Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2015-2016. I agree with Senator Bilyk's assessment of this budget. It is a repackaged budget. They have tied a bow around it. They might have changed the wrapping, but it is still the same budget from last year which wrought such damage on the economy—on individuals and businesses. What we see in this year's budget is Mr Abbott trying to con the Australian public with a PR exercise to boost his own credibility, not to boost the economy and the standard of living of everyday Australians. The reality is that this budget remains inherently unfair—just like the last one but repackaged and served up again. Many of the same programs that were in the last budget are in this one. This budget contains the same cruel cuts from last year's budget which this parliament consistently rejected.

This budget shows that Mr Abbott and the coalition are not listening to the public, to the parliament, to their own backbench or, for that matter, to the crossbench. They are fanatically persisting with their own unfair budget measures. I concede that there has been repackaging. Health has been a major stayer in the Australian economy for a very long time. All sides have sought to improve health outcomes for Australia. All sides have continued to improve health services—up until recently. And it is the same person who did it once before. Mr Abbott has got form in this area. In the Howard era he ripped $1 billion out of the health budget—and he his doing it again. Of course, what that means is that families will be the hardest hit by Mr Abbott's attack on the Australian health system—only this time he has chosen a much bigger sum than $1 billion and to include education. The figure he is seeking to cut from both health and education is around $80 billion.

This budget does confirm that the government is once again trying to push through a GP tax, further cuts to hospital services and more expensive medicines. Before the election, Mr Abbott told the Australian people that the coalition would be a 'no surprises, no excuses' government. Well, there is one thing that is true about that statement: they certainly do not like providing any excuses. As for 'no surprises', it has been surprise after surprise after surprise. This government has consistently gone into reverse gear on many of the promises it made during the election period. Mr Abbott promised the Australian people that the coalition was about reducing taxes, not increasing taxes. He promised that the coalition was about getting rid of taxes, not imposing new taxes. Nothing about that statement is true. The Abbott government's new GP tax proposed in this budget is even bigger than the original proposal. By including a four-year freeze on medicine rebates, Mr Abbott and this government are passing the cost on to families, which he promised not to do.

In fact, the Liberals are so zealous in charging Australians this GP tax that, despite opposition from across the parliament, including the crossbench senators, they are still determined to pursue this GP tax, destroying the notion of universal health care in this country. It appears to be almost a pathological desire of the Liberals and Nationals, one of their highest priorities, to do this. The rebate freeze in this year's budget is just the latest version of an unfair GP tax, a tax which the Abbott government has tried to charge Australians.

First they tried a $7 fee. That did not seem to go over very well with the general public, so they dropped it to $5. You think, 'Maybe this is a bidding war that they are in now.' But now Mr Abbott, if he is successful in getting a rebate freeze through this parliament, will see people slugged with an $8.43 fee. That is, in effect, what he seeks to do. The rebate freeze will rip $1.3 billion out of general practice over the next four years. The Medical Journal of Australia said of it:

Even though the rebate reduction has been retracted, the freeze will have greater impact with time—nearly double the amount of the rebate reduction by 2017-18. For economic reasons the freeze may still force GPs who currently bulk-bill to charge co-payments.

So by 2017-18 the shortfall will leave GPs $8.43 worse off, forcing who knows how many to charge patients who are currently bulk-billed and to increase gap payments for many other patients. Shame on this government because in the past both sides worked tirelessly to ensure that people could have access to affordable medicine, could have access to a GP, could have universal health care, could have a bulk-billing doctor handy to visit. But not this government. This government has continuously pursued its own ideological ideas, its own ideology about attacking Medicare. It goes directly against what the fundamental principles of Medicare are about—making sure that medicine is free and accessible to all Australians. It goes against the principle that your Medicare card, not your credit card, should determine your access to health care in this country.

We have already seen the reports across the country of people, especially in some lower socioeconomic areas, not visiting the doctor for some conditions, which only compounds the problem and, in the end, when it reaches a critical point for patients, becomes a greater cost. So there is also a false saving built into their position. The healthcare system will ultimately bear the cost of this. Any measures which dissuade people from visiting their GP or accessing preventive healthcare options should be opposed, and Labor will continue to stand up against these measures.

The health minister has made it abundantly clear that the Abbott government is committed to forcing more patients to pay to see a doctor in that she said:

… there are a lot of people who attend the doctor, who pay nothing and can afford to pay a bit more and that's where we have to land in this discussion.

That was the health minister, Sussan Ley, on 3AW, 3 March 2015. What an extraordinary thing to say! You might otherwise have thought that it was a slip or misspoken words, but ultimately it is the Liberals speaking from their hearts. It is where their guard is down—they are comfortable on radio talking to their favourite presenter where they can speak their minds. The Assistant Treasurer even declared that he was very proud of last year's disastrous and unfair budget and lamented that the GP tax was blocked by Labor because 'there would have been big savings, and it is unfortunate.' So you can see that their whole position here is about driving the costs onto the people who can least afford it.

The 2015-16 budget proves that Mr Abbott's promise that the GP tax is dead simply cannot now be believed. The budget attack on health through a backdoor GP tax is short-sighted and unfair and continues to threaten the future of universal health care. I think they abandoned some time ago the view that Australians should have access to universal health care. I think they abandoned some time ago the view that Medicare should remain strong and a viable entity. The Abbott government appears determined to inflict even more pain and chaos on the Australian people. Almost $1 billion will be cut from the programs that focus on preventative health care, drugs and alcohol rehabilitation, mental health and other crucial health programs. The magnitude of these cuts means that many organisations and service providers will be forced to close their doors, while many others will have to sack their staff and cut service provision.

But this budget does not stop there. The budget also cuts $125 million from the child dental benefits schedule; $140.6 million of cuts from the MBS, including halving the amount paid for child health assessments; $69.6 million cut from DVA dental and allied health; $214.1 million from eHealth; $252.2 million from PBS-listed drugs; $72.5 million cut from health workforce scholarships. This comes after the $1.3 billion increase in the price of medicines. The Australian people simply cannot afford to get sick under a Liberal government, literally. If they do get sick, they will have to find the money; if they cannot find the money, ultimately they will get sicker and sicker. Just today, we have seen a report in The Australian Financial Review that states could lose around $18 billion a year of Commonwealth funding for our public hospitals. The leaks from the Australian federation reform white paper show that the government's real objective is to cut money for public health, but it is also about cost shifting. It is also about shifting the cost of health to the states and education to the states and anything else it can push onto the states, but, ultimately, it fails to recognise that we are a Commonwealth—and the Commonwealth has primary responsibility in funding for the wellbeing of Australians.

When you look at what the government are doing to families, the Abbott government and their unfair budget are not content with attacking Australians' healthcare system. They also have their sights on attacking families in this budget. Mr Abbott's second budget lockup is in fact a lock-in. It locks in unfair cuts to family payments while at the same time imposing savage new cuts to paid parental leave. It is clear that the Abbott government have not learnt anything from last year's budget other than what I indicated at the start of my speech: they have learnt to dress it up. They have learnt to put a pink bow with a bit of frill around it, but, ultimately, when you unwrap it, it still remains an unfair budget to the core. Despite promising that this budget would not come at the expense of family budgets, Mr Abbott still wants to cut families off family tax benefit part B when their youngest child turns six. He still wants to freeze family tax benefit rates, eroding the value of these payments. As a result of last year's budget, a single-income family on $65,000 a year will be worse off to the tune of $6,000 a year. Mr Abbott also wants to abolish the large family supplement. He is also pursuing abolishing the low-income supplement and reducing the portability of family tax benefit part A. Mr Abbott's rhetoric on families may have changed—he may look like he has put his hand out—but, ultimately, it is about whether this budget passes the fairness test. The fundamental unfairness of last year's budget remains in this budget. It simply, on balance, does not pass that test.

The Minister for Social Services, Scott Morrison, refers to parents who receive top-ups to their paid parental leave as people who are rorters or defrauding the system. He uses strong language that I know the government secretly agree with. They might have distanced themselves from him, but they ultimately keep sending him out whacking families as the social services minister. Mr Abbott second budget will leave as many as 80,000 women a year worse off because of his cuts to their paid parental leave, and some women will lose as much as $11,500. Mr Abbott does not even know what he stands for any longer. This was his signature policy in this area, which he jettisoned as needed. In 2010, Mr Abbott referred to:

… 26 weeks which everyone knows is the minimum that should be spent at home by mothers with newborns.

This year, Mr Abbott said, about new mums who receive more than 18 weeks paid parental leave:

It is not right, it should not happen and it will not happen under this government.

This means less time for mothers with their babies in the early years of a baby's life. How quickly Mr Abbott changed his tune in this area.

Mr Abbott and the Liberals and Nationals simply do not care sufficiently in this area. They do not support mums and dads in starting families. They do not support them at the beginning of this journey; they certainly do not want to support them in case anything goes wrong later in life, when people might need to access a universal healthcare system. In fact, they are placing hurdles in front of families. Those opposite are waging a war against the safety net that successive Labor governments have built up over time. Those opposite are attacking our healthcare system, our family support system, which they want to cut, and our education system, at both primary and tertiary level.

I do recognise that we might want to finalise this debate before a dinner break, but I did not want to leave too much time for Senator Cormann to deal with his summing up speech.