Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am both sad and angry that I need to make this speech today. The Minister for Human Services confirmed to me this afternoon that he was closing the Belmont Medicare office. In the lead-up to Christmas last year, on 17 December, I was contacted by the local shopping centre, telling me that the government was going to terminate the lease on the Medicare office from 24 March. I did not believe that, because this Medicare office has a history. The Howard government closed that Medicare office when they were elected. There were numerous attempts to get it reopened. Then Labor reopened that Medicare office, and it was an enhanced Medicare office providing not only Medicare but also Centrelink services.

There is no Medicare office between Charlestown and Lake Haven, and this government is trying to sell the idea of closing the Belmont Medicare office and co-locating it with an office 12 kilometres away. There has been a co-location of the Medicare office and the NDIA in Charlestown, and I could see the benefit of that. But the Medicare office at Belmont services a very elderly population. It services people from Swansea to Belmont, down onto the Central Coast. I have been reliably advised that a lot of people from Gwandalan Summerland Point utilise the office. The population of Shortland is the ninth oldest in Australia—an elderly population with restricted licences, unable to get to Charlestown. And this government is bloody-mindedly—I repeat, bloody-mindedly—closing the Belmont Medicare office.

I previously submitted petitions with over 20,000 signatures on them. Prior to it being reopened, staff at the Charlestown Medicare office identified the reopening of the Belmont office as the highest priority. I have continued to raise the issue in parliament. We went to a number of elections with a promise to reopen the office, and when we were elected we reopened it. We actually reopened it ahead of schedule. And now this government is totally disregarding the people of Shortland electorate.

We all know that Centrelink and Medicare have changed, particularly under this government. Everyone's office has been inundated with complaints about the fact that staff are not allowed to service them—that they are greeted by somebody with an iPad and then sent to a telephone or a computer. My elderly constituents do not like this, and they are very, very irate with this government for what it is doing in that space.

When I saw the minister today, he told me that the numbers at the Belmont Medicare office were down. There were 89 walk-ins a day. That was recorded on the iPad. I had never been in this office when there were fewer than 10 people there. The way the services are delivered has changed slightly. People are sent to computers when they come into the office. My staff member went there at lunchtime and there were six people lined up to use the computer.

When I spoke to the minister I was even more disappointed when he told me that we are both seasoned campaigners. 'To be quite frank with you,' he said, 'we're not going to win your seat in the next election, so you can make as much noise as you like about it, but we are going to totally disregard those elderly people in Shortland electorate.' He was arrogantly saying that, because the people of Shortland live in a Labor electorate, they deserve second-class services. Well, minister, I totally disagree with that and I argue that the Medicare office in Belmont should remain open. (Time expired)

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