Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Minister for Health, Senator Nash. I refer the minister to her statement to the Senate last week: 'The government has not considered the introduction of a co-payment for Medicare services.' I also refer her to Friday's Financial Review,which reports that the health minister is considering co-payments for GPs. I ask again, Minister: is the government considering co-payments for Medicare services?

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question. My advice was that the government had not considered the introduction of a co-payment for Medicare services. Indeed, the coalition believes that all Australians should have access to affordable, high-quality health care. We certainly say that, to assist the government to provide subsidies for clinically necessary treatment and services through Medicare, senators would be well aware that the National Commission of Audit is charged with examining the scope for efficiency and productivity improvements across all areas of Commonwealth expenditure.

This is in direct opposition to those opposite. We have a plan for the future of health delivery in this nation. That plan includes delivering front-line services to where they are needed, and we will absolutely continue to do that. In no way will this side of the chamber, the government, step back from our responsibilities of ensuring that we get the delivery of those front-line services to where they are needed. When we compare that to the record of those opposite on health, it is a stark contrast and shows very clearly that it is this side of the chamber, this coalition government, that has a plan for the future of health in this nation.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister aware of the evidence by her department at the most recent estimates: 'We have done a range of work over a long period of time about co-payments in the MBS. That work continues.' Will the minister release the modelling that the government has undertaken on Medicare co-payments before the Western Australian Senate election?

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senators on the other side would be aware that departmental activity occurs across a range of measures that the government has in place or, indeed, puts forward. But it is this coalition government that is going to offer the people of Western Australia a better plan when it comes to health. There is absolutely a stark contrast, a stark choice, for the people of Western Australia, whom Senator Sterle refers to, when it comes to health. We only have to look at the government as they were then—those sitting opposite—which promised to fix hospitals. Indeed, I think it was the previous leader—one of them—Prime Minister Rudd, who said there was actually going to be a referendum if the Labor government had not fixed hospitals. They failed on both counts. They failed to fix the hospitals and they absolutely failed to have the referendum they said that they would have to deal with the issue. (Time expired)

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Minister, why is the government hiding the details of its GP tax plan until after the Western Australian Senate election?

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no hiding from this government. What we are doing is putting, unlike those opposite—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I need to hear the answer of the minister. I remind those on my left that it is disorderly to interject.

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unlike those opposite, we are not going to deliver health services to this nation in the same chaotic way that the previous government delivered a range of policies to this nation. The previous government might have been prepared to do ill-thought-through policy on the run, but the coalition government is not. We look at those opposite—the previous Labor government, with their history of economic mismanagement, with their history of waste and with their history of ill-thought-through policy on the run. When it comes to health, it is this government that is going to deliver to people across the nation, and it is this government that is going to deliver a strong health policy for Western Australia.