Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The government went to the last election promising no cuts to health, but that turned out to be just another broken promise. That is exactly what they have done and it is exactly what they keep on doing. There have been so many cuts to health. In fact, in their first two years they have announced $60 billion in health cuts already, including $57 billion in cuts to hospitals, a four-year freeze on Medicare rebates for GPs and the very harsh $650 million in cuts to Medicare rebates for pathology and diagnostic imaging. They are doing all this with just one objective: to destroy Medicare and our universal health system. They did it under the previous Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, and they are doing it now with Prime Minister Turnbull. Nothing has changed with the new Prime Minister. The harsh cuts are still there. But something has changed a bit: they are, in fact, getting worse. His cuts are adding to the previous cuts. He accepted all the cuts by the previous Prime Minister and now, on top of that, there are more cuts. In fact, in his very first economic statement, Prime Minister Turnbull took all of the previous Prime Minister's cuts and added another $2 billion in cuts, making health care even less affordable to millions of Australians.

It is very important to note that many choices by this government really hurt regional areas. I often say that National Party choices hurt. The Nationals have already made the choice to unfairly cut the age pension, family payments, regional jobs and health services. In health, some of those choices have been incredibly cruel. Some of the cuts have been very harsh, particularly the cuts to bulk-billing in pathology and diagnostic testing. The Turnbull government announced last year that it would scrap bulk-billing for these important procedures. The $650 million in cuts over four years to vital bulk-billing services means that people just cannot access bulk-billing for these specific services. That means that patients will have to pay for procedures like Pap smears, blood tests, X-rays and ultrasounds, and that makes health care less affordable for those who need it the most: the sick, the struggling families and the elderly. The changes unfairly target the very frequent users of pathology services—those who are the most sick.

Patients being treated for cancer and other serious conditions could be forced to fork out thousands of dollars up-front to pay for MRIs, X-rays, CAT scans and mammograms as a result of the government's harsh cuts. We know that Australia has the world's highest diagnosed rate of melanoma. A typical patient diagnosed with melanoma who was previously bulk-billed would face up-front costs of around $1,500 and would still be left with out-of-pocket costs of up to $400 after receiving their Medicare rebates. A patient with suspected breast cancer faces up-front costs of about $550 for mammograms and ultrasounds and would be left $300 out of pocket, even after receiving all the Medicare rebates.

As we have stated many times on this side of the House, Labor will fight these very harsh attacks on bulk-billing. We will continue to fight all of these unfair and cruel measures. We will defend Medicare and we will always defend the people who rely on it. The cuts to pathology and diagnostic imaging are some of the harshest and they are hitting regional areas very hard. We will always remember that National Party choices hurt, and these cuts are really hurting.

Now it appears that the Liberals and Nationals are moving their health attacks to the area of kids dental care. How harsh is that? We are very concerned at reports that the Child Dental Benefits Schedule will be the next victim of the government's cuts. Indeed, the Prime Minister confirmed it today in question time. Labor's $2.7 billion dental program has provided a million children with affordable dental care over the past two years. The parents of many of those children have never been able to afford to take them to a dentist before. The scheme provides eligible children with up to $1,000 in dental treatment every two years. This is a great scheme, and it came under attack from day one by those opposite. In last year's budget, the government ripped $125 million from the scheme. We know what is going to happen now: they are going to cut it altogether.

Another real concern with the government is how they want to go further and allow private insurers into Medicare. That will really be bad. It will mark the end of Medicare and universal health care and will create a two-tier Americanised health system, in terms of accessing GP services. The fact is that the Liberals and the Nationals always look for ways to make health care less affordable for the people who need it the most. In contrast, we will always fight for Australians to be able to access decent, affordable health care. We will fight to defend Medicare. In regional and rural areas, locals know that National Party choices hurt. One of their harshest choices has been to cut all of those health services in the country. They continue to make cuts to hospitals and diagnostic and pathology tests, and now we are seeing cuts to children's dental care as well. There are often more health needs in the country, and the National Party is making the cuts that will impact families in the bush most harshly.

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