Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Herbert is telling me that these are some things out of the talking points. They are not out of the talking points; they are out of the budget submission from the Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association. Are you saying they are giving me talking points? I am telling you what is in their submission. I am warning the member for Herbert. I am telling him the effects of his policy and of the bill he has not seen. We have heard about the $7 co-payment, but have we seen the bill? Do we know how it will operate? Can any of those opposite provide me with some assurance about how it will operate? No, because the health minister is somewhere in this building, somehow sharpening up his plans for this disastrous policy of his.

In case you are wondering how that might affect someone with rheumatoid arthritis who needs some scans, the up-front costs will be somewhere between $289 and $549 and the out-of-pocket costs $55 to $316. That would terrify the member for Herbert's constituents and they would be right to be concerned about it. My constituents would be concerned about it too. In the case of breast cancer, the out-of-pocket costs between $46 and $348 and the up-front $410 to $712. These are extraordinary figures, not out of some Labor Party talking points but out of the Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association's submission to a Senate committee on the budget.

We know what is going to happen: 600,000 scans will be missed. What effect will that have on public health and preventative health? What kind of disastrous consequences will that have for individuals, for families and for communities? One million missed GP visits across the country will be missed and 500,000 the year after, with people presenting instead to emergency departments. Those are the consequences of the policies of those opposite—and it was not mentioned in Real solutions, you can be sure of that. On top of that, they are increasing the cost of medicines by $1.3 billion. They are cutting $368 million out of preventative health. How is that going to help the impact of diabetes and other diseases in our country? How will that work?

They are deferring $398 million in public dental care, which will blow-out the waiting lists and leave those affected in pain, and compound their problems and their other health problems. We have had the debate on the dental bill and we know what Professor Newell Johnson said—'It is going to make it worse for people who rely on the public system.' Dr Karin Alexander said, 'The waiting lists are going to grow and you are going to have people sitting there in pain once again.' That is where the government are going on dental gentle. We know we have a system in dental care of haves and have-nots, thanks to the states and the fact that dental is not in Medicare, and that should concern every Australian.

I do not care whether you are a Liberal voter or a Labor voter, whether you live in the city or the country, any time in public health you have a system of haves and have-nots based on your income and the geography of this country and your access to services that is not Australia. That is not decent. That is not the type of country I thought we were.

On top of that, they are privatising Australian Hearing. That is what those opposite are intending to do—privatising an organisation that was created in 1947 by the Chifley government and expanded during the Holt years. It has been around for 67 years to help veterans and the sufferers of rubella with their hearing problems.

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