Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When it comes to health, government members are just not listening. They are not listening to the Australian people. In particular, they are not listening to the 10,000 Scullin constituents who signed my 'No GP Tax' petition last year. In fact, they are not even listening to their own Prime Minister. I think we all remember the promise before the election: no cuts to health. All we have seen are significant cuts to health, in particular, to primary health care, which are having such an impact.

Three times this government tried to introduce a co-payment, a GP tax, through the front door. Now, having failed, through two failed health ministers, we are seeing it through the back door, through a freeze on indexation. People in the communities I present are deeply concerned about this for them, for their families and for their neighbours. So I have written to every GP clinic in the Scullin electorate. I have not received all the responses yet, but what I have heard back is deeply, deeply concerning. A bulk-billing practice told me they would be introducing co-payments next year to cover their costs. Another clinic told me they have had to introduce new $10 fees for concessional patients, who cannot afford it. These are patients who had previously been bulk-billed, because Labor invested in Medicare, because Labor believes in universal health care.

For 40 years this has been a defining issue in Australian politics. For 40 years Labor members have stood up for the fundamental principle that everyone is entitled to decent health and decent wellbeing. Government members, for 40 years, have done the opposite. It is time for this to end. (Time expired)