Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

A responsible government recognises the need to keep Medicare sustainable—it has to be sustainable—and that is why we are taking sensible, fair and responsible measures. They have to be responsible. The period of the previous Labor government saw an absolute explosion in health costs. Since 2007, Commonwealth expenditure has grown by 46 per cent. Again, we have seen billions and billions in debt and deficit from the previous Labor government as a result. The pressure on the budget from Medicare, the PBS and public hospitals has been absolutely unrelenting, driven in part by the ageing population, chronic disease and higher costs. It has also been driven by increasing expectation. As medicine becomes more advanced it also becomes both more complex and more expensive. We can perform procedures today that a few short years ago would have seemed a bit like science fiction. We have a raft of new drugs that treat disease better and faster, but each one costs a small fortune to develop and get onto the market.

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