Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Many choices by this government are hurting regional areas. I often say that National Party choices hurt. In health, some of these choices and some of these cruel cuts have been very harsh. Let us have a look at some of them: the GP tax, the cuts to public hospitals, the cuts to pathology and diagnostic imaging, and the privatisation of Medicare services. They are doing this all with one objective—to destroy Medicare and to destroy our health system.

The Turnbull government announced last year that it would scrap payments to pathologists and diagnostic imaging services when they bulk-billed patients. It did this to save $650 million over four years. These cruel cuts to vital bulk-billing medical services mean that people will not be able to be access bulk-billing for these specific services. This means that patients will have to pay for procedures like Pap smears, blood tests, X-rays and ultrasounds. This makes health care less affordable for those who need it the very most: the sick, struggling families and the elderly. These changes unfairly target those very frequent users of pathology, those who are often the most sick. That is who they are targeting: the people who are most sick and will have to pay for these services.

Labor will fight these attacks on bulk-billing. We will continue to fight all these unfair and cruel measures. We will defend Medicare and we will defend those people who rely on it. These cuts to pathology and diagnostic imaging are some of the cruellest and they are certainly hitting regional areas the hardest. We always remember that National Party choices hurt and these cuts to health really hurt.