(image source: angeles-hill.com)
Greg Hunt has been named as the new health and sports minister as the resignation of Susan Ley forces a ministerial reshuffle.
At a press conference, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that Hunt had been chosen as the new Minister for Health and Minister for Sport after Ley had been forced to resign amid an expenses scandal.
Senator Arthur Sinodinos will take over Hunt’s current role as Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science whilst Ken Wyatt will be promoted from the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care to the Minister for Aged Care and Indigenous Health and Michael Sukkar will be appointed as Assistant Minister to the Treasurer.
Turnbull said Hunt, who before being industry manager was in charge of the environmental portfolio, was well placed to serve in his new role.
“He has strong policy, analytical and communication skills developed over a very long front bench career,” Turnbull said.
“During his time as the Environment Minister, he demonstrated an ability to grapple with extremely complex policy issues and engage a very diverse range of stakeholders and interest groups, including State and Territory Governments.”
Australian Medical Association President Dr Michael Gannon welcomed the appointment, saying Hunt’s previous experience should help to prepare him for the issues which he would confront in healthcare.
But he warned that the new Minister would have many challenges ahead, and urged him to focus attention on a number of priority areas.
These include scrapping the freeze on Medicare patient rebates as well as getting across reviews into the Medicare Benefits Schedule and private health insurance.
Public hospital funding was a further priority as was indigenous health, mental health and prevention, Gannon said.
Meanwhile, Wyatt’s appointment as a minister makes him the first indigenous person to be appointed to the Commonwealth Ministry.
He was also the first indigenous person to be appointed to the House of Representatives.
On another topic, asked about suggestions that the Centrelink debt recovery system had targeted pensioners and disabled people, the Prime Minister defended the agency.
He says Centrelink had always sought explanations from recipients of payments where discrepancies exist between the income reported to Centrelink and that reported by employers to the Australian Taxation Office, and stressed that the initial letters were not debt notices but rather letters seeking explanation.
Not to check and confirm reasons for any discrepancies, Turnbull said, would undermine the means testing principles which underpinned the viability of the welfare system.
“The letters that go out in the first instance are simply saying there is a discrepancy – your employer says you earn this and you say you earned that, can you explain what that discrepancy is?”, Turnbull said.
“That is entirely responsible and appropriate.”
