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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (28 February) . . Page.. 434 ..

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Minister for Health and Community Care), by leave: I will be brief because I think this debate has probably gone on for long enough now. With regard to paragraph (1) of the motion moved by Mr Connolly, which dealt with 100 per cent bulk-billing doctors, we set out to do exactly what this Assembly wanted us to do - to have 100 per cent bulk-billing doctors.

Mr Berry: Pull the other leg.

MRS CARNELL: The reality is that it is the truth. I think there have been letters in the newspaper from one of the doctors involved and a number of such indications that exactly what we have said is true. A number of the current salaried medical practitioners were interested in staying in our health centres, but the moment this Assembly determined that there had to be 100 per cent bulk-billing for everybody, whether they turned up in their Volvos or not - - -

Ms McRae: And what is wrong with that?

MRS CARNELL: Quite seriously, there is everything wrong with that. We have a Medicare system in this country which is a universal health system, and I believe totally that you should be bulk-billing pensioners, people on health care cards and so forth; but I personally do not believe that we need to ensure that bulk-billing is available for people who can well afford to pay. It is a personal view, certainly; but it is one that is shared by the current Federal Labor Government. I think that is a fair approach. We want to make sure that our health centres have the services that are required. The health centres are not doctors' surgeries - - -

Mr Berry: You shut down all the services in Melba.

MRS CARNELL: I think it is extremely important for Mr Berry to remember for one minute who actually shut down the services, other than doctors. When we took over government, there were no services other than medical practitioners at Melba Health Centre. That means that all of the other services that had once been there had already closed. However, I do not believe that it is appropriate to go through all this again.

If we can have in our health centres doctors who bulk-bill pensioners, people on low incomes and health care card holders, I believe that that is the appropriate approach. We have advertised nationally to find doctors who would be 100 per cent bulk-billing doctors in our health centres. That was all done in line with this Assembly's wishes.

Mr Berry: Why do you not put salaried ones back in?

MRS CARNELL: The reason, and I will say it again, why we will not put salaried doctors back in is that it is a ridiculous use of very scarce health dollars in the ACT.

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