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

The Prime Minister would try to have you believe that the GP tax is dead, buried and cremated. Just like his statement on Work Choices, this is a tax that never seems go away. Buried deep in the health budget papers is the ongoing four-year freeze on indexation. In fact, the Medical Journal of Australia itself just last month belled the cat on this. It said, 'This in fact is a GP tax of $8.43.' This GT tax is already being imposed on patients across the country—we are seeing bulk-billing rates collapse—and is still buried within the budget. $1.3 billion will be transferred directly onto every single patient as they go to access their general practitioner.

Far from being dead, buried and cremated, the GP tax is very much alive and well in this budget. We have now had several versions of this. It has been a price signal, a value signal and a co-payment. It is a GP tax well and truly. It is now $8.43. We have also seen the president of the Australian Medical Association again say:

This is a GP tax by stealth.

Bulk-billing rates are already going down as a result of the policies of this government. These are people who are trying to access the medical services that keep people well and that keep people out of hospital. What counts for a health policy from this government is to try to put a barrier in the way of people accessing a GP. The GP tax is alive under Tony Abbott. (Time expired)