Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is interesting to hear the speaker opposite talking about overservicing. Try talking about overservicing to the single mum who works part-time, relies on her penalty rates—which is a debate for another day and which they want to cut—and who has three kids. One gets the flu, it goes around in the family and she has to visit the doctor three to four times in the next fortnight, paying the co-payment. Try telling her that is overservicing.

Or try telling the pensioner in my electorate who suffers from chronic diabetes and a heart condition and who has to visit a doctor weekly that he has to be asked to pay a co-payment. Try telling him that he is being overserviced. These are the conversations that I had in the lead-up to the last federal election in the seat of Hindmarsh. There is no doubt that this 2016 election was fought on the issue of protecting our exceptional Medicare system. We built this system back in the Whitlam days. It was taken away by the then Fraser government and then we reinvested in Medicare and created a good universal health system for all Australians.

Twenty per cent of my electorate is over the age of 65, therefore this was a crucial issue and a crucial discussion that we had at the last election with my constituents. There was a loud message from them, and I said this last night in this place. The message from those people was, 'Do not tinker with Medicare.'

Now, I know the Turnbull government's incredibly poor election result; you see the new members that are here, and my seat as well. But this furphy about some lies about Medicare—let's look at the facts. Let's look at the history and go back from 2013 when Mr Abbott was the Prime Minister, and their first budget. There was an attempt to bring in a co-payment through legislation through this House. What happened was that it was rejected in the Senate. It was rejected and it was rejected. It was rejected three times. Do those opposite think the Australian public are stupid? That they do not remember these things and they do not know these things? Therefore, the seeds were planted in the Australian public's mind that there was something wrong with this government's position on Medicare.

Not only that, because they could not get it through, thanks to Labor's opposition, they then tried to bring it in through the back door by having a freeze on doctors' payments. We know if you put the freeze on doctors' payments that in some of the clinics in my electorate—in some of the inner western suburb clinics and the one that I visit on a regular basis and which my family has for many years—you go in there, they start at eight o'clock in the morning and they are there till eight o'clock at night.

I talk to my doctor sometimes and I say, 'You need a break.' He says, 'I can't have a break. Who's going to look after these people?' It is a lower socioeconomic area—a lot of migrants with English as a second language, lots of young mums and unemployed people. These people need health services, and if they also have an ailment or a chronic health issue it is even more important that we look after these people and ensure that they can visit a doctor. If they do not visit a doctor, their illness—their diabetes or blood pressure—will get worse. And a couple of nights in hospital will cost the government and the budget bottom line far more than what you are trying to save through this freeze on their payments.

Health is a fundamental right for a nation like ours—in fact, all nations—and it should be one of the goals that we all set. We should have a universal health system. When people need to see a doctor, the services should be there for them and they should not have to think of their hip pocket.

We can talk about these furphies—text messages et cetera—but the Australian public did not need a text message to know what the government was up to. The seeds of doubt were planted in 2013—and more seeds were planted and flourished at this election because the Australian public knew they could not trust the Turnbull government on Medicare and health.

Cutting Medicare bulk-billing incentives for vital blood tests and imaging scans is another issue. In the 2015-16 Mid-Year Economic and Financial Outlook the Prime Minister cut $650 million from Medicare for vital tests and scans. This was in spite of the overwhelming evidence that the former Labor government's incentives were achieving their aim of maintaining an increase to bulk billing— (Time expired)

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