Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Brown interjects. Apparently, when Bob Hawke said it, it was not wrong and it was not undermining Medicare—and I do not believe he was trying to undermine Medicare. But many years later, when we are making many more and much greater payments, it is different. Andrew Leigh recognised in 2003, when we were paying out $8 billion, that this was a good idea. He recognised it in '03; Bob Hawke recognised it well before that. We take the same approach: we want to make Medicare more sustainable. This has been recognised as the way to do that. It has been recognised by Andrew Leigh, it has been recognised by Bob Hawke and it is recognised in this year's budget.

The alternative, when it comes to both MBS and PBS, is for the system to become unsustainable and for Australians to not get the kind of medical care that they deserve. That is something, on the coalition side, that do not want to see.

We hear the criticisms about co-payments for PBS. We have seen historical changes to payments for PBS. We have seen that historically. Under both sides of politics we have seen it. In 1983 we saw $2 for concessional co-payments. In 1986, under the Labor government, we saw the co-payment for non-pensioners increasing from $2 to $2.50. For pensioners, we saw it increasing in 1990 from nothing to $2.50. And we saw it under the Howard government because there is a recognition that, if we want to have a PBS system that continues to provide life-saving drugs for Australians, asking people to make a modest contribution to that is a good way to go. It is an important way to go.

It is not something that was invented by the coalition upon coming to office; it is something that was recognised by previous Labor governments; it is something that was recognised by previous coalition governments. Under the previous Labor government—the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments—we saw, in fact, the listing of only eight medicines every month, when we are seeing now over 20 medicines every month being listed. We want to see medicines on the PBS. We want to see Australians having access to that. That is what we are seeking to deliver. That is what the facts show—and, in fact, we were lagging behind in the last six years. I do not want to see a situation in 10 years time or 15 years time or 20 years time where members of my family cannot get access to live-saving drugs that are not listed because the system becomes unaffordable. This is an important part of the sustainability of our healthcare system that has been recognised for a long time by both sides of politics. It has been recognised by people like Bob Hawke, by people like Andrew Leigh and by people like this coalition government.

The alternative, of course, as we see the increasing costs is to pretend that there is no problem. That seems to be the Labor Party's approach to all of these budgetary issues. We do need to get the budget under control. That means taking sensible measures—measures that in the past have been supported by the Labor Party, but in fact, now, they are being reckless in not supporting it, with no alternative plan. They have only a plan for more and more debt and deficit but, importantly, for an undermining of our healthcare system as it becomes increasingly unsustainable.