Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against the National Health Amendment (Pharmaceuticals Benefit) Bill 2014. This bill increases Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co-payments for general patients by $5 to $42.70 and for concessional patients by 80c to $6.90. It also increases the concessional PBS safety net threshold by two prescriptions per year, and the general safety net threshold by 10 per cent each year, for the four years from 2015 to 2018. These increases are in addition to the usual increases of CPI and indexation.

Labor will oppose this $1.3 billion tax grab on medicines because it hurts every Australian. As the member for Chifley and others on this side have pointed out consistently, prior to the last election the now Prime Minister stood in front of the Australian people and said: 'No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS.' He said that on 6 September 2013. The only thing he has not done so far is change the GST but, as we expect from this government and as the Treasurer said, there is more to come. We expect to see that being put on the table next, as they try to fill in the mistakes they made in their election promises.

The Prime Minister was interviewed by Chris Uhlmann on ABC's 7:30 on 8 July 2013. He said: 'We will be a consultative, collegial government. No surprises, no excuses.'

In another interview, when he was asked about the condition of the budget by a reporter who said:

The condition of the budget will not be an excuse for breaking promises?

the now Prime Minister said:

Exactly right. We will keep the commitments that we make. All of these commitments that we make will be commitments that are carefully costed.

What we have seen from this Prime Minister since he came to power has been a total backflip on each and every one of those things. The government have not been consultative. They have not been collegiate. They are full of surprises and full of excuses.

Every single day we hear the same excuses from those opposite, parroting their talking points nonstop: 'Oh, it was a Labor mess.' It was a Labor 'mess' that kept us out of the GFC. It was a Labor 'mess' that kept inflation low. It was a Labor 'mess' that kept unemployment to low rates. All these things have happened. This economy grew and grew during the years of the Rudd and Gillard governments, something this current government cannot say. We have seen some of the worst indicators of public and business confidence ever seen—the fastest drops in consumer confidence ever—in the first six months of this government. We have seen that because this government, which was built on a lie, has come in here and done nothing but cut and attack every Australian.

In their first budget, the Treasurer announced education and health spending would be cut by a total of $80 billion. Pensions will be linked to inflation, rather than wages growth, and therefore will increase at a lower annual rate. In the gospel according to Abbott in Battlelines, 2009, page 133, he said:

Commonwealth spending on health and education now approaches $90 billion a year. Still, any withdrawal of Commonwealth involvement or spending in these areas would rightly be seen as a cop-out.

Well, what a cop-out we have seen under this Prime Minister and this government. The Abbott government is making medicines more expensive by adding $1.26 billion to family budgets. It may not seem a lot but when you put that on with the fuel tax increase and the other increases that have been put in place by this government it does add up. It is all right for those on high incomes, but for those on fixed and low incomes, it is a very, very big burden for them to bear. The Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of New South Wales said on 13 May this year:

The message to Australians tonight is: 'if you get sick, you'll pay. If you get old, you'll pay. If you lose your job or acquire a disability, don't expect to get support so easily.'

Sharing the burden is heavily falling on the shoulders of those least able to afford it.

I think that sums up this government and this budget and what they are doing. This is not the only cuts to health. They have also put a tax on doctor visits and there is hundreds of millions of dollars being cut from preventative health, dental health and Australia's health workforce. We have been dealt a major blow from the Abbott government as they pull back from their commitment to increase hospital funding, breaking their promise to index funding to a combination of growth in the consumer price index and population. Labor will not support Tony Abbott's unfair slug on sick Australians.

See this speech in context