Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. In May last year the Prime Minister was asked about the GP tax and said:

This is right and fair and proper, and that is why it will happen under this government.

Given the Prime Minister has promised a GP tax time and time again, when will the new GP tax happen under this government?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to 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.

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

My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister update the House on the progress of her Medicare consultations? What has been the feedback from the medical profession? And what is the government doing in response?

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

May I thank the member for Dobell. I appreciate her involvement in the Medicare consultations that I am having across the country. Thank you to the member for Dobell for inviting me to her electorate to meet with doctors and other health professionals. We are a government that listens. We are a government that has heard. We are a government that consults. And that is, may I say, part of the process of government. I said from the outset that in this policy area I wanted to pause to consult, and that is exactly what I have done. I have met with doctors in their practices, from Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Bundaberg, Tasmania, north-east Victoria and in my own electorate of western New South Wales, and the consultations have been extensive, and they are not over yet. I will travel to Western Australia when the House rises at the end of this week to continue these discussions.

To ensure that we protect Medicare for the long term, the government will be proceeding with its pause on indexation of Medicare rebates for GP and non-GP items while we work with the professions to develop future policies. This is actually a measure that Labor introduced and we are continuing with. When it was pointed out by a journalist yesterday that Labor introduced this measure, the member for Ballarat said, 'We did, and we will own that we did freeze rebates.' Thank you very much, member for Ballarat. However, as part of my consultations, it is clear the proposal for an optional $5 co-payment does not have broad support. The measure will therefore not proceed and has been taken permanently off the table. I look forward to having much more to say about the government's policy position as my national consultations continue, because those consultations have made one thing very clear, and that is that doing nothing is not an option. Medicare is growing at an unsustainable rate. Spending on Medicare has more than doubled in the past decade. The proportion of that spend that is being provided by the Medicare levy is falling every year. While the Leader of the Opposition refuses to acknowledge that Medicare is unsustainable, his shadow health minister actually has called him out.

This is Labor's year of doing nothing. They only ever take the easy way out. It is time for Labor to pull their heads out of the sand and get serious with the Australian public. Our approach is listening, consulting and working for quality and sustainability.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. In June of last year the Prime Minister declared on The Bolt Report:

I don't expect people to like the Medicare co-payment but I do expect people to support the Medicare co-payment.

Isn't the decision to delay the GP tax all about the Prime Minister's job and nothing about the health of Australians?

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

As the Minister for Health has just indicated, we have been engaged in a process of consultation over many months, starting under the former minister and continuing under the present minister. What is absolutely obvious is that we would not keep the broad backing of the medical profession for the health reform process if we attempted to cut the GPs rebate and replaced the cut with a co-payment. It was absolutely obvious after a period of consultation that that was the case. Madam Speaker, do you know what sensible governments do? Sensible governments respond intelligently to what they get from the community, and this is what we have heard from the community. What are members opposite suggesting? That we should not have changed? That we should not have consulted? That we should not have done this? Is that what you are suggesting?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There will be silence on my left!

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

Really, Madam Speaker. The difference between members opposite and this government is that this government is determined to do the right thing by the people of Australia. This government is determined to give the people of Australia the best possible Medicare system, but we are going to do it in the closest possible harmony with the medical profession and the other great health professions of this country. That is exactly what the people of Australia expect. What they do not expect is what they are getting from members opposite, which is just jeering, sneering and smearing. They just can't help themselves—

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton!

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

They are wreckers in opposition. Despite all of that from the opposition, we are doing the job that the people elected us to do. We are improving the great institutions of our country. We are doing what is necessary to make our great Medicare system even better in the future than it is now. We are doing it in the closest possible harmony with the medical profession.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. At the G20 summit in November the Prime Minister told world leaders, including US President Obama, German Chancellor Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Abe, that he wanted 'to inject more price signals into our health system'. Given the Prime Minister felt so strongly about the GP tax that he tried to sell it to the world's most powerful leaders, how can Australians believe that his unfair GP tax has really gone?

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

To put the Deputy Leader of the Opposition's mind at rest, we consulted, we heard and we responded. It is as simple as that: we consulted, we heard and we responded—

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They said that they hated Labor!

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

That is exactly right. It has always been open—

Mr Husic interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Chifley.

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

It has always been open to members of the medical profession to charge a fee. I presume from their questions that members opposite propose to take away that right. What we are doing—

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton! The member for Moreton will leave under standing order 94(a).

The member for Moreton then left the chamber.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

We do take Medicare seriously—unlike members opposite, who do not Medicare seriously and do not take this parliament seriously. Madam Speaker, we take Medicare seriously. We are very conscious of the fact that it costs us $20 billion a year now; it cost us $8 billion a decade ago; it will cost us $34 billion a decade hence. We take it seriously enough to want to protect it and preserve it forever. We take it seriously enough to want to make it more efficient and more effective; we take it seriously enough to want to work hand-in-glove with the medical profession to make our great Medicare system better in the future than it has been in the past.

Opposition members interjecting—

Madam Speaker, I conclude this answer by indicating that if members opposite were serious about Medicare, we would not see this constant giggling, this constant caterwauling. If they have serious questions, they will treat the answers with the seriousness that they deserve.