Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to discuss the future of Australia's healthcare system and, indeed, the very future of our nation. I want to start by reflecting on the turmoil of the past few days. It was only a little while ago that we had a government that promised that it would be grown up, that it would be transparent, that it would be accountable; that it would not deliver any surprises. And I have to hand it to them because they have managed to achieve, in a year and a half, what it took the Labor Party three years to achieve—they have a government that is chaotic, it is dysfunctional, it is divided, and it is confused. I keep hearing excuses from the coalition: they blame the 24-hour news cycle—it is too hard to get a message out; we hear about the 'corrosive influence' of social media, something the Prime Minister I think calls 'electronic graffiti'; we hear about the mess of the last government. The Prime Minister went as far as to say: 'It is not my fault; it is the Australian people's fault.' In Victoria, he said that the defeat of that government occurred because of 'a fit of absent-mindedness'. 'It is not my fault. It is the Australian community that got it wrong.' Well, Madam Acting Deputy President, I have to tell you that the people in Victoria—indeed, the people of Australia—know exactly what they want. There is nothing absent-minded about it. They are very clear about how they feel about this government.

It is time to stop making excuses. It is time to start taking responsibility for the fiasco that is the Abbott government. The Prime Minister could have done it last week in that landmark speech to the Press Club. Instead, what did he do? He went into his bag of tricks: fearmongering on terrorism and foreigners. He is a one-trick pony. Exploiting fear does not work forever. You can run around the country with your billboards, talking about boat arrivals; you can run around with your fluoro vests and your hard hats, talking about the impact of carbon-pollution pricing on the community—it does not work forever. The Chicken Little routine does not work forever. And do you know what? Even worse than that, on those things that they campaigned so hard on, the tide is turning. The Prime Minister must have realised, when he was embarrassed at the G20, that the show was over. Here are a few tips: start being honest. Be up-front. Be straight with people. Keep your spin for the cricket pitch! Don't promise one thing in opposition and another thing in government. The Prime Minister thinks his only job is to fight the Labor Party. He is the Prime Minister—he should start acting like it! He is not in the boxing ring at Oxford any more. That style of adversarial, negative, oppositional politics—people hate it. I hate it. We are sick of it.

Your approach to health epitomises everything that is wrong with this government. At the heart of this government is a lack of integrity. They promised 'no cuts to health care', but their first budget had a GP co-payment and a freeze on Medicare rebates—decimating and dismantling Medicare and making it harder for people to go and see a doctor. What really grates is that you spent years berating the previous government for what you are doing now. But the broken promise is not the worst of it; the policy itself is an absolute stinker. It is based on a lie, and it will not work. Government keeps talking about how unsustainable Medicare is, that we cannot afford it. What rubbish! We have a great health system—it is affordable and it is sustainable. Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story, though! We spend less on health than the OECD average. We spend about 9.1 per cent, by most recent estimates. The average is 9.3 per cent. Look at the most recent report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare—health expenditure is growing at its lowest level since records began 30 years ago. Why does it work so well? Why have we got such a great health system? Because Medicare is a break on prices. It does not mean private health insurers set prices. It does not mean doctors set the price. Government sets the price, and it is a brake on health inflation. And you guys want to dismantle it. Talk about economic vandalism!

But why do you do it? You are a government that is dominated by ideologues, and you put your own ideology ahead of evidence. This stuff might have read well in some 1960s free-market textbook, but it does not work in health care. Look at the model you aspire to, the US. They spend 17 per cent of their GDP on health care, and what do they get for it? They get a two-tiered system. What is the biggest cause of bankruptcy in the US? Not being able to afford to pay your medical bills. They get worse health care and they pay more for it—and you want to take us there! You want to make it harder for people to see a doctor, you want to shift costs on to emergency departments, and you want to do it to those people who can least afford it. What a tragedy it is that, on Closing the Gap Day, some of the communities that will be worst affected are those Aboriginal people right around the country who are trying to access health care.

I hear these stories that millionaires should pay for their health care. Well, guess what? They do. It is called 'progressive taxation'—they pay more into the system and they are just as entitled to be bulk-billed as anybody else is. It is an efficient system—stop trying to dismantle it! And then I hear the Prime Minister talk about being the best friend that Medicare has ever had. It is a reflection of a man who is so isolated that his best friend right now is a government institution. That says it all. Perhaps even worse for a government that prides itself on competence is that not only did you lie about the policy, not only is it a bad policy, but you cannot even get it right. We are up to version 3. We had version 1. We had version 2 over the summer. Version 3 has been announced by the Prime Minister and we are going to be up to version 4 soon. This is not a health policy; these are a series of thought bubbles dreamed up by a bunch of blokes smoking cigars and drinking Grange. That is what they are.

What do we do from here? There is an opportunity for the Prime Minister right now if he wants to salvage his leadership. He has got to press the 'reset' button and ditch these reforms. He says he is going to listen. Well, guess what? There is a wealth of information out there. There are inquiries, there are reports, there are recommendations. There is a Senate committee talking to experts and looking into what other reforms will improve an already terrific health system. That is going on right now. Let's look at addressing the cost shifting that goes on between state and federal governments rather than making it worse—which is what this plan does. Let's look at reforms around the private health insurance industry and stop this massively inequitable, unfair and ineffective redistribution that is going on right now in the health system. Let's get primary care working better. Let's complement fee-for-service by paying doctors for achieving good outcomes. We can do that. This is a conversation that the AMA, the medical community in general, are up for. Let's start closing not the gap but the chasm that exists between Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people. Today we have heard that we are not doing enough to get that right. Let's start looking after people in the community and providing the supports and structures that mean simple things do not end up in a hospital where it costs us all more. Let's reduce some of the wasteful spending that currently occurs in the health system.

These are all positive reforms. Our door is open. Come and talk to us. Talk to the experts. At the very least, you would think that a government with a bunch of crossbenchers in the Senate would pick up the phone and ask, 'Is there anything we can agree on?' Well, guess what? Not one phone call. Not one approach from the previous health minister. I hope things will be different under the new health minister. I am not optimistic, though. The government is now on borrowed time. The Prime Minister has his last chance. He can start listening to the Australian community—he can listen to doctors, to experts—and he can start doing the things in health care that will take us forward, not backwards. If he does not do that, it will be either his own colleagues or the Australian community who make the decision for him.