House debates

Wednesday, 10 February 2010

Adjournment

Petition: Cataract Surgery

7:45 pm

Photo of Steven CioboSteven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Youth and Sport) Share this | | Hansard source

I rise to speak about an issue that has been important to my electorate and one on which I am very pleased that the coalition was able to secure a backdown from the Australian Labor Party, and that is the cataract surgery rebate. I present a petition signed by 608 of the local residents in my electorate of Moncrieff. It is in response to Labor’s planned halving of the Medicare rebate for cataract treatment. I launched this petition in November last year in protest against the decision.

I put forward this petition with the sole and express intention of supporting the efforts of the coalition in ensuring that we were able to block Labor’s attempts to cost not only my constituents in the seat of Moncrieff but all constituents across Australia more money. We called on the parliament to block any effort by Labor to halve cataract rebates, a move that would have forced—as I said—thousands of Australians into an already overburdened public health system. It would have also inflicted unnecessary hardship on many others.

I welcome the humiliating backdown by the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon. Nicola Roxon. I welcome the fact that she has backed down. Over 120,000 Australians are potential cataract patients. These people would have been adversely affected had Labor’s ill-thought-through plan gotten through, with higher out-of-pocket expenses for each and every one of them. This would have been a change to public policy that would not have been welcomed. The changes would also have added to the pressure on the public hospital system, a system that not only on the Gold Coast but more broadly across Australia is already in a state of poor repair. There are many times when the public hospital on the Gold Coast is put on bypass. There are many people on long waiting lists to access elective surgery. There are many waiting to have cataract operations. This myopic move by the minister for health, had the attempt to make it been successful, would have made this big problem even bigger.

For seven months the Labor Party attempted to force this change through the parliament. I was pleased to, with the weight of community support behind me, have this petition in place to reinforce community concern and my concern on behalf of my constituents about Labor’s proposed changes. Labor proposed to halve the rebate in the 2009-10 budget. The rebate for the most common cataract treatment was going to be halved from $623.70 down to $312.64, effective from 1 November last year. As a coalition, the Liberal Party and the National Party stood up to the Labor Party. We stood alongside constituents who we knew would be worse of.

In an unfortunately abysmal attempt to compromise, the health minister adjusted her proposal to make the rebate $340.76. That was Labor’s alternative when we stood in their way. It was still a cut of more than 45 per cent. Neither of the proposals that were put forward were acceptable to me or to the coalition. I congratulate the shadow minister for health, the member for Dickson, on his fantastic work on behalf of not only the 608 constituents who have signed this petition but those from across Australia who were engaged in activities to try to demonstrate to Labor how poor their attempts were.

I sincerely congratulate and thank those 608 people from my electorate who have worked with me in signing this petition. I congratulate and thank the ophthalmologists across my electorate, who helped with the distribution of this petition to ensure that once again we successfully thwarted Labor in their very myopic attempt to try to cost Australians more money. It also would have seen an overburdened public health system become even worse. The simple reality is that without the joint will of the Liberal Party, the National Party and those not only from my electorate but from across Australia who have signed this petition we would not have achieved the fantastic outcome that we got: stopping Labor’s very short-sighted decision.

I present the petition.

The petition read as follows—

To the Honourable The Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives

This petition of certain citizens of Australia draws to the attention of the House:

The 120,000 Senior Australians who, each year, have 200,000 surgical procedures to treat cataracts.

We therefore ask the House to:

Block any Labor Government effort to halve the Medicare rebate for these treatments. Any reduction in the Medicare rebate will force thousands of Australians into an already overburdened public health system and inflict unnecessary financial hardship on many others.

from 608 citizens

Petition received.