Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Rural Health (Senator Nash) to a question without notice asked by Senator Lambie today relating to proposed changes to bulk billing incentives.

Today the National Party's Senator Nash tried to defend the indefensible. Her party, a party that is supposed to look after the interests of rural and regional Australia, has agreed to be an accomplice to a Liberal policy which is guaranteed, over time, to increase the number of women who will die from preventable diseases like cervical cancer and diabetes. A report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare states: 'The number of deaths has decreased significantly, with 72 per cent of women diagnosed surviving cervical cancer. Ninety per cent of cervical cancers are preventable with early detection.'

The reason we have this good news is that over the last 10 years Australia has had a clear focus on primary health care and preventative health checks, which has saved our nation lives and money. This $650 million cut to Medicare if allowed to go unchallenged by this Senate will undermine our focus on preventable health care by dramatically increasing the costs of cancer tests like Pap smears. The costs savings the government trumps in the short term will pale into insignificance when compared with the additional costs incurred in the long term when women, our grandchildren, begin once again to lose their lives unnecessarily and too soon to preventable diseases like cervical and other cancers. Why aren't we making decisions for our grandchildren?

I warn this government that I will take whatever action is necessary in the Senate, including voting against all government legislation, to ensure that cancer and other health checks remain affordable for all Australians. I will do everything in my power to stop cancer health checks like Pap smears from costing an extra $30, as predicted by the Royal College of Pathologists. The average Australian is sick of this Liberal government fiddling with bulk-billing rates for vital medical checks like women's Pap smears. It is time for the Liberals to stop their sneaky attacks on Medicare and their sly attempts to kill it off. It is time the Nationals grew a backbone and stood up to this cruelty to women.

Local Burnie businesswoman Karlie Deacon has told me she wants the Australian PM to stop messing around with our bulk-billing rates. She wants the government to make it easier, not harder, for young women like her to have cancer checks. Respected health professionals like Tasmanian scientist Richard Hanlon have warned that the effect on patients will be quite significant because it will discourage them from going to their doctors, patients may pay up to $30 extra in co-payments and it has the potential to stop patients from testing for chronic diseases like diabetes and cancers with Pap smears. We have had a focus on primary health care for 10 years or more and now we are removing that so hospitals will become inundated, cancers will not be seen until it is too late and diabetes will not be seen until it is too late either. It will have a huge cost on the health system and a huge cost on the hospital system in particular, the public system. Pathology is about as efficient as it can possibly get. We believe there is very little fat left to cut off the bone. That will mean it will be passed on to the customer. Any fool can see that reducing Australia's investment in primary health care is going to cost us more in the long run.

I commissioned a Parliamentary Library study and asked: can these cuts be disallowed by the Senate? The answer is:

Yes. The relevant regulations are a disallowable legislative instrument. The process for disallowance is explained in this Senate Brief. Broadly once the regulations are registered and tabled in parliament a Senator has 15 sitting days to give notice of a motion to disallow the instrument in whole or in part.

So I make this promise to Tasmanians, especially Tasmanian women: I will use my vote to disallow any Liberal government regulation that attacks our Medicare bulk-billing system. I look forward to working with my fellow crossbench senators, the Greens and Labor to stop this insane attack on one of the best universal healthcare systems in the world.

Question agreed to.