Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to try to shed some light on the healthcare disaster that the government has brought upon itself. We had commitments from Mr Abbott when he was in opposition that there would be no changes to health and no cuts to Medicare. We have had commitments more recently that the Prime Minister is listening and we have had an acknowledgement that his government since 2013 has been bad. But what we have seen on Medicare and the treatment of patients and GPs is a disgrace. It is not only disgraceful, but it is nothing short of an absolute disaster. There has been no consultation whatsoever from the government in suddenly announcing a new tax.

This was supposed to be a government of no surprises or no new taxes, but it suddenly announced a new tax on every single Australian every time they visit a doctor. Then we saw a backflip on that and then two days before Christmas we saw a direct attack on GPs themselves—again without any consultation. Then the minister was dumped and a new minister installed—she was hauled off a cruise, though I am not quite sure whether she was actually on the ship and had to be helicoptered off. The PM was so afraid of what had happened, he could not front the Australian community himself; he pulled his Minister for Health off the ship she was boarding for her holiday so she could stand before the Australian people to admit that they had made a mistake. That really was the beginning of the end for the Abbott government—they have gone too far and Australians have had enough.

What is happening now? In this place yesterday we heard the assistant health minister tell us that she was listening. Well, Madam Acting Deputy President, I am sure that you, like me and like the Abbott government, have had hundreds of emails from GPs. I know that I have received a copy of every email that a coalition senator from Western Australia has received; I know that they have received exactly the same concerns from general practitioners that I have received. I can assure the Senate today that I have responded to every single one of those GPs, letting them know that Labor is with them—that we absolutely oppose what the Abbott government is trying to do to our health system. I doubt they have had the same assurances from the Abbott government.

It does seem a little strange that Minister Ley and the assistant minister have pledged to listen. They simply need to ask their backbenchers and their ministers to give them copies of the letters they have received from GPs. I have received exactly the same letters, because I was copied into them. It seems to me that the rot has well and truly started in the Abbott government with the mess it is making of our health system. Indeed, one of its own, Mr Laming, a former GP, has come out and criticised his own government for what it was seeking to do with Medicare through its ridiculous GP tax and its ridiculous attempt to reduce the Medicare rebate for doctors. Mr Laming said that what the Abbott government should be doing is rewarding, and not punishing, high-performing doctors. He saw the Abbott government, of which he is a member, as punishing doctors.

It seems to me that it does not matter what sort of worker you are, you are in the sights of the Abbott government. Whether you are a GP, a shipbuilder, a cleaner here at Parliament House, an aged care worker, an early-childhood educator, someone who works penalty rates or someone who exists on the minimum wage, the Abbott government is determined to reduce your wage or to put you out of business altogether—like those GPs who told me and the Abbott government that their surgeries would close. Let me give the Senate a flavour of some of the emails I have received—the same emails that were sent to the Abbott government. I was very impressed by the fact that many of the GPs who wrote to me had been GPs for more than 25 years. Imagine: GPs who had never taken political action before, after 25, 30 or 35 years got really angry at what was being suggested, and started writing to all of the political parties—because they know the Abbott government is a bad government, despite what its current leader says. This is one:

I am very concerned that the co-payment is still being considered by this government. As a GP with over 30 years medical experience, I already see the difficulties my elderly, chronically ill, and disadvantaged patients face. To add an additional impost affecting their GP visits and any additional pathology or imaging requirements is both unfair, unjust and untenable. My patients are already worried about what will happen. Chasing bad debts—which is what the co-payment will amount to—will harm general practices as well.

From another GP—and the Western Australian Abbott government senators opposite have received this email—

Together with all other GPs in Australia—

quite contrary to what we heard from Senator Nash yesterday—

I was never consulted about a co-payment. It has been disastrously introduced, never seriously considered; clearly another botched government 'initiative'. Is the electorate not being taken seriously by this wanton government? Patients and doctors are offended such a combination of arrogance and ignorance.

And from another email which was also sent to Abbott government MPs:

It appears the government really has not much idea what happens at grassroots GP level.

And the last one—and there were quite a number of these—

After a lifetime of voting for the Liberal party, I will never trust them with my vote again.

And hence, we get back to that mistrust. As I have been at pains to point out, these were emails which were sent to the Abbott government; and I was ccd into them.

I am not sure if the threat about not voting Liberal has seized their attention, or whether it was the threat that Labor would disallow the harsh, cruel measures that they intended to pursue in Medicare in this place but, suddenly, two days before Christmas, they were listening. They should have been listening when they received all of those hundreds of GP emails. Something has to be a little wrong when you suddenly get hundreds of GP emails. What impressed me about those emails—and they were from rural and regional GPs; from GPs in a single-doctor practice and GPs in large practices and medium-sized practices; from GPs working with Aboriginal groups and GPs who service the aged-care sector—is that patient care was paramount. Their patients came first. That is what impressed me. They were not all the same email—and I am sure, if the Abbott government wants to be truthful about the numbers of emails it has received from GPs, the government would say that too. The emails were not carbon copies; they were GPs telling their own stories. And what has happened? They have fallen on deaf ears. I have not heard one Abbott government member—except Mr Laming—who has been brave enough to actually admit that what the government wants to do on Medicare is wrong. Susan Ley, in her own words, has said, 'we are listening'. When? When are they listening? They have hundreds of emails already that they could be reading and listening to. But she is still intent on changes. You cannot listen on the one hand and then say on the other, 'but we are going to go ahead with these changes'. What is she going to say—'Oh yes, we consulted; however, we are still doing this'.

A GP tax will not be tolerated by the Australian community. A new election to get rid of this government cannot come soon enough. It does not matter who the leader is, whether it is Mr Turnbull or not; whether Mr Hockey gets dumped as the Treasurer. They have bad policies and they have demonstrated over and over again that they are incapable of listening. They do not want to change. They have a right-wing ideology.