Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is really all talk and no action. Labor said they would strengthen Medicare, but so far they have only weakened our health system. They've slashed Medicare mental health support in half. They've cut 70 telehealth items. They've cut hospital funding in the budget. And bulk billing is plummeting. This is particularly concerning for rural and regional Australia, and in South Australia, where we know workforce shortages are hitting the hardest, and this government has only made it worse. They ripped doctors out of country towns through their distribution priority areas for overseas trained doctors. I hear it in South Australia. Now they're relegating international doctors and nurses working in regional Australia to the bottom of the visa pile by failing to prioritise 887 regional skilled visas.

On the eve of the election, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, promised Australians that an elected Labor government would have 50 urgent care clinics up and running within the first 12 months. But it's clear they have broken this promise too as they cannot even confirm whether one clinic will be up and running by July, along with 50 promised across the country. Labor went to the election with a promise to reduce the cost of medicines. But now the Albanese Labor government has decided to remove from the PBS an innovative, life-changing form of insulin, Fiasp, seeing the price soaring to unaffordable levels for 15,000 Australians with diabetes who rely on it.

Now let's talk about mental health access. As part of our response to support Australians in tough times, the former coalition government doubled the number of Medicare subsidised psychology sessions available through the Better Access initiative from 10 to 20. Given the significant pressures that Australians are facing right now with the cost of living and energy bills skyrocketing, mental health support could not be more important. But despite these pressures still impacting our communities, the Labor government has decided that now is the right time to slash access to psychology sessions in half. Serious mental health issues are often at their highest two or three years after a crisis, pandemic or natural disaster, which is why it is absolutely vital that vulnerable Australians have continued access to the psychology sessions they need. The independent evaluation of the Better Access initiative even recommended that the additional 10 sessions should continue to be made available and should be targeted towards those with complex mental health needs.

This government needs to stop its irresponsible attacks on the mental health services Australians are relying on and explain why it has gone against recommendation 12 of the review and the needs of vulnerable Australians by cutting this support. That is why the coalition has organised a petition calling on the government to urgently reinstate these critical Medicare subsidised psychology sessions until such time as they put in place an alternative to ensure adequate access to mental health support for all Australians who need it.

Talking about the broken promises, before the election the Prime Minister and Treasurer made many promises. Remember the promise to cut your electricity bill by $275? Broken. Remember the promises of cheaper mortgages? Broken. Remember the promise of no changes to super? Also broken. Remember the promise of lower inflation? Well, that's definitely broken. Remember the promise that we are not touching franking credits? Broken. Remember the promise that industrywide bargaining is not part of our policy? Definitely broken. Remember the promise that we will be doing our bit to assist real wage increases? Broken. Remember the promise that we are not about raising taxes? Broken, too. Remember the promise to cut the cost of consultants and contractors? Broken—and we look forward to seeing just how broken that one is. These are all broken promises from what is a tricky government, and they just go to prove that on promises you just can't trust the Albanese government.