Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Okay. I was going to call him the Minister for the Environment, but no-one would believe that, but I thank you for your direction. They have taken away from electricity and water bills, transport costs and council rates. All Australians will pay $7 extra every time they go to the doctor.

Mr Hunt interjecting—

Member for Flinders, we will talk about what you have done right up to the next election, don't you worry about that.

When we learn about this GP tax, we learn more about the hidden costs of this GP tax—and the more we learn, the worse it gets. This will probably be useful for our Prime Minister if someone could send this transcript to him—he did not have a clue about diagnostic imaging today. Medicare provides around 23 million diagnostic imaging and pathology services. The Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association estimates that the GP tax will reduce funding to these services by $188 million in 2015-16—it is a 10 per cent cut, Prime Minister—and rebates for general patients who were previously bulk-billed for pathology tests and imaging due to the abolition of the bulk-billing incentive from 1 July next year. The abolition of the greatest permissible gap safety net, a safety net which moderates the cost of high cost items, has gone too.

As a consequence of the GP tax, some patients will be forced to fork out hundreds if not thousands of dollars up-front to pay for MRI, X-rays, CAT scans and mammograms. This will apply to many cancer patients and to holders of low-income healthcare and pensioner concession cards. They are ripping out $1.3 billion of the pockets of Australians by increasing the cost of medicine.

Then there is the family tax benefit B changes. I thought these people opposite said that they were the great friends of families. Heaven forbid. Please, do not be our friends in future! Just stay right away! More than 700,000 single income and single parent families are going to lose their family tax benefit B over three years as a result of this savage mugging by the Abbott government just because their youngest child turned six. Because of Tony Abbott, a single income family on $65,000 with two children aged eight and 14 is going to lose over $6,000 per year by 2016. These payments help families struggling to make ends meet keep up with the cost of living. As John Howard said when he heard about this raid on family tax benefit B: 'Family tax benefit B are not welfare payments. They are just a recognition through the tax payment system of the undeniable fact, as all of us in the room have been parents know, that it costs money to have children.' I do not often agree with the former Prime Minister, but even a stop clock can be right twice a day!

Then we look at their attack on young job seekers.

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