Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australians who voted for the coalition are now realising that the government they thought they had elected is not the government that they got. They are waking up to the fact that it is a government that came to power on the back of lies and broken promises. How can any government claim legitimacy when their leader, now Australia's Prime Minister, promises no cuts to health and then delivers a budget which cuts health in Australia by $75 billion? How can they claim legitimacy when they promise no new taxes then introduce a GP tax of $7 every time you visit the doctor? How can you profess to support Medicare, Australia's universal healthcare system, and then seek to destroy it?

The Australian National Preventive Health Agency (Abolition) Bill 2014 is just another part of this government's unprecedented attack on the health care of Australians and its attack on all fronts. First of all, the government is seeking to dismantle Labor's framework for action on preventive health while also cutting funding to the states and territories for preventive health initiatives. They are then discouraging low- and middle-income earners from accessing primary health, through their cruel and unfair GP tax.

These actions will lead to a worsening of Australians' health conditions. Patients will be queuing at hospital emergency departments and joining growing elective-surgery waiting lists, only to find that this government has also slashed hospital funding. There will be nowhere else for the burden to fall but on everyday Australians, who will have to make the choice between treating their chronic health conditions and going without other basic essentials like food and power. And these are cuts which will cost the average Australian—not to mention the costs for Australians with chronic health conditions or a disability. This Abbott government should have come with its own health warning.

Those opposite may say that I am being alarmist, but if they are going to claim that I am alarmist then they must also level the same charge against groups such as the Australian Medical Association and the Consumer Health Forum. I recently participated in the Senate Community Affairs References Committee's inquiry into out-of-pocket expenses in Australian health care, and various organisations in their verbal and written evidence said that the Abbott government's GP tax would lead to more pressure on our health system and force low-income earners to choose between their health and other essential expenses—that is, food, rent and electricity, not a couple of beers or a third of a pack of smokes as our Treasurer seems to think.

The AMA said that the impact of the GP tax would be worse in my home state of Tasmania, and I will quote what the President of the AMA, Associate Professor Brian Owler, said:

… Tasmania has a higher burden of chronic disease and higher smoking rates, and we need to do more to encourage preventive health care and chronic disease management. That is why I think the co-payment is probably going to affect Tasmanians more than it affects people in other jurisdictions.

To illustrate Associate Professor Owler's comments, Tasmania has a smoking rate of 21 per cent, compared to 16 per cent for the rest of Australia, according to the latest statistics, and the latest report from the National Health and Medical Research Council shows that Tasmania had the third-highest rate of alcohol consumption exceeding single occasion risk and lifetime risk behind the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Tasmanians are slightly above the national average in terms of being overweight and obese—65 per cent compared to the national average of 63 per cent. Many of these poor health indicators for my home state of Tasmania are likely the result of Tasmania having the lowest average earnings of any state or territory, and there is plenty of evidence to show the link between lower incomes and poorer health outcomes.

I will just pick up on that short phrase in Associate Professor Owler's comments, just in case those on the other side did not quite hear, and it was:

… we need to do more to encourage preventive health care …

Senator O'Sullivan interjecting—

Preventive health was an issue that was also addressed in the out-of-pocket expenses inquiry and touched on in the report that was tabled recently. It is a sad fact that a great deal of Australia's health spending is directed towards treating conditions that are largely preventable. I am talking particularly about chronic disease which is caused by unhealthy lifestyle choices such as obesity, smoking and overconsumption of alcohol. Not only does preventable disease lead to unnecessary suffering; it diverts valuable health resources away from the treatment of other patients and their health conditions. While this is an unfortunate reality, the good news is that governments can achieve a great deal of efficiency in health care by investing in preventive health.

Senator O'Sullivan interjecting—

We have all heard the old adage 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure'—and it is so, so true. It is much better to spend money encouraging and helping Australians to lead healthy lifestyles than to spend money on surgery and procedures to treat preventable illnesses—

Senator O'Sullivan interjecting—

and chronic health conditions. Mr Acting Deputy President, I do seem to hear a lot of mumbling coming from the other side. I am just wondering if you might call those on the other side to order. I sit and listen to their rubbish—