Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in the chamber today to speak about health and about how Australia is changing before our eyes. We have had two years of this government—two years of good government, so claims the Prime Minister! Well, let us look at health and test that good government, shall we? Three attempts to break Medicare have been blocked in this place. Debate has been raging for months, and they have taken the back door with a freeze on the indexation—a freeze that, we hear in our electorates, makes going to see a doctor more expensive for people in our communities. This is a disgrace. You know what is worse? The funding cuts to the flexible health area—funding cuts to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

Members opposite are running round tables on ice in their electorates. I hope that they are listening. I hope that they are listening to the families who need to turn to their GPs and who need to access those areas for support. I hope that they are listening, and I hope that they turn this back before it is too late, before Australia is changed forever and before Medicare is undermined completely.