Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the last federal election, those opposite pulled off one of the biggest bait and switch operations in Australian political history. Australians know from the former member for New England that the Prime Minister was willing to do and say anything to get into office. Australians heard his promise on the night before the election: 'no cuts to health, no cuts to education'. And after $80 billion of cuts to health and education in this week's federal budget, Australians now know that they can never again trust a word this Prime Minister says to them. The bait of a benign Tory government that would protect funding for our hospitals has now been switched for a hook, ripping billions out of our health system. It is an understatement to call these changes 'cuts', because this is not temporary pain that will heal over a period of time. The federal budget is a shotgun blast to the Australian healthcare system, and one from which it will not recover easily.

The impact in my electorate will be felt by all of the residents of Melbourne's west. Western Health, including the Western Hospital in Footscray, the Williamstown Hospital and the Sunshine hospital stand to lose more than $58 million in national health reform payments alone. This funding is used to deliver emergency department services and admitted and outpatient services in these hospitals. The result of these cuts will blow out waiting lists for people in Melbourne's west and, like the Victorian state budget recently delivered by Denis Napthine, will leave sick Victorians on their own.

The Prime Minister's healthcare deceit can be further seen in the $7 'GP tax'. After years of telling the Australian people that Medicare had no better friend than Tony Abbott, we now see the truth. I have a message for those opposite: Australians did not vote for this and they do not want it. The Australian people are no fools and you will pay at the next ballot.