Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

People in our community are struggling with the cost of living. Families are being forced to choose between putting food on the table and the medicines that they need. They don't need half measures; they need real relief. The Greens will support Labor's bill to bring the cost of PBS medicines down from $31.60 to $25, because we know that it is important. In fact, it is essential that the cost of these vital medicines is reduced. But our community are demanding that we must go further. More essential medicines need to be added to the PBS. More people need to be able to visit their GP for free, regardless of their postcode.

And dental care must be covered through Medicare. The mouth is part of the body, and yet it continues to be excluded from Medicare. For most, going to the dentist is now entirely unaffordable. Public dental waiting lists literally don't bear looking at. We have people who are stuck for years in pain—year after year after year. Then, in some of these systems, they get to the end of the waitlist to get their teeth treated—to get that the filling, to get the infection addressed in that one tooth—and then they have to go back to the back of the queue because they were only on the waitlist for the one tooth. If anything else is wrong, well then that's back to the start again for them. That is a completely broken and unfair system.

These failures and barriers compound already existing health issues. Older Australians are being hit hard. On average, people over 65 have lost 14 teeth, and one in four avoids certain foods because of dental issues. Fifty-five per cent have delayed treatment due to cost. The royal commission into aged-care services and the Senate inquiry into dental care services and provision in Australia both spoke with one voice, recommending to the parliament and to the government the establishment of a seniors dental benefit scheme so that those over 65 can get access to basic dental care and basic denture provision. Surely we owe it to our older Australians to get this done. Surely both sides of parliament can come together with the Greens and reach down and reclaim this policy reform from the too-hard basket that it was chucked in all those years ago. There is often little that this parliament can agree on, but surely we can agree that older Australians shouldn't be living in unnecessary dental pain. Surely we can come together on that topic. Yet, at this moment, from this government—nothing.

Medicine saves lives. That's the pure and simple fact of the matter. Medicine saves lives. Health care saves lives.

The Greens have put together an amendment to establish a seniors dental benefit scheme. This government, in the last sitting of parliament, responded by shooting that amendment down, confirming once again that they have prioritised the handouts that they give to polluters and landlords, as well as the public funds that they've decided to splash around on nuclear submarines and handouts to fossil fuel companies, over providing essential dental care. This is not the first time they have put polluters, landlords and the already rich and powerful ahead of the community. They have done it so many times, time after time, in my eight years here. It is not good enough. It is why people look to parliament and feel anger and frustration.

Every single year, seeing the GP is becoming less affordable. We know that fewer GPs are bulk-billing than ever before. The latest data tells us that the average out-of-pocket cost for an Australian to visit the GP remains over $40. In Tasmania and the ACT, it's over $50 a visit. People are skipping check-ups, delaying tests or prioritising their kids' health over their own health because of the cost.

At the election, the Greens put forward a plan to make GP visits free for everyone covered by Medicare, to triple the bulk-billing incentive, to increase rebates for longer appointments and to establish 1,000 free local healthcare clinics where GPs, psychologists and dentists can work together to provide care. The government has adopted part of this plan, but the policy changes that they now have put forward don't go far enough to solve the problem. It is not good enough to sit there and say: 'Oh well. Our policy is better than what the Liberals would have coughed up.'

That is cold comfort to somebody trying to figure out whether to buy food or see the doctor, whether to pay rent or buy their medicines. They cannot pay for the health care they need by using the sum total of your self-satisfaction about being better than a party that opposed Medicare in the beginning and that, if left to its own devices, would tear it to shreds. There has to be a raising of the bar in this place above, 'Is it better than what the LNP can scrape together as a policy idea?' We are never going to get people the urgent care and support that they need if those opposite are the benchmark. Come on!

The RACGP has found that 66 per cent of GPs won't be bulk-billing or increasing their bulk-billing rates despite this government's changes to bulk-billing incentives. People with chronic illness, women and disabled people typically rely on longer appointments. We need the rebate system to reflect this, including an increase of the rebate for appointments over 20 minutes. Nobody should have to try to cram their complex experience of a chronic health condition into such a short a bit of time, and no GP should be forced to make the decision as to whether they will listen to their patient or try to cut the appointment short because, after a certain point, a practitioner is losing money because they cannot claim a high enough rebate for the time that they are using on that patient.

The health technology assessment review has made it clear that we need to and in fact can speed up the process of approvals and access to the PBS, especially for the groups that need it most, like children and First Nations communities. That final report was released in September. Since then, there has been no action. The Greens' plan goes further. We would see all PBS medicines free for concession card holders and just $7.70 for everyone else. Labor could make these changes right now, ensuring better access to the necessary medicines that people need. You could make sure that the cost never gets in the way of people getting the medicine that they need. Why haven't you? Why have you not done this with the power now invested in you?

The Greens will support this bill because people desperately need cost-of-living relief right now. But let me be clear: these half-measures are not solutions. If Labor were serious, they would deliver real relief, like cheaper medicines, and make GP bulk-billing a reality again for people. If Labor were serious, we would be talking right now about getting dental care into Medicare and finally removing the ridiculous caps that prevent people from getting the mental health care that they need. That's what we'd be talking about. If you were serious, that's what would be on the agenda. The Greens are serious. I sit here, serious to my bones about this.

There may not be a consensus in this place for every aspect of the Greens policies and plans for health care, but come on now. We have to begin actual work in this space. People are living in pain every day, being exposed to additional healthcare conditions every day and struggling every day either because between them and the health care they need is a health and cost barrier they cannot cross or because, for decades, this parliament under Labor and Liberal governments has collectively decided that it's okay that our Medicare system, loved by the community, doesn't recognise that the mouth is part of the body and doesn't recognise that mental health care is health care and should be covered as health care. Those are the basic realities, those are the basic recognitions that are needed, and that's what it would look like if this government were serious in this space.

We will continue to be serious and work with people of goodwill across this chamber who are serious, who may have different views to ours, with a shared agreement that we must get to work. I urge the government to join us in that work, because it is the work, the task and the priority that the Australian community actually needs of this place at this time. Thank you.