Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

that those people in need also get the benefit of a compassionate government. You cannot have a good social security system that looks after veterans or people who are unemployed, or good medical services for people who are on low incomes and need the benefit of Medicare, if you do not have a strong economy. Part of that strong economy is ensuring that we deliver roughly $100 billion worth of health and other social services to people in an efficient and effective way—making sure they get their Medicare payments on time, making sure they get their Newstart allowances on time and making sure that veterans get their pensions on time.

The problem with Australia at the moment, however, is Medicare fraud. It is one of the areas we are trying to address. Unfortunately, when Labor in 1984 issued the Medicare card they gave it out to all and sundry with no robust registration checks—no checks on the identity of the people. When Labor rolled out Medicare we saw labradors, poodles and even the odd kelpie receive Medicare cards. So we are addressing this issue. Not only are we ensuring that we have a high-quality card to replace the Medicare card—a smartcard using the best technology—but also that we replace approximately 17 existing cards. A typical Australian senior at the moment could hold a Medicare card, an Australian organ donor registration card, a Commonwealth seniors card, a Centrelink low-income healthcare card and possibly a Department of Veterans’ Affairs repatriation health card. The smartcard will allow that citizen to replace all of those cards with one card.

The alternative policies Senator Watson asked me to reflect upon are that the Labor Party are all over the place on this. As is their normal approach to everything, they are walking both sides of the street. Yesterday the member for Hotham suggested that, yes, we should have a new smartcard for Medicare and another one for veterans’ affairs. I think he was saying let’s have three or four new cards. The shadow spokesperson, the member for Sydney, suggested that we might have a smartcard but, look, if it is not in by June then we will not have one. Then you have other members saying no, they do not want one at all. They have now said—and this is a classic Labor Party approach to economic management, although mentioning ‘Labor Party’ and ‘economic management’ in the same sentence is I suspect an oxymoron—that they are not worried about welfare fraud. We know that the Federal Police Commissioner says there is between $1½ billion and $4 billion worth of fraud in the country. They are saying, ‘Forget the fraud.’ Instead of bringing in a new smartcard with a quality registration process they are just saying—