Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of the question asked by Senator Wong regarding the GP co-payment payment, which has now been abandoned. I must say, having listened to the contributions of Senator McLucas and Senator Urquhart, I am a little confused. When we originally put on the table this co-payment as a method by which we could try and seek to make Medicare more sustainable, there was an absolute total outcry from those opposite. They were absolutely incensed that we should consider bringing in such a policy.

Now today when we have made the decision, for a whole heap of reasons, that we are going to drop this policy, those opposite are belting the hell out of us for dropping it. Those opposite have to have it one way or the other. Do those opposite support us having the GP co-payment or do they support us no longer continuing with the GP co-payment? Because, I have to say, those opposite cannot have it both ways. I am a little disappointed, given the pressure that those opposite put on the government in relation to this particular co-payment, that when we actually did something and reacted to the response that we have had from those opposite and from the community—that the time is not right for this particular measure—that they do not congratulate us for actually listening to the community, for listening to the medical professional and for doing something that is obviously at the current time in the best interests of Australia. I just put that on the table because it does become rather contradictory when a few months ago those opposite were beating us up over a particular policy and then beating up on us for removing that policy.

Today marked a day when the government recognised that Australia was not ready for this particular reform. The government has listened and has realised that this particular policy is unpalatable to the Australian public so therefore the decision has been made not to pursue it. Notwithstanding that, even though we have made the decision not to pursue this particular policy, it still needs to be recognised that Medicare in its current form is not sustainable into the future without some change being made. So it does not matter what we do or how much we carry on, the option that the Labor Party continue to put on the table—the do-nothing option—quite clearly is not an option.

It is necessary that we look at the fact that government expenditure on Medicare has more than doubled over the last decade, from about $8 billion to $20 billion, and that is despite the proportion of Medicare spending covered by the Medicare levy falling backwards from about 67 per cent to 54 per cent over the same period of time. So to suggest that the trajectory of the cost of this particular service, which Australians justifiably take for granted, is not a problem is being extraordinarily naive. The reality is that this is a legacy like many other legacies that have been left to us by those opposite. It tends to make the situation we find ourselves in even more hypocritical.

Amongst all the scaremongering that goes on from those opposite, we do need to seek some alternatives for how we are going to make Medicare sustainable into the future. I for one do not want to continue borrowing money and sticking it on the credit card, because all I am really doing is racking up a debt for my children and their children, and that is not responsible. We certainly would not do it at home. If you decide to buy a car you would not take out a loan in the name of your child, so why on earth would we here think that that is an acceptable way to fund the largesse of our current society and only push the debt repayment of that onto future generations? I do not think borrowing is an acceptable way to do it. The only way we can deal with this is by increasing the level of revenue or decreasing the level of expenditure. For those opposite to sit here and bang on at us about many of the initiatives that we bring into this place to try to get our budget and our debt and deficit situation under control—things like voting against their own savings that they had put into this place before the election—is just unconscionable. They should hang their heads in shame, because they are not doing anything to provide a solution to the problems that this country faces. Today they are just playing politics with issues for the sake of playing politics, with the response that we have seen to the responsible dropping of the GP co-payment, which we quite readily accept did not meet the requirements or the test by the Australian public. I think it is completely irresponsible and to sit here with absolutely no answer is absolutely shameful.