Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think we're all aware in this place, in the other place and certainly out in the community that we have rising cost of living. Things are pretty tough out there. I have to say, having worked in the homelessness and poverty sector, this has not suddenly arisen in the last eight months. Over the last decade I have worked with people who have experienced poverty, who have been on the streets, who have a superannuation balance of $4,000, who are unemployed long-term. This is not something that's suddenly arisen in the last eight months. Quite frankly I find it incredibly offensive that those opposite would use these people and their lives and their suffering to make these cheap political points.

Now I will get back to the speech I wrote! These increases have been a long time coming, in some ways. We know the rising cost of health care has been coming for a long time. We know that, at the last election, those opposite said 80 per cent of services through Medicare were bulk-billed. We also know that's rubbish! Your primary service—which is your actual appointment—is not bulk-billed, and you have a gap payment. Then maybe you have something sutured or a lump or a bump burnt off, and that might be bulk-billed. But the underlying actual appointment is not bulk-billed.

When I talk to Australians, when I talk to people in Boothby, and I say to them, 'The opposition says 80 per cent of your medical services are being bulk-billed', they tell me they can't find a doctor that bulk-bills. I have to say, having also worked in the health sector, that I don't blame the doctors for that. The doctors know that the cost of running these services has gone up. The rebate for Medicare has been frozen. Those opposite froze it for the last six years. The doctors are under pressure.

See this speech in context