Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about Medicare—a great Australian institution. After the rejection of their $7 GP tax three times—and who could forget Joe Hockey comparing it to two middies of beer?—and after that disastrous sales campaign failing, they have now introduced a GP tax by the back door through a freeze on the rebate for GPs. This equates to an $8 dollar GP tax. That will hit my community most grievously. It will end bulk-billing. The sad truth is it is part of an ideological agenda to attack Medicare that the Liberal Party has had for the last 40 years. At least in the seventies and eighties they were open about it. Their official policy was to abolish Medicare. Now, they are doing it by the back door.

The tragedy is it will be counterproductive. Primary health care is the most cost-effective form of health care. We need to be investing more in it, not less. A former secretary of the health department has found that if just one in 50 of the deterred visits to GPs that this initiative will produce, if just one in 50 of those 1 million avoided visits, presents to an emergency department the entire savings will be wiped out. This is a policy that will not work. It will hurt Australian families and will end a great Australian institution—Medicare and bulk-billing. It must be opposed and condemned. (Time expired)