Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The issue is this: the government's budget is a war on the poor; it is a war on the people who live in rural and regional Australia. The $7 GP tax will cost patients over $1.4 billion in communities outside of metropolitan centres.

The destruction of the PBS safety net is going to cost an additional $1.2 billion for people for their medicines. If you look at the top 12 electorates that will pay the greatest out-of-pocket expenses as a result of this rotten budget in the PBS, they are all in rural and regional Australia. And they are going to be wacked an additional $112 million over the next four years.

Where is the member for Gippsland? Where is the member for Hinkler? Where is the member for Murray? Where is the member for Gilmore? And where are the other members who claim to represent regional and rural Australia electorates? Why aren't they here today, standing up for their electorates?

The sad truth is this. If you live in the bush, you do not enjoy the same health outcomes as you would if you lived in the city, whether they be diabetes, the incidence of a melanoma or other cancers, injuries or, tragically, suicide. The sad fact is that, if you live in the bush, you do not enjoy the same sorts of health outcomes as you would if you lived in the city. Tragically, those on the other side are letting down their constituencies.

It is also true that, if you live in rural and regional Australia, you not only have the lowest incomes but are also paying more in out-of-pocket health expenses. The poorest people in the country are being whacked the hardest by those on the other side of the chamber.

Labor has a very proud record when it comes to health. Labor is the party that introduced Medicare 30 years ago and we are defending it here today, while those on the other side are attempting to attack it. From 2007 to 2013 we ensured that there were more doctors trained and more doctors sent to the bush to practise. We built over 29 new cancer centres and we put in place health and hospital funding which ensured that funding of hospitals around the country was more sustainable.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps out of embarrassment at the success that the Labor Party had in looking after people in the bush and looking after people in rural Australia, before the last election the National Party published this policy document. When you look at this policy document you will see it has a fair few things to say about health and health policy. For instance, they made some very big promises about having a policy to ensure that no member on that side of the chamber would support policies which were going to lead to the closure of hospitals in rural and regional Australia. The $55 billion cut to health and hospital funding is going to have a devastating impact on hospitals in the bush and those on the other side know it. We demand that the National Party live good to their promises and stand up here and defend the things that they went to the last election on.

The coalition went to the last election promising, in this document here, that they would increase financial incentives and payments for doctors practising in rural and regional Australia. As soon as they got into government, what did they do? They cut Medicare rebates for doctors. So, instead of increasing funding, they have decreased funding for doctors practising in the bush. The best promise of all—and this is the one we love—was that they would have a full-time minister for regional and rural health, to ensure that the interests of regional and rural Australia were looked after when the big decisions were made. It is no surprise, but it is a Liberal Party health minister who is going to be standing there defending their record because The Nationals will not get up and defend it.

See this speech in context