Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

At the end of the motion, add:

‘And further consideration of the bill be an order of the day for three sitting days after a draft of the final regulations and determinations relating to this bill are laid on the table.’

I have moved this second reading amendment on behalf of the opposition, as well as Senators Fielding and Xenophon. The Health Insurance Amendment (Extended Medicare Safety Net) Bill 2009 is yet another Rudd government attack on the health care of Australians. Before the last election, we were promised the world by the Rudd government when it came to health. Labor had a plan to fix our hospitals and, unless enough progress was made by the middle of 2009, they would put a proposal to the Australian people that Canberra should run our hospitals. They promised that they would support the existing policy framework for private health and that they would retain the private health insurance rebates, the Medicare levy surcharge and lifetime health cover. They promised that the buck would stop with them, that there would be a new era of cooperative federalism in health and that things would improve in health.

What have we had instead? We have had broken promises and the start again of the bad old-fashioned Labor crusade against private health and against people who take additional responsibility for their own healthcare needs. We have had a review into our health and hospital system over the last 20 months, which was followed by a review into the review. We have had a tax grab. We have had a $100 million budget cut to chemotherapy treatment. And we have this measure here, which is seeking to make Australians who need to access quality health care pay the price for their reckless spending. Here we have a Rudd government which is going on cash splashes and spending spree after spending spree. And Australians needing timely and affordable access to quality health care are being asked to pay the price.

This is another ill-thought-out budget measure by the Rudd government. The Minister for Health and Ageing, instead of doing her homework, instead of standing up for what is in the best interests of Australians who need timely and affordable access to quality health care, does the bidding of Treasury. The minister is doing the bidding of a government that is out there recklessly spending cash splash after cash splash, sending money overseas, sending money into jails and giving money to dead people. But when there are people in desperate need of timely access to affordable and quality health care, they are being asked to pay the price.

We are absolutely amazed at what an absolute failure the Rudd government has been in the health portfolio. They promised the world and they have delivered nothing other than broken promises, reviews, reviews into reviews, taxes and budget cuts. This is something that fits into the category of ‘budget cuts’—ill-though-out and ill-considered budget cuts.

I will give you one example. Here we have a measure that introduces caps on payments under the Medicare safety net for a variety of medical services by putting those treatments out of the reach of a great many. One of those caps applies to IVF treatment services. In fact, out of the $451 million that the government seeks to save through this measure, $220 million relates to IVF treatment. Initially, when making the announcement and when promoting this budget cut in health, the minister said, ‘Nobody is going to be worse off.’ When asked about this a little while ago to reconfirm that guarantee—when asked whether she can confirm that nobody is going to be worse off and no family seeking access to IVF treatment is going to be worse off as a result of this measure—she was not able to. The minister was caught out. Again and again, she has been the propaganda minister for the Rudd government, talking about the need for fiscal discipline. They are spending recklessly on one side but when it comes to health, when it comes to people who need timely and affordable access to quality health care, the minister for health is out there in the media talking about fiscal responsibility and how fiscally irresponsible it would be not to do this, not to that and not to support all of these ill-thought-out budget cuts.

The government, through this measure, seeks to make savings of $450 million over four years. Not content with the attack on privately insured Australians, the Rudd government also seek to attack people in need of cataract treatment, people in need of IVF treatment and people accessing obstetric services. There is absolutely no doubt that the government did not get their figures right and that there are some serious question marks around the costings and the modelling conducted by the government.

That is why the opposition, together with Senators Xenophon and Fielding, have moved a second reading amendment that will defer further consideration of this bill such that it will be an order of the day for three sitting days after a draft of the final regulations and determinations relating to this bill are laid on the table in the Senate. We want to see the meat on the bone; we want to see the fine print. This is yet another piece of legislation which gives us generalities while we are supposed to take the government on trust: ‘Trust us. We are from the government; we are here to help. Don’t worry. The regulations are going to be fine.’ On the MBS web site, this was said in relation to the extended Medicare safety net changes:

It is important to note that these items will be restructured and the caps will change, however, the overall impact on patients should remain the same.

We are supposed to take the government on trust. The caps will change, but the impact ‘should’ be the same. Well, we will not take this government on trust. We want to see the meat on the bone. We want to see what the costings are, we want to see the modelling and we want to see the final draft of the regulations before we give further consideration to this legislation.

It is really quite extraordinary. In the lead-up to the last election anybody who listened to Mr Rudd, who is now the Prime Minister but was then the Leader of the Opposition, would have thought that Labor had a plan. Labor said they had a plan to fix public hospitals and that everything was going to improve. Do you know what? Things are worse in health today than they were when the Rudd Labor government came into government. Average waiting times for elective surgery have gone up over the last 12 months—from 34 to 36 days. The reality is that there has been absolutely no improvement.

The Prime Minister and the Minister for Health and Ageing are running 100 miles an hour away from the threat, the commitment or whatever it was—it was not a commitment, because they are running away from it now—to put to the Australian people that Canberra should take over the running of public hospitals. We have a government that is prepared to go $315 billion into debt but wants to impose a $100 million budget cut on cancer sufferers, without doing its homework, without covering its bases and without making sure that it can be practically implemented in a way that will not hurt cancer patients. It is extraordinary. The government is out there spending—sending money overseas and having cash splash after cash splash: ‘Do you want $900?’—but cancer sufferers have to pay for it. Privately insured Australians—Australians who are putting additional resources into the health system—are being asked to pay for it.

We were promised by this government that health would be a priority and now we have the Minister for Health and Ageing talking about the need for fiscal responsibility. Us questioning, scrutinising and suggesting that some of these measures are bad policy and bad legislation means that we are being fiscally irresponsible. Is that the minister for health speaking or the Assistant Treasurer, the propaganda minister for the Treasurer? I have never heard a minister for health being so concerned about fiscal responsibility while the Prime Minister and the Treasurer are sending money overseas. Cancer patients in Australia, privately insured Australians, have to pay the price. It is completely inappropriate.

There is a serious need for more scrutiny of this legislation. There is a serious need for the Senate to be able to review the final draft of the regulations before we make a final judgment. There is a serious need for us to get access to the costing, modelling and all of the information that the government has in front of it. We need an assurance that the caps that are being placed on the variety of medical services that have been mentioned are going to be those that will remain in place after this legislation has been passed.

We want to make a judgment on this legislation knowing the full story. We want to know what the government’s intentions are. We want to be able to assess what the impact on families, pensioners and Australians who need access to timely, affordable and quality health care will be before we in this chamber make an informed judgment about this legislation. That is why I, on behalf of Senator Xenophon, Senator Fielding and the opposition, have moved a second reading amendment, which I commend to all senators.