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

I will reiterate that question, from Senator Roberts, with regard to using the Medicare card. The minister stated that it has no relation to this bill. This bill is about the PBS. That's prescriptions. It does relate to it, very much so, because there is fraud going on. People are using someone else's Medicare card to go and see a doctor, and that doctor prescribes scripts to them that they are not entitled to.

This is fraud. It is estimated that the cost of fraud imposed on Australian taxpayers is up to $3 billion a year. What precautions are the government taking to stop this fraud from happening, to ensure that a person using a Medicare card in this country is not some tourist visa holder visiting friends or family or someone accessing these drugs—paid for by taxpayers—and taking them out of the country to sell on the black market?