AT yesterday’s Senate Estimates hearings it was confirmed that ACT Health Minister Simon Corbell’s claims of cuts to ACT Hospitals by the Commonwealth are completely fictitious, says Liberal Senator Zed Seselja.

“When a senior Health official was asked in the Community Affairs Estimates Committee on Monday afternoon about the supposed $600 million cut to ACT Health funding he responded: ‘I don’t know where a $600 million cut would come from’.”

The official is then quoted as saying: “The reality is that funding is provided to the ACT, as it is to every other state and territory, for the 2014/15 and will continue in the 2016/17 year based on the Nationally Efficient Price and the Weight Activity. The hospitals are funded based on that.”

Senator Seselja says: “The fact is that funding for ACT Hospitals from the Commonwealth has increased under the current government. In the last year of the Rudd/Gillard government 2013/14 $233 million was budgeted to be given to the ACT for Hospitals. That figure has increased under the coalition and will continue to increase to $343.9 million by 2016/17, an increase of 48 per cent in just three years”

“This proves without a doubt that Simon Corbell’s claim of a “$600 million cut to ACT Health confirmed in Federal Budget” is fictitious.

“Simon Corbell, as the Health Minister for the ACT, should know better than anyone that in 2017/18 the funding moves back to a per capita basis. This does not mean a decrease in funding for the ACT, but simply means the cross-border funding will not be included in the Commonwealth Budget papers.

“Comparing like for like there still will have been an increase of over 46 per cent from 2012/13 to 2017/18.

“Simon Corbell needs to be honest with the community about the level of health funding for the ACT, following these completely contrived figures. It seems that even an almost 50 per cent increase in funding in three years isn’t enough for Mr Corbell, so he resorts to making up figures.

“The Health System in the ACT under Labor is one of the worst performing systems in the country but after yesterday’s Senate hearings Mr Corbell is out of excuses.”