8 hours Ago By Natassia Chrysanthos
Coalition Leader Peter Dutton will match Labor’s bulk-billing pledge and pour $8.5 billion into Medicare to fend off a renewed “Mediscare” campaign as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese escalates his attack on the opposition by warning it can’t be trusted on healthcare. Albanese on Sunday ramped up his political campaign against Dutton by urging Australians to remember the Abbott government’s attempts to erode bulk-billing, while pitching Labor as the only party to protect Medicare with an $8.
5 billion investment in free GP visits for all Australians . Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will match Albanese’s $8.5 billion pledge to increase free GP visits.
Credit: Louise Kennerley At a Labor rally to launch the cornerstone campaign pledge on Sunday, Albanese said universal healthcare would be the beating heart of Labor’s campaign while warning the federal election was a “make-or-break moment for Medicare” which would be gutted under Dutton. “Even Tony Abbott promised ‘no cuts to health’. But every time they get into government, their attacks on Medicare are always the same.
The Liberals have changed what they say – but they will never change who they are,” he said. But the Coalition has quickly moved to match Labor’s promise in a major effort to ward off another “Mediscare” campaign, which Labor deployed effectively during the 2016 election to eat into then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s majority. “A Dutton Coalition Government will match the $8.
5 billion investment into Medicare dollar-for-dollar to fix Labor’s mess and restore bulk billing back up to Coalition levels,” a statement from Dutton and Coalition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said on Sunday. “Without sound and prudent economic management – something Labor is incapable of – investments like this cannot be delivered. Only the Coalition can guarantee a strong economy to deliver better healthcare.
” The $8.5 billion pledge is one of the biggest spending promises delivered by the Coalition - after its nuclear energy policy - setting the scene for a big-spending campaign despite promises from both major parties to rein in on largesse to tackle the budget deficit. The Coalition has also matched Labor’s $573 million women’s health package , and supported its $1.
7 billion boost to public hospitals , while promising a further $500 million to raise the number of psychology appointments that can be claimed under Medicare. The Coalition’s vow to spend more on health will help neutralise Labor’s campaign. But it also increases pressure on an opposition that says it will cut government spending but has not explained how, aside from an undefined policy about slashing public service jobs .
Nor has it detailed how it will pay for its nuclear policy, which will cost at least $300 billion, making Dutton vulnerable to a Labor campaign over mystery cuts if he forms government. Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Sunday said $5.4 billion of the $8.
5 billion bulk-billing package had been provisioned for in the mid-year financial update, meaning a further $3 billion must still be accounted for. Labor has tried to get a step ahead of Dutton by telling Australians they cannot trust what he says. Less than an hour before Dutton announced he would match Labor’s policy on Sunday, Health Minister Mark Butler told the rally that the Coalition would “pull out the golden oldies” by promising no cuts to health.
“Remember them saying that months before Dutton tried to abolish bulk billing and cut $50 billion from our public hospitals? You bet. He’ll say he loves Medicare! He’ll protect Medicare. But he doesn’t.
He won’t. Medicare is not in this man’s DNA,” Butler said. “You will be told Labor pointing out Dutton’s crystal-clear record as health minister is a scare campaign.
To which I say, Peter Dutton’s record on Medicare isn’t just scary, it’s bloody terrifying.” Albanese also warned the Coalition would “break bulk-billing and break the promise Medicare is built on”. “In the past three years, Peter Dutton has only come up with three ideas.
One, $10 billion for taxpayer-funded long lunches. Two, $600 billion for 7 nuclear reactors that won’t be ready until sometime in the 2040s. And three, cutting everything else to pay for them,” he said.
“The Liberals refuse to say where their axe will fall. But we know..
. Australians know that every time the Liberals come to Government with a plan for cuts, Medicare is the first place they look..
. Because he will have to cut Medicare, to pay for his nuclear fantasy”. Earlier this month, Labor was caught airing a misleadingly edited attack ad in which Dutton declares “Medicare is dead” is when he actually said “Medicare is dead if we can’t make it sustainable today”.
Coalition shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, when accused of “giving away” $9 billion in an interview with Sky News, said the Coalition was supporting the investment despite calling for spending cuts and tax reductions because it was “cleaning up Labor’s mess”. “We had bulk billing rates at 88 per cent when were in government, it’s now down at 77 per cent, and they’re talking about taking it back to close to where it was when we were in government,” he said. The Coalition will keep pointing to those figures to rebuff Labor’s criticisms, given bulk-billing hit a record high under the Morrison government during the pandemic.
Dutton will remind Australians that “it has never been harder and more expensive to see a doctor” than under Labor. Bulk-billing rates started declining in 2021 as rebates failed to keep up with inflation, Australians’ health needs became more complex and doctors stopped performing bulk-billed pandemic services such as vaccinations, which temporarily inflated statistics. The government defends the massive drop in bulk-billing as the inherited legacy of a six-year freeze on Medicare rebates, initiated by the Gillard government in 2013 and continued until 2018 under the Coalition.
It will spruik its $3.5 billion investment from the 2023 budget , which stopped the freefall of bulk-billing for children and concession cardholders, as evidence of its efforts to turn things around. Asked whether he was concerned that line of attack could hurt the Coalition, Taylor said no.
“I tell you what I’m concerned about. I’m concerned about the standard of living of Australians that has collapsed..
. Health has been part of that, but it’s also been energy, it’s been insurance, it’s been increased personal income taxes being paid,” he said. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis.
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