Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In this the 42nd year of Medicare, which was brought in by the Labor Party, I'm happy to rise to speak on the Health Legislation Amendment (Improved Medicare Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2024. I heard the member for Mallee speaking, before we drifted into Greens political party stunts, about the reality of Medicare. She kept saying, 'I need an apology from the Labor Party because bulk-billing rates aren't what they should be.' She failed to mention what they were when Labor came to office. She failed to mention the axe that had been taken to Medicare and to so many other aspects of the health sector by the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison conga line of prime ministers. We know that, in the coalition under those people, we had some of the worst health ministers ever, and the current leader of the coalition in opposition was voted the worst health minister ever.

I do agree with my colleague from Brisbane and my next-door neighbour from Ryan that it would be great to bring oral health care into the public domain. It was envisaged by Labor prime ministers back in the forties and fifties. In fact, it was even put in the Constitution with the idea that—and it was a unity ticket from both sides of the parliament; you had Labor and the coalition. So it is something that we'd like. I have been to QEII hospital, seen people at the emergency dental facility and seen the hell on earth that can be in terms of people trying to access oral health care when they can't afford it.

But we do need to get the balance right, including by reforming the taxation system, especially the international taxation system, so that all corporations, big and small, pay the right amount of tax, their fair share of tax. We know what happens in those countries where they don't pay the right amount of tax. You end up stepping over homeless people everywhere you go. We know that corporations and individuals need to pay for our hospitals, for our GPs, for our schools, for our roads and for our defence forces—all of those things that make up a harmonious and modern society. But we do know, unfortunately, that 99.9 per cent—or whatever the percentage is—of our doctors, health professionals and nurses are all honest and hardworking and comply with the Medicare rules. We all know those people from the health profession that we interact with in our electorates. Obviously, they're a bit like MPs in that none of them ever knock on your door to tell you that everything's going great. When you see a health professional, it's normally because you're probably having your worst week or sometimes the worst day of your life.

But, unfortunately, there are occasionally people who see the medical system as a business model to exploit rather than as an opportunity to provide care to Australians, and that's why this legislation is here. This legislation is all about strengthening Medicare so that the taxpayer funds paid by all 11 million or 12 million Australians who pay tax are well directed and properly utilised. Unfortunately, whenever it comes to big buckets of money, it attracts ne'er-do-wells, criminals and shark practice. That's why this legislation is here.

In November 2022, the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon. Mark Butler, commissioned a health economist, Dr Pradeep Philip, to look into Medicare in terms of integrity and compliance. In the last budget, the Albanese government funded the Medicare Integrity Taskforce to look at the findings and implement any recommendations coming out of that Philip review, and this legislation in front of us makes some minor amendments to the TGA's operation and to the government's vaping and tobacco reforms.

This legislation amends a couple of different acts. The amendments are all about protecting the integrity and supporting the ongoing sustainability of our health benefits schemes—the Medicare Benefits Schedule, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. They're all expensive items in the budget, but there can be savings made by making sure that they are done efficiently. And, as I said, it's for that very, very small percentage of people, even doctors, who sometimes, through circumstances, end up doing the wrong thing or deliberately do the wrong thing—the people that are seeing 60 patients in an hour or something like that. I know it's a business, but sometimes people have to be set back on the right path. I should recognise, as there are doctors in the House, that there is an oversight body that makes sure GPs and other specialists are doing the right thing professionally, but it is the government's job to set up something to make sure medical practices are doing the right thing.

The reality is that when I was born, nearly 60 years ago, most—

Opposition members: No!

What's that? Well, it's the Year of the Snake, which is my year. To continue, most medical practices were run by individual GPs. Sometimes there were two or perhaps even three together, but mainly they were very much sole operators.

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