Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industrial Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to ask a question of Minister Brough, the Minister representing the Minister for Human Services, Senator Ellison, in relation to a request by me, on behalf of the constituents of the electorate of Gorton, for a Medicare office in the electorate. The fact is that there was a Medicare office in the electorate, in Deer Park, but it was closed down some years ago. Gorton is the second fastest growing electorate in Victoria. It has two growth corridors along the Calder Highway and the Western Highway, and so the growth has been exponential in a very short space of time. Rather than seeing more government services in this particular area, we have seen fewer, along with the closure of the Deer Park Medicare office.

I approached a large proportion of my constituents and tabled only two weeks ago in the House of Representatives a petition of 4,000 petitioners who are seeking the government’s agreement for a Medicare office. I also wrote to Minister Ellison with respect to this matter and about a month ago I received a letter from the minister indicating that there was some electronic software that was useful—and I do not deny that that would be of some use to my constituents. He went on to say in a part of his letter: ‘The electronic Medicare initiative means establishing a Medicare office in Watergardens shopping centre’—which is the largest commercial area of the electorate—‘or in the electorate of Gorton would not be necessary. The new initiative would also mean no queues for claiming rebates.’

Minister, I firstly draw your attention to the fact that there are over 70 Medicare offices in Victoria, none of which are in my electorate. And, as I said, I was wondering if the minister could investigate why there wouldn’t be reason for a Medicare office to be in such a fast-growing electorate?

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