Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. On 15 June this year in response to the government’s capping of the Medicare safety net for IVF procedures the minister stated:

Patients who see specialists who charge $6,000 or less for a typical IVF cycle will not be worse off under these changes.

Does the minister stand by this guarantee?

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. It is nice to have a question about health from the shadow minister for health given he has been so absent in this debate. I do not have the precise quote that the minister is referring to; however, I can make absolutely clear to the member and to the House that we are committed to pursuing the measures that we announced in the budget. Some of those are tough measures which are seeking to—

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do you stand by your statement or not?

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If the shadow minister would give me the courtesy of letting me finish the answer, he might get an answer. As I say, the government stands absolutely committed to the measures that were announced in the budget. Those measures include some tough decisions and this is one of the decisions that was tough because it changes some existing entitlements. The existing entitlements affected by this, however, are the incomes of the specialists not the benefits to consumers. We absolutely stand by our determination—

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order to do with relevance. The exact words—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Dickson will resume his seat. I am aware of the question. The minister is responding to the question.

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am answering the question and the point that I am making is that the measures that we stand by are those we announced in the budget. The reason that we stand by them and we seek the support of the Senate, of the opposition, is that these are changes that affect the income of specialists. If those opposite intend to defend the profits of specialists who are highly paid instead of supporting the patients who need services then we will be disagreeing.

This is a matter that has been before a Senate committee. We are prepared to look at the recommendations that come from that Senate committee. These are matters, however, that we are determined to pursue because—and the Prime Minister has already commented in his answer to the member for Lyne that we are in a debate about long-term health reform—they do require choices to be made—one of which is whether we are going to defend benefits for patients or protect exorbitant incomes for specialists. We are intending to pursue this measure and, as I have previously said in this House, given that the opposition has committed to supporting all budget measures other than the private health insurance measures, we would expect them to back it.