Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

He does. He wants to get rid of it. He wants to get rid of all 61 Medicare Locals and the $1.8 billion worth of primary care services they provide. But perhaps I should not be surprised because I was very interested to read in the Australian Financial Review recently that Health will not be a high priority for the member for Dickson's party in this year's election. He says in this article, 'I've played a team game in opposition and on occasion that comes at a personal cost, which I have been happy to do.' He is happy to put politics ahead of patient care—and I table that article too. We need to have a debate in this country about health services: a party that invests in front-line services and the party of Medicare that has always stood for equal access to necessary health services versus a party that has cut to the bone, that killed Medicare once and that would kill Medicare again if they had half a chance.

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