Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

will be removed as a save. And if those listed multinational pathology companies want to claim that that will cause $30 in additional costs per test, and the Leader of the Opposition wants to believe them, then shame on him.

This is a Labor Party with not one single health policy, but I remind members opposite that the sensible save that the government made in MYEFO last year allowed us to make the biggest ever listing on the PBS, which was $1 billion worth of medicines to treat hepatitis C—$1 billion worth of medicines to cure hep C within a generation. We are the only jurisdiction in the world to do that.

We are a government that is running budget deficits, not budget surpluses, thanks to the mess that was left us by the Labor Party. So in taking a rational, sensible, serious approach, it made sense to remove a small bulk-billing incentive, not the Medicare rebate, and to invest in the future health of the nation.

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