Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be speaking on the MPI put forward today by the member for Ballarat which refers to the government's constant undermining of Medicare. The people in my electorate rely very heavily on a Medicare system that is robust, available and affordable. In fact, some suburbs, in particular Broadmeadows, constantly show up in statistics as areas of very high need. We are, in fact, one of the neediest areas. With diseases such as chronic heart disease, diabetes and mental health issues being so prevalent in our community, the government's continued attacks on Medicare raises ongoing alarm both for my constituents and our local healthcare providers.

It has always been the case, certainly in the time that I have been the member for Calwell, that one of our greatest challenges has been the affordability of adequate bulk-billing GP services, as well as the availability of specialist services. My local community health centre, the Dianella Community Health care centre, has struggled over the years to attract and maintain GPs and to also maintain GP bulk-billing. In fact, as far back as 2006, following a massive reduction in the after-hours GP services at Dianella, our community launched a petition calling on the then Howard government to provide the much needed funding to continue this very vital service. At the time, Dianella required about $150,000 per annum to restore our after-hours services. I tabled a petition with some 2,224 signatures with an additional 700 letters sent to the then Minister for Health and Ageing, Tony Abbott.

You can see that Medicare has never been safe from a coalition government, nor will it ever be. It has always been, in fact, Labor governments that support Medicare. The election of a Rudd and Gillard Labor government not only saw a return to support for Medicare but also saw the then Labor government invest some $7 million in contribution to the building of a superclinic in partnership with Dianella Community Health. The superclinic is a one-stop medical shop with doctors, physiotherapists, pathologists, podiatrists and occupational therapists all available to my constituents in one place. The superclinic has been running for a few years, and it is doing a great job of meeting my community's health needs. Of course in 2014, under the aggressive budget repair measures, the then Minister for Health, Peter Dutton, derided the value of the former Labor government's superclinic program and, in fact, shut it down. But, for my electorate, the concept of the superclinic was a great model for addressing the shortages and the inadequate availability of health services.

It is not surprising, then, that the governments most likely to undermine Medicare are always the coalition governments. In fact, not only are they most likely to do that but they are most keen and determined to do that. Of course, we have seen the Abbott-Turnbull governments take up this ideological crusade against Medicare since coming to power in 2013. Who can forget the proposed $7 GP tax, the $5 hike in medicines—the biggest price increases for prescription medicine in a decade—the $50 billion cut from public hospitals or the shutting down of the 61 Medicare Locals? The list goes on.

The Abbott government began the aggressive undermining of Medicare, and this Turnbull government has continued the assault unabated. The Turnbull government does not care whether or not people in my electorate can access affordable health care. The six-year freeze on Medicare rebates is making health care less affordable, yet this government's response is to extend it out to 2020, ignoring calls from across the healthcare sector to lift it. My local GPs and health experts constantly tell me how hard the freeze is biting and hurting my local community. We have historically struggled to attract GPs and to keep GP services affordable, and this is becoming increasingly more difficult, especially when demand is increasing and becoming more urgent.

I do want to pay tribute to the many caring GP services in my electorate who are desperately trying to keep bulk-billing and to remain affordable to the underprivileged and underserviced community they serve, but the freeze is really testing them. The cuts to diagnostic imaging affects and further threatens the welfare of people in my electorate, who are statistically more likely to become ill than those from wealthier electorates. Cuts to the bulk-billing incentive given to pathologists and to radiologists will see co-payments rise, and patients will be forced to pay more for tests or scans. Many of my constituents will be forced to possibly skip lifesaving services such as X-rays, CAT scans and ultrasounds as they become more unaffordable, and this is just not acceptable.

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