Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I have worked in health policy all of my career and I have never seen a sector so united against a government as it is with this particular budget. The inequitable changes in the budget are the biggest attack on Medicare in 30 years. Indeed, when the changes were first announced the AMA Vice President, Professor Geoffrey Dobb, described them as setting back health care 50 years in Australia. The government's arguments that these cuts are making Medicare sustainable is an absolute mockery because the money is not going back into the system. The government knows it, and it should be honest with the Australian people and keep its hands off Medicare.

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