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

I wish the member for Ballarat well in getting up the question time order so that she can put questions to me and the team during question time. I see that she has been the reserve question two days in a row, and I know that is that a tough position to be in.

There are a lot of mistruths—and I do not like to say the word 'lie'; it gets thrown about too much in this place. But I want to take those listening to today's broadcast directly to Leigh Sales, 7.30 and the Leader of the Opposition. Leigh Sales asked the Leader of the Opposition, 'Can you put your hand on your heart and look Australians in the eye and say that the coalition has a policy to privatise Medicare,' and he would not and he did not. I refer everyone to the broadcast.

After the Leader of the Opposition had refused to answer that question, Labor went into bat with its union mates—not on the building sites around Australia; we are dealing with that through the ABCC—robocalling elderly Australians late at night and then sending fake texts from fake accounts based on a fake proposition about something that was never going to happen and will never happen. This was even after the Prime Minister stepped out and made very clear that every element of Medicare that is being delivered within government by government will continue to be and that there is nothing in our approach that has ever been inconsistent with that. In spite of that, the scare campaign went on.

It is disappointing, because it is actually not about what patients and families and people who voted recently want to hear about. What they want to hear about is our plans for the health system. What they should consider is Labor's record versus ours.

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

Now the member for Ballarat keeps talking about cuts, and I say this: no government has invested more into Medicare than the Turnbull government. No government has overseen a higher bulk-billing rate than the Turnbull government. The Turnbull government is currently investing about $23 billion a year into Medicare. That will increase by $4 billion over the next four years. There were 17 million more bulk-billed Medicare services last year under the Turnbull government than during Labor's last full year in office—17 million more bulk-billed services.

There are things that we say in this place, but the thing that I will not allow to go past on this occasion is the suggestion that we are going to put up the price of prescription medicines and make it harder for Australians to access medicines. The shadow minister and the Leader of the Opposition were in parliament when a previous Labor health minister refused to sign drugs for mental health, asthma and other conditions onto the PBS, because what you cannot pay for you cannot deliver. That Labor health minister was caught out, because, as we know, Labor cannot manage money. They can talk the big talk, but they cannot manage the dollars. On this occasion a Labor health minister decided that they were not going to list medicines.

We have spent $4.5 billion on listing medicines in the last three years. We have listed three times as many medicines as Labor did in government.

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

Deputy Speaker, I sat quietly and listened to the member for Ballarat—

See this speech in context