Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers to questions asked by all coalition senators.

Colleagues, you might remember that, before the 2022 election, the then opposition leader, now prime minister, Anthony Albanese, promised us all that under Labor's energy plan our power bills would be $275 cheaper. In fact, our power bills have gone up in the order of 30 to 50 per cent, depending on who you are, where you live and what your plan is. They've gone up so much that Labor has been forced to give two different sets of electricity rebates to consumers, at a cost to the budget of $6.8 billion. They are taking taxpayers' money in one hand and giving it back to them in another because their promise of cheaper electricity bills by $275 was manifestly not being met.

We also had the Prime Minister, before the 2022 election, promising that there would be no changes made to superannuation—none whatsoever; a categorical no. Of course, in the last term of parliament, and continuing in this term of parliament, Labor has introduced a new tax on superannuation: a higher tax on unrealised gains—yet to be legislated, but it's a commitment. Yet another promise that has been broken. We've had the Labor government promise that, under the housing commitment, 1.2 million new homes will be built by 2030. Well so far we're 476,000 homes short of that target—running behind, even in my own state of New South Wales, by about 70,000 a year. It is a commitment that is not going to be met.

It seems like in the last election campaign Anthony Albanese made another commitment that is equally rubbery. Many people will recall the number of times he sought to brandish his Medicare card and pull it out on all number of occasions: in debates, in campaign events and on the campaign trail. This is some of what he said:

Under Labor all you'll need is your Medicare card, not your credit card.

'One card covers it all. Not your credit card; your Medicare card.' How many times did we hear Anthony Albanese say that, under Labor, all you'll need is your Medicare card, not your credit card? Well most Australians would take that to mean that, when they go to visit their GP, it will be free; they will only need to provide their Medicare card, not their credit card.

As my colleague says, they didn't read the fine print! Suddenly the Prime Minister's election commitment is being added to. There's fine print. There are details. There are footnotes. There are addendums. There is detail that was not disclosed at the time of the election. We've heard, firstly, that bulk-billing rates under this government are 11 per cent lower than they were when the coalition left government. We've now had disclosed by the Department of Health, released under FOI legislation, that they told the government, in the incoming government brief, that one-quarter of clinics will not bulk-bill, despite any incentives that the government will offer. We had Mark Butler, the Minister for Health and Ageing, interrogated about this commitment this morning. He was asked, 'Isn't it true that you said every Medicare consultation will be free?' No, Mark Butler confirmed the truth, contradicting his own Prime Minister, and said that Australians will need more than their Medicare card. The truth is that we cannot take this commitment to the bank.

We heard the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Wong, say that they were going to make sure this commitment is reached by 2030. When have we heard a 2030 commitment before? We were told that our electricity bills would be $275 lower. Instead, they're 30 to 40 per cent higher. We've been told that 1.2 million new homes would be built by 2030, but, instead, we're about half a million homes short of that target. Now we're getting inundated with caveats and footnotes to qualify the commitment that Anthony Albanese has made. It's clear that, if you go to the doctor, yes, you'll need your Medicare card, but you will certainly also need your credit card. In fact, the average out-of-pocket expense for someone who goes to a GP has reached a high of $48.

We cannot allow this government to crabwalk away from this promise. This was a core election promise by them—that all you would need when you go to your GP is your Medicare card. They cannot be allowed to now say that that's caveated or qualified, that it's only if you go to certain GPs or that it is to happen by 2030 or if the coalition cooperates with this legislation. This is a deception on a grand scale, and it's up there with the government's promise to reduce your power bills, which didn't happen, not to make changes to super—they're legislating new taxes on your super now—and to build 1.2 million homes—they're half a million homes behind that target.

Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On this issue of Medicare, last week the coalition wanted to go right and this week they're missing the forest for the trees. They're playing word games and politics with public health care in this country, and the outcome of the election reflects that the Australian people trust this government and the Labor Party in their commitment to Medicare and they don't trust those opposite. They don't trust those opposite because those opposite speak out of both sides of their mouths on this.

It is in the DNA of the great Australian Labor Party that public health in this country should be free and should be delivered for everyone through bulk-billing. The reason it is in our DNA is that we are committed to fairness, and that's what's flows from a public health system that is well funded and where people don't have to pay to go to the doctor. You only need to look at the United States to see the contrast when a health system is not free and, in fact, is prohibitively expensive, because in the United States medical bills are the highest cause of personal bankruptcy. Some studies say that up to two-thirds of personal bankruptcies occur because someone gets sick and they cannot afford the treatment and the drugs.

That's why this government has made the biggest commitment to Medicare in dollar terms in 40 years, because it's a government that recognises that this provides core help to working Australians not only in terms of relieving cost-of-living pressures but also in terms of their actual physical health. What we saw leading into the election and what we see, unfortunately, is that Australians either delay or do not get treatment that they need because it costs too much money, and that costs the country at a broader level too, because it means they don't go in for primary healthcare check-ups and preventive check-ups, and it then costs money when people get sick and the cost of treating them down the road is higher.

That fundamental commitment is reflected in the policies of the government: a commitment to more bulk billing, a commitment to cheaper medicines and keeping the price of medicines in this country down, and a commitment reflected in the creation of 87 Medicare urgent care clinics where you can go with your Medicare card. This is the biggest investment we've seen in a very long time. It's $8.5 billion. It saves the patients money out of their pockets and it helps our country more generally.

The modelling which was discussed during the federal election was that nine out of 10 GP visits will be bulk-billed by 2030, and what was the basis of that? On what basis could we say that? It was that we tripled the bulk billing-incentive in November 2023, and since then we've seen a massive turnaround in bulk billing rates. I probably shouldn't say 'massive'; we've seen a significant turnaround in bulk-billing rates. We've seen a national increase of 3.2 percentage points. Across the different states, we've seen that bulk-billing rates have increased by 2.5 percentage points in New South Wales, 2.8 percentage points in Victoria, 3.4 percentage points in Queensland, 5.2 percentage points in South Australia, 3.3 percentage points in Western Australia, 8.9 percentage points in Tasmania, seven percentage points in the Northern Territory and 4.1 percentage points in the ACT. Increasing the incentive increases the availability of bulk-billing, and this is a huge commitment the government has made.

Senator Sharma also repeated something that coalition senators often say in this place, which is that the rates of bulk-billing under the coalition were higher. What that ignores—and this is where the detail of this is quite important—is that, as a matter of substance, those bulk-billing rates were artificially inflated. That's why the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners described bulk-billing as in freefall when the coalition was in government. They inflate their figures by relying on the massive numbers of simple COVID related operations that were given under bulk-billing, like PCR swab tests and vaccines. That's not a true reflection of what bulk-billing was doing in the country.

The Vice-President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners called them out at the time, saying that their 88 per cent was a misleading figure and significantly skewed. What we know is that we're investing in Medicare and increasing the bulk-billing incentive, and that will lead to more free GP visits in Australia. That's why Australians have trusted the Labor Party with Medicare, and that's why what's said opposite ought not be believed.

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand why those opposite might be squirming in relation to this, but question time again today demonstrated that you cannot believe what the Prime Minister says. It's not that complicated. Here is a direct quote from the Prime Minister—no two ways about it:

Under Labor all you'll need is your Medicare card, not your credit card.

There's no qualification. It's a simple statement designed to attract votes at the election. That's what the Prime Minister said before the election: 'Under Labor all you'll need is your Medicare card, not your credit card.' On another occasion, he said:

One card covers it all. Not your credit card—your Medicare card.

There's no equivocation in that at all—not until after the election. And this is what we saw last time around. Before the 2022 election, there was a promise that your power prices would go down by $275. Of course, you cannot get a Labor Party member to say '$275' in this place these days, because what happened to the power bills after the election? They went up by over $1,000, and they're still going up. When the relief runs out in December, what remains? The higher power bills. You cannot believe this Prime Minister when he says anything.

It's a bit like the operation of this chamber. We were promised an open and transparent government—more open and transparent than any government before. Yet fewer than one in three motions for the order for the production of documents passed by this chamber—where this chamber has said to the government, 'Please hand over these documents'—is being complied with. It's the worst record ever; the most opaque government ever. So the Australian people are, quite rightly, dubious when they hear the Prime Minister make a statement like, 'Under Labor all you'll need is your Medicare card, not your credit card.'

Today we hear some sort of qualification from those opposite about official statistics from the department of health that they don't like, which say that bulk-billing rates under the coalition were at 88 per cent and fell to 77 per cent under Labor. We didn't make that up. We didn't manipulate the numbers. They are official department of health statistics. They're there for everybody to see, and now those opposite want to put some sort of qualification on them. They went up every year under the coalition, but what do we get now from the ministers in the chamber? We get tricky language. We get qualification. We get deflection. 'Blame somebody else.' 'Those numbers weren't real.' And yet all we want is for the government and the Prime Minister to keep their promises.

And it's a pretty clear promise. When you go out, hold up your Medicare card and say to the Australian people, 'Under Labor all you'll need is your Medicare card, not your credit card,' there's nothing equivocal about that. There's no qualification. There's no room to slip out the side or blame somebody else. That was a specific statement made a number of times by the Prime Minister—like the $275 reduction in power prices promise that was made 97 times before the 2022 election. The list of broken promises from Labor continues to grow and grow and grow—$275 reduction in energy prices.

Under Labor, all you will need is your Medicare card and not your credit card, yet the health minister says, 'We never said there would be 100 per cent bulk-billing.' Well, if all you'll need is your Medicare card and not your credit card, that is 100 per cent bulk-billing. We know that a quarter of services won't be bulk-billed, because that's what the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing have told us. It's about time the Labor Party started being straight with the Australian people and, in particular, started keeping their promises. (Time expired)

Richard Dowling (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was in Launceston the day the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health and Ageing came down and made the announcement that nine in 10 visits to the GP would be bulk-billed. Before we were even off the stage, there was a press release from those opposite saying what a fantastic policy it was and that they had already done it. Before we even put the so-called fine print into how it was actually going to work and the modelling and the work behind it, they said they had already matched it. We are now hearing that, no, it's actually not a position that they stand by. I'm not actually clear where they stand on this. When it suits them, they are all over it. They were announcing urgent care clinics before us. They were racing around trying to get there and announce Medicare, saying it will be better under the coalition, but, on day one, we're back here and they say: 'Oh no, that's a disaster. It's another broken promise.'

The promise was—and we stand by it entirely, and the Prime Minister was right—that nine in 10 visits would be bulk-billed by 2030. July 2025 is the date at the moment, so I think it's a bit early to be making that criticism. We're just implementing the policy; it's already working. We have tripled the bulk-billing incentive. My colleague Senator Ghosh ran through how effectively that is already performing. We are already seeing a turnaround in bulk-billing rates; the incentive is working.

There are four pillars, really, to the policy. It's not just about the incentive; it's about more doctors and nurses. Our universities are now training, particularly in my home state of Tasmania—record numbers of doctors are coming through the system. They now see that they've got a future in health care because we are investing so heavily in primary health care and that they will be able to bulk-bill patients.

The incentive is about more bulk-billing. We've talked about getting to that target of nine out of 10 visits being bulk-billed by 2030. Those opposite seem very confused by this whole idea that 76 per cent of clinics bulk-billing is consistent with nine in 10 patients being bulk-billed. They are compatible. That is the case; you can achieve both. They seem to be very confused by those two figures somehow working against each other. That modelling is out there. It was in the press release. When it came out, they were so quick to rush out and back the policy and announce it beforehand, but they didn't actually bother to look at the modelling.

So there'll be more doctors and nurses and more bulk-billing. More urgent care clinics is another key facet. That was probably the most popular issue raised as I walked around the streets of Hobart and Launceston through the campaign—even in the north-west. They all said: 'When are we going to get more of those urgent care clinics? They're fantastic.' 'I didn't have to go to hospital.' 'I didn't have to queue at the emergency department.' And guess what? It was bulk-billed; it was free. All you needed was your Medicare card—no credit card. It's pretty consistent with what the statements told us we were going to get. So, the way I see it, this is working. It's being rolled out, and we are seeing an improvement.

The final pillar—after more doctors and nurses, more bulk-billing and more urgent care clinics—is cheaper medicines. We have seen the price of medicines continue to come down. Again, giving people access to that critical medication keeps them out of hospital, keeps them healthy, keeps them in the workforce and is a real cost-of-living relief measure. So I'm quite surprised that the opposition led off question time with that topic. I think we would be happy to talk about Medicare all day and all night for as long as they like.

I was also a bit disappointed that we continue to see this conflation of trade and biosecurity. As we know, the import restrictions on beef were under review for a decade. That was a process undertaken by biosecurity experts, and officials have looked very carefully at this issue. Then somehow conflating it with some discussion about trade policy out of the United States—they are two totally separate issues. Yes, the Minister for Trade and Tourism made a mistake, and he corrected it. But then for two days, as though no-one's ever made a mistake before, we've just carried on with this charade about it being linked to the policy issues.

Australia doesn't agree with the United States' tariff policy. We'll continue to advocate for lower tariffs and a free trade system. (Time expired)

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia is a successful trading nation. Trade builds our prosperity, it grows our living standards, it drives economic growth, and it creates jobs. Trade promotes competition, lowers prices for consumers, enhances our productivity and attracts investment to this country. Just three months after this government's election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is putting the benefits of Australia's open trading relationships at risk. This is a prime minister who is challenging and undermining that prosperity, those living standards, that economic growth and our job creation that all come from our trading relationship.

Just today, Labor's minister for trade and tourism has conceded that, at a minimum, Australia will be hit with 10 per cent tariffs by the United States. In fact, he has not yet been able to rule out that that 10 per cent baseline tariff will not grow to 15 or 20 per cent. This is a trade failure on the part of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

There are six reasons why Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has, in just three months, already failed Australia in its foreign relations: no face-to-face meeting with the US president in more than 260 days; no exemptions from harmful US tariffs; no protection for key export sectors; no action on national security threats from China; an extensive trip to China that has been shallow in its outcomes in protecting and advancing Australia's national interests; and a weakening of the AUKUS relationship between us and the United States at what is a critical time.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Wong, is correct when she says that President Trump has a different vision for the United States in the world. Senator Wong's admission—recognition—matched with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's record, demonstrates that this government is unprepared for this new Trump administration, despite the fact that President Trump had already been a president, despite the fact there was a very public presidential election campaign and despite the fact that the President has been in the role for 260 days. The government is unprepared for what the Trump administration seeks to do in global affairs but, particularly and more urgently, what it seeks to do in regard to Australia. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.