Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to withdraw but the other side know the heat in the community from the fact that they were not upfront at the election. They refuse to acknowledge that they were actually seriously looking at this back in February when the Commission of Audit was looking at it and then leaked that it was going to be $6 and it ended up being $7. And we all know this is a path to a $15 GP tax, as flagged by the Commission of Audit. Doctors in our area are telling us that they are having to send out SMSs to patients to urge them to come back to surgeries. Other doctors are actually saying that their practices across Mount Druitt, Glendenning and Woodcroft are seeing huge drops in the numbers of people going to surgeries. And there are other doctors contemplating whether they will stay in practice because of the drop in numbers. They are slugging us on two counts. Firstly, the GP tax will cost families in our area $10.2 million. Secondly, the government have ripped out $6 million by taking the MRI from Mount Druitt hospital. It is shameful that they have done this to the people of Western Sydney.

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