Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

while adding a further $2.1 billion in cuts of his own. These dreadful cuts will put enormous pressure on our public hospitals, which are already struggling to cope with the budget cuts. You simply cannot rip $60 billion out of our healthcare system without expecting consequences. Cuts like this lead to poorer health outcomes and poorer patient care and services. The effects of these cuts will be particularly felt in hospital emergency departments, where overcrowding and waiting times have already gone beyond mere inconvenience and become downright dangerous.

This is vividly illustrated by an example from my home state of Tasmania, where earlier this year a 95-year-old woman was left lying on the waiting room floor of the Royal Hobart Hospital emergency department for hours while she waited to be seen by clinical staff. This is totally unacceptable—to be 95 years of age and to be treated with such disdain and lack of respect. The pressure that is now placed on those who work in our emergency departments puts them almost at cracking point. Another incident saw an elderly Tasmanian man wait two days for surgery after a severe fall. This is simply unacceptable. The people of Tasmania and the people of Australia deserve so much more.

Unfortunately, given Tasmania's healthcare system, we will be $2.7 billion worse off over the next decade. It looks like things will only get worse.

The government used smoke and mirrors the other week to axe Labor's successful child dental benefits scheme. We know those on the other side are very good when it comes to using smoke and mirrors. But it is the children of Australia who will always depend on Labor, whether it is for dental services or health services in general. Labor's dental benefits scheme had helped a million Australian kids get their teeth fixed over the last two years. Many of these children have come from families that previously had been unable to afford proper dental care. This is a scheme that was under attack from the Liberals the moment it commenced, despite the fact that a review published by the government's own Department of Health hailed the scheme as a success.

Now Australians are going to be denied access to affordable dental care. Under the government's new scheme, children will only receive dental assistance if they attend already-crowded public dental clinics with very, very long waiting lists. In Tasmania, the wait to attend one of these clinics is nearly three years—and those on that side are obviously saying that that is acceptable. Well, it is not acceptable at all. It is outrageous and it shows just how out of touch with Australian families this government is.

This cut comes on top of a long line of other attacks on dental health programs by the Liberals. Let us recap those: $390 million cut from adult public dental services; worsening dental waiting lists across Australia; $225 million cut from Labor's program to build dental clinics in regional Australia and in nursing homes; and $125.6 million already cut from the Child Dental Benefits Schedule.

Despite dropping its original proposal for a compulsory $7 tax on all GP visits, we have Mr Turnbull continuing Mr Tony Abbott's $2-billion four-year freeze on Medicare rebates for GP visits, which will drive down bulk billing and make it more expensive to see your doctor. This is already having impacts right around the country, but, again, it is having very detrimental impacts in my home state of Tasmania. One GP was forced to introduce a $30 charge for hundreds of patients who were previously bulk-billed.

The Liberal government—and it really does not matter whether it was under Mr Abbott when he was leading or it is under Mr Turnbull—have only ever seen health as a means to budget savings, and that is by cutting health. It is in their DNA. It is who they are. The government's Medicare rebate freeze has imposed an upfront charge for patients and is destroying Medicare's universal health care, which is exactly what this Liberal government and those before it have always intended.

As a result, public hospitals are being overwhelmed and are not coping with the influx of patients trying to dodge the cost of seeing a GP by going to the emergency department, exacerbating the overcrowding catastrophes that I mentioned earlier. This is yet another example proving that Medicare would never be safe under a Liberal Turnbull government.

Australians are rightly very suspicious about this government's motivations when it comes to slugging taxpayers every time that they go to visit their GP. They are very sceptical about this government. It does not matter where you go in my home state, and I am sure it is the same right across this great country: Australian voters out there know that they cannot trust the Turnbull government when it comes to health or education. Just on the eve of the last election, you will recall—I know my colleagues on this side do—that the then Leader of the Opposition, Mr Abbott, gave a commitment to the Australian people—on the eve of the election—that there would be no cuts to health, there would be no cuts to education and pensions would not be touched. And we know that he lied to the Australian community. For the last three years, we have seen nothing except cuts when it comes to health and education. They try to use smoke and mirrors to cover themselves, but we know—whether it is in health and education or in my own area of responsibility, aged care—that they are a government that is unfair on those people who are most vulnerable in our communities.

The countdown is on to the budget tonight. That will be delivered on behalf of the government by the Treasurer, obviously. We know that they are going to have to put some sweeteners in there, because we are having the budget brought down tonight and it will probably be Friday or Saturday that the election will be called, so of course we know that the government will try and use smoke and mirrors and a few lollies to con the people of Australia again that they are worth supporting. Well, I think they have gone a step too far when it comes to the savage cuts that they have made while in government to health, to education and to a whole raft of other areas—whether it is your kids trying to get to see a dentist or you waiting to see your GP.

As to pathology: as Senator Dastyari so eloquently explained, the pathology sector in this country is not naturally a constituency that would normally support this side of the chamber, but they have been out campaigning against this government because they know that, every day, when people come in to their laboratories, all those tests that are done are essential. So whether the tests are for people with diabetes or those having cancer treatments or those who need to have their blood tested every month or fortnight, or whether it is women having a Pap smear or a mammogram, Australian families are going to have to pay more money. There will be cases as there are in my home state, where I have spoken to people over the last few months who have said, 'Helen, we just won't be able to meet those up-front fees. We don't have in our family budget the ability to put up $400 or $500 for a scan and then wait for the rebate.' This is going to mean further hardship for too many Australians.

Labor fears that these cuts will see patients who are being treated for cancer and other serious conditions forced, as I said, to fork out thousands of dollars up-front to pay for scans and tests that were previously bulk-billed. Patients diagnosed with melanomas who were previously bulk-billed will now face up-front costs of $1,500 and still be left out of pocket with costs of up to $400 after receiving their Medicare rebate. A patient suspected of having breast cancer will face up-front costs of $554 for mammograms and ultrasounds and be left $300 out of pocket, even after receiving their Medicare rebates. Those opposite, on the government benches, obviously are not concerned about these families. There will be situations where mothers will make the decision that their children's dental visit is more important than them having their Pap smear or their mammogram. That is how serious is this issue confronting the Australian people. These $650 million dollar cuts will add an extra financial burden for these individuals and their families to deal with. This will prove particularly detrimental for low-income Australians, who simply will not be able to afford to pay these additional costs. In Tasmania, I know of many families in difficult financial times who will struggle to fork out $300 to $400 to help a seriously ill family member. Labor believes that these essential treatments should be accessible to all Australians, not just those with a big enough bank balance or credit card to pay for them. Your access to good-quality health care, which we provide in this country, should not be determined by the size of your credit card or your bank balance. That is the difference between those on the government benches and those of us in opposition.

While we can support this bill today, we remain sceptical of the Liberal government, who seem to only ever see health as a source of budget cuts. The Liberal government's overall record on health is abysmal and appalling. In addition to the disastrous cuts to health that I detailed earlier, the Turnbull government have gutted crucial health workforce training programs by $595 million. They ripped another $146 million out of prevention and e-health programs. They continued Tony Abbott's $267 million attack on the Medicare safety nets. These are serious amounts of money that will have a real impact on Australian families.

Mr Malcom Turnbull took the prime ministership promising new leadership. When he knifed Mr Tony Abbott in the back, he promised that his government would be a government of the 21st century. He said that his ministry would focus on the challenges of the future, but I say—and the Australian people are telling me when I travel around Australia and in my home state—that he has not delivered. It is very typical of this Prime Minister. When he was the Leader of the Opposition in the past, he promised so much but failed to deliver. He cannot even bring his own caucus together—he has breakouts. Labor have a very united caucus and a very united team going to the election. We have 60 days until people will vote. The Australian people will pass judgement on who they believe will provide the greatest security going forward and the world's very best health and education. We know that, on those two fronts alone, this government does not even get into the ballpark. The Australian community were conned at the last election. I believe they are much wiser now. They are far more cynical about a government that says one thing today and does something completely different tomorrow.

One of the things the government have been really good at is grabbing these thought bubbles as they float past. We know that most of the thought bubbles that the Prime Minister has grabbed and thrown out there to the Australian community have not even lasted 24 hours. They have hit the deck—just like bubbles do when children are blowing bubbles, they float around and then, finally, they hit the ground and are gone.

The government are renowned, as I said earlier, for targeting those who can least afford it, to make cuts to the budget. They target the sick, they target the most vulnerable and they will do the same in the budget that will be delivered tonight—just as they did in 2014. There was an outrageous attack on those who could least afford it in 2014; it was no better in 2015. But now, to bring all that together, we have in Mr Turnbull a Prime Minister who is hell-bent on continuing the savage cuts and the attacks on the Australian community's most vulnerable. I have no doubt whatsoever that the budget tonight will reaffirm our concerns about who will be looked after in this budget. We know it will be the top end of town. The top earners in this country will be the ones getting a tax cut. Yes, the government will give something to small business and throw a bit of confetti here and there, hoping that, once again, they can pull the wool over the eyes of the Australian people. I have more faith in the Australian people. I have faith in the Tasmanian people that they will see the government and their policies for what they are. They are unfair. They reflect a government who are arrogant and out of touch. I think the Australian people will see through their lack of policy detail.

Before the last election, we saw so many promises made that have been broken over the last three years. In contrast to that, you have to look at what the Labor opposition, under Mr Bill Shorten, has already put out in the public arena. Over 100 policies have been put out and costed. That is the contrast between the Liberal government and the Labor opposition. We are serious about bringing stability to this country, beginning with economic development. We are going to invest in infrastructure for the future. We also know that one lever for growing the economy is investment in education.

Speaking again about my home state of Tasmania, I want to place on record one of the most significant amounts of money that has been promised by any opposition. The Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, has promised to invest $150 million into the economy of Launceston and the surrounding areas by committing—along with the state government, local government and the University of Tasmania—to fund a new campus in Launceston and one on the north-west coast, in Burnie. That will be an outstanding contribution. But what do we hear from those opposite? What do we hear from Andrew Nikolic, the federal member for Bass? We hear: 'We have to take time to consider everything before we make a commitment.' The reality is that government members and senators have been briefed on every occasion, along with the Labor opposition senators and Ms Julie Collins, the member for Franklin. We in the opposition, who have nowhere near the sorts of resources available to us that those in government do, have said that this is an economic driver that Tasmania needs badly because we need to open up opportunities for young Tasmanians to go to university, to have the option of doing a university degree. Not only is the university going to be supported by Labor; so will our TAFEs. We believe in investing in our universities, TAFEs and schools because they are the economic drivers we need to deliver better outcomes, not only for Tasmania but for the country.

I will come back to the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (Medicare Levy and Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill. The Turnbull government's disastrous cuts to health prove yet again that when it comes to health the Liberals cannot be trusted. We know that when it comes to good health the Australian community will only ever be well served by a Labor government. I commend this piece of legislation to the Senate but I remind the government that we will be watching the budget tonight to see whether or not the leopard is able to change its spots.