Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was leafing through the coalition's policy from the last election, which was the one they took to the people. It is called 'Our plan: real solutions for all Australians'. There is a subheading: 'The direction, values and policy priorities of the next coalition government.' If you go to page 39, 'delivering better health services', the subheadings are: improving the performance of public hospitals at a local level, improving mental health services, funding diabetes research, improving access to medicines, improving private health insurance and bringing dental to Medicare.

There is nothing in this document about $60 billion worth of cuts, including $2 billion in this budget, $125 million cut from the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, $1 billion out of the flexible funds, $250 million out of the PBS, $70 billion out of health workforce and $70 million out of allied health program for veterans. There was nothing about that at all and nothing about the GP tax. It was in all five versions, including the latest version. It was not discarded in this budget but simply snuck in under the radar. We know that the president of the AMA has belled the cat and told the truth about this: the GP tax will be there in the community undermining bulk-billing rates. That is a reality. This government is determined to smash Medicare.