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

Yet again, what we have seen from this government is a budget that is fundamentally unfair. It might like to say it believes in fairness, that it has suddenly had some road to Damascus conversion. It is not because it actually believes in fairness; it is because it has had some focus group that it has had to pay to tell it, 'You really need to focus on fairness.' You would have thought they might have been listening to the Australian people for the last few years, that they might actually understand that the reason they got themselves in trouble, the reason they went down to the wire at the last election, was because their continued budget measures were unfair. It was not because of Labor's campaign tactics or Labor's messaging, but because of what they stand for and who they are.

No more so is that the case than when it comes to Medicare. What this government has done to Australia's Medicare system is, frankly, an absolute and utter disgrace. We have seen cut after cut to Medicare, and this budget continues the cuts to Medicare, with the government banking billions of dollars of savings to the cuts to the patient rebate for years to come. That is what this government has done to Medicare.

We also saw the very unedifying display this morning where the minister responsible came into this place to discharge certain legislation. Instead of him saying, 'Look, we can't get a number of measures through the Senate, so we're going to have to scrap those zombie measures, those walking dead measures, that this government has had hanging as a millstone around its neck', what did he do in that debate? Did he debate us? Did he say, 'We no longer think these measures are fair; we have actually seen the light and we do not think they are fair'? No, he did not. He said absolutely nothing, because this government, at its heart, is unfair. At its heart it does not believe in protecting vulnerable Australians. It does not believe in investing in a universal care system that lifts everybody up, that makes sure that all of our health is where it should be, that makes sure we contribute into Medicare according to our means and draw down according to our healthcare needs. This government does not believe in it.

This is what it has done in the budget. In its budget, it imposes a four-year freeze on the Medicare Benefit Schedule for GPs, for specialists and for allied health professions. Then, in 2016, it extends it beyond four years to six years and tells everybody this is the best thing it should do, this is going to make Medicare sustainable into the future and this is really the most important health measure we could have. So, in this budget, you would have some expectation, finally, after doctor group after doctor group and after nurses, patients and specialist groups across the country telling the government that this measure has had a huge impact on our healthcare system, that there has been a drop in bulk-billing for GPs—we have seen that in the last two quarters and I suspect that we are about to see it again in the next quarter—that the government would have learnt its lesson. After the election, Malcolm Turnbull got up and had a bit of a dummy spit on election night but said: 'We've heard the electorate when it comes to Medicare.' However, he has basically spent a year whinging about Labor's campaign tactics. So you would have expected that last night the government would have finally said: 'We will totally unfreeze the entire Medicare benefits schedule for GPs, for allied health professionals and for specialists.' That is not what they have done at all. It is a complete breach of faith with the Australian people and a breach of faith with our hardworking healthcare professionals across the country.

There was a pretty lukewarm reception to this measure last night, because we know that within this budget there are fundamentally billions of dollars worth of cuts to Medicare. We even heard the AMA President say:

We would've liked to have seen full indexation from 1 July this year.

They didn't get it. The Australian Medical Association (NSW) said:

[the] Federal Budget is a disappointment and that it won’t have an appreciable effect on people’s access to healthcare.

The association's president went on to say:

At this rate it will be many years before patients see an appreciable difference in out-of-pocket costs.

Malcolm Turnbull promised that nobody would pay—

Mr Hawke interjecting—

The Prime Minister promised that nobody would pay extra under this to see a GP.

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