Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. I refer the minister to the government's plans to introduce a Medicare co-payment. I ask if the minister could inform the House of the history of support for a co-payment within the parliament and the reasons such a co-payment was advocated.

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. He has taken quite an interest in the history of the co-payment. For 50 years the Labor Party has supported a co-payment, right up until this budget. We have recognised that Bob Hawke was the father of the co-payment—

Mr Champion interjecting—

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

The member for Wakefield will desist.

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

when it came to Medicare because, like this government, Bob Hawke wanted to make sure that Medicare was sustainable, particularly, given an ageing population—

Mr Champion interjecting—

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

The member for Wakefield is warned!

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

all of the costs that would be coming down the line over the course of the coming decades. We want to have a strong Medicare system and that is why we have proposed a co-payment. We know, as I say, that Bob Hawke was the father of the co-payment, we know that Jenny Macklin was the head of the unit that provided advice to Mr Brian Howe, who obviously then went on to implement a co-payment. So we know that Jenny is the mother of the Medicare co-payment and we know that the son of the co-payment is here in the member for Fraser.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, on a point of order in relation to your statement earlier in question time about standing order 68, I draw the minister's attention to my personal explanation.

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

Under the statement I made earlier today, there is no cause for intervention. The minister has the call.

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

We know that the member for Fraser—

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, the minister alleges that I was the mother of the co-payment. I was not. I opposed it. That is clear in the personal explanation that I gave.

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

There is no point of order. The member will desist. As I pointed out in my statement today, if the member elects to seek an intervention under 68 then she loses the right for personal explanation afterwards. If she desists on asking for the intervention, she will be able to make a personal explanation later. There is no point of order and the minister has the call.

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

I want the parents to be proud of the son. I want them to be proud of the member for Fraser. They have had him in hiding for a couple of weeks now. Normally you could not get in between him and a camera, but they have hidden him for a couple of weeks. They have reduced him to some sort of IMAX, where he is holding up his book. Let me quote from the book. He says:

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.

As it turns out, when we look at this family tree, there are another couple of people that we need to out today. The member for Lingiari voted for a co-payment in 1991. And we know that the member for Werriwa, the overachiever in the Ferguson family, voted for a co-payment as well. Good on him, because he wanted to make Medicare sustainable. We all want to make Medicare sustainable.

I can tell you, it must have been a torturous process for the member for Jagajaga over the course of the last 22 years and nine months, because she has kept this dark secret. She has kept a dark secret for all of that time. Not once can I find, over 23 years, the member for Jagajaga saying that she was opposed to the co-payment that Brian Howe introduced. This is the opportunity in this budget.

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

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, I know the minister can only go nasty every time he gets to the dispatch box—

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

The member will resume her seat. There is no point of order. The next person who abuses the standing orders in that way will leave under 94(a). The Minister for Health has the call.

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

What we seek to do in this budget is to make Medicare sustainable. We introduced the co-payment, $5 of which goes into the Medical Research Future Fund, $2 of which goes into doctors' pockets so that we can help supplement the money that they get from Medicare now, so that we keep bulk billing. We cannot afford Labor's model of giving everything to everybody for free and racking it up on the credit card. Bob Hawke knew it. Jenny Macklin knows it. The member for Fraser knows it. So do the member for Werriwa and many others.