Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister for health. How will Labor's cost-of-living tax cuts help Australia's healthcare workers? How will tax cuts build on the Albanese government's actions to make health care more affordable for all Australians, after a decade of neglect and cuts to our health system?

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Jagajaga for her question. She knows that 77,000 taxpayers in her electorate will benefit from legislation we have put before the parliament right now, to be debated again this afternoon and this evening, which will mean every single one of those taxpayers will get a tax cut on 1 July, not some of them, as was the case under the old plan of five years ago, but every single one of them.

Many of those work in health care, including the terrific Austin Hospital in Heidelberg, in the member's electorate. A second-year nurse, working at the Austin on $75,000 will receive, under Labor's plan, a tax cut of $1,554 a year, around double what they would have received under the old plan. A hospital orderly working at the Austin on $47,000 will receive tax cut of $862 a year, compared to just $58 under the old plan—about $1 a week was what they were getting under the old plan from the five years ago. This is all part of this government's commitment to ensure that middle Australia earn more and keeps more of what they earn.

Australia's hospital staff will also know that their work will be better funded and better supported by the historic agreements struck by the Prime Minister and national cabinet in December last year, an extra $1.2 billion to strengthen Medicare even further, including more urgent care clinics and a commitment to lift the Commonwealth's share of public hospital funding to 45 per cent—billions more into our public hospitals from the Commonwealth than existing arrangements. Those hospital staff at the Austin and at hospitals right around the country know what a struggle it has been to get that level of support. Every day at work, they see, coming through their front door, the consequences of 10 years of cuts and neglect to Medicare, cuts and neglect that were initiated by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the health minister—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The members for Gippsland and Riverina will cease interjecting.

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Compare and contrast this Prime Minister's historic agreement with national cabinet in December with the Leader of the Opposition's first budget as health minister in 2014. Everyone remembers that he tried to abolish bulk-billing altogether. He tried to jack-up medicines. They might not remember he also tried to cut $50 billion from hospitals in a glossy, blue budget—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will pause. The minister will not refer to props or documents in his answer. He will resume his seat for a moment so I can hear from the Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance, the minister needs to stay within the terms of the question rather than engaging, as he always does, in an unspecified trawl through the records of the opposition.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House on a point of order.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on direct relevance, given that the question asks the minister to talk about a decade of neglect and cuts to our healthcare system, how can he avoid talking about the Leader of the Opposition?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister was asked about a decade of decline. I'm just going to make sure the document he is referring to is to do with that part of the question, not simply his opinion on the opposition.

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It would be like speaking about the Super Bowl without mentioning Taylor Swift. Not only did he cut $50 billion, he tore up agreements on preventive health—

Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He's up with all the cool kids.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Deakin will cease interjecting.

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

 He tore to up agreements on concessions for pensioners. The staff at Austin know now that they have a government in Canberra that's committed to earning more, keeping more of what they earn and funding their hospitals fairly.