Thursday, 31 July 2025

Health system

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (18:11): (1793) My adjournment matter is for the attention of the Minister for Health, and it is in relation to palliative care funding. I have raised this issue through a motion this week and called on the government to provide immediate appropriate funding to meet the demands. As we know, there are 79 people dying each day, and we have got a huge increase in people that are requiring palliative care. There is a massive increase with the ageing of our population. Unfortunately, the trajectory for terminal illness is also on the increase, which goes hand in hand with an increasing and ageing population, I might add. The government has not met the demand of what this critical part of our healthcare system needs to provide. I think it is shameful that the government has not prioritised this in the way it should.

I have said before that support and care should be provided to people to be able to die with dignity if they are at the end of their lives, and the choice to die at home is not there. The waitlist is huge. People are being forced into our hospitals to die, and it is putting more pressure right across our system. Kelly Rogerson, the chair of Palliative Care Victoria, in a response to the concerns in an article last week said:

… the state’s at-home care system is in crisis following years of underfunding by the Victorian government, with at least an extra $20 m needed to restore service levels.

In last year’s budget there was an amount of $36.9 million allocated, which ends in 2027–28. There is no further funding, and so there is no ability to plan for these services. Out of that $36.9 million, there is a component from the Commonwealth government. In fact the budget papers say:

These initiatives contribute to activity that attracts Commonwealth Government funding under the National Health Reform Agreement … Estimates of the Commonwealth Government’s contribution are included.

The action I would like from the minister is to provide me with a breakdown of the $36.9 million that was highlighted in last year’s budget as to how much is Commonwealth funding and how much is state-allocated funding.