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. Senate Estimates revealed that the government has made no attempt to find out what the impact of the GP tax would be on the out-of-pocket expenses for patients with chronic illness such as kidney disease. Why did the Prime Minister introduce a GP tax when he does not even know how much pain it will cause sick Australians?

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

I might equally well ask the shadow minister opposite: why did the former government introduce a PBS tax? What this government has done in respect of Medicare is exactly what the Labor Party did in respect of the PBS. It is exactly the same. If it was right to have a modest co-payment for the PBS, how can it be wrong to have a modest co-payment for Medicare? When members opposite brought in a modest co-payment for the PBS they said, 'It is to make this system sustainable, to continue to have it accessible, to continue to have it affordable, to continue to have it universal, but to make it sustainable.' It is exactly the same argument, exactly the same ethical and moral considerations, which have led us to do exactly the same for Medicare which the Labor Party did for the PBS—exactly the same for Medicare.

The former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, the former Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe, the former director of the national health strategy, the member for Jagajaga—we are doing for Medicare exactly what they proposed. We are doing for Medicare exactly what Labor's Assistant Treasurer proposes—that is, to make this great Medicare system of ours sustainable for the long term.