Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia's healthcare system is at a cross road. The system we set up in July 1975 when Medibank officially commenced, almost 40 years ago, no longer meets our needs. When we consider that Australia's population in 1975 was 13.9 million as opposed to the 23 7 million we are today then this should be no surprise.

Treasury's first Intergenerational report in 2007 forecast that the Australian government's expenditure on health was projected to increase as a proportion of GDP from 3.5 per cent in 2006-07 to 7.3 per cent in 2046-47, with about a quarter of these increased costs coming from an ageing population. Treasury's 2010 Intergenerational report identifies a number of drivers of the expected rise to extend beyond just an ageing population to include population growth, demographic pressures, demand for higher standards of care and rapid technological innovation. Another thing that should not surprise us, and it is something for which we can be thankful is that medical knowledge, technologies and treatments have not remained static; they have changed and evolved and will hopefully continue to evolve into the future for our collective benefit.

All of this change and growing demand, however, creates stresses that the existing structure of Medicare cannot handle, and ultimately this is not a sustainable dynamic. The gravity of this situation has been well and truly recognised by the new Minister for Health, the Hon. Sussan Ley, and in her statement on 16 January this year she pointed out the following inconvenient and uncomfortable truth about Medicare, and I quote:

It's not sustainable now. The Medicare levy raises $10 billion approximately at the moment and the cost of Medicare is $20 billion. So the Medicare levy is hopelessly inadequate in funding Medicare, but the scary thing is in 10 years' time, the cost of Medicare will be $34 billion and while the Medicare levy will be a bit more, it will be nowhere near that figure. So everyone recognises we need to make Medicare sustainable and we can't have it collapse under its own weight.

If we want Australians to have access to the best quality healthcare in the world, which is what our citizens have come to expect—and which they rightly should have—then Medicare requires structural reform.

In my view, this is the one of the greatest public policy challenges confronting our country right now. We need to properly acknowledge it and move collectively and cooperatively to address it. Failure to do so will fundamentally change Australians' quality of life for the worse. A sustainable future for Medicare cannot be achieved through a process of finger-pointing and recrimination. Demonising doctors, engaging in cheap political point-scoring or going for a quick fix, dare I say it—a bandaid—will not get the job done. If we are to assume that everyone, the medical profession, politicians of all persuasions and patients, all wants the same thing—that is, the best possible health outcomes for all Australians now and into the future—then we must all be engaged in creating the solution. Good policy does not happen in a vacuum. It will not magically appear out of thin air. And, while the logic of this statement might seem self-evident and obvious, the highly regrettable combative nature of our political environment can make the achievement of this goal seemingly impossible.

My challenge to everyone in this place is to put aside petty political divisions and support the Medicare consultation process Minister Ley is currently undertaking around the country. If ever there was a public policy issue demanding bipartisan support then this is it. I also challenge the medical profession to be part of this process. I know the minister wants to hear from you—and, in my electorate of Brisbane, I want to hear from you. In this regard I want to thank those members of the medical profession who only last week made time to meet with the minister and I as well with my parliamentary colleagues the member for Longman and the member for Petrie. Your insights were invaluable. I want to specifically acknowledge the doctors from the Northside Local Medical Association; Abbe Anderson and staff from the Medicare Local Metro North Brisbane; the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners; Dr Shaun Rudd, President of AMA Queensland; and the Redcliffe and District Local Medical Association.

The challenge of meeting the future healthcare needs of Australians has not crept up on us in the dark. We cannot and must not fail in our responsibility to meet it.

House adjourned at 20:02

See this speech in context