Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For more than 40 years there have been two great truths when it comes to health policy in Australia. On this side of the House, the Labor Party has stood and will stand for universal health care through Medicare. On the other side, the conservatives have been characterised by their determination to rip it apart. They tore down Medibank and they are still committed to ripping up Medicare's universal health care and, with it, the social wage that is so important.

It is striking that amongst the chaos and dysfunction that has characterised this government there has been some consistency. The Prime Minister has said not once, not twice but on 53 separate occasions that he supports the GP tax. So let's take today's announcement with more than just a grain of salt, particularly because government members continue to describe this policy as desirable and, indeed, as good policy. This of course flies in the face of the evidence and it flies in the face of the views of the Australian people, particularly those in my electorate of Scullin where 93 per cent of GP visits are bulk-billed currently and where nearly 10,000 people have signed a petition calling on this government to scrap its plans to introduce a GP tax.

I will say this one more time to government members, and maybe they will listen. The Australian people know the government cannot be trusted. They know that, for Liberals, attacking universal health care is in their DNA. Only Labor stands for universal health care, only Labor stands for Medicare and only Labor says, 'Your health care depends not on your credit card but on your Medicare card.' (Time expired)

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Labor Party just have not got the memo. They have not got the memo about the GP co-payment. The Minister for Health is making an announcement at this very moment. Unfortunately, their whole tactic of having an orchestrated campaign of 90-second statements on this for the next 30 minutes just means that they need to catch up. The announcement is going to be made that the co-payment will not exist.

But, also, there have been a lot of other claims made here about the Liberal Party's stance on Medicare. During the period of the Howard government, it was often said that we were the greatest friend Medicare ever had. When we were last in government we saw Medicare being expanded to allied health, mental health and dentistry. We were strong supporters of Medicare and remain so.

On the budget measure from last year, it is very clear that that did not have a lot of support from health professionals and medical professionals. But I have to say to the Labor Party that it is a terrible shame that the posters you have made are now going to be wasted. It is finished. It is over. We are going to go on much stronger with Medicare— (Time expired)

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member opposite in telling us that we did not get the memo for confirming the rumour that we have been hearing. We read the papers yesterday. We have certainly got the memo. But, most importantly, we remember the Prime Minister's promise—no cuts to health. We know what happened to that. We have watched since last year's budget. We have watched the government attack Medicare time and time again with a price signal, a value signal, a $7 GP tax, a $20 rebate cut, a $5 GP tax and four years worth of cuts to Medicare rebates.

The only signal that has resonated for us and for the public is that this government are hell-bent on their agenda to rip apart our universal healthcare system and to Americanise Medicare. We know that the attacks will continue. We know that there will be a another attack coming because the Prime Minister has told us on 53 occasions what a good and decent policy it is to rip up Medicare. Now we are watching a Prime Minister making a commitment that this is over, that the GP tax is gone and that he is the best friend of Medicare. But this is about his leadership. This is about shoring up his numbers. We know the attacks will come back. We will stand for Medicare. Labor have always stood for Medicare. We created Medicare, and we will protect Medicare.