Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Health Legislation Amendment (Improved Medicare Compliance and Other Measures) Bill 2018 is a bill about improved Medicare compliance. Labor is, of course, the party of Medicare. We invented it and we will always protect it. It is our universal public health insurance scheme. It is the heart and soul of our healthcare system and the envy of many other countries around the world. It ensures that Australians can access lifesaving treatment when they need it, without worry. More than 20 million services under Medicare are billed every year. They include GP visits, vital tests and scans and hospital treatments. It is without a doubt the most important program the Commonwealth government delivers. It's fundamental, not just to our healthcare system but to our economy and to our society. That's not to say it is perfect. With a program of this size, there are always problems and always improvements that can be made. Labor is always up for sensible improvements to Medicare.

This government bill implements a 2017 budget measure to improve Medicare Benefits Schedule compliance and debt-recovery practices and will result in an estimated combined savings over the forward estimates of $103 million. That money should, of course, be reinvested straight back into Medicare in a transparent way rather than returned to the budget bottom line, but that is an issue I will return to later. This bill amends three acts: the Health Insurance Act 1973, the Dental Benefits Act 2008 and the National Health Act 1953. These technical changes will hopefully enable improved compliance by better targeting unusual business billing and improving the consistency of administrative arrangements.

I do want to say, at the outset, that the vast majority of medical and allied health professionals that bill Medicare for services to their patients do absolutely the right thing, and provide amazing and excellent service throughout our entire community. But we also know that there are increasingly commercial interests at play in some areas, so compliance is something that we have to improve. Only 40 per cent of Medicare debts are currently recovered, meaning there is over $50 million in outstanding debt. So, obviously, there is a need for action in this space.

The changes in this bill clarify that the Professional Services Review, which investigates Medicare and PBS compliance concerns, has jurisdiction over corporate medical practices that contract health providers, as well as practices that employ providers and the providers themselves. The bill introduces compulsory offsetting and garnishee provisions for providers who do not voluntarily agree to repayment plans within 90 days. At present, these providers are still able to claim full Medicare benefits, even when they owe significant debts. Where a compliance debt is issued, both the employer and the contracted provider will be responsible for part of the debt, reflecting their shared responsibility for accurate billing.

This bill also makes record-keeping requirements consistent across different health professions. In particular, allied health providers will be required to keep copies of referrals for two years, just like doctors; pharmacists will be required to produce prescriptions to justify queried claims; and dentists and pharmacists will face the same administrative penalties on unpaid debts as other Medicare providers. I understand that further detail will be set out in the regulations, and that the new arrangements will start on 1 July 2019. But for now, I can say that Labor will be supporting this bill.

Like I said, we are always willing to support sensible improvements to Medicare. But we don't support the government's overall approach when it comes to Medicare, and I'll be moving a second reading amendment to that effect. It took two Labor governments more than two decades to shape and embed the Medicare that we know today. Many Australians take Medicare for granted, and that is as it should be. They should be able to rely on Medicare whenever they need it, without worry and without a second thought. But let's never forget that the conservatives opposed Medicare every single step of the way. Labor had a hard fight to set it up and now we continue to have a hard fight to protect it.

You cannot trust this government when it comes to Medicare. They talk about a 'rock solid' commitment to it, but we all know the truth: they deeply, deeply don't like it. They want to dismantle it. They just don't believe in universal health care like the Labor Party does. They dream of an Americanised health system where it is every man, woman and child for themselves—where people increasingly have to rely on private means to access health care. Every step of the way and every measure, that is what they have been doing. This is where people suffer for years because they cannot afford to see a doctor or go to hospital.

Every time the conservatives get into power they attempt to dismantle Medicare, either up-front or, more lately, by stealth. That is what they do. We have a system in this country now where, increasingly, you have to rely on your private means to access health care. That is what this government has delivered to the health care of this nation.

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's rubbish! You know that's untrue!

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government members can shake their heads and say, 'That's not true'. Every single person knows it.

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Very naughty!

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The backbencher there has just told me that I've been very naughty! Well, I'm very happy to be very naughty when it comes to actually standing up for Medicare, because it's actually one of the most important systems that we have in this country. The fact that the government has decimated it and continues to do that every day is something that should be called out. They might behave themselves for a little while when it comes to Medicare, but we actually know how much the Australian people need Medicare. Those opposite might agree for a little while, but we know that they constantly undermine this system.

Australians certainly sent that message loud and clear at the last election when the government was plotting to outsource parts of the Medicare system to the private sector. That is what they were doing. Labor, of course—

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Not by lying!

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Excuse me: I will ask the member to withdraw the comment that she just made.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will withdraw that last comment.

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. Of course, we know that this government was planning to outsource parts of the Medicare system to the private sector. Labor staunchly and vehemently opposed that move. In the two years since that election, the government has been busy trying to rewrite history, pretending that that somehow didn't actually happen, that they weren't planning to do that, that they hadn't commenced the work—nor was it in their budget papers, which it was—that somehow this was a Labor invention, that it was a scare campaign. That is utter nonsense. The government was actively planning to outsource the Medicare payment system to a corporate player—one of the big four banks, perhaps, or a private health fund. That is what this government was doing. If we had let them get away with it, that would have been the beginning of the end for Medicare as we know it. The government dropped their plan because of Labor's tireless efforts to highlight the damage that they had done to our healthcare system and because the Australian people agreed that it was a terrible plan and punished them for it.

Eventually, as we know, the Liberals will have another crack. They'll come up with another scheme to undermine, weaken or sell off parts of Medicare, because they have form. Remember their $7 co-payment from just a few years ago. It was an unprecedented attack on the universality and accessibility of Medicare, effectively meaning that we would have a system where people were increasingly having to pay substantial out-of-pocket costs for Medicare. Then, too, it was Labor, it was the parliament, it was the Australian people who ultimately stopped the government from going down that road. As is so often the case, we helped save the government from itself, but the plan revealed what was in their hearts. When they couldn't get that plan through, they resorted to extending the freeze on Medicare rebates—a freeze that is still in place today—for six years. Again, under intense pressure from Labor, doctors and the public, the minister announced a thaw in that freeze in the budget last year. But, today, there still hasn't been a single element of it lifted. Some elements will come off as of 1 July, delivering GPs a 55c increase in the Medicare rebate for patients. It won't put a dent in the soaring out-of-pocket costs, and other elements of the freeze will stay in place until 2020. That's six years of slugging doctors and, ultimately, patients who simply want to access health care.

The rebate freeze has saved the government billions of dollars, and they're still banking those savings from patient rebates today. That is billions of dollars that should have gone into providing health care in this nation. Meanwhile, the latest Medicare data shows that the cost of seeing both GPs and specialists is at record highs because of those Liberal cuts. In the first three months of 2018, Australians paid an average out-of-pocket fee of $38.44 to see a GP and nearly $47 in some states and territories. The national figures have risen nearly $4 from $34.53 cents at the end of July 2017. Out-of-pocket fees to see specialists have soared even higher, up to an average of $87.62 in the March quarter. That's up from $71.75 in the last three months of 2017—up nearly $16 in just a single quarter. In some jurisdictions, the average out-of-pocket cost of seeing a specialist has now soared to well above $90. These are the average costs. They are far too high. Meanwhile, the government has tried to trumpet funding for the projected growth in Medicare service usage as, somehow, a record investment in Medicare. The Australian people are far too smart to fall for that. They know that the cost of going to see a doctor has risen under this government. They feel it every time they get sick or injured and need to access health care. That's why so many of them are delaying going to see a doctor. Official Bureau of Statistics figures show that one million Australians delay or avoid seeing their GP each year due to cost, with another 1.7 million Australians skipping specialist appointments. About the same number don't fill prescriptions because of cost. Older Australians fare worse, with one in eight telling the Commonwealth Fund that they have problems getting care because of cost. Only patients in the US—obviously no role model for us when it comes to universal health care—fare worse.

There have always been challenges with Medicare's universality, such as the difficulty of accessing services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as well as for people in regional, rural and remote Australia, but, in recent years, out-of-pocket costs have become a significant barrier to universal access. Medicare statistics show that, 10 years ago, Australians paid an average out-of-pocket fee of $21 to see a GP. If that cost had increased in line with inflation, it would be around $26 today. The same is true for specialists. Ten years ago, Australians paid $44, equivalent to around $54 today, yet the Liberals make the laughable claim that Medicare has never been stronger. What rot. Whether it's making Medicare more expensive, cutting public hospitals or putting private health insurance profits before patients, the conservatives can never be trusted when it comes to our universal health insurance system.

In the last round of budget Senate estimates, officials said that the government's latest budget was trying to bend the curve of Medicare—that's their fancy new way of saying 'a cut to costs'. This government wants to bend Medicare, basically, until it breaks. In stark contrast, the Leader of the Opposition announced the first of Labor's new investments in Medicare in his budget-in-reply, and that is a significant investment in MRIs. Unlike other diagnostic imaging services, MRI scans can only attract a rebate if they're performed with an eligible machine. The licence system is difficult, but it worked relatively well until 2013, given that the last Labor government granted over 238 licences. Unfortunately, the current government has neglected MRIs, granting only four licences in almost five years. That is a woeful record when you know that there are communities across the country who are desperately seeking access to this diagnostic technology and are having to pay substantial amounts of money to do so. It is a woeful record. As a result, access to Medicare MRIs is patchy, with many Australians travelling long distances or experiencing significant wait times to access an eligible machine.

Labor's Senate inquiry into MRI licences heard evidence that in some primary health networks people are waiting an average of 50 days for an MRI after a specialist referral. That is too long. The inquiry also heard that a shortage of Medicare MRI licences could have deadly consequences, with evidence that children were being overexposed to the radiation of CT scans. That's why we announced that we will grant 20 new full MRI licences. The first 10 will be reserved for public hospitals, with locations determined based on evidence from Senate estimates and from advice from state governments and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists.

We've already announced that the first licence we intend to deliver is in Western Australia, with the community of Kalgoorlie to benefit from that. I do note the pretty appalling evidence that has come to light, that this government was prepared to trade an MRI licence for the people of Kalgoorlie for a vote in the Senate for its $80 billion worth of tax cuts—an appalling indictment of the way that this government does business when it comes to health. The remaining 10 licences from Labor will be awarded via a transparent application process under a Labor government. This will be the first opportunity for communities around Australia to apply for a licence since Labor was last in office. This $80 million investment will ensure that more communities have affordable access to life-saving scans. We've also said that Labor would re-invest into Medicare every dollar saved from the clinician-led MBS review. That is because we see the MBS review as an opportunity to improve innovation in Medicare, not as a cost-cutting exercise.

The government is making the claim that it will re-invest or redirect its savings back into the Health portfolio overall, but we on this side simply do not trust a single word that this government says when it comes to Medicare. The government's assurances are absolutely worthless. So, while there is $190 million in savings from the MBS review in the 2018 budget, there is just $25 million in new MBS listings, which means a net cut to Medicare. The minister is seeking to claim that putting money into the projected usage of Medicare services is somehow investing in new innovation in Medicare and investing all of the savings from the MBS review back into Medicare. It is not.

It is certainly not going into our hospitals, either. After four years of Abbott-Turnbull cuts to our public hospitals, Australia's public hospitals are in trouble. This government cut Medicare, they've cut public hospitals and they do everything they can to prop up the big private insurers. That is the Liberal Party's vision for health care in this country. Labor, of course, will have more to say about new investments in Medicare in the months ahead.

I understand the government will have two amendments that it will be moving to its own bill. The first is to resolve a drafting error to ensure existing debts can be recovered, and the second is to clarify that it is not the intention of the changes to PSR summons to see individual practitioners being subject to multiple penalties for nonappearance. Labor will support both of these amendments, but I do note that the government's approach has been very sloppy here. One would be warranted in thinking that maybe they are rushing things through a bit in an attempt to clear the decks before an election. As I signalled before, we will be supporting this bill, but, given the contribution to the debate, I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House condemns the Government for its ongoing Medicare rebate freeze and its attacks on the health of all Australians".

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.

Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Health Legislation Amendment (Improved Medicare Compliance and Other Measures) Bill 2018 and to support the amendment moved by the member for Ballarat. This bill implements a 2017 budget measure to improve Medicare Benefits Schedule compliance and debt recovery practices, and will result in an estimated combined savings over the forward estimates of $103 million. This bill amends three acts: the Health Insurance Act 1973, the Dental Benefits Act 2008 and the National Health Act 1953. These technical changes will hopefully lead to improved compliance by better targeting unusual business billing and improving the consistency of administrative arrangements.

As a health professional myself—I am a pharmacist, and the only pharmacist in this House—I know that the vast majority of medical and allied health professionals that bill Medicare for services to their patients do the right thing. But we know there are increasingly commercial interests in play in some areas, so compliance needs to be improved. Only 40 per cent of Medicare debts are currently recovered, and there is over $50 million in outstanding debt, so there is a need for action.

These changes clarify that the Professional Services Review, which investigates Medicare and PBS compliance concerns, has jurisdiction over corporate medical practices that contract health providers, as well as practices that employ providers and the providers themselves. It introduces compulsory offsetting and garnishee provisions for providers who does not voluntarily agree to repayment plans within 90 days. At present, these providers are still able to claim full Medicare benefits even when they owe significant debts. Where a compliance debt is issued, both the employer and the contracted provider will be responsible for part of the debt, reflecting their shared responsibility for accurate billing.

This bill also makes record-keeping requirements consistent across different health professions. In particular, allied health providers will be required to keep copies of referrals for two years, just like doctors. Pharmacists like myself will be required to provide prescriptions to justify queried claims. Dentists and pharmacists will face the same administrative penalties on unpaid debts as other Medicare providers. Further detail will be set out in regulations, and the new arrangements will start on 1 July 2019.

One of the main reasons I'm in this House is my 20 years working in health, my 15 years in mental health and the last 10 years I spent at Wyong Hospital, working in the inpatient mental health units. I'm proud to be a member of the Labor Party—the Labor Party that introduced Medicare and will always properly fund and support Medicare.

Medicare is about universal health care. It's about every Australian, wherever they live, whatever they earn, being able to afford health care when they need it and access it where they need it. The Labor Party is always willing to support sensible improvements to Medicare. The Labor Party is justly proud of its work over many decades to create, properly fund and properly protect Medicare. It is our universal public health system, the foundation of our healthcare system, the pillar that underpins universal access to health care in Australia and the envy of many countries around the world. It means Australians can access life-saving treatment and life-saving medications when they need them, and it means that they can afford them. More than 20 million Australians access Medicare services every year, including GP visits, vital tests and scans, and hospital treatments, and it is without a doubt one of the most important programs the Commonwealth government delivers. It is fundamental not just to our health system but to our economy and our society. It took two Labor governments more than two decades to shape and establish the Medicare that we know and benefit from today.

Many Australians don't know what health care in Australia was like before Medicare. My colleague Dr Mike Freelander is here in this House because he knows, and that was one of the things that drove him to stand for parliament. He didn't want to end his career with children not being able to access health services that they need, as it was when he started his career. People should be able to rely on Medicare whenever they need it, wherever they live and whatever their circumstances. Let's not forget that the conservatives opposed Medicare each and every step of the way. Labor had to fight hard to set it up, and now we fight hard to protect it. Official Bureau of Statistics figures show that one million Australians delay or avoid seeing a GP each year due to cost, with another 1.7 million Australians skipping specialist appointments. About the same number don't fill a prescription because of cost. As a pharmacist and someone who's worked in health for 20 years, this really troubles me. Older Australians fare the worst, with one in eight telling the Commonwealth Fund that they have problems getting care because of cost. This is only made worse by delays with My Aged Care and Centrelink and the problems we've seen recently with homecare packages and residential care.

There have always been challenges to Medicare's universality, such as the difficulty of accessing services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as well as people in regional and rural communities and remote Australia. But in recent years, out-of-pocket costs have become a significant barrier to access. Medicare statistics show that 10 years ago Australians paid an average out-of-pocket fee of $21 to see a GP. If that cost had increased in line with inflation, it would be around $26 today, and we know that's not the case. The last Medicare data shows the cost of seeing both GPs and specialists is at a record high. In the first three months of 2018, Australians paid an average out-of-pocket fee of $38.44 to see a GP, up to nearly $47 in some states and territories. The national figure has risen nearly $4, from $44.53 at the end of 2017. The same is true for specialists. Ten years ago, Australians paid $44, which would be equivalent to around $54 today. Out-of-pocket fees to see specialists have soared even higher than those for GP visits, up to an average of $87.62 in the March quarter. Recently, my sister, who's expecting her second child, had to see a neurologist. The up-front cost was $400. That's just out of reach for most Australians. In some jurisdictions, the average out-of-pocket cost of seeing a specialist is now well above $90.

How has this happened? How have we landed here? Well, remember when the Liberals tried to introduce the $7 co-payment? That was an unprecedented attack on Medicare and access to Medicare, effectively trying to end bulk-billing. When they couldn't get that plan through, they resorted to extending their freeze on Medicare rebates. That freeze is still in place today. Again, under intense pressure from Labor, doctors and the public, Minister Hunt announced a thaw in the freeze in May 2017, but he still hasn't actually lifted a single element of it. Some elements will finally be lifted on 1 July, delivering GPs a paltry 55c increase in the rebate. That won't have much impact on soaring out-of-pocket costs, and other elements of the freeze will stay in place until 2020. That's six years of slugging doctors and, ultimately, patients simply because they need care. The rebate freeze has saved the government billions of dollars, and they're still banking those savings right now. That is billions of dollars that should've gone to providing health care, not paying for tax cuts for big business and big banks.

Meanwhile, the government is out there trying to portray a static GP bulk-billing rate as some kind of achievement. The Australian people are too smart for this spin. They know that the cost of going to the doctor has gone up. They feel it every time they get sick or injured and every time they get a prescription filled. That's why so many of them are delaying going to the doctor, delaying urgent treatment from their GP. Yet the Liberals claim that Medicare has never been stronger. Whether it's making Medicare more expensive, cutting public hospitals or trying to sell them off, as they attempted to do to Wyong hospital in my community on the Central Coast, the conservatives can never be trusted with our health care. You just can't trust them with Medicare. They keep talking about their rock-solid commitment to it, but we all know the truth: they want to dismantle it. They just don't believe in universal health care like we do. They look to health systems like in America, where people increasingly have to rely on private means to access health care, where people suffer for years because they can't afford to see a doctor, go to a hospital or get medication, and where you have to get out your credit card rather than your Medicare card whenever you visit the doctor or pay for medication.

They might say what they think the public wants to hear, because they know how much the Australian people value Medicare. It underpins health care in Australia. Australians certainly sent that message loud and clear at the last election, when the government was plotting to outsource parts of Medicare to the private sector. Labor, of course, opposed that move. In the two years since the election, the government has been busy trying to rewrite history, pretending it was all a scare campaign—but we all know that's nonsense. The public knows it's nonsense. This government was actively planning to outsource the Medicare payment system to a corporate player—one of the big four banks, perhaps, or a private health fund. If we had let them get away with it, that would have been the beginning of the end of Medicare. The government only dropped their plan because of Labor's tireless efforts to highlight the damage it would have done to our health system and because the Australian people agreed it wasn't a good plan and punished the government for it.

Eventually, as we all know, the Liberals will have another crack. They'll come up with another scheme to undermine or weaken or sell off parts of Medicare. In stark contrast, in his budget reply speech the Leader of the Opposition announced the first of Labor's new investments in Medicare—a significant investment in MRIs. Unlike other diagnostic imaging services, MRI scans only attract a Medicare rebate if they are performed on an eligible machine. The licence system worked relatively well until 2013, given that the last Labor government granted 238 licences. Unfortunately, the current government has neglected MRIs, granting only four MRI licences in almost five years in office. Labor established Medicare. Labor will always defend Medicare. Labor will properly fund health care for all Australians.

I will conclude by again going back to my community and to the hospital that I worked in, in Wyong, on the New South Wales Central Coast. In communities like mine, where there are pockets of extreme disadvantage, people need to know that they can trust and rely on being able to access healthcare services. In my work, particularly in mental health and working in inpatient units in public hospitals, I have seen the most vulnerable people in our community, people whose circumstances are such that they are unable to care for themselves. These are the people that we need to protect. These are the people that we need to support. Undermining Medicare sends a strong signal to these people that the government doesn't care and thinks that these people don't matter. And this is a real risk. People need to feel secure. People need to know that they will be able to see their GP. They need to know that they will be able to go to their psychiatrist and be able to afford it. They need to know they will be able to get their prescription filled and get other treatments that they need. This is something that really matters; it matters to all Australians. As a pharmacist and a mental healthcare worker, and as someone who is new to this House, I feel that we really need to make sure that Medicare is always properly funded, and Labor will always do that.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank all of the speakers to this bill. The Health Legislation Amendment (Improved Medicare Compliance and Other Measures) Bill 2018 amends the Health Insurance Act 1973, the Dental Benefits Act 2008 and the National Health Act 1953 to implement measures announced in the 2017 budget. These measures will support the integrity of Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and will strengthen Medicare as part of a broader package that includes record funding for Medicare, each year, every year; record funding for hospitals, each year, every year; and record bulk-billing levels, up 3.8 per cent since we came to government.

The amendments are supported by our historic compacts with the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. These compacts reflect shared principles that support a stronger, sustainable health system, including improved compliance processes to ensure Medicare overpayments are detected and recovered.

While the majority of health practitioners claim Medicare benefits appropriately, a very small number of practitioners do not. Where inappropriate claims are made—again, I emphasise that it is a rare and infrequent occurrence, not reflective of the extraordinary general practitioner population—some practitioners refuse to agree to repayment arrangements, yet they are still able to claim benefits through Medicare. In these cases, the amendments will allow future bulk-billed claims to be reduced or offset by up to 20 per cent until the debt is recovered. For those practitioners who do not bulk-bill, the amendments will allow garnisheeing of other funds owed to them if they do not enter into a repayment plan within 90 days. No patients will be affected by these arrangements.

I note there has been an increase in the role of practices, corporate entities and hospitals in the billing of MBS services on behalf of the individual practitioner. The amendments ensure that where these arrangements exist both the practitioner and their employer, or other related party, are responsible for the repayment of the debt. This change represents a significant shift, moving to a fairer distribution of the liability for debt, and is supported by key stakeholders, including the AMA and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

The Health Legislation Amendment (Improved Medicare Compliance and Other Measures) Bill 2018 provides additional safeguards to protect doctors. Through further consultation, the AMA identified that proposed changes to the Professional Services Review Scheme may have had the unintended consequence of subjecting a practitioner to both disqualification from billing Medicare and a possible criminal prosecution for failing to attend in accordance with summons. This is not the intent. We have listened and we will therefore amend the bill accordingly. The amendment bill will also ensure that existing debts owed to the Commonwealth can be recovered.

I thank the members for their contributions to the debate on this bill and in particular the AMA and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and other proponents within the health sector for their support and assistance with this bill. I also want to thank the opposition for their support. I commend the bill to the House.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The original question was that the bill be now read a second time. To this the honourable member for Ballarat has moved an amendment that all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting other words. The immediate question before the House is that the amendment be agree to.

Question negatived.

Original question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.