Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

But Ipswich is a lot better than Toowoomba and always has been! They have been great rivals for many, many years.

I speak today in relation to the failed opportunity of this government with respect to the May budget in 2017. The 2017 budget presented a real chance for the Prime Minister to finally acknowledge and act on his failure to take steps in relation to the Medicare rebate freeze. He has not learnt the lesson from the 2016 federal election. He should have lifted the Medicare freeze and given people across Australia, and certainly in Blair, much-needed relief. Instead, he has handed down a convoluted plan that will see indexation lifted at a glacial pace over the next four years, doing little to help those in need of affordable health care in Australia. The unfreezing applies to only seven per cent of crucial Medicare tests. Access to health care is not something that should be phased in slowly. A person's ability to see a doctor should not depend on whether the Prime Minister thinks you have waited long enough in relation to the Medicare freeze. It is your Medicare card, not your credit card, that should count. Yet, that is exactly the message this government sent in the 2016 federal election.

The faults of the government in relation to health care are plain for all to see. The out-of-pocket cost of a GP appointment has risen across the board. In my home state of Queensland it has gone up an unbelievable 11 per cent since December 2014, meaning a $7.70 increase for each patient visit to a GP. At the same time bulk-billing rates in Queensland have continued to fall, as is the case right across Australia. It is hard to argue that that was not the government's intention all along, with co-payments being a feature of every budget since the May 2014 budget until recently.

Adding insult to injury, the government's plan will not apply to 93 per cent of scans, meaning those requiring x-rays, MRIs and ultrasounds will just have to keep on paying more and more. The government does not think that the tests used to detect brain, lung and ovarian cancers deserve to be part of the rebate thaw. That is really cruel beyond belief. Damning new data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reveals that those without private health insurance are now waiting twice as long for surgery as those with private health insurance. In my electorate there are 27,000 families. There are over 15,000 age pensioners, and they are the ones who are doing it tough. I call on the government to lift this freeze and to do it immediately. Get rid of the price signal that puts a barrier in place for those people who need the medical care that they deserve. Medicare should be a priority for every government, not just Labor governments.