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

My question is to the Minister for Health. The minister said on 19 February that spending on medical services is spiralling, but the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found that health expenditure in 2012-13 grew at its lowest rate in 30 years. So, will the minister now abandon his unfair increase in the costs of medicines that will hit all Australians?

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

I thank the member opposite for her question. People will remember back to the bad days of the Gillard and Rudd governments: in 2012-13 there was a lot of dysfunction and infighting. The government of the day was running up enormous debt—

Ms Owens interjecting—

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

The member for Parramatta will desist.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

As will the member for Moreton.

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

And yes, in that year Labor did spend $70 million less on health than in the year before, despite the fact that they were out telling Australians that they were spending more and more on health each year. Yes, it is the case that they spent less in that year. But let me just go to the reasons that was the case: $70 million less in that year, but people will remember when the Labor Party brought in a policy that resulted in millions of Australians prepaying their private health insurance premiums to beat the tax Labor was imposing on Australians with private health insurance. What that did was drag expenditure from one year into the next. Labor does not go into the detail, and Labor is never good with numbers.

They mucked up that policy, and they mucked up many other policies. But I can tell you, the president of the AMA has said he supports, in principle, a copayment, and so does this government, and so did the Labor Party when Bob Hawke, a leader with heart, actually led the Labor Party.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order.

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

It is not an invitation to repeat the question.

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

The question did not mention the GP tax; it in fact was about the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme hike—

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

I would point out to the member for Ballarat that when you use political epithets in the context of the question it makes it a very broad question.

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

In this budget the government committed to spending about $65 billion on health this year, which grew each and every year over the course of the next four years to about $74 billion by year four. As a country we spend about $140 billion per year on health, and that continues to grow as our population ages and as new medical technologies need to be adopted. We are spending more and more and more on health; that is absolutely the case. But it needs to be at a sustainable pace.

The Labor Party, when it was in government, received two independent reports, both of which told Labor that spending in its current form was unsustainable. So, whilst we grow health expenditure each and every year in this budget, we do not do it at the same rate—the same unsustainable rate—that Labor was proposing. In the health budget we will spend about $20 billion this year—

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

on Medicare services.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

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

As will the member for Isaacs.

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

And, importantly, out of this report we recognise that the Medicare expenditure in the year the honourable member referred to grew by 4.1 per cent, and even with the changes announced in this budget to make spending sustainable on Medicare we projected that 18.6 per cent growth over the next four years will take place in Medicare and that over the next decade the MBS will grow by almost 80 per cent. We have put in place a method by which we will make Medicare sustainable, we will defend Medicare, we will make it stronger and we will stop Labor from wrecking the health system in this country.

Clive Palmer (Fairfax, Palmer United Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Under that great Liberal Prime Minister and founder of the Liberal Party, Sir Robert Menzies, the Australian economy had a debt level of 40 per cent of GDP. Why does the government seek to shrink the money supply and domestic demand when our debt level is only 12 per cent of GDP and the average OECD country's debt level is 73 per cent of GDP and Australia has a AAA credit rating?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Fairfax for the question. If I remember correctly, I think Australia's debt level actually peaked at about World War II, associated with the costs associated with war. From that period on, debt levels started to reduce. And Menzies was a great Prime Minister, because he reduced the debt levels, just as this Prime Minister wants to reduce the debt levels and just as the Howard government reduced the debt levels, because that is what Liberals do: we pay off the debt that Labor builds up—

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

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

The member for Isaacs will desist.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

because we know that it is hugely important not to leave the next generation of Australians with more debt. If we continued on the path that Labor left—a legacy of deficit and debt—we would end up leaving in 10 years every man, woman and child in Australia with $25,000 of debt. That is unacceptable, because great Liberals—

Ms Claydon interjecting—

Ms Chesters interjecting—

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

The members for Newcastle and Bendigo will desist.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

get on with the job of paying off debt. That is what we do; that is what Menzies did, that is what Howard did and that is what Abbott is doing. We are getting on with the job of stopping the haemorrhaging and making sure can pay down the debt.

Ms Butler interjecting—

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

The member for Griffith will also desist.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the member for Fairfax knows, you never want to end up in an economic trough. You do not want to end up in a trough, because when you end up in a trough you get yourself into trouble. And of course if you keep spending money that you do not have—or other people's money, which is even worse—you can end up in the trough. From our perspective, we want Australia to be strong and robust. We want Australians to be prosperous, and the best way to do that is for Australia to live within its means. And the second thing you should do is understand that we cannot continue to put expenditure on the credit card. We cannot continue to build up deficit and debt that we cannot afford to repay over a long period of time. That is why we have made the tough decisions, the difficult decisions, but the right decisions in the budget.

Ms Owens interjecting—

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

If the member for Parramatta continues she will leave.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If we want to maintain the quality of life that Menzies helped to build, that Howard helped to build and that we want to build for the future, we have to live within our means.