Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That was just embarrassing. I'm so sorry that members of the public had to witness that last speech. This government doesn't really care about the retention of Medicare as a universal healthcare insurance scheme. It just doesn't understand it. I know this, and I have seen the various attempts by conservative Australian governments to destroy a universal healthcare system over the last 40 years. From my time as a medical student in 1975, when the Fraser government destroyed Medibank, to the attempts by a variety of conservative Liberal-National Party governments to undermine Medicare in the last 35 years, it has been death by whittling away, by white-anting, by a thousand cuts—whatever you call it, it's the truth. I started my practice in 1984 in Campbelltown when Medicare started. I saw what a dramatic difference it made to health care—and made to health care for the people who were the most disadvantaged. The benefits were real and, unfortunately, we're now returning to the bad old days of the sixties where people—particularly people who are disadvantaged, who are poor, who come from groups that have high levels of disadvantage—can't access proper medical care.

We now have a system that is beset by massive cost shifting, from state to federal, and back again, and around in circles. We now have a system where there are huge increases in out-of-pocket expenses, and I refer you to the article by Stephen Duckett from the Grattan Institute I think only a couple of days ago, demonstrating huge increases in out-of-pocket expenses, particularly to see specialists and subspecialists. We now have a system with extensive waiting lists in public hospital outpatient clinics, sometimes to levels that would be unimaginable for most of us here in this House. For cataract surgery, waiting lists just to see an ophthalmologist in the public system are over 12 months. Waiting lists to see a urologist for some of the most vital surgery, particularly for older Australians, are over 18 months. Waiting lists to see ENT surgeons are at unbelievable levels. In fact, many public hospitals no longer have public outpatient clinics for things like ophthalmology and ENT surgery, which means that the very poorest, the most disadvantaged, just can't access that sort of medical care.

Large sections of the community who have chronic illness can't access the care they really need. I will give you a couple of examples—real examples. During the election campaign, while doorknocking I met a lady at her door who had intractable heart failure. She had heard that there were some new treatments available for heart failure and was referred by her general practitioner to see a cardiologist in his private rooms, but she couldn't afford it. She couldn't afford the over $500 out-of-pocket cost to see the cardiologist, so she just didn't go. This lady could not leave her house she was so breathless. That is disgraceful. It is really affecting people's lives, in case those opposite were wondering. There was another lady who had had spinal surgery and ended up with some spinal damage. She was incontinent of urine and faeces. She could not afford to see a urologist privately, and was told there was a waiting list of over 12 months to get into the public urology clinic at a hospital many kilometres away from my electorate of Macarthur. She was ringing me to see if I could speak to a local urologist to get her fitted in to his private clinic to be bulk-billed, because she couldn't afford the $300 to $400 she was going to have to pay out of her own pocket. She couldn't afford to save that out of her own pension.

These are people's lives. For children who have sleep disorders, I cannot get them into a public sleep clinic with a waiting time under 12 months. So you may as well effectively say they can't access the care. To see an ENT surgeon, in my electorate, they have to see someone privately because my hospital does not have a public ENT clinic. People are faced with costs of $300 or $400, which they cannot afford. This is really affecting people's lives. I want those on the other side to understand that. We also have very poor access to public dental care. (Time expired)

See this speech in context