By Millie Muroi
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has accused the Coalition of “coming after Medicare and medicines and pensions,” prompting opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston to warn that Labor was reviving its discredited 2016 “Mediscare” campaign and telling lies.
In a press conference in Canberra on Tuesday, Chalmers clawed into Coalition claims that Labor had “lost control” of spending, which will include $2.3 billion in additional spending on Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said medicines and pensions were “not safe under the Coalition”. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“Now, when the Coalition says that this is overspending, what they really mean is they’re coming after Medicare and medicines and pensions,” Chalmers said while answering questions about the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook to be released on Wednesday. “If Angus Taylor and Peter Dutton think that extra spending for Medicare and medicines and pensions indexation is wasteful spending, then they need to come clean this week to the Australian people and say how much will they cut from Medicare and medicines and pensions.”
In 2016, Labor’s “Mediscare” campaign falsely suggested the Coalition wanted to privatise Medicare. Three years later, the tables had turned and various groups incorrectly claimed Labor wanted to implement a “death tax”, also known as an inheritance tax, fanned by similar messages from the Coalition government.
Speaking in Adelaide on Tuesday morning, the opposition leader said Chalmers had looked for scapegoats rather than budget repair.
“As we’re seeing from the treasurer at the moment, he’s lost control of the budget,” Dutton said.
“This much is obvious. He has blamed Putin, he’s blamed Trump, he’s blamed Ukraine, he’s blamed Israel, he’s blamed everybody but himself, and Australian families know that it’s taken Labor two and a half years to severely damage the economy, which is why they’re finding it more and more difficult when they go to the supermarket to pay for their groceries.”
Chalmers slammed Dutton’s record on healthcare, saying the opposition leader “came after Medicare last time” and that medicines and pensions were “not safe under the Coalition”.
As health minister in 2014, Dutton floated the idea of a fee for visits to the doctor, flagging a greater role for the private sector and private insurers in primary care. Dutton and then-prime minister Tony Abbott later abandoned the plan to have doctors charge a $7 co-payment for consultations.
Ruston said Chalmers had lied and was treating people “like mugs” in claiming the Coalition was coming after Medicare.
“It has become clear that a desperate Albanese Labor government is attempting to reheat their disgraced Mediscare campaign in an attempt to distract from their failures,” she said. “The Coalition always has, and always will, invest in Medicare.”
Ruston said the Coalition had increased funding for Medicare year-on-year from $18.6 billion under Labor in 2012-13 to more than $30 billion in 2021-22, and that it had already announced policies including doubling Medicare-subsidised mental health support.
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said government spending was growing faster than the economy and that Labor had “absolutely lost control”.
“They’re committed to spending that is not appropriate at a time like this. It’s why we’ve opposed over $100 billion of spending initiatives,” he told Sky News on Tuesday morning.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.