Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last week I had the pleasure of attending Wyong Hospital. It was fantastic to meet with the nurses, the doctors and the admin staff. They really do an amazing job. Is very important that we support quality health care and our local hospitals. I know that the member for Robertson is a strong advocate for health care in her seat of Robertson and spends a lot of time at Gosford Hospital as well.

Whilst I was at Wyong Hospital, the opposition leader was also on the Central Coast on his national limp lettuce tour. This time he was peddling lies to the media about Medicare and, in particular, pathology. He turned up at a pathologist in North Gosford. The sad thing about this is that to get attention, instead of going out there and launching his reckless negative gearing policy, he has to prey on the most vulnerable members of our community—seniors and chronically ill people. To do that is really, really low. That is how low those opposite have become.

To make it worse, standing right next to the opposition leader and encouraging him with her nodding head was the reluctant Labor candidate for Dobell, who happens to be a senior manager with Central Coast Local Health District. Obviously she was on her lunch break. How typical of the HSU delegates in Dobell—participating in a campaign of lies and deceit. The lies and deceit of the opposition have to stop. At the end of the day it is nothing but lies, when it comes to pathology.

My colleague here, the member for Macarthur, and I were discussing this really top-quality fact sheet that we came across called 'Facts about Medicare—the truth'. The truth is that you can go out there with your scare and deceit campaign, stating that this miniscule budget change to payments to pathology providers—between $1.40 and $3.40—will mean a $30 increase in pathology fees. That is a load of rubbish. This quality fact sheet that we have states the truth: the government has made no changes to Medicare rebates for pathology services, including common blood tests and Pap smears. Changes that were announced in the MYEFO relate to the payment worth between $1.40 and $3.40 that is paid directly to the pathology corporation. It is separate from the Medicare rebate. It has nothing to do with patient's Medicare rebate.

Mr Conroy interjecting—

The member for Charlton thinks it is all a big joke. Maybe you should sign up for the dental program. Anyway, a recent report produced by the Grattan Institute confirms that there is no justifiable ground for large pathology corporations to introduce a $30 co-payment for blood, urine and Pap smear tests, based on the loss of a small payment worth $1.40 to $3.40.

This is not about the patient. This is about the shareholders. The hypocrisy of those opposite! You have no credibility whatsoever on this issue. In government, you cut $550 million from pathology services. It is disheartening that we see the opposition leader, the Labor Party and an HSU advocate and paid staff of the Central Coast Local Health District out there peddling lies, creating a scaremongering campaign, and using panic examples, which we have heard here today during the MPI, of our most vulnerable community members—panic examples none of which are verified.

Labor is always intent on scaring the Australian public. Why does their modus operandi always include making up campaigns that deliberately mislead the Australian public? They are scaremongering, because what else have they got? They talk about their positive plan, but what is the positive plan? All we are hearing is negativity, negativity, negativity. We have not heard a positive thing yet. All we hear about is your campaign of lies and deceit. You are trying to distract the public from the truth about your weak negative gearing policy.

Opposition members interjecting—

You can laugh now, but the Australian public are not going to like it when there is a shortage of rental properties and you cannot allow people to invest in their homes. Property values will go down and you are stopping people from investment. (Time expired)

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