Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

There is some very good stuff in there which I would be proud to put my name to. In fact, I have put my name to it. The problem with it is that on each and every occasion that the National Party have had to put their policy into action, they have been done over by their coalition partners. The only other explanation for it is that it was a fraud: they actually did not believe in, and had no intention of implementing, the policy prescriptions, the policy promises, in their platform when they went to the election. They have either broken their promise and always intended to, or they have been done over by the Liberals and have been ineffective in their joint party room. So it is no surprise that all of these National Party members have decided not to step up to the plate and speak on behalf of the coalition for this legislation. The reason is that they simply cannot support it. They cannot support it because they campaigned against it in the last election.

In her contribution to this debate, the shadow health minister, the member for Ballarat, spoke with great passion and at great length about the impact of this legislation. She referred to the COAG Reform Council; that is the council the coalition have abolished because they did not like the message that it was delivering. What will be the last report of the COAG Reform Council, which was released in early June this year, found that 8.5 per cent of people in 2012-13 were already delaying or failing to fill a prescription due to its cost. In disadvantaged areas that figure was higher: 12.4 per cent of people in disadvantaged areas are already not filling their prescriptions because they cannot afford to. In Indigenous areas the figure is higher again, at 36.4 per cent. So 36 per cent of Indigenous Australians who have gone to their doctor and had a prescription given to them to deal with their health concerns or problems by a medical practitioner have not taken the next step of filling that prescription, because they cannot afford to. What on earth is going to happen to that group of people if we are ever unfortunate enough to have this legislation pass through this House and the other house? I am confident that it will not pass through this House because I am confident that the National Party MPs are going to stand here and vote in accordance with not only their conscience but their policy. Should that not happen, and we have to rely on members in the other place, I hope they will do the right thing, because it is those groups of people who will suffer.

The health system will suffer as well. When you go to your doctor and then fill a prescription for a health problem, it is the medications you take that stop a chronic condition becoming an acute condition and an acute condition requiring you to present yourself to a hospital. We all know that hospital is the most expensive place for a health condition to be dealt with.

The health minister has claimed that the PBS costs are spiralling out of control. We know that that is not true. We have seen, and I spoke on this earlier, significant savings that the government is now enjoying due to reforms that were put in place by the previous Labor government. I have in mind the accelerated price disclosure as just one example. It is a measure that Medicines Australia and others within the medicines alliance have pointed to and said, 'This is the single measure that is generating the largest amount of savings in the coalition's budget.' I would expect members on the other side of the House to pay tribute to the Labor government for assisting them on this issue, but in not one contribution from government members has it been mentioned.

If this measure is designed to make a co-contribution to the cost of the PBS, why is the government siphoning off the money and sending it to the Medical Research Future Fund? If the money was not going to the medical research fund and was going to help fulfil the cost of the PBS you might say, 'We disagree with it. We think the cost burden is going to be felt hardest by the people who can least afford it, but we can understand the logic.' But that is not what is happening. If the purpose of this is to send a price signal, you have to ask yourself whether those on the other side truly believe that GPs around the country are writing off scripts on a whim without any concern for the clinical needs of their patients. I for one do not believe that the vast majority of our GPs are that negligent.

Labor cannot support this bill. We see this as yet another attack by the coalition parties against the excellent universal health system in this country. I look forward to listening to the contributions of National Party members. I hope they do the right thing by the people of Australia.

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