Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I really do feel like it is groundhog day. One of the things I campaigned on in my first election campaign before I came into this place was to save Medicare. If you look at my Facebook page, you will see me with Gough Whitlam, and a balloon that reads 'Save Medicare'—to save our universal health system.

Unlike those opposite, we do not equate 'universal' with 'free'. We understand that universality is about access for all. If you want to go and look at numbers, maybe you should read what has just been announced in Senate estimates today; senior Treasury officials say the $7 co-payment will not help the healthcare system, as those opposite have been crying out. Here we are again—16 years later—and yet another Liberal government is doing everything it can to destroy universal healthcare in this country.

Gough Whitlam and the Labor Party established universal healthcare in 1974. In the face of Liberal Party intransigence, it took a double-dissolution election and a joint sitting to establish—and thank goodness it did—what has become one of the greatest assets this country has ever had: universal access, Medicare. Yet, ever since the establishment of Medicare, the Liberal Party has done nothing but try to destroy it. Whenever there is a Liberal government, universal healthcare is at risk, and never more so than under this despicable Liberal government.

It is notable that, when responding to the passing of Gough Whitlam, the Abbott government's loudest cheerleader, the ever mean-spirited, Alan Jones, said:

The Abbott government is even today dealing with the costly consequences and culture of entitlement bequeathed by Whitlam's decisions to give free universal medical care and university education.

The central policy unit of the LNP, the Institute of Public Affairs, yesterday described the establishment of universal healthcare simply as 'regrettable'. That is the thing those opposite do not want to say: this is about the beginning of the end—the destruction of Medicare, the destruction of universality—despite the fact that maintaining universal access to affordable healthcare has been a linchpin in our society's ability to remain healthy and prosperous.

You do not need to just take our word for it; study after study after study demonstrates that Australia's healthcare system is one of the best, one of the most affordable, because of our access to primary healthcare. Prevention is better than cure. Prevention upfront, ensuring people get to the doctor in time; have a mammogram in time; do not leave it until it is too late. Then it is genuinely too costly not just to the individual but to our whole society. As sickening as these comments from these unelected representatives of the Liberal party are, they represent the ugly truth of the Abbott government's attitude towards the very notion of universal health care. Their policies prove their intent to try and kill it, once and for all.

We have not even managed to bury Gough and he is turning in his grave—he has not even got there yet—because of what this government is trying to do: a $7 tax on visiting the doctor, a $5 hike in the price of medicine; more than $50 billion cut from hospitals; and more than $4 million cut from dental programs. These measures spell the death of universal health care; just what the Abbott government is planning and hoping for.

The GP tax of course will apply to far more than just visiting the doctor. And the Abbott government's 10 to 15 per cent cut in the rebate paid to radiologists will dramatically increase the out-of-pocket cost for people needing scans. In fact, as we heard in question time today, the Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association has said that we will have to pay a minimum of $90 upfront for an X-ray.

My son managed to destroy his thumb before grand final day, ending up in hospital—missing out on seeing his Swans beaten, which was probably a saving grace. We would have been up for $90; we would have been up for more for the plastic surgeon we had to see that day.

In my electorate there is a great organisation called Knitted Knockers, who are out there knitting prostheses to give away to women who have suffered breast cancer and had mastectomies. They are appalled that there will not be help upfront. Women will be prevented from going to a doctor. This government stands condemned.

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