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

I wish to foreshadow my amendment on sheet 3372. Before that, I wish to speak to my amendment and what it means. It's basically asking for photo ID to be shown when you go to the doctor. Medicare, at the moment, is facing about $3 billion of debt a year through rorts that are happening. I have advocated before to get photo ID on the Medicare card. My amendment is basically to require people to show identification—your driver's licence, passport or other identification—that will prove that it's actually you attending the doctor's appointment. Why I say this is because in my first time in parliament, from 1996 to1998, I was advised, by the Federal Police, about the rorting that was going on in our Medicare system. People were coming across from overseas, using our Medicare system, and getting prescriptions, and then taking them back to their country and selling them on the black market. That was known to the Federal Police. They informed me about it. Nothing has been done about it.

There was another case where a gentleman had a friend visit from Macedonia. He took his friend's card. He got sick, and he ended up in hospital. He died in hospital. They believed this other fellow, who was an Australian, had died, but he came forward to say 'no', that he had loaned his card to his friend. There were no charges laid. We now have 100,000-plus people who are illegally in Australia, overstaying their visas. We have a number of foreign students in Australia, which has expanded out to 750,000. These foreign students have friends and family also, so they can take their family or friend's Medicare card and abuse our system. There are also doctors that are prescribing medication to these people—it shouldn't be. That's an added cost to our PBS that we, the taxpayers, are funding. We shouldn't be funding this at all.

Even doctors are falsely claiming funding for appointments they did not have. This is an ongoing problem that we have in Australia. Also, these people are not paying the right price to go and see it—they would go to bulk-billing. Of course, the government tell us they are going to raise the bulk-billing rates to 90 per cent in just a few years. Well, I'll believe that when I see it, because I don't believe it's going to happen.

Also, with the rising costs for the doctors in rent and other things that are happening, they can't afford to give bulk-billing. They're not meeting their costs or overheads of staffing, rates and electricity that are needed to run their practices.

With Medicare as well, the figures show that we're going to be 10,000 doctors short within the next five to six years. How can we keep giving decent health care to Australians? I know that a lot of people are saying it takes them two-plus weeks to get in to see a doctor—at least. Some are taking even longer than that. Doctors have closed their books; they're not seeing new people. Our hospital system is being overrun with people going to the emergency section because they can't see a doctor.

What is happening here is an absolute disgrace. All I heard from the Labor Party during their campaign was about this Medicare scare. That's all you've put out there. You said you were going to open up 24/7 bulk-billing. It never happens. You only had a couple that opened 24/7, because you can't get the doctors. What you're also doing is taking doctors from general practices to put them in the bulk-billing Medicare centres—you say you're looking after the public—but all they are is first responders. A patient sees that doctor once, but they don't go back to them. They have to go back to their GP.

What's happening then? All these doctors are leaving GP practice because they're getting paid better in the bulk-billing practices that Labor are setting up, and there are no doctors to go back to in these communities because they've left. You're causing more of the problem that you're supposed to be sorting out with Medicare, which is rising in cost. I just don't see. You haven't got the answers for it. The hospitals are overrun. You haven't got beds that are provided for the public at all.

My proposal here is for people to be required to show identification; there's nothing wrong with that. Show the public that you are fair dinkum about saving the taxpayers' dollars here and not allowing people to rip off the system. The least the public could expect from the government is that you will not provide services to people who are ripping off the system. If people want to go and see a doctor, fair enough. If they are not an Australian that's entitled to this service, then they should pay the price for it. These people are supposed to come here. They've got their insurance. They should be able to pay for medical care, but they expect the taxpayer to pay for it.

This is something that I've raised for years, time and time again, yet you do nothing about it. You think it's an endless pot of gold out there for the public to pay for. It's the same with the NDIS and Aboriginal industry. I could keep going on and on about the waste of money that we have out there. You are not reining in the cost to the Australian taxpayer. I am calling for support for this amendment. I invite the government to prove to the Australian taxpayers that you are fair dinkum about reining in the rorting that is going on. It needs to be stopped. I move my amendment on sheet 3373:

(1) Page 40 (after line 4), after Schedule 3, insert:

Schedule 3A — Medicare benefit not payable unless government photographic identity document provided

Health Insurance Act 1973

1 After section 19C

Insert:

19CAA Medicare benefit not payable unless government photographic identity document provided

(1) A medicare benefit is not payable in respect of a professional service rendered to a person, unless the person provided a government photographic identity document at the time, or as soon as practicable after, the service was rendered.

(2) In this section:

government photographic identity document means an identity document providing photographic identification of a person that is issued by the government of the Commonwealth or a State or Territory.