SENATE

Thursday, 13 October 2016 SENATE 101
prefers to re-announce sporting events so that she can have her photo opportunities again and again. If she just
paid 10 per cent more interest in aged care then we would be happy to acknowledge that. But we know that her
interest lies in sport, photo opportunities and not doing the job that she has responsibility for.
I seek leave to continue my remarks later.
Leave granted; debate adjourned.
COMMITTEES
Health Select Committee
Report
Consideration resumed of the motion:
That the Senate take note of the report.
Senator O'NEILL (New South Wales) (18:02): I refer to this report because I think it is a very important
piece of record-keeping about the impact of the cuts to health that were heralded in that tragic 2014 budget
brought in by the then Prime Minister Abbott. I want to speak to it this week in particular in the context of what
has happened in the House of Representatives. I remind those who might be listening, and anybody who catches
up with this speech that I am giving here today, that this week in the House of Representatives a vote was taken
that absolutely and clearly indicates that the cuts in health that were backed in by the Abbott government, the $56
billion worth of cuts that the Abbott-Turnbull government undertook, are very much a real and live thing for this
country.
What happened this week was that Liberal MPs in the House—I assume in concert with those here in the
Senate—voted against guaranteeing to keep Medicare in public hands as a universal health insurance scheme for
Australia. They are bleating all over the place about a 'Mediscare' campaign. But here in the Senate, where they
think people might not be watching the chaos that has ensued under this government, they voted against keeping
Medicare in public hands. They voted against protecting bulk-billing so that every Australian can see their doctor
when they need to, not just when they can afford to. The Liberal and National parties voted against that this week
in the House of Representatives. They refused to reverse harmful cuts to Medicare by unfreezing the indexation of
the Medical Benefits Schedule. They voted against reversing cuts to pathology that will mean Australians with
cancer will pay more for blood tests. They voted against reversing cuts to breast screening, MRIs, X-rays and
other diagnostic imaging.
They want the election to go away. They lost all but a one-seat majority and they are trying to pretend
Australians were hoodwinked. But today I want to put on the record that this week in the parliament, once again,
they showed their true colours: they are committed to a massive cut to the health care of Australians. They voted
against abandoning their plans to make all Australians, even pensioners, pay more for vital medicines. Finally, in
the House this week, in concert with their Senate colleagues, the Liberal and National parties voted against
developing a long-term agreement to properly fund our public hospitals so that Australians do not languish in our
emergency departments or on long waiting lists for important surgery. That final point really brings home the
message that Mr Turnbull, the Prime Minister of Australia, still has not learned his lesson. He copped a
shellacking in the election. One seat is that majority—and we know how fragile that is because we have already
seen them fail on multiple occasions in the 10 days they have had here in Canberra.
But the government has not reversed a single cut from the election. Why is that so important in regard to the
report I am speaking to this evening? The report that I am addressing is the final report of the select health
committee from the last parliament entitled Hospital Funding Cuts: The Perfect Storm. And that subtitle tells what
happened—the demolition of federal-state health relations from 2014 to 2016. If I was a member of the
government I would be hoping that this was going away. But this is a story we need to retell and retell and retell.
Prior to the Abbott government coming into being, a series of national partnership agreements were established
to end the blame game on who is responsible for health—whether it is the state government or the federal
government. It was a proportional responsibility that was assumed—that both levels were responsible for health.
Those agreements were simply torn up with the hubris and arrogance that we now see every day on display from
this government—torn up and destroyed. Those vital partnerships, federal-state relations, were torn apart. We are
seeing now, as a legacy of those agreements being torn up, the impact of cuts to health.
In New South Wales it is creating incredible financial pressure on the state, and it is starting to manifest in all
sorts of bizarre decisions by the state government of New South Wales. They are linked intimately with the cuts at
federal level. I want to make sure that people who are listening to the parliamentary broadcast, including people
from the Central Coast, know that there will be a very important community gathering of people who are a wakeup
to this Liberal-National government; who understand that the government are cutting our access to health and
CHAMBER