Page 1454 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 14 May 2014
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service. Also, through the changes we have seen, it will impact all Australians, including those here in Canberra. The cuts to health services, the cuts to education, the cuts to universities, the cuts to the Canberra-based national institutions are not just a Canberra thing. People come from all over the country to access those national institutions and the cutbacks we have seen there, I think, will reverberate right across the Australian community.
I do want to talk about Medicare. The attack on the heart of Medicare, which is the mainstay of our modern and caring society, in my view, by removing free, universal access to quality health care is a disaster for those on low incomes, a disaster for the health of our nation. I think it is simply unfair and is poorly targeted. The federal government should not put any impediment in the way of people dealing with their health needs at an early stage. It costs us all if injury and illness escalate from primary needs to tertiary treatment. Early identification and treatment save lives and money. The co-contribution is short-sighted and should be reversed.
Having spent some time in the US last year and talking to people about health care over there and the way that plays out for them, having watched the considerable debate over Obama care, what we do not want to do is go anywhere towards a US-style health system. Talk to Australians who travel, Australians who look at international affairs. The first thing that often comes up in this sort of conversation is, “We do not want to end up like the US.” I fear that this step of undermining universal free health care is the first step towards what will inevitably become a more US-style health system. Those who can afford health care, get it. Those who cannot, simply miss out.
The changes to Medicare tie in with the uncertainty surrounding the changes to Medicare locals, which will be replaced with primary health networks from 1 July 2015. I am a strong supporter of Medicare locals and their work in coordinating a range of local health providers to deal with primary healthcare needs. I am concerned by these changes and I will certainly be watching them very closely. I hope that this is done in a way that is about getting the best possible outcomes and not simply about some quick fix to try to save a few bucks, because that will be very short-sighted, again. The coordination of local healthcare services has worked to ensure that they are available and are really about avoiding long-term health costs.
I will take the opportunity, as the only other member of the Assembly who was there at the breakfast this morning, to respond to Mr Smyth’s earlier comment. It is not my job to defend Dr Leigh, but I would note that Dr Leigh, after the comment from Mr Gottliebsen that Dr Leigh should stand up and say that had been his position but he had changed his view, based on a range of research and other people’s opinions that had been put to him over time, acknowledged that. I am sure Dr Leigh will continue to make that case for himself in the future.
I would like to turn now to transport issues that arise, and this comes up in both Ms Porter’s motion about infrastructure and also in some of Mr Smyth’s comments in his amendment. The federal government announced that a key component of the budget is the road funding plan for more than $80 billion over the next six years. We will also see the increased fuel excise go into roads.
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