Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

More than 2,000 people across Lyons are skipping GP visits because of rising costs. It now costs people in my electorate $35.44 every single time they visit the GP. That is the terrible truth that came out of Senate estimates yesterday. As for the number of people who are skipping visits with specialists, it's even worse: 3,625 people in Lyons are not attending important visits. And why? Because out-of-pocket costs for specialists are now $60.74 every single time. It might not be much in Point Piper, Prime Minister, but it's a cost that many people across my electorate can ill afford.

These figures should make those opposite hang their heads in shame, especially those Nationals over there and those regional Liberals who represent regional electorates like mine, because the figures in my electorate are not out of the ordinary. They are not an aberration; they are business as usual for the health care under this wretched government, a government that refuses to address the rising cost of GP visits and refuses to stand up to private health insurance special interests, whose premiums skyrocket while services plummet.

We can address these issues with the election of a Tasmanian Labor government headed by Rebecca White on 3 March. Let's put health care first and vote Labor.