Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The federal Liberal government's plan to destroy Medicare by dismantling and limiting access to Medicare is proceeding at breakneck speed. The Liberal's strategy is now clear. By stopping the processing of Medicare claims at Centrelink offices and progressively removing Medicare staff from Centrelink offices, the government is forcing people to wait weeks for claims to be processed and paid. By doing this, they are removing universal access and trying to destroy Medicare's appeal to the general public. Bringing the public sector and its services into disrepute is part of this government's strategy to remove the social safety net. There are now around 130,000 patient claims in the queue for processing. And claim rebate times have increased from two days to five to six weeks.

Only on Friday, Margret from Nundah called my office. She explained: her daughter had been waiting six weeks for a Medicare rebate. There are at least 130,000 Margrets right across this country. There will be resistance to this from the public and it will increase customer aggression. Staff are already being encouraged to mislead the public in promising claims will be processed overnight, if left. Wait times this long are not just an inconvenience. They create serious hardship for working Australians. The removal of immediate claims processing from the DHS offices will adversely affect the poor, the sick, the technologically-disadvantaged and the chronically ill or anyone who needs to access their rebate straightaway, for example, to pay for further treatment or medication.

The Medicare staff at Centrelink have a wealth of knowledge and experience, and many of these are being removed and sent to staff hubs. This will lead and represent a drastic loss of knowledge and information. The Liberal's strategy is now very clear—having failed to undermine Medicare with a series of proposals designed to eat away and undermine the framework of Medicare, they have now decided they will degrade Medicare services to the point where the public demands change to Medicare. From what I have been hearing from other electorate offices, this is occurring right around the country. The Liberals are intent on strangling Medicare services. What is occurring now in Centrelink offices is just part of wrecking Medicare. Australians pay a Medicare levy to ensure their access to affordable universal health care is conducted professionally and efficiently. This government is the first in the history of Medicare to short-change the Australian people by not giving them the fast, reliable rebate of their medical expenses that they pay into their levy. The Australian people know that this Prime Minister cannot keep his hands off Medicare. Why can't he? This Prime Minister and the Liberals and Nationals have a 40-year project to destroy it. (Time expired)