Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Another day and another barnacle backflip by this government. Today, we see the latest move by this divided and confused government. After three iterations of the GP co-payment, it still cannot work out what to do. It appears today that Minister Ley has finally decided to talk to some in the medical profession. One wonders whether the government is actually going to be listening to what the medical profession has to say. But it is quite clear to us that the argument about the sustainability of the Medicare system is a furphy. This is an argument that cloaks an ideological obsession which is directed at the universality of Medicare. It is somewhat belatedly that this government is talking to the medical profession. The profession has lambasted the government previously in relation to its proposals and I would put that the only reason this consultation is occurring is because the Prime Minister's job is on the line as we speak.

Why did they not listen to the doctors before? I think it is important to quote from the Senate Select Committee on Health and its first interim report, in December last year, when this question of sustainability was totally discredited by the medical profession. I seek to quote from the report, at paragraph 3.12:

This notion of unsustainability has repeatedly been cited as the rationale for the government's $7 co-payment policy intervention. However, the evidence provided to the committee does not support the government's assertions. For example the AMA's submission states that:

The Government is justifying the health budget measures on the basis that Australia’s health spending is unsustainable. It is not.

The Government fails to acknowledge that Australia’s nominal GDP continues to grow at rates that are above OECD averages. Australia can afford the health system it currently has.

Further, a representative from the AMA, Victoria, supported the view that health expenditure is not unsustainable, and he said:

Whichever set of numbers you want to look at, we can look at the percentage of the Commonwealth budget, in terms of health. We have said that it was 18 per cent and it is down to 16 per cent. On that measure alone it is not unsustainable. If we look at general practice, in this whole co-payment argument general practice has been hit over the head with a very big stick as being to blame for the problem, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, general practice is the solution to the problem, not the problem.

We have heard the health minister say on the one hand that the government has hit the pause button on its GP tax, but remarkably Senator Abetz and Senator Nash told the chamber in question time today that the government has completely dropped the plan altogether, so effectively it has hit the delete button. It cannot even dump a policy properly. The health minister said today that the government has not yet arrived at a final position. What a shambles it is in.

On top of this latest shift in Medicare policy, the government has a sorry record in health in my home state. This government has no comprehensive rural health policy and has abandoned preventive health in rural and regional communities and sought to axe the Australian National Preventive Health Agency.

In my remaining few minutes I want to look at my home state of Queensland where the former Premier of Queensland, Mr Campbell Newman, identified that the government had treated Queensland very badly when it came to cuts to health-care funding and the GP tax. He made comments to the effect that you cannot just throw health and education issues on the states and not give them money to deal with the problem. He said, 'The federal government is making the states do the heavy lifting and making the tough decisions in relation to health and education and that they are doing it in a non-transparent and non-upfront way.'

We have heard the Prime Minister, on 53 occasions, backing the GP tax as good policy and claiming it to be 'The best friend of Medicare we've ever had.' We have had him support the $7 GP tax, the $20 cut, a $5 GP tax and a four-year freeze on indexation.

Universal health care is being treated as an ideological plaything by this government where a succession of half-baked reforms are trotted out. The Australian public have noticed and they know whatever the latest backflip, pause or about-face is, this government cannot be trusted on Medicare.

Question agreed to.