Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Human Services Amendment (Photographic Identification and Fraud Prevention) Bill 2019 is intended to achieve exactly what it says: to stop, by including photographic indication, a Medicare card from being used by someone other than the person to whom it is issued. Presently there is nothing to stop someone from sharing their Medicare card with anyone who hasn't been issued with a card or is not eligible for a card, in order to source medical services at a cost to the government. I say this because it was brought to my attention by someone who's cousin was visiting Australia and needed to go to the doctor. He borrowed his cousin's Medicare card, went to the doctor and was then put into hospital. He actually died. The owner of the card, an Australian citizen, had to notify the authorities that the person who had actually died was using his name. He was not fined. He was asked to pay the costs.

What I'm saying is that people travelling to Australia as tourists or illegals in the country can access their friends' and families' cards to use at the doctors', at the hospitals or for any medical service that requires a Medicare card and get the taxpayer to pick up the bill. As a result, health providers have no way of verifying that the name on the card is that of the person they are treating.

Eligibility for a Medicare card is available to Australian and New Zealand citizens as well as visitors from a range of countries with which Australia has reciprocal agreements. These countries include Belgium, Finland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Why on earth would we have reciprocal agreements with these countries?

The United Kingdom has a population of 65 million. We have a population of 25 million. People who are travelling out from England to Australia can access our health care at a huge cost to the taxpayer. I think this is a big problem—that people who go to our hospitals in the states are not paying for their care if there is a reciprocal agreement. Hence it is a burden on the taxpayers here in Australia.

We all know that when you travel today, if your travel arrangements are done on a credit card, most of the time the credit card covers that health insurance. We know that a lot of people take out their own personal health insurance, which should be the case. We should not have reciprocal agreements with other countries, especially when their population far exceeds that of Australia's. It's about time we started cleaning up our health act, because the cost to the taxpayers is exorbitant, and we can't give the people in this country the decent health care they need.

Anyone who has a permanent resident visa can also get a card if living in Australia. Even if they aren't, they continue to be eligible for Medicare for 12 months after leaving the country. I can't believe that even 12 months after leaving the country we give them Medicare. You may also get a Medicare card if you live in Australia and have applied for a permanent residency visa or permanent protection visa, provided that you are on a visa allowing you to work or you are the parent, spouse or child of an Australian citizen or permanent resident or a New Zealand citizen living here. It makes me ask the question. If we've got people coming into Australia who come in on a three-month visa and then pull the stunt that they want to stay in Australia, that they're a refugee, they go before the administrative tribunal and overturn the administrative decision that they have to leave the country, they are then put on a bridging visa and the decision could take two years to come down, at a cost of near nothing for them to take through the courts. Then they're allowed to work in Australia. Do they also get the Medicare card? Are they provided with health care? And prior to the decision being brought down that they must leave the country, they leave, because they've worked here, they've made the money, they've got everything provided for them, and then they leave because they've made the money they wanted to make.

We're being taken for mugs in this country—absolute mugs—and you don't do anything about it. The fact is that I see here in Canberra people sleeping out on the streets at night who can't get care or homes. I know of people who wait months if not years to have a necessary operation, and we can't provide that. We can't even open up hospital wards or beds because we haven't got the money or the services to provide to the Australian people.

There are additional ways of qualifying for the free or subsidised health benefits a Medicare card provides, depending on the type of visa you have been granted. As it stands, the use of Medicare cards is wide open to rorting, with nothing to stop a person who does not qualify for free or subsidised medical assistance from borrowing a card from a friend, as does happen. That's exactly what I've explained, and I'll go on further to say that it was told to me years ago that our health system, especially drugs—people coming out here and accessing our doctors to get script after script and then get the medications provided—is costing us to the tune of about $1 billion a year. This is a cost to the Australian taxpayer. And that's exactly what they do: they come out, visit our country, go from doctor to doctor. There's no identification on the card whatsoever. These people are doctor shopping. Then they get the scripts, get the scripts filled, take the medications back to their own countries and sell them on the black market. And of course if that card is tied to someone who's on a welfare payment, they don't pay the full price for a script. Usually it's only a couple of dollars, a few dollars. Again, we're being ripped off. I ask anyone here in this chamber, or anyone who's listening to this: when was the last time someone checked your ID card when you used your Medicare card? I can assure you it's never happened to me. But, then again, I'm more well-known than a lot of the other senators in this place.

But the whole fact is that you go somewhere and you're asked for identification. What identification? A card. In 2012 I went over to Thailand with A Current Affair and I did a program on cards. You can buy Medicare cards in the street. You can buy driver's licences in the street. And the problem is that, when we go to some place and they say, 'Show some identification,' and you pull out a card, usually that person behind the counter has no idea what they're looking for. They see the colour of the card; it looks exactly the same. It could be one of these cards that you can pick up over the internet or that you can buy on the streets of Thailand for $50. I've heard you can get them as cheap as $30. So what happens is that, over a period of the time, with these false driver's licences, false credit cards and false Medicare cards, you're building up your 100 points; when you finally do get the legitimate item you can start rorting the system.

Surely people can see how far behind the eight ball we are. We are backwards when it comes to identification. How many times in this chamber have we spoken about security? But we've never really addressed the concerns here to do with the Medicare card. Why is it not possible to have identification on Medicare cards—to have your photograph on it, like we do on our driver's licences, and to have a chip in it which gets swiped so we know that it is you and we have the information that we need? These are important matters that need to be discussed.

The 2018-19 budget for Medicare—or medical benefits, as it is labelled—is $24.1 billion, compared to an estimated total expenditure in 2017-18 of $23.3 billion. It is forecast to grow to $25.5 billion in 2019-20, $26.8 billion in 2020-21 and $28.2 billion in 2021-22. Medicare costs represent a significant part of the country's health budget, and this is growing as the population ages. Possession of a Medicare card has a financial value to whoever uses it, representing free or subsidised health care. Passports and driver's licences are protected, in part, from fraudulent use by having photographic identification of the person to whom they are issued. I see no reason why this should not also apply to Medicare cards.

I'd like to hear the response in this chamber from any senator who'll give me a legitimate reason why a photograph should not be on our Medicare card to protect against fraudulent activity? Is there any sound reason why it should not be on the card? Surely we have a duty of care to the taxpayers of this nation to ensure that their tax dollars are not being ripped off. Too often do I hear in this chamber that people are saying, 'We need the money.' I have charities and different organisations that are crying out for help and assistance. Just to have half a million dollars or a million dollars would go so far in helping their organisation. If we tackled this problem with the Medicare card, we could ensure that only Australian citizens or permanent residents—people who are truly entitled to use it—have the use of that card. If it is true that we have 65,000 or 70,000 people who are in this country illegally, what are they doing for their health services? Are they paying with cash, or are they using the cards of their family or friends to go to the doctor? Are they utilising our health services and our hospitals and taking up beds they are not entitled to?

It would be very easy for us to get on top of this and ensure there is photographic identification of every Australian, regardless of who they are. Even those people out there who care to wear a burqa should show their face on their Medicare card, and anyone who does not want to have a photograph taken, like for a drivers licence, pays full price; they don't get the benefits of it. If you want taxpayer funded services, whether it be Medicare or anything else, then prove who you are. If it's good enough for drivers licences and if it's good enough for passports, then it's good enough for Medicare. They must actually prove who they are.

I believe that this bill will stop fraudulent use and the consequent drain on the health budget. It will strengthen the integrity of the Medicare scheme—surely an outcome which everyone would welcome. I'm sure you understand that in many other countries around the world there is strain on health care. In the United States and Britain, there is huge strain on their health care. We have a responsibility to the people here to have the money going into the future to provide the decent health care that the Australian people should have, but that all comes at a cost.

The posturing that goes on in this place about stupid bills and other things that we spend so much of our time on is not dealing with the real issues that the people want us to deal with. It's all about getting things right. I hope the bloody-minded attitude stops. Make the changes that the people are demanding and crying out for. Stop the fraudulent activity that's happening in this country, and get photographic identification on our Medicare cards to stop those people who are abusing our system so that we have Medicare here in the long run.