Opposition Leader Bill Shorten promises massive investment in Medicare
Bill Shorten has promised to fight this year’s election on health, starting with a multi-billion dollar investment to save cancer patients from having to dip into their own pockets for lifesaving treatment. USE OUR CALCULATORS TO SEE HOW THE BUDGETS AFFECT YOU.
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Bill Shorten has promised a multi-billion dollar investment to save cancer patients from having to dip into their own pockets for lifesaving treatment in what the Labor leader labelled the “most important investment in Medicare since Bob Hawke created it”.
The Labor leader used his crucial budget reply speech last night to signal he would fight the election on health, three years after his campaign on Medicare almost delivered him the keys to the Lodge.
He also pledged that 3.6 million lower income earners would pay less tax under Labor, lifted TAFE spending to $1 billion and laid out a scathing criticism of the Coalition’s health and education cuts.
“If we win the next election, we will put back every single dollar the Liberals have cut from public schools and public hospitals,” he said.
Mr Shorten promised “stronger surpluses” but confirmed he would push ahead with his controversial anti-negative gearing policy and his tax on retirees with his pledge to scrap franking credit cash refunds.
The centrepiece of his budget reply was the biggest cancer care package in Australian history, Mr Shorten said.
Under the plan, Labor will invest $600 million towards eliminating out-of-pocket costs for diagnostic imaging, with up to six million free cancer scans to be funded through Medicare. This marks the biggest expansion of Medicare MRI eligibility and the investment will also cover CT scans, PET scans, mammograms, X-rays and ultrasounds.
HOW LABOR’S BUDGET AFFECTS YOU
HOW THE COALITION’S BUDGET AFFECTS YOU
The package also allocates $433 million to fund three million free consultations with oncologists and surgeons for cancer patients, with a new bulk-billed Medicare item.
As well, every drug recommended by independent experts will be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, cutting out-of-pocket costs for medications.
In a rousing speech, Mr Shorten (pictured) said that cancer was often “impoverishing”. “For so many people, cancer makes you sick then paying for the treatment makes you poor,” he said.
“You might not realise that all those vital scans and tests and consultations with specialists aren’t fully covered by Medicare. Instead they costs hundreds of dollars, adding up to thousands, out of your own pocket.”
He said that one in four women diagnosed with breast cancer pay more than $10,000 for two years of scans and tests. “Some men with prostate cancer are paying more than $18,000.”
Mr Shorten said that every year 300,000 Australians who needed radiology don’t get it because they can’t afford it.
“We are a smart country, we are a rich country, we are a generous country — and we are better than this,” he said.
“Under Labor … you can focus on getting well without worrying about going broke. I can promise that if you are in the fight of your life — a Labor government will back you up.”
Mr Shorten also attacked the government for “short changing” the NDIS.
He also deliberately cast a clear difference between himself and the government on tax, promising to deliver an extra $1 billion in tax cuts for low income earners.
“Six-point-four million working people will pay the same amount of income tax under Labor as the Liberals. And another 3.6 million will pay less tax under Labor.”
But he rejected tax cuts for higher income earners, saying he would not sign up to a “radical right wing flat tax experiment” that would tax someone at $50,000 the same rate as someone on $200,000. Labor will not adopt the government’s stage two tax reform for low and middle income earners starting in 2022.
Trying to cast Labor as economically responsible, he said it wasn’t safe to lock in high-end tax cuts given the “foreboding we see in the global environment”.
SHORTEN AND GANG CRASH PM’s PARTY
It was a big part of The Daily Telegraph’s special Budget edition on Wednesday, so it’s only fair that we return the favour to Bill Shorten and his Labor team today.
Resident cartoonist Warren’s “Prime Cuts’’ illustration, focusing on the government’s tax-slashing Budget was always going to be a two-part work of art.
Taking centre stage on Wednesday was PM Scott Morrison and his mates, manning the grill with aplomb as rival political gang the “Labor leadfoots” lurked menacingly at the front of The Lodge in their battery-powered muscle car.
Today, the tables have turned. “Badass Bill’’ and his car hoon clan have gatecrashed the party — literally — with their own Budget-busting plan to win over the electorate.
ScoMo’s wish to remain in the top job has seemingly hit a snag.
Now the tongs are in the hands of voters.
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