United States of America health insurers have made substantial progress in developing methods of monitoring the usage of services, in co-operation with the medical profession, in order to eliminate unnecessary expenditure and so restrain costs to contributors. [More…]

• In respect of the comment by the honourable member for Maribyrnong (Dr Cass) that he did not see why we do not allow the Health [More…]

• We do not have a proposition before us at the moment but, as the honourable member would know, the Health Insurance Commission could at any stage be able to provide that sort of cover if necessary. [More…]

• I have a brief question which was sparked from the comments made by the honourable member for Petrie (Mr Hodges) when he quoted the second reading speech of the Minister for Health ( Mr Hunt) dealing with health insurers in the US having made substantial progress in developing methods of monitoring. [More…]

• There is no doubt that there is provision which will require funds to provide statistical information and also other information to the Director-General of Health. [More…]

• He will be the central point and he will be able to call upon the Health Insurance Commission to provide statistical information. [More…]

• Although the new system may be a little more cumbersome we hope that we still will be able to get a general picture of health standards in Australia to ensure that we are spending the health dollar in the most effective way for the health care of Australians. [More…]

• The same provision applies, I think, in the Health Insurance Commission Amendment Bill. [More…]

• It has a large proportion of elderly people, and very few of the young people who are the good risks as far as health insurance is concerned. [More…]

• I support what the honourable member for Prospect said and what the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) said. [More…]

• After Part II of the Health Insurance Commission Act 1 973 the following Part is inserted: ‘Part IIa- MEDIBANK. [More…]

• The amendments also provide for a person who contributes to the Health Insurance Commission in respect of himself and a dependant or dependants, to have an application for a further dependant to be a Medibank contributor approved with retrospective effect to the date the person became a dependant. [More…]

• Medibank was established for every citizen of this country including the 1.3 million people who had no health insurance cover prior to the introduction of the scheme. [More…]

• ‘Substantially’ is the operative word in section 30 (2) of the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• The fact of the matter is that the Prime Minister gave an unequivocal promise to maintain Medibank and to ensure that the standard of health care does not decline. [More…]

• So far as Medibank is concerned there is uncertainty on the part of the health funds as to their capacity to participate. [More…]

• Then, of course, there is an assault on the general health area. [More…]

• However, before I deal with the area of health may I say that the Government’s policy on Medibank is the greatest political somersault of all time. [More…]

• The entire area of public health has become the victim of this Government’s misguided economic policies. [More…]

• The so-called fiscal policy decisions in respect of the health budget, excluding Medibank, contained in the Treasurer’s package deal has been slashed by $100m. [More…]

• The community health services and facilities program, barely lifted off the ground, has now been slashed by $2 4m. [More…]

• The Government bemoans a modest increase which health expenditure is incurring as a percentage of gross national product. [More…]

• Why, 25 years ago health services represented 5.2 per cent of gross domestic product, which is the term now used. [More…]

• Today health services represent 6.5 per cent. [More…]

• I have made some reference to health and I will turn now to some other areas. [More…]

• The Labor Government used Canberra to demonstrate the advantages of physical and social planning in providing modern urban conditions in a healthy rural environment, in providing adequate housing, transport and recreation facilities as well as health and education services. [More…]

• There is a large flat area in the school grounds at Toronto West that needs filling in order to make it suitable for the children to use for healthy sporting activities. [More…]

• It is pointed out that the staff toilet facilities should be upgraded to meet the council’s health standards. [More…]

• The toilet facilities at this public school are below the health standards required by the local council. [More…]

• It has honoured its promise to the private financial institutions which have made exorbitant profits out of people’s health care. [More…]

• On 10 July, 1975 all Commonwealth Directors of Health, the Chief Quarantine Officer (Animals) in each State and the then Departments of Labor and Immigration and Police and Customs were advised of the deteriorating position in Luzon. [More…]

• The then Minister for Health issued a press statement on the matter on 14 July, 1975. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The authority for payments under the agreements that were entered into is contained in section 125 of the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• Funds are appropriated under the Appropriation Act into the Health Insurance Fund. [More…]

• Section 125 of the Health Insurance Act provides: [More…]

• The Health Insurance Fund is set up under the Act and payments are made out of that Fund. [More…]

• We are concerned that high quality health care be available to all Australians. [More…]

• The Minister for Health drew attention to this in his second reading speech. [More…]

• If honourable gentlemen ask why a different course is not taken to validate automatically the past agreements, I point out that the advice which has come to me from officers of the Department of Health is that, although an attempt was made to achieve this in clause 17 of the Health Insurance Commission Bill, the words in that clause do not achieve that objective. [More…]

• We are concerned for quality of health care for all Australians. [More…]

• Therefore we have decided that from now on the guidelines given to doctors will be that the prescription should be based on the national health formulary. [More…]

• But an important aspect of the guidelines we have laid down is that if a doctor believes it necessary for the best treatment of the repatriation beneficiary, he can prescribe outside the national health list. [More…]

• The Minister for Health is entitled to be heard in silence. [More…]

• We just will not get a return to economic health in this country by starving the government sector. [More…]

• It is my task to seek to help the Government while it is in office to get us out of our economic troubles; to get us back to economic health even though that might be politically damaging for me. [More…]

• As the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) has already announced to the House, the Government has found that the agreements, which were negotiated by the previous Government, are in a form that is not authorised by the Health Insurance Act 1973-1975. [More…]

• Payments will be made as block grants to the States and on such terms and conditions as the Treasurer determines after consultation with the Minister for Health. [More…]

• However, it will be a condition for the pay ment of grants that information at present provided to the Health Insurance Commission in relation to claims for daily bed payments will continue to be provided. [More…]

• Under sections 33 and 34 of the Health Insurance Act, these payments are limited to private hospitals in States that are parties to hospitals agreements. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1) Is it a fact that people with epilepsy, regardless of the degree of incapacity, are considered unable to meet health requirements for immigration to Australia. [More…]

• If so, when was the last time this condition was assessed for the purpose of immigration health requirements. [More…]

• If this condition has not been assessed within the last 2 years for the purpose of immigration health requirements, will he consider reviewing the matter in view of the availability of modern drugs to control the effects of this condition. [More…]

• Decisions on individual cases are made in consultation with medical officers of the Department of Health who are conversant with the latest developments in the treatment of this and other medical conditions. [More…]

• What will come from a number of areas in relation to discussions that will be taking place on 1 1 June with the State Health Ministers is a paper concerning precise details of matters we would want to discuss with the States. [More…]

• But as the Minister for Health has indicated on a number of occasions, there must be concern for economy as well as for efficiency and high quality health care. [More…]

• Treasurer’s statement that the starting time for the new, revised and vastly improved proposals offering health care and a choice to all Australians will be 1 October. [More…]

• They have offered to the Government, and, through the Government’s adoption of the proposals, to the people of Australia, the possibility of maintaining universal government-sponsored health care of high standards which will at the same time avoid the quite tragic mistakes which have been made in countries like Britain and Canada. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware that New South Wales, with 36.92 per cent of the population, is receiving only 24.3 per cent of the influenza vaccine produced at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories whereas one State with 14.7 per cent of the population is receiving 26.9 per cent of the serum? [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health noted the decision yesterday of the Federal Assembly of the Australian Medical Association to set up a peer group committee within 3 to 4 years to check Medibank fee abuses? [More…]

• Under the Health Insurance Act any doctor who flagrantly abuses the system can be brought to trial. [More…]

• A number of inquiries are being conducted at the present time and in the very near future prosecutions will be launched against a small number of doctors as a consequence of investigations that have taken place which indicate the possibility of abuse under the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• I am sure that the peer review will have a much longer-term benefit for standards of health care in Australia. [More…]

• There is provision under the Health Insurance Act to take action against doctors where sufficient evidence indicates that there should be a prosecution. [More…]

• This phobia about Russian ships is presumably the justification for defence expenditure of $ 12,000m over the next 5 years- for a 5.5 per cent per annum increase in real terms in the defence budget at the expense of funds for health, cities, roads, the environment, child care, education. [More…]

• The events of the last 6 months make me doubt whether the Government will give environmental matters the high priority they deserve, particularly when public health and safety is involved, let alone the protection of our national heritage. [More…]

• Air pollution affects public health and it is the responsibility of governments to rectify the current situation and to prevent it from happening again in the future. [More…]

• Both of these pollutants occur at concentrations significantly greater than those recognised as acceptable by the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) What is the text of the minute, dated1 8 February1 974 from the Director of Health, Western Australia, to Mr W. F. Toomer, Senior Quarantine Inspector, headed ‘Your duties as Senior Quarantine Inspector’. [More…]

• Did the former Minister for Health, Dr Everingham, advise Mr Toomer by letter, dated 8 March 1974, that Mr Toomer had been restored to full duty as Senior Quarantine Inspector; if so, was this statement accurate; if the statement was not accurate, can he say on what basis of advice the statement was made. [More…]

• What is the text of the minute, dated 15 March 1974, from the Director of Health, Western Australia, to Mr W. F. Toomer headed ‘Your duties as Senior Quarantine Inspector’. [More…]

• Was the minute of 15 March 1974 issued by the Director of Health under instruction; if so, whose instruction, and for what reason. [More…]

• What is the text of the minute, dated 18 March 1974, from the Director of Health, Western Australia, to Mr W. F. Toomer headed ‘Your duties as Senior Quarantine Inspector’. [More…]

• Did the committee inquiring into quarantine in Western Australia in March 1974, consisting of Dr Gee, Dr Bull and Mr Finlay request the Director of Health, Western Australia, to withdraw the minute dated 15 March 1974; if so, why. [More…]

• However, in essence, the minute outlined to Mr Toomer that the Director-General of Health had instructed the Director to return Mr Toomer to his full duties as Senior Quarantine Inspector as from 19 February 1 974 subject to a number of conditions concerning: method of communication with other staff issue of technical instructions control of subordinate officers movements from the Perth Office overtime procedure regarding submissions, and need to carry out instructions. [More…]

• It was also understood by the Director-General of Health that this was the case. [More…]

• Director of Health, Western Australia, was directed by the Director-General of Health to make clear to Mr Toomer those instructions which emanated from the DirectorGeneral. [More…]

• However, Mr Gee, speaking as First Assistant Director-General, Quarantine Division, Department of Health and not as a member of the Committee, did repeat to the Director of Health, Western Australia, the DirectorGeneral’s instructions that Mr Toomer was to be restored immediately to full duty if this had not already been done. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Health Scheme drugs dispensed in respect of outpatient departments of recognised hospitals since Medibank commenced. [More…]

• The honourable member can see from the answers to his questions by the Ministers for Health, the Northern Territory and Science (Nos 387, 388 and 390 respective^) that measures have been initiated in the control of this fly. [More…]

• Funds amounting to S1.803m have been allocated by the Minister for Health for all aspects of the Oriental Fruit Fly campaign. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Who are the representatives of the Australian Government or the Hospitals and Health Services Commission on State organisations involved in health care. [More…]

• Community Health Centres- Committees of Management: [More…]

• Federal-State Co-ordinating Committee for Nursing Home Accommodation in S.A. Eastern Regional Geriatric Rehabilitation Advisory Committee Southern Regional Geriatric Rehabilitation Advisory Committee State-Federal Committee on Community Health Planning Federal-State Mosquito Control Committee (Torrens Island) [More…]

• Director of Health (or his nominee) [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Fremantle is the only port in Western Australia designated by the World Health Organisation to issue deratting certificates. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What Departmental staff, or staff of other Departments, act for the Department of Health at Dampier. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• However, I can say that in supporting medical research with funds provided through the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Government made available in 1 97 5 $ 1 , 1 10,000 specifically for cancer research. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Mr Armstrong was appointed a temporary Quarantine Officer by the Director-General of Health as Direct of Quarantine in November 1975. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Inquiries made of State Health Authorities have not indicated any significant number of resignations of Radiotherapists following the introduction of Medibank. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The work performed under the auspices of the Australian Agricultural Council has been integrated with the activities of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council at its sixty-sixth session in May 1968 approved Draft Uniform Pesticide Regulations are recommended that they be distributed to States and Commonwealth Territories as a guide for the statutory control of the hazards from the commercial use of pesticides. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) No evidence is available to the Department of Health or the Health Insurance Commission to indicate that some medical practitioners are adopting that practice referred to in the question. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Results of all these research studies, both in this country and overseas, are carefully examined by the appropriate committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH & MRC). [More…]

• At its 81st Session in October 1975, the National Health and Medical Research Council approved a research grant to a team of two psychiatrists and a doctor specialising in nutrition to conduct research into the possible relationship between artificial colourings and flavourings in food and hyperactive behaviour in children. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• A great deal of research has been carried out on this weedicide and this has been noted by the Pesticides and Agricultural Chemicals Sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council; this Sub-committee is keeping the matter under review. [More…]

• At its Eightieth Session in April 1975 the National Health and Medical Research Council included the following statement and recommendation in its Report of that Session: ‘Council considered the most recent reports of teratogenesis following the administration of large oral doses of 2,4,5-T and considered that the available evidence indicated that the impurity tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD) was the agent implicated in congenital abnormalities. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Mr Macphee asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Under the provisions of the National Health Act, any qualified nurse who is currently registered under a law of a State or Territory may provide nursing care to an approved patient. [More…]

• Yesterday my colleague, the Minister for Health, advised me that if the proposal were accepted State Budgets would be saved to an extent of $75m and the Commonwealth Budget would be saved an equal amount. [More…]

• -Will the Minister for Health confirm that the Medibank pamphlets produced by the honourable member for Macarthur state that private health insurance funds will offer full medical and hospital coverage for a family at a cost of $350 a year? [More…]

• Will the Minister also confirm that private health insurance funds in Western Australia have stated that intermediate ward coverage for a family will cost $417 a year and private ward coverage $500 a year? [More…]

• The whole arrangement will not come into operation until 1 October, so there is a lot of time available for the funds and for the people to be able to make an intelligent choice of the type of health cover that they want to adopt for themselves. [More…]

• Tests which have been taken in all major cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne, show that at certain times of the day the level of carbon monoxide and oxidants exceeds by four and five times the World Health Organisation recommendations. [More…]

• It meant that the broader responsibilities to which a government must address itself- the way in which health services are provided, efforts to maximise the efficiency with which the health service system functions, a dedication to constantly improve on high standards of health servicesand the opportunities to discuss those things were not taken up. [More…]

• Several steps had been outlined already by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) prior to the introduction of this Bill. [More…]

• Public health services in Australia could not adequately function without our public hospital system. [More…]

• The full range of health services which a modern society with the advantages of a high standard of living can provide and expects cannot be contributed by private hospital systems, except at inordinate cost. [More…]

• The fact is- and I speak from experience-that New South Wales decided rather hurriedly to enter into the Medibank hospital agreements because the State Treasury there advised the then Premier and the State Minister for Health, through the Health Department I suppose, that the State hospitals could not be maintained satisfactorily in the coming year because the financial burden was becoming too great, that Medibank was the sort of agreement that would have to be entered into if the State hospital system were to survive and if standards were to be preserved in some sort of way. [More…]

• Very largely the level of cutback occurred because the State’s budget was finding it increasingly burdensome and too difficult to bear what one would regard as a full cost for an adequate standard of health services being maintained in the public hospitals. [More…]

• If we put to one side all of the political rhetoric that went on on the part of the States, we discover that the States were in a difficult situation and that without Medibank, and without the assistance of these hospital agreements, the publichospital system in Australia would have been crumbling State by State and the health of the nation would have suffered as a result. [More…]

• I repeat, and it cannot be said often enough, that the best standards of health service come from our public hospitals and that access to adequate health services cannot be guaranteed to a public unless there are adequate public hospital services available in the community. [More…]

• He even reprimanded the then shadow Minister for Health, the honourable member for Hotham (Mr Chipp), who seems to be the only person on the Government side who has ever taken the trouble to understand at least some of the concepts of health services and health services financing in the community. [More…]

• It just did not happen that the setting of the levy of 2.5 percent resulted in 50 per cent of the population being excluded, that is, opting out because it is more advantageous financially to go into private health insurance. [More…]

• Let me lay to rest a lot of the spurious nonsense that the Minister for Health has put forward in the rush of statistics which he has gushed out at various times in this House. [More…]

• In 1969 we very nearly achieved office very largely on the issue of Medibank because the public was dissatisfied with private health insurance as it then functioned, and there are many reasons for that which have been enumerated endlessly in this Parliament and elsewhere. [More…]

• For any given level of total expenditure private health insurance could not cover as many people as the Medibank concept could. [More…]

• Medibank is good- good because of its achievements in covering everyone in the community, good because of the security it gives to people, good because of the summarisation it has removed from the deserving poor under the old subsidised health insurance benefit scheme which was a total failure, and good most of all because it spread the taxpayer’s dollar further. [More…]

• It did that at the same cost as the old health insurance scheme. [More…]

• We are going back to the old system of private health insurance which means it will be more expensive for individuals in the community to cover themselves with private insurance because of the inefficient nature of the private health insurance system. [More…]

• Let us look at the effects of this in terms of tax claw-back and the result it will have on the gross claim the unions will make for increased wages to offset the cost of Medibank and private health insurance. [More…]

• They have maintained that practice for many decades, and they would argue that there are sound administrative reasons and sound reasons associated with the quality of health care for them to persevere with that policy. [More…]

• But, if I opt out of Medibank, go to a private health insurance fund, take the same sort of medical cover that [More…]

• I turn now to the overall cost of health services which has gone from 5.2 per cent of gross domestic product at the beginning of this past quarter century up to 6.5 per cent. [More…]

• Medibank has shown that it will save costs and improve health services. [More…]

• The sorts of things the Government is doing contribute nothing to moderating the rapid increase in health costs experienced by all advanced countries and are clear evidence of the Government’s bankruptcy of thinking and concepts in approaching this matter. [More…]

• The firm legal advice available to the Government is that the agreements negotiated by the previous Government are in a form which is not authorised by the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• Clause 17 of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill 1976 sought to repeal Schedule 2 of the Health Insurance Act 1973-1975 and to replace it by a revised schedule which would have enabled the Government to vary the hospitals agreements by negotiation and agreement with each State. [More…]

• So even if clause 17 of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill were passed it would not have had the effect of validating agreements that were invalid when made. [More…]

• In my second reading speech on the Health Insurance Amendment Bill which I delivered in the House on 20 May I said: [More…]

• In the longer term, because of the arrangements we entered into, the new prospects are that more constraint will be placed upon cost increases in health care than there has been in the past. [More…]

• Those at the higher income levels, the honourable member for Oxley being one of them, will pay closer to the cost of health insurance whether they insure with Medibank which offers a standard package or whether they insure with private funds. [More…]

• People with incomes above $12,000 a year will find it cheaper to get Medibank cover by buying a Medibank premium for about $300 a year to cover their family health costs. [More…]

• I am sure that if the honourable member for Oxley had still been the Minister for Social Security or Treasurer he would have been seeking to impose a levy in one way or another to try to recover some costs to pay for health care in Australia. [More…]

• Our scheme imposes additional costs on the people in higher income groups who can afford to pay more for their health care. [More…]

• Everybody surely must know that there is no such thing as free health care. [More…]

• Given time he might have come to the party with an ingenious scheme such as we offer the Australian people today, providing the Australian people with the widest possible choice, imposing a system that directs most of the subsidy to the disadvantaged and calling upon the Australian people at the higher income levels to pay a greater proportion of their health costs. [More…]

• In the meantime I look forward to discussing the matter with my counterpart State Ministers and I am sure that we will be able to report in the Budget session a far more practical and sensible agreement which is based upon proper legal terms in respect of the modified Medibank proposals and which will provide health security to the Australian people. [More…]

• In passing I think it is interesting to note that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) admits that the saving from dropouts from Medibank will be $430m in the coming year. [More…]

• May I ask the Minister for Health a question? [More…]

• What will be the gain to the Government from the abolition of tax deductions for health fund contributions at the present time? [More…]

• I believe stricter guidelines should be inserted in maintenance Acts as to the matters to be taken into consideration in assessing a reasonable and adequate payment on the same lines as those set out in the Family Law Act which, amongst other things, not only takes into consideration the age and the state of health of each of the parties but is bound to have due regard to the income, the property and the financial resources of either parties, the care or control of a child, the financial needs and obligations of each of the parties, the responsibilities of either party to support any other person and so on. [More…]

• The cost of medical care is enormous, especially where the victim has been so seriously injured that care beyond that available from normal health provisions will be essential. [More…]

• This week there will be an emergency meeting of the hospital committee, and I think it is good for the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) to know why the meeting is to be held. [More…]

• I believe that the public and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) are entitled to be fully informed and apprised of the dangers that are inherent in this situation if it is allowed to continue. [More…]

• To support this allegation I would now like to quote from a number of reports made by salaried specialists to the Australian Capital Territory Health Commission at their request. [More…]

• Health Commission: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Was any failure to advise the Quarantine Inspector, North West Ports, a deliberate decision of the Director of Health, Western Australia, or of the Central Office of the Department; if so, why. [More…]

• On 10 July, 1975 all Commonwealth Directors of Health and the Chief Quarantine Officers (Animals) in each State were advised by telex from the Central Office of the Department, of the deteriorating foot and mouth position in Luzon. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Other personnel referred to in 1 (a) to 1 (g) are not officers or employees of the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• The Government recognises the previous Government’s commitment to preserve trie existing long service leave rights of persons who were recruited from the private funds to the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Information is now filtering through that because of cuts in allocations to the community health program by the Federal Government to the State, the Health Commission of New South Wales will be faced with the situation of having no alternative but to phase down the building activity on Westmead Hospital, yet it is an urgent work. [More…]

• This comes into the field of this Federal Government which is responsible for allocating funds to the New South Wales Health Commission under the community health program. [More…]

• I ask the Government therefore to give special consideration to this matter now in this forthcoming Budget period and to make sure that funds are earmarked so that the project as it is now being developed may continue in the interests of the health of the whole of that most populous region. [More…]

• This is very often something that militates against their health and survival because nothing induces early death more than enforced retirement and idleness when people do not want it. [More…]

• Councils are geographically-based bodies which may undertake a variety of functions on behalf of an Aboriginal community of the area, provided that these include the provision of at least one of the kinds of services listed in clause 11(3) such as housing, health, municipal and related services. [More…]

• This, I am sure, will occur in industry as affected by this Bill, as it will similarly mean greater expenditure in health as a result of cuts in health research. [More…]

• The money is allocated to the States for purposes of housing, health, education, employment, welfare, enterprises, management, public utilities and recreation. [More…]

• Perhaps he will explain why this advice from the Department is not now to be acted upon and whether in these times when the discerning eye of the Attorney-General (Mr Ellicott) is so sharply focussed on financial agreements with the States, as we have seen in respect of health matters, the Commonwealth stands vulnerable in any way so far as States grants for Aboriginal purposes are concerned. [More…]

• Similarly, is any attention being given to the Committee’s report and recommendations concerning Aboriginal health in Western Australia? [More…]

• We must have money for the schemes, the ideas, the education, the housing, the health care- you name it- for the Aborigines, to bring Aborigines up to a standard whereby they can hold their heads high in the community. [More…]

• Health presents another problem. [More…]

• I invite honourable members to examine health statistics to determine whether money is being wasted and whether we should reduce our expenditure on Aboriginal affairs. [More…]

• Will it be the health programs? [More…]

• We know what the Aboriginal health situation is. [More…]

• Nobody gave a damn about their education, their health or thenhousing. [More…]

• Unsolicited remarks from those who were not sure included some doubts about the legitimacy of the question relating to mental health and doubts about the overall necessity of the census. [More…]

• Some said that the question on mental health was too subjective. [More…]

• I want to use that example to urge that honourable members respect the program of community health and welfare centres started by Dr Everingham when he was Minister for Health in the last 2 Parliaments. [More…]

• West Heidelberg is a good example of the success of these community health and welfare centres. [More…]

• When the opportunity was given to them to say what they wanted for medical treatment and social work and residents of the area, who apparently were downgraded in this report, actively formed their own committee, got expert advice and put up a case to the Federal Government under the community health and welfare centre scheme for such a centre. [More…]

• There too, despite the fact that social workers and the like would say that this is an area of great deprivation and with not a great initiative, the residents took the opportunity to ask for and receive from the last Government an appropriate health and community welfare centre which they are helping to manage and which they are using. [More…]

• Further, that this House rejects the delusion that the speedier restoration of health to the Australian economy would necessarily have an adverse effect on inflation and, on the contrary, holds to the view that the continuance of the low grade depression which characterised the administration of the preceding Labor Government does in fact expose Australia to unnecessary social and financial stress and, in the long run, contributes to the maintenance of inflation. [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health will recall that several weeks ago I pointed out to him that many nursing home patients were in serious financial difficulties. [More…]

• I am pleased to be able to announce to the honourable member for Isaacs and indeed to the House that amendments to the National Health Act come into force today. [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Health: Is it a fact that private nursing homes can increase the fees charged only with the approval of his Department? [More…]

• The Government accepts the expert advice that the risk of an incident resulting in a release of radio-activity is extremely low and the hazard to human health and the environment is remote. [More…]

• Other officers in a similar position are the Australian Captial Territory Fire Commissioner, the Chairman and members of the Australian Capital Territory Health Commission, and Chairman and members of the Interim Australian Capital Territory Technical and Further Education Authority. [More…]

• Because of the extremely slight risk of such an accident, hazard to health is only a very remote possibility. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Department of Health-U [More…]

• ii) Capital Territory Health Commission-8 [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission- 1 [More…]

• ) On occasions, private employment agencies have been engaged by the Department of Health to assist in the recruitment of urgently needed relief medical and nursing staff for employment in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• Limited use had also been made of such agencies by the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission- $1,045.61. [More…]

• Limited assistance is sought by the Department of Health from the Commonwealth Employment Service mainly in relation to recruitment of semi-skilled manual workers in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Distribution is also carried out by the Commonwealth Department of Health Laboratories at Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton, Toowoomba and Lismore but these centres are staffed solely by officers of the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1027 [Hansard, 3 October 1974, page 2272) in which the former Minister for Health advised that the Departmental Committee which inquired into quarantine in Western Australia in March 1974 did not report any Quarantine deficiencies (a) at ports in the north west or Western Australia, (b) at aerodromes in the north west of Western Australia, (c) at Kwinana and (d) in the examination of overseas mail arriving in Western Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Bills to impose a health insurance levy were rejected by the Senate on 1 1 December The levy provided for by those Bills was to have commenced to apply during the 1975-76 financial year. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Under the Community Health Program administered by my Department, Commonwealth funds have been made available to the Health Commission of New South Wales to assist in the appointment of a community nurse and a community nurse aide to be based at Narromine. [More…]

• Commonwealth assistance made available under the Community Health Program for this service was $10,380 in 1975-76. [More…]

• The usual level of Commonwealth assistance under the Community Health Program applies to this service, namely, 75 per cent of capital costs and 90 per cent of operating costs. [More…]

• The balances of 25 per cent of capital costs and 10 per cent of operating costs are to be met by the Health Commission of New South Wales. [More…]

• Has the Commonwealth Government extended to these descendants of the Kanakas the same welfare rights given to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the areas of health, education, housing and legal aid. [More…]

• Department of Health. [More…]

• 1 ) On what date was Mr Austin Holmes asked to prepare his paper on Medibank hospital arrangements to be discussed with the State Health Ministers on 1 1 June 1 976 (Hansard, 1 June 1976, page 2703). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Do the stringent health requirements needed for the collection and storage of Canadian deep frozen semen exceed regulations governing the collection and storage of the American semen. [More…]

• 1 ) The United States Department of Agriculture and my Department have been in correspondence over a long period concerning veterinary health conditions which would be required to ensure safe importation of cattle semen from the United States. [More…]

• 14 and 15: These recommendations are under active consideration; it will also be appropriate for the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs to include questions such as this in its current examination of the question of alcohol and Aboriginals; I will await the outcome of the Standing Committee ‘s inquiry with interest 16: There has been an increase in the number of Aborigines undergoing training as nursing aides and health workers. [More…]

• Training is given at the new health centre at Yirrkala in preference to the base hospital at Nhulunbuy. [More…]

• There are Aboriginal health workers on all homeland centres and these are supported by visiting doctors and sisters who offer continuous on-the-job training. [More…]

• 17: The water supply from Yirrkala Creek is under constant surveillance by the local health officer; the water is of acceptable standard when regularly chlorinated. [More…]

• What is the estimated increase in construction costs of the national animal health laboratory for each month’s delay caused by deferment of commencement of the project. [More…]

• It is not possible to estimate with any degree of accuracy increased construction costs for the National Animal Health Laboratory at Geelong; any variation in costs would depend to a large extent on labour and material” prices throughout the duration of the project, as well as on the competitiveness of the market when tenders are invited for each element of the job. [More…]

• Which of the recommendations contained in the Report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs on Aboriginal Health in the South West of Western Australia have been implemented. [More…]

• The Report has been considered by the Aboriginal Affairs Co-ordinating Committee of Western Australia and recommendation 7 (a) of the Report, for an expansion of the Co-ordinating Committee’s membership, and recommendation 7 (b) for establishment of a Health Subcommittee, have been implemented. [More…]

• The Aboriginal Medical Service field staff consult at a training level with major hospitals and liaise with Community Health Services field staff informally. [More…]

• Community Health Services has recently conducted seminars for field staff in Kalgoorlie and Port Hedland which should promote more effective consultation in the future. [More…]

• The Community Health Services Director is a member by standing invitation of the Medical Committee of the Aboriginal Medical Service. [More…]

• Community Health Services, with an increased Aboriginal field staff, has local contact with communities throughout the State. [More…]

• Community Health Services is making a baseline health study of Aboriginal people. [More…]

• Community Health Services conduct Health Education programs in schools and the Education Department is currently reviewing the effectiveness of the program. [More…]

• The Aboriginal Medical Service provides health education at the AMS Centre. [More…]

• The terms of this recommendation are now receiving priority attention from the Aboriginal Affairs Co-ordinating Committee Health sub-committee which includes representatives of the Alcohol and Drug Authority, Community Health Services and the Department for Community Welfare. [More…]

• The Alcohol and Drug Authority in conjunction with Community Health Services, Department of Corrections, Aboriginal Medical Service and Aboriginal organisations is developing proposals for management and treatment of habitual drinkers. [More…]

• Health and hygiene courses are available. [More…]

• The Department of Education is now reviewing the health education program for schools and communities in conjunction with the Community Health Services with a view to upgrading the service as required. [More…]

• The Aboriginal Affairs Co-ordinating Committee has authorised its Health Sub-committee to invite the Community Recreation Council to participate in its activities. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• How many fee for service and salaried medical practitioners are using the Kippax Health Centre, A.C.T. [More…]

• Three fee-for-service and 2 salaried medical practitioners are based at Kippax Health Centre. [More…]

• Other Commission staff (including specialists, nurses and allied health professionals) provide services to patients of all doctors in the centre. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Is tuberculosis a serious and contagious disease leaving little room for complacency from a health point of view. [More…]

• No further investigations are necessary because the States are adequately equipped to maintain control of tuberculosis as part of their normal public health responsibilities. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: (1), (2) and (3) The National Health Act provides that the Minister for Health may establish in each State a Pharmaceutical Services Committee of Inquiry consisting of the Director of Health in the State, an officer of the Commonwealth Department of Health who is a pharmacist and four pharmaceutical chemists appointed by the Minister. [More…]

• Following representations from the Pharmaceutical Association of Australia and New Zealand, the then Minister for Health, Dr Everingham, in 1975 approved a change in the composition of the non-departmental membership of the Committees, which now comprises two pharmacists nominated by The Pharmacy Guild, one nominated by the Friendly Societies Dispensaries Association and one nominated by the Pharmaceutical Society in the respective State. [More…]

• For what reasons is the ship inspection work at Fremantle in connection with the Grain (Export) Regulations to be performed by the Western Australian, Department of Agriculture instead of the Commonwealth Department of Health as from 1 July 1976. [More…]

• What consideration is being given to the transfer of similar functions at Victorian ports from the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• 1 ) In Western Australia the inspection of ships in accordance with the requirements of the Exports (Grain) Regulations has been carried out on behalf of the Department of Primary Industry by the Commonwealth Department of Health at Fremantle and by the Western Australian Department of Agriculture at Albany, Bunbury, Esperance and Geraldton. [More…]

• In view of the proximity of this port to Fremantle my Department initiated discussions with the Department of Health about inspection of ships to load grain at Kwinana. [More…]

• The Department of Health indicated that the increasing workload associated with its quarantine responsibilities had already caused difficulty in coping with grain ship inspections at Fremantle and would preclude it from taking on additional work at Kwinana without additional staff. [More…]

• As stated in ( 1 ) however, the Department of Health could not have coped with the additional work without engaging additional quarantine staff. [More…]

• In Victoria all grain ship inspections are carried out on behalf of my Department by one authority, the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• Has the Prime Minister seen reports that the President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Mr Hawke, has taken out health cover with Medibank Private, rather than through the private health fund with which he was previously insured? [More…]

• Can the Prime Minister explain why he himself has taken out health cover through Medibank Private? [More…]

• I am delighted that the President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and President of the Australian Labor Party, and maybe one day a member of this House, has taken advantage of the opportunity provided by the Government to demonstrate to all Australians that Medibank is alive and well, ready to do business with Mr Hawke and many other people, and ready to compete with the private funds to help keep the cost of health insurance down. [More…]

• The Government is providing an interesting field of competition between Medibank insurance and private health funds which I believe will advantage many people in Australia. [More…]

• We wish Mr Bridgman and his wife many years of good health and we wish Mr Ingram the good health which will enable him to take up permanently the appointment for which he is so well qualified in succession to Mr Bridgman. [More…]

• Mr Speaker, on behalf of the members of my Party I would like also to extend to Mr Ken Ingram our hope that he will assume the mantle of Principal Parliamentary Reporter if his health so permits. [More…]

• In particular I would like to wish Mr Bill Bridgman good health and many years of happiness in his retirement. [More…]

• The past 3 months have seen all the false promises repeated, all the muddle and inefficiency increased and extended, and all the people’s hopes for a just and fair system of universal health insurance recede still further. [More…]

• A scheme which the people wanted is being replaced by one which the doctors and the health funds want. [More…]

• It is being done for no other reason than to appease the medical profession, to bolster doctors’ incomes and to preserve the moribund private health bureaucracies. [More…]

• There was not a word in the Liberal policy speech last November about this outlandish and cumbersome health scheme. [More…]

• I have said repeatedly that essential programs in health, education and urban development will be maintained. [More…]

• The Government justifies its vandalism and deception by the spurious argument that health costs are beyond what the community can afford. [More…]

• The overwhelming simplicity and efficiency of a universal health scheme, backed by computerised records and streamlined accounting procedures, will give way to appalling administrative complications after 1 October. [More…]

• The Government scheme will place no restraint on health costs generally. [More…]

• It is fatuous and dishonest for the Government to blame Medibank for the rising cost of health care. [More…]

• All over the world these costs are increasing, whatever health insurance system is used. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) speaks of waste and ‘over-utilisation’. [More…]

• The increasing costs of health care will not be reduced by getting rid of Medibank. [More…]

• The only way to reduce the cost of health care is to reduce the availability of health care and the standard of health care for the majority of Australians, and that is precisely what the Fraser proposals entail. [More…]

• That is how the Fraser Government cuts the cost of health bills and eliminates waste and extravagance. [More…]

• Private health fund contributors will be exempt. [More…]

• Everyone in the community uses and benefits from emergency health services and the teaching facilities of the large public hospitals. [More…]

• In the event, every private health fund was able to announce charges for private and intermediate cover which were significantly lower than Medibank and were made possible by the $250m in reserves which the funds have accumulated from their contributors. [More…]

• They have no clear idea of their rights and prospects under the Fraser Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health said at the weekend that the levy would be reviewed next year. [More…]

• The mounting annual burdens of third party and workers compensation insurance- two other forms of compulsory insurance- will be a permanent feature of health insurance, this new form of compulsory insurance. [More…]

• It is the victim of its own obsessions, its own record of mindless obstruction, its obligations- stated and implied- to these ramshackle health funds and professional pressure groups. [More…]

• There is still time to put the health of the people first. [More…]

• If one listened to the statements from the Opposition over recent days one would think that it wanted people to join the private health funds rather than Medibank Private. [More…]

• That subsidy is available to all private health insurance funds. [More…]

• The Opposition is concentrating its publicity on the private health fund rates for private room and private hospital insurance. [More…]

• In that area both Medibank Private and the private health funds have very similar rates. [More…]

• We make no apology for having announced at the time we did the actuarially estimated premiums, which were worked out with the Health Insurance Commission and our actuaries, to try to allay some of the public concern that was being expressed about how much it would cost. [More…]

• That certainly is a direct result of Medibanks entry into the private health insurance business. [More…]

• It is high time that the Opposition stopped trying to turn back the clock and accepted the fact that the Government has made its final decisions and that the new health insurance arrangements will take affect from 1 October. [More…]

• The 2 principal changes are that everybody except those on the lowest incomes, most pensioners and certain defence personnel and repatriation beneficiaries and those who privately insure, will be paying 2Vi per cent of their taxable incomes towards meeting the cost of some of their health care. [More…]

• The second change is that people will be able to take out both medical and hospital insurance cover from Medibank Private or any other registered private health fund. [More…]

• Medibank Mark 1 certainly achieved universal health insurance but it did so at the expense of largely ignoring the need for economy and efficiency in overall health care. [More…]

• That Committee was established in January against a background of allegations of abuses and rip-offs, allegations of over-use of medical and health services, and against a background of exploding health care costs in Australia. [More…]

• In this financial year alone total health care costs are estimated to explode to $5,400m or $ 1,000m more than last year’s total export returns from iron ore, coal, wool, wheat and meat. [More…]

• The rise in health care costs is far in excess of the general high rise in inflation. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party argues that there should be a special levy to help fund universal health cover. [More…]

• This is clearly shown by the fact that under the Medibank levy the average person staying with Medibank will contribute only 18 per cent towards his health costs. [More…]

• Universal health insurance remains. [More…]

• Every Australian resident is entitled to those benefits unless he voluntarily chooses to take out private cover with a health fund. [More…]

• With this simplistic view, which the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has repeated today, of the cause of mounting health costs, namely the cost of Medibank, the simpleton solutions were obvious for a Liberal Government with its ideological blinkers on- just drive people out of Medibank and at the same time impose a tax on those who stay in it; but do not call it a tax, call it a levy. [More…]

• Quite contrary to their claims, the basic cost of health services to the community will be unchanged in that the cost of doctor and hospital charges will be the same. [More…]

• Added to this basic cost is the cost of the administrative system devised to collect the money from the community and to pay it to the providers of the health services. [More…]

• None of this takes into account the loss to the community in the destroyed potential for Medibank to provide the Government with real statistics for the first time on the state of health services for the whole community. [More…]

• It is this information which is vital if any government is to do anything intelligent about the planning of our future health service needs. [More…]

• The Government claims that the freedom of choice will improve the health services for the community. [More…]

• I take it that the Minister for Health did not say that but I am afraid that the Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations (Mr Street) argued that the levy would be reviewed. [More…]

• It has no restraining effect on the doctors’ fees, the real and basic cost of health services. [More…]

• Quite apart from all that, which I think is superficial to the basic argument as far as the Australian community is concerned- the quality of health care and none of this has anything to do with the quality of health care- it is only an argument about how the bills are paid. [More…]

• The so-called competition between the various funds has nothing to do with the quality of health care. [More…]

• I cannot really say with truth that I am speaking from the highest point of objectivity when I support the Government on this measure because the new Medibank scheme is almost identical, if not identical, to the health scheme . [More…]

• I compliment the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• As it appears at the moment, that will not be the Medibank private fund but it will in fact be one of the private health funds. [More…]

• One of the quaintest parts of the speech of the Leader of the Opposition- I think it was unbelievable- was his berating the private health funds for undercutting Medibank. [More…]

• For years the private health funds have in fact been the target of the Labor Party. [More…]

• The Labor Party has an obsession about the private health funds. [More…]

• Members of the Labor Party pour out hymns of hatred against the private health funds in the same way and in the same breath as they pour out hatred against the multi-national corporations. [More…]

• The Labor Party does not bother to remind people that the private health funds are not huge profit making multinational corporations. [More…]

• Therefore, I believe that there is a place in health insurance- we are not talking about health care but we are talking about Medibank- for the private sector to use the expertise which it has acquired over the years. [More…]

• The 2 men who said that, were members of a Ministry which spent almost $2m of taxpayers’ money in publicising their own discredited health scheme. [More…]

• I believe it will result in economies in health insurance and in health care. [More…]

• The health scheme that I introduced on behalf of the Liberal and Country Party in mid- 1974 had in it the proposition that there should be competition between the private health funds and a government health fund. [More…]

• There seemed to be a suggestion from the Leader of the Opposition that they were cooked, that they were deliberately inflated so that the private health funds could undercut them and thus destroy Medibank. [More…]

• I would despair if the health insurance field were left to a government monopoly because I am vitally interested in social welfare. [More…]

• The Minister for Health- or is it Minister for pedestrian affairs; I cannot quite recollect because I am confused as between his description and his performance- likes to refer to Medibank Mark 1 and Medibank Mark 2 as though there is some sort of progress. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is a man born well after his time. [More…]

• He wants to take us back to the discredited system of private health insurance. [More…]

• The consumer price index in the December quarter will go up by about 4 per cent as a direct result of the emasculation of Medibank and the increases in other health service charges for which the Government has been responsible. [More…]

• I find it quite unacceptable that the proposal is not only the restoration of the quite unsatisfactory and totally discredited system of private health insurance, but also that as part and parcel of the resurrection of that unsatisfactory system a $65m subsidy- a generous transfusion of liquid gold into the hardened arteries of the discredited private health insurance system- will start off the system. [More…]

• Medibank is universal health insurance. [More…]

• One is universal cover, the second is automatic cover, and the third is no means test at point of entry to the health care system. [More…]

• Everyone must belong, either to Medibank or to a private health insurance fund for hospital and medical benefits. [More…]

• Not only have we maintained it, we have maintained the Health Insurance Commission, its officers, its agent and its computer. [More…]

• The Australian Hospitals Association applauds the Government’s attempt to come to grips with the alarming rise in health costs by challenging the providers of health services to play the major role in this vital area. [More…]

• Preserve the concept of universal health insurance. [More…]

• Attempt to distribute the costs of health care equitably between those unable to pay and those able to pay. [More…]

• By introducing a levy promote public awareness of health care costs. [More…]

• Share administrative responsibilities of running health insurance between the public and private sectors. [More…]

• I deal first with the public versus private share of health care. [More…]

• This was contrary to the will of the Australian people, 70 per cent of whom maintained private health insurance and showed their confidence in the private health funds. [More…]

• This is connected with the argument on public versus private share of the health care system. [More…]

• There is Medibank itself, there is Medibank plus hospital cover, and there is complete private health insurance. [More…]

• One can criticise the present Medibank for a preoccupation, similar to that of the original Medibank, with trying to fit a health delivery system around a set of health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• What I believe we really should be doing is deciding what type of health care arrangements we really want and building the payment system around that. [More…]

• These were opposed rather than supported by the private health funds and the Australian Medical Association, but at least to its credit the AMA is now to go along with them. [More…]

• Hopefully health maintenance organisations will be introduced as experiments in alternative delivery systems. [More…]

• It is important that all Australians, as taxpayers, health care consumers or health care providers, be made aware of the true cost of health care services either as contributors to a private health fund, as payers of a levy or payers in a disguised way- in the past it was disguised- through the ordinary tax system. [More…]

• Medibank is universal health insurance. [More…]

• If we are to ban advertising on the basis that it is harmful or injurious to human health or constitutes a threat to society then we should be consistent about it, not select one product and go away wearing a halo, believing that we have done something greater than we have done, whilst ignoring other equally potent problems. [More…]

• Admittedly it has been agreed that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) will pursue with the State Health Ministers proposals to work towards uniform legislation to control cigarette advertising in areas where the Commonwealth does not have these powers of control. [More…]

• It sets a precedent for the banning of advertisements for all types of commodities that may or may not affect the general health of the people which, of course, naturally would include such things as alcohol, certain types of medicines and foodstuffs. [More…]

• When Labor was in office the then Opposition spokesman on environment, the current Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the honourable member for Sturt (Mr Wilson), both publicly stated in the debate last year on the Heritage Commission that it was necessary to appropriate funds before a formal register was completed to preserve those immediately threatened areas of our national estate. [More…]

• The present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who represents the electorate of Gwydir, reflected this Government’s view of the Australia Heritage Commission Bill when as the then Opposition spokesman for the environment he said: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• It has been assisted in its work by grants allocated by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission of $85,000 since 1973. [More…]

• I understand that the Australian Council on Hospital Standards is now applying its system of hospital accreditation in acute general hospitals in Victoria and that discussions are underway with Health Authorities in New South Wales and South Australia. [More…]

• Systems of review which will ensure maintenance and improvement of health care standards in Australia have my support The hospital accreditation program of the Australian Council on Hospital Standards is one such system. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -I ask the Treasurer Is it a fact that in the recent wage indexation case the Government admitted that the confusing array of health insurance options to be introduced from 1 October would alone have the effect of increasing the consumer price index by 2 per cent in the December quarter of this year? [More…]

• Since he has also argued that economic recovery will not be possible until inflation is reduced, does he accept that the new health insurance arrangements, stimulating inflation, will also prolong the economic recession? [More…]

• The new arrangements which the Government has made in relation to health insurance and the health question generally are designed as one method of furthering its objectives to reduce inflation and not to increase it. [More…]

• The new health insurance arrangements are not confusing. [More…]

• They provide the choice which we believe the Australian public requires; they will provide a better delivery of health services. [More…]

• I would like to quote the statement made by the present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) when he was then spokesman for the environment. [More…]

• What did the honourable member for Gwydir, now the Minister for Health, say? [More…]

• The Minister for Health, when he was the spokesman on the environment, went on to say: [More…]

• The quality and quantity of water not only influence the health and happiness of every person but also determine much of the beauty of our surroundings. [More…]

• What saves marriages is access to places such as the Leichhardt Women’s Community Health Centre in my district, which is always pilloried in the lowest terms by members from the other side of the House. [More…]

• Access to community health programs saves marriages and those are precisely the programs on which the Government is cutting back. [More…]

• Their applications are being processed immediately, and in many cases they are being brought to Australia on the understanding that their health checks will be carried out immediately they arrive in Australia. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Has the Government abandoned its commitment to the community health program? [More…]

• Finally, is it intended that State governments have flexibility in applying their own and the Commonwealth’s resources in maintaining the community health program? [More…]

• I should like to make it very clear that the Government has in no way abandoned the community health program. [More…]

• The allocation under the community health program this year will be $81m, $70m of which will be going to the States to assist in maintaining the existing level of activity. [More…]

• We do want to see the block grant that we have made to Victoria- I think it is of the order of $ 15.2m- applied in such a way that the community health program will be maintained at its present level. [More…]

• The other involves that Department and the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Health, Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and Overseas Trade. [More…]

• The Government has gone a step further because the unions then used initiative and approached companies on the question of assisting workers in paying the health insurance levy. [More…]

• It serves notice to the world that one of the richest and most fortunate nations on earth cannot afford to give its people the minimum standards of health, housing, public transport, urban development and social amenities enjoyed by all the other advanced Western democracies, by all well-managed economies. [More…]

• There is nothing for Australians in the outer suburbs and towns who lack the basic amenities of civilised societies- transport, sewerage, adequate roads, schools and health services. [More…]

• It is behind the destruction of Medibank- the mulish determination to revive the multitude of private health funds when a single fund can do the job more cheaply, fairly, efficiently and honestly. [More…]

• Funds for health alone have been reduced by $126m. [More…]

• Any government that can budget for an 1 8 per cent reduction in health funds for people with the highest rate of infant mortality in the world is beneath contempt; but the tragic social implications of the Government’s policy are not all that concern us. [More…]

• Cuts of approximately $7m have also been made in the funding of the Department of Construction for Aboriginal education and health projects. [More…]

• The Budget takes away all funds for women’s health centres and refuges for women who are desperate or abandoned. [More…]

• Medibank is only one casualty of the Budget’s downgrading of health care. [More…]

• The Government has effectively frozen the development of health services in rural and urban areas and has reduced expenditure on health by $44m. [More…]

• Savings in health have been achieved by forcing 50 per cent or more of the population into private health insurance and abandoning Labor’s goal of ensuring equality of access to health services. [More…]

• The Fraser Government has allocated only $7 1.8m for community health facilities when $88m is needed to maintain current commitments. [More…]

• The shortage of hospital beds in cities and country towns- especially Victoria- deprives millions of Australians of decent health facilities. [More…]

• The best health care will continue to be reserved for those who can afford it and who are lucky enough to live near it in the more affluent suburbs. [More…]

• They are among the poorest people and the least protected by the old system of health insurance. [More…]

• They will suffer most from the cuts in health services, the destruction of Medibank and the freezing of school dental services. [More…]

• The longer we delay the building of necessary hospitals and health centres the greater the toll in sickness, rehabilitation and absenteeism. [More…]

• None of them has decided that the best way to reduce inflation and unemployment and end the recession is to attack the standards of its health services, transport, roads and civic amenities. [More…]

• Well, generally too, I take the point of the honourable member, but I am speaking specifically about the deficit which the Government has repeatedly suggested is most important to our economic health and, of course, has sought to cut. [More…]

• While he is talking about consumer-led recovery, he deliberately eats great holes in real disposable income through the Arbitration Commission and health care costs. [More…]

• With 2 arbitration decisions denying proper wage adjustments and the added cost of health care the consumer’s purchasing power has taken a battering. [More…]

• How can the back bench members of the Government parties be so cynical and cold as to allow overseas aid to be cut, migrant education to be murdered, health care to be mutilated and schemes for the aged and the unemployed to be rendered almost useless? [More…]

• It forgets that the revenues raised by governments from direct and indirect taxes in the private sector give governments the money needed to finance education, social welfare, health, roads, sewerage and so on. [More…]

• I mention the National Animal Health Laboratories, which have again been deferred. [More…]

• These are the people who face a minimum 2.5 per cent levy for health care after 1 October. [More…]

• This year we will spend many millions of dollars on providing health care facilities. [More…]

• Those pensioners who hold pensioner health benefit cards will not have to pay any Medibank levy. [More…]

• Successive governments have always recognised that pensioners generally have a much higher call upon the provision of health care and therefore have a much higher health care cost to themselves. [More…]

• The supplementary food program for children is under review by me in conjunction with my colleague the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I preface my question to the Minister for Health by quoting from the section headed ‘Bulk Billing’ on page 12 of the Medibank explanatory booklet. [More…]

• The honourable member for Port Adelaide should look at the Labor Party policy speech of 1972 to see whether he can find one single reference to a levy to fund the national health insurance program. [More…]

• There is not one mention of the word ‘levy’ in the national health insurance program referred to in the 1972 Whitlam policy speech made at Blacktown. [More…]

• There will be more opportunity to elaborate on the cutbacks in real terms of funds available to various departments such as Health, Education, Environment, Housing and Community Development and Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• He spoke of growth centres, social security, women, health, migrants, farmers, defence, urban and regional development. [More…]

• Many honourable members have detailed the long list- family allowances, personal income tax indexation, handicapped persons’ allowances, the new test for pension eligibility, the experiment with a new housing allowance voucher system, the expansion of health programs, community health, hospitals and so on. [More…]

• But it does not include all the other payments to be extracted from people’s pockets, beginning on 1 October 1976, for additional health cover in its various forms, whether additional intermediate cover under Medibank or complete cover outside [More…]

• I have inquired today of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) as to the position of persons who do not have a card. [More…]

• But today I feel very competent to raise the matter of the lack of health services in Broadmeadows and Sunbury, both of which are suburbs located within the Federal division of Burke. [More…]

• In both those areas the previous Government raised with the local people the question of building community health centres. [More…]

• Land was purchased in both areas, Sunbury and Broadmeadows, and the committees set about their task of planning the community health centres. [More…]

• They not only planned the buildings which are essential and engaged architects to do the drawings but also formulated on the best advice available to them ideas on the sorts of health services that would be needed in these very large areas. [More…]

• The health services and other services in the area badly need to be planned and to have funds put into them to upgrade the area and to keep pace with the rapidly increasing population. [More…]

• The community health care services and community health centres go part of the way towards providing some of those services. [More…]

• The thing that has disturbed the people in that area is that now they have been advised by the Hospitals and Charities Commission that funds will not be made available for the construction of the buildings and for the engagement of staff; in fact, staff ceilings have been applied to the full-time people already working in the community health centre. [More…]

• There is no facility which provides for research into community health. [More…]

• There is no facility to take health care to the people in the area. [More…]

• The community health centre would do that. [More…]

• It would make provision for health care to be taken to the people. [More…]

• Imagine a group of people which is larger than the population of the city of Canberra- in fact, half as big again as the population within the environs of Canberra- and which has no community health service and no public hospital. [More…]

• -I refer also to a report entitled Rural Health in Australia prepared by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission which was only recently published. [More…]

• This report makes it clear that many people living in country areas do not obtain adequate health care. [More…]

• There is a shortage of doctors, dentists and other health services and personnel. [More…]

• I also mention the changes in the National Health Act to substitute ‘the Permanent Head’ for ‘the Director-General of Health’. [More…]

• The Labor Government’s programs for health, Medibank, education and the cities were programs that contributed to the total wellbeing of the vast majority of the people. [More…]

• How is the health scheme going in the United Kingdom? [More…]

• The honourable gentleman is well known for his expertise in the health field. [More…]

• We understand that earlier in the year he was an adviser in respect of a pamphlet which was drawn up to explain the Government’s changes to Medibank and health insurance, a pamphlet which proved so inaccurate that it was quite useless when it went public. [More…]

• If the honourable member had any knowledge of that health service he would know that the level at which pensioner medical cards were obtainable was a matter of agreement between the Government and the Australian Medical Association, which is the representative of the doctors. [More…]

• Let me remind present Government members of the years preceding 1972 when Australians became frustrated and impatient with the lack of roads, schools, hospitals, sewerage, environmental protection, health care and so on, the dilatory approach to those in receipt of or needing social services and the neglect of the Aboriginal people, which was so bad that when employment figures are quoted now they are inaccurate because at that stage there was no recording of them, or a poor recording of them and lack of attention to them. [More…]

• Local communities were encouraged by the Whitlam Government to set up community health centres geared to their needs. [More…]

• The community health programs, the community information bureaus, the welfare rights and the area improvement programs all directly affect our ethnic communities. [More…]

• Another area of particular importance is the area of community health services. [More…]

• These community health centres became focal points for ethnic community incentives. [More…]

• This cut will have the effect of dismantling the community health program. [More…]

• Their health will not suffer because their revised Medibank plans will cater for them. [More…]

• The expenditure on health is to be $2,908m. [More…]

• They are operating in the private health insurance field in a competitive manner and it would be quite improper for the Minister for Health to be instructing Medibank Private on what its schedules should provide. [More…]

• Medibank Private is highly competitive with all the health insurance funds for the basic health and hospital cover. [More…]

• I refer specifically to the re-arranged health insurance proposals which will come into operation from 1 October. [More…]

• The fact of the matter is that the combined effect of the tax indexation proposals and the increase in family allowances plus the abolition of deductions for children and the Medibank levy or the payments required to be made to private health insurance companies will be that many people will be no better off as a result of the fiscal measures of this Government. [More…]

• Again, as I said before, that confers authority on the Government to pursue its policy of wage restraint in the interests of restoring economic health and providing rewarding effective jobs for all Australians. [More…]

• The 1975 Budget recognised the need to maintain government spending to provide the Australian community with the basic amenities of a civilised and industrialised society- adequate health and educational facilities, sewerage and housing opportunities. [More…]

• By getting the massive escalation in the cost of Medibank under control and ensuring greater competition and choice in health insurance there will be less cost, less taxation, than there would otherwise have been. [More…]

• The health insurance charge has to be seen as a feeforservice, not a tax. [More…]

• In the Budget we should be able to read about the Government’s concern, or lack of it, for the long-term health of the individual sectors of the economy and we should find reflected the Government’s priorities in regard to the welfare of the different sectors or groups in the community. [More…]

• I believe it is short-sighted in its harsh treatment of those sectors of the economy whose health is vital to economic strength in the long term. [More…]

• When the economy is restored to health we may expect further enlightened, selective social programs aimed at helping people in a practical and dignified manner. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Although the control of the imports of live aquarium fish falls within the portfolio responsibilities of my colleagues, the Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs and the Minister for Health, my Department published, on behalf of the Commonwealth/State Fisheries Conference in 1963, the Alphabetical List of Exotic and Indigenous Aquarium Fishes. [More…]

• The Department of Health is currently considering the recommendation by the [More…]

• 1 ) Have the two most recent Arbitration Court decisions eaten into real wages, and will the introduction of expensive health care further erode real disposable income. [More…]

• The new arrangements for the financing of health services recognise that such services have to be paid for. [More…]

• However, so far as real disposable income is concerned, any judgments regarding the effects of the new health service financing arrangements would also need to take into account the introduction from 1 July last of full personal tax indexation and significant improvements in the manner of assisting families through family allowances. [More…]

• I put a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• -I am well aware of the concern of the honourable member for Holt, and indeed of a great number of other members of this House, about the problem that is being faced by people in nursing homes and their relatives who have to meet the enormous gap that has occurred between the benefit that is payable and the private nursing fee that has been approved by the Department of Health. [More…]

• This Bill, together with another that I shall introduce shortly, seeks Parliament’s agreement to some changes in the health insurance levy arrangements that were approved earlier this year. [More…]

• This authority will be exercised to exempt pensioners who are entitled to pensioner health benefits. [More…]

• Pensioners who have an entitlement to pensioner health benefits will, like people covered by repatriation and Defence Force arrangements, be freed from the levy, Age pensioners entitled to pensioner fringe benefits, as well as repatriation beneficiaries and Service personnel, will thus continue to receive the special consideration that has long been extended to them in the field of health care. [More…]

• In introducing the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill (No. [More…]

• While the Bill, in form, repeals the Act imposing the health insurance levy for 1976-77, and enacts another in its place, the only changes of substance specify the maximum- or ceiling- amounts of levy payable in varying circumstances. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall that when introducing the National Health Amendment Bill 1976 I stated that the provisions in the Bill would be fully discussed with registered health benefits organisations in view of the significance of the provisions for those organisations. [More…]

• At the time when the Bill was being debated I also gave an assurance that during the winter recess the provisions of the Bill would be carefully considered in the light of the comments made by honourable members and senators, and others, with the objective of achieving the most suitable arrangements for conducting private health insurance. [More…]

• The Bill before the House provides for further amendments to the National Health Act which the Government is proposing as a result of its discussions and deliberations during the winter recess. [More…]

• The Government proposals for reorganising Medibank have, we believe, made the first real attempt to come to grips with the enormous escalation in health costs, while maintaining the principles of universal health insurance. [More…]

• When introducing the National Health Amendment Bill 1976 1 indicated to honourable members that the cost of this hospital-only insurance for a person remaining in Medibank standard was estimated at $ 135 a year or $2.60 a week- at the family rate- and would be payable in addition to the levy. [More…]

• When the contribution rates for Medibank private health insurance were being determined it became apparent that the family contribution rates for the standard hospital benefits tables would exceed $2.60 a week. [More…]

• The decision to vary the existing reinsurance account provisions was made following discussions with representatives of registered health benefits organisations and the changes are designed to cause the arrangements to operate more equitably and efficiently. [More…]

• As a result of the Government’s decision that the Health Insurance Commission should operate registered hospital and medical benefits funds, it is not considered necessary for the Minister to have the power in all situations to direct an organisation to accept a person as a contributor. [More…]

• However, it is considered that the Minister should have the power to direct an organisation to accept a person as a contributor, where he is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person was not accepted as a contributor to a standard benefits table on health grounds. [More…]

• These amendments are necessitated by the inclusion, by the National Health Amendment Act 1976 in section 4, of a revised definition of ‘contributor’ which does not include a reference to dependants of contributors. [More…]

• The amendment of the table in the Eighth Schedule is a statutory requirement authorised by section 55c of the National Health Act The Bill also provides for the continuation of Commonwealth payments in respect of late claims lodged by contributors to any organisations deregistered, with effect from 1 October 1976, under the transitional provisions in section 42 of the National Health Amendment Act 1976. [More…]

• The Bill provides for the repeal of Schedule 2 to the Health Insurance Act 1973, which sets out heads of Agreement and for a new schedule to be substituted. [More…]

• It is envisaged that the committees established to give effect to that head will comprise Commonwealth and State officials and that the budgets and variations to the budgets formulated by the committees will be subject to approval by the Commonwealth Minister for Health and the relevant State Minister. [More…]

• I wish to remind honourable members that a privately insured person in this context is a person who is covered for benefits in accordance with both the standard hospital benefits table and the standard medical benefits table operated by health insurance organisations registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The Government announced during June 1976 its decision that the Health Insurance Commission should be authorised to carry on private health insurance business in competition with the private health insurance organisations registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• It further provides that the Commission, in carrying out this new role as a registered organisation under the National Health Act, shall be subject to all the provisions of that Act and regulations relating to the conduct of medical and hospital benefits funds by registered organisations. [More…]

• The Commission therefore will have the same rights and obligations under the National Health Act and regulations as other registered organisations. [More…]

• The Government proposes that to the greatest extent practicable the Commission should use the same staff, buildings and equipment in carrying out its private health insurance functions as it uses for its other functions. [More…]

• The Bill therefore provides for the Commission to determine, and whenever appropriate, re-determine, principles in accordance with which it is to apportion to its private health insurance functions and its other functions, costs related to its functions as a whole, such as salaries. [More…]

• These principles are to be subject to approval by the Minister for Health who shall consider the advice of the Auditor-General in relation to the principles before approving them. [More…]

• The Bill further provides for the Commission to determine notional amounts of expenditure it would have incurred in respect of its private health insurance functions had it not been an authority of the Commonwealth and exempt from taxation. [More…]

• Examples of these costs that private health insurers have to meet are payroll tax, sales tax, stamp duty and rates. [More…]

• The Bill further provides that the Minister may pay amounts to a State, a State authority or local government body equivalent to the amounts which he considers would have been payable to them in connection with the Commission’s private health insurance operations had the Commission not been an authority of the Commonwealth and exempt from taxation. [More…]

• Separate financial statements are to be prepared, in the form approved by the Treasurer, for the Commission’s private health insurance operations and its other functions. [More…]

• The Bill provides for the financial separation of the Commission ‘s private health insurance operations to be reinforced by providing for the Commission to maintain separate bank accounts for those operations from 1 April 1977. [More…]

• There is provision in the Bill for the Commission to receive capital advances out of moneys appropriated by the Parliament to enable it to establish and conduct its private health insurance operations. [More…]

• The Bill before the House also provides for the Commission to borrow moneys with the approval of the Treasurer for its private health insurance operations and for it to invest moneys standing to the credit of its hospital and medical benefits funds. [More…]

• The Government ‘s intention is that the Treasurer would provide such guarantees only in the early years of the Commission’s private health insurance operations before it has built up reserves which it could give as security for its borrowings. [More…]

• I consider that the framework within which the Government proposes the Commission to operate as a registered health insurance organisation will enable it to compete on equal terms with other registered organisations. [More…]

• The Bill provides for the repeal of existing Part Ha of the Act which provides for persons to be exempted from the health insurance levy by becoming Medibank contributors. [More…]

• The amendments proposed to the National Health Amendment Act relate to the definitions of ‘contributor’ and ‘dependant’. [More…]

• In relation to the National Health Act 1953, ‘Director’ is defined several times in this Act for the purpose of particular parts of it. [More…]

• We must remember that the Government’s chopping and changing over the health insurance plans followed an election undertaking promising to leave Medibank basically unchanged. [More…]

• These cover, of course, a wide variety of areas such as education, health, homes for the aged, housing, industry assistance, etc. [More…]

• We arrived at conclusions about transport, nature conservation or health programs in which we did not see much political difference. [More…]

• Let us be clear that Medibank Private is competing very effectively with the private health insurance funds in the table which will be taken by 80 per cent of the Australian people who insure themselves. [More…]

• Medibank Private and do what the honourable member for Hindmarsh has done, what Mr Hawke has done, what the Prime Minister has done and what the Minister for Health has done: Join Medibank Private and get behind it. [More…]

• Will the Minister confirm that the Trade Practices Commission has received a number of complaints concerning misleading advertising by private health insurance funds, such as the Hospital Benefits Association Ltd and the Australian Natives Association Insurance Co. Ltd in Victoria? [More…]

• If so, what action has the Government taken to ensure that private health insurance funds do not gain a competitive advantage over Medibank Private through the use of misleading statements and unfair trade practices? [More…]

• I think the honourable gentleman would be aware that arising out of some of those complaints the Commission sought my consent to the prosecution of one of the major health insurance funds regarding misleading advertising. [More…]

• I am particularly concerned, as is the Minister for Health, that in the next few weeks and in the months immediately following 1 October there should be accurate and full disclosure of the conditions of entry and the conditions of benefit in respect of both Medibank Private and the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• There has not been as much competition in the area of private health insurance as perhaps there could have been until the entry of Medibank Private. [More…]

• We will not do anything which will limit the capacity of the private health insurance funds to exercise the greatest possible efficiency in order to compete effectively with Medibank Private. [More…]

• To ensure that there will be fair competition the Government decided that all charges that the private health insurance funds have to meet in the States would be the subject of a notional deduction from Medibank Private and this would be reflected in the premiums that the funds could offer the Australian people. [More…]

• I have said repeatedly that essential programs in health, education, welfare and urban development will be maintained. [More…]

• Despite the Liberal policy promise to maintain standards of health care and continue the present community health programs, funds for these services have been cut by 15 per cent in real terms. [More…]

• In this respect it is noteworthy that of an estimated outlay for 1976-77 totalling $24,320.9m almost half is made up by health expenditure of $2,908.7m, education $2,204m, social security and welfare $6,187.1m- and I might mention that constitutes 25 per cent of total outlays- and culture and recreation $253. [More…]

• To a certain extent that is true, but it must be equally clear that if we pursue a policy of education for itself without due regard to the eventual absorption and use of the talents so acquired by those engaged in it without concurrent attention to the economy we will be in the extraordinary position of having the best educated and, under our health programs, the most healthy and most cultured unemployed in our history. [More…]

• It seems to me that they conveniently overlook the fact that the levy is a charge for a specific service, that is, health insurance. [More…]

• Not to pay a premium for health insurance would suggest that one should not be required to pay a premium for fire insurance, car insurance or for that matter any of the standard forms of insurance. [More…]

• The simple fact is that society, through the government of the day, elected to establish a universal health scheme and the present Government, through its pre-election undertaking not to dismantle the scheme, has effected such modification so as to ensure that the scheme will not consume the economy as has been the case in other countries. [More…]

• The recent statements of the honourable member for Tangey (Dr Richardson) sound a warning to those who unreservedly support an open-ended health scheme. [More…]

• and in its place has been substituted a new form of taxation, a health services tax. [More…]

• The new tax is a sell-out to the Australian Medical Association and the private health funds. [More…]

• The present community health program will be continued. [More…]

• The $500,000 community health centre going up in my electorate will not be built. [More…]

• In its obsession with expenditure in the public sector the Government has overlooked 2 factors; firstly, that people quite naturally expect that governments are there to assist and provide for them in times of difficulty and to do for them the things they are not able to do for themselves, things such as the provision of health services and education and assistance in times of unemployment; secondly, that capital expenditure in the public sector creates jobs and profits in the private sector. [More…]

• We can talk not only about Medibank but also about some of the other health proposals that I feel are being ignored or certainly cut back in this Budget. [More…]

• The establishment of community health centres is going to be cut back, as one Liberal supporter said earlier in respect of health care in outlying areas under the community health program introduced by the previous Minister for Health, Dr Doug Everingham, the Minister established community health centres in outback areas. [More…]

• Altogether, there were 7 community health centres either agreed to or established while he was the Minister for Health. [More…]

• It certainly stands as a monument to the work of that former Minister for Health. [More…]

• I am never backward in giving recognition to what that Minister did and how he allowed health care to be taken to the more outback areas so that people living there could receive the health care to which they were entitled. [More…]

• I have said that 7 community health centres all told were established. [More…]

• Other big centres such as Port Lincoln also received community health centres. [More…]

• Certainly, this was of great credit to Dr Doug Everingham, the former Minister for Health. [More…]

• It is a fact that in this Budget the amount of finance provided for the community health centres will be cut back. [More…]

• Also, there has been a cut-back in the amount of finance available for the health services for Aborigines. [More…]

• Apparently, these health services will be cut. [More…]

• This in turn provides a major component of government revenue so that government can provide services in the areas of education, health and welfare and the other multitude of services that a government is expected to provide. [More…]

• It will help to stimulate business whilst protecting the needy and protecting also the key areas of expenditure, health and welfare, including pensions of all kinds, education and defence. [More…]

• Let us look at health. [More…]

• Only a few years ago we spent $300m a year on health. [More…]

• We are ensuring that everybody has the opportunity of free health services and that people have a far greater choice now than they had before. [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I now ask the Prime Minister: Will he explain to the House how retailers and consumers can have greater confidence in the future, as called for by his Minister for Industry and Commerce, when the $800m that will be taken out of consumers’ pockets in a full year for health insurance will remove a massive purchasing power which could buy any of the following: 160 000 $5,000 cars, 800 000 colour television sets, 1 600 000 $500 refrigerators or washing machines - [More…]

• I only regret that the honourable gentleman when working out his figures related them to the cost of health care rather than to the benefits to taxpayers coming through tax indexation. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Will the Minister deny that the Government has ignored assurances it gave to the State Health Ministers on 1 1 June that unilateral decisions on hospital funding would not be made by the Commonwealth, nor would the Commonwealth exercise any power of veto in relation to funding? [More…]

• It is consistent with the spirit of the discussions I have had with the State Ministers for Health on 2 occasions and it is consistent with the discussions my officers have had with State officers during the winter recess. [More…]

• At a conference of Health Ministers some 2 years ago a working party was established to examine ways and means of limiting the advertising of cigarettes in journals and newspapers. [More…]

• He stated specifically that there would be no cuts for housing, education, employment, health and legal aid. [More…]

• This Government’s shameful exploitation of Aboriginal unemployment and housing initiatives, its callous indifference to Aboriginal legal aid, nutrition programs and aid to Aboriginal health centres is an affront to the integrity of the Australian people. [More…]

• Funds will continue to be made available for housing, education, employment, health, legal aid etc. [More…]

• The majority of these cuts have been in the areas of housing, health and education, the 3 areas most important to the self-respect and self-determination of any person. [More…]

• Let me list the cuts in real terms which have been made in the appropriations for various Aboriginal programs: Support for Aboriginal sporting bodies has been reduced by 100 per cent; support for Aboriginal publications has been reduced by 100 per cent; support for Aboriginal land councils has been reduced by 13 per cent; support for enterprises- the Aboriginal Advancement Trust Account- has been reduced by 77 per cent; support for town management and public utilities has been reduced by 36 per cent; support for recreational and cultural activities has been reduced by 37 per cent; payments to and for the States have been reduced by 37 per cent; Aboriginal study grants have been reduced by 22.6 per cent; funding for Aboriginal education in the Northern Territory has been reduced by 34.7 per cent; funds through the Department of Health have been reduced by 18.25 per cent; administrative expenses have been reduced by 13 per cent; funds for Aboriginal conferences have been reduced by 2 1 per cent; funds for investigations and research have been reduced by 30 per cent; support for Aborigines at government settlements has been reduced by 14 per cent; assistance to Aboriginal missions has been reduced by 12 per cent; support for ecological projects has been reduced by 12 per cent; support for Aboriginal hostels has been reduced by 10 per cent; support for Aboriginal enterprises has been reduced by 10 per cent; and support for Aboriginal housing through the Aboriginal Advancement Trust Account has been reduced by 17 per cent. [More…]

• In the area of Aboriginal health there have been drastic cuts to the extent of 18.25 per cent. [More…]

• The fallacy of the cutback in the allocation for Aboriginal health services has been highlighted by the Government’s own committee of inquiry, the Hay committee, which stated: . [More…]

• without State supplementation the provision of what might be termed normal health opportunities for Aboriginals as well as special facilities to enable them to start catching up with the rest of the community would be at risk. [More…]

• The fact is that the allocation for expenditure on Aboriginal health services in 1975-76 was $2 1.48m. [More…]

• Grants in terms of aid to Aboriginal organisations to operate health services, principally Aboriginal health centres in Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Bairnsdale, Shepparton, Perth and Alice Springs, have actually increased in money terms by $850,000. [More…]

• Grants for Aboriginal health services in the Northern Territory have been reduced from $5. [More…]

• So we are able to look right through the scene as exposed by the recent Standing Committee report to see the disastrous events which are occurring in the Aboriginal health field. [More…]

• It draws attention to health problems associated with climatic conditions, the leprosy situation which it says is still serious, eye diseases which it says are getting too little attention, the failure to deal with the problems of diet and nutrition and the long-term effects which will accrue, alarming ear disorders, ear abnormalities which occur at the rate of 60.4 per cent compared with 1 6 per cent in a comparable community, and venereal diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhoea which have increased considerably in the last 2 years. [More…]

• The Committee makes similar comment about dental care, the lack of vitamin C, the incidence of gastro-enteritis, hook worm, the problems of alcohol, family planning and mental health. [More…]

• In the face of all that, this Government has cut expenditure on Aboriginal health services. [More…]

• It says that funds will continue to be made available for housing, education, employment, health and legal aid- and so they have been. [More…]

• I have referred already to employment, health and legal aid. [More…]

• in setting the long term goals and objectives which the government should pursue and the programs it should adopt in such areas as Aboriginal education, housing, health, employment and legal aid; [More…]

• Furthermore, if the honourable member for Hughes examines the figures for direct Australian Government expenditure on Aboriginal assistance he will see that in key areas such as health and education there has been a decrease in the amount of money appropriated to State government departments in these areas and a complementary increase in the amount of money going to Aboriginal organisations. [More…]

• There is no doubt that the health of the Aboriginal people of Australia is far behind the health of the rest of the community. [More…]

• Incidentally, if there had not been cuts in government spending there may have been a return of consumer confidence, and with that a growth in economic health, and with that increased receipts by way of taxation into Government coffers, and with that a still possibly lower deficit -if indeed this Government had not mutilated the public sector by that slashing when it came to power. [More…]

• It serves notice to the world that one of the richest and most fortunate nations on earth cannot afford to give its people the minimum standards of health, housing, public transport, urban development and social amenities enjoyed by all the other advanced Western democracies, by all well-managed economies. [More…]

• The greatest of the cuts have been in the areas of housing, health and education- the 3 areas most important to the self-respect and self-determination of any person. [More…]

• Not only is the Government advocating lower wages before the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission but also it is cutting those government services which directly increase workers’ living standards- health, urban programs, education and consumer protection. [More…]

• In the provision of health services, migrant groups have been badly hit. [More…]

• They are seriously disadvantaged by the freezing of the development of community health facilities. [More…]

• The Government has effectively frozen the development of health services in rural and urban areas and it has reduced expenditure on health by $44m. [More…]

• Savings have been achieved by forcing 50 per cent of the population into private health insurance and abandoning Labor’s goal of ensuring equality of access to health services. [More…]

• The Fraser Government has allocated only $7 1.8m when $88m is required to maintain current commitments to community health facilities. [More…]

• There has been downgrading of health care and old people will find it harder and more costly to enter nursing homes or hospitals. [More…]

• Health care will be only for the rich. [More…]

• But they know and the people of Australia know that even in times of severe budgetary restraint we have, by our allocations in the Budget, indicated to the people of Australia that we are committed to restoring economic sanity while improving education, health and welfare programs. [More…]

• Either directly or by inference, he said he would increase expenditure on schools, roads, health services, sewerage, environment, women and children, Aborigines, the unemployed, public works, construction, shipbuilding, Medibank, State funds, growth centres, pensions, supporting mothers, unemployed school leavers, aged persons homes, destitute and lonely men- that includes most of the Opposition- supporting fathers, migrants, defence, nursing homes, hospitals, school dental services, refuges for women, national highways and last but not least, women. [More…]

• It serves notice to the world that one of the richest and most fortunate nations on earth cannot afford to give its people the minimum standards of health housing, public transport, urban development and social amenities enjoyed by all the other advanced Western democracies, by all well-managed economies. [More…]

• That responsibility is, amongst other things, to safeguard the national health and the national security of this country. [More…]

• Any person, no matter from which area he comes, must be assessed in terms of his capacity to fit in with Australia’s national health requirements and national security requirements. [More…]

• However, should he wish to take out private insurance for his dependants, either with Medibank private or a private health fund, then the situation is as follows. [More…]

• But should he also have dependent children, then the fund would require that health insurance for his wife and children take the form of full family cover, which would include himself. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware of the significant delay in payment of benefits to contributors of some private health insurance funds? [More…]

• -I would like to remind the honourable member for Brisbane and the House- I would ask all honourable members to remind their constituents of this- that by 1 October, people must make up their minds regarding health insurance. [More…]

• Those people who wish to insure privately with the private health funds to which the honourable member referred will have to obtain levy exemption certificates in order to be exempt from payment of the 2Yi per cent taxation levy. [More…]

• Having said that, I should state that since becoming the Minister for Health I have heard reports that some funds have been slow in the payment of benefits from time to time. [More…]

• By and large, the record of the private health insurance funds has been very good. [More…]

• However, I believe that the payment of benefits by private health insurance funds as from 1 October will be far more expeditious than has been the case in the past because of the renewed competition that will exist between Medibank Standard, Medibank Private and the funds themselves. [More…]

• I believe that the private funds generally will also be efficient and that we will see real efficiency in private health insurance in Australia. [More…]

• In accordance with those principles and subject to sound health the entry to Australia of an overseas child is normally approved where the adoption proposal has the support of the child welfare authorities in the State or Territory of residence of the proposed adoptive parents, and the authorities in the overseas country in which the child is living are agreeable to the adoption being arranged. [More…]

• -I must address a few remarks in response to the shadow Minister for Health, the honourable member for Maribyrnong (Dr Cass), because I am at a loss to understand why he is carrying on so much about the $50m. [More…]

• I am relying on information supplied by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• The shadow Minister for Health made the point that some members of the medical profession were making a fortune out of organising visits. [More…]

• I reiterate that the honourable member is totally wrong in saying that we are making a gift of $50m to the private health funds. [More…]

• I do not object to that but what I am objecting to is that the private health funds are collecting the premium and are not contributing towards the risk in that particular case. [More…]

• When the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) announced the change- I think it was on 20 May-I think he said that it would be $ 1 35. [More…]

• Now we have a $12m face sitting there as the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I believe that some of the estimates of costs for health insurance cover are also significantly under-estimated. [More…]

• In fact, we will find that some of the premiums which both Medibank Private and the health insurance funds will have to charge for some of their private and intermediate packages will increase very substantially and very quickly. [More…]

• I would suggest to such people that they can exert much more pressure on governments one year before an election than they will be able to exert on health funds which are going broke. [More…]

• It is not just the health insurance funds; it is also the subscribers to those funds who choose to insure privately for hospital cover and for the right of choice. [More…]

• It is all very well for honourable members opposite to say that this will be in favour of the health insurance funds. [More…]

• Under this arrangement, we have made a fixed subsidy of $50m for this financial year, That amount will be put into the reinsurance pool to be spread amongst the health insurance funds. [More…]

• Does he want to see people paying more for health insurance? [More…]

• We have tried to keep premiums within the reach of the pensioners and the low income people of this country, many of whom have private health insurance. [More…]

• After total examination of the situation with the private health insurance funds, we realised that if we had left the qualifying period at 60 days it was likely that the full value of that subsidy to those people who are privately insured would not be used in a full year. [More…]

• I refer, firstly, to the National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• We thought that people who took out private insurance should pay a contribution that was adequate to ensure that they were covered for all of their private health needs. [More…]

• To emphasise the point I am making, namely, that I consider it to be a generous donation, I point out that I think the Minister for Health ( Mr Hunt) himself agreed that it was a generous donation. [More…]

• When the Government proposed its marvellous scheme the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) indicated that he thought that the costs for intermediate ward cover would be $ 135 a year. [More…]

• I pass now to the next Bill in the three we are discussing, the Health Insurance Amendment [More…]

• I understand that on 2 or 3 September a meeting was held between the health officials of the States and the Commonwealth Government and that they agreed to the new schedule listed in clause 10. [More…]

• The final Bill is the Health Insurance Commission Amendment Bill, which in essence sets up Medibank Private. [More…]

• That is the only benefit I can see in belonging to a private health fund and being admitted to a private hospital. [More…]

• One could perhaps call him the de facto shadow Treasurer, the de facto shadow Minister for Health and the de facto shadow Minister for Social Security, because they seem to be the areas in which he is most interested these days. [More…]

• Of course, the insurance premiums for the private health fund contribution will also come from the higher income people. [More…]

• It is a fact that some 70 per cent of Australians have kept going some form of private health insurance. [More…]

• In his second reading speeches the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) went into some detail to explain the amendments proposed. [More…]

• Probably the most striking features of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill are the provisions dealing with changes relating to payments for pathology services. [More…]

• Some of the tests performed are purely mechanical processes carried out by comparatively unskilled staff, yet at considerable expense to the patients, the Government and the health insurance funds. [More…]

• The other major provision in the Health Insurance Amendment Bill is in relation to the Commonwealth entering into agreements with the States for hospital services. [More…]

• I now want to make a comment in relation to the Health Insurance Commission Bill. [More…]

• Medibank Private, of course, will be a registered organisation and subject to all of the regulations relating to the conduct of medical and hospital private funds as set out in the National Health Act. [More…]

• Medibank Private will have no competitive advantage over other private health funds. [More…]

• Although a statutory body, and therefore normally exempt from taxation, it will be required to meet all costs that the private health funds pay, such as payroll tax, sales tax and stamp duty. [More…]

• Medibank Private will, indeed must, operate on equal terms with other private health funds. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission will be required to operate separate bank accounts from 1 April 1977 in order to separate its Medibank Private operations from its existing operations. [More…]

• In no sense of the operations of Medibank Private is it intended that the Commission will have an unfair advantage over other private health funds. [More…]

• I turn now to the National Health Amendment Bill. [More…]

• I think it was quite conservative to suggest that about 92 per cent of people had cover with private health funds. [More…]

• They included wealthy people, doctors, and other people who for various reasons decided that they did not want to take out health insurance. [More…]

• It also was estimated that 4 per cent of low income earning Australians were not providing themselves with health insurance. [More…]

• If we were to have the scheme over again, my wish certainly would be to have a scheme to cover the 4 per cent of people or the percentage of people who were not able to take out their own private health insurance. [More…]

• The remainder would continue with a private health fund in the way that operated before Medibank Mark I. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is at the table, has stated in this House on more than one occasion that there is no such thing as a free lunch and that everything has to be paid for. [More…]

• It is interesting to note that certain classes of people are exempt from the Medibank levy or exempt from paying any contribution for health insurance. [More…]

• It ought to be stressed- I hope that honourable members in their electorates will promulgate this fact- that people who pay the levy do not have to take out private health insurance and that the reverse also applies. [More…]

• There are people in our community who believe that they have to pay for private health insurance and pay the Medibank levy. [More…]

• People can elect, if they wish, to pay the levy or to join a private health fund. [More…]

• -They have to make up their minds before 1 October, as the Minister for Health has just stated. [More…]

• The fact is that people now know that they have to pay for their health insurance; they now know exactly where the costs are. [More…]

• I quote the following from a booklet entitled, Towards a New Australia, containing an article attributed to the honourable member for Oxley and entitled New Horizons in Health and Welfare Services: [More…]

• They say that the private health funds are undercutting Medibank in order to destroy it. [More…]

• Medibank Mark II, as the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) likes to call it, or, as more informed people refer to it, Muddlebunk Mark I, manages to continue limping along from month to month, week to week, and as October comes closer, I guess from day to day. [More…]

• The Minister really does experience a charmed existence as Minister for Health. [More…]

• As I was pointing out, no one has had a more charmed existence as a Minister in an especially controversial role than the present Minister for Health. [More…]

• -What is happening in these Bills before the House is that the old system of private health insurance is being brought in the back door- the old private health insurance system with a stolen name, and that is all that can be identified with the previous system of Medibank which ceases on 1 October. [More…]

• The National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) of 1976 is a $50m handout to private health insurance funds. [More…]

• The benefits of that are largely to private health insurance funds and it is a completely misleading proposition to suggest that we really do have any system of private health insurance when in fact the more expensive risks in the health field have to be supported by the Australian Government. [More…]

• For instance, I remind the Minister that we brought in legislation which broadly was designed to regulate the activities of private health insurance and the Minister was among those people who led the assault against it and by abusing their majority in the Senate were responsible for having that legislation thrown out. [More…]

• There is a $50m subsidy to private health insurance funds to keep them tottering along. [More…]

• In clause 20 of the National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) we discover, as the Minister announced somewhat earlier, that there is to be a $12m subsidy for certain aspects of private health and hospital insurance cover and intermediate hospital insurance. [More…]

• The Government set a figure of $ 1 35 a year as the amount which people would have to contribute to a private health insurance fund, including Medibank- and Medibank private health insurance fund is nothing more than another private health insurance fund- and accordingly added to the proliferation of those funds in the community without in any way improving the system of health insurance overall or the quality of health care. [More…]

• One point I wish to bring out here before I move on to the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• They will pay more through special tax levies and they will pay more through contributions to private health insurance funds. [More…]

• The evidence in this country and in comparable overseas countries where that system is used, as against alternative systems like the prepaid health system for hospital services, is that there is a higher utilisation rate for elective procedures. [More…]

• I move on to deal with the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• It was happening under the old system of private health insurance. [More…]

• It will happen under any system of health insurance unless adequate controls are introduced. [More…]

• I was assured by senior officials of the Department of Social Security who worked with me when I was the Minister for Social Security- these are people with a very long term experience of administering health insurance- that many of the small private hospitals were nothing more than surgical mills pushing people through on the quick turnover basis for these quick elective procedural services like tonsillectomy, hysterectomy and so on. [More…]

• There should be systems of tissue audits in private hospitals also as a mandatory requirement before health insurance benefits are provided. [More…]

• In fact, the simplest way in which this scheme could operate or in which any scheme of health insurance could operate would be to maintain the universal cover of basic Medibank as we introduced it and as it operates today, to allow people to take out as an optional extra any private insurance they wished to take out and not to penalise them in the way which is being done with the introduction of this legislation. [More…]

• The fact is that the Government has sought consciously to bring about a system under which at least 50 per cent of the people will go out into private health insurance for health cover. [More…]

• If they go out into private health insurance, it means that they will go into private hospital insurance also. [More…]

• The article evidences the fact that in the United States of America, under the system of health maintenance organisations or pre-paid medicine, costs are kept down. [More…]

• For example, it would be a higher priority to spend money on school dental health services and on the development of community health services- a whole range of community health and welfare services and other areas of responsibility of public office- rather than plugging benefits into a system which will just incite more utilisation because of the nature of the fee for service system and the sort of benefits that can be derived from that system because of the absence of adequate restraint on it. [More…]

• I refer to the fragmentation of health insurance cover that will occur in the community. [More…]

• Accordingly, we could have taken appropriate steps to discourage the abuse of health insurance which, in turn, is a grievous abuse of the general public as taxpayers, as users of health services and as payers for health services. [More…]

• I admired the honourable member because he placed the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in the same very astute company as the Treasurer (Mr Lynch). [More…]

• There is no such thing as a free health scheme for everybody. [More…]

• The right of choice in personal health has been restored to the Australian people. [More…]

• Health costs in Australia, both government and private, will amount to $5,400m this year. [More…]

• Nobody could claim that it would be just or fair for this 70 per cent of Australian people- as envisaged under the ACTU proposal- to have to pay a higher rate of income tax to help meet health costs. [More…]

• I congratulate the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) not for bringing this legislation into the House but for being able to get it through the Cabinet and the Government’s Party meetings. [More…]

• The health insurance levy is not all that is relevant to these Bills because, as I pointed out in my original point of order, it is dealt with in orders of the day Nos 4 and 5. [More…]

• The Bill is concerned more with the question of Medibank Private and private health funds. [More…]

• The honourable member made the important point in his articles that there should not be any complete recovery of medical fees under any kind of health insurance because then there would be over usage. [More…]

• The hypocrisy of the argument advanced by the Australian Medical Association is that it distributed posters which it urged doctors to put up in their surgeries asking people to take out multicover or a similar sort of insurance cover from the health funds. [More…]

• The medical cover provided by those funds is what is called gap insurance, which covers the payment gap which the honourable member for Tangney thought was important in any kind of health insurance so that people would feel they still had to contribute something and therefore would not go to the doctor unnecessarily. [More…]

• I am sorry he has changed his mind about that because gap insurance is a big rip-off by the health funds. [More…]

• It is badly understood not only by the public but also by the State Premiers and State Ministers for Health, and that is the reason for the amendment now before the House. [More…]

• During the course of the discussions between the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the State governments in relation to the hospital agreements, this Government has made known to the States that it has no intention of altering the 50-50 cost sharing structure introduced by the Labor Party. [More…]

• It is envisaged that the committees established to give effect to that head will comprise Commonwealth and State officials and that the budgets and variations to the budgets formulated by the committees will be subject to approval by the Commonwealth Minister for Health and the relevant State Minister. [More…]

• I ask the Minister to give a public assurance in this House, not only for the benefit of members of this Parliament but for the benefit of all State Premiers and State Ministers for Health, that the 50-50 cost sharing proposition under the hospitals agreement, which was introduced by the Labor Party when the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden) was Minister, will be maintained under this present Medibank scheme, which in the future might become known as Hunt’s Horror or Fraser ‘s Folly. [More…]

• In fact, if it had not been for such a rather dull Health Minister in that State, Victoria probably would have been in Medibank earlier. [More…]

• The only reason it was taken in when it was was that the Premier of that State who proved beyond doubt in my limited experience with him that he was a man of considerable intelligence and understanding and was to a large degree above the petty political manoeuvring being engaged in by his then State Health Minister, cut the Gordian knot, and that is why Victoria was in Medibank as early as it was. [More…]

• I remind honourable members of what I said earlier: People who use public ward treatment go into a system of health care which is of a high standard, adequately serviced with resources, where the medical profession is paid either on the basis of sessional payments or a salaried system or some modification of those 2 sorts of principles. [More…]

• If the cost is greater than it would have been with some other system of financing health services, then it is not in the interests of the community for an alternative, more costly system to be brought in. [More…]

• I have already spoken to his brother, the Minister for Health in New South Wales, about the matter - [More…]

• I believe that it will introduce a new element of competition into private health insurance in Australia. [More…]

• I wish it every success and I hope it does play an important and competitive part in private health insurance in [More…]

• I think it will in the longer term be to the total advantage of people in Australia who wish to insure themselves against some of the health costs which may confront them. [More…]

• I would like to take up for a moment the opposition that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has to this matter. [More…]

• The public knows that Medibank relates to the Medibank Mark II in relation to the levy and that Medibank Private is the Health Insurance Commission’s private health fund. [More…]

• -Mr Deputy Chairman, I am almost loath to continue my contribution, but I know that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who is sitting at the table particularly wants to hear what I have to say very briefly in opposing these amendments. [More…]

• I reflect upon what we all had to pay for our health care up to 30 months ago. [More…]

• Because of the imposition of Mr Hayden ‘s health plan, every Australian has been forced to pay far more than he has ever had to pay before for health care. [More…]

• The whole point is that it will cost this nation far more than it ever used to cost in the old days for health care services. [More…]

• It will cost far more to service the needs of about another 5 per cent or 6 per cent of the people who did not join the health care schemes which were available in previous years. [More…]

• -I direct a question to the Minister for Health who represents the Minister for Social Security in this place and I refer to an open letter written by his ministerial colleague which indicated that the 75 per cent subsidy for pre-school child care would obviously be reduced next year. [More…]

• I know that eating an apple a day seems to be advocated as a good health habit. [More…]

• -I ask the Treasurer: Can he assure the House that persons who have not lodged health insurance levy exemption forms with their employers by today and who subsequently purchase private health insurance on or before 1 October will not be forced to make an extended loan to the Taxation Department if the levy is deducted from their salary? [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs aware that the Hospitals Benefits Association has made at least 8 incorrect and misleading assertions about Medibank cover in its health insurance advertising campaign? [More…]

• Is the Minister also aware that persons who elect to transfer their health insurance cover after 1 December will incur a severe financial penalty? [More…]

• In order to ensure that the public is provided with accurate information about health insurance prior to 1 October, will the Minister direct HBA to cease these practices pending a determination by the Trade Practices Commission? [More…]

• I am aware that allegations have been made, and the honourable gentleman has repeated them, about misleading advertisements by a particular health insurance fund. [More…]

• In answer to a question from the honourable member for Maribyrnong last week I made it clear that the Government was particularly keen to ensure that at present there should be full and accurate disclosure not only by the private health insurance funds but also by Medibank Private so that Australian health consumers could be put in a position of making proper choices as to where they wish to insure. [More…]

• If people believe that the health fund which the honourable member nominated has made misleading advertisements, it is open to those people to refer their complaints to the Trade Practices Commissioner. [More…]

• Dr Ferguson conducted another inquiry in relation to the health aspects. [More…]

• Finally there is the damage that could be done to Australia’s major industry- the wool industry- should the decision of the Commissioner and the expert health inquiry not be accepted. [More…]

• The purpose of this Bill is to amend the Narcotic Drugs Act 1967 to transfer responsibility for the regulation of the manufacture and wholesale distribution of narcotic drugs from the Department of Business and Consumer Affairs to the Department of Health. [More…]

• This transfer of responsibilities is being made because the Department of Health with its computer facility to monitor licit transactions in narcotics together with various inspection, labelling and quality controls is well placed to administer controls over the licit trade. [More…]

• Import and manufacturing quotas are also based on legitimate medical requirements and the Department of Health can best assess such requirements. [More…]

• Under the new arrangements the Department of Health will be responsible for: [More…]

• preparation of health statistics and estimates for transmission to the International Narcotics Control Board. [More…]

• I suggest that we should conclude this debate, take whatever procedural steps are necessary to have the motion put and then proceed to deal with the Appropriation Bills, and in due and proper time we can conclude the debate on the residue of the Government’s program relating to health insurance which we intend to have passed by this House so that it can go to the Senate and be implemented for the advantage of the Australian people on 1 October. [More…]

• It had been our hope that we would be able to pass the legislation in relation to health insurance and the Family Law Amendment Bill so that it could have been referred to another place so that that chamber would have had notice of the legislation and in order that it could be adequately considered for debate next week. [More…]

• In all these areas of restriction and strangulation of programs which were applauded when they were introduced, the area of health service expenditure is an area where the effect is perhaps the greatest. [More…]

• With the help- in ignorance, I might point out- of the Liberal and Country parties while in Opposition the Labor Government was able to introduce a truly comprehensive national health insurance program, Medibank, financed in the socially most equitable fashion possible, via general taxation revenue. [More…]

• When we originally put the proposal for a national health insurance system, we proposed a levy. [More…]

• Before our proposal, the money was coming from the taxpayer via his contributions to voluntary health funds, via his contributions to taxation revenue and via the payments he made out of his pocket directly to doctors. [More…]

• We knew what the position would be if we took the radical step of introducing a comprehensive national health insurance system. [More…]

• When we took the step of introducing a comprehensive national health insurance system, quite clearly the money which had previously been channelled to the health services, the doctors and hospitals, by the other means I have just mentioned, had to go through a central agency- the national health insurance office. [More…]

• Put another way, instead of people contributing to voluntary funds they could contribute to the national health insurance fund. [More…]

• We quite happily accepted defeat of our levy Bill, because we were then able to finance Medibank, the national health insurance system, completely via taxation revenue, which was a much more socially equitable system. [More…]

• That is an idiot comment, because everybody has to pay for his health services. [More…]

• The cost of our health services are the costs of the medical services. [More…]

• But what is the situation under the voluntary health fund system? [More…]

• The Liberal Government surgery on the funding of the community health facilities might well prove fatal. [More…]

• That has created an idiot situation where, because of previous approvals, in many areas the necessary elaborate facilities are being built, and people trying to run health centres in cramped temporary quarters with half a dozen staff are faced with the prospect of running their services in the elaborate facilities with a third or a quarter or even less of the staff they need to run the service properly. [More…]

• No one could suggest that the public servants in this city are being forced to frequent the health centres. [More…]

• No one could suggest that the community in Canberra is being forced against its will to patronise the community health centres. [More…]

• The Liberal Government is imposing restrictions on who can go to what health centre- if they do not live in the appropriate area they are not allowed to go. [More…]

• There are even ancillary medical personnel such as chemists and other people in these health centres, and it is recognised that that is necessary. [More…]

• They come in and set up near the health centres and the Government then says that is does not need to have a chemist in the health centre any more. [More…]

• They put the chemists out and increase the inconvenience to patients, who cannot then get their drugs and medicines at the health centres and have to go to a nearby chemist. [More…]

• -It is not my intention to follow the previous speaker, the honourable member for Maribyrnong (Dr Cass), and discuss Medibank, but he used the word ‘balderdash* in relation to costs of health schemes increasing. [More…]

• Other honourable members have referred in this Budget debate to the limited role which local government has in the past undertaken in Australia in the areas of roads, drains, bridges, limited health services and in assisting the property and commercial interests in our communities. [More…]

• If effective government geared to the needs of the 1980s and beyond is to be achieved … if the great issues of national and local concern such as education, health, social welfare, housing and urban development are to receive maximum intelligent attention … if all our resources including human talents and local knowledge are to be effectively harnessed … if innovation, diversity and imaginative reforms are to be encouraged . [More…]

• It is implicit in the application of the federalism policy that local government must play an added role to better serve the communities in the areas of health, social welfare, housing and urban and community development. [More…]

• In 1969 part of the report of the Royal Commission on Local Government in England made reference to the pattern and character of local government which must be such as to enable it to do 4 things: Firstly, to perform efficiently a wide range of profoundly important tasks concerned with the safety, health and well being, both material and cultural, of people in different localities; secondly, to attract and hold the interest of its citizens; thirdly, to develop enough inherent strength to deal with national authorities and develop partnership; and, fourthly, to adapt itself without disruption to present unprecedented process of changes in the way people live, work, move, shop and enjoy themselves. [More…]

• In case people should think that at this stage we should oppose the Bills outright, let me say that the sad reality is that by doing that we would leave on the statute books the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Act (No. [More…]

• 1 ) and the Health Insurance Levy Act (No. [More…]

• When the Australian Labor Party Government first proposed Medibank- not in the form of Medibank but in the form of a national health insurance fund- it proposed the imposition of a levy. [More…]

• We were in Opposition then and in those years in the community right across the country people discussed our proposals for a national health insurance system. [More…]

• To do so I need to analyse for a short time how the private or so-called voluntary health insurance system worked before the Labor Party’s election in 1972. [More…]

• If anyone wants to talk about the thin end of the socialist wedge let me remind him that the voluntary health insurance system was introduced by Sir Earle Page on behalf of the Liberal-Country Party Government back in the 1 950s. [More…]

• So Sir Earle Page sanctified it in his voluntary health insurance scheme. [More…]

• He invited or encouraged voluntary health funds to set up- in other words, he enlarged the number of organisations which were already doing this sort of thing- by setting a restraint on the freedom with which members of the community could get their tax contributions back in the form of medical or hospital rebates, because an integral part of the system was that the patient had to contribute to a voluntary fund. [More…]

• When they were sick, went to a doctor, got a bill and paid the bill or assigned it, their account either way went to the health fund or the friendly society that was registered as a medical or hospital benefit fund. [More…]

• We have been fooled for years into not understanding the position and therefore thinking that the cost of health services under the Liberals was the cost which the taxpayer paid via Commonwealth hospital or medical benefits or Commonwealth Government contributions to hospitals via the States. [More…]

• In other words, the real cost of health services, even under the Liberals, was far more than was ever measured in the budget figures. [More…]

• The cost of health care is the sum total of the money the sick person finally has to pay for his treatment. [More…]

• That is the cost of health services to the community. [More…]

• The cost of health services, includes all the other costs. [More…]

• If one looks at comparable figures throughout the world and adds all the bits so that one gets the total cost of health services the reality is that Australia with its private enterprise system has spent, as a percentage of its gross national product, rather more than most. [More…]

• I ask honourable members to cast their minds back to the situation that existed under the voluntary health insurance system before the introduction of the present form of Medibank and to think of what it meant. [More…]

• We feel that health expenses are a social service that everyone should be entitled to when he needs it and ought to be provided for according to medical need and paid for out of taxation revenue, which is the fairest way of raising the funds. [More…]

• In my view, if a patient feels worried about his health or is concerned about something he is legitimately entitled to see a doctor. [More…]

• That means ‘health maintenance organisation’, whose doctors are on salaries- enrollees are operated on a lot less frequently than feeforservice patients. [More…]

• … the rates of surgical admissions among a geographically isolated low-income group in Boston were measured before and after installation of a comprehensive health clinic in their community. [More…]

• -Tonight the House is debating the motion moved by the Government to amend the National Health scheme through the Health Insurance Levy Bill. [More…]

• I think Government members and people listening tonight to the debate could be excused for saying: ‘What on earth will the Australian Labor Party do next in respect of national health care?’ [More…]

• The whole saga of events that have taken place since the proposal was originally put forward have served to confuse, to abuse, to violate the interests of Australian people in respect of health care. [More…]

• I think I could be excused for a moment for looking back and reviewing the history of the attitude of the Australian Labor Party in this Parliament to the levy, whether it be for a national health insurance fund or, more recently, for Medibank. [More…]

• If I could retrace some of the steps, I should point out that when the Labor Government suggested a levy to fund its proposed health insurance scheme it talked of 1.25 per cent of taxable income. [More…]

• In his 1972 election policy speech at Blacktown in New South Wales the then Leader of the Opposition, Mr E. G. Whitlam, failed to mention the word ‘levy’ when he was putting to the Australian electorate his view of the form national health insurance should take. [More…]

• That committee was given certain specific tasks to inquire into health problems generally in this country. [More…]

• In fact, Federal expenditure on health will be considerably in excess of $3,000m. [More…]

• That’s the most economical health insurance available in Australia today. [More…]

• The important point is to cancel one’s other health insurance, as the Medibank advertisement to which I have referred indicates. [More…]

• In other cases we do not know how much the wife should be paying towards the health insurance levy. [More…]

• -The Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) and the Health Insurance Levy Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) deal with the financing of health care services for this nation. [More…]

• To quote my colleague, the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), he recently said: [More…]

• Medibank Mark I certainly achieved universal health insurance but it did so at the expense of largely ignoring the need for economy and efficiency in overall health care. [More…]

• The free concept of health care, we must all acknowledge, is a sham. [More…]

• This applies not only to health care but also to all government expenditure. [More…]

• The implementation of a levy to fund Medibank reintroduces responsibility into the realm of universal health care. [More…]

• Without such a basic levy as is proposed in the Bills, the administration of the health care program would steadily eat more and more into the available funds. [More…]

• As I mentioned in my opening remarks, the open-ended approach of Labor to financing universal health care lends itself to abuse and overuse. [More…]

• It has become increasingly obvious that the service stations of public health care have been similarly affected. [More…]

• The system of universal health care, under the bottomless pit funding system of Labor, has been abused and over-used. [More…]

• Let me remind honourable members of the words of the Minister for Health on 1 8 August this year. [More…]

• The Medibank Review Committe was established against a background of allegations of abuses and rip-offs, allegations of over-use of medical and health services, and against a background of exploding health care costs in Australia. [More…]

• We must establish our priorities in government spending and within the health care system. [More…]

• We must impose controls on outlays, by the adoption of firm, definite and realistic limits on health care funding. [More…]

• In so doing we are encouraging disciplined administration, to restore economy and efficiency in overall health care. [More…]

• We are encouraging discipline in those who administer health care services. [More…]

• It is vital that health care costs be an identifiable part of the nation’s accounts. [More…]

• Health care must be seen as an identifiable cost unit, related directly to the income tax dollar and limited by inbuilt safeguards protecting both the public purse and the incomes of those it serves. [More…]

• Without this how can the community be expected to respect the system of universal health care or to have confidence in it? [More…]

• We must create economic efficiency in the health care scheme, not at the cost of the quality of the service. [More…]

• It becomes obvious that the implementation of a levy is essential to control cost explosions in the health care scheme. [More…]

• Universal health insurance remains. [More…]

• This Bill ensures the continuance of specialised, concessional health care services for pensioners, repatriation beneficiaries and Service personnel. [More…]

• Pensioners entitled to pensioner health benefits do not pay the levy. [More…]

• Like any other citizen, they will have to make decisions on basic Medibank levy or private health cover to make provision for costs of their nonspecific disabilities. [More…]

• The Treasurer (Mr Lynch) announced the Medibank changes on 20 May and the Minister for Health introduced the Bills that same evening. [More…]

• In fact the only amendments put forward were from the Minister for Health himself. [More…]

• Against that we put up 2 members of this House who are among the few people who have taken a consistently intelligent interest in matters relating to health insurance. [More…]

• Then last night during the debate on the Health Insurance Commission Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• I have said repeatedly that essential programs in health, education and urban development will be maintained. [More…]

• It is a concept that was acknowledged in debates here by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• Speaking last week on the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) in his farewell tribute to the staff of the Health Insurance Commission he said: [More…]

• Medibank was a simple, efficient health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Last year and in the years before that the Liberal and Country Party Opposition fought against the scheme from the beginning, in hand with the Australian Medical Association, the private health funds and the intricate web of interests which stood to benefit from the more than one million Australians remaining uncovered for medical and hospital treatment and from the continuance of more than 200 wasteful, duplicative and hopelessly inefficient health insurance funds. [More…]

• Medibank was the first attempt by an Australian Government to rationalise the insurance system covering health care delivery. [More…]

• The Government has caved in to AMA pressure and pressure by the private funds, and has used the health insurance program to offload a substantial ‘apparent’ amount in the deficit by destroying the original and only meaningful Medibank concept, forcing half of Australia back into the greedy arms of the private health empire. [More…]

• It should be understood very clearly that the Government’s motivation is purely a shabby, sideshow attempt to make it appear as if it is reducing the cost of health insurance to the Government. [More…]

• It is plunging the health insurance business into chaos and uncertainty and is forcing up the total cost of health care in Australia simply so that at the next election the Government can say that it has reduced the deficit by so much. [More…]

• It should be understood that the Government, in breaking its election undertaking last November not to meddle with Medibank, is dismantling Medibank, not to make health insurance more efficient but so that it can fiddle the national accounts around a little, move some figures sideways and some other figures out altogether, and make it look as if it has saved Australia a lot of money by handing health insurance substantially back to the discredited private funds. [More…]

• The reality is that the Government is adding to the total cost of health care in Australia because the administrative nightmares, duplications and extra-procedural work load will mean substantially increased costs. [More…]

• A high proportion of the staff of organisations registered under the National Health Act have been involved in the collection and processing of contributions and the maintenance of membership lists. [More…]

• An assessor working in the Medibank system is able to process about 3 times as many claims per day as his or her counterpart in a registered health insurance organisation because most of the calculations, checking and editing procedures are computerised. [More…]

• It should be borne in mind that the Health Insurance Commission’s centralised computer system in Canberra handles all medical claims at present and will simply be left with excess capacity when a high proportion of claims reverts to the registered benefits funds. [More…]

• Nor are there likely to be any savings in the numbers of assessing administrative staff of the Health Insurance Commission since provision will need to be made for, inter alia, the checking of claims to ensure that claimants are not covered by registered medical benefits funds. [More…]

• The difficulties of determining at any time whether a person is eligible for benefits payable by the Commission under the Health Insurance Act or is covered by a medical benefits fund are accentuated by the fact that a contributor to such a fund may commence or let lapse his or her membership at any time during the financial year. [More…]

• In opposition and in government the Minister for Health and the Prime Minister have delivered not one shred of evidence that the abuse they so often talked about actually existed anywhere but in their fevered imaginations. [More…]

• The Federal Government has effectively destroyed the concept of one national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• In so doing it concocted a muddle which in the emotive words of ‘costs’, ‘competition’ and ‘choice’ became a rhetorical substitute for the creation of a fair and economical system of health care. [More…]

• The main excuse given for the imposition of this confusing and complex system is that it would restrain the escalating costs of health care. [More…]

• The health insurance mishmash of the Prime Minister is a monstrosity in concept and by design. [More…]

• It will increase the cost of health care in Australia and it will have a disastrously inflationary effect on the December consumer price index. [More…]

• Hardly a day goes by when both the Minister for Health and the Prime Minister do not change their minds about some aspect of their new monstrosity. [More…]

• Now that they have had to spend millions of dollars over and over again to publicise their frequently changing systems of health insurance, they cry poor. [More…]

• Medimuddle, brought to us by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health, is as easy as one, two three, provided we have a ton of perseverance and a higher degree in pure and applied mathematics. [More…]

• Both the Minister for Health and the Prime Minister have displayed a lack of understanding of what is involved with Medibank and with the operation of national health insurance schemes. [More…]

• I am speaking on the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) and the Health Insurance Levy Bill (No. [More…]

• That, too, is a false argument, because our argument is about delivering a health service to people, acting responsibility about the cost of that service and acting responsibility in spending taxpayers’ money. [More…]

• He said that the Government had caved in to the pressure of the Australian Medical Association and the private health funds. [More…]

• The Leader of the Australian Labor Party outside the Parliament, the leader of the ACTU, had private health insurance; but under this Government that very man joined Medibank. [More…]

• It is concerned to restrain that cost and still deliver the best health services to the people. [More…]

• So little has been said about the impact of financial arrangements in respect of the introduction of the health insurance scheme that I thought it necessary that someone from this side of the chamber explained the Government’s position in some detail. [More…]

• The Government appointed the Nimmo Committee to look into the private system of health care. [More…]

• I have always been a member of a private medical and health system. [More…]

• I should like to revert to the Robinson Prize- it probably should be called the Robinson-Hunt Prize- because I suspect that the Minister for Post and Telecommunications (Mr Eric Robinson) was not as intimately involved in the design of this absurd scheme of health insurance as was the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• If the Government looked at the legislation it rushed into the Parliament at the end of the last sitting, it would find that the legislation was so badly drawn that in some Bills- for example, the Health Insurance Commission Bill- virtually every substantive provision has been repealed by the Bill which the Government has now produced. [More…]

• Let us examine the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill (No. [More…]

• It is to the effect that the Government now proposes to give an exemption to pensioners who are entitled to pensioner health benefits. [More…]

• That pamphlet, produced in August 1976 by authority of the Department of Health, states: [More…]

• This will include many people who are entitled to pensioner health benefits. [More…]

• That delegation put it to him that it was inequitable that many of the people who are now entitled to pensioner health benefits and who do not have to pay for their medical care will, in future, have to pay the levy. [More…]

• He immediately rang up the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Do I presume that the honourable member is talking about the Minister for Health? [More…]

• The Minister for Health, very creditably if belatedly, gave these pensioners their due. [More…]

• What the amendment seeks to do is to give that exemption in the legislation, and not by way of regulation, to ensure that the exemption for pensioners entitled to pensioner health benefits is not made subject to the whim of the government of the day which could prescribe it out of existence by altering the regulations gazetted during a parliamentary recess. [More…]

• We ought to put that exemption in this legislation in relation to pensioners entitled to pensioner health benefits. [More…]

• I simply ask now that the Government makes the position very clear to pensioners who, as every honourable member here who does his constituency duties will know, are concerned about the prospect of their being subject to a levy and to persons who are entitled to pensioner health benefits but who pay income tax and who would, apart from the regulations which we are told it is intended to make under this legislation, have had to pay the levy. [More…]

• One provides that the pensioner is entitled to health benefits all the time. [More…]

• I see no reason why during that whole period the pensioner should not be entitled to health benefits under clause 4. [More…]

• He said that people should be paying for health services. [More…]

• He seems to take the attitude that whereas Australian people generally accept the proposition that many things that are important to individuals and to the nation at large should be financed on a capacity to pay principle- I am referring to such matters as social welfare benefits, child endowment, widow pensions, age pensions, even the defence of the country and many others that come under the administration of State governmentswhen it comes to health we ought to depart from that principle and revert to a philosophy whereby people have to look after themselves and whereby a levy ought to be paid. [More…]

• Mr Deputy Chairman, you will be gratified to hear me say that what we are dealing with now is a very simple proposition, related to clause 4 of the Bill, whereby the shadow Minister for Health, the honourable member for Maribyrnong, Dr Cass, is trying to safeguard the interests of some hundreds of thousands of pensioners around Australia, especially pensioners who are receiving health benefits. [More…]

• He is trying to ensure that during the entire time that a person is entitled to pensioner health benefits he will be safeguarded. [More…]

• The pensioners who get into the most difficult area are the ones who are affected by this amendment, the ones who receive health benefits but who do not know what their position is now and what their position might be in the future. [More…]

• There is nothing in the legislation before the Parliament which would safeguard the interests of those pensioners, those people who under a means test receive the benefits of health concessions. [More…]

• -When we were in office, the honourable member who interjected might recall that the Senate rejected the proposals of the Labor Party and proposed that Medibank or health care should be financed from the proceeds of uniform taxation. [More…]

• If you want to think about this philosophically, you ought to go back to the very simple proposition that there is a total health burden in Australia, manifested in money terms. [More…]

• It is to this effect, to ensure that every Australian is guaranteed adequate health care, the availability of a doctor who is well trained and access to a regional hospital which is well equipped and in respect of which there is a complex of medical expertise. [More…]

• In fact what the Government has done in every element of the propositions that it has put in respect of the 4 health Bills has been to vote against the fundamental idea that everybody should be looked after and their interests safeguarded simply by the taxpayers paying for them in terms of equitable payments. [More…]

• Pensioners who have an entitlement to pensioner health benefits will, like people covered by repatriation and defence force arrangements, be freed from the levy. [More…]

• Age pensioners entitled to pensioner fringe benefits, as well as repatriation beneficiaries and Service personnel, will thus continue to receive the special consideration that has long been extended to them in the field of health care. [More…]

• Had he thought so highly of the English health scheme he would have been there still. [More…]

• I recall that last year when he was in England articles appeared in the Australian newspapers stating that the English health scheme was staggering and in dire need of the injection of some 2,000m to save it. [More…]

• We are discussing the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill 1976 and it is appropriate that we talk about levies. [More…]

• So highly did Labor politicians think of the Australian Labor Party’s national health scheme that seventeen out of the 36 members of the ALP who remained as members in this place after the election continued also as members of private health funds. [More…]

• Even Mr Hawke continued to remain as a member of a private health fund because he regarded the Labor Party’s health scheme as totally unacceptable. [More…]

• -While I recognise that the Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill is good in itself, it is sometimes unfortunate that the Liberals have a capacity to do things better than the Labor Government. [More…]

• Let us look at the health costs. [More…]

• Prior to the introduction of the Hayden health plan, the average Australian was receiving health care so much more cheaply than is the case today. [More…]

• The average Australian family was paying only $3 or $4 a week at the very most for the maximum form of health care. [More…]

• They were opposed to all other forms of government national health schemes. [More…]

• They subscribed to previous health insurance schemes that existed. [More…]

• But the fact is that these doctors did not want this health scheme in the first place, although some may hum to themselves every night, ‘My God how the money rolls in, rolls in’. [More…]

• Firstly, the right honourable member for Lowe (Mr William McMahon) said that the Nimmo Committee, which was set up by a Liberal government, reported that the voluntary health system was first class and most efficient. [More…]

• The operation of the health insurance scheme is unnecessarily complex and beyond the comprehension of many. [More…]

• It reported that the voluntary health system was most inefficient. [More…]

• One of its recommendations was that a national health insurance commission be set up to supervise the funds, to arrange for the insurance funds benefit tables, the basis of payment of medical and hospital fees, special assistance for low income families, surveillance of operations of insurance organisations and observance by them of the conditions imposed by and under the National Health Act. [More…]

• It does not cover the pensioners that we have specified, namely those who are entitled to pensioner health benefits. [More…]

• There is to be a regulation-making authority that will enable relief from the levy to be given to people such as pensioners entitled to Pensioner Health Benefits. [More…]

• This authority will be exercised to exempt pensioners who are entitled to pensioner health benefits. [More…]

• The Minister assisting the Treasurer (Mr Eric Robinson) in his second reading speech on the Health Insurance Levy Bill (No. [More…]

• The Australian Taxation Office exemption forms provide only for people taking insurance under the National Health Act, including the socalled Medibank Private. [More…]

• But a large percentage of young working families are expected to pay only the health insurance levy. [More…]

• The Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) have used Medibank as part of their overall economic strategy to window-dress the national accounts and make it appear as if they are good managers. [More…]

• Instead of a better, brighter health insurance scheme, we appear to have a costlier, unwieldier, class conscious, divisive and confusing rag bag designed to satisfy the ideological nit pickers in the Government camp. [More…]

• The family planning program is intended to run until 30 September with the health program grants that have been made available to assist the family planning associations with their clinical activities. [More…]

• The Government has decided to maintain those health program grants until 30 June 1977. [More…]

• Those people who are privately insured for services will be charged a fee and will be able to claim on their various health insurance funds. [More…]

• ., having been forced to leave the marital home for health reasons by a wife who was addicted to drugs for over fifteen years. [More…]

• Specifically, they seek to persuade them that, politically speaking, there are no poor, no aged, no sick, no Aborigines, no immigrants, no people seriously squeezed by inflation, not many for whom unemployment is a major issue, no one whose health, education, food, shelter, protection from economic abuse or exploitation, or even survival, depends on the services of Government. [More…]

• In its place is a mish-mash of health insurance which is to be supported for the less well off half of the community by a tax. [More…]

• However, it bears repeating this week that, as every wage and salary earner in Australia struggles with the ridiculously complicated forms foisted upon them by this Government, they should know that this inconvenience and the extra cost to which they will be put after 1 October is a result of the Government’s inadequate performance in health insurance and the breaking of a specific election promise to maintain Medibank. [More…]

• In our situation profits of course contribute very greatly to all aspects of our government expenditure and, through it, to areas such as health, education and social welfare. [More…]

• We on this side of the House are concerned with the health not only of the Australian economy but also of Australians themselves. [More…]

• Here is a man in that higher income tax bracket about which they are always talking- a despised person with a high income- who realises he can join Medibank Private and get all the health cover he needs. [More…]

• I am informed that inspectors of the State Health Departments visit bakeries regularly to check that all bread, including milk bread, conforms with the relevant Food Regulations in force in the particular State. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council Market Basket Survey does not check composition standards of foods but monitors the Australian diet for the presence of pesticide residues and certain heavy metals. [More…]

• The standard of 4 per cent non-fat milk for milk bread was determined in 1954 after research by the CSIRO Dairy Research Section and the Bread Research Institute of Australia, and after discussions with health authorities in all States, primary producers and milk processors. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What recommendations has he made to the Health Commission to ensure that Medibank Private retains its competitive position especially if members are only covered for 35 days in any one year for hospital services. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission is a statutory authority empowered, under the Health Insurance Commission Act 1973 (as amended) to administer the standard Medibank scheme and additionally, to conduct private medical benefits funds and private hospital benefits funds in each State. [More…]

• I believe that in adopting rules similar to those in use by the other major health insurance funds on this aspect Medibank will retain its competitiveness in this respect. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Will the Treasurer inform the House why the Medibank levy exemption forms make provision for exemption from the Medibank levy for a working wife whose husband purchases private health insurance at the family rate, but make no provision for exemption from the levy if her husband pays the Medibank levy at the family rate? [More…]

• Is this omission a calculated attempt by the Government to make the administrative arrangements for married levy payers as complicated as possible in order to force them into private health insurance? [More…]

• As I understand the position, the Minister now has decided that pharmaceutical benefits for repatriation beneficiaries will be restricted to the national health pharmaceutical list. [More…]

• -I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission was to employ 200 people. [More…]

• The Commonwealth/States Working Party on Alcohol which was established after the 197S Health Ministers’ Conference, and which developed the code in association with the liquor industry, will continue to exchange information with the industry and will monitor the application of the voluntary code. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is it a fact that under the new health insurance arrangements a wife who has sufficient income to prevent her husband from claiming any tax rebate but insufficient income to make her subject to the Medibank levy will not be entitled to Medibank benefits? [More…]

• Is it also true that under the tax rules a husband who cannot claim his wife as a dependant is forced to pay health insurance for her if he takes out private insurance? [More…]

• The Government has taken decisions to modify Medibank because of the very high incidence of increases in health costs in this country. [More…]

• We anticipate that health costs in Australia in this year will be of the order of $5,400m. [More…]

• Quite clearly the health costs in this country have to be paid for by the community by one means or another- either by taxation or by distributing the costs by some means. [More…]

• Pensioners and people on the lowest incomes will be able to receive standard Medibank benefits free of any cost to them, and the chronically ill people who privately insure will benefit from the $50m subsidy that we have made available to health insurance. [More…]

• That means that people who pay the levy will on average be contributing about 1 8 per cent towards meeting the total health care cost in that group. [More…]

• Those who pay the levy and take out private insurance for hospital cover only will be contributing about 40 per cent towards the cost of their health care, whilst those in the higher income level who might choose to insure privately for medical and hospital cover, with the right to choose their own doctor, will be meeting somewhere near 70 per cent of their total health care costs. [More…]

• The Minister for Health will resume his seat. [More…]

• I call on the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I ask the Treasurer why the Medibank levy exemption forms make provision for exemption from the Medibank levy for a working wife whose husband purchases private health insurance at the family rate but make no provision for exemption from the levy if her husband pays the Medibank levy at the family rate. [More…]

• Is it a fact that where a working wife’s income is too great for her husband to claim her as a dependant, but too small to make her subject to the Medibank levy, he is forced to pay health insurance for her as if she were a dependant? [More…]

• I have no first hand knowledge of this matter, but I would have thought that Treasury would have taken the position that we had to offset the cost of health care in Australia. [More…]

• We have seen demonstrated in the Parliament today, in answers to questions asked of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) by honourable members on his own side of the Parliament, the fact that the Government is still not clear on how people will be affected by Medibank when it is introduced tomorrow week. [More…]

• So other commissions were established, such as the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, the Children’s Commission, the Cities Commission. [More…]

• Examples of this new type are the Universities Commission, the Schools Commission and the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• It proposed an amalgamation of the Social Welfare Commission and the Health Services Commission. [More…]

• There are many other names for such an organisation, but I put it to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who takes an intelligent interest in these matters, that in every region there are groups of organisations which can be brought together. [More…]

• If one compares its activities with the activities of the Hospital and Health Services Commission, one can see the distinctions. [More…]

• It established better relations with its Department- the Department of Health. [More…]

• It also adopted, and perhaps was able to do so, a less evaluative role and a more innovative role because it was given the financial resources through the Department of Health. [More…]

• This enabled these innovations which could bypass the slower movement of the Department of Health. [More…]

• As from 1 October 1976 the following persons normally resident in the Lebanon will be eligible to come to Australia, after meeting normal health and character requirements: Spouses and dependent children of Australian residents; parents, both aged and dependent and those who are nondependent and of working age, of Australian residents; nominated brothers and sisters of Australian residents; and persons eligible under the normal acceptable occupations list. [More…]

• -That this Budget makes inadequate provision for health services is well evidenced by a comparison of last year’s expenditure with this year’s estimates. [More…]

• The long list of areas in which there has been an actual decrease in funding is categorical proof that health care is a low priority for this Government. [More…]

• Although the cynical and elitist provisions of the Budget will have the effect of forcing approximately half the population into private health insurance and closing the door on equality of access to health service, the slashing of Medibank is only the start. [More…]

• Let us push aside all the empty rhetoric about the private sector leading us to economic prosperity and look with some humanity at the health care needs of our society. [More…]

• The constantly maligned Aborigines are squeezed even further by a reduction in their health services. [More…]

• We find ourselves in a situation in which not only has the cost of health care increased for every Australian but also the availability of health services has been effectively reduced. [More…]

• What about health services for Aborigines? [More…]

• That represents not just a reduction of last year’s allocation; in real terms it is the castration of funding for hospital facilities, clinics, health centres and health education programs for our Aboriginal community. [More…]

• Let me turn finally to community health facilities. [More…]

• That is an area in which the 3 main deficiencies in the health estimates are well evidenced. [More…]

• A further $70m- compared with $S4.3m last year- has been provided for payment of grants to States, local government authorities, and other eligible organisations under the community health program. [More…]

• I suggest that it is deliberately and cynically designed to indicate, wrongly, that the Fraser Government is actually increasing community health facilities. [More…]

• If it were not for this Government’s reining in of last year’s Budget allocations one project that could have gone ahead is the muchneeded community health centre in Northcote. [More…]

• Given the fact that the estimates for community health facilities have not increased at all, let me look at a second important element. [More…]

• The situation simply is that 15 per cent of the Australian public are without adequate health services. [More…]

• What do the Liberals say to the people of Northcote who have planned and worked hard for such a community health centre for more than 12 months? [More…]

• You will be aware that an amount of $70m will be appropriated for the continuation of the community health program in 1976-77. [More…]

• This is a substantial contribution to the continuation of community health services but is available only to permit the maintenance of currently approved projects at previously approved levels of activity. [More…]

• Necessary restrictions on Commonwealth expenditure have meant that, at this stage, it has not been possible to provide community health program funds for new projects such as the Northcote proposal. [More…]

• The last fault that I want to mention with this year’s health budget is the form that the limited funding is to take. [More…]

• I should add that future Commonwealth financial assistance for community health projects will take the form of annual block grants for State programs as a whole, and it will be primarily a matter for the State authorities to decide allocations to individual projects from the block grants. [More…]

• Organisations such as the Northcote Community Health centre society are therefore being advised that they should keep in touch with their State health authorities concerning the further consideration of their proposals in the event that community health program funds become available for new projects. [More…]

• Meanwhile, it is unconcerned that community health programs administrators, such as those in West Heidelberg in Victoria, do not know what their allocation will be. [More…]

• There you have it, a health Budget which is miserly and in the final analysis shirks the rightful responsibilities of a Federal Government. [More…]

• If he is entitled to receive fringe benefits, the Health Department pays $64.40 a week by way of subsidy. [More…]

• I know that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is well aware of the situation and that at the present moment a committee of review is considering this matter to attempt to rectify the situation. [More…]

• In the discussion that has followed the dismantling of the original Medibank, other aspects of initiatives in health have been forgotten. [More…]

• I refer particularly to the community health centre program and to the hospital improvement program. [More…]

• It is in regard to the community health centres that I wish to speak because my electorate is one that is quite markedly affected in this way. [More…]

• The West Heidelberg Community Health and Welfare Centre has been operating for some time in temporary premises. [More…]

• Of course, the last of those directions is the one that most concerns the Management Committee in the immediate future because it seems to imply that the community health program is to be allowed to wither away in Victoria. [More…]

• The long term concern of the residents is that the Commonwealth Government should continue to fund the community health program. [More…]

• This meeting expresses its wholehearted support for the Committee of Management of the West Heidelberg Community Centre and for the work of the Centre in West Heidelberg and demands that the State Minister of Health: [More…]

• make representations to the Federal Minister of Health to release funds so that the Centre may proceed. [More…]

• The other point I wish to make is the Government’s failure to appreciate that these community health centres are not just treatment centres but are out-reaching organisations for the community that deal with many social welfare aspects as well. [More…]

• The same problem is occurring with the East Preston Health Centre for which a $lm building is under construction. [More…]

• It was insisted that health care must be on a feeforservice basis. [More…]

• There are other things that I want to talk about so I will have to move off the community health program. [More…]

• In speaking to these setimates which deal with social security, welfare and health, I want to remind the Committee and the people of the nation that of the $24,32 lm estimated total Budget outlay, social security and welfare will account for $6, 187m or 25 per cent of the amount. [More…]

• If we add to that the health budget of $2,909m or 12 per cent, we find that in total these amounts represent some 37 per cent of the total outlays or a little over $9,000m. [More…]

• That is a tremendous amount of money for any nation to spend on social welfare and health, particularly when we compare it with the education expenditure of $2, 204m and the defence expenditure of $2, 178m both of which represent approximately 9.6 per cent of the gross national product. [More…]

• I direct my remarks also to community health centres. [More…]

• The honourable member for Scullin (Dr Jenkins) who preceded me in the debate mentioned community health centres. [More…]

• I realise that we are debating the health and social welfare areas. [More…]

• It is in pursuit of better community health facilities that can be provided only by government. [More…]

• Having said that, we come to the area that was covered, I thought very well, by the excellent and honourable member for Scullin (Dr Jenkins) when he spoke about community health centres. [More…]

• The honourable member for Petrie complained that when people are being treated in community health centres they ought to be told that those centres are provided by Commonwealth funds. [More…]

• If he did live in Victoria it is apparent that he is not living in either Scullin or Burke because we do not have any community health centres in those 2 divisions. [More…]

• There is no community health treatment for the people. [More…]

• The community health centres are just not there. [More…]

• In fact both of the community health centres have been told by the Hospitals and Charities Commission that with the present staff ceilings they have one person too many. [More…]

• When I made a submission to the Federal Minister for Health I got back a very courteous letter in which the Minister said he deeply regretted that the Hospitals and Charities Commission in Victoria had told the Broadmeadows Community Health Centre that its existing staff exceeded the ceiling placed on it by the Hospitals and Charities Commission. [More…]

• Division 325 of the estimates for the Department of Health, a curious vote, relates to antismoking education. [More…]

• Any one of these estimates for the Department of Health, the Department of Repatriation and the Department of Social Security with which we are dealing gives no consideration to a very significant group in our community and they are the people who are deaf. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is at the table, to put forward the proposition to the Government that it release and make public the whole of the Bland report on the Repatriation Department so that we can find out for ourselves just what is behind this sudden change in name. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health once again to put this matter to the appropriate Minister and make sure that this particular reform, which is a very important reform, is introduced. [More…]

• I think that the Minister for Health, who is responsible for Medibank and the Medibank muddle, ought to look into this matter. [More…]

• Perhaps I should have said that the Prime Minister is the one who is responsible and that the Minister for Health has to carry out his dictates when it really comes down to the point. [More…]

• I do not think the Minister for Health should be smiling. [More…]

• -An analysis of the estimates for the Department of Health, the Department of Repatriation and the Department of Social Security will prove that the harnessing of modern scientific techniques has resulted in the shifting of economic resources from areas which were considered of great significance some years ago to these 3 vital areas. [More…]

• I believe it is absolutely essential in Estimates debates dealing with social security, repatriation and health to indicate to the Australian people that this Government is a government of concern for the elderly and the unfortunates in our society. [More…]

• I should like to address myself to the estimates for both the Department of Social Security and the Department of Health. [More…]

• It is very difficult in 10 minutes to deal with such large departments, but I will start with the Department of Health and deal specifically with community health. [More…]

• A health survey was conducted in St Marys in June 1975 by the New South Wales Health Commission. [More…]

• One of the questions in the survey on which the articles were based asked: ‘Do you have any illness or health problem which you have had for more than 6 months?’ [More…]

• If it is remembered that over 50 per cent of people applying to join the Army who believe that they are healthy are in fact rejected as unfit by medical officers the matter can be seen in a different perspective. [More…]

• Obviously they need all kinds of health services, and those health services are at least partially being provided by the community health services which Labor introduced over the last two or three years while it was in Government. [More…]

• One of the difficulties about which we must all be concerned is the high cost of health care, and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has emphasised that in relation to Medibank. [More…]

• There is a continuing increase in the cost of health care. [More…]

• There are all kinds of other complications, and I hope that much work will be done to see just how beneficial community health services are, both from the point of view of benefits to the population, which I suppose is the most important point, and from the point of view of economics. [More…]

• 1 ) and the estimates for the Department of Health and Department of Social Services. [More…]

• I do not think we could choose any better field than that of health and social welfare in which to put so much money. [More…]

• The health appropriation works out at just on 12 per cent of the total Budget outlay; social welfare expenditure represents a massive 23.5 per cent of the total Budget outlay. [More…]

• For instance, the World Health Organisation is being allocated $1,700,000, medical research is to be allocated $9,100,000 and the Royal Flying Doctor Service will get $2m. [More…]

• This point was made by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) during question time this morning. [More…]

• Considering the 3 main options now available to the Australian public, as I said, those people most in need are favoured when a comparison is made of the estimated cost of health care and the levy paid. [More…]

• Those Australians who pay the basic 2Vi per cent levy will contribute only an estimated 18 per cent of the total cost of their health care. [More…]

• Of course, as you move futher up the scale, the people who choose to take out private health insurance, the people on the higher incomes, will have to pay a greater percentage, and rightly so. [More…]

• They will pay 70 per cent of the total estimated cost of their health care. [More…]

• I thank all those honourable members who took part in the debate, even those members of the Opposition who exaggerated the situation in respect of the estimates for the Department of Health. [More…]

• I want to make it very clear that although this year’s Budget showed an overall reduction in expenditure on health of l.5 per cent, after adjustment for the payment of $2 16m to the States in June for hospital operation costs, the Budget allocation in fact represents an increase of 14 per cent. [More…]

• So let us not get carried away and say that there has been a substantial reduction in health expenditure. [More…]

• I want to devote some time to the community health program. [More…]

• A total of $70.7m has been provided for the payment of grants to the States, local government authorities and other eligible organisations under the community health program, as well as assisting major national voluntary organisations in the family medicine program. [More…]

• We would expect the States to establish priorities in accordance with community health programs as we are continuing the hospitals development program. [More…]

• Some areas are still subject to examination- for example, by the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health. [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission has been commissioned to undertake a study of radiological services in Australia. [More…]

• In due course the Government should have before it a report from the Hospitals and Health Services Commission which will assess whether or not some changes are necessary to improve the efficiency of radiological services and also to overcome any excessive expenditures in the area. [More…]

• Aboriginal assistance programs, as honourable members are aware, have in recent years received massive injections of funds, with each succeeding year showing ever increasing allocations in an attempt to relieve the very serious handicaps in housing, education, health and employment under which Australia’s Aboriginal people suffer. [More…]

• It is understandable that the temporarily reduced funds for housing alarmed and worried many people, not least those Aborigines in need of housing, for without adequate housing there can be only limited improvements in health, limited opportunity for children to succeed at school and limited hope of gaining regular employment. [More…]

• Grants-in-aid to the States for health and education programs were reduced and grants to Aboriginal organisations working in these fields increased because of our commitment to working through Aboriginal organisations. [More…]

• At the same time they are being told to pay up to $12 a week for Medibank or for private health care. [More…]

• Secondly there is the abolition of tax deductibility of health fund contributions which wage earners have not yet realised. [More…]

• Medibank did more to encourage an uncontrolled health care cost nightmare than any policy deliberately designed to accomplish such a result could have achieved. [More…]

• The need to curtail health expenditure was one of the very major tasks facing this Government when it came to office and that thrust has not changed. [More…]

• The whole area of health care costs was out of hand as a result of the Labor Government’s administration. [More…]

• Health care costs needed to be an identifiable cost to the taxpayer, not some nebulous open-ended scheme gloriously described as Medibank in terms that indicated a wondrous new scheme for curing all ills and which in fact proved to be one of the greatest scourges on the Australian economy for which the Labor Government was responsible. [More…]

• It has revised the tax pool concept of funding public health care, adopted with such drastic results by the former administration, and replaced it with a system where health care costs are both identifiable and limited. [More…]

• The basic Medibank levy places an absolute ceiling on the cost of health care and relates it directly to the income of the taxpayer. [More…]

• Specialised treatment has been given to particular groups of consumers with the implementation of the levy system of funding health care. [More…]

• Pensioners and repatriation beneficiaries are both given concessional treatment under this Government’s Bills aimed at a rational, regulated system of public health care costing and benefits. [More…]

• I refer now to the problem of the health of Aboriginals. [More…]

• How can there be such expenditure cuts when everybody knows that the health problems confronting Aboriginal people, particularly in some of the remote areas, have not been solved? [More…]

• There were doctors in the Northern Territory who wanted the recruitment of doctors who were not committed permanently to being State or Federal civil servants, but we found that under our own Public Service Board regulations what we were doing by giving grants to Western Australia we could not do to make a scientific attack on Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• I think that we can look at the need for recruiting the ablest young doctors to go and deal with Aboriginal health. [More…]

• Mention was made also of reductions in expenditure on health and education in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• What needs to be recognised in this case, as commentators and honourable members failed to recognise when reading the Budget papers, is that the amounts referred toapproximately $6m for education in the Northern Territory and $ lm for health in the Northern Territory- represent deferred capital works and not direct expenditure on health or education programs. [More…]

• I might also mention now for the information of honourable members, in view of a question asked of me some time ago, that the nutritional program for Aborigines in the Northern Territory, administered by my colleague the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), resulted in an expenditure last year of $200,000 and that it is to be continued. [More…]

• It has cut back on any improved sewerage proposals, on improved housing, particularly in the public sector, in improvements to urban public transport, health services, real value in education and in environmental and cultural services within our community. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) today notified me of a decision in relation to a woman of 95 years of age whose 60 year old daughter has been taking care of her. [More…]

• The New South Wales Government has brought down a Budget which shows the degree of economic health in that State. [More…]

• We have already seen increases in the staff of the Departments of the Capital Territory, Education and Health and such essential community services as fire brigades and police. [More…]

• Our education authority and health administration likewise must be answerable to the local electorate through the community and through elected local representatives. [More…]

• In which of our electorates are the local citizens deeply involved and supplying the membership for the administration of education, health or bodies such as the Totalizator Agency Board? [More…]

• I strongly believe that best suited for such exploration are the small explorers, and further, that the health and vitality of the Australian exploration effort depends on the viability and strength of these small enterprises. [More…]

• 1) It is assumed that the ‘statements’ referred to in the honourable member’s question are letters which the Chairman of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission forwarded to honourable members in August 1976, advising them of Community Health Program projects in their electorates which have been approved for Commonwealth purposes in respect of 1976-77. [More…]

• These letters included advice that allocations of funds under the Program in 1976-77 were for the continuation of approved projects; that the allocations had been made in the form of a single block grant to each State; and that decisions on the level of funding of individual projects were to be made by the State health authorities. [More…]

• As indicated in a reply to ( 1 ) above, Commonwealth funding under the Community Health Program in 1976-77 has been in the form of a block grant to each State, and the allocation of funds to individual projects from within the block grant is a matter for detailed decision by the State health authorities. [More…]

• This is an expression of the appropriate balance between Commonwealth involvement in broad policy issues and priorities, and the need for the States to have greater flexibility in terms of their responsibility for the administration or supervision of health services in the States. [More…]

• The Commonwealth’s offer of Community Health Program annual block grants to each State for the State’s total program of community health projects is based upon the Government’s federalism policies. [More…]

• The block grants arrangements are seen as providing an appropriate balance between the need for Commonwealth involvement in broad policy issues and evaluations, and the need for the States to have greater flexibility in terms of their responsibilities for the administration or supervision of health services within the States. [More…]

• The bases on which block grants have been offered to the States under the Community Health Program are that the Commonwealth will continue to have roles in relation to- broad policies and strategies for the Program; agreement with each State on the inclusion of individual projects in the State’s annual program, and on priorities within the annual program; and joint Commonwealth/State evaluations and progress reporting activities. [More…]

• The Federal Government has supported a large number of research projects in diabetes through the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Without that there is no way in which they can learn what their working conditions should be, what welfare conditions there are and what health conditions there are. [More…]

• If one looks at the health regulations in the various States of Australia one finds that the definition of processed cheese, that is, a cheese which has been emulsified and pasteurised and had certain other things done to it, includes cheddar cheese. [More…]

• So if this is a cheddar cheese, and I believe that the weight of evidence is that it is a cheddar under the Pure Foods Act or the health regulations of the States, it should be included in the quota. [More…]

• Health and education services break down. [More…]

• It is an established fact that alcohol consumption is relatively high in the Northern Territory, and serious social, economic and health problems undoubtedly accrue as a result. [More…]

• Health standards have accordingly dropped in an alarming way. [More…]

• Honourable members will be aware that the handicapped children’s benefit was first introduced in 1968 under the National Health Act 1953-1968 and was incorporated in the Handicapped Persons Assistance Act 1974 when the Act was passed in 1974. [More…]

• The new income test will also apply in determining eligibility for pensioner fringe benefits provided by the Commonwealth Government, including a pensioner health benefits card. [More…]

• As announced on 17 August new medical guidelines have been worked out in consultation with the Department of Health. [More…]

• The community health program is a particular example I have in mind. [More…]

• I recognise that quarantine is a matter for the Department of Health but the Department of Primary Industry must have the major vested interest in the success or failure of quarantine facilities in Australia. [More…]

• There has been a dispute between the administration of the Department of Health and quarantine officers in the field, or one quarantine officer in the field in particular, to the extent that during part of this year no qualified quarantine officer has been operating at Port Hedland. [More…]

• When we consider that 25 per cent of our Budget goes to health and welfare and that another $2,000m goes to education- all these areas are pressing, probably quite rightly, for more and more Government expenditure- we must be conscious of some responsibility for austerity or certainly there must be a lack of extravagance in doing ail that we would like to do. [More…]

• The Minister in his answer quite properly pointed to the problem involved in sending people into the refugee camps in isolated areas of Thailand in order to conduct the necessary interviews and the health screening tests. [More…]

• Therefore I believe that we ought to take steps at the earliest opportunity, before there are any further civil problems which might hamper entry into Thailand and the remote areas in which the refugee camps are situated, to send a team of migration officers and health officers into these areas in order to bring out further numbers of people. [More…]

• 1 ) As the Acting Prime Minister announced in his press statement of 23 July when releasing details on the establishment, including the Terms of Reference, of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health, the members of the Task Force are: [More…]

• Mr J. D. Rimes (formerly Chairman of the New South Wales Health Commission, and office-holder in several voluntary organisations). [More…]

• Against the background of the Government’s Federalism policy and its concern at the proliferation and overlap of Commonwealth services and programs in the health, welfare and community development fields, the Task Force shall examine and report on- [More…]

• the identification of particular services and programs, currently being undertaken by the Commonwealth, in the health, welfare and community development fields, which could be better delivered by a State, local government or voluntary agency and the administration of which could be transferred to the States; [More…]

• the possibilities for elimination of individual programs and consolidation into broader based programs in a manner which enables more efficient and economic delivery whether by the Commonwealth or the States, and the establishment of appropriate consultative arrangements with the States, local government and voluntary agencies on future policy planning, administration and service delivery in the health, welfare and community development fields; [More…]

• take account of views expressed by consumer groups and voluntary agencies, noting the Government’s support of the concept of maximum realistic community participation in health/welfare programs funded by the Commonwealth. [More…]

• and (2) The revised health insurance arrangements operating from 1 October 1976 ensure that everyone who insures under the basic hospital benefits table, which all registered hospital benefits organisations are required to operate, is, inter alia, covered against the public (recognised) hospital charge of $40 a day for shared room accommodation at all times regardless of the nature or duration of illness. [More…]

• 3 ) Eligible pensioners receive their medical benefits cover of at least 85 per cent of the Schedule fees from Standard Medibank without payment of the Health Insurance Levy. [More…]

• Following the statement of 23 September 1976 concerning the Government’s review of immigration policy relating to persons normally resident in Lebanon, all members of the family are now eligible for migrant entry subject to their completion of normal health and character requirements. [More…]

• He became Minister for Health in 1971 and Attorney-General in 1971-72. [More…]

• Having witnessed his achievements as a back bench member of Parliament, I appointed him Minister for Health in March 1971. [More…]

• First as Minister for Health he performed a task that was becoming increasingly onerous and difficult. [More…]

• I served on his personal staff from 1971 to 1972 when he was responsible for the portfolios of Health and Attorney-General. [More…]

• There has been much unfair and ill-informed criticism regarding health centre development in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• New health centres are being constructed at Kambah and in the city itself. [More…]

• The Capital Territory Health Commission is to acquire the Australian Capital Territory Totalisator Agency Board building at Dickson which will provide the facility for a health centre. [More…]

• The amount being expended to try to maintain community health centres in the Australian Capital Territory is running into many millions of dollars. [More…]

• In spite of the staff ceilings that are imposed upon us in this time of economic restraint, there is a clear indication that we will be able to provide sufficient salaried practitioners at the health centres. [More…]

• This Government is maintaining the community health centre program that a former Liberal-Country Party Government initiated in 1 97 1 . [More…]

• The primary purpose of the Bill is to vary the means test for pensioner health benefits provided for in the National Health Act so that it will remain in accord with the means test for ‘fringe benefits’ to be applied to pensioners under the Social Services Act. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) announced that a corresponding change would be made to the special eligibility test applying to the issue of pensioner health benefits cards. [More…]

• As with the National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• The Bill provides for the definitions of ‘eligible pensioner’ and ‘dependant’, in relation to an eligible pensioner, to be the same as those proposed for pensioner’ and ‘dependant’, in relation to a pensioner, in the National Health Bill. [More…]

• There is no way in the world that Medibank will break down under the revised health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• This was a reaffirmation of instructions to posts on guidelines applicable including the waiving of health requirements where applicable- again a special response by the Government to the situation in which people seeking to escape from Lebanon and managing to escape from Lebanon were finding themselves. [More…]

• It looks like political diddling of the books and I suggest that the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) ought to clarify this in the interests of the integrity of the Ministry, the Government, the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who in this House represents the Minister for Social Security, and the Minister for Social Security herself. [More…]

• I hope that some explanation will be given either by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who represents the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) in this House or by the Minister for Social Security when the legislation comes before the Senate. [More…]

• Surely we must provide incentives for young people to work, to pay taxes, fares, and a Medibank levy or voluntary health insurance fund payments. [More…]

• I want to look at the total outlays from the Lynch Budget in the area of health and social security. [More…]

• 1 billion and that of course does not contain the $2.9 billion or 12 per cent of Budget outlays that is the responsibility of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• Something like 37 per cent or $9 billion of a total Budget outlay of $24.3 billion- a lot of money- is spent in the area of social security, welfare and health. [More…]

• They would be forced to pay a Medibank levy or to take our private health insurance fund cover. [More…]

• They also would have to join Medibank or a private health insurance fund. [More…]

• One is a social services Bill, one is a repatriation Bill, two are health Bills and one is a Bill concerning handicapped people. [More…]

• Spending on essential education, health and welfare programs will be protected against inflation. [More…]

• I might say that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) did give me approval to do so. [More…]

• We have the blithe statements that issue from the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) on every occasion when this matter has been raised and in particular last May when he said: ‘Well, Labor never increased it every time.’ [More…]

• The first assault came in the area of pharmaceutical benefits, and I am pleased to see the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) at the table. [More…]

• If ever there was an egalitarian approach to a health insurance system we have adopted that approach and the Opposition cannot deny it. [More…]

• That is obviously so because as the Minister for Health who introduced this legislation, and who is now at the table, has pointed out, there will be a large number of people who will be worse off under this proposal. [More…]

• They are the National Health Amendment BUI (No. [More…]

• 3), the Health Insurance Amendment BUI (No. [More…]

• Although prosecutions have been obtained under the nuisance section of the Health Act in [More…]

• Also, I remind the House that we have in any restrictions on personnel and staff ceilings emphasised that over-the-counter services to people- obviously, this includes the delivery of health services- are not to be prejudiced as a result of staff ceilings that have been imposed on all Commonwealth departments and statutory authorities. [More…]

• In fact, $570,000 has been provided by the Commonwealth through a health program grant to the Australian College of Ophthalmologists, which is currently carrying out this work. [More…]

• Whilst I completely agree with the remarks of Professor Hollows about the adverse effects of living conditions on the health of Aboriginals - [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• My question which is directed to the Minister for Health refers to the dispute between the Government and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia over the payment of chemists’ fees following the May 1975 report of a committee on pricing arrangements composed of representatives of the Guild and of the Government and over the appointment of an independent arbitrator to decide on the appropriate level of fees in the future. [More…]

• The honourable member will recall that in 1972 Sir Kenneth Anderson, the then Minister for Health, came to an arrangement with the Guild. [More…]

• I do not want to go into details of the offer, but the Government is disposed to offer to the Guild, on certain conditions, to amend section 99 of the National Health Act to provide for an independent arbitrator to determine unresolved issues that come before the joint committee on pricing. [More…]

• -I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Do these increases indicate an attitude of responsible restraint or will they aggravate wage earners subjected to wage indexation and increased tax and health insurance charges? [More…]

• The whole thrust of the modifications that we have made to Medibank has been designed to try to bring a sense of responsibility to the providers of health care and also to users of health care. [More…]

• We have seen a rapid escalation of health costs in Australia; indeed we have seen that happen around the world. [More…]

• Clearly there must be a limit to the amount we can allocate to meet health care expenses. [More…]

• The provision was designed to bring about a general sense of responsibility as between providers and users of health care. [More…]

• My question, which is directed to the Minister for Health, is supplementary to the question asked early this afternoon by the honourable member for Bowman regarding the committee appointed to inquire into the high cost of nursing homes. [More…]

• I refer to the slashing of Government expenditure, the provocation of wage and salary earners by deliberately setting out to reduce real wages, the threatened close down of industry such as the shipbuilding industry, the failure to reduce interest rates as promised, the false talk of reducing taxes while at the same time imposing the harsh health taxes in the form of the Medibank levy or subscriptions to the other funds. [More…]

• More generous income tax rebates and a reduced health levy would again involve some hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. [More…]

• The recent growth in the burning of fossil fuels is releasing chemical substances in quantities which may corrode building stones, stunt development of vegetation, endanger health or even affect climate by scattering and absorbing radiation entering and leaving the earth. [More…]

• I hope that in due course it will take medical research under its wing because I believe that that area of scientific development is one that can only be given a small amount of time and consideration within the Department of Health. [More…]

• We introduced Medibank so that everyone would have some kind of health coverage. [More…]

• Section 20 (2) of the Health Insurance Act requires that a pay doctor cheque should be given to the claimant, who then has responsibility for forwarding the cheque, together with any balance payable, to his doctor. [More…]

• Provision has been made in the Medibank arrangements to accommodate membership of a Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO) as an acceptable form of cover in terms of exemption from the Medibank levy, provided that the HMO is approved in respect of the services it provides and other aspects of its mode of operation. [More…]

• I am aware of the comments attributed to Mr Walker, Actuary of the Hospitals Contribution Fund, in relation to the implications of the recent Medibank changes and the possible introduction of measures aimed at health maintenance. [More…]

• Mr Walker has correctly recognised that health costs have now reached a level where alternative approaches to the provision and financing of health care warrant careful consideration. [More…]

• The requirements for the entry of non-Australians are that they should not be restricted term workers, that they should be of sound health and good character and that employment and accommodation should be arranged in advance of their arrival in Australia. [More…]

• I further understandand this is all contained in a document issued by my Director of Conservation and Agriculture-that the bees must first accompany their application for entry with a signed certificate of health. [More…]

• Later yesterday the Treasurer gave me a written answer that few, if any, life offices give their policy holders the right to elect their directors, and the Minister for Health has twice expressed concern that contributors to health insurance funds cannot elect their directors. [More…]

• I now ask whether the Prime Minister will consider appointing an inquiry into the control of life and health insurance organisations as an earlier Liberal-Country Party Government commissioned Mr Justice Nimmo and others to inquire into the operations of health funds. [More…]

• Only yesterday during question time 2 questions dealing with private hospital and nursing home subsidies were answered by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• There is no point in the government claiming that Medibank is a ‘universal health insurance’ scheme when the fact of the matter is that nursing home patients are simply not covered by it. [More…]

• The Minister for Health will give a decision shortly on extra subsidies for home nursing care and domiciliary nursing care subsidies. [More…]

• But how many pensioners and invalid patients, because of the ruling of the Department of Health, do not receive adequate treatment because 2 visits a week means an extra $2 a day. [More…]

• I am pleased that the Minister for Health is looking into this injustice, but the Minister should make a decision as soon as possible. [More…]

• Separate reviews, with the same basic objectives of improving efficiency and effectiveness, have been conducted in such areas as health insurance and Aboriginal programs. [More…]

• Provision is also made for payment in lieu of long service leave after one year’s service on cessation due to age retirement, ill health, retrenchment or death. [More…]

• The motor car generates sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydro-carbons from unburnt fuel, photochemical pollutants which damage the ozone layer, and noise pollution most of which we would all concede present dangers to the health of the city dweller in particular. [More…]

• I am hopeful that when the Government increases nursing home benefits, as the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) indicated in his answer to the House the other day, perhaps those amendments might be made retrospective. [More…]

• What all this underlines is that to restore real and sustained economic health and full employment in this country we have to beat inflation. [More…]

• This ignorant call by the National Party President in Queensland reminds me of the deception of this Government in seeking to persuade the Australian people that it is reducing taxes when, as we all know, it is inflicting additional taxes by imposing a health tax from the beginning of this month in the form of the Medibank levy or large subscriptions to medical and hospital benefit funds. [More…]

• The Council has been assisted in its work by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission by grants totalling $85,000 during the period 1 973-75. [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission has examined a proposal from the Australian Council on Hospital Standards seeking funds for the expansion of the current accreditation program during the trennium 1976-79. [More…]

• At 30 June 1975, twelve women’s refuges were in receipt of Commonwealth Government assistance, under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• However, Commonwealth monies transferred to women’s refuges by State health authorities at those dates were $267,228 and $792,532, respectively. [More…]

• Consistent with the Government’s federalism policies, Commonwealth financial assistance under the Community Health Program is now made available to the States by way of a single block grant for each State’s program of community health projects as a whole, each financial year. [More…]

• As the State health authorities are regarded as having primary responsibility for the provision, or supervision, of health and health related services within the respective States, it is for them to decide what share of each annual block grant is to be provided to each project within the total State program. [More…]

• The purpose of these block grant arrangements has been to provide the States with increased administrative flexibility in the use of funds under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• As I indicated in my press statement of 20 May 1976, the Commonwealth’s intention is that Commonwealth funds be available to enable projects previously approved under the Community Health Program to be maintained at a viable level of activity in the 1976-77 financial year. [More…]

• The first priority is to meet basic physical needs, including nutrition, shelter, health and social security. [More…]

• Just to show that I am not bringing up something that is nagging at myself but is also nagging at back benchers on the Government side, I point out that on 19 October the honourable member for Bowman (Mr Jull) asked the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) the following question: [More…]

• He referred to the Bailey Committee, which is a health and welfare task force and about which there are a certain number of rumours. [More…]

• There are 2 discussion papers ready for the Minister’s concerned, namely the Minister for Health and the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle). [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) stated in answer to a question less than 2 weeks ago that when the Holmes Committee reports to him and through him to the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) and Cabinet the nursing home benefits will be reviewed and he will consider a retrospective increase in this area which we know is of concern to many of the aged in this community. [More…]

• As a member of the Government’s health and welfare committee I can assure the people that we show deep concern. [More…]

• That is not to be confused with the extra $2,909m or 12 per cent provided for health programs. [More…]

• I should like to raise the question of Medibank Private, which is part of the Health Insurance Commission’s responsibility. [More…]

• 1 think it is up to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is at present overseas, to explain to the House why he gave instructions to Medibank Private to bank with the Bank of New South Wales rather than to do what is normally done by Government departments and authorities and have the banking done either by the Reserve Bank or, in other cases, by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. [More…]

• Normal health and character requirements apply although they have been relaxed, where necessary, to permit medical checks to be undertaken in Australia by Lebanese spouses, dependent children and parents of Australian residents. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 149 on the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health (Hansard, 12 October 1976, pages 1784-5). [More…]

• the relationship between programs for the aged and the infirm and other health and welfare programs. [More…]

• After consultation with the Minister for Social Security and the Minister for Health, the Committee shall report to the Prime Minister. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• But the fact remains that as soon as there is some sort of scientific survey of the health of the Aboriginal people what is always revealed is disaster. [More…]

• If the health services around here - [More…]

• Referring to the Northern Territory- were delivering the same sort of health care to animals instead of to Aborigines, the RSPCA would prosecute them ‘, Professor Fred Hollows, the director of an eye-health survey and treatment team at present in Central Australia, says. [More…]

• The figures show central Australian Aborigines to be crippled by ill-health, with diseases and conditions of a sort almost eliminated in white Australia. [More…]

• Medical care systems in the area run against the thinking of such bodies as the World Health Organisation in that they are developed ‘from the top’- with expensive institutions and centralised clinics- rather than ‘ from the bottom ‘. [More…]

• Most of the Aboriginal people live outside of these central areas and prefer health care near to their homes. [More…]

• I was interested to note that a Senate committee inquiring into the subject of Aboriginal health had this to say: [More…]

• That governments should publicly announce goals for Aboriginal health improvement, and dates by which these goals should be achieved, and that all government activity in the health field should clearly relate to the achievement of one or more of these goals. [More…]

• There were suggestions in the report in the Canberra Times that Aboriginal people, including some whom we would regard as witch doctors, require training and have asked for training in simple health procedures, that their own people have confidence in them, that they could carry out these simple health procedures and that very often they would prevent the development of more serious conditions. [More…]

• We cannot possibly say that we cannot adjust our health services to meet the needs of a people who may still be isolated and remote. [More…]

• On a temporary basis with a constantly changing personnel in a task forces one can get a force that can tackle the problems of Aboriginal health. [More…]

• I believe that a select committee of this House would find many health strategies of value for the Aboriginal people. [More…]

• The health of the Australian Aboriginal people undoubtedly is the biggest single public health problem confronting us in Australia. [More…]

• I have made some quick investigations, through the advisers from the Department of Health, into some of the matters that the honourable member raised. [More…]

• This takes me back to the real problem of alcoholism which is causing so much concern to health people throughout this country, and particularly those people who have a direct responsibility for trying to overcome the problems of the Aboriginal people. [More…]

• I pay a tribute to the members of that committee for the work they have already done in trying to come to grips with this serious problem which has an overriding effect upon the standard of health of the Aboriginal people. [More…]

• Undoubtedly malnutrition and the state of health of the children can in some ways and in some instances be directly related to the living conditions of the Aboriginal people and to the degree of alcoholism which occurs. [More…]

• I think that too many people try to approach the problem of Aboriginal health in the same way that they approach health problems in white communities. [More…]

• In conclusion I thank the honourable member for Fremantle for the contribution which he has always madeindeed, has made again today-in bringing to the Parliament an opportunity for us to debate and discuss this very real problem and for helping to focus public attention on what is Australia’s biggest single community health problem. [More…]

• I think the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) was gracious in accepting the fact that the Parliament ought to discuss this matter of Aboriginal heath and that we ought to participate in it in a reasonably nonpartisan way as did the Minister and my friend the honourable member for Fremantle (Mr Beazley). [More…]

• Now they are reduced to the state of ill-health which has been nominated today. [More…]

• We do not know very much about how to fund or arrange housing programs for the different communities, but until we have resolved those problems we are not going to resolve the health problem. [More…]

• Perhaps that relates to the point raised by the honourable member for Fremantle- that by a forthright attack, with devoted services and an unrestricted flow of funds, the impact of ill health upon the Australian community can be reduced. [More…]

• I suggest that we look very carefully at these matters and approach the question of health with a view to resolving the problems rather than continuing to talk about them for the next century. [More…]

• There is a general recognition in the House that some of the things done by the former Government have had a considerable beneficial effect in coping with Aboriginal health problems. [More…]

• Some of us, perhaps only on this side of the House, might be prepared to say also that because some of the programs were not sufficiently well thought out and because some of the spending was so generous there could have been a detrimental effect upon the Aboriginal people and their health simply because of the way in which the moneys were made available. [More…]

• The points at issue and mentioned by the honourable member for Fremantle (Mr Beazley) are twofold They are these: Firstly, is there a commitment on the part of this Government to deal with the elimination of these diseases and health problems from the Aboriginal community? [More…]

• I would say, as the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has said, that there is a commitment absolutely and in every respect to deal with Aboriginal health problems. [More…]

• The Committee recognises the wide range of matters that affect Aboriginal health and exacerbate the drinking problem. [More…]

• It recognises the importance of housing, the importance of living conditions, the importance of education, the importance of good health. [More…]

• But this is not the first inquiry of the Parliament and health has not been mentioned only by our Committee at this time. [More…]

• The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs in the last Parliament examined Aboriginal health in the south-west of Western Australia and dealt with many of these matters. [More…]

• The health and physical environment problems of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders were considered in depth- at page 79 of the report. [More…]

• Evidence was given by Dr Spargo, who is a regional health officer for the West Australian Government. [More…]

• He spoke of the problems of alcohol and its relationship to health. [More…]

• I direct the honourable member’s attention to the questioning by the honourable member for Mackellar (Mr Wentworth) about the other health problems, such as venereal disease, that are important. [More…]

• I can assure the honourable member that health and health problems are receiving the utmost attention in the inquiry that we are conducting at the moment. [More…]

• We believe that our report on alcohol problems has to be considered in conjunction with the health of the people themselves and the effect that alcohol perhaps has in bringing about such conditions. [More…]

• If we encourage Aboriginal people to move away from European centres of population and into outstations, how are we to provide the sophisticated health care that will enable us to control the situation generally? [More…]

• How are we to provide that sophisticated health care in fringe camps when people are moving around? [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party in government set out on this task of achieving the second objective through its special purpose grants in fields such as education, health and hospitals, social security, recreation and sport, and urban and regional development. [More…]

• From the inane interjections we have heard tonight we now know that some of these backbenchers who have reason to feel very insecure are against joint programs like the Australian Assistance Plan, like the help that Labor gave to recreation and sport, like the setting up of health centres. [More…]

• I wish to raise a matter which is of some concern to me and which I would like the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) to look into. [More…]

• The basic situation would appear to be that the organisation was promoting a series of health care clinics which it operates from rest homes and health farms set up in the Warburton area. [More…]

• The people who approached me and who went through the tests claimed that they had no prior knowledge that this cost was to be charged against health care and was a rip-off from Medibank. [More…]

• What he is saying is that health care should not be provided to the Australian community because someone might cheat. [More…]

• He is saying that we should cut out all health care because someone might cheat. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Following a private conversation I have had with him and other information he has received, is he aware that doctors in some New South Wales country towns- for example, Cowra, Young and Dubbo- have notices in their waiting rooms telling prospective patients that they must belong to a private health fund? [More…]

• However, I have written to the Minister for Health in New South Wales drawing the matter to his attention. [More…]

• In particular, as I understand it, the Indonesian Red Cross proposed to establish health centres with a doctor or paramedical worker in attendance, to provide ambulances and to make available medical equipment for hospitals. [More…]

• I ask the Prime Minister: Since the Premier of Queensland will be holding discussions on Fraser Island with him in Canberra today, will the opportunity be taken to discuss other current matters, recently raised more than once in the Parliament, such as the seabed boundary between Australia and Papua New Guinea and Aboriginal health? [More…]

• Furthermore, we should also be looking at the opportunity cost of undertaking increased defence expenditure at the expense of other public programs such as education or health or programs for a better environment, better roads, better harbours or better railways. [More…]

• We did it for hospitals, health centres, growth centres, land development, recreational and tourist projects, child care and urban public transport. [More…]

• Of course many honourable members know what was done under the community health program. [More…]

• Before Labor was elected in 1972 there was no national community health program. [More…]

• These facilities and great reforms such as community health centres, drug referral units, anti-alcoholism units, home nursing care services and psychiatric referral units were introduced under the community health program. [More…]

• Quite apart from funds for health services, quite apart from funds for road building, quite apart from funds which were received under the Regional Employment Development Scheme and others, this financial year it would have received from the area improvement program, from the funds allocated under the Commonwealth Grants Commission legislation and by the former Department of Tourism and Recreation- and all these funds were indexed against inflation- between $2.1m and $2.2m at a minimum, as compared to $1.87m. [More…]

• The Council will advise the Government on responsibility and revenue sharing as well as provide a medium for consultation and co-operation between Federal, State and local governments in vital areas such as health, welfare, education and community services. [More…]

• It seeks to force the States to fund those initiatives as it is forcing the States to take over programs such as the school dental health care program and to provide additional finance for sewerage. [More…]

• I wish to pay a compliment to the Minister for Health for the very great amount of hard work that he has devoted to the problems of Medibank and of achieving an acceptance of the new hospital agreement. [More…]

• The other 5 States have signed the agreement and, as I understand it, have signed it very happily, recognising that such agreements are in the interests of health care and in the interests of patients throughout Australia. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware that some private health insurance funds intend to offer direct billing facilities to doctors who charge more than the scheduled fee? [More…]

• Is the Minister concerned that this practice will encourage doctors to charge excessive fees as they will receive a rebate equal to the scheduled fee from the private health funds, even if doctors charge patients a IS per cent or 20 per cent moiety in excess of this rebate? [More…]

• Last Thursday he was reluctant to answer my question whether during his meeting with the Premier of Queensland he would take the opportunity to discuss such matters as concern both governments as the seabed boundary between Australia and Papua New Guinea and Aboriginal health. [More…]

• I now ask him whether he did discuss with the Premier these issues of the border with Papua and Aboriginal health, and, if so, whether he can inform the House of the outcome of the discussions on those 2 issues? [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has, of course, made certain recommendations in respect of this technical matter. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council recommended in 1967 that these preparations should be available to medical practitioners with specialised knowledge and experience in this type of therapy and using laboratories to ensure proper control of therapy. [More…]

• The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee considers it desirable that the drug concerned should be made available as a pharmaceutical benefit but can see no satisfactory means of achieving this end at present due to differing interpretations of the Council’s recommendation by the various States and State health authorities. [More…]

• It is not the function of the Minister to direct the Health Insurance Commission how it shall publish its report. [More…]

• I expect that the Health Insurance Commission will honour the undertaking that it gave in the previous report, but that will be a matter for the Commission. [More…]

• I remind the honourable member that the Minister for Health is not responsible for the administration of that particular funeral benefits scheme. [More…]

• As well, personal disposable income has been reduced through the imposition of the Medibank levy and encouragement is being given to people to take out private health insurance. [More…]

• It is against that background that I affirm that the mix of policy we are pursuing is the only way to restore economic health to this country. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is this decision of the Australian Government yet another example of its mixed up priorities and lack of interest in the health of the Australian people? [More…]

• The Government’s decision to terminate the special financial arrangements with the States under which the anti-tuberculosis campaign has been funded throughout Australia since 1948 was based on the fact that the campaign had achieved its aim of bringing tuberculosis in this country under control, in the knowledge that the States have been fully equipped with adequate beds and other facilities under the financial arrangements to enable them to maintain an adequate level of control of tuberculosis as part of their normal public health responsibilities and on the fact that the hospital costs of treating tuberculosis, which had earlier formed a large proportion of the reimbursements to the States under those arrangements, are now being met under the Medibank hospital agreements. [More…]

• A decision as to whether mass X-ray surveys should continue as part of their normal public health responsibilities is properly one for the States to take. [More…]

• Some of the States have not been happy that we have vacated this field, but I think there is a general acceptance among them that since it is part of the public health programs that a State government normally would undertake it is not a hard decision in the longer term. [More…]

• It is highly erosive of the confidence essential for the creation of wealth in this country so that we can afford all our laudable programs for social welfare, education and health out of our earnings and not further deplete our capital. [More…]

• The health and welfare of the community must be safeguarded at all costs- even at the risk of making a Labor Government look like strike-breakers. [More…]

• Has the Government received the interim report of the Bailey task force on co-ordination in welfare and health which was due at the end of last month? [More…]

• Will he table the report in the Parliament so that State governments, local government bodies and the many organisations engaged in federally funded health and welfare programs are given the opportunity to examine its recommendations prior to any action the Government takes upon it and, in case the recommendations in the report do not command universal support, make representations upon them? [More…]

• Indeed, the extent of the Australian wheat crop, in spite of the lateness of this season, illustrates the effectiveness of the work of, for example, the Narrabri Wheat Research Institute in the electorate of my colleague the Minister for Health. [More…]

• It was he who submitted in evidence to the Select Committee on Specific Learning Difficulties that the influence on educational under-achievement of other factors such as cultural and linguistic difficulties, basic housing and health problems in a domestic environment, the pattern of alcohol consumption and problems of frequent family movement should be recognised. [More…]

• A number of students travelled to Australia on re-settlement scholarships and enormous improvements were made in technical education and health standards. [More…]

• I have no real complaints about the general efficiency of the postal system, but if one considers the immense amount of effort in the production of milk, and the health requirements involved in the transport and processing of milk one will see that that aspect of the dairy industry is very efficient. [More…]

• As you are aware, your Group’s application for subsidy under the Homeless Persons Program was referred to the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, in order to test eligibility as a Women’s Refuge. [More…]

• the Community Health Program) recognition of a Women’s Refuge as it catered for deserted wives and single parents’. [More…]

• -My question addressed to the Minister for Health relates to recent reports which have drawn attention to the prevalence of eye disease in Australia’s Aboriginal population, especially in central Australia where trachoma is reported to be raging. [More…]

• We have allocated $570,000 through health program grants to the Australian College of Ophthamologists for this purpose. [More…]

• But, of course, this does not relieve any of us of the responsibility to improve the conditions and the environment in which Aboriginal people live because these factors undoubtedly do contribute to the health of the people of Central Australia and elsewhere. [More…]

• Provision for elements of vital importance for health and survival, especially clean and safe water, clean air and food. [More…]

• I think it was a source of some satisfaction to most of us that in November 1974 the then Minister for Health, Dr Everingham, introduced a Bill to make available $807,905 to the States to investigate the quality of water in addition to the record amount of money which had been allocated to the States for the measurement of the quantity of water. [More…]

• The quantity and the quality of water resources are involved in the lives of every man, woman and child in the nation, and to a large degree decide conditions of health and happiness in every town and village. [More…]

• These are the responsibility of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• They are not grants in terms of the granting activities of the Australian Research Grants Committee or the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Duplication between the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Grants Committee research projects is avoided by an annual coordination meeting between representatives of both bodies which allocates borderline projects to one or the other body. [More…]

• With respect to the CSIRO, liaison between CSIRO and the National Health and Medical Research Council is facilitated by a Medical Research Liaison Committee convened by CSIRO and reporting to the CSIRO Executive. [More…]

• The Committee comprises CSIRO scientists, including the Chief of the Division of Human Nutrition, representatives of the Department of Health and the National Health and Medical Research Council, and medical research scientists. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• -My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I am aware of the reports that some doctors in some country centres- the emphasis is on ‘some’- are providing limited honorary service to Medibank patients pending the resolution of a dispute which has occurred between the New South Wales Health Commission and the Austraiian Medical Association in New South Wales. [More…]

• I recognise that a difference of opinion exists between the New South Wales Health Commission and the doctors concerned. [More…]

• I have been in touch with the Minister for Health of New South Wales and have offered him any help that I can give to try to resolve what I regard to be a most unfortunate set of circumstances. [More…]

• Officers of my Department have been in touch with the New South Wales Health Commission to try to get a complete briefing on this situation so that we may be in a position to give the assistance that may be necessary. [More…]

• Will anyone who has a pensioner health benefit card lose it when the new income test is introduced? [More…]

• The position will be similar in respect of eligibility for a pensioner health benefit card. [More…]

• Furthermore, the change to the new income test will mean that some pensioners will for the first time be entitled to a pensioner health benefit card and to standard Medibank cover without paving the Medibank levy. [More…]

• The position will be similar in respect to eligibility for a Pensioner Health Benefit card. [More…]

• Furthermore, the change to the new income test will mean that some pensioners will, for the first time, be entitled to a Pensioner Health Benefit card and to standard Medibank cover without paying the Medibank levy. [More…]

• I am not too clear what the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has in mind when he says that it is intended to negotiate with the Clunies-Ross Estate on all issues concerning the availability of the site. [More…]

• The fact that the Federal Government moved into this field led to an increase in finance to assist in areas such as health, education and housing, which had been of concern to the Aboriginal people and those concerned about them. [More…]

• Other public officers, such as teachers, stock inspectors and health inspectors, will have to seek permits. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who recently cheered us with the statement that he made about the national trachoma and eye health program in relation to Aborigines, supported Fred Hollows, who I understand started his work under the Labor Government in the eye survey of Aboriginal people and others in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• I do not think that it was established by that expedition that all the people in the Northern Territory were particularly sensitive to the health needs of Aborigines, even when they were as completely obvious as that. [More…]

• The legislation then provides that they shall be able to perform functions or services in respect of such matters as housing, health, sewerage, water supply, electricity, communications, education, relief work, roads and associated works, garbage collection and disposal, and welfare and community amenities. [More…]

• They are set to provide maximum security on health standards, electrical wiring and for other regulations such as fire control. [More…]

• -(Gwydir-Minister for Health)For the information of honourable members I present the report on the working and administration of the Department of Transport during the year ended 30 June 1976, including those matters on which the Minister for Transport is required to report pursuant to section 29 of the Air Navigation Act 1 920. [More…]

• -(Gwydir-Minister for Health)For the information of honourable members I present the annual report of the National Advisory Council for the Handicapped for the year ended 30 June 1976 together with the text of a statement by the Minister for Social Security relating to that report. [More…]

• Under the National Health Act as it now stands the Minister shall make such determinations after consultation with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. [More…]

• Since 1964, consultation has usually been through the medium of the Joint Committee which the then Minister for Health established administratively for the purpose. [More…]

• Although the Minister for Health receives the advice of the Joint Committee he has not been bound to accept it and this has in recent times led to disputes with the Pharmacy Guild. [More…]

• What I and some of the State Transport Ministers fear the Government proposes to do after 1 July next year is to make bloc grants to State treasuries and then leave it to the State governments to apportion what money they will spend on education, health and transport. [More…]

• -The Narcotics Drugs Amendment Bill proposes to transfer certain responsibilities to the Department of Health, those responsibilities relating in all cases to licit drugs. [More…]

• I wish to refer to a recent finding by the narcotics section of the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• If this is not true, the World Health Organisation might as well be disbanded. [More…]

• Let them tell the World Health Organisation it is a lot of hogwash that there is the remotest possibility of cancer cells being created. [More…]

• As both Aboriginal communities suffer serious unemployment, health and housing problems, will he give consideration to re-examining the situation. [More…]

• This action should give confidence that we are on the path towards restoration of full economic health. [More…]

• If this is the Treasurer’s concept of economic health I would hate to experience his recipe for economic sickness. [More…]

• Let us have a commitment by every Australian to make a personal contribution to getting Australia back to full economic health. [More…]

• The Fox report indicates similarly that the operation of fossil fuel stations is more of a health hazard than the operation of nuclear reactors. [More…]

• In informed debates there is agreement, on both sides of the nuclear power issue, that uranium mining carried out under today’s tight regulations is neither an environmental problem nor a health hazard. [More…]

• All Australians can rest content that their own Federal Department of Health, after consultation with federal and State government departments, trade unions, trades and labour councils, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and mining companies, has developed the world’s most stringent code to govern the mining and milling of our uranium. [More…]

• The truth is that the mining of the relatively low grade deposits of uranium in Australia, principally by open pit mining methods, by safety conscious people is no more dangerous than any other mining operation and is far less injurious to health than the underground mining of many other minerals. [More…]

• These may nevertheless be quite natural concern that there may be a risk to health from releases of radioactivity in the course of those activities or after they have ceased. [More…]

• We are quite satisfied that, if properly regulated and controlled according to known standards, those operations do not constitute any health hazard which is greater in degree than those commonly accepted in everyday industrial activities. [More…]

• Many miners throughout the world have suffered because of inadequate and inappropriate health standards in mining operations. [More…]

• This man was tearing around the country saying that the Government was doing absolutely nothing about the health and welfare of Aboriginal children. [More…]

• Horses from New Zealand may be imported subject to a general health certificate and a prior period of residency in Australasia of 6 months. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In order that articles such as that written by a Mr Jack Waterford in the Canberra Times of 2 1 October 1 976 are not repeated, will he instruct health authorities at Alice Springs that Murray Valley Encephalitis no longer exists, as it is now called Arbo Encephalitis. [More…]

• For the further information of the honourable member, I understand that the World Health Organisation has accepted ‘Australian Encephalitis’ as the preferred nomenclature in the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases, to come into effect internationally in 1979. [More…]

• Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health (Question No. [More…]

• 1 ) Has the task force into health, welfare and communitybased programs sought submissions from all amateur and professional sporting organisations on the role of the Australian Government in the development of sport from the base to the peak of the sporting pyramid. [More…]

• The Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health sought submissions from persons or organisations willing to contribute to its work. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has recommended to the States that 2,4,5-T containing more than 0.1 ppm of TCDD should not be permitted for use as a herbicide in Australia and that there should be a maximum residue limit of 0.02 ppm of 2,4,5-T permitted in water. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) In the Industries Assistance Commission’s report on a National Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme is the herd improvement aspect of greater immediate importance, and has it the greater likelihood of early implementation, than the herd health aspect. [More…]

• The components are: genetic improvement herd recording herd management herd health programs veterinary diagnostic laboratory services mastitis monitoring centralised testing stations co-ordinated information operations [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• I want to put safety issues and health issues to one side because they are always in a special category requiring special treatment. [More…]

• The undesirable economic consequences of the Government’s Health Insurance arrangements. [More…]

• Mi HAYDEN (Oxley) (3.13)-The Government’s health insurance arrangements are responsible for undesirable economic consequences. [More…]

• Secondly, the imposition of charges, whether they be the Medibank levy or compulsory subscriptions to private health insurance funds, results in a reduction in personal incomes and in living standards. [More…]

• Incidentally, it is not without its irony that a government declaiming its opposition to compulsion in the community should be responsible, by its stated intention, for conscripting half of the community into private health insurance funds, into commercial organisations, just as it conscripted youth into Vietnam. [More…]

• I have given those comparisons to illustrate the severe cutback on consumer demand which will arise as a result of a reduction in consumer spending by the private health insurance arrangements of the Government. [More…]

• Let me take up the second point that I mentioned, namely, the undesirable consequences which will arise from these health insurance arrangements and the effects on personal living standards and on incomes of people. [More…]

• Medibank levy and imposed the compulsory membership of private health insurance funds on those who decided not to belong to the basic Medibank scheme represented a totally different set of economic circumstances from those which applied when we were in government. [More…]

• The President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Mr Hawke, went away from Canberra several months ago after consultation with the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) on the issue- I rely on my recollection of newspaper reports at the time- convinced that the Government would ensure that the increases in the cost of living arising from the Medibank levy and from compulsory private health insurance would be fed into the consumer price index and would be fully applied in the wage indexation process before the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. [More…]

• It is quite clear from figures which were submitted to the Commission- projections of quarterly movements in the consumer price index for all of this financial year- that the level of the consumer price index anticipated by the Government for the December quarter of about 4V4 per cent is well below the level which one would reasonably expect, on an informed basis, in that quarter following the full effects of the changes to the health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• In these circumstances the whole thrust and principle of our approach in the health insurance field can be set out. [More…]

• So the thrust of our health care proposals has been that those who can afford to pay for their health insurance should do so. [More…]

• After all health care is as fundamental as food, clothing, motor cars or anything else. [More…]

• So those who can alford to pay for their health insurance should do so thereby making available the maximum of the limited public funds that are available- we are trying to cut down on the total of taxation- to help those who cannot afford their own insurance, to help those in need. [More…]

• Consequently we designed these arrangements to ensure that those who can afford to do so pay the full cost or near the full cost of their health insurance. [More…]

• But we found on looking at the matter that the full cost of this health insurance was of the order of $300 a year. [More…]

• Those people on incomes of $12,000 a year and upwards will pay the full or substantially the full cost of their health care’. [More…]

• The effect of course is that those Australians receiving $12,000 a year and upwards in effect pay substantially the full cost of their health care. [More…]

• In fact over much of that range the position is that the income earner is paying about 20 per cent of the cost of his health care; in the upper income levels the figure is in excess of 80 per cent. [More…]

• Let me stress that from general tax revenue something of the order of $ 1,000m is still contributed to the cost of health insurance. [More…]

• It is not the payment for health care, but the lack of confidence as a result of the inflation and unemployment that were bequeathed to this Government from the previous administra.tion that has held back consumption expenditure. [More…]

• If die sum total he pays for health services is more now than what he was paying when we organised the scheme he is losing. [More…]

• Let us look in real terms at the total cost to the community of this Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• In his second reading speech on the relevant legislation, the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) when dealing with this aspect said that the Government was taking this action to ensure that private medical practice would survive and in the ope that the Government’s action would encourage the doctors therefore to provide the equivalent of what were once honorary services to hospitals. [More…]

• A study was carried out recently on contrasts in health maintenance organisations and fee for service performance. [More…]

• In essence, first of all a check was made on the claim that all healthy people belonged to health maintenance organisations. [More…]

• The study found that there was no significant difference between patients belonging to health maintenance organisations and the general community. [More…]

• The study checked on whether people who contributed to health maintenance organisations were more health conscious. [More…]

• But 75 per cent of our pensioners who have health benefit cards do not pay the levy. [More…]

• With respect to the increasing charges to which the honourable member has referred, I point out that even under his former Medibank scheme 70 per cent of Australians remained privately insured for hospital cover, so there was a cost in respect of the operations of those insurance schemes operated by the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• But one fact is certain: Now that we have a competitor in the market- I refer to Medibank Private with all its efficiency in the field- competition will be provided amongst all of the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• Perhaps we shall see more efficiency in the area of the administration of private health insurance. [More…]

• Against the general background of economic disorder, we looked at the exploding health treatment costs and the efficiency of universal health insurance in its existing form. [More…]

• It had very wide ranging terms of reference against 3 important criteria: Medibank and universal health insurance were to be retained and there was to be no means test at the point of service to the patient. [More…]

• As part of our overall economic appraisal we turned to health care costs in a substantial way and we found that health care costs in Australia were exploding at an even faster rate than the record inflation. [More…]

• Without our changes the total government and private health treatment and health care costs for this financial year were estimated to be $5,400m. [More…]

• We also found that over a period of 1 1 years the Commonwealth share of health costs had increased by 10 times, from $260m in 1963-64 to $2,500m in 1975-76. [More…]

• So Medibank Mark 1 had achieved universal health coverage, but in the characteristic style of the former Government it was at the expense of disregarding economy and efficiency. [More…]

• The first was that changes needed to be made to constrain costs, to give incentives to keep costs down, to encourage efficiency in the State hospitals and to push ahead with preventive medicine and health and community programs. [More…]

• At the same time we have given an incentive to the private practitioners of this country to be careful ow they raise their fees, because if their fees rise faster than average weekly earnings quite clearly the premiums will go up and people will leave their private insurance funds and stay with Medibank Standard which will be the lowest cost, quality health care insurance. [More…]

• community health and welfare, and [More…]

• In short, the many facets of this important and growing industry contribute to the Australian economy through: Urban and rural development; decentralisation; new and expanded employment outlets; contribution to foreign exchange earnings; avenues for profitable short and long term investment; a contribution to education; new avenues for improving community health and welfare, both physical and mental; a deeper understanding of different cultural standards and community attitudes; and a wider base for international understanding and goodwill. [More…]

• 1 ) That the following matter be referred to the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs: The health problems of Aboriginals with particular attention to- [More…]

• the relationship between Aboriginal health and environmental, social and cultural factors; [More…]

• the effectiveness of existing health care programs for Aboriginals generally, and the adequacy of Western European-type health services to cope with the health problems of Aboriginals, and [More…]

• alternative methods of health care delivery that take account of Aboriginals’ life styles, including camp situations. [More…]

• persons with appropriate qualifications can be encouraged to assist Aboriginals achieve a better standard of health, and [More…]

• Aboriginals including traditional healers can participate in the development and delivery of health care services to their own communities, and in any modification of existing services. [More…]

• In the course of the ensuing debate my colleague, the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), expressed the Government’s concern at the health problems of Aborigines, particularly such diseases as trachoma and its incidence in central and northern Australia amongst the remote communities. [More…]

• The Government’s total funding for health services to Aborigines for 1976-77 is $ 15.9m. [More…]

• In addition to this, special funds of $600,000 have been provided by the Department of Health and my Department for a task force to conduct a pilot study to deal with trachoma and eye health amongst Aboriginal communities in central Australia. [More…]

• In the light of the earlier debate and the Government’s own desire to seek a closer study of problems associated with eliminating diseases in Aboriginal communities, the Government has now decided that these problems of Aboriginal health should be referred to the Standing Committee of this House on Aboriginal Affairs for examination and to report its recommendations progressively to the Government. [More…]

• The Standing Committee already has in hand a study of alcohol problems amongst Aborigines in the course of which evidence on health factors has been given. [More…]

• I note that in the third main report of the Commission of Inquiry into Poverty presented by the Reverend George S. Martin, attention has been drawn to some specific problems in Aboriginal health which require investigation. [More…]

• I expect that the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs will therefore find that report of value as well as the Senate Committee’s report on environmental conditions of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders which make some specific recommendations on Aboriginal health. [More…]

• Those recommendations are already under study by my Department in conjunction with the Department of Health. [More…]

• I take it that the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs will be free to investigate Aboriginal health everywhere in Australia- the Kimberleys and elsewhere. [More…]

• This is very important and I hope that the Committee does receive the co-operation of the State authorities which are charged with some aspects of health in their own areas. [More…]

• Aborigines including traditional healers can participate in the development and delivery of health care services to their own communities, and in any modification of existing services. [More…]

• We will have to be careful that we do not intervene in such a way that the health policies of Europeans will reduce the Aboriginal traditional healers to a menial status. [More…]

• Investigation as to how effectively to deliver health care to them, having regard to their traditions and their location, is a matter which I think is overdue. [More…]

• It will also enable the Aboriginal people to defend their health standards. [More…]

• I hope in the forms of health care that are set up and in the action taken that we will win their cooperation [More…]

• The last point I want to make is that I understand that under the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress the Aboriginal people themselves have very much wanted instruction for women and for men in health care. [More…]

• I believe that a Dr Helen Thorn is doing work in this regard as far as the health education of Aboriginal women is concerned. [More…]

• I believe there is now a need for a male doctor to help the men in health education. [More…]

• If they are to be restricted in their use of vehicles or certain processes of hunting, their health can be affected adversely. [More…]

• The voluntary code of advertising of alcoholic beverages as dicussed and amended by the Working Party and liquor industry representatives, and subsequently endorsed by the 1976 Health Minister’s Conference, has been accepted by the Government. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Medical research is supported by the Commonwealth Government through the National Health and Medical Research Council which has an overall interest in supporting all types of high-quality medical research. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) How many community health centres were operating in each State with Australian Government assistance on (a) 30 June 1973, (b) 31 December 1975 and (c) 30 June 1976. [More…]

• For the purpose of answering this question, a ‘community health centre is defined as a community located facility which has the characteristics of a general health service as distinct from a specialised service (e.g. [More…]

• mental health, alcoholism), which provides two or more categories of service (e.g. [More…]

• The following information has been provided or confirmed by the relevant State health authorities: [More…]

• A decision on programs and projects in the community development area will be reached after examination of the report of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health which is expected to be available to the Government in November 1976. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• A decision on programs and projects in the community development area will be reached after examination of the report of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health which is expected to be availabel to the Government in November 1 976. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• There will be instances where health, age or other factors may indicate that a particular family should remain undisturbed. [More…]

• These were the revision of the definition of ‘authority of State’ to reduce the need to specify bodies in regulations which was purely a machinery matter; provision that no leave without pay breaks continuity of service and the employing authority, or the Board, may determine whether leave counts as service; no form of full time post-defence forces service vocational training scheme breaks continuity of service; absence due to ill health from any relevant service for furlough purposes does not break continuity; and exclusion from the legislation of locally engaged staff overseas, other than those employed before the amending legislation. [More…]

• Another most important provision, one which flows directly from the proposals of the former Government, is that an employee will receive payment in lieu of long service leave after one year’s service where employment ceases due to death, ill health, retrenchment or aged retirement. [More…]

• Absence due to ill health does not break continuity. [More…]

• We want to look at our export markets and to do everything we can to assist this industry, which is a valuable one and which, it must be borne in mind, provides a very healthy food for this nation and for those people to whom we export. [More…]

• The old saying ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ has a very sound basis in truth because an apple is such a health-giving food. [More…]

• I think we should look at a means of providing this health-giving food, fruit- apples and pears in particular- to the consumers in this nation at a cheaper rate so that the families, the children in particular, can enjoy and benefit from the fruit available to them. [More…]

• Surely 12 months in office is long enough for the Government to produce something more than a reduction in everyone’s savings by 17’/2 per cent and an increase in the tax rate to provide for a national health scheme. [More…]

• The Government has provided funds under the Community Health Program for a Regional Diabetic Service operating from the Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Do health maintenance organisations in the United States of America generally use their own hospitals rather than community hospitals. [More…]

• If so, does this reduce the likely effectiveness of health maintenance organisations in Australia. [More…]

• What are the proposed hospital arrangements for the Wollongong health maintenance organisation project. [More…]

• The longer-established Health Maintenance Organisations in the United States of America, such as the Kaiser Foundation based on the West Coast, generally provide care to subscribers in their own hospitals. [More…]

• In order to qualify under the health insurance arrangements as an ‘approved’ organisation and thus to remove the requirement of subscribers to pay the Medibank levy, a health maintenance organisation will have to provide all services currently available to persons covered by Medibank. [More…]

• Where the health maintenance organisation does not possess its own facilities (such as hospitals) it must either contract out for their provision or make equivalent alternative arrangements. [More…]

• (3)I have not received, nor am I aware of any concrete submission for a health maintenance organisation project for Wollongong. [More…]

• I preface my question, which is directed to the Minister for Health, by reminding him that legislation designed to implement the recommendations of the Whalan Committee of Inquiry into the Protection of Privacy and introduced by my colleague, the honourable member for Oxley, lapsed in November 1975. [More…]

• Is the Minister aware that the General Manager of the Hospital Benefits Association of Victoria stated on 25 November that contributors to private health insurance funds presently have to rely on the ‘good faith’ of the administrators of these funds not to divulge confidential medical and financial information about their members? [More…]

• As the Liberal and National Country Parties in the past have expressed deep concern about this matter- in particular the former AttorneyGeneral, the late Senator Greenwood, in February 1975 warned of the dangers of the misuse of private information- can the Minister ex- plain to the House why complementary legislation has not been introduced by the Government in order to protect the interests and privacy of private health insurance contributors? [More…]

• One of the most important things that we have asked Mr Justice Kirby to do, under that Commission’s terms of reference, is to inquire into the question of privacy, particularly as it relates to private health insurance and health matters. [More…]

• Section 1 30 of the National Health Act, for instance, does provide that officers of the Department of Health and public servants generally are bound to ensure that the privacy of the individual is protected, but that provision does not apply to people involved in the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• However, we are mindful of the fact that it is in the interests of private health insurance funds to ensure that they maintain secrecy provisions and preserve the privacy provisions that are necessary to protect the interests of their contributors. [More…]

• I could as Minister, under a provision in the National Health Act, intervene in the matter but I have decided not to do so because even under the provisions that exist the HBA will be operating that office under its own jurisdiction just as it operates its office in Melbourne. [More…]

• Quite clearly there is a great responsibility on the private health insurance funds , to try to operate as efficiently and as economically as possible. [More…]

• I must say that that criticism would not be directed solely to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health to draw his answer to a conclusion. [More…]

• When the Labour Party holds office in the Commonwealth Parliament, the States which have Labour, governments could readily make agreements under section 51 (xxxiii) and (xxxiv) for the acquisition and construction and extension of railways in the States by the Commonwealth and under section 51 (xxxvii) for the reference to the Commonwealth of many of their present functions, such as those in respect of health and hospitals, ports and fisheries. [More…]

• The meeting was chaired by the Prime Minister and was attended on the Government side, by the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Anthony), the Treasurer (Mr Lynch), the Minister for Industry and Commerce (Senator Cotton), myself, the Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs (Mr Howard), and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) together with permanent heads and other senior advisers. [More…]

• To give the House an idea of the enormous increase, it provided a standard of 1 3 parts per 100 million for ozone in the atmosphere compared with 6 parts per 100 million laid down by the World Health Organisation and 8 parts per 100 million laid down by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. [More…]

• When Labor came into office in 1972 the chemists received a fee of 45c for dispensing national health prescriptions. [More…]

• The legislation proposes to establish a joint committee consisting of 4 representatives from the pharmacists and 4 representatives from the Public Servicepresumably they will come from the Department of Health although one of them may come from the Treasury, I do not know, because that is not specified- and to be presided over by a chairman who will be a Deputy President of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. [More…]

• -This National Health Amendment Bill, of some 9 pages will amend a small but offensive part of section 99 of the National Health Act. [More…]

• It has been of inestimable value in maintaining a good standard of health for our people. [More…]

• In effect, all that is required of the Minister for Health is that he consult with representatives of the Pharmacy Guild. [More…]

• The refusal of successive governments to increase adequately the chemists’ dispensing fee, coupled with diminishing wholesale prices, brought about by considerable pressure and bargaining by Commonwealth Department of Health officials, resulted in progressively lowering the return to the master pharmacists. [More…]

• The pressure and bargaining to which I refer, to obtain lower wholesale prices of drugs, was the result that flowed from the so-called negotiations by Department of Health officials with drug manufacturers. [More…]

• This Bill signals the culmination of 1 5 years of bitter argument and counter argument between officials of the Pharmacy Guild, officials of the Department of Health, Ministers for Health and politicians. [More…]

• This speech would be incomplete if I did not commend the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who was prepared to listen, to identify the problems and then to act so swiftly to rectify the anomalous situation. [More…]

• The profession must diversify for the good of the health of the community and for the morale and mental outlook of the individual pharmacist. [More…]

• The pharmacist’s more meaningful role could be achieved in many areas such as the dissemination of information to the community in health education programs and assistance to the medical profession by providing more pharmacological information. [More…]

• A health education program conducted through the 5500 pharmacies to our 13.5 million people could save much suffering and reduce the quantity and cost of medical and hospital care. [More…]

• He referred to the impact, of the agreement to amend section 99 of the National Health Act which will provide an independent arbitrator. [More…]

• The core of the dispute over the years has been that the veto power of the Minister for Health has prevented independent arbitration. [More…]

• In an attempt to resolve this long standing dispute, in 1972 the then Minister for Health Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson made an agreement with the Guild to have the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Pharmaceutical Benefits Pricing Arrangements, Sir Walter Scott, make some recommendations for adoption by Government. [More…]

• When the Australian Labor Party came to office the Minister for Health, Dr Everingham, confirmed that arrangement. [More…]

• At that time I was the shadow Minister for Health for the Liberal and National Country parties. [More…]

• I want to congratulate the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is sitting at the table, for the implementation of that policy. [More…]

• However, behind the scenes, patient negotiation did continue between the Minister, members of the Government Members Health and Welfare Committee and members of the Pharmacy Guild. [More…]

• I join the honourable member for Petrie in congratulating the Minister for Health and the senior officials of the Pharmacy Guild, in particular Mr Alan Russell and Mr John Scown for the patient and constructive negotiations which have brought this divisive issue to a satisfactory conclusion after so many years. [More…]

• In my view the form of determination should take into greater account the professional role of the pharmacist and a more positive approach to health care. [More…]

• I refer to an article entitled ‘Drugs Under Health Insurance Abroad’ in ‘Pink Pages’, the United States Pharmacy Journal dated 8 November 1976. [More…]

• It contains a report of a recent seminar held in the United States organised by the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare in which the national health schemes of 6 countries were discussed. [More…]

• Australia was one of the countries that were of considerable interest because it has a national health scheme. [More…]

• Australia has one of the oldest national health schemes in the world and one of the greatest interest to countries in the Western world. [More…]

• After talking to pharmacists around Australia, I believe that they recognise that there is still a basic problem of resolving a satisfactory professional approach to pharmacy and to positive attitudes and counselling on health care with the present payment system that we have. [More…]

• I know that both the previous Government and this Government have been fairly active in amending different aspects of the National Health Bill. [More…]

• Nor should the Opposition spokesman for Health make any apology for the failure of the former Labor Government to see that justice was done to the Pharmacy Guild. [More…]

• In many cases and at many times it was a very difficult exercise for officers of the Department of Health and members of the Guild. [More…]

• I think that a lot of unfair criticism was levelled over the years at the officers of the Department of Health who were acting in accordance with the law of the day and also in accordance with the policies of the governments of the day. [More…]

• I thank the members of the Health and Welfare Committee, particularly the honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd) and the honourable member for Petrie (Mr Hodges), who have been most interested in this area, for the assistance that they gave to me as the Minister and to the Department. [More…]

• Members of the Guild, of course, have been essential to the discharge of the National Health Act and also in the dispensing of drugs that are essential, in many cases, in the saving of life and in health treatment. [More…]

• This is a very important part of health care. [More…]

• I go a little further and say that in some cases these pharmacies are almost the only primary source of health care delivery in isolated regions. [More…]

• A number of these pharmacies in my own area exist where no other form of health service exists. [More…]

• I believe that a lot of the heat will be taken out of the issue as a result of the decisions which the Government has taken and which are embodied in this amendment to the National Health Act. [More…]

• I am not suggesting that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) will do so. [More…]

• -I do not want him to nod his head too much; that could be very deleterious to his health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), in his second reading speech, outlined the main purpose of the Bill, which is to increase the rates and amounts of compensation available under the Seamen’s Compensation Act to seamen and their dependants and to ensure that the monetary rates payable are kept in line with the Compensation (Commonwealth Government Employees) Amendment Bill 1976. [More…]

• 2 ) The total cost to the Government for the year ended 30 June 1976, in the form of nursing home benefits under the National Health Act and amounts paid under the Nursing Homes Assistance Act was $ 195.7m. [More…]

• Nursing Home Benefits Under the National Health Act [More…]

• additional nursing home benefit- payable by my Department in respect of nursing home patients who are Australian residents and who either pay the Medibank health insurance levy or who are exempt from payment of the levy on grounds other than that of being appropriately privately insured. [More…]

• 2 ) The Department of Business and Consumer Affairs cooperates regularly with the National Health and Medical Research Council on matters of mutual interest. [More…]

• The Commission would consult with the National Health and Medical Research Council, if appropriate, during its investigations of particular complaints. [More…]

• -I refer the Minister for Health to reports that at least 30 people were admitted to a major hospital in Sydney over the weekend suffering from severe gastro-enteritis after travelling on British Airways Flight BA888 from Hong Kong. [More…]

• As this follows the outbreak of typhoid fever among travellers on another flight by this airline into Australia earner in the same week, I ask the Minister whether he listened to the radio program AM this morning when a spokesman for that airline denied responsibility for this serious breakdown in health surveillance and control? [More…]

• In view of the many thousands of Australians about to proceed on their annual holidays with international airlines, will the Minister advise the House where responsibility for such breakdowns in health and quarantine controls rests? [More…]

• I further ask the Minister whether he will arrange for a stricter application of health measures on all nights entering Australia. [More…]

• After adjustment for higher child endowment, health taxes and inflation we find that in 1976-77 the family that had earned $10,000 for 1975-76 has had its spending power reduced by $5.15 a week. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) made an announcement in about July that this legislation would be introduced, but here we are in the middle of December and the legislation is only now before the House. [More…]

• I remember asking a question on this matter of the Minister for Health, representing the Minister for Social Security, when the session started, because I was personally involved with a number of people on long term compensation. [More…]

• We are making sure that the various State governments and the health departments in those States co-operate. [More…]

• It could well set a pattern of health care delivery to Aborigines living in remote areas of Australia and also to white people living in difficult circumstances and suffering from ill health in remote areas of Australia. [More…]

• A universal and simple health insurance scheme was destroyed. [More…]

• Our position is desperate and causing a rundown in my wife’s health. [More…]

• Government and, secondly, the health and environmental questions raised by these allegations. [More…]

• They have extremely poor health and nutrition. [More…]

• Is it a fact that funds have still not been allocated for health programs. [More…]

• 3 ) Is any of the money slashed from capital works such as schools and health clinics, likely to be restored. [More…]

• How is it envisaged that the nutritional and health problems of our Aborigines can be tackled under such circumstances. [More…]

• Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health (Question No. [More…]

• As part of the Commonwealth Government’s review into health, welfare and community development programs, including sport, I reconvened members of the former Sports Council Tor a meeting in Melbourne on 16 August 1976. [More…]

• T. F. Gill, New Zealand Minister of Immigration and Minister for Health- 17-20 February 1976. [More…]

• Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health (Question No. [More…]

• When did the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health present its interim report and to whom (Hansard, 12 October 1976, page 1784 and 1 1 November 1976, page 2594). [More…]

• I am advised that the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health is working towards presenting me with its first report before the end of the year. [More…]

• Noting that the condition of human settlements largely determines the quality of life, the improvement of which is a prerequisite for the full satisfaction of basic needs, such as employment, housing, health services, education and recreation, [More…]

• Inequitable economic growth, reflected in the wide disparities in wealth which now exist between countries and between human beings and which condemn millions of people to a life of poverty, without satisfying the basic requirements for food, education, health services, shelter, environmental hygiene, water and energy; [More…]

• Rural dispersion exemplified by small scattered settlements and isolated homesteads which inhibit the provision of infrastructure and services, particularly those relating to water, health and education; [More…]

• Creating more livable, attractive and efficient settlements which recognise human scale, the heritage and culture of people and the special needs of disadvantaged groups especially children, women and the infirm m order to ensure the provision of health, services, education, food and employment within a framework of social justice; [More…]

• Creating economic opportunities conducive to full employment where, under healthy, safe conditions, women and men will be fairly compensated for their labour in monetary, health and other personal benefits. [More…]

• These policies must facilitate the rapid and continuous improvement in the quality of life of all people, beginning with the satisfaction of the basic needs of food, shelter, clean water, employment, health, education, training, social security without any discrimination as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, ideology, national or social origin or other cause, in a frame of freedom, dignity and social justice. [More…]

• Health is an essential element in the development of the individual and one of the goals of human settlement policies should be to improve environmental health conditions and basic health services. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Animal Health Laboratory at Geelong (Question No. [More…]

• 1 ) What is the present stage of the Animal Health Laboratory at Geelong. [More…]

• However, it is hoped that the special team established to undertake design work for the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory will be able to continue with this work until the design and tender documents are complete. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Has he noticed the caustic findings of the Royal Commission on Petroleum in its fifth report tabled 3 weeks ago to the effect that present State proposals on lead phase-down will exceed $500m in capital cost and will add not less than Se a gallon to the cost of motor spirit, whereas the public health objectives now set can be achieved at negligible cost by the deployment of other methods of phasing down lead, and massive expenditure can be avoided without detracting from accepted public health objectives. [More…]

• The matter of the lead content of petrol has been under consideration by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Those who live in rural communities, whether they live on farms or in country towns, need such things as communications, telephones, transport, fuel prices equalisation, reasonable educational opportunities and special health and welfare services. [More…]

• The Minister has informed me that the Australian Telecommunications Commission intends approaching the various social welfare departments- the Department of Social Security, the Department of Health and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs- to investigate whether or not they will be prepared to assist possible users financially by subsidising purchases or rentals of these devices. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Has the Melba Health Centre only 3 doctors at present, when the complement in January 1 976 was 6. [More…]

• Is it a fact that (a) this Centre serves a population of over 17 000, (b) people from the area who have been on the books of the Centre since its inception are sometimes unable to be treated because of the workload, and are referred to the Canberra Hospital, 18 kilometres away, or to private practitioners, (c) no new health centre will be completed in this area until 1978, by which time the population in the area is expected to be in excess of 25 000 and (d) the pharmacy at the Centre is unable to play its full role due to the pressure of work and is unable to keep personal records of patients, as they have no clerical assistance. [More…]

• Is it also a fact that when a private pharmacy opened in Kambah the pharmacy at the Kambah Village Health Centre was closed; if so, as there is now a private pharmacy at Charnwood is it the intention of the Health Commission to close the Melba Health Centre pharmacy. [More…]

• 1 ) The Melba Health Centre has four doctors at present. [More…]

• (a) The population of the area (approximately 17 500) is served by the Melba Health Centre and private practitioners. [More…]

• A major study is under way in the Capital Territory Health Commission concerning the timing and siting of health centres in Canberra. [More…]

• Pharmacists at the Centre agreed that because all patient information was entered on the Health Centre record separate records were not needed in the pharmacy. [More…]

• Initially the closure of the pharmacy in the Village Health Centre was caused by the Commission’s inability to staff the pharmacy during a period of absence, due to illness, of the salaried pharmacist However, pharmaceutical services were available for Health Centre patients from a newly opened private pharmacy adjacent to the health centre. [More…]

• The Commission has no plans to close the pharmacy at Melba Health Centre. [More…]

• Since 1972 the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) an advisory body to States and Territories, has made a series of recommendations on PCBs relating to their usage, waste disposal, their existence in certain microscope immersion oils used in laboratories, precautions necessary when used in totally enclosed systems, and poisons scheduling limitations. [More…]

• However, research is continuing under the auspices of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in the United States of America. [More…]

• We all wish you and your wife the greatest of good health and happiness in your retirement. [More…]

• It is just not true to say that there is now more take home pay because although there have been adjustments for Inflation under tax indexation we have had offsetting them the health taxes, the removal of rebates for dependants and the abolition of interest deductibility on home mortgages. [More…]

• I pointed out that after taking into consideration the increased child endowment benefit, this man was now taking home over $5 a week less when adjustments were made for inflation and account was taken of the health taxes and the removal of rebates for dependants. [More…]

• A year ago the Australian people were invited to get rid of the Labor Government- the Government that had created Medibank and health centres and legal aid, reformed education reformed our servile foreign policies, embarked on creative social programs and raised the living standards and expectations of all Australians. [More…]

• The people were asked to dispense with health centres and growth centres, with urban programs and transport programs, to restore full employment and reduce inflation. [More…]

• No one, however wealthy, can build a new city or a new highway, sewer his house, or erect a hospital, a health centre or a school. [More…]

• In any just society people can no more do without decent roads, schools, health centres or efficient medical insurance than they can do without their weekly pay cheque. [More…]

• What the Government conceals from the people is that wage rises have already been curbed, real incomes have already fallen, without any improvement in our economic health. [More…]

• To put these facts in perspective, to establish this charge precisely, we must look at the effects of the Government’s attitude to wage indexation and its other fiscal and economic measures, including the health tax. [More…]

• Allowing for taxation, including the health tax and social security payments such as family allowances, the net income of such a person when Labor went out of office averaged $1 1 1.64 a week; today it has fallen to $108.54 a week. [More…]

• Medibank is dismantled: Health care is again a needless worry and a needless financial burden. [More…]

• We believe that those people who can afford to pay for their health care should do so and should pay the full cost. [More…]

• We decided that those people on incomes of $12,000 and over-that is of the order of $240 a week or more- should pay the full cost of thenhealth care, but for those people on incomes below that figure the Government would pick up a large part of the tab. [More…]

• Indeed, on average for people on incomes below $240 a week the Government pays something like 80 per cent of the cost of health care. [More…]

• The Labor Government established a national health scheme to overcome the problems of the 1 500 000 people in this country who were not covered by health schemes. [More…]

• Health and character standards are insisted on but allowance is made for the parlous situation in which the refugees find themselves and their inability to comply strictly with rules related to occupational skills, etc. [More…]

• With regard to the number of persons who pay the levy or are exempt from the levy and are covered by Standard Medibank, such persons are not required to register with the Health Insurance Commission and accordingly the number of these persons could only be calculated when the number of privately insured persons is known. [More…]

• In keeping with the competitive nature of the private health insurance industry, the Health Insurance Commission does not intend to release details of its private operations in advance of its competitors as such action may be inimical to its interests. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The report on vinyl chloride monomer levels in vegetable oils to which the honourable member refers was part of a continuous monitoring program by the Food Standards Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• In addition, a number of State Departments of Health and the Plastics Institute of Australia have carried out monitoring programs parallel to the study referred to above and these surveys have shown the number of samples exceeding the NH and MRC recommended levels is now extremely low. [More…]

• 1 ) Did he say on 19 November 1976 that if people want to settle in Australia they must apply through the proper channels, and if they come here illegally, we cannot check on their background or their health. [More…]

• These adjustments involved the cost of indexation and the additional increase in the rebates for spouses and sole parents, estimated at $1,01 lm, the yield from the health insurance levy ($208) and the gain from the withdrawal of income tax rebates in respect of dependent children and students ($428m). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Those patients who are privately insured, i.e., have basic medical and hospital insurance cover with a private fund, receive the same rate of additional benefit through their health insurance organisation. [More…]

• The details of that proposal are currently under review by the Department and I intend to refer the proposal to the Ministers for Education and Health for comment [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What was the national health expenditure by (a) type of expenditure and (b) source of funds during (i) 1973-74, (ii) 1974-75 and (iii) 1975-76. [More…]

• What was the current account expenditure on health services during (a) 1973-74, (b) 1974-75 and (c) 1975-76. [More…]

• No regular and definitive detailed statement on national health expenditure is available. [More…]

• Table 1 sets out total health expenditure for the years requested showing in (a) sector and economic type of expenditure and showing in (b) source of finance. [More…]

• Prior to 1976 the University of Sydney had students, all of whom were enrolled for diplomas in the Cumberland College of Health Sciences, undertaking miscellaneous subjects at the University. [More…]

• Such a product not stowed under refrigeration for any length of time can constitute a health risk. [More…]

• We know, of course, that the effects of our changed arrangements for health insurance will produce a higher December quarter CPI increase than in any quarter since the 5.6 per cent increase of the December quarter of 1975. [More…]

• This is because inherent in their construction is the proposition that the community has always paid in any way or another for its health care. [More…]

• Health insurance did not suddenly become free on 1 July 1975, nor did it suddenly become more costly on account of our changes effective on 1 October 1976. [More…]

• In other words, the underlying rate of inflation in the latter part of 1975 was not diminished by the previous Government’s decision to fund the costs of health care out of taxation; and the underlying rate of inflation in the December quarter 1976 has not been increased by the change in that arrangement. [More…]

• Apart from the disastrous social impacts of many of these cuts in Government spending in areas like Aboriginal affairs and health, the heavy economic impact was also felt I have said time and time again that these cuts not only have a direct impact in that fewer people are employed in the Government sector of the economy but they also have an impact on the private sector which misses out on contracts with the public sector. [More…]

• I will repeat them: They are those concerning Medibank, other health insurance increases and devaluation. [More…]

• Only when we change back to a government which recognises that we must have the institution for medium and long term planning; that we must have national objectives worked out by consensus; that we must have a government which knows how to work with the institutional labour movement and with the private sector by consensus will we have a return to economic health. [More…]

• We have a Government which slashes spending on health, social security, housing, urban and regional development, transport and even assistance to industry, yet it still manages to increase the deficit by $800m between January last year and January this year. [More…]

• No wonder it is considering an increase of 70c a week in the cost of the health tax, and a new Medibank levy. [More…]

• The economy has to be nurtured carefully back to health. [More…]

• It damages the employees’ health and must at some stage affect their efficiency. [More…]

• Journal, the Health of the Residents at the WVH has never been in better hands than it is today. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• In accordance with Section 23 of the Health Insurance Act, I have requested all medical practitioners engaged in rendering professional services to persons in Australia to accept assignment of benefits as full payment for services to eligible pensioners and their dependants. [More…]

• I have offered the Minister for Health in New South Wales any help that I can give to try to resolve the situation. [More…]

• The response from the Australian Medical Association and the New South Wales Health Commission is heartening and I trust that reason will prevail so that this unfortunate situation may be overcome as quickly as possible. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What has been the (a) number and (b) cost of prescriptions for milk substitutes issued under the schedules of the National Health Act in each year since milk substitutes were included as an item. [More…]

• 1496 and the misleading labelling and advertising of margarine, and co-ordination between the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Trade Practices Commission, does the Commission check with the Council on such terms as ‘no cholesterol’ and polyunsaturated’. [More…]

• ) Is the use of any terms associating polyunsaturated fats or no cholesterol with health or heart disease allowed in the advertising or labelling of margarine. [More…]

• The term ‘polyunsaturated’ margarine is defined by the National Health and Medical Research Council as table margarine in which the total fatty acids present contain not less than 40 per cent cismethylene interrupted polyunsaturated fatty acids and not more than 20 per cent saturated fatty acids. [More…]

• Information about other countries is not available from the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• Can any honourable member tell me that the policies of the Labor Party and the Liberal Party in relation to health, foreign affairs, defence, industrial relations and the Treasury are not diametrically opposed? [More…]

• As there are also 2 large public hospitals and numerous other health facilities situated in the area, the number of people claiming unemployment and sickness benefits must be very high, and it is our understanding that the current procedure involves processing of these claims at the Melbourne office of your Department. [More…]

• On behalf of actual beneficiaries, involved individuals, agencies and organisations, such as the Commonwealth Employment Service offices at Preston and Heidelberg, Preston Employment Action Group, Program for Unemployed SelfHelp (West Heidelberg), the 2 community health centres situated in the large Housing Commission estates of Preston/Reservoir and West Heidelberg, Preston and Northcote Community Hospital, Austin Hospital and North Eastern Suburbs Regional Office (Social Welfare Department), we request that you give your most urgent consideration to the relocation of an unemployment and sickness benefit component at the Preston regional office. [More…]

• -The House was treated yesterday to a long winded attempt by the Treasurer (Mr Lynch) to convince Australians that record levels of unemployment and uncontrolled inflation are indicators of a healthy economy and sound economic management. [More…]

• It said nothing about how inflation could be reduced by a government that applies health taxes, proposes increases in oil prices and fuels inflation by a hasty and unnecessary devaluation of the Australian currency. [More…]

• I table 2 reports: The report of the Committee on Care of the Aged and the Infirm and the first report of the Task Force on Coordination in Welfare and Health entitled Proposals for Change in the Administration and Delivery of Programs and Services. [More…]

• In June and July 1976 the Government established 2 inquiries in the health and welfare fields. [More…]

• The second, the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health, chaired by Mr P. H. Bailey, was announced on 23 July. [More…]

• The relationship between programs for the aged and the infirm and other health and welfare programs. [More…]

• The report for example raises the possibility of including the costs of nursing home care within the health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall the decision to establish the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health arose out of the Government’s concern at the proliferation, duplication and overlap of Commonwealth programs and services in the health, welfare and community development fields. [More…]

• In proposing various administrative changes, both reports make suggestions as to how the Commonwealth can safeguard the role of local and voluntary agencies delivering health and welfare services in the community. [More…]

• Our view is that these reports raise important issues in the health and welfare fields which merit serious consideration, not only by governments but also by all those involved. [More…]

• The group will be assisted’ by officials from other departments including Treasury, Finance, Health, Social Security, Environment, Housing and Community Development and the Public Service Board. [More…]

• The Committee on Care of the Aged and the Infirm and the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health are to be commended for their efforts. [More…]

• If we examine the case of the community health and community mental health programs the Government’s intentions are abundantly clear. [More…]

• Following the amalgamation of these 2 programs the Fraser Government allocated only $7 1.8m for community mental and community health services, a reduction in funding in real terms. [More…]

• The result of this cutback in expenditure has been a significant decline in the quality of health care provided to the public. [More…]

• Despite the increasing demand for these types of services, there will be no new health or mental health centres approved by this Government in this financial year. [More…]

• The major recommendation of the Holmes inquiry, practically ignored by the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) in his statement today, is the phasing out of nursing care benefits by the Federal Government and amendments to health insurance legislation requiring Medibank and the private health insurance funds to provide nursing home cover. [More…]

• In fact, the Cabinet summary of the Bailey report, leaked to the Press over the weekend, estimated that health insurance premiums could rise by as much as 70c a week. [More…]

• Let him say clearly whether health insurance premiums will rise. [More…]

• Overlap and duplication can be eliminated with planning and goodwill, but without a commitment- a sharing- by the Federal Government it is much harder to close the gaps in health and welfare services. [More…]

• Ever since the Second World War every new initiative in health and welfare services in Australia has been taken by the Federal government. [More…]

• This method at least enables all Australians to understand the cost of health care and how fraudulent the claim is that health care can ever be free. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Dr Sax headed the committee consisting of representatives from the Royal College of Pathologists in Australia and the Society of Pathologists in Private Practice, plus a representative from the New South Wales Health Commission and representatives from the Department of Health. [More…]

• After question time I will be tabling the report of the Health Insurance Commission for the last financial year. [More…]

• Two of the decisions were, of course, those relating to health insurance arrangements and devaluation. [More…]

• Changes to the health insurance arrangements were made predominantly on ideological rather than on economic grounds. [More…]

• The consequent changes to health insurance costs have added 3.2 per cent to the consumer price index and have meant that for the last 6 months of 1976 prices have risen at an annual rate of 16.4 per cent, compared with a rise of 12.8 per 268 REPRESENTATIVES 22 February 1977 Cost of Living in Australia cent for the last 6 months of the Labor Government’s term of office. [More…]

• It is ludicrous of the Treasurer to speak glibly of ‘once for all ‘ statistical effects of the changes in health insurance arrangements, or of quarantining price rises from devaluation. [More…]

• This is because inherent in the construction of these implicit deflators is the plain fact that the community must always pay, in one way or another, for its health care. [More…]

• Health services did not suddenly become free on 1 July 1975; nor did they suddenly become more costly to the community on account of the changes effected on 1 October 1976. [More…]

• Leader of the Opposition had to say about health costs. [More…]

• The December quarter figures also show a very substantial decrease in the cost of health services as a direct result of the Medibank program introduced by my Government. [More…]

• It is, of course, completely fatuous to assert that the cost of health services declined simply because the bill was transferred to the taxpayer. [More…]

• It is equally fatuous for the Opposition to be claiming in the House today that the latest index reflects an increase in the cost of health services. [More…]

• Of course, Australia is not being given free health care. [More…]

• There is no such thing as free health care. [More…]

• Before I leave this subject I would like to say that health care can never be free. [More…]

• With the Medibank levy we have the chance to see what health care is really costing us. [More…]

• I do not think there is any doubt that the cost of health care will grow much faster in the future and that as a result resources will be taken away, from other major areas such as education and welfare where they would otherwise be used. [More…]

• This may lead us to some conflict with States, but I would hope that this legislation would apply to all trading corporations, be it Trans-Australia Airlines vis-a-vis Ansett Airlines of Australia or be it Medibank vis-a-vis the private health funds. [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I refer to recent allegations in the Canberra Press that the dispute between salaried and private specialists in the Australian Capital Territory is being resolved by the destruction of the salaried service and that the Capital Territory Health Commission could be in breach of the Trade Practices Act. [More…]

• I do not believe for a moment either that the Capital Territory Health Commission is attempting to discriminate against the salaried specialists or that it is in breach of the Trade Practices Act. [More…]

• The Capital Territory Health Commission is in the process of trying to implement those recommendations. [More…]

• -Has the Prime Minister noticed that the annual report of the Health Insurance Commission, which also appeared yesterday, revealed that Medibank in its first full year of operation expended $157m less than its Budget allocation for hospital and medical benefits and grants to the States and that it saved nearly a quarter of a million dollars in administrative expenses which represented only 0.04 per cent of the Commission’s total payments? [More…]

• Does the Prime Minister still maintain that his decisions to restructure Medibank justified the 82.9 per cent increase in the health component of the consumer price index which the Statistician revealed yesterday? [More…]

• My colleague the Minister for Health, those who have been working with him in the Commission in relation to these matters and negotiating with the States, and those on the CommonwealthState committees in each of the States which are looking at the budgets of hospitals, all deserve the highest possible commendation for this very large and substantial saving which has been achieved. [More…]

• I am quite certain that the honourable gentleman would have preferred Medibank arrangements which made people think that health care was free and that it did not have to be paid for. [More…]

• The fact that the cost of health care is now plain and out in the open is a healthy factor in Australian society. [More…]

• To have the cost of health care hidden was itself extravagant and conducive to the use of health services at a rate that was not necessary. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The State Health Commission yesterday revoked a doctor ‘s hospital privileges for such a refusal. [More…]

• 203 5 which asks the Minister for Health in which New South Wales country towns private doctors are refusing to treat standard ward hospital patients. [More…]

• Mi WILLIS (Gellibrand)-(3.27) Within 15 months of taking office the Fraser Government’s success in restoring the economy to economic health can be measured by the fact that it is now presiding over the third highest ever quarterly inflation rise and the highest ever level of unemployment recorded by the Commonwealth Employment Service. [More…]

• The only areas of substantial growth were health, in which employment was up by 17 000, education, in which employment was up by 16 000, and the wholesale and retail trade, in which employment was up by 12 000. [More…]

• Health and education of course provide very substantial areas of government employment. [More…]

• Of that 6 per cent increase, if we take the word of the Treasurer (Mr Lynch), 3.2 per cent is made up of the Medibank charges or the change in the health scheme arrangements in Australia. [More…]

• Can we expect the man who is now paying a health tax, whether to a private fund or to Medibank, to think that that is an indication of good faith or of a conciliatory attitude on the part of the Government? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What is the present view of health authorities on this subject. [More…]

• Accordingly as a precautionary measure, steps were taken some years ago by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC), Commonwealth and State Health Departments and the Plastics Industry to reduce the levels of VCM in PVC containers to the absolute minimum possible. [More…]

• I point out to the honourable member for Adelaide that the underlying rate of inflation in the latter part of 1975 was not diminished by the decision to fund the cost of health care out of taxation. [More…]

• He has been informed that a continued acceptance of those responsibilities could well jeopardise his health. [More…]

• It will set safety and health standards and co-ordinate activities across the full range of the social welfare area. [More…]

• The present system of compulsory State workers’ compensation and third party insurance, like the Fraser Government’s compulsory health insurance, are intrinsically extravagant and inefficient. [More…]

• Medical and hospital treatment have to be paid for, but the present State workers’ compensation and third party insurance schemes and the present Federal health insurance scheme make medical and hospital treatment unnecessarily expensive for patients and taxpayers. [More…]

• However, there would be an entitlement for hospital and medical expenses under health insurance arrangements, as well as income maintenance for short term injuries under sick leave provisions. [More…]

• Nevertheless, in its own sphere the Commonwealth has demonstrated that it is aware of the need for action by introducing a code of general principles for occupational safety and health in Australian Government employment. [More…]

• The Opposition is fully appreciative of the reply given by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• We never hear a Country Party member in this place talking about the problems of rural health, about which the Hospitals and Health Services Commission established by the Labor Government brings down reports. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Do the Health authorities take frequent tests of liquor offered for sale by licensees of liquor houses in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• This matter is of continuing concern to the Government and I have offered the Minister for Health in New South Wales any help that I can give to try to resolve the problem and have appealed to the Australian Medical Association to campaign among its members for a cessation of this discriminatory practice which, I am glad to say, is restricted to a minority of its members. [More…]

• The Queensland Minister for Health stated recently that the Queensland Government had no funds available to it to help the Council. [More…]

• Did the Commonwealth Employment Service check with the Capital Territory Health Commission before assisting Population Services International, to find out whether the proposed abortion clinic would be within the law and would meet all requirements for health clinics? [More…]

• The CES did not check or consider it necessary to check with the ACT Health Commission before assisting the Phillip Medical Centre in filling its vacancies because the CES was under the clear impression that the centre was, as had been represented to the CES, a medical centre. [More…]

• To get an accurate picture allowance must be made for the way in which the changed arrangements for health insurance- the Medibank changes- have affected the CPI. [More…]

• The Opposition apparently continues to refuse to face the fact that health costs have to be paid for somehow. [More…]

• He did not say that wages contributed to health, sickness, accident and unemployment insurance. [More…]

• Finally, this occasion gives us the opportunity to congratulate our Queen of Australia on her 25 th year of accession to the throne, to welcome her and to wish her and her family health and happiness. [More…]

• The Medibank levy involved a political decision, a philosophical commitment to make people personally accountable for a portion of their health costs. [More…]

• It is not a result of economic forces leading unavoidably to higher health costs. [More…]

• As the recession deepened and inflation continued, the Government launched its single most expensive program yet-Medibank, a system of free universal health care which added some $1.8 billion yearly to the taxpayers’ burden. [More…]

• It is not enough to say that the rejections are based on the declining health of those people who are stranded in Nicosia. [More…]

• Since that time there has been a requirement that all people who are nominated to come to Australia should be assessed in terms of health and character clearances before they leave to come to Australia. [More…]

• However diverse the Commonwealth is in traditions, cultures, institutions and creeds, however unequal in literacy, health, personal opportunities and national development, it is a meaningful forum for 3 dozen independent nations of which one dozen have the Queen as their Head of State. [More…]

• community health and welfare, and [More…]

• It is a very time consuming activity to belong to the Joint Select Committee on Aboriginal Land Rights in the Northern Territory, particularly because members of the House of Representatives who are involved also have responsibilities in regard to inquiries concerning Aboriginal health and alcoholism among Aborigines. [More…]

• The Prime Minister is constantly telling us that the dismantling of Medibank enables everyone to know the real cost of health care and health insurance. [More…]

• Of course people should know the real costs of health care, but there are two things that really matter First, to discover the minimum inescapable costs of such care and of insuring against them and, secondly, to devise the fairest way of paying those costs once they are determined. [More…]

• The Government’s obligation is to the people, the consumers, the patients- not to the insurance companies or the doctors or the private health funds. [More…]

• Every government program for the people’s welfare and security, every State and federal and local initiative for better cities, health care, transport and community advancement will be starved and strangled. [More…]

• The health policy of the Liberal-National Country parties released in November 1975 promised the ‘development of a comprehensive and integrated health care system’ under a LiberalNational Country Party Government. [More…]

• We will maintain Medibank and ensure that the standard of health care does not decline. [More…]

• After only 6 months in power the Fraser Government destroyed Medibank and dismantled most of the Labor Government’s preventive health programs. [More…]

• The Capital Territory Health Commission has pursued in general the recommendations that arose from that report. [More…]

• However, I thank the honourable member for the question because I am in a position now to advise the House that the World Health Organisation has removed Australia from the list of countries with cholera infection. [More…]

• I take this opportunity of paying the Queensland health authorities a compliment for the way in which they have overcome the infection problem in Brisbane. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware that his suggestion in the House last week, namely, that Population Services International should defer the setting up of an abortion clinic in Canberra until all the health and legal aspects have been given full consideration, has apparently fallen on deaf ears? [More…]

• The only point that I wish to make in addition to those that I made in the House a few days ago is that the Capital Territory Health Commission considered the safety and medical aspects of the operation of free standing abortion clinics at its meeting yesterday. [More…]

• However, I have been informed that the Capital Territory Health Commission gave consideration to a report from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on the health aspects of free standing abortion clinics. [More…]

• It is my understanding that the Commission is concerned that proper health safeguards should be imposed to ensure the safety of patients receiving any clinical service. [More…]

• The Capital Territory Health Commission will be formally reporting this recommendation to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. [More…]

• In view of the legal, health and local community attitudes, I think that it would be wise to heed my warning at this stage. [More…]

• The Congress will bring from 1500 to 2000 visitors to Australia, including Ministers, judges, academic and other leading figures in the field of law, criminology, police, corrections, social welfare, mental health, sociology, education and related areas and disciplines. [More…]

• Let them tell us how the rural people are serviced in education, health or local government by having an undue number of members of Parliament from the country areas. [More…]

• The health services, the educational services and the building of local government were carried out only by a Labor Government- a government that believed in one vote one value. [More…]

• They probably have the highest growth rate, the highest death rate, the worst health and housing, and legal status of any identifiable section of the Australian population ‘. [More…]

• In the divisions that were ca lied every member of the present Federal Cabinet who were in the House on 10 May 1973 including the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), voted against the Bill. [More…]

• I know that when this matter was aired in the House the Minister for Health said that the proposal may not proceed until certain things are done. [More…]

• The first was that it revealed incidentally and unintentionally the poverty, ill health and abject conditions of Aboriginal children. [More…]

• Whilst a cut-back in the health program would have one significance here, it would have an utterly different significance to them. [More…]

• Even now the academics who suggest that there are health risks in sugar could possibly find the same health problems in any processed food and, with the increasing use of chemical control, perhaps in any food line. [More…]

• Until Fraser Government Ministers admit that this is their strategy I am not going to accept that, misguided though their means are, their objective is a return to economic health. [More…]

• There is no way in the world that one can say credibly, as the Treasurer has attempted to say, that the December quarter national accounts indicate that the economy is moving towards economic health. [More…]

• After an unprecedented world economic crisis in 1974 and continuing into 1975- something which happened not only in Australia but also in every comparable country- we had a slow but sure return to economic health taking place about IS months ago. [More…]

• That would mean that our allocation of resources to education, health, social welfare, and urban and regional development could be planned without risk of dislocation. [More…]

• The facts are that there are not viable plans for solving inflation, that there is not a solitary care for unemployed people, that there is no semblance of planning or concern in the fields of social welfare, health, urban planning, Aboriginal affairs, the aged or education. [More…]

• On health- the biggest joke of all- he said: [More…]

• With literally millions of dollars slashed from Aboriginal housing, health and education, that statement hardly makes sense. [More…]

• Let us look at wage indexation and the Arbitration Court in relation to what this Government has done; the castration of the Regional Employment Development scheme and the National Employment and Training scheme; the promise of anti-union legislation; the nastiness shown towards the Aboriginal community; the haranguing of social service recipients and tertiary education students; the disregard for the status of women, community health and urban planning; and the mutilation of Medibank. [More…]

• and (2) Towards the end of May, 1976, the Government announced that the hospital agreements were invalid in terms of the provisions of the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• Information as to the provisions in the rules of the four Western Australian Health benefits organisations concerning election rights of contributors was available from Departmental sources. [More…]

• As it could be some time before the information becomes available my Department is writing to all registered health benefits organisations so that all the information sought by the honourable member may be supplied to him as soon as practicable. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware that the waiting period in New South Wales for the provision of hearing aids to pensioners and others in need is now in excess of 8 months? [More…]

• In view of his address to the Victorian State Council of the Liberal Party in which he foreshadowed further reductions in expenditure on health and welfare services in this year’s Budget, I ask: Will he assure the House that the Government will not restore the means test on pensions for persons over the age of 70 years or reintroduce university fees and loans in breach of the 1975 election commitments? [More…]

• I have also asked my departmental officers to undertake in conjunction with the Health Insurance Commission a complete review of bulk billing of medical fees. [More…]

• The Geelong animal health laboratory is one of 12 projects not yet admitted to a works program but still in the design stage. [More…]

• The failure of the Government’s Medibank changes to satisfy the community’s need for health insurance. [More…]

• -The community’s need for health insurance stems from the nature of illness and its unpredictability, coupled with the very high costs of medical care. [More…]

• Under the previous Liberal Government’s voluntary health insurance system we had experienced government moves in this field which had sprung from previous moves in the community dating back many years- moves to get a comprehensive insurance system to cover illness. [More…]

• The Liberal Government’s comprehensive health system was unsatisfactory at best, and inequitable, inefficient and the cause of great hardship to many people at worst. [More…]

• In case honourable members think that is just my imagination, I will quote from the findings of the Liberal Government’s inquiry into health insurance as published in what has come to be known as the Nimmo report of 1969. [More…]

• The committee found that the operation of the health insurance scheme was unnecessarily complex and beyond the comprehension of many, that the benefits received frequently were much less than the real costs of treatment, whether hospital or medical treatment. [More…]

• I claim that all of these things that were found by the Nimmo Committee to be wrong with the Liberal Government’s voluntary health insurance system up to 1969 would be found to be wrong with the present Liberal Government’s Medibank scheme. [More…]

• Because of the failings set out in the Nimmo Committee report the Labor Government campaigned on, and finally succeeded in introducing, Medibank in July 1975 to provide universal health insurance in an efficient, equitable and comprehensive manner. [More…]

• While Medibank has given health protection to an extra one million people who didn’t have it before, the stampede of patients which was to have ground doctors under foot- so excruciatingly and repeatedly predicted by the Australian Medical Association and the funds- has not eventuated. [More…]

• The Liberals’ criticisms and claims of excessive expense and abuse were further refuted by evidence in the second annual report of the Health Insurance Commission which was tabled in Parliament on 22 February 1977. [More…]

• The editorial went on to state: lt is also true that any health insurance scheme- [More…]

• Indeed, the diffusion makes it harder for health authorities to keep a computer check on doctors who appear to be responsible for excessive claims. [More…]

• It would have provided a forecasting of needs or an assessment of changing needs for health resources in both the developing and older areas. [More…]

• It would have enabled better monitoring of health care costs. [More…]

• By this he seems to mean reducing the Government’s responsibility for the health care costs of the community. [More…]

• His concern with socialisation seems to imply that Labor’s Medibank scheme suddenly brought in government subsidised health care. [More…]

• The reality is that the Government has been funding and will continue to fund the vast majority of the nation’s health care bill. [More…]

• In 1974-75 the public sector funded 70 per cent of all the health care expenditure in the country. [More…]

• In other words, the real motive behind the Medibank mutilation was to reduce the Commonwealth’s share of health expenditure. [More…]

• The fact that the Government’s meddling raised the total cost of health care to each and every Australian was of no concern to the Government. [More…]

• A shadow of the universal health insurance scheme which Labor introduced. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, Mr Hunt, insists that this is not the case. [More…]

• He maintains that far from dismantling Medibank, the Government has improved it by offering people a choice of health insurance. [More…]

• Nor is there any doubt that in future most Australians will pay through the nose for their health insurance. [More…]

• The whole point of the exercise was to provide a comprehensive system of health insurance. [More…]

• That is a exact negation of the whole concept of comprehensive health insurance. [More…]

• The failure of the Government’s Medibank changes to satisfy the community’s need for health insurance. [More…]

• There have been administrative problems, but the Health Insurance Commission has them well in hand. [More…]

• There is no such thing as free health care. [More…]

• Health costs have been exploding in this country at an uncontrollable rate, far in excess of the already excessive rate of inflation generated by the Whitlam Government, which undoubtedly must go down in history as the most economically incompetent of governments ever to govern this country. [More…]

• The whole health insurance proposal introduced by Labor was open-ended and gave no consideration to any checks or balances, which seemed to be characteristic of so many schemes that Labor introduced. [More…]

• The quality of health care was not a priority under Labor’s Medibank scheme. [More…]

• People were brainwashed into believing that they were receiving free health care. [More…]

• Australia was certainly heading down the same road as the United Kingdom with its national health scheme. [More…]

• This would not have been possible if we had not made modifications to the method of paying for universal health insurance. [More…]

• Responsible administration demanded that the present Government take action to bring the exploding costs of universal health insurance under control. [More…]

• Our estimate of health costs in Australia, including both the public and the private sector, for this financial year was about $5,400m, which is an enormous sum of money in anybody’s language when compared with the value of exports of iron ore, coal, wool, wheat and meat which we anticipate will amount to about $4,500m. [More…]

• So we were looking at a figure of $5,400m, exploding health costs, with no guarantee that the health of the Australian people was getting any better. [More…]

• If we had allowed the situation to go on unchanged, the cost of universal health insurance would rapidly have consumed the social welfare dollar in this country. [More…]

• There was no attempt to direct the scarce resources in the health area to the needy sections of the community by means of the health insurance system. [More…]

• It is true that community health centres were being established. [More…]

• I give credit to the former Government for having initiated the community health program. [More…]

• I think that it does assist but I do not for one moment believe that a universal health insurance system does anything actually to ensure that the quality of health care is improved. [More…]

• It is true that it helps people to pay for their health costs, but under the system which the honourable member for Oxley (Mr Hayden) was responsible for introducing, the richest and the poorest could receive the same care at no direct cost to them. [More…]

• Recommendations were made to the Government in respect of the operations of universal health insurance, charging and professional conduct in the pathology area. [More…]

• Those who pay 2Vi per cent plus the hospital only- on average they are the middle income people- are meeting approximately 40 per cent of their health care costs. [More…]

• They are contributing about 70 per cent on average of their total health care costs. [More…]

• The universal health cost cover has been retained. [More…]

• In fact it has been broadened so that its function also provides for private health insurance. [More…]

• I repeat that everybody in this country is covered for health insurance but people pay according to their means. [More…]

• The fact that 70 per cent of the Australian people retained private health insurance was very much a deciding factor in our planning for modifications. [More…]

• It stated publicly that the Government’s health insurance proposals had made the first real attempt to come to grips with the enormous escalation in health cost while maintaining the principles of universal health insurance. [More…]

• The lesson to be learnt from any universal health insurance system around the world is that unless there are proper inbuilt cost constraint mechanisms- I know that the honourable member for Oxley agrees with this- clearly the cost will get completely out of hand and will consume the social welfare dollar. [More…]

• The Australian public had a simple, efficient universal health insurance system which was capable and was in the process of applying effective cost controls. [More…]

• I refer to some of the points made by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• The people are paying in a full year something like $900m more for their health insurance cover than they were paying previously under the original concept of Medibank. [More…]

• Governments do not function in that way, although, having listened to the Minister for Health a few moments ago, one could be excused for thinking otherwise. [More…]

• But the public is paying $900 m more and it is not getting one thing more in terms of better quality health services and it is not getting one skeric more in terms of health services in any form at all. [More…]

• Nothing could be more dishonest coming from a person who can credibly lay claim to having knowledge of the background of the health insurance programs in this country going back over the past decade or so. [More…]

• Indeed, one has only to go to 1974, while we were in government but while the previous private health insurance program was functioning, to recollect the findings of Mr Justice Ludeke when we set up the fees determination tribunal on the matter of pathology utilisation. [More…]

• The reports in the newspapers of the ways in which pathologists were exploiting health insurance then were scandalous and did no credit to that section of the medical profession. [More…]

• That country has a much higher level of public expenditure than we do and it has a health insurance scheme not terribly dissimilar from our own. [More…]

• The 1975-76 annual report of the Health Insurance Commission nails that lie, I hope, for all time. [More…]

• Using earlier reports from the Department of Social Security, I think it was, it is shown that the average number of medical services for a person covered under the old system of private health insurance was 5.1 in 1975. [More…]

• No private health insurance fund has ever equalled that standard either before or during the period in which Medibank operated in its original conception. [More…]

• But, having brought forward as a matter of public importance the Medibank health insurance scheme, I believe that he is nothing more than a charlatan. [More…]

• He then quoted from the report of the health insurance organisations and talked about the underspending of, I think, $156m on Medibank. [More…]

• It was none other than the present Minister for Health, and these discussions will result in the setting up of a Peer Review Committee. [More…]

• If I may go back some years, the honourable member for Oxley introduced this scheme knowing that only 8 per cent of the Australian population was not covered by private health insurance organisations. [More…]

• We opposed any substantial change to the private health insurance scheme that was instigated and operated under the Liberal-National Country Party Government. [More…]

• I pay a tribute to the Minister for Health, who is seated at the table, for the tremendous amount of work that he put in to the modifications that were introduced to Medibank. [More…]

• I thought that in introducing this subject for discussion, namely the failure of the Government’s Medibank changes to satisfy the community’s need for health insurance, the honourable member for Maribyrnong would have been looking at the scheme, how it was operating administratively and how well it was serving the public because after all it is the service to the public that really matters. [More…]

• The people accept today that they have to pay for their health insurance. [More…]

• So it is easy to see that the levy contributors and those who are contributing to private health insurance funds are paying less than 50 per cent of the total cost of the scheme although a good portion of that cost has been identified to the consumers. [More…]

• Medibank in itself, as the Minister stated earlier, is the second largest private health insurance fund. [More…]

• When the increase in publicly provided benefits in education, health, social security and so on is added in, his total real income rose by 9.3 per cent. [More…]

• The Government has conned people into going back into private health insurance funds. [More…]

• It is difficult to believe that the Health Department in the Northern Territory will spring into action at our behest any more than it has done in the past unless we do something dramatic. [More…]

• I recognise that the Minister for Health is on our side. [More…]

• Health-There was a car accident while we were there. [More…]

• I would regard the establishment of a health offensive unit at such places as urgent no matter what the Health Department does. [More…]

• Health [More…]

• In a number of fields the Aboriginal people of Australia are more unhealthy than almost any other group on earth. [More…]

• There should be no efforts spared in bringing the health of the Aboriginal people up to the general Australian standard. [More…]

• An attack upon the nutrition of many Aboriginal families would solve some of the problems in other health fields. [More…]

• It is very easy for a government to win electoral appeal by increasing education spending, by increasing health spending, by increasing social welfare spending or by increasing subsidies to a number of industries and concessions to many employment areas in the community. [More…]

• If a government is going to give increased health cover, then the community will have to pay for it. [More…]

• This Government will have to give an indication to the working men and women in Australia what lies in front of them by way of taxation, what lies in front of them as regards improved working conditions, higher pay, better health, educational and other services. [More…]

• After the war, the eradication of malaria and improvements in medical health led to a sharp fall in mortality, and especially in infant mortality. [More…]

• I came back shocked by 2 things- the health standards and the lack of assistance that we are giving to overcome the very great problems so far as those health standards are concerned. [More…]

• The Indonesian Minister for Health pointed out that the health authorities have only one coaster- that is a small boat or ship capable of carrying about 3 people. [More…]

• He maintained that that was the greatest need that his country has at the present time if the deplorable health standards of Indonesia are to be improved. [More…]

• I have seen the health standards of other countries, as no doubt have other honourable members. [More…]

• Papua New Guinea has had this type of health service for many years. [More…]

• The standards of health care in China are far better than the standards in Indonesia. [More…]

• One person- I will not give his name because sometimes the Indonesian authorities do not appreciate people putting different viewsmade the point very clearly to me that Indonesia did not want aid for defence, for arms or for aeroplanes but it needed aid to improve the health standards of its people. [More…]

• Despite our standard of living and our health standards, which are the envy of other countries, we are still giving only 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product. [More…]

• Such a level of assistance would make a tremendous impact upon the living conditions, the health and the future expectations of the people who live to the north of us. [More…]

• Whether we like it or not Australia will be the subject of great resentment and other countries will finally demand that we be a little more generous in our attitude towards assistance, particularly in the areas of health and of developing industry. [More…]

• There is no question that the developed countries of the region must play a role in the activities of the Bank I say this because the developing member countries of the Bank account for onethird of the world’s population, they have the highest rates of population growth and the lowest per capita incomes- not to mention their low health, housing and other social conditions. [More…]

• If we look at the whole range of Labor initiatives and Labor achievements- in health, in education, in social security, in child care, in industrial policy, in incomes policy, in human rights- we can see that women and children are as much the beneficiaries as men, and that those in greatest need receive the greatest benefit. [More…]

• We established health centres and many women’s refuges throughout Australia. [More…]

• It is wrecking creative programs for the health, security and welfare of women and children just as it is wrecking those for men. [More…]

• Third, the health and welfare of their families. [More…]

• The Fraser Government, by demolishing the concept of Medibank and throttling Labor’s programs for health care and hospitals, especially in outer suburbs and developing regions, is making life harder and more hazardous for millions of women. [More…]

• -My question, which is directed to the Minister for Health, is further to my question to him some time ago relating to vaccinations and innoculations being provided free of charge by Commonwealth health establishments to overseas travellers. [More…]

• Of course the Government realises that there are environmental factors and that safeguards regarding health and pollution must be given great importance. [More…]

• One had kept one’s health quite well and one thought it was safe to go back. [More…]

• This assessment and the report completed by the child’s supervising doctor are then considered by a Commonwealth Medical Officer employed by the Department of Health, who certifies whether the child can be accepted as severely handicapped for the purpose of the allowance. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I have more contemporary ones which reflect the hazardous and harassing experience of trying to care for the health of the nation and to maintain Medibank. [More…]

• Is it a fact that all States, except Queensland, are funding women’s refuges from Commonwealth grants under the community health program? [More…]

• Is it also a fact that the Brisbane and Townsville women’s refuges and the Brisbane Women’s Health Centre are short of funds? [More…]

• It is a fact that under the block grant under the community health program of the Federal Government the Queensland Government decided not to pass on any Federal funds to the women’s refuges which were mentioned by the honourable member. [More…]

• As a result, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Social Security asked the Prime Minister whether they could examine alternative sources of funding. [More…]

• Has he noted that Professor Fred Hollows, the leader of the national trachoma and eye health program, whose work has been mentioned during previous question times by the Minister for Health, whose birthday we celebrate today, reported to the Annual Scientific Congress sponsored this week by the Australian College of Ophthalmologists that trachoma had declined dramatically among the 1800 Aborigines at Moree in the last 10 years since they began to get houses with hot and cold running water? [More…]

• Like my colleague the Minister for Health I am very keen to see his national trachoma campaign continue and extend throughout Australia. [More…]

• As he also pointed out, the standard of housing is directly relevant to health conditions of that kind. [More…]

• This arrangement contributed enormously to the efficient functioning of a universal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The figures released in statistical data in this year’s annual report of the Health Insurance Commission establish that beyond any doubt. [More…]

• It seems that the Government has an extremely short memory, because one thing which was proved beyond any doubt in the period up to 1 972 was that it is impossible to provide adequately some sort of special benefit system under health insurance for low income earners. [More…]

• The sort of abuse which has become apparent by pathologists under Medibank is the same sort of abuse which was rampant under the old system of private health insurance. [More…]

• The independent inquiries on fee determinations which the Labor Government set up in 1973 and 1974, I believe first under Mr Justice Ludeke and under Mr Mcintosh in the second case, disclosed that pathologists were certainly abusing the then system of private health insurance to rip off from the taxpayer and to rip off from the public in a quite unconscionable way. [More…]

• It will have to increase the staff ceilings of the Health Insurance Commission by between 70 and 80 persons. [More…]

• Additional staff of between 450 and 500 would be required by the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Now it further attacks Medibank by attacking the basic reasonable and economic procedure of bulk billing, as if that were an ill of health insurance. [More…]

• That is one of the considerations we must take into account in the provision of health services. [More…]

• So the cost of health services would be hidden even further and the actions of those doctors would be a further rip-off from the community. [More…]

• The 1975-76 annual report of the Health Insurance Commission showed the usage figure as being 4.79 services per head of population. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission reported in June 1976 that the average cost of processing assigned benefits was only 34 cents per claim, compared with an average cost of 44 cents per cash claim and $1.14 per pay claimant or pay doctor cheque claim. [More…]

• In a similar statement made in March the Director of the Victorian Health Department estimated that alcoholism was costing the Government $600m. [More…]

• Alcoholism is now Australia’s fourth major health hazard after cancer. [More…]

• That in turn has created a massive financial burden on our health system. [More…]

• A recent survey by the Victorian Department of Health conducted in one country town classified 7 per cent of third-form students in a secondary school as being heavy or very heavy drinkers. [More…]

• Another survey conducted by the New South Wales Health Education Advisory Council found that although only five of the 1407 boys in the survey of 30 government and nongovernment schools throughout New South Wales were of legal drinking age, 19 per cent purchased alcohol personally from licensed premises. [More…]

• On 8 February this year the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) announced an additional grant of $100,000 to the Australian Foundation of Alcoholism and Drug Dependence under the Commonwealth’s community health program. [More…]

• The cost to the taxpayer or health care in Australia has rocketed in recent years. [More…]

• Even allowing for the Medibank changes, total outlays on health were then estimated at almost $3,000m for this financial year. [More…]

• I have had discussions with the Queensland Ministers for Fisheries, Health and Primary Industries and the Federal Minister for Primary Industry. [More…]

• The Committee accepts assurances that expenditure is essential for health and social reasons and that a portion of this money will be recoverable when the village is relocated. [More…]

• The sewerage system needs upgrading because at the moment it is a health hazard. [More…]

• The Public Works Committee some 2 years ago concluded its hearings on the National Animal Health Laboratories which are to be constructed at Geelong. [More…]

• In the case of the National Animal Health Laboratories the cost of the project is going up by at least $ I m per month while the project is delayed. [More…]

• Although it is not really relevant to what is happening in Tasmania, the design work on the National Animal Health Laboratory is proceeding. [More…]

• We must make sure our aid is wide-ranging in terms of the activities it covers and that it covers infrastructure development, agriculture, animal health and nutrition; the areas in fact in which this nation over the years has managed to achieve a pre-eminent position in the world. [More…]

• It guides them in all aspects of the Australian way of life, and helps them with queries in relation to health, taxation and other matters. [More…]

• The governments want to give them health care and education but cannot do so unless they can get water to start a hygiene program. [More…]

• If even a fraction of that combined with the carbon of the coal to form the highly toxic gas cyanogene this would constitute a grave health hazard (see below). [More…]

• Health Hazards [More…]

• The main health hazard is attached to the gaseous waste products. [More…]

• The solid waste products will have to be removed at frequent intervals (perhaps as often as daily), but the health hazards involved in that operation can easily be minimised by the use of conventional remote-handling equipment. [More…]

• Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health (Question No. [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to recommendation 15 and paragraph 171 of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health. [More…]

• Are health checks made on all imports of fresh and processed foods on arrival in Australia; if so, what forms do these checks take. [More…]

• A joint investigation by the Social Security Depanment, the Department of Health, and the Commonwealth Police on matters concerned with the possible unauthorised use of computers has been completed. [More…]

• -My question is also directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• All reasonable people will join with the Government in condemning this highly irresponsible industrial action by a few key employees in this industry which has brought great hardship and inconvenience to the community at a time when it can have the effect only of delaying economic recovery and when the great need is for the support of everyone in this community to restore the economic health of the country. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has said- this must be the climax of question time- that the doctors have told him that they would be prepared, as part of the package, to forgo any fee increases between now and the end of the year. [More…]

• Let us tell people overseas what it is really like, how expensive it is to live here, about the droughts and the floods and the bushfires, the tax rates and the high cost of health insurance. [More…]

• It should remind us that other matters besides our economic health are important to our welfare and can be forgotten only at our own peril. [More…]

• One view goes so far as to suggest that the situation of migrants in relation to education, health services etc. [More…]

• They should be able to enjoy equal opportunity to avail themselves of a community health system, not one that is restricted to children whose grandfathers can afford to pay for them. [More…]

• Areas such as education and health are the social responsibility of all Australians. [More…]

• It is clear from the comments made by people on my geographic left that there are people in this community who do not agree with the concept I mentioned but who agree with the concept that people should be educated only according to the wealth of their parents or their grandparents and who agree that people should enjoy good health only according to the cost that their parents and grandparents can afford. [More…]

• The Department of Veterans’ Affairs has already established informal consultation arrangements with health authorities in each State. [More…]

• Major Veterans’ Affairs hospital projects are also discussed with the Hospitals and Health Services Commission; I have directed the Departent to have further discussions with the Commission with a view to introducing more formal arrangements along the lines recommended. [More…]

• ’s, in the interests of effective use of services in short supply, to obtain nursing and home care services through the local community health program. ‘ [More…]

• The Department of Veterans’ Affairs has been utilising local community health care associated services since 1953 when approval was given for domiciliary nursing to be arranged for patients awaiting hospitalisation. [More…]

• In the States where the local community health program exists, any domiciliary care necessary is arranged through the organising body. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) Does the National Health Act require the Permanent Head of his Depanment to furnish him as soon as practicable after 30 June each year with a report on the operations of registered medical and hospital benefits organisations for the year ended on 30 June. [More…]

• Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health: Second Report (Question No. [More…]

• 1 ) Has he set a date for the transmission to him of the second report of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health in which it is proposed to concentrate on the development of proposals for the more effective coordination of social policy development at the Commonwealth level. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 March 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 March 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) Was the Saudi Arabian Minister for Health recently in Australia studying remote area health services. [More…]

• The Minister for Health of Saudi Arabia, Dr H. al-Jazaeri, visited Australia, as a guest of the Government, from 1 6th to 21 March. [More…]

• They knew that basic and needed programs for health care, hospitals, education, housing, the cities, recreation, transport, sewerage, child care, sport, the environment would all suffer from the Fraser federalism. [More…]

• Without Federal intervention there would be no unbroken rail guages between the States; urban transport, particularly the railways, would still be burdened with antiquated equipment and rolling stock; young people would still have inadequate and unequal opportunities for secondary and tertiary education; and new initiatives in health centres, the environment and child care would not have been considered. [More…]

• If effective government, geared to the needs of the 1980s and beyond, is to be achieved … if the great issues of national and local concern such as education, health, social welfare, housing and urban development are to receive maximum intelligent attention … if all our resources including human talents and local knowledge are to be effectively harnessed … if innovation, diversity and imaginative reforms are to be encouraged . [More…]

• One of the things that the Labor Government pledged for those rural areas was to introduce community health centres and various other amenities such as that, which Liberal Governments for years had never provided. [More…]

• Various Information Services are provided- for example the Australian Manufacturing Technology Information Service (AMTIS); Patent Information Service: Occupational Safety and Health Information Services; and General Productivity Information Services. [More…]

• Honourable gentlemen need to understand that it is not possible for governments to go on absorbing a larger and larger proportion of the real resources of this country and to expect to have a healthy economy which can provide employment for those who want to work. [More…]

• The Government’s economic policies are pre-eminently directed towards re- establishing full economic health in the private sector so that there will be jobs for those in Australia who want to work. [More…]

• Can the Minister for Health indicate whether Australia faces any risk of an outbreak of blue tongue virus, which would have dire consequences for the sheep industry? [More…]

• The Government is closely studying the reports of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health and of the Committee of Inquiry into the Care of the Aged and Infirm. [More…]

• Why should a farmer, because he happens to be on the land, put up with sitting on a very rough tractor for hours and hours on end, probably doing permanent damage to his health? [More…]

• More attention should be given to the safety, comfort and health of the operator. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 17 March 1977: [More…]

• But the breeding of plutonium gravely threatens the security and health of the world. [More…]

• But in any case honourable members can rest assured that the Federal Department of Health, after consultation with Federal and State government departments, trade unions, trades and labour councils, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and mining Companies, has developed the world’s most stringent code to govern the mining and milling of uraniumshould the Government give permission for mining to commence- subject to receiving the second Fox report. [More…]

• Funds for women’s shelters are provided under community health projects. [More…]

• Commonwealth financial assistance for community health projects in the States take the form of annual block grants covering each State’s total program of projects, including projects conducted by non-government organisations such as the Naomi Women’s Refuge. [More…]

• Health and emergency services are tied up. [More…]

• Under the Narcotic Drugs Act 1967, my colleague the Minister for Health has powers covering the licensing and control of manufacture. [More…]

• The intra-State pressures for the early introduction of date marking legislation have been recognised by the Food Standards Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) which has formulated a Standard for Date Marking of Packaged Short Life Foods. [More…]

• Its sole concern is with recruiting, vetting or deporting migrants, it has no responsibility for migrant welfare, health, education, housing, employment. [More…]

• Health [More…]

• But nevertheless, it also found that a substantial number of dwellings- no less than 1 1 per cent of the totalwere rated as unsatisfactory when assessed in terms of factors such as the condition of the roof, walls and floors, adequacy of plumbing and various health and safety aspects. [More…]

• I mentioned 2 reports- the Task Force on Coordination in Welfare and Health, known as the Bailey report, and the report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Care of the Aged and Infirm. [More…]

• In the field of health and welfare it offers a new hope to an Australian marching towards the twenty-first century. [More…]

• The Bailey Task Force has proposed the establishment of a SHACC- that is, sheltered accommodationprogram as one of 4 programs in the welfare and health area. [More…]

• The Government is closely studying the reports of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health and of the Committee of Inquiry into the Care of the Aged and Infirm. [More…]

• Perhaps in the next 12 months we should be examining in our perennial problem of how best to employ government funds some initiatives in the area of modernising housing for the elderly and unfortunate to bring them into line with today’s health and comfort standards. [More…]

• I support the Bill to extend the period of operation of the States Grants (Dwellings for Pensioners) Act 1974 for 12 months to 30 June 1978 because self-contained units for pensioners entitled to supplementary benefits are an urgently needed health and welfare facility. [More…]

• The Minister informed the House that the Government was studying reports of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health and of the Committee of Inquiry into the Care of the Aged and Infirm. [More…]

• As a previous speaker pointed out, these houses could be built in areas where health facilities were not provided. [More…]

• We have before us a report from Peter Bailey’s Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health and the report of the Holmes Committee of Inquiry into Care of the Aged and Infirm. [More…]

• The restructuring of Health Insurance should clearly have waited until inflation was on the way to being defeated and until the economy was back on the highway of growth. [More…]

• The present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) issued the following Press release on 25 June 1971 when he was Minister for the Interior: [More…]

• I bring this matter to the attention of the House, of the Federal Ministers for Primary Industry (Mr Sinclair), Foreign Affairs (Mr Peacock), Defence (Mr Killen) and Health (Mr Hunt) because in the intrusions are the seeds of a potential disaster for the Australian industry, the environment and the Australian citizen. [More…]

• It was the previous Government, the Labor Government, which agreed that national animal health laboratories should be built, one on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and the other at Geelong. [More…]

• If the coup de grace had not taken place on 1 1 November the Animal Health Laboratories at Geelong would now be built and operating for the benefit, I might add, of the rural interests in this country whom the honourable member professes to represent. [More…]

• I had the pleasure of chairing a very interesting hearing on the National Animal Health Laboratories at Geelong at which were pointed out quite clearly the dangers that will exist to the livestock of Australia unless a laboratory is established to investigate diseases and prepare vaccines for them. [More…]

• That is what would have been done at the health laboratories. [More…]

• -I am reminded by the honourable member for Grayndler that the Minister for Health in this Parliament is, in fact, also a member of the National Country Party. [More…]

• He must be an excellent Minister if he represents the National Country Party, believes himself to be putting the view of rural interests communities in this House and then allows another farmer- the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser)- to defer work on the National Animal Health Laboratories. [More…]

• It has successfully initiated many programs in the fields of health, welfare, child care, education, ethnic affairs, recreation, youth, environment and community information and media access. [More…]

• The North West Council has also successfully established a number of projects and attracted funds for resources and facilties such as the employment of a regional health adviser, where there was none before the scheme. [More…]

• There are neighbourhood centres, community health centres, municipal welfare committees, a legal service and ethnic culture activity officers have been appointed. [More…]

• A regional dental health program has been established and a regional family services adviser has been employed. [More…]

• -Earlier in this debate, the National Country Party Whip, the honourable member for Maranoa (Mr Corbett), interjected to suggest that whilst the Labor Government had initiated the National Animal Health Laboratories program- that is not quite correct- and had advanced the program to the stage where construction was ready to commence, it had not in fact constructed the Laboratories. [More…]

• Returning to the first 2 reasons, we see that it is expected that almost $2 1 6m less will be paid out of Consolidated Revenue to the Health Insurance Fund established under the Health Insurance Act than was expected when the Budget was framed. [More…]

• I suspect that this socalled saving has occurred because the Government did a better job of dismantling Medibank than it expected and that there are fewer people calling on the resources of the Health Insurance Fund. [More…]

• For example, if the reduction in the appropriation to the Health Insurance Fund had occurred because of less than anticipated usage of health services and if this did not result in a decline in health care standards, then a much needed saving would have emerged. [More…]

• I doubt whether taxpayers who were saved the cost of the burden of Medibank regarded themselves as better off after they had paid private health insurance subscriptions. [More…]

• The restructuring of Health Insurance should clearly have waited until inflation was on the way to being defeated and until the economy was back on the highway of growth. [More…]

• 2) 1976-77 and which I believe to be one of the most scurrilous documents I have ever read states, for example, that the estimated savings in the national health area amount to $232,362,000. [More…]

• In the case of health, as I have already mentioned, that reduction in services amounts to over $232m. [More…]

• The Department of Health is one of those areas for which the Government claims the largest reduction in expenditure. [More…]

• 1 per cent of government outlays; health, 2 per cent of government outlays; social security and welfare, 25.4 per cent; and payments to the States and local government authorities, 21.1 per cent. [More…]

• I hope that the Government does apply the same cnterion when it is thinking of cutting expenditure on education, health and social welfare and when it is increasing the problems we face by ensuring that the numbers of students at our schools and tertiary institutions are maintained at much higher numbers than is necessary because of the lack of opportunities it creates for them. [More…]

• Thus approximately 60 per cent of total outlays are involved in carrying out programs in the Departments of Defence, Health, Education and Social Security. [More…]

• Also on the committee are: Mrs Helen Harding from one of the schools in the area, Mr Ray Cook, and Mr Tony White, who is officerincharge of the Caringbah Community Health Centre, the Secretary of the Committee is Mr Rick Parry of the Commonwealth Employment Service office in Caringbah, and the Treasurer is Mr Graham Salter. [More…]

• I turn now to the question of how much the Government can do to restore Australia to economic health. [More…]

• The Department of Health is seeking an additional $250,000 because it wasted $250,000 in publicity relating to the design of the Medibank proposals last year. [More…]

• In 1973 and 1974 the conservative coalition partners denounced the proposal that a Medibank health insurance membership card would be issued to members of the Australian community. [More…]

• I have discovered today that the conservative coalition partners in government intend to enforce the presentation of a membership card or book on all people who are members of Medibank health insurance, private or basic. [More…]

• The other big item shown as a saving is under the Department of Health- an amount of $232,362,000. [More…]

• The principal sum is found on page 34 of this camouflage document where it is shown that whereas it had been expected in the Budget that the Government would spend $l,552m on the Health Insurance Fund established by the Health Insurance Act 1973, the Government is spending $2 15,750,000 less. [More…]

• I do not believe that the explanation is that the people of Australia are healthier than the Government thought they were. [More…]

• I think that rather it lies in the choice of people between the Medibank and private health insurance provisions. [More…]

• But those schemes represent costs to the revenue in the same way as there is a cost against the revenue when, in line with the increase in consumer price index, pensions and unemployment benefits are increased and the costs of health, education, defence and payments to the States are also increased. [More…]

• Other expenditure cuts include: Perhaps the reintroduction of university fees; maternity allowances are seriously being considered for termination; and the hospital and health services grants program is seriously being considered for termination. [More…]

• I refer to hospitals, schools, health and community centres, pre-schools and the like. [More…]

• We know that the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health Services specifically recommended in its first report that if devolution of Commonwealth programs to the States was to be successful the basic arrangements as to capital and operating expenditures should be outlined clearly in an agreement. [More…]

• The States have the responsibility for the framing of the Program after which it is discussed in detail and agreed at meetings of Joint Commonwealth/State Standing Committees on Health Expenditure. [More…]

• I understand that the Queensland Health Department considers that the development of the new Mount Gravatt Hospital will adequately serve the needs of the Wynnum/Redlands district. [More…]

• I ) and (2 ) Under the provisions of the Health Insurance Act, psychiatric patients in private hospitals and in publicgeneral hospitals are eligible for insurance coverage of their hospital expenses, but patients treated in State mental hospitals arc not. [More…]

• At the 1976 Health Ministers’ Conference a submission was made by the States that patients in acute psychiatric hospitals-defined as hospitals or designated portions of hospitals which provide facilities, services and treatments equivalent to those provided hy similar sections of public hospitals- come under the Medibank cost-sharing arrangements. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 March 1 977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 March 1 977: [More…]

• This Ordinance is now law and will have the effect of prohibiting abortions in the Territory otherwise than at Canberra’s two public hospitals for a period of 90 days while the Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education and Health inquires into the abortion issue generally. [More…]

• So what this legislation is all about is the long term health of our quasi free enterprise system and the full and meaningful employment of all Australians. [More…]

• I have written to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) to see what can be done to make as foolproof as possible the labelling and checking of contents. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health a question concerning secondary illnesses or other illnesses being detected by the ophthalmological expedition sponsored by the Commonwealth investigating the problems of Aboriginal eyesight. [More…]

• The expedition has made comments from time to time about deafness and other ill health among Aborigines. [More…]

• If the ophthalmological expedition gives indications of these other health problems, is it proposed that there should be a follow up by another form of medical service for Aboriginal people? [More…]

• The Department of Health is currently investigating the possibility of conducting some follow up program where the team has not been able to give proper and due attention to illnesses that have come to light. [More…]

• It probably has been one of the best organised health programs in the remote areas of Australia and certainly will be responsible for overcoming a lot of the illnesses that presently are afflicting Aborigines and some white people in the remote areas of Australia. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• During 1976, 2 doctors were convicted for offences against Section 103(5) (a) of the National Health Act 1953. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 March 1 977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 1 April 1977: [More…]

• and (2) My Department does not yet have comprehensive data on the membership of health insurance organisations under the new arrangements. [More…]

• Australia to which refugees wish to go; the background of refugees to be accepted- their capacity for early integration or otherwise; the availability of special post arrival services- language instruction, education, training, accommodation, health and welfare; and the numbers of refugees for which voluntary agencies can care. [More…]

• A standing inter-departmental committee on refugees comprising a senior officer of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs as chairman, and senior officers of the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Employment and Industrial Relations, Social Security, Finance, Health and Education with other departments and the Public Service Board to be co-opted as necessary, will be established. [More…]

• In the short-term a factor which inhibits any immediate prodduction of such a directory is that the manner of provision of welfare and health services by the Commonwealth Government is currently the subject of a major review following the report by the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health. [More…]

• Grants for purchase and renovations came from the Children’s Commission, the Hospital and Health Services Commission, and the International Women ‘s Year appropriation, totalling $ 1 36, 1 77. [More…]

• overseas residents who derive incomes in Australia on which they pay Australian income tax are also obliged to pay the Medibank levy if they are not contributors to a recognised Australian health insurance fund; [More…]

• Where the Health Insurance Commission is satisfied that the person is not an Australian resident within the meaning of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (as amended). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 March 1977: [More…]

• The elimination of differential rebates by raising general practitioner fees, and benefits, would result in increased expenditure by the Government and the Health Insurance Funds. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 March 1977: [More…]

• What studies have the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee and the National Health and Medical Research Council done on the effects of saccharin. [More…]

• The ban on saccharin in the United States and Canada is based on toxicological investigations carried out by the Health Protection Branch of the Canadian Ministry of Health and Welfare. [More…]

• The Food Science and Technology Sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH & MRC), which is responsible for the assessment of food additives in Australia, has examined the Canadian toxicological studies. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 19 April 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) How much was granted to each State for community health services and facilities in 1975-76, and how much will be granted in 1976-77. [More…]

• How much was transferred in 1975-76 and will be transferred in 1976-77 by each State government to (a) community health centres and (b) women’s refuges. [More…]

• Under the Community Health Program the amounts expended by the States on community health services and facilities in 1975-76, and the amounts allocated to the States for this purpose in 1 976-77, are as follows: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 April 1977: [More…]

• Imports from third countries are prohibited at present because of Australia’s strict health requirements. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 April 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) What is the maximum penalty for use of, or possession of, less than 25 grams of cannabis under the Public Health (Prohibited Drugs) Ordinance 1957. [More…]

• Response to the second question is qualified by making mention of the fact that prior to October 1975, when certain amendments were made to the Public Health (Prohibited Drugs) Ordinance 1957, details of weight played no specific role, and in consequence no reliable statistics are available. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health whether his attention has been drawn to a report that several members of the Hospital and Health Services Commission, including the head of the School of Health Administration at the University of New South Wales, the medical superintendent of Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital and the federal secretary of the Royal Australian Nursing Federation, will not be reappointed to the Commission when their terms of office expire? [More…]

• What experience and qualifications would any new commissioners bring to the task of development of health services that would justify such an action? [More…]

• The Government has decided to restructure the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• -I want to say at the outset that I will not be drawn into any comment upon the mischievous speculation that has been canvassed on certain aspects of the Budget as it might affect the health area. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware that persons who subscribe to the standard Medibank cover- that is, the levy- are denied any benefit when they choose to occupy a bed other than a standard bed in a public hospital? [More…]

• -It needs to be understood, and I am sure that the honourable member for Corio would understand, that the way in which hospitals are conducted in the States is the direct responsibility of the various State Health Commissions or State Departments of Health. [More…]

• What action has he or the Minister for Health taken to alleviate this appalling situation? [More…]

• Can he also assure the House that the national trachoma and eye health program sponsored by the Australian College of Ophthalmologists will not be obstructed by the Queensland Government in attempting to reduce the very high incidence of eye diseases amongst Aborigines? [More…]

• I am not sure whether it was on the date mentioned by the honourable member that I became aware of the degree of venereal disease in the Northern Territory, in Arnhem Land in particular, but I and my colleague, the Minister for Health, are aware of the incidence of that disease amongst Aboriginals. [More…]

• In all the instances where it goes into other States it is with the co-operation and the knowledge of that State’s health authorities. [More…]

• It remains a top priority for the Government to impress on the Japanese that growing access for agricultural products is vital to the overall health of our relationship. [More…]

• Recent statistics Mowing from discussions in the United States Congress about what is happening to American society were published in a paper entitled ‘Estimating the Social Costs of a National Policy: Implications for Mental and Physical Health, and Criminal Aggression’. [More…]

• This study indicates that actions which influence national economic activity- especially the unemployment rate- have a substantial bearing on physical health, mental health and criminal aggression. [More…]

• The amendments concern the effect on the consumer price index, and hence on personal tax indexation, of last year’s health insurance changes and the devaluation. [More…]

• The new funding arrangements for health insurance are similar in thenintent to increases in indirect taxes on other goods and services. [More…]

• Although the Medibank levy seeks to have people pay more, and the Budget less, of the cost of their health care, the law as presently drafted does not permit this to be taken into account in determining the indexation factor. [More…]

• Therefore, this Bill will require that in fixing the personal tax indexation factor, account is also to be taken on the effects on the consumer price index of the October 1976 changes in health insurance arrangements and the devaluation. [More…]

• After removing that effect, and the effects of the health care changes and devaluation, the personal tax indexation factor for 1977-78 is to be 10.9 per cent. [More…]

• Has one school at Elcho Island been closed for health reasons, and does it continue to lack proper toilet facilities. [More…]

• There are, however two obstacles, the limited capacity of the Japanese quarantine facilities and the Japanese health certification requirements. [More…]

• Since 1974, Australia has been unable to meet Japan’s animal health regulations pertaining to the import of breeder and feeder cattle. [More…]

• What steps have been taken to establish an Occupational Health Service for Australian Government employees? [More…]

• Does he favour the establishment of mandatory occupational safety and health standards being made applicable to all employees of the Australian Government, the Australian Government Authorities and Australian Government contractors, employees engaged in the Territories and interstate trade and commerce? [More…]

• 1 ) The Hospitals and Health Services Commission has considered the establishment of an occupational health service for Australian Government employees and delivered a report to the Department of Health in 1 975. [More…]

• Discussions are currently in progress between the Department of Health, the Public Service Board and representatives of the Peak Union Councils as to the steps which can be taken to introduce an occupational health service for Australian Government employees taking into consideration the overriding need for economic restraint. [More…]

• Yes, I do favour the establishment of mandatory occupational safety and health standards being made applicable to all employees of the Commonwealth Government and Commonwealth statutory authorities. [More…]

• However, the extension of those standards to Commonwealth Government contractors, employees engaged in the Territories and interstate trade and commerce poses jurisdictional questions, but with the co-operation of the State Ministers for Labour, considerable progress is being made in the development of uniform safety, health and welfare legislation. [More…]

• Will the Public Trustee of the Australian Capital Territory administer the affairs of the mentally infirm residing in institutions in New South Wales having regard to the provisions of the Insane Persons and Inebriates (Committal and Detention) Ordinance and Mental Health Ordinance. [More…]

• 1 ) The Departments of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Capital Territory, Employment and Industrial Relations, Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, Social Security, Veterans’ Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Northern Territory, together with the Australian Legal Aid Office, the Public Service Board, the Australian Taxation Office, the Health Insurance Commission and the Australian Postal Commission. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 April 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 April 1977: [More…]

• (a) The number of persons who are covered for health insurance by Medibank Standard cannot be calculated until it is possible to determine what proportion of the population have opted to be covered by private health insurance. [More…]

• As Medibank Private operates on a competitive basis in the private health insurance industry, it could be inimical to its interests to release details of its operations, including membership, in advance of its competitors. [More…]

• My Department does not yet have comprehensive data on the membership of private health insurance organizations under the new arrangements. [More…]

• My question is to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Government has of course maintained the funding of women’s refuges on a 100 per cent basis in the States through the community health program. [More…]

• The Prime Minister has written to the Premier of Queensland indicating that the Government wishes to continue the funding of 2 women’s refuges in Queensland which the Queensland Government has not been prepared to fund out of the resources of the community health program. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Is it true, as reported, that the Medibank computer rejects claims for item 8530, mam.maplasty augmentation prosthetic, in the case of males who wish to undergo sex change? [More…]

• Does the Minister feel that it is the function of the Government, the Health Insurance Commission or the funds to make moral judgments on what legal operations should or should not be performed with the consent of or at the request of patients? [More…]

• Unemployment to this excessive extent, through its inter-relationship with health, housing, education and community development generally, is severely undermining the progress in Aboriginal affairs made by successive governments at considerable public expense since the 1967 referendum. [More…]

• In some cases, as the working party report has revealed, the lack of activity when combined with unemployment benefit has produced serious social problems such as alcoholism and other health hazards. [More…]

• The resultant inactivity from unemployment, coupled with the payment of unemployment benefit, has led or contributed to deleterious social effects within the communities including: adverse attitudes of Aboriginal men to work severe drunkenness and associated violence health hazards, and child neglect which occurs because some parents use their unemployment benefit for alcohol instead of food and clothing; and acute juvenile delinquency. [More…]

• The best answer the Government could give was from the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who stated: [More…]

• Many cross the retirement age line fit and healthy. [More…]

• But their health deteriorates because they are rejected. [More…]

• In 1974 the Honourable Ralph Hunt, Australia’s excellent present Minister for Health, was appointed the National Country Party’s spokesman on small business. [More…]

• That carries with it all the problems of not being able to get sufficient resources from their own people to maintain educational standards alone, saving aside the health, transport and other areas. [More…]

• Changes in health insurance arrangements for example added 3.2 per cent to consumer prices in 1 976. [More…]

• There have been real achievements in health, education, employment and the establishment of Aboriginal Organisations. [More…]

• I think I should make it clear that yesterday in reply to a question asked by the honourable member for Maribyrnong I mentioned that the funding of women’s refuges under the community health program was at a rate of 100 per cent. [More…]

• I think it is essential to understand that there is difference between a women’s refuge and women’s health centre. [More…]

• A refuge is not established for health purposes. [More…]

• It is a place which was set up by the former Government under the terms of the community health program to provide some refuge to women who had been deserted or bashed by their husbands and who had to seek refuge for a short period. [More…]

• I desire to ask the Minister for Health a question. [More…]

• He will recall that his colleague the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs stated on Wednesday that he believed that the Queensland Government would not impede the national trachoma and eye health program in treating Aboriginals in Queensland. [More…]

• The working party is constituted by persons nominated by the Australian Medical Association, the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia, the Society of Pathologists in Private Practice, and the New South Wales Health Commission, apart from officers of my Department. [More…]

• New section 16B provides for the Minister for Health to draw up common forms of undertaking to be given by persons wishing to become approved pathology practitioners. [More…]

• Provision has been made in the Bill for the form to be varied by the Minister for Health only where the variation has been agreed by the Medical Benefits Advisory Committee. [More…]

• The second is that there is a substantial correlation between the provision of large patient profiles or health screens, largely consisting of pathology services and bulk-billing. [More…]

• At present the Health Insurance Act provides for the establishment of medical services committees of inquiry, consisting of 5 medical practitioners, whose function it is to inquire into references to them by the Minister concerning the possible rendering of excessive professional services which attract medical benefits payable by Medibank. [More…]

• These functions are being extended to enable the committees to also investigate the rendering of excessive services which attract medical benefits payable by private medical benefit organisations registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• At this point, the existing provisions of the Health Insurance Act will apply. [More…]

• The new functions of medical services committees of inquiry will also apply to the rendering of services under pathology undertakings and the requesting of pathology services which attract medical benefits payable by either Medibank or private medical benefit organisations registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• Honourable members will be aware that for the purpose of payment by Medibank of medical benefits for optometrical consultations, the National Health Insurance Act currently provides for a participating optometrists scheme, based on undertakings given by optometrists. [More…]

• The first of these is the discretion currently included in Health Insurance Act for the Minister to consult with professional colleges and organisations other than the Australian Medical Association in choice of members to be appointed to certain committees and tribunals established under that legislation. [More…]

• Secondly, the Health Insurance Act at present contains common provisions which apply to both medical and optometrical services review tribunals. [More…]

• This offence relates to pathology services which attract either Medibank medical benefits or medical benefits payable by registered health insurance organisations. [More…]

• The existing level of penalties for these offences, which relate to false statements or the submission of false information in connection with payments under the Health Insurance Act, have been found to be inadequate. [More…]

• Further matters included in the Bill relate to health program grants. [More…]

• Provision has been made in clauses 13 to 18 to broaden the scope and purpose for which health program grants may be given. [More…]

• At present the Health Insurance Act permits health program grants to cover only the cost of the approved health service given by an organisation, including associated management expenses. [More…]

• The Government considers the situation is unduly restrictive and accordingly the Bill provides for 2 additional measures to increase the scope and impact of the health program grants arrangements. [More…]

• The first measure is designed to further facilitate the establishment of health maintenance organizations. [More…]

• They will then be able to avail themselves of the health services provided in the same way as members who pay their contributions to the health maintenance organisation. [More…]

• For Standard Medibank members, the organisations will be reimbursed by way of health program grants. [More…]

• The second and perhaps the most important innovation is to authorise the payment of health program grants to enable the development and evaluation of new, improved health care delivery systems. [More…]

• This has been too long neglected and the funding of projects aimed at introducing and evaluating methods of steamlining existing practices and developing innovative alternatives will significantly increase the effectiveness of health program grants. [More…]

• Important considerations which should be taken into account in assessing the seriousness of a breach include size of any underpayment to each individual employee concerned, and any danger to health or safety. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 March 1977: [More…]

• Have school health programs been discussed at Health Ministers ‘ Conferences. [More…]

• Is it considered that a more adequate school health program would be possibly the best cost/benefit outlay on preventive health. [More…]

• The testing of eyesight and hearing of school children is conducted in conjunction with school health programs in the States and Territories. [More…]

• 5 ) It is recognised that preventive health measures may in many circumstances offer the most cost-effective means of improving the health of the community, and a number of programs administered by my Department are oriented towards prevention. [More…]

• School health programs in the States are a State government responsibility and the adequacy of such programs is primarily a matter for consideration by the State authorities. [More…]

• The effectiveness of the school health program in the A.C.T. [More…]

• is monitored by the Capital Territory Health Commission, while in the Northern Territory school health services are incorporated in the family-centred community health service. [More…]

• Persons who had not previously taken out health insurance with private medical benefits funds were covered, from I July 1975, to the extent of medical benefits for medical services. [More…]

• The paragraph to which the honourable member refers concluded: ‘To a large extent this means increasing emphasis on aid to the rural sector, not only in terms of economic inputs, but including also such factors as health, education, and employment’. [More…]

• This emphasis will involve Australia in a wide range of activities, including infrastructure development, agriculture, animal health and nutrition, education and employment creation generally. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 May 1 977: [More…]

• 1 ) Can he say what countries have a medical rebate system for medical services similar to the Australian national health insurance arrangement. [More…]

• 3 ) Does any other country have a similar provision to the $5 gap in the Australian health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• If so, will the checks be compulsory and will the Minister say whether the use of taxpayers’ money for such purposes justifies public disclosure of the results so that constituents may be aware of the health of their elected representatives? [More…]

• A member may cease to be a member of the National Aboriginal Conference before the expiration of the three year period of office by resignation or by declaration of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs after consultation with the National Executive of the National Aboriginal Conference that the member is no longer fit to hold office on the grounds of conviction for a criminal offence, gross neglect of duties or of ill health. [More…]

• They are not comparable because, on 26 June 1976, $250m was paid to the States for health services to be rendered in 1976-77 and clearly belonged to the 1976-77 national accounts. [More…]

• Medibank payments were forced back into the private health funds, which again changed the impact on the national accounts. [More…]

• As a member with an electorate that depends to a large degree for its economic health on the wool industry, it is some satisfaction to know that this Government is bringing in machinery amendments to support the worthwhile legislation introduced by a Labor Government in September 1974. [More…]

• -The impression that has been left is that the conservatives have dismantled the universal health scheme that was operating so successfully and have substituted for it the present unsatisfactory form of health insurance. [More…]

• It is worth remembering that the Government was very much aware, when it introduced the Incomes Tax (Rates) Bill 1976-that is the Bill to which I have just referred; the original Bill in which tax indexation was introduced allegedly in one year with the qualification I have mentionedthat Medibank and other health insurance charges were going to inflate the December quarter consumer price index. [More…]

• As well as eliminating the health insurance component of the CPI, about which I have spoken mainly to date in respect of this legislation, the Government in this Bill is also, as honourable members know, discounting the index for devaluation effects. [More…]

• Surely the logic which says that when health insurance charges cause the CPI to rise they have to be discounted from the index, then that same logic should also demand that when health insurance charges limit the rise in the CPI, those charges should be added to the index. [More…]

• I repeat that point and remind the House that in the previous financial year when the Australian Labor Party Government introduced Medibank, the Medibank levy was substituting for health charges. [More…]

• When tax indexation was introduced as from 1 July 1976 the figure which was used was the exact CPI figure which was less than it would have been because of the beneficial effects of transferring health insurance charges to the levy rather than it being paid to a private fund. [More…]

• The logic is that if we are going to discount the CPI because of health insurance charges on this occasion then at this time last year when tax indexation was introduced, the CPI component should have been larger because of the reduction which had taken place in the CPI due to the previous beneficial changes in the CPI. [More…]

• I ask honourable members to think of the eventual effect which Medibank would have had on the inflation rate to this country from the point of view of funding the national health scheme throughout Australia in an open ended cost arrangement. [More…]

• The national Medibank scheme is available for those people who cannot afford to belong to a private health insurance fund. [More…]

• I believe everybody would agree that indexation of age, invalid and health pensions is absolutely necessary because those people are on fixed incomes and rely heavily on the amount they are given because of their position in life. [More…]

• This is becoming something of a health problem because in Earlwood it appears nowadays that if one wants a doctor one will get either a Chinese restaurant or somebody’s mum. [More…]

• -Will the Minister for Health confirm reports that the Federal Government has decided to approve health insurance benefits ranging from $128 to $245 per diagnosis for tomography, a new X-ray technique? [More…]

• Does the Minister agree that this will mean skyrocketing health costs to the community in the long run as private entrepreneurs attempt to cash in on the massive profits from this area of radiology? [More…]

• Is it also a fact that the consumer price index increase figure on which the 1976-77 tax indexation calculation was based was reduced by health insurance charges being eliminated when Medibank was introduced? [More…]

• Why is tax indexation being affected adversely by health charges this year when taxpayers did not benefit last year? [More…]

• I was glad to hear the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) accept the fact that this is a very serious problem. [More…]

• The Minister for Health is now departing from the scene. [More…]

• Once again the Minister for Health is vacating the scene. [More…]

• The Minister for Health also was unable to provide any evidence. [More…]

• So we have had the Minister for Social Security being challenged in the other place to produce statistics and we have had the Minister for Health stand up in this place today and go on with a lot of twaddle but produce no evidence whatsoever. [More…]

• The community at large and school leavers in particular will be bearing down on the Minister for Social Security and the Minister for Health in this respect. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, who is at the table, made great play about the unemployment situation under the Labor Government. [More…]

• This hard work possibly accounts for his recent ill health. [More…]

• All I am suggesting is that there are numerous occasions on which people, for health, occupational and other reasons, wish to sell their home and move to another location. [More…]

• We introduced a transfer of loans scheme to assist persons who were required to change their residence for reasons of health or employment. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 April 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) There are nine (9) approved nursing homes (all approved under the National Health Act) in the Municipalities of Broadmeadows, Coburg and Brunswick- viz. [More…]

• 1 ) Is it a fact that if there is no capital appropriation for the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory (ANAHL) in 1977-78, then the design team employed will have to disband. [More…]

• Did the last Agricultural Council meeting held in Launceston, Tasmania, favour the transfer of plant and animal quarantine from the Department of Health to the Bureau of Animal Health, within the Department of Primary Industry. [More…]

• 3 ) Do they include the Australian Veterinary Association, the Animal Health Committee of the Standing Committee on Agriculture, the Standing Committee itself, and all the State Government Departments of Agriculture. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 19 April 1977: [More…]

• 6 ) In view of the lack of detail ( for example, in relation to the health services component) and some inaccuracies in the Australian Financial Review reports, there is no reason to suppose the Review had prior access to the official data. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 4 May 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 May 1977: [More…]

• Has the Minister for Health been informed of any attempt by Medibank Private to supply dental, optical or other paramedical benefits as do other private health funds? [More…]

• I informed the House some time ago that a committee had been set up by the Health Insurance Commission to examine what additional benefits Medibank Private might be able to offer its contributors after experience of operation by the fund. [More…]

• I have preferred to allow it to operate in complete competition with other private funds in the field of health insurance. [More…]

• In due course the General Manager of the Health Insurance Commission will be making a public announcement of the result of its inquiries and deliberations in relation to additional benefits which will be available from, I think, 1 July of the next financial year. [More…]

• I preface it by reminding him that the Bailey inquiry which examined the proposed transfer of a large number of health and welfare services from the Federal Government to the State governments specifically commented that this transfer could be implemented successfully only if agreements were entered into concerning financial and other administrative arrangements. [More…]

• Do these decisions mean that the Government has decided to ignore Mr Bailey’s recommendations and proceed to abandon its responsibility for community health - [More…]

• For the information of honourable members I present a statement concerning an inquiry into the case of Mr William Frederick Toomer, an officer of the Department of Health in Western Australia. [More…]

• The consequences of the subject matter are of extreme importance, not only to the Public Service which I think is a side issue and the Department of Health which I think is also a side issue in this matter, but also to the effective operation of quarantine in Australia. [More…]

• Toomer ‘s argument and dispute are with senior officers of the Department of Health in Western Australia whom he claims have subverted effective quarantine operations in that State. [More…]

• He believes that he is creating employment when all too often the employment gained in one industry is bought at the expense of the economic health of the community in general and in a great many cases in respect of user industries. [More…]

• I should like firstly to thank my colleagues on this side of the House for putting me on the front bench and I should like to pay tribute to the previous spokesman on health from our side. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Amendment Bill deals with a number of points but the main one arises from the extra expenditure on pathology services which has become very noticeable in the last few years. [More…]

• I think it is reasonable to say that it is not due to changes in the health insurance set up in this country following the establishment of Medibank. [More…]

• In answer to a question asked yesterday by my colleague, the honourable member for Maribyrnong (Dr Cass), the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) showed that he was aware that similar problems were likely to arise in radiology where computerised axial tomogram scanners are coming into use. [More…]

• I predict that within a reasonably short time there will be further amendments to the Health Insurance Act to deal with other aspects of medicine which have been affected by new technology. [More…]

• Obviously, the patient when he then signs the form applying for the refund from Medibank or any of the health funds really does not know any more as to whether the tests were necessary or whether they were really performed. [More…]

• If that is the case, obviously the people concerned ought to be charged with attempting to defraud the Government or the health fund. [More…]

• We are dealing with healthy people. [More…]

• There have been reports of health studios being financed or owned by medical practitioners who also provide pathology services. [More…]

• People enrol in such health studios and, instead of having to pay for the services available at the studios with their own money, they are charged less because the owners of the health studios also perform all kinds of what we would consider to be unnecessary tests on the people concerned. [More…]

• -Yes, I am referring to health studios. [More…]

• I know that the Minister came to a health studio in Parramatta when it was established. [More…]

• The sorts of services which are provided -for example, a complete check-up- are provided for apparently healthy people. [More…]

• Statistically it has been found that one in fifteen of these healthy people has a positive test. [More…]

• We would get an account which we would then have to render to Medibank or whatever our health organisation was. [More…]

• It will obviously make people more aware of what amount of money is involved, but I am not sure just what proportion of our population really wants to save the Government or a health fund money. [More…]

• I can see no objection to that aspect of it, but I am not really happy about the proposition in the legislation whereby, providing an officer of the Department of Health claims on oath that there is reasonable suspicion, for example, the referring doctor is receiving some benefit out of referring patients, his place can be raided and all kinds of material can be obtained. [More…]

• I would like to recommend very strongly one feature of the legislation that has nothing to do with the matters in the rest of the legislation; that is, the provision for health program grants. [More…]

• Clauses 13 to 18 broaden the scope and purpose for which health program grants may be given. [More…]

• I think it is important that further attempts be made to develop and to encourage health maintenance organisations. [More…]

• But I think it is important from the point of view of both the patient and the public purse for those of us who are concerned about health care delivery to look at some alternatives to the present methods of health care delivery and the health maintenance organisations are obviously one of those alternatives. [More…]

• Additionally money will be made available to develop and evaluate new and, hopefully, improved health care delivery systems. [More…]

• I am lucky in that my electorate is possibly the only electorate in Australia in which there is a community health service that, amongst other things, attaches one or two trained community nurses to every primary school in the electorate. [More…]

• The aim of doing so is to try to prevent certain conditions from arising, to pick up disabilities in children and their families early in the piece and to save money in the long run on health costs. [More…]

• So there is a cost to the State Government or the community health scheme of something like $40 to enable the Commonwealth Government to pay $14 a week to somebody. [More…]

• I conclude by commending the basic aim of the legislation and warning the Minister for Health that it will not necessarily stop all the abuses and that the abuses are likely to spread to other aspects of medicine, especially where the technology is further developed. [More…]

• This Bill is a fairly complex Bill- some 27 pages- to amend the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• In my estimation it is one of the most important amendments to the Health Insurance Act that has even been brought into this Parliament in the 3 years that I have been in this place. [More…]

• I commend to honourable members the detail that is contained in the second reading speech of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• The Government continues to recognise the value of pathology tests in the pursuance of good medicine and improving the health of Australians. [More…]

• In particular if one looks at the membership of the group under the chairmanship of Dr Sidney Sax one finds that only 2 other members were from the Commonwealth Health Department. [More…]

• One was from the New South Wales Health Commission, two were from the Australian Medical Association, one was from the Royal College of Pathologists and one was from the Society of Pathologists which is made up of pathologists in private practice. [More…]

• I want briefly to mention the cost of health to Australia because I do not think it does any harm to remind honourable members and the public what is involved under the heading of health. [More…]

• When we add to that the substantial amount of funds that are provided by the States, it is not hard to see that the health of this nation is costing the Australian taxpayer a considerable amount. [More…]

• Therefore Australians really pay very dearly for their health and social welfare. [More…]

• I applaud the leaders of these bodies for the part they have played in participating in the working party and the cooperation they have shown this government and the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I want to congratulate the Minister for Health who, on a number of occasions both inside and outside of this House, has deplored the actions of a number of pathologists for introducing this legislation and showing that this Government is prepared to act to right a wrong that was created by the former Labor Government. [More…]

• Every day there is exploitation of the so-called free schemes in the health field. [More…]

• I have some doubts about Medibank as it exists as a medical benefits organisation in the private health insurance system. [More…]

• I make a few comments on some of the points contained in the second reading speech of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• It must be available for inspection by a group which I shall now dub the ‘health police’. [More…]

• But, by the time the health police get around to it, it will be a long time after the event. [More…]

• It will be a very diffiicult job for the health police to prove that the services were in fact unnecessary. [More…]

• My colleague the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) went into that in relation to these large patient profiles offered by health clubs of all sorts. [More…]

• At present the Health Insurance Act provides for the establishment of medical service committees of inquiry . [More…]

• When we start getting the statistics from the private health funds, we will obtain better confirmation. [More…]

• As a more positive approach- I am now turning to what I want to talk about in this Bill- the Minister has indicated that clauses 13 and 18 will broaden the scope and purpose for which health program grants may be given. [More…]

• In the first place, the Bill will facilitate the establishment of health maintenance organisations and it indicates how [More…]

• I want to consider the general proposition of health maintenance organisations. [More…]

• They have been dubbed health maintenance organisations. [More…]

• Not all health maintenance organisations are successful. [More…]

• I will put it another way: Not all health maintenance organisations are communist. [More…]

• The health maintenance organisations which provide a better service at a lower cost with a lower hospitalisation rate, a lower hospital utilisation rate, a lower operation rate and a lower mortality rate are the ones where the doctors are paid salaries. [More…]

• The health maintenance organisations where the doctors are paid on a fee for service basis are going bankrupt as quickly as the other benefit funds, unless they get up to all sorts of devious tricks to exclude people with chronic illness and so on so that finally the American Government picks up the tab with its medicare scheme for the underprivileged or the chronically ill. [More…]

• I applaud the encouragement of health maintenance organisations as long as we are aware of the fact that the key factor is this: An organisation with doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, home visitors, physiotherapists, pharmacists, dentists- the lot- is a comprehensive health care organisation where the staff, and that includes the doctors, are paid salaries to provide the service necessary. [More…]

• The other provision authorises the payment of health program grants to enable the development and evaluation of new and improved health care delivery systems. [More…]

• I am very pleased that the Minister has read the draft health policy of the Labor Party, which was circulated a few weeks ago, because that is the very thing we are on to. [More…]

• We need to ask what is going on in the health care area, where the service is being provided, in what conditions and for what sort of demands, what is the basis of the staffing of whatever the system might be. [More…]

• But he had not read the Minister’s speech, because that speech indicated that the legislation will cover the private health funds. [More…]

• The Labor Party did not invent the private health funds. [More…]

• It was a good Country Party member, I think, Sir Earle Page, who first introduced the concept of voluntary health insurance systems. [More…]

• The Nimmo report indicated the abuses and inefficiencies and inadequacies of the voluntary health insurance system. [More…]

• The basic fault in all the health care systems in most of the Western countries is that no government thus far has approached the problem from the point of view of the provision of health services, health care. [More…]

• Comrades- if I may address honourable members opposite in that way, because their Government is guilty, as we were- you brought in the voluntary health insurance system. [More…]

• We tried to overcome its deficiencies by perhaps nationalising the health insurance system to make it more efficient. [More…]

• Honourable members opposite may quarrel with that, but the defect is that the health insurance system, subsidising the fee for service remuneration of doctors and others providing health services on a fee for service basis, inevitably encourages over-use, inevitably reduces and not improves health standards. [More…]

• I was intrigued to hear the honourable member for Maribyrnong refer to the new group of health police. [More…]

• I say that sincerely because all honourable members have approached this Bill, as they have approached most legislation relating to health, in a constructive and sensible manner. [More…]

• I particularly thank the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), the honourable member for Maribyrnong (Dr Cass), the honourable member for Petrie (Mr Hodges), the honourable member for Cook (Mr Dobie) and those members of the health and welfare committees on both sides of the House who have no doubt given due attention to the legislation. [More…]

• What the Health Insurance Commission has been able to do is establish at least to some degree the extent of the rip-offs taking place. [More…]

• Quite frankly, the Australian community has every reason to be concerned with the extent of the increase in expenditure that is taking place in the health field. [More…]

• Debates in this place in the last decade and debates outside the Parliament on health, as the honourable member for Maribyrnong said, have generally been on how we can help people pay their ever-rising health care bills. [More…]

• I was disturbed the other day to see some figures which the honourable member for Wakefield (Mr Kelly) produced showing that health care costs in this country over the last 3 or 4 years had increased at the rate of 9 per cent in real money terms. [More…]

• That must be a disturbing picture to any economist or anybody interested in health administration. [More…]

• there is a substantial correlation between the provision of large patient profiles or health screens, largely consisting of pathology services and bulk-billing. [More…]

• We estimate that the cost of abolition of bulk billing for pathology services will be of the order of $750,000 a year because of the additional staff that will be required within the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• The question of health screening to which the honourable member for Prospect referred is under continuing study by the National Health and Medical Research Council, the medical benefits advisory committees, and the Australian Medical Association itself. [More…]

• I think that in due course I should receive a report from the NHMRC on the advisability of continuing to pay health program grants for medi-checks and other forms of health screening. [More…]

• This is the reason for pathologists holding requests in writing for 18 months rather than the health funds holding them. [More…]

• Of course honourable members will recall that last year I indicated that we had referred to the Law Reform Commission this whole question of privacy as it affected universal health insurance in Australia to ensure that the measures that were then in practise in Australia were sufficient to protect the privacy of the individual and if they were not we wanted recommendations from the Commission on how to tighten up the area if necessary. [More…]

• In respect of clauses 13 to 18, honourable members opposite mentioned their support for the idea of extending the function of health program grants. [More…]

• The Government is anxious to see one or two pilot health maintenance organisations established in Australia so that we can see them in operation. [More…]

• We wish to evaluate the operation and to see research into and development of alternative health delivery schemes in this country. [More…]

• If they have a role or a purpose in Australia, if they provide more efficient health care delivery there may be an opportunity for us to take advantage of them. [More…]

• The honourable member for Maribyrnong indicated that in his view the whole fee for service system in the health care area is wrong; that it has created unfortunate misallocation of resources; that it is creating a degree of abuse; and that it is doing nothing to try to overcome this very real problem which should be the core of debate on health care costs in Australia. [More…]

• If there are alternative health schemes that could in fact reduce costs and at the same time maintain a degree of incentive and the efficiency of the medical profession and practice in Australia let us have a look at it. [More…]

• At this stage I would commit the Government only to undertaking research ino alternative health delivery schemes before we commit great wads of public funds to alternative systems. [More…]

• I know that the reputable people- they constitute the majority of professionals in the field- are most anxious to ensure that bad medical pratice in Australia does not become a feature of our whole health care system. [More…]

• I am sure that the amendments that we make to the Health Insurance Act will reduce a great area of abuse in the provision of pathology services. [More…]

• He referred to a person who apparently had a superficial staphylococcal infection and had to come back for repeated visits which cost the health fund or Medibank a considerable amount of money. [More…]

• That is why it is important to distinguish whether a doctor is ordering tests on people who are sick and have a condition or whether he is just ordering screening tests on apparently healthy people. [More…]

• Will they be cases connected only with Medibank or with other health funds? [More…]

• I was investigated by a member of the Department of Health because the cost of my prescriptions was 25 per cent or 35 per cent higher for the general area than were those of the other doctors in my practice. [More…]

• We have just listened to a debate about the advantages of health and Medibank and what they can do for society. [More…]

• When the Labor Government introduced the Medibank legislation, when it decided to provide free hospital services throughout Australia, it introduced into the Health Insurance Act a schedule of heads of agreement which had to be included by the Government in the agreements it concluded with the States. [More…]

• In the Health Insurance Bill the Parliament laid down the rules by which the Government had to abide in concluding agreements with the States. [More…]

• Those who seek to share the nation’s resources should clearly indicate the priorities of government expenditure in the fields of roads, transport, communication, social security, welfare, health, defence and education. [More…]

• The Bureau is not asked to consider comparisons between transportation, education, health, welfare and other priorities of government. [More…]

• I make a final point that is probably only marginally relevant to the legislation before us but it is relevant in improving the efficiency of health care delivery which is given by the Repatriation Commission or by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and that is the question of the use of the repatriation hospitals. [More…]

• The other hospitals are controlled by the Health Commission of New South Wales. [More…]

• In the honourable member’s State of New South Wales at the repatriation general hospital at Concord there is a fandegree of co-ordination between the New South Wales Health Commission and the hospital, not only in pathology, but also, as I think the honourable member will be aware, in the new casualty department which has been opened there. [More…]

• Medical benefits are, of course, payable under the present health insurance arrangements for medical services rendered by medical practitioners and approved dentists. [More…]

• A month ago, the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research forecast worsening unemployment and inflation and expressed concern about the health and direction of the economy. [More…]

• The Labor Party’s economic policy statement issued this year makes no mention of the proposals put forward by the Leader of the Opposition last October for reductions in company tax, more generous income tax rebates, and a reduced health levy. [More…]

• After allowance for the effects of changes to health insurance arrangements and indirect taxes and charges, the consumer price index in the second half of 1976 rose at an annual rate some 4 percentage points, or more, less than in the second half of 1975. [More…]

• It is called The Health Hazards of Not Going Nuclear and is written by Professor Beckman. [More…]

• However Qantas have a health inspector who monitors their flight kitchens. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation recommends minimum standards for the quality of drinking water which are consistent with ICRP recommendations. [More…]

• Health Commission based on the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection on the exposure of the general public to ionising radiations; levels of radioactivity in the Woronora River are regularly monitored. [More…]

• Health Commission; discharges are monitored to ensure these levels are not exceeded. [More…]

• 20 of 22 February 1977 estimates were provided of movements in the index, excluding the effects both of changes in health insurance arrangements and changes in major Commonwealth taxes and charges, for half-yearly periods since the end of 1 973. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 March 1 977: [More…]

• When did his Department write to all registered health benefits organisations for the information he needs to answer question No. [More…]

• 1204 Health Insurance Organisations [More…]

• Control of the registered health benefit funds conducted by Friendly Societies in determined by the Friendly Society rules and the provisions of the several State Friendly Societies Acts. [More…]

• In general contributors to those funds do not per se have any say in the control of the Friendly Societies affairs including administration of health funds. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission (Medibank Private)- all States [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 May 1977: [More…]

• Is it also a fact that they do not need any private health insurance cover and that, if they are satisfied with repatriation provisions, they (a) would not be liable to a means test at a public hospital which would otherwise mean that they would be personally liable for whole or partial payment of medical treatment and (b) would not have to make a claim to the nominal defendant. [More…]

• If no discussions have been held, will he take urgent steps to see that these matters are discussed with the States, particularly in view of the fact that the States’ present proposals on lead phase down could add not less than S cents a gallon to the cost of motor spirit and the Commission has found, at page 892 of its Report, that the public health objectives can be achieved at negligible cost by the development of other methods of phasing down lead. [More…]

• and (4) The Committee on motor vehicle emissions, which advises ATAC, has been asked to consider the relative costs of alternative methods of meeting the precautionary recommendations of the National Health and Medical Research Council on emissions of lead to the atmosphere. [More…]

• The Government is concerned that environmental and health objectives should be achieved at minimum cost to the community and will continue liaison with the States and the industry to this end. [More…]

• authorities are the Police Department, Board of Fire Commissioners, State Emergency Services and Health Commission. [More…]

• How many of each category pay health insurance premiums to a private fund. [More…]

• 1 ) to (3) No statistics are at present available on numbers of persons who pay the health insurance levy. [More…]

• However, I mention that age pensioners entitled to Pensioner Health Benefit cards are exempt from the levy. [More…]

• However, the net PA YE figures are not directly comparable in that the $l,755.3m was arrived at after allowing for a reduction in PA YE refunds of $242.7m an estimated gain of $428m resulting from the abolition of rebates for dependent children and students and the estimated $208rn yield from the health insurance levy. [More…]

• to (6) The existing program under which women’s refuges are funded by the Commonwealth, under the Community Health Program, is a Commonwealth/State agreementwhich is the responsibility of the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The question asked by the honourable member should be directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• l ) and (2) Many people have to travel to obtain advice or treatment for a wide variety of health reasons and, in so doing, some no doubt do face problems and incur abnormal expenses. [More…]

• The conclusion has been that the allowance of health travel expenses would give rise to problems of various kinds. [More…]

• I note here that the question of delivery of health care to the community has been under study by the Hospital and Health Services Commission whose report is being considered by the Government. [More…]

• In view of this known case of a serious violation of human rights in that no charges have been laid against the Archbishop, I ask the Minister whether, having regard for Monsignor Thuan ‘s reported declining health, fresh and strong representations will be made to the Vietnamese authorities asking for his immediate release? [More…]

• These inquiries suggested that he was in good health and receiving civilised treatment although recent newspaper reports have suggested that his state of health is now very poor. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 17 March 1977: [More…]

• The Foundation has not indicated to the Capital Territory Health Commission whether it intends to establish a clinic in Canberra or not. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 March 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 March 1977: [More…]

• What was the cost to Medibank and Private Health Funds in the financing of abortions in 1 976. [More…]

• On the basis of information available it is estimated that the number of services for which medical benefits were paid by Medibank and the private health funds in 1976 under item 6469 was 39,400 and the medical benefits paid amounted to $2. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 March 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) A complaint was received by my Department concerning the terms of an industrial agreement reached between the Voluntary Care Association of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and the Health and Research Employees’ Association of Australia. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 19 April 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) Did he state on 20 May 1 976 that State grants of $8 1 m in 1976-77 for community health services and facilities should enable the projects which had been commenced to be maintained at a viable level of activity. [More…]

• In July 1976, the Hospitals and Health Services Commission was advised of the decision by the Queensland Government. [More…]

• Community Health Program, the practicability of alternative methods of funding are currently under consideration. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 April 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 26 April 1977: [More…]

• Which organisations are receiving Health Program grant payments from the Health Insurance Commission during 1976-77. [More…]

• 1 ) The following is a list of the organisations approved for Health Program Grants in the 1976-77 financial year indicating, where appropriate, the date on which the approval of the Grant was terminated. [More…]

• Of those who retired on invalidity grounds, what were the more regularly occurring medical reasons for their invalidity, and are any of these considered to be an occupational health hazard. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 May 1977: [More…]

• How many doctors are employed at the Bellerive Health Centre in Tasmania. [More…]

• It is assumed that the honourable member refers to the Clarence Community Health Centre, located in Bayfield Street, Bellerive, Hobart. [More…]

• The following information has been obtained in consultation with the Tasmanian health authorities- [More…]

• The current arrangements are that the Department of Health Services, Tasmania, proposes to impose charges equivalent to medical benefits payable in respect of professional services rendered by salaried medical practitioners at the Centre to privately insured persons. [More…]

• Accounts will be issued for such services by and in the name of the Department of Health Services, Tasmania, and will show the name of the medical practitioner who renders the service. [More…]

• The out of hours service is financed jointly by the Commonwealth and State Governments through the Community Health Program, which is also the source of funding for the other operational costs of the Centre. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 May 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 25 May 1977: [More…]

• What is the estimated cost for a full financial year of the Government subsidy for (a) private hospital accommodation and ( b) nursing home subsidies for persons who have elected to choose private health insurance. [More…]

• (This amount is an estimate of the Commonwealth ordinary and intensive care benefits payable in respect of patients accommodated in nursing homes approved under the National Health Act who have retained or taken out both medical and hospital insurance with private health insurance organisations since the changes to the Medibank arrangements which became effective from I October 1976. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 25 May 1977: [More…]

• No- without further information it is not possible to identify the particular general practitioners and to ascertain whether there had been any infringement of the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• However, in this regard the Government has introduced a Bill to amend the Health Insurance Act, which will make accountable practitioners, who initiate pathology services, as to whether the services are reasonably necessary for the adequate medical care of their patients. [More…]

• Where the Committee finds that a practitioner has initiated excessive services it may recommend that the practitioner be reprimanded and/or the medical benefits paid for the services identified as excessive, will be re-paid by the practitioner either to the Commonwealth or the private health fund as appropriate. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 June 1 977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 June 1 977: [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health to pour his water and depart to his seat. [More…]

• We sometimes encounter a questioning in this country as to why we should get involved in diverting resources to overseas countries when there is so much needing to be done in this country- for our own poor, education, health, and so on. [More…]

• The second category will involve activities designed Tor the greatest possible impact at the grass-roots- improving nutrition, increasing employment and earnings, safeguarding health, expanding education, upgrading housing and strengthening social services. [More…]

• If the aid is aimed at improving the education or health standards in a country with which we want to develop friendly relations, or if it is aimed at promoting peaceful co-existence in the world, the motivation is still self interest but as far as I am concerned the motivation is acceptable. [More…]

• I ) The following community health centres, which are located in States and which are funded by the Commonwealth under the Community Health Program, provide medical services by salaried or sessionally paid general practitioners, at no direct cost to the patient: [More…]

• Health Centre, Peakhurst Hunter Working Women’s Centre, Mayfield Women’s Health Centre, Liverpool Women’s Health Centre, Leichhardt [More…]

• Victoria- Kensington Community Health Centre Deer Park Community Health Centre Eaglehawk/Long Gully Community Health Centre De Paul Community Health Centre, Fitzroy West Heidelberg Community Health Centre Richmond Community Health Centre Singleton Community Health Centre, Collingwood [More…]

• Inala Community Health Centre [More…]

• South AustraliaWomen’s Community Health Centre, Hindmarsh [More…]

• I understand that the Victorian Health Authorities are giving consideration to the introduction of charges in the abovementioned centres in that State. [More…]

• It is impracticable to accurately separate the costs of services by salaried or sessionally paid general practitioners in community health centres from the overall costs of operating the centres, including costs of services by other staff. [More…]

• However, the estimated total annual cost of- salaries payable to 45 full-time and part-time practitioners (equivalent to 37 full-time practitioners); and sessional payments to 18 practitioners, in such centres is approximately $1,113,750, of which the Commonwealth has been meeting 90 per cent under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• Of the seven health centres in the Australian Capital Territory which provide medical services, six have at least one salaried doctor. [More…]

• All other patients are charged for services at the level of the patients’ reimbursement from the private health fund. [More…]

• The accounting system which operates in the health centres in the Australian Capital Territory does not allow a costing of individual patients who pay Medibank levy and who are therefore treated free of charge. [More…]

• Urban health centres, which are exclusively provided and controlled by the Commonwealth Department of Health are situated at Darwin (city area, Nightcliff, Parap, Berrimah), Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs and Gove. [More…]

• Rural health centres, the physical facilities of which vary considerably, are provided in the main by the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• Currently we are enjoying the slower growth rate so that overpasses can be built, so mat we can catch up with health centres, so that community centres and schools can be developed before they are needed rather than many years later, and so that shops can be constructed when needed rather than years afterwards. [More…]

• I believe it would be highly competent of him to do that in regard to land rights, as he has been doing recently in respect of alcohol and health problems affecting Aboriginal people. [More…]

• We know that in certain parts of Sydney, for example, a carbon monoxide level of about five times that which the World Health Organisation regards as a safe level can be found. [More…]

• I believe that there is sufficient evidence at least to suggest that that service should be given an independent statutory role or should be attached to a department other than the Department of Health which would seem to me to have primary functions which have little relevance to quarantine or the type of work which customs officers carry out. [More…]

• The Government has this year failed to fund the National Animal Health Research Laboratories. [More…]

• The National Animal Health Laboratories design team will be disbanded because there is no money to carry on their work. [More…]

• Government understands that the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Development Program have jointly sponsored a Special Program for research and training in tropical diseases to equip health services in tropical countries with new effective and low-cost tools for the control of tropical diseases. [More…]

• Department of Health [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• Requests for information are made by the States and private consultants to the Health Facilities Information and Planning System developed conjointly by my Department and the Department of Construction. [More…]

• His health had not been good in recent times. [More…]

• The unfortunate thing about Rex Connor was that the pressure of public life took heavy toll of his health. [More…]

• I think that matter told very heavily on his health, unfortunately, and was a contributing factor in his decline. [More…]

• Nobody hearing or reading the Treasurer’s Budget Speech could realise that there has been a tremendous squeeze on the States and local government; that the Government has broken its promises on education spending; that spending on health programs is down; that the provision for pensioner dwellings is down by 18 per cent in real terms; that funds for Aboriginal advancement are down 16 per cent in real terms; that provision for urban public transport has been cut by 25 per cent in real terms and funds for leisure and recreation facilities by 60 per cent in real terms; that urban programs have virtually disappeared; that the national sewerage program has been abandoned; that all migrants’ special serviceseducation, welfare, housing, health, languagehave been cut; that the growth centre agreements with the States have been unilaterally repudiated; that environment programs suffered cuts ranging from 24 per cent to 99 per cent in real terms; that the area improvement program has been abolished. [More…]

• That promise has joined the Government’s promises on unemployment, inflation, Medibank, health centres, wage indexation, Aboriginal assistance programs, the means test, the home loans deductibility scheme, and many others in the waste paper basket. [More…]

• There has seldom been a time when the recovery of health by the private sector depended so much on the public sector. [More…]

• There is no economic theory or ideological doctrine so thoroughly exploded as that which says that the health of the private sector demands the dismantling of the public sector. [More…]

• It is the governmentthis Government which makes every Australian taxpayer take out health insurance. [More…]

• The other two-thirds of the population will be paying well over $100m for private health insurance. [More…]

• We have achieved that without reducing expenditures across the areas embraced by the Budget in the more significant fields of health, welfare, education, transport and industry. [More…]

• When one looks at the anatomy of the Budget one finds that over two-thirds of total Federal expenditure is accounted for by education, which takes 8.9 per cent; health, which takes 10.6 per cent; social security and welfare, which take 27.2 per cent, and payments to the [More…]

• Excluding health and medical services, inflation has also fallen from 15.4 percent in 1975 to 10.2 percent in 1976-77. [More…]

• Spending on health is up 11 per cent. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 June, 1 977. [More…]

• The Quarantine Medical Officers at Broome were informed of the impending arrival of the refugees and asked to make a full health assessment of each person on board. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 June 1977: [More…]

• Minister for Health has received a report prepared by one of his officers after consultation with the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern, that my colleague has sent a copy of that report to me and that it is under consideration by both of us at the present time. [More…]

• I think the House would recognise that before any program of that kind is introduced it needs to be properly considered and assessed by experts from the Department of Health, which in this case will be the technical consultants to my Department. [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Health a question about the drug tagamet. [More…]

• It has used the consumer price index figures minus that part of the CPI which deals with health and medical costs. [More…]

• It will be of no surprise to the honourable member for Gellibrand for me to say that for a considerable period of time the Government has been arguing very strongly that if one is to get a proper picture of the underlying inflation rate in this country, a discounting of the figure of 1 3.4 per cent ought to be made to take into account the effects of the health insurance adjustments made in the December quarter of last year. [More…]

• If one uses the adjusted index after having made allowances for those health charges which came in on a onceonly basis in the December quarter last year the index will be lower than the three figures of 10.8 per cent, 10.9 per cent and 1 1.8 per cent to which I have referred. [More…]

• I know that the honourable member for Gellibrand does not accept that proposition, but I put it to him and to the House that it is proper to argue that because of the nature of the adjustments that were made to health insurance in the [More…]

• In the circumstances that I have described and bearing in mind the very strongly argued and held view of the Government that the correct index to use is that which discounts the one only health insurance costs incurred in the December quarter last year, I repeat that it is the view of the Government that, contrary to the view argued by the honourable member for Gellibrand, the real level of wages in this country has not fallen. [More…]

• They show that the animal health research project has had no funds allocated to it. [More…]

• What about a financial commitment to the animal health laboratory in Geelong in the electorate of my colleague the honourable member for Corio (Mr Scholes)? [More…]

• The Government is now satisfied that the environmental control and industrial health measures proposed by the Inquiry and accepted by the Government, will provide proper regulation and control. [More…]

• Even if materials were somehow to escape eventually in larger quantities than seems possible, it would not constitute a major catastrophe, or even a major health risk, for future civilizations. [More…]

• The aim of this Code will be to protect the health and safety of citizens of this country by ensuring protection of their environment. [More…]

• One important element of the Code relating to radiation protection in the mining and milling of radioactive ores has already been prepared by the Commonwealth Department of Health in consultation with other Commonwealth and State authorities and with industry and trade unions. [More…]

• Expert advice will be obtained from bodies such as the Australian Ionising Radiation Advisory Council, the Australian Radiation Laboratory and the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• My colleague, the Minister for Environment, Housing and Community Development (Mr Newman) has in addition outlined the environmental controls to be adopted by the Government and he briefly referred to some of the health aspects of these. [More…]

• I now propose to give in some more detail the measures that will be taken to protect the health of those involved in uranium mining and milling and those people living within the proximity of mines who could be exposed to possible hazards. [More…]

• My Department, in particular its Australian Radiation Laboratory, has for many years been aware of possible health hazards in uranium mining. [More…]

• It must be remembered that my Department was involved in monitoring the health of those involved in uranium mining which commenced at Rum Jungle early in the 1950s and lasted until the 1960s. [More…]

• Since that time, of course, a great deal of new information has become available on the effects on health and any new information which becomes available will be used to update the control measures that should be implemented. [More…]

• These include soundly based radiation protection standards and properly drawn-up working rules; well instructed and supervised employees; effective protective facilities, equipment and procedures to minimise radiation exposure; regular and frequent monitoring and assessment of radiation exposures and contamination levels by suitably experienced and qualified staff; comprehensive health surveillance of employees in the activity; acceptance and implementation of the principle that radiation exposures be kept to the lowest practical level; and responsible and disciplined approaches by both management and employees, so that no person causes unnecessary radiation exposure to himself or to others. [More…]

• It studied papers presented to, and discussions at, an International Symposium on Radiation Protection in Mining and Milling of Uranium and Thorium arranged by the World Health Organisation, the International Labour Organisation and the International Atomic Energy Agency. [More…]

• I have so far dealt with the possible effect on health of radiation but there are other factors that will need to be considered in respect of uranium mining in the Alligator Rivers Region. [More…]

• Any development of the Region involving migration of people has a potential to affect the health of those people. [More…]

• Expansion of health services to the area will provide for adequate care of people moving to any new and expanding population area. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has set national emission standards for air pollutants, and for atmospheric contaminants. [More…]

• The area is receptive for malaria, and the possible reintroduction of this disease poses the biggest single public health risk to a developing population in the Region. [More…]

• A total occupational health program, provided by the Department of Health, in conjunction with the mining companies, unions and other relevant agencies, will be carried out. [More…]

• The program includes health supervision of workers, occupational hygiene, hygiene of sanitary facilities, supervision of occupational first aid service, medical records, first aid and medical emergency treatment at work and social and preventive health programs. [More…]

• It is planned to develop health services to a standard similar to those provided elsewhere in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• The Region described falls within my Department’s Jabiru rural health district of its northern region. [More…]

• My Department intends to provide an integrated health service complex in the new town. [More…]

• The health complex will provide the core of the district health service catering for the rural population, the town population and the mining population at Ranger and future mining sites. [More…]

• Another important aspect of development in the Region will be its effect on the health of Aboriginals. [More…]

• This was a matter of particular concern to the Ranger Inquiry and my Department in the Northern Territory will extend its health services to Aboriginals in the Region. [More…]

• At present 3 1 Aboriginal health workers are employed in the Northern Territory and a further 144 are in training. [More…]

• As recommended by the Inquiry, suitable Aboriginals will be trained to work in conjunction with the health teams in the Ranger area. [More…]

• In addition, the Government will look for appropriate advice from the National Health and Medical Research Council which as the foremost health body in the country has advised it since 1937 on all aspects of public health. [More…]

• Honourable members may be interested to know that the National Health and Medical Research Council has already produced about 20 codes or recommendations on radiation. [More…]

• I believe that by following the program that I have outlined, my Department will ensure that the mining and milling of uranium can be undertaken in Australia in such a way that the health of the public, including those actually employed in the mines, will be protected. [More…]

• The nursing home benefits arrangements for which the Bill provides represent a major advance in the Government’s health and welfare program introducing a new era of financial security for nursing home patients. [More…]

• From 1 October these benefits are to be adjusted upwards annually, so that they, together with the statutory patient contribution, will cover fully the fees charged 70 per cent of patients in non-Government National Health Act nursing homes in each State. [More…]

• The Government is sure that most Australians will welcome this extension of the principle that those who can afford to contribute to the cost of their health care should do so. [More…]

• Health insurers generally have shown a willingness to extend their benefits to include the payment of the proposed nursing home benefits. [More…]

• This was to be expected for it is a logical extension for the private health insurance system, which aims to provide cover for every ill Australian whether the ill person be in a doctor’s consulting room, a hospital or a nursing home. [More…]

• The Bill amends both the National Health Act 1953 and the Nursing Homes Assistance Act 1974. [More…]

• The amendments to the National Health Act are contained in Part II of the Bill and it is to these provisions that I would first draw the attention of honourable members. [More…]

• The Bill provides for the payment of a basic Commonwealth nursing home benefit in respect of uninsured patients in National Health Act nursing homes. [More…]

• In addition, the Bill provides for the payment of a Commonwealth ‘extensive care’ benefit for uninsured patients in National Health Act nursing homes who require extensive care. [More…]

• As mentioned previously, the benefit levels have been determined so that the benefits, together with the statutory minimum patient contribution, currently $6.70 a day, cover fully the fees charged to 70 per cent of the patients in non-government National Health Act nursing homes in each State. [More…]

• These benefits will be payable in respect of insured patients in nursing homes approved under the National Health Act and the Nursing Homes Assistance Act including insured repatriation patients in those nursing homes. [More…]

• However, the Bill imposes the same conditions of approval on these nursing homes, in relation to insured patients, as are imposed in relation to nursing homes approved under the National Health Act, to which I have referred. [More…]

• As a result murky water from the River Murray, which is not the best water for one’s health, I am sure, gets into Adelaide’s water supply. [More…]

• Thus while there is no confirmed epidemiological evidence to suggest that Adelaide’s water supply has had an effect on the public health to date, there can be no guarantee that this situation will not change. [More…]

• There have been health problems. [More…]

• Whilst it was never proven that the water supply was involved, the facts of the case are that not one case has occurred since the South Australia Department of Public Health called for chlorination of the supply to a level which will ensure O.S p.p.m. [More…]

• It commits Australia to renewed export of uranium regardless of the absence of procedures for the storage and disposal of radio-active wastes to eliminate the danger to human life and health and the environment. [More…]

• In weighing the overall health hazard presented by nuclear reactors it is appropriate to compare nuclear plants with coal burning power plants. [More…]

• Adverse health effects from coal power are greater than those from nuclear power. [More…]

• On the matter of health the report states: [More…]

• We also hear reference to the alleged threat to health of radiation. [More…]

• Did the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is sitting at the table, take it away? [More…]

• Health spending is up 10 per cent. [More…]

• Assistance to the States which contribute so much in the administration of the services essential in welfare, education, health, employment and all the rest of it, has increased by 14 per cent. [More…]

• No industry can sustain a decline of this length without suffering grave damage to its permanent health. [More…]

• The fall-out risk has not been considered a public health risk. [More…]

• On the morning of the day on which the statements were released the Government suddenly decided that there was a health problem associated with uranium and asked the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) to make a statement also. [More…]

• It can be seen from the original copies of the Government’s uranium kit that all the statements were printed except the statement by the Minister for Health which was roneod. [More…]

• The Government did not even think about the health problem. [More…]

• I am not suggesting that those matters ought not to have been looked at, but what worries the Australian population at large is the potential effects of uranium, the potential effects of the byproducts of uranium mining, and the potential effects of the use of nuclear energy on the health of the people of this country and people overseas. [More…]

• It is ridiculous for the Government to forget about the health aspects of uranium mining and then to include them in its statements on uranium mining as an afterthought. [More…]

• Let us try to be rational about the health issues. [More…]

• So I now turn to some of the health aspects about which I am worried. [More…]

• The workers in the industry are unlikely to have a clear understanding of the health risks involved, even if they are told of the code and even if it is emphasised to them. [More…]

• I raise one other health hazard and that is the matter of tailing dams. [More…]

• Tailing dams are not covered adequately in the code which the Minister for Health promised us and by which the Government said it would abide. [More…]

• We, therefore, support the mining of uranium providing this is done under strict, supervised controls and in accordance with the safety and health regulations applied by the World Health Organisation and the International Atomic Energy Agency. [More…]

• I am sorry that I have not been able to deal with some of the other health aspects with which I wanted to deal. [More…]

• The Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) has made it perfectly clear that Australia’s uranium may now be mined subject to the most stringent environmental and health conditions at home. [More…]

• The Government is well satisfied that the environmental control and industrial health measures proposed by the inquiry and adopted by the Government will provide proper regulation and control. [More…]

• It is pretty well universally accepted now that the actual mining of uranium, particularly by the open cut method, as much of ours will be, does not pose any real health hazard to the miners. [More…]

• Similarly, the physical act of exporting yellowcake does not impose any unusual health hazards. [More…]

• This was a deliberately organised campaign of harassment which again directly affected the health of the man who, the magistrate held, had no charge whatsoever to answer and was never sent for trial. [More…]

• It should be used to develop their interests, their health, their schooling and so on. [More…]

• There is law and order and there will be health and educational facilities available. [More…]

• In my view, public indignation will grow more intense as the Australian people learn more of the detrimental results uranium mining can have, not only on the environment and on fish and tree life but also on the health of our nationals, particularly those who mine it and the unborn, not to mention the raping of traditional Aboriginal lands and sacred dream areas. [More…]

• The background paper titled ‘Health and Safety Aspects of Nuclear Power Generation’ which was published with the documents outlining the Government’s decisions quotes from the British Royal Commission on Environmental Pollutionthe Flowers Commission. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Government in this year’s Budget is making available this financial year 14.8 per cent more funds than it did last financial year to assist the States with the community health program. [More…]

• The former Government introduced the community health program and tried to involve the community in the program. [More…]

• We have seen in this country an escalation of health costs, rising at the rate of 30 per cent to 40 per cent per annum. [More…]

• We have seen the health component of the gross national product increase from about S.8 per cent in 1971 to about 7.5 per cent in 1976. [More…]

• There has not been any indication, in spite of the rise in costs in the health care field, that the condition of the health of the Australian people has increased one iota. [More…]

• Everyone who was an over-stayed visitor would be granted resident status unless he failed to meet normal standards of health and good character or if he had a serious criminal record. [More…]

• This dastardly act was done in the face of repeated warnings from the Division of Medicine in Auckland to the Cook Islands Medical Council and to their Minister for Health. [More…]

• He has levelled abuse at all his critics, foremost among whom has been our own Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) whom he has described as a person who would not know the difference between tinnea and foot and mouth disease. [More…]

• Section 21 of the Health Insurance Act states: [More…]

• His summary is this: that a person, overstayed after first entering Australia pursuant to a temporary entry permit and a visitor’s visa, and later obtaining a further temporary entry permit and being issued with a temporary resident visa, would have a reasonable expectation that the amnesty would be extended to him subject to compliance with the requirements of good health and character. [More…]

• The purpose of the Bill is to enable action to be taken to give effect to a decision of the Government announced in the Budget that all privately insured patients pay for pathology services provided by the Commonwealth Health Laboratories. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Department of Health operates 14 pathology laboratories throughout Australia. [More…]

• In addition the Capital Territory Health Commission operates laboratories in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• As a result of the substantial changes made to the health insurance arrangements since October 1976, the Government considers that this ‘no charge’ policy is inappropriate as a significant proportion of the population is now covered by private medical insurance. [More…]

• The ‘no charge’ policy is inconsistent with the Government’s approach to universal health insurance and that is that those who can afford to pay for health services should do so while those on lowest incomes and most pensioners are entitled to medical and hospital services at no cost to them. [More…]

• The pathology services of the Commonwealth Health Laboratories are pan of the diagnostic services for medical practitioners and hospitals for which the Governor-General has provided under section 9 (1) (b) of the National Health Act 1953. [More…]

• Let us have none of that nonsense that the underlying rate of inflation can be measured by extracting and excluding from the consumer price index movement the cost of health services. [More…]

• This area is also extensively covered in the Bailey report on welfare and health and in numerous other reports which have been prepared for the Government in recent years. [More…]

• Apart from the specific migrant programs cut back to give more profits to private industry, general cuts m the broad social security program and in areas such as health will hit the migrant community savagely. [More…]

• For instance, the cruel restrictions on payments to the States for hospital and community health service development will deny migrants equality of access to medical treatment. [More…]

• There are the reports and recommendations in respect of which I have made representations on interpreter and translation education and services, telephone services, housing and accommodation needs, ethnic radio, industrial relations, workers’ compensation, immediate and longer term post-arrival care, health, education, legal aid, police and court awareness and procedures, consumer affairs and a host of other matters. [More…]

• It appears at page5 of the paper headed ‘Health and Safety Aspects of Nuclear Power Generation’ and at page 4 of the document ‘UraniumYour Questions Answered’. [More…]

• In the 1976-77 Budget Medibank was slashed by $450m; health services were doubled; programmed expenditure on four education commissions was reduced by $172m; tuition fees for second and higher degrees were reintroduced; taxing of social security pensions and benefits was introduced; grants for senior citizens centres were terminated; expenditure on sickness and unemployment benefits was cut by $33m; subsidies for aged persons homes were reduced by SO per cent; funding for the Australian Assistance Plan was completely withdrawn; funding for the Aboriginal people was cut by 30 per cent in real terms; the Labor Government’s programs for urban and regional development were virtually destroyed; funds for the school dental service were frozen; the legal aid service was strangled before it had a chance to function; child care services were savagely cut back, and despite all these cuts in government expenditure, taxes were also increased by 25 per cent and the Government did everything in its power to curb wage increases, with the result that over the year average wages fell by $ 1 1 .50 a week. [More…]

• In the same manner as it did in the previous Budget, the Government is serving notice to the world that one of the richest and most fortunate nations on earth cannot afford to provide for its people the minimum standards of health care, housing, public transport, urban development and social amenities enjoyed by all other advanced Western democracies; but at the same time it can afford to make inequitable and considerable concessions to a handful of people who are already on the highest incomes and who are very secure in their jobs. [More…]

• The longer we delay the building of necessary hospitals and health centres, the greater the toll in sickness, rehabilitation and absenteeism. [More…]

• Education, aged persons’ accommodation, social security pensions, benefits and programs, growth centres, community health services, migrant services, Aboriginal affairs, urban rehabilitation and housing are some of the vitally important areas of government responsibility which have also gone wanting in this Budget. [More…]

• We all know that health programs are down by 9 per cent in real terms. [More…]

• There has been a great slashing of migrant services in terms of education, welfare, health and language training. [More…]

• Let us look at the expenditure on health. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hughes said that we had decreased the amount of money available for health purposes. [More…]

• Total outlays for health are $2,8 13.8m, an increase of 10.7 per cent on the 1976-77 figure. [More…]

• The Government certainly has done a lot to assist big business but what has it done for the average Australian, except to take away thousands of jobs, to cut back on educational opportunities, to reduce health services, to levy for Medibank and to place the blame for the resulting economic mess on the trade unions? [More…]

• This is the very basis of the supply of all our social needs- education, health and all welfare services. [More…]

• -The honourable member for Isaacs (Mr Hamer) attempted to describe the attitude of the Opposition to some measures of the Government as contemptible, particularly the action, I assume, of the voluntary health insurance funds in distributing information in relation to the Government’s proposed measures to withdraw the private hospital subsidy and to increase rates of health insurance in respect of nursing homes. [More…]

• I am rather suspicious of the attack today by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) upon the private health insurance funds of Victoria and Tasmaniahe forgot to mention New South Wales because the same thing is happening there. [More…]

• It would seem, given the very close association of those funds, the National Country Party and senior members of the present Government, that there is definitely some truth in the claim of those private health insurance funds that the Government does propose to withdraw the subsidy for private hospitals and to increase the rates of contribution for health insurance or insurance cover in respect of nursing homes. [More…]

• I would like to instance one other matter that came to my notice a few weeks ago as a result of the Government’s reform of the school dental health scheme, a scheme that was intended to provide dental care for all children up to 1 5 years of age. [More…]

• The scheme that was implemented by Dr Everingham as Minister for Health in the Whitlam Government to provide dental clinics in schools and to train nurses to staff the clinics has been severely cut because of the withdrawal of government funding and because the present Government has reduced the share of the cost that it wishes to bear. [More…]

• I refer to such things as the increase in health insurance costs, the new compulsory health insurance tax, the massive devaluation of the dollar, and the 11c per gallon increase in petrol prices which will add to prices across the board and hit people in country towns worst of all. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 17 August 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 7 August 1 977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 17 August 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) What is the annual cost of the (a) production and, (b) distribution of the publication Health. [More…]

• Capital Territory Health Commission [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• I pointed out at that dme that the Health Insurance Act provides for payment of benefits for expenses incurred by Australian residents temporarily overseas in respect of Schedule medical services rendered by ‘a person authorised to practise as a medical practitioner under the law of the place where the service was rendered’. [More…]

• Under the existing health insurance legislation therefore, services specified in the Schedule that are rendered by Mr Brych attract medical benefits at the present dme. [More…]

• The Minister of Health for the Cook Islands has not complied with the necessary conditions to permit a once-only assistance, on humanitarian grounds, for the five Australian patients for whom assistance had previously been sought. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• However this figure is being kept under review in the light of experience and changes in the dental health of children. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• On 18 July 1977 a meeting of Victorian authorities (Health and Agriculture), Federal authorities (Health and [More…]

• Primary Industry) and trade representatives were advised that the health authorities had traced the cause of an outbreak of gastroenteritis among children in Australia to certain brands of infant milk powders. [More…]

• State health authorities arranged for the withdrawal of the affected milk powder in Australia. [More…]

• I understand that the question of alcohol content labelling is being considered in respect of all alcoholic beverages by the Food Standards Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• I hasten to add that local authorities in the United States and Canada have responsibility, of course, for functions such as police and justice, health and welfare, housing and urban renewal and in some cases, education which Australia does not have. [More…]

• I refer firstly to the Municipal Association of Victoria and its approach to the first Bailey report from the Commonwealth Task Force on co-ordination in Health and Welfare. [More…]

• I respectfully agree with the Municipal Association m its conclusion that the implications of the Bailey report recommendations are wide-ranging and of substantial significance to the delivery of health and welfare in this country. [More…]

• The Yes case campaigners contended that local councils were unable to provide sewerage, roads, community health services, child care facilities and facilities for sport and recreation without huge rate increases. [More…]

• It finances town planning operations and libraries, health care provisions and social services, kerbing and guttering, parks and all the rest of it as well as pre-natal care and pre-school care. [More…]

• Modern local government is required to finance and provide parks, sporting ovals, sewerage systems, roads, swimming pools, kerbing and guttering, kindergartens, modern health centres, baby health centres, libraries, aerodromes and many other facilities. [More…]

• In particular, I refer to the restoration of the old tax deductions system whereby items of eligible expenditure such as education, life insurance and health were deducted from taxable income for the purpose of assessing tax. [More…]

• When cuts are made in education, health services, hospitals and medical facilities who suffers the most and where do they suffer? [More…]

• They were not seeking anything like the commitment on our national health program where abuses are still evident. [More…]

• I must thank the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) tonight. [More…]

• I was pleased this year that the Minister agreed, after checking with the health authorities, that, because Mrs Healy was 98 years of age and her daughter was helping her, and because the nursing sister was visiting only once a week and could not visit twice because Mrs Healy was so well even at 98 years of age, she should receive $2 a day for domiciliary nursing care. [More…]

• As honourable gentlemen would know, this measure of inflation always included health costs. [More…]

• It did not make changes to the way the health costs were measured because they at one time were paid in one way and at another time were paid for in another manner. [More…]

• Since quarantine is the responsibility of the Minister for Health, any inquiries regarding alleged irregularities in that regard should be directed to him. [More…]

• The proposals of the Committee are, in effect, that all ‘State-type1 functions be transferred to the Territory Executive, except that major functions such as rural land, mining, education, health … be retained by the Australian Government and other major functions such as roads, ports, fisheries, national parks and the police be shared. [More…]

• Whether it be in the area of health, transport or education, the national Government has even had to supplement State governments. [More…]

• There is a worry that the facilities in respect of education and health, which are included in the transfer of the functions outlined in the statement, are not as good as they should be. [More…]

• Even now the quality of water in the lower reaches is below the standards of the World Health Organisation for drinking water. [More…]

• the Department of Health should reexamine the proposed horse grooms’ accommodation with a view to providing a less costly solution. [More…]

• The evidence given by the Commercial Apiarists Association of New South Wales and the Federal Council of the Australian Apiarists Association should be examined carefully by quarantine officers in the Department of Health. [More…]

• Firstly, the animal health laboratory at Geelong was the subject of a report by the Public Works Committee. [More…]

• In its sixth report for 1974 dated 17 October 1974 it recommended the building of an animal health laboratory at Geelong. [More…]

• I want to respond briefly to what the honourable member for Canning said about the animal health laboratory at Geelong. [More…]

• The first Bill amends the National Health Act and the Nursing Homes Assistance Act so as to provide for increased benefits to be paid by the Commonwealth in respect of eligible uninsured patients in approved nursing homes and to provide for registered hospital benefits organisations to pay similar benefits to eligible contributors who are patients in approved nursing homes by making such benefits a condition of registration for hospital benefits organisations. [More…]

• The only aim of the second Bill, as I see it, is to ensure that all privately insured patients will pay for pathology services provided by the Commonwealth Health Laboratories. [More…]

• In the second reading speech the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) became rather ecstatic about the legislation he was introducing. [More…]

• Nevertheless, I have prepared a table which I am sorry to say I have not shown to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• However, I did show it to the Minister who was at the table before the Minister for Health entered the debate. [More…]

• In his reply the Minister gave the names of nursing homes approved under the National Health Act, their addresses and their weekly charges as at 31 July 1977. [More…]

• If a medical practitioner has difficulty in finding a bed in a nursing home he should be able to ring a telephone number and tell the person running the bed clearance section, whether it be run by the Department of Health or some voluntary organisation, that he has a patient with a certain medical condition who requires a bed in a nursing home. [More…]

• The Minister for Health suggested in the Medical Letter about two weeks ago that about 30 per cent of nursing home patients belong to funds and this would provide a saving of $S0m. [More…]

• The Minister for Health seems to be fairly aggressive about the private funds at the present time because they have been running a campaign against him. [More…]

• This will need co-operation between the Department of Health and other government departments such as the Department of Social Security, the Department of Environment, Housing and Community Development and Treasury. [More…]

• It is a question of trying to provide accommodation for aged people at an appropriate cost so that such accommodation is available to the aged in our community to prevent their health deteriorating and then being admitted unnecessarily to either hospitals or nursing homes. [More…]

• -The provisions of the two Bills fulfil the stated aims of the Government in regard to this area of health and welfare. [More…]

• Briefly, as I see them, those aims are: For the Government to assist those in need; for those who are able to provide for themselves to do so through private insurance; to encourage accountability for health services by the payment of a patient moiety where this is both appropriate and equitable; and to encourage the private sector in health care delivery thus maintaining a genuine freedom of choice for patients. [More…]

• I commend the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) for the pragmatic and beneficial development of these aims in the health area generally. [More…]

• As I see them they are: Firstly, it allows a concentration of the limited resources available to any government in a democratic society on those in genuine need; secondly, it allows the average citizen greater ability to spend his money in the way in which he decides rather than have it taken away from him through increased taxation to pay for arrangements created by government and controlled by government; thirdly, it produces greater efficiency and accountability in the health care sector because of the recognition that the rate of increase in Government expenditure and in the percentage of gross national product expended on health cannot continue at its present rate and the recognition that there must be inefficiencies in our health care delivery due to this rapid expansion. [More…]

• I now want to refer to the amendments to the National Health Act which implement the recommendation of the Holmes inquiry in regard to nursing homes. [More…]

• There is also a safeguard for private nursing home proprietors and patients in the provisions relating to the payment of the benefit and membership of a health fund. [More…]

• The first is the campaign by some private health funds against the legislation. [More…]

• This campaign puzzles me because I would have thought that this encouragement of private health insurance, this protection for patients in private nursing homes and, indirectly, for private nursing homes themselves would have received the approval of these health funds. [More…]

• However, we should not forget the commitment of the Government to a strong private health care sector. [More…]

• I support the legislation and congratulate the Minister for Health on its introduction. [More…]

• -The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in relation to this legislation claims: ‘A new era of financial security for nursing home patients’. [More…]

• This claim is apparently based upon the following changes: A new increased benefit to operate from 1 October; a verbal undertaking- nothing more- that these benefits will be adjusted annually to cover 70 per cent of patients in private nursing homes; and, finally, that the introduction of health insurance for nursing home patients represents some dramatic new era. [More…]

• The introduction of health insurance for nursing home patients will do nothing to improve the lot of the patient. [More…]

• Why should they be so foolish as to take out private health insurance because the amount of their nursing home fee which will be covered by private insurance is not more than will be covered, presumably, by Medibank standard? [More…]

• The Government prefers to see a greater share of the insurance market being handled by private health insurers. [More…]

• It is as the Minister stated in his second reading speech ‘a logical extension for the private health insurance system’. [More…]

• The Holmes Report also gave as one of the advantages of an increased role for health insurance in meeting nursing home costs the fact that some would regard it as an attractive addition to the changes made to Medibank last October. [More…]

• The Government may be making a short term saving but at the expense of long term cost control in this area of health expenditure. [More…]

• Health insurance on a fee for service basis of remuneration has increased the demand for these services. [More…]

• It means that they have recognised that if there is a dramatic increase in costs it is not in the main because you and I, the mug patients, are demanding more health care. [More…]

• The point I make is that health insurance does not necessarily solve the health problems of the community. [More…]

• All health insurance does is ensure that whatever is done is paid for. [More…]

• The suggestion of the Holmes committee was that a specialist, together with other people such as social workers, occupational therapists and a whole comprehensive health care team- ironically, the sort of thing that the Labor Party is talking about in its policy- should be members of a sort of vetting committee which would check on recommendations for admission to nursing homes. [More…]

• The committee suggested the establishment of health police- a team which would check on the doctor and not on the patient. [More…]

• The health police are not prepared to accept it until they check on the indications which the doctor thinks he has elicited for recommending that the patient be admitted to the nursing home. [More…]

• Ultimately governments will have to take drastic steps to rectify a runaway cost problem in health services. [More…]

• I learned in Norway that doctors there accepted without a murmur the compulsory health insurance system, unlike our medical profession, because years ago, when insurance was introduced during the Depression years, the doctors were as broke as everybody else. [More…]

• Balancing this health policy type approach is the statement, I think in the Holmes report, that part of the approach should be to encourage active domiciliary health care. [More…]

• In other words, the Holmes committee has cottoned on to what the Labor Party has been talking about for some years now- the need to establish community health centres with comprehensive health care teams, general practitioners, the ready availability of specialists and all the other ancillary medical personnel. [More…]

• Ordinary people, irrespective of their problem, could get more meaningful and effective primary health care while still at home with their families, although their families may be working. [More…]

• If you like, blame the concept of health insurance, but do not blame the Labor Government for that. [More…]

• An area that has not and does not come under the jurisdiction of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), but which is associated with the matter under debate, is that of the homes or boarding houses which accommodate aged persons who cannot obtain admission into official nursing homes, either private or government. [More…]

• The Victorian Hospitals and Charities Commission and the Victorian office of the Federal Department of Health have passed this information on to the hospitals concerned. [More…]

• The honourable member for Maribyrnong used the term ‘health police’. [More…]

• I feel there was some merit in the thought behind his use of the term, but let us hope that the people in the Press gallery do not take up that term because woe betide him if we find the Press talking about his use of the term ‘health police’. [More…]

• Certainly I hope he does not mean that there should be a health police force. [More…]

• But they should try to keep that concept out of the area of health. [More…]

• It appears to me that what the Government is doing is this: Take the case of those people who can afford to take out, and have taken out, private health insurance or Medibank Private- let us put them all together. [More…]

• They, through the health insurance funds to which they belong, and the funds themselves, will now provide the necessary money. [More…]

• What is going to happen is that the health insurance funds are going to be paying a lot of money into the hospitals, thus relieving the Government. [More…]

• As I see the situation, the scheme being introduced is to provide assistance to those who cannot afford health services, those who normally are in receipt of health benefits, or pensioners who pay nothing whatever. [More…]

• Likewise, the health benefit organisations- the private funds, as honourable members opposite like to refer to them- together with Medibank Private will be picking up the tab of those people who have elected to pay and are in fact paying towards hospital benefits now. [More…]

• But the hospital at which they are treated has not been able to receive payment which rightfully the health benefit organisations should pay. [More…]

• So, all in all, this new concept of nursing home benefits must surely be a step forward in the health care field. [More…]

• However, I agree with the honourable member for Maribyrnong when he said that it does not necessarily mean a step forward in the standard of health care. [More…]

• Even the famous free health service with which the honourable member for. [More…]

• -I can well recall on those odd days when the government of which the honourable member was a member was on this side of the chamber his colleagues claimed that it was a free health service. [More…]

• It definitely was not a free health service. [More…]

• -We have before us two Bills, the National Health Amendment Bill 1977 and the National Health Acts Amendment Bill 1977. [More…]

• The philosophy expressed in these Bills and in the speech of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) expressed that materialist viewpoint. [More…]

• Private medical insurance and health insurance is part of this legislation. [More…]

• I draw the attention of honourable members and the Minister for Health to the patient situation. [More…]

• What astonishes me when I have been through the repatriation hospitals or been a patient in them is that I see people whom I know philosophically, politically and in every other way resist every effort to produce a national health service which will deliver health services to people regardless of their salary or anything else at the time of need. [More…]

• The health service was to be publicly charged to consolidated revenue. [More…]

• Recently I was a recipient of the medical and health services of this community. [More…]

• I direct my comments first of all to the National Health Amendment Bill which is designed to amend section 9 (1) (b) of the National Health Act 1953. [More…]

• Most of the comments in this cognate debate have been in relation to the other Bill but I want to make a few points on this Bill which deals with charges for pathology services from the Commonwealth Health Laboratories. [More…]

• Commonwealth health laboratories throughout the country, and additionally here in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• After this amendment to the National Health Act is passed those same patients- I emphasise that- will be able to receive the same treatment but they will have to pay. [More…]

• These points were made in the second reading speech of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• Privately insured in-patients of hospitals, privately insured outpatients of hospitals and patients referred by medical practitioners to Commonwealth Health Laboratories will be charged directly from 1 October this year. [More…]

• Those patients who are members of medical benefits funds will be able to make a claim in the normal manner whether they belong to Medibank Private or to a private health insurance organisation. [More…]

• I want to turn now to the National Health Acts Amendment Bill. [More…]

• I draw particular reference to the pre-Budget Press speculation which I believe was mischievous, untrue and damaging to the health and wellbeing of tens of thousands of patients in private nursing homes. [More…]

• The Minister for Health made an announcement on 16 June this year that the Budget would contain certain increases. [More…]

• Of course, what he fails to tell this nation is that most of the health and social welfare advances in this country were instituted by a Liberal-Country Party government. [More…]

• So the Government is compassionate and does not treat lightly such matters as ill health, old age and disadvantaged groups in our community. [More…]

• If State government health departments want to set these high standards it is my view that they should pick up the tab for the difference. [More…]

• It is time that the Commonwealth and the State Health Ministers conferred with the Federal Minister for Health and sorted out this mess and reached some uniformity in standards. [More…]

• As I said earlier, I trust the Minister for Health will take this matter up with the States and at some time in the future introduce legislation that will solve this problem. [More…]

• I conclude on a matter that has concerned me over a period of time and on which I have had some discussion with the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I sincerely trust that the Minister for Health will see fit to rectify this anomalous situation in the not too distant future. [More…]

• First, it fuses the basic and additional rates of benefit and secondly it integrates the system of benefit payments into the health insurance arrangements for hospital care. [More…]

• I believe that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) accurately set out the purpose of the legislation in fixing the new rates of benefit payable in each of the several States. [More…]

• The Minister for Health said: the benefit levels have been determined so that the benefits, together with the statutory minimum patient contribution . [More…]

• cover fully the fees charged to 70 per cent of the patients in non-government National Health Act nursing homes in each State. [More…]

• Having regard to the reservations that the honourable member for Prospect expressed about the statistical accuracy of figures available to the Minister’s Department, I suppose we would have to accept that the figures set out in the proposed new section 47 of the National Health Act serve that purpose. [More…]

• It merely contains provision for the Minister for Health to prescribe by regulation a different rate than that set out in the proposed new section 47. [More…]

• Again, I realise that there are statistical problems, but if the Minister can come into this Parliament and assert that this level of fee will achieve the objective he proclaims, it ought to be possible to set out, with a reasonable degree of precision, a direction in the legislation to the Director-General of Health to come up with that formula at annual intervals. [More…]

• I have the most reservations about the next item dealt with in this exercise and that is what the Government calls the so-called logical extension into the private health insurance system for the payment of nursing home benefits. [More…]

• It was amusing to those of us on the Opposition side to hear the honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd) decrying the lobbying efforts of private health insurance funds. [More…]

• Government supporters might look at this legislation to see whether in fact they can support it because we do not want them changing their minds afterwards at the behest of the private health funds. [More…]

• One of the points in relation to the Government’s integration of the payment of basic and additional rates into the health insurance system is that the cost of this for so-called insured patients will now have to be met by registered benefits organisations. [More…]

• Whilst it might be logically very nice for the Government to line everything up so that everything looks neat from the point of view of its health insurance arrangements, we ought to bear in mind that nursing home care is fundamentally different, and serves a quite different purpose in the community, from ordinary hospital care which is covered under the so-called Medibank arrangements. [More…]

• The honourable member for Prospect pointed out that so-called insured patients, those who have private health insurance and those who are coming to every honourable member in this House at this time and expressing concern at the increase in the rates which is inevitable in the funds to which they subscribe, are those people who identify themselves as being able to pay for private insurance. [More…]

• I wonder whether that really is the fair and equitable system we ought to set up for the payment of benefits for health care in Australia. [More…]

• Make no mistake about it; hospital insurance premiums for those covered by private health insurance funds will rise. [More…]

• Last year every time the Government set about taking the knife to the National Health Act, the better to impose its rearranged system of health insurance, the people of Australia had very good cause to be alarmed. [More…]

• One of the suggestions by nursing home proprietors is that this latest move will force a great many prospective patients of nursing homes out of private health insurance and into the Health Insurance Commission scheme; that is, they will become just levy payers, especially as they advance in age and the prospect of them needing nursing home care becomes greater. [More…]

• The effect will be that it will place a further strain on the level of general resources necessary to support health insurance payments by the Commission. [More…]

• Already one billion dollars worth of support is provided from general revenue for the health insurance arrangements administered by the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• If honourable members addressed their minds to the question of health care of persons in nursing homes every one would agree that the present system is imperfect. [More…]

• However, in the meantime we have been stuck with a system which does not usher in a great new era as the Minister suggests but which does have very real perils in relation to health insurance arrangements generally in Australia. [More…]

• Because of an obsession with logically structuring and folding in nursing home benefits into a system of health insurance arrangements for which they may not be suitable we will, as the honourable member for Maribyrnong suggested, be making short term savings at the expense perhaps of long term constraint on costs in this area. [More…]

• in reply-I thank all honourable members who contributed to the debate this afternoon and this evening on the National Health Acts Amendment Bill and the National Health Amendment Bill. [More…]

• The exception is a small handful of health insurance funds, some of which have attempted to panic and mislead patients and contributors into believing that the Government was removing its assistance to nursing home patients throughout Australia. [More…]

• I would not like to see aged people suffer insecurity because of doubts that we express in this place or doubts that might be expressed by health insurance funds and others for reasons best known to them. [More…]

• It was understood by all concerned that a period of time would need to elapse to enable the health insurance funds to adjust their table of benefits and to adjust premiums if’ they had to be adjusted. [More…]

• Also it was necessary for a period of time to elapse to enable my Department to establish new levels of benefits based on surveys that needed to be conducted in each State and to arrive at the formula of 70 per cent coverage of fees of private nursing homes and homes registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• As the honourable member for Prospect conceded, this would ensure that of the order of 83 per cent to 90 per cent of nursing home patients m each State, including those in private nursing homes, in deficit funded nursing homes and in State government nursing, homes would be covered by the benefits received from either the health insurance funds or the Government. [More…]

• That is a clear undertaking to people who may feel insecure because of the tactics of a few private health insurance funds and members of the Opposition who may have a political motive in trying to belittle the Government’s genuine attempt to overcome a difficult problem for people. [More…]

• Of course, in discussions with the Health Ministers we hope to reach some uniform approach between the States into the future because there is an irregularity in that respect [More…]

• If a person is sick for one reason or another or if he is sick because of age, I cannot see any reason why insurance, either insurance which is backed by the Government or insurance from a private health insurance fund, should not cover that requirement. [More…]

• If they are pensioners with health benefit cards they get the Medibank cover for nil. [More…]

• Those people in the lower range of income will not have to make any contribution at all towards their health insurance or for cover in nursing homes. [More…]

• If they were sick aged, they would probably come within the range of some future policy adjustment in the health area. [More…]

• I assure him that there is no way that this system will cost nursing home patients more unless they are in the higher income range and are contributing towards private health insurance. [More…]

• I have not witnessed any objection on their part to paying a premium for private health insurance because that is their choice for doctor of choice. [More…]

• The overwhelming evidence was that fluoridation greatly improved dental health without any adverse side effects. [More…]

• The second Fox report also expressed concern about health hazards to the mine workers. [More…]

• He worked in uranium mines and he had more than his share of ill health. [More…]

• To maximise the contribution of an expanded and socially acceptable nuclear program which is consistent with the maintenance of a safe environment in terms of solving problems of health and security which may arise. [More…]

• 1 ) Gollin Holdings Limited, was approved as an organisation under Part IV of the Health Insurance Act to receive a health program grant in respect of the 1975-76 financial year for the medical practitioner employed. [More…]

• A condition of a health program grant is that an approved organisation is required to forward to my Department by 31 October, or such later date as is approved, certified audited accounts for the preceding budget period ending 30 June, which show the operation receipts and payments for the activities of the organisation which have attracted a health program grant. [More…]

• He also advised my Department that the health program grant approved was used exclusively to onset the medical practitioner’s salary and expenses. [More…]

• ), F.C.N., F.C.N.A., Director of Nursing, Department of Health. [More…]

• ), M.A.N.Z.C.P., D.P.M., First Assistant Director-General, Health Services Division, Department of Health. [More…]

• First Assistant Director-General, Medical Insurance Services Division, Department of Health. [More…]

• ), Dean, School of Health Sciences, Western Australian Institute of Technology. [More…]

• ), Head, School of Health Administration, University of N.S.W. [More…]

• Mr C. A. Nettle, M.B.E., LL.B., F.A.S.A., Deputy Director-General, Department of Health. [More…]

• Mr M. Carroll, B.Com., A.A.U.Q., First Assistant Director-General, Insurance, Hospitals and Nursing Homes Division, Department of Health. [More…]

• Mr L. B. Holgate, B.Com., F.A.S.A., First Assistant Director-General, Policy and Planning Division, Department of Health. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is he aware of the very real conscientious objection that many people have to contributing towards payment for abortions through health funds? [More…]

• -The Health Insurance Act provides for medical benefits to be paid for services rendered by legally qualified medical practitioners. [More…]

• I have had many representations, in fact I have had thousands of representations, from people throughout the community, objecting to being party to paying benefits for such procedures unless the mother has had an abortion because of the state of her health. [More…]

• It does raise some very difficult problems for my Department and for the various health insurance funds. [More…]

• However, there are also people in the community who would not like to see my Department or the health insurance funds engage in a witch hunt to ascertain why abortions were carried out. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health seen an article in the Community Health Bulletin No. [More…]

• According to my departmental advisers there is sufficient justification to give very sympathetic consideration to an application for any funds that might be made available to the Hospitals and Health Services Commission or, indeed, to the National Health and Medical Research Council for a pilot project to test the general relevance of these techniques as an alternative form of health management. [More…]

• The honourable member will be interested to know that the Government is interested in developing alternative health delivery schemes and alternative systems of treatment. [More…]

• I hope that the National Health and Medical Research Council or the Hospitals and Health Services Commission will give favourable consideration to any application he might make. [More…]

• I address my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is there not a conflict of interest for the Director-General of Health because of his responsibility for the National Health Act under which he controls and approves the registration and conduct of all private health insurance funds, including Medibank Private, and his responsibilities as Chairman of the Health Insurance Commission which operates Medibank Private? [More…]

• Can Medibank really operate independently of the Government, as the Minister frequently says it should and as TransAustralia Airlines and the Commonwealth Banking Corporation do, in competition with private enterprise, with this dual leadership exercised by the Director-General of Health and other health officials on the Commission? [More…]

• -I suppose that if we followed that logic to its ultimate the honourable gentleman would say that I had a conflict of interest in that I administer the National Health Act and am responsible for its operation, whilst at the same time the Health Insurance Commission is responsible to me as the Minister. [More…]

• I have had no complaint from any of the health insurance funds which have been registered according to the conditions and provisions of the National Health Act. [More…]

• The proposals envisage the delegation of wide policy and executive responsibility for important functions such as health, education and welfare services, public transport, the Australian Capital Territory police, municipal services, the present government housing operations and many other services of government in the Territory. [More…]

• It should be expected that the Government would be looking to the same general processes of refinement in high expenditure areas here including education, welfare and health. [More…]

• It has tailored health and social welfare policies so that they cater for the needy rather than for those who can more easily provide for themselves. [More…]

• What would be the position if we adopted a user pays principle in respect of many other fields in which the Commonwealth has a responsibility such as railways, education, water supply, social welfare and health? [More…]

• The Melbourne Age has reported him as saying that the Federal Government had unilaterally cut its share of the costs of community health centres and the school dental program and that the State had without warning been forced to carry a greater share of the burden than it had previously. [More…]

• There was less spent on health, social security and welfare in real terms. [More…]

• Provides for cuts in real terms in expenditure for traditional federal areas such as welfare housing, hospital and health services, pre-school and child care centres, legal aid, school dental schemes, growth centres, sewerage and other programs; [More…]

• I refer next to Aboriginal health. [More…]

• Fancy Aboriginal health being a victim in any situation. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 May 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 May 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware of reports that the Federal Government and private health funds are endeavouring to encourage private nursing home patients to join private health funds? [More…]

• I was aware of a great deal of confusion amongst nursing home patients during the winter recess because of a campaign that was launched by some private health funds which were trying to make a case that the Government would abandon subsidies to private nursing homes and nursing home patients. [More…]

• During the winter recess I announced that the Government would provide higher benefits for nursing home patients and that the health insurance funds would be responsible for paying the benefits to those patients who were insured privately or with hospital only insurance. [More…]

• Those patients who are not insured will receive automatically the same higher benefits from the Department of Health. [More…]

• I do not have the figures for the Capital Territory Health Commission, but I understand that there have been like increases, although at this point there are some strains in relation to the obligation to open the Calvary Hospital- not to staff the hospital but to support the staff that will go into that hospital from a Roman Catholic order. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is to be congratulated for at last achieving the go ahead for a maximum security quarantine station on the Cocos Islands. [More…]

• Over $ 12m has been committed for this project and other capital works for quarantine facilities around Australia which are of tremendous importance to the continued health of our livestock industries. [More…]

• The community health program budget has been increased. [More…]

• This is of significance to country people because that program allows a greater flexibility in health expenditure. [More…]

• In a number of community health grants the special requirements of country people can be met by this program whereas they cannot be met by the more inflexible general health grants. [More…]

• I shall talk further on the estimates for health, welfare and social security, but I make the point that much still has to be done by this Government for country people. [More…]

• I emphasise this- unilaterally cut its share of the costs of community health centres and the school dental program. [More…]

• How can one possibly argue that this is an economical method of health care? [More…]

• The cost of the administration of the Health Insurance Commission in that year was $5 1.8m. [More…]

• The percentage of population covered by Medibank has now dropped to 33 per cent and the administrative cost of the Health Insurance Commission increased to $60m during 1976-77. [More…]

• There are many other areas in which the Government has cut expenditure on health. [More…]

• The community health program has been quite significantly cut by the Government not providing for any increase. [More…]

• Health expenditure in general has been cut in real terms. [More…]

• The Government continues to misallocate resources in its provision of health services by failing to increase funds in areas which put the emphasis on health maintenance; for example, the community health program, drug education, the school dental scheme, family planning and so on. [More…]

• At a time when health care costs are exploding, the Fraser Government is turning its back onrograms that will save money in the long term y reducing institutional care and preventing illness. [More…]

• Despite these cuts in revenue, the funding of health, education, transport, defence and welfare has been maintained at very adequate levels. [More…]

• The general healthiness of the States is reflected in the way in which a number of States have surpluses in their accounts this year. [More…]

• In the few minutes remaining to me I want to refer to one pleasing aspect of the Budget, and that is the provision of additional finance for the Department of Health civil works program to allow meaningful improvements, particularly in the area of quarantine. [More…]

• Social security is up by 13.7 per cent; education is up by 16 per cent, despite claims that it has been cut; health spending is up by 1 1 per cent, including 17 per cent in assistance to the aged; funding to local government through the income tax sharing arrangements is increased by 19 per cent; and road funding and payments to the States has increased dramatically. [More…]

• Strikes and other stoppages would add $2m to the $ 176.3m completion cost of the Westmead Hospital, the New South Wales Minister for Health, Mr Stewart said yesterday. [More…]

• I address a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• He would be aware of certain undertakings given during the 1975 election campaign to nurses in the Australian Capital Territory concerning the composition of the Capital Territory Health Commission. [More…]

• Can the Minister inform the House whether any decision has been made on the appointment of a full time commissioner with nursing qualifications to the Capital Territory Health Commission? [More…]

• I am constantly reminded by the honourable member of the pre-election policy in regard to the Capital Territory Health Commission and the composition of that body. [More…]

• The Government recently announced the two newly appointed full time members of the Capital Territory Health Commission, namely Mr Russell Boardman and the Deputy Commissioner, Dr Cumming Thorn. [More…]

• Australia has also contributed to a World Health Organisation medical program in Vietnam and to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees appeal for wheat for people within Vietnam displaced by war. [More…]

• Fluoridation ( Financed by Health Commission). [More…]

• I refer to instructional television, health care by telemedicine, long distance telephone trunk calls, closed circuit television and digital data transmission. [More…]

• He changed and did a complete about face - not because he was interested in the health and prosperity of all Aus.tralians but because he knew that if he did not he would be out on his ear, stripped of his position as spokesman on minerals and energy, beleagured and berated by those of the Left. [More…]

• It is the people of the world and their health and welfare that are at stake. [More…]

• Then and only then will our people be informed of the crucial matters relating to the degree of radiation emissions, and their possible effects on health and the environment, and the dispersal of radioactive wastes. [More…]

• When his blatant confidence trick became unmasked he collapsed into ill health. [More…]

• Mr Hayden may imagine that he can gain some political advantage from the gloom he expresses, but seems unaware that if he does so it is at the expense of the nation’s economic health. [More…]

• Representatives of Department of Health [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to the high cost of installing and operating a new method of total body X-raying, technically known as computerised axial tomography scanning? [More…]

• In the United States of America there has been a tremendous proliferation of these pieces of equipment, which is of course adding enormously to the health bill of the United States. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• With regard to the community health program, is the Minister able to advise whether he recently met State Health Ministers? [More…]

• Does he agree that a legislative base for the community health program is necessary to ensure continuity of the Commonwealth Government’s commitment and to encourage State governments to treat the program as one which is essential to contain the nation’s health costs because of the program’s preventative health bias? [More…]

• The second item on the agenda was the long-term funding arrangements for the school dental program and the community health program. [More…]

• The States also have sought a commitment from the Commonwealth to ensure that the present funding levels of the school dental program and the community health program are maintained, the commitment to be embodied in two separate Acts to give the States a guarantee that Commonwealth funding will continue. [More…]

• The Government places great importance on the school dental program and the community health program as means of maintaining an active preventative health policy with the co-operation of the States. [More…]

• So we certainly are considering the possibilty of introducing legislation as a means of ensuring that the States have this guarantee and as a means of gaining the full co-operation of State governments in both programs which we believe are essential to long-term long term preventative health measures in Australia. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware that certain organisations in Tasmania have been informed by the State Government that their projects cannot be funded because the Commonwealth Government has not agreed to the release of funds under the Community Health Program? [More…]

• The Commonwealth Government has increased its contribution to the Community Health Program by 14.8 per cent. [More…]

• It will be receiving its share under the Community Health Program of the $lm additional money that was set aside for the funding of women’s refuges in that State. [More…]

• It is receiving also a very fair share of funds under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• The honourable member for Wilmot might tell the Tasmanian Minister for Health when he goes back that he should be grateful for and gracious about what he is receiving. [More…]

• to the Minister for Health, to determine increases (if any) in Pathology fees to apply in 1978. [More…]

• This represents a further major step in containing increases in health care costs in Australia. [More…]

• Other participants were Senator Shirley Walters, the New South Wales Health Commission, the Australian Association of Neurologists and the Society of Pathologists in Private Practice. [More…]

• However, the Inquiry recommended that, on a request from the AMA to the Minister for Health, a further inquiry should be convened to determine increases, if any, to such fees. [More…]

• Action will be taken shortly to prepare regulations under the Health Insurance Act to implement the determination, and to re-print the medical benefits schedule book for use by medical benefits organisations and doctors. [More…]

• -by leave-Whilst I have a copy of the statement by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), as yet I have not seen a copy of the determination. [More…]

• The important point in the answer is the one we find difficulty in dealing with and hopefully Mr Justice Ludeke got some information from the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• The honourable member for Murray asked the Minister for Health: [More…]

• Persons who had not previously taken out health insurance with private medical benefits funds were covered, from 1 July 1975, to the extent of medical benefits for medical services. [More…]

• For example, ophthalmologists doing refractions previously did a lot of this work on elderly people in an honorary capacity but they now receive a significant payment for their treatment of these people from Medibank or the health insurance funds for doing the same work in their own rooms. [More…]

• When the arguments of the Victorian Hospitals Association were put to the Victorian Minister for Health, Mr Houghton, last night he said that the Victorian Hospitals Association figures did not give a true picture of the amounts paid to most visiting specialists, and it certainly did not when it comes to a figure of $6,000 for one hour’s work. [More…]

• Obviously some specialists and some general practitioners have not benefited as much by changes to the health insurance system as others have and they undoubtedly are entitled to an increase in fees; but those who receive an ex gratia payment in some States and therefore receive much extra money, obviously should not have their fees increased or, if they do have them increased, not at anything like the same rate. [More…]

• The figures provided by the Director-General of Health show that in 1975-76 the average cost of a medical service was $ 10.85. [More…]

• Doctors still received on top of that about 15 per cent from patients and $ 166.5m from the health insurance funds. [More…]

• I know that the Minister is just as concerned as I am that total health expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product has increased in this country from 6 per cent in 1972-73 to . [More…]

• If the amount spent on health services increases at that rate everybody in this country will be either a patient or an employee of hospitals by the year 2000. [More…]

• The Opposition spokesman on health matters has made that point time and time again. [More…]

• I point out that there is great merit at a time of stagflation, such as at the present time, in adopting the Australian Labor Party’s alternative short term economic policy of moderate, stimulatory public spending to help the economy return to health, provided that spending is in areas where there are underemployed resources of men and material. [More…]

• The people who live in the new Mallee electorate will not have easy access to departmental offices, such as those concerned with health, immigration, housing and repatriation. [More…]

• I find it surprising and disturbing that leading figures on the Island have never been told, as I am advised, why the Government’s new animal health quarantine station is to be located on Cocos Island instead of Christmas Island, despite some apparent clear advantages in favour of Christmas Island and the seemingly bleak economic future for Christmas Island once its phosphate deposits run out. [More…]

• In Fiji the representative of the United States of America drives a Kingswood station wagon; the representative of France drives a Holden; the representative of New Zealand has two cars- a Belmont sedan and a Belmont station wagon; the representative of the South Pacific Bureau of Economic Co-operation has a Statesman; the representative of the World Health Organisation has a Kingswood station wagon; and the Australian High Commissioner is being provided with a Toyota. [More…]

• This information is still being received and processed by the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• The net administrative expenditure for the Health Insurance Commission for the year 1975-76 was $51,867,000. [More…]

• Details of expenditure in respect of Medibank Private for 1976-77 will not be available until the Health Insurance Commission’s 1976- 77 annual report has been tabled. [More…]

• 1 ) The Commonwealth Department of Health advised the Department of Primary Industry on 18 July 1977 that there was a problem with Salmonella bredeney in infants food formula and that the source of the trouble seemed to be Nestle ‘s Tongala factory. [More…]

• Later that same day an officer of the Department of Primary Industry attended a meeting of Victorian authorities (Health and Agriculture), Federal authorities (Health and Primary Industry), and trade representatives. [More…]

• At that meeting the representative of the Victorian health authorities announced that an outbreak of gastroenteritis among children in Australia had been traced to milk powder containing Salmonella produced at Nestle ‘s Tongala factory. [More…]

• Jurisdiction over health aspects of food consumption in Australia is vested in State Government authorities. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 6 September 1977: [More…]

• However the Lethal Dose 50 per cent test is a test recommended by the World Health Organisation as a standard for measuring the toxicity of substances with which humans may come into contact or may ingest. [More…]

• What work has been carried out to date on the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory at Geelong, Vic [More…]

• Has he discussed with the Minister for Health irregularities in quarantine procedures in Western Australia and the issue of a letter of clearance to an infested ship in New South Wales. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 September 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 15 September 1977: [More…]

• How many medical practitioners were authorised to dispense prescriptions under the National Health Act during each of the last 5 financial years. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 September 1 977: [More…]

• The honourable member will recall that when the National Health Act Amendment Bill, to establish the Joint Committee on Pharmaceutical Benefits Pricing Arrangements as a statutory body, was being debated in this place in December 1976, attention was drawn to the large number of retail pharmacies in Australia in relation to the population. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• On 12 July 1977 the Director of Health, Western Australia Division, advised Mr Toomer by letter, that he would not accept two calls made to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs from the departmental official telephone at Fort Hedland as being official calls. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 7 August 1 977: [More…]

• Was Mr N. Brogan, Quarantine Inspector, Depart.ment of Health, Western Australia, ordered or requested to assume duties at port Hedland following suspension of Mr F. W. Toomer, Quarantine Inspector, Port Hedland, Western Australia. [More…]

• Did the Director of Health, Western Australia, initiate, suggest or recommend that charges under the Public Service Act be laid against Mr Brogan; if so, what action was taken on any suggestion or recommendation, and what were the reasons for the action. [More…]

• They are not able to measure radioactivity of wastes, that is a matter for the Australian Radiation Laboratory of the Department of Health and/or the Australian Atomic Energy Commission. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 September 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) Has the Department of Health recommended the dismissal of Mr W. F. Toomer, Quarantine Inspector, because of his public statement criticising quarantine inspection methods as a result of a parcel containing infected meat being passed unopened in Perth. [More…]

• 1 ) The Chief Officer of the Western Australia Division of the Department of Health, on 16 August 1977 sustained eight charges which had been preferred against Mr Toomer. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 September 1 977: [More…]

• and (3) The Health Commission of New South Wales, which is responsible for the administration of this service, has advised that this project, which is based at Parramatta, employs 168 nurses throughout the Western Metropolitan Region. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 September 1977: [More…]

• The Third Report from the Royal College of Physicians of London titled ‘Smoking or Health’ published in 1977 states: ‘The risk of death from lung cancer is related to the number of cigarettes smoked and the age of starting, and is reduced by smoking filter-tipped cigaretes . [More…]

• The effects of changes in indirect taxes on the price index are removed, and so also are the effects of the introduction of the health insurance levy and of the devaluation of the Australian dollar last year. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 1 September 1977: [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• -I think that even Mr Justice Ludeke appreciated the great difficulty that would confront the Department in trying to achieve the profile that the honourable member for Prospect was seeking in relation to the changed arrangements in universal health insurance in this country since the introduction of Medibank. [More…]

• I asked him whether he discussed with the Minister for Health- I emphasise the word ‘discussed’- the irregularities in quarantine procedures in Western Australia and the issue of a letter of clearance to an infested ship in New South Wales, the Vishna Kalyan. [More…]

• The Minister in his answer has indicated that the responsibility rests with the Minister for Health and that I should direct my inquiries to him. [More…]

• I ask the Minister whether in fact he has discussed these matters with the Minister for Health and pointed out the important consequences for primary industry, especially the livestock sector, of any breakdown in quarantine procedures. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health noted the political criticism of the Federal Government by Labor parliamentarians at the official opening of the federally financed Campbelltown public hospital last weekend? [More…]

• Could the Minister ensure that at future official openings of federally financed public hospitals in Labor governed States a member of the Government will be guaranteed the right of reply to improper and untrue propaganda speeches such as those made in my electorate last weekend by the honourable member for Werriwa, the New South Wales Premier, the New South Wales Minister for Health and the State member for Campbelltown? [More…]

• I am surprised that the Premier of New South Wales and the New South Wales Minister for Health would indulge themselves in such a blast against the Federal Government and the Federal Minister because we have been so generous and co-operative with them in trying to assist them to extend their health services in New South Wales. [More…]

• 1427 on the national animal health laboratory at Geelong is shown as having been asked by Mr Les Johnson. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice on 13 October 1977: [More…]

• Is a departmental committee or the National Health and Medical Research Council currently investigating the problem of road trauma; if not, why not. [More…]

• A report by the Mental Health Authority of Victoria, published in February this year, showed that attempted suicide had reached almost epidemic proportions in two Victorian centres surveyed. [More…]

• Dr Abie Kessel, the then acting deputy chief medical officer of the Victorian Health Authority, who worked on the survey, said: [More…]

• Health and Welfare Committee this year by the director of the New South Wales Health Commission’s central drug and alcohol advisory service, in which he stated that substantial groups of heroin addicts had been detected recently in three parts of Sydney- areas with high youth unemployment levels. [More…]

• My colleague the honourable member ibr Gellibrand (Mr Willis) made some reference to various mental health authorities in Victoria and I would like to refer to those details again because they are worth repeating. [More…]

• A study conducted by the Victorian Mental Health Authority in Ballarat and Dandenong in 1975 found that the rate of attempted suicide among the employed was very high in both areas. [More…]

• The major areas of government expenditure are as follows: Defence, 8.7 per cent; education, 8.8 per cent; health, 10.5 per cent; social security and welfare, 27.2 per cent; and States and local government, transfer of payments, 21.8 per cent. [More…]

• If we are not to reduce expenditure in those other four areas which provide benefits that people need- I refer to education, health, social security; and much of the money provided by way of States grants goes into those areas- we have to be prepared to take away benefits from those who are not in need. [More…]

• We should direct funds to the needy in the public expenditure areas of health, education and welfare. [More…]

• Department of Health. [More…]

• I know from my experience in government, from being involved directly in this area, that those projections which come from the Department of Health are provided on the basis of advice from other government instrumentalities such as the Department of the Treasury. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation is a body of the United Nations Organisation, and this is essentially a part of our consideration of foreign affairs. [More…]

• About 18 months ago the World Health Organisation sent out a little circular. [More…]

• We are part of an organisation and if we are to remain a part of the international family we should be just as much interested in the projected findings of the World Health Organisation of the United Nations as in anything else. [More…]

• These include civil aviation, cultural affairs, refugee problems, immigration, health, drug problems, travellers in distress, disaster relief, information services and numerous other responsibilities of government. [More…]

• -An important point about the appropriation for the Department of Health is that the net cost of running the Department of Health in 1977-78 is proposed to be approximately $2,497m. [More…]

• Page 27 shows that the Department of Health made a submission to him as to the estimated increase in the consumer price index for the September quarter. [More…]

• In the community health program grants for capital costs have been decreased from 75 per cent to 50 per cent and grants for operating costs from 90 per cent to 75 per cent. [More…]

• Senator Grimes asked Dr Hennessy, appearing for the Department of Health, the following question: [More…]

• He emphasised the word ‘unilaterally’- cut its share of the costs of community health centres and the school dental program. [More…]

• I think it is important to emphasise what is happening with community health programs. [More…]

• Dr Hennessy, speaking for the Department of Health, said: [More…]

• I found it rather difficult to follow the earlier remarks of the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) but I gathered he was critical of the determination in respect of medical fees, as announced in this House yesterday by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• It is not my intention to enter in any detail into the multitude of aspects that apply in these particular areas of health and welfare. [More…]

• I want to deal with one particular point because there is one facet of our health program where the Government is being defrauded of countless millions of dollars and, likewise, the public directly through the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• I am alarmed at the increasing number of convictions of doctors for offences under the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• This practice of overconsultation is rife with pensioners and private patients, whether they are covered under the Medibank levy system, Medibank Private or a private health insurance organisation. [More…]

• He needs to see only a modest 50 patients daily at the new fees announced yesterday by the Minister for Health as will apply from 1 January 1978- in New South Wales it will be $8.90 per consultation in hours- and work 48 weeks of the year in order to gross in excess of $100,000 annually. [More…]

• To the defrauders and exploiters yesterday’s fees increase announcement by the Minister for Health will be laughable. [More…]

• I want to pay a tribute to the Director-General of Health. [More…]

• If honourable members have looked at the annual report of the Director-General of Health for 1976-77 they could only be impressed with the emphasis that is being placed on various matters. [More…]

• -In past years there has been a continuing growth in Federal legislation aimed at providing an ever widening range of community facilities in health, welfare, sport, cultural and recreational areas. [More…]

• I will name just a few of them: The States Grants (Home Care) Act, the sport and recreation grants, the area improvement program, child care and preschool services, hospital and health services, community arts, the Regional Employment Development scheme and the Australian Assistance Plan. [More…]

• For example, if a community decides that it requires a health centre, a senior citizens centre and perhaps a pre-school kindergarten, which can easily be built in the one complex, administrative problems make such a proposition difficult, if not impossible, despite the obvious advantages of having that section of the community most in need of health care within easy access of health facilities. [More…]

• Those areas are not able to provide such facilities as sport and recreation facilities, libraries, community arts programs and health centres because they are still building their basic infrastructure. [More…]

• I have found that when a community wanted to build, say, a health centre, a pre-school, a kindergarten or a youth centre and went to the Government for funds usually they engaged the services of a local inexperienced architect and he designed what was probably the first building he had ever designed for that area. [More…]

• -One respect of health expenditure upon which I should like to dwell tonight is the community health program. [More…]

• At a time of general economic restraint it is pleasing to see the Government’s commitment to the community health program in accordance with its 1975 pre-election promises. [More…]

• We then stated that we believed in a concept of total health care with the responsibility essentially at the community level. [More…]

• Fifteen years ago approximately 5.2 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product was devoted to health. [More…]

• Honourable members will be aware that the Bailey task force found that the total expenditure in the health and welfare areas of Commonwealth government responsibility exceeded $8,800m in 1975-76, or 40 per cent of the total government outlay. [More…]

• Of that sum the expenditure on the community health program represented less than one per cent. [More…]

• The growing cost of the provision of health services in this country ought to be of major concern to this Parliament and to those responsible for the planning and implementation of our national health program. [More…]

• I believe that our commitment to the preventive and educational aspects of the community health program can go a considerable way towards constraining our health expenditure. [More…]

• There have been many initiatives to improve health care in the community in the past four years, originating from various State agencies and from Canberra. [More…]

• The recommendations of the Bailey task force are a starting point in the rationalisation of government health programs. [More…]

• However, it is my view that the community health program can be the basis for a national health program with a strong bias towards the preventive and educational aspects of community well-being. [More…]

• Currently over 700 projects are funded under the community health progam. [More…]

• These projects range from community health centres to day hospitals, day care centres, geriatric services, health education services, maternal and child care services, drug and rehabilitation facilities, funding for community nursing and so on. [More…]

• It is a wide-ranging program of considerable benefit to community well-being and in many cases it gives health services to communities that previously have been deprived in that area. [More…]

• I am not suggesting that the work of the community nurse is more important than that of others working in the program, but I believe that it is a good example of the development of a new category of health worker. [More…]

• She is oriented to health as opposed to illness; to prevention rather than cure; and to rehabilitation rather than submission to disabilities. [More…]

• As at July 1976 over 1,100 community nurses were operating throughout Australia and being funded under the community health program. [More…]

• Salvation Army’s ‘Haven’ in Brisbane for young alcoholics and drug addicts and the New South Wales Health Commission’s main drug centre in the heart of Sydney. [More…]

• There is another area that I believe should be developed within the framework of the community health program. [More…]

• Community recreation, fitness and use of leisure time are a vital part of any national health program. [More…]

• They are basic to the preventive aspect of the community’s health. [More…]

• A report submitted recently to the Government by its Health and Welfare Committee referred to this matter in the following terms: [More…]

• The health of the community has a direct relationship to the manner in which members of the community utilise thenleisure time and perform their daily tasks. [More…]

• National policies on sport, recreation and fitness must be interrelated to a national health program. [More…]

• On 4 August 1977 the Director of Health, Western Australia, advised Mr Toomer that as he had been suspended from duty he was not permitted to enter any of the establishments or premises controlled by the Department of Health in Western Australia, except: [More…]

• I am not aware of any failure on the part of the Victorian Minister for Health in dealing with the recent salmonella outbreak. [More…]

• I also indicated that the Victorian Health Authorities were largely responsible for tracing the outbreak of gastroenteritis in Australian infants to salmonella contamination in milk powder produced in one factory. [More…]

• There is close and continuing liaison between the Department of Primary Industry, the Commonwealth Department of Health and the relevant Victorian State authorities to ensure that dried milk products whether sold on the domestic market or exported are wholesome and are of high quality. [More…]

• It has been found in many countries, I think, that there is a relationship between the economic health of a country and the savings ratio- in other words, the use to which people put their own incomes. [More…]

• I believe it was the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who made the initial announcement and said that this project would cost about $6. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is sitting at the table, should be congratulated for removing from so many hundreds and thousands of patients accommodated in nursing homes the fear that they would within too short a time find themselves unable to pay for the accommodation and care they need. [More…]

• That this imaginative and much needed reform has been introduced is in large measure due to the diligence of the Minister for Health and the work that he has put into achieving a situation whereby at least 70 per cent of the beds in privately operated nursing homes will be available at a fee which the pensioner can afford. [More…]

• The three departments with which we are dealing- the Department of Health, the Department of Social Security and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs- make up quite a significant portion of the Budget allocation. [More…]

• Since the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who is sitting at the table at the present time is also responsible for quarantine matters, I trust that the matters I raise will become of concern to him also. [More…]

• I refer also to the national animal health laboratory in Geelong which is to produce animal vaccines. [More…]

• That animal health laboratory is to do research into animal diseases in Australia and to produce animal vaccines. [More…]

• The situation is that work on the animal health laboratory is not proceeding. [More…]

• I have a large migrant population in my electorate, and I have difficulties trying to explain to people, who want to bring out relatives who, for some reason or other, are not allowed to come, why these people without any examination, prior knowledge or anything else are allowed to sail their ships across the sea and land in Australia without the usual health precautions. [More…]

• There is a story, whether it is true or not, of a ship in the port of Sydney being given a health clearance by the New South Wales Director of Health. [More…]

• -Firstly I congratulate the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), the Ministers in charge of the portfolios to which I wish to refer, for the responsible, constructive, compassionate and successful way in which they have administered their portfolios. [More…]

• I note also that other reviews within the Department of Social Security are under way on the whole income security system and, in relation to the Department of Health, the Bailey task force has possibly reported to the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) by now. [More…]

• It is tremendously significant to improve the flexibility, the reduction in overlap or duplication and the position generally in a whole range of health and welfare services of a federalist nature, as I believe some of these recommendations are, which may be implemented by the Government. [More…]

• The Department of Health has been allocated $2,8 13m in this Budget, a 10.7 per cent increase over last year. [More…]

• I also commend the Minister on the progress he has made with accountability and flexibility arrangements in our health delivery system. [More…]

• I understand that the Department is looking at a whole range of new ideas, such as pre-paid health plans or health maintenance organisation arrangements, and catastrophic insurance arrangements, all of which, if implemented, will add to the efficiency, accountability and flexibility of the system. [More…]

• If one adds to that the increased allocation for the Community Health Program, with the variety of more flexible services that this offers, one can say ‘Well done’ to the Minister. [More…]

• The other matter is the overall priority for expenditure in the animal health and quarantine areas. [More…]

• The point has been made that the National Animal Health Laboratory at Geelong has received no Budget allocation this year. [More…]

• But, if we have an overall priority for expenditure on animal quarantine and animal health generally, perhaps some money should have been allocated for Geelong out of the total amount. [More…]

• To conclude, I refer to something the Minister spoke about on Sunday in Canberra; that is, the need to provide equality of health services for country people. [More…]

• This is perhaps the greatest gap in our health policy at present. [More…]

• The Government must introduce measures to assist people in country areas so that they have equality of health services with city people. [More…]

• We have seen the dismantling of the Australian Assistance Plan, for instance, and the confusion over the national health service. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) obviously supports the idea. [More…]

• Therefore, there must be no interference with the general principles upon which health services, general care, and levels of pensions and benefits for dependants and housing system have been developed over 60 years. [More…]

• As I understand it, there was an agreement made some time last year between the Assistant Minister of Health in Victoria, Mr Jona, and the Minister for Social Security on this basis. [More…]

• I appeal to the Minister for Health who is at the table to raise this matter on my behalf and on behalf of my constituents with the Minister concerned. [More…]

• This year I was the beneficiary of the health services in Canberra. [More…]

• I can never understand how anybody can oppose the establishment of a national health service which supplies the same quality of service at the same price and under the same administrative system to every Australian, as we have been providing for the best part of 60 years to most of the people in the repatriation system. [More…]

• Anybody in this country is happy to front up for repatriation health services, to use salaried services from doctors and all the rest of it without complaint I do not know why there should be any argument about supplying it to everybody in the community. [More…]

• I feel it necessary at this stage in the debate on the estimates for the Department of Health, the Department of Social Security and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to reply to some of the comments made by the honourable member for Burke (Mr Keith Johnson) and my friend, the honourable and gallant member for Wills (Mr Bryant). [More…]

• He talked about the difficulty in establishing an identification between a condition of health and their service. [More…]

• Secondly, I refer to the decision of the Government, as announced by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), that private hospital and medical funds and not the Government will pay benefits to nursing homes in respect of patients who are insured by them. [More…]

• On 20 September, I asked the Minister for Health this question without notice: [More…]

• Is the Minister aware of reports that the Federal Government and private health funds are endeavouring to encourage private nursing home patients to join private health funds? [More…]

• The Minister for Health said in reply to my question- and I fully agree with him on this point- that he was aware of a great deal of confusion among nursing home patients because of a campaign that was launched by some private health funds. [More…]

• But I do not think the Minister realises that the nursing homes themselves joined in that campaign or that the funds have used the name of this Government and the Minister for Health as being party to the campaign. [More…]

• Finally, I deal with the question of funds for the community health program. [More…]

• The polyclinic at Mount Druitt is the biggest and one of the finest community health centres in the country and one of the best examples of preventive medicine in the true sense of the word, particularly in respect of paediatric services. [More…]

• -In speaking on the Estimates for the Department of Health this evening I raise the question of the link between child neglect and drug taking. [More…]

• I want to make a few comments on the overall question of the cost of health to the community. [More…]

• I do not want to pick a bone about any particular aspect of the estimates but I want to comment on the general problem facing the whole community in terms of the cost of health care. [More…]

• I remind the House that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) mentioned that for 1975-76 we were spending 7.5 per cent of our gross domestic product on health. [More…]

• The fault lies with the system of health insurance cover on a fee for service basis, whether it be compulsory, universal voluntary or partial. [More…]

• Just in case people imagine that I am making this up I would like to quote some figures that have been produced by the Chief Health Statistician of the Western Australian Department of Public Health. [More…]

• The Chief Health Statistician has made a comparison of the rates for a series of operations with the figures in other places. [More…]

• I just do not believe that we as a nation are so much less healthy that we require that much more surgery. [More…]

• Without having the facts culled by the experts in the Department of Health, I will hazard a guess. [More…]

• I have read enough to feel what we will find is confirmation of the fact that we would dramatically reduce the cost of our health services if we placed more emphasis on community health care and if, instead of worrying about constraining hospital costs, we provided an alternative system which treated people in the community out of hospital in their homes. [More…]

• Let me make the point again that the bulk of our health costs- at least a halfare centred on institutional care. [More…]

• Although institutions deal only with the smallest portion of the total health problems of the community, they constitute the bulk of the health cost. [More…]

• The American figures compare hospitalisation rates in different metropolitan areas of the country with hospitalisation rates where there are health maintenance organisations or, in our jargon, community health centres. [More…]

• In other words, the hospitalisation rate when patients were looked after in essence in community health centres was only about 38 per cent of the rate for patients cared for in the fee for service area, metropolitan and elsewhere. [More…]

• The Kaiser Permanente, which is a health maintenance organisation, manages to treat its patients satisfactorily with only two beds per thousand. [More…]

• We should get an alternative better health care system instead of punishing sick patients. [More…]

• I thank honourable members on both sides of the House for the contributions they have made to the debate on the estimates for the Department of Health, the Department of Social Security and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. [More…]

• The Government is well aware that this practice is happening and, under the terms of the Health Insurance Act, has moved to increase the penalties very substantially. [More…]

• Doctors who are defrauding the health insurance system will receive no mercy from either this Government or me. [More…]

• Currently, there are over 170 doctors under inquiry by the Health Commission. [More…]

• We want to be sure that bulk billing is not one of the incentives to doctors to abuse the health insurance system. [More…]

• I hope that the swift action that was taken by quarantine officials of the Department of Health will prevent the spread of Newcastle disease, which, of course, is the worst disease known to the poultry industry. [More…]

• The honourable member for Maribyrnong placed emphasis on the importance of the community health program. [More…]

• There has been a grizzle from the States because they will be asked to contribute much more to the community health programs projects in their States, but I emphasise again that the States are $63 lm better off this financial year than they were last financial year- indeed, 17 per cent better off- and therefore should be putting extra money into such a worthwhile program. [More…]

• Apparently in his area many patients believe that they must insure with a private health insurance fund in order to get the nursing home benefit. [More…]

• They do not have to insure with a private fund because they get benefits either from the Commonwealth Department of Health or the insurance funds. [More…]

• The standard of housing is directly relevant to health conditions of that kind. [More…]

• The value of education programs has been reduced by 16 per cent in real terms, health programs by 13 per cent, and legal aid by 19 per cent. [More…]

• These cuts have not only affected the provision of basic amenities- housing, education and health services- they have also thrown thousands of Aborigines out of work. [More…]

• In fact, the Leader of the Opposition, dishonestly in my view, neglected to mention the increased expenditure on health programs which rose by $5m to $23m. [More…]

• Is health a problem or is it not a problem? [More…]

• That was a report into health problems among the Pitjantjatjara people. [More…]

• That indicates that arising from traditional Aboriginal life styles which have had the impact of Western science brought upon them there are a number of health problems. [More…]

• Nonetheless, in the way in which we deliver health care to Aboriginal communities we must be sensitive to the needs of the traditional way of life. [More…]

• In some of our hospitals the use of traditional Western practices has often had disastrous effects on Aboriginal health. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Director of Health in Darwin told me that the old practice which has only recently died out in our hospitals of putting an Aboriginal baby on to a bottle was virtually signing that baby’s death warrant. [More…]

• I am very pleased to see therefore that the Government in its Aboriginal health policies is trying to make use of traditional [More…]

• Aboriginal healers who can provide the sort of psychological back up needed to make sure that modern health procedures can work and can be implemented in the tribal situation. [More…]

• When we bring Aboriginal communities under the influence of a Western life style we produce a number of health problems which were not there before. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 6 August 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) Was the libel action initiated by Dr Wilmot, Director of Health, Western Australia, against Mr W. F. Toomer, Quarantine Inspector, Port Hedland, Western Australia taken after discussion with him or any senior officer of his Department, or taken on his direction or the direction of any senior officer of his Department; if not, to what extent and how has he been able to ascertain that the case was solely the initiative of Dr Wilmot. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 25 August 1 977: [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware of the disability facing people in isolated rural areas of Australia in meeting high costs of travel and accommodation when they are referred by country general practitioners to specialists in distant cities? [More…]

• This consideration would include policies relating to health services. [More…]

• I have written to the State health ministers seeking their co-operation under the hospitals cost sharing arrangement to share the cost of travel and accommodation as well as hospital and medical attention in a case where a patient is removed from one country hospital to another location to receive more expert medical attention. [More…]

• I believe the States, which are now $640.5m better off as a result of the Fraser federalism policies, should be playing a greater role than they have played in the past in looking after the health, education and other welfare aspects of the people who live within their States. [More…]

• I think that that is only fair because today, under the universal health insurance scheme, people pay the same amount of levy if they are levy payers or the same premium if they are privately insured as people in the metropolitan areas. [More…]

• Looking beyond the ill-advised appeals that have been made by a vocal minority either to break off or at least greatly reduce the scope of the relationship, the extensive range of activities over which we have built up flourishing contacts with Indonesia in both the public and the private sectors are living evidence of the health of the relationship. [More…]

• This is the achievement of a government, whose Prime Minister proclaimed on Sunday: ‘Australia today is back on the road to economic health’. [More…]

• Without company profit and profitability there would be no tax by which programs of social welfare, health and education can be provided. [More…]

• How can we find the right solutions to our problems or, more accurately, how can they- I point to government supportersfind the right solutions if they are not facing squarely the sad facts about the ill health of our economy? [More…]

• I start off with the first sentence: ‘Australia is back on the road to economic health’. [More…]

• What person in an objective position believes that we are anywhere near the road to economic health? [More…]

• Let them try to persuade a group of businessmen that we are on the road to economic health. [More…]

• More and more businessmen are coming to the realisation that, with the structural problems we have in our economy today, it will be only by public sector stimulus that we will achieve that return of consumer confidence and, with that, the return of business confidence and the investment which will be the only means of returning this economy to the health that is required. [More…]

• We have heard much about grants-in-aid and money for housing, health, education, employment, welfare and so on for Aborigines. [More…]

• Further, the 1977-78 figures in relation to the adjusted Hayden Budget figures show decreased support for education, health, social security and Aboriginal programs. [More…]

• I shall now say a word about Aboriginal health. [More…]

• Expenditure by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs on Aboriginal health has been cut by 1 1 per cent in real terms over the past three years and expenditure on education has been cut by 12 per cent. [More…]

• I wish to add a little more to what I have said about Aboriginal health because I believe that that is an area to which added emphasis needs to be given. [More…]

• For health, expenditure last financial year was $ 18.3m. [More…]

• The honourable member for Casey properly pointed out the significance of Aboriginal health. [More…]

• I was interested to hear him speak from his own studies and experience of the need to have health programs geared to the community level. [More…]

• In the speech to the National Press Club from which I have already quoted I referred to the initiative which is being taken by my Department in this area- something that we have called the community based health program. [More…]

• I said also in that speech that I believe that what must be done, and done urgently, is to enlist and train more Aboriginals as field health workers- I emphasise the word ‘field’- that is, health workers working out in the field amongst the communities and not necessarily in the clinical sophistication of hospitals. [More…]

• Customs and Excise, and shadow Minister for Social Security, Health, Repatriation and Compensation, and a former Leader of the House. [More…]

• During the last election campaign the coalition parties published a fivepoint program which would help restore the small business sector to economic health. [More…]

• It ought to be adopting the recommendations contained in the Bailey report, the report of the health and welfare task force and other reports which talk about cohesive services that need to be coordinated in the interests of migrants in general. [More…]

• I refer to the area of health. [More…]

• I do not think it has accepted its responsibility on the administrative side- on the Australian Capital Territory Schools Commission, the Capital Territory Health Commission and other authorities. [More…]

• The Federal Health Minister (Dr Everingham) said from Rockhampton yesterday he would not allow nursing staff to return to the Hooker Creek or Yuendumu missions until they had police protection. [More…]

• The Department of Resources and Health has an appropriation of approximately $3m. [More…]

• In relation to the remarks of the honourable member for Fraser I was intrigued to hear what he said about small businesses in Canberra in complete disregard of the statement put down by the Treasurer (Mr Lynch) in the House only today which dealt with the Government’s additional policy towards small business; that is additional to what has already been introduced by way of taxation reform in particular and the recovery of the economic health of the nation. [More…]

• If we look at the statistics we will see that drinking is the first or second major health problem for the Australian community. [More…]

• Is it a generally accepted fact that Aboriginals in Australia have poorer health, education, employment and other welfare prospects than non-Aboriginal Australians. [More…]

• Is it also a fact that official demographic, health, and social statistics collected by the Government do not in any way distinguish between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. [More…]

• 5 ) Did the Interim Report from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs concerning the Alcohol Problems of Aboriginals in the Northern Territory indicate that in some areas there is a lack of accurate information about Aboriginals regarding matters such as health, employment, education, sources of income and patterns of expenditure. [More…]

• Did the Hospitals and Health Services Commission in its report ‘Rural Health in Australia’ also stress the importance of establishing adequate statistics for Aboriginals on a national collection system. [More…]

• Another point I might make is in regard to health care. [More…]

• Any one in the cities can get immediate health care by calling a taxi or an ambulance. [More…]

• The point I raise is that since at least the early 1970s there have been plans of various kinds to construct an animal health research laboratory to provide the means by which serums and vaccines can be developed, animal diseases can be researched and, where necessary, proof of eradication can be established. [More…]

• The Minister will recall that on the Australian Broadcasting Commission news yesterday morning the Minister asserted that there was no danger to the public from the excessive levels of iodine found by the National Health and Medical Research Council in New South Wales milk supplies. [More…]

• Is the average level of iodine found by the National Health and Medical Research Council the highest found anywhere in the world? [More…]

• Did the Minister consult his colleague, the Minister for Health, before making this statement? [More…]

• In any event, it is quite true that iodophors have become increasingly significant in maintaining health and hygiene standards within Australia’s dairy farms. [More…]

• The warning given by the National Health and Medical Research Council relates to an overall assessment that has been applicable for quite a considerable period. [More…]

• Indeed, my own Department, together with the States has been pursuing a very strong endeavour to maintain the standard of health and hygiene and to ensure that the degree to which iodine is present in market milk is kept to a minimum. [More…]

• The extreme cases referred to in the National Health and Medical Research Council’s observations apparently also occurred some years ago. [More…]

• That is the level at which the NHMRC has said that there is any likelihood of any risk to human health. [More…]

• The statement I made was made after consultation with officers within my Department who had been in consultation, I understand, with officers of the Department of Health. [More…]

• The conclusion is that whilst the National Health and Medical Research Council has correctly drawn the community’s attention to the necessity to reduce iodine levels in milk, this is a point that has already been accepted by State departments of agriculture and primary industry. [More…]

• I believe that at this stage the necessary health and safety standards have been applied and that although it is necessary that every effort be made to reduce them further, there seems to be very little risk to the Australian consuming public while those standards which have been reported to me are the standards applicable throughout Australia. [More…]

• In the field of health, we have seen a double standard introduced by the alterations that have taken place to the Medibank scheme which again was introduced in this Parliament over and above the opposition of the Liberal and National Country parties and passed through the Parliament only as a result of a joint sitting of the Parliament. [More…]

• Those people who under previous arrangements of the old pensioner medical scheme were disadvantaged because they were not able to afford health insurance, are again disadvantaged under the present scheme in which medical cover of a far greater range and standard can be bought in the form of private health insurance. [More…]

• However, I believe the Australian Meat and Live-stock Corporation is overcoming this health problem. [More…]

• Broadly, the publications in the Department’s library cover the subjects of immigration, emigration, the education, health and welfare of migrants, automatic data processing and demography. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and relates to the announcement that the New South Wales Health Commission has a surplus of cars under the funding program from the Commonwealth for the community health program. [More…]

• I therefore ask the Minister: Will he ensure that any money from the sale of these surplus cars will be accounted to the Commonwealth and will be properly applied to the health programs required by the people of New South Wales? [More…]

• About half a million dollars worth of those cars have been purchased under the community health program. [More…]

• When this matter was brought to my attention towards the end of the last financial year I made arrangements for my departmental officers to get in touch with the New South Wales Health Commission to make sure it was brought to account. [More…]

• I have also made sure that in this financial year proceeds from the sale of surplus cars purchased under the community health program granting arrangement will in fact be reinvested within the community health program block grant allocation for 1 977-78. [More…]

• I must say that this matter adds great weight to the decision that the Government took to involve the States to a greater extent in the contributions that they make towards this very valuable community health program. [More…]

• I shall be watching the matter very closely to make sure that the proceeds from the sale of surplus cars are directed to the right and proper place under the community health program grant for 1977-78. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• In South Australia a person who runs, I think, an excavating company has invested his capital and his health in that business and cannot get a job contracting for the [More…]

• Another provision of the Bill deals with the health insurance levy. [More…]

• This Bill, an annual measure, formally declares the rate of health insurance levy payable for 1977-78 in those situations where the general levy law requires that the levy be paid. [More…]

• Since then, with my colleague the Minister for Health, discussions have proceeded to review the proposal by the Aboriginal Medical Service at Redfern for a nutritional program amongst the Aboriginal children of that district. [More…]

• Discussions have also taken place with the New South Wales Health Commission, more particularly because the State Health Commission is already being funded by my Department to the extent of $37,000 for a nutritional program. [More…]

• It was thought then that because there was a need for continuous monitoring of the program that the State Health Commission would be the appropriate body to do it. [More…]

• Unfortunately, the State Health Commission has declined to monitor the program. [More…]

• Therefore I inform my colleague that the Minister for Health has agreed that the Commonwealth Department of Health should monitor the program which will be implemented through the Aboriginal Medical Service. [More…]

• I also take the opportunity to point out to the House that already the Commonwealth, through my Department, funds the Government of New South Wales to the extent of $ 1.786m for Aboriginal health programs. [More…]

• Quite clearly with this addition to cater for a particular need in inner Sydney, the Commonwealth is making great strides to see that the needs of Aboriginal health are met in New South Wales. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware of the growing incidence of glue sniffing among young people m the country, m particular among Aborigines in the inner suburban areas of the major cities? [More…]

• It has been of considerable concern to the Department of Health and to the subcommittee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, that is responsible for investigations into these areas. [More…]

• He can rest assured that the Department of Health is very concerned about it and action is being taken through the public health programs to try to lessen the incidence. [More…]

• Spending on essential education, health and welfare programs will be protected against inflation. [More…]

• In health, expenditure on the hospitals development program has been reduced by 63 per cent in real terms- from $108m in 1975-76 to $50m this financial year. [More…]

• The community health program has suffered a reduction of $ 15.3m. [More…]

• The completion of the school dental health scheme has been deferred from 1982 to 1990. [More…]

• The Australian people understood by that promise that the universal health insurance scheme would remain. [More…]

• Aboriginal education programs have been reduced by 16 per cent in real terms, Aboriginal health programs by 1 3 per cent in real terms, and Aboriginal legal aid by 19 per cent. [More…]

• If we add the other social welfare item, health, amounting to almost the same figure, it is about time we began to realise that, when we say that government expenditure ought to be cut, certain rigidities are involved. [More…]

• Mr Toomer was advised by the Director of Health, Western Australia, as follows: [More…]

• My Department has received a number of applications from health funds in the various States. [More…]

• Some time ago I had discussions with Mr Moon, the Chairman of the Voluntary Health Insurance Association, who indicated that most of the funds would be thinking in terms of increasing their premiums as from 1 February next year. [More…]

• During the same period social spendingexpenditure on education, health and social security- nearly doubled. [More…]

• This question has important ramifications for the health of society. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• What projects has the Commonwealth-State Standing Committee (Health Expenditures) in each State discussed since its formation and what is the estimated cost and completion date of each project. [More…]

• Community Health Program [More…]

• Health Program Grants [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 4 October 1 977: [More…]

• Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health (Question No. [More…]

• 1 ) There have been eight meetings held between Federal and State officials to discuss the possible implementation of recommendations in the first report of the Task Force on Coordination in Welfare and Health and the report of the Committee on the Care of the Aged and the Infirm. [More…]

• 1 ) Has the design team for the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory at Geelong been disbanded; if so, why. [More…]

• In the area of agriculture, Landsat will be of considerable value in assessing the potential yield and health of growing crops, and for monitoring the state of pastures particularly in the semi-arid areas of the country. [More…]

• This is the Prime Minister who said in his policy speech two years ago: ‘We have a comprehensive strategy to restore prosperity’, and who said: ‘Spending on essential education, health and welfare programs will be maintained’. [More…]

• One sub-committee is inquiring into the expenditure of the Commonwealth Department of Health and another sub-committee is investigating the defence services homes scheme, its efficiency as well as alternative methods of delivery of the loan benefit either through equivalent cash grants or second mortgages. [More…]

• I also am hoping that when I get into the Senate I will be able to see and monitor that this change goes through because it is necessary for the health of the Australian people and indeed for the continuance and maintenance of the anti-socialist and anticommunist cause that there should be a change of policy of this character. [More…]

• I mention at this stage that the Minister for Health in the New South Wales State Government has more money in his portfolio than there is in the total budget in the State of Tasmania. [More…]

• For that total budget in the State of Tasmania there are 54 members of Parliament administering less money than the Minister for Health in New South Wales administers. [More…]

• I raise a matter with which the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who represents the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle), might be able to deal. [More…]

• In November-December, a total of 57 officials from the various health departments will be meeting in Mildura to draw up a further longer term program which will include mosquito abatement procedures. [More…]

• Because of those measures we are quite certain that this program will overcome the serious threat to the tourist industry and to the health of the people who live in the region. [More…]

• Beyond all else, identification of this complaint illustrates a very high degree of consciousness in the general health services of Australia. [More…]

• This is illustrated by the following statement in a recent submission by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs to this Committee on the health problems of Aboriginals: [More…]

• In redistributing that profit back into this country we provided benefits for people in a myriad of areas where we took up responsibility, such as school dental services, community health services, better roads and improvements in urban environment, Aboriginal welfare and education. [More…]

• There is no doubt that we are well on the way to restoring full economic health to the economy and that 1978 will be the best year of economic performance in more than five years. [More…]

• At this stage, however, the Government has not yet reached a decision on the proposals of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health, one of which is that the homeless persons assistance program should become part of a wider ‘Sheltered Accommodation Program’, administration of which might be devolved to the State governments. [More…]

• These relate to provisional tax requirements and to a decision taken to exempt the income of deceased estates to which no beneficiary is presently entitled, from payments of the health insurance levy. [More…]

• I address my remarks specifically to the Health Insurance Levy Bill 1977 and matters related to it as well as to the general propositions which have been raised in the debate. [More…]

• I would like to deal very quickly with the health insurance levy. [More…]

• The health insurance levy was dealt with at great length by the honourable member for Prospect. [More…]

• What he did not say was that the national health scheme introduced by the Labor Party was paid for by every Australian through inflation at the rate of 16 per cent a year. [More…]

• Nothing fuelled inflation as much as the national health scheme- a scheme which Australians could not afford. [More…]

• On this aspect of the health insurance scheme I support a suggestion which was made, I think last year, by the honourble member for Tangney (Dr Richardson) that, while we should maintain a national health scheme for those people within Australia who need it, such as the poor, the pensioners and the like, we can bring responsibility back into our whole national health scheme only by making the patient and the medical practitioner more responsible. [More…]

• This Government and this Prime Minister have refused to recognise how much the private sector depends on a healthy public sector for jobs, for contracts for production. [More…]

• The health of one depends upon the health of the other. [More…]

• As to hospital development, a commitment to restoring the 60 per cent reduction in this year’s Budget in the real expenditure on hospitals and community health centres for which the priorities had been jointly agreed with all six State governments would also aid the flagging construction industry, reduce unemployment and, incidentally, ensure equality of access to health services. [More…]

• The purpose of the Bill is to provide for incentive payments to be made to beef producers who carry out certain recognised animal health and husbandly procedures. [More…]

• The provisions of the Bill will help to alleviate the very serious cash flow position of beef producers, while serving the national interest by maintaining essential animal health activity. [More…]

• The Committee, in its sixth report of 1974, reported on the need for an animal health laboratory at Geelong. [More…]

• It is undoubtedly tied in with the Animal Health Laboratory at Geelong and the off-shore animal quarantine station. [More…]

• The Minister might take it on board to get on to his Department or whichever department is responsiblethe Department of Foreign Affairs or the Department of Health- to make sure there is an immediate start on the off-shore animal quarantine station. [More…]

• I am sure they will be most interested to see how the beef cattle research laboratory proceeds after they have seen how the other two- the off-shore animal quarantine station and the Animal Health Laboratory at Geelong- have not proceeded. [More…]

• I seem to recall that a project which I would have thought important to all animal experts- the animal health research laboratories -was approved by the Public Works Committee and this Parliament in 1975. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• There is a tendency for many people in Queensland to believe that we lead the Commonwealth in the provision of community health, hospital and welfare services. [More…]

• Labor governments in the 1940s and 1950s gave primacy to the development of community health and hospital services and displayed a great concern about welfare services. [More…]

• There is a lingering belief that, because a system of free hospitalisation was preserved in Queensland, that State still leads in the provision of community health, hospital and welfare services. [More…]

• That is the level by which standards in that important area of community health, hospital and welfare services have fallen short of those provided in States like South Australia [More…]

• and (2) For the purpose of answering this question, a community health centre ‘is defined as a community located facility which has the characteristics of a general health service as distinct from a specialised service (e.g. [More…]

• mental health, alcoholism), which provides two or more categories of service (e.g. [More…]

• The following information has been provided or confirmed by the relevant State health authorities: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 17 August 1977: [More…]

• Because of the change to the health insurance arrangements from 1 October 1976, no comparable figures are yet available from Medibank or the private health insurance funds in respect of 1 976-77. [More…]

• These methods varied between the years and amongst the States having regard to the quality of the data supplied by the private health insurance funds on a voluntary basis. [More…]

• Figures are not held by the Health Insurance Commission or the Department of Health in respect of operations performed on standard hospital patients. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 17 August 1977: [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 September 1 977: [More…]

• The Government has already indicated its desire that there be instituted, in conjunction with States and industry, Australia-wide arrangements for a program of genetic improvement, mastitis control and herd health for the benefit of dairy farmers. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 12 October 1977: [More…]

• The Commonwealth Health Laboratory in Launceston had independently and simultaneously detected the same relationship. [More…]

• On Saturday, 1 6 July, the Victorian Department of Health notified my Department that it had succeeded in tracing the source of the trouble to the Tongala factory, and immediate action had been taken to recall the products. [More…]

• On Monday, 18 July, urgent notification was passed to health authorities in the States and Territories and, as it had become clear over the weekend that export material which was the concern of the Department of Primary Industry was implicated, that Department was also urgently advised. [More…]

• The Traffic Injury (Standing) Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council has the following Terms of Reference: ‘To inquire into and advise the Council through the Public Health Advisory Committee on: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• My Department does not have this information but has collated the following for the honourable member from information provided by appropriate State and Territory health authorities: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) What are the names of the persons who are the members of the governing boards of the private health funds in South Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 September 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 September 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) Which nursing homes registered under the National Health Act are established within the electoral division of Oxley. [More…]

• For the sake of completeness homes approved under both the National Health Act and the Nursing Home Assistance Act are shown. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 October 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 13 October 1977: [More…]

• Rural Health in Australia (Question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 13 October 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) What progress has been made with the implementation of the recommendations of the report Rural Health in Australia. [More…]

• 1 ) The report contains a number of proposals on each of the major aspects of rural health and also puts forward a number of relatively inexpensive proposals which could be adopted as short-term measures. [More…]

• In their totality, the recommendations contained in the report are intended to improve the availability and accessibility of rural health services. [More…]

• One of the major disadvantages faced by people living in country areas is in obtaining necessary health care; they may, for example, be obliged to travel long distances to hospitals or specialist services. [More…]

• The development of initiatives that could improve the availability of certain health services and lessen the costs of travelling to obtain health care is, therefore, seen as the most important area for action. [More…]

• Health Services Planning and Research program: Grants to Victoria (Question No. [More…]

• Victoria was allocated $24,000 from the $360,000 available in 1977-78 for grants to State authorities under the Health Services Planning and Research Program. [More…]

• In determining the level of allocations for 1977-78 the Hospitals and Health Services Commission took into account expenditure incurred by States during 1976-77 and funds unspent by them at 30 June 1977. [More…]

• Consequently, with the $24,000 granted in 1977-78 the level of Commonwealth funds available to Victoria for health services planning and research is $40, 1 64. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• When will the Minister therefore ask Mr Justice Ludeke to re-open the inquiry and save Treasury and the contributors to private health funds a significant proportion of the $65m increase recently wrongly awarded to the medical profession? [More…]

• There is no hard evidence available as to the benefits of holidays to community health and welfare. [More…]

• The Committee recommends that the Department of Health should make a study of this matter. [More…]

• What has happened now, in fact, is that the Government feels, because of the calling of the early election, it has not been able to come to a decision on the recommendation of the so-called Bailey report- the report of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Health and Welfare- in which it is suggested that there be a much wider homeless persons assistance program incorporated in what is called a sheltered accommodation program and some re-organisation, with the help of the State governments. [More…]

• I do not want at this stage of the evening to get involved in the more general question of refuges and as to whether they ought to be subsidised under this Act or from the Community Health Centre grant or other grants which are administered by the Department of Health, as most of the refuges are at this time, and as the Minister at the table would know. [More…]

• However, the Government is still considering the Bailey task force recommendations in the general health and welfare area. [More…]

• Therefore, it is only sensible that since the Government has not yet reached a decision on these matters, including the future of the Homeless Persons Assistance Act, in relation to health and welfare generally, the existing legislation should continue for a further 12 months. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 June 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) On 9 February 1 977, the part-time Quarantine Officer at Broome informed the Director of Health, Western Australia, that a rat had been seen on the M.V. [More…]

• (World Health Organisation publication ‘Vector Control in International Health’, page 72 refers). [More…]

• The existence of the written direction referred to in (2) was not known to the Director of Health or the Assistant Director (Medical) until early April. [More…]

• In a letter dated 23 June 1977 to the Director of Health, the legal representatives for the owner of the vessel advised, in part, ‘Inspector Toomer instructed those on board the San Pedro Bay to ignore the fumigation order and to proceed to Port Hedland where he would supervise the fumigation’. [More…]

• 1 ) AMA (NSW) Health Fund Limited-G. K. Williams, G. S. Rieger, C. S. H. Reed, P. S. Cocks, E. J. [More…]

• The Commercial Banking Company Health Society-J. [More…]

• Commonwealth Bank Health Society- I. Ronaldson, J. Flynn, L. Edwards, W. Lewis, M. Reidy, B. Skinner, P. Frost. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission (Medibank Private)- G. Howells (Chairman), R. G. Williams (General Manager), R. [More…]

• NIB Health Funds Limited-J. [More…]

• New South Wales Teachers’ Federation Health SocietyA. [More…]

• 1 ) and (2) All of the figures in the following tables have been provided by the respective State or Territorial hospital or health authorities. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has established an ad hoc sub-committee on lead in petrol and this has met several times to consider certain health aspects of the fifth report of the Royal Commission on Petroleum. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 6 September 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) Did the Director-General of Health issue a direction to the Director of Health, Western Australia, in March 1 974, to the effect that any consideration of charging Mr Toomer under the Public Service Act should be thought through to the penalty to be imposed. [More…]

• Were charges recently laid against Mr Toomer by the Director of Health, Western Australia. [More…]

• I presume the honourable member is referring to a letter addressed personally by the Director-General of Health to the then Director of the Western Australian Division of the Department, Dr J. Bryan Mathieson, on 6 March 1974. [More…]

• What importance does the Minister place on the Government’s commitment to the national ‘Life- Be In It’ campaign, having regard to the general state of the nation’s health? [More…]

• Yesterday, in answer to a question from my colleague the honourable member for Prospect, the Minister for Health admitted that Mr Justice Ludeke had granted to the medical profession an award greater than that which was justified by the consumer price index increase and that he did not propose to appeal against it. [More…]

• The Committee has recommended that further consideration be given to the introduction of a national identity card system which could also have advantages in other areas such as health and immigration. [More…]

• I refer to the doublespeak of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) representing the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) when giving the second reading speech he said: [More…]

• I would like now to make a few comments on the Government’s announced intention, both by statement by the Minister for Social Security and by a foreshadowed amendment by the Minister for Health to amend this Bill in the Committee stage for the purpose of bringing in a lone father’s benefit similar to the supporting mothers’ benefit. [More…]

• I point out- the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has pointed this out in the Parliament- that Australia has an aging population. [More…]

• I believe it is appropriate to recall that over many years the people who I enumerated were pressing very strongly for this amendment which has now been moved by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• The Department of Health maintains close liaison with the Standing Committee and is currently reviewing this overall mechanism of control of genetic engineering experimentation in co-operation with the Department of Science and CSIRO. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 12 October 1977: [More…]

• However, I have instructed my Department to undertake, in collaboration with State Government health authorities, an examination of the issues and implications involved in recognised hospital pharmacy dispensing, and to report to me. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 13 October 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 17 August 1977: [More…]

• The sources of the figures are as follows: 1972- 73- Figures published by the Commonwealth Department of Health, September 1975, in ‘Public and Private Hospitals Statistical Summary 1971-72 and 1972-73’. [More…]

• 1973- 74 and 1974-75-Figures provided to the Commonwealth Department and of Health by respective States and Territories. [More…]

• 1975- 76- Figures based on information submitted by recognised hospitals to the Health Insurance Commission under the cost-sharing arrangements and for the period of 1975-76 during which those arrangements were operative. [More…]

• In line with the Government’s policy of encouraging the establishment of Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) on an experimental basis, a working party on HMOs was formed early in 1 976 within my Department. [More…]

• Guidelines have been developed to assist planners wishing to establish an HMO to meet the requirements of the National Health Act in regard to the present universal insurance arrangements. [More…]

• In January this year, following a report by the Federal Treasurer of the AMA on a brief study tour of HMOs in the United States of America, the SecretaryGeneral of the AMA announced that the AMA is willing to co-operate with the Government or other interested parties in any pilot study to evaluate prepaid health programs (Le. [More…]

• HMOs) and that the Federal Council of the AMA has adopted no fixed policy for or against prepaid health plans at this stage. [More…]

• This study is supported by the Commonwealth with funds made available under its Health Services Planning and Research Program. [More…]

• I have written to State Health Ministers informing them of developments and of the Government’s interest in seeing that HMOs are given a trial in this country; all have expressed interest in the HMO concept [More…]

• State health authorities have been made aware of developments. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Health seen reports that the Government is considering the forced closure of chemist shops? [More…]

• When this Government came to office it amended section 99 of the Health Insurance Act and provided for the independent determination of pharmacy dispensing fees when agreement was not reached between the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and the Government. [More…]

• By acting in this area, we can help provide jobs immediately, help restore health to the private sector and at the same time help achieve long-lasting goals for thousands, for tens of thousands, for hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens. [More…]

• It is essential to the health of the housing and construction industries that the economy as a whole be brought back on to a stable footing. [More…]

• Surely from the point of view of health alone urgent consideration should have been given to this matter. [More…]

• Tonight I will not mention the need for the animal health laboratory, which is currently deferred. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health a question concerning his statement last night that on the advice of the Federal Government the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists will tomorrow cease its field work in Queensland under the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program on the ground that some employees of the field teams are unacceptable to Queensland authorities. [More…]

• It has been a matter of great concern to the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmogists, to the Commonwealth Government and to me as the Minister because the only real role that we have in the program is that we provide funds under health program grants to the Royal College and certainly the College does not wish to become embroiled in any political controversy. [More…]

• I ask another question of the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health a question concerning the Commonwealth’s national campaign against trachoma and eye disease as applied in Queensland. [More…]

• Would any political action by any employee be allowed by the Commonwealth to impede a vital health program for whites, as it apparently has allowed a program for Aborigines to be impeded? [More…]

• On 1 June 1977 I tabled in Parliament a statement concerning a proposed inquiry into the case of Mr W. F. Toomer, an officer of the Department of Health in Western Australia. [More…]

• It also, I think, means that the bureaucracy of the Department of Health has been upheld in its earlier decision to demote him and place him at Port Hedland. [More…]

• Vishna Kalyan, in which a member of the first inquiry into this area, the Director of the Department of Health in New South Wales, was in fact present. [More…]

• I imagine- I think the experience of us all would suggest this- that where a member of a former committee which has in fact brought in a decision fully upholding the decisions of the Western Australian branch of the Department of Health, and an associated director of the Department of Health in another State is present at the time of such inquiry, he would be seeking to place the best possible interpretation on the decisions which were taken by the committee of which he himself was a member. [More…]

• One cannot have confidence in a quarantine service or a department of health which is very keen on hiding things. [More…]

• The honourable member for Corio and I have questions on notice on this matter directed to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• Without receiving a full report and answers from the Minister for Health, I have not quite the confidence that the Minister displayed in answering that question. [More…]

• Certain electronic slimming equipment is apparently a health hazard. [More…]

• They affect the health of people, particularly young people. [More…]

• I want to make it abundantly clear to this House and to the nation as a whole that the Government is determined to do everything possible in this field to reduce the menace of the drug problem in Australia and particularly to bring to justice those people who are trading off the health of other people, those people who are trafficking in drugs and as a result destroying the lives of many Australians. [More…]

• It may well be that a person enlists in the Services and within a few months he is in some totally unexpected situation such as Vietnam and his life or his health is forfeited. [More…]

• We wish him health, happiness and good fortune in his retirement. [More…]

• As previous speakers have mentioned, for health reasons I am not seeking re-endorsement for my seat of Herbert. [More…]

• Mr Speaker and members of the chamber, I wish you aU the best of luck in the forthcoming election, but more importantly I wish you all the best of health in the coming years. [More…]

• Commonwealth drivers have been subject to regular health checks since 1957 based on a code of medical fitness for drivers adopted by the Australian Transport Advisory Council and endorsed by the Department of Health.. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation Chronicle recently made reference to a Report of the WHO Expert Committee on Mental Health in an article ‘Child Development- Separating Fact from Fancy’. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 September 1977: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice on 13 October 1977: [More…]

• 1 ) to (4) Officers of the Departments of Health, Finance, Education, Aboriginal Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Ethnic Affairs and Social Security have met to ensure cooperative preliminary planning for the International Year of the Child. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 June 1 977: [More…]

• Before importation is permitted certification is required as follows: an up-to-date certificate of potability from the health authority of the country of origin. [More…]

• If claims are made on the label, approval may be required before sale from State and Territory health authorities and from authorities controlling trade practices and labelling. [More…]

• Such water may be released to travellers at the ports of entry at the discretion of the Commonwealth hector of Health for the State concerned without requiring written application to import. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• What was the total value of medical claims paid by (a) the Commonwealth, (b) private health funds and (c) Medibank, during each of the years 1973-74, 1974-75, 1975-76 and 1 976-77 or any pan thereof. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 October 1977: [More…]

• Health Department (State)- Sister J. Jones [More…]

• Health (State)- Sister J. Jones- nursing sisterprovision of medical services in an isolated area. [More…]

• Health (State)- Sister J. Jones-nursing sisterprovision of medical services in an isolated area. [More…]

• Health (State)- Sister J. Jones- Cape Barren Island. [More…]

• In Victoria, however, because of the high ratio of staffing required by State Health Authorities, private nursing homes tend to accommodate almost exclusively extensive care patients. [More…]

• This would need a much lower staff/patient ratio than is required by the Victorian health authorities. [More…]

• If this were not Parliament House, the conditions would constitute offences against health regulations and industrial regulations. [More…]

• Prior to Christmas I, along with my colleagues the Minister for Primary Industry (Mr Sinclair) and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), had the opportunity to visit Ian Pettitt on his sick bed. [More…]

• The Government, of course, will seek to denigrate this statement, to dismiss it with the same arrogant disregard for the truth as the Prime Minister displayed during the recent election campaign when he told the Australian people that he could see no reason why health insurance contributions should be increased. [More…]

• A survey carried out by the Victorian Mental Health Association found that in Dandenong suicides were 12 times the area average amongst the unemployed, and seven times greater in Ballarat. [More…]

• The New South Wales Health Commission’s drug and alcohol advisory service reported the detection of substantial groups of addicts in areas of high youth unemployment in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong. [More…]

• What the Prime Minister glibly offers the jobless instead is an elusive $6,000m of mining investment, and some inequitable tax cuts which his Government is trying hard to take away through depressed wages and higher health costs. [More…]

• I believe that the Treasurer (Mr Howard) has dealt very adequately with the Government’s economic policies and the way in which through these policies it is trying to restore real health to the Australian economy so that there can be a growth in the Australian work force and in economic activity generally. [More…]

• May I say to those honourable members concerned that such greetings may not be before time if they wish to influence her remembrance and record of history for, barring ill health, she fully intends to complete her autobiography. [More…]

• I was glad to hear the Governor-General state in his Speech yesterday that one of the Government’s top priorities would be to build on the progress made in the last two years, to defeat inflation and unemployment and to restore full economic health to the nation. [More…]

• I do not have time to talk about all the other important areas of government policy which affect rural people, such as the 2 per cent of personal income tax which will go to local government, rural roads, rural health initiatives, small business, fuel equalisation, salinity problems of the Murray system, telephone charges, the welcome announcement of the abolition of death duties, drought assistance policy, the Tokyo round of trade and access for agricultural products to other markets, the Australian Rural Bank or the young farmer establishment scheme. [More…]

• Despite promises made at the last two elections, funds allocated to overcome those disadvantages have been cut in all areas- health, education, housing, work projects and industrial enterprises by Aboriginals. [More…]

• At the same time a continuing health project in Queensland has been allocated several thousand dollars for the purchase of a truck and a video tape recorder to be used for evaluation. [More…]

• New initiatives are projected for Aboriginal health but the Government’s record in this regard, to give it its kindest designation, is negative. [More…]

• Although some new programs developed under succeeding governments are starting to have some effect and some impact on the disgraceful disease and mortality rates among Aboriginals, it seems that the moment the present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has to make a decision he retreats behind the nineteenth century attitude of the Premier of Queensland, as he did when he disbanded for several months the eye health program for Queensland on the ground that Aboriginals involved in the project were politically active. [More…]

• But the Aboriginals were never treated by the Whitlam Government or by me as its Minister for Health in the cavalier fashion adopted by the national Minister for Health at the behest of the Premier to demand the sacking of Aboriginals engaged in an independent organisation just because it receives a Federal subsidy even though it is performing its job well in cleaning up a major health problem which causes blindness amongst Aboriginals. [More…]

• But judging from the non-specific nature of the proposals for action and worse the indication that even more dependence will be placed on ‘non-government migrant resource centres’ any migrant with any insight can only conclude that little or nothing will be done for 20 per cent of the population suffering disadvantages through barriers of language, in areas or health, welfare, education and job opportunities, just to name a few. [More…]

• The advantages of administrative arrangements instituted by the Labor Government- advantages in the dispersal of welfare services, support for the migrants, health services, education and so on provided for all Australians, many of whom are migrants, some of 50 years standing- now have been destroyed. [More…]

• During the campaign it was announced that funds would be made available to commence construction of the National Animal Health Laboratories at Geelong. [More…]

• Under the Health Insurance Act as it stands, benefits are payable under Medibank for services that he performs in the Cook Islands because he is authorised to practise medicine there under local law. [More…]

• It refused to register him and the Minister for Health in the Cook Islands amended an Act of Parliament to enable Mr Brych to be registered for the purposes of administering medical services. [More…]

• The Government’s failure to deal with the rising costs of health care. [More…]

• -Mr Speaker, as my letter to you indicates, the Opposition is concerned about the Government’s failure to deal with the rising costs of health care. [More…]

• Health care costs in Australia increased by 36.4 per cent in 1974-75 and by 26.8 per cent in 1975-76. [More…]

• No wonder most of the instant experts writing feature articles for the Press or pontificating on television and radio blamed Medibank, especially as their so called ‘in depth’ investigations were often based on handouts from the Voluntary Health Insurance Council and the Government. [More…]

• Therefore the huge increase in health care costs preceded Medibank. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) accepted that in an article that he wrote for the Australian Medical Association gazette. [More…]

• Medical claims paid by the private health funds during 1974-75, the last year before Medibank, increased by 5 1 per cent over the previous year. [More…]

• The reasons for the increased cost of health care are many. [More…]

• Mr John Mcleay, when he was Acting Minister for Health, said on an A.M. broadcast on 4 January in reply to an interviewer’s suggestion that contributors would leave the funds for the Medibank levy: [More…]

• I claimed during the election campaign that the health funds would increase their charges. [More…]

• HUW EVANS: The Opposition spokesman Dr Dick Klugman has claimed that the Government has been delaying any announcement on increases in health fund contributions until after the election and that the Government will raise the 2.5 per cent levy for standard Medibank. [More…]

• Dr Klugman will be with us in our Sydney studio shortly, but first to Mr Fraser’s Press conference in Hobart and his response to the statement that there would be increases in private health fund contributions. [More…]

• The HCF lodged its application on 27 September with the Department of Health. [More…]

• The Department of Health supported the application on 27 October. [More…]

• The Fraser Government has emerged from the health insurance fee rise decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with a very tarnished image. [More…]

• The Age yesterday ran a headline that the Government would curb health costs, but the Government’s handout showed its complete lack of ideas. [More…]

• The Age quoted the Governor-General’s Speech which stated that the health scheme might be further improved to provide a prompt and effective health insurance scheme which restrains increases in the cost of health care. [More…]

• One of the debatable propositions being pushed at present is that the Medibank levy should be increased from the present 2.5 per cent because of increasing health care cost. [More…]

• The failure to obtain adequate treatment or advice for financial reasons would frequently lead to chronic ill-health, requiring social security payments, or even acute medical tragedies. [More…]

• Many of us accept that the community is responsible for health costs and these are shared broadly on the basis of ability to pay. [More…]

• Everyone should have access to good health care without fear of the cost and should not be discouraged from seeking advice for what may be early symptoms of a significant illness. [More…]

• By that I mean preventing ill-health and preventing or avoiding institutionalisation as much as possible. [More…]

• I believe that financial incentives should be used with the health care dispensers. [More…]

• I often hear from families- I am sure other honourable members have the same experience- which have about $160 weekly income and are paying up to $13 a week in health insurance. [More…]

• The Opposition has chosen to highlight two issues in the first week of this new parliamentary session- unemployment and health costs. [More…]

• Let us look at what happened to health costs under a Labor government. [More…]

• In the two years 1974-75 and 1975-76 while the Labor Government was in office health costs exploded and increased by 73 per cent which is an extraordinary leap in those costs. [More…]

• So let us have not illusions about on whom the blame should rest for the great explosion in health costs. [More…]

• I cannot find any argument that would really absolve the Labor Government from the serious problem that confronts this country today in trying to keep health costs within manageable control. [More…]

• Regardless of any favourable light that the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) may wish to throw on health costs, the undoubted truth is that the explosion in those costs occurred during Labor’s three years in office. [More…]

• No amount of figure juggling by the honourable member can absolve the Labor Government from blame for the worst inflation in health costs that this country has ever known. [More…]

• In the year before Medibank became operative health costs increased by 36.6 per cent which was an incredible increase in one year. [More…]

• A preliminary estimate for 1976-77 which is currently being checked and rechecked shows that national expenditure on health in that year was $6,254m which compares with $5,224m in 1975-76 and $4,109m in 1 974- 75. [More…]

• A comparison of the proportion of gross domestic product represented by the total health expenditure over the last four years further illustrates the point. [More…]

• In 1973-74 the percentage of gross domestic product spent on health in this country was 5.92 per cent; in 1974-75 it was 6.83 per cent; in 1975- 76 it was 7.38 per cent; and in 1976-77 it was 7.67 per cent. [More…]

• The proportion of gross domestic product spent on health in 1974-75 increased by 15.4 per cent over the figure for the previous year. [More…]

• We are now debating a matter of public importance concerning the Government’s failure to deal with the rising costs of health care. [More…]

• The great explosion in health costs took place while the Labor Government was in charge of this country. [More…]

• The Fraser Government has taken measures that have decelerated the rate of growth in health costs. [More…]

• The significant slowing in the increase in 1976-77 was a direct result of this Government’s modifications to the health insurance system and other measures taken in association with it to try to control costs in this area. [More…]

• Therefore it is obvious that the Government’s policies are working, but I do not say this in any complacent or self-satisfied way because no one is more aware than I that more can and must be done to curb the continuing overall increase in costs of health care. [More…]

• We undertook a basic restructuring of Medibank which not only continued to provide a system of universal health care coverage but also gave all Australians a choice of insurance, a choice wholeheartedly approved by the electorate last December. [More…]

• We have introduced major improvements to the nursing home benefits scheme to give financial security to all patients and we are sharing the financial load with the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• These and other innovations have been conceived and introduced within the framework of the Government’s broad objectives in health care, namely, to develop the most effective and efficient system of delivery and to ensure that every Australian has access- we completely agree with this approach- to high quality care while at the same time ensuring that the nation is receiving the best value in the allocation of its resources. [More…]

• It is important not to lose sight of factors other than Medibank which have had a bearing on health care growth not only in Australia but in all industrialised nations. [More…]

• At the same time advances in science and technology have added to the range, intensity and sophistication of health services generally. [More…]

• People have come to expect more from health services and to demand higher standards of comfort and amenity. [More…]

• This Government will attempt to do so and will maintain its constant efforts to ensure that the dollars are spent wisely in the health care area. [More…]

• The problem is not that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is an unreasonable man but rather that he is unreasoned. [More…]

• In 1 974-75 the increase in health costs in this country over the previous year was 36.4 per cent. [More…]

• The significance is that in 1974-75, when the significant increase took place, as the Minister concedes, the health insurance system then applying was the one based on the old, expensive, highly inefficient and thoroughly unsatisfactory arrangement of private health insurance. [More…]

• If we recognise the fact that included in the total health costs in 1975-76 was a sum of $ 1 66m for medical costs incurred in the previous year but paid in that year- a once only experience with the advent of Medibank- we then recognise that in fact the rate of increase in 1 975-76 was considerably less; it was closer to 20 per cent. [More…]

• Let me take another figure which the Minister threw away casually in congratulating himself on the way, he asserted, the rate of increase in health costs had wound back in 1976-77. [More…]

• Those figures show very clearly that in fact the proportionate rate of increase in total expenditure on health services slowed down considerably in 1975-76, compared with the previous year. [More…]

• I think that a lot of nonsense is being brought forward as part of the debate about escalating health costs. [More…]

• In fact, there would be something surprising if this country were not affected by a very high order of costs for health services and if the rate of increase were not substantial. [More…]

• We are spending about 7.1 per cent of the gross domestic product on health, the United States of America about 7.7 per cent, Canada about 6.9 per cent, and the United Kingdom about 5.5 per cent. [More…]

• The United Kingdom is the country whose experience is distorted from the general pattern I have presented of health expenditure measured as a proportion of gross domestic product. [More…]

• The similarity is not so much the matter of health insurance but the way in which health services are paid for, especially the way in which medical services are paid for. [More…]

• The problem of the system is the way in which payment is made and the ineffectiveness of monitoring and controls covering the provision of health services. [More…]

• The people are now paying something like $900m more for health services which they previously received. [More…]

• They are not better off in terms of the quantity or quality of health services; they are merely paying more. [More…]

• One proposal is rationing by means of some sort of cost to be borne by users of health services. [More…]

• Apparently the Government is considering catastrophic’ health insurance, an arrangement whereby the first denominated amounts of health costs at a given period will be met by the user of health services; say, the first $100 or $200. [More…]

• The Government also proposes the payment of bonuses for the non-use of health services. [More…]

• That means rewards for people neglecting their health needs. [More…]

• The increase could be explained by the fact that pensioners previously not entitled to use specialist medical services would do so under the new arrangements and by the fact that people not previously covered by private health insurance arrangements would be covered by Medibank. [More…]

• How can we contain the increase in health costs and at the same time maintain the quality and the accessibility of high standard health services? [More…]

• Bulk billing should be maintained but the private health insurance funds should require proper statistics to be made available promptly so that a utilisation profile can be built up in the central computer records of the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• I believe that he does when it is considered that the health costs of this nation have escalated to the extent outlined by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) under the Government of which he was a member. [More…]

• I strongly refute the statements that were made by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Hayden) when he referred to the unsatisfactory arrangements for medical services that were provided by the private health insurance funds prior to the establishment of Medibank. [More…]

• I remind the Leader of the Opposition that 92 per cent of Australians were covered by health insurance. [More…]

• But a considerable number of those who comprise that 8 per cent elected, for other reasons, not to cover themselves with health insurance. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition said much about the increase in health costs as a percentage of gross domestic product. [More…]

• Health costs as a percentage of gross domestic product increased, but proportionately they have been decreasing. [More…]

• In 1974-75 health costs increased by 15.4 per cent; in 1975-76 the increase was 8.1 per cent; last year the rate of increase dropped dramatically to 3.9 per cent. [More…]

• In 1973-74- these figures were extracted from the Budget papers- $947m was outlaid under the heading of health. [More…]

• In 1975-76, $2, 953m was spent by the Commonwealth Government on health matters. [More…]

• To put on today’s Notice Paper a matter of public importance expressing concern at the Government’s failure to deal with rising health costs is really a laugh and a lot of humbug. [More…]

• One could go on and mention many measures that have contributed to the economic mess and to rising health costs. [More…]

• This Government has expressed concern repeatedly at the escalating costs of health care and has acted. [More…]

• I intend to outline some of the measures that have been instituted by this Government and taken by the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The measures outlined are a clear indication of the Government’s concern over the rising health costs. [More…]

• We must be able to identify the cost of health care. [More…]

• Firstly, it is concerned with the rising health costs and, secondly, it has taken positive measures to curtail those costs. [More…]

• The major issue confronting Australia now is not the lives of our politicians but the health of the economy, which, by many standards, is decidedly weak. [More…]

• There are some anomalous areas of employment which are hard to classify- printing, defence, police and health care. [More…]

• To build on the progress we have made in the last two years, defeat inflation and unemployment, and restore full economic health to our country. [More…]

• Let me turn to consideration of health costs. [More…]

• My Government is considering how the universal health insurance scheme might be further improved to provide a prompt and effective health insurance scheme which restrains increases in the cost of health care. [More…]

• The trouble with that is that the Government implies that the comprehensive health insurance scheme is the cause of rising health costs. [More…]

• The health insurance scheme which has been introduced by the present Government has degraded the Medibank scheme which was introduced and which benefited all in the community. [More…]

• But health costs themselves are rising. [More…]

• I believe the article which accompanies this story deals with someone who obviously knows about the health maintenance schemes. [More…]

• I visited the Kaiser Health Foundation in 1968. [More…]

• So, for goodness sake, honourable members on the Government side should not think that they will get away with the suggestion that the type of health insurance alone that they are nurturing will restrain health costs. [More…]

• Women’s health centres and services are being reduced clearly and unequivocally. [More…]

• We saw an end to ad hockery and the beginning of a rational and national approach to so many problems- the problems of urban life, manufacturing industry and education, the immense problems faced by Aboriginal people, the inadequacies of childhood services and health care delivery services, the conservation of our natural and built environment, the development of our natural resources and the upgrading and bringing into the twentieth century of our international relations. [More…]

• Improvements were made in education, community health centres were established, research was made into social and environmental problems and possibilities were opened up via the area improvement program. [More…]

• 111 health, family problems and so on are important factors in whether the elderly remain happy in the twilight of their lives. [More…]

• Family problems, health problems, et cetera distract them from happiness. [More…]

• To build on the progress we have made in the last two years, defeat inflation and unemployment, and restore full economic health to our country. [More…]

• Real wages are down because the Government has transferred the cost of health, welfare and other traditional public expenditure programs to the individual. [More…]

• But when we come to matters like health services we find this diminution of the capacity to pay principle and all must pay equally whether they are rich or poor. [More…]

• Real wages are down and living standards have been reduced by the cutting of funds in real terms for community programs- for health and welfare, transport, road, sewerage, housing, migrant services, education programs and the like. [More…]

• And what today of the election pledge that the Government had no information which would justify an increase in health insurance contributions? [More…]

• For the first time in the fields of education and health care there was the view that these were matters of right for all Australian citizens. [More…]

• Health costs is another area. [More…]

• I guess one could spend 20 minutes talking about health costs. [More…]

• Again, people in my area- it is not restricted to my area- are getting very annoyed at the trends that are occurring in the area of health. [More…]

• We must look at systems such as no claim bonuses in health insurance and a higher gap which must be paid by the patient when he partakes of some medical service or other without at the same time disadvantaging those who have a genuine problem. [More…]

• They are concerned about the fact that if they want any sort of decent health cover it will cost them $400 or $500 a year and the charge is rising fast. [More…]

• At the same time we have seen the introduction of compulsory health insurance- in other words, Medibank II or a health tax. [More…]

• To build on the progress we have made in the last two years, defeat inflation and unemployment and restore full economic health to our country. [More…]

• That was done because of authoritative advice received by the Federal Department of Health that duogynon could have serious side effects if administered to pregnant women. [More…]

• Health. [More…]

• I have expressed this concern to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and I trust that he will cause immediate investigations to be made into these allegations. [More…]

• I saw a statement by Mr Roper, the Victorian shadow Minister for Health, relating to the AMA charging practice in that State. [More…]

• Health costs in this country have risen by 225 per cent in six years, and most of that rise occurred while members of the present Opposition were in government. [More…]

• Clearly, whilst in some areas such as health services, welfare services or education, the cultural background of an individual is relevant throughout life, in the case of employment that should not be so. [More…]

• In times of unemployment, not only are the calls on social services increased- proper interpreter services should be provided in all the offices providing these services- but also with the stress and insecurity are increasing demands made on health services. [More…]

• The basic intent in conducting the United Nations Conference on Water was to allow nations to develop an objective policy for the supply of water for basic nutritional, environmental and health requirements of their people. [More…]

• With regard to the recommendations to be taken nationally, all delegations endorsed the objectives, policies and guidelines relating to the appropriate action for water development and conservation including the adoption of national water policy statements, the development of appropriate technologies, flood and drought loss management, environment and health, et cetera. [More…]

• Although it was never proven that the water supply was involved, the facts are that not one case has been reported since the South Australian Department of Public Health called for chlorination of the supply to an extent which would ensure reasonable levels at the consumers tap. [More…]

• The Government is reducing the public sector so that the people no longer will be able to obtain a reasonable ‘social wage’ in the form of public transport systems, urban renewal, regional development, housing, education, health, and welfare assistance for the disadvantaged and the unemployed. [More…]

• To build on the progress we have made in the last two years, defeat inflation and unemployment, and restore full economic health to our economy. [More…]

• In fact there is ample evidence that the possible health hazards from lead additives in petrol are so controversial that there is no simple answer. [More…]

• I am concerned that Australian beef producers are not treated in the same way that Australian patients were treated during the honourable gentleman’s term as Minister for Health. [More…]

• We hope to continue inquiries into matters such as defence service homes and into the Department of Health which were instituted towards the last months of last year. [More…]

• The Committee will undoubtedly deal with a health reference which the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs (Mr Viner) and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) will refer to the Committee once more. [More…]

• I welcomed the support given to the previous Committee by Departmental representatives and the Speaker in the appointment of our specialist adviser on the health reference, Professor Max Kamien. [More…]

• The previous Committee had only just started its inquiry into Aboriginal health. [More…]

• Despite the arguments that take place, it does not matter whether the national wage hearings are quarterly, half-yearly or annual: If real wages continue to be cut in the way they have been in the last two years, if petrol prices continue to increase in the manner in which they have increased and continue to be ignored by the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission as being relevant to the cost of living increases that ought to be passed on to wage and salary earners, if the Government continues with its threat to abolish Medibank and thus thrusts up health insurance costs by what we believe will be about $ 1 9 a week per family, there will not be any consumer led recovery. [More…]

• A very prominent spokesman for the car industryprobably its most prominent spokesman- told me on the basis of his expertise in this field that the car or auto industry parallels the health of the economy: If the economy is healthy, plenty of cars are being sold; but if the economy is sick, not so many cars are being sold. [More…]

• They want a detailed survey of their needs; the establishment of a Polish-oriented psychiatric unit; the urgent appointment of an interpreter to the New South Wales Health Commission as an interim measure until the establishment of the psychiatric unit; the appointment of a full time Polish speaking social worker under the GIA scheme and funding for the Polish Welfare and Information Bureau in New South Wales. [More…]

• It is quite obvious that the Government’s unwise tactic of introducing substantial charges for health insurance has had this clear effect: The effect of health insurance charges introduced in 1976 was to add 3.2 per cent to the consumer price index. [More…]

• That immediately reduced the spending power of people by the amount of the charges for health insurance and subsequently, because of the claim before the Arbitration Commission, resulted in a further partial reduction in the real spending power of people on the basis of the Government’s assertion before the. [More…]

• There are further increases in health insurance charges. [More…]

• But if we take the case of an average income earner we find that after paying taxation, after paying private health insurance charges and so on, he will be only about $1 a week better off as a result of these changes. [More…]

• Those authorities are, of course, the Australian Capital Territory Schools Authority, the Capital Territory Health Commission and the Legal Aid Commission, as well as the Canberra Commercial Development Authority, which the honourable member for Gellibrand spent quite some time discussing, the Canberra Showground Trust and the Poker Machine Licensing Board of the Capital Territory. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is at the table, has given permission for it to be incorporated. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, who is sitting at the table, and some of his colleagues were part of a unanimous decision calling on the Government to set this matter aside, not to rush in with indecent haste, to consult with them and to show that this could be one of the things within the whole financial arrangement that would lead to self-government in the Territory. [More…]

• I must pay a tribute to the Chairman of the Authority, Mr Jim Pead, who has borne the brunt of this work for many years at great personal loss to himself and to his health. [More…]

• In addition, five officers- two from the Public Service Board, two from the Department of Social Security, and one from the Department of Health assisted the evaluation effort on a part-time basis. [More…]

• When earlier I talked about the needs of the people of Australia I was not confining myself to things such as social services and health. [More…]

• What has really happened in terms of this overall situation of the non-application of wage indexation, and the tax relief is that we now have a 70c net result on the lower incomes and inevitably there will be an increase in health insurance premiums because of that movement. [More…]

• Since the private health insurance funds have increased their rates it is inevitable that there will be an increase in Medibank rates. [More…]

• I challenge the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) to stand up and say that there will not be an increase, that the Government will relegate the 70c increase to a negative situation. [More…]

• This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and marshal vigour we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden times. [More…]

• -This morning in the House I asked a question of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) about Mr Milan Brych who is giving medical service to Australian residents and others in the Cook Islands. [More…]

• In particular these investigations are centred on the equipment which will be needed to help in the administration of the new Health Insurance Scheme. [More…]

• Two of these officers are making a particular study of the type of computer equipment being used in health insurance administration in Canada. [More…]

• The IBM company has supplied most of the equipment which is being used extensively in health insurance administration in Canada and the officers concerned have been inspecting such installations. [More…]

• Will tenders be called for the supply of computer equipment required for the Government’s proposed National Health Insurance Scheme; if so, will details of tenders received be made public. [More…]

• My question, which is directed to the Minister for Health, refers to the controversial Mr Milan Brych. [More…]

• There are others, high on the list being the great need to reduce the cost of health care in this country. [More…]

• The health care industry is an industry, despite the special aura that tends to surround it. [More…]

• The cost of health care in Australia has risen enormously in recent years. [More…]

• Despite the enormous increase in cost, we do not seem to be noticeably any healthier, or to live any longer. [More…]

• We simply cannot afford a continuation of the rate of increase in health costs which we have been experiencing. [More…]

• The less affluent section of the community will be clearly worse off after the proposed rises in health fund premiums come into effect. [More…]

• I have been referring only to the economic benefits of tourism, but what of the benefits to the health, welfare and education of our people, not to mention the goodwill and understanding gained from international visitations. [More…]

• They offer no hope for our unemployed, for our manufacturing industries or the health system throughout Australia. [More…]

• One issue that will have to be determined this year is the cost of health care. [More…]

• We should be examining the subjects of health care, social welfare, education and many of the other sacrosanct areas of government expenditure to see whether there is a better way of achieving the same desirable end- a method of helping those who really need help, yet at the same time encouraging their self-reliance. [More…]

• We cannot afford to ignore the areas of health, education, welfare and welfare housing. [More…]

• Do we need universal health care? [More…]

• Tax has to be deducted from that and he has to pay for health insurance. [More…]

• Those patients not privately insured would not be able to recover their costs through a health insurance organisation. [More…]

• All we knew was that some new and unique form of medical health insurance was about to be introduced into Australia. [More…]

• Yet it transpired that officers of the Department of Social Security had gone on a mission to Canada to look at IBM computer equipment that was used in Canada’s health scheme. [More…]

• I remind the House that the Minister had already said that the Australian Government was not going to use the health insurance scheme adopted by Canada. [More…]

• It does not reflect well on the present Opposition or on the honourable member who is the present Opposition spokesman on health. [More…]

• Any other course would involve totally unacceptable delays in the implementation timetable for the Australian Health Insurance Plan. [More…]

• Unless the health of the economy is assured, all other government programs suffer accordingly. [More…]

• Its failure after more than two years to come to grips with what is fundamentally wrong in the economy is the reason why so much else is wrong in the areas of employment, social welfare, education, health, migrant welfare, farm industry, mining, manufacturing, the motor industry, and Aboriginal programs. [More…]

• At the same time, it continually announces decisions which in themselves are inflationary; such as the new oil pricing policy with its dramatic effect on fuel and petrol costs, increased health charges, and the massive 1 7.5 per cent devaluation of the dollar in 1976. [More…]

• In the last two years, there have been savage cutbacks in funding for urban renewal, sewerage, land commissions, growth centres, health facilities, schools, parks, libraries and child care. [More…]

• The immediate problem of escalating health costs, due mainly to the blatant exploitation of Medibank by certain members of the medical profession was completely ignored in the GovernorGeneral’s Speech. [More…]

• I believe that one of the most pressing problems confronting the people of Australia today is undoubtedly the sharply escalating cost of health services. [More…]

• Before the suspension of the sitting for dinner, I was referring to the fact that one of the most pressing problems confronting the people of Australia today is the very sharply escalating cost of health services. [More…]

• More recently, Marlene Lugg, Chief Health Statistician in the Western Australian Department of Public Health, in a paper to the American Public Health Association in 1975, gave figures showing that the total operation rate in Western Australia under fee for service was for males, 105 per cent and for females 1 12 per cent higher than the operation rates in England and Wales under salaried services. [More…]

• It is encouraging to hear the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) starting to speak out at last more strongly on this particular problem. [More…]

• Unfortunately, present indications are that the approach to the problem appears to be concentrating on the patients rather than on restructuring our overall approach to health care. [More…]

• Undoubtedly, the most effective long-term approach to the problem is to restructure our health services so that a much larger share of the resources is directed towards preventive health programs. [More…]

• Firstly, he referred to the need to build on the progress made in this country within the last 2 years, to defeat inflation and unemployment and restore full economic health to the country. [More…]

• She is in excellent health. [More…]

• A survey carried out by the Victorian Mental Health Association found that in Dandenong suicides were 12 times the area average amongst the unemployed, and seven times greater in Ballarat [More…]

• He was promptly put straight by the Assistant Minister for Health, Mr Jona, and the State member for Ballarat North, Mr Tom Evans. [More…]

• There are difficulties associated with the environment and health in this area. [More…]

• I will be writing to the Australian Transport Advisory Council and to the National Health and Medical Research Council to ask them to look at these things and to give us a definitive statement of the position. [More…]

• Without consulting the land rights body in Western Australia and without consulting the Commissioner for Aboriginal Planning, the Western Australian Government intends to hand over to the Minister for Health and Community Welfare the absolute control of entry by diamond prospectors, including the De Beer group from South Africa. [More…]

• The Minister for Health and Community Welfare would be one of the most racist people in any government in Australia. [More…]

• It caved in completely to the Queensland Premier who pestered the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) with telegrams and phone calls day after day to sack two of the most able, efficient and hard-working field officers who had ever worked with Professor Fred Hollows in the eye care program for Aboriginals in Queensland. [More…]

• That is the sort of man who is running Queensland, the sort of man to whom the Minister for Health in this place kowtowed over the eye care program, which possibly has resulted in blindness that could have been prevented. [More…]

• It is not, as the Premier has claimed, that the Aurukun and Mornington Island people have a bad health record and do not have the money to carry on, forcing the State to take over and provide them with more nurses or teachers or whatever. [More…]

• The Torres Strait islands have one of the highest rates of venereal disease in the world and the doctor in charge of the Thursday Island hospital has been pleading with the Queensland Government for ages for adequate facilities to cope with that and many other problems, such as emergency care, immunisation programs and health surveys. [More…]

• Health standards in the islands are far below those in the settlements that the Queensland Government proposes to take over from the Uniting Church. [More…]

• Obviously a significant number of them became aware of the dishonesty of the Government in relation to the issue with which I was concerned, namely, increased health levies and contribution rates following the election. [More…]

• Mr Cade has alleged that a large number of private hospitals are robbing Medibank Private and other private health funds by charging for days that patients had not spent in the private hospitals. [More…]

• We hear a lot about doctors defrauding the health funds and Medibank. [More…]

• But allegedly it is a fraud perpetrated on Medibank Private and it is a fraud perpetrated on the other health funds. [More…]

• If those hospitals in fact are rendering accounts to the health funds for days which the patients did not spend in those private hospitals, surely the Commonwealth Police or the State police should be asked to interview Mr Cade, to find out from him the specific allegations, which private hospitals are involved and whether something is being done. [More…]

• In passing, I am pleased to note that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has now become worried about his back bench colleagues. [More…]

• They believed the propositions which the Government had been putting forward previously about the increase in health care costs being due to [More…]

• Government supporters did not know much about the matter and apparently decided to have a go at the Minister for Health in Caucus. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has now said that Medibank has nothing to do with the situation. [More…]

• I should like to quote part of an interview of the Minister for Health by Mr Jeff Duncan of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, as broadcast on PM on 23 February 1 978: [More…]

• Jeff Duncan: Mr Hunt how do you substantiate your claim that the health costs, spiralling health costs, are due to Medibank alone? [More…]

• I have never blamed Medibank as such for the great escalation in health costs. [More…]

• I should like to emphasise that point for the honourable member for Mackellar (Mr Carlton) who seems to be one of the people who believes that spiralling health costs are due to Medibank alone. [More…]

• Mr Hunt: … we have witnessed the greatest explosion in health costs in Australia they having exploded by 73 per cent in two years. [More…]

• Let me just repeat what I have said before in this House: In the year before Medibank was introduced, health costs increased by 36.8 per cent. [More…]

• It is important for us to remember that health care costs to the community have been increasing at a very great rate. [More…]

• Expenditure on health increased from 5.8 per cent to 10.5 per cent, and in 1975-76 under the Hayden Budget peaked at 13.5 per cent. [More…]

• Expenditure on education, health and social security- only three items in the Budget- totals 47 per cent, nearly 50 per cent, of total expenditure. [More…]

• Expenditure on education has risen from $172m in 1967-68 to $2,37 lm this year and expenditure on health from $360m to $2,8 14m and expenditure on social security from $ 1,039m to $7,248m. [More…]

• It is surprising that the Government fails to recognise the central importance of transport policy for the health of the nation’s economy. [More…]

• We can add to that the 100,000 reported injuries each year, with the concomitant costs to the nation in loss of production, of health and the expensive treatment which often extends over the balance of an injured persons ‘s life. [More…]

• Those costs are rarely calculated and yet they represent a major loss of annual production and contribute largely to the nation’s health bill. [More…]

• Why do not those people who want to cut health costs have a look at this problem? [More…]

• There is no doubt that even the partial adoption of an alternative transport system would do much to reduce the nation ‘s health bill and to compensate for the vast losses in productivity resulting from death and injury on the nation ‘s roads. [More…]

• -My colleague the Minister for Health will be tabling a document which will set out certain options. [More…]

• I believe that Australia still has open to it an option which may not be open to many other countries, and that is the option to establish in totality a health system of which the costs are within the capacity of the nation to afford. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health seen a claim by Mr Cade, the General Manager of Medical Benefits Fund of Australia Ltd, that private hospitals are defrauding private health funds, including Medibank Private, by charging for days patients did not spend in the hospitals? [More…]

• -by leave- For the information of honourable members I present a discussion paper on paying for health care prepared by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• As I announced on 2 March, the Commission is to be wound up and Dr Sax is to head the new Social Welfare Policy Secretariat which will have responsibilities ranging over the wide field of health and welfare. [More…]

• Under his guidance there has been a wide-ranging scrutiny of the health care delivery system, including the pathology and high cost diagnostic technology inquiries, and a number of innovative programs have been introduced which will be of lasting benefit to Australians. [More…]

• As honourable members are aware, the Government, when it was in Opposition and more particularly from the time it came to office in 1975, has been concerned at the rapidly escalating cost of health care in Australia. [More…]

• In the last five years national expenditure on health care has increased from $2.2 billion in 1971-72 to $6.3 billion in 1976-77, a staggering rise of 1 80 per cent. [More…]

• This means that an ever-increasing percentage of the nation’s resources is being devoted to health services. [More…]

• The trend towards more and more of the nation’s resources being devoted to health care is consistent with the trend in almost all developed countries of the world. [More…]

• The Government moved in 1976 to restrain health care costs, with the introduction of modifications to the health insurance system. [More…]

• The figures for the financial year 1976-77 indicate that there has been a significant fall in the rate of increase since 1 October 1976, the date on which the modified health insurance arrangements became effective. [More…]

• This slowing down in the rate of acceleration of health costs gives some justification for cautious optimism. [More…]

• In any government-sponsored health scheme there is the inherent danger of developing a psychology of dependence and a lack of personal and community responsibility. [More…]

• It is essential that in any universal health insurance system there are incentives which encourage self-reliance and a sense of personal responsibility. [More…]

• Although there has been a slowing down in the rate of increase in costs, the Government is not complacent and acknowledges that more needs to be done to restrain the mounting costs of health insurance and health care. [More…]

• One of the most important advantages of the changes that were introduced on 1 October 1976 is that the changes have identified to the people the costs of health care. [More…]

• While ever they were buried in Consolidated Revenue both the providers of health care and the community at large tended to ignore the problem. [More…]

• Health costs are paid for either by taxes, levies, health insurance premiums, direct patient contribution or by a combination of these means. [More…]

• Health care costs have to be paid for by one means or another. [More…]

• There is therefore a great responsibility on the health providers and the community to ensure that we obtain the best value for the dollar spent. [More…]

• Since the debate in the House on 23 February there has been much said and written on health care costs, and the media has covered the subject at great length. [More…]

• In reviewing the financing of health services in this country and in discussing possible alternatives to the present arrangements, the discussion paper is provocative in many respects. [More…]

• It will stimulate discussion among all those directly involved in the health care industry and among the community as a whole. [More…]

• In this way I believe a better system will be developed which will not only provide the high level of health care for which this country is renowned but also do so at a cost which the community can afford. [More…]

• In order to achieve our goal it will be necessary for all to co-operate with good will- not only the providers of health care, particularly the medical profession, but also health administrators, health care financers, governments, both State and Commonwealth, and, indeed, the people of Australia as a whole. [More…]

• Whilst this paper canvasses many of the major problems affecting the costs of health care delivery, and sets out some options available to the Government, the paper does not necessarily represent the views of the Government. [More…]

• I think to some extent the Government has been forced- certainly the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has been forced- by its back bencher supporters into tabling this paper. [More…]

• Of course, if one believes that, there is an obvious solution to the whole problem of health care costs, namely, abolish Medibank and all will be sweet. [More…]

• I repeat that I am pleased that the Minister for Health has tabled this paper. [More…]

• Jeff Duncan: Mr Hunt how do you substantiate your claim that the health costs, spiralling health costs, are due to Medibank alone? [More…]

• I have never blamed Medibank as such for the great escalation in health costs. [More…]

• The problem of health care costs is an extremely complex one. [More…]

• He claims that the changes which were introduced on 1 October 1976 and which are often described as Medibank II have led to a significant fall in the rate of increase in health care costs. [More…]

• The figures for the financial year 1976-77 indicate that there has been a significant fall in the rate of increase since 1 October 1976- the date on which the modified health insurance arrangements became effective. [More…]

• Let us not forget that in the year before Medibank was introduced there was a 37 per cent increase in health care costs. [More…]

• It is concluded that patients should pay a larger share of the costs of health care directly out-of-pocket for three reasons . [More…]

• One reads: to reduce the rate of growth of Government expenditures on health services. [More…]

• The third part of the recommendation reads: to reduce the rate of growth in health insurance contribution rates. [More…]

• Again, if a patient pays more, the health insurance funds will have to pay less. [More…]

• The Private health insurance industry has not taken overt initiatives to develop the claims review procedures that are necessary for studies of health service utilisation and the implementation of utilisation review. [More…]

• In other words, the Government has had no cooperation and all of us in this Parliament who want to help with this problem have had no cooperation whatever from the private health insurance industry, though it ought to be in its interests to provide those sorts of figures. [More…]

• A member of parliament who was successful in having all those facilities provided might be a very good local member but, as a person concerned with health care costs, he certainly would not be helping the situation. [More…]

• There is a lack of information about levels of use of, and expenditures on, health services . [More…]

• It is essential that statistics on claims for health benefits be available for analysis . [More…]

• I urge the Minister to try to obtain those relevant pieces of information, which are clearly not available at this stage, before he jumps in and again makes further changes to the health scheme. [More…]

• This is partly the fault of the Government and partly the fault of the health funds. [More…]

• It is ridiculous for the Government to commit itself on deciding what ought to be done about improving the financial aspects of the health care system before it has these pieces of information. [More…]

• My view is that the basic point that must be attacked is not who pays for these things but the general values, cost-benefit analyses, et cetera, of the health system. [More…]

• I believe very strongly that there is an overlap between the fields of health and welfare. [More…]

• We can often push costs away from health but all we are doing is pushing them on to welfare. [More…]

• Whilst it may look better from the pure economics of a particular department, in this case the Department of Health, it obviously does not help in general. [More…]

• We are not sure, and obviously the Government is not sure, as to what the effect would be in carrying out particular changes to our health insurance system. [More…]

• In recent days there have been allegations by the Queensland Minister for Aboriginal and Islanders Advancement, Mr Charles Porter, and by the Premier, Mr Bjelke-Petersen, that the Uniting Church which now administers these two missions in the Gulf of Carpentaria is unable to provide adequately for the health and education of the inhabitants- 750 or more at each settlement; over 1,500 people. [More…]

• The health and education standards there ought to be our common property. [More…]

• Now we are told that it is health and education that the church authorities cannot manage. [More…]

• The Queensland Premier tells us that his State is in a solvent and healthy position. [More…]

• Of course health care, education and other needed resources must be taken to those decentralised groups so that they can maintain a healthy and fulfilling life. [More…]

• New initiatives will be undertaken concerning Aboriginal health, alcohol abuse and juvenile welfare, and the Government looks forward to the fullest consultation with the National Aboriginal Conference and the Council for Aboriginal Development on these and all other issues affecting Aboriginals. [More…]

• The Minister says: ‘If there is disorderly behaviour, contact the police; if there is a health or congestion situation, contact the health officer’. [More…]

• In my belief, one of the great social liberties and one of the great social justices in Australia- this was proved under a Labor reign- was that everybody in this country, no matter what his social or economic background, should have equal opportunities in health care. [More…]

• The Medibank scheme as espoused by the Labor Government and as introduced by the Labor Government gave the people of Australia, no matter what their background, equal access to health care. [More…]

• The consequent disillusionment of the system is driving those people back into the health funds. [More…]

• It meant that those living in a part of my electorate, in the Western suburbs, were able to get an equal opportunity for health care with the people who live in the more salubrious areas. [More…]

• I see that the honourable member for Capricornia (Dr Everingham) who was a Minister for Health in the Labor Government is nodding his head in agreement. [More…]

• It is one of the incentives provided for them to live there, and so to contribute to the economy and the health and wealth of this nation. [More…]

• The members of the National Committee on Health and Vital Statistics are as follows: [More…]

• Dr J. Donovan (Chairman) representing the Commonwealth Department of Health [More…]

• Dr M. Lugg (Deputy Chairman) representing the WA Department of Public Health [More…]

• Dr A. Adams representing the Health Commission of NSW [More…]

• Dr O. Powell representing the Queensland Department of Health [More…]

• Dr Z. Seglenieks representing the SA Department of Public Health [More…]

• Dr J. Curran representing the Tasmanian Department of Health Services [More…]

• Dr A. Cumming Thom representing the Capital Territory Health Commission [More…]

• Dr P. Gross representing the Hospital and Health Services Commission [More…]

• report and recommend to the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference measures for the development, coordination and rationalisation of health statistics; and [More…]

• inform the Australian Statistics Advisory Council on priorities in health statistics. [More…]

• The committee was set up by the Australian Health Ministers ‘ Conference following a recommendation by the Conference on the Rationalisation of Health Data Collection Activities held in February 1 976 attended by representatives of Commonwealth and State Government Departments and non-government organisations. [More…]

• The first meeting of the National Committee on Health and Vital Statistics which was held in Canberra on 22 July 1977 established six working parties to examine various aspects of health statistics. [More…]

• The terms of reference of these working parties are concerned with identifying deficiencies in national health statistical collections and suggesting ways and means of rectifying these deficiencies. [More…]

• So far as this Government is concerned, the Budget that will be introduced by the Treasurer, like the previous two Budgets, will be directed very firmly to a restoration of full economic health and the re-establishment of circumstances in which Australian industries can compete effectively, not only nationally within Australian markets but also internationally. [More…]

• I observe next the impropriety of the Government having public servants in the Department of Health and the Department of Social Security working until the early hours of the morning one day last week checking on the files of the Labor Government to see what they could dredge up. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• Eligible Aboriginal children together with other school children are currently receiving free dental care including dental health education under the Australian School Dental Scheme. [More…]

• In the Northern Territory, the Commonwealth meets all of the costs of providing dental care for Aboriginals through the dental services provided by the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 March 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 March 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) How many women’s refuges are now receiving funding through the Community Health Program. [More…]

• and (2) To date, a total of 59 women’s refuges have been approved for funding under the Community Health Program in 1977-78. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 March 1978: [More…]

• The proportion of the Budget outlays on health has increased from less than 6 per cent to nearly 1 1 per cent today. [More…]

• Whilst it is very easy for the electorate to take the view that in matters of health, education and social welfare, for example, governments should be prepared to spend whatever is necessary, it is extraordinary that when we start to debate matters of defence, suddenly we hear the cry from the Opposition: ‘What is the Government doing about it? [More…]

• Appropriations for defence represented 8.8 per cent of Government outlays, education represented 8.9 per cent, health represented 10.6 percent and social security and welfare- wait for it- 27.2 per cent. [More…]

• On it we have the Department of Primary Industry and the former Department of Customs and Excise, which now comes within the Department of Business and Consumer Affairs, as well as the Department of Health, the Department of Transport and, of course, the Department of Defence. [More…]

• Because the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) spoke at some length on that day summarising the paper and providing some options, I took the opportunity to speak immediately after he had spoken. [More…]

• The first is that, from a political point of view, it is terribly important to realise that whilst Medibank is considered to be a big issue, it is not the main issue so far as health costs are concerned. [More…]

• The year before Medibank was introduced the increase in health care costs in Australia was 36.8 per cent. [More…]

• I am not suggesting that 27 per cent is a good rate of increase, but the point I am making is that long before Medibank was introduced there was a significant increase in health care costs. [More…]

• It is important for us to remember that by altering Medibank or by altering fund payments we do not necessarily affect total health care expenditure. [More…]

• I think many honourable members would like to affect that expenditure, but I am not convinced that health care expenditure is excessive although I agree that it is excessive for what we get in return. [More…]

• I do not necessarily agree that health care expenditure ought to be less than the 7.5 per cent of the gross domestic product that it has now reached in Australia. [More…]

• The important point is that there are three basic methods of payment for health care. [More…]

• Inasmuch as those methods of payment affect the actual quality and efficiency of health care delivery it is important to argue about them. [More…]

• It is much more important to argue about the methods of improving health care delivery and improving the effectiveness of health care delivery, and I am pleased to say that the Minister at least and, hopefully, members of the Cabinet now realise that blaming Medibank is not the solution to the problem. [More…]

• Obviously what happened was that the back bench believed the propaganda during the election campaign that all our troubles and the high cost of health care were caused by Medibank. [More…]

• Appendix III deals with a national health insurance project and what ought to be done before any changes are made. [More…]

• A3.1 There is very little analysis available in Australia or elsewhere, to tell us what possible effects different health insurance proposals would have on costs, on our usage of health care, on the available supply of beds and doctors or on our ‘health’. [More…]

• They should know: how those arrangements increase or decrease the use of different services or the quality of the services provided: and how the use of these services ultimately affects ‘health ‘. [More…]

• A3.2 We do not have any comprehensive data to tell us what is the ‘best’ type of health insurance system, and the best’ possible method of paying doctors, and the ‘best’ method of financing hospitals and other community health services. [More…]

• A health insurance project would seek and analyse the needed data on all three aspects. [More…]

• A3.4 A national health insurance experiment (or project) would attempt to find answers to the following critical questions: [More…]

• What is the effect on the individual and the families of health insurance arrangements which require them to pay a larger or smaller pan of the bill for health care, either at the point of contact, or in a higher percentage of the total bill? [More…]

• In particular, how does it affect their usage of different types of health care (e.g., hospitals, doctors’ office visits, domiciliary care, self-care and so on )? [More…]

• How would these changes affect the health of the population? [More…]

• Can we develop a health insurance program which positively affects health by giving people access to new prevention programs or rewards them for “good healthy living habits? [More…]

• In other words, can we develop an effective Health Protection Plan rather than an insurance plan? [More…]

• What effect would any alternative scheme have on the costs of administration of private health insurance funds, Medibank, or other government departments (for example, Taxation)? [More…]

• A3.5 The steps involved in a Health Insurance Project might include the following: [More…]

• Some of the Plans might include enrolling the families in any Prepaid Health Plans that were then in existence, or even creating some; [More…]

• families enrolled in each of the Experimental Plans would submit claims (or medical expense reports) to the Project just as they would submit claims to a private health insurance company. [More…]

• The enrolled families would also be required to submit biweekly health reports to the project, i.e., brief questionnaires that collect information on use of health care, self-perceived health status of the family and other indicators. [More…]

• The pre-enrolment phase would include a baseline interview of a large sample of families, with selection into the Health Insurance Project being on the basis of the information they report in the baseline interview. [More…]

• Preliminary estimates suggest that the unit cost of each family’s enrolment in the project would be the sum of the average premiums paid for health insurance at the moment plus whatever additional benefits are included in each Experimental Plan. [More…]

• -I draw the attention of those people who are interested in health care financing to those proposals and to the vast gaps in our present knowledge. [More…]

• -I welcome the statement by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) on the containment of health costs. [More…]

• It is a problem where there is difficulty in separating emotion from fact, not only amongst the conflicting interests involved in the health profession but also amongst the patients themselves. [More…]

• They are in a very weak position in relation to the suppliers of health services, and there is also an understandable need on the part of parents and children or relatives and friends to provide for the person who is sick the best possible attention without immediate regard to the cost. [More…]

• If we continue that view through the whole of the management of our health services we run into considerable difficulty. [More…]

• Whilst the proportion of our gross domestic product being devoted to health services has increased substantially over recent years, there is some indication that a halt already has been called to the rapid expansion of that as a percentage of the gross domestic product. [More…]

• Every health dollar spent must be spent wisely. [More…]

• We must balance the conflicting claims of efficiency in the provision of health services and the social equity which we must, as a matter of policy, apply to the whole area. [More…]

• Despite Government action to date, there are still pretty severe problems in the whole health area. [More…]

• Very many of them were introduced as fresh problems during the period of administration of the present Opposition, but I think it is fair to acknowledge that some of the difficulties go back to the original health schemes introduced in the early 1950s. [More…]

• I think the present Minister for Health in his approach to these problems is certainly mindful of the fact that it is a very complicated area and it will be difficult to get the best possible solution. [More…]

• From looking at the vast increase in health costs over the last seven or eight years as a percentage of the gross domestic product, it is hard to say or to produce evidence that there has been any substantial improvement in the health of Australians. [More…]

• There have been vast increases in expenditure and no clear evidence of improved health. [More…]

• Also, there are no agreed measures of the effectiveness of health services. [More…]

• The conceptual and practical difficulties involved in output measurement are such that it is most unlikely that, for health services as a whole, broad policy choices can ever be based on firm calculations of costs and benefits. [More…]

• Under the present financing arrangements for health costs, patients often do not give any more real attention to the expenditure of, say, $9 on the provision of professional services for themselves or their children than they would give to spending $9 on going to a McDonald’s restaurant with the family for an evening meal rather than having it at home. [More…]

• This is an unfortunate thing, because the provision of health services for a family is one of the most serious expenditures that any family should approach. [More…]

• The future need as regards health services is something that each family should sit down and think about in a very responsible manner. [More…]

• It leads to an attitude of mind which inevitably means a more expensive health service and in many respects a less effective one. [More…]

• As far as I can make out from the figures provided by the Minister for Health from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for costs incurred by the nation in 1976-77, about $5,800m was involved. [More…]

• Like the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), I am not sure that it is inappropriate to have 7.5 per cent of gross domestic product devoted to health care. [More…]

• We have to expect that labour intensive services such as health care will eat up a continually increasing proportion of gross domestic product in the foreseeable future. [More…]

• I suppose it is true that as inflation increases the increasing costs ought to be shared among those people who are now called upon to pay the costs of health services, including to some extent in many respects the patients themselves. [More…]

• Such schemes as the subsidised health benefit scheme and the pensioner medical service are partial recognition of this. [More…]

• Certainly, as the honourable member for Mackellar and other people over the years have pointed out, increasing the contribution of the patient has the advantage of placing some deterrent to overuse of health care services by the patient. [More…]

• One serious deficiency in the information that is fed to the Government and to those people who have to try to design better schemes and to contain costs is that the private health insurance industry has not taken any initiative to develop claims review procedures which would help to assess just where economies can be made and where claims perhaps ought to be funded at a lower level of benefit. [More…]

• Doctors accepted this as a reasonable thing because they realised that the funds and the facilities were limited and that they were dependent on the good will and the provision of these services from the hospital sector of health care. [More…]

• It is not only peer review; it is also total health authority review in consultation with others. [More…]

• It should certainly involve all those in the health care team including lay people who take an interest in health care. [More…]

• We are moving now to things such as community health centre committees and the various community welfare organisations which have an interest in a particular kind of disability and an interest in setting up a service for persons with particular diseases and handicaps. [More…]

• A lot of the increased health costs should be going into expanding evaluation more rapidly than, I believe, the rate of growth of the gross domestic product devoted to health care. [More…]

• We should be looking at the evaluation, the communication and the deliberation as the major growth area that is called for in solving these problems and at rationalising facilities, techniques, attitudes and standards of behaviour by individuals in health care services. [More…]

• If we can demonstrate to the consumers that paramedical people such as nurse practitioners can in many cases give them more satisfactory and more prompt services and can more easily communicate on human level than can the top professional who is very often rushed, busy and highly technical in his language and even brusque they may not want a fully qualified doctor for a lot of their health care problems as the point of first contact. [More…]

• If this idea can be implemented, particularly in the public hospital sector, it will lead to greater job satisfaction for doctors let alone a greater economy for patients and health departments. [More…]

• It will tie in better with the community involvement I spoke of such as in the health centre committees. [More…]

• There is not only a responsibility for saving money but also a responsibility for one’s own health. [More…]

• One incentive has been referred to briefly in the discussion paper as the health maintenance organisation formula. [More…]

• Firstly, I commend the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is present during this debate, for instructing the Hospital and Health Services Commission to carry out this study and present this discussion paper on health care financing. [More…]

• Secondly I commend the Minister for the encouragement he has given- this is witnessed now by the debate which is taking place- for public discussion on the general question of health costs, health insurance and the sharing of health costs. [More…]

• He has said that he wants the public genuinely and as much as possible to seriously consider the important question of increasing health costs. [More…]

• This study was his last job as chairman of the now disbanded Hospital and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• The Minister in a Press release and in a statement accompanying the tabling of this discussion paper refers to the question of accelerating health costs. [More…]

• A significant drop in the rate of increase in health costs has occurred since 1 October 1976 which is a direct result of the Government’s modifications to the health insurance system. [More…]

• Therefore, the Government’s policies are working, but more needs to be done to curb the continuing overall increase in the costs of health care. [More…]

• The figures show a preliminary estimate of total national health expenditure in 1976-77 as $6,254m compared with $5,224m in 1975-76 and $4, 109m in 1974-75. [More…]

• A comparison of the proportion of the gross domestic product represented by the total health expenditure over the last four years illustrates the point. [More…]

• He then details some of the measures which the Government has taken to reduce this acceleration in health care costs. [More…]

• To curb abuses of the system by both doctors and patients through the use of unnecessary services, particularly pathology services; to end the open-ended nature of the Commonwealth financial commitment to the States under the original hospital cost-sharing arrangements; to restore the competitive position of private hospitals by ensuring that public hospital charges were raised to more realistic levels; to ensure that benefits are no longer paid to relieve governments, public authorities and employees of costs that would, but for Medibank, have been borne by them; to legislate so that insurers accept their responsibility in workers compensation and third party insurance cases; to introduce major improvements to the Nursing Home Benefits Scheme to give financial security to all patients and share the financial load with the private health funds. [More…]

• That is, for the escalation in health costs: . [More…]

• The trend towards more and more of the nation’s resources being devoted to health care is consistent with the trend in almost all developed countries of the world. [More…]

• In the discussion paper and the many other papers that have been presented in the recent past on this problem of accelerating health care costs, the point is made that this is a universal problem. [More…]

• People’s expectations run ahead of the ability of government or of themselves as private individuals to pay for the technology- the increasing specialisation- of a modern health care system. [More…]

• This is understandable to a certain extent because of the logical fear of ill health that any person can hold and the belief that if he or she can get the best that is available in the world it should be obtained at all costs. [More…]

• In the extremes, we have, first, the capitalist form of rationing, which means that certain people cannot afford to pay for all the necessary health care; therefore the total percentage of gross domestic product attributable to health is kept down. [More…]

• The other extreme is the socialist answer which, in its severest form, means simply that the overall percentage of the GDP attributable to health costs is restricted and the system is allowed to ration itself. [More…]

• The result is the same, in the sense that there is some restriction on entry to and use of the health system. [More…]

• Canada ran into this problem a few years ahead of us and at the present time is endeavouring to impose some partial restrictions or disincentives to try to restrict the acceleration in health care costs and is doing so in the same way as we are thinking of taking some of these steps at present. [More…]

• We have the dilemma of people having a contradictory view: On the one hand they say that more should be done for them with health care costs but somehow or other it is not they as taxpayers or individuals who should pay; it is somebody else who should pay. [More…]

• Government expenditure on a whole range of services, including health, could be increased but the individual was still left with a real increase each year in the level of disposable income. [More…]

• Health is not the only area of government expenditure in which we must face up to this new situation. [More…]

• A whole range of recommendations in the health and education areas are no longer appropriate or valid as a result of the slower growth in our population. [More…]

• A further responsibility rests upon those engaged in the health care profession. [More…]

• In other words, there is some degree of agreement between the two sides; the question is: To what degree should the patient bear this charge both in relation to responsibility to him as an individual and as a disincentive to unnecessary health care usage by him. [More…]

• There appears to be agreement with one of the recommendations by Dr Sax, which is supported by the submissions of the Voluntary Health Insurance Association, against the use of front end deductibles for the purpose of patient responsibility. [More…]

• It is hospital expenses which make up the largest percentage of total health care expenses in this country. [More…]

• There does appear to be some agreement from some areas that, although there should be a greater degree of patient responsibility in payment for a percentage of health care costs, the argument in relation to the front end deductible proposal is not the right one. [More…]

• I believe that the laws of supply and demand are reversed in the medical or health care situation. [More…]

• He believes that he must do what is right as recommended for his health. [More…]

• The question of trying to achieve responsibility in seeking to limit increasing health care costs rests to a large extent on those in the health care profession. [More…]

• To the credit of the present Minister for Health, since becoming Minister he has pushed ahead with the accreditation of hospitals, with utilisation review and peer review generally, which at present rests with the Australian Medical Association, to come back to the Minister in some acceptable form. [More…]

• I for one believe we must have some son of universal base for our health insurance system. [More…]

• To me it is essential that in our desire to restrict increasing public expenditure on health care we do not do this just by transferring the costs from the public sector to the private sector. [More…]

• Any review of health insurance which follows the Sax paper- the Government’s concern in this area is obvious- should be considered and staged so that the right decisions are made at the appropriate time. [More…]

• I believe the Australian public is rather confused at the present time because of the rapid changes that have taken place in health care over the last seven years. [More…]

• -This discussion paper on paying for health care prepared by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission presents some of the relevant statistics and information necessary for establishing an effective and efficient policy for health care in Australia. [More…]

• The Commission’s paper singles out private health funds for criticism for their lack of cooperation in providing statistics on claims for health benefits, and rightly so. [More…]

• If the private funds are concerned to prove that the present system is more efficient than the original Medibank, with its comprehensive system of data collection, then they should be willing to provide the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) with all the information he requests. [More…]

• Many of the recommendations made by the Commission in this paper relate to containing costs in institutions- the most expensive part of the system- and on pilot projects into systems of health financing. [More…]

• The key role of the doctor in utilising health services and his absolute discretion in this regard are recognised by the Commission. [More…]

• The discussion paper recognises that the community cannot afford to let the health professionals name their own price. [More…]

• We should note that all of these are costly features in the present inadequate health care system. [More…]

• The Commission’s discussion paper concluded that ‘prevention of illness and disability accompanied by effective health education, has the greatest long-term potential for containing the general inflation of health expenditures’. [More…]

• The doctor who wishes to practise medicine in this way with the emphasis on keeping people healthy is financially penalised under the feeforservice system. [More…]

• He cannot charge anyone for conducting health education sessions on nutrition or preventing accidents or on home care of minor illnesses. [More…]

• He cannot charge for referring a patient to more appropriate allied health personnel such as social workers or physiotherapists. [More…]

• Such clinics are already operating in Sydney and probably in Melbourne and are of doubtful value in helping to maintain the health of the community. [More…]

• A public health education program must be developed and evaluated along with other prevention programs. [More…]

• In its chapter on alternative health care systems the report states: [More…]

• There is evidence that the dilemma faced by those who seek to pool consumer risks effectively without inflating health care costs cannot be solved in a system in which responsibilities for pooling and for supplying services are totally divorced. [More…]

• In other words, an insurance system which is divorced from the responsibility of supplying the services cannot solve the problem of increasing health care costs. [More…]

• This is the nub of the problem of health care costs in Australia. [More…]

• The report examines pre-paid group practice, particularly the health maintenance organisation. [More…]

• Another recent example is the figures that were published in August 1977 by the Foundation for Health Care Evaluation. [More…]

• I ask honourable members to compare those admission rates with the admission rate for patients treated by health maintenance organisations where the doctors were on salary. [More…]

• Throughout the whole of America, taking the figure for all the health maintenance organisations, the hospital admission rate was only 450. [More…]

• The Commission recommends Government support for such organisations, but, as their application has been possibly only in limited areas of the United States, many suggest that to look to health maintenance organisations for a total solution would be a mistake. [More…]

• That avoids an analysis of why the health maintenance organisations have spread so slowly. [More…]

• The reason is simple: No one makes enormous profits out of health maintenance organisations. [More…]

• For example, there could have been a more definite suggestion to establish salaried health service units, properly controlled in terms of staffing in relation to the patient load and carefully assessed in terms of peer review and auditing. [More…]

• I am convinced that if a proper controlled experiment were run we would discover the answer to the runaway costs of health services in this community. [More…]

• If we are suffering excessive health costs in this country it is due, sadly, to the irresponsible behaviour of too many medical practitioners. [More…]

• When dealing with the escalation of health care costs in this country- and I am not going to indulge today in a denigration of the Oppositionit is only right that we recall the preMedibank days when the cost of health care was so much less than it is now. [More…]

• I notice that in this report it is stated that in 1960-61 the national health bill was around $700m- the honourable member cannot shake his head to that-and that by 1975-76 the bill exceeded $5,200m. [More…]

• I am not going to go over that ground, but there is no denying the fact that the cost of health care in this country has risen dramatically and it has risen in the way that members on the Government side of the House when in Opposition predicted it would rise. [More…]

• Following the double dissolution when we went to the people, one of the questions put to the people to enable the joint sitting was the introduction of the Labor Party’s health care system. [More…]

• The Labor Government brought in its senators, who joined with Labor members of the House of Representatives to pass the legislation and, by sheer weight of numbers, this country was handed a health scheme which, since the day of its inception has been a sheer disaster and an alldevouring machine. [More…]

• I recall the present Leader of the Opposition (Mr Hayden), when he was either a back-bencher or a front-bencher in the pre- 1972 days, and later when he was Minister for Health, referring to the figures of those who had actual health cover as indicating the reason why we had to have compulsion. [More…]

• Honourable members on this side of the House said that some 94 per cent of the people of Australia had health care cover and members of the then Opposition, later the Government, claimed that about 90 per cent of the people had such cover. [More…]

• The facts are that, at the worst, 10 per cent of Australians were not covered for health care. [More…]

• So to accommodate 10 per cent of the population we introduced a health scheme which has been nothing but a monster since its inception. [More…]

• I am not attacking the agency, but public reaction was so strong that it indicated that a high percentage of that 10 per cent who had no health care cover were people who wanted to carry their own risk. [More…]

• By introducing the health scheme we took from the doctor his individuality, his right to practise with devotion, and we threw him into a machine. [More…]

• Furthermore, the doctors knew that it would bring to Australia the tried and failed system of health care in the United Kingdom. [More…]

• If the United Kingdom, a country which once ruled the waves, had continued to spend on its navy about a half of what it has spent on its health system, no doubt it would have continued to rule the waves. [More…]

• Whilst I have advocated that it is almost time we threw out the Medibank concept, that does not mean I am throwing out health care. [More…]

• I believe in health care. [More…]

• -The Hospitals and Health Services Commission produced a discussion paper on paying for health care which, despite the limitations of its terms of reference and the obvious predilection of this Government to blame the victim, got to the heart of the matter of the reasons for escalating health costs. [More…]

• It is unfortunate that the logic of the paper’s central thrust is not followed with stronger and more specific recommendations, save in the area of asking for more money from health consumers. [More…]

• In other words, there is an inherent emotional content to the subject of health costs. [More…]

• Thirdly, it has been written for a government that has demonstrated no positive interest in health reform, that has no clear sense of the underlying issues involved and whose record has always been that of uncritical support for the rulers of Australia’s health empire. [More…]

• Given these factors, the Commission is to be congratulated for producing a paper in which the principal obstructions to reducing health costs in Australia are clearly identified. [More…]

• The lesson of Australian history is that major changes in the organisation and financing of health services are not likely to succeed in the face of concerted opposition from the doctors. [More…]

• The insulation of the medical profession from concern about resource use seems to be the most important single problem on Australia ‘s health care scene. [More…]

• It is a theme which has been taken up more and more by ordinary people around this nation who are coming to see that the people to whom in the past they were prepared to give the highest status and rewards are the same people who, with all too few exceptions, have fought, through their professional associations and with the support of other sections of the health industry, notably the insurance funds, to work against all proposals for change and reform and especially against any change which would result in community control over health costs. [More…]

• There is evidence in the paper which will sustain the proposition that this profession, which has made the strongest claim for its ethical standards, is prepared to use that status that was willingly conferred on it by health consumers and by patients as a weapon against the very people to whom it should give priority. [More…]

• The crux of this discussion paper is that the escalation of health costs cannot be blamed on either the health consumers or, for that matter, the Labor Government. [More…]

• It is the responsibility of the health industry and the people who control it. [More…]

• The paper argues that it is the doctor who occupies the crucial role of the gatekeeper in the health system and that no system of cost control can succeed if it is not aimed at affecting his behaviour. [More…]

• After the patient has made the initial contact with the system the doctor allocates health services by recommending revisits, referrals to specialists, ordering of laboratory and x-ray investigations, recommending hospital admissions, operations and length of stay in hospitals and prescribing of medication. [More…]

• It is a group of people who have become central to what can be thought of as a health empire in which this profession is playing a crucial role. [More…]

• Such hospitals are less and less subject to the establishment of overall health planning priorities and are using their considerable resources in ways which are not always in conformity with any proper democratic processes. [More…]

• They are highly elitist institutions which need to be placed in the context of proper controls, not in the sense of administrative and accounting efficiency but in terms of responsibility to the health system as a whole and particularly to the public. [More…]

• It can be argued that almost all of the weight of our health resources is being directed to those people who are close to the end of the life cycle and that fewer resources are going to serve the vast bulk of the population who are some of the way through their lives. [More…]

• Just as the doctors have failed to develop systems of peer review, so their allies in the funds have resisted their obligation to provide data to the Health Commission which would have been readily available if Medibank Mark I had not been (destroyed. [More…]

• The private insurance industry has not taken overt initiatives to develop claims review procedures that are necessary for studies of health service utilisation and the implementation of utilisation review. [More…]

• The Commission suggests that the supply of information from private health funds is incomplete and that much of the information that has been supplied has not been analysed. [More…]

• The Government’s dismantling of Medibank destroyed the possibilities of establishing a reliable national basis for the collection of statistical information relevant to the evaluation of health systems. [More…]

• The problem that we face in relation to health costs in this country is that we have allowed a monster to be created that may not be subject to control by democratic processes. [More…]

• This is the reality which lies behind this discussion paper and these political forces stand between us and substantial control over health costs. [More…]

• If there is an area of the report which justifies some criticism it is the neglect of the significance of the broader area of prevention and particularly societal determinants of the community’s health. [More…]

• There are references in the discussion paper to some of the psycho-social determinants of people’s health and the inappropriate way in which some of the psychological problems that people confront are often approached in a way which reflects the physical or organic prejudices of the medical profession. [More…]

• However, the more serious issue is the way in which the report, at least in its general discussion, tends to by-pass the analysis of the relationship between people’s health and the pressures which are exerted on them by the way in which our society currently organises itself and its economic activities. [More…]

• A significant proportion of the costs which are generated in the form of health services flow, for example, from the way in which the transport system is organised, with high levels of individual accidents and side effects, such as heavy pollution levels, which have enormous impact on the overall standards of community health. [More…]

• Another example is the whole area of industrial health and the impact of pollutants and noise levels within particular industries. [More…]

• In my view, the determinants of people’s health are not simply the result of individual decisions and life styles. [More…]

• A change in the basic way in which society is organised is likely to be fundamental to a shift in the total proportion of costs necessary to be spent on health care. [More…]

• The discussion paper goes on to suggest, however, that the prevention of illness and disability, accompanied by effective health education, has the greatest long term potential for containing the general inflation of health expenditures. [More…]

• It is perhaps unfortunate that the report has so little feeling for the social, environmental and industrial determinants of people’s health. [More…]

• It is one thing to criticise the obsession of the current profession with sophisticated technologies; it is possibly even more important to spell out an alternative framework which might be adopted by the health profession in its search for improved standards of community health. [More…]

• Finally, the principal recommendation of the report is that people should pay a larger share of health costs directly out of their pockets. [More…]

• If one is to be consistent with the argument as a whole then one has to look at a whole variety of means which result in controls over the health system as a whole but particularly over the medical profession. [More…]

• The first is that some form of compulsory health insurance is desirable and necessary. [More…]

• That form of compulsory health insurance makes sure that everybody is covered. [More…]

• If they are not prepared to cover themselves, some form of compulsory health insurance is necessary. [More…]

• Earlier in this debate the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) said that to outlay 7.5 per cent of the Budget on health is not to outlay too much. [More…]

• The case for being concerned about the level of health costs is clearly demonstrated. [More…]

• I refer him to a comment he made in March 1975 when he was the Federal Minister for Health. [More…]

• My objection to providing the best possible care for all is simply that no economy, no regime, no health administration could stand it, nor can the great bulk of doctors and patients. [More…]

• I can understand the concern of the honourable member for Maribyrnong (Dr Cass)- a similar concern was expressed by the honourable member for Batman (Mr Howe)- about the need for more reliable statistics on national health care generally. [More…]

• While he may be able to make out a case for that, still he does not answer the immediate problem this House has to face and that is the problem of rapidly escalating health care cost to the Government and people of Australia. [More…]

• It is simply a matter of the Department of Health and the other people concerned being geared to accept and collect statistics in certain forms. [More…]

• I feel that the honourable member’s introduction of that argument really detracts from the matter about which we are talking tonight, that is, the discussion paper on the business of health care in this community. [More…]

• If we leave Queesnland aside for a moment because it has some special circumstances, it is clear that the State with the lowest bed /population ratio, Victoria, has the lowest health costs in the hospital scheme. [More…]

• I know from experience that in Queensland, Hospital Boards are quick to whinge and complain about the restraints placed upon them by the Queensland Health Department. [More…]

• It follows from that that we can draw two areas for further discussion, areas about which we can profitably do something with regard to health costs. [More…]

• In the short time left to me I would like to refer briefly to the doctor/patient cost side of health care. [More…]

• If that happens those people who can afford to pay more will be paying more of the overall cost of health care in this community. [More…]

• Of course, the more that the higher income earner provides in the overall scheme of things towards the total cost of health insurance, the greater the possibility of keeping that gap as small as possible. [More…]

• I have no time to develop some of the methods that could be used in keeping the doctor/patient cost of health care down. [More…]

• As mentioned by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in his statement, it is provocative in many respects. [More…]

• First, I refer to paragraph 12 of the paper which sets out the way in which health costs have risen since 1 96 1 . [More…]

• In that year health costs totalled $700m. [More…]

• They prove beyond doubt that health costs had taken off long before Medibank was instituted. [More…]

• In 1974-75, the year before Medibank commenced operations, health costs had increased to $4.1 billion from $700min 1961 [More…]

• In the first year of Medibank operations health costs rose by 26 per cent. [More…]

• After 1 October 1976, when the Government emasculated the Medibank service, health costs still rose by 20 per cent. [More…]

• That means that if it was the Government’s intention to reduce health costs significantly by its surgery of 1 October 1976 it was singularly unsuccessful. [More…]

• All that happened was that the Government was successful in transferring health costs to the contributor. [More…]

• It states that we should retard the rates of expansion in the use of medical and hospital services, reduce the rate of growth of government expenditure on health services and reduce the rate of growth in health insurance contribution rates. [More…]

• What this really does is reduce health insurance to the level of motor vehicle and other types of insurance. [More…]

• I oppose it for the same reasons as the honourable member for Prospect Dr Klugman, who is the Opposition spokesman on health. [More…]

• Therefore health expenditure will be increased. [More…]

• The report of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission canvasses at length alternative methods. [More…]

• The report of the Hospital and Health Services Commission states: [More…]

• In West Germany, the Association of Health Funds remunerates the doctor in accordance with the standard fee schedules after he has submitted the patient’s ‘sick certificate’ which records the individual’s services rendered. [More…]

• There is a need to reduce overall health costs- not just to transfer the burden to the user- blaming the public for using services ordered by doctors who are motivated by fee for service payments- and I refer to services supplied in many cases by private pathology centres and x-ray centres which duplicate hospital services. [More…]

• The Australian Medical Association and the General Practitioners Society have the Government well and truly bluffed- and so, too, have the private health insurance funds. [More…]

• Let us have no more of this nonsensical humbug about the patients and contributors being to blame for rising health costs. [More…]

• The main deficiency of this report- the last, expiring act of the now defunct Hospital and Health Service Commission- is that it seeks to restrain rising costs by transferring them to the patient while making no recommendations regarding replacing the expensive fee for service system of paying general practitioners, specialists, surgeons and private ancillary centres with a long range plan of expanding salaried medical services. [More…]

• -I think it is only right and proper that there is at the moment a national debate on this very important and vexed question of the escalation of health costs. [More…]

• Indeed, the figure in respect of the cost of health care services nationally has increased beyond the 1976-77 level of $6.3 billion to approximately $7 billion. [More…]

• I believe that the concern in the community arises from the level of contributions being paid yearly by individuals- that is, the family- at a base of $300 for contributors to Medibank and, of course, some $400 to $550 for contributors to private health insurance funds. [More…]

• I believe that contributors, particularly the young Australian family, look at the number of times they attend doctors in a 12 month period and relate the number and cost of consultations to the annual contribution they must make to Medibank or the private health insurance fund. [More…]

• It is obvious in that respect that many healthy young Australian families find themselves contributing far more to the fund than they are receiving by way of benefits. [More…]

• So there is no doubt that something must be done either to identify the cost to the Australian public or to put some ceiling on health costs throughout the nation. [More…]

• Whatever system is adopted and whatever amendments are made to the present system, I believe we must have adequate and good health care for all Australians. [More…]

• At this stage I will define what I believe is adequate health care. [More…]

• I believe it is to be defined in terms of the readily availability of health care for all Australians. [More…]

• A good standard of health care must be a standard that is acceptable by world standards and all Australians should have available to them this adequate, good health care regardless of their affluence, wealth or income. [More…]

• A number of options is put forward in this discussion paper, Paying for Health Care, by the Hospital and Health Services Commission under the leadership of Dr Sax. [More…]

• Another argument in favour of this system is that there is an awareness on the part of the patient- I believe this is vitally important- that he has to pay some of his health costs completely out of his own pocket. [More…]

• I think, as the Minister for Health has said so frequently, there is no such thing as a free meal. [More…]

• -The healthy people, yes, as the Minister for Health reminds me. [More…]

• Let me look at some of the methods by which I believe we can contain health costs and make the public more aware, despite the claims of members of the Opposition. [More…]

• Another area that causes concern and does not allow the patient to identify the cost is the fact that today a person can insure himself for the gap, that is, the difference between his contribution and the amount that is paid by the health insurance fund or by Medibank. [More…]

• It is unfortunate that people who purport to have high ethical standards would be involved in a practice such as the exploitation of health insurance schemes, not on a minor scale- I have spoken before in this House on the subject- but indeed on a major scale. [More…]

• Until such time as we identify that cost I believe there will be no incentive for patients to leave hospital- not that they would want to leave earlier than their health permits. [More…]

• The great problems confronting this country, in common with all the advanced industrialised countries of the world, in seeking to control the upsurge in health costs will not be resolved with shibboleths. [More…]

• The problem cannot be resolved by tinkering with health insurance systems. [More…]

• One must in fact consider a complete restructuring of the way in which health services are provided and the way in which the deliverers of health services are paid for those services. [More…]

• For my part, it was comforting to read some parts of the discussion paper on paying for health care which we are now debating. [More…]

• Paragraph 59, which refers to the private health insurance scheme which applied prior to the introduction of the original Medibank system, states: [More…]

• It is referring to the private health insurance scheme- was dropped when Medibank was introduced in 1973. and it immediately became apparent that the goal of basic universality had been attained with remarkable administrative efficiency. [More…]

• That is a very important point because as recently as February of this year the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in public reports was associating the upsurge in health costs generally with the introduction of Medibank. [More…]

• Of course, what that statement is saying in a none too thinly veiled way is that the alterations in fact increased the cost of health insurance in this country. [More…]

• One has only to look at the cost of administering the Health Insurance Commission, according to the latest figures available, and compare it with the cost of administering that Commission under the original Medibank arrangement. [More…]

• It is the nature of many Government spokesmen to suggest that bulk billing, which we introduced as part of the Medibank scheme, was responsible for a substantial increase in the cost of health insurance. [More…]

• The figures are understood to be contained in a report by a special working party appointed by the Minister for Health, Mr Hunt, to inquire into bulk billing. [More…]

• Bulk billing is the cheapest and most efficient way of paying health insurance benefits, the report is believed to conclude. [More…]

• I wish that the Minister for Health would make that report available. [More…]

• The central computer system which we established in the Health Insurance Commission was, among other things, programmed to provide the sort of information which would allow government, at very short notice, to acquire utilisation rates for various medical practitioners in the community. [More…]

• I want to lay to rest the assertion that Medibank created an upsurge in the cost of health services. [More…]

• He likes to refer to health expenditure as a proportion of the gross domestic product and to suggest that it is all related to the introduction of Medibank. [More…]

• If one looks at the figures, year by year, one notes that the more rapid rates of acceleration occurred under the previous system of health insurance and that, if anything, they have eased down in more recent times. [More…]

• For instance, in 1973-74 the proportion of expenditure on health costs in this community was 5.9 per cent of the gross domestic product. [More…]

• So the total amount spent on Medibank in that year and, accordingly, on health services included a substantial amount from the preceding year and at the same time- unlike preceding years- met also practically the full cost of health services for that year. [More…]

• We are not going to make any real progress in the subject of controlling health costs in this community until there is some sane and informed discussion. [More…]

• We have to recognise the sorts of abuses that arise which are not related to health insurance- for example, the way in which specialists have been over-utilising medical services. [More…]

• Hospital utilisation represents the most expensive area of all health services. [More…]

• Accordingly, there is a requirement not only for monitoring of the way in which health services are provided by medical practitioners but also for monitoring of the way in which hospital bed services are provided. [More…]

• That is a well-established principle in health economics. [More…]

• The fact that they had not occurred earlier was an indication of the injustice that applied within the health services system. [More…]

• One of the unfortunate features of the debate on health insurance is the way in which it has been marred by sheer shallow political opportunism on the part of conservatives within the coalition. [More…]

• One well recalls the passionate opposition to health insurance levies when Labor originally proposed the system of Medibank. [More…]

• It is the only way that the Government can keep the private health insurance funds in line and honest. [More…]

• There is no doubt that before we were in government the preceding conservative governments had had trouble privately in controlling private health insurance funds. [More…]

• Subsequently, one of the earliest pieces of legislation introduced by this Government was brought in by the present Minister for Health, one of the most vociferous objectors to the legislation when we proposed it while in government. [More…]

• The solution to the problem of health costs is not going to be achieved by making health services more expensive for the users of those services. [More…]

• If it is proposed that patients should pay more, all that is going to happen is that families will be disadvantaged as against single people, large families as against small families, low income earners as against high income earners, the ill as against the healthy. [More…]

• That means simply that a patient will pay a specified amount of total health costs each year. [More…]

• It will mean that the private health insurance schemes will have two funds, a cheap one for the healthy and an expensive one for the not-so-healthy. [More…]

• It will encourage people, as has happened in America, to gamble on the state of their health. [More…]

• The fact is that in America today there is a long-standing passionate debate about the deficiencies of health insurance, very largely because they have variations of this concept of deductibles. [More…]

• The basic Medibank concept will become a repository for the aged, the disabled, the chronically ill, the ethnically disadvantaged and the poor as the system of health insurance reverts to more and more complexity and greater and greater dissatisfaction. [More…]

• I am delighted that the Government has provided the House with an early opportunity to debate the Discussion Paper on Paying for Health Care and I congratulate the Leader of the House (Mr Sinclair) for providing adequate time for the paper to be discussed. [More…]

• More importantly, I congratulate the Government on arranging for the Hospitals and Health Services Commission to have the paper prepared in the first place and I congratulate Dr Sax on the quality of the document. [More…]

• The paper is extremely comprehensive in its coverage of the issues involved and the whole question of the financing of health services. [More…]

• As the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) stressed when presenting it, the paper does not necessarily represent the views of the Government and the Government is therefore not locked in to any firm views at this stage. [More…]

• The problems facing us in Australia in the area of health care are enormous, at least so far as the cost of health care and its financing are concerned. [More…]

• The simple fact is that the cost of health care in Australia has escalated to a point where it is absorbing so much of our gross domestic product that it is imposing an onerous burden on each member of the community, either through private contributions or through taxes. [More…]

• The problem simply is that we cannot afford continuing increases of the magnitude of recent years, increases that brought the total health bill of this nation to $6,254m in 1976-77, with an even larger amount estimated for the current year. [More…]

• Indeed, for the nine years to 1975-76, total health expenditure in this country rose by 329 per cent, an increase that has far outstripped the rate of increase in wages, prices and population. [More…]

• Between 1971-72 and 1975-76, as the Discussion Paper Paying for Health Care points out, only 8 per cent of the increase in health expenditure was attributed to population changes. [More…]

• They include changing medical needs, changing medical aspirations, changing influences and attitudes by the medical profession, changing technology, changing aspirations by potential patients and the methods of financing health costs. [More…]

• These are the attitude of doctors towards encouraging patients to utilise more and more sophisticated specialist services, the cost of running hospitals and capital costs, and the financial incentives or disincentives to potential users of health services. [More…]

• It is the doctor who allocates health services by recommending revisits, referrals to specialists, ordering laboratory and X-ray investigations, recommending hospital admissions, operations, length of stay in hospital and so on. [More…]

• It is the doctor who in large measure determines the use of hospital services, the costs of which have grown more than any other element within the health care system. [More…]

• Consideration could be given, in the context of revised Commonwealth-State cost-sharing arrangements, to the use of global budgets for all publicly organised health services in a region. [More…]

• Most of us would accept that it is desirable that patients should pay a certain proportion of their health bills themselves. [More…]

• The real issue in the end is that the community must bear the full cost of health care. [More…]

• It is worth remembering that, despite the enormous increase in health costs over recent years, we are not noticeably more healthy nor do we live longer. [More…]

• The Discussion Paper makes the point that the present health financing system provides little inducement to undertake greater effort in this area. [More…]

• I hope that the Government will take full note of this point in framing any future decisions on improving our health system. [More…]

• These growing diseases in our community are causing increasing social, health and economic problems. [More…]

• No one in this Parliament would deny that it is axiomatic that all Australians must have access to essential health services without financial hardship preventing them from obtaining this. [More…]

• I believe it forms a vital basis for community discussion on the vital issues involved and for government consideration in formulating the ongoing future decisions that obviously are required if we are to obtain the best value for our health dollar and a reduction over time in the proportion of our resources going into health. [More…]

• If we do not achieve this we will not stay healthy. [More…]

• Honourable members have talked a lot about the onerous question of health costs- onerous because the percentage of the gross domestic product that is outlaid on health has risen to such a high percentage. [More…]

• They forget that before we had a more sophisticated method of health financing it was very onerous for the individual who had to pay health costs from his own pocket and who, in many cases, went without because he was frightened to seek medical attention because of the cost involved resulting, in many cases, in unnecessarily shortened lives. [More…]

• I refer to Appendix I which gives a review of the history of health service financing in Australia. [More…]

• Appendix I refers firstly to the beginning of health insurance and then deals with mutual aid or friendly societies which operated under a capitation system and which were in existence for many years. [More…]

• Even at that stage doctors were worried that the Government might intrude into the financing of health care. [More…]

• In 1923 the Royal Commission on National Insurance recommended a national insurance scheme to cover sickness, invalidity and maternity and superannuation benefits and a separate national health scheme to provide medical care. [More…]

• In 1938 R. G. Casey introduced the National Health and Pensions Bill. [More…]

• I move on to Curtin ‘s expression of the belief that national health services, like education, should be available to all. [More…]

• Some members have appreciated that there are different categories of hospital beds, that there are private hospitals and private investment hospitals financed by doctors and others interested in the health care held, quite apart from government hospitals, which play a role in increasing the cost of health care. [More…]

• I move from that situation to the introduction of the National Health Act in 1953, when some payment went to government hospitals but the major part of the payment depended on the individual taking out voluntary health insurance to receive a further amount. [More…]

• I graduated in medicine 25 years ago, and my experience with health insurance was in the period before the introduction of Medibank. [More…]

• I knew only too well that many people could not afford the voluntary health insurance that gave them the extra benefit. [More…]

• I saw the bad debts that occurred even amongst those who could afford voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• I welcomed even more some of the programs that went with it, such as the introduction of community health centres. [More…]

• One of the best steps that was taken in the national health scheme was the development of community health centres. [More…]

• There is a group of diseases called iatrogenic diseases which are doctor produced, and I wonder whether on those figures much of the increase in health costs is not iatrogenic. [More…]

• Time does not permit me to develop that theme and to mention the experiences of Flexner’s view in the early 1900s, the Kaiser health scheme and organisations such as the Windsor health service in Canada. [More…]

• It is concluded that patients should pay a larger share of the costs of health care directly out-of-pocket for three reasons: to retard rates of expansion in the use of medical and hospital services - [More…]

• We do not necessarily accept that that is a fact and that it will lead to better health- to reduce the rate of growth of Government expenditures on health services - [More…]

• I suppose that it would work there, but whether that is a good thing is another matter- to reduce the rate of growth in health insurance contribution rates. [More…]

• It is essential that statistics on claims for health benefits be available for analysis. [More…]

• The supply of information from private health benefit organisations is incomplete . [More…]

• Firstly, I would like to thank all those who have participated in the debate this afternoon and this evening on the Discussion Paper on Paying for Health Care. [More…]

• I join with other speakers, excluding the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Hayden), in complimenting the Hospitals and Health Services Commission for the production of this discussion paper. [More…]

• After all, health costs affect everyone in the community. [More…]

• There is no way that we will escape health costs. [More…]

• It does not matter what modifications we make to the health insurance system. [More…]

• People will make their own contribution by one means or another- either by means of paying levies, paying income tax, paying health insurance contributions, paying directly out of their pockets or by a combination of these methods. [More…]

• The fact of life is that health costs in this country have escalated to alarming levels. [More…]

• I think that in itself will have an effect upon the providers of health care who, after all, are members of the community, as indeed are the consumers. [More…]

• However, the debate has been a reflection of public concern about health costs. [More…]

• The paper that we have been debating places into a historical context and perspective the trends in the consumption of health services and the expenditures on them. [More…]

• We have all identified the problem, and to some extent the reasons for that were the changes that we made to health insurance on 1 October 1976. [More…]

• In the six years to 1976-77 we have seen health costs explode from $2,232m to $6,254m. [More…]

• So health costs in this country have been about one and a half times as great. [More…]

• The changes that we made to health insurance on 1 October 1 976 quite deliberately transferred a considerable portion of health costs from the taxation pool- the pool to which taxpayers contributeto individuals, to the community. [More…]

• The problem has been identified in this country and overseas in most Western countries by economists and well informed people for many, many years but it has been only in more recent times that the man in the street and the doctor, the provider of health care, have become concerned about the issue. [More…]

• I suppose that in considering the problem of health costs in a country like Australia where we have a high standard of living we must take into account the fact that most people place great value on life and comfort. [More…]

• Therefore I do not suppose that it is unreal to expect that a community such as ours would have a growing amount of its gross domestic product spent on health care. [More…]

• Without naming them, in some of the underdeveloped countries where life itself does not assume the value to individuals that it does in our country their order of priority would not be as high as ours, so far as health care is concerned. [More…]

• To some extent perhaps that is why in Western countries where there is a relatively higher standard of living we have seen this escalation of the gross domestic product expenditure on health care increasing year by year. [More…]

• What are the reasons for the great explosion in health care costs in the last six years? [More…]

• Basically, the universal health insurance system I think has made people, certainly the providers of health care, less cost conscious. [More…]

• Secondly, there is the great explosion in wages and salaries in the health care cost area. [More…]

• More than 75 per cent of those people who are employed are females and with the equalisation of pay conditions naturally there was a large explosion in health care costs in the wages area in 1 973-74. [More…]

• That is why there was a great explosion in health costs the year before Medibank became operative. [More…]

• We have gone to tremendous lengths to try to obtain the co-operation of the providers of health care in rationalising resources and the system generally. [More…]

• So I think tremendous progress is being made and it is being reflected in a slowing down in the rate of acceleration of the increase in health costs in this country. [More…]

• I demonstrate that by saying that in 1973-74 5.92 per cent of gross domestic product was spent on health; in 1 974-75 the percentage was 6.83 per cent; in 1975-76 it had risen to 7.38 per cent; and in 1976-77 it had risen to 7.67 per cent. [More…]

• We are currently reviewing the whole health insurance system to see whether there are other ways to ensure that the rate of acceleration of health cost in this country does not crowd out our capacity to spend essential resources on other important areas in the economy such as social welfare, the need for job creation, the need to assist industry to employ people and so on. [More…]

• If we allowed health costs to grow uncontrollably we would deny a capacity to help people in other ways. [More…]

• So for that reason alone it is essential that we adopt a responsible position as a government and it is essential that we try to give some leadership to the community, to the doctors, to the hospital administrators and to all those people who are associated with health care delivery in this country. [More…]

• I am quite confident that if we give ourselves adequate time to deal with this problem we will be able to shape the health insurance system in Australia so that it will be second to none in the world. [More…]

• I believe that we have a health system that is probably second to none. [More…]

• Our real concern is to ensure that the dollars that are being spent on health care in this country are being spent wisely and prudently [More…]

• We have even moved to try to make it easier for people living in remote areas to get specialised attention within the universal health insurance system in this country. [More…]

• We will not allow a situation to develop where people will be denied access to proper health care. [More…]

• They were written about the action of the Government regarding increases in health insurance charges, which, of course, is another disgraceful affair. [More…]

• The health funds affair, the Kerr affair, the International Business Machines affair and the circumstances that led to the resignation of the former Treasurer and present Minister for Industry and Commerce (Mr Lynch) have all occurred during the reign of this Government. [More…]

• As at 28 February 1978, the Departments of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, Health and the Department of Education have identified positions where at least 10 per cent of the occupants’ working time is spent in dealing with clients in a language other than English. [More…]

• I am advised that the measures which were implemented in 1977 will be continued by the Board to ensure that consumers are not exposed to any health risk from peanuts. [More…]

• I also pointed out that the Poisons Schedule Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, and the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee had reviewed all the available information at that time and had considered that action similar to that taken in the United States was unnecessary. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 March 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice on 8 March 1978: [More…]

• In all the States, education, health and community welfare departments, for example, provide services to Aboriginal communities in the same way as they do to other citizens. [More…]

• In Queensland, as in other States, the Commonwealth Government provides grants through the Department of Aboriginal Affairs to support the special programs of State education, health and other departments in Aboriginal and Island communities. [More…]

• Yet the Opposition members of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs were in favour of going to Aurukun in the course of the Committee’s normal investigations of the health of Aborigines and at the same time to get our views on the facts as they occurred. [More…]

• They are realistic people and they see advantages in some of the benefits that white civilisation can give them such as health care, education, career structures and economic opportunities. [More…]

• There is no doubt that the health of the people on these outstations is much better than the health of the people in the main community. [More…]

• The health sisters tell me that there is no great problem in the health of the people at these outstations. [More…]

• The health of the children, particularly those in the main communities, is a much greater problem. [More…]

• Queensland will be responsible for health, education and law and order just as it is anywhere else. [More…]

• This is the Government that suspended the trachoma campaign in Queensland because it suited the political whims of the Premier of Queensland, in spite of the fact that the continuation of the program was so essential for the health of Queensland Aboriginals. [More…]

• It has cut back expenditure in health, education, housing, generally in the welfare area, and in all of those areas in which it is well established that Aboriginal people have distinct disadvantages, not through their own fault but because of generations of neglect which has been imposed upon them by the dominant white culture of this society. [More…]

• Aboriginals probably have the highest birth rate, the highest death rate, the worst health and housing, and the lowest educational, occupational, economic, social and legal status of any identifiable section of the Australian community. [More…]

• It deals with the questions of housing, health, sewerage, water supply, electricity supply, communication, education and training. [More…]

• If the Opposition cannot fight on one question it brings in a new element, one which is likely to exacerbate the situation further and one which is likely to lead to the situation in which the very important question of services such as health and education- we would expect the Queensland Government to continue to provide those services for Queensland people, including Aboriginal people- would be put in jeopardy by promoting an all-out confrontation. [More…]

• What would happen if all the money that would otherwise be appropriated for programs for the Aboriginal people- housing, health or educationwere set aside to accept a constitutional obligation of providing on just terms for the acquisition of all those lands in Queensland to which one could effectively give control by legislation of this sort? [More…]

• I am sure that if we put to the Aboriginal people that the question was whether we provided land and total land rights in Queensland, acquired all the reserves on just terms, that is, paying out that money for those rights, and lost ali their other programs throughout the rest of Australia- housing programs, education programs, health programs- they would say responsibly that they would wish to see the maintenance of those programs which would be to their immediate benefit. [More…]

• This item of legislation has been developed around pursuing that objective in relation to self-determination but not bringing into conflict a whole range of other questions such as the education and health services which the State would normally provide and which the State is expected by us to continue to provide to the communities. [More…]

• In relation to clause 9, the Opposition wishes to substitute in sub-clause (2) the requirement that the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs must consent to the Queensland Government accepting its specific responsibilities for schooling and health in the communities. [More…]

• I cannot imagine anything that would have a more disastrous effect on the relationship between the Commonwealth and the State and on the ability of the Commonwealth to maintain meaningful services in these reserves and communities than an amendment that put at risk the schools that are there, the schooling obligations of the State, and the health programs that are being administered through the Queensland Government. [More…]

• A number of complaints, particularly in relation to health, education and law enforcement, have been made by residents of Mornington Island and Aurukun. [More…]

• It is an indictment of the Queensland Government if those services have been lacking because the provision of health services, schools and teachers- that is, the education of the people in those communities- and law enforcement in those areas is entirely the responsibility of the Queensland Government. [More…]

• 1 ) The report on Rural Health in Australia does not contain a series of formal recommendations as such. [More…]

• Rather it identifies and comments on particular issues associated with the provision of health services to the rural community. [More…]

• Nevertheless the report contains a number of proposals or observations on each of the major aspects of rural health which it examines. [More…]

• A Health Program Grant to the St John Ambulance Association to develop course material for use in a pilot program, in co-operation with the New South Wales Health Commission and my Department, designed to increase the self reliance of communities which do not have ready access to health services. [More…]

• Under the Community Health Program, financial assistance has been made available to Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland for travel and accommodation of medical students who undertake part of their training in rural areas. [More…]

• Funds have also been made available under the Community Health Program to employ other health students during vacation periods. [More…]

• The integration of community health services with those of institutional services in rural areas is being encouraged through the Community Health Program, as are a number of other projects aimed at improving rural community health services within the limits of available funds. [More…]

• These projects include nursing posts and mobile staff to establish basic community health services in very remote areas and to serve small centres and outlying settlements and properties. [More…]

• Issues arising therefrom have been discussed in various forums such as the Health Ministers’ Conference and the bi-annual Commonwealth/State Standing Committees on Health Expenditure. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1 978: [More…]

• 1 ) On what dates have the Joint Commonwealth-State Standing Committees on Health Expenditure met since his answer to me on 26 October 1977 (Hansard, page 2434). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 February 1978: [More…]

• What nursing homes approved under the Nursing Homes Assistance Act and National Health Act are situated in the Electoral Division of Calare. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 February 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 March 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) When will the Australian Bureau of Statistics health survey of 15,000 households be completed and the results published. [More…]

• How will this information be of value to the Government for health policy planning and to the National Committee on Vital Health Satisfies. [More…]

• Interviewing for the Health Interview Survey, will continue until June 1978 [More…]

• The Health Interview Survey will allow the health of the nation to be assessed in relation to social and economic factors: e.g. [More…]

• the health problems and needs of specific sub populations such as the aged, migrants and low income people, etc. [More…]

• assistance to Federal, State and other Health authorities and organisations in planning the provision of new facilities and services and measuring utilisation of existing facilities [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 March 1978: [More…]

• Discussions are continuing between health authorities and the liquor industry. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 March 1 978: [More…]

• Has the Hospitals and Health Services Commission investigated the need for a hospital in the Fairfield area of New South Wales. [More…]

• State Governments determine which projects are to be proposed for inclusion in their programs, and the program for each State is then agreed by the relevant Commonwealth/State Standing Committee (Health Expenditures). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 March 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) The general requirement for the issue of a visitor visa are that an applicant should: intend a bona fide short term visit only be in possession of, or have access to, sufficient funds for maintenance and travel purposes without the need to undertake employment be in possession of a valid acceptable travel document be in sound health and of good character provide an undertaking that whilst in Australia he will not engage in employment or formal studies. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) Who are the members of the National Health Services Advisory Committee. [More…]

• 1 ) The National Health Services Advisory Committee is chaired by Dr Sidney Sax who heads the Social Welfare Policy Secretariat. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 March 1978: [More…]

• A system of professional standards review is an essential feature of any attempt to contain the cost of health care services and improve their quality. [More…]

• The establishment of an effective system is an important objective of the Government’s health policy. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• 1 ) Has the long delay in resumption of the Queensland trachoma survey and eye health program been due to the reluctance of Professor Hollows to accept alternatives suggested by Queensland authorities for staff recommended by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• Does he propose to continue to defer to Queensland in matters of Aboriginal health where demonstrably higher efficiency is evident to the health operatives concerned by accepting the staff appointed on the advice of Commonwealth authorities, and where no medical, ethical or legal evidence has justified Queensland intervention. [More…]

• Primary responsibility for the provision of health services in Queensland rests with the Sate authorities. [More…]

• However, the Commonwealth provides financial assistance to the States and other organisations for special health services for Aboriginals. [More…]

• The National Trachoma and Eye Health Program is conducted by the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists and is funded by the Commonwealth Government. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 15 March 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) Has he registered the Australian Medical Association (NSW) Health Fund Ltd as a registered medical and hospital benfits organisation; if so, does that Fund provide that each contributor have full voting rights. [More…]

• 1 ) Did the Queensland Premier write to him on or about 2 1 December 1 977 urging the withdrawal of grants to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Community Health Service. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 March 1978: [More…]

• What progress has been made in implementing recommendations contained in reports of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, in particular (a) the encouragement of discussion by their organisations of interrelationships among professionals and their disciplines, their registration standards, and delegation of functions to purpose-trained aides and other support staff, (b) the provision of specific grants for initiating training for ail members of health teams, study leave and community health training, (c) the involvement of States, academic and professional organisations in discussion of interdisciplinary training, (d) the exploration of the concept of multi-purpose ‘ health aides, (e ) the definition of limits of responsibility of different health workers in varying situations and geographic settings, (f) a greater community involvement in identifying and meeting needs, (g) encouragement to applicants for community health funds, (h) the maintenance of the Federal share of 75 percent capital and 90 percent running costs pending review of Federal/ State relations, up to 100 per cent funding for approved national projects, and providing legislation as a formal basis for the Community Health Program, (i) the development with the States of standard evaluation procedures and administrative details of devolved responsibilities (j) the priority of projects indicating evaluation and feedback procedures when applying for funding, (k) the transfer of paramedical and home nursing funding to the Community Health Program, co-ordination of this program with home care and handicapped persons assistance and family planning funding, and inclusion in the program of services operating before 1 July 1973, (1) family planning training for community health workers, (m) hospital management links with community services, (n) the placement of more emphasis on health hostels, health education, promotion and training under the community health program, (o ) the implementation of the report on Health Transport Policies for Australia, and (p) funding rural health training, location incentives and continuing education for isolated professionals. [More…]

• I assume the honourable member is referring to the Hospitals and Health Services Commission’s Report ‘Review of the Community Health Program’ which was tabled in Parliament on 2 June 1976. [More…]

• These policy initiatives relate to the Government’s need to effect restraint in Commonwealth Government expenditure and to the major devolution of responsibilities for the provision and supervision of health services to the States, within the framework of the federal system. [More…]

• The Commonwealth government is continuing to work towards improving communication and co-operation between all those involved in health care and in this regard has on-going consultations with State governments and professional associations. [More…]

• This recommendation is concerned with ensuring that health care is provided on an integrated multidisciplinary basis, which is best demonstrated by current developments towards health care teams. [More…]

• This concept must therefore be developed gradually and is best facilitated by encouragement by health authorities at the workforce. [More…]

• The Community Health Program already makes significant provision for in-service training courses, seminars and workshops in all States to better equip community health workers to adapt to the demands of community-based health service delivery. [More…]

• Vocational training for general medical practice, the cornerstone of personalised health care delivery in the community, is provided throughout Australia by the Family Medicine Program which operates and is funded as a national project. [More…]

• Much is already being done under the Community Health Program to foster inter-disciplinary training. [More…]

• Students in various health disciplines throughout Australia actively participate in multi-disciplinary community health projects co-ordinated by ‘Students Initiatives m Community Health’ a project sponsored by the Australian Medical Students’ Association and funded by the Commonwealth. [More…]

• At the University of Adelaide, the development of inter-disciplinary training for medicine, social work, nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, with a view to providing multi-disciplinary basic training in community health practice, has been funded under the Program. [More…]

• Exploration and implementation of the concept of multi-purpose’ health aides is primarily a matter for the [More…]

• The main thrust for initiatives in these matters must rest with the States because of their particular responsibilities for the actual organisation and provision of health services. [More…]

• Much has been achieved already under the Community Health Program with many community health projects, particularly in Victoria, involving community groups in the form of management or advisory committees. [More…]

• Many community health projects have developed into community activity focal points extending beyond the primary function of providing health services. [More…]

• The Commonwealth has encouraged the States to submit proposals from voluntary/community groups for funding under the Community Health Program and is continuing to fund a number of voluntary agencies on a national basis. [More…]

• The Commonwealth, during its bi-annual discussions with the States in the Standing Committee Meetings on Health Expenditures, at which State Community Health Programs are endorsed, encourages the States to be responsive to initiatives of non-government agencies in sponsoring community health projects. [More…]

• The Government’s federalism policies put the States in a better financial position to accept a greater share of the costs of providing community health services than was the case formerly. [More…]

• Thus, with the major devolution of administrative and financial responsibilities to the States, the Commonwealth, in 1977-78, reduced its proportional share of community health service costs from 75 per cent of capital and 90 per cent of operating costs to 50 per cent and 75 per cent respectively. [More…]

• Notwithstanding these reductions in the Commonwealth’s proportion of costs, the Commonwealth in 1977-78 has provided $79.05m for the Community Health Program, an increase of $ 10.2m or 14.8 per cent over the Commonwealth expenditure in the previous financial year. [More…]

• With the additional State contributions the increased level of expenditure on community health services is considerable. [More…]

• Concerning the provision of legislation as a formal basis for the Community Health Program, I assured State Health Ministers at a special meeting in September 1977, that the Government would give serious consideration to the provision of appropriate legislation. [More…]

• and (j) All Community Health Program projects are expected to have some form of in-built evaluation mechanism. [More…]

• In addition, the Government has provided $500,000- as Health Program Grants for health service development projects-to: encourage the development and testing of new cost-effective forms of health care delivery; foster the monitoring mechanisms concerned with ensuring the best value for expenditure on health; or introduce new methods of meeting health costs with incentives towards efficiency. [More…]

• The funding of paramedical and home nursing services has been accommodated within the Community Health Program wherever it has been possible to incorporate these services within an integrated and comprehensive service. [More…]

• 1 ) Family planning services in one form or another are already being provided from most general community health centres, and family planning training for community health workers is an integral part of in-service training in such cases. [More…]

• Apart from the Commonwealth’s contribution under the Community Health Program a substantial contribution is also made by the Commonwealth and States to voluntary organisations operating in this field. [More…]

• The concept expressed in this recommendation is well recognised by both Commonwealth and State health authorities. [More…]

• A substantial number of projects funded under the Community Health Program are, in fact, closely associated with or based at hospitals, particularly in rural areas, and are providing balanced links between hospitals and community health services. [More…]

• Increasing support has been given in recent times under the Community Health Program for women’s refuges (59 funded in 1977-7S), detoxification units and other health hostel/halfway house projects offering shortterm rehabilitative and /or support services. [More…]

• The Commonwealth is prepared to consider applications from the States for inclusion of projects under the Community Health Program aimed at providing assistance towards the cost of health related services of such hostels. [More…]

• Greater emphasis has been placed on developments in health education and promotion in recent times. [More…]

• In conjunction with St John Ambulance Association and the Health Commission of New South Wales, the Commonwealth is currently funding a pilot project designed to provide health education and first-aid knowledge for persons living in isolated communities with a view to increasing their selfreliance and generally promoting better health. [More…]

• The Commonwealth is also currently sponsoring a series of small search seminars on preventive health and health promotion in each State. [More…]

• A Study Group in Health Education, to identify health educations needs in Australia, with particular emphasis on school health education, is one of a number of groups established by the Curriculum Development Centre. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has also established a Standing Sub-Committee on Health Education. [More…]

• The current eligibility criteria of the Community Health Program are sufficiently wide to encompass many of the proposals contained in the Hospitals and Health Services Commission’s Report ‘Health Transport Policies for Australia’ (tabled on 19 October 1976), but implementation depends on State priorities and available funds. [More…]

• Under the Community Health Program, the Commonwealth is providing financial support for a number of community-based health facilities which, as an integral part of their services, provide some transport for patients. [More…]

• One of the basic objectives of the Family Medicine Program, a major national project funded under the Community Health Program, is the encouragement of improved general practitioner services in rural areas. [More…]

• Other Commonwealth-funded initiatives aimed at alleviating health problems of isolated communities included the provision of a network of community nursing posts covering many isolated low-population communities, the establishment of small community health centres in country towns, and the provision of mobile community health and specialist services visiting isolated areas. [More…]

• On 5 December 1977, 1 announced the Government’s intention to assist people living in isolated areas and who have to travel considerable distances for specialist health care. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health seen the statement by the Medical Benefits Fund of Australian Ltd that it will not pay benefits to persons attending clinics in the Cook Islands? [More…]

• Without wishing in any way to encourage persons to go to the Cook Islands for treatment, I ask: Is it not a fact that the Health Insurance Act provides that benefits are payable for Australian residents attending qualified medical practitioners who are recognised in the country where the treatment is received? [More…]

• Does the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs still stand by his public statements that in allowing Vietnamese refugees to come into Australia, Australia’s health and quarantine standards will be maintained? [More…]

• If the Minister is aware of these facts, can he inform the House whether Australian health standards have been maintained by proper processing of these Vietnamese? [More…]

• Yes, I do uphold my statement that Australia ‘s quarantine and health laws are being maintained. [More…]

• There is a growing body of evidence that shows that deteriorating mental health is closely related to unemployment. [More…]

• A study carried out in 1975-76 by the Victorian Mental Health Authority in Ballarat and Dandenong showed extreme results. [More…]

• The creation of jobs in the public sector in response to urgent social needs in fields such as health, adult education, environment protection and social services. [More…]

• The Government’s objectives in regard to its policy to reduce the incidence of industrial accidents and health problems in Australian industry and the principal measures by which it intends to implement them are as follows: [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is the Minister aware that the State Minister for Health has claimed that further funding for the hospital is in no way jeopardised by this decision since the Commonwealth is prepared to match funding for the Launceston General Hospital irrespective of what price escalation may occur as a result of this delay and subsequent delays on the part of the State Government? [More…]

• What is the Commonwealth’s attitude to the statement made by the State Minister for Health? [More…]

• My reaction to the statement by the State Minister for Health is one of astonishment because under the arrangement that I had with the former State Minister for Health an amount of $ 10.92m was to be allocated for stage one of the Launceston General Hospital. [More…]

• What this has served to do, of course, under the hospitals development program- a program that we have to assist the States with hospital development- is to deny other States $ 1.71m because Tasmania has not lived up to its obligation under an agreement between its Minister for Health and me. [More…]

• If one looks at what has happened over that period of 10 years, there was an extraordinary increase from 1 7 per cent to over 27 per cent in social welfare expenditure, health expenditure almost doubled, and education expenditure trebled. [More…]

• That this House, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliamentary Papers Act 1908, authorises the publication of papers relating to Mr Milan Brych tabled by the Minister for Health this day. [More…]

• The Queensland Minister for Health has tabled the papers in the Queensland Parliament. [More…]

• I agree with the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in his estimate of Mr Brych. [More…]

• What I am putting to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is that I do not believe he has had enough time to consider carefully the points raised by the honourable member for Werriwa. [More…]

• It seems to me rather incongruous that when this matter was raised by the Minister responsible in the Queensland Parliament, Dr Edwards, the Government of that State and the Minister’s own colleagues did not see fit to carry out the process that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is now suggesting. [More…]

• It seems terribly dangerous that where a sovereign government cannot itself resolve what the correct process ought to be in respect of the reports and information, we, in another parliament, should automatically pick up the matter in dispute from that sovereign government and endorse it, without having seen any of the documents- in this case, contained in the papers that the Minister for Health seeks to authorise to be publishedand without having been told by the Minister anything about the purpose for which he seeks the dissemination of the material. [More…]

• Therefore, ought not those documents if they emanated from departments of the Government of New Zealand and New Zealand health authorities have privilege or status in themselves? [More…]

• It seems to me that we are overdoing the exercise in having to give privilege of this Parliament to documents from the New Zealand Government and New Zealand health authorities. [More…]

• Indeed, the Commonwealth Government is involved because of its responsibilities for immigration and entry laws, for Commonwealth benefits that are paid for medical services and for general public health. [More…]

• I feel that this Parliament has a responsibility to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that the public is warned, that it has the facts, and that health writers, medical writers, journalists and the media have full and proper uninhibited access to what information is available to me and to what information is available to the Queensland Parliament. [More…]

• Will he consult with officers of his Department and the Departments of Health, Northern Territory, Transport, Post and Telecommunications and others with a view to prompt revision of the priorities for a coastguard service, including u fleet of Nomad aircraft, more Tracker aircraft and a network of unmanned radar beacons, as a Defence function. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Has the Government given consideration to establishing a firm basis for determining the minimum patient contribution for nursing home patients when future increases in pensions are granted? [More…]

• The Bureau of Animal Health has organised a succession of visits overseas by senior officers and veterinarians to try to remove the present bans. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health and follows his answer earlier in Question Time to the question of the honourable member for Wide Bay. [More…]

• But speaking in a less broad context about economic policy, the 1977-78 Budget specifically introduced tax cuts and upheld the health, education, defence and social security budgets in very difficult times. [More…]

• Professor Morris, professor of community health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was speaking on the ABC’s Science Show, broadcast on Saturday. [More…]

• The small town of Strathalbyn in the Adelaide hills is to be the centre of one of the biggest and most important health studies ever undertaken in Australia. [More…]

• The object of the project- regarded as a pilot study which may untimately influence the health of Australians- is to encourage people in Strathalbyn to restore fibre to their diet. [More…]

• There is growing concern that lack of fibre in the dietbran, wholemeal bread, leafy vegetables and fruit- has become one of the major health hazards of western civilisation’, project co-ordinator Dr R. L. Willing said yesterday. [More…]

• The point is that the Apple and Pear Corporation together with the Canned Fruits Board has recognised the significance of dietary health and fresh and canned fruit and vegetables. [More…]

• The object of this Bill is to establish mechanisms for protecting the health and safety of the people of Australia, and the environment, from possible harmful effects of nuclear activities in Australia. [More…]

• I should emphasise that this legislation is concerned with the health and safety of people, and the environment, as distinct from safeguards, the purpose of which is to ensure that nuclear material in peaceful use is not diverted to nonpeaceful purposes or to nuclear weapons. [More…]

• Should an unforeseen situation arise as a result of a nuclear activity, which is not regulated or controlled by a Commonwealth, State or Territory law, and which is likely to affect health, safety or the environment, the GovernorGeneral will have power, under clause 13 of the Bill, to authorise the appropriate Federal Minister to act to control hazards associated with the situation. [More…]

• However, it is our judgment, after considering all relevant factors, that a contingency provision of this nature is a proper and responsible discharge of our duty to provide for the health and safety of people in Australia, and the environment. [More…]

• Orders made under the provisions of this clause have effect only in relation to situations likely to affect health and safety, or the environment, that arise from nuclear activities, as denned in the Bill. [More…]

• Initial drafting by the appropriate Commonwealth department, for example, Department of Health for health codes, Department of Transport for transport codes, Department of Environment, Housing and Community Development for general environment protection codes; consultation on the proposed draft code with relevant State and Territory Ministers; the release, where appropriate, of the draft code for public comment, particularly by industry and trade unions; consideration of the draft code by relevant advisory councils such as the Australian Ionising Radiation Advisory Council; final consideration within the Government and submission to the Governor-General; the provision of an order in writing by the Governor-General approving the code; tabling of the order approving the code of practice in both Houses of Parliament. [More…]

• In this context I am sure honourable members will be pleased to know that one important code of practice on radiation protection in the mining and milling of radioactive ores has already been prepared by the Commonwealth Department of Health in consultation with other Commonwealth and State authorities, industry and trade unions. [More…]

• This legislation demonstrates very clearly our determination to see that uranium development in Australia is regulated and controlled to ensure the protection of the environment and the health and safety of Australians. [More…]

• Australian uranium industry; a nuclear scientist; a medical practitioner or health physicist; an environmentalist with experience in natural resource development; an economist with experience in natural resource development; and an expert in national and international affairs or law. [More…]

• If one goes through the list one sees mentioned the Australian religious community, the Aboriginal community, a national voluntary environmental organisation, the Northern Territory community, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, a person with experience in energy matters, the Australian uranium industry, a nuclear scientist, a medical practitioner or health physicist, an environmentalist with experience in natural resource development, an economist with experience in natural resource development, an expert in national and international affairs or law. [More…]

• July 1977- The Western Australian State Departments for Community Welfare and Mental Health Services; [More…]

• It is anticipated that, with the increasing assistance of Aboriginal health workers who are in close communication with their own people, and are now receiving training in primary audiometric screening under the program, some of these cultural and psychological problems will be overcome. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1978. [More…]

• The Government’s intention to impose higher health care costs on the sick. [More…]

• -The Opposition has raised this matter of public importance because it believes that the Australian community as a whole has been lulled into a false sense of security by the discussion paper on paying for health care which was presented in this House on, I think, 15 March. [More…]

• According to information we have received in fact another paper has been prepared and presented to the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser), who is, of course, very keen to impose quite significant changes on the present method of health care finance, and secret decisions have already been made by the Prime Minister, by Mr John Stone from Treasury and by Dr Sax, formerly of the Department of Health. [More…]

• I hope that with the help of members of that committee, and with the help of such organisations as the Australian Medical Association and the health funds, there will still be time to persuade the Prime Minister, even if he wants to go ahead with the things he wants to do, that he ought to v/ait and see just what kind of information is available to support the changes he intends to introduce. [More…]

• Health (Mr Hunt) knows that insufficient statistical information is available to indicate just what will happen. [More…]

• I shall outline the proposals for the benefit of those honourable members who have not followed the discussion on health care costs to the same extent as others. [More…]

• I think this is a completely wrong approach to the whole subject of health care and health care financing. [More…]

• There is no ‘crisis ‘ in health care spending in the sense that the situation is out of control. [More…]

• There is not yet sufficient detailed information about how Medibank Mark II is working to justify a further major overhaul of health insurance arrangements at the present time. [More…]

• That is the point I made when discussing the original paper presented on health care financing. [More…]

• In particular, no change should be made in health insurance arrangements which would discourage access to general practitioners, who provide the least costly, most widely used health services to the community. [More…]

• ‘Front end deductibles’ and other limitations on the payment of benefits would largely destroy the purpose of health insurance and should be resisted. [More…]

• The statement finishes with a threat which hopefully will have an effect on the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) in his attempt to ride roughshod over the advice he is receiving from the Department of Health. [More…]

• But co-operation will become increasingly difficult if the present basic type of health insurance scheme, which has received the support of the AMA since before 1953, should suddenly be virtually dismantled. [More…]

• Let us look briefly at the important issue of health care costs. [More…]

• Basically, health care costs are shared in three ways by the community. [More…]

• The Government is attempting to move the cost of health care across to private sources. [More…]

• I ask for leave to incorporate in Hansard a table which I have prepared dealing with the proportion of health care costs paid by Commonwealth, State and local government and private sources in the pre-Medibank years, during the one year- 1975- 76- that Medibank was in operation and the first year of post-Medibank, that is, 1 976-77. [More…]

• I also seek leave to incorporate in Hansard a table which shows payments for health care from private sources in the current year and the previous two years. [More…]

• Payments for Health Care from private sources- $m [More…]

• It is important to remind the Government that the original health care which the patient seeks from the general practitioner is by far the cheapest aspect of the whole process. [More…]

• I put it to the Minister for Health, who is at the table and who I think is aware of the difficulties associated with proposing any worthwhile changes to the present system, that because of a lack of statistical information we do not know what would happen, what effect certain changes would have, who would be affected, what the effect would be on different groups in the community and by how much the cost would be reduced if in fact we asked people to pay the first $50 or the first $100.I draw the Minister’s attention to paragraphs 142, 148, 149 and 150 of the paper presented by his Department. [More…]

• I appeal to those outside the Parliament, and that includes especially the Australian Medical Association and to some extent even the funds, to exert pressure on the Government to prevent the Prime Minister from introducing changes which will adversely affect the health care of the nation. [More…]

• The Government has not yet made any decision on the options that are available to it to continue the downward trend in the rise in health costs that has occurred in Australia during the last six years. [More…]

• Of course, health costs have exploded by 225 per cent in that time. [More…]

• So let no one say there was not a sweetheart agreement or some arrangement to try to get the new Australian Labor Party policy on health insurance into operation. [More…]

• The modifications have brought about a slowing in the rate of acceleration of health costs in Australia. [More…]

• As I said a moment ago health costs increased by 36.6 per cent in the year before Medibank was introduced. [More…]

• It cites those figures to show that there has been a moderation in the rate of acceleration of health costs in Australia. [More…]

• That committee was made up of representatives of the Royal College of Pathologists, the Royal Society of Private Practising Pathologists and the Australian Medical Association as well as representatives from State health administrations. [More…]

• One of the great pushes to health costs in this country of course originates in the hospitals where 55 per cent of our health costs exist. [More…]

• The Government has entered into new cost sharing arrangements with the States in respect to health costs incurred in hospitals. [More…]

• However, we have seen the great surge in the health costs reflected as a percentage of the gross national product. [More…]

• For instance, in 1 973-74, 5.92 per cent of the gross national product was spent on health costs. [More…]

• It is true that the Government had to do something about the rising health costs because if it had not the opportunity for expenditures to be made in other vital and important areas would have been crowded out. [More…]

• We are trying to make sure that the dollar that is spent on health care is wisely spent. [More…]

• The money that is being spent on health in Australia is not necessarily improving the morbidity or the mortality rate in this country. [More…]

• There is no area with a greater appetite for expenditure than the health area, and this throws enormous responsibility on governments, State and Federal, and on the medical profession and the providers of health care to make sure that the decisions they make, whether outside or inside the hospital, are made against the background of some cost consciousness. [More…]

• It is a responsibility that I as the Minister for Health in the Fraser Government accept with some degree of satisfaction because I know that if we come to grips with it there will be further resources for more important areas of expenditure in the community. [More…]

• Certainly some changes to the present arrangements need to be considered, in view of the changes that were made to include nursing home cover in the health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• The Government has made it a condition of registration that funds provide to the Minister or to the Department of Health the statistical information that we require from them to enable policy decisions to be made and proper reviews and evaluations of the health insurance system to take place. [More…]

• I was not the shadow Minister for Health then but I guess that what the honourable member for Prospect has said is correct. [More…]

• The changes that we made were necessary for the new modified system which we introduced under which health insurance funds have a much greater percentage of the business. [More…]

• I have been very understanding of the problems that the funds had and, indeed, that my Department had in the changeover on 1 October 1976 and I have not really dropped the sledgehammer on anybody’s head over the provision of statistics, but I have made it clear to the health insurance funds that I want statistics provided now. [More…]

• They have had sufficient time to get their machines operating and to provide the Government with the new data that is necessary to enable it to do a proper evaluation and review of the health insurance system. [More…]

• One of the reasons we made public this discussion paper on the paying for health care produced by the Hospital and Health Services Commission was to enable discussion and debate to take place both inside and outside this Parliament. [More…]

• I do not know what is the Australian Labor Party’s policy on health. [More…]

• One would have expected the honourable member to put forward at least a broader view of the Labor Party’s policy on health insurance but perhaps he did not feel disposed to do it at this time. [More…]

• We are undertaking a complete review of the health insurance system using the statistical data as it becomes available. [More…]

• There is one guarantee that I can give the House and the nation and that is that the Government will not sit idly by and watch the mounting health bill in Australia consume our social welfare dollar to the extent that it has done over the last six years. [More…]

• -There were one or two things that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) had to say that demand a reply. [More…]

• He and other honourable members know that expenditure on health in Australia runs at a level comparable with such expenditure in other countries within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. [More…]

• They certainly did receive exorbitant rises and their salaries moved to a level which in many respects is fundamental to the current health crisis in Australia. [More…]

• I think it is worth going back to that paper on health care that we were debating just two weeks ago. [More…]

• The very important and basic point that that paper made is that if we seriously want to look- I do not think the Minister for Health really wants to look- for the primary cause of the uncontrolled escalation of health costs in Australia we should not look to the sick, the ill and the ordinary men and women of this country but to the medical profession itself. [More…]

• They largely determine demand on health resources in terms of the lack of constraints that operate upon them. [More…]

• It seems clear to me that whatever else this report on health care costs said, it was clearly and strongly that the basic causes of escalation of health costs were not related to the attitudes of ordinary people. [More…]

• Perhaps only 20 per cent of total health costs are related to visits to general practitioners. [More…]

• We ought not to say too much about rising health costs as though sometimes costs are not justified. [More…]

• I think of the services that are provided in my electorate by community health centres. [More…]

• Sometimes when we talk about escalation of health costs we forget that there were things wrong with health care in Australia, things which the Labor Government moved to do something about. [More…]

• This Government is involved in an awful muddle in the area of health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health intimated that at least some of the suggestions that were made in it might be taken seriously. [More…]

• Why is it that in the health field we do not have the degree of cost benefit analysis that is built into other areas of government expenditure? [More…]

• Basically at the root of our problem in Australia in relation to health costs is the fact that health care operates as a business in which people are involved in order to make money, to build wealth and power. [More…]

• It will not recognise the fact that if we are seriously to do something about health costs in Australia we have to do something about taking out the profits, about making it possible for health services to be delivered without people getting a rip-off, without people earning $70,000, $ 100,000 or $ 125,000 a year. [More…]

• I think the honourable member for Maribyrnong (Dr Cass) pointed out in a previous debate that it is not only the payment that goes to the individual doctor that is of concern but the whole generation of additional costs which are built into a system where the doctor is the front room entrepreneur for a health system which is designed to increase costs along with capacity. [More…]

• We have too many hospital beds in Australia, although not so much in the public health system. [More…]

• In answer to an interjection of mine he said that he received his information from the Government members Health and Welfare Committee. [More…]

• I suggest to the honourable gentleman that the Health and Welfare Committee does not know what the Government is going to do. [More…]

• Indeed, the very wording of the subject matter of this discussion, namely, ‘the Government’s intention to impose higher health care costs on the sick, ‘ is based on speculation. [More…]

• Instead of telling the Government that it should increase health costs, which escalated under the Labor Government, he should endeavour to persuade his own profession to contain its costs and the increases that it desires. [More…]

• I suggest to the honourable member for Prospect that the Labor Opposition is on a merrygoround in the debate on health. [More…]

• It was entitled ‘The failure of the Government to deal with rising health costs’. [More…]

• On the one hand he talks about his and his party’s concern about rising health costs and on the other he complains about the Government’s intention to impose higher health care costs on the sick. [More…]

• I suggest that the honourable gentleman and his party should find out exactly where they stand on health costs and health care. [More…]

• I think the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) raised that very point with him, that is, that the Opposition’s policy is very much in tatters. [More…]

• In this House only yesterday the Minister for Health answered a question in relation to how much of the pension was left for pensioners in nursing homes. [More…]

• It all has to do with health. [More…]

• I sugget that the user has to pay something in relation to health costs. [More…]

• We also support the present health scheme. [More…]

• In excess of $7 billion is spent annually on the health costs of this nation. [More…]

• The following month Mr Smart resigned from all positions in the co-operative because of ill health. [More…]

• The health of that industry depends on co-operation from them all. [More…]

• -Can the Minister for Health inform the House of the number of private medical services covered by benefits, the cost of those services in the last three financial years, and emphasise the trends in usage and cost? [More…]

• I am sure that the honourable member for Petrie will be pleased to know that the usage of medical services and the rate of increase in health costs have fallen considerably since the modifications to the health scheme were introduced on 1 October 1976. [More…]

• Obviously the great explosion in health costs was causing a great deal of concern to the Australian community and was crowding out the opportunities for expenditures in other essential areas. [More…]

• Since the modifications were made we have seen the proportion of gross national product devoted to health care fall considerably. [More…]

• Just to give examples, in 1974-75 the total expenditure on health care was $4, 109m. [More…]

• Australia today is back on the road to economic health. [More…]

• Latest unemployment and national accounts figures speak more eloquently and a good deal more persuasively as to the real state of this country’s economic health. [More…]

• Every income earner also will experience the impact of the savage increase in health care costs- probably up to $4 to $5 a week for a large proportion of people- that will occur in the August Budget. [More…]

• In addition to housing, the Commission undertook massive expenditures in the areas of education and health. [More…]

• Some $54m was expended on the provision of health facilities including the reconstruction of the Darwin Hospital, community health centres, dental clinics and the construction of the new Casuarina hospital complex. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health noticed the advice given by the Hospitals Contributions Fund of Australia to its contributors in nursing homes that they should suspend their membership of that fund temporarily and gain free cover from Medibank? [More…]

• Will he insist that the private funds cover their members in times of sickness as well as in times of health? [More…]

• That is a quite extraordinary position for a health fund to adopt. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• In considering the result of the inquiry into national health costs will the Minister take into account the relevance of preventive health in the containment of the national health bill? [More…]

• Does the Minister agree that such preventive measures as immunisation, fluoridation, the role of the community health program, the work of the Anti-Cancer Council and the National Heart Foundation and programs like the ‘Life be in it’ campaign make a considerable impact on the containment of health costs? [More…]

• Does the Minister agree that there should be a substantial lift in the funds available for preventive medicine programs to arrest the escalation of health costs in Australia? [More…]

• The honourable member has highlighted one of the real problems that we face in trying to come to grips with the great health cost problem. [More…]

• Unfortunately, the escalating bill for the treatment of illness has reached such a proportion that insufficient resources have been available for important preventive health education programs. [More…]

• The community health program, of course, has a tremendous potential for going to the grass roots of the community in respect of health education plans. [More…]

• Obviously lifestyle and the environment in which people live have a tremendous influence on the state of health of people in the community. [More…]

• It is true to say, as the honourable member has suggested, that the public health measures that have been taken in the last 40 years including sanitation programs, fluoridation of water and immunisation have done more to improve health standards than any other single factor since mankind has been on earth. [More…]

• Health educators and the medical profession should be doing as much as they can to improve lifestyles and to encourage good practice and preventative medicine. [More…]

• This in itself in the longer term should help to reduce the mounting costs of maintaining health standards and treating disease in this country. [More…]

• One of them, Mr Justice Menhennitt, says that he considers abortion lawful when there is an honest belief on the part of the physician; reasonable grounds for that belief; necessity for the operation arising out of serious danger to the mother’s life, or to her physical or mental health; a threat beyond the normal dangers of pregnancy and childbirth, and reasonably judged proportion between what is done and the danger sought to be averted. [More…]

• Everyone who can read knows and understands that the health of the Aboriginal people is of a lower order than that of the rest of the community. [More…]

• The Labor Government launched health programs throughout the country to try to overcome this problem. [More…]

• Health services were one of the first casualties of the return of the Liberal-National Country Party coalition Government. [More…]

• That major priority was set in the knowledge that a renewed emphasis on export development was essential to the Government’s program of restoring full economic health to the country since export growth is one of the keys to greater prosperity and the creation of more jobs. [More…]

• This statement talks about restoring full economic health. [More…]

• It should not act on an ad hoc basis and talk in general terms about restoring full economic health and creating more competitive industries. [More…]

• There are problems with the provision of customs and health services in our terminals. [More…]

• I believe that the reshaping of transport systems is fundamental to the health of Australian cities and of the people who will live in those cities in the future. [More…]

• 7m for the Australian National University for cost supplementation, $5.7m for the Community Health Program, $2.1m for the Community Youth Support Program, $3.7m for the Australian Broadcasting Commission and $8.6m for the Australian National Railways. [More…]

• We did much to decentralise health and welfare services. [More…]

• In fact, we adopted that sort of approach in respect of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Act and other Acts. [More…]

• For instance, it was the same Mareeba Shire Council that had bulldozed down sub-standard houses which it said were a health menace, and so deprived Aboriginal people of homes. [More…]

• It can deal with matters relating to housing, health, sewerage, water supply, electricity supply, communications, educational training, relief work for unemployed persons, roads and associated works, garbage collection and disposal, and welfare and community amenities. [More…]

• Limited medical rehabilitation facilities are available, at this time, at the Darwin and Alice Springs Hospitals and through Community Health Centres in Darwin. [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Health: Is the Government concerned about allegations of people fraudulently obtaining social security and unemployment benefits? [More…]

• The Government is very concerned about the increased evidence that has become available to it of abuse of social service benefits and allegations of abuses in the areas of social security benefits, health benefits and education allowances. [More…]

• A number of actions have also been taken in the health insurance area to uncover cases of fraud and to deal with them. [More…]

• One thing that is certain is that the Government is not prepared to stand by and allow fraud and abuse to take place in the areas of social service benefits, health insurance arrangements and education allowances at the expense of the rest of the community. [More…]

• Is it true that the Minister for Health is now looking at what he euphemistically calls long term hospital benefits for elderly patients? [More…]

• All of the State Ministers for Health, all of their officials and my officials, as well as myself, have been looking at the prospect of ensuring that there is proper use of resources within the public hospital system. [More…]

• -I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The honourable member will recall that when the Australian Labor Party Government was in office the Department of Health was instructed to draw up a code for the mining and milling of uranium ores and the Government regards that code as being probably the most advanced code of its type in the world. [More…]

• More specifically, as Minister for Social Security, he initiated massive increases in health and welfare expenditure which the nation could illafford. [More…]

• In 1972-73, expenditure on health and welfare was $2.88 billion. [More…]

• Of more significance, expenditure on health and welfare, as a share of total government expenditure, expanded from 28.3 per cent in 1972-73 to 36.7 per cent by 1975-76. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition also engineered the Medibank rip-off which created an environment for the massive explosion in health costs. [More…]

• About 250,000 jobs directly and indirectly are dependent upon the health of the motor vehicle industry. [More…]

• In the taxation field we have introduced a number of measures to help restore small business to economic health. [More…]

• Have similar programs been planned for commencement in 1978 by the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences, Victoria, which proposed degree courses in nursing administration and nursing education. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice on 8 March 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1978: [More…]

• The eleven canteen staff transferred on 1 July 1977 fromDepartment of Health to Commonwealth Hostels which is now responsible for the operation of canteens that provide tea services to most Department of Health Offices. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1977: [More…]

• To ensure a cohesive national approach to this matter the States use as a basis for regulatory action, recommendations prepared by expert bodies of the Australian Agricultural Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 April 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 April 1978: [More…]

• wn asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 April 1978: [More…]

• Are health insurance benefits provided for the purchase of hearing aids and other aids to hearing; if not, why not. [More…]

• Has he given any consideration to the provision of health insurance benefits for those purposes; if so, what action does he intend to take. [More…]

• Notwithstanding the above, private health insurance organisations may, if they so desire, provide benefits for items such as hearing aids under supplementary benefits tables. [More…]

• The Government has maintained the policy in relation to supplementary benefits of largely allowing private health insurance organisations to determine for themselves the nature and extent of supplementary benefits they may wish to offer, and the terms and conditions applicable to the payment of those benefits. [More…]

• Some health insurance organisations do in fact offer supplementary benefits for hearing aids. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• The Government ‘s exploitation of family health insurance having the effect of imposing taxation by stealth. [More…]

• At this stage it is considered probable that importations of animals from such countries as South America, the African continent, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and, possibly, Mexico will be delayed until testing facilities are available at the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice.on 9 March 1978: [More…]

• The subsidies payable in pursuance of section 82aa ofthe National Health Act 1953 in respect of persons who take out hospital-only ‘ insurance are as follows: [More…]

• (3), (4) and (5) Non-dependent parents of working age may be approved for migrant entry to Australia if they are assessed as economically viable, of good health and character and meet selection standards. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 15 March 1978: [More…]

• Health Commission or any other authority in their attempts to import a satisfactory substitute. [More…]

• Health Commission of the importation of a substitute product. [More…]

• asked the Minister of Health, upon notice, on 7 April 1 978. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 April 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice on 10 April 1978: [More…]

• I have written to the State Health Ministers seeking their co-operation in respect of the setting up, as appropriate, of the clinics. [More…]

• Will he negotiate with the Minister for Health to have admitted a minimum quota of Aboriginals to training as school dental therapists at no cost to the States and to meet all costs of school dental therapy to schools where most children are Aboriginals. [More…]

• I will, however, raise with my colleague, the Minister for Health, the possibility of having a minimum quota of Aboriginals admitted to training as school dental therapists at no cost to the State. [More…]

• As the Minister for Health, Mr Hunt, responded to your question, No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• Did the master make a statement to this effect in Melbourne before an officer of the Health Department quarantine service. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) It is normal procedure for letters of clearance to be given to ships’ masters in respect of quarantine inspections by State Directors ofthe Department of Health. [More…]

• Has he ascertained the reason for the issue of a letter of clearance to a ship’s master by the New South Wales Director of Health, Dr Bull. [More…]

• On 15 June 1977 Dr Bull, Director of Health, New South Wales, accompanied Mr R. Perriman, Mr G. Temme and Mr G. Cameron (the members and the secretary of an inquiry established by the Public Service Board to look into matters relating to Mr Toomer) on an examination of the officers’ and crew galleys, food stores, two crew cabins and an officer’s cabin. [More…]

• I am advised that Masters of vessels do occasionally request Bills of Health or Certificates of Cleanliness for various reasons. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 March 1 978: [More…]

• These schemes are the States Grants (Paramedical Services) Act and the Community Health Program. [More…]

• Under the Community Health Program, a wide variety of projects is funded in each State and many of those projects provide physiotherapy services. [More…]

• Commonwealth assistance under the Community Health Program takes the form of an annual block grant to each State for the State’s total program of projects which have been jointly approved by the State and the Commonwealth for funding in the year concerned. [More…]

• The availability of Commonwealth funds for new projects under the States Grants (Paramedical Services) Act and the Community Health Program is a matter for consideration by the Government in the Budget context. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1 978: [More…]

• Did Dr R. R. Bull, Director of Health, N.S.W., sign and issue to Captain Alvares, master of the M.V. [More…]

• However, for various reasons Masters of vessels occasionally ask for Bills of Health or Certificates of Cleanliness relating to their ships. [More…]

• The vessel had previously visited Brisbane on 7 June 1973 when it was recorded that health and sanitary states were satisfactory. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 April 1978. [More…]

• From which countries will animals be permitted to be imported before the Geelong Animal Health Laboratory will be available for back-up testing. [More…]

• Animal Health Laboratory is established the offshore animal quarantine station will be available for the importation of animals from the United Kingdom and Ireland, Western Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan. [More…]

• The availability of the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory will further extend this range of countries. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 April 1978: [More…]

• Homes Assistance Act and National Health Act are situated in the Electoral Division of Kingston. [More…]

• At the time the Premier was interviewed and asked to give reasons for his action in putting pressure on the Federal Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists to withdraw the team which had been recommended to Professor Hollows who was in charge of the eye care project in Queensland. [More…]

• These Aboriginal contact peopleenergetic, capable and linguistically qualified people- were recommended to him by the Federal Department of Health and by the Federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs as competent people. [More…]

• That Committee has a very important brief at the moment in relation to Aboriginal health. [More…]

• The problems confronting Aboriginals in relation to their health are real and urgent. [More…]

• lm in fact represents 39.87 per cent of 1976-77 net personal income tax collections; that is excluding revenue from the health insurance Medibank ‘-levy. [More…]

• Basically, what this Bill provides is codes of practice to govern nuclear activities in Australia with regard to the health and safety of people, and the environment. [More…]

• If one looks at the Fox report, the people we could have on the Committee would be representatives of the various branches of the Department of the Northern Territory- mines, water resources, animal industry and agriculture, forestry and fisheries, commercial and industrial affairs, forward planning and major projects coordination, and transport planning- sections of the Northern Territory Public Service with relevant responsibilities and the Commonwealth Departments of Health and Construction. [More…]

• I am thinking of the social welfare area, the health areas and goodness knows what other areas. [More…]

• Not the least of these is the problem that we talk about in regard to the safe working and health aspects of the open cut mining and milling of the material. [More…]

• If it is necessary to have an industrial inspector, a health inspector or any other kind of authority to monitor and restrain the activities of a corporate body, surely the least we can do is to give that authority the freedom that is extended to industrial inspectors and other authorities who have a responsibility, by virtue of their public position, not to disclose information irresponsibly. [More…]

• The code will be mandatory and implemented progressively by legislation together with the States and territories, commencing with the Code of Practice on radiation protection in the mining and milling of radioactive ores which has already been prepared and published by the Department of Health. [More…]

• Some considerations must be borne in mind: For example, the development of the uranium industry in the Northern Territory and the need for the Government to be concerned about the health and welfare of the workers in the field. [More…]

• It has also been pointed out to me that when it comes to the implementation of programs to fund community health centres, Aboriginal welfare programs and the like, the Labor Government had full consultation with the States. [More…]

• The object of this Act is to make provision, within the limits of the powers of the Parliament, for protecting the health and safety of the people of Australia, and the environment, from possible harmful effects associated with nuclear activities in Australia . [More…]

• The important point to remember is how to protect the health and safety of the people of Australia. [More…]

• On 7 March of this year I put a question on notice to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in these terms: [More…]

• The Minister for Health provided an answer but I will not go into the details of it. [More…]

• The code will be mandatory and implemented progressively by legislation together with the States and territories, commencing with the Code of Practice on radiation protection in the mining and milling of radioactive ores which has already been prepared and published by the Depanment of Health. [More…]

• the health or safety of persons, or the environment, is likely to be harmed by a situation resulting from a nuclear activity that exists in a State or Territory; and [More…]

• the laws of the Commonwealth (other than this section) and of that State or Territory do not make provision for protecting the health or safety of persons likely to be affected by that situation, or for protecting the environment in so far as it is likely to be affected by that situation, he may, by order, authorise a Minister, during the period that the order remains in force, to give such directions and take such action as, subject to sub-section (2), the Minister considers necessary to control and eliminate hazards associated with the situation. [More…]

• 1 ) Where a situation exists where the health or safety of persons, or the environment is likely to be harmed by a nuclear activity that exists in a State or Territory and the laws of the Commonwealth (other than this section) and of the State or Territory do not make provision for protecting the health or safety of persons likely to be affected by that situation or for protecting the environment in so far as it is likely to be affected by that situation, the GovernorGeneral may, by order, authorize a Minister, during the period that the order remains in force, to give such directions and take such action as, subject to sub-section (2), are strictly necessary to control and eliminate hazards associated with the situation. [More…]

• At the start it talks about the health or safety of persons being likely to be harmed by a situation resulting from a nuclear activity, but the situation is not defined. [More…]

• The Opposition makes it very clear in its amendment by using the words ‘where a situation exists where the health or safety of persons … is likely to be harmed’. [More…]

• The proper approach is to talk about the health and safety of people, but as the clause is worded the health and safety of people are only a segment of what the GovernorGeneral is going to be satisfied about or what the Minister is going to make an order about. [More…]

• The court would look at the real issues- which is what the clause set out to say- the health and safety of persons, or the environment. [More…]

• Of course, the test is the health and safety of persons. [More…]

• The Opposition proposes the words ‘where the health or safety of persons … is likely to be harmed’. [More…]

• By all means make that the subject of the order, but not the question of whether the Governor-General is satisfied that the health or safety of persons is likely to be harmed by a situation resulting from- they are the offensive words- a nuclear activity or whether the Minister is going to make an order. [More…]

• There is no suggestion that we do not want to prevent hazards to the health and safety of persons or the environment. [More…]

• If the test is whether the Governor-General was satisfied that the health or safety of persons was likely to be harmed by a situation resulting from- those words cannot be defined- a nuclear activity, we then have to consider whether the order or the regulations were made on a valid basis. [More…]

• -An interpretive role on the basis of whether the health or safety of persons, or the environment are likely to be affected. [More…]

• If the Government had defined those words very clearly, as the Opposition has done, setting out in detail the penalties and setting out what the court should look at, the objective test would be whether the health or safety of persons, or the environment, are likely to be harmed. [More…]

• -It is not the role of any government to do away with judicial interpretation and the opportunity to a citizen to go into the court and say- no honourable members opposite can object to this- ‘I am appearing in this court on the basis that there is no objection from the point of view of health and safety of persons or the environment. [More…]

• This note states that an advising from the Attorney-General’s Department is to the effect that payments by Medibank Private to Medibank Standard in relation to assets purchased prior to 1 July 1976 would be contrary to the terms of the Health Insurance Commission Act 1973. [More…]

• In the meantime, a contingency account is being established so that Medibank Private may meet its commitments when the Health Insurance Commission Act 1973 has been changed in this respect. [More…]

• This is the first report of the Commission since it began on 1 October 1976 to operate as a registered private health insurance organisation. [More…]

• -The report of the Health Insurance Commission for 1976-77 which has just been tabled shows a number of interesting points. [More…]

• I would be interested to know how the cost apportionment principles worked and I hope that at some stage the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) will be able to supply the House with some details. [More…]

• Sick and aged pensioners in hospitals are worrying about being turfed out because of the increased health service charges by this Government and because of the brawl between the Government and its supporters in the health insurance funds. [More…]

• What has been his response to representations made to him on 28 October 1977 by the NSW Local Government Community Workers’ Association in which concern and dismay was expressed about the drastic curtailment of funding for the following Government responsibilities: (a) welfare workers under the States Grants (Home Care) Act, (b) Family Law Court Counselling Service, (c) education programs, including after school care, child care and other family care programs, and migrant classes for adults, (d) health care services including community health centres, domiciliary care services and women’s health centres, (e) unemployment and unemployment relief schemes, (0 housing, in particular housing for the aged and invalid people, (g) pension and benefit reductions in real values and proposed transfers of responsibility for these, (h) 470 community programs funded under the Australian Assistance Plan, (i) programs for the handicapped, (j) the Legal Aid Commission Bill, (k) Aboriginal affairs, (1) grant in aid services for migrants and interpreter services, (m) Australian Government printing services, (n) national co-ordinating bodies for youth affairs, (o) women ‘s refuges subsidies reductions and (p) Australian Bureau of Statistics processing. [More…]

• 1 ) On 19 December 1977 I announced the establishment of the Social Welfare Policy Secretariat which will be responsible for the development of plans and policies and review of existing policies and programs in the broad field of health and welfare. [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Health whether he can advise the House when the Government will be able to introduce legislation giving effect to our election commitment to broaden the terms of the domiciliary nursing care benefit to include all eligible people over 1 6 years of age. [More…]

• -Did the Minister for Health see the Four Corners program on possible long term adverse health effects of pesticides shown last Saturday evening and Sunday? [More…]

• Was he satisfied with the views expressed by the spokesman for the Commonwealth Government, Dr E. J. Fitzsimons of the National Health and Medical Research Council? [More…]

• The preliminary advice that I have received is that the spokesman from the National Health and Medical Research Council who appeared on the program did not get prior advice of the type of questions to be asked. [More…]

• It will damage the health of the industry and the health of all those about whom the Opposition purports to be concerned. [More…]

• The proposal is for the construction of facilities to house the testing, research, administration and support activities of the National Acoustics Laboratory and the Ultrasonics Institute of the Department of Health. [More…]

• One other area which is worth mentioning is the area of health. [More…]

• Grants to the States for the expansion and development of community health centres have been cut by $9.7m or 12 per cent. [More…]

• Therefore the most stringent quarantine health checks are carried out. [More…]

• It is a long, hard fight to bring this country back to economic health. [More…]

• I want to devote my remarks mainly to the question of health costs, but before doing so I would like to make some more general remarks. [More…]

• All of the changes made to the health insurance scheme by the Fraser Government have really been moves to shift the cost of health care from the Government to individuals. [More…]

• Let us remember that health care can basically be paid for in three possible ways. [More…]

• This table shows that before Medibank was introduced by the Whitlam Government the Commonwealth paid 28.5 per cent of health care costs; State and local government paid 27 per cent; and private sources, including private insurance, paid 44.5 per cent. [More…]

• All of the attempts of the Fraser Government have been directed to increasing the proportion of health care costs paid by private sources. [More…]

• In fact, payments for health care from private sources are shown in table 2, which I ask leave to incorporate in Hansard. [More…]

• Payments for Health Care from private sources- [More…]

• Table 2 shows that the payments from private sources for health care increased from $1,2 18m in 1975-76- the only year when Medibank was in operation- to an estimated $2,200m in this financial year. [More…]

• Many examples of this are provided in the field of health care, but the most obvious occurs when there is a withdrawal of drugs from the pharmaceutical benefits list. [More…]

• The Government is now trying to soften people up in anticipation of certain possible changes to the health care insurance system by leaking those changes to the Press so that they will become more acceptable to individuals. [More…]

• We all know that there is at present- or there was until this morning- an argument taking place in Cabinet between the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser), with different Ministers taking up different positions. [More…]

• Possibilities canvassed during the last week in the newspapers include that the gap between what the doctor charges and what patients receive from either Medibank or private funds will rise from 1 5 to either 20 or 25 per cent; the hospital charges will increase by up to 50 per cent and that, to cover this, hospital insurance for private ward treatment will rise by about $2.80 a week per family; that many long-term elderly patients in public hospitals will be covered only for nursing home benefits, rather than for hospital benefits, which means that they will be contributing a substantial sum from their own pockets; that the subsidy of $ 16 a day per bed for private hospital patients will be abolished; that bulk billing will be abolished; and that health insurance funds will be able to offer cheaper medical benefits insurance for people prepared to pay up to the first $150 a year of doctors’ charges from their own pockets. [More…]

• It has been leaked that the Medibank levy will be increased to 2.7 or even 3 per cent of taxable income, and that the present ceiling will be abolished, forcing many people to take out private health insurance. [More…]

• Now we have heard of the final proposition, which seems to have been supported at question time today by the Minister for Health, that the Government is proposing a 1 per cent across the board health tax for everybody, whether belonging to Medibank or to private funds. [More…]

• Health costs are a pretty big slice of Budget spending. [More…]

• The Government looks at health care as a drain on the public purse and it looks at it in the short term context of the 1978-79 Budget. [More…]

• It is in that light that the Government will look at health costs. [More…]

• There will be no philosophical commitment to preventive medicine, no change to make the health system a more equitable, balanced and a sensible government program. [More…]

• What will happen is that the Government will utilise the ideology of free enterprise and massive public confusion over the whole system to attack, not the problem of rising health costs, but the problem of the burden on the Budget they represent. [More…]

• The Government, the newspapers and the media generally have been trying to blame Medibank for the great increase in health care costs. [More…]

• The Minister for Health no longer does so. [More…]

• The total cost of health care in Australia increased by 36.4 per cent in 1974-75 and by 26.8 per cent in 1975-76. [More…]

• No wonder most of the instant experts writing feature articles for the Press or pontificating on television and radio blamed Medibank, especially as their ‘in depth’ investigations were often based on handouts from the Voluntary Health Insurance Council. [More…]

• Therefore the huge increase in health care costs preceded Medibank. [More…]

• The year before Medibank came into operation in Australia health care costs increased by 36.4 per cent. [More…]

• What I am saying is that the increase in health care costs had nothing to do with the introduction of Medibank. [More…]

• Last week the Minister for Health tabled the report of the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Apart from the administrative savings in bulk billing- I know that the honourable member for Petrie (Mr Hodges), who is the Deputy Government Whip, is one of those who often attacks bulk billing- the Health Insurance Commission report showed that even though 55.6 per cent of all medical claims were bulk billed, they still amounted to only 34.9 per cent of the value of all claims and that the number of medical services for each bulk billed claim averaged 1.28 compared with 2.2 services for all other claims. [More…]

• All this suggested that not only does bulk billing not cause excessive costs but also that the system of bulk billing markedly depresses health costs. [More…]

• It is clearly time that the area of health, was looked at. [More…]

• Let me turn to another field- a field I know fairly well, in the area of health- and that is the matter of the accommodation of geriatric patients. [More…]

• In the time available to me I want to deal with some specific expenditure proposals by the Department of Health, the Department of Defence, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Department of Transport. [More…]

• I understand from my colleague the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), the shadow Minister for Health, that this money is used to assist the health insurance funds in cases of hospitalisation which fall under the heading of chronicity. [More…]

• I do not want to delay the House with all the detail of the subsequent representations- all to no avail- but I instance them as an example of the confusion and of how little store can be placed on undertakings given by representatives of, in this case, a health insurance organisation. [More…]

• I should like the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), when he has an opportunity, to look at this matter and to examine the action taken by the Hospitals Contribution Fund of New South Wales to see what can be done to require the Fund to fulfil the undertaking given by the Newcastle manageress to my constituent. [More…]

• However The Department of Health in their letter dated 10th Sept 1976 in part stated. [More…]

• I shall make the complete file available to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I ask that he give consideration to the course of action followed by the health insurance fund to ensure that justice is accorded to Mr Hanes and to his aged mother. [More…]

• Applicants judged to be acceptable for consideration under the single parent arrangement then have to meet migrant settlement criteria including health and character requirements. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 April 1978: [More…]

• Minister for Education Minister for Foreign Affairs Minister for Finance Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Minister for Health [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Health: Is it a fact that the Government has received very many representations from members of the community expressing great concern at the cost of abortions being covered by medical benefit funds? [More…]

• There is no way that I should like to see either the Health Insurance Commission or indeed the health insurance funds engage in a survey to ascertain which procedure was or was not carried out in accordance with the law. [More…]

• If we had something like $250m or more to spend on Aboriginals in terms of housing, education and health, those programs would be subjected to enormous pressure and would probably be lost. [More…]

• The Government provides these people with social, health and other services and it also looks to meet their housing needs. [More…]

• It is clearly related to the quality of services that the community wants to see provided by governments; in other words the standards of community health, education and welfare. [More…]

• The Government is reported to be considering introducing a further health insurance levy of 1 per cent to reduce the cost to the Government of the provision of hospital and medical services. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 April 1978: [More…]

• During the period between 1 July 1976 and the signing of the ministerial determinations after the bringing down of the 1976-77 Budget, expenditure of approximately $4 1 6,000 was incurred by CSL on research and other continuing public health activities. [More…]

• 1 ) Planning for the station is being undertaken by the Central Office of the Department of Health in association with the Department of Construction. [More…]

• The Department of Health is responsible for the operation, management and policy aspects of the station. [More…]

• The Department is seeking advice from and maintaining liaison with the Bureau of Animal Health and other organisations that have expertise in particular professional aspects of policy formulation and management. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 1 April 1978: [More…]

• All personnel working at Maralinga were subject to stringent health procedures. [More…]

• I refer to a recent debate in the Parliament on the subject of health care costs. [More…]

• I have been thinking about the suggestion made by Dr Sax in the report on health costs that prevention of illness and disability, accompanied by effective health education, has the greatest long-term potential for containing a general inflation of health expenditure. [More…]

• Whilst the Government has expressed concern about rising health care costs, in terms of its strategy it seems to be moving towards deterring people from using services by raising the direct private sector costs so that people are made more aware of the real costs of medical care. [More…]

• In my view the real basis of rising health care costs is related, as I have suggested before in this house, to the underlying philosophy and interests of those groups of people who have an interest in the expansion of health care empires and systems. [More…]

• In a previous speech I identified such groups as doctors, hospital boards, administrators, health insurance funds, private hospital systems and so on. [More…]

• That is what has been happening in relation to health care. [More…]

• Firstly, it is very hard to get any kind of estimate of what proportion of the total health care expenditure is actually spent on preventive approaches. [More…]

• But if one examines the view of a conservative body- a body that certainly is not likely to be friendly to the Australian Labor Party- that is, that of the Institute of Public Affairs, one finds that its estimate, not the Labor Party’s estimate, is that of the $3,000m of public money spent on health care in the last year something like $9m was specifically ear-marked for preventive programs. [More…]

• Something of the scale of the problem, particularly in the area of industrial health, which is the area on which I want to focus attention, can be seen by comparing the costs associated with industrial disputes and those associated with people involved in industrial accidents. [More…]

• It is extraordinary, some would say reprehensible, that we simply do not have the figures necessary even to assess the scale and dimensions of the problems associated with industrial health. [More…]

• If we do not know the scale and dimensions and, in particular, if we do not know where the problem arises it is nonsense to talk about the Government having preventive programs and it is nonsense for the Government to talk about having a priority in relation to the reduction of health care costs. [More…]

• In Britain, after a report by Lord Robins in 1972, health and safety work legislation was passed which provided for a comprehensive and integrated system of statistical collection and the creation of a health and safety commission responsible to the Minister for administering the legislation and providing a focus and initiative for health and safety matters. [More…]

• Similarly, in the United States of America the Occupation and Health Safety Act was passed in 1970. [More…]

• It is possible for employers to request inspections, and an Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has been established to develop appropriate standards and conduct research. [More…]

• If we are going to talk in this House about reduction of health costs we ought to be talking, as at least sections of that report talk, about prevention. [More…]

• If we are going to be equitable and just in relation to the whole question of health, we are going to have to take industrial health much more seriously. [More…]

• Australia security, Australian jobs and to an extent Australian drug risks are as great and as important as health problems in respect of the exotic and other diseases associated with the boat people. [More…]

• In all areas of defence, security, health, immigration, foreign affairs and drug trafficking we should be alert to the dangers and change accordingly. [More…]

• I suggest that Australia establish some offshore base on an island on which all the necessary security and health checks that are required could be conducted before these people arrive in Australia. [More…]

• The idea recognises the problem of older workers who find it especially difficult because of age or health to become re-employed. [More…]

• Some amendments had already been made through placitum (xxiiiA) of section 51 of the Constitution, the Evatt amendment which dealt with social welfare and health services. [More…]

• Because of the nature of the services and concessions available to pensioners holding a Pensioner Health Benefit card, there would be major difficulties in providing for entitlements to be ‘tapered’ as non-pension income increases; the proposal would also involve additional cost to revenue. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 May 1978: [More…]

• ) If so, does the document assert that a patient is entitled to full information on the state of his or her health and the treatment undertaken. [More…]

• 3 ) The distribution of the Association ‘s document, or any similar document, to hospital patients would be a matter for the health authorities that administer public hospitals and for the boards of management of private hospitals. [More…]

• 1 ) Did the Royal Commission on Human Relationships (a) report that Australians of South Sea Island descent are not eligible for the special benefits introduced for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in fields such as education, health and housing unless they claim to be Aboriginals, a claim which many feel is a denial of their own origin and (b) recommend that action should be taken to extend to them eligibility for benefits now available to Aboriginals. [More…]

• In this connection, the Minister for the Northern Territory has advised the Minister for Health that appropriate amendments to birth and death notification forms in use in the Territory could be effected by administrative action. [More…]

• Commonwealth and State Ministers with responsibilities for health and welfare matters are currently being consulted on appropriate terms of reference for such an inquiry. [More…]

• Did he receive a request or requests from the Queensland Premier to have two field workers suspended or sacked from the national trachoma survey and eye health program in late 1977; if so, what was the substance of the Premier’s complaints against field workers in the program. [More…]

• However, as already pointed out to you by the Minister for Health in answer to your question upon notice No. [More…]

• 1 ) What concessions or assistance measures are provided for persons entitled to pensioner health benefits. [More…]

• 1 ) All holders of Pension Health Benefit cards, including those with hearing difficulties, may qualify for the following Commonwealth Government concessions: [More…]

• Persons using these attachments, who are in possession of a Pension Health Benefit card, would generally be granted a one-third reduction of the rental of their telephone service. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 April 1978: [More…]

• Has his attention also been drawn to a report by the World Health Organisation which revealed that compounds of TCDD which are used in the weedicides have caused deaths and defective births; if so, does he or his Department have a copy of that report. [More…]

• My Department has received from the World Health Organisation a draft document entitled ‘Environmental Health Criteria for Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD)’. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council at its Eightieth Session in April 1975 recommended that 2,4,5-T containing more than 0.1 mg/kg of TCDD should not be permitted for use as a herbicide in Australia. [More…]

• This was investigated by the New Zealand Department of Health in consultation with experts in genetics, pathology, pharmacology and toxicology. [More…]

• However, the Organisation has not studied their relationship with human health. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council which is an advisory body to the Commonwealth and States undertakes a continuing review of pesticides, from a human health point of view, in Australia. [More…]

• am asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 April 1978: [More…]

• For example the largest single project commenced in March 1978 is the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory (ANAHL) at Geelong. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 April 1 978: [More…]

• 1 ) Is it a fact that hearing aids cost between $300 and $700 and that no health insurance fund will provide cover for aids to assist hearing impairment. [More…]

• Benefits for hearing aids are not available from Standard Medibank or from the basic medical and hospital benefits tables provided by private health insurance funds. [More…]

• The position is that the health insurance legislation deals primarily with the operation by funds of the basic (standard) medical and hospital benefits tables. [More…]

• 1 ) Is it intended that the Victorian Health Commission will assume any rehabilitation responsibility presently held by the Commonwealth Government. [More…]

• 3 ) Any current or future planning for the further development of Commonwealth rehabilitation services and facilities on a regional basis would have regard to the existence of all health, education and welfare services and facilities within the region. [More…]

• The CRS has long recognised the advantages to its handicapped clients of establishing close working relationships between the staffs of its rehabilitation facilities and those of major hospitals in the region, as well as, for example, community health centres, special schools, local governmental and voluntary agencies for the handicapped, etc. [More…]

• 1 ) Will the Minister ensure that comprehensive facilities for modern tissue culture techniques will be available at the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory being established at Geelong, Victoria. [More…]

• 1 ) Comprehensive facilities for the most up to date tissue culture techniques will be available at the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory (ANAHL), Geelong. [More…]

• -Can the Minister for Health inform the House whether there is any prospect of assistance to those people required to give full time attention to chronically ill or infirm parents who might not at present qualify for domiciliary nursing care benefits? [More…]

• Considerable relaxation has taken place recently in regard to the number of visits nursing sisters should make provided that the medical practitioner, the sisters concerned and the Department of Health are satisfied that the person caring for the ill person is capable of providing adequate care. [More…]

• by leave- Over recent years, the rapidly rising costs of health care have been a cause of deep concern in a number of Western nations. [More…]

• In Australia, the great health cost explosion began during the term of the Labor Government. [More…]

• It was a cost explosion directly associated with a large transfer of health expenditure from the private to the government sector. [More…]

• The figures demonstrate this situation very clearly: In 1971-72 the Commonwealth Government met 30.2 per cent of all health expenditure and the private sector 43.1 per cent. [More…]

• Only four years later in 1975-76- the last year of the Labor Government- the Commonwealth was meeting 52.0 per cent and the private sector 22.6 per cent of health spending. [More…]

• In the five-year period 1971-72 to 1976-77 health costs exploded from $2,232m to $6,254m. [More…]

• The costs of health cafe per head in Australia have risen from $104 in 1966-67 to $447 in 1976-77- that is, by more than four times in 10 years. [More…]

• For this financial year, 1977-78, over 10 per cent of all Commonwealth Government spending is being directed to health. [More…]

• It would seem that Governments are being increasingly faced with the need to establish an ‘economic’ limit to the growth of public health expenditure. [More…]

• When the Fraser Government was elected to office in December 1975, it was abundantly clear that one of the challenges of management of the economy in difficult conditions was to arrest the rapidly spiralling costs of health care. [More…]

• It was just as clear to the Government that unless action was taken to arrest the rate of health costs inflation, it would crowd out opportunities for income tax reductions and government spending on other essential programs to give relief to the needy sections of the community. [More…]

• This Government therefore established the Medibank Review Committee in January 1976 to examine the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Those changes have already resulted in a decline in the rate of acceleration in health costs. [More…]

• Expressed as a percentage of the gross domestic product, health spending in each of those years totalled: 1973-74, 5.9 per cent; 1974-75, 6.8 per cent; 1975-76, 7.4 per cent; and 1976-77, 7.7 per cent. [More…]

• It is even more important to note that the percentage increases over the preceding year in the proportion of the gross domestic product taken by health costs was: 1973-74, minus 0.8 per cent; 1974-75, plus 15.4 per cent; 1975-76, plus 8. [More…]

• The same picture, of continuing increases followed by a slowing up after the October 1976 changes, is revealed by the figures for medical services per person covered by health insurance and pensioner medical service arrangements during the same period: 1973-74, 4.7 medical services per person, a fall of 4. [More…]

• But the Government is not satisfied that this drop in the explosion of health care costs has been sufficient. [More…]

• The rate of growth of health costs is well above the general rate of inflation. [More…]

• Since the October 1976 changes, the Government has closely monitored the health insurance system and health costs generally within the information available. [More…]

• Despite this progress, it was apparent that further action would be necessary to achieve improved health cost levels. [More…]

• Last year, therefore, I asked the Hospitals and Health Services Commission to undertake a thorough review of the health care cost question. [More…]

• The Government has considered a large number of options available to it to generate the necessary sense of community responsibility in both the provision and the usage of health services. [More…]

• However, I must relate the basic objectives of the Government’s health policy, and they are as follows: To promote and protect the health of all people; to ensure that all people, regardless of their means, have access to high quality health care; to provide special protection to the pensioners and low income groups, with those on higher incomes insuring themselves to help pay their health care expenses; to promote preventive health care; to obtain the best value for the taxpayers’ dollars spent on health care; and to minimise abuse and overuse of services. [More…]

• It is true to say that Australia enjoys one of the best and most accessible health services and health care delivery systems in the world. [More…]

• The national trachoma program is further evidence of the Government’s determination to improve the health of Aboriginal communities. [More…]

• Proposed interpreter services, located in health facilities throughout Australia, demonstrate the Government’s awareness of the special problems of the ethnic communities in health care. [More…]

• As for health costs containment, restraint for its own sake does not dominate our thinking, but there is no escaping the fact that unless we control rapidly rising costs, they will crowd out opportunities for essential spending in other areas of government responsibility. [More…]

• People pay for health costs by one means or another, whether it be by income taxation, levies and charges, health insurance premiums, direct patient payments, or a combination of these means. [More…]

• There is no such thing as free health care. [More…]

• I emphasise this because, while universal health insurance cover provides security and access to health services, it does tend to weaken the perception of both the providers and the users of the real costs of those services. [More…]

• Government subsidy to reduce health costs can blind us all to the costs of those services. [More…]

• Unless the universal health insurance system has inbuilt incentives designed to create cost consciousness, commonsense suggests- and experience shows- that unnecessary costs will be generated. [More…]

• The changes I am announcing under the Government’s health cost control program are, therefore, designed to: Encourage responsible use of one of the best health services in the world; ensure that overuse and abuse are reduced to a minimum; obtain the best value for taxpayers’ dollars spent on health care; and promote competition and innovation in health insurance. [More…]

• I will now outline the changes the Government has decided will be made forthwith in the health insurance and associated areas. [More…]

• As I have indicated, the changes which were made in health insurance arrangements on 1 October 1976 have achieved some slowing-down in the very high rate of growth in usage of health services and in increases in health care costs. [More…]

• The Government has carefully reviewed information available to it, both from the process of monitoring the impact of those changes on health costs and usage and as a result of the general review of health insurance which I requested in October of last year. [More…]

• Accordingly the Government has decided to seek the authority to obtain and analyse information from and about the health insurance system in greater depth. [More…]

• As well, a number of specific pilot surveys covering the usage and cost of health services in individual areas will be undertaken. [More…]

• This action, together with a basic review now under way of health data available for policy evaluation, will provide the Government with a more accurate information base which is an important requirement of a continuing review. [More…]

• Until an improved data base becomes available, the Government believes that it would be premature to proceed further with the consideration of major adjustments to the health insurance system. [More…]

• The Government believes this to be the most responsible approach to the objective of constraining the rising costs of health care to the taxpayer and to the community generally. [More…]

• -I feel sorry for the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in having to come into the House today to make this statement. [More…]

• The Government worked on the changes for more than 2 years but the total saving to the Commonwealth will be less than one per cent of the expenditure on health costs. [More…]

• Commonwealth expenditure on health costs this year will be of the order of $3,000m. [More…]

• The Government is to save $24m, which is less than one per cent of total Commonwealth expenditure on health costs. [More…]

• Previously the Prime Minister has not shown any great interest in health funding. [More…]

• We were told over two years ago that the Health Insurance Commission estimated that if bulk billing were abolished there would be an increase of $ 10m in administrative costs. [More…]

• The Government now proposes to abolish bulk billing for all except pensioners covered by the pensioner health benefit scheme. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission tabled its report on 5 May 1978. [More…]

• When the Minister for Construction (Mr McLeay) was acting Minister for Health he referred, in a broadcast on the AM program, to the private funds as ‘us’. [More…]

• I think that since the honourable member for Gwydir became Minister for Health, he has learnt a little about the medical profession and about medical funds. [More…]

• I emphasise again that I do not believe for one minute that these changes have been supported by the Minister, his Department or by the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• The private health funds are to be permitted to introduce as an option a deductibles scheme within their medical and hospital tables. [More…]

• He says that people would still need to have universal health cover. [More…]

• If I were running a private health fund and a person came to me wanting to be a contributor to my fund and was prepared to pay the first $ 1 ,000 of medical and hospital costs, I would charge that person a very low contribution rate. [More…]

• It is transferring expenditure from a worthwhile area to administrative expenditure in the Department and the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• I would have thought that the Deputy Whip, who has some understanding of the problems involved, would realise that the transfer of payments from health expenditure to administration of health expenditure is not a great advancement. [More…]

• The Minister admits that the Government requires more comprehensive information on the health care system to enable it to monitor costs in more detail than is possible at present. [More…]

• Today we heard the impassioned speech by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• It can come only from health, education and welfare spending which together make up nearly half of the Budget expenditure. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation is not an organisation that would be sneered at by the honourable member for Wills (Mr Bryant) and I recommend that he study its predictions for the turn of this century and to bear in mind that 14 million people living as we are on this continent with the great assets that there are to be developed here in minerals, including uranium and oil and in development to take place, we will need every effort that can be put forward by our small population to develop our great and mighty country. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Following on his statement on the Government’s health scheme proposals yesterday, can the Minister assure the [More…]

• Of course, many Aborigines are pensioners and hold pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• I call the Minister for Health. [More…]

• In regard to Aboriginal medical services, we will look to the concept of introducing health program grants to ensure that doctors are able to service the needs of Aboriginal people through the provision of medical services in that manner. [More…]

• -Mr Speaker, I draw your attention to the report of the speech of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in yesterday’s Hansard at page 2398, 2400 and 2401. [More…]

• The first item on page 2398 is a table headed ‘Rate of Growth of Health Costs’. [More…]

• Certainly the Royal Flying Doctor Service does a marvellous job, but if that service can be added to by this form of communication, when a government of this nature is concerned with the welfare and the health of the people of the outback areas, so be it. [More…]

• In relation to the protected zone provisions permitting freedom of movement by the local people in the carrying on of traditional activities, the treaty will provide for co-operation on immigration, customs, health and quarantine arrangements. [More…]

• In relation to the Protected Zone provisions which will permit the continued performance of traditional activities by the local peoples and continued freedom of movement about the Zone for that purpose, there will be cooperation on immigration, customs, health and quarantine arrangements, although each country will retain the right to implement national controls to prevent abuses or other possible adverse effects of the Protected Zone provisions. [More…]

• It is quite undesirable that important long term objectives in economic management can be so easily subverted by a hostile State government more interested in short term political advantages than in the long term health of the nation. [More…]

• The Bill has four main features: Firstly, it will give effect to the joint announcement by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Treasurer (Mr Howard) on 30 March 1978 that sunscreen preparations that provide effective protection from damaging ultra-violet rays would be exempted from sales tax. [More…]

• Drugs and medicines are already exempt and it is proposed that these sunscreen preparations should also be exempted because of their importance as a preventative health measure in the field of skin cancer, sunburn and general skin damage. [More…]

• Also, there must be in force in respect of the preparation a certificate given by the Director-General of Health, or his appointee, certifying that the product is a preparation that provides an acceptable level of protection from solar ultra-violet rays. [More…]

• New scientific developments can assist in promoting better information on the natural environment and its conservation, and informed health care. [More…]

• Equally, technological changes can damage the environment, can threaten health or can result in reduced employment opportunities. [More…]

• The following departments are represented at the monthly meetings of the council: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Department of Defence, Department of Health, Department of National Development, Department of Primary Industry, Department of Science, Postal and Telecommunications Department and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. [More…]

• The following list of classifications gives a further indication of the range covered: Aeronautics and aerospace, agriculture, atmosphere, coastal and ocean engineering, communications, construction, earth, electronics, energy, environment, marine sciences, food, forestry, fundamental research, health, industrial chemicals, international relations liason and aid, metal products and machinery, mineral processing, mining, organisation of research and development, scientific and technical computing, textiles, transport, urban and regional planning, water resources and wood products. [More…]

• Earlier today the honourable member for Prospect drew attention to the Hansard report of a speech made yesterday by the Minister for Health on the subject of health care costs. [More…]

• I could refer to nutrition and public health. [More…]

• I refer to the question of national health expenditure and, in particular, the aspect of preventive medicine and what pan it can play in the containment of health expenditure. [More…]

• I wish particularly to talk about the health of the people of Australia and, in doing so, to emphasise the need for detailed analyses of the health of the young people of Austrafia, particularly those of primary school age. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) recently announced that national health expenditure has risen from $2,232m in 1 97 1-72 to $6,254m in the current year- a matter which has been recognised in the Government’s community health program. [More…]

• Unfortunately only approximately one per cent of the national health bill is spent on the community health program and on preventive medicine in this country. [More…]

• On page 46 of a Discussion Paper on Paying for Health Care prepared by Dr Sax it is stated: [More…]

• A growing Austraiian professional constituency asks for more emphasis on prevention of disease, health promotion, health maintenance and health education. [More…]

• I would like now to refer briefly to a number of people who have carried out recent surveys on and investigations into the subject matter of the health of young people. [More…]

• Although no surveys have been undertaken on the dental health of children after they have ceased to be under the care of the ASDS, the National Dental Survey which is now being planned would provide this information. [More…]

• Surveys which are currently being finalised deal with the dental health of children who were examined in the State and Territorial School Dental Services in 1977. [More…]

• How many individual taxpayers for the year 1 976-77 were exempted from the health levy for (a) the whole 39 weeks and (b) a pan thereof because they were privately covered for medical and hospital insurance. [More…]

• The number of taxable individuals who were not assessed for health insurance levy in respect of 1976-77 income year and whose assessments issued to 28 April 1978 is 3,542,3 1 6. [More…]

• The great majority of these taxpayers would have been exempt because they were adequately covered by private health insurance, but the number includes other taxpayers who are not liable to levy as pensioner medical card holders or members of the defence forces or for other reasons. [More…]

• Rebates for health insurance contributions were discontinued as from the introduction of the health insurance levy on 1 October 1976, since payment of private health insurance contributions exempt a taxpayer from payment of the levy. [More…]

• To have also allowed a concessional rebate for the contributions would have resulted in a further benefit and placed a taxpayer contributing to a private fund at an advantage in comparison with a taxpayer who paid the health insurance levy. [More…]

• The saving to income tax revenue in 1 977-78 due to the abolition of rebates in respect of health insurance contributions paid on and after 1 October 1976 is estimated at approximately $50m. [More…]

• The estimated number of Social Security pensioners who were holders of pensioner health benefit cards at the dates requested were: [More…]

• -My question which is directed to the Minister for Health concerns the Minister’s recent announcement on health insurance arrangements and the Press coverage of it. [More…]

• Is it a fact that when bulk billing is abolished for all but pensioners with pensioner health benefit cards and their dependants, other people will have to pay their doctor in cash at the time of treatment and meet the full cost of medical benefits? [More…]

• The first requires that Australian consular officers perform functions including the following: Notarial acts, oaths, affirmations and declarations such as the authentication or legalisation of various documents, from wills and contracts to school certificates and driving licences; the issue and renewal of passports and visas; the solemnisation and registration of marriages; payment of or advice on social security provisions including medical benefits; advice on the importation and registration of motor vehicles; advice on acquisition or loss of citizenship, particulary on dual nationality problems; provision of information on Australian Customs’ requirements; the provision of facilities for voting in Australian elections overseas; the administration of regulations arising from the Navigation Act in regard to seamen; liaison with overseas legal authorities on instructions from Australia to arrange extradition; advice on exchange control and currency matters for personal or investment purposes; serving of writs and taking evidence; advising visitors to Australia of health and quarantine requirements and reporting on outbreaks of diseases in foreign countries. [More…]

• Obviously we will have problems in this regard from the point of view of the young people and also from the point of view of the elderly, whose problems are more likely to be in the health area. [More…]

• This affects the health of the community. [More…]

• This is not intended to be purely an attack on the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) because I know that the Minister does not believe in the policy that he had to announce on Wednesday. [More…]

• The statement by the Minister for Health was true to form. [More…]

• Dr Hart also said that the changes would cause health care costs to rise in the long term. [More…]

• That is the Government’s proposed changes- will be to shift some of the burden of health-care costs from the public to the private sector, from higher to lower income earners, and from those in good health to those who are sick. [More…]

• This is a notable retreat from the concept of a universal health insurance scheme that most Australians have approved. [More…]

• The documents which accompanied the Minister’s speech on Wednesday- I particularly refer to page 2 of a background paper called ‘Costs of Private Health Insurance’- contain fictitious figures, prepared by Mr John Gaul or Mr Bob Baurdino hopefully not by the Department because I hope that it is not involved in such fraud -suggesting a 46c reduction in medical insurance rates in every State, making it easy for the newspapers which would report it without checking it. [More…]

• It will mean that bulk billing- or direct billing, as it is often called-by Medibank will be available only to pensioners holding pensioner health benefit cards- in other words, those pensioners who are entitled to full fringe benefits- and their dependants. [More…]

• It will remove the healthy people from the health insurance pool and put them in a special pool so that they will pay a slightly lower premium. [More…]

• In fact, instability has been a curse of the Australian health system. [More…]

• What the Federal Government is now doing might well be called creeping anti-socialism- the gradual undoing of a taxfunded system of univeral health insurance, very widely approved when Labor introduced it. [More…]

• That is really the essence of what is so objectionable in the Government’s approach to health insurance. [More…]

• The conservative politicians are paralysed with fear of the political clout of the medical fraternity, especially in rural areas, where they have created mini health industries dominated by people whose incomes are underwritten with public funds. [More…]

• It did not address itself to the problems of health costs, even as they have been identified by Mr Hunt himself in his more honest moments. [More…]

• The specifics of Mr Hunt’s statement are being unravelled, interpreted and mostly criticised by the various interest groups in the health industry. [More…]

• He has treated the question of health policy solely as a public relations exercise in minimising political damage, using some transparently dishonest means of doing so. [More…]

• His unfounded allegations about the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) standing over me, as Minister for Health, and about my not supporting a statement he made, are a lot of rubbish. [More…]

• I remind the House once again- because I believe the Opposition needs to be reminded of its own sins as much as possible to try to reform it and to help it in the future- that the great health cost explosion began in the time of the Australian Labor Party Government. [More…]

• It is nothing short of humbug for the Opposition to come into the Parliament time and time again complaining and weeping about the health cost problem which we have inherited, which we are trying to arrest, and which the public is at present bearing. [More…]

• More than any other single issue it was the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party that caused the health cost crisis. [More…]

• One of the great falsehoods that the Labor Party generated was that it would provide a free health care system through what it called Medibank. [More…]

• Who benefited most from the Opposition’s health scheme in money terms? [More…]

• It was the doctors and the health professionals. [More…]

• So much for their so-called free health servicethat had a capacity to gorge the social dollars in this country. [More…]

• The Labor Government’s approach to paying for health care and hospital costs was typical of its general approach to the economy, which was the money-no-object philosophy. [More…]

• The Labor Party’s health insurance scheme was comprehensive. [More…]

• In 1971-72 the Commonwealth met 30.2 per cent of all health expenditure. [More…]

• Yet only four years later, in the last year in office of the Labor Government the taxpayers, through the Commonwealth revenue pool, was meeting 52 per cent of health spending and the private sector was meeting 22.6 per cent. [More…]

• In the five years from 1971-72 to 1976-77 health costs exploded from $2,232m to $6,254m. [More…]

• Once bulk billing is abolished, except for pensioners and their dependants who are covered by health benefit cards, other people will be able to send doctors’ accounts either to Medibank or their private health insurance fund. [More…]

• The very structure of the present health insurance arrangement is designed to assist and to enable those in the lower income group to pay according to their means. [More…]

• Does it want to see the opportunity provided to the health insurance funds to devise systems that are acceptable to the community? [More…]

• Front end deductibles in themselves may not be the option that the health insurance funds will take. [More…]

• We are not making such proposals compulsory but we have decided to provide some flexibility to the health insurance industry to come up with schemes that give some encouragement to people to care for themselves. [More…]

• I think that the most perceptive words that have been uttered on the recent changes in health costs were uttered by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) five weeks ago. [More…]

• On 1 1 April, chiding my colleague the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), and accusing him of being clairvoyant, he indicated clearly that he was not clairvoyant when in relation to health costs he said: [More…]

• I suggest that the most charitable interpretation that can be made is that the Minister for Health is still not aware of the predetermined views of the Prime Minister on health costs. [More…]

• It did not address itself to the problems of health costs, even as they have been identified by Mr Hunt himself in his more honest moments. [More…]

• Let me take up the one point about spiralling health costs. [More…]

• The interesting thing about spiralling health costs, as the Minister’s own documents prove, is that such costs are something that every advanced industrial society has suffered in the 1970s and, unless I am mistaken, they did not all have Whitlam Governments. [More…]

• That means first looking briefly at Medibank Mk II because this week’s events are the second stage whereby a simple, efficient, universal, equitable and comprehensive health scheme is gradually being destroyed. [More…]

• have already resulted in a decline in the rate of acceleration in health costs. [More…]

• Quite possibly these movements occur for general economic reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the changes made in the health scheme in October 1976. [More…]

• That is why we have not got the information to make major changes to our health schemes. [More…]

• The whole thrust of the changes in October 1976 was to make health provision less simple and less efficient. [More…]

• He roundly criticised the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who stated some time ago that there was a lack of statistics on which to make major changes, and then referred to the front end deductible scheme which is optional in the changes just announced. [More…]

• That does not take into consideration the increased costs of health, medical and petrol charges, let alone the fall in living standards due to cut-backs in public sector spending. [More…]

• The then Minister for Health, now the honourable member for Capricornia (Dr Everingham), endorses my remarks because he was a member of Cabinet. [More…]

• Honourable members have seen that reflected also in the area of health policy. [More…]

• Allocating funds under the co-operative society loans must be one of the last remaining areas of middle class patronage, rivalled only by the activities of the private health funds. [More…]

• The health of the housing industry is directly related to the health of the economy as a whole, and now that the economy is on a stable footing it is to be hoped that there will be a brake on any increases in home building costs. [More…]

• The care of the aged involves providing a wide range of accommodation and ensuring integration with health and welfare services. [More…]

• He certainly was a. very mee man, as the Minister for Health has said. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 February 1978. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has been aware of the need for adequate controls in matters relating to experiments on animals for many years. [More…]

• In the Australian Capital Territory control of storage and disposal of radioactive waste is the responsibility of the Capital Territory Health Commission and in the Northern Territory it is the responsibility of the Department of Health. [More…]

• Discussions have been held by the National Health and Medical Research Council on this matter and the Council recommended: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 May 1978: [More…]

• With reference to the review of bulk billing commissioned in February 1977, completed before 30 June 1977 and noted on page 98 of the Annual Report of the DirectorGeneral of Health for 1 976-77, does the Government intend to release this report for public discussion before a decision is announced eliminating bulk billing. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health and it relates to the recent publicity given to the changes to Medibank. [More…]

• In other words, they will be eligible for the Commonwealth benefit and the health insurance fund benefit as nursing home patients and will contribute a portion of their pension towards their board and lodging in exactly the same way as pensioner patients in nursing homes. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is it a fact that the Minister’s announcement last week of changes to the health insurance system was designed inter alia to constitute the Government’s decision on the question of abortion funding via the path of optional deductibles? [More…]

• No doubt the honourable member has had thousands of letters, as I have, from people who are concerned that benefits are being paid for abortions from Medibank and from health insurance funds. [More…]

• Moreover, the honourable member would appreciate no doubt the great difficultiesindeed the questions of privacy- that would be involved if health insurance funds and Medibank itself had to determine what procedures were in fact carried out according to the laws of any State, and I would not like to see either my Department or the Health Insurance Commission placed in that position. [More…]

• Having said that, let me now say that the Government has completed its consideration and has decided to amend the National Health Act to enable health insurance funds to apply for permission to delete certain items for benefit purposes, including gynaecological procedures, and subject to certain conditions that will be established after discussions with the funds it is anticipated that permission will be granted to a health insurance fund, should it make an application, to delete an item for the payment of benefits. [More…]

• I have already had a letter from one health insurance fund which has indicated that it intends to make an application as soon as the legislation becomes law, and it feels that it has been very fair to the people whom it represents. [More…]

• As section 26 (e) requires the inclusion in assessable income not only of housing subsidies but also of any money, goods and other benefits received in relation to a taxpayer’s employment, what action has the Commissioner of Taxation taken to require business executives to include in their assessable incomes the value of such fringe benefits as subsidised holidays, recreation, life insurance, health costs and home improvements? [More…]

• -My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• It points out that, since about 20 per cent of our community are currently ‘migrants’, a similar proportion of the Commonwealth’s general expenditure on education, health, social security and welfare and other areas should be for the benefit of migrants. [More…]

• The Review found that the main areas of need -such as for fluency in English and for better communication and information- are common to virtually all areas such as health, welfare, education, employment and the law. [More…]

• In accordance with the recommendations of the Review, steps will be taken to improve the ways in which migrants get information in areas of special need, including information relevant to employment, health, consumer protection, bail procedures, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and legal aid. [More…]

• In the health area, the Review noted significant cultural and communication problems and, in addition to the Government’s recently announced program for funding interpreters, increased funds will be provided for the use of ethnic health workers. [More…]

• Acceptance of a shared responsibility for its health among the Commonwealth and State governments as well as private enterprise is essential, while suitable co-ordination of broad national aims with specific State expertise could improve Australia’s general negotiating position and remove apparent conflicts. [More…]

• The health of the Australian economy is importantly affected by the level of economic activity in Japan. [More…]

• It is likely to bring a reduction in expenditure on health services. [More…]

• He nominated social security, welfare programs, health and education. [More…]

• The outlay on health has increased from six per cent of total expenditure in 1975-76, just a couple of years ago, to 13 per cent, or slightly less, today. [More…]

• In health there is clearly a public sector and a private sector. [More…]

• The whole essence of the Government’s claims was that it would provide strong, tough codes of practice so that Australians- people who were working in the mining industry, people who were living near mining operations, Aborigines and people who were in any way affected by the transportation of yellowcake- would be carefully covered so that both their health, and the environment, would not be impaired in any way. [More…]

• I shall not take up the full time that is available to me but, as Opposition spokesman on health matters, I feel that this is a relevant Bill. [More…]

• The object of this Act is to make provision, within the limits of the powers of the Parliament for protecting the health and safety of the people of Australia, and the environment, from possible harmful effects associated with nuclear activities in Australia, and this Act and the regulations shall be construed and administered accordingly. [More…]

• It seems that the Commonwealth Parliament has insufficient legislative power to make proper provision for the protection of the health and welfare of the community as a whole from dangers which can arise from the use of radioactive materials and isotopes. [More…]

• Under clause 13 the Government, where the provisions of nuclear codes did not cover adequately what we would like to cover- the health of the people and the environment- could move in and virtually take control. [More…]

• I should emphasise that this legislation is concerned with the health and safety of people, and the environment, as distinct from safeguards, the purpose of which is to ensure that nuclear material in peaceful use is not diverted to nonpeaceful purposes or to nuclear weapons. [More…]

• I simply refer to clause 13 to remind the honourable member for Robertson that the right of the Governor-General only accrues when he is satisfied that the health or safety of persons or the environment is likely to be harmed by a situation resulting from nuclear activity that exists in a State or Territory, and where there is not already legislation enacted to cover the situation. [More…]

• I would like to know where in this process proper and effective provision for consultation on the protection of Australians and their health is denied. [More…]

• In this last amendment we are dealing with the question of the health or safety of persons or the environment. [More…]

• If the Governor-General thinks that they may be harmed due to some nuclear activity and if he thinks that the laws of the Commonwealth, other than as provided in this clause, and the laws of the State or Territory do not make provision for protecting the health or safety of persons or the environment, under the original legislation he could require certain regulations, but under this amendment the States will be allowed to slip out from under. [More…]

• Apart from the serious effect this would have of increasing unemployment, will the Acting Prime Minister give an assurance that the Labor Government initiated improvements in the fields of social security and education will not join health in being further eroded by the Government in the forthcoming Budget? [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I refer him to the recommendation of the National Health and Medical Research Council that a national repository be established for the storage of hazardous long-lived radioactive waste produced in Australia. [More…]

• I am well aware of the recommendation by the National Health and Medical Research Council on the need for a repository for radioactive waste, which would include, for instance, by-products oi radioactive medical pharmaceuticals. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Health seen a report that at least half of all adult Vietnamese arriving in Darwin have traces of tuberculosis, a highly infectious disease which had virtually been arrested in Australia before the influx of the boat people? [More…]

• What are the health screening arrangements for these refugees? [More…]

• Details of all the refugees arriving in Darwin are sent to the State Directors of Health in the southern capitals. [More…]

• So a record is being kept on all the refugees as to their state of health and their risk as tuberculosis carriers. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health whether he is aware that community health centres, in carrying out their task of providing primary medical care, have depended heavily upon the ability to bulk bill their patients and doctors being prepared to accept as full payment for their services 85 per cent of the scale fee. [More…]

• Is he able to inform the House whether he believes the continuation of this level of service, especially to low income groups, is of importance, and, if so, what alternative arrangements does he propose to make to enable community health services to continue to provide this very important facility? [More…]

• I thank the honourable member for his question, which I know would have been inspired by the dilemma confronting the North Richmond Community Health Centre which has a very high clientele- I think is the term used- of refugees and ethnic groups. [More…]

• In respect of ethnic people having difficulty in filling out forms, and so on, I am endeavouring to enter into an arrangement whereby, when the patient receives the doctor’s account at the community health centre, the centre will assist the patient to fill out the form and despatch it to Medibank- it will be Medibank standard in many cases- and the cheque drawn in favor of the doctor can be sent, care of the patient, to the community health centre. [More…]

• With respect to the benefit level, that has yet to be worked out with the Australian Medical Association in respect of pensioners; but in regard to the gap, I would expect that in community health centres, where doctors have chosen to serve the community, doctors would accept 75 per cent of the benefit as payment in full for their services. [More…]

• The purpose of this Bill is to enable the Commonwealth Government to enter into financial arrangements with the States and the Northern Territory for making payments to cattle producers affected by the control measures instituted by animal health authorities to prevent the spread of bluetongue virus. [More…]

• Commonwealth and State animal health authorities immediately tested cattle throughout northern Australia. [More…]

• Following technical representations by the Bureau of Animal Health, a number of these have been eased significantly. [More…]

• Clause 4(1) (b), therefore, provides for a wider coverage of producers than does 4 ( 1 ) (a), as producers outside of the control areas may be required to participate in surveys conducted by animal health authorities to establish the incidence of exposure to bluetongue virus in Australia. [More…]

• The Committee held a public hearing in Canberra on Friday, 12 May, and heard evidence from the Department of Health, the Department of Construction and the Bureau of Animal Health. [More…]

• Following a searching examination of the revised proposal, the Committee is satisfied that the viability of the station will not be prejudiced, particularly as the Department of Health intends to expand its existing animal quarantine station at Torrens Island- I referred to that a short time ago- near Adelaide to include facilities for 144 cattle. [More…]

• Coupled with this project, of course, is the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory at Geelong. [More…]

• We have far too little scope for such debates and as a result we tend to ignore and neglect the fact that what happens in the world around us and in the international economic community is of fundamental importance to the health of the domestic economy. [More…]

• Yet another company has agreed to meet the travel costs of bringing a German trade union education expert to work with TUTA for a few months, probably in the field of health and safety. [More…]

• (i) Assessment of possible effects of occupation on health of staff at Australian Atomic Energy Commission Research Establishment. [More…]

• Development of method and conduct of health survey with respect particularly to exposure to ionising and nonionising radiation, other physical agents and toxic and potentially toxic substances and other work stresses. [More…]

• all matters related to the health of a specific individual will be treated in the strictest confidence; [More…]

• there will be no impediment or penalty to any person involved in making available on a confidential basis health-related information for the purposes of the health survey at the AAEC Research Establishment. [More…]

• Provision of reports on investigations, with recommendations concerning the organisation for occupational health services in the AAEC Research Establishment and systems of continuing health surveillance. [More…]

• Issue of progress report be made by the School of Public Health and the Specialist Panel to the Atomic Energy Commission and the Labor Council not later than 1st September 1975. [More…]

• Dr G. C. Smith, Senior Lecturer in Occupational Health, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, University of Sydney- Chairman. [More…]

• Associate Professor P. L. Ilbery, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, University of Sydney. [More…]

• No evidence has been revealed of ill-health from exposure to radiation. [More…]

• I present the Second Report of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health entitled ‘Consultative Arrangements and the Co-ordination of Social Policy Development’. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall that the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) tabled the First Report of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health on 17 February 1977. [More…]

• This second and last report of the Task Force covers those terms of reference not reported on in the First Report and makes recommendations in these major areas: Firstly, it recommends a new approach to consultative arrangements across the fields of health, welfare and community development involving the establishment of a new national consultative council; secondly, better co-ordination of social policy development through a small social policy unit for a separate department under a senior Minister and a Cabinet committee with a supporting officials committee; and finally, the need for a review of co-ordination of health, welfare and community development services in the mainland Territories. [More…]

• The Government has decided that the new Secretariat should be responsible, through the Permanent Heads Committee to the Cabinet Committee, for follow-up, as necessary, of any outstanding matters on the First Report of the Task Force on Co-ordination in Welfare and Health. [More…]

• Given the current moves towards selfgovernment in the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory and the key involvement of the two Territory Legislative Assemblies, the Government will draw to the attention of the two Assemblies the Second Report’s recommendation on the need to review coordination of welfare-health services in the Territories. [More…]

• I have informed the Minister for Primary Industry (Mr Sinclair) and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) of the matter that I wish to raise today. [More…]

• For the next few days guards lived near the property inquiring regularly about the health of the birds which remained in perfect condition. [More…]

• At no time during the fumigation were any health officers present even though lethal poisonous gases were being used. [More…]

• As he was always a strong and healthy child, the Muhvich family have every reason to believe that the two permanent scars he now bears on his lungs are as a direct result of the fumigation carried out to slaughter the birds. [More…]

• The Muhvich family contacted Mr Trager of the Gosford Health Commission to seek his advice about whether the chemicals used were dangerous to humans and to ascertain what they could or could not touch and so on. [More…]

• Mr Trager of the Health Commission inspected the aviaries with the Muhvich family and commented that they had been left in an unhygienic and awful state. [More…]

• When this matter was first brought to my attention I contacted the offices of both the Minister for Health and the Minister for Primary Industry. [More…]

• I had a number of conversations with the secretary of the Minister for Health who informed me that there was some confusion as to whether it was their responsibility or that of the Minister for Primary Industry. [More…]

• Firstly, it exempts from sales tax sun screen preparations that are certified by the Director-General of Health as providing an acceptable level of protection from solar ultraviolet rays. [More…]

• Honourable members will recollect that in a joint announcement the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Treasurer (Mr Howard) on 30 March 1978 indicated that sunscreen preparations that provide effective protection from damaging ultra-violet rays would be exempted from sales tax. [More…]

• As honourable members are or should be aware, drugs and medicines are already exempt from sales tax and it is proposed that these sunscreen preparations should also be exempted because of their importance as a preventive health measure against skin cancer, sunburn and general skin damage. [More…]

• A further worthwhile provision in the Bill is that a certificate must be given by the Director-General of Health certifying that the product is a preparation that provides an acceptable level of protection from solar ultra-violet rays. [More…]

• I suppose that a good sun tan is socially desirable but it is not a good investment for future good health or future good looks. [More…]

• It will protect one, to a certain extent, from the discomfort of sunburn but health workers warn that exposure of the skin to solar ultra-violet radiation has been firmly established as the main cause of skin cancer. [More…]

• In a table in that publication various sun screen preparations are listed in groups as recommended in the latest report from the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• It is interesting to see, when one looks at the table- I shall not ask for it to be incorporated in Hansard because it is too voluminous- how many hundreds of sun screen or tanning preparations there are and how many, after testing done at the Commonwealth Department of Health, have been found to be innocuous or useless. [More…]

• I do not know what the death ratios are but I suggest that in Australia there is just as much a case for the Government- not necessarily through the Treasurer, possibly through the Minister for Health- to make a far greater effort to draw to the attention of the people of Australia the dangers of over-exposure to the sun. [More…]

• The removal of sales tax under this Bill should be regarded as a positive measure for preventive health. [More…]

• As Minister for Health for a period in charge of quarantine matters, I was privileged to initiate some moves to prepare for an eventuallity such as the outbreak of bluetongue by the provision of animal virus laboratories, high security virus laboratories and on off-shore animal quarantine station and so on. [More…]

• I do not believe that the system’, the Government, the Bureau of Animal Health or anyone involved can be blamed for this. [More…]

• Despite the fact that our cattle industry is under this dreadful handicap and is under threat, this outbreak, disastrous though it is, could well be a blessing in disguise in that it might alert Australia and our veterinary and animal health services to the fact that we have these diseases on our doorstep. [More…]

• I am certain that the animal health authorities would be well aware of the advantages in this and I urge them also to redouble their efforts. [More…]

• The establishment of the National Animal Health Laboratory, which has been on the stocks for a long time, has finally been approved and work is now to go ahead. [More…]

• I feel that the producers in my electorate will be pleased to know that the Bill will enable the Commonwealth to enter into a financial arrangement with the States and the Northern Territory for making payments to cattle producers affected by the control measures instituted by animal health authorities to prevent the spread of the bluetongue virus. [More…]

• I think it is well known that the growers are not in a position to carry any extra expense to control the measures instituted by the health authorities. [More…]

• It is comforting to know that a number of these restrictions have been eased significantly following technical representations by the Bureau of Animal Health. [More…]

• I wish the Government and the animal health authority every success in their attempts to isolate and eliminate this virus. [More…]

• While the States were greatly expanding their role as providers of services (education and health expenditures increased from 5.92 per cent of gross domestic product in 1973-74 to 8.61 per cent in 1975-76), their net increase in indebtedness fell from 0.45 per cent of gross domestic product to 0.35 per cent. [More…]

• Those areas referred to the whole of the social infrastructurethe need to build up education, health services, urban and regional development, welfare housing, social security and welfare. [More…]

• Queensland, with its free public health services, had been spending a high proportion of its income on health, but with these new section 96 grants of assistance, Queensland has had much of its expenditure freed in this area. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council (NH & MRC) has set stria maximum residue limits for pesticide residues in food, as set out in the NH & MRC Standard for Residues of Pesticides in Food, a copy of which I have placed in the Parliamentary Library. [More…]

• State and Territory Departments of Health and Agriculture and the Commonwealth Department of Primary Industry are all involved in the consideration of these standards. [More…]

• I am very concerned about the North Richmond Community Health Centre. [More…]

• I am looking at the proposition of enabling cheques to be returned by the Health Insurance Commission to the doctor rather than the patient in certain circumstances. [More…]

• -About the only thing that is correct in that question relating to a report on my activities on that occasion is the fact that I did attend an extremely pleasant gathering in Moree as a guest of my very good friend and colleague the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The basic 1 978-79 tax indexation factor of 1 .076, that is, an increase of 7.6 per cent, is derived from this movement by netting out the effects, included in the 10.9 per cent movement, of increases in indirect taxes, the health care changes and exchange rate adjustment made in the December quarter of 1976. [More…]

• The basic 1978-79 tax indexation factor of 1.076, that is, an increase of 7.6 per cent, is derived from this movement by netting out the effects, included in the 10.9 per cent movement, of increases in indirect taxes, the health care changes and exchange rate adjustments made in the December quarter of 1976. [More…]

• There is simply mention of three items: Indirect taxes, health care changes and exchange rate adjustments. [More…]

• It is nowhere because the increased health charges and other imposts on the less well off in the community have resulted in wealth being transferred from those who have less to those who have a little more. [More…]

• Is education to join health and possibly security as a victim of real cuts? [More…]

• It is not possible to package and compartment the population of the Northern Territory into Aborigines and non-Aborigines and to say that these are the health, education, welfare, transport and other services for Aboriginal people, and those are the services for nonAboriginals. [More…]

• I was able to take a small step towards correcting the position when I was the Minister for Health. [More…]

• When I found that Tennant Creek was so unpopular with health personnel that the town could not retain even one doctor, let alone a medical superintendent with a junior doctor assisting him, I made a special locality allowance to attract a doctor there. [More…]

• There may be some exceptions and, because we are moving along a road towards statehood, I would acknowledge that there might be a desire to say, Well, it is not for 12 months that we will want them to have executive authority in matters of health and education. [More…]

• The proposals of the Committee are, in fact, that all ‘State type’ functions be transferred to the Territory Executive except that major functions such as rural land, mining, education, health … be retained by the Australian Government and other major functions such as roads, fisheries, national parks and the Police be shared. [More…]

• The timetable for the transfer of functions disclosed by the Minister in his speech of 14 September indicates that the important areas of education, land administration, mining service and administration, health services, roads and transport services are to be effective from 1 July 1979. [More…]

• The responsibility for education and health are being left up in the air at the moment. [More…]

• I think this is probably a wise decision in the short term, but certainly in the long term I would like to see both health and education made responsible to the elected people of the Northern Territory. [More…]

• The elected representatives know the needs and aspirations of the people, in terms of health services and education, and they are in a better position to respond to the needs of the people rather than to have those decisions made by people in Canberra. [More…]

• If the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) were in a position to indicate to me that the Government is prepared to look not only at this matter but also at the whole question of insurance protection and general compensation provisions relating to people who travel on aircraft, whether they be flying on schedules, charter or privately, that would comfort me and enable me not to proceed at length to explain why I think this amendment should be made and why this legislative capacity should not be withheld from the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. [More…]

• This body is the standing interdepartmental committee on refugees, comprising senior officers of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (which chairs the committee), Prime Minister and Cabinet, Employment and Industrial Relations, Social Security, Finance, Health and Education, with other departments and the Public Service Board being co-opted as necessary. [More…]

• 1 per cent; secondly, the increase in health care charges in 1976 of 1.6 per cent; and, thirdly, the increase following the exchange rate adjustments in December 1976 of 1.6 per cent. [More…]

• According to the Minister for Finance, the Government is going to be cutting back on social security, health and education programs. [More…]

• This Bill will give effect to the Government’s decision to abolish the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• Honourable members will be aware of the Government’s determination to bring about a greater coordination of health and welfare programs. [More…]

• These Committees have been established to ensure the integrated development of plans and policies and to review existing policies and programs in the health and welfare field. [More…]

• To support the Permanent Heads Committee the Government has established a policy secretariat under the control of the former Chairman of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, Dr Sidney Sax. [More…]

• It is this secretariat which will take over where the Hospitals and Health Services Commission leaves off. [More…]

• It will have responsibilities ranging over the whole field of health and welfare and will in fact absorb some of the ongoing activities of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• Let me summarise by saying that Dr Sidney Sax and his secretariat will cover the whole range of social welfare and health programs, with a far-ranging brief that will support the planning and programming activities of many departments, but primarily, of course, those of the Department of Social Security and those of my own Department. [More…]

• Hospitals and Health Services Commission Act and makes necessary administrative provisions concerning the winding up of the commission. [More…]

• The National Health Services Advisory Committee, which honourable members will recall was set up under the auspices of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission late last year, will continue to function and to provide the Government with independent advice on health matters. [More…]

• The Committee provides a forum at which health policy issues can be debated and from which advice can flow to the Government. [More…]

• This clause provides that grants made under the Hospitals and Health Services Commission Act and subject to conditions will continue to be subject to those conditions and will be under the control of the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I would like now to pay tribute to the work of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, and particularly to its Chairman Dr Sax. [More…]

• He has worked splendidly through and with the Department of Health. [More…]

• There are many solid achievements by the hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• It may be invidious to pick on three but I would mention particularly the community health program, the report on rural health, and the health services research and evaluation activities. [More…]

• On behalf of the Government I wish to thank all those who have served on the Hospitals and Health Services Commission for the sound contributions they have made to the betterment of a more broadly based health services delivery system. [More…]

• This Bill provides for amendments to the National Health Act to implement 3 separate decisions of the Government. [More…]

• I have previously stressed the Government’s intention to improve accessibility to health services for people living in isolated areas. [More…]

• The Government, through its financial assistance to the Royal Flying Doctor Service; the community health program; the Mobile Dental Clinic under the school dental program; the encouragement to graduate doctors to practise in rural areas under the family medicine program, is endeavouring to improve the access of health services to people in remote areas. [More…]

• I pay a tribute to those employed by the Flying Doctor Service, the nurses, other health and social workers in the community health services, the dentists and therapists in the mobile dental clinics and the doctors who provide services to the people living in these disadvantaged communities. [More…]

• Although we are endeavouring to impose a sense of responsibility on both the providers and users of health services, we are also endeavouring to redress, at least to some extent the additional hardships of people living in remote areas, who have little or no service facilities available. [More…]

• The basic scheme is established by clause 4 of the Bill, which inserts a new Part in the National Health Act. [More…]

• While the Bill provides for the Commonwealth to administer the scheme, it is intended that Commonwealth and State health authorities will co-operate in that administration. [More…]

• The viability and scope of existing services in isolated areas will not be undermined, nor will services available through the community health program and other support programs be constrained by any travel and accommodation subsidy scheme. [More…]

• The isolated patients’ travel and accommodation assistance scheme is a major component of the Government’s commitment to improve the accessibility of health services for isolated communities and to alleviate health costs to people in these areas. [More…]

• Further, Mr Deputy Speaker, the Bill introduces legislative provisions for the introduction into the health insurance arrangements of the concept of optional deductibles which I foreshadowed in my statement in the House on 24 May 1978. [More…]

• The proposed new provisions allow health insurance organisations to plan and, with the approval of the Minister for Health, operate benefit tables in addition to, or in place of, the basic medical and hospital benefits tables now operated by registered organisations. [More…]

• It is not intended that they should be brought into operation until the new concept has been discussed in detail with the health insurance industry and other interested organisations and appropriate guidelines adopted. [More…]

• I would emphasise that contributors to medical and hospital benefit plans offering deductibles will be regarded as contributing to standard medical and hospital benefit tables and, for this purpose, payment of those medical and hospital contributions will exempt such contributors from payment of the health insurance levy. [More…]

• As I stated previously, this innovation has two objectives: Firstly, to reduce health insurance contributions for those willing to accept a larger direct share of responsibility for the costs of their health care; and, secondly, to provide a deterrent against the overuse of health services. [More…]

• As in the past, eligible pensioners- that is, those holding a pensioner health benefits card- will not be charged for pharmaceutical benefits. [More…]

• These relate to the levels of medical benefits to be payable for medical services and the abolition of bulk billing, except for persons with pensioner health benefit entitlements. [More…]

• Other major provisions in the Bill relate to changes in the public and private health insurance system and the cost sharing of the operating costs of the Australian Capital Territory hospitals. [More…]

• As I advised the House on 24 May, the level of medical benefits payable by Medibank and health insurance organisations for medical services is to be reduced from 1 July 1978. [More…]

• Since the changes to Medibank from 1 October 1976 persons from overseas temporarily residing in Australia and Australian residents temporarily overseas, in general, have been either subject to the Medibank levy or covered as privately insured persons with private health insurance organisations in Australia registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• Such persons from overseas may have eligibility for health care coverage provided by their overseas employer or a health insurance fund in the overseas country. [More…]

• However, such coverage does not provide exemption from the health insurance levy. [More…]

• This means there are circumstances in which persons in the categories to which I have referred are financially penalised by being subject to the levy or by contributions to an Australian private health organisation registered under the National Health Act, while having adequate and satisfactory health insurance cover by an overseas operator. [More…]

• Accordingly the Bill, in clause 4, provides that such a person may be deemed to be a privately insured person by a declaration of the Minister for Health, where the Minister is satisfied that a person has adequate coverage and protection against liability for medical and hospital expenses. [More…]

• This action will exempt the person from payment of the health insurance levy. [More…]

• Whilst introducing this concession within the health insurance arrangements, the Government is concerned that any change to the existing position should not lead to a breaking down of the universal coverage in Australia. [More…]

• For this reason permanent residents in Australia, Commonwealth and State public servants overseas whose conditions of remuneration adequately cover their position and Australian citizens overseas who are employed as locally engaged staff at Australian establishments outside Australia and entitled to the provision of health care reimbursement of expenses as part of the employment conditions, are excluded from the concession. [More…]

• It has come to the Government’s attention that over the past few years there has been a gradual but significant increase in health screening activity. [More…]

• In many cases such services are provided to apparently healthy people- for example, for purposes of recreation or sport and for testing of an individual’s physical fitness. [More…]

• The Bill provides, in clause 6, that unless the Minister for Health otherwise directs, a medical benefit is not payable in respect of a health screening service. [More…]

• This proposal conforms with the Government’s policy of curtailing expenditure under the health insurance arrangements and eliminating abuses. [More…]

• It is estimated that savings up to $10m in a year could accrue to Medibank and the private health insurance organisations from the non-payment of medical benefits for these unnecessary services. [More…]

• I have publicly stated that, at an appropriate time, the Health Insurance Act would be amended to exclude services rendered to Australian residents overseas, by persons such as Mr Brych, from attracting medical benefits. [More…]

• Clause 8 of the Bill enables the Minister for Health, where he is satisfied that a prescribed person is not acceptable as such for benefit purposes, because of lack of training, unavailability of proper medical or surgical facilities or for any other reason, to declare by notice in the Commonwealth Gazette that the person is unacceptable as a prescribed person. [More…]

• Commonwealth payments are made to either the State Treasury or State health authority. [More…]

• The amendments made by clause 10 of the Bill are designed to place Commonwealth payments under the Health Insurance Act for recognised hospitals in the Australian Capital Territory on a comparable basis to those payments made to States. [More…]

• Firstly, this is achieved by the Bill providing for Commonwealth payments under the Health Insurance Act to be based on an approved budget for a period, usually a financial year, covering all recognised hospitals in the Territory. [More…]

• The budget is to be submitted by the Capital Territory Health Commission. [More…]

• At present, the Commonwealth is required under the Health Insurance Act to meet 50 per cent of the actual net operating costs of the hospitals. [More…]

• Secondly, there is a new provision for the Commonwealth to make a further payment where the Minister for Health is satisfied circumstances justify the making of such a payment. [More…]

• However, the total Commonwealth payment under the Health Insurance Act shall not exceed 50 per cent of the actual net operating costs of recognised hospitals in respect of the period. [More…]

• Thirdly, the Commonwealth payment is to be made to the Capital Territory Health Commission. [More…]

• The Commonwealth payments are to be made, as they are to the States, subject to conditions determined by the Minister for Health who, in determining the conditions, must have regard to the heads of agreement set out in Schedule 2 of the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• Section 17 and repealed section 18 of the Health Insurance Act, which was repealed with effect from 1 October, 1976, prohibited the payment of medical benefits in certain circumstances. [More…]

• A remaining provision of the Bill, clause 1 1, contains a consequential amendment resulting from the abolition of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• This Bill will amend certain health insurance levy provisions of the taxation law. [More…]

• Another change to the health insurance levy arrangements will follow from an amendment to the Health Insurance Act that has just been proposed by me as Minister for Health. [More…]

• Under that amendment, an Australian resident temporarily overseas, or a non-resident temporarily in Australia, who has adequate health care cover under an overseas health fund or plan, may be treated as a privately insured person. [More…]

• Broadly, the effect of this will be that such persons will be exempt from the health insurance levy. [More…]

• At present only those whose private insurance is with an Australian health fund qualify for exemption from the levy in this way. [More…]

• Nothing can be done which will improve the lot of rural people more than those measures that will benefit the economy as a whole, which will result in economic health for the entire community and which will provide the opportunity for Australia to grow again. [More…]

• -Two of the Bills before the House- the National Health Amendment Bill and the Health Insurance Amendment Bill- generally speaking deal with matters which the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) forecast in his statement about two weeks ago to introduce changes which allegedly will reduce the cost of health insurance, the cost of health care to the Australian population. [More…]

• In dealing with the Bills today I point out that the Opposition strongly supports the introduction of the travelling allowance and overnight stay allowance scheme which is proposed as part of the amendments to the National Health Act; that we do realise that persons living a long way away- defined in this legislation as 200 kilometres away- from the nearest specialist needed some subsidy and we agree that this is a much better method of dealing with it than the proposals which have often been suggested by persons writing to us. [More…]

• ACOSS views with extreme concern the changes in the health insurance system announced yesterday by the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The abolition of bulk billing will also increase the overall cost of health care, as it will add considerably to the cost of administration, especially for Medibank Standard, for which the Government itself is directly responsible. [More…]

• ACOSS continues that it is totally opposed to the principle of front end deductibles which serve only to assist the younger and healthier section of the community and will inevitably result in additional costs to those in most need of service, unless all the health funds are to become insolvent. [More…]

• The new measures will not control health costs and are not the solution to the problems of Australia’s health system. [More…]

• The Opposition will move an amendment to the National Health Amendment Bill and I formally move it now. [More…]

• On the Health Insurance Amendment Bill I foreshadow that when that particular Bill is at the second reading stage I shall move: [More…]

• The first Bill on the Notice Paper is the National Health Amendment Bill. [More…]

• It provides for health insurance organisations, private health funds, to operate approved medical and hospital deductibles and it foreshadows that guidelines will be issued at a later stage by regulation. [More…]

• The same discussion paper, referring to deductibles, points out that in a community where there is health insurance, especially universal health insurance, premiums must be calculated on the basis of community rating. [More…]

• Not only do the healthy subsidise the sick but the single person subsidises the married person, the young subsidise the old, the middle-aged person subsidises both young families and old contributors, small families subsidise large families, and males subsidise females in most age groups. [More…]

• The proposed new provisions allow health insurance organisations to plan and with the approval of the Minister for Health, operate benefit tables in addition to, or in place of, the basic medical and hospital benefits tables now operated by registered organisations. [More…]

• I think that deductibles are wrong in any case, but it is particularly wrong in this case because it will encourage some funds to concentrate only on healthy people. [More…]

• At the present time if a large fund such as the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia or Medibank Private offered deductibles it could assume that the healthier persons subscribing to the fund would take out the deductibles- younger people, single people, persons with small families, people who have reason to believe that it is a fair bet that they will not be spending $ 100 or $200 on health care during the year. [More…]

• We know that a fund can be started that offers only deductibles and not a general cover, and surely some smart operator will start a fund for healthy people and his organisation will show a profit and do very well. [More…]

• Although the Opposition does not want any funds with deductibles, if we are to keep any semblance of universal health insurance we do not want funds to be able to offer huge deductibles. [More…]

• For $20 a year I could offer a deductible of say $5,000, where a contributor would pay the first $5,000 of his health expenditure, and I would be taking no great risk. [More…]

• The result of that would be that a large number of persons, who think they are fit and well and who believe that they contribute an unnecessarily high proportion of their income towards the upkeep of health care for Australians generally, would join that fund and would really be opting out of the universal health system. [More…]

• The other point that I have raised before and which I consider to be quite unjust and unfair is that persons who opt out are generally the healthier people in the community and the healthier people are often the wealthier people. [More…]

• They will be able to get a tax deduction for any health expenditure they incur. [More…]

• To summarise, I feel that discriminating in favour of those who rarely need medical treatment and against those who need it often should not be the purpose of any national health scheme worthy of the name. [More…]

• Whether the Government admits it or not, it is toying with the idea of moving further and further away from the concept of universal health insurance towards a system of partial insurance which will place an unfair financial burden on those most in need of medical care. [More…]

• In the Health Insurance Amendment Bill, we are dealing with a number of amendments. [More…]

• I am not suggesting that it is under pressure from the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Minister was unavailable on that night and I suggested that possibly the chairman of the Government members health committee or Senator Peter Baume might be the appropriate person to discuss the question of health insurance and health costs with me on that program. [More…]

• The HCF, as one of Australia’s oldest and most experienced health funds, offers patients full nursing home benefits under its basic hospital table. [More…]

• I think the Minister will agree that I have an interest in this issue of containing health costs and yet providing the maximum and best possible care for the Australian population. [More…]

• Large families: higher health costs, problems with red tape. [More…]

• Unemployed: health costs, sense of futility and hopelessness. [More…]

• We have unemployed parents with young families sometimes consisting of a number of children who would not have anything like that income and yet they are not entitled to take advantage of some of the benefits of our health legislation. [More…]

• The same applies to the chronically ill and handicapped who already have continually mounting health costs. [More…]

• They are not entitled to the pensioner health benefit card and therefore they are not entitled to either free pharmaceutical benefits or help in the form of bulk billing. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) represents the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) in this House and he must be aware of the potential extra cost involved in moving people from the health field into the social security field. [More…]

• This brings me to the other piece of legislation that we are debating tonight, the Hospitals and Health Services Commission (Repeal) Bill. [More…]

• I support the repeal of the Hospitals and Health Services Commission but not because I was dissatisfied with the sort of thing that it did. [More…]

• That emphasises the relationship between health and social welfare. [More…]

• We are talking about the relationship between health and social welfare because we know that ill health is one of the main contributing factors to persons finishing up on invalid pensions and on other kinds of pensions and benefits, including unemployment benefits and special benefits. [More…]

• It seems to me quite remarkable that having appointed such a person and such a secretariat this Government then introduces legislation which, from the point of view of the Government and the Department of Health, at best will shift costs from the Department of Health to the Department of Social Security. [More…]

• I hope that, before the Minister gets himself involved in transferring money from expenditure on straight health care to pay for extra people to work- to look at claims, to handle claims and to put things in envelopes- and to pay chemists who have a pharmacy close to a medical practice the extra 60c for filling in claim forms, he will have another look at the matter, talk to people who generally speaking do not support us politically, people such as medical practitioners, and those who work with some of the disadvantaged people in the community, and think about it again. [More…]

• It is a much maligned profession but it adds a great deal to the health of this nation. [More…]

• The pharmacist is a very important person in the health team. [More…]

• On this point I want to take to task the many doctors throughout this nation who are too lazy to apply to the Director-General of Health to receive the necessary authority to allow them to prescribe one month’s supply and two repeats for one fee. [More…]

• -As the Minister for Health says, in special circumstances, sometimes up to 6 months supply. [More…]

• It relates to a subsidised health benefit scheme. [More…]

• That Committee is comprised of members of the Department of Health and of the pharmacy profession. [More…]

• I know the Minister for Health is extremely concerned and has been extremely concerned with the plight of many people in country areas. [More…]

• As I see it, this is a great initiative of this Government and I commend the Minister for Health for introducing this proposal in the National Health Amendment Bill of 1 978. [More…]

• The opportunity was given to this particular individual by the Minister for Health, Mr Hunt, and by the Queensland Minster for Health, Dr Edwards. [More…]

• When people’s health is at stake, of course they become emotional. [More…]

• Finally, I want to move into the areas of the changes to the health insurance system. [More…]

• We are encouraging responsible use of one of the best health services in the world, and that ought to be recognised by all Australians. [More…]

• It is one of the best and most responsible health services in the world and we must encourage a responsible use of that service. [More…]

• I repeat that we must not have an abuse or over-use of health services. [More…]

• This is the sole purpose of the options that are left open to the private health insurance funds in relation to front end deductibles. [More…]

• -The second reading speech to the National Health Amendment Bill delivered yesterday by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) was in many ways very odd. [More…]

• The proclaimed and obstensible object of the Bill is to reduce health costs. [More…]

• Ever since I have been in the Parliament- for the past six months- we have been told about this impending legislation whose object was to reduce health costs in this country. [More…]

• Yet the bulk of the Minister’s second reading speech was devoted to how the Government planned to add a further $7m to the health bill by the provision to assist persons who live in isolated areas to obtain specialist medical treatment. [More…]

• Nevertheless, the main thrust of the Bill is supposedly to cut the spiralling cost of health in this country. [More…]

• The tax, in effect, of every Australian paying the health levy goes up as a result of the reduced returns through the coinsurance proposals of the Bill. [More…]

• The Minister continued yesterday the practice of which he was justly condemned a fortnight ago; that is, ‘treating the question of health policy solely as a public relations exercise in minimising political damage, using some transparently dishonest means of doing so’. [More…]

• However, that excuse which some honourable members seem to wish to offer for the Minister neglects utterly the widespread and cogent criticisms directed at his announcements of 24 May 1978, criticisms not made simply from the Opposition but from the Australian Medical Association, the private health insurers and many social welfare groups. [More…]

• Will the private funds reduce contribution rates as indicated by the Minister on 24 May or will they behave as predicted by the president of Voluntary Health Insurance of Australia? [More…]

• We have heard ad nauseam from the Government and honourable members opposite about the spiralling cost of health services in this country, a rise which has occurred in nearly all advanced industrial societies in the 1970s. [More…]

• What are- I can afford only a brief span on thisthe chief sources of the rise in health costs in [More…]

• The estimates vary from about 5 per cent to 10 per cent of the total health bill. [More…]

• Yet all of these much vaunted measures which have been talked about for six months and over which the Government has cogitated probably for two years as to how to control health costs, deal with none of these major problems except the last- that minor problem produced by patient-initiated services. [More…]

• According to the Minister for Health, in his statement of 24 May, these measures will save $24m. [More…]

• The Government has decided that bulk or direct billing arrangements for medical benefits be abolished except for people with pensioner health benefit entitlements. [More…]

• One of the chief ministerial laments in the last six months- I sympathise with the Minister- is that the Minister does not have the statistical evidence to deal with the problem of health costs -to deal with overall planning as to what is to be done about these problems. [More…]

• Medibank Mark 2V4 represents one further step whereby a simple, efficient, universal, equitable and comprehensive health scheme is gradually being undermined. [More…]

• I think that there is a real danger in this society that we might ultimately produce two health schemes: One with a whole range of choices and options for the well off and another rather limited second rate scheme for those people less well off. [More…]

• Dr Sax suggested that we should judge changes to the health plan by simplicity, efficiency, equity and comprehensiveness. [More…]

• This proposal to undercut the procedures has been very clearly condemned in the Discussion Paper on Paying for Health Care put out by the Hospitals and Health Services Commission: [More…]

• -I feel that the honourable member for Bonython (Dr Blewett) made a few contradictions, something for which he condemned the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• He criticised the Minister for Health for presenting his second reading speech in such a way as to indicate that the Government intends, as it does, to cut the costs of the scheme to some extent and, at the same time, to introduce a benefit for people living in isolated areas. [More…]

• In supporting the provisions contained in the National Health Amendment Bill, there is no question in my mind- I have a fair experience of people living in difficult and poor circumstances- that amongst the most under-privileged people in Australia today are the people who will benefit by this new arrangement. [More…]

• The National Health Amendment Bill, which is the Bill to which I shall speak in the main, fulfills an undertaking given by the Government to assist people living in isolated areas who are in need of specialist medical attention. [More…]

• Early treatment so often is an essential factor in the’ restoration of their health. [More…]

• It is for that reason that my colleague the honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd), the chairman of our health committee, has given way to me in order that I may speak, on behalf of those people, of the great need for this measure. [More…]

• As I have said before, when they have to travel to seek attention they have the worry of financial problems added to their illnesses, which does not help to restore them to health. [More…]

• The Government has given financial assistance to the Service as well as to the community health program and the mobile dental clinic conducted under the school dental program. [More…]

• I would like to join with the Minister for Health who paid tribute in his second reading speech to those people employed in these services who provide such essential care to people living in isolated areas. [More…]

• The financial assistance given by the Government to those areas that I have mentioned is something for which it should be commended and something which is helping to provide a better health service and to maintain the health of the community in those areas. [More…]

• The isolated areas which will be serviced by the Bill that I am referring to can be identified by reference to the local government areas described in regulations under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The patient must obtain prior approval of the Director-General of Health and satisfy him that the relevant criteria to qualify have been met. [More…]

• My Department has made a grant to the Townsville Aboriginal and Islanders Community Health Service to purchase premises for an alcoholic rehabilitation centre. [More…]

• 1 ) Did the Mareeba Shire Council, Queensland, in 1973 destroy substandard Aboriginal homes claiming they were a health hazard without taking effective steps to provide alternatives. [More…]

• -Can the Minister for Health advise the House whether he and his Department has the matter of dangers associated with the use of the chemicals 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D under close scrutiny? [More…]

• Is he aware of the concern expressed and stance taken by the Queensland Minister for Health, and that the South Australian Government has set up a special committee to investigate the possible link between the use of the chemicals and birth deformities? [More…]

• The concern of the Queensland Government, the South Australian authorities and the Victorian Minister for Health about recent suggestions that there is a relationship between the chemical weedicide 2,4,5-T and human birth defects has been conveyed to me. [More…]

• Top scientists in this country, through the National Health and Medical Research Council, and in other parts of the world have been investigating for some time the suggestion of a link between congenital defects in humans and 2,4,5-T. To the present time none of those investigations has established any link between the chemicals involved and congenital defects. [More…]

• But I am sufficiently concerned to respond to the wishes of the Victorian Minister for Health, Mr Houghton, in particular, who rang me last night about the issue, and to ask the National Health and Medical Research Council to undertake a reexamination of all the additional evidence that may be available to it. [More…]

• I understand that the National Health and Medical Research Council will be meeting in Adelaide next week. [More…]

• Will the Minister for Health ensure that if health insurance funds make an application for increases in premiums for medical insurance the estimated 46c a week family reduction is passed on to the contributor? [More…]

• Is it likely that some funds may have to increase premiums for health insurance notwithstanding the 10 per cent reduction of medical benefits payable? [More…]

• The changes in health insurance previously announced by the Government should mean a saving- I repeat the word saving’- of 46c a week to the individual insurance funds in respect of each contributor. [More…]

• My Department will ensure that in every case where a health insurance fund makes an application for an increase in the premium payable on the medical table, the 46c on average- that is, the calculated difference between the present benefit and the smaller benefit that is payable as from 1 July- will be taken into account and will be passed on to contributors. [More…]

• My question also is directed to the Minister for Health and refers to the Government’s decision to increase from $2 to $2.50 the patient contribution for pharmaceutical benefits items. [More…]

• -The Minister for Health ( Mr Hunt), in answer to a question from an honourable member opposite at Question Time today, referred to a newspaper article in yesterday’s Melbourne Herald where I was alleged to have said that I found him depressing. [More…]

• Whilst I do not necessarily disagree with that, what I said to the newspaper was that I had asked a question on 8 May arising out of a Four Corners program shown during the previous weekend where an officer of his Department representing the National Health and Medical Research Council had performed rather badly in regard to questions dealing with pesticides. [More…]

• Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. [More…]

• As I was saying then, when the honourable member for Maranoa (Mr Corbett) spoke, he was a bit upset and he implied that them members of the Labor Party did not agree that there should be a subsidy provided in the National Health Amendment Bill for isolated people. [More…]

• He has had discussions with the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Treasurer (Mr Howard) on some taxation reductions. [More…]

• I support the remarks of the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) and the honourable member for Bonython (Dr Blewett) in opposing the changes in the health scheme. [More…]

• The first of the three Bills under discussion is the Hospitals and Health Services Commission (Repeal) Bill which repeals the Commission established in 1 973. [More…]

• The National Health Amendment Bill 1978 proposes four major changes. [More…]

• Secondly, the Bill provides that private funds will be prevented horn entering into bulk billing arrangements other than for eligible pensioners and their dependents, that is, those eligible for fringe benefits including the pensioner health benefits card. [More…]

• The third Bill being dealt with in this cognate debate is the Health Insurance Amendment Bill 1978. [More…]

• It is to amend the original Act so as to provide that certain persons- Australian residents overseas and overseas residents in Australia having foreign health cover- will be exempted from the health insurance levy and will be ineligible for benefits. [More…]

• It provides also for the exclusion of certain health screening services from payment of benefits. [More…]

• I have always had respect for the Minister for Health, but I think that this is a case where he did not have the numbers in Cabinet. [More…]

• When questioned by the honourable member for Prospect about the injustice to the needy of the proposed scheme relating to the abolition of bulk billing and of the future changes to the national health scheme, the Minister stated that the medical profession would show compassion for individuals in needy circumstances. [More…]

• The Association’s general secretary, Dr George Repin, said the changes could also increase health costs in the long run. [More…]

• Health care will undoubtedly be a key issue once again at the next election. [More…]

• We will maintain Medibank and ensure that the standard of health care does not decline. ‘ [More…]

• Two weeks ago the Government took its latest step to maintain’ Medibank and health care. [More…]

• The abolition of bulk billing and the reduction of rebate from 85 per cent to 75 per cent will have the effect of placing community health centres without salaried doctors in an almost untenable position to provide effective primary health care. [More…]

• By 1980, the National Health Scheme will again be in tattersas it was before Labor was elected to Government on the promise of Medibank in 1972. [More…]

• Health care goes well beyond health insurance. [More…]

• Labor’s program of community health services was a highly effective one where we were able to implement it. [More…]

• What effect will the cost changes in regard to health insurance have on Aborigines? [More…]

• An article from the Sydney Morning Herald entitled Health services for Aborigines fear effects of cost changes ‘states: [More…]

• A deputation from the services told the Minister for Health, Mr Hunt, on Tuesday that abolition of bulk billing, reduction of the benefit rate from 85 to 75 per cent of scheduled fees, and increased charges for medicines would have serious effects on Aboriginal health and the operation of the services. [More…]

• The national cost of health care is $7,000m and the Commonwealth’s share of the bill is $3,000m. [More…]

• r think this debate on health care costs reflects the contradictory attitude of the community generally and the general nature of the debate that is taking place in the community. [More…]

• Some people are saying that they are opposed to the increasing percentage of the gross domestic product, or their incomes, being devoted to paying for the escalating health care costs. [More…]

• Before I go on to the contradictory part of their beliefs, I want to acknowledge the success that the present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has achieved through the Medibank Mark [More…]

• Some people are saying that we can not afford to devote an increased percentage of our income, national or individual, to health care costs, and something must be done about it, but when the Government does something about it the Government is roundly condemned for doing it. [More…]

• That is the impossible contradictory situation that I believe any Minister for Health would have to face at present. [More…]

• For some time there were all sorts of wild assertions and rumours about the Parliament that there were to be massive transfers of health care costs from the government sector to the private sector, to the patient. [More…]

• I want to quote from a ministerial statement made in May entitled ‘Health Care Costs Control Program’ in which the Minister for Health stated: [More…]

• Accordingly the Government has decided to seek the authority to obtain and analyse information from and about the health insurance system in greater depth. [More…]

• As well, a number of specific pilot surveys covering usage and costs of health services in individual areas will be undertaken. [More…]

• This action, together with a basic review now under way on the health data available for policy evaluation, will provide the Government with a more accurate information base which is an important requirement of a continuing review. [More…]

• Until an improved data base becomes available the Government believes that it would be premature to proceed further with the consideration of major adjustments to the health insurance system. [More…]

• The Minister mentioned in that statement that he will be discussing with the Health Ministers of the States various ways of better controlling costs in hospitals. [More…]

• It is in hospitals that the major cost of our health care system lies. [More…]

• The discussion paper on health care by Dr Sax forms the basis for the Government’s review and the amendments which are now before us and I believe that the decisions made by the Government largely follow the recommendations of that document. [More…]

• In the medical area and in relation to the major decision which has been announced and which we are debating, the 75 per cent to 85 per cent rebate level, the question of identifying health care costs at the patient level is stated clearly by Dr Sax as an important issue. [More…]

• We are criticised for increasing this gap but we have to look only as far as New Zealand to see in that country- a country where some of us may think there is a greater degree of socialised medicine, of an egalitarian approach to health care- a far greater patient contribution gap for ordinary medical services. [More…]

• encourage responsible use of one of the best health services in the world; ensure that overuse and abuse were reduced to a minimum; obtain the best value for taxpayers’ dollars spent on health care: and to promote competition and innovation in private health insurance. [More…]

• The private health insurance companies and the AMA are also opposed to, and I must confess that I am concerned about, the provision of front-end deductibles. [More…]

• However, I am reassured by the Minister that he has specific criteria which will have to be followed by the health funds before any approval is given for a front-end deductible scheme. [More…]

• I would be interested to know whether such people as Mr Stewart, Mr Keating, Mr Martin or even Mr Les McMahon would be completely in favour of a scheme which prevented a significant percentage of the Australian population from having the freedom and the right to opt out through private health insurance of the payment for a medical benefit or rebate for the termination of pregnancy when they on moral grounds do not believe in it. [More…]

• I only hope that the Australian population at large will become aware of the attitude taken by the Labor Party in denying that freedom of choice to a very significant percentage of the population which is very upset by the fact that at present it is forced to pay through the private health insurance funds for the termination of pregnancies which it on moral grounds cannot support. [More…]

• One other side effect is that the amendments proposed by the Labor Party would actually increase health insurance costs. [More…]

• Reducing the rebate or increasing the gap from 15 per cent to 25 per cent brings home to the patient to a greater degree the actual cost of health insurance services that he is incurring while at the same time gap insurance is allowed to continue. [More…]

• If this involved only health insurance people, perhaps the Government could; but one must consider the whole range of possible insurance arrangements, including State insurance companies which would not necessarily go along with a request from the Commonwealth not to cover gap insurance. [More…]

• They were all in favour of a 50 per cent increase- a 50 per cent slug, if you like- on the ordinary person going along to obtain his national health scheme j.r ascription; yet now they are opposed to an increase of half that size. [More…]

• There are some other implications for rural health in the Minister’s statement. [More…]

• The Minister for Health is very much aware of this situation because he has many of these types of hospitals in his own electorate. [More…]

• I know the Minister is very much aware of this aspect and I remind him of the need to keep this uppermost in his mind when he is discussing these matters with the State Health Ministers. [More…]

• People cannot on the one hand claim that taxes are too high- that somehow or other the individual should be allowed to retain a bigger disposable income than he has now- and on the other hand criticise health costs to which too high a percentage of the tax dollar is going, especially as health care is a highly paid labour intensive area. [More…]

• Australia will continue to have one of the best and most accessible health care systems in the world. [More…]

• People will still have a reasonable freedom of choice and the basic universal health care coverage will be retained. [More…]

• This was the principal concern not only when Medibank was introduced but also when the system of national health insurance was launched by Sir Earle Page- the very scheme which the Labor Party modified with the introduction of Medibank by making it more universal and more equitable. [More…]

• With very little data coming forward now under the modified Medibank- Medibank Mark 2- it will be a lot longer before any data of that kind will be forthcoming so that people can form some assessment whether this deterrent charge really achieves cheaper health care or better health care, or whether it has the reverse effect. [More…]

• The mere acknowledgement by all political parties in this Parliament that the majority of the load of health care costs ought to be carried by the community or ought to be under a scheme of national insurance surely is an acknowledgement that it is far better to run the risk of over use by subsidising the majority of these costs than to run the risk of under use that will occur if they are not subsidised. [More…]

• I pay a brief tribute to Dr Sax, to the Hospitals and Health Services Commission and the people who work with him, not only in the field of national health insurance but also in the fields in which they first entered the federal scene. [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission was not concerned with health insurance but with other functions within the Department of Health. [More…]

• It was my privilege as Minister for Health, after appointing that Commission, to work closely with Dr Sax and his colleagues on schemes such as the community health program which has given a new dimension to public health concern and involvement in Australia. [More…]

• Dr Sax’s ability, expertise and great capacity have been acknowledged by his increasing involvement in the field and he has now been appointed to a completely new policy secretariat dealing with health and welfare. [More…]

• I pay a tribute again to the Department of Health which, while I was Minister for Health, assisted me to call wide-ranging discussions and conferences on the problems of rural health. [More…]

• The Department produced reports, after I and other Ministers were dismissed from office, on the matters of health transport and rural health. [More…]

• I commend the present Minister for Health for having done so. [More…]

• Of course, many other areas of health care have been left uncovered. [More…]

• Not only would the patient who has to travel to receive treatment benefit by perhaps having a wider range of choice of doctor but also the load removed from the State public health system would be acknowledged by the States so that they could provide other services with the money saved. [More…]

• One of the areas of concern that I had when we set up the committee to look at health transport costs was the matter of ambulance transport. [More…]

• Contributors to ambulance services receive no credit for that kind of contribution which makes them a member of an ambulance scheme and entitles them to use ambulance services, unless they happen to opt for one of the Medibank extras or one of the optional areas of cover provided by private health funds which are not subsidised by either State or Federal governments. [More…]

• They should explain painstakingly to a patient and make very clear in his mind his responsibility for his health as it relates to his use of drugs, whether prescribed or not. [More…]

• As the honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd) rightly said, hospital costs are the major cause of escalation in health costs. [More…]

• I want to nail the insinuation which was made by many supporters of the Government that a major proportion of the growth of health costs was due to the introduction of Medibank or due to the Labor Government. [More…]

• One honourable member on the Government benches interjected to claim that the escalation in health costs was due to wage increases. [More…]

• These two factors, more than any other, greatly escalated hospital health costs. [More…]

• We have seen repeatedly in the care of Aborigines, in the care of North American Indians, in the care of groups of people of all ages who are disadvantaged in North America and elsewhere, that the provision of more of the same, when health costs are going through the ceiling due to modern technology, does nothing to improve health. [More…]

• In the Whitlam years we introduced a measure which was a radical departure from this by promoting the community health program and other programs of its kind, such as the school dental scheme, family planning grants and so on. [More…]

• Physiotherapists and other types of health aids and professional people ought to be out in the community where the general practitioner is. [More…]

• The general practitioner should not be left on his own with nothing but a telephone and a prescription pad to achieve access to the other resources of health care teams. [More…]

• There ought to be community health care committees and regional administration should be made the responsibility of the representatives of that community. [More…]

• I believe that unless the Government moves more in that direction and less towards fiddling with systems of payment it will do nothing to stop the escalation of health costs. [More…]

• No government can stand by and see health costs explode at the rate of 225 per cent in a six -year period and not attempt to come to grips with the problems. [More…]

• In fact, no Western country has yet been able satisfactorily to deal with an escalating health cost system. [More…]

• The changes made by the Government on 1 October 1976 quite clearly have resulted in a greater appreciation of the health cost problem in the community. [More…]

• I believe that they served to expose the health cost problem generally. [More…]

• When most of our health costs were buried in Consolidated Revenue it was very easy to ignore the fact that health costs were rapidly exploding. [More…]

• The people can appreciate the problem of health costs. [More…]

• I think it is also terribly important from the point of view of the providers of health services. [More…]

• During the terms of previous Liberal-Country Party governments, a pensioner in a nursing home registered under the National Health Act retained over $6 a week of his or her pension for personal needs. [More…]

• There is general agreement between the State Health Ministers and me that positive action should be taken to regularise this situation by reclassifying the long-term patients in public hospitals whose situation is similar to that of nursing home patients. [More…]

• The need to reclassify such patients has been recognised for some time and has been the subject of discussions at the Australian Health Ministers Conference over the past few years. [More…]

• The Government agrees with this proposal as part of its overall policy of reducing the rising costs of hospitals which, as I nave mentioned on previous occasions, are by far the most costly component of health care. [More…]

• The main objection of the Opposition to the introduction of deductibles is that persons who are healthy, persons who are relatively well off, youngish people, single people to a large extent, will opt for the deductibles. [More…]

• In addition to obtaining the benefit of a lower contribution rate, if something does go wrong they can claim their actual health expenditure arising from these deductibles as a tax deduction. [More…]

• To summarise the position of the Opposition, we feel that discriminating in favour of those who rarely need medical treatment and against those who need it often should not be the purpose of any national health scheme worthy of the name. [More…]

• Whether the Government admits it or not, it is toying with the idea of moving further and further away from the concept of universal health insurance towards a system of partial insurance which will place an unfair financial burden on those most in need of medical care. [More…]

• -I wish to say a few words on the clause relating to the option this legislation gives to health funds to exclude benefits for abortions from their benefit .tables. [More…]

• I imagine that there may be problems with private health funds, which are funded 100 per cent by their contributors, in making it illegal for them to pay benefits for abortions from contributors’ funds. [More…]

• -Let me say, first of all, that I wish to congratulate the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) that in arguing the issue of optional deductibles he has argued for the basic principle on grounds primarily of efficiency and cost reduction. [More…]

• They are the healthy and the wealthy. [More…]

• The healthy can take the risk. [More…]

• They can gamble on maintaining their health and therefore can take a deductible scheme. [More…]

• As Mr Moon from the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia said, these people take a gamble. [More…]

• Secondly, there is a major threat to equity because the deductible scheme will really attract the healthy and the wealthy, reducing their costs but placing higher costs on the poor and the sick. [More…]

• Thirdly, there is a problem that if the scheme is made particularly attractive it might compromise the universality of health cover in this country. [More…]

• The ultimate result of that, if it were carried to absurdity, would be to destroy universality and the community rating principle in health insurance. [More…]

• I think the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) yesterday raised the point of what would happen if a health insurance fund offered a $5,000 deductible. [More…]

• We would be looking to a health insurance organisation maintaining full non-deductible basic tables where it wishes to offer a reasonably attractive optional deductible table. [More…]

• I will certainly be determining these issues and it will not be open season for the health insurance funds to adopt the exorbitant plan that was cited to me as an example. [More…]

• I think a very much more important possibility is where a fund might offer, as a result of the flexibility that is offered to it, a deductible as an incentive to contributors to adopt healthy life styles. [More…]

• How on earth a health insurance fund could administer such a proposal I do not know, but I understand that some health insurance funds are investigating the desirability of offering such tables. [More…]

• They could provide some very useful information on the direction that health insurance should take in the years to come, not only in this country but also other Western countries. [More…]

• Here again I would agree with what the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has done in this case in providing for the Government to pay any amount over and above a certain figure- it is $ 1 5 a day for accommodation and $20 a day for travelling expenses. [More…]

• It will be a shame if this happens because confidence has been built up in the provision of attention by the doctors at the community health centre in this area. [More…]

• -Clause 5 of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill deals with the particularly obnoxious proposal to increase the amount of each bill that a patient or a contributor to a health fund must pay. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) may think that- I use his words- ‘this remains a small additional direct patient contribution’. [More…]

• If the Minister is really serious about containing health costs, he should be seeking to control these parasitic doctors and specialists who seek to earn exorbitant incomes from’ the misfortune of major illnesses. [More…]

• The Minister says that this will deter people from using health services unnecessarily. [More…]

• At any rate, the Minister has pointed out that people who wish to obtain additional insurance cover as a result of this decision will be able to obtain it anyway through the supplementary tables of the private health organisations. [More…]

• I support my colleague, the honourable member for Cunningham (Mr West), in opposing the principles embodied in clause 5 of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill. [More…]

• Some weeks ago the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) was rather confident that the medical profession would be prepared in those cases to accept 75 per cent as full payment. [More…]

• I oppose the Health Insurance Amendment Bill. [More…]

• After months of dallying about cutting health costs the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has come out with new proposals which smack of elitism. [More…]

• The new proposals show that the Government is not thinking of the health of Australians but is thinking only of its own deficits. [More…]

• By cutting medical benefit rates from 85 per cent to 75 per cent and by increasing from $5 to $10 the maximum patient contribution the Government will force us to pay more for our health. [More…]

• The national health bill is $7,000m and the Commonwealth’s share of the bill is $3, 000m. [More…]

• It decides that two VIP jets costing $30m to $40m are much more desirable than having a health care scheme for all Australians. [More…]

• It will severely disadvantage middle income earners, low income earners, the unemployed and the pensioners who have already suffered bad cuts in their fringe benefits and health cards. [More…]

• The proposal of deductibles will benefit only the healthy young and the very rich. [More…]

• As stated in the 1976-77 report from the Health Commission which was released three weeks ago, the average cost of each medical bulk bill was $2.70 cheaper than individual accounts. [More…]

• It will deter people from seeing the doctor and the health of generations of Australians will be jeopardised. [More…]

• For some reason the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) either did not hear it or pretended that he did not understand it. [More…]

• When the Federal Minister for Health, Mr Hunt, announced his latest package of changes to the health insurance system a fortnight ago, he had little to say in justification of his announcement that direct (or bulk) billing arrangements were to be abolished, except for people entitled to pensioner health benefits. [More…]

• He merely said that the move was designed to reduce fraud and the over-provision of health services. [More…]

• It was part of his broad plan to control the rapidly rising costs of health care. [More…]

• I appeal to the Minister for Health that clauses 7 and 9 of this Bill, which deal with bulk billing by medical practitioners and optometrists, not be proclaimed. [More…]

• As I understand the second reading speech of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), once the Gazette publishes the name of a person who is no longer acceptable as a prescribed person, in other words as a medical practitioner for whose service a patient is entitled to a refund, 30 days warning will be given. [More…]

• I am sure that other honourable members have received letters from persons who have been recently married or for some reason, having been married already, still take out separate health cover. [More…]

• One takes out a health cover with a private fund and the other is covered by levy. [More…]

• The other point I wish to make relates to the question of declaring that persons do not have to pay the levy if they are overseas visitors to Australia and belong to an overseas health fund which gives them adequate health care cover in Australia. [More…]

• One of the interesting points that raises is what is adequate health care cover, because it varies from State to State. [More…]

• Obviously whether one has foreign health cover that is adequate depends on the charges, and the charges vary from State to State. [More…]

• The Minister may well have difficulty in coming to a conclusion about what is adequate health care cover. [More…]

• Secondly, I ask the Minister to look at the charges imposed by the States on people covered by foreign health schemes to ascertain whether the States should collect the full cost of hospitalisation. [More…]

• They include public works and services, recreation facilities, council properties, car parking, health and welfare, fire prevention, town planning, inspection licensing, tourist promotion, libraries, et cetera. [More…]

• These surveys would have covered the following subjects: labour force experience; persons looking for work; leavers from schools, universities and other educational institutions; sight and hearing defects; and dental health. [More…]

• Other services are provided by means of: the National Materials Handling Bureau, located at Ryde, New South Wales, which encourages and assists industry at all levels, through project and ad hoc advisory services, to achieve productivity improvement through better handling, packaging and distribution practices, inter-firm comparison studies which enable firms to compare their performance with other firms, consultative services to industry to complement the inter-firm comparison services, development of a computerised simulation model to help the small business operator, encouraging labour/management co-operation, development and dissemination of Codes of Practice in the field of Occupational Safety and Health, specific industry productivity programs to identify and implement ways of improving the productivity and competitiveness of particular industries, development of a model cost reduction program for adoption by medium to small businesses. [More…]

• What steps have been taken to provide training certificates for Aboriginals as health aides, nursing assistants, public health assistants, clerical administrative assistants. [More…]

• Aboriginal health practitioners or other health team roles. [More…]

• How many Aboriginals are involved in sessions on Aboriginal health in medical and nursing schools. [More…]

• What local, regional, State and national assemblies have been set up to collate and develop Aboriginal health policies. [More…]

• What (a) Aboriginal controlled and (b) community controlled groups have received Aboriginal health funds from governments for disposal at their discretion, and what evaluation has been made of the results and by whom. [More…]

• What funds have been provided for formally recognised training courses in Aboriginal health, which medical schools, nursing colleges and Aboriginal controlled health services have received such funds, and how much has been provided in each case in each of the last 5 years for which data is available. [More…]

• Which governments and academic institutions require experience or training at Aboriginal health centres, in what form and for what periods in each case. [More…]

• What special arrangements have been made for enrolment of those Aboriginals eligible for subsidised health benefits. [More…]

• Which recommendations of the Monash seminar of May 1 972 on Aboriginal health have been implemented. [More…]

• 1 ) to ( 1 8 ) The Workshop on Aboriginal Medical Services held in Albury in 1 974 was convened by the Commonwealth Department of Health, and was designed to allow those involved to exchange experiences gained in the operation of Aboriginal Medical Services, to discuss the provision of similar services in other communities, and to suggest training programs. [More…]

• A total of 22 recommendations was made by the Workshop, many of them matters which fall within the responsibilities of the Minister of Health. [More…]

• Reporting on action taken on individual recommendations, several of which are separately referred to in this question, would entail an unjustifiable amount of the time of officers of my Department and the Department of Health. [More…]

• I remind the honourable member that the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs is at present enquiring into Aboriginal health problems and existing health care programs. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1 978: [More…]

• Health Insurance Amendment Act 1977 [More…]

• National Health Amendment Act 1976 [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 April 1978: [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission in respect of its private health insurance activities (i.e. [More…]

• Medibank Private) is registered under the National Health Act to operate medical and hospital funds in each State, including the Northern Territory. [More…]

• This means that for the purposes of the National Health Act, the Health Insurance Commission represents six separate private health insurance organisations. [More…]

• 1 ) Did the Whitlam Government adopt a Code of General Principles in Occupational Safety and Health in Commonwealth Employment in 1 974. [More…]

• and (3) The Government has decided to implement the Code of General Principles on Occupational Safety and Health in Commonwealth Government Employment. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 June 1 978: [More…]

• As a proportion of (a) Gross Domestic Product and (b) Gross National Expenditure, what was the expenditure by OECD countries on (i) health, (ii) social welfare and (iii) education in each of the last 10 years. [More…]

• Similarly, in the case of health expenditure account should be taken of taxation concessions and expenditures financed through private health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• Public Expenditure on Health ‘ (published July 1977) [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1978: [More…]

• ) Are similar figures available from any of the larger private health funds. [More…]

• The figures for other private health funds (i.e. [More…]

• other than Medibank Private) are estimates based on information of medical benefits claims paid supplied by the larger private health funds for the six months ended 3 1 December 1977, or a lesser part of that period. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 6 March 1978: [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has produced a list of recommended notifiable diseases; however, individual State lists differ from this list where a State’s particular requirements need to be met. [More…]

• On berthing a Quarantine Officer will issue a certificate of pratique on being satisfied as to the health conditions of the ship. [More…]

• The proposal that quarantine clearance procedures at airports be included in the duties of the Primary Customs Officer is being examined jointly by officers of the Bureau of Customs and the Department of Health. [More…]

• Under present arrangements, the Department of Transport undertakes the operational aspects of airport waste disposal on behalf of the Department of Health. [More…]

• The Government is to proceed with the construction of the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory at Geelong to facilitate testing and research in respect of exotic diseases. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 3 May 1 978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 May 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) With reference to section 76a of the National Health Act, when does he anticipate tabling the report on the operations of the registered medical and hospital benefits organisations. [More…]

• Does he recognise the difficulties involved in his calling for stimulating public debate on health costs when the most recently published information on the operations of the health insurance funds is now almost 2 years out of date, and in which time dramatic changes have been made to the health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• ) Is the delay in tabling the report due to failure by some health insurance funds to provide the Department with the basic information concerning their operations. [More…]

• What action does he propose to take in relation to health insurance funds which do not comply with directions issued by him under section 74c of the Act. [More…]

• 1 ) The report on the operations of the registered medical and hospital benefits organisations under section 76a of the National Health Act, in respect of the year 1976-77, is expected to be ready for tabling by October 1 978. [More…]

• The main reason for the delay in tabling the report under section 76A of the National Health Act in recent years including the 1976-77 Report has been the late lodgment of annual returns by many of the registered organisations. [More…]

• It seems that these delays have been largely due to administrative difficulties within the respective organisations caused by changes to the health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission [More…]

• New South Wales Teachers ‘ Federation Health Society [More…]

• NIB Health Funds Limited [More…]

• Army Health Benefits Society [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission [More…]

• Latrobe Valley Hospitals and Health Services Association [More…]

• Naval Health Benefits Society [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission [More…]

• Queensland Teachers’ Union Health Society [More…]

• Fire Service Health Fund [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission [More…]

• National Health Services Association of South Australia [More…]

• Friendly Societies Health Services [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission [More…]

• ( 5 ), (6 ) and ( 7 ) No directions have been served under section 74G of the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 May 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) Will there be an oversupply of doctors in the near future; if so, will this add considerably to the national health bill. [More…]

• On the question of costs, it would appear from overseas studies that a substantial oversupply of doctors practising curative medicine would add considerably to the national health bill. [More…]

• In respect of the Commonwealth, for example, arrangements are currently being made for a committee of officers of the Departments of Education, Health, and Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and the Tertiary Education Commission to examine the issues further. [More…]

• The British Depanment of Health and Social Security recently decided that the payment of its National Insurance pensions in Australia should be made by order direct from its United Kingdom Central Office in the same way as its pensions are paid in all other countries. [More…]

• The Commission of Taxation has advised that the issue of refunds was slightly slower this year due mainly to transitional problems related to the health insurance levy and to the necessity to require an increasing number of taxpayers to verify expenditure claimed to have been incurred by them in gaining or producing their assessable income. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 6 June 1978: [More…]

• These aspects and the report mentioned were discussed at recent meetings of the Federal and State Health Ministers. [More…]

• At 20 March 1978 an estimated 1,346,400 Social Security pensioners were holders of pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• Not included in this figure are those pensioners holding pensioner health benefit cards who are paid by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. [More…]

• It also contains tax increases and announces significant policy decisions on health care financing arrangements and crude oil pricing. [More…]

• -by leave- In his Budget Speech, the Treasurer (Mr Howard) advised that changes will be made to the health insurance arrangements from 1 November this year. [More…]

• Although Medibank provided universal health insurance cover, it did so in a way which was open-ended and costly. [More…]

• Health costs were escalating at an alarming rate, and when the Government took office it was apparent that modifications to the scheme were necessary in order to reduce this rapid acceleration. [More…]

• The changes to Medibank which became effective on 1 October 1976 and the subsequent amendments have resulted in a significant decline in the rate of acceleration of health costs. [More…]

• The figures, announced in March, indicated that in relation to expenditure, including capital, on a financial year basis, the rise in health costs of 27.1 per cent in 1975-76 had been slowed to 19.7 per cent in 1976-77. [More…]

• The figures also showed that the rate of increase in health expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product has been slowed. [More…]

• Nevertheless, the rate of increase of health costs has continued to be unacceptably high. [More…]

• Indeed the cost of health insurance premiums has become uncomfortably high for many people. [More…]

• Because of these factors, the Government has continued its review of the health insurance system. [More…]

• In October last year, I asked the Hospitals and Health Services Commission to review the financing of health services in Australia. [More…]

• The Commission’s report, ‘A Discussion Paper on Paying for Health Care’, was tabled in this House on 1 5 March this year. [More…]

• That report was one important component of the very comprehensive reconsideration of the health insurance system undertaken by the Government in recent months. [More…]

• Our review has pointed to an obvious fact: That to maintain a balance between the numbers of health insurance levy payers and those privately insured- an essential element in the existing scheme’s strategy to contain costs- clearly the levy rate could not be held at its present level much longer. [More…]

• A further complexity has emerged because of the different health cost structures in different States, and the consequent variation in private insurance rates, which suggest a need to examine the imposition of different levy rates in different States. [More…]

• Accordingly, we reached the conclusion that, rather than make any adjustments to the health insurance levy, it was more practical and desirable to introduce a new and better Medibank system by abandoning the levy and introducing a new Commonwealth medical benefit and other changes. [More…]

• As announced by the Treasurer, the health insurance levy will be abolished. [More…]

• This new Commonwealth benefit, to cover 40 per cent of schedule medical fees with a maximum patient contribution of $20 for any one service where the schedule fee is charged, will be paid through private health insurance funds, including Medibank Private. [More…]

• The present compulsion on every Australian to pay for one type of health insurance or another will be removed, although those people currently covered by Medibank Standard will need to consider whether they wish to insure for their present level of benefits. [More…]

• Private health funds, including Medibank Private, will offer medical benefits in addition to the new Commonwealth benefit, and will continue to provide hospital benefits. [More…]

• Bulk billing of Public Health Benefit pensioners and their dependants who are not privately insured for medical benefits will continue as at present. [More…]

• -by leave-I would like to deal with a number of points raised in the ministerial statement by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• I do not think that the leaking of the Budget health proposals matters much; nobody could have gained a significant financial benefit from knowing of them before they were announced. [More…]

• But the leak applied not only to health aspects but also to other proposals from which there was a possibility of people making money. [More…]

• When the story of the new health care arrangements appeared yesterday in the Sydney Morning Herald and in the Australian Financial Review I did not believe it. [More…]

• I did not realise that the Government was trying to pump more money into the health care system. [More…]

• As the Minister for Health and the Treasurer (Mr Howard) have pointed out, in a full year the extra cost involved in the alterations to the system is estimated to be $62 lm- $305m in added Budget outlays and a reduction of $3 1 6m in receipts because of the abolition of the health insurance levy. [More…]

• Dealing with health, in the second paragraph, he said: [More…]

• I knew that some members of the Government, especially the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser), were very keen on ideology but I did not think that they would be prepared to pay $62 lm in any one year for an ideological proposition concerning universal health insurance. [More…]

• I refer to the question of the Health Insurance Commission and the abolition of the Health Insurance Commission as far as Medibank Standard is concerned. [More…]

• Mr Williams in a letter to the Minister’s staff said that the staff increase required by the Health Insurance Commission, which it would start recruiting, to handle the increased work load that this change would bring about, was approximately 390. [More…]

• Now the Health Insurance Commission is being abolished altogether so far as Medibank [More…]

• It does seem, however, that some of the present employees of the Health Insurance Commission will be surplus to requirements. [More…]

• In his actual speech he said: lt does seem, however, that some- indeed a considerable number- of the present employees of the Health Insurance Commission will be surplus to requirements. [More…]

• It is bungling, quite signifiant bungling, caused by political interference with the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Certainly young and healthy persons, especially males, would be quite silly to take out private health insurance because the likelihood of their having to pay a significant amount of money in any one year on hospital and medical fees is very low. [More…]

• The Minister has realised and the papers submitted to the Minister reveal that the Government is destroying the average pool that exists as far as health insurance is concerned. [More…]

• If we pull out from the pool the people who collect relatively little in health insurance, the net result will be that the people who are left in the pool are the people who are more likely to collect money, the higher risk group in the community, and obviously the contribution rates will have to be increased by the funds. [More…]

• I think in the end one has the philosophical attitude- I certainly have it- that the whole community should contribute towards the health costs of those who have larger families and sicker families- some members of the family are chronically ill- and who therefore have to take out extra insurance. [More…]

• It distorts the pool and it removes the concept that the better off and the healthier in the community ought to be contributing towards the health and hospital costs of those who are sicker. [More…]

• The Prime Minister and the Minister for Health as recently as May this year said: Whatever we do we will keep a universal health scheme under which everybody has to take out some sort of insurance ‘. [More…]

• I hope that we will get more details from the Minister for Health and more figures, as promised in his speech, so that we will be able to make an intelligent judgment as to whether the figures are true or are predictions that have just been pulled out of the air. [More…]

• The direct cost incurred by the Department of Health in actions taken against Mr W. F. Toomer in 1 974 and 1 977 is approximately $13,700. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March 1978: [More…]

• However, in 1976-77 the only cafeteria operated by my Department was the Phillip Offices Department of Health Canteen, Woden, ACT. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 March 1978. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• 1516 (Hansard, 1 October 1977, page 2199), is the Minister able to say whether on 3 March 1 978 the Victorian Minister for Health advised the Broadmeadows City Council that the Hospital and Charities Commission has a firm commitment with the Department of Administrative Services for the eastern end of the former Serum Laboratory land in Camp Road as the site for a future hospital in the Broadmeadows area. [More…]

• 1 ) I am not aware of the terms of any communication between the Victorian Minister for Health and the Broadmeadows City Council relating to the former Commonwealth Serum Laboratory land at Broadmeadows. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 May 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 May 1 978: [More…]

• 498 officers and employees of the Department of Health have their home telephone rentals or charges fully or partially paid by the Department. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 May 1978: [More…]

• I am willing to negotiate on any matter relating to the health of Aboriginals. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health upon notice on 26 May 1978: [More…]

• What was the total sum paid to individual aircraft operators for matters related to the provision of health services in the Northern Territory during each year since 1 962. [More…]

• Details of the claims for payments made by individual aircraft operators for matters related to the provision of health services in the Northern Territory during each financial year since 1972-73 are as follows: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 29 May 1978: [More…]

• Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission; Capital Territory Health Commission; Health Insurance Commission: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 3 1 May 1978: [More…]

• Demands from all sectors of the community are increasing for the programs, which are conducted by Federal and State Health authorities. [More…]

• The Sub-Committee comprises Federal and State Health education administrators as well as members with special expertise in the education, management and law enforcement fields and has developed a national approach to drug education. [More…]

• It recommends that drug education be conducted in the broad context of health education with emphasis on personal relationships, lifestyles, decision-making and ‘alternatives’ to drugs. [More…]

• The National Program follows the principles advocated by the World Health Organization and UNESCO for effective drug education. [More…]

• Health [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 June 1 978: [More…]

• 1 ) Has the advice of the National Health and Medical Research Council been sought in relation to the effects on human health of the Government’s proposal that lead levels in petrol sold in Australia should not be further reduced. [More…]

• At its 85th Session, June 1978, the National Health and Medical Research Council stated: [More…]

• Council considered available data on the effect of human health of the emissions of lead from motor vehicles. [More…]

• Papers prepared by specialist committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 June 1978: [More…]

• Does the National Health and Medical Research Council monitor the levels of pesticides in the Australian diet through its Market Basket Survey. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 June 1 978: [More…]

• Did the National Health and Medical Research Council advise the Government that leptophos should be withdrawn from sale. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 June 1978: [More…]

• 1) Do the functions of the National Health and Medical Research Council include inquiring into, and making recommendations to Commonwealth and State Governments on, matters of public health legislation, administration and research. [More…]

• Do these functions extend to cover matters of occupational health, including occupational health in the rural industry. [More…]

• Do any other bodies provide advice and recommendations to him or his Department on matters of occupational health. [More…]

• Divisions of Occupational Health within the State health authorities and various professional, trade union and employer associations are available for expert advice and /or recommendations in the field of occupational health. [More…]

• Within my Department itself there is an Occupational and Social Health Branch and specialised expertise is also available from the Occupational and Environmental Health Section of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine which includes six staff who, together with the Professor heading the School, hold honourary academic appointments at the University of Sydney. [More…]

• Tertiary- Broadly, the service area including such services as building, environmental management and conservation, health, transport and water. [More…]

• Animal Health Committee [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware of some confusion in the community regarding the newly announced subsidy covering personal medical care? [More…]

• Honourable members will no doubt know that despite the best efforts of health authorities in the countries concerned, rabies continues its steady spread across Western Europe. [More…]

• In the animal and plant health fields, I am sure all honourable members appreciate that Australia’s rural production and the advantages we enjoy on overseas markets for our livestock and agricultural products depend critically on our comparative freedom from serious pests and diseases. [More…]

• Complementary to the assistance that has been provided under this program, 76 women’s refuges have been approved for funding, at an estimated cost of some $3m this financial year, through the community health program. [More…]

• The States Grants (Home Care) Act was introduced in 1969 on the basis of a recommendation made at the 1968 health Ministers conference. [More…]

• Home care services which can be subsidised under the legislation include home visiting, laundry and shopping services, home handyman and related home maintenance schemes, housekeeper and other services which complement health or welfare programs designed to enhance the independence of aged and infirm people living at home. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 June 1978: [More…]

• Which sub-committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council are responsible for screening pesticides for use in Australia, and for inquiring into pesticide residue limits in food for human consumption. [More…]

• Was Dr W. A. Langsford, of the Council, approached by the Australian Broadcasting Commission Four Corners program to participate in its program on the possible long term effects of pesticides on health. [More…]

• If so, did Dr Langsford nominate the chariman of the sub-committees referred to in pan ( 1 ) to speak for the Council on this program, because of his responsibility for matters related to pesticide residue limits in food and the scheduling of substances hazardous to human health. [More…]

• Former levy payers will have the choice of taking out medical insurance with a private health fund, including Medibank Private, to insure themselves for the gap- that is, the gap between the 40 per cent and the $20 maximum payment and the 75 per cent and the $10 payment- or simply accept the universal medical benefits cover. [More…]

• We are making special provisions- they have been announced already- in respect of bulk billing arrangements for pensioners with health benefit cards and for those people in the community who are socially disadvantaged. [More…]

• The estimate of the Health Commission of New South Wales is that 50 beds ought to be available for every 1,000 people over 65 years of age. [More…]

• That is not even one-half of the number the Health Commission of New South Wales said was required. [More…]

• When on 7 August the Queensland Cabinet made critical decisions to the effect that local government functions in the two communities should be funded through the Department of Local Government, that health functions should be funded and be the responsibility of the Department of Health, that education likewise should be the responsibility of the Department of Education and that welfare should be the responsibility of the Department of Aboriginal and Islanders Advancement, it appeared that at last these difficulties had been overcome. [More…]

• There are other problems involving schools that presently are run by the Queensland authorities, hospitals that are run and funded through the State Health Department, and other services provided by the State. [More…]

• The people would like to feel that if there are profitable activities in which this new Corporation can engage they might benefit, that taxation might be reduced and that health services might be more readily available. [More…]

• Then new guidelines were set out for additional loans for essential purposes, for second assistance and for the transfer of the balance of loans in cases where mobility in employment or health considerations necessitated the sale of a home and the transfer of people from one place to another. [More…]

• It is one of those facets of human behaviour we have to live with- like tax avoidance, or doctors milking the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) refuses to give an undertaking that the level of subsidy payments in this Budget will be maintained beyond the end of the financial year. [More…]

• Funding the health scheme out of general revenue reduces the index. [More…]

• On the other side of the health field, the Government is plainly seeking to force a larger share of the cost of hospitals onto the States. [More…]

• Despite the fact that it is doctors who dictate the extent of what the Government sees as ‘over-use’ of the health system, the Government is shaping up to dump more responsibility onto the States, on the pretext that patients are the exploiters. [More…]

• I defy anyone to explain how that attitude demonstrates a commitment to universal health care. [More…]

• So much for the new deal in health and welfare. [More…]

• The Labor alternative would see $450m injected into housing and capital works where there is such a catalogue of pressing need- for example, public rental housing to reduce the waiting list of more than 90,000 families; construction in the Macarthur development centre; Aboriginal hostels in remote areas; community health centres, and aged persons accommodation. [More…]

• Retention of the health arrangements would reduce the consumer price index by a further Ite per cent, making a total of 2 te per cent. [More…]

• It also needs to be stressed that the increases in indirect taxes will have very limited inflationary consequences and in large measure will be offset by the changes that have been made to health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• We will return to the situation of having to raise most of the money for any day care or pre-school program, and there is no hope of a community health centre being established in such an area. [More…]

• Moreover, as against the price rises for beer, cigarettes and petrol there is an important offset namely, the change that the Budget makes to health insurance. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition tried to disparage what the Government had done, but the fact is that the Government’s measures will substantially reduce the cost of health insurance for the typical Australian family. [More…]

• So for perhaps half or less than the current maximum health insurance levy of $300, on a family basis, Australian families will be able to receive the benefits that are currently provided by Medibank Standard. [More…]

• Then, as I have stressed throughout my speech, a reduced rate of inflation and lower interest rates are of fundamental and major significance to the viability and health of Australian industry. [More…]

• I mention another very important budgetary item in the health sector- Medibank. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 25 May 1978: [More…]

• 1) Do public hospitals bill, either individually or by bulk billing (a) Medibank, (b) Medibank Private and (c) private health funds for (i) public patients and (ii) intermediate or other private patients. [More…]

• Then there is the problem of a small nation struggling for independence, having the support and encouragement of well intentioned people but nevertheless facing the fundamental problems faced by many developing countries, of having no real infrastructure in health, housing and education matters and having no political capacity to control in a normal way the usual problems of a small nation. [More…]

• We will find more and more that the healthy, the strong and the financially able will not take up private health fund subscriptions. [More…]

• They will not become members of private funds; they will be covering their own health costs. [More…]

• We will find more and more that those who join the private funds will be the sick and those who are less financially able to withstand the burden of large health costs. [More…]

• So we will find the subscriptions to health funds increasing and becoming a greater burden on those who are least able to afford to pay. [More…]

• Despite inflation, the level at which a pensioner ceases to be eligible for the health benefit card has not been raised since 1973. [More…]

• Again, there has been an increasing proportion of old age pensioners without the health benefit card. [More…]

• It is almost impossible for anyone to follow the gymnastics of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) on the question of Medibank. [More…]

• That all words after ‘That’ be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: whilst not opposing the Bill, the House is of the opinion that the Bill is inadequate because it makes no provision for the under-estimating of the deficit which is likely to follow from the understating of unemployment benefit and health payments, over-estimating of receipts from personal income tax and customs duty, and other inadequacies in the Budget forecasts ‘. [More…]

• Overall the estimated cost involved in the alterations to the health insurance system is estimated to be $62 lm. [More…]

• That is $305m in added Budget outlays and a reduction of $3 16m in receipts because of the abolition of the health insurance levy. [More…]

• It is also possible that the Government may have underestimated the number of people who choose to gamble and not to carry any form of health insurance and who opt for the universal scheme under which the Government has undertaken to pay 40 per cent of the schedule fee with the patient paying the maximum of $20. [More…]

• Even the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has acknowledged this possibility. [More…]

• Hence there is considerable potential for a blow-out in the area of health expenditure and thus a blow-out of the deficit as it has been given to us. [More…]

• I point simply to the health scheme. [More…]

• The honourable member for Adelaide went into some detail to explain that in his view and in our view the estimates are way short of the mark and that the amount of money which in fact will be expended on the health scheme. [More…]

• The presentation, although made in a conventional way, is in a very old-fashioned format, so that one can take from it certain figures and make certain arguments; but in terms of the amendment that has been moved, particularly as it concerns unemployment and health payments, there is room for a debate on those aspects alone. [More…]

• In respect of health payments also, let us look at the long-term effects. [More…]

• He or she will not be compelled or forced to join a health scheme. [More…]

• The young man concerned is in a poor state of health as a result of the trauma he is undergoing. [More…]

• Last Friday the Australian Financial Review had an interesting commentary on the health scheme. [More…]

• When responding to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) on that night I admitted that I was surprised at what the Government had done. [More…]

• At long last we have restored to the Australian individual the right to plot his own course as far as health costs are concerned. [More…]

• There is universal health cover. [More…]

• The Government is living up to the promise it gave in the election campaign to provide universal health care cover, but we are leaving it to the individual to decide what type of coverage he wants for himself and his family. [More…]

• As the honourable member for La Trobe rightly said, we are making health insurance cheaper, just as effective and, above all, we are bringing responsibility to the area of health services so far as the Australian economy is concerned. [More…]

• This action on the part of the Government was necessary to ensure that a man has the right to seek the type of health care that he wants. [More…]

• I turn now to the ill thought out changes in the health scheme and the abolition of Medibank Standard. [More…]

• I suggest that it has done so not because of a desire to improve medical services or to improve the health scheme but simply as a means of lowering the consumer price index figure. [More…]

• Certain airport waste is subject to quarantine and is incinerated under the supervision of the Department of Health at the respective airports. [More…]

• That is part of the same problem which is occurring with the community health services: There is a cutting back on the provision of those services. [More…]

• The welfare officers employed by local government under the grants play an important role in preventive medicine by assisting the elderly to remain socially active and in touch with community health facilities. [More…]

• Let us look at the second reading speech of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who represents the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) in this House. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has already given the States instructions that for the first time long term geriatric patients will have to pay seveneighths of their pensions towards the cost of a bed in a public hospital; that is approximately $45 a week. [More…]

• They also provide assistance in areas which are served to a certain extent by the Federal Department of Health. [More…]

• The Department of Health is also involved, through the community health program and women’s refuges, in the provision of temporary accommodation. [More…]

• The third matter of concern is that part of the election policy of this Government which was to extend and improve the domiciliary care benefit scheme which, once again, is administered federally by the Department of Health and which provides domiciliary services in this area. [More…]

• It has already increased the health budget after bleating about health costs for 12 months. [More…]

• It will increase the health budget by forcing people out of their homes and into institutional accommodation. [More…]

• The Minister explained to Parliament that ‘the Government is in favour of making the Act more effective in meeting the needs of a wider range of homeless people (but) has not yet reached a decision on the proposals of the Task Force on co-ordination in welfare and health, one of which is that is that the homeless persons assistance program should become part of a wider ‘sheltered accommodation program’, administration of which might be devolved to the State governments’. [More…]

• We can look at the area of health services, which is an important area for homeless people. [More…]

• Health services have discriminated time and again against the destitute population within this country. [More…]

• One could, if one had time, cite particular examples to show that homeless people are not getting the same kind of deal from health services as the rest of the community. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) stated in his second reading speech that the program is now sufficiently well established to warrant discussions with State governments on their views about the sharing of responsibilities in this area. [More…]

• It outlines the social dimension of the problem of homelessness and the health status of these people. [More…]

• In the jargon of the report of the Henderson Commission of inquiry, it is stated that these people are severely handicapped as a group by social disability and health impairment. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), in his second reading speech, stated: . [More…]

• I am pleased that the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is now in this chamber, have agreed to keep that program alive. [More…]

• Further information on the health of homeless men has been given in a recently released Poverty Commission research report entitled ‘Health Study of Collective Disadvantaged Groups’. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health will convey my remarks to the Minister for Social Security. [More…]

• Welfare officers employed by local government under these grants play an important role in preventive medicine by assisting the elderly to remain socially active and in touch with community health facilities. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health, who is at the table, will convey these thoughts to the Minister for Social Security, in the other place. [More…]

• I suggest to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who represents in this chamber the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) that although I agree completely with the view that matters of this nature are better determined at a State government level by virtue of its proximity to the scene, I would very much like to see the Commonwealth having some say, or exercising a larger interest than may have happened in the past in determining whether these projects are needed. [More…]

• -When the debate was interrupted last night I was saying that this Government was prepared to forgo $62 lm, including $3 16m as a result of the abolition of the Medibank standard levy, in its misguided changes to the Australian health insurance and health system. [More…]

• It has done this merely to reduce the consumer price index for the next year, not to improve the health services available to the Australian people. [More…]

• I charge and my party charges that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Government have been very devious about their changes to the health insurance system. [More…]

• Worse still, it will create two groups in the public with regard to health insurance. [More…]

• The first group will consist of those who opt out of the systemthe young, the healthy, those who gravitate to the 40 per cent system. [More…]

• The second group will consist of families, the sick and middle-aged people who, of course, will not take the gamble on their future good health. [More…]

• They will have to join a private health insurance fund. [More…]

• Health knows that and the Government knows it. [More…]

• Will the Minister for Health, who I see is now in the chamber, offer some guidelines to the Government? [More…]

• Further, it is interesting to note that the sum that the Government has forgone as a result of its health changes is approximately equal to the $570m that it hopes to gain as a result of its changes to the tax system. [More…]

• They include free health cover, transportation to and from work, subsidised meals at canteens, 20 working days holiday a year, 12 to 1 3 weeks paid maternity leave, subsidised housing and subsidised holidays at their holiday resorts. [More…]

• The simple fact is that the changes to the health fund arrangements will benefit every person in the community who has been paying contributions or the levy in recent years. [More…]

• But what is even more important, and even more misleading, Labor completely ignores the savings to workers in the form of considerably lower health fund contributions and the availability of cheaper motor cars. [More…]

• What I want to take up is a question that is within the responsibility of the Minister for Health or non-health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• I hope that the Treasurer will take up that suggestion with our friend the Minister for Health who, because of the way in which the Government has tinkered with health generally, will need a lot of help in performing the job that he has on his hands. [More…]

• Doctors from the Depanment of Health and sisters and doctors from Qantas are authorised to use the equipment. [More…]

• This shows that between 1974 (average for calendar year) and March quarter 1978, price movements in the health services component of theCPI accounted for 2.1 per cent out of the total increase of53.5 per cent in the CPI All Groups Index (weighed average of six State capital cities). [More…]

• The health services component of the CPI comprises hospital and medical fund contributions; health insurance levy contributions; net (‘out-of-pocket’) medical expenses; and dental services. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Are Press reports correct that agreement has not yet been reached between the Government and the health insurance funds on the question of a service fee for processing claims for the payment of the Commonwealth benefit only to those people who choose not to insure privately? [More…]

• The working party consists of representatives of the Department of Health and of the health insurance funds. [More…]

• The health insurance fund representatives have sought an agency fee far in excess of the agency fee presently being paid by the Health Insurance Commission to health insurance organisations. [More…]

• No approach has been made by the health insurance fund concerned to vary this fee or to cancel the agency. [More…]

• One would assume therefore that the agency fee being paid by the Health Insurance Commission is fair and reasonable. [More…]

• The Government has therefore offered a similar figure to the health insurance funds for acting as agents of the Commonwealth in dispensing the universal Commonwealth medical benefit which provides for a refund of 40 per cent of the schedule fee or for the patient to pay no more than $20 for a service where the doctor charges the schedule fee. [More…]

• The Government recognises the important role of the health insurance funds and the contact they have with people at the grass roots level. [More…]

• I understand that the working party will be meeting on Thursday and I will seek to talk with the health fund representatives on Thursday but I want an answer no later than noon on Friday. [More…]

• This Budget significantly reduces the social wage by hacking away at public expenditure on health, education, housing, transport, urban and regional affairs and other public services. [More…]

• The new version may well be debatable because, costs having been reduced, it will be possible for some people to avoid joining one of the health funds, to avoid insuring their own health, to avoid insuring against the possibilities of sickness as they would rather spend their money on something else. [More…]

• I want it to be clearly understood by all who can hear me that people who are suffering from active pulmonary tuberculosis, irrespective of whether they are servicemen, are got out of the community and put away because they represent a public health risk. [More…]

• They talk with some assumption of reduced wages increasing the economic health of the community. [More…]

• It provides simple and equitable health financing arrangements which protect everyone against serious illness and those most in need against all medical and hospital expenses. [More…]

• I turn now to the subject of health. [More…]

• The last comprehensive Budget measure was a complete change in the national health scheme. [More…]

• In effect, it is a ‘hello-goodbye’ to health care. [More…]

• It was only three months ago that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) announced a change to the health system which confused everyone, including the Minister. [More…]

• Furthermore, the Government may have underestimated the number of Australians who may gamble and make do with the universal health scheme. [More…]

• I say to the Minister for Health that someone has to be strong enough to take on the AMA. [More…]

• Funding the health scheme out of general revenue, will supposedly reduce the consumer price index. [More…]

• The health funds are threatening an unexpected cost burden to the Government as it thrashes out the practical details . [More…]

• The funds are demanding a commission for handling claims for the new Commonwealth medical benefit way above what the Health Depanment expected. [More…]

• In addition, the Government is to spend some $400,000 on an advertising campaign to explain to the Australian people what the new health scheme means. [More…]

• No doubt we will have another revised health scheme in three months’ time. [More…]

• The Prime Minister’s undertaking on behalf of his Government to ‘maintain Medibank and ensure that the standard of health care does not die’ is another broken promise. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 24 May 1978: [More…]

• Technical information produced in Australia and overseas regarding the identification and control of exotic plant or animal diseases and pests is maintained by the Department of Health and State Departments of Agriculture. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 24 May 1 978: [More…]

• When did the National Health and Medical Research Council or its appropriate committee first contact spina bifida associations or similar organisations for indications of areas and periods of abnormally high incidence of spina bifida, anencephaly and related neural tube deformities in Australia in recent years. [More…]

• South American countries and certain islands of the Pacific have imposed rather rigid health import requirements in relation to this disease which are difficult to meet. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 26 May 1 978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 June 1978: [More…]

• The Capital Territory Health Commission uses the facilities of the Department of the Capital Territory and the Health Insurance Commission has the bulk of its waste paper treated at the Australian Pulp and Paper Mill, Broadford, Victoria, Australian Paper Manufacturers Limited, Petrie, Queensland and Australian Paper Manufacturers Ltd., Matraville, New South Wales. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question, which has been referred to me by the Minister for Health, is as follows: [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question, which has been referred to me by the Minister for Health, is as follows: [More…]

• 1 ) The National Health and Medical Research Council Standard for Residues of Pesticides in Food prescribes a maximum residue limit for DDT in the ‘fat of meat of cattle’ of 7 milligrams per kilogram. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 June 1978: [More…]

• Did the National Health and Medical Research Council advise the Government that dibromochloropropane should be withdrawn from sale. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council does not grant formal approval for the use of any pesticide. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 15 August 1978: ( 1.) [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 August 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) How many PB II forms did Commonwealth Serum Laboratories lodge with the Department of Health during 1976-77 and 1977-78. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on IS August 1978: [More…]

• New drugs which are imported are controlled by the Commonwealth Department of Health in terms of the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations to ensure that they comply with strict safety standards. [More…]

• Controls over locally produced therapeutic substances are subject to the requirements administered by the State Health authorities. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 August 1978: [More…]

• Which laboratory normally undertakes analysis of samples from the National Health and Medical Research Council Market Basket Survey. [More…]

• The Departments of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (Chairman), Foreign Affairs, Attorney-General’s, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Health, Employment and Industrial Relations, Business and Consumer Affairs, Primary Industry, Aboriginal Affairs, Social Security, Transport. [More…]

• The Budget reinforces the Government’s concern for the health of the housing industry and the ability of Australians to buy their own homes. [More…]

• The Departments of Health and Administrative Services should discuss with the Willoughby Municipal Council and local residents the question of continued public access to the site and to the surrounding bushland. [More…]

• The Committee has recommended that the Department of Health and the Department of Administrative Services negotiate with the Willoughby Municipal Council and local residents on the question of continued public access to the site and surrounding bushland. [More…]

• If someone in the family is in ill health they will have to find more money for medical expenses. [More…]

• I would like also to mention that he referred to health. [More…]

• This is something which is long overdue, which the Australian Labor Party never even thought of doing but which this Government has done as a result of its consideration for the welfare and health of people who live in areas such as that which the honourable member for Riverina represents. [More…]

• Very good housing was supplied at cheap rentals; health services were either paid for or actually provided; and perhaps the greatest benefit of the lot was job security through lifetime employment. [More…]

• Aboriginal health has also been hit by this Government despite promises by the Prime Minister and by the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• During the 1977 election campaign both promised funding for Aboriginal health programs costing $7m in 1978-79. [More…]

• Because of the lack of preventive medical services and health services, on average, urban Aboriginal children cost the Government hundreds of dollars a year per child in remedial medical costs. [More…]

• Although the Minister claimed that his Department’s spending on Aboriginal health programs increased by 7. [More…]

• In addition the supplementary allowance of $5 a week has not been increased since 1975 and there is to be a restriction on pensioner health benefits and various other matters relating to the less fortunate in society. [More…]

• As evidence of its all-pervasive cruelty, the Government has imposed on these people new and regressive taxes, crippling new charges on lump sum leave payments, the abolition of the maternity allowance, the destruction of the concept of universal health and massive reductions in welfare housing. [More…]

• At the moment in Parramatta we have 13 Commonwealth departments in rented space such as the Department of Health, the Australian Electoral Office, the Commonwealth Employment Service, the Bureau of Customs, the Family Court, the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, two Medibank offices, an office of Qantas Airways Ltd, two social security offices, a branch of the Taxation Office with 1,000 people working in rented space and Telecom Australia. [More…]

• I regret that such a fine and outstanding man should have been subjected to those unfair and unbelievable pressures when it was well known that he was in serious health at the time. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 August 1978: [More…]

• Will he ensure that the results of this recent study of the effects on human health of low levels of nuclear radiation are taken into account in the formulation and implementation of radiation protection standards for workers in the uranium industry. [More…]

• The study is one of many studies which have been undertaken in the USA and which examine the question of whether there are public or occupational health risks associated with very low level exposure to ionising radiation. [More…]

• The study is considered to have flaws in this and other aspects, and does not in itself provide any basis for modifying current public health standards for radiation protection. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 August 1 978: [More…]

• Will he ensure that the results of this recent study of the effects on human health of low levels of nuclear radiation are taken into account in the formulation and implementation of radiation protection standards for workers in the uranium industry. [More…]

• The study is one of many studies which have been undertaken in the USA and which examine the question of whether there are public or occupational health risks associated with very low level exposure to ionising radiation. [More…]

• The study is considered to have flaws in this and other respects, and does not in itself provide any basis for modifying current public health standards for radiation protection. [More…]

• -I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• I refer to the proposed arrangements concerning the $1.52 charge to be made to process claims from health fund non members. [More…]

• First, in his discussions will he ensure an equal flexibility in relation to the effective price on behalf of both tenderers, that is, the private funds and Medibank, and not assume the $1.52 charge to be merely a target to be aimed at by one side; secondly, will he treat the matter in a non-cartel manner, that is, maintain flexibility as to the arrangements in the various States, since there are different traditions in relation to public and private health administration among the States; and, thirdly, will he ensure that the price agreed to is realistic and sustainable having regard to predictable cost rises and not one arrived at for a moment and then used as a platform for future rises? [More…]

• -I repeat for the benefit of the honourable member that the Government has made a firm offer to health insurance funds to pay $1.52 a claim to dispense the 40 per cent Commonwealth medical benefit to uninsured people. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission has an agency arrangement with a well known fund in Queensland and is paying $1.52 a claim. [More…]

• Under the arrangement that exists between the Health Insurance Commission and that fund there is provision for an indexation arrangement to take into account the cost movements that occur. [More…]

• With cuts in specific programs, such as hospitals, community health services, dental health services, roads and a myriad of other specific capital works programs, it is quite clear that in total the States’ fiscal position is being undermined. [More…]

• The prison diet for political detainees is inadequate and political detainees are compelled to supplement their diet with foodstuff from their families to ensure their health. [More…]

• In this instance, it is pointed out that it took some time to realise what was causing the health problems in this area. [More…]

• I have spoken in this House on a number of occasions on the subject of the health of all Australians and in particular I have argued that the role of preventive medicine must be urgently upgraded. [More…]

• I take the opportunity in this grievance debate to talk on one important factor affecting the health of some 3.4 million Australians. [More…]

• In that report it is recorded that the Royal College of Physicians in its 1977 Third Report on Smoking or Health’ found that of those teenagers who smoke more than a single cigarette only 15 per cent avoided becoming regular dependent smokers. [More…]

• Smoking is a danger to health. [More…]

• The Committee supports the view of the Commonwealth Department of Health, the United States Surgeon General, the Royal College of Physicians and the World Health Organisation that there is an undoubted association between smoking and a wide range of significant diseases. [More…]

• Remembering that the national warnings against smoking suggest that tar intake should be kept below ISO milligrams per day to minimise health risk, we should note that only 16.9 per cent of smokers had their daily tar intake below that figure. [More…]

• The results of this survey are contrary to those released by the New South Wales Health Commission in March this year. [More…]

• Further to confuse the statistical position in Australia we should note that in June 1978 the findings of a South Australian survey by the National Health and Medical Research Council determined that 72 per cent of boys and 57 per cent of girls were regular smokers by the age of 1 5 years. [More…]

• All cigarette packets must carry the words Wanting- smoking is a health hazard’. [More…]

• As the promoters of sport and recreation, the tobacco industry should lobby to change the wording to read Warning- smoking is a healthy hazard’. [More…]

• While tobacco is a major drug problem in Australia and a greater menace to health than illegal drugs, there is an even bigger problem and that is the alcohol problem. [More…]

• Department of Health, Department of Social Security, and Department of Veterans’ Affairs, together. [More…]

• The Opposition believes- this has been pointed out in the past- that this strategy will mean not only a direct increase in unemployment because of less employment in the public sector but also a lack of confidence in the community and a lack of the necessary desire to spend on the part of Australians which would bring this country back to economic health. [More…]

• While we have this attitude in the community we shall not have a return to economic health. [More…]

• We will not have an increase in confidence which will bring our economy back to economic health. [More…]

• As an important middle income country- a country which is in the middle range in terms of gross national product- we ought to be playing our part to ensure a return to health in the world economy. [More…]

• In the 1 930s there were low interest rates but that did not bring about economic health in this country. [More…]

• Heaven forbid that we should have to wait for a war, as happened in the 1930s, before economic health is restored. [More…]

• We believe that if there is a proper education campaign in the community- recognising that these are the policies for economic health, recognising that there is no reason why an increased borrowing requirement brought about by the deficit that we have in mind should add to interest rates- these things can be achieved without any adverse effects. [More…]

• If we had such a government we would have a lowering of the savings ratio; we would have a return to confidence and spending on the part of the Australian community- spending which would restore economic health in Australia. [More…]

• The Government has gone cold on major aspects of arrangements for the administration of the new health insurance scheme. [More…]

• It also points up the Government’s rubbery financial estimates regarding the new health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• The Budget reflects the Government’s basic strategy, the whole of which is designed to create a situation in which the private sector’s economic health is restored and its ability to provide employment is restored. [More…]

• There is only one way to economic health and that is to get the rate of inflation down and at the same time return real wages to a more reasonable level. [More…]

• In my own electorate, in the heartland of St Albans- an area covered by the St Albans Community Health Centre- we find that 34 per cent of the population is Yugoslav, 32 per cent Maltese, 12 per cent Greek, 10 per cent Italian, 2 per cent German, one per cent Polish, one per cent Russian, one per cent Ukrainian, 0.75 per cent Czechoslovakian and 6.25 per cent British and other nationalities. [More…]

• It should be noted that it has been agreed that the arrangements will apply only in cases where programs are carried out with the full support of the Australian Agricultural Council ‘s consultative committee on animal health matters. [More…]

• Let me connect this legislation with the similar abandonment by this Government and by the same Minister of the school dental health program and the community health centre program. [More…]

• In total, what it amounts to is an abandonment of assistance by the Federal Government of those programs that deal specifically with people who are ill and aged and dependent upon the community for assistance and proper health care. [More…]

• -The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has confirmed what I said before dinner, namely, that the Commonwealth is withdrawing from a responsibility into which it entered and which it accepted when the original Bills were passed through the Parliament in 1969. [More…]

• The States Grants (Home Care) Amendment Act was introduced in 1969 on the basis of a recommendation at the 1968 Health Ministers Conference. [More…]

• I think that the good Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is at the table, will know what I am driving at. [More…]

• In fact, the Minister for Construction (Mr McLeay) and the Minister for Health, who are both at the table, were present at the opening of a community centre in Hobart at which they impressed the ordinary, average person with their complete sincerity and their understanding of the problems. [More…]

• After the three difficult years we have had since that time it is now starting to be driven home that the Minister for Health is a sincere man who is understanding and appreciative of the problems of the sick and elderly people of Australia. [More…]

• Nor is it good enough simply to say that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has sincerity and understanding. [More…]

• I think it was during the term of office of the present Leader of the Opposition (Mr Hayden) as Minister for Health that this scheme got under way as a formal governmental exercise. [More…]

• In the golden age when I administered this city that was one of the pressures which I attempted to apply to the system, as I have no doubt that my friend the Minister for Health did in his time. [More…]

• If we look to the health of the national economy in the future one cannot help but wonder whether subsidies should be given in areas that are highly labour-intensive, especially if the consumer price index continues to rise at the rate it rose under the Labor Government some years ago. [More…]

• The Minister also proposed to the New South Wales Minister for Health that officers of the New South Wales Health Commission consult with officers of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission with a view to bringing forward agreed recommendations jointly to both Governments on a suitable site and method of disposal of the contaminated material from Hunters Hill. [More…]

• Income Tax: Expenditure on Social Security, Health and Education (Question No. [More…]

• Two seasons were selected in the 1977 National Health and Medical Research Council Market Basket Survey in preference to the four seasons adopted in the previous years in an attempt to reduce transport costs and rationalise analytical workload. [More…]

• These bans are being imposed because of scientific concern that chlorofluorocarbon gases may damage the stratospheric ozone layer with possible consequent adverse effects on human health and possible non-human biological and climatic impacts. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 76A of the National Health Act 1953, 1 present the annual report on the operations of the registered medical and hospital benefits organisations for the year ended 30 June 1977. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall that this was the day on which the former Treasurer was given a clean bill of health by the Prime Minister after being obliged to resign. [More…]

• In the run-up to the last Budget we were informed in no uncertain terms that the business community of this country wanted drastic cuts made in social security payments, health and welfare. [More…]

• In debating that matter, the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) indicated that at the Premiers Conference the Commonwealth had said that the States would be expected to pick up the difference between the $2 for $1 grants which had existed previously at the Commonwealth level in the home help area and a $ 1 for $ 1 grant which the Minister indicated was an acceptable level of Commonwealth assistance in this area under the new federalism scheme. [More…]

• In April 1977 the National Health and Medical Research Council recommended to State and territory authorities that penicillins, the tetracyclines and sulphonamides other than sulphaquinoxaline be deleted from this list and that restrictions be maintained on a range of other substances not cleared for use. [More…]

• These recommendations incorporate views of the National Health and Medical Research Council thus ensuring that human health implications are taken into account. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• After 1 November, when the new health insurance arrangements come into operation, what will be the situation regarding hospital charges for a patient who is not insured if he or she requires intermediate or private accommodation? [More…]

• Of course, the compulsion in the present health insurance system either to insure or to pay the Medibank levy will be removed after 1 November. [More…]

• The advantage in taking out health insurance is accepted by people who wish to have their doctor of choice treat them in hospital. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware that medical research authorities in some overseas countries claim that the excessive use of salt is a contributory cause of heart disorder and the main cause of severe arthritic conditions? [More…]

• If the claims are correct, will the Minister initiate action in conjunction with State authorities to prevent the excessive use of salt, particularly in baby food preparations, and to warn the Australian people that too much salt is a health hazard? [More…]

• I will refer his question to the appropriate sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council for investigation. [More…]

• I will discuss the matter with the Chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council to see whether research in this area is being undertaken in Australia or overseas and, if not, whether funds can be made available at some stage for such research to be undertaken in this country. [More…]

• -The honourable member for McMillan (Mr Simon) made a speech during the Grievance Day debate last Thursday on the effects that smoking has on the health of our community. [More…]

• I will not reiterate the arguments of the honourable member but I use his address as a base for my own complaint against those people who would smoke in public places to the inconvenience, annoyance and, to some degree, the health risk of those who are unfortunate enough to share their company or public space at that time. [More…]

• There are suggestions that the inhaling of smoke exhaled by others is as great as, if not greater than, the health risk to the smoker. [More…]

• In that regard, I believe that my health is at greater risk now than it was three years ago. [More…]

• By preventing the advertising of cigarettes on television and radio the Federal Government has recognised the danger to human health. [More…]

• It is true, however, that I think we can understand something of the apparent ill health of the retiring Prime Minister of South Africa, given the tremendous stress under which I think the Government of that country must work. [More…]

• I am aware of Press reports in the last two or three days concerning inducements which are apparently still being made to medical practitioners to encourage them to make unnecessary applications for pathology tests, in spite of the amendments which were made to the Health Insurance Act last year to close off the opportunities for abuse and overuse. [More…]

• One of the difficulties has been the legal interpretation of section 129AA of the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• I condemn them because I believe that there is nothing more loathsome than a group of people in a privileged position who are using the health of people to make their millions at the expense of the community. [More…]

• We know that Australia has social security, health and education programs that are the best in the world. [More…]

• 3m for ethnic health interpreters. [More…]

• Our defence, our security, our health, and also the problem of drugs are all areas of concern in this regard. [More…]

• This Government has provided a flat untied amount of $2 80m for the Northern Territory which, according to the Minister for the Northern Territory (Mr Adermann), will enable the Territory to meet operational and capital expenditures in respect of the functions transferred on 1 July 1978 and for health services which are to be transferred on 1 January 1979. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware that those covered by pre-paid health plans or health maintenance organisations in the United States of America have an annual usage of hospital days about one-half the rate of those covered by fee for service schemes? [More…]

• When will his Department take steps to establish such schemes as alternatives to the present fee for service insurance schemes which, so obviously, adversely affect the pockets and health of those covered? [More…]

• I am generally aware of the contention that is implied in the honourable member’s question in respect of the health maintenance organisations or pre-paid health plans in the United States. [More…]

• Indeed, the honourable member will recall that when we amended the National Health Act and the Health Insurance Act in 1976 provision was made for the establishment of health maintenance organisations in Australia. [More…]

• Discussions have taken place between my Department, Dr Sax, one or two health insurance organisations and the Australian Medical Association to see whether it would be possible to establish similar organisations in Australia on a pilot project basis. [More…]

• It will depend largely on when health insurance organisations, the medical profession and the State governments, which have a responsibility in this area, are prepared to come forward with a proposal. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council makes grants for medical research. [More…]

• I am sure that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is sitting at the table at present, would be very pleased to hear from the Australian Medical Association and others in the medical fraternity that they would be prepared to put some money in with the funds which the Government is putting forward and so share in the cost of medical research. [More…]

• Severe cutbacks in areas vital to the realisation of equal opportunity- education, child care, retraining, health, welfare, legal aid, et ceterahave been the order of the day under the Fraser administration. [More…]

• Women particularly will suffer from higher unemployment and reduced health, education and child care services. [More…]

• The demand for permanent part-time work as distinct from casual employment has increased considerably, especially among men and women with family responsibilities, single parents, people with health or domestic problems, and those wishing to update their knowledge, skills, and so on. [More…]

• The need for refuges is increasing, along with the need for rape crisis centres and women’s health centres. [More…]

• Instead, funds now are made available to the States through the community health programs to be allocated as the States see fit. [More…]

• We talk about land councils and about the provision of Aboriginal health services. [More…]

• If we did this we would be on the road to political and economic health. [More…]

• I had been through health clearances in Sydney and I had to go through immigration and customs clearances in Melbourne. [More…]

• The Council will possess the necessary powers for local government activities in the village area, and will advise the Government on a broad range of matters affecting the community for example education, health and immigration. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware that two private health funds in Queensland- the Hibernian Medical and Hospital Benefits Fund, Queensland’s third largest fund, and the Ancient Order of Foresters have become insolvent this year? [More…]

• Will the Minister regard as urgent the seeking of means to ensure that no health fund- including Medibank- will be allowed, prior to corrective action being taken, to reach the stage where it cannot meet its commitments? [More…]

• Finally, when the new universal health scheme commences on 1 November, will people be covered for the Commonwealth benefit if the fund to which they belong finds itself in financial difficulty? [More…]

• In brief, the Task Force was required to take into account the use of such a system to provide high quality radio and television broadcasting and other telecommunications services to all Australia, its application in the areas of health, education, science, transport and defence; its use by the private sector for improved communication information and other services; and the implications of a satellite on current radio and television services and the terrestrial communications system. [More…]

• The report also identifies potential improvements with communications associated with defence, transport, health, welfare, and education. [More…]

• On the subject of meeting community needs, the Task Force also highlights the possible value to isolated communities in health care, education and general welfare from improved communications which could be facilitated by satellite. [More…]

• Of course the Minister made other points in relation to the sorts of services which can be contributed to the community in health, welfare and a range of other areas. [More…]

• They not only wrongly suggested impropriety on the part of the then Government- and we know now on which side of the chamber the improprieties have occurred- but also promised, two years and 10 months ago, that within three years they would bring this country back to a state of economic health. [More…]

• Only in that way will we restore to this country a state of economic health. [More…]

• Its adoption would help enormously to bring this country back to a state of economic health. [More…]

• We must have that economic health which would result from the policies proposed in the alternative Budget. [More…]

• What is the expected impact on the Consumer Price Index in each quarter of 1978-79 from the Budget announcements relating to each of the following items: (a) the increased excise tax on beer; (b) the increased excise tax on tobacco products; (c) the increased excise tax on potable spirits; (d) the additional duty on imports subject to import licences and tariff quotas; (e) the increase in the crude oil production levy; (0 the reduction in sales tax on motor cars and station wagons, and (g) the changes to the health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• The Government’s new health care arrangements are expected to subtract significantly from the Consumer Price Index for the December quarter. [More…]

• In fact I am now awaiting a report from the inspector who was appointed by me under the terms of the National Health Act. [More…]

• The National Health Act was amended in 1976 in order to meet such circumstances, but the provisions of the Act were taken largely from those provisions which apply to the health insurance industry generally. [More…]

• Quite clearly, people who will suffer as a result of the liquidation of health benefit funds need some better assurance than the assurance that they have at present. [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to a recent report presented to the Victorian State Parliament regarding the 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T herbicides and any possible relationship to congenital abnormality. [More…]

• Are any steps being taken by the Department of Health for research into and the monitoring of the effects of such chemicals when introduced into common use in the community? [More…]

• I am aware of the report that was handed to the Minister for Health in Victoria. [More…]

• However, the honourable member will be aware that the National Health and Medical Research Council on several occasions has examined exhaustively all the available advice that has been presented to it from sources both in this country and overseas. [More…]

• I do not think that even the Leader of the Opposition would have the competence to make a scientific judgment as to whether 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T are causing the problems to health which some claim they are: This is a matter that must be left to research scientists both in this country and overseas. [More…]

• It is against that background, of course, that the reports have been prepared by the NHMRC and also by the Victorian Department of Health. [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to an item in the Medical Letter of 2 1 September under the headline ‘Federal Health Department now Favouring Sessional Payments’? [More…]

• Federal health officers in negotiations with their State counterparts are reportedly favouring sessional payments for remunerating doctors for services to hospitals. [More…]

• My grievance today deals with two aspects both of which are connected with the health scheme and with the changes which have been announced and which will come into effect on 1 November this year. [More…]

• The poster asks would be patients to join private health insurance. [More…]

• When we introduced Medibank, the AMA was continually saying that we could not have an efficient or effective health insurance scheme if persons in the community did not have to contribute anything towards the cost of the services they received. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and State Ministers will make it quite clear that that will not occur and that they will take steps, if there are hospitals where this is happening, to insist that the procedure no longer applies. [More…]

• The private funds will have access to these people’s records and will have their names and addresses and will bombard them with literature encouraging them to take out unnecessary- I repeat ‘unnecessary’- health insurance. [More…]

• I will quote once more from a letter written on 7 March by Dr Gwynn Howells, the head of the Department of Health, in which he referred to the fact that the Health Insurance Commission, Medibank, strongly favoured the retention of bulk billing. [More…]

• Health insurance levy [More…]

• As part of the major changes to health care arrangements announced in my Budget Speech the health insurance levy is to be terminated with effect from 1 November 1978. [More…]

• Measures to give effect to this proposal are included in this Bill and in the associated Health Insurance Levy Bill 1978. [More…]

• People who are fully covered by private health insurance or other arrangements during the period 1 July 1 978 to 3 1 October 1 978 will be exempt from the levy for 1978-79. [More…]

• The health insurance levy component of provisional tax is to be reduced by two-thirds of the amount payable for 1977-78 so as to reflect the abolition of the levy as from 1 November 1978. [More…]

• This Bill imposes health insurance levy, at the rate declared in the Bill, on taxable incomes for 1978-79 of individual taxpayers liable to the levy. [More…]

• I announced in my Budget Speech that, under new health care arrangements, the health insurance levy is to cease to apply as from 1 October 1978. [More…]

• Under provisions applying in 1977-78, people who were adequately covered by private health insurance or other arrangements for the whole of the year were exempt from the levy. [More…]

• Costs associated with confinements are now largely covered by health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• The normal waiting period of 2 months normally applicable to private health funds will be waived when a person lodges his claim between 1 November 1978 and 31 December 1978. [More…]

• This Bill provides for amendments to the National Health Act 1953 to implement two separate decisions taken by the Government. [More…]

• Firstly, provisions in the Bill together with provisions contained in the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) 1978, implement the Government’s changes to the health insurance arrangements to come into effect from 1 November 1978. [More…]

• In my statement to the House on 15 August 1978 explaining in detail the Government’s changes to the health insurance arrangements, I advised that a Commonwealth medical benefit would be payable to all Australian residents for medical- and some optometrical- expenses incurred. [More…]

• Further, free standard ward treatment in recognised hospitals will continue to be available, under hospital cost-sharing agreements with the States for persons who do not have hospital benefits insurance with a health insurance organisation. [More…]

• The principle of universal health insurance cover for all Australian residents remains. [More…]

• Whilst these guidelines will be flexible to allow registered organisations to offer a variety of health benefit packages, the Government still considers it has a responsibility to ensure that such tables offer adequate benefits for reasonable contribution rates, and will take this into account when considering applications from registered organisations. [More…]

• I would expect this convention to be followed by the health funds so that persons are not disadvantaged when transferring from one fund to another fund at the same benefits levels. [More…]

• A significant drawback in the effective analysis of the health insurance system has been, to date, the unavailability of related and adequate information. [More…]

• This question has been raised with representatives of the industry at a meeting of the health insurance advisory committee where the continuing difficulty of maintaining and furnishing proper information has been recognised. [More…]

• New section 74D enables the prescription of information drawn from those records to be furnished to the Director-General of Health. [More…]

• I have already mentioned that this question has been discussed at meetings of the Health Insurance Advisory Committee. [More…]

• However, at present, the National Health Act does not permit dentists to prescribe pharmaceutical benefits, so patients must pay the full cost of medication prescribed by dentists. [More…]

• That is, pensioners with a pensioner health benefits entitlement card will receive them free of charge, while other patients will pay the normal $2.50 patient contribution. [More…]

• The Bill before the House contains provisions which give effect to the Government ‘s changes to the health insurance arrangements announced by the Treasurer (Mr Howard) in the Budget. [More…]

• I would reiterate to honourable members, that the proposals embodied in this legislation, and in other legislation to be considered, arise out of the Government’s continuing review of the costs of health care in Australia. [More…]

• As health insurance has such an important influence on the costs of these services, it is vital that we continue with these reviews. [More…]

• Since approximately 60 per cent of our total costs are in hospitals, cost containment and efficiency in the use of resources in the hospital sector are vital in any program to arrest the accelerating rate of health costs. [More…]

• While the 1 October 1976 changes to Medibank, and subsequent amendments to the Health insurance arrangements effected by this Government, have resulted in a significant decline in the rate of acceleration of health costs, this rate of increase continues to be high. [More…]

• The principal provisions of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• Firstly, the Commonwealth Department of Health will pay benefits direct to practitioners, for claims made under the new direct billing procedures. [More…]

• However, the Health Insurance Commission will continue to pay claims for medical benefits for Medibank standard persons, for services rendered prior to 1 November 1978. [More…]

• This facility will only be available through a medical benefits organisation which has entered into an appropriate agreement with the Minister for Health, on behalf of the Commonwealth, for the registration of persons for this purpose. [More…]

• greement in schedule 2 to the Health Insurance Act, which is similar to existing agreements with the States. [More…]

• This term derives its meaning from sub-sections 3 (7), (8) and (8a) of the Health Insurance Act 1973, and relates to a person entitled to both medical and hospital benefits in accordance with standard tables operated by medical and hospital benefits organisations. [More…]

• The effect of a person being deemed to be a ‘privately insured person’ is that such a person is exempt from payment of the health insurance levy. [More…]

• Since the health insurance levy is to be abolished, the term ‘privately insured person’ is no longer relevant in that context. [More…]

• This amendment ensures that the provisions of the Health Insurance Act remain in line with corresponding social security and repatriation legislation to maintain uniformity in the provision of ‘fringe benefits’ to pensioners. [More…]

• The remaining provisions in the Bill contain amendments consequential upon: the introduction of the new Commonwealth medical benefit; the abolition of the health insurance levy; or the transfer of functions relating to the administration of certain provisions of the Act and payments under the Act, to the Department of Health from the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• -We have just had about11/2 hours of concentrated legislation dealing with my particular interests of social security, health and veterans’ affairs. [More…]

• I would like to refer to some of the continuing problems associated with health expenditure and expenditure on social security items. [More…]

• It is ridiculous to have to deal with the question of health costs in the three or four minutes remaining to me, but I would emphasise something that the Minister said only a few minutes ago: That 60 per cent of our health costs originate in institutions. [More…]

• In that country, where pre-paid health plans are available and it is in the financial interest of the doctor to keep persons out of hospital, the number of hospital days per annum per thousand persons covered falls to about 375. [More…]

• He knows that both his Government and ours have considered the matter of prepaid health plans. [More…]

• I hope that it will take active steps to encourage the introduction of pre-paid health plans. [More…]

• In that country, in many cases the employer pays the health costs. [More…]

• It is difficult to encourage people to become interested in the cost of health because it is part of the fringe benefits they are granted by their employer. [More…]

• States it is easier to enrol people in pre-paid health plans because most participants in health funds belong to a group at their place of employment, rather than contributing individually. [More…]

• The Ford motor company of that country has just decided to take up pre-paid health plans. [More…]

• It realised that it was paying more for health insurance than it was paying to US Steel; that in the cost of each motor car there was a $500 content which represented the medical and hospital insurance premiums of the worker. [More…]

• My friend, the Minister for Environment, Housing and Community Development (Mr Groom), who is at the table, and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who also is in the chamber, are aware of this situation. [More…]

• I must confess to some difficulties in understanding what the basic aims and goals of the present Government are in the fields of social welfare, health, and related areas. [More…]

• It cannot be stressed often enough in this chamber that in 1972 Australia was one of the poorest served countries in the developed world in terms of access to health, education and welfare services. [More…]

• At that time no other countries, with the exception of Greece and Japan, were spending less on public welfare, which included health, education and social security expenditures. [More…]

• I want to comment on general health and welfare policies for country people and on some of the things which have been done and on those which remain to be done. [More…]

• I acknowledge that the Labor Government commissioned several reports, particularly the rural health report, which are of value in this area. [More…]

• Country people suffer great disadvantages in regard to the availability and cost of health services. [More…]

• First of all, a number of experiments have been conducted in the provision of health services to country people. [More…]

• I do not share his optimism about the Government’s actions in the field of health and welfare services. [More…]

• The honourable member for Murray moves me to remind him that, at the end of November, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners- Victoria Faculty is holding a seminar on the problems of the delivery of health services to rural communities. [More…]

• I know that that seminar requires more than the support of health practitioners in various fields. [More…]

• It is conscious that there are many problems with the delivery of rural health care and all its facets. [More…]

• I turn to the question of our health services and make a passing reference to Medibank. [More…]

• The Government’s health scheme has many of the nuances of the original Labor scheme. [More…]

• I know a little of the history of health insurance. [More…]

• That is not the way to deliver health care. [More…]

• We should deliver health care so that we give quality health care to the patients. [More…]

• The other excellent program that has been allowed to run down is the program for the community health centres. [More…]

• He knows the difference they have made in the delivery of health care in those areas. [More…]

• What is the situation with even the more simple forms of community health centres such as the one that was set up at Whittlesea? [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) can return to the old business of saying: ‘We give the States the money’. [More…]

• In relation to its situation at 3 1 July the Whittlesea Community Health Centre stated: [More…]

• We do not care how community health services are delivered to these people ‘. [More…]

• I am delighted to have the opportunity of speaking to the estimates for health and welfare. [More…]

• At the outset I congratulate the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) for introducing what I believe is the best health scheme ever introduced in the Federal Parliament. [More…]

• The changes to Medibank to be introduced on 1 November will affect various groups in the community in the following way: For the 60 per cent of the population who are currently insured with private health funds for both medical and hospital benefits there will be little change although their medical insurance payments should be lower from 1 November. [More…]

• For a pensioner with a pensioner’s health benefit card who has dependents there will be no change in respect of the present levels of medical and hospital coverage. [More…]

• One of the major problems which has faced Western governments in recent times has been the rate of increase in the costs of providing health care. [More…]

• Since governments finance a large proportion of health services, they have a responsibility to achieve the best value possible for money spent. [More…]

• Hospitals are by far the most costly component of health care. [More…]

• Total Commonwealth outlay on hospitals represents almost 60 per cent of all Commonwealth expenditure on health services. [More…]

• A study in the United Kingdom indicated that the available number of acute hospital beds could be reduced to 2 per 1,000 population with no detrimental effect on the quality of care, provided the less expensive community health services were available. [More…]

• Officers of the Department of Health and the Department of Construction are working in conjunction with State authorities and private industry to develop a planning and information system which will rationalise the planning process and lead to greater efficiency and cost savings in the provision of hospital facilities. [More…]

• The growth of sophisticated technological services has contributed to the rising costs of health care. [More…]

• The Minister for Health at present is considering the report of the Committee on Applications and Costs of Modern Technology in Medical Practice. [More…]

• For example, I join in congratulating the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) on at last having the common sense to stop moving away from the original Labor Government Medibank proposal and at last taking a lurch- it may appear to be a slightly intoxicated lurch in view of the previous path he trod in dealing with Medibank- in the right direction, back to the original Labor Government Medibank proposal. [More…]

• I also agree with the remarks made by the honourable member for Isaacs when he discussed the major cost of health care, namely, the cost of hospital treatment. [More…]

• Leading on from that, the next point- the attempt to control the quality of medical carerelates to the expenditure on the community health program. [More…]

• I only hope that some day soon he can get back on it and reassert himself because the community health program would set priorities for the establishment of alternative techniques of health care including, perhaps, a group of doctors and ancillary medical personnel and a range of people and expertise better to provide comprehensive care for patients outside hospitals. [More…]

• Certainly the Minister has said that this is now the responsibility of the States but the reality, as we all know, is that the States will not be able to find the funds to keep the programs developing and, as the honourable member for Scullin (Dr Jenkins) pointed out, the reality- again sadlywill be that it will grind to a halt and that will only prolong the agony of our excessive health expenditures. [More…]

• That means that those persons affected by the estimates for the Departments of Health, Social Security and Veterans’ Affairs will have a substantial improvement in their positions compared with their positions over the past few years. [More…]

• The Health estimates are most important because we are dealing with a new health scheme which I believe is one of the best in the Western world. [More…]

• It is a good thing that this whole debate in the community is now coming to an end, that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Cabinet have been able to produce a comprehensive scheme that I believe will work well for many years. [More…]

• There are a number of examples in the area that I have the privilege to represent, the electorate of St George, where we have seen the Government’s promises translated into action in respect of health services and nursing homes. [More…]

• The kitchen Cabinet, which is dominated by Mr Fraser, prepared a Budget which ruthlessly disadvantages people who have been legitimately in reciept of social benefits and people who, through ill health or other incapacities, are already disadvantaged. [More…]

• In the area of social security, health and welfare, this socially irresponsible ad hoc decision making is most pronounced. [More…]

• Family planning services, in real terms, are to be cut back, as are the community health programs which are so important to women as they support women’s health centres and refuges. [More…]

• I turn now to Division 325, item 6, also relating to the Department of Health, as it concerns the drug problem. [More…]

• We will have before us independent legislation which will permit us to discuss the philosophical approach to health. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Government: Are our education programs the best that we can have? [More…]

• I would like to touch also on the estimates of the Department of Social Security, which I would relate to the estimates of the Minister for Health in regard to the drug problem, and would refer to the fact that next year is the International Year of the Child. [More…]

• I draw to the attention of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who in this House represents the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle), the need for the Government to look at the total family allowance program and the need as circumstances permit to ask the question whether when we increase those benefits to maintain their real value we should not at the same time make a substantial increase in real value of the payments made in respect of the first child particularly while that first child is in the pre-school age group. [More…]

• The Government has destroyed Medibank standard and contributors must now join a private health fund, be satisfied with a refund of 40 per cent of medical bills, with a $20 patient limit on each bill, and be content with standard hospital treatment. [More…]

• The peculiar point about these gyrations and changes in direction within our national health insurance scheme is that the whole structure of private health insurance is to be maintained simply so that people can be covered for the 35 per cent difference between the 40 per cent subsidy and 75 per cent to be returned by the funds. [More…]

• That is an enormous expenditure on the health, social security, and veterans’ affairs areas of the appropriation. [More…]

• The health scheme is a case in point. [More…]

• I do not suppose that anybody has benefited more from universal health insurance than the providers of health care. [More…]

• One of our great difficulties- and it is a great difficulty that emerges in all Western countries which have universal health insurance- is that in financial terms the providers of health care have probably benefited more than most people in the community from the scheme. [More…]

• In the short time available to me I would like to devote myself to three specific areas that came up in the debate- hospital beds, health maintenance organisations, and, particularly, the peer review that was raised by the honourable member for Maribyrnong (Dr Cass). [More…]

• I would like to thank the honourable member for his constructive contribution to the debate because I share with him the view- indeed, the Government shares with him the view- that one of the great needs in the health care area is to achieve a better level of quality in the delivery of health services. [More…]

• At the present time, according to the publication ‘Paying for Health Care’ which was produced by the Hospital and Health Services Commission and tabled in this Parliament, we have 6.5 beds per 1,000 head of population in Australia. [More…]

• With regard to the health maintenance organisations, the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) reported that recently he had had the privilege of looking at the HMO concept in operation in the United States of America. [More…]

• He will recall, of course, that in 1 976 we amended the National Health Act and the Health Insurance Act to make provision for the establishment of the HMO concept in this country, and discussions have been held on it with the Australian Medical Association. [More…]

• We have thrown down the gauntlet to the health insurance funds. [More…]

• The funds would know that health program grants are available for the development of pilot projects. [More…]

• 1 think that with the new health scheme to come into operation on 1 November, with the universal Commonwealth medical benefit, we could have the type of finance that would be necessary within the universality of that concept to help to seed a health maintenance organisation concept in Australia. [More…]

• Once again I put it to the health insurance industry that it should come forward with positive propositions to develop HMOs in regional areas in this country. [More…]

• The honourable member for Scullin (Dr Jenkins) mentioned the community health program. [More…]

• He accused the Government of having deserted the concept of community health. [More…]

• I am sure he was not smiling when the New South Wales Minister for Health was indicating that the New South Wales Government would not match our expenditure in respect of the community health program. [More…]

• The result of this decision by the New South Wales Minister and the New South Wales Health Commission of course would have been that at least 200 personnel would have been dismissed. [More…]

• Far from abandoning the principles of the community health program the Government has achieved the full co-operation of the State governments on a $ 1 for $ 1 basis. [More…]

• I will not make a decision on this until I have discussed the issues with my State colleague and also have enabled discussions to take place between officers of my Department and the New South Wales Health Commission. [More…]

• During the 1977 election campaign, both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs promised additional funding of $7m in the 1978-79 financial year for Aboriginal health programs. [More…]

• They are getting some management experience in health and education at the moment. [More…]

• Already there are Aboriginal health assistants, Aboriginal teaching assistants and, in some cases, Aboriginal teachers. [More…]

• I commend the Government and the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs (Mr Viner) for the efforts they are making with regard to some of these new innovations such as the employment scheme and the juvenile training scheme, and the additional money being provided for housing and health schemes. [More…]

• Many workers do not take their leave when it falls due- there is certainly some truth in that- but if the Government is really concerned about the health of workers and wants to make sure that they take their leave when it is due so that they do not overwork themselves and so on, why does it not go to the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission or the other industrial tribunals and seek amendments to the awards to ensure that the workers take their leave within a certain time? [More…]

• Such people also will be adversely affected by the health insurance measures. [More…]

• Previously, they never paid the health insurance levy because they paid no tax but they had a 75 per cent cover under the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The third Bill I want to mention is the Health Insurance Levy Amendment Bill which provides for the levy to cease from 1 November. [More…]

• I am very pleased to see the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) sitting at the table. [More…]

• They are now starting to realise that the abolition of the health insurance levy, which, of course, will return 2Vi per cent tax to many people, in conjunction with the new system that has been instituted, is of great benefit and is a great step forward by this Government for the Austraiian people. [More…]

• As the Minister for Health says, it puts money back into the pockets of the Australian people. [More…]

• A reduction in medical insurance rates of $2.80 a week for a family was announced yesterday by the first major NSW health fund to have new tables approved. [More…]

• Four of them concern personal income tax and the fifth relates to the health insurance levy. [More…]

• That last Bill proposes the abolition of the health insurance levy from a date to be declared and the Opposition does not oppose it. [More…]

• That is unfair to the bulk of workers and in fact provides an unreasonable incentive for people not to take the leave to which they are entitled, which they should take and which it has been held is in their interests to take for health and other purposes. [More…]

• The tax cuts were a trade-off for cutbacks in programs such as the health scheme, Medibank matters, housing and the environment. [More…]

• The other matter I mention is health insurance. [More…]

• But, of course, this does not mean that the average Australian necessarily will be paying less in the long run because to achieve a greater cover than the 40 per cent offered by the Government Australians will have to insure with a private fund and the cost of this cover is likely to rise as more and more healthy Australians opt not to obtain additional insurance. [More…]

• The reason for the Government’s decision to abolish Medibank Standard is not related to the wish to provide a better health care system. [More…]

• It is prompted by an ideological commitment to certain groups of doctors and to put the burden of health care on private health insurance funds and the desire to fortify the Government’s attack on real wages by artificially reducing the consumer price index. [More…]

• I do not think it will be very long before the chickens come home to roost and we see the CPI down as a result of artificial manipulating through this health scheme arrangement. [More…]

• We will then see a reduction in the support that the Government gives to the national health scheme. [More…]

• 2) 1978, the Income Tax (Rates) Amendment Bill 1 978, the Income Tax (Individuals) Bill 1978, the Income Tax (Companies and Superannuation Funds) Bill 1978 and the Health Insurance Levy Bill 1978. [More…]

• 1 am afraid that the only Bill in that bevy of five which the Opposition can wholeheartedly support is the Health Insurance Levy Bill, which in fact abolishes the levy previously imposed for health insurance. [More…]

• On Thursday 28 September 1978 I introduced the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) 1978 and the National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) 1978, the provisions of which give effect to the Government’s health insurance arrangements to operate from 1 November 1978. [More…]

• The Bill before the House amends the Health Insurance Commission Act 1973 and establishes the role of the Health Insurance Commission in these new arrangements. [More…]

• In framing the revised charter of the Commission, it is the clear intention of the Government that Medibank Private will operate in a competitive position with other health insurance organisations and should be in as flexible a position as possible, having in mind that there is a statutory relationship with the Commonwealth as a Commonwealth authority. [More…]

• Firstly, the reconstitution of the Health Insurance Commission; Secondly, the removal of the Medibank Standard functions and the continued operation of Medibank Private; Thirdly, provisions relating to the engagement of staff by the Commission after 1 November 1978 and the terms and conditions applying to the staff; and Fourthly, the transitional provisions necessary to effect the changeover to the new functions of the reconstituted Commission. [More…]

• Whilst the Bill does not, in any way, affect the corporate identity of the existing Health Insurance Commission, it does, by the amendments contained in clause 11, provide for the Commission to be reconstituted. [More…]

• There have been substantial changes to the health insurance arrangements during their period of office. [More…]

• On behalf of the Government, I would also like to express my appreciation to the General Manager of the Health Insurance Commission, Mr Ray Williams, and all his staff for the excellent and dedicated work they have done since Medibank ‘s inception. [More…]

• The abolition of Medibank Standard and the transfer to the Department of Health of the administration of various Commonwealth benefits and payments now made by the Commission, means the principal functions of the new Commission will be the management of Medibank Private and payment of the new Commonwealth medical benefit on the same basis as other registered health insurance organisations. [More…]

• Clause 10 of the Bill provides for the Commission to perform such other functions in relation to health insurance as the Minister directs. [More…]

• This provision enables the Commission to pursue government policy objectives in health insurance where so directed. [More…]

• Further, provision is also made for the Minister for Health and the Commission to enter into an agreement for the payment to the Commission of administrative expenses arising out of the performance of functions which are the subject of a direction by the Minister for Health. [More…]

• In order that the Commission can compete with the private health funds on an equal footing, the Bill provides that the Commission will no longer be required to seek Public Service Board approval of its terms and conditions of employment and will be subject to the Conciliation and Arbitration Act. [More…]

• This year these training items have been isolated from general functional areas such as health, education and employment. [More…]

• Unfortunately, while the Labor Party was in power it fostered this feeling among Aborigines and we can see its terrible effects, if only in the alcohol problem and in their health. [More…]

• -On 28 September last I asked the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) a question without notice regarding 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T herbicides and a report to the Victorian Parliament criticising the lack of a research facility for examining such substances in Victoria. [More…]

• In any case, he replied that the National Health and Medical Research Council had examined the matter on several occasions and had found no proof of a relationship with congenital abnormalities. [More…]

• Even if he does not take the attitude that the Opposition takes to these substances and the possibility of their causing congenital abnormalities with consequent human suffering, I would have thought that this Government which talks so much about cost containment would have had some responsibility on the national scale if it were to look at the problems that arise, the cost of the health services, the cost of the prostheses that have to be provided to the people involved, and the cost of their rehabilitation and so on. [More…]

• Government both at the Department of Health and the Department of Environment, Housing and Community Development levels cannot wipe its hands of these matters. [More…]

• Health Commission of NSW to provide staff and laboratory facilities to assist in emergency radiation monitoring surveys. [More…]

• 1 ) Has at least one taxpayer written to the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation saying that as the Australian Atomic Energy Commission received more than $22m in the last financial year, its operation offers no prospect of any contribution to Australia’s energy requirements in the foreseeable future and moreover, its activities pose a grave threat, both directly and indirectly to human health and survival, he or she conscientiously objected to making any contribution to the Commission and was therefore withholding his or her share of its funding. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1978: [More…]

• The Commission follows the recommendations on radiation standards of the National Health and Medical Research Council; these follow closely those of the ICRP. [More…]

• What was the Commonwealth Government’s (a) appropriation for and (b) expenditure on Aboriginal health in each of the following categories during 1 977-78; (i) grants to each State, (ii) grants-in-aid, and (iti) Aboriginal Health Services in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• What is the Commonwealth Government’s appropriation for Aboriginal health in each of the same categories for 1978-79. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 August 1 978: [More…]

• Following the 1976-77 survey of vinyl chloride monomer levels in vegetable oils contained in polyvinyl chloride containers, what action has been taken in relation to the oils whose vinyl chloride monomer levels were found to be above the limit prescribed by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The results of the 1976-77 survey were communicated to State and Territory health authorities who have the responsibility for public health action in their respective areas. [More…]

• I would point out that the vegetable oils covered by this survey had been prepared and packaged before the National Health and Medical Research Council limits had been set. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 August 1978: [More…]

• Apan from the current national survey which is being conducted for the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH & MRC) and which is now nearing completion, the laboratory has made national assessments of population dose resulting from occupational exposure in 1961, 1966-67 and 1971. [More…]

• The survey commenced in 1970 and is still being undertaken by the Radiation Health Committee of NH & MRC in conjunction with the Australian Radiation Laboratory and with some State Health Department assistance. [More…]

• Have any recommendations been made to him by officers ofthe New South Wales Health Commission and the Austraiian Atomic Energy Commission on a suitable site and method of disposal of material from Hunters Hill, New South Wales, which is contaminated by radio-active tailings. [More…]

• Officers ofthe New South Wales Health Commission and the Australian Atomic Energy Commission have met on a number of occasions, the latest being on 1 8 September. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 21 September1 978: [More…]

• What levels are used to determine acceptable health standards and how frequently are checks carried out on finished anicles to ensure those standards are being met. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 September1978: [More…]

• Department of Aboriginal Affairs; Department of Administrative Services; Attorney-General’s Department; Australian Bureau of Statistics; Australian Electoral Office; Australian Taxation Office; Department of Business and Consumer Affairs; Department of the Capital Territory; Department of Construction; Department of Defence; Department of Education; Department of Employment and Industrial Relations; Department of Environment, Housing and Community Development; Department of Finance; Department of Foreign Affairs; Department of Health; Department of Home Affairs; Department of Industry and Commerce; National Capital Development Commission; Department of National Development; Department of the Northern Territory; Postal and Telecommunications Department; Department of Primary Industry; Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; Department of Productivity; Public Service Board; Department of Science; Department of Social Security; Department of Special Trade Representations; Department of Trade and Resources; Department of Transport; the Treasury; Departmentof Veterans’ Affairs. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 21 September 1978: [More…]

• There is no defined animal reservoir which might be vaccinated as is done elsewhere, and this whole matter is still under active consideration by the Expert Working Group on Australian Encephalitis of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• (a) Arrangements exist for continual co-operative Commonwealth-State liaison both on an informal basis and through the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Working Party on Australian Encephalitis, which last met on September 27 this year. [More…]

• The States are basically responsible for all health services within their areas of jurisdiction. [More…]

• Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales have had, for some time, or have recently established, single or co-ordinated health authorities. [More…]

• I understand that communication between these health authorities and other organisations necessarily involved in any control such as State Departments of Agriculture are on an effective basis. [More…]

• -Can the Minister for Health remember saying that the Government’s new health insurance proposals will lead to excess staff at the Health Insurance Commission and promising that government departments and private health funds would be asked to employ the surplus staff? [More…]

• Is he aware that the funds in New South Wales have allegedly placed a black ban on all Health Insurance Commission employees who have previously worked for private funds? [More…]

• However, I did receive an assurance from the representatives of the health insurance funds that they would do everything in their power to take staff that was surplus to the requirements of the Health Insurance Commission in cases where they had vacancies as a result of the changes that would occur to the health insurance system in Australia following the modifications to come into effect on 1 November. [More…]

• I will, however, discuss the matter with the Executive Director of the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware of the acute and growing concern of Health Insurance Commission employees about their future following the Budget statements- statements now almost two months old- on Medibank? [More…]

• I am aware that there is concern amongst members of the staff of the Health Insurance Commission about their future employment. [More…]

• I made it perfectly clear, in making the statement, that there would be staff- the number is yet to be determined- that would be surplus to the requirements of the Health Insurance Commission some time after 1 November. [More…]

• As a consequence of our concern, a very close examination is being undertaken by the Health Insurance Commission, the Department of Health and the Public Service Board of the implications of the new arrangements that will apply. [More…]

• The staffing requirements of the Department of Health for certain functions that will go across from the Health Insurance Commission to the Department of Health for the processing of bulk-billed claims for pensioners and disadvantaged people have not yet been finalised. [More…]

• It is expected that offers of employment will be made to a significant number of members of the staff of the Health Insurance Commission in the very near future. [More…]

• I have asked the Health Insurance Commission and the Department of Health to try to expedite their discussions with the Public Service Board so that we can clarify the position of a great number of staff members who, at present, are not quite sure whether they are going to be unemployed. [More…]

• As I indicated earlier, I have had discussions with the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia to try to ensure that where there are vacancies in the funds it should attempt to make every effort to employ those who are surplus to the requirements of the Health Insurance Commission as a result of the new arrangements as from 1 November. [More…]

• In December last year Professor H. J. deBruin of Flinders University accompanied a party of South Australian Department of Health officials on a survey in and around the Maralinga township. [More…]

• There has been a regrettable tendency to sensationalise this subject in ways that have left the impression in some people’s minds that there is one particularly ‘hot’ or dangerous pit at Maralinga which should have been the subject of special measures, from a health viewpoint, which recent Australian governments have failed to take. [More…]

• On a matter of such fundamental significance to public health and safety as the proper disposal of plutonium and other high level radioactive wastes, it is essential that the fullest information on security and other precautions should be assembled. [More…]

• the health of the Aboriginal population near the weapons test area in South Australia and the future environmental management of those areas, and [More…]

• There are serious questions concerning the health of Australian citizens, especially Aboriginals, concerning Australia’s sovereignty and whether the Australian Government always has been kept informed of events on Australian soil, concerning the hazards of waste which remains at Maralinga and the cost to Australian taxpayers of policing the nuclear waste for 300,000 years, the time it will take before it loses its toxicity. [More…]

• Answers to legitimate health and safety concerns are long overdue. [More…]

• The Government’s earlier slick assurances about nuclear wastes, nuclear safeguards and the health risks of radiation are even less convincing when we examine the record at Maralinga. [More…]

• It consistently supported French nuclear tests in the Pacific and said that they presented no health risk. [More…]

• There are serious health questions associated with Maralinga which have not yet been answered. [More…]

• The United States Government is now engaged in a study of the health of personnel previously involved in atomic tests. [More…]

• I asked the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) on 1 1 April this year whether he would institute a similar inquiry but he refused to do so. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 1 April 1978: [More…]

• All personnel working at Maralinga were subject to stringent health procedures. [More…]

• The honourable member for Reid has talked about the effects of radiation on the health of Aborigines, the policemen and other personnel who have been working in this area and so forth. [More…]

• He apparently wishes to ignore the simple fact that the health survey which was conducted in the area of personnel involved in those projects in 1972 and the survey which is now being conducted again by the AIRAC shows that, on the earlier definition of the evidence, there is nothing whatsoever to demonstrate that the plutonium in the ground, which is buried considerably below the surface of the area, and is surrounded by metal and concrete, has demonstrated any physical ill effects on personnel within the general area. [More…]

• We are going to have a cognate debate of the National Health Bill, and the National Health Bill and the social services amendments that were announced in the Budget are now the cause of this Government ‘s unpopularity. [More…]

• You have changed the health scheme so that nobody in Australia, including the Minister himself, understands what is in front of the people of Australia after 1 November 1978. [More…]

• With the goodwill of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who is at the table, I seek leave to have incorporated in Hansard a brief outline of how this is achieved. [More…]

• Rather than go through all of these trips, I seek leave through the generosity of the Minister for Health who is at the table to have the list incorporated in Hansard. [More…]

• As far as the 100 per cent tuberculosis allowance is concerned, the Government Members Ex-servicemen’s Liaison Committee is considering the question of those persons in relation to the new health scheme. [More…]

• I seek leave to incorporate in Hansard a table which I showed earlier to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• It represented a strategy designed to protect the interests of working people by using the tax system to make real transfers of wealth to the lower income groups via a resources tax and capital gains taxes, the development of universal systems of health and social security, and the opening up of meaningful work opportunities for the unemployed. [More…]

• I advance the thought to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Minister for Construction (Mr McLeay) who are at the table, that when considering forward planning for good, decent living for all Australian people, they bear in mind that under the arrangements for the payment of family allowances and tertiary assistance there is some discrimination against big families. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 May 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) With reference to section 76a of the National Health Act, when does he anticipate tabling the report on the operations of the registered medical and hospital benefits organisations. [More…]

• Does he recognise the difficulties involved in his calling for stimulating public debate on health costs when the most recently published information on the operations of the health insurance funds is now almost 2 years out of date, and in which time dramatic changes have been made to the health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• Is the delay in tabling the report due to failure by some health insurance funds to provide the Department with the basic information concerning their operations. [More…]

• What action does he propose to take in relation to health insurance funds which do not comply with directions issued by him under section 74c of the Act. [More…]

• 1 ) The report on the operations of the registered medical and hospital benefits organisations under section 76a of the National Health Act, in respect of the year 1976-77, was tabled on 19 September 1978. [More…]

• The main reason for the delay in tabling the report under section 76a of the National Health Act in recent years including the 1976-77 Report has been the late lodgment of annual returns by many of the registered organisations. [More…]

• It seems that these delays have been largely due to administrative difficulties within the respective organisations caused by changes to the health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• What is (a) the total office size, (b) the rental cost for (i) the year 1977-78 and (ii) the period 1 July 1978 to date, (c) the administrative costs, and (d) the number of staff temporary and permanent, in occupation of the following Commonwealth offices within the Electoral Division of Parramatta: (A) the Acoustic Laboratory of the Department of Health, 68 Macquarie Street, (B) the Australian Electoral Office, 28 George Street, (C) the Commonwealth Employment Service, 30 Darcy Street, (D) the Bureau of Customs, 30 Darcy Street, (E) the Family Court of Australia, (F) the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, 23 George Street, (G) Medibank, S3 Phillip Street, (H) Medibank, Church Street, (I) Qantas, 20 Macquarie Street, (J) the Department of Social Security, 68 Macquarie Street, (K) the Department of Social Security, Level 6, Westfield Centre, (L) Telecom Australia,5th Floor, 30 Darcy Street and (M) the Taxation Office, 126 Church Street. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 19 September 1978: [More…]

• Has he received many communications expressing confusion and uncertainty as to what course to take with respect to health insurance after 1 November 1 978. [More…]

• Has he admitted that the new health insurance scheme is only on trial for a period of 8 months. [More…]

• Therefore, uninsured persons have substantial health cover without direct cost to themselves. [More…]

• I have been thrown out of a job as Health Minister and Parliamentarian in 1975 by a Governor-General and an election and so I guess I know the sort of feeling this could bring about. [More…]

• -The explanation given by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) does not really sit too well within the Committee. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) argued during his second reading speech that the decision to freeze pensions in accordance with the means test for pensioners over the age of 70 was insignificant. [More…]

• If the amount involved is so insignificant, according to the Minister for Health, why did he do this in the first place? [More…]

• -I just want to speak very briefly, without any disrespect to the two previous speakers, the honourable member for Batman (Mr Howe) and the honourable member for Cunningham (Mr West), whose sincerity I do not doubt but whose comments have been totally inaccurate in respect of clause 8, in support of what the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has said. [More…]

• I exclude the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), whose job it is to justify them and who is well paid for doing so. [More…]

• Very quickly I want to take up the point made by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• However, I want to say in fairness to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who is at the table and who has shown himself to be remarkably sensitive and responsive to the needs of the community, that I believe he more than perhaps any other Minister would watch closely the impact of the alteration with respect to the family allowance scheme on young persons who are qualifying for assistance under education schemes. [More…]

• I address my remarks to clause 21.I ask the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) why he decided to cancel the maternity allowance which has been pegged at $30 since 1943. [More…]

• The Minister in his second reading speech said that costs associated with confinements are now largely covered by health insurance. [More…]

• Later today we will talk about the new misguided health policies. [More…]

• But what about the people who cannot afford to pay private health premiums and simply stay with the general 40 per cent subsidy? [More…]

• The honourable member for Cunningham (Mr West), of course, makes great play on the fact that the maternity allowance has been in existence since 1943, long before the national health insurance scheme came into existence. [More…]

• The purpose of the allowance largely became redundant when the national health scheme was introduced. [More…]

• Those who are privately insured would, in the normal way, send their accounts to their health insurance fund for payment. [More…]

• I am certain that if the honourable member looks back into the history and the origins of this allowance he will agree that it was introduced at a time when there was no such thing as a health scheme. [More…]

• 1 do not blame the government of the political persuasion of the honourable member for not adjusting the allowance or bringing it up to date because it introduced Medibank- a universal health insurance scheme- which tended to nullify the necessity for that provision. [More…]

• I am not one of those who suggest that we should keep a social welfare benefit simply because it is there and has been there for some time, but I am not compelled to think otherwise by the arguments of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• The argument used by the Minister- it contains a certain amount of logic- is that because of the extent to which a universal health scheme pays the bills for childbirth this concept might be redundant, but what the Minister is overlooking and what those who drafted this proposal have overlooked is that the purchase of basic equipment for the child was part of the original concept. [More…]

• We say that particularly having regard to the fact that the whole question of health benefits and the full flow of those benefits has yet to be worked out in terms of the impact that it will have on the general living standards of young families in this community. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr [More…]

• Because I was practising at a time of health insurance and people were battling to pay their health insurance, I tried to minimise the fees charged so that people did not have to go through the experience of public hospitals. [More…]

• Another worry about this clause is that the second reading speech introduced in this chamber by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) does not explain- there is no effort to justify- why this group of beneficiaries alone, amongst all the social security beneficiaries, is to be denied even the benefit of annual indexation. [More…]

• Few unemployed have savings to fall back onto and with the average period of unemployment being 19 weeks malnutrition and a deterioration of health may result. [More…]

• -This is a very important matter, although it is obvious that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), and this Government do not think so. [More…]

• But it does not do me any good, it does not do the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is sitting at the table, any good and it does not do the 10,000 people iri my electorate who are unemployed any good to listen to the honourable member for Murray when his whole argument- we hear it time and time again in this place- was based not on a statement by this Government that it is concerned or that we as a nation have to confront this problem and deal with it now but on the old argument that something was done by the Whitlam Government in 1972 so it is all right for this Government to do it now. [More…]

• I do not believe that the Minister for Health, who is sitting at the table, takes any joy from that. [More…]

• I emphasise again that whilst, for practical purposes, no member of the Government parties was prepared to give support to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is at the table, nearly every one of them voted for these changes. [More…]

• But every disability, especially those which are chronic, is taken into account in any application to join a health insurance fund; if forced to join such funds now, many will find they receive no benefits from it; because of the exclusion of chronic complaints, health insurance cover will not be available just where it is needed most. [More…]

• But if they had not had the benefits of which they are being deprived now, many of them, by necessity, would have had to belong to some private health fund and they now would have been covered for these conditions. [More…]

• They are concerned that benefits for war veterans with tuberculosis and other pre-existing and chronic conditions may not be payable by private health funds- this matter was raised by the honourable gentleman- because of the exclusion provisions in the by-laws of health funds. [More…]

• This position has been checked with the Department of Health which is the department that approves the conditions under which the funds operate. [More…]

• The health insurance division of the Department has advised that in respect of the new arrangements that commence on 1 November all funds will be obliged to offer basic medical and hospital tables which will not exclude benefits for pre-existing and chronic illnesses. [More…]

• They were introduced at a time when tuberculosis was a serious community health problem with limited prospects of effective control. [More…]

• -We are dealing with three Bills which have a basic aim to introduce changes to the health insurance system and which were given to this House by the Minister on the night of the Budget. [More…]

• At this stage I wish to foreshadow the following amendment to the motion for the second reading of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• that the Health Insurance Commission continue to be the paying authority ‘. [More…]

• However, occasionally I do agree with some of the points it makes, and I think that this is a significant point with which even the Minister for Health, who is at the table, will not disagree. [More…]

• The cost containment debate rages on in the absence of any explicit agreement on how much the community wants to spend on health services, whether the present level is too high or too low, or whether the rise in health costs is too fast or not. [More…]

• The debate is catalysed by irregular but frequent changes to health financing arrangements by the Commonwealth Government of the time, sometimes for reasons of community health and welfare and sometimes to help balance the books. [More…]

• That is a quotation from an AMA paper on the cost of health care, and I certainly agree with it. [More…]

• Many many amendments have been made to the health insurance scheme since this Government came to power. [More…]

• The Bills with which we are now dealing contain the fourth very major change to health insurance organisation in only three years. [More…]

• Instability has become the curse of the Australian health insurance system. [More…]

• This is the eighth occasion in just over two years on which the National Health Act has been amended and the sixth occasion on which the Health Insurance Act has been amended by this Government. [More…]

• This charade of health insurance policy formulation has left the Australian public understandably confused and insecure. [More…]

• One of the points with which I would like to deal is the proposition that somehow we are in a state of crisis as far as health costs are concerned. [More…]

• We do not know, and we cannot guess and make an absolute statement, how much ought to be spent in this country on health care, basically because we cannot define need. [More…]

• We know that the proportion of the gross domestic product represented by health expenditure in Australia is just about dead average in relation to other countries with which we might reasonably be compared. [More…]

• Doctor Scotton has compared health expenditures for 19 countries, showing how actual expenditures compare with the level of expenditure which might be expected on the basis of relative national income. [More…]

• Australia is in the middle group, with health expenditure almost exactly as predicted on the basis of actual gross domestic product but noticeably below the prediction in relation to trend gross domestic product. [More…]

• The United States of America and Sweden have very similar levels of per capita health expenditure with diametrically opposed methods of national health financing. [More…]

• Health costs are not in a state of crisis, I emphasise again, in the medical sense of the word. [More…]

• Until an improved data base becomes available, the Government believes that it would be premature to proceed further with the consideration of major adjustments to the health insurance system. [More…]

• Spite has been the primary motivation in this further move in the dismantling of Medibank, spite because the Health Insurance Commission recommended the retention of bulk billing. [More…]

• An analysis was made of a random sample of approximately 49,000 Health Insurance Commission members on which medical claims had been made. [More…]

• Yet the Health Insurance Commission, on behalf of the Government, took a random sample of 49,000 individuals. [More…]

• But the Government chose to ignore the advice of the Health Insurance Commission and abolished bulk billing in June this year. [More…]

• Now it has gone to the point of actually destroying the Medibank Standard part of the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• With the reconstitution of the Health Insurance Commission the Government has further restricted its pool of advice. [More…]

• That pool of advice is now restricted, for practical purposes, to the Australian Medical Association, the private funds and to the rather conservative head of the Department of Health. [More…]

• Dr Howells is a very nice gentleman but his attitude on health is certainly interesting for a public servant, because he is completely committed to what he calls the ‘private enterprise environment ‘ of medical practice! [More…]

• I do not think that the font of wisdom about health insurance is concentrated on one particular side of politics or on one particular side of ideology. [More…]

• The changes to health insurance will cost the Government an estimated $62 lm, as I said. [More…]

• These changes will involve a massive transfer of payments from potential health care expenditure to expenditure on the administration of health care costs. [More…]

• Costs are not only to be measured in terms of those to the taxpayer who foots the bill for this unnecessary proliferation, but also to those of the low average health standards, who will suffer higher premiums, given the rational movement of the more fortunate away from private health insurance. [More…]

• The average so-called community-based pool of health insurance will be destroyed. [More…]

• It is a notable retreat from the concept of a universal health insurance scheme that most Australians have approved. [More…]

• The burden of health costs has been shifted from the public to the less readily controlled private sector, from higher to lower income earners and from those in good health to those in poor health. [More…]

• However, payments to the health insurance industry are not tax deductible. [More…]

• -The three Bills that we are debating complete the changes to the national health scheme which began with some legislation earlier this year. [More…]

• This legislation in turn followed an inquiry and review by the Hospital and Health Sevices Commission under Dr Sax. [More…]

• That inquiry commenced last year and its report, entitled ‘A Discussion Paper on Paying for Health Care’, was published in February of this year. [More…]

• The point I want to make is that many of the final recommendations of that report have been incorporated in this legislation and that there was certainly an opportunity for an input into this document by those interested in health care. [More…]

• The first two Bills, the National Health Act Amendment Bill and the Health Insurance Amendment Bill, really concern the new arrangements and basically they are relative to the medical aspects of the national health scheme. [More…]

• I hope that these are the last significant changes to the national health scheme for many years. [More…]

• The second is that the new arrangements, to my way of thinking, meet the criteria of what Australians want in a national health scheme. [More…]

• The second criterion is that it continues the universality of the national health scheme. [More…]

• I believe it can be said that no Australian will be refused health care in this country or will be unable to get it because of his financial position. [More…]

• Australians have shown consistently that they desire freedom of choice, whether it be with a range of health funds, private accommodation or the different types of hospital accommodation. [More…]

• Even in the days of Medibank Mark I, I think that over 57 per cent of Australians still had private health insurance. [More…]

• One of the significant points of this legislation is that greater flexibility is to be given to the health funds with different tables, optional arrangements and so forth. [More…]

• I note the comment of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in his second reading speech about the safeguards for those who may be presently with a fund which is providing just an optional table which may not include such things as continued payments for the termination of pregnancy so that nobody is caught financially. [More…]

• The sixth criterion is the greater accountability that this scheme will bring to the patient and the provider of the health care so that there will be greater acknowledgement and realisation of the real cost of health care and the need in this country to reduce not the cost but the growth rate of health costs in Australia. [More…]

• I believe that the Minister is to be congratulated because it is now becoming apparent that he has significantly slowed the escalating costs of health care in this country. [More…]

• I will be very interested in the new hospital arrangements when the Minister announces them because 60 per cent of our total health care costs is in hospitals. [More…]

• In other words, the significant area for accountability for health care and value for money with health care is still to come. [More…]

• But I note the progress that the Minister for Health, who is at the table, has already made. [More…]

• Peer review is on the way but I would hope that peer review includes not only hospitals but also private practice and that the health funds themselves will introduce utilisation review procedures so that they can keep some accountability through their system. [More…]

• I ask the Minister to look hard at a couple of other things which I think are important to the future of controlling health care costs in this country. [More…]

• The first is the output of doctors and other health professionals. [More…]

• The third Bill, the Health Insurance Commission Bill, is consequential to the first two Bills. [More…]

• It is consequential upon the abolition of Medibank Standard and the Government’s decision to arrange the 40 per cent benefit payment and other payments through the private funds and the Department of Health rather than through the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Medibank Private will operate in a competitive position with other health insurance organisations and should be in as flexible a position as possible, having in mind that there is a statutory relationship with the Commonwealth as a Commonwealth authority. [More…]

• Should the Government have retained the Health Insurance Commission for the Commonwealth payments under the bulk billing procedures and so on? [More…]

• The next query concerns the necessity for the provision of comprehensive and early statistics on the health care of the nation. [More…]

• It has been a recurring criticism ever since I have taken an interest in this subject in Parliament that there is inadequate data for real or correct decisionmaking in the health care area. [More…]

• One could say that that goes for other areas as well, but I am referring only to health at the moment. [More…]

• I am reassured by the Minister that progress is being made and that part of the arrangement with the health funds is to ensure that this progress on this provision of information continues. [More…]

• The next query is whether Medibank Private will be completely independent and genuinely competitive with the private health funds. [More…]

• Will Medibank Private be able to compete adequately against the private health funds? [More…]

• I ask that question because the terms and conditions of its employees, including those people transferred to it from the Health Insurance Commission, will be those that are enjoyed by the Public Service. [More…]

• I believe that he has successfully negotiated this new scheme, particularly in view of all the changes that automatically flow in legislation and so forth and the discussions he has had with employees of the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• If the honourable gentleman had been here and had listened he would have heard my attitude to any further changes to the national health scheme. [More…]

• I also want to commend the Minister on the introduction of a longstanding Liberal and National Country party health policy, namely, giving dentists the ability or the power to prescribe a limited number of drugs. [More…]

• The Opposition and other critics of the Government and the health scheme cannot claim that the Government is being mean financially in respect of the proposed changes because it is estimated that there will be an additional cost to government of approximately $620m in a full year. [More…]

• I said at the beginning of my speech that I hope this is the last fundamental change to our national health scheme for many years. [More…]

• Therefore the actual government budgetary commitment to the new national health scheme may be somewhat different from that estimated at the present time. [More…]

• This will be acceptable if the overall balance of health and health care costs in this country is maintained. [More…]

• I think the first thing to note about the collection of health Bills we are discussing tonight is that they represent the latest flip in a series of flips, flops and contortions- in fact it might well be said that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in the past three years has outrivalled anything offered in the Kama Sutra. [More…]

• Clearly, whatever we think about this latest scheme, most of us would say that the Australian people have been so messed about with health proposals in the last three years that we should at least give them a chance of stability. [More…]

• First of all, the latest permutation on the medical provision for this country was not primarily designed in the interests of the health care of the Australian people. [More…]

• Medical and health concerns were not uppermost in the original planning of this latest permutation. [More…]

• Indeed, the reaction of the Austraiian Medical Association and the private health insurance insurers when they first heard of the scheme is evidence of that. [More…]

• The primary purpose originally of this latest contortion was to ensure a compensatory fudging of the consumer price index figures by abandoning the health levy to offset the inflationary effects of the increase in indirect taxes, particularly, of course, the impact of the petrol levy. [More…]

• Indeed, one might say that this Budget was conceived by Howard out of the Treasury rather than by Hunt out of Health. [More…]

• I think that the Australian was rather kind to describe the Minister for Health the day after as a little woolly in his description of the scheme. [More…]

• Of course, had there been full planning of this new scheme, had it arisen very much from the Department of Health rather than from the Budget considerations, we could have expected, along with the Budget announcement, a clear exposition of the new scheme, its machinery, its benefits and its drawbacks. [More…]

• First, what would be the effect of changes to Medibank on staff employment within the Health Insurance Commission? [More…]

• It is interesting to note that the circulated copy of the Minister’s statement of that day noted that some of the present employees of the Health Insurance Commission ‘will be surplus to requirements’. [More…]

• By the time the Minister reached the House, this statement had become, ‘some, indeed a considerable number, of the present employees of the Health Insurance Commission will be surplus to requirements’. [More…]

• On 15 August the Minister stated: lt does seem, however, that some- indeed a considerable number- of the present employees of the Health Insurance Commission will be surplus to requirements. [More…]

• What exact arrangements have been made to deploy surplus staff of the Health Insurance Commission to other areas of the Public Service? [More…]

• Thirdly, yesterday the Minister made mention of assurances he has received from the private health funds. [More…]

• For instance, I ask the Minister Has he received any assurances that former Health Insurance Commission employees will be given preference in employment of new staff by private health funds? [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health will make some use of this debate to clarify for the people concerned the uncertainty which is the direct result of his own contortions. [More…]

• After some weeks of suspense we know now that the universal Commonwealth medical benefit is going to be paid by the voluntary health insurance agencies. [More…]

• The reason I condemn this, apart from my own particular and personal objection, is that the problem of unemployment on the Health Insurance [More…]

• Commission side could have been partly solved by making Medibank Private or the Health Insurance Commission entirely responsible for the standard payment. [More…]

• At least it would have made easier the employment problems on the Health Insurance Commission side. [More…]

• Throughout the history of the pursuit of an adequate and satisfactory universal scheme the private health insurance agencies have been amongst the chief enemies of these proposals. [More…]

• I say to the honourable member that Medibank Mark 1 was the biggest mess that this nation has ever seen in health care programs. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) to take that into view in the future. [More…]

• In 1974 we saw the introduction of Medibank- the scourge of the nation, a scourge suffered by every nation that has introduced a so-called free health scheme. [More…]

• I want to look briefly at health costs because they will not go away. [More…]

• Despite the number of changes that have been made- perhaps too many changes have been made to the schemewhat this Government has achieved is a slowing down, a lessening, in the escalation of health costs in this nation. [More…]

• I say to those deliverers and consumers of health care that they must respect the services that we have available. [More…]

• The deliverers, the doctors and the hospital administrators must realise that there is no bottomless pit, that somewhere someone has to pay for the cost of health in this nation. [More…]

• The consumers of health care- that is, all of those people, including myself, who avail themselves of free health care services at the point of delivery- must be made aware that those services at some point have to be paid for. [More…]

• So to the deliverers and consumers of health care I say that they must be well aware of the system we have and not abuse it. [More…]

• One must surely look again at the total health costs to this nation, because they have exploded from approximately $2.2 billion to $6.2 billion in the 5 years from 1971-72. [More…]

• The Minister for Health who is at the table has repeatedly made these figures available so that the people of this country could realise just what is involved. [More…]

• The cost of health care per person has risen from $104 in 1966-67 to $447 in 1976-77. [More…]

• Outlays on health in this Budget are estimated to be $2.9 billion or 10 per cent of the total outlays of almost $29 billion. [More…]

• If we look at the rate of growth in health costs we find that they rose by 20 per cent in 1973-74, by a further 36 per cent the following year, by 27 per cent the following year, and in 1976-77 the rate of growth had slowed down to 19.7 per cent. [More…]

• I move on now to deal with health insurance in particular. [More…]

• I want to issue a warning in relation to the new attractive rates that have been announced, because it is my belief that when the healthy Australian, and the healthy young Australian in particular, decides that he will not take out health insurance there will be no guarantee that these rates will hold. [More…]

• I accuse the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), the shadow Minister for Health, of encouraging people not to take out health insurance. [More…]

• Tens of thousands of Australians will be unhappy if they do not take out some health cover. [More…]

• Only time mli tell whether these particular health insurance funds can sustain the lower rates that they have recently announced. [More…]

• I just say to them that today’s healthy person can be tomorrow’s ill person. [More…]

• That ought to be recognised by the honourable member for Prospect and all those honourable members opposite who are advising people not to take out private health insurance. [More…]

• Think carefully about it, Australians, and I think many of you will decide to take out health insurance’. [More…]

• Over the past three months I have incurred several thousands of dollars worth of health care costs. [More…]

• I do not know for how many years I have been a member of a health insurance fund, but certainly I have been a member for as long as I can recall. [More…]

• I simply say that today’s healthy Australian might be tomorrow’s ill person. [More…]

• Let us look at what will happen with the removal of compulsory health insurance. [More…]

• That is assuming that he does not take out the health insurance about which I have asked him to think very carefully. [More…]

• The man who is shadow Minister for Health in this Parliament is encouraging and inciting people to beat the system. [More…]

• He makes no reference to low income or disadvantaged people in relation to whom bulk billing was specifically introduced, as has been stated so many times by the Minister for Health in this debate. [More…]

• When one looks at the number of times that the Labor Party has incited anarchy and lawlessness in our community- I am sure it has incited people to exploit our unemployment benefit scheme- and when one hears a shadow Minister for Health, a man who aspires to be Minister for Health in this country, telling people to look for doctors who are prepared to bulk bill, one wonders what the motives of the honourable member for Prospect are, especially when he stoops to those levels to urge people to seek handouts to which they are not entitled. [More…]

• The private funds will have access to these people’s records and will have their names and addresses and will bombard them with literature encouraging them to take out unnecessary- I repeat ‘unnecessary’- health insurance. [More…]

• As I said earlier, it is a scandalous state of affairs when a man who aspires to be the Minister for Health in this country urges people not to take out insurance. [More…]

• Approximately 60 per cent of total health costs goes in hospital services. [More…]

• Similarly, the history of Medibank and health insurance since December 1975 has been one of a continuous breach of faith. [More…]

• Remember how in 1975 Labor kept its election pledge to provide a basic, cheap, workable system of universal health insurance? [More…]

• We saw then the imposition of a 2.5 per cent levy on taxable income and a subsequent exodus back to the private health funds. [More…]

• Earlier this year the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) released the Sax report and what he euphemistically termed his health costs control program. [More…]

• I thought that is what it was labelled- the health costs control program. [More…]

• We saw the reduction of benefits paid on schedule fees by Medibank and the private health insurance funds from 85 per cent to 75 per cent and the maximum payment on each item was increased from $5 to $ 10. [More…]

• At that time the Minister commenced his hate campaign against Medibank, saying that it was responsible for rising health costs. [More…]

• In Australia the great health cost explosion began during the term of the Labor Government. [More…]

• It was a cost expansion directly associated with the transfer of health expenditure from the private to the government sector. [More…]

• In the five-year period from 1971-72 to 1976-77 health costs rose from $2,232m to $6,254m. [More…]

• Medibank Standard was completely abolished and the Government explained that it would pay a 40 per cent subsidy to all, including those who opted out of health insurance altogether and those who remained in Medibank Private or the private health funds. [More…]

• But did this amazing reversal of form originate in a desire to improve health services or in a desire to reduce the consumer price index figures? [More…]

• Certainly the Government will tempt many people to gamble on their future good health and many families may live to regret their gamble if they are struck by significant illnesses. [More…]

• Clause 9 of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill allows the private funds to set up socalled optional deductible schemes whereby for a reduction in contributions those insured will be asked to pay up to the first $500 of total annual bills. [More…]

• But in either case the Minister is inciting people to opt out of the system, to gamble on their health. [More…]

• The Minister will create separate pools of people taking health insurance. [More…]

• The young and the healthy will stay out and the families, the middle aged and the sick alone will shoulder the cost burden. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission’s functions have also been disrupted and the staff now fear for their future employment. [More…]

• Since the Commission will no longer handle bulk billing but will act as the paying authority for the 40 per cent subsidy only for those who register with Medibank Private, many regional Medibank offices will be taken over by the Department of Health. [More…]

• The Federal Department of Health has announced a staff requirement of 207 for Miranda, Liverpool and Orange. [More…]

• That means that in those four offices alone- Miranda, Liverpool, Orange and Canberra- 227 people face dismissal when these regional office activities are assumed by the Department of Health after 1 November or, in the case of Canberra, when they are phased out. [More…]

• The Opposition’s foreshadowed amendment most definitely demands that the Health Insurance Commission continues to be the paying authority for both those measures. [More…]

• Why is there any need to continue with this charade of support for a chronically ill private health insurance system? [More…]

• Why does the Minister wish to prop up this nonsense, this wasteful duplication that is involved in the support of a multiplicity of private health insurance funds all vying for a limited market? [More…]

• Let us face it, people join intermediate and private hospital tables offered by private health funds because they are not confident that their own doctor and specialist will treat them if they are standard public ward patients only. [More…]

• The table rate is $3.40 a week which amounts to $177 a year and 35 per cent of $8.90 is $3.1 1; so, on my rough calculations, it looks as though a person might have to make about 25 visits a year to the doctor before it would be cheaper to join a private health fund. [More…]

• Why should we not have just one universal health insurance scheme? [More…]

• Better still, why not just have one health insurance fund funded by one simple levy, offering medical insurance and offering a full and comprehensive hospital service by doctors in the great public hospitals. [More…]

• But I should make this point: We in the Labor Party realise that much more is needed than simply to create just another national health insurance fund such as Medibank used to be. [More…]

• We should resuscitate, not wind down, the concept of preventive community health centres. [More…]

• We need to offer more than just a health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), in his second reading speech, talked about some of the difficulties that he saw involved in that concept. [More…]

• When one thinks back to the Sax report on health costs one ought to remember that irrespective of what may have appeared in the recommendations the thesis of that report was that if one wanted to do something about health costs then one had to do something about charges by doctors. [More…]

• Repeatedly throughout that report the authors suggested that the fundamental problem in restraining health costs was not the patient but the doctor. [More…]

• The present situation is that those persons whom the Minister for Health suggested earlier were ‘socially disadvantaged persons’ are now described simply as ‘disadvantaged persons’. [More…]

• A pamphlet distributed under the name of the Commonwealth Department of Health explains the scheme. [More…]

• How wrong is it that a doctor upon whom a person is dependent for health care should have the right to know someone’s personal and financial circumstances! [More…]

• -I briefly enter this debate to join issue on the matter which was dealt with by the honourable member for Batman (Mr Howe) namely, the operation of clause 15 of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill. [More…]

• I do not have any problem and the Minister for Health should not have any problem about the concept of bulk billing. [More…]

• What tends to happen is that one receives a visit from someone from a locum service who has no knowledge of the patient, who turns up without any medical records and whose only function is to provide an immediate medical judgment about the state of the patient’s health. [More…]

• The view of doctors who provided bulk billing in all those cases was that it brought about a general raising of the medical health care standards of those communities. [More…]

• They go along to a doctor, who says to members of this Parliament that the facility for bulk billing raises the general level of health care of Aboriginal people; and the best that the honourable gentleman opposite can do as a spokesman for the Liberal Party is to say: Where do they get their grog?’ [More…]

• It provided the basis of many community health services. [More…]

• I worked with the former Prime Minister, Mr Whitlam, in the administration of the Australian Labor Party between 1967 and 1972, which was before the Labor Party was elected to office and on many occasions during his work with people who were co-opted to Labor Party committees on the subject of health he was horrified at the way in which the private health funds were giving health insurance coverage to the people of Australia. [More…]

• During that period it was found that no fewer than 1,250,000 eligible Australians had no health insurance at all. [More…]

• It became the view of the Labor Party that we could not afford this sort of health insurance coverage, that we could not afford to continue to see so many of the people in the community who were already classsified as disadvantaged not having any insurance and subsequently denying themselves proper health care. [More…]

• The honourable member for Petrie (Mr Hodges) went to great lengths to explain to us that this matter is all about total health costs and the Government is concerned about the total health costs. [More…]

• No one from the Government benches has talked about the cost to Australia of having people in ill-health, and those people in ill-health grow in number when the people are subjected to the sort of system that the Government is now to initiate. [More…]

• The hundreds of thousands of people on low incomes obviously will not join any health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and Government supporters have had great difficulty in giving to us the definition for what is a disadvantaged person. [More…]

• When the Minister for Health announced the new scheme he said that some people may decide to join private health funds on top of the cover given by the Government. [More…]

• Tonight Government speakers have been paranoid about the thought that someone might opt out of joining a private health fund. [More…]

• Klugman), the Labor Party’s spokesman on health, said that there are many categories of people who would be better off not joining any private health insurance fund people on the other side of the House jumped up and said it was scandalous, it was hypocrisy and that the honourable member was being irresponsible to say such things. [More…]

• I ask the Minister: Is it or is it not a fact that any person not joining a health fund between 1 November and 1 January will be covered anyhow and that if he gets ill during that period he can join a fund and receive the same coverage and if he does not get ill he will save the amount of money involved during that period? [More…]

• that the Health Insurance Commission continue to be the paying authority’. [More…]

• Finally, the amendment contains the proposition that the Health Insurance Commission should be the paying authority. [More…]

• This gives them access to the details of a person’s health status because they are the paying authority in respect of that 40 per cent refund. [More…]

• Therefore, it is wrong that the Government should insist that the names, addresses and all those other personal and intimate health details of contributors should be provided to a private organisation which can receive commercial benefit from that knowledge. [More…]

• Obviously, the funds will prefer to attract young people as contributors I noticed in today’s Melbourne Age or the Australian a reference to the Hospital Benefits Association Ltd offering young people health insurance on a 50c basis. [More…]

• They can find out people’s names, addresses, ages and health status. [More…]

• Clause 9 of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill effectively abolishes bulk billing for all but holders of pensioner health cards and those whom doctors agree are disadvantaged persons. [More…]

• The legislation does not offer any basic criteria to doctors, whilst expecting them to act as unpaid agents for the Department of Health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) says that the bulk billing arrangements for disadvantaged persons could include persons in such categories as the unemployed, people receiving sickness benefits, migrants, some ethnic groups, perhaps refugees and people suffering from prolonged or severe illness, but there is no compulsion on the doctor or specialist to agree to bulk billing these categories or any other person for that matter. [More…]

• For a person not covered by private health insurance and who may be in difficult financial circumstances it is made abundantly clear by the Minister that unless the doctor agrees to bulk bill and settle for 75 per cent of the scheduled fee the needy patient will be expected to pay the full amount less the 40 per cent general subsidy. [More…]

• During a recent meeting with the AMA executive it was made abundantly clear to me and to those present that the complete opposition of the AMA to bulk billing for the general community was due wholly to its fear that general bulk billing to a central paying authority such as the Health Insurance Commission would mean general acceptance of 75 per cent or 85 per cent of the standard fee and that this would indirectly impose a de facto control of medical fees. [More…]

• Its previous attempt to amend health legislation was an amendment to the optional deduction arrangement which allowed private health funds an opportunity to opt out of payments for the termination of pregnancy. [More…]

• The shoddy drafting on that occasion forced many members of the Party against their will to vote against providing that option to the private health funds. [More…]

• The first relates to the staff of the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• I stated in my second reading speech that the Government accepted that with the abolition of the Health Insurance Commission a significant number of staff would be surplus. [More…]

• Discussions have taken place between the Health Insurance Commission, the Department of Health, the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations and the Public Service Board. [More…]

• I take the opportunity of thanking the honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd), the Chairman of the Government members Health and Welfare Committee, for his very constructive speech and for the work that his Committee has done in assisting the Government in the formulation of its policy in the health insurance area. [More…]

• For Aboriginal health the total expenditure in 1977-78 by way of State grants and grants-in-aid was $16,289,000. [More…]

• I could go on to illustrate just what health, education and other programs will mean to people and to communities; how we are supporting in all walks of life Aboriginals who want to help themselves, who no longer want simply to receive a Government handoutbut projects designed to support the work that they want to do within their own communities and for themselves. [More…]

• and (3) Health services to the Oenpelli population, including regular medical visits, have been maintained since October 1973. [More…]

• General health services will continue to develop as they have in recent years. [More…]

• A study to establish baseline social and health data is being planned in co-operation with the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. [More…]

• costs of ethnic health workers, the employment of whom under the Community Health Program has to be worked out in consultations with the States. [More…]

• Departments represented on the Task Group are Environment, Housing and Community Development (Chair), Aboriginal Affairs, Education, Employment and Industrial Relations, Finance, Health, Home Affairs (Office of Women’s Affairs), Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, Prime Minister and Cabinet and Social Security. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 19 September 1978: [More…]

• What action has been taken by the National Health and Medical Research Council or other authorities or professional organisations, to confirm these claims and to facilitate the blood vitamin assays involved. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has not received any application for assistance with scientific research into this question. [More…]

• Field of Expertise: Water Quality, Health Physics. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 September 1 978: [More…]

• Is it a fact that Australia allows higher concentrations of some additives such as food colours than other countries and higher than is recommended by the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• Before approval for the use of a food additive in Australia is given, it must be fully evaluated on both technological and toxicological grounds by the Food Science and Technology Subcommittee (FST) of the National Health and Medical Research Council (N.H and M.R.C.) [More…]

• However full details of pharmacological and toxicological investigations carried out according to the general terms of reference given in World Health Organisation Technical Report Series, No. [More…]

• Dr R. H. C. Fleming, Director, Food and Nutrition Section, Commonwealth Department of Health (Deputy Chairman and Convener) [More…]

• Mr G. L. Robinson, Chief Health Surveyor, South Australian Health Commission. [More…]

• Mr M. P. Jackson, Principal Chemist, Commonwealth Department of Health (Secretary). [More…]

• Miss M. W. Corden, Principal Nutritionist, Commonwealth Department of Health (Convener and Secretary). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on15 August 1978: [More…]

• What health screening occurs at Lucas Heights, NSW, and other atomic energy projects in Australia. [More…]

• A full and detailed occupational health service is provided for all employees of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission at Lucas Heights. [More…]

• An investigation led by Professor David Ferguson of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, University of Sydney into the health of employees at Lucas Heights has been undertaken and in the preliminary report there was no evidence to show that the health of employees was being affected because of the nature of the industry. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 September 1 978: [More…]

• My rephrased question to the Minister for Health is this: Is the Minister aware of conflicting public statements regarding the need for people to maintain private health insurance and not merely to rely on the Commonwealth medical benefit after 1 November? [More…]

• What is the Minister’s advice to Australians in relation to the taking out of health insurance after 1 November? [More…]

• I support the statement made by the New South Wales Minister for Health, Mr Kevin Stewart who, although a Labor man, is adopting a far more responsible position in this issue than are members of the Opposition. [More…]

• But at a time when health insurance premiums, particularly for the medical table, will fall, I think it would be most unwise for those people who are presently privately insured to drop their health insurance cover, thus losing their entitlement to choose their doctor for medical services in hospital and thus being eligible to receive only 40 per cent of the schedule fee. [More…]

• Those people on higher income levels undoubtedly will be able to bear the cost; but people on lower levels of income or people who are likely to have a history of medical problems- nobody can forecast whether one is likely to have a series of health problems- would be wise to take the precaution of either maintaining their cover or taking insurance. [More…]

• These estimates allow the Federal Government to assist in an appropriate manner, but recovery and the health of small business depend on the co-operative effort of everyone; the most important effort being that made by the individual himself or herself. [More…]

• -In division 494 of the estimates for the Department of Primary Industry an amount of approximately $36m is set aside for the Bureau of Animal Health, which includes provision for export meat inspection services. [More…]

• -Much has been said by the private health insurance funds and the Australian Medical Association, as well as the close associates in this House of those organisations, in favour of persons indiscriminately- I emphasise the word indiscriminately’- taking out medical insurance after 1 November. [More…]

• The reason for this generosity is to cheat the wage earners out of a significant portion of their next two wage indexation increases by replacing the health levy by the so-called ‘temporary’ across-the-board tax increase. [More…]

• The health levy abolition and the associated decrease in the cost of medical insurance will result in the consumer price index being reduced while at the same time it will not be increased by the tax imposition. [More…]

• Australians, both current levy payers and contributors to private funds, that they think very carefully before they commit themselves to health insurance expenditure after 1 November. [More…]

• The changes make it no longer compulsory for Australian residents to pay health insurance. [More…]

• The arrangement under which doctors bulk bill the Commonwealth in relation to pensioner health benefit card holders and their dependants who are not privately insured will continue. [More…]

• I deplore the fact that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) yesterday in reply to a Dorothy Dix question called my advice ‘irresponsible’. [More…]

• Once again we have heard the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) come in here and utter a diatribe about the future health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• I must agree completely with the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) when he says that the comments that the honourable member has made here again today are completely and utterly irresponsible. [More…]

• How can people gamble with their health on the basis that the honourable member has given today? [More…]

• It is good to know that there are responsible people such as the Labor Minister for Health in New South Wales, Mr Stewart, who has completely dissociated himself with the remarks of the honourable member for Prospect. [More…]

• One must think very carefully indeed before making the decision not to go ahead with health insurance from 1 November. [More…]

• His health obviously suffered severely at the hands of the Japanese in the camp and he returned to Holland. [More…]

• However, the result of the period that he spent in the camp in Indonesia during the war certainly took its toll of his health. [More…]

• He too, of course, has not first-class health. [More…]

• Indeed, the Leader of the Opposition even asserted on the television program This Day Tonight on 12 July that Mr Kane had a serious health problem and should retire from the inner Executive. [More…]

• Ten years ago spending by the Federal Government on health, education and social welfare used to make up one-quarter of the total Budget outlays. [More…]

• Plenty of evidence from overseas- from West Germany, East Germany and a whole range of countriessuggests that as countries increase funding to sport and provide widespread sports programs for community participation the standard of community health improves. [More…]

• I hate to sound corny or to use a cliche, but a fit nation is a healthy nation. [More…]

• I think the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) should debate these estimates. [More…]

• The allocations for sport should come from the health program. [More…]

• We all know that this is a fact, and yet we continue to pour $7 billion into health and- to use the bigger figure- $7.4m into sport. [More…]

• Emphasis on sport is one really effective way in which we can contribute to a fit and healthy nation. [More…]

• I am also concerned that the total health bill in Australia, including the costs incurred by State, Federal and local authorities and private means, is in the order of $7,000m this year. [More…]

• It seems to me that overseas statistics indicate that where a nation encourages competition in sport, where people actually engage in sport rather than sitting on the sidelines, the health of that nation is of a higher standard and it spends fewer dollars for each head of population in health costs. [More…]

• So it appears to me to be a perfectly desirable and laudable proposition to advance that we transfer resources from health costs to sporting costs. [More…]

• I would think that if we reduced the allocation to health by, say, $4m or $5m and transferred it to sport, we could have a national administrator and a national coach for all of these sports. [More…]

• I commend him particularly for his comments on the importance of sport in preventive medicine, the importance of developing sport and having people involved in sport so that it will improve their health and thereby reduce health costs. [More…]

• I refer briefly to the subject of industrial safety and health in Australia with particular reference to the nature of the Australian work force which is increasingly multi-cultural. [More…]

• One recent initiative which has been taken has been an attempt by the Commonwealth Government to implement a code of general principle concerning occupational safety and health in Australian Government employment. [More…]

• It has been largely based on recent experience in the development of occupational health and safety legislation in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Sweden and other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. [More…]

• Being based on these experiences, the code has adopted the broad findings and tenets of such recent acts, emphasising the need for involvement and cooperation of all parties concerned with safety and health. [More…]

• The key point of this is that in developing industrial safety and health policies in Australia we must constantly be aware that the work force is so diverse. [More…]

• Whilst one would have to generally support the proposed code for occupational health and safety in Australia, it is important that the code take account of the measures which I have been suggesting. [More…]

• Health and safety information must be passed on to workers In their own language. [More…]

• A married man receiving $152 a week after tax may pay about $7.70 for the much vaunted health insurance changes, leaving him about $144 a week. [More…]

• The economic value of domestic work must be recognised and properly remunerated in the same way as we recognise the value of public health or education. [More…]

• Commonwealth departments making use of the Branch’s laboratories include the departments of Primary Industry, Business and Consumer Affairs, Health, Transport and Construction, as well as CSIRO. [More…]

• The Sydney regional laboratory of the Australian Government Analytical Laboratories undertakes the analysis of samples for the National Health and Medical Research Council market basket survey of food. [More…]

• The Government’s decision to cut staffing at the Analytical Laboratories has saved perhaps $500,000 annually, at the cost of, among other things, poorer scrutiny of hazards of public health. [More…]

• Its emphasis on industrial research and development, marine sciences and health sciences is sound. [More…]

• The same applies in respect of education and health services. [More…]

• Many of the functions have gone to the Department of Health. [More…]

• There has been no comment from the Federal Minister for Science (Senator Webster) or from the Federal Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) regarding those herbicides. [More…]

• It consisted of 3 members drawn from the Overseas Telecommunications Commission, one member from Telecom, 2 members from the Department of Defence, 2 members from the Department of Transport, and one member from each of the Departments of Health and Finance. [More…]

• Assistance accordingly is given to projects which will improve the health and skills of coming generations and establish the infrastructure for their economic development. [More…]

• For example, the World Health Organisation has spent some $83m over 10 years to eradicate smallpox in the world. [More…]

• Sixty-three per cent of Australians are suffering from one or more illnesses, according to a health survey. [More…]

• As a sideline- I think the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) would appreciate this- the article stated that, if 63 per cent of the people in Australia are not in the best condition, the other 37 per cent are doctors who are laughing that they are lit. [More…]

• Another surprise was that almost 49,000 children between the ages of one and five had not been given protection from polio (health authorities advise that babies should have received three doses of polio vaccine by the age of 12 months). [More…]

• However, a health department expert said the number of children not immunised, 3.8 per cent, was not large enough to cause concern. [More…]

• The Queesland Health Department have also said they will not reimburse the salaries of the two nurses working here during the same period. [More…]

• It is being used only by Trans-Australia Airways and the Department of Health in those two cities. [More…]

• When we go further than that and ask just what contribution TAA and the Department of Health are making to meet the cost of this, we cannot get an answer. [More…]

• The Common User Data Network (CUDN) at the Melbourne and Sydney Centres will continue to provide service to TAA until late 1 978, and to the Department of Health until early 1979. [More…]

• Both TAA and the Department of Health will operate their own computer systems using Telecom leased lines. [More…]

• However, the Melbourne and Sydney centres will continue to provide service to TAA and to the Department of Health. [More…]

• There were two subscribers, TAA and the Department of Health. [More…]

• Additionally the Minister for Foreign Affairs said that the treaty will provide for the broader co-operation on immigration, customs, health and quarantine arrangements in the Protected Zone. [More…]

• The net personal income tax collections figure included collections from residents of the Territories but excluded the health insurance levy. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 October 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 October 1978: [More…]

• In fact, I was involved with my colleague the Minister for Health in discussions with union representatives and Public Service Board officers the other night on this subject. [More…]

• We would like to know whether Aboriginal co-operatives will be fostered further and helped to become more self-sufficient, to widen their activities and to undertake, eventually, local government functions and decision making in the educational and vocational fields and in health services supervision. [More…]

• Such commissions which came within the responsibility of my portfolio at the time were the Hospitals and Health Services Commission, the Australian Capital Territory Health Commission and the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission. [More…]

• While tourism is unlikely to have a dramatic effect on community health and welfare, it is in a unique position to foster and develop the community’s knowledge of Australia and the Australian heritage. [More…]

• In December 1975, the Liberal-National Country Party spokesman on environment and conservation, the present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), stated: ‘We will continue to support the Environment Protection Act’. [More…]

• The first amendment relates to clause 40 of the Health Insurance Bill (No. [More…]

• It amends the head of agreement contained in schedule 2 of the Health Insurance Act 1973. [More…]

• Clause 42 of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• It provided for the repayment of such claims to be made in such a manner as the Minister for Health determines. [More…]

• The Senate has amended clause 10 of the Health Insurance Commission Amendment Bill 1978 which inserts new part 11B and which relates to the additional functions of the Commission. [More…]

• This amendment which is acceptable to the Government specifically provides in proposed new section 8D that the Commission will meet, until a date to be proclaimed, claims for medical benefits referred to in clause 43 of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill No. [More…]

• Consequent upon the amendment made by the Senate to the Health Insurance Commission Amendment Bill 1978, it was necessary for the Senate to amend the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) 1978 to ensure that the provisions of clause 43 would be subject to new section 8D of the Health Insurance Commission Amendment Bill 1978. [More…]

• -The Opposition does not oppose these amendments although the Committee will recall that we opposed many clauses of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill when it was before the Committee some two weeks ago. [More…]

• There have been 16 separate amendments to the Bills dealing with health insurance since 1976, when the present Minister assumed responsibility for that portfolio. [More…]

• The Health Act seems to deal with anything from nursing homes to pharmaceutical benefits and many other items. [More…]

• The position is not so bad with the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• They introduced a whole host of changes to the Health Insurance Act, the Health Act and the Health Insurance Commission Act. [More…]

• The people of Australia may become used to one particular kind of health insurance for just a few months before they have to be exposed again to masses of advertising, masses of public relations work from different funds and different government departments. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission Amendment Bill 1978 is being amended. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission Amendment Bill 1978 was passed by the House of Representatives on 12 October 1978. [More…]

• This Part provided for the Commission, in addition to operating Medibank Private, to perform such other functions in relation to health insurance as the Minister for Health directed. [More…]

• New Part IIB was included in the legislation to enable future government objectives in health insurance to be implemented through the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• For example, the Government may wish to establish on a pilot basis a health maintenance organisation in a particular area in which the registered organisations have not shown interest. [More…]

• It is envisaged that, following the proclaimed date, further outstanding Medibank Standard claims would be met by the Department of Health. [More…]

• Proposed new section 8ad ( 1 ) refers to the performance of such other functions in relation to health insurance as are prescribed by regulations. [More…]

• The Government believes that the above amendments will permit the full disclosure of any additional government initiated functions in relation to health insurance to be performed by the Commission and the arrangements between the Government and the Commission in the performance of those functions. [More…]

• The amendment would still enable future government initiated proposals in relation to health insurance to be pursued through the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• When this Bill was introduced into and passed by this chamber, proposed new section 8c ( 1 ) read in part: the Commission shall perform such other functions in relation to health insurance as the Minister may, from time to time, direct by writing signed by him. [More…]

• The health insurance funds put very strong pressure on the Government in the intervening couple of weeks to amend the legislation to make it impossible for a Minister to give directions to the Health Insurance Commission instead of introducing regulations which, of course, have to be passed by both Houses of the Parliament. [More…]

• The is exactly what the Government is hoping for in respect of this legislation so that when it loses control of the lower House and, therefore, government in 1980- hopefully that will occur earlier- it still will have control of the Senate- it has a large majority there at presentand will be able to revoke any direction given by the Minister to the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• The reason that the Government wants to be able to do that was clearly stated by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) when he said: . [More…]

• The fact that they would have to be given by way of regulations, which are required to be laid before the House for IS sitting days, should not prevent reasonable directions being given to the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• I have not had one health insurance fund make representations to me on this issue. [More…]

• However, a number of Government members- quite a small number- members on the Government parties’ Health and Welfare Committee brought this matter to my attention. [More…]

• For example, he could furnish an instruction to the Health Insurance Commission without that instruction ever seeing the light of day until such time as the Commission reported to the Parliament. [More…]

• The reason why Lionel Murphy, now His Honour Mr Justice Murphy, a judge of the High Court of Australia, introduced this set-up when he was Attorney-General- it was opposed by the conservatives and Tories who sat opposite us- was that he knew as well as we in the Labor Party knew that there were people in our community who were being denied justice because they had no shekels in their pockets just as there were people in our community who were being denied health care because they could not afford it. [More…]

• At the moment two of the six positions are vacant and are being advertised, leaving four draftsmen to handle all the legislative drafting for the following departments: Department of the Capital Territory; the Department of Education; the Health Commission; Treasury; the Department of Business and Consumer Affairs and the AttorneyGeneral’s Department. [More…]

• There is mental health legislation which has been in the drafting stage for three years. [More…]

• This has been kicking around in the Department for the past 25 years- 25 years for legislation to give adequate control of health standards in shops and safety standards for workers in factories. [More…]

• The expenditure last financial year of $ 159.3m for the Department of Health has been cut to $95.4m. [More…]

• That amount of $95.4m covers capital works and services programs for the Department of Health and payments to the States. [More…]

• As the member for Parramatta reminds me, there is a curtailment of roughly $60m under the health program. [More…]

• If we turn to the appropriations for the Department of Health we find that expenditure is down from $195m to $95.4m. [More…]

• I now turn to the community health program. [More…]

• This program would have had employment generating capacity as well as health qualities. [More…]

• I think the Treasurer (Mr Howard) or the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) ought to explain this figure. [More…]

• The total drop in the capital works and services and payment to or for the States divisions under the Department of Health provisions is $63.8m compared with last year. [More…]

• Grants for community health programs total $5 1.3m. [More…]

• In my electorate, which is very close to the electorate of the honourable member for Hughes, a marvellous community health establishment at Peakhurst is funded by this Federal Government. [More…]

• I appeal to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) to arrange quickly for the Poisons and Narcotics Drugs Ordinance to become law in the Australian Capital Territory so that the prescribing of drugs to people who are addicted can be regulated. [More…]

• Also, the Government has made a decision that in future the Government’s own section of the health scheme will be handled by the private medical insurance companies rather than through the Government’s own network. [More…]

• In some instances, and on an almost totally arbitrary basis, personnel from Medibank were given the opportunity to transfer directly into the Department of Health without any entry requirements as officers of the Commonwealth Public Service. [More…]

• The other staff will be rendered surplus by the change and by the Government’s decision to hand over the work done by these people to the private health funds under arrangements which will mean that contributors to the private health funds will, in fact, pay for the processing of a substantial part of the Government’s section of the health scheme. [More…]

• The Government insisted on an arrangement with the private funds whereby a certain amount would be paid per registered government health fund recipient. [More…]

• I am concerned that the Government has made no effort, and apparently is unconcerned, about the future of the people who are to be displaced in the Medibank offices around the country, a number of which are to be closed other than for private Medibank health insurance operations. [More…]

• Mr Morris makes a comment about the Queensland Department of Health taking over responsibility for the health centre at Aurukun. [More…]

• The registration committee which is established under the National Health Act is responsible for examining the applications that are made by the funds in respect of their tables, and the funds are supposed to provide rules. [More…]

• The Government will proceed to take whatever action is necessary to prohibit the health funds from applying new benefits exclusions to contributors who maintain health insurance at levels above the basic table after 1 November. [More…]

• The Government also will act to prevent health funds from applying rules in their medical tables that result in benefits exclusions on the grounds of chronic illness or old age. [More…]

• For new contributors to tables providing medical benefits above the basic benefits table, registered health funds will be prevented from reducing benefits below the basic 75 per cent of the schedule fee with the $ 10 gap. [More…]

• Whatever merits these policies might have as ‘temporary’ measures, the further they are extended the more likely they are to prejudice the health of the economy and thus retard recovery from the recession. [More…]

• When it comes to the crunch, honourable members opposite from Tasmania are supporting the Liberal-National Country Party Government, which is responsible for stagnation policies, which is responsible for the poor deal for the pensioners and which is responsible for the lousy health scheme which is being debated around the country now. [More…]

• As mentioned in the attached Explanatory Statement the object of the Bill is to provide for a permanent prohibition of the termination of a pregnancy other than at a hospital conducted by the Capital Territory Health Commission. [More…]

• The failure of the Government to adequately and equitably provide for the health insurance needs of the community. [More…]

• I think they have probably got sick of what has happened with health insurance over the last three years. [More…]

• Once again, the incompetence of this Government in health insurance policy formulation has been highlighted during the last week or two in a particularly worrying and insidious manner. [More…]

• The aging, the chronically ill and those with pre-existing conditions, the very people for whom health insurance is most necessary, have been threatened with being dropped by the private funds. [More…]

• What hope does the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) offer these anxious contributors? [More…]

• The Minister for Health, his Press secretary and private secretary are not given a fair go to try to explain things. [More…]

• He does not permit the Minister for Health to appear on television with me. [More…]

• He is talking about the present health insurance system. [More…]

• Judging from the distress calls pouring into my office, 99 per cent of people haven’t the faintest clue which health fund is covering who, for what, for when or for how long’. [More…]

• The health funds, I feel, are keeping their cards too close to their well-stuffed money-chests. [More…]

• As subscribers discover almost daily, there are crevasses galore in the cold, pitiless health cover tundra. [More…]

• What must be remembered is that the Federal Health Minister, Mr Hunt, approved the HCF plans within the past few weeks. [More…]

• The HCF’s new rules from 1 November 1978, which were approved by the Commonwealth Minister for Health (Mr Ralph Hunt) last month, preclude the payment of the ‘gap’ benefit under this table in respect of pre-existing and chronic conditions. [More…]

• The HCF news item which was to be released after 1 p.m. on Monday 23 October, which is some time ago, was headed: HCF offers new choices under revised health scheme’. [More…]

• The Minister for Health yesterday and in his statement the other day denying the HCF claim said: [More…]

• I challenged the funds last week as to why they were not pointing out that the Minister for Health was at fault, before they started publishing the advertisements over the weekend. [More…]

• In regard to the confusing issue, I might say that health insurance has always been something of an enigma to a great percentage of people in this country and there has never been a change to the health insurance system which has not involved a considerable amount of confusion. [More…]

• This is largely due to the fact that in Australia we have about 80 health insurance funds that offer a variety of packages. [More…]

• Indeed, the story is that when the national health scheme was introduced in 1953 there was great confusion. [More…]

• In fact, the story is that, as the Prime Minister of the day was leaving this chamber and returning to his office after hearing the then Minister for Health Sir Earle Page announce the new health scheme, the Prime Minister was asked by a journalist: ‘Prime Minister, do you understand this health scheme?’ [More…]

• We as a government have attempted to simplify the issue of health insurance as much as possible. [More…]

• I will admit that the scheme that went to bed on 31 October was a very complex- indeed, a confusing- scheme and a very difficult one to administer, but it achieved an objective in bringing about a slowing down in the rate of increase in health costs in this country. [More…]

• I reject completely the assertion by the honourable member for Prospect that the Government has failed adequately and equitably to provide for the health insurance needs of the community. [More…]

• In fact, I do not think that its health record will ever be forgotten because it was during the Australian Labor Party’s 3-year term in office that Australians suffered the greatest explosion in health costs in the history of this country. [More…]

• The medical profession consistently warned the then Government that its ill conceived, openended arrangements would lead to a great explosion in health costs. [More…]

• So let not the Opposition try to make out that its record in the health area has been anything but disastrous. [More…]

• The Labor Party’s record is so poor that it should not be casting a stone at this Government in regard to health systems. [More…]

• This extravaganza occurred not only in the health area but also in every section of administration. [More…]

• When this Government was elected to office in 1975 it had no alternative but to face up to the unpleasant task of trying to restructure the whole health insurance system. [More…]

• No responsible government could stand by and see the health system break down under its own financial burden. [More…]

• The costs of the health system were weighing heavily on the taxpayers’ pockets. [More…]

• The latest statistics, prepared by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Department of Health and the consultant firm involved, that were released the other day demonstrate that to the year ended 30 June 1977 we achieved remarkable success. [More…]

• As I said earlier, the modified Medibank system which we introduced on 1 October 1976- the first modification- helped to make people generally more cost conscious in the whole health area, whether they were providers or users of the system. [More…]

• The new scheme which began operating on 1 November this year has simplified the universal health insurance system and to some extent has reduced the burden upon the individual. [More…]

• Despite all the changes to the health insurance system, despite universality, despite the fact that they could have obtained universal cover for a family for a maximum of $300 a year, the majority of the people covered themselves for more expensive health insurance. [More…]

• I feel it unnecessary to make any detailed response to the attack by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) on the Australian Labor Party’s health scheme. [More…]

• I take up the Minister’s point that confusion always has been a problem when people have been faced with health insurance changes. [More…]

• The health system always has been an enigma, but I think it is true that it has never been a greater enigma to the Australian people than it is at present. [More…]

• It is my belief, and the Minister seems to have abandoned this idea completely, that government has a duty to make health schemes as simple and clear as it can. [More…]

• This scheme was not designed primarily in the interests of the health care of the community nor was it designed to provide an adequate or equal health service for Australians. [More…]

• The Minister’s administrators know it; the Australian Medical Association knows it; and private health funds know it. [More…]

• -The Minister may disagree about the muddle but he might agree that he has these problems at the moment because he has reintroduced effectively into the health system rampant free enterprise. [More…]

• Health insurance, not health care, is now the name of the game. [More…]

• The chief consideration is on the insurance side and not on the health care side. [More…]

• The Minister talks about the cost of health schemes to the community. [More…]

• Does he ever try to estimate the costs which are now being imposed and will continue to be imposed on the community simply because of the huxterism of the advertising market which has been brought back into the health scheme to a greater extent than anything else over the past six or seven years. [More…]

• As I have pointed out, provisions are being introduced to favour the healthy and to disadvantage the chronically sick. [More…]

• Once we start giving priority to insurance we introduce these principles, but should they be the guidelines for health insurance provisions in this country? [More…]

• There is even some evidence that the Minister himself had trouble reading the fine print of some of the health agencies’ proposals. [More…]

• What then of those people entirely unversed in the health field? [More…]

• I know that the Minister has condemned the worst of these practices and the worst examples of the free enterprise ethic which we now have back in the health system and he will attempt through promised legislation to avoid its worst manifestations. [More…]

• It displays a cynicism and a greediness that is remarkable even for the health funds, which have done nicely enough already from the Fraser Government’s decision to abandon the original Medibank and hand health insurance back to the private sector. [More…]

• But these kinds of extreme activities are the direct and logical extension of the philosophy now enshrined in the Liberal health scheme. [More…]

• The whole decision to move to deductibles was to open up the whole health field to competition, at once wasteful in advertising and socially undesirable. [More…]

• I believe that the introduction of deductibles- both the major deductibles and the deductibles offered by the private agencies- ultimately will add to the total cost burden to the community of health care. [More…]

• They are the healthy and the wealthy. [More…]

• The healthy can take the nsk. [More…]

• They can gamble on maintaining their health and therefore can take a deductible scheme. [More…]

• The Hospitals Contribution Fund and a number of other private health agencies do not believe that they can cope with the problem of the chronically ill. [More…]

• I am rather puzzled by the whole wording of this matter of public importance raised by the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) who is the shadow Minister for Health. [More…]

• The failure of the Government to adequately and equitably provide for the health insurance needs of the community. [More…]

• health insurance needs of the community’. [More…]

• His whole line of argument time after time since this new scheme was proposed has been that there is no need for any health insurance with the new scheme. [More…]

• All Australians, both current levy payers and private fund contributors, must think very carefully before committing themselves to health insurance. [More…]

• In other words, insurance is beside the point as far as he is concerned in this health scheme. [More…]

• Yet the honourable member for Prospect today, after putting up the argument that there is no need for health insurance at all, now says that the health insurance arrangements are not equitable. [More…]

• If he would like to reconsider his position, as he was forced to during the most recent health debate that we had in this place- the Labor Party amendment would have provided an open season or an open Sesame situation for doctors to increase their incomes at the expense of the community- perhaps we could adjourn this House to let him think more about the position he has got himself into. [More…]

• We should not be debating health insurance by itself but the health care needs of the people of this country in a total concept. [More…]

• Health insurance is only a part of that. [More…]

• Accepting that line of argument for the time being, one could say, as the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has stated, that the problem developed because of the desire of the Department the Minister represents, the Minister himself and the Government generally to give approval as early as possible to the health funds for their rates schedules- I emphasise this point- so that they could go out and present the tables to the public generally because of the 1 November deadline. [More…]

• Federal Cabinet yesterday decided to force health funds to pay full benefits to chronically ill contributors. [More…]

• The Health Minister, Mr Hunt, announced yesterday that the Government would take any necessary action to prevent the funds applying rules in their medical tables which exclude benefits to the chronically ill or aged. [More…]

• The moves are designed to prevent New South Wales largest health insurer, the Hospitals Contribution Fund, from proceeding with plans to pay only 75 per cent of the medical bills of chronically ill contributors. [More…]

• Members of the Opposition particularly the honourable member for Prospect- have developed some other arguments about the so-called avaricious health funds, such as that they are hoodwinking the public and the Government. [More…]

• The health funds were around when Labor was in government. [More…]

• Let us compare the pressure that was applied to the health funds when the Australian Labor Party was in government with the pressure that we have applied in two and a half years in Government. [More…]

• In my 7 lA years in Parliament no Minister for Health has forced the health funds to reduce their reserves to the extent that the present Minister for Health has. [More…]

• Also, no other Minister for Health has encouraged more competition. [More…]

• If one wants to look at the whole question of avariciousness, corruption, inefficiency and accelerating expenditure in health care costs one should not look just at the funds. [More…]

• They changed their attitudes to the health delivery system. [More…]

• To the credit of the present Minister for Health and the Government that cost has been brought back to about 7 per cent. [More…]

• Labor proposed to spend $700,000,000 to create more beds with an inevitable increase in total health costs in Australia. [More…]

• Yet Labor intended to add to this burgeoning expenditure on health care costs in Australia. [More…]

• For example, in 1973-74, $3,000m was expended on national health. [More…]

• We have to remember that at that time the Australian health care system was heading for breakdown. [More…]

• There was the increase in total cost to all Australians- patients are Australianinefficiencies, burgeoning expenditure and avariciousness in certain sectors of the health care field during the time of the Labor Government. [More…]

• The community health programs allocation has been reduced from $69.4m to $52.6m. [More…]

• The Minister for Defence (Mr Killen) might shake his head, but people who are looking for community health programs in various electorates are shaking their heads in wonderment. [More…]

• However, if one believed that governments should be responsible for the welfare of its citizens- all its citizens- and that governments should show the way in job creation programs, in providing health services, education, transport, et cetera, one would agree that this government is a miserable failure. [More…]

• It will damage the health of the industry and the health of all those about whom the Opposition purports to be concerned. [More…]

• Last night I was informed by the Chairman of the Capital Territory Health Commission, Russell Boardman, and the Minister for Health, (Mr Hunt) that the Commission has been monitoring the consumption of drugs in the Australian Capital Territory for some time. [More…]

• Specifically, doctors will not be able continually to prescribe drugs for regular drug takers for more than 2 months without reference to the Medical Officer of Health. [More…]

• I hope that my raising the matter has added some impetus to the efforts of the Capital Territory Health Commission to provide, a realistic alternative. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 12 October 1978: [More…]

• I refer to the Treasury, through its taxation system; the Department of Social Security, through its income support system; the Department of Education, through its responsibility to maintain freedom of choice in education; the Department of Health; the Department of Aboriginal Affairs; the Attorney-General’s Department; the Department of Veteran’s Affairs; and the department responsible for housing. [More…]

• As I suggested earlier, if changes to direct taxation levels, changes to the health insurance scheme, changes in pensions or family allowances, changes in education funding and other measures all combine either to improve or disadvantage the circumstances of individual families, it is more a coincidence than reasoned social policy. [More…]

• I probably will be branded as being out-of-date, old-fashioned, not trendy enough or permissive enough, but I submit very strongly that it is absolutely critical for the future stability and health of Australian society that governments as last begin to recognise the role of the family unit in Australian society. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who represents the Minister for Social Security, (Senator Guilfoyle) gave notice in the second reading speech of the Homeless Persons Assistance Amendment Bill that the program which will implement the basics of the Homeless Persons Assistance Act is now sufficiently well established to warrant discussion with State governments on their views about the sharing of responsibilities in this area. [More…]

• They are anti-female and they are in the same vein as the much vaunted Lusher motion on abortion that would use a Federal health law to deny medical benefits to women who have operations which are legal under the law of the State in which they live. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 25 October 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 18 October 1978: [More…]

• The primary responsibility for the detailed planning and operation of health services rests with the State and Territory health authorities. [More…]

• Nevertheless, the Commonwealth Government acknowledges that it has an important role in relation to overall policies and strategies, national goals and priorities, and evaluations in the health care field. [More…]

• In this connection, the Commonwealth participates in joint discussions on health problems with the States. [More…]

• In this context, the National Health and Medical Research Council has endorsed the policy statements recommended in the document Health Care Policy Relating to Children and their Families’ to which the honourable member has referred. [More…]

• The Commonwealth ‘s general support for the aims and philosophies expounded in the article is further demonstrated by the Government’s continued funding, under the Community Health Program, of the national secretariat of the Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital which prepared the document and has, with the aid of the Commonwealth’s financial assistance, vigorously promoted these principles and philosophies. [More…]

• As indicated in (2) the National Health and Medical Research Council has endorsed the policy statements recommended in the document. [More…]

• The Capital Territory Health [More…]

• I am aware that the New South Wales Health Commission has formally adopted as official policy the Association ‘s policy statements and while I am unaware of any formal pronouncements by the other States, I can confidently report that there is widespread acceptance of the principles expounded and that they are being implemented wherever practicable. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 February 1978: [More…]

• The figures for claims per contributor for payment of pathology services in 1976-77 sought by the honourable member are not available from my Depanment, the Health Insurance Commission or the private health funds. [More…]

• This is a consequence of the movement of over half of the population from the Medibank coverage to private health insurance subsequent to 30 September 1976. [More…]

• I have been concerned about the need for more detailed information on health costs. [More…]

• I will be tabling in the near future, the results of a study which throws new light on the patterns of health expenditure in recent years. [More…]

• I have also ensured that the new health insurance and benefits arrangements to apply from 1 November 1978 are utilised to improve the availability of relevant statistical information. [More…]

• These figures related to roughly half the population, and did not cover persons covered by the private health funds. [More…]

• With the assistance of Medibank and the private health funds, it has been possible to prepare preliminary estimates of benefits expenditure for pathology services for the sixmonthly periods, July to December 1977 and January to June 1 978 for the total population. [More…]

• Capital Territory Health Commission- 1 October 1977 [More…]

• State Health Laboratory Services of Western Australia- I January 1978 [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 March 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 September 1978: [More…]

• Furthermore, how would one feel if it were seriously alleged- an inquiry were under waythat an officer, say, of the Health Department who had sole custody and control of stocks of addictive drugs had been engaged in drug running? [More…]

• It goes back to the Fraser philosophy of hike the Australian worker, increase his taxes, do not worry about his health insurance as he can pay for that too; if he dares to get out of line, under the industrial legislation the Government will punish him either by a gaol sentence or by attacking him personally from the point of view of damage caused. [More…]

• The Australian National Animal Health Laboratory, which is financed by the Commonwealth but administered by the CSIRO, again provides a new facility which is most essential for Australia in view of her isolation and dependence at present on diagnostic facilities overseas, particularly in relation to exotic viruses and bacteria. [More…]

• These appalling conditions would be condemned by the Department of Health if it were given the opportunity: There is a single toilet for the more than 20 employees, no conference or meeting room, and, of greatest concern, no provision for private interviews with the unemployed, despite the sensitive nature of matters subject to discussion. [More…]

• -The date of 1 November 1978 means to the health system what the date of 11 November 1975 means to democracy. [More…]

• All last week my office was inundated with calls from angry and confused pensioners wanting to know why their contribution rates to health funds were rising so high, yet the coverage remained the same. [More…]

• The matter of health is as important to the old as taxation is to the workers and education is to the children. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 September 1 978: [More…]

• Has his attention also been drawn to the fact that Dr E. J. Fitzsimons, the person nominated by his Department to participate in this Four Corners program and an officer with appropriate detailed technical knowledge about the possible long-term effects of pesticides on health, was apparently unaware of which pesticides were restricted in the United States of America but are freely available in Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 October 1978: [More…]

• Are there any optometrists employed on (a) salaried, (b) sessional and (c) fee for service bases in Community Health Centres in (i) the Australian Capital Territory and (ii) the States. [More…]

• There are no optometrists employed in Community Health Centres in the ACT on any basis. [More…]

• The detailed administration of general community health projects conducted within States and approved for funding under the Community Health Program, is a matter for the States. [More…]

• The relevant State health authorities have advised that the following numbers of optometrists are employed in approved projects, on the bases shown: [More…]

• When the honourable member for Hindmarsh was Minister for Labor he began work aimed at reducing the cost to Australia of occupational ill health and industrial accidents. [More…]

• Perhaps I should add also that in the Budget we have allocated money for promotion of a national campaign for an awareness of the cost to the nation of bad occupational health and safety practices. [More…]

• I am a bit vague on the question of whether the Department of Primary Industry or the Department of Health would be responsible in the case, say, of a major outbreak of bluetongue. [More…]

• The example that I wish to give is one that was quoted by Dr Rushford, the Deputy Chief of the Animal Health Division of the Victorian Department of Agriculture, at the Federal Council of Poultry Farmers Associations of Australia on 5 April 1976. [More…]

• Outlays for meat export inspection and animal health services undertaken by the Bureau of Animal Health are estimated at $35.5m, but only $3.2m will be recouped. [More…]

• He asked, firstly: Who is responsible in the event of the outbreak of an exotic animal disease, the Department of Health or the Department of Primary Industry? [More…]

• The Department of Health is responsible for keeping these diseases out of Australia through its quarantine service. [More…]

• Of course, they are intended to try progressively to ensure that we preserve to the maximum extent the health of the Australian herd and that we try to ensure that any exotic diseases which enter Australia from overseas are contained and eradicated through the procedures that are outlined in the legislation, the procedures to which I have just referred or in the practices of the Bureau of Animal Health. [More…]

• In the last few years the Bureau of Animal Health has been called upon to turn its attention to very serious problems. [More…]

• I believe that had the Bureau of Animal Health not acted totally responsibly by reporting to overseas consumers the exact nature of the outbreak and the virus, we might well have faced in the future the complete closure of markets which are very strict in the manner and form of the health clearances given to Australian livestock and to Australian meat. [More…]

• I believe that the Bureau of Animal Health has operated most effectively. [More…]

• We do encounter questioning as to why we should get involved in diverting resources to overseas countries when there is so much needed to be done in this country’ in relation to the poor, education, health and so on. [More…]

• What I would like to stress again is that the world has a considerable stake in the greater economic health of the developing countries. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 24 October 1978: [More…]

• Prospective students may be granted visas for temporary entry to undertake full-time post-secondary studies provided that: the proposed course of study or its equivalent is not available in their home country or country of residence; such study is of worthwhile content and duration leading to a qualification which would be recognised and be of value in relation to future employment opportunities in the home country or country of residence; they have the capacity (including a satisfactory knowledge of English) to undertake their proposed course of study; they gain enrolment in an Australian educational institution to undertake the approved course of study; they are able to meet the cost of their fares to and from Australia, their fees and maintenance; they have a genuine intention to enter Australia on a temporary basis for study purposes only and will depart from Australia on the completion of their approved course of study or if they abandon studies; they have passports or travel authorities valid for reentry into their home country or country of residence; and they meet normal migration health and character requirements. [More…]

• 1 ) Has his attention been drawn to the decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, in an appeal case raised by a member of the Australian Journalists ‘ Association employed originally by the Australian Wool Board and later in the then Departments of the Interior and Health, that it is the responsibility of every contributor to the Commonwealth superannuation scheme to make sure that his or her fortnightly superannuation payments are the correct amount. [More…]

• I refer of course to the health scheme and pre-school centres where the consumer is being required to contribute more in a direct way. [More…]

• One necessary part of the legislation says that the 2Vi per cent levy for health insurance need be collected no longer. [More…]

• What I would like to stress again is that the world has a considerable stake in the greater economic health of the developing countries. [More…]

• Perhaps some other types of projects that are related directly to the people- perhaps a small health program- could be identified so that the people could see the benefits and we could see how the funds were being spent to make sure that they did not go through the bureaucracy and government agencies where the funds are adulterated to a great extent. [More…]

• Health programs are most important. [More…]

• I raise a matter tonight which is not a direct responsibility of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) but which must be of vital concern to him. [More…]

• -Tonight I too want to refer to health insurance. [More…]

• I believe that in the main health insurance will be successful and that costs in relation to the percentage of population participating in the insurance scheme will be lowered. [More…]

• It is against this background that I deprecate the attitude of the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Hayden), as stated in the Courier-Mail, that he will not take out private health insurance for himself and his family. [More…]

• I realise, of course, there are people with chronic poor health, or families with a number of small children requiring constant medical attention, where some insurance is needed. [More…]

• The Labor Party’s health spokesman, Dr Klugman, has also been reported to have decided against private health insurance. [More…]

• On the other hand, the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) have said that they are insuring to maintain the higher medical and hospital benefits. [More…]

• Some concern has been expressed to him about the attitude people might take following what the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party’s health spokesman have said with regard to their attitude towards hospital insurance. [More…]

• However, I have been assured by the Minister for Health that the numbers of people insuring are satisfactory to him. [More…]

• It is fairly obvious that the community at large has not taken any notice of the attitude of the Leader of the Opposition or the shadow Minister for Health in relation to hospital insurance. [More…]

• (a) The National Health and Medical Research Council established an ad hoc Working Party to study the use and safety of 2,4,5-T. [More…]

• Western Australian Institute of Technology: Associate Diploma in Engineering; Masters Degree in Metallurgy; Masters Degree in Health Science. [More…]

• -I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• In view of the success of the trachoma program and the continuing government concern for the health of Aborigines, has any consideration been given to similar programs? [More…]

• However, before coming to any decision on the matter, I think we should await the outcome of the results of a research program which is being undertaken by Dr Jose of the Cancer Institute in Melbourne, Dr Reid of the Department of Health and also Dr Rao, who is an ear, nose and throat specialist from Darwin. [More…]

• The research team has been granted $32,000 from the National Health and Medical Research Council to carry out the first year’s work next year. [More…]

• -Can the Minister for Health inform the House of what progress, if any, has been made by the New South Wales Government in resolving its difficulties in negotiating agreed remuneration for visiting medical officers in country hospitals in New South Wales? [More…]

• I have also been advised that the Minister for Health in New South Wales is bucketing me and the Commonwealth Government on the issue and I am told that the following statement was broadcast over radio 2LF, Young. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health whether it is a fact that there is likely to be a surplus of medical practitioners in Australia in the next few years. [More…]

• Quite clearly, if we want to keep health costs within any bounds we will need to ensure that we overcome this very serious impending surplus of doctors in this country. [More…]

• As Minister for Health, I do not have a responsibility at all, other than to try to make an assessment of the manpower requirements that are necessary to meet the health needs of this country. [More…]

• The matter has been the subject of discussion at the last two Health Ministers’ conferences. [More…]

• I do think there are encouraging signs that people are now starting to recognise that a surplus of doctors in this country will not reduce health costs; in fact, it will increase them. [More…]

• In real terms, spending on Aboriginal housing has fallen by 28.5 per cent since the last Labor Budget; on Aboriginal health by 28.7 per cent; on Aboriginal education by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs by 20.3 per cent; on Aboriginal employment programs by 5.9 per cent; on Aboriginal welfare by 4.9 per cent; on Aboriginal enterprises- that is, selfmanagement by 70.5 per cent; on town management and public utilities by 50.5 per cent; on cultural and recreational funding by 33.8 per cent; and on legal aid by 15.8 per cent. [More…]

• For instance, Aboriginals could be asked the following questions: Do you wish to run your health service; do you wish to have a cattle station; do you wish to run your own affairs; do you wish to have a land council? [More…]

• By the same token, if the Aboriginal people who live in family groups or clans rather than those who are grouped in large areas, such as in Central Australia or Arnhem Land, are asked whether they wish to do certain things such as running a business or health centre they agree and that business automatically becomes that of the proposer. [More…]

• There are other areas in northern New South Wales in the electorates represented by the Minister for Primary Industry (Mr Sinclair), the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the honourable member for Darling, Mr Fitzpatrick. [More…]

• As Honourable members are aware, there are three principal elements concerning the payment of medical benefits under the new health insurance arrangements which commenced operation on 1 November 1978. [More…]

• As I indicated in my second reading speech when introducing the National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) 1978, these tables, which must conform with guidelines determined by the Minister for Health, enable registered organisations to offer a variety of medical benefits packages, including deductibles. [More…]

• Before outlining in detail the provisions of the Bill before the House, I would like to inform honourable members that the Goverment ‘s new health insurance arrangements are working exceptionally smoothly, except for a small, but most important, group of contributors, who are subject to the medical benefits exclusions rules of registered organisations. [More…]

• Section 73BE of the National Health Act provides for the Minister for Health to give directions to registered medical benefit organisations, including directions with respect to the scope and level of benefits available to contributors. [More…]

• The objectives specified in the Bill are as follows: The first objective is to prevent discrimination in the payment of medical benefits for medical services rendered on or after 1 November 1978 which is, in the opinion of the Minister for Health, improper discrimination. [More…]

• 1 am sure honourable members will accept that, as a principle, persons affected by new or restructured tables under the new health insurance arrangements should be able to maintain their full medical benefits entitlements which existed prior to 1 November 1978. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall that in a Press statement made on this issue on 30 April 1978 by the Minister of Health in New South Wales and me, I stated that when I had evidence on these nonpayments of benefits, action would be taken to safeguard patients. [More…]

• Section 73E of the National Health Act provides for the Minister for Health to determine guidelines relating to optional medical and hospital benefit tables. [More…]

• Benefit tables satisfying the guidelines, and criteria specified in the National Health Act, are declared, by the Minister, to the optional tables. [More…]

• The Bill, in clause 8, amends section 78 of the National Health Act. [More…]

• The Bill before the House confers on the Minister for Health powers of direction to safeguard membership and benefit entitlements of contributors. [More…]

• The decision in principle to close that station was taken some time ago, I think by Dr Everingham, the predecessor of the present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• I know that this is not the direct responsibility of the Minister for Health, who is at the table. [More…]

• Whilst the decisions in principle have been taken to remove both of these facilities, apparently the final decision has not been taken by the Department of Health. [More…]

• I was disturbed to read in the annual report of the DirectorGeneral of Health that over seven tonnes of goods of plant or animal origin was confiscated in one year. [More…]

• I congratulate the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who is at the table, for this fact. [More…]

• We have commenced the building of the National Animal Health Laboratory at Geelong which will cost some $80m. [More…]

• From the report of the Director-General of Health I see that it is planned to improve the incinerator at Tullamarine airport and provide new incinerators at Rockhampton and Townsville. [More…]

• It is very clear that there have been some bad administrative improprieties carried out by the Department of Health as far as its staff is concerned. [More…]

• I will now refer to a quotation from a Mr Begg who has made representations to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) talked in his second reading speech about the possible introduction of rabies through the illegal importation of a cat or dog. [More…]

• in reply- Firstly, I would like to respond to the remarks of the honourable member for Fremantle (Mr Dawkins) in respect of his concern about the disposal of the land that will become surplus to the needs of the Department of Health once the Woodman Point quarantine station is closed down. [More…]

• Because of the tremendous work that the World Health Organisation has undertaken- I think this is one of its great achievements- smallpox has been practically wiped off the globe. [More…]

• Virtually from the day that I was commissioned as Minister for Health the honourable member has been constantly on my doorstep. [More…]

• In response to a request the Director-General of the Department of Health and I went to Western Australia in 1976. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 September 1978: [More…]

• Has there been any contact between the Queensland and Commonwealth Governments on this matter and has he made available the document by the World Health Organisation entitled Environmental Health Criteria for Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (T.C.D.D.) [More…]

• Has his Department made any submissions to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation that it should investigate the effects of these chemicals on human health. [More…]

• However a recent study conducted by the Capital Territory Health Commission indicated that for the period September 1976 to March 1978 under a scheme of financial assistance offered by the Commission for travel interstate for treatment, eighty-four people were approved for assistance to travel for radiotherapy. [More…]

• IBM 360/65- $2.6m (this includes a notional cost of $1.3m for the acquisition, on transfer, of certain equipment from the Departments of Health and Social Security); [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 November 1 978: [More…]

• The scheme proposed by the Pharmacy Guild is essentially the same as the Subsidised Health Benefits (SHB) Plan which was discontinued in 1976 as part of the Government’s cost-containment measures. [More…]

• To adopt the scheme proposed by the Pharmacy Guild now would create additional administrative costs which would be unacceptable both in terms of continued economic restraint and the small overall increase in patient benefit that would arise under current Health Scheme arrangements. [More…]

• It includes: The encouragement of new technology to improve the productivity performance of existing industries and to create opportunities for the development of new industries; the need to relate new technology to people at the workplace; the need for excellence in Australian design to enable industries better to compete, not only in the domestic market but also in the world marketplace; the need to look seriously at our existing patterns of work, to explore the options offered for part-time employment, flexible working hours and the like; the need to improve the quality of Australia’s goods and services; the need to improve our physical distribution systems, that is, every aspect of the packaging, storage, handling and movement of goods; the need to improve our industrial safety and health record; the need to improve the physical working environment of Australians, not simply for safety or occupational health reasons, but to provide the more satisfying and challenging jobs that a younger, better educated workforce is demanding; the need for a greater involvement of employees in decisions affecting their work through better communication and improved consultation and through new systems of work involving concepts such as semi-autonomous work groups; and, finally and most importantly, the need to stimulate industry, both management and employees, to integrate each of these elements of productivity improvement to each other instead of treating them in individual compartments as matters to be looked at and dealt with in isolation. [More…]

• We are also vitally concerned with industrial safety and occupational health in the interaction of people and machines. [More…]

• The Commonwealth has implemented a code of general principles on occupational safety and health, much of which has also been implemented by the State governments. [More…]

• The position could well arise where people will be marooned in country centres, cut off from their families, and the better health care and cultural faculties of the metropolitan areas, as a result of the rapid increase in fare levels. [More…]

• He also, in co-operation with State Health personnel, forms one of a team which makes patrols at periodic intervals to islands in the Torres Strait. [More…]

• Discussions with a view to establishing a joint program to combat malaria were held in May 1977 between the Commonwealth Department of Health and Health Authorities of the World Health Organisation and Papua-New Guinea. [More…]

• Local arrangements provide for the Medical Superintendent, Thursday Island Hospital and State health personnel to locate, diagnose and arrange treatment of diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, venereal and other infectious diseases in local inhabitants and in Papua-New Guineans entering the Torres Strait Islands. [More…]

• State health personnel also follow-up and assess contacts of persons found to be suffering from tuberculosis, venereal disease and leprosy. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 September 1978: [More…]

• The Depanment operates 41 computers (seven of the Department’s computers are in store, either awaiting installation or for back-up purposes and the Depanment operates eight computers owned by the Depanment of Health); [More…]

• 5 ) The MOHAWK computers are interconnected to computers which are owned by the Depanment of Health but operated by my Depanment for the purpose of transmitting data over a telephone network. [More…]

• This Prime Minister promised in 1975 that Australia would be returned to economic health within three years. [More…]

• In one of his Sunday night homilies, he said: ‘Australia today is back on the road to economic health’. [More…]

• In relation to social security and health, the mandate speech states: [More…]

• Why are stringent environmental and health restrictions placed on its development? [More…]

• We will implement our policy of preventing the exploitation of Australian uranium while its use poses unsolved threats to the environment, human health and welfare and to international security. [More…]

• It is a vertically integrated industry wherein the growers, having no economic alternative source of production, are locked into the total health of the processing and the marketing sectors. [More…]

• The Labor Party entirely overlooks the health regulations that apply to Australian brandy. [More…]

• Have Health Departments co-operated with his Department in increasing the emphasis on and funding for group confrontation activities faster than one-to-one therapy activities. [More…]

• Health Departments have co-operated with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in encouraging the development of the most appropriate program for given settings. [More…]

• An example of this co-operation is the appointment of individual community health workers- Aboriginal Alcohol Counsellors- located in western New South Wales towns. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice on 25 October 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 November 1978: [More…]

• -Earlier this week the Minister for Productivity (Mr Macphee), in his general statement on the work of the Department of Productivity referred to the whole matter of industrial health and safety. [More…]

• The need to improve our industrial safety and health record, particularly when it is realised that industrial accidents could well be costing Australia in the region of $2 billion each year . [More…]

• I referred to this matter of industrial safety and health in a previous speech in May, when I outlined the dimensions of the problem as it exists in Australia; the difficulties of achieving action in this area, given the differing legislation of the various States; and the need for the development of a national approach to the whole matter of occupational and industrial safety and health. [More…]

• The key point I make is that in developing industrial safety and health policies in Australia we must constantly be aware that the work force is so diverse. [More…]

• Yet the current government health and safety codes barely acknowledge this fact. [More…]

• The aims of this code are to involve all workers in their health and safety. [More…]

• Workers stated in the survey that they wanted better training, consultation with management and unions and to be involved in safety and health matters of their factories in their own languages. [More…]

• Given this analysis and the fact that non-English speaking migrants are increasingly doing such socially undesirable jobs in Australia- that is, those jobs marked by low social status in one or more of the following traits: Work which is heavy, dirty, dangerous, monotonous, relatively poorly paid, and which has irregular working hours- I argue that it is increasingly important, in developing policies concerning the safety and health of workers, that this fact be made most explicit. [More…]

• One would generally support the aims and hopes of the proposed code for occupational health and safety in Australian government employment, but one would hope that greater acknowledgment and emphasis would be given to the fact that the work force affected is diverse, multicultural and multilingual. [More…]

• If health and safety of such a diverse work force is to be improved, all workers must be involved with their unions and management. [More…]

• All persons and groups must be committed to, must understand and must be part of the process of achieving appropriate health and safety initiatives. [More…]

• In line with this overall guiding principle the following specific steps should be taken: All communication, induction, and training must be multilingual; health and safety information must be passed on to workers in their own languages, preferably by means of multilingual communication discussion groups; more appropriate safety, induction and training sessions should be established for migrant workers; courses for supervisors are urgently required; and English language training on the job should be provided as a right to all non-English speaking workers, perhaps through a tax incentive scheme for employers, such as a social investment allowance. [More…]

• Unions should be encouraged to contact non-English speaking migrant workers in their own languages about awards, rights and conditions, safety and health legislation and about how unions work. [More…]

• Management, unions and government departments should use migrant self-help agencies and involve such ethnic welfare and community agencies in the development of safety and health initiatives on the job. [More…]

• If all these initiatives could be encouraged we would have some hope of establishing a more appropriate occupational health and safety code. [More…]

• If over a period of time we could develop such an occupational health and safety code which managed to encourage some commitment and involvement of the diverse array of persons and groups that make up Australian industry, it might be appropriate to work towards the development of a Commonwealth health and safety Act which would set the basic standards and processes that would be required for all Australian industry. [More…]

• The people who live in the very remote areas of Australia are suffering extreme disabilities, certainly not so much in my electorate but in electorates in Western Australia and north Queensland where they have no television, virtually no radio, very few roads, very poor health services and they are endeavouring to teach their children by correspondence. [More…]

• On 1 November the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) gave the following advice to prospective health insurance contributors: [More…]

• The legislation would have been unnecessary if the Government had not been in such a hurry to change health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• Needless anxiety has been caused to an important group of health fund contributors, and the whole episode has been a very poor advertisement for the Government’s ability to handle, with even average competence, the fairly intricate arrangements involved in what is now voluntary health insurance. [More…]

• In a circular in October to the registered health organisations from his own Department of Health the following stands out: ( 10.8) Minimum control will be exercised by the Department over the variation tables. [More…]

• Control will be limited to the financial viability of the tables and section 78 of the National Health Act will be amended to limit Commonwealth control to the approval of contribution rates in respect of the tables . [More…]

• The Minister persists in saying that the Government’s health insurance arrangements are working ‘exceptionally smoothly except for this group of people with chronic or pre-existing conditions’. [More…]

• At the City Health Clinic she was actually informed that only refugees were disadvantaged and that all students, unemployed and part age pensioners would have to pay. [More…]

• This was at the City Health Clinic run by the Minister’s own Department in the Australian Capital Teritory. [More…]

• I now put all health funds on notice that the Government could take fresh determinations to withdraw their right to reject contributors with chronic illness to any table. [More…]

• More than ever, when it is important that Australians understand the health insurance system because of the number of options available, they are confused, insecure, and likely to be coerced into taking out unnecessary insurance. [More…]

• Clearly, the pamphlet issued by the Department of Health informing people of the new 1 November arrangements proved a dismal failure, confusing more than it enlightened. [More…]

• When people talk about a 75 per cent refund from a health fund all they are really talking about is a maximum of a 35 per cent refund because the Government pays a 40 per cent refund in any case. [More…]

• I am well aware that the funds are not in the business for their contributors’ health. [More…]

• Its ineptness in health insurance policy formulation, however, has been brought home clearly to all Australians. [More…]

• Until an improved data base becomes available the Government believes that it would be premature to proceed further with the consideration of major adjustments to the Health Insurance system. [More…]

• Already masses of amendments have been made to die National Health Act. [More…]

• Since 1976 about a dozen amendments have been made to a single section of the National Health Act. [More…]

• The National Health Act- this Bill seeks to amend it, so I will refer to it in general- ought to be amended significantly. [More…]

• Probably it ought to be divided into a number of parts, each dealing with health insurance, nursing homes, hospitals, pharmaceutical benefits, et cetera. [More…]

• I make a couple of additional points which deal with the National Health Act but do not relate specifically to the amendments contained in this Bill, although maybe they should have been included in the Bill. [More…]

• The Minister promised me in February 1976, soon after he became Minister for Health, that he would look at the possibility- obviously with the hope that he would be able to do something about it- of bringing contributor representatives on to the boards of these funds such as the Medical Benefits Fund in New South Wales, the Hospitals Contribution Fund in New South Wales and a number of other funds. [More…]

• -The National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 3) 1978 has the quite specific purpose of closing loopholes discovered by a certain health fund, particularly in relation to new optional deduction medical benefit tables which, of course, were a part of or one of the innovations of National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• These amendments are really about the problem of chronic illness or, as I am advised by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), chronicity. [More…]

• Of course, the percentage of such people is increasing in our community and therefore it presents an increasing problem in relation to health care. [More…]

• One can question whether changes to our health insurance policies will be required in the future to overcome the problem of insurance arrangements and health care arrangements for those people who are suffering from chronic illness. [More…]

• On the one hand, we have the problem of maintaining equity for old people and the ability for them to obtain health care, whether it be hospital or medical, without discrimination. [More…]

• Yet, on the other hand, we have to allow flexibility for the health funds in their insurance arrangements. [More…]

• This Bill restricts the ability of a fund to defeat the spirit of the new health scheme. [More…]

• I believe that the Minister has introduced these amendments with some sadness because they are contrary to his philosophy and the Government’s philosophy espoused in the 1 November changes, namely, to provide more flexibility and freedom for the health funds to go about their business. [More…]

• We see that the purpose of this Bill is to impose more specific regulations, because one fund out of approximately 80 in Australia has tried to flout the spirit of the health insurance system. [More…]

• I would support the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) in one of the comments that he made towards the end of his speech, that is, that there is a great need to consolidate the National Health Act. [More…]

• Mr Les McMAHON (Sydney) (5.26)-I agree with my colleague the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) who said that the Opposition does not oppose the National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 3) 1978 which will amend the National Health Act 1953. [More…]

• But Opposition members disagree with the way in which the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has carried out his job in putting this Bill together. [More…]

• The honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd) congratulated the Minister but we in the Opposition criticise the Minister for the way in which he has carried out his job in having to amend the National Health Act. [More…]

• The Opposition welcomes the Government’s moves to remove some of the discriminatory practices which exist in the area of health insurance. [More…]

• The Government dismantled Medibank, supposedly in the interests of reducing the total amount that was being spent by Australians on health care. [More…]

• It was of the opinion that because Australians were entitled to health care as of right, and not as of means, they were seeing their doctors far too often. [More…]

• Of course the number of persons who were obtaining health services under Medibank had increased, but this was the reason for the introduction of Medibank- to bring basic health care within the reach of every Australian. [More…]

• Secondly, the only effect of the Government’s strategy is to force more people out of the health insurance system. [More…]

• As benefits have dropped, more people are opting out of taking health insurance because it is more economical for them to bear their own health costs. [More…]

• It would be very unusual for a healthy young person to visit a doctor more than six times per annum. [More…]

• Thus, by not taking health insurance, that person would save $64.48 a year. [More…]

• The result of the Government’s strategy is to force the healthy people out of the insurance system and leave only those people who expect very high health bills, that is, the aged and the chronically ill. [More…]

• The Government, if it wishes to reduce the total health bill, will do better to identify and inquire into the three main areas of health costs, that is, hospital and medical charges and administration costs. [More…]

• The 1977 report of the Health Insurance Commission indicated that the area of administration costs is quite vulnerable. [More…]

• To obtain this cover one must be a fit and healthy person because no pre-existing or chronic conditions are covered. [More…]

• This type of insurance effectively requires those persons who are in need of health insurance to pay more for the same benefits. [More…]

• Its purpose is to discriminate between those people who are ill and those people who are healthy. [More…]

• Health insurance is not comparable with motor vehicle insurance. [More…]

• That is not so with one’s health. [More…]

• Good health is fortuitous and those people who are unlucky enough to become ill should be assisted by the remainder of the people. [More…]

• A further discriminatory aspect of bulk billing arises in relation to pensioners holding pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• The Australian Medical Association is opposed to direct billing of health insurance organisations and advises members not to accept assignment of benefits. [More…]

• This attitude could change if the number of Health Benefit Card holders was increased without consultation. [More…]

• Pensioners should not be required to contribute to health costs. [More…]

• I refer the Minister for Health who is at the table to a statement that I made in the Sunday Telegraph of 29 October 1978. [More…]

• They had to pay health insurance contributions to HCF six months in advance. [More…]

• I had to send a telegram to the Minister for Health about the matter. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health will take note of my comments and try to help those people. [More…]

• If they have a pensioner health benefit card they are entitled to register themselves for the Commonwealth benefit and receive free consultations. [More…]

• Although many people who are sick or who have families have to take out health insurance personally, I believe that it would be better for a pensioner to go into a public hospital although he would not have his choice of doctor. [More…]

• I had reservations but now I believe that by opting out of health insurance pensioners will get a better deal without spending a minimum of $ 1 8 per month. [More…]

• The AMA fears that more doctors, especially in metropolitan areas where there is an over supply, would increase competition for patients and lead to an escalation in health costs and a decline in medical standards. [More…]

• I know that the Minister for Health is sympathetic. [More…]

• I wish we could have a full inquiry of the whole health scheme in Australia, as the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) did state in answer to the honourable member for Grayndler (Mr Stewart). [More…]

• -First, I would like to echo the remarks made by the honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd) about the promptness of the response by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) to this latest collection of erstwhile unrecognised problems in his rather hastily prepared health Bill. [More…]

• On the other hand, I suspect that the fact we do not meet in December is the only reason we will not be having a National Health Amendment Bill No. [More…]

• I think we should be grateful that the present BUI is not a further massive switch in the health policies of this ministry, as were its two immediate predecessors. [More…]

• In many ways it is a minor BUI and I would predict the first of many minor Bills which the Ministry wil need in order to plug the present health scheme. [More…]

• As the Treasurer introduces a tax avoidance BUI practically every month these days in order to plug the tax system, I suspect we are now in for a series of monthly Bills from the Minister for Health in which he Will be plugging the national health system. [More…]

• I would not be at all surprised if in the next session of this Parliament we regularly encounter Bills to plug gaps in the national health system, gaps which have been referred to in this debate. [More…]

• Despite many denials it does seem these rules providing for this exclusion were approved by the Health Department. [More…]

• Indeed it does not seem unreasonable for these HCF rules to have been approved, nor does it seem that the HCF was acting unreasonably when it introduced them, because if you take the words of the Minister he positively encouraged this sort of development in the health system. [More…]

• It was merely the first to recognise that free enterprise is alive and well in the health insurance field and was acting appropriately. [More…]

• Once you decide to have an active free enterprise system in the health insurance field- and this has been actively encouraged by the Governmentyou will get these kinds of activity. [More…]

• Once you have this ethic at work in the health field you will control it only by massive regulation, by increased bureaucracy and increased cost. [More…]

• As this Bill superbly illustrates, to encourage flexibility, innovation and competition between the funds- in other words, to encourage rampant free enterprise in the health field- is simply to encourage abuse. [More…]

• I do not believe that unbridled private insurance agencies is compatible with effective and adequate community health delivery. [More…]

• This is perfectly logical for health insurance agencies to do- good free enterprise ethics. [More…]

• Of course no government- not even this onecan tolerate unbridled free enterprise in the health field. [More…]

• The classic problem with the deductibles is that if they are sufficiently attractive- in the competitive situation they are likely to be attractive- they will draw off the young, the healthy and those wealthy enough to take the risks. [More…]

• This means that the cost of health cover will tend to rise for the sick and the poor. [More…]

• One can predict with the same certainty as that the sun will rise tomorrow that basic fund rates must rise within the next 12 months, simply because of the draining off of the young and healthy from the standard tables of the funds. [More…]

• The principle of an equitable and universal health system is gradually being eroded to be replaced by the insurance principle that the sick, the old, the handicapped and people with large families must bear the bigger financial burden. [More…]

• It would be more capable of yielding the comprehensive health statistics which though we have been promised them for some time we are still without. [More…]

• -The minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has introduced this National Health Amendment Bill to ameliorate some of the anomalies that have appeared since the package of legislation was passed some weeks ago. [More…]

• It is the most positive example we have had yet that the Minister and the Government are in fact engaged in making policies on health insurance on the run. [More…]

• Of course, then we saw the abolition of Medibank Standard, the removal of the levy- the 40 per cent general subsidy paid to all people whether they are in health insurance or not- and, of course, the abolition of general bulk billing. [More…]

• The effect of this legislation was to create two pools of health insurance. [More…]

• We ought to have one single health insurance fund in Australia. [More…]

• The Minister in fact is inciting people to gamble with their own future good health. [More…]

• This creates a situation where a number of those people who are in fact healthy will stay out of health insurance, while those who are chronically ill and those who have large families, of course, will seek health insurance. [More…]

• Australians are entitled to expect that during their lifetime they will be adequately covered by the cheapest and best system of health insurance. [More…]

• That should mean that people, when they are young and healthy, should be paying to help subsidise those who are not so lucky. [More…]

• Of course, as time moves on and they themselves become older then there is another group coming up behind them, so to speak, to help keep down their health insurance rates. [More…]

• I would like to inform honourable members that the Government’s new health insurance arrangements are working exceptionally smoothly . [More…]

• Why do we need all these private health insurance funds in Australia? [More…]

• It would be much simpler and more efficient if we simply had the one national health insurance fund in Australia. [More…]

• It will not accept the 85 per cent rebate it gets from the Department of Health. [More…]

• I understand also that the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) stated in relation to these cases: the Minister for Health and his Department would want to hear about them because the Government intends to take whatever action is necessary to overcome any difficulties that may result from the Government’s proposals for disadvantaged persons. [More…]

• The main reason for increasing health costs is to maintain the fee for service system. [More…]

• So why does the AMA supported by the Minister for Health and the Government, oppose salaried medical staff in such a biased, bigoted and sectional manner? [More…]

• It is all very strange, particularly as the Minister is so very fond of lecturing us on the necessity to control escalating health costs. [More…]

• What is to be done about health insurance in Australia? [More…]

• Having re-established Medibank as the single system of national health insurance, we must ensure that it is not just a means of guaranteeing fee for service for doctors. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, the AMA, the Health Commission and Dr Sidney Sax all tell us that the universities and colleges of advanced education are turning out too many doctors. [More…]

• Let him try to bring down a health insurance system that will serve the people of Australia, not just the medical profession. [More…]

• -This is the first occasion since I have been a member of this House on which I have spoken on the subject of national health. [More…]

• Perhaps one of the problems I have faced is that, like others, being reasonably healthy myself I take it for granted that other people also are generally healthy. [More…]

• However, a situation which occurred in Sydney on the weekend leading up to 1 November brought quite clearly to my mind the fact that every Australian citizen has a right to expect from the health service available to him what I call simply a ‘fair deal’. [More…]

• Regrettably, on that occasion a number of people, citizens of Australia, residents of the State of New South Wales, were informed by a medical health fund of which they had been members for some years that because they had the misfortune of having chronic illness they were to be asked, in fact advised, to transfer their medical cover elsewhere. [More…]

• The legislation before us, the amendment to the National Health Act, is one for which I believe the Government and in particular the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) deserve our highest commendation. [More…]

• I hope that this legislation once and for all will close what were obviously seen by some people in the medical health insurance area as an opportunity to rid themselves of those human risks which they preferred not to have and, hopefully, could be passed on to someone else. [More…]

• It is totally against the ethics of the health insurance industry for one fund to try to offload its bad risk members to another fund. [More…]

• I have been accused by some of believing that we should apply the same standards of ethics to the health insurance industry as to life insurance, the house insurance industry or the general insurance industry. [More…]

• A contract is entered into between a person and an organisation and, having accepted that contract, the organisation has no choice, as I see it, in the case of health care but to give that person the full opportunities to which he is entitled under the specific schedules for which he has paid regular contributions. [More…]

• As the Minister and the Government have said on numerous occasions, all sections of the health industry- the doctors, the hospitals, the funds, and all paramedical services- have a responsibility to ensure that in the national interest medical costs are kept at a reasonable level. [More…]

• We should take whatever action is necessary to keep down medical health costs. [More…]

• I believe that the proposal now before the House, which strengthens the recently amended National Health Act, goes a long way to guaranteeing that all Australian citizens should be given a degree of choice in terms of the medical services that they may want and did not have under Medibank No. [More…]

• If he really had at heart the interests of the Australian constituents, especially those of New South Wales, I venture to suggest that he should have taken some action to advise Mr Stewart, the Minister for Health, and if necessary take unilateral action to prevent, to nip in the bud, this most heinous situation that was allowed to be created. [More…]

• I am particularly concerned about the fact that patients in New South Wales psychiatric hospitals are, to the best of my knowledge, being charged fees and apparently, for reasons I discussed earner, they are not able to get reasonable coverage from existing health funds. [More…]

• I believe that this is an area of medical health which should be given serious consideration by all levels of government. [More…]

• So nobody in his wildest dreams could have believed that any health insurance fund would have taken the liberty that the HCF took in respect of the flexibility that was being offered to him. [More…]

• The purpose of this National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 3) is to ensure that no fund will be able to take such a mean advantage of contributors to health insurance funds in this country again. [More…]

• Health insurance funds have had opportunities to do what HCF did before. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) to give serious consideration to the proposal. [More…]

• -On behalf of my colleagues, the Minister for Primary Industry (Mr Sinclair) who represents the electorate of New England and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who represents the electorate of Gwydir, I strongly support the New South Wales (Chrysotile Corporation) Bill 1978. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has Bingara in his electorate which provides a lot of employment for Woodsreef Mines Ltd. [More…]

• Despite what health authorities have said about asbestos, we have been assured by the executives of the mine that there is very little danger of the employees being contaminated with the dust which is supposed to have caused considerable health problems in asbestos mines in other parts of the world. [More…]

• Recently the honourable member for Blaxland has assured me that he understands the mine is going on to the wet milling process and after that is carried out and machinery is installed, the mine will then meet all New South Wales standards with respect to the protection of the health of the workers at the mine itself. [More…]

• However, the Industries Assistance Commission report did take into account environmental health standards and the possible effects on the workers at that mine. [More…]

• The effects on the health of employees and those living in close proximity to the activities associated with asbestos mining and the manufacture and use of goods containing asbestos were discussed at the inquiry. [More…]

• In particular, health and environmental issues were discussed by Woodsreef, the New South Wales Department of Decentralisation and Development, EHCD, the Division of Thoracic Medicine of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, James Hardie, members of the medical professions, and representatives of unions. [More…]

• In December 1 972 the then Chief Inspector set the standard for Chrysotile asbestos dust levels at Barraba and Baryulgil at 4 fibres per millilitre in accordance with the recommendation of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• I would like an assurance from the Minister- I am not sure whether the responsible Minister is the one at the table- that some of these funds are going directly to meet these requirements with respect to health standards. [More…]

• CCA arranged for the Division of Thoracic Medicine to carry out a survey to monitor the health of its employees particularly in respect of asbestos related diseases. [More…]

• Between August and December 1977 the Health Commission of NSW conducted a health survey of current employees at Baryulgil and of as many previous employees who work at the mine for a minimum period of 12 months as possible. [More…]

• With regard to health, hospitals and welfare for public health, Queensland spends 41.1 per cent less per capita than the average of the six States. [More…]

• In this total area of health, hospital and welfare, Queensland spends 21.5 per cent less than the average of the six States for such per capita expenditure. [More…]

• It is a factor which should be borne in mind by the people of Queensland that they are getting a level of service in these very important areas of education, health and welfare which is far below that being provided by the other States, despite the fact that their own government is being funded by the Federal Government specifically with funds designed to enable the Queensland Government to provide services which are of the same standard, quality and range as those provided by the other States. [More…]

• In Queensland there is clearly a desperate need to expand the services in the health, education and welfare area. [More…]

• Let us look at the question of health. [More…]

• That is why expenditure on health in Queensland is less than in other States. [More…]

• Queensland is a fairly healthy State. [More…]

• The diagnostic services there are provided largely- outside the capital city anyway- by Federal health laboratories. [More…]

• Even under the new health insurance scheme the private medical benefits funds which will pay out moneys on behalf of the Government will be allowed, I think, only $1.54 for each transaction. [More…]

• Sadly, I should say that Mr Ingram has been in indifferent health for some time now and, on medical advice, he has not attended the Parliament for the last two weeks of these sittings. [More…]

• I am sure, however, that every member of the House will join in with me in thanking him for his immense service to the par.liament over the 42 years and that, also, we will wish him good health and a happy retirement. [More…]

• I join with you in wishing him a recovery from his present illness and trust he has many more years of health and happiness ahead of him and that with his family he may now enjoy those years of retirement which he has certainly more than justified. [More…]

• The Minister knew about the firm being in financial difficulties, just as he knew that in 1975 the appalling constructions of Stawell Timber Industries Pty Ltd were brought to the attention of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and just as he has received nothing but complaints about the company and about its flimsy constructions. [More…]

• Standing Committee on Science and the Environment relating to herbicides, pesticides and human health. [More…]

• In this regard I would mention in particular the Australian Agricultural Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• I can assure honourable members that the recommendations of the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Agricultural Council for clearance for registration of agricultural chemicals are kept under constant review and revised as necessary in the light of information obtained from a multitude of worldwide sources. [More…]

• This brings me to the Senate Committee ‘s final recommendation concerning the examination by the Minister for Health of the current machinery for the systematic collection of information on the occurrence and frequency of congenital abnormalities and of types of cancer. [More…]

• The next Health Ministers’ Conference in June 1979 was to have discussed this extension. [More…]

• In order to concentrate specifically on the effects of various substances on pregnant women, I am asking the National Health and Medical Research Council to advise on the feasibility and the desirability of conducting a prospective study extending over possibly 3 years. [More…]

• In the meantime, I reiterate the advice given by the National Health and Medical Research Council in June of this year following a study of all information available at that time regarding 2,4,5-T, 2,4-D and the risks of foetal abnormalities. [More…]

• The conclusions reached by the Council were: Firstly, the use of 2,4-D is not producing any risk to human health; there is no evidence that it is linked to human birth defects; and, secondly, in the light of present knowledge there is no reason to place any additional restrictions on the use of 2,4,5-T. Council could find no substantiated scientific evidence of a causal link between the use of 2,4,5-T and human birth defects. [More…]

• Report of the Senate Standing Committee on Science and the Environment: Herbicides, Pesticides and Human Health-Ministerial Statement, 24 November 1978. [More…]

• I believe that the Opposition spokesman on health, the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), will be making a statement on the matter later in the day. [More…]

• Two points which occur to me from the statement of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) perhaps need to be considered. [More…]

• We can do no better than wish him health and security in his retirement. [More…]

• I said before and I mil say many times again- I hope honourable members will listen to these comments with some patience and restraintthat one of the most encouraging experiences I have had in this Parliament in 17 years was to work on a joint parliamentary committee of inquiry into the pharmaceutical drugs listed under the National Health Scheme. [More…]

• recommendations may lead to limits for radioactive contaminants in air and water different to those set by other national authorities depending on national assessments of the level of public health risk considered acceptable taking into account the cost of achieving improvements in public safety and their effectiveness. [More…]

• The Regulations give effect to the Code of Practice on Radiation Protection in the Mining and Milling of Radioactive Ores, first published by the Australian Department of Health in August 1975, as it is set out in Schedule 1 and as amended from time to time by these Regulations. [More…]

• 1 ) (a) Preliminary statistics for the 1976-77 income year indicate that the number of taxpayers who were charged health levy was 1,835,795 out of 5,603,258 tax, insurance and/or levy-payers whose assessments issued in the period from 1 July 1977 to 30 June 1978. [More…]

• The information sought in relation to taxable individuals (including those subject to health insurance levy only) whose assessments were accounted for in the main income tax statistical tabulations for the income years 1974-75, and 1975-76, in the preliminary statistics for 1976-77 and in early results for 1977-78 (covering assessments issued to 31 October 1978) is summarised in the attached tables. [More…]

• The same Commonwealth Benefits as those provided to holders of the Pensioner Health Benefits Card with the exception of pharmaceuticals. [More…]

• 1 ) The British Department of Health and Social Security recently decided that the payment of its National Insurance pensions in Australia should be made by order direct from its United Kingdom Central Office in the same way as its pensions are paid in all other countries. [More…]

• What measures does the Government take to ensure that workers involved in the transport of enriched fuel and the general public are (a) provided with adequate security and (b) not exposed to health risks. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 September 1978: [More…]

• Is he able to say whether the weedicides 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T have been tested by United States authorities under the Pesticides Act or the Toxic Substances Control Act or by British authorities including the Health and Safety Executive. [More…]

• What validity and reliability have been attributed to these tests by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has not made any statement on the validity and reliability of these tests. [More…]

• This committee comprises officers of the Departments of Education, Health, Employment and Industrial Relations and Immigration & Ethnic Affairs and the Tertiary Education Commission. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 November 1 978: [More…]

• 1 ) Is it a fact that mercury levels found in several of the fish samples purchased in the National Health and Medical Research Council 1976 market basket survey exceeded the recommended maximum residue limits. [More…]

• Where high levels of mercury or any other deleterious substance are found in the food samples, the results are brought to the attention of the State health authorities responsible for administering food legislation incorporating the NH & MRC recommended maximum residue limits. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 1 November 1978: [More…]

• As well as producing output for user organisations, the Taxation Office and the Australian Government Retirement Benefits Office, the service also produces output listing payees, entitlements or deductions for despatch to banks, credit unions, insurance companies, building societies, health funds, et cetera, as authorised by payees. [More…]

• The condition of the houses does not necessarily reflect inadequate care on the part of the tenants, but rather inadequate maintenance by the State Government prior to the transfer of the dwellings to the Lands Trust However, my Department’s State Grant program includes funds for the New South Wales Health Commission and the Department of Youth and Community Services to employ 2 Aboriginal health workers and 1 Aboriginal caseworker at Walgett, to provide counselling and guidance on domestic management. [More…]

• Standing Committee referred the Report to its Animal Production and Animal Health Committees. [More…]

• Which authority is responsible for regulating and monitoring the health aspects of this activity. [More…]

• Have there been any incidents of ill health amongst air transport workers which may have been associated with use of these compounds; if so, what are the details of these incidents. [More…]

• The Air Navigation Act does not confer on me any powers relating to the health of aircraft maintenance workers. [More…]

• I understand the Shell Company maintains a Toxicology Group in London and also a Health and Safety Department in Melbourne under the supervision of a highly qualified medical officer. [More…]

• The Company maintains a continuing surveillance over the use of all its products from a health viewpoint and has for many years liaised with Commonwealth and State bodies concerned with industrial safety matters. [More…]

• My Department is not aware of any incidents of ill health directly attributable to exposure to de-icing compounds like Aero Shell Product 07. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 November 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 November 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 18 October 1978: [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to any official directive of any private health fund to personnel officers directing them not to employ former Medibank employees. [More…]

• There has been reported an instance where it is alleged that a private health fund did not offer an interview to a [More…]

• I might mention however that inquiries have been received by the Health Insurance Commission from other private funds seeking to employ Medibank staff. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 November 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) Is he able to say whether the health risks encountered by United States personnel during the United States atomic weapons testing program were greater than those encountered by British and Australian personnel at Emu, Monte Bello and Maralinga. [More…]

• 1 ) and (2) My Department has no detailed knowledge of either the health risks encountered by United States personnel or the monitoring procedures employed during the United States atomic weapons testing program and it is not possible to make a comparison with the tests conducted by the British. [More…]

• However, for nuclear tests conducted within Australia by Britain the most stringent safeguards to the health of personnel were implemented at every level. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 November 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 November 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) Is it a fact that aflatoxin levels found in several of the samples of peanuts purchased in the National Health and Medical Research Council 1976 market basket survey exceeds the recommended maximum permitted levels. [More…]

• Aflatoxin levels found in five of 24 samples of peanuts examined in the 1976 Market Basket Survey exceeded the maximum level recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council (N.H. and M.R.C. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 August 1978: [More…]

• Expert bodies in several countries have been convened by authorities, including the World Health Organization to advise on this matter. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council keeps this matter under continuing review. [More…]

• The necessary amendments have already been made to the Uniform Poisons Standard of the National Health and Medical Research Council to give effect to these recommendations. [More…]

• There is a consenus that the use of antibiotics in animal feed additives is a contributing factor; this is attested to by the recommendations of the Swann Committee which studied the matter in the United Kingdom, the working group convened by the World Health Organization in 1973, and a Working Party convened by the National Health and Medical Research Council to study antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 12 September 1978: [More…]

• On an Australia-wide basis, what is the cost of a visit by (a) a domiciliary nurse funded under the Home Nursing Subsidy Act1956 (b) a community health nurse funded under the Community Health Program and (c) a domiciliary nurse funded under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 November 1978: [More…]

• -The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: (a), (b) and (c) The National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NH and MRC) recommended maximum limits in milligrams per kilogram or per litre for lead, cadmium and mercury in milk, drinking water and ice cream on a whole product basis are as follows: [More…]

• The proposal involves a flying doctor ambulance service and other health care services. [More…]

• The growing alienation of the young from the community, increases in vandalism, the increasing incidence of unemployment, related health problems and the associated pressures on health and welfare services must also be taken into account. [More…]

• This is evident in many areas such as health and some road programs. [More…]

• Indeed, I do, and I do a fanbit of walking which is the cheapest form of public transport and which is not bad for one’s health either. [More…]

• In addition, I am sure that honourable members will be interested to know that under the arrangements both health and education will remain with the Australian Government. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 September 1978: [More…]

• Did he state on 15 August 1978 that Commonwealth medical benefits, including the 40 per cent Government contribution towards scheduled fees for insured and uninsured persons, bulk billing and payments in respect of hospitals and health programs, will be made by his Department and not as formerly by the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• What I said was that my Department will reimburse the private registered medical benefits organisations for the Commonwealth medical benefits that the organisations will pay to patients, and that my Department will take over from the Health Insurance Commission payments direct to doctors who bulk bill. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Commission has advised that it is not feasible at this time to provide this information. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 14 September 1 978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 September 1978: [More…]

• c) Drugs of Dependence Information: Computer output which gives details about the importation, manufacture and distribution of drugs of dependence are routinely provided to the Department of Business and Consumer Affairs, State and Territorial health authorities. [More…]

• Australian School Dental Survey Information: Computer output which illustrates the effectiveness of the School Dental Scheme is supplied to State and Territorial health authorities. [More…]

• This information is also recorded on magnetic tape and sent to the World Health Organization. [More…]

• Medical Service Providers: Information which identifies authorised medical service providers is provided on microfiche or magnetic tape to private health funds, the Health Insurance Commission and pathology service organisations. [More…]

• This information is provided to private health funds and the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Users: The Department’s computers are used by the Department of Social Security, the Health Insurance Commission and other authorised Departments and organisations. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question as far as the Capital Territory Health Commission is concerned is as follows: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 September 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) Has any research related to the effects of lead on human health been conducted in Australia since 1973. [More…]

• If studies referred to in parts (1) and (2) have been conducted, have their results been referred to or studied by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Lead: Effect on Human Health (Question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 September 1978: [More…]

• 1) Is he able to say whether any research (a) related to the effects of lead on human health, (b) into connections between lead emissions from motor vehicles and human illnesses and (c) into connections between atmospheric lead levels and body burdens of lead has been conducted overseas since 1973. [More…]

• If studies have been conducted, have their results been referred to or studied by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 12 October 1978: [More…]

• How has he determined to absorb Medibank staff made redundant by Budget changes to the Government’s health program when the total staff ceiling for his Department is approximately 6,320 and when the Public Service staff levels are generally being contained. [More…]

• What is the estimate of the number of persons (a) who will take out private health insurance during 1978-79 and (b) who are opting out of any health insurance arrangement. [More…]

• It was regarded as being administratively inefficient and wasteful financially for the Commonwealth to operate its own system for paying Commonwealth benefits when the private health insurance organisations already had such a structure and would in most cases be paying their own benefits. [More…]

• It was decided, therefore, to transfer the function from Medibank to my Depanment together with appropriate officers who were employed by the Health Insurance Commission to carry out these functions. [More…]

• As a result of a transfer of certain functions including bulk bill processing from the Health Insurance Commission to the Department of Health a significant number of Commission staff engaged on these functions will be offered employment in the Depanment of Health. [More…]

• In relation to the survey reports on the health of present and past employees in the Research Establishment of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission at Lucas Heights (a) how many persons have been employed to carry out the studies for the second and subsequent reports and (b) when will the second report be completed and made available to the Parliament. [More…]

• The Survey of Health of Employees in the Research Establishment of the AAEC, Lucas Heights, is an independent study being undertaken by the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, University of Sydney. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council recommended limits for members of the public are SOO millirem per year to the whole body, and 1,500 millirem per year to the thyroid. [More…]

• Have the standards of the International Commission on Radiological Protection been exceeded in any respect by those of the National Health and Research Council at the Australian Atomic Energy Commission’s Research Establishment at Lucas Heights NSW in the setting of (a) radiation exposure limits for workers and members of the local population and (b) levels for radioactive discharges to the environment. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) which advises Commonwealth and State Governments on matters of public health legislation and administration has drawn up radiation protection standards for individuals exposed to ionising radiation; these follow the ICRP recommendations of 1965 and are available in the publication ‘Revised radiation protection standards for individuals exposed to ionising radiation’, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1977. [More…]

• Exposure routes are monitored regularly as part of the AAEC’s local environmental survey and doses to members of the public from these routes have been estimated to be less than 1 per cent of the limits for members of the public recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 26 October 1978: [More…]

• What is the likely effect on national health costs if there is an oversupply of donors. [More…]

• These were two of the factors which prompted me to initiate the establishment of a committee of officials, under the chairmanship of Dr S. Sax, Chairman of the Social Welfare Policy Secretariat, from the Departments of Education, Health, Employment and Youth Affairs and Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and the Tertiary Education Commission. [More…]

• At the same time, my Department is investigating the possible over-supply situation, and collecting available information regarding both the issue of possible oversupply of doctors and the implications to national health costs. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 November 1 978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 November 1978: [More…]

• Is it a fact that arsenic levels found in samples of prawns purchased in the National Health and Medical Research Council 1976 market basket survey exceeded the recommended maximum residue limits. [More…]

• Levels of arsenic in all 19 samples of prawns examined in the 1976 Market Basket Survey were in excess of the maximum level recommended for arsenic in foods in the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH & MRC) Standard for Metals in Foods. [More…]

• At the direction of the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference a Joint Commonwealth/State/Territory Working Party is currently developing a model Food Act and Associated Regulations intended for uniform application throughout Australia. [More…]

• The Model Regulations include health requirements and standards for the production of cheese. [More…]

• It is expected that the completed Model Food Act and Regulations will be presented to the 1979 Health Ministers’ Conference. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 November 1978: [More…]

• 1 ) Has his attention been drawn to a speech I made on the adjournment debate on 14 November 1978 calling on the Government to re-instate the hospital subsidy of IS cents (single) which was dropped on 1 November 1978, and which, as a result, has meant that health funds have been obliged’ to raise contribution rates for intermediate ward cover. [More…]

• The subsidy provided to persons covered by Standard Medibank who wished to be treated in hospital by their private doctor was introduced by virtue of the compulsory nature of health insurance which operated from 31 October 1976. [More…]

• The Government considered there to be no longer sufficient justification to continue the subsidy with the abolition of compulsory health insurance, and the health insurance levy, with effect from 3 1 October 1978. [More…]

• 1 ) The standards applied to the exposure of members of the public to radiation in the environment from the operation of the nuclear reactors at the AAEC’s research establishment at Lucas Heights are those recommended by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Ethylene Glycol: Effects on Health (Question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 17 November 1978: [More…]

• What are the health effects of (a) acute and (b) chronic exposure to ethylene glycol. [More…]

• However, in relation to the vapour, the National Health and Medical Research Council recommends threshhold limit levels (hygienic standards) for ethylene glycol vapour of 100 parts per million or 260 milligrams per cubic metre. [More…]

• These hygiene standards are intended as guides only in the control of health hazards and not as dividing lines between safe and dangerous concentrations. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 1 November 1978: [More…]

• Victoria and South Australia raise outpatient charges for patients who have hospital insurance; New South Wales has also introduced a charging policy but is negotiating a collection arrangement through the health insurance organisations. [More…]

• The Building Standards Committee, which is responsible for the preparation of the ACT building code, sought the advice of the Capital Territory Health Commission in 1976 on the use of sprayed asbestos in buildings. [More…]

• The Health Commission advised there was no evidence to suggest that the occupants of buildings were at risk from asbestos-caused disease. [More…]

• Press announcements by the Capital Territory Health Commission were made in November 1978 in response to questions concerning the use of asbestos insulating material in the Territory. [More…]

• Both buildings have been checked by the Capital Territory Health Commission and do not present a hazard to the occupants. [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to a recent report by the World Health Organisation on the dangers of asbestos from an environmental point of view. [More…]

• Asbestos is a material which has many uses in the building, motor vehicle and other industries, but which can present a serious hazard to the health of industry workers if adequate safeguards are not taken. [More…]

• In some cases, however, in localised areas, asbestos fibres may be present in the environment in sufficient concentrations to become an identifiable health hazard. [More…]

• I am aware of the World Health Organisation document referred to by the honourable member, which was published by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in 1977. [More…]

• While touching on environmental issues, the report is devoted principally to the human health effects of asbestos particularly in relation to occupational exposure. [More…]

• My colleague, the Minister for Health, advises that the National Health and Medical Research Council has published a number of codes of practice for use and handling of asbestos and asbestos products. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 November 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 24 November 1978: [More…]

• Has his attention been drawn to the recent rinding of the Busselton study which indicates that high cholesterol diets are not as significant, as presently promoted by health authorities, for the incidence of heart disease, and that other factors such as genes are more significant than previously recognised; if so, what is being done to evaluate and incorporate this new evidence in information on this disease. [More…]

• There has been, and still is, considerable research devoted to heart disease, some of which has been funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 24 November 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 24 November 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 24 November 1978: [More…]

• In May 1978 Mr Gaul was again engaged, through Hoquara Pty Ltd, as a consultant to assist with the public relations presentation of changes made to the Health Insurance system operative from 1 November 1978. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 12 September 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 1 October 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 25 October 1 978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 November 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 November 1978: [More…]

• Of a total of 286 nursing homes located in the four regions designated as ‘metropolitan’ by the New South Wales Health Commission (which include several areas not normally considered as Sydney Metropolitan) fee increases were approved for 212 and a further 37 experienced reductions in their fees during the period 1 August 1978 to 9 November 1978. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 15 November 1978: [More…]

• The Second World Health Organisation Expert Committee on Smallpox Eradication stated that eradication of smallpox is defined as the elimination of clinical illness caused by variola virus. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation has established a Global Commission under which health experts are now monitoring surveillance activities with a view to determining whether and/or when smallpox eradication has been achieved. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 1 November 1978: [More…]

• However, one Department of Health officer has travelled on a Concorde aircraft. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 November 1978: [More…]

• What anthropological advice was sought before the National Health and Medical Research Council recommended, and he approved, that the project was worthy of receiving scarce medical research funds. [More…]

• Aboriginal health workers will be used as interpreters. [More…]

• The need for improving environmental factors has long been recognised by my Department and by the Northern Territory Health Department and has been drawn to the attention of the various agencies concerned. [More…]

• Not only has the community been consulted and supports the project but the Northern Territory Health Department will ensure that anthropological considerations are taken into account on a continuing basis. [More…]

• Details of the projects supported and grants awarded are published in the annual reports of the National Health and Medical Research Council which are tabled in Parliament. [More…]

• The Australian Defence Health Services have no documented cases of personnel who have been in contact with Agent Orange. [More…]

• The Australian Defence Health Services have no record of any claim for a pension based on contact with Agent Orange. [More…]

• The long term effects of Agent Orange are not fully known to the Australian Defence Health Services, but see the answer to Question (5). [More…]

• 1 ) Is it a fact that since the 1 940s the Australian Navy has been aware that asbestos is a dangerous health hazard. [More…]

• There is no evidence to suggest that the Navy Health Services have not been aware of these hazards since the 1940s. [More…]

• These orders supplement but do not replace the relevant instructions under Clause 41 of the New South Wales Factories Act of the Harmful Gases, Vapours, Fumes, Mists, Smokes and Dust Regulations 1945 (as amended) made under the Victorian Health Acts. [More…]

• What is the reason for this sudden and widespread breakdown in the health of public servants. [More…]

• There does not appear to have been a sudden and widespread breakdown in the health of public servants. [More…]

• These include the changing age structure of the Service, the number of ex-servicemen approaching retirement, changing community attitudes towards health and arrangements for age and invalidity retirement. [More…]

• (a) I am informed that the Department of Health has no evidence of any collusion between medical practitioners and public servants. [More…]

• But inflation is worse, with an underlying rate of 3.8 per cent for the December quarter if health costs are includednot the 2.3 per cent cited- as a result of a range of unwise policy commitments imposed on the community in the last Budget. [More…]

• The reintroduction of six-monthly indexation is all the more urgent given the recent high increase in the CPI and the fact that civilian and repatriation pensioners did not benefit by the 1.5 per cent reduction in the CPI due to changes in health insurance arrangements introduced on 1 November last year. [More…]

• Therefore they did not benefit from the 1.5 per cent reduction in the consumer price index due to the health insurance changes. [More…]

• Instead of seeing the Minister representing the Minister for Social Security, the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) speaking on this matter, whom did we see? [More…]

• The 1.5 per cent decrease in the CPI because of the reduction in health costs was passed on to the rest of the community but was not passed on to pensioners. [More…]

• Commonwealth expenditure on health and welfare has increased from $1.4 billion in 1967-68 to $10.2 billion in 1977-78. [More…]

• In the current financial year, 1978-79, expenditure on health and welfare is expected to rise to $10.9 billion- almost $800 for every man, woman and child in Australia. [More…]

• So this Government is meeting a very substantial commitment for the health and welfare of the Australian people and, in particular, for the aged population of Australia. [More…]

• Also, the issue will be considered during the development of Australia Post’s Occupational Health program. [More…]

• Telecom’s Occupational Health Advisor is similarly currently working on a program aimed at informing employees of the health hazards associated with smoking, and the question of retaining cigarette vending machines on official premises is under review as part of Telecom’s Occupational Health Plan. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 7 November 1 978: [More…]

• In view of the concern being expressed on the health hazards caused by exposure to certain forms of asbestos and the assistance being provided by the Commonwealth to the Woodsreef mine, is that company adhering to the necessary safety standards ibr asbestos mining. [More…]

• Although the amount of asbestos is relatively small, handling is done wet in accordance with instructions issued by the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• On the contrary, efforts are directed continually towards reducing the incidence of ill health caused by asbestos. [More…]

• 1 ) Has his attention been drawn to the dangers to health of asbestos. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 November 1978: [More…]

• Has he considered labelling asbestos products as constituting health dangers including the risk of causing cancer. [More…]

• The legislation which exists in the States, or is soon to be brought about, is based on model regulations developed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH and MRC) which acts in an advisory capacity to all Governments in Australia on public health matters. [More…]

• Occupational Health Guide-Asbestos’ [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 November 1978: [More…]

• Which authority is responsible for regulating and monitoring health aspects of this activity. [More…]

• Have there been any incidents of ill health amongst personnel who may have been associated with use of these compounds; if so, what are the details of these incidents. [More…]

• The Directorate of Air Force Medicine is responsible for regulating and monitoring health aspects of those chemically based items listed in the RAAF Catalogue of Equipment. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 October 1978: [More…]

• If so, what steps has he taken to investigate the implications of the results for the health of Australian communities which rely on drinking water supplies which contain high levels of dissolved salt. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has the matter under investigation and expects to have the results of that investigation available to it when Council next meets, possibly in June 1 979. [More…]

• The Minister for Health in Western Australia issued a news release on this topic last July. [More…]

• I hope that ultimately we will come up with a better system of vehicle emission control so that the public health gain is what is required when measured against the total cost of the emission control program. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health noticed growing discontent in New South Wales psychiatric and geriatric hospitals? [More…]

• Is the Minister aware of the recent statements by the New South Wales Minister for Health? [More…]

• The New South Wales Minister for Health is becoming very adept at passing the buck. [More…]

• We are not moving to force upon the State governments proposals that are going to cause unnecessary hardship in the health area. [More…]

• Australia today is back on the road to economic health. [More…]

• It does not have general access to community faculties, health facilities, education facilities and basic advice facilities which are readily available to other sections of the community. [More…]

• These groups, covering areas like transport, health, education, legal affairs and housing, meet regularly to ensure continued liaison between the different spheres of government. [More…]

• If honourable members ignore the dishonest figure juggling exercise with the health cost component of the consumer price index they find that the consumer price index rose by 9 per cent in the year ended December 1 978 compared with 7.5 per cent in the year ended September 1978. [More…]

• Without the health insurance changes, the increase would have been 3.8 per cent. [More…]

• If we were to do what the Government did when it was in Opposition and when the Australian Labor Party was in government and multiply the percentage increase for one quarter by four to obtain an annual inflation rate, it would have been 15 per cent without taking into account the health changes in the December quarter. [More…]

• Worst affected were the areas of health, housing and legal aid. [More…]

• We saw the slashing of the community health program by $ 15.5m. [More…]

• Our wheat harvest will be a record one, and the long term contract just completed with China for Vh million tonnes of wheat over the next three years is further evidence of the healthy situation that is developing within the rural industry. [More…]

• Allowing for inflation, farm income is set to rise by 66 per cent this year and Australians have come to appreciate once again just how important the rural sector is in the overall economic growth and health of the economy. [More…]

• Employment prospects in the automotive industry are directly linked to its health and viability; the more uncompetitive the industry and its products become, the more its ability to employ is jeopardised. [More…]

• I have sought to highlight that northern Australia ‘s continuing capacity to earn foreign exchange now depends on the health and livelihood of northern Australia, to the benefit of the whole of Australia. [More…]

• The limits of annual radiation exposure recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council and identical to the recommendation of the International Commission on Radiological Protection are S000 millirem per year for radiation workers and SOO millirem per year for members of the public. [More…]

• to (4) School authorities in Australia, both government and non-government, are very conscious of the possible risks to health posed by the use of asbestos as a ceiling insulant in school buildings. [More…]

• Relatively few non-government schools were built from 1955-65, and the health risk from asbestos insulation is consequently low. [More…]

• Some non-government systemic authorities, aware of potential problems, have sought the advice of health authorities in specific cases. [More…]

• For instance, in the 1968-69 Budget the health appropriation consumed 6 per cent of Budget expenditure. [More…]

• In recent years the greatest pressure has been for increased expenditure in the areas of health, welfare and education, for example. [More…]

• State governments have received quite substantial funding for community health centres. [More…]

• These community health centres were introduced by the honourable member for Capricornia (Dr Everingham) when he was Minister for Health. [More…]

• It is not just the general health centres that I am referring to. [More…]

• Included in the scheme were mental health centres. [More…]

• As I will mention later, they are most important in the methods of treatment of mental health problems. [More…]

• One of the reasons why I am particularly conscious of these centres is that, before 1977, the boundaries of my electorate contained major mental health institutions. [More…]

• One element has become quite evident with regard to the community health centres dealing with mental health at present. [More…]

• In the newly formed Victorian Health Commission- the successor to the Health Department and Hospital and Charities Commission- no one accepts responsibility for the planning and activity in these centres. [More…]

• Nearby is the Broadmeadows Community Health Centre for the same purpose which is administered by the Montpark Hospital. [More…]

• The funds are not being utilised at all for these mental health community centres. [More…]

• In this way, people would not be institutionalised or locked up like prisoners as they had been in the past, but would go out and cany on their work in the community at the community health centres that we ultimately introduced. [More…]

• Fourthly, there is the lack of a coastguard surveillance on the Reef to counter quarantine, health and drug risks also involved. [More…]

• I suggest therefore that a coastguard force divorced from the Services be created with the authority to act under regulations and the laws of the fishery department, the health department and the customs department. [More…]

• What scientific or medical evidence is forthcoming to suggest that exhaust emissions are a major contributor to bad health in normal circumstances. [More…]

• Emission inventories estimating the contribution of motor vehicles to urban air pollution have been prepared for Melbourne by the Environmental Protection Authority in 1973, for Sydney by the NSW State Pollution Control Commission in 1972 and for Adelaide by the SA Department of Public Health in 1974. [More…]

• This research has established relationships between exposure levels to various motor vehicle pollutants and adverse health effects. [More…]

• The levels of pollutants that are acceptable from a medical viewpoint are under constant review by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Additional costs to the Commonwealth would arise due to an estimated 740 wives of veteran service pensioners becoming eligible for Pensioner Health Benefits through the Department of Health if the allowed income were increased by 5 per cent. [More…]

• Australian Capital Territory- Canberra Consumer Incorporated; Citroen Association of Canberra; Consumer Affairs Council of the Australian Capital Territory; Dietetic Association, ACT Inc.; Health Care Consumers Association of ACT; The Australian Association of Dietitians; The Co-operative Federation of Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 20 February 1979: [More…]

• The National Standing Control Committee on Drugs of Dependence, comprising senior Federal and State health and law enforcement officers, is currently directing its attention to this matter. [More…]

• I understand that at the next meeting of this Committee in March or April 1 979, it will be considering reports on the progress of two pilot studies being conducted by the West Australian and Tasmanian Health Departments into the use of special serially numbered prescription forms for drugs of addiction or Schedule 8 drugs. [More…]

• That would be good for the health and well-being of young people in Australia. [More…]

• What it is all about is the long term health and viability of the Australian motor industry and that industry, in all its ramifications, is the biggest single industry in manufacturing. [More…]

• It is all about the health and viability of this industry five and ten years hence. [More…]

• Health and viability mean capacity to employ and to provide meaningful jobs for Australians. [More…]

• That in a nutshell is what it is all aboutthe health and very capacity to provide large scale employment in this major industry, not just tomorrow or next year, but five or ten years on. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation of the United Nations has been partly instrumental in eradicating smallpox. [More…]

• I want to use my few minutes tonight to express my very deep concern at reports that have been going around Canberra in the last few days that the methadone program carried out by the Capital Territory Health Commission is about to be wound down. [More…]

• It also allowed the health authorities to exercise some monitoring of the problem of heroin in the Australian Capital Territory and some control over the misuse of methadone. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council, in a paper issued the year before last, concluded that methadone programs, although still in need of further study and refinement, can be extremely valuable for a small group of chronically addicted individuals and should be made available to them. [More…]

• Virtually all doctors who have entered Australia in recent times have been approved because they have firm job offers extended either by health authorities or private medical practitioners. [More…]

• They have no pensioner health benefit card and are at the mercy of their doctors’ political and philosophical views. [More…]

• The problem is not the rate of tax but the growing expenditure on health, welfare and education with which the Government and the country are faced today. [More…]

• In 1967-68, ten years ago, this Government had a total commitment to health, education and social security and welfare of $ 1,571m. [More…]

• In 1967-68 the expenditure on those three items of health, education and welfare represented 72 per cent of personal income tax collections. [More…]

• On reading through the report of the Australian Taxation Office and associating it with social security payments and other such expenditures, I found that in 1978-79, of every dollar that the Commonwealth collects in excise, indirect taxation and other sources of revenue, 42c will be spent on health and welfare and 23c will go to the States and local government. [More…]

• I invite honourable members who complain about the insufficiency of welfare commitments compared with commitments to other government initiatives to look at the fact that if we do not have a healthy economy, if we do not have incentives for taxpayers to get out and earn money productively, we will have no support for the standard of living which we currently enjoycertainly we will have no income from which to make welfare payments to enable recipients of welfare benefits to continue to enjoy that standard of living. [More…]

• I certainly feel that in this computer age, when the processing of tax returns is so highly computerised, as is the situation in other areas, such as health, social security, et cetera, what we are fast requiring in this country is an identification number for every taxpayer and every citizen. [More…]

• I believe that an identification number for every Australian, for social security, health and every other area in which he is in contact with the government, is an absolute necessity. [More…]

• I do not see any future for Australia unless we recognise that the public sector- I mean wider things than the Public Service in that term- is fundamental to the future economic health of [More…]

• Since I became the member for Werriwa all sorts of accusations have been hurled at the Liverpool Women’s Health Centre in my electorate. [More…]

• So it cannot really be maintained that the Liverpool Women’s Health Centre is an abortion clinic. [More…]

• My Department has been most concerned with the effect on oyster growers of the ban on the export of oysters, but at the same time, having a responsibility to ensure that the health standards that are so rightly maintained on all Australian exports are preserved with respect to oysters, it was felt necessary that the ban be imposed. [More…]

• My Department is anxiously pursuing discussions with the Federal Department of Health and with the New South Wales departments of Health and Fisheries to develop a common code of practice covering the processing and handling of oysters. [More…]

• The Commonwealth believes that while it might be true that purification plants cannot necessarily remove the risk of some virus diseases appearing in oystersthese risks have always existed- it is hoped that out of the common health practice about which I have been talking it might be possible to devise a way to minimise that risk. [More…]

• I would like to see us establish that health code as soon as possible and to renew the issue of export licences. [More…]

• It might be considered that a more appropriate and objective criterion would be to have regard only to his or her mental and physical health in applying the work test. [More…]

• First of all, I would like to know what monitoring of the campaign has been done to ascertain the effect it is having in its objective of encouraging more Australians to undertake more physical activity to improve their health and their general physical wellbeing. [More…]

• Last year, Australia spent $9,000m on health. [More…]

• We all know that physical fitness and health are closely related. [More…]

• The results of experiments carried out in France, Belgium, Japan, Canada and the United States have established that raised levels of physical activity result in higher levels of health and fitness and improvements in social awareness and academic achievement. [More…]

• The paper revealed that a similar experiment carried out with pupils at the Hindmarsh Primary School by the University of Adelaide Centre for Physical Health matched the findings with regard to the overseas students. [More…]

• Preventive medicine is now accepted as the most effective way of improving a nation’s health and reducing the spiralling costs of health care. [More…]

• As in so many other areas, it takes vision and courage by the Government- qualities in which this Government has shown itself to be noticeably lacking- to spend money now to reduce health costs in the future. [More…]

• We have to produce a new generation of Australians who are brought up from childhood to value their health and to realise that in this day of sedentary living a considerable effort on their part is required. [More…]

• It could easily be adopted by Australia, as an article in the December 1978 issue of the Australian Journal for Health, Physical Education and Recreation points out. [More…]

• The article, by Mr Brian Chapman, a South Australian graduate student from the University of Oregon, points out that good health through physical culture is enshrined in the German Democratic Republic’s Constitution and is backed up by legislation through the Youth Act 1974. [More…]

• I repeat that our national health bill is about $9,000m. [More…]

• If we really want to cut our health costs and make a better, healthier, happier, fitter nation we should spend on sport and recreation 2 per cent or 3 per cent of what we are spending on getting people better after they have had heart attacks. [More…]

• However, I think that honourable members on this side of the House must take issue with his comment that there is a lack of vision and courage, to use his words, in looking at sport, recreation, leisure activities and the health of the nation. [More…]

• I hope to cover some of it in the course of the debate tonight, notwithstanding the fact that we are debating the National Fitness Amendment Bill 1979, not a policy statement on sport, recreation, national health and preventive medicine. [More…]

• There is a need to increase substantially the amount of one per cent of our national health bill currently spent on preventive medicine. [More…]

• All parties should be concerned about the future health and welfare of our people. [More…]

• When he was Minister for Tourism and Recreation he commenced a program which created an awareness in many people of the need for the Federal Government to be more concerned with sport and recreation and the preventive aspects of health. [More…]

• But if we have a total approach throughout the community to fitness and health our elite athletes are likely to obtain a greater performance at the international level. [More…]

• At the national level, 18.1 per cent said that health was the purpose and in Victoria 18.2 per cent. [More…]

• In fact they can see that there is a health and exercise aspect involved and that people should not sit at home but should get out and do something about active participation in their leisure time. [More…]

• As I said earlier the Labor Government’s intention was to create an awareness in people of all ages to involve themselves in healthy outdoor recreation. [More…]

• In introducing that program for grants for the provision of leisure facilities we were aware of the need to promote the health of citizens of Australia. [More…]

• Will this Government not recognise that the health and physical fitness of Australians generally is declining and that the prowess of our sporting champions is falling far below that of our traditional opponents? [More…]

• In July of that year he had established the Task Force on Coordination in Welfare and Health. [More…]

• I commend this report to all members of parliament, in particular to those members of the Liberal Party and National Country Party who say that they want to assist sporting organisations and improve the health and attitudes of Australians generally. [More…]

• I do not dispute the honourable member for Grayndler’s dedication to the health of the nation, to the recreational facilities and the occupation of leisure hours by our youth and by every member of the Australian community. [More…]

• We need to do this because what has happened in Australia is that people have increased leisure hours available to them but they do not have a sufficient number of active healthy interests to occupy those leisure hours. [More…]

• We have seen a dramatic increase in certain anti-social activities and, more particularly and probably more alarmingly, in the instance of drug taking and a general decline in the physical health of the nation. [More…]

• He spoke about the perception of the propaganda for health, fitness and exercise purposes. [More…]

• Flowing from the mass participation, we must follow up a health program, for instance, with advice on diet. [More…]

• According to this newsletter, our Federal Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), when asked about the erection of ramps at the surgeries of doctors involved in pension medical examinations, had this to say in a letter: . [More…]

• We ought to realise that general health and sensible recreation are a precondition to sporting excellence and achievement. [More…]

• Whilst the figures that I have mentioned are disappointing generally- I hope the Minister will take the opportunity to expand them- we should be more concerned about what we are doing for the general health and fitness of the nation. [More…]

• In 1973 former Chancellor Willy Brandt said that West Germany’s health costs had been steadily and dramatically escalating over recent years. [More…]

• The rewards were soon realised and the health costs spiral stabilised. [More…]

• Be in it’ is all about- preventive medicine and progressive health. [More…]

• The answers nationally were: Exercise, 20 per cent; health, 18 per cent; outdoor activities, 17.3 per cent; fitness, 1 6.8 per cent; to be active, 1 3.9 per cent; not to sit at home, 12.8 per cent. [More…]

• We ought to be moving into the future with a policy of foresight, one that will lead to increasing the health of the young people of this nation. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 November 1978: [More…]

• How many Community Health Centres have been built or established in New South Wales and in what years were they built or established. [More…]

• What was the total staffing of Community Health Centres in New South Wales during each of the last 5 years. [More…]

• What have been the (a) occupational/professional titles and (b) numbers of persons employed in Community Health Centres in New South Wales during each of the last 5 years. [More…]

• What funds have been (a) allocated and (b) spent by the Commonwealth on the Community Health Centre program in New South Wales in each of the last 5 years. [More…]

• What levels of salary are paid to occupational/professional categories of persons employed in Community Health Centres in New South Wales compared with (a) similar and (b) identical positions in other areas of the Commonwealth and State Public Services. [More…]

• Is he able to say what has been the financial contribution of the New South Wales Government to the Community Health Centre program during each of the last S years. [More…]

• Is he able to say whether the services being provided by the Community Health Centres in New South Wales are being cut back; if so, what effect is this having on those persons using the services. [More…]

• For the purposes of answering the question, I have regarded as relevant only those projects funded under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• In answering ( 1 ) ‘community health centre’ has been construed as meaning a community-based facility that has the characteristics of a general community health service, as distinct from a specialised service (e.g. [More…]

• a mental health or alcoholism service) that provides two or more categories of service (e.g. [More…]

• 1 ) The following information is provided following consultations with the Health Commission of New South Wales, which has immediate responsibility for the administration or supervision of community health projects in that State. [More…]

• Broad proposals have since been put to the Australian Agricultural Council for a Scheme comprising: genetic improvement, through cow indexing, bull breeding and progeny testing, herd production and herd health management services, with, common to and linking these two major aspects: more economical herd recording through farmer collection of samples, the use of centralised milk testing stations, computer facilities to handle resulting data flows. [More…]

• It is the view of the Standing Committee on Agriculture that herd health/management and production services should preferably be developed through States’ herd health programs. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health appointed Mr Justice Ludeke to conduct an inquiry into medical fees and decided that the proceedings will be held in private? [More…]

• -Does the Minister for Health agree that the yearly escalation of ill health costs to the Government could be contained by greater concentration on health education and extensive use of preventive medicine programs? [More…]

• If not, can we forecast possible future problems for the health and welfare of the Australian people? [More…]

• -Yes, I do believe that in the longer term health costs will be reduced so long as we are able to encourage our children to participate in better lifestyles and to participate more in sport and sporting activities. [More…]

• However, this is not to say that the Government so far has not been successful in bringing down the great escalation of health costs in Australia. [More…]

• When Mr Malcolm Fraser became the Prime Minister of Australia he and his Government inherited a situation whereby health costs were accelerating at a rate of almost 37 per cent per annum. [More…]

• However, I have asked my Department to draw up a program to encourage people to engage in better lifestyles and better health programs. [More…]

• Through the community health program, which is one of the very good programs of the former Government, opportunity is undoubtedly given to try to do something about the preventive aspects of medicine. [More…]

• In the last decade most of the debate inside and outside the Parliament has been on insurance schemes designed to try to help people pay for health treatment costs. [More…]

• I think it is about time that we started to direct our attention towards policies that are designed to try to improve the general health standards of the Australian people. [More…]

• I have no doubt that the activities of the honourable member who raised the question will do much to improve the general health standards in his electorate. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• If there is any cause for concern I will refer that report to the National Health and Medical Research Council for immediate investigation and I will await its report. [More…]

• I cannot understand how anybody who has been through the repatriation system and who has had the advantage and the benefit of the repatriation system should oppose the introduction of a national health service. [More…]

• It struck me that no matter what a person’s estate, whether it be high or low, even if he opposed any idea of there being a national health service he was very glad that he was able to benefit from the repatriation health system. [More…]

• We should be expanding such health services. [More…]

• When I first came here we did not debate matters concerning education or health or Aboriginal affairs, but we did have lengthy debates on foreign affairs, defence policy and the like. [More…]

• Would they come from health, from education or elsewhere? [More…]

• If we are spending large sums of money on defence- I do not deny it- and if that is an argument for the establishment of a committee, why not establish a standing committee of the Parliament on health, a standing committee of the Parliament on social security or a standing committee of the Parliament on education? [More…]

• Departments of transport, environment, energy and health can be or are often involved. [More…]

• It is not at all clear that sound scientific evidence exists as to the deleterious health effects on which to justify the introduction of costly emission controls. [More…]

• We are not aware of any work that has established a causal relationship between carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, or lead, and health risks at measured levels of these pollutants in Australian cities. [More…]

• Whilst acknowledging that photochemical smog has proven health and minor property risks, at greater than existing levels of pollution in Australian cities, its formation is not well understood and, more crucially, the effect of reducing vehicle emissions on the formation of photochemical smog is not established. [More…]

• Implicit in these comments is criticism of the World Health Organisation pollution goals, originally set in the 1950’s, and also the National Health and Medical Research Council recommendations on lead, both of which are based, it would appear from the literature available, on tenuous scientific assumptions which need careful re-examination to determine their applicability, in view of changed economic and technical circumstances and in the light of new evidence, particularly to Australian demographic and meteorological conditions. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation has recently, in 1977, reviewed its recommendations on air quality goals. [More…]

• In addition, the National Health and Medical Research Council is at present reviewing its earlier recommendations on lead. [More…]

• -The subject of the matter of public importance, that is, the implementation of effective motor vehicle emission control standards, is of critical importance to the health and well-being of millions of Australians who reside in our cities. [More…]

• The acceptance of such a proposal would be at the expense of the health of the millions of Australians who reside in the metropolitan areas. [More…]

• We will not be party to a proposal which puts the protection of the profit and loss accounts in the balance sheets of foreign-based corporations before the protection of the health of Australian families. [More…]

• What a ruthless, callous, abandonment of interest and responsibility for the health and welfare of urban dwellers! [More…]

• In all, Sydney and Melbourne constitute almost one half of Australia’s population, but this Government seeks to abandon the health protection of the population of those cities. [More…]

• Turning to Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra, one finds that they are already exceeding World Health Organisation air quality goals and have climatic conditions which lend those cities to photochemical smog. [More…]

• Let us look at the effect of excessive ozone levels in the atmosphere, remembering that the World Health Organisation recommendation is six parts per 100 million. [More…]

• That is a title that the people of Sydney do not want, and what flows from that condition, in terms of deleterious effects to health, should not be pushed upon the people of the inner suburbs. [More…]

• Government programs in the health, education and welfare fields are actively seeking to assist these persons. [More…]

• Is the Minister able to say whether the professionals who make an assessment of a child’s health or educational problem have any responsibility to share these findings with the child ‘s parents, or do they have any right to withhold certain information. [More…]

• Whether in a legal sense professionals who make an assessment of a child’s health or education problem have a right to withhold information from the child’ s parents could only be answered by reference to the variety of authorities employing these professionals and to the professional associations to which they belong. [More…]

• In the practical circumstances of professional health and education workers dealing with parents this is an important and complex issue, but I doubt whether a simple answer can be given in terms of moral rights and duties. [More…]

• 1 ) I am informed that my Department received a copy of a research proposal entitled ( Causes of Otitis Media in Aboriginal Children of the Northern Territory from the Secretary of the Medical Research in Aborigines Sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH and MRC) on 28 October 1976. [More…]

• The proposal was discussed between representatives of my Department, the Chairman and Secretary of the Medical Research in Aborigines Sub-committee of the National Health and Medical research Council and the principal investigator mentioned above in Canberra on 17 December 1976. [More…]

• I understand that the research will be carried out in close co-operation with the Northern Territory Department of Health, which will take into account other surveys and evaluations aimed at assessing different methods of improving environmental factors in health and methods of health care delivery and administration. [More…]

• -On behalf of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, I present a report of the Committee entitled ‘Aboriginal Health’, together with the transcript of evidence and extracts from the minutes of proceedings. [More…]

• -by leave-The standard of health of Aboriginals is far lower than that of the majority of Australians and would not be tolerated if it existed in the Australian community as a whole. [More…]

• When innumerable reports on the poor state of Aboriginal health are released there are expressions of shock or surprise and outraged cries for immediate action. [More…]

• However, the reports appear to have had no real impact; the appalling state of Aboriginal health is soon forgotten until another report is released. [More…]

• The Committee found that the low standard of health apparent in the majority of Aboriginal communities can be attributed largely to the unsatisfactory environmental conditions in which Aboriginals live; to their low socioeconomic status in the Australian community; and to the failure of health authorities to give sufficient attention to the special health needs of Aboriginals and to take proper account of their social and cultural beliefs and practices. [More…]

• They are aimed at improving the health of Aboriginals. [More…]

• The second thrust is to involve Aboriginals in the decisions which affect their health and in the delivery of their health care programs. [More…]

• The Committee believes that Aboriginal communities have the right to determine the type of health services which best suit their individual needs. [More…]

• Therefore, the Committee has recommended that a task force should be set up to place before every community the full range of alternative health care services. [More…]

• It might include health services run by State and Territory health authorities, such as we see particularly in the Northern Territory, and general and specialist practitioners. [More…]

• The Committee found a consensus among representatives of health authorities throughout Australia that Aboriginals should participate to the greatest extent possible in their own health care programs and should be fully consulted on all matters concerning their health. [More…]

• The Committee recommends that Aboriginals should be involved in all stages of the provision of health care services and that the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs (Senator Chaney) should assess the number of Aboriginals required, the time it will take to train them to assume responsibility for the health of their people and, to this end, to develop, in consultation with the relevant Ministers, suitable training programs. [More…]

• Throughout this very lengthy report there are many other recommendations and suggestions for improving Aboriginal health. [More…]

• In the Thirtieth Parliament a former member, the honourable Kim Beazley, raised in this House the matter of the poor state of Aboriginal health as a matter of public importance. [More…]

• -by leave- I join the Chairman of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, the honourable member for Dundas (Mr Ruddock), in commending the Committee’s report on Aboriginal health to the House and to the public. [More…]

• Like him, I stress that one of the major glaring deficiencies in the field of Aboriginal health is the physical environment- so much so that, as the Chairman pointed out, the figures collected in Western Australia indicate that the incidence of conditions related to the physical environment treated in hospital is eight times higher for Aborigines than for non-Aborigines. [More…]

• So I stress that as far as the major environmental health problem is concerned, this Government has a major responsibility to regard this problem in the way indicated by the Chairman. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation, along with many other authorities and most people who have studied the environmental problems of deprived communities, particularly indigenous minorities, has said that it is essential that those communities determine their health care priorities and take a major part in planning and decision-making. [More…]

• Almost daily, and certainly weekly, objections are coming on to my desk, and I have no doubt on to the Minister’s desk, about how Aborigines are being required to tolerate more bureaucratic interference, not from Aboriginal organisations but from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the Department of Health and others. [More…]

• We have to start putting consumers in charge of health services, not only for Aborigines but for everyone. [More…]

• Professionalism has gone mad, bureaucracy has gone mad, to an extent where one can say almost that doctors are a health hazard and health departments are a health hazard. [More…]

• It must be appreciated that the report, however long, cannot cover fully the subject of the health of Aborigines. [More…]

• The responsibility for the health of all Australians lies with the Federal and State health departments and always has. [More…]

• They must be held responsible for the terrible situation of Aboriginal health. [More…]

• Many other Federal and State departments have responsibility for areas which impinge on Aboriginal health, and they also must take responsibility for the existing situation. [More…]

• It it felt that the health of Aborigines would not be as bad as it is if all Federal and State departments and authorities had accepted over the years their full responsibility and seen Aborigines as part of a total community, albeit a disadvantaged group. [More…]

• The emphasis of all further work on Aboriginal health must be towards prevention. [More…]

• We must be careful to treat them as we treat other Australians, and that is one reason to use existing departments of health, even if they have to make some adjustments, rather than introduce new schemes responsible to committees or to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• There seems to be no overriding case for splitting the responsibility of State or Commonwealth health departments because Aboriginals are involved. [More…]

• Aboriginal health is bad. [More…]

• We should get on with the job of preventing ill health now. [More…]

• There have been a vast number of reports on Aboriginal health and on most aspects of it. [More…]

• Searching for the reasons why we are still beset with the problems of ill health, one must eventually focus on commitment or lack of it. [More…]

• Federal and State health departments have always been responsible for the health of Australians and that includes Aboriginals. [More…]

• The Committee spent many months on this important matter of Aboriginal health, it examined many documents and heard many witnesses. [More…]

• As the Chairman has pointed out, an all-Party parliamentary committee has found that the levels and standards of Aboriginal health which operate in Australia today are such that they would not be acceptable to any part of this community. [More…]

• They should not be acceptable to this Parliament, and they would not be if Australia, as a community, had not placed itself in a cultural and mental attitude over many years, believing that the health of Aboriginal citizens was less relevant than the health of the dominant white groups in our community. [More…]

• In relation to past reports presented by committees looking at various aspects of Aboriginal health I think it is true to say that some of the recommendations contained in those reports have been implemented, but many have not been. [More…]

• Will it retain the 1.5 cents in the dollar surcharge after all or will it reduce the 40 per cent general health subsidy as an alternative? [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 1 February 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 February 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) Has his attention been drawn to an article entitled Health Department Warns Pathologists on Bulk Billing’ published in the Medical Letter, No. [More…]

• where medical expenses are incurred in respect of a medical service specified in the Medical Benefits Schedule which could include the termination of pregnancy, the doctor who performed the service shall be required to certify to the Department of Health that- [More…]

• On 15 September 1977 the now Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) announced that he had asked his Department to ‘examine the whole area to ascertain whether there are ways and means of ensuring that benefits are payable only to mothers who have had an abortion on proper medical grounds’. [More…]

• The first was the Minister’s decision to allow health funds an option to put up for approval a table of benefits which excluded abortion payments. [More…]

• The Department of Health has informed me that the following is the situation: In 1977-78, 50,900 abortions were performed at a benefit cost of $3. [More…]

• Already the Government has applied tests of medical necessity to the use of pathological services, to the use of health scanning services, and to the use of some cosmetic surgery. [More…]

• I shall quote briefly from the second reading speech of the present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) when introducing into the Parliament last year, I think it was, a Bill in relation to the health screening activity. [More…]

• necessary to preserve a woman from the serious danger to her life or her physical and mental health, not being merely the normal dangers of pregnancy and childbirth, which the continuation of the pregnancy would entail; and [More…]

• With regard to mental health it is proper . [More…]

• to consider whether the danger to mental health arose from not only mental disease, or disease of the mind, but from the effects of economic or social stresses that may be pertaining at the time. [More…]

• The motion before the House does not provide for mental health or economic or social stresses. [More…]

• two States respectively has been such that the ability to take mental health into account has allowed for the proliferation of legal abortions, all of which attract benefits funded by the Commonwealth. [More…]

• South Australia also allows for mental health to be taken into account. [More…]

• In that State, in 1977, 96 per cent of abortions were performed on grounds of mental health. [More…]

• It seems extraordinary that the simple act of terminating the pregnancy immediately restored to sound mental health over 3,500 South Australian women in one year. [More…]

• The state of mental health of most of these women was such that they required no psychiatric treatment, they required no admittance to a mental institution, they required no follow-up treatment or consultation. [More…]

• They had to assume or to adopt a mental health disorder as a prerequisite to having their pregnancies terminated legally. [More…]

• In fact, section 1 9 of the Health Insurance Act specifically excludes this medical service from medical benefits payments. [More…]

• If, for instance, a doctor amputated a perfectly healthy and functional hand, whilst the procedure would no doubt be medical in the strict sense, no one would agree that it was medical in the sense that it was related to health and well-being. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is on record as saying that medical necessity is an important criterion for the inclusion of particular medical procedures in the medical benefits system. [More…]

• I simply say that if medical necessity is regarded by the Minister as being an important criterion for the payment of medical benefits for pathology services, health screening purposes and other medical procedures, how much more important is it for this test to be applied to abortions? [More…]

• Strict medical necessity is a sensible criterion for spending taxpayers’ money in the health area. [More…]

• Women whose physical or mental health is seriously prejudiced would not be entitled to receive medical benefits. [More…]

• does differ deliberately from the Menhennitt and Levine judgments in that it does not take account of mental health. [More…]

• must have honestly believed on reasonable grounds that the act done by him was (a) necessary to preserve the woman from a serious danger to her life or her physical or mental health (not being merely the normal dangers of pregnancy and childbirth) which the continuance of the pregnancy would entail; and (b) in the circumstances not out of proportion to the danger to be averted. [More…]

• In the New South Wales case of R. v. Wald and others in 1971, Mr Justice Levine, in applying the Menhennitt rule, held that it would be for the jury to decide whether there existed in each case any economic, social or medical grounds or reason which, in its view, constituted reasonable grounds upon which a doctor could honestly and reasonably believe there would result a serious danger to her physical or mental health. [More…]

• The majority of States in Australia permit the termination of pregnancy if in the opinion of the medical practitioner the woman’s physical or mental health is at risk beyond the ‘normal risk’ of pregnancy and childbirth. [More…]

• They make me agree with Dr John J. Connors- a Fellow of the Australian and English colleges of surgeons- of the Australian Capital Territory Health Commission that there is no way that the reported 60,000 or more abortions in Australia could be justified on medical grounds. [More…]

• necessary to preserve the mother from serious danger to her life or her physical or mental health (not being merely the normal dangers of pregnancy and childbirth) which continuance of the pregnancy would entail; and [More…]

• Accordingly to establish that the use of an instrument with intent to procure a mis-carriage was unlawful the Crown must establish that the accused did not honestly believe on reasonable grounds that the act done by him was necessary to preserve the woman from serious danger to her physical or mental health or that the accused did not honestly believe on reasonable grounds that the act done by him was in the circumstance proportionate to the need to preserve the woman from the danger to her physical and mental health, (not being merely the normal dangers of pregnancy entails). [More…]

• Disease and trauma happening at any time from the womb to the tomb apparently can affect one’s well being and future health. [More…]

• This House should be aware of the fires that have occurred at Dr Bertram Wainer ‘s clinic in Melbourne and of the intimidation of some doctors, nurses and patients at women’s health clinics. [More…]

• The motion is in violation of the principle of the universal health care system to which the Australian Labor Party is committed by policy. [More…]

• They do not have the resources and are denied the information necessary to use the complex health system. [More…]

• Women have a variety of responsible reasons for wanting an abortion such as the inability to manage financially; inability to cope emotionally; completion of a family or a recent child; no wish to be forced into a marriage; avoidance of family strife or parental awareness; ill health; worry about the deformity of a child; and rape or incest. [More…]

• Existing contraceptive methods are not reliable or are dangerous to the woman’s health. [More…]

• I emphasise the following words- necessary to preserve a woman from the serious danger to her life or her physical or mental health (not being merely the normal dangers of pregnancy and child birth) which the continuance of the pregnancy would entail; and … in the circumstances not out of proportion to the danger to be averted. [More…]

• The accused must have an honest belief on reasonable grounds that what they did was necessary to preserve the women involved from serious danger to their life, or physical or mental health, which the continuance of the pregnancy would entail, not merely the normal dangers of pregnancy and childbirth, and that in the circumstances the danger of the operation was not out of proportion to the danger intended to be averted. [More…]

• Of course in determining that question with regard to mental health, it is proper for you, the jury, to consider whether the danger to the mental health arose from not only mental disease, or disease of the mind, but from the effects of economic or social stresses that may be pertaining at the time. [More…]

• These are the factors that I think are so tremendously important; the danger to the mental health- not the physical health but the mental health: [More…]

• But the law with regard to other factors, such as mental health, relied on the 1939 decision in R. v. Bourne. [More…]

• It is obvious that some significant names are not on the list I have given- for instance, that of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• where medical expenses are incurred in respect of a medical service specified in the Medical Benefits Schedule which could include the termination of pregnancy, the doctor who performed the service shall be required to certify to the Department of Health that- [More…]

• Betrand Nathason, Director of the Centre for Reproductive and Sexual Health in the United States of America, also states: [More…]

• Thus the passage of the motion would not mean that there could not be abortions where there is a serious threat to the physical and mental health of the mother, in accordance with the law in most of the States. [More…]

• What clearly has brought the matter on is the large and increasing number of abortions financed in part by public funds, notwithstanding the law which provides that abortion is unlawful, except where the life or the physical and the mental health of the woman is seriously endangered. [More…]

• It raises the whole issue of elective surgery- although abortion is a special case because of the legal and moral issues involved- where under the present arrangements for health insurance the public purse via the Commonwealth Government is responsible for so large a part of the cost. [More…]

• If the principles of the medical insurance arrangements of 1976 still applied, it would perhaps be less of an issue since the guiding principle then was that those who could afford to pay- defined as those on an income of $12,000 per annum and upwards- should pay the full cost of their health insurance without Commonwealth subsidy. [More…]

• Emotive appeals such as that made by the honourable member for Reid (Mr Uren) to the effect that the health insurance scheme would no longer be comprehensive or universal are not very persuasive. [More…]

• Indeed, the principle that in the health and welfare area those who can afford to pay should do so, and that public funds should be reserved for those in need, and only those in need, I submit is a valid one. [More…]

• I make this point in respect of breaching the comprehensive and universal character of the health scheme only because it has been given some prominence in the discussion on this matter. [More…]

• In effect, the proposal would require doctors to provide health funds and the Government with a diagnosis of their patient’s condition before benefits for items which might involve termination of pregnancy would be paid. [More…]

• So long as termination of pregnancy involves an operation it must mean a risk to life and health. [More…]

• In my view it would be for the jury to decide whether there existed in the case of each woman any economic, social or medical ground or reason which in their view could constitute reasonable grounds upon which an accused could honestly and reasonably believe there would result a serious danger to her physical or mental health. [More…]

• The question would be whether one is preserving the life or health of the woman. [More…]

• The health aspect refers not only to the physical health but also to the mental health. [More…]

• According to the law we would have to believe that pregnancy presents such a serious problem that 40 per cent of South Australian girls between 15 and 19 years of age who become pregnant must be aborted to protect their physical or mental health. [More…]

• I do not believe that there has been any major change in the mental or physical health of Australian girls in the past few years. [More…]

• Other comments made yesterday support this view and show clearly that this Parliament’s jurisdiction over health matters is being used in order to try to limit the number of abortions carried out under State law. [More…]

• Australia’s present abortion rate is conservatively estimated at 60,000 a year, a fact known to the Government when formulating its current policy for the funding of abortions under the health scheme. [More…]

• Under that ruling a doctor must honestly believe, on reasonable grounds, that it is necessary to perform an abortion because the woman’s life or mental or physical health would otherwise be in danger. [More…]

• For, if she could not satisfy a doctor that her life was in danger from a physical pathological condition’, she could not obtain medical benefits for an abortion performed even though her doctor believed that her mental health was endangered. [More…]

• Perhaps, above all, it ill becomes a group of men to tell the women of Australia what their responsibilities are and that they should save their housekeeping money to pay for abortions which are deemed by doctors under State laws to be legally necessary in the interests of the woman ‘s health. [More…]

• I seek leave to have incorporated in Hansard a copy of a letter from the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), dealing with medical benefits for abortion, which has been sent to all honourable members, together with a copy of a letter to the Minister from Mr G. D. Repin, the Secretary General of the Australian Medical Association. [More…]

• Minister for Health [More…]

• I now wish to deal with the matter from the point of view of a medical practitioner who is interested in the sorts of things with which I deal in this House; in other words, as the shadow Minister for Health, although obviously I am not speaking to the matter as the shadow Minister for Health because this debate is not on party lines. [More…]

• I refer to the wording used by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) when he replied to a question I addressed to him on this subject on 15 September 1977. [More…]

• I have had many representations, in fact I have had thousands of representations, from people throughout the community, objecting to being party to paying benefits for such procedures unless the mother has had an abortion because of the state of her health. [More…]

• The Commission was highly critical of the lead phasedown proposals but it did provide alternatives to meet the health objectives of the States. [More…]

• We either can accept a serious health problem in our major cities- a problem which is steadily worsening and which Government members would have us accept- or we can adopt lead phase-down measures which will cost the consumer dearly and result in extra petroleum consumption. [More…]

• The Commission concluded that the public health objectives set under Rule 27a could be achieved at negligible cost by the deployment of other methods of phasing down lead. [More…]

• I have talked about a health bill of $5,000m. [More…]

• Perhaps the Minister for Health would think about devoting one half of one per cent of the bill, which would be about $2 5 m, to sport. [More…]

• If that money was made available to local government to provide family facilities and community exercise facilities I think we would see a rapid decrease in the national health bill. [More…]

• The amount provided should be increased dramatically in view of our already overloaded health bill. [More…]

• As the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is at the table I would like to make one or two comments and ask him two questions. [More…]

• I refer to the amounts of money paid out by the Department of Health on two levels, one on the basis of the 40 per cent refund of the common fee of $20 which has been the case since 1 November 1978, and secondly, in relation to disadvantaged patients. [More…]

• I hope that the Minister will provide the House with figures as soon as possible so as to give us some basis for intelligent comment on what is happening at present concerning the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• In response to the three questions asked by the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) we do not yet have sufficient statistical data on the working of the new health insurance arrangements which have applied from 1 November. [More…]

• The following Government Departments have procedures concerned with monitoring or controlling the importation into Australia of equipment, technology, chemical or pharmaceutical preparations or formulations which may be hazardous from the points of view of safety, health and environmental impact. [More…]

• The Departments of Administrative Services, Business and Consumer Affairs, Defence, Health, Housing and Construction, National Development, Post and Telecommunications, Primary Industry, Science and the Environment, Transport and Veterans ‘ Affairs. [More…]

• Question 1- Section 62 and 63 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 and the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations made under the Customs Act provide a means by which controls are exercised by this Department over the supply and importation of goods which may be hazardous from the points of view of safety, health and environmental impact. [More…]

• One of the most important restrictions in the Regulations are the Department of Health’s controls over the importation of therapeutic goods and appliances. [More…]

• Does he agree that the habit of regular physical activity should be introduced early in a child ‘s school life but that many Australian schools lack specialist physical education teachers, while teachers generally and parents underestimate the significance for health and mental alertness of regular physical exercise? [More…]

• The Confederation is being supported in its campaign by the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. [More…]

• Approaches have been made by the Confederation to Premiers and Ministers responsible for Sport, Health and Education in each State on the proposed campaign. [More…]

• Another aspect of renewed interest in sport and exercise in schools is that it can play an important part in improving the general standards of health and fitness, and, continued into adult life, can make an enjoyable contribution to preventative medicine. [More…]

• I would like to list from a book written by Henry Kyemba, a former Minister in the Amin Government from 1972 to 1977- he was Minister for Health- some of the people who have been murdered by Amin. [More…]

• 1 5 p.m. the ministerial statements of the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) will proceed, and they will be followed by the calling on of any uncompleted notices. [More…]

• But this firm has recently prepared a background note for media reference when articles or new items are being prepared on asbestos related to health hazards. [More…]

• He resigned in 1970 in protest against the intolerable conditions at the factory where levels of asbestos dust in the air were 90 times more than the National Health and Medical Research Council’s current recommended level. [More…]

• National Health and Medical Research Council which advises Federal and State governments on Public Health matters, on the Health Insurance Commission, and on other advisory bodies. [More…]

• Advice to government from these company representatives would be based on the company’s record in protecting worker health and providing a safe product to the public. [More…]

• The Minister for Science and the Environment (Senator Webster) summarised for the House the main conclusions of the 1977 report of the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) recently assured this House and the people of Australia in the following terms: [More…]

• On the contrary efforts are directed continually towards reducing the incidence of ill health caused by asbestos. [More…]

• I shall quote from the World Health Organisation report: [More…]

• Apparently the Capital Territory Health Commission has no powers to stop the contractor who, I am informed, is still putting asbestos into domestic ceilings. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation, the United States of America and other government agencies make no distinction between the various types of asbestos fibres. [More…]

• A tripartite policy for Government, Management and Unions for dealing with asbestos induced diseases, and for reducing the future risks of asbestos to health. [More…]

• Worker Health Care [More…]

• Information on health hazards of asbestos [More…]

• Information disseminated to raise worker, management, union, bureaucratic, and general community awareness of health hazards from asbestos [More…]

• Adoption by industry of the ‘polluter pays’ principle, already endorsed by State and Commonwealth Governments and the Australian Environment Council, whereby the costs of pollution including the health care costs of induced diseases are internalised. [More…]

• As a first step, the Government must replace asbestos industry representatives on government bodies, such as the Health Insurance Commission and sub-committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• It is one of the absurdities of our society that representatives of an industry which is exposing its workers and the community to the risks of asbestos-caused diseases are advising governments on issues of public health and welfare. [More…]

• Honourable members will be well aware of the debate as to the implications for our health services of the projected levels of supply of doctors in Australia. [More…]

• It is contended that by having more doctors than we need health costs will rise unnecessarily, medical services which are not needed will be provided and that there will be little or no improvement in the health of the community. [More…]

• I think it is also worthwhile mentioning that even the expert members of that Committee took different views about the extent to which the increasing supply of doctors will affect health costs and the contribution it will make to the well-being of the community. [More…]

• As the first step in the further examination of the matter, I believe that widespread reaction and comment on the officials’ report from the community generally, from the medical profession and from those working in the health services would be most valuable. [More…]

• Because future action on the matter extends beyond the responsibilities of the Commonwealth, I will be approaching State health Ministers to seek their views and their co-operation in this examination. [More…]

• Firstly, where the woman’s health, although not endangered to the extent of likely death, could be seriously and permanently impaired by the continuation of the pregnancy. [More…]

• It is regrettable that the debate about the costs of abortions being met from public and health insurance funds is again dividing our unity over the abortion issue . [More…]

• Hume proposes, would only serve to make safe abortions, which are lawful medical procedures, unavailable to women who would most need them- women on low incomes, women who have been the victims of rape, women with large families and other women to whom an unwanted pregnancy threatens physical and mental health. [More…]

• The motion undermines the concept of universal health insurance. [More…]

• In effect, the proposal would require doctors to provide health funds and the Government with a diagnosis of their patient’s condition before benefits for items which might involve termination of pregnancy would be paid. [More…]

• As I have a feeling that the motion has a money motivation rather than a moral motivation, I mention that in 1977-78 the expenditure incurred under the provisions of the National Health Act totalled $986.5m. [More…]

• The first concerns the timing of this matter and the extent of debate available; the second concerns the economics of the proposition to which he has devoted a great deal of” attention; and the third concerns the health rights of people. [More…]

• Let me assure honourable members, as one who has had some experience in administering public health services, as a Minister of the Government, that it just would not work out as simply as that. [More…]

• I wish to move on to the health rights of people because for me that is the most important proposition involved in this debate. [More…]

• My simple principle is the same as that of the honourable member for McMillan (Mr Simon), that where the procedures are legal there ought to be medical benefits cover for them under the health insurance schedule. [More…]

• The honourable member for Hume draws an analogy between the amputation of a healthy hand and an abortion. [More…]

• A person who wanted a healthy hand amputated clearly would be mentally disturbed not because he had a healthy hand but because of some other problem or disorder. [More…]

• In that situation I do not believe that there is an analogy between a healthy hand and an unhealthy physical and mental condition which arises from a pregnancy directly causing those sons of problems. [More…]

• There is a range of justifiable reasons for abortions- matters like the physical and mental health of the person involved and their social welfare, which is not unimportant. [More…]

• There are many legal but controversial procedures covered under health insurance, such as tonsillectomies, circumcisions, vasectomies and cosmetic surgery. [More…]

• Do we allow the Jehovah’s Witnesses to decide that blood transfusions should no longer be covered by health insurance benefits because they object to them on moral grounds? [More…]

• Firstly, the written declaration required of doctors for the purpose of claiming benefits would result in the medical account and the declaration being submitted to health funds acting as agents for the Commonwealth medical benefit. [More…]

• Such a declaration would pass through the hands of doctors’ staff, into the hands of the patient, into the hands of the health fund acting as an agent for the Commonwealth, and ultimately to the Department of Health. [More…]

• This process not only cuts across the historical confidentiality that has protected the confidential aspects of health care of a patient. [More…]

• Last year the Fraser Government gave to health insurance funds the right to delete items for abortion from their schedules. [More…]

• If the matter is purely one of finance, then there is no doubt that this House has a responsibility in the sense that taxpayers’ money is used through the health system to fund abortions. [More…]

• Like a face-lift or a hair transplant it is not, in most cases, a necessary operation that is essential for the sake of the health of the patient. [More…]

• In my view the situation with public health in this nation has now reached the point where we must decide whether taxpayers should continue to be asked to dig deeply into their pockets to finance the enormous bill involved in nonessential surgery. [More…]

• It is about time that the nation’s obligation to provide a health service to all without discriminating between rich and poor should be reflected properly in providing a real health service which meets the health needs of the community, rather than an expensive luxury which in many cases panders to people’s desires- to their wants, rather than to thenneeds. [More…]

• Which includes abortions- unless such surgery is certified to be medically essential to the health of the patient and is performed in accordance with the law of a State or Territory. [More…]

• The honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), who is the shadow Minister for Health, has said in this House that he believes that many of those who run the abortion clinics are crooks. [More…]

• It has been announced by the State Minister for Health on a number of occasions. [More…]

• I refer rather briefly to the astonishing speech of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• Given what has happened over recent years with some pathology services, will we issue a proscribed list of pathologists or will we insist that all samples be sent to health department pathology services? [More…]

• The AMA has also said that the acceptance of such a proposal, as it is moved here, will require doctors to provide health funds and the Government with a diagnosis of their patient’s condition where a claim is made for the termination of pregnancy. [More…]

• This has been confirmed in discussions I have had with Department of Health officials. [More…]

• However, unfortunately, it does not provide for the severe impairment of a mother’s mental health, particularly a mother who has a family already. [More…]

• The worry from this additional pregnancy is such that the mother’s mental stability and physical health is so seriously affected that soon her three young children will not have any parent to care for them. [More…]

• To the contrary, only this financial year this Government cut down from 75 per cent to 50 per cent its allocation of block funds to the States for the community health program, the very program which provides some of these support services. [More…]

• They completely exclude any mental health consideration, believing that health is to do only with the physical pathological condition. [More…]

• The mental health area is, I feel, the area of greatest abuse. [More…]

• Distinguishing between acceptable and unacceptable abortion remains purely subjective, especially in respect of mental health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) as good as admitted earlier tonight in his contribution to the debate that the Government will do little about the problem. [More…]

• In other words, if I take out what I see as the heart of that ruling, he was saying this: The person committing the abortion is ‘innocent if he honestly believed on reasonable grounds that the act done by him was, in the circumstances, proportionate to the need to preserve the woman from danger to her physical and mental health’. [More…]

• This is the position in respect of education, health, hospitals and so on, but in this case there is to be an exception. [More…]

• It will make safe, sterile abortions inaccessible to women who so desperately need them- women on low incomes, women who have been raped, women with large families and women to whom an unwanted pregnancy threatens physical and mental health. [More…]

• In 1970 a World Health Organisation report showed Australia to have the highest death rate due to abortion of all countries studied, including the United Kingdom, the United States of America, France and West Germany. [More…]

• Some of these people were medical practitioners who were supposedly possessed of humanitarian qualities and were concerned about the health of their patients. [More…]

• However, I go on further to say that benefits should be payable where three medical practitioners certify that her mental health would otherwise be seriously endangered. [More…]

• The cost figure is quoted at $3.4m which the Government provides in the way of medical funds towards abortion in a total health bill of something like $7,000m. [More…]

• If a reduction in health care costs is the aim of this motion and if medical necessity is the criterion to be used, the honourable member could have sought tighter controls over a whole range of questionable medical tests, operations and procedures. [More…]

• But I am concerned about the women whose long term mental health is at risk because of an unwanted or traumatic pregnancy, whose pregnancy arises as a result of rape or incest, whose foetus is doomed to tragic abnormality. [More…]

• In November and December of last year this Parliament had before it the National Health Amendment Bill which provided the legislative opportunity which was not availed of by the honourable member for Hume and his supporters. [More…]

• The Lusher motion also endeavours to import moral precepts and judgments into the complex area of health benefits. [More…]

• In Victoria the Menhennitt decision ruled that abortion was lawful if it was necessary to preserve the woman from serious danger to her life or to her physical or mental health. [More…]

• So we all know that abortions happen and will continue to happen, whether legal or otherwise and whether or not health benefits are paid. [More…]

• The point is that abortions can be legal and, if they are, this House has an obligation to provide medical benefits to protect the woman’s health. [More…]

• It has an obligation to provide medical benefits to protect any disadvantaged person’s health. [More…]

• No consideration at all is given to a woman ‘s mental health: The suicidal tendencies to which pregnant women are prone and the extreme mental anguish perpetrated on a woman by social or economic circumstances. [More…]

• I have heard much from correspondents about their objections to health funds distributing their contributions as benefits to women who have undergone termination of pregnancy. [More…]

• What about the woman’s right to obtain benefits as a full legal member of a health fund? [More…]

• The point that I get back to is that health benefits are refunds for payments for the treatment of an illness. [More…]

• No one will be forced to illegal abortionists because legal abortions will still be available free- as the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) acknowledges- to those who need them. [More…]

• It is essential that the whole community work together in an endeavour to restore fully the health of the Australian economy. [More…]

• The stevedoring and waterside industry, the coal mining industry, the insurance and finance industry and the health and research industry provide for a working week of fewer than 40 hours. [More…]

• The figure for claims per contributor for payment of pathology services in 1976-77 sought by the honourable member are not available from my Department, the Health Insurance Commission or the private health funds. [More…]

• This is a consequence of the movement of over half of the population from the Medibank coverage to private health insurance subsequent to 30 September 1976. [More…]

• I have been concerned about the need for more detailed information on health costs. [More…]

• I will be tabling in the near future, the results of a study which throws new light on the patterns of health expenditure in recent years. [More…]

• I have also ensured that the new health insurance and benefits arrangements to apply from 1 November 1978 are utilised to improve the availability of relevant statistical information. [More…]

• These figures related to roughly half the population, and did not cover persons covered by the private health funds. [More…]

• With the assistance of Medibank and the private health funds, it has been possible to prepare preliminary estimates of benefits expenditure for pathology services for the sixmonthly periods, July to December 1977 and January to June 1 978 for the total population. [More…]

• Capital Territory Health Commission- 1 October 1977 Commonwealth Laboratories- 1 November 1977 State Health Laboratory Services of WA- I January 1978 [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 1 February 1979: [More…]

• What progress is being made by his Department and other bodies, such as the National Health and Medical Research Council, in developing a national nutrition policy. [More…]

• Both my Department and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH and MRC) are studying the implications of adopting a national nutrition policy having as its objective improvement of the nutritional status, and hence the health and well-being, of the population. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is it a fact that over the last four years Commonwealth subsidy to community health services has decreased from 90 per cent to 50 per cent? [More…]

• Is it further a fact that the meagre amounts of money made available by the Commonwealth to this worthy cause of health care for the people of Australia will again be substantially cut in the near future? [More…]

• -The Commonwealth Government, of course, has entered into an arrangement with the State governments to fund the community health program for this financial year on a dollar for dollar basis, which is regarded as an equitable arrangement with the States. [More…]

• When the community health program first came into operation it was funded by the Commonwealth Government on a 100 per cent basis. [More…]

• Progressively the Commonwealth Government has sought to encourage the States to make a larger contribution towards the primary health responsibilities that the States have for the health of the people within those States. [More…]

• 6m was made under the community health program. [More…]

• As a consequence, there was great uncertainty amongst the workers and the patients who were obtaining benefit from the community health program throughout the State. [More…]

• We decided that we would in fact meet the New South Wales offer, so that there would not be uncertainty within the community health program in New South Wales. [More…]

• Nevertheless, the development of water resources in the States has an important bearing on the Commonwealth’s broad interests in economic management, resource allocation, distribution of income and public health. [More…]

• The health or security of other passengers on board does not matter! [More…]

• I preface my question which is directed to the Minister for Health by stating that last week the Parliament made it quite clear that it believed that the cost of abortions which fall within the law of a particular State should be covered by this Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• The prevention and control of asbestos as a health hazard is of course a matter for State governments but the National Health and Medical Research Council has the matter under active consideration. [More…]

• Indeed it has produced a number of publications and they include ‘The Model Asbestos Regulations’; ‘Occupational Health Guide on Asbestos’; ‘Membrane Filter Method for Estimating Airborne Asbestos Dust’; ‘A Recommended Code of Practice for the Handling of Consignments of Asbestos Fibre in Australian Ports and Container Terminals’; and ‘A Code for the Handling of Asbestos by Small Users’. [More…]

• Of course some considerable concern, has been expressed by people, as the honourable member for Petrie observed in his question, that perhaps fibro-asbestos houses could endanger health. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has said that no evidence has been established that such exposure presents a definite risk to health. [More…]

• Indeed the National Health and Medical Research Council has given assurances, in the light of present knowledge, that the risk of non-occupational exposure to asbestos is considered extremely low. [More…]

• I would have to say from that advice that there is a very low health risk. [More…]

• However, I have asked the Chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council urgently to constitute the ad hoc sub-committee on asbestos and to expedite its inquiry into the commercial use of asbestos and its possible effect on health. [More…]

• I realise that and I have asked the Chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council to expedite the establishment of the Committee and its review and to report as soon as possible. [More…]

• It contains ASTEC ‘s views and recommendations on the organisation of Science and Technology in Australia and on the specific areas of fundamental research, industrial research and development, the marine sciences and technologies and health. [More…]

• In this volume, ASTEC has identified four main areas of concern in Australian science and technology: Industrial research and development; marine sciences and technologies; fundamental research; and health. [More…]

• ASTEC has also recommended an increase in funds for projects of merit and promise in health research and basic research. [More…]

• In the current year, pending consideration of the ASTEC Report on Basic Research, funding for the Australian Research Grants Committee and the National Health and Medical Research Council, has been maintained at the same levels, in real terms, as last year. [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• In the light of the report of the Public Accounts Committee of that Parliament on the Royal Adelaide Hospital and other hospital and health matters, what steps are being taken by the Commonwealth Government to protect the revenue of the Commonwealth against unwarranted expenditure being incurred under the hospitals’ cost sharing arrangements? [More…]

• I would expect the officials from the Department of Finance and the Department of Health who serve on the Commonwealth-State Standing Committees with the various State government officials who are responsible for looking at the budgets of the various hospitals in the States to examine critically what is going on in South Australia. [More…]

• -The Minister for Health will be aware that the Victorian Government has been promising since the 1960s to build a public hospital at Clayton near Monash University. [More…]

• What will be the impact of this on the cost of health in Australia in view of the fact that this firm also makes its profits out of providing expensive medical technology to the hospitals it runs? [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health, who will be aware that the Government’s recently introduced isolated patients and travel accommodation assistance scheme, which was introduced to provide some degree of equity to country people in relation to medical specialist consultations, is not working properly because of administrative difficulties and anomalies. [More…]

• -My question, which is directed to the Minister for Health, is supplementary to the question asked earlier by the honourable member for Sturt. [More…]

• It is less relevant today because of the increased scope of government expenditure which is directed at assisting individuals or organisations; for example, health, education, social security and welfare programs. [More…]

• It is not a dependable safeguard for the health and well-being of the community. [More…]

• It is exactly the prospect of this kind of disaster which has confronted the citizens of Pennsylvania for the past week: A lossofcoolant accident leading to a core melt-down and a hydrogen explosion shattering the containment vessel and releasing into the atmosphere the fission products that would cause the unimaginable environmental and health devastation the studies have reluctantly described. [More…]

• As our pleas for humanitarian consideration of this matter have apparently fallen upon deaf ears, I thought that tonight I might try to elicit some response from the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) on a purely economic basis. [More…]

• I would think that there would be a reasonable argument that could be made out to try to coerce the Minister for Health to do something about his sister department, the Department of Social Security, seeing whether some good sense could be brought to bear to ensure that subsidies- as low as they were before with two-thirds of the salary of welfare officers being found by the Government- were restored to a reasonable level and also with a view to seeing that the 50c a day pittance paid to Meals on Wheels was increased to a figure more in line with the actual cost. [More…]

• The provisions concerning the safety, health and welfare of employees in the asbestos industry are covered by State legislation. [More…]

• That revenue goes back into health, social security and other services which otherwise would have to be financed by increased taxation. [More…]

• It is in response to an answer that was given to this House by the Minister for Health regarding low alcohol beer. [More…]

• In view of the way in which the Minister for Health extolled the virtues of low alcohol beer, will the [More…]

• Having said that, I recognise that there is a health view of substance, and I will consider the honourable gentleman’s suggestion. [More…]

• In regard to the discharge of effluent, let me make it clear, as I have done in correspondence to the honourable member for Hughes, that all discharges, for example, into the Woronora River, from the reactor site are in complete accordance with the regulations of the Health Commission of New South Wales, which I understand sets these standards. [More…]

• Those States are responsible for a balance of payments and an export market which provide for the welfare and health requirements of southern Australia. [More…]

• The people involved are not doing that for the good of their health. [More…]

• Schedule 3, which contains matters over which the Australian Administrator, acting on ministerial instructions, will have a veto, should be expanded to include land use and zoning, mining, public hospitals and health, conservation and national parks, law enforcement and management of historical sites. [More…]

• There are also the matters of social security, education and health. [More…]

• We must ensure for the island a social security and a health system no less adequate than the system that exists on the Australian mainland. [More…]

• My Department approached the Victorian Health Commission with a request that they provide the relevant data. [More…]

• The Health Commission has replied as follows: [More…]

• These estimates were derived by dissecting personal income tax collections (excluding receipts from the health insurance levy) in 1 976-77 and 1 977-78 and estimated collections for 1978-79 by State on the basis of taxpayers’ residential post codes relating to preliminary income tax statistics for the 1 976-77 income year. [More…]

• Table 2 compares the States’ Stage 1 tax sharing entitlements for 1976-77 and 1977-78 and the Budget estimates for 1978-79 with estimated Commonwealth net personal income tax collections (excluding receipts from the health insurance levy) raised in each State over the same period. [More…]

• The First Report ‘Analysis of Medical Interview Data’ of the Survey of Health Employees in the Research Establishment of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission at Lucas Heights, Sydney, states (Summary, paragraph 9) that . [More…]

• ‘the medical interview part of the survey reported here does not bring to light acute disorders the effect of which are no longer apparent at interview, nor does it identify people who leave the service due to ill health or who die prematurely. [More…]

• Mr Speaker, you will be pleased to hear that I have changed the wording of my question which is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• 3155, which he answered last week, when he agreed that registered health insurance organisations can invest in debentures, stocks and shares, and that his department does not maintain details of these investments, will he investigate reports that the non-elected directors of some of the funds, who are also directors or major shareholders of finance companies, are using health fund reserves for their own profit? [More…]

• Has the attention of the Minister for Health been drawn to the posters currently being distributed by the Australian Medical Association to its members for display in their waiting rooms? [More…]

• It has the support certainly of my advisers in the Department of Health and it has the support of the Minister for Health. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health examined the national black health program submitted by the National Aboriginal and Islander Health Organisation? [More…]

• As I understand it, there are problems with the proposal from a health point of view. [More…]

• I will certainly give them a very sympathetic hearing, but I will be guided largely by the health aspects of the proposal, because I believe that is necessary in the best interests of the people concerned. [More…]

• One could go on for a long time listing the achievements of the Victorian Hamer Liberal Government in such areas as health, education, sport, the arts and housing. [More…]

• In addition to transport portfolio considerations, the statement reflects the responsibilities of, and advice from, my colleagues the Minister for Science and Environment (Senator Webster), the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Minister for National Development (Mr Newman). [More…]

• At the outset, however, I must emphasise that the Commonwealth Government is committed to protect the health and the environment of the Australian people. [More…]

• However, all governmentsState, Territory and Commonwealth- must also, in the national interest, have regard to the effects of proposed measures, not only on health and the environment but also on impacts on the consumer, industry, resources and the economy. [More…]

• At this point, some general background would be appropriate on the origins of the problem, its extent and its effect on health. [More…]

• Among various atmospheric pollutants of potential health concern, ozone has been widely considered and its levels can be taken as being representative of oxidant levels as a whole. [More…]

• It is also recognised that ozone does have certain health effects depending on the level of concentration. [More…]

• Attempts to relate the onset of specific health effects to varying levels of ozone in the atmosphere have been made but the difficulty of associating a particular health effect to a specific air pollutant is immense. [More…]

• The Commonwealth is concerned that any association between health incidents and photochemical pollution should be adequately researched and established before a casual relationship is assumed. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation level of 0.06 parts per million for ozone must be seen in this context. [More…]

• In developing a framework for future action, it is clear that a number of steps must be taken to improve the implementation, administration and durability of emission control systems in the context of realistic health, environment, transport and energy objectives. [More…]

• This has been highlighted by many bodies including the Senate Select Committee on Air Pollution, the Australian Environment Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, as well as ATAC. [More…]

• The Commonwealth sees a need to define air quality guidelines for Australia with respect to health. [More…]

• Although not directly relevant to the special ATAC meeting in April, lead issues will form an important and integral part of future motor vehicle emissions strategies in terms of protection of health and the environment and vehicle and energy costs and efficiency. [More…]

• actively suppressing the development of equipment which when added to an automobile wouild decrease the incidence of pollution, of petrochemical smog and of all the health effects which have been attributed to that phenomena. [More…]

• Once again the conservatives in this Government are kowtowing to the dictates of foreign interests, in preference to showing concern for the health and well-being of over half of the Australian population, who live, work and move in our urban areas. [More…]

• Turning to Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra, one finds that they are already exceeding World Health Organisation air quality goals and have climatic conditions which lend those cities to photochemical smog. [More…]

• The Commonwealth is concerned that any association between health incidents and photochemical pollution should be adequately researched and established before a causal relationship is assumed. [More…]

• The smog level in Sydney already exceeds World Health Organisation ozone levels regularly. [More…]

• What is at issue in this question is the standard of public health and the standard of protection provided by the government to the people of this country. [More…]

• If this Government is responsible and really facing up to energy conservation and community health priorities, it must take notice of this information and advice. [More…]

• This money is used to pay for social services, education, defence, health and all the other expenditures incurred by the Commonwealth in its Budget. [More…]

• Where there are staff in the Public Service or in prescribed authorities whose services cannot be used efficiently by the department or authority in which they are employed, whether on grounds of excess numbers, ill health or ‘for any other prescribed reason’, for example relating to efficiency, the department or authority is required to declare such staff to the Public Service Board for redeployment. [More…]

• This special benefit does not apply to staff who are excess to requirements or who are retired on ill health grounds for whom separate provisions already exist. [More…]

• The former Bill provided for staff to be indentified for redeployment and retirement ‘for any other reasons ‘ in addition to the specified reasons of excess numbers and ill health. [More…]

• It has been necessary for the continuing efficient operation of departments to transfer officers of the Service to the unattached list pending retirement for health reasons. [More…]

• Finally, it enables the payment of a special benefit to those who are retired between the ages of 55 and 60 for reasons other than excess to requirements or ill health. [More…]

• The second letter, from the President of the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.was addressed to Mr Bill Hayden but was forwarded on to me. [More…]

• I put this tribute on the record for the benefit of Mrs Stewart and her family and for Frank Stewart’s distinguished brother, who is the Minister for Health in the Government of New South Wales. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 September 1978: [More…]

• Information in respect of the Department of Health as at 1 March 1 979 is as follows: [More…]

• (b) 42 of these computers are operated by Departmental staff, 14 by staff employed by the Health Insurance Commission and 8 by the Department of Social Security, (c) None, (d) None. [More…]

• IBM 370/168 computers- Financial accounting, compilation of statistics, processing of health insurance claims, storage and retrieval of bibliographical data, administrative data and the provision of computing facilities to other departments and authorised users. [More…]

• MDS 2408 computers- Data entry of health insurance and health statistical data for transmission to the IBM 370/168 computers via the Honeywell H7I6 computers. [More…]

• Fourteen of these computers are operated by Health Insurance Commission staff. [More…]

• Honeywell H7I6 computers- Transmission and dissection of Social Security, Health and Health Insurance Commission data entry traffic between their data entry central/regional computers. [More…]

• 2 IBM 360/65 computers- Financial and statistical data derived from information detailed in chemist claims dispensed under the National Health Scheme and administrative information together with data held on behalf of external users of the Department’s computers. [More…]

• Authorised personnel of the Department and Health Insurance Commission [More…]

• Capital Territory Health Commission [More…]

• Authorised personnel of the Department, and Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• More than 4500 people were employed by the Health Insurance Commission during 1976/77 to administer the Medibank Scheme. [More…]

• It would not have been possible to operate a comparable universal health insurance scheme on this scale without the computer network. [More…]

• Information in respect of the Capital Territory Health Commission is as follows: [More…]

• The question of Commonwealth funding sources for the Douglas Parker Rehabilitation Centre is currently the subject of correspondence between myself and the Tasmanian Health Minister, and of examination by the respective Commonwealth and State health authorities. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 24 November 1 978: [More…]

• The Commonwealth Government’s role in this area is the approval of premises as private hospitals, under the Health Insurance Act, for payment of the $ 1 6 a day bed payment. [More…]

• Discussions are being held between Commonwealth and State/Territory health officials on the general topics of hospital productivity, efficiency and cost-containment. [More…]

• At the completion of officer discussions I anticipate that these matters will be further discussed by Commonwealth, State and Territory Health Ministers. [More…]

• 3 ) Bearing in mind that Mr Boundy with the help of community health services compiled an exhaustive register of all persons of Aboriginal descent living in the Kimberleys based on birth and death dates and location of last contact, can the Minister explain the apparent under-estimate by the Butcher Report. [More…]

• Since the tabling of the Report there have been many important changes in health and welfare benefits available to the Australian community. [More…]

• How many times in each of the last 10 years have the levels of hydrocarbons, oxidants, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen exceeded World Health Organisation standards for (a) long-term and (b) short-term measurements in each of these cities. [More…]

• The number of days that the World Health Organisation goals have been exceeded at urban monitoring stations in each major city are also presented in the tables. [More…]

• Has the Government assessed the possible effects of use of these pesticides on human health; if so, what were the results of this assessment. [More…]

• These make provision for the safety of users, bystanders, consumers, livestock, wildlife, the environment and trade and take into account recommendations of the National Health and Medical Research Council (see also answer to (4) below). [More…]

• The Poisons Schedule Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH & MRC) has considered detailed toxicology data on these compounds and has made recommendations on scheduling and labelling which include safety directions and first aid instructions to appear on labels. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 March 1979: [More…]

• If so, what are the responsibilities of Mr Snelson and do they include advising the Government on health and environmental aspects of the use of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. [More…]

• Participate as appropriate in the work of various subcommittees of the Standing Committee on Agriculture concerned with agricultural chemicals and veterinary drugs; serve as a Departmental representative on the Australian Weeds Committee, the Pesticides and Agricultural Chemicals SubCommittee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, and other committees as required; [More…]

• Liaise and co-operate with the Commonwealth Depanment of Health and Committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council concerned with pesticide residues in food, the scheduling and labelling of pesticides, and the occupational health aspects of pesticides; [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 March 1979: [More…]

• Does (a) his Depanment, (b) any State Depanment of Health or (c) any other State or Federal Government authority keep records, on a locality basis, of the incidence of cancer, binh abnormalities and genetic disorders. [More…]

• One of the functions of the Unit when established will be to monitor statistics relating to perinatal health, perinatal morbidity, including malformations and perinatal mortality. [More…]

• Statistics of the incidence of congenital and genetic disorders detected at binh are collected in Western Australia by the Depanment of Public Health, and in Tasmania by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 27 March 1979: [More…]

• Why has the Government curtailed the resources of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service which, like other similar services, provides essential services and results in long-term savings to other government-funded instrumentalities. [More…]

• The Government has not curtailed the resources of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 March 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) When was the working party on Occupational Health and Safety Legislation established. [More…]

• Would any report assist in insuring national action to improve health and safety legislation for the protection of workers; if so, what action has he taken, in co-operation with other interested Ministers, to solve the stalemate at present confronting the working party [More…]

• I refer the honourable member to the answer provided by my colleague the Minister for Health in answer to question No. [More…]

• 1 ) When was the Tripartite Committee on Asbestos constituted by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Has any action (a) been taken or (b) not been taken by any member of the Working Party on Occupational Health and Safety Legislation which has jeopardised the future activities of the committee in formulating recommendations on the control of asbestos-related diseases. [More…]

• I refer the honourable member to the answer provided by my colleague the Minister for Health in answer to Question No. [More…]

• The honourable member will be aware that all Australian residents are eligible for the 40 per cent- $20 Commonwealth Medical Benefits on registration with a private health insurance organization which has a medical benefits fund registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 February 1979: [More…]

• What are the names of the members of the governing boards of the private health funds in (a) New South Wales, (b) Queensland, (c) South Australia, (d) Tasmania, (e) Victoria and (f) Western Australia. [More…]

• The names of the members of the governing boards of the private health funds in the six States are: [More…]

• AMA (NSW) Health Fund Limited- G. K. Williams, P. D. Pullen, C. S. H. Reed, P. S. Cocks, E. J. [More…]

• The Commercial Banking Company Health Society-J. [More…]

• Commonwealth Bank Health Society- G. Barker, J. Flynn, L. Edwards, W. Lewis, M. Reidy, P. Frost, J. Cookson. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission (Medibank Private)-R. H. Kronborg, R. G. Williams, C. R. Wilcox, W. A. Butterss, F. W. Millar, K. N. Willis, R. L. Gradwell. [More…]

• Health FundsLimited-J. [More…]

• New South Wales Teachers’ Federation Health Society- C. Rennie, J. George, B. Manefield, A. L. Vance, D. Haywood, L. Gapps, J. Hennessy, E. Sheehan, B. Watterson, M. Taylor, L. Wood. [More…]

• Reserve Bank Health Society- R. White, J. Cooling, K. Broadhead, A. O’Connell, N. Webb, Miss J. F. Butlin. [More…]

• Commonwealth Public Service (Qld) Credit Union Health Benefits Society-L. F. Talty, A. W. Hill, M. D. Fagg, A. N. Durham, G. Fowler, E. A. Menadue, T. J. Corcoran, R. D. Price, N. K. Beikoff. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission (Medibank Private )-R. H. Kronborg, R. G. Williams, C. R. Wilcox, W. A. Butterss, F. W. Millar, K. N. Willis, R. L. Gradwell. [More…]

• Employees Health Society- S. Coates, G. D. Gallaher, T. Eakin, C. G. Jury, C.Walsh, E. Wilkinson, P. Beard, W. Eather, R. Heritage. [More…]

• Professional and Technical Officers Health Society-T. Torenbeck, B.D.Collins, W.J.Porter, H. J.Green, W. H. J. Yarrow, B. J. Nutter, D. Martindale, J. K. Lynch. [More…]

• Queensland Teachers’ Union Health Society- G. C. Lean, R. E. Jones, R. W. Cable, J. Arnold, V.Lucas, K. Brasch, N. J. Ross, B. Stephenson, A. Bevis, V. Cottell, M. Izatt. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission (Medibank Private)-R. H. Kronborg, R. G. Williams, C. R. Wilcox, W. A. Butterss, F. W. Millar, K. N. Willis, R. L. Gradwell. [More…]

• Mutual Health Association Limited- I. McLachlan, P. B. Angas-Parsons, A. Brookman, B. S. Hanson, Dr G.C.Hall, A.B.Thompson, A. G. McGregor, N. C. Reid, B. L. Cornish. [More…]

• National Health Services Association of South Australia- W. K. Moon, D. Fisher, N. R. Caust, J. Buttler, P. Lord, C. B. Harris, L. T. Martin, A. Tabor, E. Lord, P. Hemming, W. A. Parkinson, B. Baulderstone, L. Torode, [More…]

• SA Public Service Association Health Benefits Fund-T. Rowland, B. Millar, G. Hammond, R. W. Glenn, P. Grenville. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission (Medibank Private )-R. H. Kronborg, R.G.Williams, C. R. Wilcox, W. A. Butterss, F. W. Millar, K. N. Willis, R. L. Gradwell. [More…]

• Army Health Benefits Society- J. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission (Medibank Private)-R. H. Kronborg, R. G. Williams, C. R. Wilcox, W. A. Butterss, F. W. Millar, K. N. Willis, L. R. Gradwell. [More…]

• Latrobe Valley Hospitals and Health Services Association- W. J. [More…]

• Naval Health Benefits Society-R. J. [More…]

• Friendly Societies Health Services- J. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission (Medibank Private )-R. H. Kronborg, R. G. Williams, C. R. Wilcox, W. A. Butterss, F. W. Millar, K. N. Willis, R. L. Gradwell. [More…]

• Health Insurance Fund of WA- S. D. Bishop, F. C. Collins, E. A. Sinclair, F. R. W. Lindsey, B. [More…]

• The above list does not include those organizations which are in the course of winding-up their operations under the provisions of the National Health Act. [More…]

• The third category is those who are unemployed but who are excluded by health or other incapacity from receiving CES assistance. [More…]

• In two areas- health and welfare- the cost to this nation approaches $ 1 1 billion. [More…]

• In other words, about 85 per cent of all personal income tax collected in Australia is spent on health and welfare. [More…]

• It is possible to tackle the big items of health, education and welfare in a way that will not do anything to disadvantage the needy but in fact will improve their position- by placing means tests on benefits paid to those who are not needy. [More…]

• As I have said on many occasions, the health and importance of the rural industries are reflected throughout the whole economic circumstances of Australia. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Acting Minister for Health. [More…]

• I think it is fair to say that few health measures have been subjected to such intense investigation as has the fluoridation of water. [More…]

• The World Health Assembly, which is the governing body of the [More…]

• World Health Organisation, also has actively supported the fluoridation of public water supplies, and in May 1978 once again endorsed fluoridation and urged countries to develop programs. [More…]

• In addition, the National Health and Medical Research Council first recommended the introduction of fluoridation in 1952 and has reaffirmed that recommendation on many occasions. [More…]

• This legislation is directed at those unscrupulous operators and not at their victims who are being actively assisted by government programs in health, education and welfare. [More…]

• I suggest to the honourable member for Kingston that at present the health services of the States are being starved by this Government of vital financial resources to do this very thing. [More…]

• I wish to speak primarily now about the State health services in my own State, South Australia. [More…]

• The only way to stop this practice is for the State health personnel to have the resources to monitor the prescribing of narcotic drugs by doctors and to discipline those doctors who are found to be feeding the black market. [More…]

• I regret to say that this is one important, largely neglected and ignored way in which the problem of narcotic addiction is being spread throughout this country and, through lack of staff, the State health services are unable to control it. [More…]

• Obviously this will cost money, but if it is well done it will be money saved since a community in which people are able to realise and develop their full potentialwhether physically, mentally or socially- will be a healthy community where the costs of repairing the self-damage to health by people will be greatly reduced. [More…]

• The House found little conclusive evidence of longterm adverse consequences of marihuana use in the United States, but it did advocate ‘a policy of discouragement’ because of the ‘possibility of some deleterious effects on the user and on society at large which could constitute a major public health problem ‘. [More…]

• Marihuana is potentially damaging to health in a variety of ways, but it can be especially harmful when used by a person who is immature, unstable, or already ill. [More…]

• He commented on the fact that, in association with Federal and State Ministers, an enormous amount of work is being done in education and health. [More…]

• Government programs in the health, education and welfare fields are actively seeking to assist these persons. [More…]

• I am aware of some of the material that is available through the Commonwealth and State health education centres on this matter, and there is excellent material there. [More…]

• In this regard, through the administrations of the Minister for Education (Senator Carrick) and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), the Government is playing a leading role in the joint Commonwealth-State program which wascommended by the honourable member for Scullin (Dr Jenkins). [More…]

• As a member with an electorate that depends so much on the wool industry for its economic health and welfare, I have some satisfaction in knowing that this Government is introducing machinery amendments to carry on the worthwhile and nationally accepted floor price scheme introduced by the Labor Government. [More…]

• I have talked about this matter with the Minister for Primary Industry (Mr Sinclair), the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Minister for Trade and Resources (Mr Anthony). [More…]

• I am sure that the response I have received from members in the House tonight is exactly the same response that I received from the Minister for Health, the Minister for Primary Industry and the Minister for Trade and Resources. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) also remains suspiciously silent. [More…]

• This American-owned multinational wants to make huge profits out of Australia’s sick, while the Commonwealth Government and the health funds foot the bill through medical benefits. [More…]

• This approach to health care could extend into more private control of x-ray clinics, pathology laboratories and other areas of health technology. [More…]

• There can be no compromise between multinational takeovers of health care for profit and the best possible health system for the majority of Australians- a system a Labor government would introduce. [More…]

• We would develop community health and medical centres to provide a full range of medical services. [More…]

• It is the responsibility of this Government and the Minister for Health to ensure that a company which faced bribery charges in the United States is not allowed to engage in that sort of activity in Australia. [More…]

• Raymond Alvin Archer, 29, who sold produce and is the founder of the Theocratic Commune Natural Health Service, was charged last summer with manslaughter after the bodies of his 1 -year-old son and 3-year-old daughter were found buried in the commune’s yard on Detroit’s East Side. [More…]

• The tragedy is that all this cost will be imposed on the motorist, probably without any general good at all to the health of the New South Wales community. [More…]

• I realise that the man in private practice can have his earning capacity eliminated overnight by a loss of health and his capacity to command high fees can diminish by virtue of partial or total eclipse of his popularity. [More…]

• Finally, if a person engages a $1,000 a stitch surgeon, the government health care program pays according to a schedule of fees, and it is the patient’s responsibility to find those expenses incurred above the schedule fee. [More…]

• At the end of 1977 the present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) decided that this process would apply annually and that reviews and adjustments, therefore, would be undertaken only once every year. [More…]

• In two recent letters to the Minister for Health I have called and pleaded for a change to the fee fixing procedure and a minimum upwards adjustment to the Government’s contribution to the nursing home fee. [More…]

• Prospective students may be granted visas for temporary entry to undertake full-time post-secondary studies provided they are able to establish to the satisfaction of the relevant overseas post that: the proposed course of study or its equivalent is not available in their home country or country of residence; such study is of worthwhile content and duration leading to a qualification which would be recognised or be of value in relation to future employment opportunities in the home country or country of residence; they have the capacity (including a satisfactory knowledge of English) to undertake their proposed course of study; they gain enrolment in an Australian educational institution to undertake the approved course of study; they have a financial guarantor who will meet the costs of their fares to and from Australia, their fees and maintenance; they have a genuine intention to enter Australia on a temporary basis for study purposes only and will depart from Australia on the completion of their approved course of study or if they abandon studies; they have passports or travel authorities valid for reentry into their home country or country of residence; and they meet health and character requirements. [More…]

• Within the Commonwealth Government the responsibility for import and quarantine control rests with the Ministers for Business and Consumer Affairs and Health respectively. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 March 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) Has he received a further letter, dated 23 March 1979, from Mr I. H. Davies of 1 Kanimbla Road, Nedlands, W.A., regarding leukaemia and allied disorders in ex-servicemen of World War II, disputing the results of a study carried out by Dr J. W. Donovan of the Department of Health for his Department. [More…]

• The Bureau of Animal Health in monitoring the campaign uses a test equivalent figure. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Acting Minister for Health. [More…]

• Recently I issued a statement which confirmed that on 2 March this year the Minister for Health forwarded a document to State Ministers for Health on a confidential basis. [More…]

• This document has been the subject of discussion between officials of Commonwealth and State health administrations. [More…]

• The content of that document will subsequently be considered by Commonwealth and State Health Ministers. [More…]

• In relation to that part of the honourable member’s question which dealt specifically with a possible reference to the Expenditure Committee, I will discuss that matter with my colleague, the Minister for Health, and arrange for him to confer with the Chairman of the Expenditure Committee. [More…]

• an independent regulatory authority responsible for nuclear-related environmental protection, health, safety, security, safeguards and other non-proliferation activities: [More…]

• They have split the responsibilities, so that there will be one body dealing with commercial activities, one dealing with research and development and one dealing with health regulation and these other matters. [More…]

• There are also questions concerning the health of workers and residents. [More…]

• Because of the security provisions of the Act, workers can be denied full information on the materials handled and the dangers involved, as well as the results of health checks. [More…]

• These include the closure of store and health facilities for Aborigines, a refusal to employ Aborigines on station work, a refusal to sell them petrol or to cash welfare cheques, threats to close roads to Aborigines and to drive them from the station. [More…]

• I am not for a moment, nor is the present Federal Government, abandoning considerations in relation to health; nevertheless I believe that there has to be a balance. [More…]

• If in the future it can be proved that these requirements are most necessary for the good health of Australians, particularly the people who pass through those tunnels in Sydney, and it is the only way to tackle it, I would offer my total support to a later implementation. [More…]

• and the need for cither Federal or State bureaucracies to provide health and education, social security and other services. [More…]

• Mr Shann Turnbull advocated in his report that the Aborigines should not pay taxation on the royalties, but he went on to advocate that the Commonwealth Government should not provide funds for health or education services. [More…]

• The honourable member suggested that under the figures produced by Mr Turnbull money need not be provided by any government department for health, education or other services for Aboriginals; that, in fact, there would be no need for taxes- all services could be paid for from the proceeds of royalties. [More…]

• Mr Turnbull, as the honourable member for Dundas suggested before the suspension of the sitting, said that there would be available so much money that there would be no need for any taxes to be levied- it would provide for health, education, roads and other services. [More…]

• It cuts down on the real amount being given to Aboriginals for their housing and health. [More…]

• and (b) I am informed that all the detailed information sought by the honourable member in relation to the Community Health Program and School Dental Scheme is not readily available in the format sought. [More…]

• However, should the honourable member seek such information in relation to specific Community Health Program projects or the School Dental Scheme, I will obtain that information for him promptly. [More…]

• and (d) Set out in the tables are details of staffing and services provided for each approved Community Health Program project, by Federal Electoral Division, and for those Community Health Program projects which operate on a Statewide basis. [More…]

• It should be noted that many Community Health Program projects provide services in more than one Federal Electoral Division, and such projects are indicated with an asterisk (*). [More…]

• Staffing information provided represents the level of staffing approved for the purposes of Commonwealth funding under the Community Health Program, and do not necessarily represent staffing positions occupied. [More…]

• Under the School Dental Scheme, free dental care, including prevention, dental health education and treatment, is available to school children to the completion of primary education. [More…]

• Because of the volume of information required to answer the honourable member’s question, the tables detailing approved community health projects, in each electorate and the projects approved for funding under the School Dental Scheme in each electorate will not be published in Hansard. [More…]

• I have also sent to each honourable member, details of Community Health Program projects in his electorate and in his State, and details of School Dental Scheme projects throughout Australia. [More…]

• It has been put into the World Health Organisation assembly by a group of Arab countries. [More…]

• It is a resolution to suspend Israel’s voting rights and World Health Organisation services to Israel. [More…]

• If it were to be adopted by the committee, it would pass to the World Health Organisation plenary for further debate before being put to the vote. [More…]

• The Australian delegation at the Assembly, led by the Minister for Health, has also spoken out against the moves directed at Israel and will continue to do so. [More…]

• -I welcome the Minister for Health back to Australia. [More…]

• I am sorry to see that he has not followed the initiative of other Ministers who take their opposites on trips to meetings of organisations such as the World Health Organisation. [More…]

• Referring to an unnamed health insurance fund and to the fact that that fund was being very tough in the application of its rules, he said: [More…]

• I thank the honourable member for Prospect for his very warm welcome back to Australia from the World Health Assembly. [More…]

• That ignores the countervailing proposition that the savings coming from health insurance charges of 1.5 per cent ought to be applied as an off-set. [More…]

• For instance, within our region the two greatest needs fall in the areas of literacy and health services. [More…]

• We are eminently equipped to provide specialists- for instance, educationalists, health workers and nurses- who could work in those areas. [More…]

• It is a matter of properly designing a program, carefully selecting people because of their maturity, measured in terms of their personality, judgment and balance rather than necessarily their age, training them in the appropriate languages and developing grass roots literacy and health service programs, preferably at the village level. [More…]

• In short, the situation is that speech therapy services that once were provided at the school have had to be withdrawn because of starring constraints placed on the Capital Territory Health Commission. [More…]

• As the attached letter from the Commission says in part, ‘The Speech Therapy service of the Mental Health Branch does not have enough staff to service all areas or groups within Canberra which desperately require it.’ [More…]

• In marked contrast to the Fraser Government’s savage repression of employment in vital areas of the public sector, stands its extravagant use of committees of inquiry and task forces whose reports are usually commissioned to enable the Government to pass the buck for its disinterest in positive and compassionate proposals in the areas of employment, health and social security. [More…]

• The problem with this Bill is not that it is concerned with efficiency and economy but that, given this Government’s record, it will be used as an instrument for pursuing further false economies, for justifying staff cuts in areas such as social security, employment and health. [More…]

• It is important to note that it also conforms closely with what some unions have wanted in excess staff situations- for example, in the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• A reduced level of economic growth in turn makes it more difficult for the community as a whole, generally working through the Government, to provide those welfare, education, health, and other services that modern communities seem increasingly to demand. [More…]

• -On 3 April 1979, Dr Cass asked me, as Minister for Health, a question without notice (Hansard, pages1393 and 4) concerning the proposed private hospital at Clayton, Victoria, to replace the present Queen Victoria Hospital. [More…]

• American Medical International, (AMI), the company to which the honourable member referred, entered the Australian health care market in1978 through the acquisition of The Avenue Hospital in Melbourne. [More…]

• I am also advised that a complement of beds will be provided for public sector patients at per diem rates guaranteed not to exceed the average cost of health care delivery to the Government in a representative cross-section of Government hospitals in the State of Victoria. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 21 February1979: [More…]

• Was a joint management review of the National Acoustic Laboratories of the Department of Health completed in late November1978. [More…]

• Under the procedures currently in force, the decision is made by the Commonwealth Medical Officer who decides that a specialist examination should be called for, or it is made by another senior medical officer of the Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 March1979: [More…]

• The Department of Defence is represented on the committee together with representatives from the Departments of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Primary Industry, Health, Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and Business and Consumer Affairs. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 21 March 1979: [More…]

• However, importations from high disease risk countries such as Africa and South America will be delayed until the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory comes into operation in 1 984. [More…]

• Priorities for access to the station as between species allowed entry into Australia under quarantine legislation or between breeds within those species will be determined by the Minister for Health on the recommendations of an expert advisory committee to be established for the purpose. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 1 March 1 979: [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health and concerns the use of the herbicide 2,4,5-T. Is it a fact that an important research study recommending the banning or restriction of the use of 2,4,5-T in Australia is being deliberately kept secret? [More…]

• I am informed by the Department of Health that no officer of the Department issued such a directive. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Department of Health has assured Tasmanian Alkaloids that it will provide assistance wherever possible. [More…]

• by leave- I wish to inform the House that a report entitled ‘Investigation of a Possible Association between use of the Herbicide 2,4,5-T and the incidents of Neural Tube Defects in New South Wales’ which indicated the possible association between the herbicide 2,4,5-T and neural tube defects in New South Wales was received by the Department of Health in midDecember. [More…]

• As a result of this study, a letter of 6 March from my Department to the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine stated that in the opinion of those who had studied the report the arguments in Dr Field ‘s paper did not stand up to analysis. [More…]

• Subsequently a revised version of the report was studied by the ad hoc working party on 2,4,5-T which was convened by the National Health and Medical Research Council on 23 March 1979. [More…]

• The School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine publishes a considerable amount of valuable material and it is not the practice of the Department of Health to attempt to suppress any publication because it might contain controversial material. [More…]

• Directives to Dr Field not to discuss the topic did not emanate from the Department of Health or from me as Minister and I am deeply concerned that this impression may have been created- indeed it was conveyed in a report that was on AM this morning. [More…]

• The full report on the 2,4,5-T deliberations of the working party has already been presented to the Public Health Advisory Committee of the NHMRC and will be formally submitted to the Council at its meeting in June. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Department of Health was represented on the working party by Dr W. A. Langsford, who is not only responsible for the Public Health Division of the Commonwealth Department of Health, but also is Chairman of the Public Health Advisory Committee of the Council. [More…]

• Professor Charles Kerr of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, who is co-author with Dr Field of the report was also a member of the working party. [More…]

• The aim of the NHMRC and the Government is to establish a sound basis for judgment on all issues on which the health of the population is concerned. [More…]

• I certainly would not dispute the facts as supplied to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) by his Department. [More…]

• It is important that the Minister should look at some of the people who are members of the National Health and Medical Research Council- some of the people who are working for the Government. [More…]

• I am sure that the Minister for Health would not like his family, his kids or anybody else for that matter to be at risk and to be exposed to such substances. [More…]

• It is one of my worries in relation to the National Health and Medical Research Council and particularly the committee dealing with this substance. [More…]

• This would restore Australia’s sovereignty over the bases, would give Australia greater independence, make it a more equal partner in the activities and improve the health of the Australian/American alliance. [More…]

• As one of the speakers from this side of the House said earlier in the evening, more people working for the Health Insurance Commission today received retrenchment notices. [More…]

• Another matter mentioned by the honourable member for Port Adelaide (Mr Young) which was also raised by the honourable member for Cunningham (Mr West) concerned retrenchment notices which they say- I have no way of vertifying this at the moment- were issued to staff of the Health Insurance Commission. [More…]

• Some time ago it became apparent in changes to the Medibank system made by the Government that all the existing staff of the Health Insurance Commission would not be required. [More…]

• In his second reading speech the Minister concluded by saying that this special severance benefit referred to would be paid to all except those in excess of requirements and those retired because of ill health. [More…]

• Health or the other departments in which redeployment was attempted. [More…]

• Finally it enables the payment of a special benefit to those who are retired between the ages of SS and 60 for reasons other than excess to requirements or ill health. [More…]

• This last in a series of great land booms in Australia in the early 1970s ought to have been vigorously resisted by every government in Australia concerned about the health of our economy. [More…]

• This Parliament is not the Santa Claus as far as the welfare and health systems of Australia are concerned. [More…]

• The figure for health is 12.3c in the dollar. [More…]

• Again, the States have responsibility for health. [More…]

• I have mentioned education and health. [More…]

• Education, health, transport, housing and similar matters could be looked at realistically. [More…]

• It is also understood that tonight Medibank, which the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) promised to preserve, will be changed again and the whole question of health insurance will undergo yet another bout of surgery. [More…]

• The Public Service was not going to be slashed, Medibank was to be maintained and essential health, social welfare and education programs were to be preserved. [More…]

• I am surprised that neither the honourable member for Ballarat (Mr Short) nor the honourable member for Holt (Mr Yates) got to their feet when the Victorian Mental Health Authority published the results of a survey it conducted in Ballarat and Dandenong which indicated the connection between unemployment and attempted suicides. [More…]

• There is a social cost involved in that, as well as a cost to law enforcement agencies, health services and so on. [More…]

• There have been two substantial alterations to the health insurance arrangements in 12 months- at the time of the last Budget and again tonight. [More…]

• About 12 months ago the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) said: [More…]

• Until an improved data base becomes available, the Government believes that it would be premature to proceed further with the consideration of major adjustments to the health insurance system. [More…]

• As a result of these proposals which conceivably are not the end of what the Government will do in this area, the sick, the disabled in Australia, will pay $380m extra because they have ill health. [More…]

• That is the sort of penalty that a conservative government imposes on those in the community with ill health. [More…]

• Their living standard will be eroded by this because it will add about $4 a week in increased health insurance costs which the people will have to bear. [More…]

• The measures will also be inflationary, as is reflected by increased health insurance costs. [More…]

• The changes, of course, apply also in respect of optometrical services which are encompassed in the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• In the light of the tight budgetary situation, and the fact that health costs have to be met by one means or another, and in view of the wish of the majority of Australians to exercise freedom of choice in health care, the Government believes the proposals to be realistic and inescapable. [More…]

• Effect on Health Insurance Contribution Rates [More…]

• From 1 September this year, the Government will require health insurance funds to maintain the current level of benefit in the basic medical table- that is, 75 per cent of the schedule fee, with a maximum payment by the patient of $10 for each service where the schedule fee is charged. [More…]

• Arrangements will be made so that the two month waiting period for benefits normally applied to basic medical tables operated by health insurance funds will be waived between 1 September and 3 1 October this year, to enable people who enrol in that period to receive benefits immediately. [More…]

• I must say that I feel sorry for the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who had to introduce this statement tonight, even though he did put in about six pages of padding with the bad news to make up a total of 1 1 pages. [More…]

• We have a reasonably efficient and certainly knowledgeable Department of Health. [More…]

• This is the fifth very major change to health insurance in three years. [More…]

• As I have said before, instability has become the curse of the Australian health insurance system. [More…]

• Until an improved data base becomes available, the Government believes that it would be premature to proceed further with the consideration of major adjustments to the health insurance system. [More…]

• At the time the House was debating a paper on paying for health care. [More…]

• The Minister for Health is continuously giving advice, but one cannot come to any intelligent decisions as to what course the payment and funding of the Australian health system should take without giving it a chance to work, without seeing how many people want to do this and what effect it has to pay 40 per cent and the first $20. [More…]

• This is the ninth occasion on which the House is amending the National Health Act and the seventh occasion on which it has amended the Health Insurance Act in about 2% years. [More…]

• This is a ridiculous way of dealing with health insurance. [More…]

• This Government- I exempt the Minister from this pejorative statement- will make decisions on the running of hospitals, in regard to how much money to be given to hospitals and what proportion of the total health budget should be given to hospitals, irrespective of the decisions of that inquiry. [More…]

• I thought it was necessary to give the States some time to comment on a report on hospital rationalisation and services which I forwarded to all Health Ministers throughout the Commonwealth. [More…]

• I seem to remember that there was a previous report from the Department of Veterans Affairs which suggested that the peak of usage of the health and hospital facilities of the Department would be about 1990. [More…]

• Yet one of the main points he was talking about tonight was the health insurance system. [More…]

• There have been, as I have said earlier, nine changes to the National Health Act. [More…]

• There have been five very significant and major changes to the health insurance system since this Government came into office. [More…]

• It almost seems superfluous to emphasise that the Minister and the Minister’s advisers in repeated statements to this House and the Australian people in general who are interested in the payment for health care have repeatedly said- other organisations have talked about itthat we need more data; that we need more facts; that we need to allow things to go on for a little longer in a particular way before we can change them. [More…]

• The debate is catalysed by irregular but frequent changes to health financing arrangements by the Commonwealth Government of the time, sometimes for reasons of community health and welfare and sometimes to help balance the books. [More…]

• I agree with the Minister that somewhere or other we have all got to pay for the costs of health care. [More…]

• Let us at least spend it on health care. [More…]

• It is paid for either by the Government or by individuals via health funds, or directly. [More…]

• The appendix to the paper on health care which the Minister tabled in this House said, amongst other things: [More…]

• A3.1 There is very little analysis available in Australia or elsewhere, to tell us what possible effects different health insurance proposals would have on costs, on our usage of health care, on the available supply of beds and doctors or on our ‘health’. [More…]

• They should know: how those arrangements increase or decrease the use of different services or the quality of the services provided; and how the use of these services ultimately affects ‘health ‘. [More…]

• A3.2 We do not have any comprehensive data to tell us what is the ‘best’ type of health insurance system, and the best’ possible method of paying doctors, and the ‘best’ method of financing hospitals and other community health services. [More…]

• A health insurance project would seek and analyse the needed data on all three aspects. [More…]

• The facts are not available; yet the Minister is changing the whole set-up here today for the purpose of saving $200m in the operation of the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• The deputation will be led by Ray Cook, the Secretary of the Health and Research Employees Association in New South Wales. [More…]

• I have been assured by the State Minister for Health in New South Wales that the proposed reduction there will amount to $63m and that this will lead to a loss of about 5,000 jobs in that State. [More…]

• We should not fall for the easy way out and criticise hospitals and say: ‘Well, too much money is spent on hospitals; we will spend money in community health areas’. [More…]

• I support community health expenditure. [More…]

• We should ensure that we do not just finish up transferring jobs from relatively unskilled people to what are often relatively well off middle class people working in community health such as doctors’ wives. [More…]

• Do not let us kid ourselves that the people involved in defending community health and involved in criticising hospitals have not got an axe to grind. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council (N.H. and M.R.C.) [More…]

• Other Departments and Authorities have not yet been canvassed because the property is still held by the Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 10 May 1979: [More…]

• -On 21 March 1979 (Hansard, pages 1012 and 1013), Dr Klugman requested information from me concerning medical benefits paid by the Department of Health firstly on the basis of 40 per cent of the Schedule fee with a maximum patient contribution of $20, and secondly in relation to socially disadvantaged patients at a refund level of 75 per cent flat. [More…]

• Table 1 below shows payments to registered medical benefits organisations by the Department of Health of advances and reimbursements to 31 March 1979 in respect of Commonwealth medical benefits payable by those organisations on behalf of the Commonwealth since 1 November 1978. [More…]

• Can he also confirm that changes to the health scheme also announced in the miniBudget will cost the average family an extra $4 a week? [More…]

• We will maintain Medibank, and ensure that the standard of health care does not decline. [More…]

• In view of the fact that Australia’s population growth is stabilising, will the Prime Minister agree that calls for increased expenditure on health and education infrastructure and benefits are based on extremely tenuous grounds? [More…]

• In addition, as has been made very plain on a number of occasions, we have been trying through negotiation with the States to achieve greater economies in hospital expenditure, one of the most expensive areas of health services. [More…]

• -I refer the Prime Minister to the fact that health care cost charges in the 1976 Budget added to the consumer price index and were consequently discounted for tax indexation purposes. [More…]

• Did the changes for funding health care announced in the 1978 Budget reduce the consumer price index? [More…]

• The honourable gentleman will be aware that when the changes were made in the 1978 Budget-the 40 per cent-$20 arrangements- they involved a very significant increase in the amount of the direct Commonwealth subsidy for health care. [More…]

• The Government’s further arbitrary changes in health funding, which will create confusion and heighten inequality in the provision of health services, while fuelling both unemployment and inflation. [More…]

• The Government’s arbitrary decisions, announced last Thursday, will increase the confusion that already exists and heighten the inequality in relation to the provision of health services and at the same time cause more unemployment and inflation. [More…]

• As I said on Thursday night when these changes were announced, I feel sorry for the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• I feel sorry also for the people of Australia, because unless we make an intelligent attempt at discussing rationally the matter of improving health care services, unless we come to intelligent decisions which result in helping those people in the community who most need help and unless we give assistance to those areas of health care which most need help from governments, we will not have a good health service. [More…]

• In the process we will cause damage to people both from a health point of view and an economic point of view. [More…]

• It is depressing to me that on an important issue such as health the Minister for Health is ignored and his Department is ignored. [More…]

• Last Thursday the Minister pointed to the high proportion of the total Budget which is spent on health. [More…]

• Until an improved data base becomes available, the Government believes that it would be premature to proceed further with the consideration of major adjustments to the health insurance system. [More…]

• I think the Government was successful in fiddling with the consumer price index because, although the index increased by 2.3 per cent for the last December quarter, if one ignored the changes in relation to health insurance the real figure would have been 3.8 per cent. [More…]

• This year he went on a trip overseas to attend the World Health Organisation meeting. [More…]

• Again I am not necessarily arguing that it is not possible to save approximately $400m out of a huge health budget. [More…]

• I am arguing that the advisers to the Department of Health and the people who are informed in this area should be able to make a greater input into it. [More…]

• The last two major changes to health expenditure have not been made on a rational basis. [More…]

• They wanted less expenditure on health, education and on social services. [More…]

• He argued in favour of higher taxation and lower health, education and social service benefits. [More…]

• The average weekly earner will have to pay an extra $4 a week for health care, either in the form of insurance or in the form of carrying a risk for himself and his family. [More…]

• I am surprised that the Minister for Health, who represents a country electorate, proposed for New South Wales a huge cut in hospitals expenditure. [More…]

• I know I have very little speaking time left today, but let me come back to the propositions that are being introduced as far as individuals are concerned regarding health insurance. [More…]

• I do not want to get into an argument now as to whether people ought to take out health insurance. [More…]

• No one will convince me that if we are to come to grips with this great problem of health costs in Australia we can leave to one side the necessity for inquiring into the operations of hospitals in Australia. [More…]

• It would be quite irresponsible for this Government or for any government to continue to go on ignoring the fundamental reasons why health costs in Australia are exploding. [More…]

• I believe it is unfortunate that we have had as many changes to the health insurance system. [More…]

• When it was in government it failed to formulate a health policy which had any vestige of economic prudence. [More…]

• The Government of this country almost went bankrupt in the process of trying to find money from people to pay for some of its expensive social welfare and health policies. [More…]

• The Labor Government raised health and welfare payments to such levels that some people in the community began to believe that it was their God given right to receive a benefit from the government. [More…]

• Unfortunately, in the health area the financial circumstances of the individual were improperly considered and resources were not necessarily directed to those in need. [More…]

• So the record of the Opposition whilst in government regarding health services is so disastrous that the less members of the Opposition talk about the subject the better it must be for them. [More…]

• In 1972-73, health costs represented 5.97 per cent of the gross domestic product whereas by 1975-76 they represented 7.76 per cent- a rise from $2,505m to $6,460m. [More…]

• Mr Acting Speaker, I seek leave to incorporate in Hansard- hope that the honourable member for Prospect will permit me to do so- a table, taken from the Department of Health estimates, showing how costs increased in respect of the gross domestic product, how the Commonwealth contribution increased during the Labor Party’s term of office, what the State contribution is and what the private contribution is. [More…]

• In 1972-73 the percentage of gross domestic product spent on health was 5.97, with the Commonwealth contributing 3 1 per cent of total health costs and the States 27 per cent. [More…]

• Government in regard to health costs. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party’s philosophy is expressed in its health and social welfare policy. [More…]

• In 1971-72, $2,232m was spent on health in Australia. [More…]

• The Government makes no apology whatsoever for its changes to the health insurance system or for its ideological approach to health and welfare which, as I said earlier, is vastly different from the approach of the Australian Labor Party. [More…]

• Yes, there is a deafening silence on the part of the Australian Labor Party as to what its health policy would be. [More…]

• I have here an article written by Dr Richard Taylor in January 1979 headed ‘Labor Health Policy: ‘How Can Labor Reform the Health Care System when Elected in the 1980s?’ [More…]

• I am certain that this policy will have the scalpel put through it by the shadow Minister for Health, the honourable member for Prospect. [More…]

• Bulk billing is very fundamental to the way in which the health scheme works. [More…]

• The pensioners and the disadvantaged people in the community can be direct billed to the Department of Health at the taxpayers expense. [More…]

• -There are two points that I would like to take out of the rhetoric- that is practically all it was- of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• Three dramatic changes to the health provision have been announced in this House in the past 12 months. [More…]

• We get a new health policy every six months. [More…]

• Medibank was a national health scheme conceived as universal, equitable, fair and public. [More…]

• Last year, when we had a quite different medical plan before us, the Minister constantly insisted that a key element of the universality of his national health provision was the Commonwealth medical benefit of 40 per cent. [More…]

• The health scheme is increasingly inequitable. [More…]

• The healthy are encouraged to contract out; the wealthy can take care of themselves. [More…]

• The problem with health insurance in this country as a result of the Government’s actions is that increasingly the insurance burden is falling on the sick, the handicapped and people with large families. [More…]

• We on this side of the House condemn the constant changes in national health provision. [More…]

• I hope that this is the last fundamental change to our national health scheme for many years. [More…]

• The reasons for the change are not concerned with health provision for the people of this country. [More…]

• None of the changes in the last three years has been motivated by the effort to create a fair, equitable and universal health scheme. [More…]

• That is why the health scheme is changed every five months. [More…]

• The changes in May and October of last year and the changes this year have not been given to the country because there is a desire to provide a better national health scheme. [More…]

• It was not made because of a worry about the health of ordinary Australians but to adjust the CPI simply for partisan purposes. [More…]

• It is important, I think, for all Australians to realise that the changes are being made not to provide a better health service, but often for rather slick and snide reasons to shift economic indicators. [More…]

• I have in many ways considerable respect for the Minister but in a democratic country such as ours there surely comes a point when any Minister with selfrespect, with concern for the department which he manages- in this case for the objectives of an adequate national health scheme- must say to his colleagues in the Cabinet ‘I can go no farther with emasculating, cutting and jettisoning schemes. ‘ [More…]

• I take up the point that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) made. [More…]

• The Labor Party of course has no health policy. [More…]

• It is a similar situation in respect of health. [More…]

• I suggest to the honourable member for Prospect that better wording for the matter of public importance which he has proposed for discussion today would have been ‘the need for all Australians to approach health care and costs in a responsible way’. [More…]

• When honourable members opposite talk about health care and services they say that the people should not have to pay for those services. [More…]

• Yet when it comes to paying for health care- that is the point I am making- he does not want the people to have money in their pocket at all; he wants the Government to foot the bill for them. [More…]

• I suggest that if we want irresponsible people in this nation that is the way to do it- mollycoddle them and make sure that their health costs are paid for by the Government. [More…]

• It is necessary in health to have an identifiable cost. [More…]

• I am very pleased that we changed Medibank mark I and gradually made the cost more and more identifiable so that the people of this nation would know what health is costing. [More…]

• The Government’s further arbitrary changes in health funding which will create confusion and heighten inequality in the provision of health services, while fuelling both unemployment and inflation. [More…]

• The Minister for Health spoke to me before this debate. [More…]

• We are all concerned for the welfare of the pensioners and to ensure that they get health services that perhaps they may not be able to pay for. [More…]

• As the Minister for Health said, there are compelling arguments for changes in hospital charges and there is a need for an inquiry. [More…]

• Drastically increasing the cost of health care for all people and especially for the low income groups; [More…]

• In the process of doing this, of course, it is destroying the security of the nation, such as the personal security of people for such things as health insurance arrangements. [More…]

• The people are bewildered by the continual changes in health insurance arrangements in this country. [More…]

• It has already been shown in previous debate that the Government simply has no real answers in this area except to thrash around trying to find some way of providing health care on the cheap. [More…]

• As a result it is creating great insecurity for people who are concerned about their health and that includes everyone in this country. [More…]

• A further factor to take into account is that this statement greatly increases the cost of health care to the populace. [More…]

• Let me remind the House that the removal of the Commonwealth subsidy for medical care and the increase in public hospital charges are certain to have a combined effect of increasing the cost of health insurance for a family by approximately $3.50 to $4 a week. [More…]

• It is amazing that the Treasurer (Mr Howard) had the gall to claim in his statement that the Government has maintained universal health protection. [More…]

• There is now no government protection for the health cost of such a basic medical item as going to see a general practitioner. [More…]

• So the Government’s claim that it is providing universal health protection surely stretches credulity even further than all the other breaches of promise which I have mentioned. [More…]

• Of course, the fact that the increase in health insurance costs is the same, whatever one’s income, further adds to the regressive nature of the Government’s fiscal policies. [More…]

• The recently publicised proposal of the Government’s health and welfare committee is one such possibility. [More…]

• We will maintain Medibank, and ensure that the standard of health care does not decline: [More…]

• The commitment to pensioners, the commitment to wage earners and the commitment to groups in this community connected with health care, have all gone out the window because this Prime Minister cannot be believed. [More…]

• The then Government decided that its commitment to its own programs was far more important than the health of the Australian economy. [More…]

• Health and welfare payments alone account for almost 40c in every dollar of Federal spending. [More…]

• As a result of the speech we are now discussing, everybody will be paying about $4 a week more in health insurance. [More…]

• There is a growing realisation in our community that if spending on health, welfare and other areas continues to grow at recent rates the nation will be crippled economically. [More…]

• Everyone agrees that pensioners and disadvantaged people should not be denied adequate health care. [More…]

• Most people will have private health insurance, but even those who choose not to or who feel that they cannot afford it will have access to reasonable and adequate health care. [More…]

• The Prime Minister said that he would maintain Medibank and the community health scheme. [More…]

• He undertook not to interfere with the community health program, yet today the block grants are being reduced so dramatically that the community health program now is no longer the scheme that it was originally. [More…]

• They know also that, just nine months after new health insurance arrangements were introduced as part of the August Budget, they will be paying, out of their pockets, an additional $5 a week. [More…]

• We will ensure that that program of free, comprehensive, universal health insurance will continue to be implemented in the way in which it was conceived by Bill Hayden and the Labor Government of the time’. [More…]

• Between 1975 and the present we have seen a myriad of changes in the health insurance system, all of which have had the net effect of destroying people’s confidence in universal health insurance and which inevitably have had the effect of taking more money out of the individual’s pocket. [More…]

• If governments are not able to explain satisfactorily to the people of Australia what is being done for education, for the Aboriginal people and in the area of health and the people reject our proposals then I suppose we would have to mend our ways. [More…]

• But no one can tell me that there is anybody in this country who thinks there is any advantage to this nation by reducing the quality and the quantity of our health services, by putting a stopper on the advancement of educational programs or by reducing the misery of the Aboriginal people even further. [More…]

• 1 see that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is in the House tonight. [More…]

• One should consider the situation in 1975 under the previously existing health scheme known as Medibank and the tangle into which he has managed to get it. [More…]

• The total health bill in Australia is of the order of $8,000m and is continuously escalating. [More…]

• We do not believe in an open cheque for health. [More…]

• I applaud the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) for introducing an initiative in supplying $500,000 to make the Australian people aware of the necessity to be health conscious and not to adopt an attitude of running to the doctor at every pretext. [More…]

• He has brought responsibility into health administration. [More…]

• Money for health costs, of course, came from the Australian taxpayer. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has realised that it is necessary to contain hospital costs. [More…]

• Look, I know it is no good talking to the Minister for Health about political morality. [More…]

• I understand that the honourable member for Melbourne Ports called the Minister for Health a hypocrite. [More…]

• But the people of Australia will make their own judgment about this Minister for Health, the undertaker of Medibank. [More…]

• The National Times pointed out in a very responsible article that if one is young and healthy one is better off staying out of Medibank. [More…]

• That means that the burden of keeping the health funds going will fall on the aged and infirm, which will mean an increase in rates and therefore in the consumer price index. [More…]

• Let us take a look at health. [More…]

• People want free health benefits, more money for hospitals and a continuation of funds for regional health centres. [More…]

• Recovery of part of the costs of inspection and animal health certification for live animal exports is also intended. [More…]

• There is general agreement in principle between State Health Ministers and myself that action should be taken to reclassify long term patients in public hospitals whose situation is similar to nursing home patients. [More…]

• The matter of the levels of hospital benefits payable by health insurance organisations in respect of nursing-home type patients is included in complementary provisions which amend the National Health Act 1953. [More…]

• Further, the amendment made by clause 10, varying the Heads of Agreement in Schedule 2 to the Health Insurance Act 1973, enables the appropriate patient contribution to be levied on patients who are not hospital insured. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall that in my statement to the House on 24 May advising details of the revised health insurance arrangements to operate from 1 September 1979, I stated that a key element would be the introduction of a universal medical guarantee for doctors’ fees over $20 for each schedule service. [More…]

• The proposal will be that Commonwealth medical benefit will be payable only for medical benefits schedule fees above $20 except in the case of pensioners with pensioner health benefit cards, entitlement cards and patients classified by their doctors as disadvantaged. [More…]

• This provision enables Commonwealth medical benefits payments under the Health Insurance Act 1973 to be paid out of the National Welfare Fund, as are similar type commonwealth benefits, such as pharmaceutical benefits, and covers unforeseen circumstances such as large-scale epidemics. [More…]

• The amendment, together with those in Part III of the Bill, has the further effect of permitting the Department of Health to pay medical benefits which become payable in respect of services rendered before 1 November 1978, the date the current medical benefit arrangements came into effect, Presently, these payments are made by the Health Insurance Commission on behalf of the Commonwealth. [More…]

• Firstly, health insurance benefits payable under revised arrangements, secondly, amendments to procedures relating to the tabling of ministerial directions and revocations under the National Health Act and, thirdly, improvements to the isolated patients travel and accommodation assistance scheme. [More…]

• The first group of provisions relating to health insurance benefits concerns the revised medical benefits arrangements to operate from 1 September 1979. [More…]

• The second group of provisions relating to health insurance benefits concerns the level of hospital benefits to be paid by registered hospital benefits organisations for nursing-home type patients. [More…]

• These provisions are complementary to provisions contained in the Health Insurance Amendment Bill 1979. [More…]

• 1 will not speak in detail of the provisions in that Bill, but I would draw the attention of honourable members on both sides of the House to the terms ‘nursing-home type patients’ and ‘patient contribution’ which are defined in the Health Insurance Amendment Bill 1979 and which were explained in my second reading speech on that legislation. [More…]

• As I further mentioned in my second reading speech on the Health Insurance Amendment Bill 1979, the proposals in relation to nursing-home type patients envisage fees being charged, under Commonwealth-State hospital agreements, in recognised hospitals, related to these types of patients. [More…]

• This benefit is specified in section 47 of the National Health Act and ranges from $11.75 a day in Western Australia to $20.40 a day in Victoria. [More…]

• Presently nursing home benefits payable under the National Health Act by registered hospital benefits organisations are specified in basic and optional hospital benefits tables operated by these organisations. [More…]

• In brief, the benefit for insured nursinghome type patients in recognised hospitals will be an amount equal to the fees payable by the patient, less the patient contribution, as defined in the Health Insurance Amendment Bill 1979. [More…]

• The condition of registration contained in clause 13 of the Bill ensures that the patient contribution, as denned in the Health Insurance Amendment Bill 1979, will also be payable by nursing-home type patients who insure for hospital benefits above the level payable under a basic or optional hospital benefits table. [More…]

• Section 73BE (2) of the National Health Act provides for the Minister to give a direction in relation to matters of discrimination and the level of medical and hospital benefits payable. [More…]

• During the debate in the Senate in November last year on the National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 3) 1978, which inserted the relevant provisions into the National Health Act, it was pointed out that, although a motion upon notice for disallowance of the direction or instrument of revocation might be tabled, there is no obligation that such a motion be dealt with. [More…]

• I have taken cognizance of the points made during the debate in the Senate on the National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 3) 1978- the matter was raised by Senator Cavanagh- and accept that the procedure provided for was not suitable for the circumstances specified under the National Health Act. [More…]

• The remaining provisions of the Bill are technical amendments which enable committees established under section 136 of the National Health Act to consider matters relevant to the Health Insurance Act and an amendment consequential upon the amendment made in clause 9 to section 73 BE. [More…]

• Professor L. Davidson, Principal, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, N.S.W. [More…]

• Dr J. McNulty, Commissioner of Public Health, Western Australian Department of Public Health. [More…]

• Dr J. Milne, Division of Industrial Hygiene, Victorian Health Commission. [More…]

• Mr G. Major, Physicist, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, N.S.W. [More…]

• Dr N. Mitchell, (Secretary /Convener) Medical Services Adviser- Occupational Health, Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Health aware of statements which were made by the Tasmanian Health Minister to the effect that 500 jobs would be lost in Tasmanian hospitals as a result of the Treasurer’s statement last week? [More…]

• I have also been advised that a few staff are away in the Departments of Veterans’ Affairs, Education, Health, the Capital Territory Health Commission, Postal and Telecommunications, Productivity- except for the Patents Office, my colleague will be pleased to knowAdministrative Services, Home Affairs- except for the office of Women’s Affairs, my colleague will also be pleased to know- the Taxation Office and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. [More…]

• In addition, within the welfare society, we needed to establish the circumstances, particularly in relation to health, in which people would do for themselves what they could properly do for themselves, pay what they could be expected to pay for themselves and be protected by government only when the situation was likely to get beyond an individual’s or a family’s resources. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and refer to his answer to a question in this place on 22 May concerning attempts to expel Israel from the World Health Organisation assembly held in Geneva from 7 to 25 May. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall that last week I expressed in this House the Government’s firm opposition to the needless politicisation of specialised agencies, such as the World Health Organisation, and our support for the principle of universality of membership. [More…]

• I am pleased to be able to answer the honourable member’s question by advising the House that attempts by some Arab countries to expel Israel from the World Health Organisation Assembly were successfully averted, principally through the adoption by an overwhelming majority of the assembly of a resolution put forward by Australia and co-sponsored by Fiji and Ghana. [More…]

• Following the adoption of our procedural motion the Arab states concerned and the state of Israel came to what could be called a gentleman ‘s agreement that discussion on the question of the health conditions in the occupied territories and the associated resolution to suspend Israel from WHO would be postponed until the 33rd meeting of the World Health Assembly in 1980. [More…]

• I was particularly encouraged by the overwhelming support given by World Health Organisation members to our resolution that the suspension of a member is an important question. [More…]

• The Government has broken promises regarding the tax surcharge and health insurance and has imposed an extra $10.50 a week at least on workers. [More…]

• What about its promise to retain the 40 per cent health subsidy and implement full tax indexation? [More…]

• The 40 per cent health subsidy was removed altogether. [More…]

• Let me turn briefly to the health situation, and I shall discuss this at greater length when the two relevant Bills are debated in the House. [More…]

• The abolition of the 40 per cent general health subsidy to those people who do not contribute to a health insurance fund will save the Government $2 10m. [More…]

• This will result in an increase of $1.30 per week in hospital insurance, or an increase of $4 a week in health insurance contributions. [More…]

• Health insurance will cost $600m to $700m a year- a remarkable $11.50 to $13.50 a week. [More…]

• Those who do so will have no universal system of health insurance. [More…]

• All this shocking intervention in the field of health insurance came after the Treasurer announced in the last Budget the abolition of federal grants on a dollar for dollar basis with the States for capital costs for new hospitals. [More…]

• Where will all these cuts in the health system end? [More…]

• When will there be an end to the rising cost of health insurance that has been foisted on the people of Australia by this Government? [More…]

• The cuts will leave a gap in the public health system and the Government will seek to rely on private hospital corporations to fill the gap. [More…]

• I refer to the Hospital Corporation of America, which is being encouraged by the present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• My reaction is that if the Hospital Corporation of America wants to build private health structures in Australia it should do so in the areas of need. [More…]

• When are we going to see the people of Australia- not American multinationals and Australian big business- get a fair share of the Budget cake, an equitable tax system, an adequate health insurance scheme, and an acceptable wage and salary policy? [More…]

• It puts the economic health of Australia first. [More…]

• There will be substantial savings in health, in education, in payments to primary industry, in transport and in other areas. [More…]

• The full year’s savings on the forward estimates and the new policies for the programs already announced include $290m or a little more in health and over $60m in primary industry. [More…]

• The health changes will continue to protect pensioners and the socially disadvantaged and will establish the circumstance where people can pay the small bills for themselves but be protected against the major accounts that can completely break any individual or any family. [More…]

• I indicated earlier that if there was a virtue in the original Medibank scheme as opposed to the program that was maintained earlier, it plain, that the original Treasurer scheme, together with the changes that have been introduced since, established universal health cover for all Australians- although I suggest that the price paid by the Australian community as a whole was a high one. [More…]

• But it is worth noting that we have preserved that universal health cover for all Australians. [More…]

• The health changes will continue to protect pensioners and the socially disadvantaged. [More…]

• Tax levy stays, health aid goes’. [More…]

• With regard to health insurance the Government said: [More…]

• We will maintain Medibank, and ensure that the standard of health care does not decline. [More…]

• It is prepared to cut back ruthlessly on social welfare spending such as health, education, housing and protection of the environment, to make room for greater handouts to the corporate sector. [More…]

• We again saw an increase in taxes on health. [More…]

• In the time available to me tonight I wish to address myself to the lack of credibility and sensitivity demonstrated by the Treasurer in the areas of health, transport, education and housing. [More…]

• What stands out from the millions of words that seem to have been written about last Thursday night’s feeble attempt is that the community is most alarmed at the way this present Liberal-National Country Party Government is eroding health benefits. [More…]

• The Treasurer’s health decisions will increase medical insurance costs for those still covered and will generally increase the already tenuous consumer price index. [More…]

• The Minister for Health in 1976 said: [More…]

• I seek leave to have incorporated in Hansard a copy of a table prepared by the National Times which, I think, shows beyond doubt that there is an enormous chasm between the health care costs paid by the uninsured and those paid by the insured. [More…]

• Full indexation of income tax followed the Australian Assistance Plan and universal health insurance down the same well trodden path. [More…]

• My amendment is designed to leave the Comptroller of Customs with the responsibility of discharging certain powers and authorities conferred upon him by this Parliament and to enforce the law, particularly in regard to drug and narcotic trafficking, but it precludes that information from Ministers on the same basis that this Parliament precludes from Ministers information about the taxation affairs of any individual and, in a similar way but not quite so strictly, precludes from Ministers information about health and social security matters. [More…]

• However, an even bigger fiddle of the tax indexation system- assuming it is reintroduced in some form eventually- is to be found in the Government’s treatment of increases in the consumer price index resulting from alterations to health care arrangements in this country. [More…]

• The Government then altered the legislation in the Income Tax (Rates) Act to include price rises attributable to the increased costs of health insurance and the health insurance levy amongst the factors to be used in discounting the consumer price index when working out the tax indexation factor. [More…]

• Thus the price rise attributable to the increase in health insurance costs at that time was discounted and the tax schedule was not adjusted for it. [More…]

• In the Budget of August last year the system was changed again, and this had the effect of reducing the cost of health insurance. [More…]

• I am sure all honourable members will recall that the change in the health insurance scheme at that time resulted in a quite substantial reduction in the cost of health insurance. [More…]

• However, in working out the tax indexation factor that perhaps would be applied in the coming financial year, the Treasurer (Mr Howard) has taken absolutely no account of the reduction in the consumer price index attributable to the change in health care arrangements. [More…]

• The Treasurer has taken out the increases in the index attributable to net increases in indirect taxes, including the crude oil levy, and also those price increases attributable to the phasing-in of import parity pricing by oil producing companies, but he has taken no account whatever of the 1 .4 per cent reduction attributable to health insurance rearrangements in last year’s Budget. [More…]

• When the health care rearrangements increase the index the Government passes legislation to make sure that that does not get taken into account in the tax indexation calculations. [More…]

• We are especially concerned about the extraordinary piece of duplicity involved in not taking account of the impact on the consumer price index of the health insurance rearrangements in last year’s Budget. [More…]

• I referred to the recently publicised proposals of the Government’s health and welfare committee as one such possibility. [More…]

• So taking into account the health care costs, one can understand why I say that the average family man will be worse off by $10 a week. [More…]

• In the health field, for example, the Treasurer has made it quite clear that the pensioners and the socially disadvantaged continue to be fully protected, while the general population remains protected against large outlays on medical services. [More…]

• The Treasurer stated that the health measures being adopted ‘are in keeping with our general philosophy of concentrating [More…]

• Therefore, this inflationary effect has to be added to the other effects resulting from the steps announced in the mini-Budget, including increased personal health costs and, of course, price rises by companies trying to compensate for higher company tax payments resulting from the abolition of the trading stock valuation allowance. [More…]

• The committee specifically points to health and welfare benefits. [More…]

• It was popular once to pour money into education firmly in the belief that money would solve all problems but I think that we have found in this area and in a number of other areas such as welfare and health- in fact, just about any field we have had anything to do with recentlythat money is not the answer. [More…]

• We hear the same thing about health. [More…]

• The Commonwealth and National Health and Medical Research Council (N.H. and M.R.C.) [More…]

• Health Acts [More…]

• Occupational Health [More…]

• Public Health [More…]

• assess the potential adverse effects on human health of new chemicals. [More…]

• Occupational Health Committee [More…]

• World Health Organization [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council (N.H. and M.R.C.) [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• It is also important to ensure that we get the best value for the dollar spent in health care because, quite clearly, the taxpayers, the community generally, are picking up the bill. [More…]

• Health costs are going to be paid for by one means or another. [More…]

• People are going to pay for them either through the taxation system or through contribution rates to health insurance funds, or they are going to pay for them out of their pockets. [More…]

• No one will escape the bill, except those who are disadvantaged and those who have pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• The Queensland Department of Health has exercised positive management and budgetary control over hospitals. [More…]

• The Minister for Health is dealing with a matter of some complexity. [More…]

• -Has the attention of the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs been drawn to a paper on the rationalisation of hospitals tabled by the Minister for Health last Thursday which insists on a reduction from 870,000 to 766,000 bed days per year in repatriation hospitals over the next three years? [More…]

• We have deliberately designed our health policies and we have borne in mind, in the recent changes that have been made, the position of low income earners. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has repeated what I said in my statement last Thursday night; that is, that the position of pensioners and those adjudged by their doctors to be of indigent circumstances will not be affected one iota. [More…]

• My question, which is directed to the Minister for Health, is supplementary to that asked by the honourable member for Prospect, who referred to the report on the rationalisation of hospital services tabled a week ago. [More…]

• Will the Minister assure the House that the $45m hospital acquisition and development project in Australia by the Hospital Corporation of America will not be allowed to proceed in a way that will move the more affluent and the more desperate patients out of a public hospital sector which is being cut by government policy without a corresponding provision for the expansion of nursing home, day care, rehabilitation and community health services? [More…]

• I firmly believe, however, that it would be very foolish of this Government or of any other government to ignore the importance of the provision of private resources in any hospital or any health area in this country or in any country with a similar economy. [More…]

• If the Government were to adopt a deliberate policy of forcing the private sector out of the area of health care or care for the aged it would be a gross mistake- for this Government or any other government. [More…]

• What we need is a proper balance and availability of resources to care properly for those in need, but at the same time we must make sure that we get the best value for the dollar spent in health care in this country. [More…]

• The interdepartmental working group was composed of this extraordinary melange of organisations, namely, the Department of Adminstrative Services; the Department of Education; the Attorney-General’s Department, the Department of Environment, Housing and Community Development; the Department of Health; the Department of Industry and Commerce; the Department of Science; the Department of the Treasury; the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation; the Australian Telecommunications Commission; the Public Service Board; and the National Library. [More…]

• The total Budget allocation for the Territory has only recently been brought together on Budget night in a uniform, if somewhat confused, statement on the expenditure of the Department of the Capital Territory, the National Capital Development Commission, the Department of Education and the Department of Health. [More…]

• Membership of such a committee would have to include the Ministers for the Capital Territory, Health (Mr Hunt), Housing and Construction (Mr Groom), the Minister responsible for the Public Service, and Minister for Finance (Mr Eric Robinson), the Minister for Administrative Services (Mr McLeay), and the AttorneyGeneral (Senator Durack). [More…]

• Development of a full range of incentives to locate high technology industry in the Australian Capital Territory; and the promotion of Canberra as an ideal city in which to retire with its numerous health and community services, dry, clean climate and high standard of living. [More…]

• The matter that I raise today is related to health but not to health in the general sense in which we speak about it in this place. [More…]

• My remarks are more related to dental health and particularly to the dental care and health of the young people in our community, the school children. [More…]

• Quite recently, the honourable member for Murray, Mr Lloyd, who is a rather prolific questionasker, put a question on notice to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) seeking the following information: [More…]

• What are the details of (a) capital cost, (b) annual expenditure, (c) number of staff and (d) services provided under the (i) Community Health Program and (ii) School Dental Scheme for each project in each Federal electoral division? [More…]

• Mr Hunt, the Minister for Health, answered that question fully. [More…]

• The point I am making is that irrespective of whether the honourable members representing the areas make representations through the Minister for Health or not, they ought to be taken into account. [More…]

• I will pursue the Minister for Health vigorously and urge him to take into account these areas that as yet are without these facilities. [More…]

• All of these cuts that these honourable gentlemen are bringing about are always aimed at those who are in the worst position, the people in the community who are least able to fight back- pensioners, people who require health care, sick people and Aboriginals. [More…]

• In the course of this inquiry, the SubCommittee heard evidence from a number of departments, in particular, the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, Primary Industry and Health. [More…]

• The Committee is pleased to report that plans are already being implemented by the Department of Health to increase animal quarantine activity in the Torres Strait area. [More…]

• Commonwealth expenditure for health, welfare and education has risen from 25 per cent 10 years ago to nearly 50 per cent at present. [More…]

• If the expenditure on health, welfare and education has doubled in the last 10 years, how much further can it go? [More…]

• Let us be quite clear about what the health changes do this year. [More…]

• Yesterday we found out from the Department of Health that this arrangement will cost the Government money. [More…]

• Until now, patients who were privately insured and who were covered for this new classification were contributing, through their health insurance funds, $40 a day towards their upkeep. [More…]

• We have been assured by the Department of Health that these arrangements will mean a net loss to the Government. [More…]

• It is a transfer of money from pensioners of $50.75 a week to the health insurance funds. [More…]

• However much honourable members support the health funds, I think that most of them would agree that the funds are not exactly covered by the phrase ‘those in greatest need’. [More…]

• This morning the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) gave figures on the net cost of a hospital bed. [More…]

• The reason the Opposition is opposing these Bills is that there is a public health component in the eradication of tuberculosis and brucellosis and therefore there is a real justification for significant public subsidy. [More…]

• -I am glad that the honourable member for Prospect, who is the shadow Minister for Health, agrees with me. [More…]

• I am sure that he will also agree that the Commonwealth should be contributing a greater share towards the eradication of what is a great health hazard. [More…]

• The first reason is that we think that the Commonwealth Government should be making a greater contribution towards what is essentially a health program, but more importantly, we think that the levy should be placed where it was historically- with the producer of cattle. [More…]

• Firstly, we think that the Commonwealth should, in line with the Industries Assistance Commission’s report, have a greater input in relation to a matter which is really a health problem- that is, the eradication of cattle disease. [More…]

• We are expressing opposition to these Bills not because of the relative and recent affluence of the rural industry, but because these measures refer to a health matter. [More…]

• As I said, brucellosis is a health risk to humans. [More…]

• The Animal Health Committee of the Australian Agricultural Council was to administer the campaign and to allocate the Australian Government contribution between States. [More…]

• The legislation differs slightly between States but usually requires that a health certificate be furnished with introduced cattle and that there be negative reaction to a diagnostic test. [More…]

• ) the hazard to human health; [More…]

• I hope that the fact that it has not been brought in at the 1 00 per cent level is a recognition by the Government that the Government does have a public health responsibility in this area- that the 50 per cent is at least some acknowledgment of Government responsiblity. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 May 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) Is he able to say whether the United States of America Department of Health, Education and Welfare has launched a campaign to impress upon Medicare and Medicaid recipients the desirability of having a second opinion before surgery. [More…]

• If so, and in view of his Government’s professed concern over the health cost spiral, has a similar advertising campaign been considered in Australia. [More…]

• -The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: (1)1 understand that in September 1 978 the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (DHEW) began an extensive campaign to promote the seeking of second opinions before surgery, particularly for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. [More…]

• Nonetheless, the Government is firm in its commitment to contain health care costs and officers from my Department are examining various cost saving measures in this field, including information programs, with a view to discussing their applicability with appropriate health authorities and others responsible for health care delivery. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) is acting as Minister for Social Security until Senator Guilfoyle ‘s return on 24 June. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health seen reports that the Queensland Minister for Health will not co-operate in the proposed national hospitals inquiry and that the New South Wales Minister for Health has expressed doubts about the inquiry? [More…]

• Is it a fact that 60 per cent of Commonwealth health outlays of $2.9 billion is expended on hospitals? [More…]

• Can the Commonwealth afford to sit back and let the States waste hospital health dollars when it is paying half the operating costs? [More…]

• I have noted also that the New South Wales Minister for Health has publicly indicated his lack of support for such an inquiry. [More…]

• To me that seems a quite extraordinary reaction by Ministers who have a responsibility to taxpayers to get best value for the dollars spent in health care. [More…]

• With the South Australian inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee and with the ever rising costs of health and hospital care, one would have thought the State Ministers would have welcomed such an inquiry, particularly knowing that many of them will have to make some unpopular decisions where they have excess beds in certain parts of their inner metropolitan areas. [More…]

• I find it very difficult to understand why any Health Minister should act in this way. [More…]

• The positive side is that I believe these funds and other funds that are available through the TAB and through the Government, whether through the Department of the Capital Territory, the Department of Health or the Department of Social Security, for community use and development in the Territory ought to be rationalised. [More…]

• -Mr Deputy Speaker, it is a pleasure to have you in the Chair because you are one of the few people in this House who can follow all the health insurance changes brought in by this Government. [More…]

• I think that you have about four degrees, some of which are above the Bachelor status, but it would be better for Australians if a person did not need four degrees in order to follow the health insurance changes that have been brought in by this Government. [More…]

• I shall go quickly over the history of health insurance in this country over the last few years. [More…]

• Honourable members will recall that the main topic of conversation when talking about health insurance changes is what happened during the Labor Government’s introduction of Medibank. [More…]

• We talk about some of the so-called banana republics and the overthrow of their governments and we talk about destabilisation, but that is exactly the situation we have reached as far as the Australian health insurance system is concerned. [More…]

• I am sure that the Minister for Health is keen to go back to what Sir Earle Page introduced in 1953. [More…]

• In 1953 the health insurance system was introduced in Australia. [More…]

• The taxpayer had to tell the Taxation Commissioner that he was covered by private health insurance. [More…]

• If he was not covered by private health insurance he had to pay a 2.5 per cent levy. [More…]

• My view is that all these changes were brought about, not for the purpose of improving the system of health care delivery in Australia. [More…]

• On 24 May the Treasurer, appropriately, made an announcement, followed by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who had been overseas, that new changes had been decided on in the Minister’s absence. [More…]

• It is probably worth while to quote the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Until an improved data base becomes available, the Government believes that it would be premature to proceed further with the consideration of major adjustments to the health insurance system. [More…]

• Hopefully, the Minister deplores them and hopefully those honourable members, even on the Government side of the chamber, who think about the importance of health insurance for a large proportion of the population, deplore these frequent changes. [More…]

• It is very difficult for people who do not continually read newspapers and advertisements and leaflets distributed by the Minister for Health, to keep up with the changes. [More…]

• Health insurance is no different from ordinary insurance in that often people who can least afford that insurance or who least need that insurance contribute to it. [More…]

• Last week the honourable member for Calare (Mr MacKenzie) proposed for discussion a matter of public importance emphasising that the belief of Government members was that the welfare dollar, including the health dollar, should go to the needy. [More…]

• What the Government is doing with the national health scheme now is contrary to the proposition that the money should go to the needy. [More…]

• It will be those people who, because they have the money to take out private health insurance and go either into private hospitals or into public hospitals as private patients. [More…]

• In this legislation making changes to the Health Insurance Act it attacks the family. [More…]

• Before the suspension of the sitting I was debating the health legislation that has come into this House following the changes proposed in the Government’s horror Budget introduced into this House on 24 May. [More…]

• The health insurance changes go against the needy. [More…]

• I therefore move this amendment to the motion for the second reading of the Health Insurance Amendment Bill 1 979: [More…]

• I give notice that at the end of the cognate debate on these Bills, when the National Health Amendment Bill, is presented for debate, I shall move: [More…]

• This proposition is that there should not be so many changes to health insurance; that the changes themselves are extremely destabilising and depressing especially for those people in the community who have difficulty in following involved legislation. [More…]

• -The two Bills and the ministerial statement before the House signify significant changes to the Government’s health scheme. [More…]

• In the near future they mean changes to medical benefits insurance, the classification of long term nursing home type patients, the beginning of a preventive health policy and an improvement to the isolated patients’ scheme. [More…]

• In the longer term, with the hospital inquiry, hopefully they will mean more significant reductions to health care costs. [More…]

• However, with health, there is the additional problem that although the present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has been successful in reducing the annual increase in health costs to under 1 1 per cent per annum, or down to about one-third of what the increase was when the Australian Labor Party lost office, that increase is still too high. [More…]

• Australia has one of the highest gross national product percentages of health costs in the world. [More…]

• We are running along at about 2 per cent behind the United States which at the moment spends about 10 per cent of its gross national product on total health costs. [More…]

• My final point on the debate on the changes is the opportunity it provides to move to new priorities in government-sponsored health care and to sort out some of the existing anomalies. [More…]

• If the amendment moved by the honourable member for Prospect means that Labor would retain only the existing health insurance scheme- that is what the amendment states-then it is retaining something that it roundly criticised when this Government moved to that position last November. [More…]

• The first is that pensioner health benefits cardholders will retain their present arrangement. [More…]

• One change is required for the health funds by 1 September and another by 1 November. [More…]

• Contrary to what I have been saying- that is, that there have been too many changes already to the health scheme- I must say that, if the new guarantee system of $20 does not in practice provide protection against large medical bills in certain sectors of our society, the policy should be changed. [More…]

• At that time I would have opposed those schemes because they would have interfered with other principles of health insurance which I support. [More…]

• It will be of interest to honourable members that President Carter is developing for presentation to the United States Congress a national health plan, which has a medical cost catastrophic cover proposal as its first priority. [More…]

• However, one of the positive aspects of the change is that the Government now has a reduced commitment to an ill health policy, and can develop a more comprehensive well health or preventive health policy. [More…]

• I congratulate the Minister for grasping the opportunity to initiate a national health promotion program for which purpose $500,000 has been allocated initially. [More…]

• The value of preventive health expenditure is hard to quantify. [More…]

• It would be a sick joke if, in the next Budget, funds for the school dental and community health schemes were abolished or severely reduced. [More…]

• At the present time, they are our only general preventive health schemes. [More…]

• I note again President Carter’s health plan in which he provides a cash incentive to encourage people to join health maintenance organisations and he finances the pilot programs in preventive care, focusing upon one or two major diseases. [More…]

• -That is right and the Minister for Health improved the situation for patients. [More…]

• As the honourable member for Prospect said, the private health funds will gain about $13m a year from this rearrangement. [More…]

• However, I say that this is a good thing because it will help the private health funds, which are not flush at the moment, with the problems that they will face because of the new benefit schedules that will be required and because of the inadequacy of the reinsurance arrangements that presently prevail. [More…]

• Hospitals represent the greatest cost factor in our health care scheme. [More…]

• One of the valuable initiatives of the present Minister for Health and of the Government was to provide some equity in health care for country people. [More…]

• -This is the fifth major change which has been made to health provision arrangements since 1975. [More…]

• I hope that this is the last fundamental change to our national health scheme for many years. [More…]

• The health levy was maintained in May 1 978 and abolished five months later. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) told us last year that one reason for the 40 per cent Commonwealth cover was that ‘the cost of health insurance premiums has become uncomfortably high for many people ‘. [More…]

• In the Minister’s own words, slightly amended, ‘the cost of health insurance premiums will have become uncomfortably high for most people by December of this year’. [More…]

• The fact is that for all Government members’ claims to be sound, solid and reliable managers, on the whole they are a pack of slick charlatans lurching from one crisis to another, and the health measures have tended to be the victims of those crises. [More…]

• Indeed, frankly it has to be said that health provision under this Government has never had a very high priority. [More…]

• Clearly changes to the health insurance system are based on budgetary strategy, with the quality of the system and the availability of medical care firmly in second place. [More…]

• Nevertheless, despite this inconsistency, I think we can see two elements of consistency that have run through the Government’s chaotic administration of the national health scheme. [More…]

• I think this final emasculation of Medibank, this final honouring of the pledge by the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) to maintain Medibank, forces us not just to condemn the Government’s confusing administration, but also to fight again for the principles which underlay the national health provisions of the Labor Government. [More…]

• The final destruction of Medibank brought about in this Bill has ensured that health will certainly be a major issue in the 1979-80 election campaign. [More…]

• Way back in 1976 the Minister for Health said: [More…]

• On 24 May this year a similar statement was made by the Minister for Health. [More…]

• that health costs must be met by the community by one means or another, either by the payment of taxes, levies or premiums, through direct payments, or by a combination of these means. [More…]

• In the whole of that latter statement the concentration is placed simply on the financial problem, not on the problem which is an essential aspect of this field, of balancing financial costs against considerations about the principles that should underlie national health provisions. [More…]

• Let us admit that there was undoubtedly an increase in the proportion of the gross domestic product spent on health in those years. [More…]

• Firstly, part of that reflected simply a catching up in the health services in this country after the neglect of the last decade of Liberal Country Party rule. [More…]

• Secondly, the rise in the proportion of the GDP spent on health in Australia was paralleled in nearly every Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development country in the mid-1970s. [More…]

• Inflation, wage increases and increased popular expectations all had the effect of increasing the proportion of the GDP spent on health, whatever the type of health provision. [More…]

• Last year the Minister for Health told us that the gross domestic product figures were as follows: For 1974-75, 6.83 per cent; for 1975-76-this is the important figure- 7.38 per cent of GDP; and 1976-77, 7.67 per cent. [More…]

• He increased it by $400m, thus raising the percentage of total GDP spent to 7.84 per cent, which produces the extraordinary anomally that in the following year he was able to reduce the proportion of GDP spent on health. [More…]

• Let me just take what is the latest academic assessment of the Medibank contribution by Professor George Palmer, head of the School of Health Administration, University of New South Wales. [More…]

• On the contribution of Medibank I to health costs he made three points. [More…]

• Above all, we would have remained cognisant of the principles which health provision should serve. [More…]

• In trying to deal with the cost containment problem, it is imperative that we remind ourselves that the national health provision should ensure universality, should attempt to achieve equity, and also should be efficient. [More…]

• The discussion paper prepared for the Government itself entitled ‘Paying for Health Care’ published last year stated: [More…]

• should be regarded as a permanent feature of health financing in Australia. [More…]

• It admitted that universal basic cover was no longer a feature of health financing in Australia. [More…]

• Last October the Minister for Health constantly insisted that a key element of the universality of his national health scheme was the Commonwealth medical benefit of 40 per cent. [More…]

• Last week the Prime Minister talked about a universal health service. [More…]

• However, I think that the Minister for Health is more responsible or perhaps more circumspect. [More…]

• Again, I refer to the discussion paper issued by the Health Insurance Commission entitled ‘Paying for Health Care ‘. [More…]

• The whole private insurance system which will now dominate the market in no way redistributes health costs in a non-regressive way. [More…]

• There is no relationship between health insurance costs and income , in the whole private insurance system. [More…]

• The tragedy of the situation is that 10 years go the Nimmo Commission which began the serious consideration of health provision in this country stated: [More…]

• The operation of the health insurance is unnecessarily complex and beyond the comprehension of many. [More…]

• That is the way we are moving with the health insurance changes that are being made. [More…]

• One of those costs is simply the expensive series of advertisements and pamphlets that has to be provided each year, or every six months in the last year, to explain the new changes made in health plans in this country. [More…]

• Under the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) the Government is continually refining the scheme. [More…]

• I have had a running battle for some days with the Queensland Health Minister. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, in answer to a question last Thursday, outlined some of the desirable features. [More…]

• I hoped that the Queensland Minister for Health would have welcomed with open arms the national inquiry to be conducted into the operation of hospitals and hospital costs in this nation that has been announced by the Federal Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health in my State says that I advocate the closure or the severe cutting back of services in country areas. [More…]

• The Queensland Minister for Health is reported in a newspaper article on Saturday, 2 June as saying: [More…]

• As for claims that I am not helping Federal-State relations, my concern is for the health and welfare of Queenslanders. [More…]

• But I can assure Queenslanders that Mr Hodges’ public statements on health matters will not influence the State Health Department to cut bed numbers or close hospitals. [More…]

• I suggest to the House that that is a very belligerent approach on the part of the Queensland Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Queensland Minister for Health went on to say- and I believe that this is an admission that there is something wrong with the Queensland system, although it does contain some of the better features that I mentioned earlier: [More…]

• We have a team working on an overall rationalisation of hospital and health services for some months. [More…]

• We want to see the best possible value for our health dollar, not only because the Commonwealth is assisting the States by way of a 50-50 contribution for operating costs, but also because it is taxpayers’ funds that are being spent. [More…]

• The Queensland Minister for Health went on to say: [More…]

• In an article in today’s CourierMail the Queensland State Minister for Health, Sir William Knox, told the Queensland people that the national inquiry proposed by the Minister for Health would face strong opposition from Queensland. [More…]

• That view was echoed, though perhaps in a milder form, by the New South Wales Minister for Health. [More…]

• Yesterday the Queensland Health Minister (Sir William Knox) said his Government would resist any moves by Federal authorities to dictate policy on hospital services in Queensland. [More…]

• -As the Minister for Health has said, we are sharing half the costs. [More…]

• The New South Wales Minister for Health, Mr Stewart, was reported as saying that his Government wanted more information from Canberra before deciding on co-operation with the proposed Federal inquiry. [More…]

• The New South Wales Minister for Health asked: ‘What are the terms of the inquiry? [More…]

• I put it to the House that they are public funds that are being expended and therefore everyone, including the Labor Minister for Health in New South Wales, should be concerned. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Government has a right and a duty to ensure that wastage is kept to a minimum, thereby gaining the maximum for every health dollar expended. [More…]

• Sixty per cent of Commonwealth expenditure on health is expended on hospital services. [More…]

• The Federal Minister for Health has announced that a national inquiry will be conducted into the efficiency and administration of hospitals throughout Australia. [More…]

• There are glaring examples of the need to rationalise hospitals, particularly in country areas, where no argument exists for the retention of some hospitals on the basis that people’s health will be affected. [More…]

• Our health dollar must be put to better use and the States must be sensible and assist the Commonwealth to achieve this end. [More…]

• The aim of the Government is, of course, to see that we get better value for the health dollar. [More…]

• The Commonwealth cannot afford to sit back and let the States waste hospital health dollars when the Commonwealth is paying for 50 per cent of the net operating costs of hospitals throughout this nation. [More…]

• The differencial between about $120 and $160 a bed day is surely something that warrants close examination by all who are responsible for health care and our hospital system in this nation. [More…]

• If one looks at the Sax report- a discussion paper on paying for health care which was produced in February 1978- there is clear evidence and cases quoted that where the hospital beds are provided they will be filled. [More…]

• That statement was made at a time when the Prime Minister knew the cost of Medibank, understood the principle of universal health care and understood the method of operation. [More…]

• Some four years later, in May 1979, not even the most earnest admirer of the Prime Minister or the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) could argue that Medibank has been maintained; nor is it even arguable when one looks at provisions in this legislation that this Bill consitutes any improvement at all in our helath care standards or in our practices. [More…]

• This is the fifth major change in the health scheme in Vh years. [More…]

• I remind the honourable member for Petrie of what his own Minister for Health said less than 12 months ago, on 24 May. [More…]

• The Government believes that it would be premature to proceed further with the consideration of major adjustments to the health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Does the Minister for Health now assert that that data base is established? [More…]

• These latest changes not merely reduce the 1975 promise of the Prime Minister to a monument to political mendacity unrelated to any coherent philosophy of health care but are based on one criteria and one criteria only, and that is the failure of this Government to manage the economy. [More…]

• Do not let the Minister for Health or any of his spokesmen pretend that what this Parliament has before it is legislation which is in any way at all related to the establishment of any kind of health care philosophy. [More…]

• In Australia, we have little idea of whether our health and welfare efforts are appropriate, effective, efficient, or equitable. [More…]

• That is a judgment made by a majority of Government supporters about the Government’s health and social welfare programs. [More…]

• In Australia, we have little idea of whether our health and welfare efforts are appropriate, effective, efficient, or equitable. [More…]

• one sees in health and welfare in Australia a system out of control- [More…]

• In order to achieve an efficient, effective national and equitable health and welfare system, it is necessary to conduct on going evaluation … the consequences of not evaluating are possible indiscriminate cuts in funds, indiscriminate handing out of funds, continuance of the present ad hoc decision making process, perpetuation of the present inadequacies in the health and welfare system, and a possible lack of alternative solutions to problems in health and welfare. [More…]

• This Government has changed health benefit schemes five times in three and a half years despite the Minister’s own recognition, less than 12 months ago, that proper evaluation was not possible. [More…]

• It is unrelated completely; it is cant and hypocrisy to suggest for one moment that what we are talking about is some kind of new concept that has emerged out of the primeval back doors of the Liberal Party room where members have worked their way through some health care philosophy. [More…]

• What has emerged is the decision to slash, cut and rend health and welfare policies. [More…]

• The decision to slash, cut and rend our social welfare and our health policy schemes is what this legislation is all about. [More…]

• In more detail, Department of Health spokesmen have confirmed- as indeed, in fairness to the Minister, he has also confirmed- that most medical fees come within this category. [More…]

• The difference in philosophy between the honourable gentlemen on the Government benches and those on this side of the House is that they believe this health care is something that is purchased in the open market place. [More…]

• I stand by the proposition that what this Government is saying is that, if there is a series of treatments which can total up to $450, in relation to a rebate, where previously 40 per cent of that total cost would have been refunded, unless someone is insured and new arrangements are made by health benefit funds, the total cost is to be paid by the individual. [More…]

• All one can ask about that example is how in terms of this so-called health care philosophy, this macabre exercise can be justified in terms of any philosophy of health care. [More…]

• The new system proposed by this Government makes the decision to join or not to join a health fund a bigger gamble than it has been in the past. [More…]

• The National Times, a fortnight ago, in examining the provisions of health care, set out a table which showed quite frankly and openly that it would be against the economic interests of people who were young and fit and healthy to join a fund. [More…]

• It pointed out that the social implications of that was that the health insurance funds would increasingly have to raise their fees to cover the aged, the infirm and the sick. [More…]

• Do they deny that the health insurance funds will have to raise their charges in order to replace the 40 per cent Government contribution on bills under $20? [More…]

• Do they deny that the health funds are already geared to make some increase in contributions to meet the rise in doctors’ fees expected later this year? [More…]

• Does the Minister for Health now deny the strong possibility that family medical and hospital insurance rates are likely to reach over $ 10 a week by the end of the year? [More…]

• I frankly say that in the present economic climate a payment of $10 a week for health care insurance is too much for the average family. [More…]

• A spokesperson who has already dealt with the implications of the health care is Ms Diana Sonenberg of the Western Region Council for Social Development. [More…]

• Ms Sonenburg said: the combined deterrents of inability to pay high health insurance costs or full medical bills, and loss of time from work will ultimately lead to further strains on existing hospital beds and emergency specialist services. [More…]

• There is absolutely no evidence at all to suggest that the fairest and most effective way of containing health care costs is by making the patient pay more. [More…]

• The people of Australia still desire a system of health care that guarantees every citizen, irrespective of income, full access to the best medical treatment for injury or disease. [More…]

• This muddle that we now have before us masquerading as a health care system is the unique product of the Fraser Government. [More…]

• Wealth, age and general health are all ingredients which in the philosophy of this Government make health care another purchasable commodity in the market place. [More…]

• On any view of this concept the people of Australia will reject it not merely because it involved broken promises and stands as a permanent record of this Government’s dishonesty, but also because, from any view of this legislation, what is now being structured as a so-called health program is expensive, inefficient and socially divisive of the Australian people, and a completely socially inadequate response to the health care needs of the average Australian and his family. [More…]

• I have been following with considerable interest tonight the contributions from both sides of the House in the debate on the amendments to the health insurance Bills. [More…]

• One of the things I have been looking for in the debate is evidence of a consensus between the Government and the Opposition parties on the approach to health care. [More…]

• I welcome the claim made by Opposition speakers that health will be an election issue at the next federal election. [More…]

• Can the Opposition not identify that the changes which have been made to the health schemes- there have been several since this Government came to office- have been to improve those schemes and the services provided? [More…]

• What the members of the Labor Party cannot get away from, and I say this in answer to the honourable member for Melbourne Ports, is that when the Labor Party Government brought in the original Medibank proposals it had no idea what would be the escalation in health costs. [More…]

• But, in answer to the honourable member, the best evidence is what happened to the escalation in health costs after Labor brought in Medibank. [More…]

• I want him to know that in 1974-75 total health costs increased by no less than 35 per cent. [More…]

• When the Fraser Government came into office it had to take certain steps to put an end to this excessive cost escalation in health services, so it made certain changes. [More…]

• I ask the honourable member who keeps interrupting me what he thinks is a reasonable escalation in health costs. [More…]

• What does he think the taxpayer can sustain as an annual escalation in health care costs? [More…]

• It is no good arguing like that or saying that health will be an election issue, unless you have a policy. [More…]

• The most significant feature of tonight’s debate, revealed in all its glory, is that the Australian Labor Party does not know where it is heading regarding a national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• I can remember the second series of improvements to the health insurance scheme that were made by the Fraser Government, namely, to do away with the levy. [More…]

• If the Opposition wants to make health an election issue the Government welcomes it because we have the policy and the improvements to the original Medibank program. [More…]

• We are at the stage where we have a rational’ approach to the nation’s health situation. [More…]

• If the Opposition cannot agree with the detail of the amendments, can it at least agree with the criteria upon which we make our approach to the whole question of health? [More…]

• I think health care, hospital care and medical service are important to everyone. [More…]

• Nevertheless I think it is worth trying because I believe on issues like health, medical service and hospital service, the people of Australia are looking to the Government and the Opposition to come up with a proposal, a scheme or an amended scheme, which is within the reach of everybody in the community and which makes full and adequate care available for people whose particular circumstances make it extremely difficult- in many cases impossible- to take out private insurance. [More…]

• I know that this is very much in the mind of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in the course of these amendments. [More…]

• Earlier I gave some figures regarding the escalation in health costs. [More…]

• I seek leave to incorporate in Hansard a short table setting out total community health costs. [More…]

• -At the outset I want to put at rest the assertions of some Government members that the Australian Labor Party is not committed to some form of universal health insurance. [More…]

• That amendment does not state that we will not reintroduce a comprehensive national health insurance scheme. [More…]

• At the top of the page it says that we will ensure access to basic health insurance for all, regardless of income. [More…]

• That certainly means to my mind and it must mean to anyone else in the Australian Labor Party that we stand committed to the principle of universal health insurance in whatever form we decide to implement it in government. [More…]

• The Australian people voted for a comprehensive national health insurance scheme in 1969, 1972, 1974 and, because it was then part of this Government’s election manifesto, also in 1975. [More…]

• Of course, the prime motive of that change was to start the exodus back to private health funds. [More…]

• In May 1978 we saw the socalled health cost control program extolled by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who is now sitting at the table following the recommendations of the Sax report on health care costs. [More…]

• Medibank Standard and the health insurance levy were completely abolished and a 40 per cent general subsidy was implemented. [More…]

• It was supposed to be payable to those outside health insurance and to the health insurance funds on behalf of their members. [More…]

• It was left to the medical profession to decide who was sufficiently disadvantaged to receive the privilege of having their medical accounts bulk billed direct to the Department of Health. [More…]

• The Opposition considers that Medibank is merely dormant until Medibank Private can be resuscitated into a comprehensive national health insurance scheme which the people of Australia demand and are entitled to receive. [More…]

• Hospital charges have been raised from $40 to $50 a day for intermediate ward patients and from $60 to $75 a day for private health patients. [More…]

• What will be the effects on contributions and those who are not currently members of health funds? [More…]

• Obviously, for those who are in health funds the contributions will go up, as I have stated. [More…]

• Currently some 37 per cent of possible contributor units, that is, single individuals and families, are not in health funds. [More…]

• If they do, their standard of living will fall even further, even though their health insurance needs are covered. [More…]

• When the Minister for Health abolished Medibank Standard, I said that it would tempt people to gamble on their future good health and to avoid seeing doctors when they should do so. [More…]

• The Minister has finally created what he has been attempting for the past three years- the destruction of universal health insurance and the creation of a misbegotten inequitable system whereby those who can pay receive the best in medical attention and those who cannot either make sacrifices to see a doctor, avoid seeking medical attention or beg to be treated as disadvantaged persons. [More…]

• Will that many jobs be at stake in the Australian health system if the Minister persists with his attempts to prune payments under the Federal-State cost-sharing agreement for recurrent expenditure? [More…]

• The Minister has also squeezed the community health program- perhaps the only real economy measure that the Australian health system has going for it at the moment. [More…]

• Remember that under the Whitlam Labor Government 90 per cent of the recurrent expenditure of the community health centre program was funded from Federal revenues. [More…]

• While the Minister whinges and squawks about the cost of providing health services in Australia and perhaps, in some way, rightly talks about the $ 1 ,067m that the Federal Government is supplying to the States for hospital recurrent expenditure, in the same breath so to speak, he cuts the community health program by a lousy $ 16.5m to $57m. [More…]

• These moves to downgrade community health centres and replace public hospital beds with private hospital beds contradict the warnings in the report on rationalisation of hospital facilities tabled by the Minister. [More…]

• The report specifically urges the expansion of low cost alternatives to hospital care by offering funds to the States for specific community health centre projects. [More…]

• We are at a watershed in the provision of health services. [More…]

• The Government seeks to contain costs by cutting expenditure in the public sector, encouraging private facilities and destroying national health insurance. [More…]

• We take the other course, the integration of a comprehensive national health insurance with the expansion of community health and medical centres providing a full range of medical facilities by employing salaried staff. [More…]

• Rather than seek to stem the flow, let us offer them decent jobs on just salaries at public hospitals, in community and health centres and medical centres. [More…]

• This is the way to an equitable health insurance scheme and a true national health service. [More…]

• The people of Australia reject the class conscious confusing hotchpotch that now passes for a national health program. [More…]

• I think that health, along with employment and housing, represents one of the basic needs of people throughout this nation. [More…]

• It ought to be placed on record that the Opposition strongly condemns the way that this Government has conducted itself in the health area. [More…]

• Over the 3 1/2 years that this Government has been in power, we have seen three major changes and many minor changes to the health scheme which was introduced by the Labor Government in 1974; a scheme which in 1975, this Government, when in Opposition and when moving towards power, said that it would implement and continue. [More…]

• In fact, we have seen a movement progressively, not always consistently progressively, away from universal health insurance. [More…]

• We have now reached a point where we have returned to the worst days of the 1 960s in which people all over Australia lack the kind of universal health cover which was the commitment, one thought the bipartisan commitment, by both Government and Opposition in 1975. [More…]

• The latest changes in the Government’s health plan are likely to fall most seriously on such people. [More…]

• I would have hoped that at the end of the 1960s we had succeeded in removing charity as the basis of health, welfare and social security in this country. [More…]

• What this legislation does is reintroduce the notion of charity into health care. [More…]

• So that people will, in a real sense, depend on the doctor very often to classify them in a certain way, to classify them as socially disadvantaged if they are to receive free health care. [More…]

• The Labor Party is very strongly committed when it returns to power to moving back to a system of universal health insurance, a system in which people, irrespective of their income level and their health situation, can depend on receiving care at no direct cost to themselves. [More…]

• Under the changes introduced by this Government, those people have no right to free health care. [More…]

• This Government has created that situation not, as previous speakers in this debate have suggested, for reasons of health care or even health financing and insurance, but because it has itself in such a mess fiscally that it is now forced to use the health system as a mechanism for balancing a budget which has proved increasingly difficult to balance. [More…]

• It is very unfortunate that the Government ought to have treated the health system on the one hand less than 12 months ago as a mechanism to reduce the consumer price index and the rate of inflation and now, seven months later, to use the mechanism in this legislation to reduce the public deficit. [More…]

• That has very little to do with the health system as such and very little to do with health policy. [More…]

• No positive policy proposals have stemmed from this Government in the health field. [More…]

• Certainly there have been chopping and changing in health financing. [More…]

• Surprisingly, given the suggestion that the Government is moving away from hospitalisation towards more preventative measures, there have been substantial cutbacks in the community health program. [More…]

• On one hand the Government has been moving against preventative medicine and on the other it has cut back on the institutional systems delivering health care, particularly hospitals. [More…]

• One is aware that a great deal has been said in the report of the committee of inquiry into health costs last year, and, more recently, in the paper presented along with these Bills on the rationalisation of hospital costs about the centrality of the hospital in the escalation of costs in the health care field. [More…]

• I believe that it is entirely regrettable that the Government has moved away from comprehensive health insurance. [More…]

• I think that the Government, particularly in the health care area, is completely without any sense of direction or purpose. [More…]

• It is moving the health system back towards charity. [More…]

• It is interesting to note that in 1971-72 expenditure on health was $2,232m. [More…]

• Last financial year’s health expenditure represented about $504 for every man, woman and child in Australia. [More…]

• In the past three and a half years this Government has made real progress in reducing markedly the rate of acceleration of increase in the nation’s health expenditure. [More…]

• In attempting to control health costs, especially hospital costs, two factors ought to be borne in mind. [More…]

• I believe that these two factors- the variation in State operating costs and some proof of waste in South Australian hospitals- are two good reasons for the Commonwealth’s holding an investigation into health costs with a view to increasing the efficiency of hospital administration in Australia. [More…]

• Clauses 4 to 8 of the National Health Amendment Bill and the regulations proposed to be made give effect to changes which will overcome a particular problem on Kangaroo Island in my electorate. [More…]

• I give credit to the Minister for Health for the fact that when I pointed this out to him he said that clearly those people were meant to be included because they probably incur higher costs than those who live on the land 200 kilometres from specialist services. [More…]

• So he has introduced these amendments to the National Health Act to allow people on that island and on a number of other islands to become eligible for the allowance. [More…]

• The Opposition has accused the Government of having no policy on health programs. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party has had 18 months in which to announce its policy in respect of health insurance, and the silence has been deafening. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party has not officially announced its policy in respect of health insurance, yet tonight we have heard four possibilities in that regard from members of the Opposition. [More…]

• Then there was some talk about the community health program. [More…]

• This Government was accused of having reduced the funding for community health, in association with the States, from 90 per cent to 50 per cent. [More…]

• I pose the question: Should the Labor Party ever get back into office, will it restore the funding in association with the States to 90 per cent of the community health program? [More…]

• I would be delighted to know what is the Labor Party’s policy in respect of health insurance. [More…]

• But I do not see why a universial health insurance system virtually has to hand on a silver platter to every member of the community free health services. [More…]

• Country hospitals will continue to be viable both on financial and health grounds. [More…]

• It is unfortunate that the Government has found it necessary to make a number of adjustments to the structure of the health insurance system. [More…]

• To put the record straight for the honourable member for Bonython (Dr Blewett), there have been two major changes to the structure of the health insurance system and two minor changes- not five as he indicated. [More…]

• However, the Government inherited an expensive open-ended universal health insurance system, extremely benevolent to the rich and low income earners alike. [More…]

• It proved to be a bonanza for the health providers and the medical practitioners, to the pathology and diagnostic laboratories. [More…]

• an approval under sub-section 58e (3) of the National Health Act 1953 is given after the commencement of this section; and [More…]

• is a person whose relationship with the applicant is a relationship referred to in sub-paragraph 58e (3 ) (c) (iiia) of the National Health Act 1 953, the date specified in the approval as the date on which the approval is to take effect shall not be a date earlier than 1 November 1979. [More…]

• I too congratulate the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) on extending the domiciliary nursing care benefit. [More…]

• I also congratulate the Australian Labor Party shadow Minister for Health, the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman), because the honourable member and I spoke to the Minister - [More…]

• 1 ) The National Health and Medical Research Council, (NH & MRC) the national advisory body on health matters, has, through relevant Committees of Council, been investigating this complex issue of the health effects from ambient air pollution since the early 1970s. [More…]

• Among various atmospheric pollutants of potential health concern, ozone has been widely considered both in Australia and overseas: its levels can be taken as being representative of oxidant levels as a whole. [More…]

• Ozone does have certain adverse health effects depending on its concentration in the ambient air. [More…]

• Such health effects may include irritation of the eyes, nose, throat and lungs and discomfort associated with breathing. [More…]

• Attempts to relate the onset of specific health effects to varying levels of ozone in the atmosphere have been made but the difficulty of associating a particular health effect to a specific air pollutant is immense. [More…]

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) long term goal, of 0.06 parts per million for ozone, is, as stated, a long term goal, not to be seen as a level capable of immediate achievement, particularly in the city environment. [More…]

• As Minister for Health it is my responsibility to ensure that any association between health incidence and photochemical pollution are adequately researched. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 May 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 May 1979: [More…]

• -I direct a question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Has this highly successful health care facility given equality of treatment to thousands of country residents, both children and adults? [More…]

• Doctors at Cunnamulla and in places represented by my friend the honourable member for Riverina are not disposed to make long distance telephone calls to get prior approval from the Director of Health in the capital city of each State. [More…]

• I call the Minister for Health, but I require him to keep his reply brief. [More…]

• 1 976- One surveyHealth insurance changes: Completed in 1976, for which the Roy Morgan Research Centre Pty Ltd was paid $ 1 ,500. [More…]

• The purpose of the survey was to determine public awareness of forthcoming health insurance changes and to decide if further paid advertising was necessary. [More…]

• Stratified sample survey of Sydney: Completed but a report is not yet available; carried out by the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine to investigate value orientation and self-perceived morbidity of Sydneydwellers. [More…]

• 1 978- Six surveysPublications readership (two surveys): Both completed in 1978; to seek readers’ views of Animal Quarantine magazine and Health Journal, and suggestions for improvement. [More…]

• Limb reduction deformities: An ongoing survey carried out by the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine; to estimate frequency of deformities in NSW, and identify causation factors. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 May 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) When are the surveys on the environment and work related health hazards of both current and former employees of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Lucas Heights, NSW to commence. [More…]

• The second report, entitled ‘Interpretation of Hazard and Recommendations’, analyses health indices such as sickness absence, workers’ compensation, and premature retirement and death, together with an analysis of the work environment. [More…]

• It will also recommend toxicological and radiological health procedures for adoption by the Commission. [More…]

• The second report was compiled largely by the Head, Depanment of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, aided by his Senior Physicist, Senior Chemist and secretariat. [More…]

• Preparation of the third report which will take the form of a series of research papers in follow-up of some findings in the first report, will also be the responsibility of the Head of the Depanment of Environmental and Occupational Health. [More…]

• I am aware of reports that Mr Ogurtsov is in poor health, but have no information to hand which would confirm or deny these reports. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The prime aim of the health promotion campaign that will be launched in the next financial year will be to improve the quality of health of the Australian people. [More…]

• It was in that context that the Government took the decision to reduce the age eligibility criterion for the benefit from 65 years of age to 16 years of age in the amendments to the National Health Act which were debated in this place only this week. [More…]

• I know that the honourable member for Murray is a member of the Government parties health and welfare committee and that he has a very keen interest in ensuring that this policy is maintained and strengthened. [More…]

• Those aircraft were to be used in the Northern Territory medical and health services. [More…]

• In all recent cases of exotic human disease in Australia, effective detection and treatment have been possible through our present public health systems. [More…]

• Health Insurance Act, 1973 s. 130 [More…]

• Hospitals and Health Service Commission Repeal Act, 1 978 s. 9 [More…]

• National Health Act, 1953 s. 135a [More…]

• Health Insurance Act, 1973 s.106g(4) [More…]

• National Health Act, 1953 ss. [More…]

• Health Insurance Act, 1973 ss. [More…]

• National Health Act, 1953 s. 123 [More…]

• 1) the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child states that the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth, and asserts that a child shall be entitled to grow and develop in health and to this end special care and attention should be provided both to the child and to the mother, including adequate prenatal and post-natal care, and [More…]

• One cannot give an absolute clean bill of health on that because there is no way of checking on some of the things that may have been done by police forces and security forces in the last few months. [More…]

• The purpose of the survey was to gather information not previously available about amputees to assist maintenance and development of the health and welfare services provided to these amputees. [More…]

• Deputy Director General, Department of Health ( Deputy Chairman); [More…]

• Permanent Head (or his nominee) of respective State Health Commissions or Health Departments; [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 May 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) Was there a move to suspend Israel from the World Health Organisation at the recent World Health Assembly. [More…]

• (a) The draft resolution suspending Israel from the World Health Organization (WHO) was co-sponsored by 27 countries. [More…]

• The draft alleged that, by refusing to comply with World Health Assembly resolutions regarding the health conditions of the inhabitants of the occupied territories and because of certain of its actions in the occupied territories, Israel had ‘breached the provisons and spirit of the World Health Organisation’s Constitution’. [More…]

• In the light of this result, the co-sponsors of the draft resolution came to an agreement with Israel, through intermediaries, that discussion of the item on the health conditions in the occupied territories, and the associated draft resolution suspending Israel, be postponed until the next World Health Assembly in 1980. [More…]

• 1 ) Did the Australian Aboriginal Affairs Council agree in May that the Commonwealth must spend more and make advance triennial commitments (a) to achieve the ideal of self-management, (b) to overcome urgent social problems, (c) to provide employment, training and health support, and ( d ) to provide a target date for housing the homeless. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 8 May 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 May 1 979: [More…]

• 1 ) Has his attention been drawn to a report on page 7 of the Australian of 8 May 1979 that the United States of America Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Mr Joseph Califano, has launched a national campaign against alcohol abuse with a counselling and referral service in his own department which has about one problem drinker for every 1 8 staff members. [More…]

• The Director-General of Health, as the occupational health authority in respect of Commonwealth employees, issued a statement on Commonwealth Occupational Health Policy on Alcohol and Drug Dependence in November 1978. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 May 1979: [More…]

• What standing arrangements exist for liaison between the Coordinator and (a) other Commonwealth and State Departments whose programs overlap in the area of pesticide and herbicide usage and control and (b) the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The current Pesticides Co-ordinator serves in an expert capacity on the Pesticides and Agricultural Chemicals Sub-Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• The Government in its mini-Budget abolished the 40 per cent subsidy for health insurance. [More…]

• These are the decisions on petrol prices and the health insurance scheme which is about to commence. [More…]

• The priority given by the Government to the attack upon inflation has been vindicated by the steady improvement in Australia’s economic health over the past three and a half years. [More…]

• In particular, we will restore half-yearly indexation of pensions and benefits; extend the income limits for pensioner fringe benefits; extend eligibility for pensioner health benefit cards to supporting parent beneficiaries; provide grants to voluntary agencies providing emergency relief; significantly increase expenditure on services for families and children; and increase the rates of workers compensation for Commonwealth employees. [More…]

• -by leave-As these new measures announced by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) on behalf of the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) improve benefits for social beneficiaries they receive the support of the Opposition. [More…]

• A moment ago the Minister for Health said that he was pleased to be able to announce the restoration of six-monthly indexation. [More…]

• A few minutes ago the Minister for Health was given leave to incorporate in Hansard tables showing what the benefits, in two cases, would be as from November 1979. [More…]

• But unemployment and sickness beneficiaries do not receive pensioner health benefit cards for pharmaceuticals. [More…]

• I appeal to the Government- I know that it has had many representations, not only from individuals and from our side of the House but also from The Pharmacy Guild of Australia- to try to do something for recipients of social security benefits who are not able to get pensioner health benefit cards and are therefore unable to get free pharmaceuticals. [More…]

• However, following the introduction of the Poisons and Narcotic Drugs Ordinance 1978 (with effect from 29 December 1978) which provides the Capital Territory Health Commission with powers to strictly control the supply, processing, prescribing and administration of addictive drugs, the supply of methadone at the wholesale level in the ACT has drastically reduced. [More…]

• Until the introduction of the Poisons and Narcotic Drugs Ordinance, detailed records of the purpose for which methadone was prescribed in the ACT were not kept by the Capital Territory Health Commission. [More…]

• Uranium: Effects on Health (Question No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 March 1979: [More…]

• Has the Australian Atomic Energy Commission or any other Federal agency established a transuranium register of persons who have come into contact with uranium or its radio-active products so that the long term effects on health can be monitored: if not, why not. [More…]

• The Code recommends continued health surveillance including pre-employment, continuing and post-employment medical examinations. [More…]

• Section 5.9.2 provides that on termination of employment all medical records of an employee shall be transferred to the central health authority and kept for 50 years. [More…]

• Commonwealth and State Government departments and establishments involved in nuclear activities such as the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australian Radiation Laboratory, and State Health Departments. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 4 April 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) What evidence is there for the conclusion in the report of the Committee of Officials on Medical Manpower Supply that past changes in health insurance arrangements and increases in medical fees have combined to increase medical incomes at a faster rate than incomes in the community generally. [More…]

• I understand that the major factor underlying the Committee’s conclusions was the introduction of universal health insurance in 1975 by the Labor Government at that time. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 2 May 1979: [More…]

• To determine whether early retirement affects longevity it would be necessary to compare survival from say age 60 in a group who continued to work after that age with survival from age 60 in a group of similar health at that age and who elected to retire then. [More…]

• 1 ) The principal and most recent source for information on absences from work of males and females for sickness and injury in Australia is a publication of the Australian Bureau of Statistics entitled Australian Health Survey 1977-78 (Catalogue No. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 9 May 1979: [More…]

• Has he evidence that snuff and chewing tobacco are a health hazard comparable to cigarettes. [More…]

• Will he take steps to get a commitment from the States and initiate laws for the Australian Capital Territory to forbid advertising of drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, beyond balanced, factual information approved by health authorities and devoid of favourable image-building or balanced by equal promotion against the drug concerned by organisations promoting the contrary view and at the expense of the drug promoters; if not, why not. [More…]

• Some time ago the National Therapeutic Goods Committee, which is a body comprising representatives from all State health authorities and the Commonwealth, drafted a set of guidelines for the regulation of advertising and promotion of both prescription drugs and O.T.C. [More…]

• For the information of honourable members, I have lodged with the Parliamentary Library copies of the document ‘Proposed Requirements for the Advertising of Therapeutic Goods Recommended by the National Therapeutic Goods Committee, and which the Australian Health Ministers at their August 1974 Conference agreed to take back to their respective Governments’ and of the ‘Voluntary Code for the Advertising of Goods for Therapeutic Use (Proprietary Medicines and Therapeutic Appliances)’. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 May 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 May 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 May 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 May 1979: [More…]

• Several amendments to the Act were proposed, including a proposed health warning on alcoholic beverage containers. [More…]

• Over the past few years, proposals for printing the alcohol content on alcoholic beverage containers have beer the subject of investigation by the Food Standards Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH and MRC) and the Health Ministers’ Conference Working Party on Alcohol. [More…]

• The related matter of printing a health warning (as opposed to the alcohol content) on labels on alcoholic beverage containers has been considered by the Health Ministers’ Conference Working Party on Alcohol. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 23 May 1979: [More…]

• ‘A Chronicle of the Aboriginal Health Programme 1972-1977’, prepared by the Queensland Department of Health claims that there has been a general decrease in the incidence of problems associated with ear discharges at the fourteen Aboriginal communities surveyed in Queensland, but does not provide any figures for all Aboriginal children in rural Queensland. [More…]

• In the 1978-79 financial year, $93,500 was allocated by my Department to the Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement to fund a hearing conservation program administered by the Queensland Department of Child Health and the University of Queensland to provide both a preventive and clinical service to Aboriginals. [More…]

• In addition to this specific project, finance is provided annually by my Depanment to the Queensland Department of Health for general preventive community health programs among Aboriginals. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 24 May 1979: [More…]

• Would this alteration effect a reduction in health costs to the public and the Government. [More…]

• Extension of the referral period, as suggested by the honourable member, would be applicable for only a small number of conditions and could cause a small reduction in overall health costs. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 May 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 May 1979: [More…]

• Has the Health Commission agreed that undisturbed asbestos is safe; if so, if asbestos insulation is disturbed through the unroofing of an asbestos insulated house by high winds, what are the possible consequences to the surrounding community. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 May 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 May 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 May 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) What proportion of the GDP was total health costs in Australia during each year from and including 1 969-70. [More…]

• What proportion of the health costs referred to in part (1) was met by (a) the Commonwealth Government, (b) State Governments, (c) other Government authorities and (d) private sources during each of the same years. [More…]

• The answer to the honourable member’s question is provided in the following table which gives estimates of health expenditure (cash outlay) related to Gross Domestic Product and broken down as requested. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 June 1 979: [More…]

• Details of metronidazole prescriptions dispensed as pharmaceutical benefits under the National Health Act in each of the last three years are as follows: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 6 June 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 June 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 June 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) Has the final report of a project, first outlined in the Annual Report of the Hospitals and Health Service Commission for 1975-76, entitled Health needs in the Fitzroy, Collingwood, Richmond areas (Dr T. Santamaria) been lodged with the Hospitals and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• 1 ) A final report of the project entitled A Study of Health Needs in the Fitzroy, Collingwood and Richmond Areas was not lodged with the former Hospital and Health Services Commission. [More…]

• Registered health funds provide information on membership and coverage to my Department each quarter but as funds are registered on a State basis the information in respect of particular electorates, Commonwealth or State, is not known. [More…]

• 1 ) What sums were made available to each State for Aboriginal health in the form of grants to the States in (a) 1 976-77 (b) 1977-78 and (c) 1978-79 to date. [More…]

• ) What was the total amount of Federal funds allocated to the Aboriginal community controlled health services in each of the States in (a) 1976-77 (b) 1977-78 and (c) 1 978-79 to date. [More…]

• On what basis are funds allocated to the Aboriginal community controlled health services for Aboriginal health and how do the arrangements differ from those funds allocated through States Grants. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 June 1979: [More…]

• A number of parties are now showing interest in the establishment of health maintenance organisations in different parts of Australia, and discussions have taken place between them and Departmental officers. [More…]

• My Department has prepared and revised guidelines on the operation of prepaid health plans/health maintenance organisations; these guidelines have been widely distributed and are available on request. [More…]

• Health Program Grants for Health Services Development Projects have been established to foster such developments. [More…]

• One such grant has been made to the Australian Medical Association (SA Branch) for a feasibility study of the potential of health maintenance organisations in Australia. [More…]

• The changes in health insurance arrangements which will come into operation from I September 1979, with an increasing proportion of health costs being borne by consumers, will increase the incentive for patients to join health maintenance organisations. [More…]

• I am, therefore, hopeful that we will see further progress towards health maintenance organisations being established in Australia. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 June 1 979: [More…]

• What progress is being made with the introduction of a Peer Review mechanism for Australia and what type or aspects of health services will be included. [More…]

• Dr Cyril Joseph Cummins, M.B., B.S., D.P.H., F.A.C.M.A.-Director-General of Public Health, NSW (1959-75); Deputy Director-General of Public Health, NSW (1952-59). [More…]

• Dr Peter Leslie Thomas Ilbery*, M.D., B.S., F.R.A.C.R., D.M.R.T., F.R.A.C.P.-National Health and Medical Research Council, Canberra ( 1 978- ); Director, Cancer Institute, Melbourne (1975-78); Associate Professor of Radiobiology, Sydney University ( 1 970-75 ). [More…]

• Dr Sidney Joseph Krister, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., D.P.H., D.I.H., F.A.C.M.A.-Commissioner (1977-78); Environmental and Special Health Services, Health Commission of NSW (1977-78); Director, Bureau of Environmental and Special Health Services, Health Commission of NSW (1975-77); Regional Director of Health, Hunter Region, Health Commission of NSW ( 1 973-75 ). [More…]

• Health Services, Health Commission of NSW (1978- ); Regional Director of Health (Western Metropolitan Health Region), Health Commission of NSW (1977-78); Director, Children’s Medical Research Foundation, Sydney ( 1966-77). [More…]

• It included interviews and questionnaires to (1 ) new settlers, (2) ethnic and welfare organisations, (3) key organisations in the field of health and medical welfare, (4) key individuals in migrant welfare. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 May 1979: [More…]

• A women’s refuge primarily for Aboriginal women and operated by the Aborigines Advancement League, Northcote, is included in the Victorian program of women’s refuges approved for funding under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• However, I am informed that the Victorian Department of Community Welfare Services, through which Commonwealth Community Health Program funds are channelled, has advised the solicitors administering the deceased estate of the terms of the Commonwealth’s approval for funding of this refuge under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• As the honourable member is aware, Commonwealth funds for the Community Health Program have been appropriated on an annual basis ever since the Program began. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 June 1979: [More…]

• When will the surveys on the environment and work related health hazards of both current and former employees of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission be available. [More…]

• The survey of the health of employees at the AAEC Research Establishment, Lucas Heights, has resulted in two reports. [More…]

• Coupled with the health insurance cost hikes of the May mini-Budget of around 40 per cent, does this mean that we will see a further substantial cut in the living standards of Australian families and further erosion of consumer confidence? [More…]

• Is it also a fact that in the same period health costs have increased by $7 a week and direct income tax has increased by $7.50 a week? [More…]

• Is it a fact that the increase in basic health insurance rates from 1 September will amount to about $3 per week for major funds and to $4 to $5 for insurance at higher rates? [More…]

• Even ignoring the increase in the patient contribution for pharmaceutical items and the extra costs due to the proposed deletion of many of these items from the list, does this not mean that the great majority of taxpayers with wages at or below average weekly earnings will see the Christmas tax cut more than eaten up by the higher health insurance costs alone? [More…]

• -The extent to which individuals are affected by the increased health charges and changes in their take home pay as a result of the surcharge coming off on 1 December will vary according to their circumstances. [More…]

• I make one point to the honourable member for Prospect: To make a straight comparison between the increase in health insurance premiums and the increase in take home pay is to tell only half the story. [More…]

• What the honourable member for Prospect fails to understand is something that my colleague the Minister for Health has said on many occasions, namely, that there is no such thing as a free health care service. [More…]

• Indeed, if the arrangements that were announced on 24 May had not been instituted and the Government had sustained the same levels of Commonwealth subsidy for the health service, it would have been necessary for us to have a higher rate of taxation than will prevail throughout the course of this year. [More…]

• I refer to the secretary of the Voluntary Health Insurance Association, Mr James Mansfield. [More…]

• Speaking three weeks ago, he said that with health insurance contributions for comprehensive cover increasing in some States from $650 per annum to possibly $850 to $900, it had reached the point where the existing voluntary system had priced itself out of reach of the community. [More…]

• Health funds were facing a massive dropout of contributors because health insurance was just not worth the cost for many people. [More…]

• He said health insurance contributions had risen by 257 per cent in four years. [More…]

• A national policy on health with clear objects needed to be designed rather than the ad hoc changes which had occurred as the result of budgetary pressures. [More…]

• That was stated by the secretary of the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia. [More…]

• I think all honourable members know that the Voluntary Health Insurance Association is the lobbying group for the private funds. [More…]

• It is depressing that health insurance and health care costing in Australia are being administered to a large extent by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet rather than by the Department of Health. [More…]

• The other day I was sorry to see that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) brought out Press statement 85/79 which obviously he did not have checked by his Department. [More…]

• In my question I suggested that the increased costs in health insurance alone would exceed the benefits to all those people in Australia on or below average weekly earnings. [More…]

• He said: ‘Well, if you do not pay extra for health insurance, we will have to keep the surcharge going forever’. [More…]

• The Government has what I would call a yo-yo policy concerning health insurance. [More…]

• Last year on an annual basis the Government injected some $650m into the health scheme. [More…]

• The Government has now decided that the money it was collecting as a surcharge to pay for that $650m contribution to the health care system it will now return as a political gimmick. [More…]

• If we look at the cost of health insurance in Australia, we find that it is difficult to judge who is doing the ripping off. [More…]

• Before leaving I decided that whilst I do not have any health insurance in Australia I had better take out some health insurance to cover me while overseas. [More…]

• For $29 1 took out health insurance for 30 days for a $6,000 cover. [More…]

• The term ‘disadvantaged person’ certainly includes people, for example, who are on unemployment benefits or sickness benefits or on many other social security benefits without having the benefit of the pensioner health card. [More…]

• Quite clearly, I say to people who may be interested in this debate this afternoon- and I have said it on a number of occasions- that they need to weigh their own personal financial position very, very carefully indeed before they decide to drop private health insurance or before they decide not to insure privately. [More…]

• Although the Government has withdrawn some subsidy from the health insurance scheme, the new arrangements which come into force after 1 September will be still subsidised very substantially by the Government. [More…]

• From memory, the total subsidy that the taxpayers are putting into health insurance would be approximately $ 1,600m to $ 1,700m. [More…]

• The changes to the level of Government subsidy to medical insurance do not fundamentally alter the health insurance system that was introduced as from 1 November last year. [More…]

• The disadvantaged are protected when the doctors direct bills them to the Department of Health. [More…]

• There is no change to the system whereby pensioner health benefit card holders will be treated for 85 per cent of the scheduled fee with a pensioner paying no more than $5 for any service where the doctor seeks to charge the pensionerin most circumstances he does not. [More…]

• The Opposition’s record in triggering off the explosion in health costs to the Australian community should never be forgotten. [More…]

• Indeed, while I am Minister for Health I will do my best to make sure that the Australian Labor Party and the people of Australia are reminded of the fact that it was the Australian Labor Party that was in government during this great explosion. [More…]

• The Whitlam Government started the spiralling health costs in this country. [More…]

• Those three disastrous years left a very expensive legacy in many areas, but nowhere is it more evident than in the costs of health care. [More…]

• Health costs have to be paid by the community by one means or another, whether by taxes, by imposing levies, by health insurance premiums or by direct payments out of one’s pocket. [More…]

• The health appropriation in this year’s Budget is $2,835m. [More…]

• In the last financial year 86c out of every $1 collected by means of personal income tax from the Australian people was spent to meet the cost of health and social welfare at the Commonwealth level. [More…]

• Yet at the South Australian conference of the Opposition’s party it was proclaimed as a policy objective that a Federal Labor Government would introduce a universal health scheme to be financed by an income related contribution. [More…]

• There is no doubt that a Labor Government would start another great cost explosion in the health area, resulting in higher taxation through levies and so on. [More…]

• The Whitlam Government was elected to office in December 1972, and in 1972-73 the total cost of health care in this country was $2, 505m. [More…]

• When the Fraser Government came to office health costs were exploding at 35 per cent per annum. [More…]

• It was the Labor Government that wrecked the health system in Australia. [More…]

• -The speech of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) fell into the usual pattern of his speeches on matters of public importance. [More…]

• Firstly, in reference to the Whitlam Government’s period of office, it is quite clear from the results of every gallup poll that what the Australian people are now interested in is the health scheme for which the Minister is responsible. [More…]

• After four years of ad hockery- of jumping, twisting, turning and changing the policies- he is completely responsible for the health policies under which we now live. [More…]

• In this regard I refer him to a speech of the honourable member for Murray (Mr Lloyd), who in my view is the only man on the Government side who talks about health insurance reasonably and with some sense of humanity. [More…]

• There is at least one honourable member on the Government side who is seriously concerned and who is not complacent about what is being done to the health schemes of this country for which the Minister is responsible. [More…]

• I think that it is important to see, as my colleague the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) did, this health insurance scheme as part of a strategy now being pursued by this Government to add to the financial burdens of the ordinary people while still conveying the illusion of its being a low tax government. [More…]

• Equally, the excuse offered time and time again by the Minister for Health for health insurance changes is the spiralling health costs in this country. [More…]

• In the case of both the petrol levy and the health insurance changes there is no real concern for the equity problems that arise. [More…]

• Thirdly, the inflationary potential of both the petrol levy and these health insurance changes seems to have been neglected. [More…]

• If we look at the costs that will be imposed on the ordinary person as a result of these health insurance changes and if we look at the situation in all the States- I know that the increases are different in Queensland and that they are very different in my own State, so we have to try to average them out- we find that as a conservative estimate people will be paying an extra $100 a year for a basic cover. [More…]

• Thus the tax relief amounting to $4 a week which will follow the promised abolition of the tax surcharge from 1 December 1 979 will be almost completely eaten up over the course of the year by the increased premiums paid by those who cover themselves with health insurance. [More…]

• The general expectation in the community and certainly amongst the health funds is that there will be some increase in the number of those who simply abandon insurance. [More…]

• Indeed, Mr Mansfield of the Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia fears that there will be a massive drop-out by contributors because voluntary health insurance is pricing itself out of the community’s reach. [More…]

• In many instances people will do this unwisely and problems will be created for them, but they will drop out of health insurance because of the weekly cost burden. [More…]

• Secondly, many young and healthy people will tend to drop out of the health funds, because if people are reasonably young and healthy they will be prepared to take the risk of not paying health insurance. [More…]

• Thirdly, some wealthy people in our community will drop out of the health funds because they have the resources to meet major medical or hospital costs. [More…]

• These are the types of people who will drop out of health insurance: Those who cannot afford it, the young and the healthy, and the wealthy people in the community who have the resources to meet unexpected medical costs. [More…]

• In other words, the whole universal system of health insurance cover is already compromised and is likely to be increasingly compromised. [More…]

• One of the real worries in the community- I think this is why in the latest gallup polls health is beginning to turn up again as a major matter of social concern in this community- is that we are returning to the pre-Medibank system. [More…]

• The whole of the Government’s policy has been to bring the private health agencies back into the centre of health insurance in this country. [More…]

• I have said already that a significant proportion of the population is not covered by health insurance. [More…]

• One of the reasons why we had to alter the health system in the early 1970s is that a significant part of the population was in no way covered. [More…]

• That means bringing most people into the system so that the burden of health care costs in this community rests not on a narrowing group of the sick but right across the community. [More…]

• If the Government survives for more than six months it will have to change its present health policy. [More…]

• -Every nation has problems with spiralling health care costs. [More…]

• Health care is absorbing an increasing percentage of gross domestic product and in government supported health schemes an increasing percentage of government budgetary expenditure. [More…]

• The provision of health care is labour intensive and labour is very expensive in Western nations. [More…]

• There has been an upgrading of the status and conditions of those in the labour force in the health care industry. [More…]

• We have an aging population which requires a greater degree of health care. [More…]

• No doubt, for many people at certain stages of our development as a nation health care has assumed a high priority in their attitudes to expenditure, either personal or governmental. [More…]

• Unfortunately, in spite of increased spending the state of the individual’s health in Australia, and I would say in most Western nations- or the collective health of those individuals, the health of the nation- has not shown any corresponding improvement. [More…]

• In advanced countries ways of containing or attempting to contain health cost increases are adopted. [More…]

• If one looks at the record of this country over the past three years, particularly the government sector of health care expenditure, one sees that the increase in government expenditure on health care in 1975-76 rose by 35 per cent on the figure for 1974-75. [More…]

• Turning to the proportion of gross domestic product spent on health care costs in Australia in the last few years, we see that in 1 974-75 the figure was 8.9 per cent. [More…]

• That amount reflects total health care costs paid by all sectors that contribute, whether government or private. [More…]

• In other words, this Government has stabilised the percentage not just of government expenditure but of total health care expenditure in this country. [More…]

• Labor’s argument about the effect of spiralling health care costs for the average family is obviously wrong. [More…]

• This Government has contained spiralling health care costs in Australia, not just in the government sector but in total health care costs as a percentage of GDP. [More…]

• These transfers may have been borne individually or collectively through health insurance. [More…]

• To my knowledge the figures of total health care costs in Australia for the financial year just concluded are not to hand. [More…]

• No matter how health care services are provided in this nation- whether by government, the private sector, the individual or a combination of both- they are not free. [More…]

• They are paid for by one means or another, such as taxes, by contributions to health funds or by direct payments to medical care providers. [More…]

• If the government commitment to provide health care is open-ended, as it was under the Labor Government, obviously the cost escalation or spiral through the government system, through a tax-based system, will run away even more. [More…]

• Secondly, they have said that the Government should spend more money on health, welfare, education or other things. [More…]

• Obviously in this debate he is saying that the Government should have been taking up more of total health care expenditure. [More…]

• That situation is part of the spiralling alternative health care system that Labor had introduced. [More…]

• Even if Labor in government, as I believe its supporters proposed in Adelaide, were to introduce a maximum tax rate of 75c to 80c in the dollar- and there are too few wealthy people in this country- and even if it brought in a capital gains tax, death duties and a resource rent tax, all sectors of the Australian public would be required to pay more in taxation to fund Labor’s far more expensive health care scheme. [More…]

• This Bill provides for an amendment to the National Health Act to increase the general patient contribution for pharmaceutical benefits, as announced by the Treasurer (Mr Howard) in his Budget Speech. [More…]

• As in the past, pensioners holding a pensioner health benefits card will not be charged for pharmaceutical benefits. [More…]

• Basically, we agree with the arguments as put by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in his second reading speech on 6 June 1 979.I remind the House of the main contents of the legislation. [More…]

• There is a deletion of the provision that if people suffer any illness whatever within two weeks of returning to Australia they have to report that illness to the Department of Health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) announced recently that a new leaflet will be provided, I think in 15 languages, giving reasons why we need animal and plant quarantine in this country. [More…]

• It seems strange to me that when a submission was put to that Remuneration Tribunal this year suggesting that representatives of the Capital Territory- they have three times the work load of other members of this Parliament and have to look after local council and State government affairs, as well as matters concerned with health, education, buses, removing of manure from streets and the like- should be provided with an extra member of staff, we got very little hearing. [More…]

• I refer to the dental health facilities that have been provided under a program initiated by the Labor Government in 1973-74. [More…]

• I regard that as a very serious matter because, as we all know, the costs associated with dental treatment are a part of the national health bill about which this Government claims to be particularly concerned and clearly those costs could be substantially reduced if action were taken at the earliest stage. [More…]

• What proportion of new synthetic chemicals introduced into commercial use in each of the last 10 years was screened for possible health or environmental effects by (a) the Australian Agricultural Council, (b) the National Health and Medical Research Council and (c) any other Federal Government instrumentality. [More…]

• and (5) Agricultural chemicals and veterinary drugs are screened by the Australian Agricultural Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Food additives and poisons are assessed by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• Drug Evaluation Committee and the Department of Health. [More…]

• These activities have been elaborated by the Minister for Health in replying to question No. [More…]

• That this House, mindful of the principles and philosophy of the Liberal Party to assist those in need, is anxious to protect the family and single people in the lower income groups from the worry of bills and charges for medical or hospital treatment due to illness or an accident, and therefore requests the Minister for Health to advise the medical profession that a confidential letter from a local justice of the peace, minister of religion, industrial chaplain or an officer of the Citizens Advice Bureau, Social Security or Welfare or Probation, in relation to any patient, shall entitle that medical practitioner to accept the patient as ‘disadvantaged’ and refer any charges to the Commonwealth for payment. [More…]

• Those policies are ones which are directed to restoring the general economic health of the country. [More…]

• This year, the apple has been not only vital to the economy of Tasmania but also fairly helpful to the health of the nation. [More…]

• We affirm that there should be no discrimination based on race, colour, sex, descent or national or ethnic origin in the acquisition or exercise of the right to vote, in the field of civil rights or access to citizenship, or in the economic, social or cultural fields, particularly education, health, employment, occupation, housing, social security and cultural life. [More…]

• We affirm that there should be no discrimination based on race, colour, sex, descent or national or ethnic origin in the acquisition or exercise of the right to vote, in the field of civil rights or access to citizenship, or in the economic, social or cultural fields, particularly education, health, employment, occupation, housing, social security and cultural life. [More…]

• We are getting less and less information on which to build proper policies for the health of Australian industry, not more and more as recommended by the Crawford inquiry. [More…]

• It was responsible for helping to set up the now successful tuberculosis eradication campaign and it has substantially aided many other projects and organisations including the Bush Nursing Scheme, Aid to Autism, baby health centres, Aid to Spastics and Aid to Multiple Sclerosis. [More…]

• That sector is producing quality of life things such as education, information, health and welfare services and so on. [More…]

• If 30 per cent of those invalided out in 1 977-78 were so invalided on the ground of ‘mental disorder ‘, will the Government require tighter standards of mental health for entry into the Commonwealth Public Service? [More…]

• Standards of health are set down by the employing authority and are carried out by the Department of Health. [More…]

• Obviously mental health falls within those examinations. [More…]

• I do not know that any further action can be taken, but I will consult with the Minister assisting the Prime Minister in Public Service matters and the Minister for Health to see whether I can give the honourable member any further information. [More…]

• He conveniently overlooks that because of those decisions last May all health insurance rates with the private funds will increase substantially as from next Saturday. [More…]

• Both measures together, increased fees and health insurance rates, will cost most families an extra $3.50 a week. [More…]

• Then after being slugged these higher health costs the single income family on average weekly earnings will get an alleged tax cut of $4.50 a week on 1 December- three months later. [More…]

• They will have mostly vanished, swallowed by the steeply rising costs of health care, a cost deliberately determined by this Government three months ago. [More…]

• Those families, if they persist with health insurance, will finish either with nothing or by being worse off to the extent of some $2 a week. [More…]

• The tragedy is that there were opportunities in the past four years to get the economy off its knees and into better health. [More…]

• ‘convivial’ industries (to adopt the language of Ivan Illich) which are intended to promote the quality of life, but do not produce tangible goods or services which are capable of being exported or sold at a profit, for example, education, health and welfare services. [More…]

• The pensioner health benefit cards give age and other pensioners access to bulk billing and free pharmaceutical benefits, and they also generally give access to a range of other fringe benefits. [More…]

• The Federal Government is clearly providing benefits in terms of health and telephone services to the holders of these cards. [More…]

• The Budget, which received ‘a clean bill of health’ in Wednesday’ s Financial Review suddenly became ‘a reflection on Mr Fraser’s credibility in a most damaging way’ on Thursday. [More…]

• For too long we have been looking at the share market, retail trade, profits and capital inflow as the indicators of economic health. [More…]

• When listing these points it would be wrong for me as chairman of the Government Members Health and Welfare Committee not to congratulate the responsible Ministers and the Cabinet on such measures as the reintroduction of twiceyearly indexation of pensions, increases in permissible earnings to retain eligibility of pensioner health benefit cards, the extension of the eligibility for pensioner health benefit cards and other fringe benefits to supporting parents, the increased capital allocations for the aged persons and senior citizens’ programs, the extension of service pensions to all allied ex-service personnel and the accelerated animal quarantine program. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has acknowledged this weakness in his statement in connection with the Budget. [More…]

• The extension in the Budget of eligibility for pensioner health benefit cards to a great many more people will help. [More…]

• They insure themselves for health costs, hoping that they will never be so seriously ill as to recover their premiums. [More…]

• Notwithstanding all the rumoured savage increases in health insurance, in all States but South Australia people will be able to obtain basic hospital and medical cover at a price lower than that which obtained prior to 1 November last. [More…]

• He said that it would cost most people an extra $3 a week or more to cover themselves as a result of the health insurance changes. [More…]

• At one stage in 1975 he said, in the context of discussing the various claims that are made on the national exchequer, that to expect increases in education, to expect increases in welfare, to expect greater health benefits and also to expect tax indexation was to ask for the impossible. [More…]

• It makes no allowance for the added cost of health insurance, nor does it make an allowance for further cost increases in the price of petrol which will flow through Australia as a result of Government pricing policy. [More…]

• In the 1975 Budget Speech I announced that in the preceding year there had been an increase of 7 per cent in real terms in the income of the average income earner, and if one made allowances for redistributional benefits in the fields of education, welfare, health and so on, the increase in real terms was 9.5 per cent. [More…]

• The cost squeeze which I have mentioned is coming from a number of sources and it is reducing the living standards of families because of petrol prices, health insurance and the Government’s incompetence in the way in which it has administered the money market. [More…]

• Similarly, in the case of health insurance, there has been a quite marked increase in costs. [More…]

• The shambles that we now have masquerading as private health insurance ought to be rejected by the great bulk of Australians. [More…]

• The only people who could seriously and sensibly consider any advantage in private health insurance today would be aged people, people with infants with a potential for serious illness or people with chronic illness. [More…]

• The great bulk of Australians enjoy good health; I pointed out at Question Time the figures in relation to that fact, using the Government’s own statistical sources. [More…]

• Basic health and medical insurance costs $104 for a single person and $208 for a family. [More…]

• I serve notice on the Government that a health insurance scheme that will cost up to $759 a year for full cover is inappropriate and quite unacceptable for Australian families. [More…]

• Unless the Leader of the Opposition is prepared to face the consequences of having an economic policy which is silent on inflation, unless he is prepared to say to the Australian people how big a Budget deficit is appropriate, unless he is prepared to come clean about his taxation policies, unless he is prepared to say how much his alternative health scheme will cost, unless he is prepared to cost his job creating schemes properly- in other words, unless he is prepared to match his rhetoric about economic responsibility to show us that he does have some interest in economics and that he can advance an alternative economic strategy, he is simply not going to be taken seriously by the Australian people. [More…]

• Six-monthly indexation of all pensions has been restored; extra income limits have been raised for pensioners entitled to pensioner health benefits; new benefits have been introduced for repatriation pensioners. [More…]

• For example, there will be an additional 1 1 per cent spent on community health this year, an additional 16 per cent on the education program for unemployed youth, an easing of the means test for student assistance schemes, a 45 per cent increase in national drug education and a 29 per cent increase in additional funds for school dental schemes. [More…]

• Members of the Opposition have expressed concern about rising health costs. [More…]

• We too expressed concern about the rising health costs. [More…]

• The facts are that the spiral in health costs started while Labor was in office. [More…]

• The increase in health costs while Labor was in office was 126 per cent in a period of three years. [More…]

• During the last three years health costs have been still too high and have risen too quickly, but the rate of increase has been cut to 26 per cent. [More…]

• The more international tourists that we can bring into these other States the greater the benefit will be in terms of employment and the health of the economy. [More…]

• Clearly, those honourable members who have some views on this matter ought to be given an opportunity to indicate to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and to the Government as a whole what their views are as to what kinds of items ought to be on the pharmaceutical benefits list, how extensive they should be, who should get the benefits et cetera. [More…]

• To put it mildly, it seems extremely discourteous and typical of the Government’s health policy that it should appoint a committee to make recommendations to it and then go ahead and change its pharmaceutical policy significantly a couple of days before that committee report has been received. [More…]

• I was somewhat disappointed at the tone of his amendment because I had hoped that he would have read the Press release of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) the day after the Budget. [More…]

• I would have thought that in dealing with a matter of fundamental personal importance such as health, the Opposition would have been constructively honest and would have detailed the pluses of the Budget announcements in this legislation, insofar as the Government did extend the benefits to supporting parents and their dependants and to veterans of the allied forces from February 1980. [More…]

• I would like to compliment the Minister on several initiatives he has undertaken in the area of miscellaneous health care, the special arrangements for people in hospitals, and the Royal Flying Doctor Service. [More…]

• In this situation I would hope that the approach of offering congratulations to the Minister for Health would act as a further incentive to him to help to overcome what is a very serious problem indeed. [More…]

• I think it is typical of the attitude of this Government to this Parliament that the honourable member for Darling Downs should refer to the Press statement of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) rather than to that twoparagraph insult which the Minister gave us as his only defence in his second reading speech. [More…]

• This Bill, like that speech, is, I think, reflective of what has become the hallmark of this Government ‘s provision for health services in this country, that is, the whole matter is once again marked by that muddle and incompetence which we are beginning constantly to associate with the Minister. [More…]

• This is the second amendment to the national health legislation in three months. [More…]

• Once again an amendment to the National Health Act is done in a rush. [More…]

• I ask the Minister: Are the Australian people to be constantly subjected to a dribble of health increases? [More…]

• Is it a practice of this Government simply to soften up the people to various increases in the cost of health charges or did the Government not know in June that there was to be this extra increase? [More…]

• No taxpayer of course will gain any benefit from the removal of the surcharge until December 1979, but the increase in patient contributions for pharmaceutical benefits and the health costs are of course immediate costs. [More…]

• The new health insurance rates will average between $2 or $3 extra a week apply from 1 September. [More…]

• The Budget proposes, in addition, to limit the range of drugs available under the National Health Act. [More…]

• If we had a Minister who was competent, if we had a Minister who was responsible, if we had a Minister with a sense of vision and imagination about the health provisions in this country, he would have waited for that report- as I will show in a moment, there is no urgency to make these price increases- so that the payment contribution for pharmaceutical benefits could have been measured against the total pattern of need in this field. [More…]

• Unfortunately, we do not have that Minister and we do not have that attitude towards health care. [More…]

• Every health measure introduced into this House by the Government has not been concerned with national health provisions in this country but has been concerned with the Government’s deficit. [More…]

• We could sum up the Minister’s policy over four years by saying that the national health provision of this country has been prostituted on the alter of the deficit. [More…]

• Secondly, it has been argued that somehow this is a kind of balancing act because of the generosity of the Government towards pensioners and supporting parents in terms of the pensioner health benefit card extension. [More…]

• We know that in the area of health, health insurance and health charges the Government has made a whole succession of changes during the period in which it has been in office. [More…]

• If we look at the very brief second reading speech by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) we see that that is again the burden of his argument. [More…]

• Given that the Government has an inquiry in train and, once again that the results of that inquiry are to be released after the decisions have been taken, it indicates that the Government does not really understand and is not really prepared to come to grips with the fundamental causes of health costs. [More…]

• We have seen, in a succession of changes and amendments to the National Health Act, Australia move away from a system of health financing that ensured universal and equitable access to health care to a system in which the responsibility is shifted more and more on to the backs of the individual. [More…]

• The extraordinary thing about this succession of changes that we have seen sponsored by this Government is that it bears no relationship to the issue on which the Government has placed the greatest emphasis, that is, not simply the cost of health to government, but also the cost of it to the community. [More…]

• Even in relation to the cost to government we find that after this Government has been in power for four years, health represents 10 per cent of the expenditures of the Government. [More…]

• The reason that the Government has been unable effectively to restrain overall health costs is that it has been unable to persuade doctors to control the number of doctor-initiated services. [More…]

• The reason that we have this particular increase, the reason that we are to have the removal of the 40 per cent Commonwealth contribution in May, is that the Government is not in control of the critical gatekeepers within the health system. [More…]

• Indeed, that was the burden of the Government’s discussion paper, commissioned in May of last year, concerning the reasons for rising health costs. [More…]

• All through that report it was suggested not that the basic cause of rising health costs was that people were going to the chemist or to the doctor for the fun of it but that it is the doctors who are responsible for rising health costs. [More…]

• It is those entrepreneurs who are so critically important to the health system, who as long as they are in charge of that system, will ensure that costs do not diminish. [More…]

• The insulation of the medical profession from concern about resource use seems to be the single most important problem in Australia’s health care scene. [More…]

• John Deeble, in a review article on health expenditure, has pointed out that between 1962-63 and 1975-76 there was an increase of 20 per cent in the number of patient initiated general practitioner services, but that there was a 300 per cent increase in doctorinitiated diagnostic services and a 52 per cent increase in specialist referrals. [More…]

• It is those people with a vested interest in an expansion of services for the purpose of economic and financial gain who need to be controlled if we are to see some real restraining of health costs in the Australian community. [More…]

• They have not sought to find cheaper and more effective ways of administering health services. [More…]

• They have not sought to review the practice of ordering tests or to make greater use of other health care professionals within the health system. [More…]

• It is this system based on a fee for service which rewards doctors for escalating health costs that must be broken. [More…]

• If we do not tackle this fundamental problem we will never effectively reduce health costs in this country. [More…]

• We may redistribute those costs from government, as we are currently in the process of doing, onto the backs of the patients, the sick, the old and the unemployed; but we will not do anything, fundamentally, to resolve the problems of health costs. [More…]

• Health insurance is no longer compulsory. [More…]

• People, and especially the low and moderate earners, have to pay considerably more in health costs as a result of this Government’s policies. [More…]

• Health costs remain 10 per cent of total Budget outlays but low income people, the sick and the chronically ill, families with high risk such as large families, will be paying a lot more for health coverage. [More…]

• The evidence suggests very few people indeed are prepared to classify themselves in that way even if it means that they are to be paying a considerable proportion of their income in health insurance. [More…]

• Indeed, the Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier this year conducted a survey and found a very high proportion, about 30 per cent, of families below the poverty line were taking out some health insurance and about 27 per cent of those families were taking out full scale health insurance. [More…]

• So people are forced into the situation in which they are paying money for health insurance even though they are only earning $140 or $160 a week. [More…]

• I want to conclude very quickly by suggesting that the approach to the health costs that the Government has taken is not the only one. [More…]

• There are other ways that are likely to result and will result in reduced health costs. [More…]

• I suggest that he has a very high degree of insensitivity; otherwise he would not allude to health costs. [More…]

• It was during that government’s term of office that we saw the greatest explosion in health costs this country has ever witnessed. [More…]

• We saw health costs exploding at a rate of over 40 per cent in one year and we saw - [More…]

• The honourable member interjects but he knows it is only too true that the great explosion in health costs occurred while the former Labor Government was governing this country. [More…]

• So I suggest that honourable members opposite not talk to this House or to the nation about health costs or talk in pious tones about what they think should be done to control the costs in this area. [More…]

• Health insurance premiums today reflect, to a large degree, the damage that the Labor Government occasioned during its three years of office. [More…]

• When I became Minister for Health, health costs in this nation were rising at the rate of 35 per cent per annum overall. [More…]

• Really and truly, to coin a phrase, as Minister for Health, it makes me sick to hear that sort of weak and limp argument, that pious sort of talk coming from a member of the Opposition which has done so much damage to the whole health insurance and health cost area in this country. [More…]

• Mr Hunt pointed out that considerable assistance with health costs was already available to disadvantaged people. [More…]

• I share the Opposition’s concern about health costs. [More…]

• It was a speech that made no acknowledgement either of what has been achieved in restoring the fundamental health of the Australian economy or of the difficulties we are currently facing, particularly the upturn in inflation. [More…]

• The correct view of this Budget was expressed by the initial Budget editorial of the Australian Financial Review entitled ‘A clean bill of health’. [More…]

• That is the way to greater long term health for Australian manufacturing industry, through competitive, technology based, export oriented industry. [More…]

• By various methods it has taken away the concept of universal, equally shared health costs which has been established in Australia for a long period and it is now promoting a position whereby some can insure at a low rate and take a gamble on the level of health that they may enjoy. [More…]

• It means another increase in the cost of health care to the average family in Australia. [More…]

• Today the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) glibly said: ‘Well, the cost is lower than it was in 1978’. [More…]

• It is not lower than it was in 1975 when health care was paid for out of taxation. [More…]

• The argument when it was in Opposition prevented revenue being raised in that form at a lower rate and instead forced expenditure on health care to come out of general taxation revenue. [More…]

• Once upon a time when he went to the doctor the amounts paid for health insurance were a tax concession. [More…]

• The Government’s policy has been vindicated by the improvement in our basic economic health over the last three and a half years. [More…]

• The Government’s Budget has addressed itself to strengthening the economic health of the nation by giving stimulus to the private sector, in which the vast majority of new jobs must be found. [More…]

• Other increased benefits to pensioners are the extended eligibility of pensioner health benefit cards to supporting parents and their dependants. [More…]

• While the Government was stimulating the private sector, cutbacks were occurring in health, education and welfare areas of the Budget. [More…]

• Health charges shifted costs towards individuals. [More…]

• In health, where there has been a 10 per cent increase in expenditure, the changes occur in who actually bears the cost. [More…]

• Community health centres are $ 14m below the 1977-78 figure. [More…]

• Dental health is still receiving $500,000 less in this Budget than it received in 1977-78. [More…]

• I see dental chairs provided in community health centres but no dentists to use those chairs. [More…]

• Banks, building societies and health insurance funds all have agencies in shops and these agencies are paid only on commission for business transacted. [More…]

• Instead of closing agencies, it is in the interests of the banks, the building societies and the health insurance funds to serve their customers as best they can and it is in their interests to have as many outlets as possible. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 May 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) What are the objects and activities of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. [More…]

• 1 ) The objectives of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine are as follows: [More…]

• To identify sources of information on health, on illness, and on health care systems in Australia and elsewhere; [More…]

• To promote health and a better understanding of health care throughout Australia and elsewhere; [More…]

• To suggest innovatory programs which could be carried out on an experimental basis in order to advance understanding of health and health care systems. [More…]

• To teach the understanding of health care delivery systems and their more efficient management; [More…]

• To increase students’ awareness of the basic needs of the community for health, health promotion and health care delivery and how best they can be achieved within the limited resources of manpower, facilities and finance available within a nation; [More…]

• The activities of the School are research and investigation, consultation and teaching in connection with health and health care systems as follows: [More…]

• Research and investigation work covers a wide range of subjects relating to public health and tropical medicine, including studies of biochemistry, cell biology carcinogenesis, epidemiology and biostatistics, entomology, environmental and occupational health, occupational hygiene, health services planning and structures, parasitology, pathology and microbiology, preventive and social medicine. [More…]

• Consultancy assignments are also conducted for the World Health Organization and the Australian Development Assistance Bureau in relation to Health projects which form part of the Australian overseas aid program. [More…]

• Post-graduate courses are held annually for the degree of Master of Public Health with options in Tropical Health, Occupational Health, and Public Health and for the Diploma in Tropical Public Health, and teaching is provided in various subjects for the Diplomas in Dentistry, Nutrition and Dietetics and Social Work. [More…]

• Overseas students, sponsored under Australian overseas aid programs or by World Health Organization also attend some of these courses. [More…]

• Professor of Environmental Health- David Alexander Ferguson, MD BS FRACP; [More…]

• Professor of Public Health Biology- Patrick Macartney de Burgh, MB BS FRCPA (seconded); [More…]

• Associate Professors- Grahame M. Budd, MD BS, FRACP (Environmental Health); David J. Lee, BSc (Medical Entomology); Robert MacLennan, MB BS Qld DTM&H DCH MS Tulane, MRCP (Epidemiology and Biostatistics); Bruce McMillan, MB BS, DTM&H DAP&E Lond., FRACP FRCPA (Medical Parasitology); Peter M. Moodie, MD BS, DTM&H (Tropical Public Health). [More…]

• Senior Lecturers- Thomas K. Ng, MD BS Hong Kong LLB Lond., DPH DIH DPA FIS FHA FRSH MFCM (Occupational Health); Janice C. Reid, B.Sc Adel., MA Hawaii, PhD Stanford (Tropical Medicine); James A. Thorn, MB ChB Aberdeen MSc DTM&H DIH Lond., FRSM (Environmental Health). [More…]

• Lecturers-Robert S. U. Baker, BSc (Hons) PhD W.A., MASM (Cell Biology); Jannette C. Brand, BSc (Hons) N.S.W., (Nutrition); Ian Darnton-Hill, MB BS Adel., DA Lond., Dip Nut & Diet Flinders (Nutrition); Gregory B. Goldstein, MB BS, FRACP (Preventive and Social Medicine); Colin C. Reid, MB BS (Occupational Health); Susan A. Treloar, BSoc Stud (Hons) (Preventive and Social Medicine); Wim Zylstra, MB BS DTM&H Lond., FRACP (Tropical Medicine). [More…]

• (Occupational Health); Gordon J. Lincoln, BSc (Hons) (Environmental Health); Gershom Major, BSc Melb. [More…]

• Other Academic Staff- Alison J. Bellamy, Dip Soc Stud (Social Sciences in Health); Simon F. Chapman, BA (Hons) N.S.W. [More…]

• (Health Education and Sociology); Vera G. Charnas, BA (Health Surveillance); Patricia M. Desmarchelier, BappSc QIT (Microbiology); Christian A. J. Dupressoir, BSc (Occupational Hygiene); William B. Hennessy, MB BS, DTM&H FRACP FRCP (Clinical Tropical Medicine); Kersi M. Meher-Homji, MSc Bombay (Virology); Denys C. Torpy, BA MB BS DTM&H Liv. [More…]

• (Biochemistry); Barbara Field, MB BS (Occupational Health); Airdrie A. [More…]

• Long, MB BS (Occupational Health); Barbara Edye, MB BS (Occupational Health). [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 5 June 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) What is the maximum level of lead in a human considered be a safe level by the Commonwealth Health Authority. [More…]

• and (4) I am aware of the study ‘Lead Burden of Sydney School Children ‘ which was, in fact, part funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [More…]

• I have asked Council to review the subject as a matter of urgency and to advise me on desirable goals and appropriate guidelines designed to ensure the maintenance of proper health standards. [More…]

• A joint working group of experts from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Environment Council ‘s National Advisory Committee on Chemicals, and other bodies, will shortly commence an examination of the environmental, health and economic effects of fluorocarbons and their substitutes. [More…]

• However, the environmental, health and safety aspects of alternatives also need to be considered. [More…]

• The so-called low tax government has achieved all this by, firstly, increasing its income tax on wage and salary earners by $2.3 billion, or 18 per cent more than last year’s figures; secondly, raising $3 billion in selective taxation from users of petroleum products; thirdly, abolishing the general 40 per cent health insurance subsidy; and fourthly, cutting capital expenditure for State works programs such as those for housing, schools and medical buildings. [More…]

• The pensioner health card thresholds for income are $40 and $68 respectively. [More…]

• But the unemployed do not get health cards and neither is their threshold level of income set at $20 or $34. [More…]

• On the other hand, after making a modest allowance for inflation, the Budget gives less to Canberra in total social welfare appropriations, education appropriations, health appropriations, and the construction budget for the National Capital Development Commission. [More…]

• General assistance for the needy and poor has been cut by 23 per cent in Orange County, with a Budget of $43m, 40 social and mental health workers have been laid off. [More…]

• On the question of health insurance, the Prime Minister said, on 27 September 1975: [More…]

• We will maintain Medibank, and ensure that the standard of health care does not decline. [More…]

• The range of drugs available under the National Health Act will be reviewed, with a view to saving $20m. [More…]

• Health costs have increased by $7 a week. [More…]

• It relates to health in New South Wales as applied in terms of the Budget and the stringency of the Federal Government’s determination. [More…]

• I am advised that all the States have received a cut of $54m in health allocation. [More…]

• Health is priceless and cannot be bargained for as a budgetary item. [More…]

• Surely when we look at this situation, we realise that health is a priority that any government must maintain, sustain and improve and that to cut funding in the way we have is utterly ridiculous. [More…]

• We have had four years of slashing of public expenditure and of cuts in education, welfare, health care, urban development and almost every area of human endeavour. [More…]

• But I was more interested in the increases in the income eligibility limits to enable people to get pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition is totally opposed to the transfer of health costs from the public purse to private insurance and an increase from pharmaceutical benefits of some $200m. [More…]

• While paying more for health and petrol and all the commodities which increased petrol prices have inflated, taxpayers will find that they are paying more real tax with less real earnings. [More…]

• So we are left with the situation in which people are not only being taxed unmercifully under the tax scales this year but are also paying an increase in health costs and an increase in petrol. [More…]

• Labor also would introduce a Medibank style health scheme. [More…]

• On health insurance he said: [More…]

• We will maintain Medibank and ensure that the standard of health care does not decline. [More…]

• But because of the cutback in health funds by this Government- [More…]

• Whilst this Budget had lifted health expenditure to a minor degree, the last mini-Budget severely slashed millions of dollars from health funds, with the result that many hospitals in New South Wales and other States will be seriously curbed in their activities. [More…]

• Last Saturday week 4,000 people assembled in the main street of Kurri to protest at the proposed closure of this hospital as a result of the Federal Government’s slashing of health funds. [More…]

• I also feel that the Government, by moving forward in relation to pensioner health benefit cards and expanding the eligibility for them, has taken into consideration that supporting parents, widows and sole parents will also be receiving a number of fringe benefits for which they were not eligible prior to this Budget. [More…]

• The income test limits for eligibility for pensioner health benefit cards had not been altered since 1973. [More…]

• The income test had not been changed since 1973; but, as a consequence of this Budget, the income that one can earn without it affecting one’s pensioner health benefit card has been increased, for a single person, from $33 to $40 a week and, for married couples, from $57.50 to $68 a week. [More…]

• A school in a disadvantaged area of my electorate quite recently had its dental and health services for the children withdrawn, ostensibly because governments were not prepared to provide funds. [More…]

• Under the funding arrangements that we have specially established for women’s refuges, they are favoured to this extent: Community health programs, other than those for ethnic health workers, and interpreters and translators in the ethnic communities, are receiving 50 per cent of the capital requirements. [More…]

• Is it a fact, however, that the rate of inflation for Australia for the period the Treasurer referred to was understated by some 1.5 per cent as a result of the ‘judicious’and I put the word ‘judicious’ in inverted commas out of kindness- rigging of health insurance arrangements by the Government in its previous Budget? [More…]

• The Government has taken action to increase health insurance payments. [More…]

• It has made health insurance more costly. [More…]

• Through changes to the health insurance system the Government has made it more costly for the delivery of health services. [More…]

• Let us examine the projections made by the Treasurer last year, the indices he suggested we should watch in order to judge the health or otherwise of the economy. [More…]

• So another of the kinds of projections made by the Treasurer for the health of the economy in the period 1978-79 was not met. [More…]

• For instance, the health changes which are now being made will have an inflationary effect in the coming year. [More…]

• If there is one major criticism to be made of last year’s Budget and this Budget in terms of the total management of this economy, it is that in pursuit of a cut in the deficit, in adherence to a deficit fetish, the Government through indirect taxespetrol taxes, increased health charges and other indirect taxes- is directly fuelling the accelerating inflation in this economy. [More…]

• Let us look at health, the area under the control and charge, first of all, of the present Leader of the Opposition (Mr Hayden). [More…]

• Over the last three years my colleague, the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), has re-established control over health finances in a very praiseworthy way. [More…]

• The income limits for pensioners who may receive fringe benefits have been extended, and supporting parent beneficiaries have become eligible for pensioner health benefit cards, as is only fair and just. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) told us last month that reintroduction of the original Medibank scheme would cost $400m. [More…]

• The original Bill establishing the Health Insurance Commission provided that every wage and salary earner would pay a levy of 1 !6 per cent of his salary or wage in order to maintain his health insurance. [More…]

• We did not introduce it because we wanted to be bigger in the health insurance field than some of the private insurers. [More…]

• We introduced Medibank because 1.25 million Australians had no health insurance. [More…]

• As its second argument, fancy the Government having the audacity to go to the indexation inquiry and to say to the trade union movement of this country that it can have the cost of living increases passed on every six months but not including health insurance charges or the increases in petrol. [More…]

• Health has an allocation of well over $3, 000m, representing 10 per cent of the Budget. [More…]

• Without trying to cover too many more subjects, I conclude with the observation that here we have well over 38 per cent of the nation ‘s Budget spent on social welfare and health. [More…]

• The other Minister who is very culpable in relation to Canberra is of course the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• There has been some very bad administration, and some very bad decisions have been made which have caused tremendous difficulty in the health services in Canberra. [More…]

• This has had a very demoralising and devastating effect on the whole of our health services. [More…]

• Of course, the Minister will say that we are spending so much and have spent so much on health, that Canberra is well off and all that sort of nonsense. [More…]

• The performance of the Minister for Health has been deplorable. [More…]

• The Capital Territory Health Commission is paying $800,000 a year for services to Australian Capital Territory residents who are in various medical institutions in New South Wales. [More…]

• What he does not realise, of course, is that many of these people are in poor health precisely because of the unreal staff ceilings that have been imposed on departments and because of overwork in various sections of the Public Service. [More…]

• The health of these people has deteriorated physically and mentally to the stage where they have to be invalided out. [More…]

• The survey is being managed by an interdepartmental working group consisting of representatives from the Department of Transport, Department of Health, Department of Defence and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. [More…]

• -There is little doubt that, if large scale humanitarian relief is not provided soon, famine and associated health problems will result in a major human tragedy in Kampuchea. [More…]

• The responsibility for quarantine is within the bailiwick of my colleague the Minister for Health. [More…]

• It is certainly a matter which is under very close surveillance by the Federal Department of Health and my own Department of Primary Industry. [More…]

• We have extended eligibility for health benefit cards to supporting parent beneficiaries. [More…]

• Looking at the allocation for the Department of Health, it is terribly difficult to be sure what is really being made available for members of the ethnic community. [More…]

• But if one looks carefully one finds things like this comment which comes from a Press release by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), who said: [More…]

• The Commonwealth will provide $59.2 7m Tor the continued funding of the Community Health Program in 1979-80. [More…]

• community nursing services), women’s refuges, the training and provision of ethnic health workers, and a new initiative- the training and provision of interpreters and translators to work in health services provided for migrants and Aboriginals. [More…]

• We had to depend upon a Press release to get a bit more detail than that and it turns out that the health interpreters and translators for migrants and Aboriginals are going to be given $940,000. [More…]

• Well, there are a lot of migrants around the countryside who need interpreters and a lot of Aboriginals dispersed all over the countryside, particularly in the northern regions, who need health interpreters and translators. [More…]

• The categories ‘General Projects’ and ‘Ethnic Health Workers’ are lumped together and given the magnificent sum of $48.7m. [More…]

• Depending on one’s prejudices, one might think that is a heck of a lot of money for ethnic health workers. [More…]

• But if one digs deeply one finds that in fact the allocation for ethnic health workers is the miserable sum of $107,000. [More…]

• I am not begrudging ethnic health workers the money. [More…]

• Let me just refresh members’ memories about what ethnic health workers are supposed to be doing. [More…]

• The ethnic health workers would be trained to provide direct health education, preventive, support and counselling services to members of ethnic groups, with particular attention to the needs of women, the aged, the handicapped, those at risk of mental breakdown and those under treatment in the community. [More…]

• We know that migrants often do not know their rights and they will not come forward, so these people have to seek them out- to encourage them to use the health resources available to them. [More…]

• That is, the ethnic health workers- would play a key role in preventing the development of serious health problems and the family breakdown and major settlement problems often associated with them. [More…]

• In this regard the eligibility for the pensioner health cards has been extended to include supporting parents and their children. [More…]

• The basic income test limits for eligibility for pensioner health cards have not been altered since 1973. [More…]

• I would like to cite the amounts of untied grants- not special grants for health, education and so on- that have been allocated to the New South Wales Government. [More…]

• As with previous Fraser Government Budgets, funding which goes to Aboriginal people has been cut in regard to housing, health, education, employment, enterprises, town management, public utilities, cultural and recreational funding, legal aid training and consultation and research- in fact, in every category except for general welfare where there has been a small increase. [More…]

• In regard to health, another area of wellknown deprivation where Aborigines are far behind the rest of the community, spending is down on last year by 1 lh per cent. [More…]

• For the first time there is no funding for health services in the Northern Territory. [More…]

• These funds are now channelled through the vote of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs to the Northern Territory health services. [More…]

• In real terms the Government is spending $7m less on Aboriginal health programs than the Labor Government spent in 1975. [More…]

• It is not as though all health indicators were improving. [More…]

• Our health programs are being cut. [More…]

• Virtually every Aboriginal health program around Australia- run by Aborigines more efficiently than by government departments or private enterprise- is complaining about the cuts and the need to restore the sorts of services that they want to give Aborigines. [More…]

• It is not as though these health services are lavish. [More…]

• If one goes to any Aboriginal health service in Australia, which is run by Aborigines, one will find that it is in modest surroundings. [More…]

• One could make invidious comparisons, of which the Minister for Home Affairs (Mr Ellicott) no doubt will be well aware, with the services in Canberra in things like our community health services or the Woden Hospital. [More…]

• There can be no argument for cuts in the health program at a time when there is an increasing and obvious need, a need which has been recognised at every investigation by every committee set up by either House of this Parliament or anybody else. [More…]

• These particular local authority environmental services are the ones most needed to combat the terrific backlog in public health and hygiene in Aboriginal communities. [More…]

• The 1979-80 Budget provides $10 billion for health care. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and the Government have responded to the need for greater expenditure on preventive medicine and have allocated funds for community health programs and other projects related to health; for example, the sport and recreation program. [More…]

• The funds set aside for preventive medicine are relatively small by comparison with the enormous expenditure on health services and social welfare payments provided in this Budget. [More…]

• In June of this year, the Fourth World Conference on Smoking and Health was held in Stockholm, Sweden. [More…]

• Since the United States Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health was published in January 1964, a great deal of research has been conducted by the world’s scientists and researchers on the links between smoking and disease. [More…]

• The onus is no longer on the scientists of this world to prove the link between smoking, ill health and death. [More…]

• A new report entitled ‘Controlling and Smoking Epidemic’ has been issued by the World Health Organisation Expert Committee on Smoking Control. [More…]

• That Committee comprises such representatives as Dr Coudreau, Director General of the National Committee on Tuberculosis and Respiratory diseases in Paris, France, Dr Nigel Gray, Director of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria who also attended as a representative of the International Union Against Cancer, Dr Loransky, Director of the Central Institute for Scientific Research in Health Education in the Ministry of Health of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in Moscow, Dr Djordjevic from the Occupational Safety and Health Branch of the International Labour Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland and a number of other world renowned specialists in their respective field- not a lightweight committee. [More…]

• That Committee reaffirmed the harmful effects of smoking on Health which had been established in 1974 by the WHO Expert Committee on Smoking and its Effects on Health. [More…]

• In a paper presented to the Fourth World Conference on Smoking and Health by Dr John Donovan, Senior Adviser in Epidemiology in the Commonwealth Department of Health, a reference was made to the increased incidence of smoking among pregnant women. [More…]

• That danger has been simply stated in a poster which was made available to Conference delegations by the Swedish Department of Health. [More…]

• The January 1979 report of the Surgeon General of the United States of America on Smoking and Health shows that the percentage of girls aged between 12 and 14 years who smoke has increased eight-fold since 1968 and that among the age group 13 to 19 years there are now 6 million regular smokers in the United States of America. [More…]

• A survey undertaken by the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia found that 35 per cent of 1 5 year old girls were smoking one cigarette a week. [More…]

• Accordingly, in 1979 we have reached the stage where the necessary medical and scientific facts are available to establish that public health is at risk from the addictive habits of the minority who smoke. [More…]

• Tobacco industry executives attended the Fourth World Conference on Smoking and Health, taking notes, recording every word, every statistic given by the scientists and medical experts of the world. [More…]

• The tobacco industry is the promoter of death, not of activities which lead to health. [More…]

• It is this type of insidious promotion which clearly labels the tobacco industry as an industry bereft of any feeling of responsibility whatsoever, concerned only with earning dollars for its shareholders and not caring one iota for public health. [More…]

• Members will be aware of the sacking of Joseph Califano Jnr, the former Secretary of State for Health, Education and Welfare in the Carter administration in the USA. [More…]

• By the year 2000 we can bring under control what the World Health Organisation called the ‘Epidemic of Cigarette Smoking’ and perhaps by the year 20 15, 100 years after the epidemic first began to spread, we count smoking as no longer a major threat to the health of the World’s people . [More…]

• The effect of such a public health success will be extraordinary. [More…]

• Ours will become a health world; people will suffer fewer untimely deaths; levels of disability and chronic illness in all our countries will drop sharply. [More…]

• Sir George Young, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health in the United Kingdom stated at the conference: [More…]

• We in this Parliament must decide whether we will take a small step to contain public health expenditure. [More…]

• It is no longer sufficient to print ‘Warning- Smoking Is a Health Hazard* on the cigarette packet. [More…]

• It should be stated in large type that smoking can cause death, smoking causes disease, smoking is an unhealthy habit. [More…]

• These might include health warnings on packets, taxation manipulation, restrictions on smoking opportunities, encouragement of the rights of the non-smoker, as well as measures such as are involved in political, publicity and education programmes. [More…]

• To maintain liaison with other health organisations and authorities to ensure maximum effectiveness and avoid conflict of activities. [More…]

• To achieve public health control of relevant industrial and environmental factors which contribute to lung cancer. [More…]

• Australians are angry and confused at the chaos surrounding the health service changes which have been made by this Government. [More…]

• It will increase health costs to families. [More…]

• I would also like to deal tonight with some of the health insurance aspects of the Budget. [More…]

• It was a welcome change to read the Australian Medical Association’s latest Press statement of 31 August, the day before the new health insurance arrangements came into effect. [More…]

• Dr Lionel Wilson who, I think, is from the electorate of Barton and I suppose, to some extent, has been a very vocal supporter and possibly a member of the Liberal Party in the past, had this to say, amongst other things, about this Government and its health care policy: [More…]

• One difficulty is that health care policy has largely ceased to be a matter for health departments and health ministers, who might know something about it. [More…]

• Last year’s health insurance changes had nothing to do with your health. [More…]

• Considerations of health do not enter into it. [More…]

• He said quite clearly that the current crisis in health care lies not in the global amount spent on health care in this country but in the unholy mess that this Government has made of our health care system. [More…]

• I differ from him in only one aspect of what he said when talking about the making of a health care policy. [More…]

• We all know what has happened in regard to the health policy in the last two significant changes, which came in on 1 November 1978 and on 1 September 1979. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) was not even advised of the first change in November 1978 until less than a week before the presentation of the 1978-79 Budget. [More…]

• So much for the making of an intelligent and rational health policy! [More…]

• I do not consider that health insurance per se is the most important aspect of a health policy. [More…]

• It is obvious that health care must be paid for by individuals directly, via insurance or via taxation, or a combination of all three or any two of those methods. [More…]

• It is terribly obvious when, occasionally, members from the other side come into the House to say that there is no such thing as a free lunch, free health care or a free something else. [More…]

• Let us look at the proportion of health expenditure paid by the Commonwealth, by State and local governments and by private sources. [More…]

• If we deal with the proportion of expenditure on medical services- the others were health services in toto- we see that before Medibank the Commonwealth proportion was 46 per cent, went up to 91 per cent of total expenditure during Medibank and then dropped to 34 per cent in 1977-78 after Medibank. [More…]

• 1 think that these are important figures for people who want to come to some sort of rational conclusion what to do about the health system. [More…]

• The Labor Party believes, and I think that most people now agree, that adequate health care is a right in a country like Australia and that the basic costs should be shared between the sick and the healthy. [More…]

• Of course, that is a feasible proposition when one wants to pay for it by taxation, by which the cost is obviously shared by the sick and the healthy, or when one tries to introduce compulsory insurance where again the risk is spread. [More…]

• One who earns more should pay a greater proportion of health costs, as they do for lots of other services in the community such as the provision of roads, education, the police force or anything else. [More…]

• We believe that the public should have the choice between health care provided by health professionals, remunerated on a fee for service basis, on a salary basis, on a sessional fee basis, on a capitation fee basis fee or a capitation fee plus bonus basis, which of course is the basis of the health maintenance organisations. [More…]

• I would emphasise that for three years the present Government has played yo-yo with health insurance. [More…]

• I emphasise that it injected $665m into health care. [More…]

• In fact, the Minister for Health, in his latest statement, which I do not have with me, basically agrees with that estimate. [More…]

• I emphasise that Commonwealth Government expenditure in this year on medical and health services will be $3, 165m. [More…]

• The Minister for Health, in a statement which I think was delivered in July, said that the cost of reintroducing Medibank would be $700m. [More…]

• I think that the figure of $3 50m mentioned by the Minister for Health in his latest statement was closer to the real figure. [More…]

• It is difficult to forecast the exact figure because it depends on how many people take advantage of the subsidised health benefits available for a larger number of pensioners from the beginning of next year. [More…]

• It has already been estimated that some additional 25,000 pensioners plus 5,000 dependants will now qualify for pensioner health benefit cards as a result of budgetary changes. [More…]

• There are two general lessons I want to draw from this debate on the economic health of South Australia. [More…]

• Health costs increases are the same no matter what a person’s income is. [More…]

• He pays the same for health insurance whether he is on the minimum wage or whether he earns $100,000 a year. [More…]

• Therefore, the increase in health costs impinges most heavily on lower income earners. [More…]

• It is done by increasing prices substantially; it is done by increasing the price of petrol, health costs and a whole load of imported materials and goods. [More…]

• The same situation applies to health costs. [More…]

• On top of that we have to bear in mind the fact that the increased health costs will take away from people any reduction in tax to which they might be entitled after December before they even get it. [More…]

• According to Labor, more money should be spent on education, regional development, health, welfare, the States, and a hundred relatively smaller items. [More…]

• This year the Government has brought in one other innovation, that of extending eligibility for a pensioner health benefits to supporting parents. [More…]

• Spiralling health costs have added to their burden. [More…]

• The Budget further extended eligibility for pensioner health benefit cards to those receiving the supporting parent benefit. [More…]

• In many cases they could be worth more because of the actions of local councils and owners of private businesses, such as cinemas, in extending other benefits to people who hold pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• It is estimated that some 56,000 supporting parents with 96,000 children will qualify for pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• As a result their health costs will be reduced significantly. [More…]

• The Pharmacy Guild of Australia was critical of the Government for increasing the patient contribution on pharmaceuticals dispensed under the National Health Scheme. [More…]

• Using 1975-76 dollars, community health facilities and services this year have been cut by $ 14.8m. [More…]

• In 1975-76 the percentage of national health expenditure paid by the Commonwealth Government was 48 per cent. [More…]

• Firstly, from this month onwards for the first time in the Vh years since this government came to power people will find that they are paying the highest fees they have ever paid in Australia for health insurance. [More…]

• We can expect next year that health insurance costs will go up again when the Government changes the $20 limit on medical fees or the provision of free accommodation in public wards in hospitals. [More…]

• -No, I do not take exception to it, although I appreciate the respect of the Minister for Health in drawing your attention to it. [More…]

• What does the Government mean by that, that it would discount for oil price increases, for increases in other indirect taxes, for health costs, for tariff increases, for devaluation? [More…]

• Australian Health Survey 1977-78 [More…]

• NSW Health Care Survey 1 975 [More…]

• The surveys listed in ( 1 ) above are used to obtain information on subjects such as employment, health care needs, and housing, for use by Commonwealth, State and Local Government Authorities, industry associations and the public. [More…]

• In the course of the Government’s making its decisions in August 1977 and subsequently, my colleagues the Minister for Industrial Relations, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister for Health and the then Minister for the Environment and I held discussions with Mr Hawke, Mr John Ducker, Mr Bill Kelty and Mr Peter Cook. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health read the advice given to the public as to what they should do regarding health insurance as from 1 September? [More…]

• The article overlooks the two very important factors regarding health insurance. [More…]

• People insure against the loss of property and they insure themselves against health costs for fear that they may have quite a considerable run of medical or hospital expenses. [More…]

• Nobody can guarantee that they will enjoy good health. [More…]

• Uninsured people who become seriously or chronically ill could be up for out of pocket medical expenses of a considerable magnitude unless they are classified as disadvantaged or they are pensioners with pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Has the working party that was set up to monitor the bulk billing by doctors of disadvantaged persons’ medical accounts to the Department of Health reported to the Minister or the Government? [More…]

• A further review will be undertaken during the month of November to ascertain how the scheme is working in the light of the changes to the health insurance system applying from1st September this year. [More…]

• The Government has been concerned in this area as in other important areas of potential redistribution, such as education, health and welfare, on the one hand to reduce the total volume of funds available and on the other to seek to ensure that the money that is spent is spent basically on behalf of its natural constituency, that is, on behalf of the better off, the more affluent or, if you like, the middle class. [More…]

• The Government has been transferring health costs from the public sector to the private sector. [More…]

• Rather than require the affluent to pay for health costs, the Government has sought to ensure as far as possible that the poor pay for their health needs and the sick pay for the sick. [More…]

• It also follows the recent suicide of Jean Seberg, the American actress, whose health deteriorated as a result of alleged persecution by a similar organisation in the United States. [More…]

• Age pensioners have a rough time of it, for sure; but at least they are means tested from a base level of $20 for single pensioners and $34 for married couples and they have health cards. [More…]

• Does the Minister for Health recall that in a Press statement of 20 July this year he stated that the reintroduction of Medibank in its original form would cost an extra $400m, that in a speech on 22 August, as recorded at page 450 of Hansard, he stated that it would cost an extra $500m, and that the Prime Minister stated on 1 1 September, as recorded at page 936 of Hansard, that it would cost an extra $600m? [More…]

• For instance, if it was reintroduced by a Labor government the sky could be the limit because undoubtedly it would fail to introduce the sorts of checks and brakes that we have introduced into the health insurance system to reduce the rate of acceleration of health costs. [More…]

• When I became Minister for Health- [More…]

• He does not know whether his Party will embrace a universal health insurance scheme. [More…]

• Nobody in the community now would agree that there is such a thing as free health care. [More…]

• The Australian people will pay for health care by one means or another. [More…]

• If we do return to the sort of universal health insurance scheme that was inherent in Medibank the Australian people will pay dearly and the medical profession, the providers of health care, will be the greatest winners in the community. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Has the Austraiian Council on Hospital Standards refused to accredit the Woden Valley Hospital, which is situated in the electorate of the honourable member for Canberra? [More…]

• This is a matter of great concern to the Capital Territory Health Commission and to the people of the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]

• I have had discussions with the Chairman of the Commission and I would want to see the Capital Territory Health Commission take whatever action was necessary in order to bring the Capital Territory hospitals up to the standards that have been laid down by the Australian Hospital Association and the body that has joined it in carrying out accreditation examinations. [More…]

• It may be necessary to give consideration to the restructuring of the Capital Territory Health Commission itself. [More…]

• That being the case, it places a great degree of urgency upon the Capital Territory Health Commission to ensure that the hospitals in the Australian Capital Territory actually reach the standards that have been set by the accreditation body. [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health and I do so as a result of his rhetorical concern to keep down health costs. [More…]

• In view of the fact that $593m and $75m respectively are involved in these areas of expenditure, will the Minister order an urgent review of his Department’s methods to prevent both private hospitals and health insurance funds from further ripping off the taxpayer? [More…]

• As Minister for Health I will be directing my attention to those areas where the Auditor-General thinks there could have been a deficiency. [More…]

• But just let me remind the honourable gentleman that prior to my becoming Minister for Health there were no such things as medical committees of inquiry with the States, although provision was made for them and the legislation was introduced by the former Government. [More…]

• Just as we are attempting to overcome the inefficiencies within the hospitals system, if there are inefficiencies in the way in which I administer the Department of Health I will seek to overcome them. [More…]

• None of these is contemplated within our present ASIO Bill although I am firmly of the belief that all Australians should be possessed of some form of identification or social security number, as is the situation in the United States, in order to prevent the abuses under our Government’s welfare and national health programs, but that is not related to the security of our country. [More…]

• Today the people have education, health care and adequate diet. [More…]

• Uranium: Effects on Health (Question No. [More…]

• The Code of Practice on Radiation Protection in the Mining and Milling of Radioactive Ores, 1975, prepared by my Department is at present being adopted for inclusion in the Environmental Protection (Nuclear Codes) Bill 1978 which is the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Science and the Environment The Code recommends continued health surveillance including pre-employment, continuing and post-employment medical examinations. [More…]

• Section 5.9.2 provides that on termination of employment all medical records of an employee shall be transferred to the central health authority and kept for 50 years. [More…]

• Commonwealth and State Government departments and establishments involved in nuclear activities such as the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australian Radiation Laboratory, and State Health Departments would be a massive undertaking. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: In view of the estimated 3,500 deaths in Australia in 1977 attributable to alcohol, does he support the recent introduction of low alcohol beer into New South Wales? [More…]

• Both my Department and I as Minister for Health welcome the introduction of low alcohol content beers in Australia. [More…]

• The amendments will: require a commissioner to consult with his deputy president before making or varying an award relating to wages and conditions; prohibit the Commission from ordering, recommending or sanctioning in any way, an employer paying wages to an employee for time when the employee was engaged in industrial action; provide for the expeditious hearing of stand-down applications, either before a single member of the Commission or a full bench; provide that the question of whether an industrial dispute exists may be the subject of a reference to a full bench; enable an industrial dispute or part of an industrial dispute to be referred to a full bench at the conciliation state; reinforce the powers of the President of the Commission by enabling him to withdraw a matter from another member of the Commission and either deal with it himself or refer the matter in a full bench; and provide increased protection for the community by creating an alternative path to the deregistration of organisations and thereby remove delays in the deregistration process in cases where the safety, health or welfare of the community are put at risk by industrial action. [More…]

• The Government does not believe that any member of our community, whether a direct participant in industrial relations or not, should have to put up with tactics which threaten their health, safety or welfare. [More…]

• We will not stand by and watch while individual Australians are denied their right to obtain goods and services affecting their safety, health or welfare. [More…]

• The Government believes that the present deregistration provisions are not adequate to deal with the special circumstances where organisations, or sections of them, endanger the safety, health or welfare of Australian families. [More…]

• The Minister may apply to a full bench of the Commission for a declaration that industrial action by an organisation or a group of its members has had, is having, or is likely to have, a substantial adverse effect on the safety, health or welfare of the community or a part of the community. [More…]

• These new provisions are designed specifically to protect the job security, safety, health or welfare of Australian men and women and their families. [More…]

• A union dispute on the waterfront about a vessel being a health hazard because it had not been fumigated could be interpreted by somebody to be in some way, remote as the dispute may be from subversive activity, to be hindering the performance of the Defence Force because the vessel is being used for carrying supplies somewhere up north. [More…]

• Department of Health [More…]

• Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs: Reports on Alcoholism and Health (Question No. [More…]

• The recommendations in the Committee’s Report on Aboriginal Health are being discussed in detail with State health authorities and the Aboriginal Medical Services, and with the Department of Health and other Commonwealth Departments. [More…]

• One hears a lot of criticism of the cost of health services and the cost of contributions if one is fully covered in a medical fund. [More…]

• One can completely cover one’s family under a health scheme for all eventualities for less than $ 1 ,000 a year. [More…]

• I rate health and education as being pretty equal basic needs in this community and pretty equal basic rights. [More…]

• He presided over social security during the important period of Labor’s three-year term when social welfare benefits and costs rose from $2,099.7m to $5,077.4m and when the Commonwealth taxpayers’ expenditure on health rose from $783.2m to $2,952.7m. [More…]

• How can I trust my New South Wales counterpart, the New South Wales Minister for Health, when he says that he wants an additional $lm for community health projects in that State? [More…]

• When it comes to policy areas, such as health insurance policy, the Opposition is in total confusion. [More…]

• At that time the shadow Minister for Health- the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman)- presented a policy for a universal health scheme financed by an income-related contribution. [More…]

• So what he said, really, was that a Labor government would introduce a universal health scheme financed by a tax or levy. [More…]

• It is obvious that he is not completely satisfied that a return to a universal health insurance scheme such as the previous Medibank scheme would be good for Australia. [More…]

• In fact he probably has a sneaking suspicion that if a Labor government were to restore that type of health insurance scheme the medical profession would have a capacity to withdraw subsidy from it quicker than a government would have a capacity to pour money into the system. [More…]

• I think there is a high degree of doubt on the part of the honourable member for Prospect about the wisdom or the desirability of a reintroduction of that form of expensive health insurance. [More…]

• The great cost explosion that has been associated with health insurance generally needs to be taken into account. [More…]

• The Labor record in health, for which the Leader of the Opposition had an important responsibility, is more than typical of its record of wanton irresponsibility. [More…]

• I refer for instance to the open-ended hospital cost sharing agreements with the States; the absence of medical services committees of inquiry in each State; the unbelievable 94.4 per cent increase in doctors fees for benefit purposes; the frauds; the rip-offs and the great health cost explosion. [More…]

• During Labor’s term of office total health costs exploded from $2,505m to $5,660m. [More…]

• If people complain about the high cost of health insurance premiums they need to remember that they are paying a high price for the Labor years of extravagance. [More…]

• Health costs accelerated at the following annual rates: During the first year of the term of office of the Labor Government health costs rose by 20 per cent; in the second year they rose by 36.6 per cent and in the third year they rose by 37.7 per cent. [More…]

• Of course we all welcome the increased accessibility of over 200,000 pensioners and their dependants to health benefit cards. [More…]

• I think it is interesting that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) attacked the Australian Labor Party for not presenting alternative policies but was unable to find things in his own Government’s policies to talk about during his speech. [More…]

• If I had his record in the health field I would not want to talk about health either, especially my own record. [More…]

• It surprises me that a Minister of the Crown in charge of health would stand up in the House and say that the medical profession in Australia cannot be trusted; that the medical profession would rort a scheme which guaranteed Australian’s health care when needed. [More…]

• I think Australians would also have been surprised to hear the Minister say that those persons who are disadvantaged are now in such a situation, because of his Government’s three years in office, that he feels it is necessary to seek assistance for them in obtaining drugs that they need for their health. [More…]

• The Minister for Health talks about his achievements in health. [More…]

• It is not surprising that the cost of health care rose during the period 1972-75 when the Labor Government was in office. [More…]

• The Labor Government moved to cover the two million persons in Australia- I repeat two million persons in Australia- who, because of the cost of private insurance and because of their inability to meet those costs, were not covered at all and depended upon their good health or, when sick, upon charity for the cost of their health care should that care become available. [More…]

• There were millions of dollars outstanding in unpaid health care; health care that people had to have but could not afford. [More…]

• It is a situation which the Minister is proud to announce we are returning to, one where health care is available to those who are sufficiently wealthy to be able to afford it; health care insurance based on the risk that one will remain healthy. [More…]

• There is no suggestion now by this Government, as there was prior to 1972, that universal health care by private insurance should exist. [More…]

• We do not even have a pretence that there should be some contribution from all Australians- in accordance with their ability to pay- towards the provision of health care services. [More…]

• There is no suggestion that a minimum level of insurance is not only desirable but also should be required as part of the normal attitude of a society which I would hope would be charitable enough to believe that people who are in ill-health, who are sick, are entitled to expect treatment. [More…]

• How many members in the House now who were members in 1973-74 remember the present Minister, then the shadow spokesman for health, and other members of the present Government, sitting at the back with representatives of the Australian Medical Association, plotting to ensure that Medibank was not introduced, and arranging the voting in the Senate against the introduction of a levy to offset the Medibank payments. [More…]

• In adding up the figures for health care it is convenient to forget that the figures transferred from taxation have been transferred to compulsory contributions or contributions to health care organisations in order that adequate cover may be available to those people concerned about their health. [More…]

• Health is one of those areas where one is entitled to expect care; where that care should be available in accordance with one’s needs and the need for treatment, irrespective of one’s income or capacity to meet the financial costs. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has just made a full speech in which he told the Parliament that he was upset about the Labor Party’s policy on health, when he himself has introduced in Australia a situation where no greater confusion on health care has ever existed and no lesser cover has ever been available to those who are sick since health was accepted in this country as a government responsibility. [More…]

• Since it returned to office it has used the health system of Australia for any reason other than the delivery of health services. [More…]

• But the unstated assumption of all that Beveridge said was that there had to be transfers within society, whether within a health system- of which the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) would be aware- or within a social security system. [More…]

• From time to time I have heard leaders of the Opposition say: ‘We do not want the young and the healthy to insure; we want them to pull out of insurance.’ [More…]

• The proposition that has been put forward from time to time- namely, to pull the young and the healthy out of the health insurance system- is an abuse not only of Beveridge ‘s principles but also of reasonable principles of social justice. [More…]

• That included precise programs for the aged and others in which the aged share, such as the health program in which the Minister for Health, who is at the table, has some interest In 1979 that figure is just on 19 percent. [More…]

• That will include explicit programs, such as aged pensions and aged persons’ hostels, and other programs in which the aged share, such as the general hospital and health program. [More…]

• Anyone can pick up and use the word said by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in relation to his opposition to what the Liberal Party of Australia is doing in Queensland. [More…]

• The Government ought to issue health cards to the unemployed. [More…]

• Oil price increases yet to flow through to the consumer price index will probably show a full percentage point increase in the CPI; the changes in health charges will undoubtedly cost the December CPI another 1 per cent. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 12 September 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 13 September 1979: [More…]

• In view of the findings of this study on the adverse effects of lead in petrol on the health of schoolchildren, what action has he taken or will he take to ensure the implementation of each of these recommendations. [More…]

• 1 ) and (2) This report, which was financed in part by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH and MRC) has been drawn to my attention and has also been studied by my Department. [More…]

• On receipt of this advice I will be in a better position to indicate desirable goals and appropriate guidelines designed to ensure the maintenance of proper health standards and to protect Australians from the adverse effects detailed in the report. [More…]

• It might be a little presumptuous or even a little premature to make suggestions at this stage about next year’s Budget, but I have written to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) about matters that could be included in the better health program that he is currently preparing. [More…]

• I congratulate the Minister for preparing a better health program. [More…]

• I think all of us in this country are concerned about the escalation of health costs. [More…]

• The better health program is designed to introduce a program of preventive medicine that will not only improve the health of the nation but will also have a substantial effect in reducing health costs in this country. [More…]

• I put it to the Minister that one of the ways in which preventive medicine and a better health program could be introduced is by encouraging sport and recreation. [More…]

• All of us need to recognise that if a high degree of physical fitness in the community could be encouraged it would without doubt have a substantial effect in reducing health costs and the demand on health services. [More…]

• I put it to the Minister for Health that among the things that need to be considered in his better health program is the reintroduction of the Commonwealth assistance for leisure facilities. [More…]

• I strongly recommend that to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Pensioners remember only too well what inflation meant to them when they saw their pensions being gradually eroded by higher and higher inflation, and they welcomed enormously the increased limits for the receipt of pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• That Ordinance prohibits private abortion clinics by confining abortions to hospitals run by the Capital Territory Health Commission. [More…]

• I notice that Sir William Knox, the Health Minister in Queensland, has announced that the Queensland Government intends to introduce similar provisions and to close down a private clinic in Brisbane which has been established by Dr Peter Bayliss, a co-proprietor with Dr Bertram Wainer of the Melbourne-based Fertility Control Clinic. [More…]

• It was not properly insured so a generous Department of Health- under a previous Federal Government, the Labor Government- gave it a grant of $80,000. [More…]

• 1 ) Statistical information on the incidence of asbestosrelated disease is available from the New South Wales Dust Diseases Board, Victorian Health Commission and the Western Australian Department of Public Health. [More…]

• Factories (Health and Safety- Asbestos Processes) Regulation, 1977. [More…]

• South Australian Industrial Code Regulations under the Industrial Safety, Health and Welfare Act, Section 39, (1972-78). [More…]

• For many years my Department has conducted applied research on the estimation of airborne asbestos dust, the results of which are to be found in the National Health and Medical Research Council publication ‘Membrane Filter Method for Estimating Airborne Asbestos Dust’. [More…]

• More recently my Department has set up a Mesothelioma Registry at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. [More…]

• There is some comment about the state of health of Mr Allan Walsh who unfortunately is a very sick man, having had a stroke some years ago. [More…]

• There was a realisation that no population program should be considered from policies and plans of health, housing, education, employment, the environment and the use of resources. [More…]

• We will need also a major expansion of preventive health and medical care and the family planning services linked with them. [More…]

• It commenced by saying that we should work towards, firstly, placing a ceiling on selected prices, from hospital costs to gas, oil and basic food items such as bread and milk; secondly, we ought to expand our supplies of basic commodities such as housing by way of selected mortgage assistance, conservation of synthetic fuels, the introduction of consumer co-operatives, family farm aid and more direct marketing of food; and thirdly, we should establish new public- not governmentinstitutions such as energy corporations and health maintenance institutions to force the big corporations to compete both openly and more efficiently. [More…]

• Most of the Government’s expenditure where the cuts are going to be applied is in the area of health services, social services generally, pensions, unemployment benefits and so on. [More…]

• In changes to the health scheme, the cost of health care is going to rise dramatically if people continue to insure themselves in the way that the Government is exhorting them to do. [More…]

• I add that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) gets almost apoplectic when we suggest that in view of the changes that have been made to the health scheme, the community is now back to where it was before Medibank was even thought of. [More…]

• It was the Nimmo committee report, set up by a Liberal government, which highlighted the deficiency of the voluntary health insurance system. [More…]

• They just took the punt that they would stay healthy. [More…]

• The standards of health care in public hospitals are better than anywhere else. [More…]

• Now we find that after all the changes to the health scheme and the comings and goings, the people in the better off section of the community, in the age group from 15 to 50, the healthy members of the community, are now contemplating quite seriously taking the same risk. [More…]

• If one insures in order to get value for money in their terms- it is no good arguing the matter that people ought to insure- in my view it would be far better if those people paid the taxes necessary to provide the health scheme. [More…]

• Clearly the healthy section of the population is not going to do that. [More…]

• That was simply an elaboration on the health cost argument. [More…]

• For those good people who feel that they must insure themselves, and do so, the increased health costs will represent a very serious drain on their income and they are going to have less to spend and they will, in turn, buy less. [More…]

• Similarly, the health arrangements once were much more generous from the Commonwealth to the public. [More…]

• Now the public has to pay all of the costs, whether by way of weekly tax or to some health insurance fund. [More…]

• Therefore, in respect of health, the Government has tried to shift these taxes out of the Budget structure. [More…]

• One could refer to the measures in relation to health. [More…]

• There will be additional health charges on the individual, through health insurance, of up to $3.50 per family. [More…]

• Furthermore, one can argue that measures in this Budget, particularly in relation to petrol prices and health, will facilitate and stimulate a fresh outbreak of inflation. [More…]

• Four States and the Northern Territory have accepted the Commonwealth’s offer of 100 per cent funding in 1979-80 for the employment of additional ethnic health workers under the Community Health Program. [More…]

• In addition, a Government initiative closely associated with the spirit of the Galbally report, but which goes beyond the recommendations of that report, is the Commonwealth’s invitation to the State and Northern Territory health authorities to submit proposals for the funding of additional health interpreters and translators. [More…]

• An amount of $940,000 has been earmarked under the Community Health Program for this purpose in 1979-80. [More…]

• The level of Commonwealth funding for health interpreters and translators is to be at a 100 per cent level in 1979-80 and for two years thereafter at a 75 per cent level. [More…]

• Along with its medical research activities, the newlyestablished Migrant Health Unit within the Commonwealth Department of Health, with the co-operation of health authorities in the States and Territories, is building up a comprehensive picture of health information currently available to migrants so that the gaps can be plugged. [More…]

• We tried to ensure that services for migrants would be available within the service departments and that there would be sections within the departments of Social Security, Health and Education to deal with the needs of migrants. [More…]

• I refer to funding for ethnic health workers in the four States and the Northern Territory. [More…]

• An ethnic health worker must be sensitive to many things- social work and attitudes and health- so that he can talk to patients, who will be wanting to discuss their problems. [More…]

• It might be possible to get a health worker with such broad skills for $12,000-if one is lucky. [More…]

• They will not even hear of those health workers. [More…]

• Again, we are told that the magnificent sum of $940,000 has been earmarked, under the community health program, for additional health interpreters and translators. [More…]

• Which government introduced the pensioner health benefit services? [More…]

• The Department of Mental Health in Queensland has had experiences with such folk as members of GROW, that fine organisation which plays such a wonderful role in the rehabilitation of those people with emotional and mental problems, who point out that voluntary organisations such as theirs do not charge for such services. [More…]

• I wish to draw the attention of the House to a false, malicious and misleading advertisement in this afternoon’s Sun newspaper in Sydney inserted by the Honourable Kevin Stewart, Minister for Health of New South Wales. [More…]

• All other State Governments are also required to do the same because of massive financial health cutbacks by the Federal Government. [More…]

• It is one that flies in the face of the facts and I believe that this House ought to condemn the State Minister for Health for so endeavouring to mislead the people of New South Wales. [More…]

• I seek leave to incorporate in Hansard two tables clearly showing the 14 per cent increase in money made available to New South Wales this year for health. [More…]

• This advertisement which was inserted at the expense of the people of New South Wales is one of the most despicable acts by a Minister for Health who is seeking to hide behind the Federal Government when making his own decisions on what should happen to the health services in that State. [More…]

• Following the announcement in my Statement to the House on 24 May 1979 I indicated in public statements on the changes to the health care system that those changes would add about 0.9 percentage points to the CPI during 1 979-80. [More…]

• That calculation was necessarily based on increases in health insurance contributions assumed at that time by the Government’s advisers in that area. [More…]

• In the event, the increases subsequently announced by health funds have been lower that earlier assumed, and it now seems that the CPI effect will correspondingly be somewhat less than 0.9 percentage points. [More…]

• -Does the Minister for Health agree that the most dangerous profession and the most accident prone industry in Australia is coal mining? [More…]

• I have had a number of telegrams and representations, all of which I have sent on to my colleague the Minister for Health in New South Wales. [More…]

• The New South Wales Minister for Health is aware that the Commonwealth Government was successful in allocating to New South Wales no less than $438m, which is 14 per cent more - [More…]

• I will join with the honourable gentleman in representations to Mr Stewart, the New South Wales Minister for Health. [More…]

• I think it would be reprehensible on the part of the New South Wales Health Commission and the Government of New South Wales to reduce the status of the Kurri Kurri Hospital to that of a nursing home. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Health seen reports in last month’s Medical Journal of Australia indicating that imported herbal teas and ginseng are poisonous and detrimental to health? [More…]

• I have asked the Department to furnish a report to the Government on what action, if any, should be taken to protect the health of the Australian people. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Health aware of the view of the Capital Territory Health Commission that a private orthopaedic specialist is entitled to charge $ 104 for setting a broken limb when in fact the limb was set by a resident medical officer whose salary is paid by the Government? [More…]

• In the specific case referred to, the specialist, after being approached by the Capital Territory Health Commission, has agreed to submit an account not exceeding the benefit payable in accordance with this general direction. [More…]

• If two or more of those members do anything which in the words of this amending Bill affects the safety, health or welfare of the people of this country a declaration can be sought from the Commission that if such behaviour occurs again within six months the union will be deregistered. [More…]

• We can understand that, but when we look at the words used in the Bill we wonder what does not affect the health, safety and welfare of the people of this country. [More…]

• That affected the health and welfare of Australians but the Government does not interpret its action in that way. [More…]

• Everything that is done in this country affects the safety, health and welfare of people, but the Prime Minister wants to kick the trade union movement and use it as the last resort in order to stay Prime Minister of this country. [More…]

• If the Minister decides that an issue affecting the health, safety and welfare of the community is of such importance that deregistration action should be taken, he must make application to the Full Bench and he has to justify his position in a Full Bench hearing. [More…]

• The honourable member for Port Adelaide asked quite piously: ‘What sorts of disputes could affect the health, safety and welfare of the community? [More…]

• Does he believe that that would not affect the health of the people of Victoria? [More…]

• No government, when the health and welfare of the community are obviously at some peril, cannot respond to the situation. [More…]

• Proposed new section 143 A, which is sought to be inserted into the Act, will give to the Governor-General a wide range of powers which may be exercised against unions which take industrial action which has a substantial adverse effect on the safety, health or welfare of the community. [More…]

• The proposed section allows the Minister to apply for a declaration from a full bench of the Commission that industrial action by a union or its members has had, is having or is likely to have a substantial adverse effect on the safety, health or welfare of the community. [More…]

• The main features are that the Minister- and I stress that it is the Minister- may apply to the Full Bench of the Commission for a declaration that industrial action by an organisation, or a group of its members, has had, is having, or is likely to have a substantial adverse effect on the safety, health or welfare of the community or a part of the community. [More…]

• In 1975 workers were covered for health insurance under Labor’s Medibank scheme. [More…]

• Now we take the view that the public does matter and, as a consequence, we are providing in this legislation that deregistration can occur on grounds of safety, health or welfare of the community. [More…]

• We found that people were not just inconvenienced; we found that health was at risk. [More…]

• The honourable member failed to say, of course, that the Minister will intervene only when matters such as the safety, the health and the welfare of the community are involved. [More…]

• Would the honourable member and the Labor Party have us say that the Government should not be concerned about the safety, the health or the welfare of the community? [More…]

• It appears to me that the Labor Party is not concerned with the health, the safety or the welfare of the community because it would deny the Minister an opportunity to act for the Australian people. [More…]

• Honourable members opposite are saying that the Government of Australia is not concerned about welfare, safety or health. [More…]

• For instance, miners may claim that methane gas in the mine constitutes a threat to their health or to life and limb. [More…]

• A declaration may be made if it is held that industial action is adversely affecting the health, safety and welfare of the community. [More…]

• Now the words ‘health’ and ‘safety’ are just window dressing. [More…]

• ‘Health’ and ‘safety’ sound terribly good, terribly safe, terribly paternalistic - [More…]

• But it is not necessary to show that industrial action is having an adverse effect on health and safety if it can be shown simply that a strike is against the welfare of the community the certificate has to be issued - [More…]

• In researching this problem I found that in Australia a great amount of work has already been done particularly by the Australian Bureau of Animal Health through a committee chaired by Mr W. A. Geering. [More…]

• There is an awareness within the Bureau of Animal Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 August 1979: [More…]

• In view of the findings of this study on the adverse effects of lead in petrol on the health of school children what action will be taken or has he taken to encourage the reduction of lead levels in petrol. [More…]

• As you may be aware, the issue of the effect of lead additives in petrol on health is the direct concern of my colleague, the Hon. [More…]

• R. J. D. Hunt, Minister for Health, and of his State counterparts. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council (NH & MRC), which advises the Commonwealth and State Governments on all matters of public health, is currently giving priority attention to lead issues, particularly to the levels of lead which are of health concern. [More…]

• Lead issues will form an important and integral pan of future motor vehicle emissions strategies in terms of the protection of health and the environment and of energy costs and efficiency. [More…]

• I can assure you that the Government is committed to the protection of the health of the Australian people. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 21 August 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 August 1 979: [More…]

• 1 ) The Department of Health is not responsible for any programs and policies in regard to prospective migrants. [More…]

• These standards are developed by the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs after consultation with the Department of Health. [More…]

• Recommendation 22- development and dissemination of information on health care in community languages. [More…]

• Recommendation 39- employment of additional ethnic health workers. [More…]

• In addition, the honourable member will be aware of my announcement on 22 August 1979 of the Government’s initiative concerning the employment of additional interpreters and translators in health services that is being implemented by my Department. [More…]

• and (3) Assistance is available to the States and the Northern Territory under the Community Health Program to employ the additional ethnic health workers and the additional interpreters and translators mentioned. [More…]

• In the current financial year, $ 1 10,000 has been appropriated to meet 100 per cent ofthe cost of these ethnic health workers; $700,000 will be provided over a three-year period. [More…]

• Financial assistance for the employment of additional health interpreters and translators was announced in the .1 979-80 Budget hence no expenditure has yet been incurred. [More…]

• If so, does the petition claim that the proposed tenants are: unemployed; unacquainted with the work ethic; incapable of removing unsanitary, putrid, domestic garbage and litter; ignorant of hygiene, by-laws and reasonable urban behaviour: subject to alcoholism; accustomed to extended families of scores of humans and canines; noisy, untidy in the streets; not desirous of coping with the responsibilities and stresses of urban living and therefore unhappy in urban housing; and that the proposed tenants damnify the non-Aboriginal petitioners of the neighbourhood who are different in all such respects; who are unable to maintain surveillance of their properties in working hours; are required to withstand the ravages of tax collection and provide essential services at all hours and who will lose sleep, health, the beauty of the town and the value of homes in which they have invested life savings, if the project proceeds. [More…]

• Whereas in the past people left the region essentially for political and economic reasons we are now facing not only the prospect of mass starvation within Kampuchea but also the quite strong probability, especially if there is a military offensive along the Thai border in the next few weeks, of a further mass migration of Khmer citizens who are simply trying to save their lives either from the bullets of the opposing forces or from the ravages of starvation and the total breakdown of health and communications in that country. [More…]

• the industrial action has had, is having, or is likely to have, a substantial adverse effect on the safety, health or welfare of the community or of a part of the community, the Full Bench shall make a declaration that it is so satisfied and cause the declaration to be recorded in writing. [More…]

• A declaration is made by the Commission to say that the health, welfare or safety is affected. [More…]

• As the honourable member for Hindmarsh (Mr Clyde Cameron) said yesterday: ‘Forget about the health and safety, just concentrate on welfare’. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• The Commonwealth Government will meet the schedule fees for medical services over $20, but as from 1 September fees up to $20 will not be subsidised, except for pensioners with a pensioner health benefit card or disadvantaged patients. [More…]

• Of course, disadvantaged patients can have their medical services billed direct to the Department of Health. [More…]

• Disadvantaged people who cannot afford private insurance will have their services billed direct to the Department of Health, as is the practice at present. [More…]

• I make it very clear that the Australian people would be very wise indeed to maintain their health insurance. [More…]

• That happens to be a responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Health in New South Wales, who has been engaging in a quite extraordinary propaganda campaign. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health: Is it a fact that doctors’ fees will increase from 1 November? [More…]

• One final point that I would like to make is that when the Police Bill was first introduced in Western Australia in 1976, the Minister for Health said it was ridiculous to suggest that six building workers who walked off a site could be arrested. [More…]

• No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order … the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. [More…]

• the industrial action has had, is having, or is likely to have, a substantial adverse effect on the safety, health or welfare . [More…]

• My colleague the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) has ministerial obligations and I present this Bill on his behalf. [More…]

• I intend that the present arrangement whereby CSL operates as a World Health Organisation reference centre for blood grouping, influenza and brucellosis should continue. [More…]

• The development of adequate transport infrastructure is essential to the health and efficiency of the national economy and thus to the provision of employment for the Australian work force. [More…]

• The health of the economy could not possibly be made worse by such a move but it could be made so much better. [More…]

• Today people living in local government areas require up-to-date facilities such as parks, sporting ovals, swimming pools, baby health centres, libraries, aerodromes, water and sewerage systems and many other facilities. [More…]

• That is not an insubstantial amount but in terms of what it provides who could quibble about $2 a day to keep an old person out of hospital, alive and healthy with some daily cheer? [More…]

• I hope that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) or Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) will look at this anomaly and realise the bad economics of the Government’s decision, if not the bad humanitarian aspects and do something about it. [More…]

• We have a national health budget of something like $7,000m, yet this Government can see fit to provide something less than $2m for sport. [More…]

• If only one-half of one per cent of the health budget- that is $35m- could be devoted to providing sporting facilities through local government, think what an advantage that would be in a cumulative sense to the national health of this country in providing young people with sporting facilities, be they jogging tracks, cycling tracks, football grounds or any other sort of sporting facility. [More…]

• What a wonderful effect this could have on the nation’s health. [More…]

• The $7,000m that we are now spending on health each year could be reduced. [More…]

• Extension of the standard rate of pension to wife pensioners where they or their pensioner husbands are likely to lose the economies of living together by reason of failing health. [More…]

• As the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) indicated in his ministerial statement on 21 August, one area of great concern to pensioners has been the income test limits for pensioner fringe benefits. [More…]

• Commonwealth fringe benefits available to pensioners holding pensioner health benefit cards include access to bulk billing of medical fees, a range of free pharmaceuticals, access to free optometrical consultations and hearing aids, a one-third reduction in telephone rentals, and some reductions in fares on Commonwealth rail and shipping services. [More…]

• It is estimated that some additional 25,000 pen sioners and recipients of sheltered employment allowance with 5,000 dependants will qualify for pensioner health benefits as a result of these increases. [More…]

• As the Minister for Health also indicated in his ministerial statement of 2 1 August, the Government has for some time been aware of differences in the treatment of sole parents receiving class ‘A’ widow’s pension and supporting parent’s benefit. [More…]

• They were not eligible for pensioner health benefits. [More…]

• We have now decided to extend eligibility for pensioner health benefit cards to supporting parents subject to the liberalised pensioner fringe benefit income test outlined above. [More…]

• The extension involves amendments to the National Health Act and the Health Insurance Act. [More…]

• It is estimated that some 56,000 supporting parent beneficiaries, including 2,500 men, with 96,000 dependants will qualify for pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• As a result their health costs will be reduced significantly. [More…]

• Eligibility for fringe benefits provided by State government and other organisations is usually restricted to holders of pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• The extension of these benefits to supporting parent beneficiaries and to pensioners with private income between the existing and proposed income limits of pensioner health benefits eligibility will be a matter for the States and other responsible bodies. [More…]

• This Bill provides for amendment of the Repatriation Act and the Seamen’s War Pensions and Allowances Act to give effect to the Government’s Budget decisions covering introduction of service pensions for allied veterans; twice-yearly indexation of the main repatriation pensions; increases in the contribution that service pensioners in benevolent homes must make towards meeting the cost of their care and accommodation; easing of access to pensioner health benefits by raising the maximum levels of income that a service pensioner may receive before becoming ineligible to receive such benefits; and increases in the levels of attendants allowance and orphans pension. [More…]

• The only other benefit which they may be able to receive would be a pensioner health benefits card, issued to age and service pensioners by the Department of Social Security and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs respectively and which requires the veteran to satisfy a further income test. [More…]

• The maximum levels of income which a service pensioner may earn before becoming ineligible to receive pensioner health benefits, repatriation medical treatment and other Commonwealth benefits, such as telephone rental concessions, are to be increased from 1 November1 979. [More…]

• In the matter of drugs and poisons, including pesticides, the National Health and Medical Research Council makes recommendations to the States and Territories for inclusion in appropriate legislation. [More…]

• With respect to packaging and labelling of food, substantial uniformity already exists due to the adoption of the National Health and Medical Research Council Approved Standards by the States and Territories. [More…]

• In addition, the Joint Commonwealth/State/Territory Working Party on Model Food Law, established by the Conference of Australian Health Ministers, has virtually completed the formulation of the Model Food Act and associated Regulations which are intended for uniform application throughout Australia. [More…]

• These discussions would concern wider aspects of those relevant to the recommendations of the National Health and Medical Research Council, e.g. [More…]

• Customs facilities, health and quarantine facilities and separation facilities for incoming and outgoing passengers would be required. [More…]

• The amendments will give a Minister the right to start deregistration of a union or part of one engaging in any industrial action harming community safety, health or welfare. [More…]

• Quite apart from the procedural amendments which I have described, another part of the legislationthis was referred to briefly by the Leader of the Opposition- provides for accelerated deregistration procedures for unions or sections of unions whose actions are substantially adversely affecting the safety, health or welfare of the community. [More…]

• If people in the community see that their safety, health and welfare are being affected, they naturally expect their government to take action to protect them. [More…]

• The Commission has the power to deregister when it believes that there will be an adverse effect on the safety, health or welfare of a community. [More…]

• As I am still a reader of the Lachlander I am pleased to observe that the present Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) gets the same co-operation from the Lachlander as I did when I was the Federal member for that area. [More…]

• For this reason the Government is determined to take all steps to achieve uniformity where possible in packaging and labelling laws throughout Australia within the specialised food, agricultural and health areas and on a broader level through the meetings of the Commonwealth, State and Territory Ministers for Consumer Affairs. [More…]

• Provision has been made for the further support of the two studies in 1979-80 by way of health services research and development grants. [More…]

• The responsibility for introducing systems of peer review does not rest solely with the Commonwealth; indeed, the introduction of such systems could not proceed without the co-operation and initiative of the medical profession and State health authorities because the Commonwealth does not have responsibility for the actual provision of health services nor administration of the systems used in the provision of services. [More…]

• The Centre is of particular importance because it provides a reference point from which expert advice and assistance can be provided to doctors and other personnel in the health services who wish to develop peer review systems; and $850,000 has been allocated to the support of independent research studies into matters directly associated with the development of peer review systems. [More…]

• The Government has provided $1.8m in 1979-80 for health services research and development grants and a high priority will be given to grant applications which address peer review issues. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 13 September 1979: [More…]

• From the viewpoint of efficient and economical administration of the Medical Benefits Scheme, it is a necessary safeguard against unnecessary expenditure by the Commonwealth and by the health insurance funds. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 13 September 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) Has his attention been drawn to the concern of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union that occupational as well as family and community health standards are threatened by the lack of research into the Zoonoses disease to which meat workers are exposed. [More…]

• However the real threat to health arises from the existence of these zoonoses in our animal population rather than lack of research. [More…]

• The Government is therefore investing money in campaigns to eradicate brucellosis in animals thus removing the risk to human health. [More…]

• The National Health and Medical Research Council, which is the body within my portfolio, advises that no application has been received this year from the Department of Mircobiology, University of Melbourne, for the support of a project related to brucellosis, although eight other research projects are currently being supported in that Department. [More…]

• The terms of reference of the Council are to ‘advise the Minister for Housing and Construction on matters relating to access to housing, Commonwealth housing programs, the efficiency of housing markets and the efficiency and health of the housing industry’. [More…]

• Clearly, in Australia, under the Fraser Government, our aid performance has declined substantially, as has the overall health of the economy. [More…]

• Improved delivery of health and education services to all people away from the main population centres; [More…]

• This applies also to the introduction of additional transport, safety, health, educational and scientific services which are beyond the capabilities of the present system. [More…]

• The first communication need of people in outback Australia is for a high quality telephone system to cater for their health, educational, commercial and social needs. [More…]

• It suggests that these jobs will be created in the installation, operation and maintenance of equipment, services such as health, education and community organisations using satellite links and new unspecified types of employment available only if a satellite exists. [More…]

• But to get back to the people in the extremely isolated and remote areas of Australia about whom the Opposition appears not to be very concerned those are the people who have extremely difficult circumstances in regard to health and education services, and the availability of those services for their children. [More…]

• The National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 3), which is the second measure, deals with the payment of pharmaceutical benefits for persons in addition to those who are presently eligible for pensioner health benefits. [More…]

• The Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 2) similarly adds to the persons who are presently eligible to receive the pensioner health benefit. [More…]

• The Department of Health will pay 85 per cent of the medical fees for those persons. [More…]

• The Opposition will be supporting the National Health Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• 3), the Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. [More…]

• The recipients of unemployment, sickness and special benefits have no entitlement to health benefits, pharmaceutical benefits or other fringe benefits. [More…]

• The Government is extending pensioner health benefit cards to some new groups, such as supporting parents. [More…]

• It was the Menzies Liberal-Country Party Government in 1940. Who introduced the pensioner health benefit services? [More…]

• The McMahon Liberal-National Country Party Government extended the allowance so that where the male partner was over 65 years of age but the wife under 60, she received the rate of pension payable had she been over 60. Who introduced the pensioner health benefit services? [More…]

• Dr Scotton, formerly the Chairman of the Health Insurance Commission established by the Whitlam Government, has written: [More…]

• Secondly, there is an extension of health and pharmaceutical benefit provisions to supporting parents. [More…]

• Secondly, we have advocated the extension of the health benefit card to supporting parents, and this is a campaign which we have conducted throughout the history of this Parliament. [More…]

• But what of those unemployment beneficiaries who are denied both health and pharmaceutical concessions? [More…]

• What of those on sickness benefits denied health and pharmaceutical concessions? [More…]

• What of the special benefit people- among the most deprived in the community- who are also denied health and pharmaceutical concessions? [More…]

• I have just listed, nor should the cost be exaggerated given the operation, albeit rather unsatisfactory, of the disadvantaged persons provisions in the health legislation. [More…]

• Eighty-five per cent of personal income tax collections in Australia is spent on health and welfare. [More…]

• What about the matter of health? [More…]

• These are the sorts of things that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in his second reading speech suggested were worth about $10 a week to a pensioner. [More…]

• They may be doing arduous work in manufacturing processes, find that they cannot do the work any longer, and decide for health reasons that they would like to change their jobs. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) in introducing this Bill said: [More…]

• I should like to take this occasion to point outbecause it seemed to be relevant, during another debate last night- that to date the only Government speakers who have been heard to support this legislation were the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) in the other place and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt). [More…]

• What is being done to prevent further preventable grave illness and public health hazards in the region and in Aboriginal settlements run or serviced by the State of Queensland? [More…]

• That sector includes the collection, processing and dissemination of data, for example by teachers, public servants, media workers, office workers, social workers and many health workers. [More…]

• I turn to the effect of present health insurance upon the unemployed. [More…]

• Certainly the Government has raised the income threshold under which pensioner health benefit cards are issued from $33 a week for a single person to $57.50 a week and from $40 a week for a married couple to $68 a week. [More…]

• They do not have health cards. [More…]

• To illustrate the Government’s line on this matter, I refer to a letter which I received today from the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), I had suggested that health benefit cards be issued to unemployed people. [More…]

• These could be torn off and presented to doctors as a means of identification when seeking medical treatment The Minister for Health said: [More…]

• This Government has made no provision whatsoever for health insurance for the unemployed except to tell them to go along to their doctors and beg for charity. [More…]

• I am referring to the decline in real wages, the rise in health insurance contributions, the erosion of family allowances and so on. [More…]

• The Isolated Patients’ Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS), authorised by the National Health Act, was developed to assist people living in remote areas of Australia who, following referral by a medical practitioner, are required to travel at least 200 kilometres for treatment by the nearest suitable medical specialist. [More…]

• As the provision of health care, which is considered appropriate for the citizens of each State, is primarily the responsibility of the State Government concerned, I feel it is a matter that should be taken up with the appropriate State authority. [More…]

• Health, upon notice, on 19 September 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) Specialists in each of the specialist groups listed by the National Specialist Qualifications Advisory Committee, and therefore recognised for purposes of the Health Insurance Act, are located in each of these major metropolitan areas. [More…]

• The Isolated Patients’ Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS), authorised by the National Health Act, was developed to assist people living in remote areas of Australia who, following referral by a medical practitioner, are required to travel at least 200 kilometres for treatment by the nearest suitable medical specialist. [More…]

• As the provision of health care, which is considered appropriate for the citizens of each State is primarily the responsibility of the State Government concerned, I would suggest that, enquiries regarding the availability of assistance in cases where treatment is sought in another capital city should be directed to the State Government concerned. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 26 September 1979: [More…]

• -I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Pursuant to section 76A of the National Health Act 1953, 1 present the annual report on the operations of the registered medical and hospital benefits organisations for the year ended 30 June 1978. [More…]

• There will be a reverse impact this year which will show up in a large increase in the consumer price index because of the health charges for the December quarter of this year. [More…]

• Health costs were certainly reduced in last year’s CPI figure for December because of the measures taken in last year’s Budget, but as I have mentioned that is totally reversed this year and this December we must expect a substantial rise. [More…]

• The honourable member spent three-quarters of his speech saying that most of the increase in the CPI over and above what he acknowledged would have occurred was due to increases in the price of oil and increases in health charges. [More…]

• In the area of health insurance the honourable member for Gellibrand would pursue a different policy. [More…]

• It is quite obvious what would happen to health insurance if a Labor government were returned. [More…]

• In December there will be the coincidence of most of the effects of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ rises and the effects of the health insurance changes which were announced in May and carried forward in the increased health insurance premiums announced by the funds a couple of months ago. [More…]

• The new health insurance scheme will add about 1 Vi per cent, including doctors’ fees, to the rate of inflation. [More…]

• If we accept the figures that the honourable member for Werriwa used- he said 2.25 per cent of the consumer price index this year would be attributable to oil, 1.5 per cent would be attributable to health and another 1.5 per cent attributable to other excise increases- there is a total of 5.25 per cent which is directly attributable to what the Government, through its policies, has put in place in this economy. [More…]

• It has had to take hard, responsible decisions in relation to things like energy in Australia and the health insurance system which the Labor Government made such an appalling mess of in its three years in office. [More…]

• The figure has not been calculated by looking at any assessment of the adequacy of schools, health centres or any other capital works projects in the various States. [More…]

• But, corresponding to what I have been saying about capital works, if one looks at the particular areas of spending, such as health, education and welfare, one will see that the cutbacks are much more obvious and one will see the implications of the Government’s strategy much more clearly displayed. [More…]

• I conclude by referring very briefly to another committee, that is, the House of Representatives Estimates Committee which met to consider the estimates for the Department of Health last night. [More…]

• I will highlight just one aspect about which I am particularly concerned and that is the lack of commitment to the extent necessary for preventive health schemes in the national health programs. [More…]

• Only 3!6 per cent of the total health bill is spent on preventive health programs. [More…]

• While we have an identification of programs such as the drug education program, dental health and community health, the National Heart Foundation, the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria and other bodies are crying out for funds to be able to promote the preventive aspects of health. [More…]

• I know that the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) made the comment that the national health promotion program which is due to start very shortly will be the first step in perhaps having a national health program which will really be concerned about the health of this nation. [More…]

• I remember Mr Connor making a speech in this Parliament about how this case was affecting his health and his life. [More…]

• There are three main categories of benefits organisations registered under the National Health Act, namely, companies (limited by guarantee), friendly societies (which are registered under State law) and the Health Insurance Commission (Medibank Private) which is registered under Commonwealth law (i.e. [More…]

• Health Insurance Commission Act). [More…]

• All health insurance organisations registered under the National Health Act are non-profit bodies. [More…]

• The income and expenditure of the medical and/or hospital funds they conduct are controlled under the provisions of sections 67 and 68 of the National Health Act. [More…]

• Having regard to the above, it is realistic to say that contributors, who may or may not have voting rights in the election of boards of management, can be regarded as the owners’ of the registered benefits organisations, to the extent of their benefit entitlements under the rules of the particular organisation and the fact that under the provisions of the National Health Act dealing with the winding up of a medical and/or hospital fund, the Federal Court is required to make such order as it considers to be most advantageous for the’ interests of the contributors ‘. [More…]

• That is compared with spending on global basic research of 15 per cent, on energy research and development of 8 per cent, on health research and development of 7 per cent, and on agricultural research and development of 3 per cent. [More…]

• I have sought the permission of the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) and he has agreed to its incorporation. [More…]

• It also ignores the point that if measures used to reduce the deficit such as increased taxes or increased health costs raise prices and /or reduce living standards this will encourage higher wage claims despite the lower deficit. [More…]

• In Australia, measures used to reduce the deficit, such as the crude oil levy, increased health costs and increased taxes on alcohol and tobacco all feed directly into the consumer price index and so inflame inflationary expectations. [More…]

• This is the greatest single factor in the restoring of health to the manufacturing sector of Australia, which was brought low by the policies of the previous Administration over 1973-75-1 do not want to spend time going over that ground. [More…]

• What a dreadful statement to make about something that can vitally affect the health of the people who are charged with slaughtering these animals. [More…]

• I would think that this Government, obsessed as it seems to be with the eradication of disease, would be equally responsible when it comes to protecting the health of the people who are charged with the responsibility of eliminating diseased cattle from the herd, but such is not the case. [More…]

• I mention that the departments covering the areas of health, welfare and education spend about $14.5 billion per annum, which is about 46 per cent of the total outlays of the Commonwealth. [More…]

• -The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who is at the table has had experience with Bathurst burr. [More…]

• In addition, there are the family support services scheme, the community health program and the welfare housing programs. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• A number of projects are being funded from the National Health and Medical Research Council’s program for bone marrow research. [More…]

• -In view of the mounting community concern about the possible health effects of asbestos, will the Minister for Health inform the House whether the National Health and Medical Research Council has made a study of the subject? [More…]

• I indicated that I would refer the matter to the National Health and Medical Research Council and that when it reported on the issue I would make the report available to the Parliament and the public. [More…]

• As a result of its deliberations, a sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council has prepared the following documents entitled: ‘The Medical Aspects of the Effects of the Inhalation of Asbestos’, ‘Statement on Health Hazards Associated With the Use of Asbestos in the Construction Industry’ and ‘Code for the Safe Removal of Asbestos Based Thermal/Acoustic Insulating Materials’. [More…]

• These documents were adopted by the National Health and Medical Research Council at its 88th session on 25 and 26 October. [More…]

• In due course the documents will be widely distributed through State and Territory health authorities, employer associations and trade unions. [More…]

• Naturally, the National Health and Medical Research Council will continue to keep the matter of asbestos under review and will issue further reports and guidelines from time to time as the need arises. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health seen a report of the Australian Broadcasting Commission program Nationwide on 1 November 1979 in which it was said that officers of the Department of Health, when appearing before an Estimates committee of the House, had suggested that the total cost of the reintroduction of a Medibank-style health scheme would be only about $500m? [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition did say that officers of the Department of” Health had said that the introduction of a Medibank-type health insurance system would cost of the order of $500m. [More…]

• Mr Speaker, I ask you to examine the answer given by the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) today and the transcript of the parliamentary Estimates Committee. [More…]

• The Minister for Health has indicated that officers of his Department misled the Estimates Committee in giving evidence. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Health a question. [More…]

• Is it a fact that contributions to private health insurance in 1974 for full family cover amounted to 1.9 per cent of average weekly earnings? [More…]

• Is it also a fact that contributions to private health insurance on the same basis now represent 6.4 per cent of average weekly earnings, or a 240 per cent increase in five years? [More…]

• How does the Minister justify this increase in health insurance costs, which is forcing tens of thousands of Australian families to opt out of the cumbersome and confusing system that the Government has created with four major changes of policy in four years? [More…]

• I think that the Australian people have a right to know why health costs have risen to the level that they have. [More…]

• Health expenditure in this country rose from about $2,500m in 1972-73 to $5,600m in 1975-76. [More…]

• Under the Labor Government the cost of health to Commonwealth outlays rose from $780m to about $2,900m-a 277 per cent increase in three years. [More…]

• During the Labor regime- that is what it was; it was a regime, I am sure- health expenditure as a percentage of the gross domestic product rose from 5.9 per cent to 7.85 per cent. [More…]

• The great explosion that has occurred in the health area goes right back to those Labor Government days. [More…]

• The Australian people are paying a very high price in their health insurance premiums for the luxury of a Labor government. [More…]

• The only people who prospered under that regime were the providers of health care and the doctors. [More…]

• When the Fraser Government came to office, health costs in this country were exploding by almost 36 per cent a year. [More…]

• We make no apologies for attempting to stabilise the costs in the health area in order to bring budgetary sensibility back to this country. [More…]

• In looking at the situation in terms of welfare and advancement, welfare would relate to good personal health, hygiene, a good diet and the right sort of environment. [More…]

• Turning now to health care, a 29-year-old man, who lived on the reserve Septimus Livingstone, died in the casualty ward at Cairns Hospital on 15 October 1979. [More…]

• I have mentioned health, education and housing. [More…]

• In support of my remarks on health let me refer to the fact that some weeks ago a number of doctors in Queensland sent a petition to the Director-General in Queensland stating that there is a crisis in this region; that there is an urgent need to improve the situation by taking health care away from the Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement and giving it to some more appropriate department. [More…]

• They claim that this change of responsibility would get rid of the paternalistic and undemocratic policies of the Queensland Department which are adversely affecting the health of the Yarrabah population, leading to alcoholism, malnutrition and maladaptive behaviour. [More…]

• Similarly, expenditure on health, hospitals and welfare is the lowest for any State. [More…]

• Certain standards of health facilities, for example, are required in given population centres, no matter what their size. [More…]

• We did a lot of decentralisation with the Australian Assistance Plan, our community health schemes, our school dental schemes, our urban and regional development schemes and many other schemes. [More…]

• -The Minister for Health has provided the following information: [More…]

• Under the new health insurance arrangements introduced from 1 September this year, patients are responsible for meeting doctors’ fees for services costing $20 or less per service. [More…]

• Private health insurance coverage is available to cover medical costs not covered by Commonwealth medical benefits up to the level of the Schedule fee. [More…]

• This facility is available under an arrangement whereby the doctor bulk bills the Commonwealth Department of Health, and accepts 75 per cent of the Schedule fee for each service as full payment The doctor is not permitted to recover any additional moneys from the patient. [More…]

• Although the decision as to who is to be regarded as disadvantaged has been left to individual doctors, the Minister for Health has suggested to all doctors that persons on low incomes, including social security, unemployment, sickness or special beneficiaries could be included in this category. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 August 1979: [More…]

• 1 ) Has his attention been drawn to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald of 6 June 1979 by Shaun Mcllraith stating that there is a 75 per cent higher chronic bronchitis rate and 100 per cent higher death rate among Aboriginal asbestos miners than non-miners and a 40 per cent lapse in health standards at the Baryulgil asbestos mines detected by the New South Wales Department of Mines. [More…]

• Has the Department of Aboriginal Affairs suspended housing grants to the district pending a decision on the health risks of living there. [More…]

• The Health Commission of New South Wales has conducted an enquiry into the health of the Aboriginal community at Baryulgil and the release of the report of the enquiry is imminent. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 12 September 1979: [More…]

• In view of the findings of this study on the adverse effects of lead in petrol on the health of schoolchildren, what action has the Minister taken or will the Minister take to ensure the implementation of each of these recommendations. [More…]

• 4621, the Minister for Health has asked the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) to examine the health problems of lead urgently. [More…]

• The NH&MRC ‘s advice will assist the Minister to indicate desirable goals and appropriate guidelines designed for the protection of health. [More…]

• The Minister for Science and the Environment will consult with his colleague, the Minister for Health, on these matters when the NH&MRC’s advice has been received. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 3 May 1 979: [More…]

• 1 ) What was the cost to the Government of health insurance cover under the Commonwealth Universal Benefit during the first 6 months of that system ‘s operation. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 May 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 August 1 979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 17 October 1979: [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Health a question which refers to lead levels. [More…]

• Did he indicate recently that towards the end of October he expected to receive advice from the National Health and Medical Research Council on this important topic of lead levels and its relationship to health? [More…]

• I have received a statement from the National Health and Medical Research Council regarding the report to which the honourable member for Cowper has referred. [More…]

• Qualitatively the social and health problems of many of these people place them in a position of hardship which is far more severe than that of many other categories of disadvantaged people in the community. [More…]

• I find it strange that in a country of 14 million people, strongly endowed with the world’s most valuable resources, enjoying one of the highest standards of living in the world and spending $14.7 billion annually on health, welfare and education, areas of real need involving minuscule appropriations remain relatively ignored. [More…]

• Any economy that is able to produce $14’A billion worth of transfer payments is healthy and strong. [More…]

• But there ought to be greater emphasis on attention to health problems, and even on legal injustices, which often drive these people into this kind of circumstance, and civil liberties. [More…]

• I remind the people of Australia that notwithstanding the need to spend much more money in this area there are parallel schemes in existence: $3m has been made available on a dollartodollar basis with the States for the provision of youth support schemes; various family support service schemes, the community health programs and the welfare housing programs are operating. [More…]

• If the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) does not accept the amendment we would expect to see a number of people crossing the floor. [More…]

• A lot of their health problems flow from that situation. [More…]

• What interpretation or guidelines does the Public Service Board put forward as a result of the effects of the changed Act, for example, (a) is an officer working in the Department of Health deemed to be in breach of the Act if he/she comments publicly on a specific defence issue or (b) is an officer working in any department, other than the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations, deemed to be in breach of the Act if he/she comments publicly on the current levels of unemployment. [More…]

• What action has the Government taken to overcome the differences between States in the collection of statistics on industrial accidents and occupational health. [More…]

• What is the estimated cost of industrial accidents and occupational health problems during 1978-79. [More…]

• What is the estimated number of days lost due to industrial accidents and occupational health problems during 1978-79. [More…]

• (3), (4) and (5) No agreed basis exists for estimating the total national cost of industrial accidents and occupational health problems, although one figure that is a significant element of the cost and is reliably estimated is employers’ liability insurance premiums. [More…]

• Following an increase over recent years in invalidity retirement rates, the Public Service Board conducted a study in 1978 which indicated that the increase is related to a number of factors, including the changing age structure of the Service, the number of ex-servicemen approaching retirement, changing community attitudes towards health and arrangements for age and invalidity retirement As part of a program to manage the incidence of invalidity retirements from the Service, the Board, in conjunction with the Department of Health, the Department of Finance and the Australian Government Retirement Benefits Office, has now completed an examination of procedures for reviewing an officer’s fitness for duty. [More…]

• What would be the estimated cost to revenue of allowing health insurance contributions as a tax deduction additional to the concessional deduction of $ 1 ,590. [More…]

• The annual cost to income tax revenue of allowing income tax deductions for contributions to health insurance funds is estimated at about $500m. [More…]

• One of this Governments great concerns is the extremely high and increasing health bill of the nation. [More…]

• That Press release produced a flood of complaints, outlining a story of high fees, abuses of the health insurance schemes, and just plain bad service and practice. [More…]

• Doctors indirectly add another cost to the national health bill when they opt for the big city life. [More…]

• The health of communities which are deprived of high rates of surgical intervention seems to suffer little, if at all; that is, some unnecessary surgery is performed, though to what extent is hard to establish. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) announced recently the establishment of a Medical Services Review Tribunal to review determinations of the Medical Services Committee of Inquiry, with regard to excessive services to their patients. [More…]

• I back the Minister for Health when he says he has no sympathy for those doctors who are using their professional position of trust to bleed the system at the expense of the patients, contributors to health funds and the taxpayers. [More…]

• But I am suggesting peer review, and I back the Minister for Health in urging the medical profession to support the AMA in its efforts to introduce peer review. [More…]

• I think it is quite clear to anyone who heard what the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) said on television last night that the Opposition is obviously correct in what it says. [More…]

• The repeated changes have destroyed the community rating principle in health and the net result will be that the elderly, large families and chronically ill will be unable to afford adequate health cover. [More…]

• It was a consequence of the Government’s yo-yo health insurance policy. [More…]

• I am surprised that in a Press statement on 2 November the Minister for Health seemed surprised about what had happened. [More…]

• I draw the Minister’s attention to a statement by Senator Baume who led for the Government in a debate in the Senate on 9 June 1978 when the Government announced that it would introduce voluntary health insurance from 1 November 1978 and that it would abolish the levy, introduce deductibles, et cetera. [More…]

• If we are ever to get some incentive into the health insurance system it is essential that community rating be done away with and that experience rating or individual rating be adopted. [More…]

• There has been a rapid destabilisation of the Australian health insurance system. [More…]

• It is not surprising that several insurance organisations operating outside the umbrella of the Health Insurance Act are seeking to move into the health insurance area. [More…]

• Inevitably, as the low risk people opt out of private health insurance, rates will become prohibitively expensive for the remaining contributors, the very people most in need of cover for medical and hospital costs. [More…]

• I noted last week when the matter suddenly hit the newspapers- although we have been talking about it in the House for over a year- that the Australian, in its editorial on 31 October, called Australia’s health system ‘a total unmitigated disaster- a monstrous creation by Cabinet Ministers and bureaucrats and a nightmare for the general public’. [More…]

• A new mine-field is opening up in Australia’s health insurance system . [More…]

• bemused Australians have been forced to move a long, long way from the delightful simplicity of the original Medibank scheme, offering taxfinanced universal health insurance. [More…]

• I emphasise again that the Labor Party, myself and, I think, most people agree that adequate health care is a right in a country like Australia and that the basic costs should be shared between the sick and the healthy. [More…]

• The important thing is this: If we opt out of community rating for health insurance, people who are healthy and probably relatively young- the two coincide to a large extent- will contribute to health insurance only if they are forced to do so. [More…]

• At present a person might be very well disposed to the general principle of community rating and the young and healthy contributing towards the cost of health insurance. [More…]

• But there is no guarantee whatever that if a person contributes to a health insurance fund at present until he or she reaches an age or a medical condition which requires more medical attention other people will contribute towards his or her costs. [More…]

• Surely we have to accept the proposition that the healthy in society at any time should contribute towards the cost of illness and treatment of illness for the sick, as the young contribute to the cost of the age pensions and those of us who are working contribute to the cost of unemployment benefit, sickness benefit and invalid pensions. [More…]

• What worries me about the health insurance funds is that the relatively healthy are being siphoned off from the funds by all kinds of gimmicky schemes. [More…]

• Some of them are run by the health insurance funds themselves, some are run by only some of them and others are run by friendly societies. [More…]

• It is no secret that a number of substantial health insurance funds have encountered serious financial difficulties, in large part as a direct result of the number and content of this Government’s changes. [More…]

• In South Australia the Mutual Hospital Association Ltd and the National Health Services Association of South Australia lost $12.6m and $9.1m respectively during the year. [More…]

• Not only has confusion over the options for health insurance reached epidemic proportions but also the funds have been placed in the position in which at least some of them rest on shaky financial foundations thus causing more worry for the contributors. [More…]

• They are just as keen to grab the people whom the commercial institutions are attempting to coax into health insurance. [More…]

• They depict a rather attractive girl apparently about 16 or 18 who has just entered the work force- the sort of person the HBA wants to take out health insurance with it. [More…]

• The reason she rang me, she said, was that she was told I was the only one who understood about health insurance. [More…]

• She was paying $76 a month health insurance- I repeat, $76 a month health insurance- out of a family income of $140 a week. [More…]

• I asked her: ‘Why do you pay that sort of money for health insurance?’ [More…]

• It always hurts me when people with very low incomes such as $130 to $140 a week ring me up or come to me, as they do, and tell me that they are paying between $ 10 and $15 a week in health insurance. [More…]

• It is terribly important to bring in a system under which is is clear to the people that they do not need to do that and that they can rely on the benefits available from the States, paid for out of progressive taxation, so that they will have at least the minimum benefit which is necessary to look after them when they are in ill health. [More…]

• The honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) has confused me to some extent as to where he stands in regard to health insurance. [More…]

• On the one hand he claims that he believes in compulsion but on the other hand he is day by day, and no doubt for political purposes, advising people to opt out of the health insurance system. [More…]

• I am afraid that I view this debate and the others that we have had on the health insurance system largely as political opportunism. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Hayden) and indeed the shadow Minister for Health, Or Klugman, have consistently tried to advise the Australian people not to insure themselves privately, particularly the young and single people. [More…]

• I daresay that one of the reasons the Opposition is doing this is that if it succeeds in drawing sufficient people out of the health insurance system considerable damage will be done to the community rating principle and to the health insurance system. [More…]

• For four years the Australian Labor Party has been very reluctant to announce its health insurance policy because of political considerations and the way in which a Medibank-type scheme will lock the Labor Party into an irresponsible economic policy at election time. [More…]

• It has taken nearly four years for Opposition supporters to pluck up enough courage to announce that if elected to government they would return a phased-in or staged-in Medibank-type health insurance system. [More…]

• I have no argument whatsoever with the Opposition ‘s democratic responsibilities in advancing its own policy but I believe that I have a very real responsibility to warn the Australian people that if Labor proceeds to re-introduce a Medibank-type arrangement it will return this country to the great health cost explosion which occurred when Labor was last in Government. [More…]

• There is no doubt that the Medibank system was a great boon for the medical profession and the health providers. [More…]

• Indeed, Medibank and the high costs associated with health in the Whitlam years are symbolic of Labor’s failure in government. [More…]

• I want to make it clear that the Government would view with concern any trend towards the destruction of the community rating principle in the health insurance system. [More…]

• For instance, the Government could move to make the Commonwealth subsidy for health benefits purposes available only to those people who insure for at least the basic benefits with health insurance funds registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• I do not wish to pre-empt the decision that the Government may take if it is forced to move in order to protect the high risk or chronically ill people who seek to maintain their insurance cover with a registered health fund. [More…]

• The Government would view with deep concern any action by friendly societies, health insurance funds and commercials which resulted in their draining off the low risk, healthy people at cut price premiums, leaving the high risk contributors to pay high premiums to funds registered under the National Health Act. [More…]

• Whilst the Government provides quite extensive basic cover- paying all the medical schedule fees over $20 for each service and offering standard accommodation, without doctor of choice, in public hospitals- it would be quite unacceptable to allow some insurance companies and health funds to profiteer by creaming off the good risks with selective policies at cut price rates at the expense of the sick. [More…]

• In the meantime, those insurers and those contemplating insuring for medical and hospital benefits with funds or commercial insurance companies outside the National Health Act would be foolish not to await the outcome of the Government’s consideration of this matter. [More…]

• In any event, people should recognise that those funds outside the National Health Act offer restricted benefits free of any supervision by the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• Any alleged crisis in health care and health costs is being caused by the cry wolf stance being taken by the Opposition. [More…]

• Access to health care has been considerably facilitated during the time of the Fraser Government and, at the same time, the taxpayer has been saved from the horrendous burden that Labor was inflicting on the Australian taxpayer. [More…]

• The cost of health insurance is now cheaper than it was before 1 November 1978. [More…]

• In health insurance particular attention has been paid to guaranteeing insurance benefits for those with extended illnesses. [More…]

• About 62 per cent of the population presently have health insurance. [More…]

• A Labor government would seek to impose the whole cost of health cover upon the taxpayers of the country. [More…]

• This was demonstrated by the fact that under Labor the cost of health to Commonwealth outlays rose from $780m to about $2,900m- a 277 per cent increase in three years. [More…]

• The policy of the Liberal-National Country Party Government is that the user should make at least some direct contribution unless he is a holder of a pensioner health benefit card or is disadvantaged. [More…]

• This philosophy has been incorporated in all alterations to the health insurance system and has led to the development of a diversified health insurance industry in Australia. [More…]

• However, I repeat that if some sections of the health insurance industry proceed to take advantage of the hospital and basic cover provided by the Government and attract the low risk contributors, they will do so at their own risk. [More…]

• In the meantime, I hope that the Australian people will condemn the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Minister for Health for their attempts to create a politically expedient climate for the return of an extravagant Medibank scheme that they have now devised. [More…]

• -The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) spent most of his time agreeing with the substance of the wording of our matter of public importance except in the last ditch violent attack on Medibank. [More…]

• Mr Hunt how do you substantiate your claim that the health costs, spiralling health costs, are due to Medibank alone? [More…]

• I have never blamed Medibank as such for the great escalation in health costs. [More…]

• Whoever said: ‘Wealth cannot buy health’ was not living in Australia in 1979. [More…]

• Working out how much wealth one needs to buy health is like predicting a Lotto winner and the chances of being a winner are at about the same odds. [More…]

• Our health system is now rotten to the core. [More…]

• The costly operations it has undergone- five changes in four years of government mendacity to be precise- have been aimed at killing public health insurance, not improving it. [More…]

• Has it given an efficient and improved health system providing the most benefit to the majority at the lowest cost? [More…]

• None of the changes has benefited low and middle income earners, improved their health care or made health administration more efficient. [More…]

• Our health system is not the culmination of years of planning for a system of total health care. [More…]

• Under Medibank Private one can pay a basic package of $4 for 75 per cent medical cover, $5 for intermediate ward cover and $2.60 for extras, which represents a total of $11.60 a week or $603 per year, or one can gamble on one’s health and hope that one does not get sick and have to face heavy medical bills. [More…]

• Private health funds are now offering a pick-a- box of enticing goodies to the unwary. [More…]

• The private health funds are now competing to issue a great variety of colourful brochures, all espousing the cause of private health care and all aimed at getting the young and healthy out of the mainline medical table. [More…]

• At a cost of 50c a week a private health fund undertakes to register a person for the Commonwealth benefit. [More…]

• That private health fund is offering insurance for $2.90 a week. [More…]

• As I said before to the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt), it is a bit like the 1 9th century peepshow rhyme: ‘You pay your money and you take your pick’. [More…]

• The tragedy of it is that we now find that the friendly societies are also getting into the act; an act that the private health funds and the Minister helped to start. [More…]

• I make the point that what the private health funds are doing is simply as a result of the policies that have gone before. [More…]

• Many people are simply opting out of health insurance altogether. [More…]

• A year ago, 70 per cent of the public was covered by health funds. [More…]

• At present, less than 60 per cent of the public want any part of the private health funds. [More…]

• But when the 40 per cent was payable by the Government the private health funds actually paid out only 35 per cent of $8.90 for a general practitioner’s consultation or $3.1 1. [More…]

• Why do we need 80-odd different private health insurance funds? [More…]

• Certainly something more is necessary than legislating for a new system to register health insurance funds, allowing contributions as tax concessions; implementing a means test on public hospital beds, and restricting payments of the federal benefit to fund members, as is being considered by Cabinet. [More…]

• The Australian people, particularly families and the poor, are crying out for a dependable, understandable, comprehensive system to take the worry out of health care. [More…]

• -There is really only one matter that was raised in the speech of the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) that is worth commenting upon and once again I feel compelled to comment in this House, on that matter, that is, the advice that the honourable member has been delivering to people for many months that they should refrain from taking out health insurance. [More…]

• Quite frankly, I think the same situation should apply in this case of health insurance. [More…]

• Surely the most important thing to all of us is our health? [More…]

• If people in this country wish to spend their money at the TAB and in the hotels- it is nothing for the average man today to spend $10, $15 or $20 a week at the TAB and a similar amount in the hotels- and not bother about their health, are we going to stand by and pick up the tab? [More…]

• IF because I doubt very much whether that will ever happen again- it will introduce a universal health scheme. [More…]

• I want to quote from the Labor Party’s health policy document. [More…]

• Introduce a universal Health Scheme to be financed by an income related contribution enabling the public to choose between health care provided by health professionals remunerated on a fee for service, salaried, sessional fee, capitation fee or capitation fee plus bonus basis. [More…]

• The honourable member for Forrest (Mr Drummond) asked a question of the Minister for Health in the House on Tuesday. [More…]

• Introducing the health policy proposals yesterday, the Opposition spokesman on health, Dr Klugman, said Medibank had never been given a fair go. [More…]

• The Federal Opposition is preparing a new universal health insurance plan based on the original Medibank concept. [More…]

• The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Hayden, served notice yesterday that the ALP would make health a major issue at the next Federal election. [More…]

• He said the Opposition was pledged to an alternative universal health plan to contrast with what it saw as the piecemeal approach the Federal Government had taken to health since 1975. [More…]

• The Australian public saw the cost of health escalate to such an extent in this nation that everybody became very frightened. [More…]

• Under Labor, health expenditure rose from $2, 500m to $5, 600m in three years. [More…]

• The Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) who is sitting at the table, despite the fact that a number of changes have occurred, is to be congratulated on at least curbing these costs. [More…]

• Labor has a poor track record in the health area and that cannot be denied by anybody on the other side of the House. [More…]

• It has curbed health costs over the last four years. [More…]

• I want to express a little concern about the present trends in health insurance. [More…]

• If the healthy are opting out of the health funds and if there is an intrusion by the friendly societies and commercial insurance companies that are outside the Health Insurance Act, into the medical insurance area, obviously this must be monitored closely by the Government. [More…]

• There is an inference in the wording of the matter of public importance that this Government is going to create a situation in which the elderly and the pensioners will have to pay for health insurance and hospital care. [More…]

• The elderly are covered if they have pensioner health benefit cards, and a majority of them have. [More…]

• Indeed, it is quite wrong for the Opposition spokesman for health to indicate through this matter of public importance that some extra taxation will be imposed on these people. [More…]

• On the 6 November the honourable member for Corio (Mr Scholes) raised as a matter of privilege an apparent discrepancy in answers given before an Estimates committee and the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) at Question Time. [More…]

• The Nimmo Committee was set up to look into the shortcomings of the voluntary health insurance system at the time but its guidelines were such that the Committee, for all its investigation, could not report in the terms that anyone who knew anything about it knew that it would have wanted to report. [More…]

• Undoubtedly, the Committee would have said that there should have been a national health insurance system. [More…]

• The closest it could go to saying that was to suggest that a government department should be set up to look after all the voluntary health insurance organisations. [More…]

• That was a clear indication of how it was intimated to the Nimmo Committee that it had to report within the policy of the Government, which was to support the concept of the voluntary health insurance system. [More…]

• Of course it can be argued that those- figures make no allowance for the changed arrangements in respect of family allowances or health insurance. [More…]

• So one can do the sum again and include in the concept of net tax the amounts paid by the Government by way of child endowment or the family allowances and the additional amounts that taxpayers have to pay now to be covered for health care. [More…]

• I am referring only to medical costs, assuming that the people take advantage of the free hospital services provided by the Government under the new health arrangements. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 1 October 1979: [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Is it a fact that the National Health and Medical Research Council has recommended that the level of 0.12 parts per million of ozone in air should not be exceeded on more than one day a year in Australian cities, whilst lead should not exceed 1.5 micrograms per cubic metre of the air in Australian cities or 30 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood in Australians? [More…]

• -The National Health and Medical Research Council has recommended that the maximum permissible level of lead in air, averaged over a three-month period, should be 1.5 micrograms per cubic metre, as the honourable gentleman has suggested. [More…]

• However, I think the National Health and Medical Research Council basically recognised that there were a number of ways in which the minimum levels of lead could be contained. [More…]

• The Government is examining the impact of the recommendations made by the National Health and Medical Research Council upon its policy generally. [More…]

• I refer the Minister for Health to a statement by Mr Kevin Stewart, the New South Wales Minister for Health, relating to a request for the provision of a dietetic service in the Bowral Hospital in my electorate. [More…]

• But the Minister for Health in New South Wales has the flexibility, the authority and the prerogative to allocate those resources to meet his day-to-day administrative requirements. [More…]

• It has built schools and health clinics. [More…]

• More importantly, the honourable member for Bradfield pointed out that a constructive policy regarding health and education is now beginning. [More…]

• I make the point that we should look at the extraordinary amount of money that has to be put into assisting our justices make worthwhile decisions, which of course they will write with pen and ink or get typed, and then look at the deprived circumstances from the point of view of health, hygiene and general welfare, in which we conduct our affairs on behalf of the nation. [More…]

• That meant that despite his age and, in the last years of his term as Chief Justice, despite poor health, Sir Owen Dixon ensured that that Court went to Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. [More…]

• They have been told that they must explain the Government’s position on health insurance in Australia. [More…]

• How will someone on the other side of this Parliament explain away to honourable members inside the Parliament, in the first instance, what a mess the Government has made of health insurance? [More…]

• If honourable members look at the double page advertisement in the Melbourne Age this morning they will get some idea of the ramifications of what the government has done to the health system in this country. [More…]

• An appeal is being made to those who have to pay less for their health insurance to join a separate private fund and to leave the chronically ill and aged in funds where they will have to pay very high premiums. [More…]

• Australian Army conducted a war surgery seminar at the School of Army Health in Healesville, Victoria, which is in my electorate. [More…]

• One of the important matters that became obvious to me- I attended for a short while at the School of Army Health during the two-day seminar- was the need for standardisation of medical procedures in the field. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 30 May 1979: [More…]

• For each of the buildings identified in parts (1) and (2), (a) when was asbestos introduced into the building; (b) what type of asbestos fibre was used, (c) is the asbestos (i) sprayed, (ii) limpet or (iii) raw fibre; if not, in what form is it, (d) what is the present state of repair of those sections of the building containing asbestos, (e) have any investigations been undertaken to ensure that there is no health hazard from air-borne asbestos fibres, and (f) what were the results of those investigations. [More…]

• Is it proposed to establish a national register of buildings, including domestic dwellings, which contain asbestos and pose potential health hazards as a result of use, maintenance, ageing or demolition. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Who were the representatives of the Department of Health and the Department of Social Security at meetings in 1977 and 1978 with the Commonwealth Police and the Deputy Crown Solicitor about the possible payment of $200,000 to a Mr Nakis, as stated yesterday by Chief Inspector Thomas? [More…]

• Why was the Department of Health involved? [More…]

• My question also is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• What are some of the limitations and restrictions imposed on the medical and hospital benefits packages being offered by the Victorian friendly societies outside the provisions of the National Health Act? [More…]

• How do these limitations compare with the basic medical and hospital tables offered by registered organisations under the National Health Act? [More…]

• There are very fundamental differences between the conditions that apply to the benefits payable from health organisations registered under the National Health Act and those payable from organisations operating outside the terms of the Act. [More…]

• For instance, under the basic medical and hospital tables of funds registered under the National Health Act there are no limitations for benefits, except for the two months waiting period. [More…]

• In regard to the Victorian friendly societies grouped together under the name the United Health Fund of Victoria, several packages being offered outside the control of the National Health Act are oriented towards low risk members of the community- young people and those who do not have a history of illness. [More…]

• One of those, of course, is the pre-existing ailment rule, which does not apply to the basic tables of the registered health insurance funds. [More…]

• It means, as this Government has clearly shown, the reduction of social provision for health in this country, and the refusal of social provision for libraries in this country. [More…]

• This Government basically would like to return to the pre- 19 72 days which are characterised in this country by public squalor, by the failure to provide adequate public provision in schools, in health and in social welfare. [More…]

• In terms of health provision, we have now had a series of capricious hacks at the system which are often quite contradictory. [More…]

• Just look at what the Government has done in relation to health. [More…]

• In relation to health provisions the Government has made a series of wild blows. [More…]

• The health area is now in such a mess, because the Government has delivered the responsibility back to the private sector, and we are told that it is about to issue its fifth or sixth health scheme. [More…]

• If we have had wild and contradictory health cuts, if we have had utter passivity by this Government about libraries in this country, what we have had in the educational field is simply a nibbling away, a cutting back year by year in a marginal fashion of educational provisions- a process of remorseless attrition. [More…]

• Recently, the Minister for Health (Mr Hunt) conservatively set the value of fringe benefits at about $10 a week. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 June 1979: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 1 October 1 979: [More…]

• Under the policy of annual benefit reviews the Commonwealth and health insurers will pay some $300m in 1979-80 by way of benefits to patients in nursing homes. [More…]

• 7 ) The levels of benefit to be paid by the Commonwealth and health insurers are prescribed by regulations which cannot be made retrospective by virtue of provisions of the Acts Interpretation Act 1 90 1 relating to retrospectivity. [More…]

• -I refer the Minister for Health to his statements in the last couple of years urging the States to consider the conversion of some sections of hospitals- in particular, geriatric sections- to nursing home care with the concomitant introduction of a fee structure. [More…]

• At the time of the last Health Ministers conference, all State Ministers indicated their general support for the concept. [More…]

• -Has the Minister for Health been informed of the coroner’s court findings yesterday in the case of a child death at Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth? [More…]

• The week before Mr Gordon Jackson, the General Manager of the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. Ltd, said that too little had been done to bring about the changes to industry which are vital for our future economic health. [More…]

• This was caused in large part by a reduction in this Government’s spending on capital works, health, education and social services. [More…]

• Those reports cover a whole range of activities- health, social welfare, the environment, law and government and so on. [More…]

• I ask the Deputy Prime Minister a question concerning the Prime Minister’s health. [More…]

• It does not take much imagination to work out what would then occur, especially in some areas where ease of retirement on grounds of ill health would quickly grow. [More…]

• If a policy decision were taken by a government that any person who retired on the grounds of sickness or ill health and was entitled to some form of superannuation payment was considered to be in a tax-free position, it would be an extraordinarily costly decision. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 17 October 1979: [More…]

• There are differing legal opinions but advice to the Capital Territory Health Commission is that the Trust is valid. [More…]

• -Can the Minister for Health give any indication of the extent to which the medical profession adheres or conforms to the Australian Medical Association fee schedule and departs from the medical benefits fee schedule, which is fixed by an independent medical benefits tribunal? [More…]

• It has been quite religiously attempting to assist the disadvantaged people and certainly pensioners with pensioner health benefit cards. [More…]

• I believe that it will be critical to the long term stability of the arrangements that have been in existence for many years in respect of pensioners, particularly those with pensioner health benefit cards, and to the arrangements for direct billing to the Department of Health for services rendered to the disadvantaged people to maintain the present system. [More…]

• -My question is directed to the Minister for Health. [More…]

• Before I call the Minister for Health, I make the point that although I have very little knowledge of this issue, my recollection is that the Minister or the questioner earlier indicated that there had been a coroner’s inquiry. [More…]

• Executive Air Charter holds a contract for one leg of the coastal surveillance task for the Department of Health. [More…]

• We have pointed to increased health costs which will add 1.3 per cent to the consumer price index as a result of the Budget decision to withdraw the Commonwealth subsidy for medical services costing less than $20. [More…]

• Petrol prices and health costs alone will mean a 2.5 per cent increase in the consumer price index. [More…]

• People can talk about health, education, housing and all sorts of things but unless the Aboriginal people who still live in tribal communities are given land rights the other things do not seem to matter a great deal. [More…]

• It concerns officers of the Health Department in Tasmania. [More…]

• It appears that senior officers of the Health Department in Tasmania have been advising organisations in my electorate that the Commonwealth Government will no longer fund accommodation programs for elderly persons. [More…]

• It appears that senior officers of the Health Department in Tasmania have been advising organisations that they might as well scrap their fund raising programs because the Commonwealth will’ not be providing subsidies to get the building programs under way. [More…]

• But despite those assurances, I still have it reported to me that these senior officers in the State Health Department in Tasmania are still advising organisations that the Federal Government will scrap this program. [More…]

• This organisation went a little bit further and said that a senior officer in the Health Department told it not only that the Federal Government would scrap this particular program but that in fact the Federal Government is planning to have an election in July of next year and intends to use $ 1 m in this program in Tasmania as election bait. [More…]

• It is a scurrilous, underhanded, malicious campaign that is being conducted by the officers of the Health Department. [More…]

• I am not certain whether these officers have been spreading these rumours on the instructions or at the instigation of the State Health Minister, Mr Barnard - [More…]

• As my colleague, the honourable member for St George (Mr Neil) suggests, he is the Labor Minister for Health in Tasmania. [More…]

• The House should condemn Mr Barnard and his officers for causing great distress in the community in Tasmania; for causing great distress to the elderly people seeking satisfactory accommodation in their remaining years; and for causing great distress to the organisations which are working most diligently to raise funds to provide accommodation for elderly citizens but which are being undermined and led astray by unthinking and, in fact, Labor oriented officers of the Health Department. [More…]

• The Minister for Health is entitled to defend another Minister who has been caught in the act of lying but he does his own honour and credibility no good at all. [More…]

• The Minister for Health chooses to associate himself with these actions. [More…]

• The Minister for Health is a lawyer. [More…]

• If the Government does that, it will be consistent with what it is doing on the question of the national health scheme. [More…]

• The Government is quite surreptitiously and consciously on its part, forcing the cost of health care back onto the individuals in the community who are ill and can least afford to pay for it. [More…]

• I think we would all say that as we look at 1980 we would certainly hope that the right honourable member for New England will obtain a clear acquittal of the charges levelled against him and that he will come back to this House next year with a completely clean bill of health. [More…]

• I wish to you, Sir, and to all those other officers and staff, the compliments of the season and a happy and healthy New Year. [More…]

• As always, we need that health so that we can carry on our work. [More…]

• I have approved a Community Health Program grant to the Institute in respect of its Murrin Bridge project. [More…]

• This grant is in respect of salaries and associated costs for two community health development staff to provide the Murrin Bridge Aboriginal community with community health development services covering matters such as hygiene, sanitation and nutrition, and including personal and community health promotion. [More…]

• My approval is subject to a special condition that the project organisers and staff shall closely co-operate with New South Wales health and welfare authorities and officers in relation to the operation of this project. [More…]

• No appointments have yet been made to the two positions approved for Community Health Program funding. [More…]

• While the Health Insurance Commission is a statutory authority, the Government does not issue instructions as to how Medibank Private business is conducted other than through instructions which apply equally to all other registered funds. [More…]

• Therefore I have asked the General Manager of the Health Insurance Commission to provide the information direct to the honourable member on a confidential basis. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 1 9 September 1 979: [More…]

• The Commonwealth also makes other forms of assistance available, such as through its health programs and the taxation system. [More…]

• Western Australia: Minister for Health and Community Welfare [More…]

• State: Office of the Minister for Ethnic Affairs, Education Department, Housing Department, Health Services Department, Social Welfare Department. [More…]

• State: Depanment of Health and Medical Services, Education Depanment, Crown Law Department, State [More…]

• Hospitals and Health Services Commission (xii) [More…]

• The Hospitals and Health Services Commission was abolished in 1978. [More…]

• Health [More…]

• Does the Depanment of Science and the Environment override the Depanment of Health in monitoring safety. [More…]

• The Supervising Scientist passed these allegations to the appropriate Northern Territory Supervising Authorities, the Departments of Mines and Energy and of Health, for investigation. [More…]

• ) Radiological health matters related to uranium mining in the Northern Teritory arc subject to the provisions of the Mines (Radiation Protection) Regulations 1978, which are jointly administered by the Director of Mines and the Chief Medical Officer of the Northern Territory. [More…]

• These regulations effectively enact the Australian Code of Practice on Radiation Protection in the Mining and Milling of Radioactive Ores published by the Australian Department of Health in 1975. [More…]

• All uranium mining operations in the Alligator Rivers Region are now subject to a large body of applicable laws and agreements relating to control of environmental and public health impact. [More…]

• Procedures for the use of such devices have not been discussed in the consultative bodies established by the Commonwealth, the States and the Northern Territory in relation to the Environment Protection (Nuclear Codes) Act 1978 for which I am responsible and which provides for the development in consultation with the States of codes of practice relating to the health, safety and protection of the environment in the course of nuclear activities. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 25 October 1979: [More…]

• Under Section 76 (2 ) of the National Health Act, funds are required to submit financial accounts on an annual basis. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 6 November 1979: [More…]

• The Managing Director of the Commonwealth Banking Corporation has advised that one of the requirements governing appointment to service in the Corporation under the Commonwealth Banks Act 1959 is that the Corporation be satisfied regarding the applicant’s health and physical fitness. [More…]

• Officers issued by the Commonwealth Department of Health. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 7 November 1979: [More…]

• It is not possible to provide details of total expenditure by the Government to discourage smoking as the Commonwealth supports, or has supported through other funding mechanisms, a wide variety of health education activities carried out in hospitals, health centres and other health agencies. [More…]

• These programs aim to promote healthy lifestyles and include anti-smoking as a major part of the overall programs. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice. [More…]

• asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister repre senting the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• What would be the administration expenses of the Comomnwealth Health Insurance Commission if claims were made by participating doctors and not individual patients as assumed in part A7 of the answer to question No. [More…]

• Quite apart from that there does exist, under the Act, authority for the Commonwealth Director of Health in the State concerned, on application by the patient’s medical practitioner, to authorise a larger quantity than that laid down, namely, 3 months supply. [More…]

• 6416) Dr Cass asked the Minister representing the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice: [More…]

• The fact that the administration of quarantine procedures is within the ambit of my colleague the Minister for Health in no way lessens my concern, or that of my Department, with the standards of quarantine. [More…]

• There is close and continued contact between my Department and the Department administered by the Minister for Health on all matters affecting quarantine. [More…]

• I can assure him that both the Department of Health and the health ministry and both the Department of Primary Industry and the primary industry ministry have a continuing concern to ensure that, in relation to the export of grain, meat or any other products, but particularly those meant for human consumption, the highest possible quarantine standards are set and maintained. [More…]

• It may be that his health has not been sufficiency restored to allow him to lead arduous trade negotiations in Europe. [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 September 1978: [More…]

• asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 22 August 1 979: [More…]

• If so, why are children requiring this treatment and living within 200 km of Melbourne not eligible for assistance to travel to Sydney under the National Health Act, whilst all other families are. [More…]