Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

As has been made absolutely crystal clear today, it will not. What has become obvious is that it is not possible to do optimal health reform in this country without the full backing and support of the medical profession. That is what our consultations, beginning with Minister Dutton when he was the minister and continuing with Minister Ley, have confirmed. As a former health minister, I suppose I should have been more conscious of this. I should have been more conscious of the fact that proper health reform in this country does require the support, the cooperation and the consent of the medical profession. Proper health reform in this country does require government and the medical profession and the other great health professions of our country to work hand-in-hand together. That is exactly what we are doing.

There are three principles that are guiding this government: first of all, the protection and the sustainment of our great Medicare system; second, the protection of the vulnerable, particularly the protection of bulk-billing for children and for concession card holders; and, third, the fact that we want to work in the closest possible harmony with the medical profession and the other great professions to make our excellent health system even better in the future than it is now. I do accept that it has taken us some time to come to this position, but we have been serious about trying to set Medicare up for the long term to ensure that Medicare is set up for the long term. It has to be as efficient and as effective as possible, and the best way to ensure that Medicare is as efficient and as effective as possible is to work as closely as we can with the health professions, particularly the medical profession—to work with the backing, whenever we can secure it, of the medical profession, and that is exactly what we intend to do.

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