17th Aug 2011 – Representatives National Health Reform Amendment (National Health Performance Authority) Bill 2011 - Second Reading - Do not give a second reading

The majority voted against an amendment to the original motion That this bill be now read a second time.(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through here. ) The amendment was:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"the House decline to give the bill a second reading until provisions establishing the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority, including its functions and responsibilities, are presented to the House for its consideration."

One member of parliament, Nationals MP Tony Crook, rebelled and crossed the floor to vote 'aye' with the Government.(Read more about what it means to rebel in our FAQ Section. )

Background to the bill

The bill was introduced to establish the National Health Performance Authority, which the Government first committed to establish at the April 2010 Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting.(Read more about the bill, including its explanatory memorandum and bills digest, here. ) Although there are a number of local, state and national performance monitoring schemes already operating in the health sector, there is little nationally consistent and comparable publicly available information on providers’ performance.(Read more about the background to the bill in the bills digest. )

Establishing this authority was controversial, with supporters saying that it will encourage hospitals to improve and detractors saying that it will add to the administrative burden of the health sector.(Read more about these arguments on ABC's PM here. Read more about the concerns of the states on ABC's AM here.)

References