Kym Richardson (Kingston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister provide a progress report on ‘Strengthening Medicare’, particularly the benefits provided under the safety net? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While members opposite are trying to turn back the tide of economic freedom, this government is getting on with advancing the long-term best interests of our nation. Let me thank the member for Kingston for his question, and let me note a fact which I know pleases him greatly, which is that the GP bulk-billing rate in his electorate has increased by more than 14 percentage points since ‘Strengthening Medicare’ began. Since ‘Strengthening Medicare’ began, there has been a 10 percentage point increase in the GP bulk-billing rate right around Australia so that more than three-quarters of all GP consultations are now bulk-billed. Thanks to the policies of the Howard government, bulk-billing in New South Wales is up seven percentage points; in Western Australia it is up nine percentage points; in Victoria it is up 10 percentage points; in Queensland it is up 13 percentage points; in South Australia it is up 15 percentage points; and, in the great state of Tasmania the GP bulk-billing rate is up by more than 21 percentage points. That is thanks to the policies of the Howard government.

The government are not just on about greater access to bulk-billing doctors. We want to help people who do not get their medical services for free, and that is what we are doing with the Howard government’s Medicare safety net, which this year will help 1½ million Australians. Last year, it helped nearly 7,000 people in the electorate of Kingston. By abolishing the safety net, Labor wants to pick people’s pockets as they are leaving Medicare offices.

I have been asked about alternative policy. The Australian Labor Party used to have a policy, Medicare Gold, which was all about robbing younger Australians to reward older Australians. Now their only policy is to abolish the Medicare safety net. That means ripping off about $200 million a year from the people who most need that money. The member for Lalor’s only recent contribution to health policy was to demand about three weeks ago the immediate funding of Gardasil. That would not have brought forward a single inoculation. It would have cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and it would have destroyed the integrity and the credibility of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.

I say to the Leader of the Opposition: do not let your fear of the member for Lalor stop the urgent development of a health policy. Mr Speaker, you do have to feel a bit sorry for the Leader of the Opposition at the moment. Fifty per cent of Australians would prefer a different leadership team and it is not because the member for Lalor and the member for Griffith are any good. The problem that the Leader of the Opposition faces is that he is beset by ambitious careerists who will neither mount a challenge nor rule one out. I say to the Leader of the Opposition: if you cannot run a credible opposition you could never run an effective government of this country.