Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2013, which is yet another bill which is going to be guillotined in the dying hours of this parliament, to add to the other 55 bills that will be guillotined and the 216 bills that this government, with their Green alliance partners, are guillotining in this place. It is absolutely outrageous, but I am not surprised that this bill has been shuffled in. It has been on the Notice Paper about five or six times, but it is little wonder that we are seeing it now in the dying hours, because this is a bill that is intended to clean up another major stuff-up by this Rudd-Gillard government. This one is sheeted home to Mr Rudd, because when the stuff-up occurred he was at the helm. Here we are, in the dying hours, trying to retrospectively fix a major problem that this government has created.

This bill contains a number of non-contentious issues. It deals with various changes in relation to food standards, medical training and industrial chemicals. I will not dwell on those. The contentious issue of this bill surrounds Medicare. Medicare is a brand, as we all know, that belongs to the Australian people. As the law currently stands, the use of the word 'Medicare' is protected by section 41C of the Human Services (Medicare) Act 1973. This provision creates an offence of the use of the name 'Medicare' in connection with a business, trade, profession or occupation. Where the name 'Medicare' or a prescribed symbol is used as part of the name or emblem of an association, or in connection with any activity of the association, the association, if it is a body corporate, is guilty of an offence. If the association is not a body corporate, every member of the committee of management is guilty of an offence. Section 41C(6) does state:

Proceedings under this section shall not be instituted without the consent in writing of the Attorney-General.

And so we have, in 2010, then Prime Minister Rudd announcing his grand health reform agenda, which included replacement of divisions of general practices with new primary healthcare organisations to be known as 'Medicare Locals'. Of course, at the time they initiated this so-called health reform agenda, the member for Griffith was Prime Minister and former Attorney-General Roxon was the Minister for Health and Ageing. It is a matter of public record that their working relationship was, suffice it to say, less than ideal. It is very clear from comments that have been made recently how Ms Roxon actually feels about Mr Rudd. Having trawled through the innards of that so-called health reform, it is very clear why their relationship was such a negative one. One can only imagine the conversations when Prime Minister Rudd and then Minister Roxon trawled through those hundred hospital visits in their white coats—Doctor Rudd and Nurse Roxon trailing around the countryside, basically photoshoots. The photoshoots were really what it was all about.

Now that Prime Minister Rudd is back, no doubt it will all be about photoshoots and spin, because that is all the so-called health reform was about—that and the billions of dollars that have been wasted on all those new bureaucracies which are doing very little and not serving patients. All this money has been wasted on bureaucracies, and not one patient has been assisted. But let me return to the bill at hand.

Nineteen Medicare Locals were established in July 2011, and the full 61 were operational in July 2012. They have been established as companies and receive funding from the Department of Health and Ageing. According to the act, those entities may be guilty of an offence for use of the name Medicare. Clause 22 of the bill repeals section 41C(6) and replaces it with an exemption to offence provisions for activities authorised by the secretary or a prescribed delegate. What does that basically mean? The clear purpose of this legislation is to retrospectively legalise the government's franchising of the Medicare brand to Medicare Locals and also give the government greater scope for similar future activities—as I said, nothing more than retrospectively fixing a bungle that this government created. Now they are doing it in the dying days of this parliament in the hope that it will all be shuffled under the carpet and nobody will notice.

Under Ms Roxon, the then Minister for Health and Ageing who set up these entities called Medicare Locals, it is very clear that all Labor were trying to do was look for the headline. That is why they chose to use the name Medicare; it was to dupe people into thinking they were going to receive some sort of medical service. You would think that, when a member of the Australian public enters a Medicare local, they would have some very reasonable expectations of some form of medical service, but under this government nothing can be assumed. You cannot enter a Medicare local office and receive any form of Medicare assistance. You cannot enter a Medicare local office and have a Medicare claim processed. You cannot enter a Medicare local and see a doctor. You cannot enter a Medicare local and see a nurse or receive any form of medical attention. In fact, Medicare Locals have absolutely nothing to do with Medicare or with any form of medical assistance.

When I first heard the name 'Medicare local', I thought it was a place to get a refund and a beer! Indeed, over estimates I have actually asked what bright spark in the Department of Health and Ageing came up with the name. I asked back in 2010. Now I understand why the bureaucrats gave me a weasel-word answer. I never got a straight answer to my question. I asked again in 2011 and again I did not get a proper answer. On 6 June this year I again trawled through, and it was very clear by the gobbledegook that I was given—the bureau babble speak—that this was nothing more than a massive stuff-up that the government is now trying desperately to rectify, because all Medicare Locals, as the law stands at the moment, are in breach of the law. It is another monumental display of incompetence from a desperate and dysfunctional government in a blatant attempt to fool the Australian people into thinking that they are getting some form of health benefits.

I would like to know from the minister how much money has actually been wasted by this government on building the brand name 'Medicare Locals'. I would like to know from the minister when this government was first advised that using the name 'Medicare Locals' was a clear breach of Commonwealth legislation. I would like to know what exactly a Medicare Local is—what do they actually do? We have trawled through hours and hours of estimates, hours and hours of discussions in relation to—

Senator McLucas interjecting—

Yes, that it is right, Senator McLucas, because they do nothing. They do absolutely nothing; they are just a waste of—