Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister inform the House how a co-payment has helped make the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme sustainable? What plans does the government have to make Medicare sustainable?

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

I thank the member for his question. He is very concerned about making sure we can get more support into rural communities, and we want to make sure that in this budget we strengthen Medicare.

Ms King interjecting—

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

The member for Ballarat will desist!

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

In this budget we have recognised the fact that we just cannot sustain giving away for free all these services that Labor proposes—that somehow you can put that on the credit card and that it is sustainable going forward. That is the problem that Labor has.

I want to start by acknowledging the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. We spend about $9 billion a year in this country on a great medicine scheme. I want to say thank you to the Labor Party for their support of a co-payment in the PBS in the 1960s. And I want to say thank you very much to the Labor Party for their support of a co-payment during the 1970s, when we saw an increase in the number of people that accessed the PBS and paid a co-payment. I want to thank the Labor Party for supporting a co-payment during the 1980s. I want to recognise that, in 1986, the Labor Party increased the PBS co-payment by 100 per cent, from $5 to $10, for general patients. I want to thank the Labor Party for supporting a co-payment in relation to the PBS in the nineties. In fact, it was the Labor Party, in 1991, that said that they wanted to keep the PBS sustainable and a co-payment was necessary. And it was the Labor Party, in 1991, that first introduced a co-payment for pensioners—not worried about those without means, not worried about those people who are most sick.

Labor's argument for 50 years has been that a co-payment is necessary to make the PBS sustainable. During all of that period, they have said the co-payment is a sensible policy. Now why would they oppose a co-payment to make Medicare sustainable? Because they are playing politics. For 50 years the Labor Party have supported a co-payment principle, and yet in the last 24 hours the shadow minister for health has referred to a co-payment on the PBS as a tax—a tax that they presided over for 50 years. If anybody ever needed any evidence of their hypocrisy and of the Labor Party playing politics, look no further than her comments of the last 24 hours. I saw the shadow minister's performance on Q&A last night. I have got to say it takes a special talent—

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

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

The member for Isaacs will desist!

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

for a member of the Labor Party to fail on Q&A and to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It really says a lot about the Labor Party. I want to make sure, as the Australian public does, that we can have a sustainable Medicare, and we will do that.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. We are yet to hear the minister refer to his own administration of his portfolio at all in this answer.

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

There is no point of order.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, the question—

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

The minister has the call and will address the question.

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

The point is that the Labor Party are full of hypocrisy. They have no solution to make Medicare sustainable. This party was elected to clean up Labor's mess. We will do that. We will make Medicare sustainable for generations to come. The Labor Party just needs to get out of the— (Time expired)