Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

If I could turn to the maternity services review report—and I am sure Senator Trood is familiar with it—it notes that a significant proportion of Commonwealth funding for obstetrics is through the safety net and that anecdotally there is some suggestion that it is not being dealt with well. Of course the government is concerned about the trends that have been highlighted in that report. We will consider this along with other recommendations. But let me be absolutely clear that, while we absolutely support the Medicare safety net, which provides important relief to families struggling with health costs, I would certainly be—and the health minister would be as well—very concerned if it were being rorted or otherwise being non-complied with. We would take a look at how to crack down on that, because that report did highlight, particularly in the obstetrics area, that there are problems—(Time expired)