Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The government are attacking the universality of health care in this country and they are doing it because it is in their DNA to attack the universality of health care in this country. Under Gough Whitlam, who passed away yesterday, Labor introduced universal health care after many years of policy development and broad consultation with people. I will tell you what Gough Whitlam said because there have been some unfortunates on the other side verballing him today. I will explain it in Gough's own words. He said in 1969:

We propose a universal health scheme, based on the needs and means of families.

That is what he said in 1969. In 1973 he said:

It is only our insurance program—because it is based on the payment of a percentage of taxable income—which can overcome this problem—

that is, the expensiveness of health care in Australia. He continued:

It is only our insurance program which will ensure that a low income earner will pay less than a middle income earner and that a middle income earner will pay less than a wealthy man. Australia will not have a just and equitable health insurance system until that principle is enshrined in its laws.

For all those people over there claiming that somehow health care is currently free and that people should pay for their health care, as previous speakers have said, people already make a payment for their health care. I can tell you that you do not need a price signal to value GPs. You do not need a price signal to value the medical assistance and advice that you get from a GP. You absolutely do not. It is an absolute fallacy.

At the end of the submission to the Commission of Audit that advocated for the co-payment—and we all remember the Commission of Audit—the author said, 'By the way, we should actually find out whether there is a problem of people going to the doctor when they do not need to.' Oh, do you think? Do you think you should find that out before you start putting in disincentives for sick people to get primary health care that might keep them out of hospital, keep them safe, keep them well and give them the opportunity for early treatment, because we all know that early treatment is the key?

Everyone on this side of the House understands those principles of universality. The minister claimed that universality was about low-income earners being able to get health care. Universality is about having a great health system for everyone, no matter how rich or how poor they are. It is not about a two-tiered health system where there is some safety net for poor people and rich people get great health treatment somewhere else. It is about universal access to health care so it is whether you are sick that determines the health care you get not the size of your wallet and income. That is what universality means.

What is this government doing? This is in the great tradition of Liberals and Nationals past, who opposed the introduction of Medibank in the 1970s, who opposed the introduction of Medicare in the 1980s and who, under John Howard, attacked bulk-billing. I remember fighting a 'Save Medicare' campaign back then too. They cannot help themselves—they always want to lay into Medicare because they do not support it. They are just getting sneakier. John Howard learnt that you cannot openly attack Medicare in this country. He learnt that the hard way, so they have to get sneakier. Let us not let them get away with it. Let us talk about what the Prime Minister's budget is actually doing to health care in this country.

Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister, came to power promising that there would be no new taxes and no cuts to health. I remember in my by-election the Prime Minister coming to Brisbane and telling the voters in Griffith that there were no plans for a GP tax when his own Commission of Audit already had a submission, when his own candidate in Griffith had already welcomed the idea and when he knew full well—or he ought to have—that there was a very real prospect of a GP tax in the budget. And what did we get? We got a GP tax in the budget. We got a GP tax that will slug you every time you go to the doctor or get an x-ray or a blood test.

According to the Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association, we have also got the situation where general patients will have to pay upfront a minimum of $90 for an x-ray, $380 for a CAT scan, $160 for a mammogram—and what do the Liberals and Nationals have against mammograms?—and $190 for an ultrasound. For a PET scan the upfront costs could hit $1,000. For a typical patient with thyroid cancer the upfront charges for the scans and tests would come to around $1,000. A woman with a lump in her breast would need to spend at least $280 upfront to have her cancer diagnosed. A person with lung cancer will have a minimum upfront payment of $320. Shame. (Time expired)

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