Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Quite right. I am pointing out that it is of little surprise that the Australian people do not trust the government when it comes to Medicare or health in general in this country. It's of no surprise. We heard earlier the minister congratulating himself for the release of a whole series of new drugs on the PBS. There's no argument on this side of the House whatsoever. You know what? We actually think it's the job of the Minister for Health to find ways to get new drugs, much-needed medications, onto the PBS list. It's a measure we wholeheartedly support, but we say that that's actually the job of the Minister for Health. So good on you for doing your job.

What we on this side of the House, however, are concerned about is the government's continuing undermining of Australia's universal health system. The member for Macarthur and I have had the extraordinary pleasure of talking with Australian men and women across the country as part of Labor's Medicare task force. Everywhere we go we hear the lived reality of Australian men and women struggling to access quality health care in Australia. We know about the impact of out-of-pocket expenses for Australian men and women. We know, for example, as the speaker before me rightly mentioned, about what I'd call the partial defrost that's going on at the moment—the Medicare slow thaw. Much to the horror of many Australians who were, at first blush, delighted to think that the government had had a change of heart, that they were going to back off having learned their lesson on Medicare, when they tried to actually take advantage of the changes, tried to find and access bulk-billing, they were disappointed. They found, very early in the piece, that if you're a woman—

Mr Littleproud interjecting—

Member for Maranoa, you're not a woman, but if you had any experience of trying to get a Pap smear test done in Australia, for example, you would find out, very quickly, that you don't get to bulk-bill your Pap smear test. Now, you might think that 50 per cent of this nation's population don't deserve—

Mr Littleproud interjecting—

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