Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Parkes for reminding us all why the National Party have a problem in the bush in terms of health care and about the stupidity of this government. When Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister, there were those of us in this place who thought that we might actually see something different, that we might see some change in public policy and move on from the 2014 budget with its cuts in health. There was a valid expectation that the $57 billion worth of cuts to the hospital system would, in fact, be reversed and that he got the message from the community saying, 'Malcolm, this is not acceptable.' After all, why did the member for Warringah end up being necked? He was necked because of the 2014 budget. The current Prime Minister is sticking to the initiatives of the 2014 budget: $57 billion worth of cuts to the public hospital system.

Let me explain to those opposite what that means for regional communities such as my own. At the Alice Springs public hospital, 80 per cent of its patients are Aboriginal people. If you put together the cuts to the hospitals with the three attempts at the GP tax and co-payments, what they are doing is attacking the most vulnerable people in the community. The government talk about their desire to close the gap. If they actually get these things through the Senate and into law—if there is a change at the next election and they control the Senate—they will penalise the weakest and the sickest in the community. The sickest in the community will be asked to pay more for their services. These are people with massive chronic disease problems who need to regularly see the doctor and to regularly have pathology tests. How the hell do you expect to close the gap if you charge people so much that they will defer their intention to seek assistance from a doctor or to get a pathology test? Pathology tests are, ultimately, very important. We know about the level of chronic disease in the bush and the enormous problems with diabetes. In one community I went to recently, there was a seven-year-old girl with stage 2 diabetes. She was looked after by an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service. If you attack GP payments in the way being proposed, it will cost that health service and its ability to deliver health outcomes for those communities.

Let's be very clear about this. This is not just a matter of talking about who is fiscally responsible. This is talking about what is fundamental to most Australians: their health care, the universality of the healthcare system and the importance of that universality to making sure all Australians, regardless of who they are or where they live, can get good access to the same level of medical treatment, whether they live in Alice Springs, Dubbo, Utopia, in the Northern Territory, or Sydney. What we are seeing here is a deliberate attempt by this government to hit the weakest, the poorest and the sickest in the community.

Now we have this stupid proposal, this absolutely asinine and stupid proposal, to cut the kids dental scheme. I am not a doctor, but I do know that there is a relationship between rotten teeth and your general health. If you do not look after the rotten teeth of young kids, you are putting yourself in a position where you are looking at the possibility of these kids getting chronic diseases which will end up costing the community a great deal of money and, most assuredly, will mean a lower life expectancy for those children. That is happening today.

If you cut the Medicare system in the way which is being proposed, if you continue with these stupid cuts to the public hospital system, you are penalising these people. You are making sure that the sickest and poorest in the community suffer as a result of your decisions. These are conscious decisions of the Prime Minister, his cabinet and the backbench, who are supporting him. When he became Prime Minister, I am sure many of them would have thought, 'We won't be living through the 2014 budget again.' Well, you are, because we will make sure that at this forthcoming election every Australian understands what you are doing and trying to do to the healthcare system and what you are doing in terms of undermining universality of health care in this country. Every Australian will be able to make a judgement about you, the 2014 budget, where we are today and the way in which this Prime Minister has deceived the Australian community. (Time expired)

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