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. Yesterday the Minister for Health said:

… there are a lot of people who attend the doctor, who pay nothing and can afford to pay a bit more and that's where we have to land in this discussion.

Hasn't the minister just given the game away and admitted the Prime Minister will bring back the GP tax at the first chance he gets?

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

Madam Speaker, the Minister for Health is more than capable of speaking for herself. I absolutely reject the premise of the question and I invite the Minister for Health to respond.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is lovely to take a diverted question from the shadow minister. I advise the shadow minister that her quote of my remarks yesterday is correct. We on this side of the House absolutely understand that if we are to make Medicare sustainable for the long-term it is necessary to ensure that the well over 75 per cent of episodes of care in this country for nonconcessional patients that are bulk-billed need to be reduced. What I have said, and what the Prime Minister has said, is that those who can make a modest contribution to the cost of their care should be encouraged to do so.

The member for Ballarat is the queen of confusion in the area of health policy. On one hand the Leader of the Opposition is saying that nothing needs to be done but, on the other hand, the member for Ballarat says, 'Well, yes, actually something does need to be done—no area will be exempt and we will have to look at ways to make savings.' And the member for Ballarat says, 'Yes, the rebate freeze—we own that, Labor put it in place', or words to that effect. So I will not take lectures from the Labor Party—a Labor Party which in government broke promises on private health, it promised not to move on the private health insurance rebate; and it jeopardised the listing of new drugs so people with serious illnesses had to wait for their drugs to come on the PBS—that was another minister for health who is no longer in this place—'But don't worry, Labor owns this problem.' We have committed to making those listings happen efficiently and effectively through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. Labor, the party that hates medical research, in a sneaky measure tried to take $400 million away from medical research and then backflipped—

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. The minister's answer has just contained an imputation and I ask her to withdraw it.

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

Did the minister cast an imputation? In the hubbub it is very hard to hear.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw any offence, Madam Speaker—I am not sure what it was. Labor, the party that attacked medical research by trying to take out $400 million and then went through some dodgy accounting; Labor, who pretended they cared—

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 on relevance. Is the GP tax dead, buried and cremated or is it not?

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

There is no point of order.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor is the party that pretended to care about preventative health by establishing an agency, a group of bureaucrats, to talk about preventative health. What did they do? They spent nearly half a million dollars designing a fat tax, even though both sides of parliament said they would never introduce a fat tax. Labor is the party that inserted itself into hospital waiting lists—that is not the business of federal government. (Time expired)