Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

Every single one of them is being replaced? All 64 of them are being replaced, are they? You might want to check that statement with the health minister.

So there are cuts right across the entire health system, and it all translates to more costs for people out of their own pockets to pay for accessing a doctor; increased costs for accessing pharmaceuticals and medicines that are increasingly expensive; cuts to public hospitals, which means a reduction in services for people; cuts in dental care; and the abolition, pretty much, of the Commonwealth's entire role in preventative health. How short-sighted is that.

What we know from this budget is that this government has its priorities absolutely wrong when it comes to health. Its priorities when it comes to health are all about transferring costs onto patients—making people pay more to see a doctor, making people pay more to access medicines and gutting the agreements with our public hospitals. Shame on the government for this budget on health.

See this speech in context