Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister promised before the election, 'We will help families with the real cost of raising children,' but the Prime Minister's budget will cost families as much as $5,000 a year as a result of his cuts to family payments, plus his new GP tax plus his increase to petrol taxes. Why should Australian families pay up to $5,000 per year for the Prime Minister's deceit?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This budget enshrines two great Australian values: the fair go that we preserve and the 'have a go' value that we want to encourage. They are the values that are embodied in this budget.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Isaacs will desist.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know that some benefits for families are changing and I accept that. I make the point that it is important to maximise participation in the workforce and it is important to bear down on what is sometimes described as middle-class welfare. It is important to do that, but it is important to do that in ways that are fair.

If the people of Australia want to look at the budget documentation, they will see, for instance, that if you are a single-income family, with one child under six, with $30,000 of income you are still receiving more than $18,000 from the taxpayer. If you are a single-income family, with one child, on $90,000 you are still receiving $6,000 from the taxpayer.

I say again, if the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is very anxious to ensure that this government keeps its commitments and if she is as anxious as she says she is to ease the squeeze on families then let us repeal the carbon tax straightaway. Let us repeal the carbon tax straightaway and give all the families of Australia a $550 windfall. Let us give them $550 a year straightaway.

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. How is the budget asking Australians to contribute to ensure the future of medical research in Australia and build a sustainable health system?

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

I thank the member for Bennelong not just for his question but for his commitment to medical research. He is a great supporter of medical research in this country. This morning I spoke to Professor Charlie Teo, who is one of our nation's greatest neurosurgeons.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The members for Moreton and Wakefield will desist.

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

He was over the moon, absolutely over the moon, as many other researchers are about the government's commitment to medical research. Not only are we providing record amounts now to medical research, but we will increase that investment as we go forward. As a nation, we face a great threat as our population ages in relation to dementia and diseases of the brain otherwise. In fact, it is projected that by 2050, 7,500 Australians each week will present with dementia. We have to make the investment today to make sure that we can provide the opportunities for research and discovery that will assist our doctors and our scientists to make those discoveries and to implement the medications and the advice that flow from them. I am very proud of the fact that we are in this portfolio at this time able to say that we will increase health expenditure over the forward estimates in 2014-15 by 3.7 per cent. In 2015-16 it increases again to $68.2 billion. It increases in 2016-17, it increases in 2017-18, and health funding will continue to grow in this budget.

There are other people who have been complimentary of the government's $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund. Let me go to Professor Doug Hilton, who is the Institute Director at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. He says:

This investment from the government is game changing.

He also says, 'It is a fabulous time to be a medical researcher in this country.' The Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes said:

Creation of this $20 billion fund into perpetuity is amongst the most significant initiatives in the history of medical research in Australia.

We will set this health system up for the future, not just for today. We will protect it against the Labor Party into the future. This fund will have its capital protected, because it will be guarded by the Future Fund guardians. We will not allow Labor to attack the $20 billion. We will make sure that the $1 billion a year that will flow from this $20 billion capital fund will supplement the money that we are putting into medical research now—which will grow to about $2 billion a year—and we will stop the Labor Party from spending that $20 billion at any time in the future. This fund is about setting the future up for this country and that is what this government is about.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Before the election, the Prime Minister said, 'No cuts to health.' Last night, the Prime Minister hit Australians with a $7 GP tax for every visit to the doctor. How is the Prime Minister fit for office, if he expects Australians to pay for his deceit?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We made a commitment that every dollar of saving is reinvested in the world's largest medical research fund, which will be good for cures, treatment, and the health of all Australians in the years and decades ahead.

The shadow minister says that somehow I am unfit for office because I support a co-payment. There is a better way of operating a health system, and the change could hardly hurt at all. As economists have shown, the ideal model involves a small co-payment—not enough to put a dent in your weekly budget, but enough to make you think twice before you call the doctor—and the idea is hardly radical. Who said that? The shadow assistant treasurer. If I am not fit for office, neither is he, presumably, and I imagine that the Leader of the Opposition will be requiring his resignation.

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. If what the member for Canberra said 15 years ago is relevant, what the Prime Minister said six months ago—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume his seat. That is an abuse of the standing orders, and the member knows it. Another infringement and you are to leave us. The Prime Minister has concluded his answer.