Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today relating to the 2014-15 Budget.

Budgets are about choices. They are about priorities. A government's budget is a window on the priorities of that government, and this budget fails the fairness test and it fails the truth test.

Mr Abbott said in the election campaign last year that there would be no new taxes. Last night's budget saw the beginning of the dismantling of Medicare, where we are taxing people now to pay for the promises of this government. Last night saw the introduction of a $7 co-payment just to visit the GP. It saw the introduction of $5 for every prescription that that GP may prescribe. It provided for another co-payment of $7 for any X-ray, for any pathology, for any other ancillary services that that doctor may wish the patient to have. And we have heard from the other side that $7 is 'just a cup of coffee'. Well, that is not the case for people who are on a pension. It is not the case for people who are on low incomes, and it is not the case for families who may have many children who are unwell. But let me refer to Kasy Chambers, the Executive Director of Anglicare, who puts that in some context. She says:

… $7 is very different to different groups in the community. Seven dollars to someone on Newstart is the equivalent of $43.17 for those on the average male wage, or $63.26 for those on a salary of $120,000.

She says it is:

Certainly enough to make people think more than twice about that visit.

What will be the result of the imposition of these taxes on our health system—this dismantling of our Medicare? The result will be that people will visit the doctor less. They will be less compliant with their medication. That will lead to worse health outcomes in the future.

And who are the people who will reduce their access to health services? The research is clear: it is the poor, including our pensioners; it is the chronically ill; it is people with disability; it is people who are living with mental illness; it is people in remote areas and it is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The health of all Australians will suffer, but it will affect the poor and the sick more than everyone else in our society. It is hard to get people to attend the doctor for an annual check-up, but a GP tax will mean that fewer people will attend the doctor for those annual check-ups that are so beneficial to their health in the long run—check-ups that will identify diabetes early or identify cancers that can be cured. Those check-ups save the health budget in the long term and they save the health of people in our society and our community.

Preventive health measures save lives and they save money in future budgets. That is why it is, frankly, plain crazy to cut programs that will increase physical activity, particularly in our young children, that will tackle the obesity problem that is looming large. It is crazy to remove programs that will improve healthy eating, as we have already seen from this minister. We need to ensure that we do all we can to ensure that the health of our community is given the best advice, and that is why the Australian National Preventive Health Agency was so beneficial; it was doing such good work to ensure that the health of our society would continue to improve.

But the big killer in this budget, and the big killer in society, as we all know, is tobacco smoking. This budget reduces the programs to reduce smoking in our community. This is not the time to remove effort to stop people smoking. I commend ministers Roxon and Plibersek for the work that they did in government to ensure that the numbers of Australians smoking cigarettes were reduced. But now there is a reduction in the program to ensure that people know that they should not smoke, and I am afraid it will lead to poorer health outcomes.

This is a bad budget. It hits the sick and the poor the hardest. It will result in higher costs in the long term. It will result in worse health outcomes for all Australians. It has broken a solemn promise, of no new cuts and no cuts to health. (Time expired)