Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with some sadness that I rise to inform the House about the loss of funding for the Kentish health service in my electorate, with four weeks' notice. They are now scrambling to tell staff that they have no longer got a job from 31 December—an awful time to be telling people that. They are telling clients that services will no longer be available.

This is all because of a change in the funding package to redirect it to coordinated chronic care. So we are seeing preventive health programs being given the axe in favour of coordinated chronic care. There is nothing wrong with CCC; it is needed. But, really, we should not be getting rid of the programs that help people stay well at the same time.

Before I wrap up, I would like to add my congratulations to the Senate, that great chamber of the parliament, which today knocked over the government's 15 per cent backpacker tax and voted for Labor's 10.5 per cent backpacker tax, which will keep this country internationally competitive and will make sure we get the labour that we need onto farms in this country, including in my electorate of Lyons. I say this to the National Farmers' Federation: 'You have a choice. You have a choice between 10.5 per cent or 32.5 per cent. That is the choice facing you. You can either kick goals for farmers, or you can play fullback for the government—but you can't do both.'