Federal Labor set to dump multibillion-dollar cancer and dental pledges

Federal Labor is set to swing the axe on its multibillion-dollar pledges for free cancer treatment and dental care for pensioners in an effort to slimline its election spending promises.

The two signature health policies, announced under former leader Bill Shorten ahead of the last election, are likely to be formally scrapped in the coming months following the federal opposition’s decision to cut off the key sources of revenue that would have funded them.

Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing Mark Butler and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Labor went to the 2019 poll with a $2.3 billion package to tackle out-of-pocket costs and waiting lists for cancer patients. It included $600 million to improve access to and affordability of diagnostic imaging, with up to six million free cancer scans funded through Medicare and $433m to fund three million free consultations with oncologists and surgeons for cancer patients.

In the final weeks of the election campaign Labor followed up with a $2.4 billion plan that would have given up to three million older Australians access to free essential dental care, covered by Medicare, every two years.

The opposition has faced fierce criticism from its progressive flank for its decision on Monday morning to reverse its position on the third stage of the Morrison government’s legislated tax cuts, which are likely to cost the budget more than $17 billion annually.

Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie said it was “unbelievable” that in the middle of a third round of lockdowns, with more than a million people on social security payments excluded from disaster payments, Labor had paused to discuss whether high-income earners should get a tax cut of $180 a week.

“We’ve been here before – years of unaffordable tax cuts set us up for the savage cuts to social security, health and other essential services in the 2014 budget,” she said.

Several members of Labor’s shadow cabinet told this masthead that both of Labor’s key health policies of 2019 were unlikely to proceed to Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese’s election platform. They said it was simply because the party was dumping its major sources of revenue-raising, including scrapping franking credits, rolling back high-end tax cuts and winding back negative gearing.

“There is just no way we are going to be able to pay for them this time,” a member of Labor’s shadow cabinet said on the condition of anonymity. “It is the reality of the decisions we have taken.”

A spokeswoman for health spokesman Mark Butler said all policies from the last election were under review.

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald revealed last May that Mr Albanese had told his shadow cabinet to prepare for a “full reappraisal” of the party’s policies in the wake of the coronavirus induced economic crisis, warning the ALP would face major budget constraints if it wins the next federal election.

He said Labor’s policies must be developed “through a clear-eyed lens of winning the next election’, not how the party would like to address all current issues given that it was not in government.

“At a time when the Morrison government is racking up more than $1 trillion of debt and hundreds of billions of dollars of new spending, every dollar must be spent wisely, carefully and in the interests of the Australian community,” Mr Albanese told reporters while in Brisbane on Monday.

“We’ll have much more to say about our policies going forward. But our policies for the next election will be the ones that we announced during this term.

“Will a Labor government do more than a Coalition government on education and health? You bet we will.”

Both Mr Albanese and shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers have said Labor would likely crack down on multinational corporations if it won the next election to help repair the federal budget. But several sources with knowledge of policies discussion said those measures would be unlikely to net more than $3 billion over the forward estimates.

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