Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Smith, thank you for your question. I know that you, Senator Smith, and all of the senators on this side and the whole Labor team understand that the cost of living is the most important issue for Australians at the moment, and that is why it has been front and centre in every budget Labor has delivered. We have been working hard to clean up the Liberals and Nationals' mess, especially in health. We have made the largest investment in Medicare in more than 40 years. We have expanded bulk-billing so it's no longer in freefall so more Australians can see a doctor. We're training more doctors in our cities and in our regions. We've opened 87 urgent care clinics and we've promised to open 50 more. We're making medicines cheaper. We've invested more than half a billion dollars to deliver more choice, lower costs and better health care for Australian women.

What is clear, Senator Smith, is that all of this is at risk under a potential Dutton, Liberal-National government. What is clear is that Mr Dutton would seek to cut so much of this cost-of-living support that the government is providing. We know he's already promised cuts. The shadow Treasurer said on the weekend that they would cut everything they'd opposed in opposition. Senator Hume has confirmed that Labor has spent around $374 billion more than what the Liberals would have. That accounts for all the additional expenditure this term—everything from indexation of pensions to national security and defence spending. But of course they refuse to outline exactly what they'd cut to pay for the $600 billion nuclear scheme. But, if you listen carefully to Mr Dutton, Senator Hume and Mr Taylor, what we know is that those opposite would gut Medicare, wind back Labor's investments in women's health, stop funding urgent care clinics and make it harder and more expensive to see a GP. He cuts; you pay. (Time expired)