Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to withdraw it. When the Labor Party were in government—people will remember the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years—it was six years of absolute disaster in this country. It was absolute disaster. They received two separate reports telling them 'the health system is currently unsustainable'. What did the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments do about it? Nothing at all. They spent more money on health bureaucracy and they took money away from front-line services. The commitment of this government is to get more money back to doctors and nurses and away from Labor's spin doctors. It is true here and it is true in Victoria as well, because the Victorian government, under the leadership of David Davis, has got the health system back on track. He has got it back on track in primary care and in tertiary care as well.

When it comes to Medicare, 10 years ago, as the Prime Minister rightly pointed out before, we were spending $8 billion a year on Medicare. Today we will spend $20 billion a year; bearing in mind that from the Medicare levy we raise $10 billion a year, there is a $10 billion gap and it is growing rapidly. In fact, over the last five years, it has grown by 34 per cent, and we know that within 10 years time it will almost double again. Now the people who say that that is sustainable are, really when look at it, the Labor Party. The Labor Party are the only ones who suggest, somehow, that giving away millions of services each year is free.

The proposal by the coalition government is to make sure that we can provide support by retaining bulk-billing for those who cannot afford a $7 co-payment, but we have said we will ask for a modest co-payment so that we can strengthen Medicare. At the same time, yes, we do want to put money into a Medical Research Future Fund—why? Because in states like Victoria, we know that for every dollar that we put into medical research, we get a $2.17 return, and in states like Victoria we have the great capacity to put those jobs into place in areas like the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, an outstanding institution within Victoria.

If we can put more jobs into Victoria, we can find the cures of tomorrow. We would not have Gardasil today if we had not invested into medical research in years past. The money that we put into medical research today will provide better care models so that we can have a sustainable health system into the future. Not only will we have more jobs in the medical research sector in areas like Victoria; we will also provide for tomorrow's cures. That is the commitment of this government. We will make Medicare sustainable. We will take care of those that need to be protected, and we will strengthen the health system of the 21st century.

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