Shorten unveils tax and spend ‘cure’

Bill Shorten says his $2.3bn cancer care package is the most significant Medicare reform since 1984.

Under Labor’s tax measures, up to $2000 in Coalition tax cuts would be taken from workers earning over $120,000 and funnelled to lower wage earners. Picture: Gary Ramage

Bill Shorten will claim the most significant reforms to Medicare since it was created by Bob Hawke in 1984, with a $2.3 billion expansion of bulk billing to cut out-of-pocket expenses and provide free services for cancer patients.

Outlining a big-spending ­agenda, the Opposition Leader also promised to restore $1bn in TAFE funding to meet critical skills shortages while revealing he would match the Coalition’s tax cuts for 10 million people and ­provide bigger tax refunds for a further 3.6 million workers earning less than $48,000 a year.

The government seized on Mr Shorten’s budget reply speech last night, claiming Labor could not be trusted to deliver on its promise because of a record of financial and economic mismanagement.

Under Labor’s tax measures, up to $2000 in Coalition tax cuts would be taken from workers earning more than $120,000 and funnelled to lower wage earners earning less than $48,000.

Mr Shorten used his speech to deflect Coalition attacks on Labor’s large tax-raising agenda. He ­declared the election would be fought over the delivery of services while claiming larger surpluses and a path to paying down debt sooner than the Coalition’s commitment of 2029-30.

“Nearly six years ago, my team and I made a choice,” Mr Shorten said. “We decided not to be the kind of opposition who just stay quiet, cross our fingers and hope the government tears itself apart.

“We decided to lead the reform debate, with a bold agenda.

“We believe people are hungry for a united, stable government with a real vision for the future, who can make the hard decisions.”

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said Labor merely had a plan for “$200bn in higher taxes, $200bn a year taxes on retirees, on housing, income, investment, small and family business, on electricity, $200bn on higher taxes that would harm the economy, which would put jobs at risk, $200bn in higher taxes which would lead to a weaker economy, fewer jobs, higher unemployment and, on the back of higher un­employment, lower wages for people across Australia”.

How the tax cut plans compare.

“You can’t trust anything that Labor is saying because they are not giving you any details,” ­Senator Cormann said. “The truth is Labor does not know how to manage money. That is why they are coming after yours.”

Framing Labor’s budget around a battle between the generations, Mr Shorten claimed the tax system was unfairly geared against young people while ­climate change was an issue of ­“intergenerational” fairness.

At the centrepiece of Labor’s cost-of-living and healthcare policy agenda was what he claimed was the “biggest cancer-care package in Australian history”.

Mr Shorten would also establish an Affordable Medicines Guarantee, which would list every drug recommended by an independent expert panel on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

“I saw it with my mum and her battle with breast cancer,” Mr Shorten said. “Cancer is frightening, it’s isolating, it’s exhausting. And — all too often — it is impoverishing. For so many people, cancer makes you sick and then paying for the treatment makes you poor.”

The Opposition Leader claimed the $2.3bn package would provide six million free scans and free consultations with oncologists through Medicare, as well as providing cheaper medicines for cancer patients.

Every MRI diagnostic machine would be eligible for Medicare rebates, with Medicare items created for X-rays, ultrasounds, mammograms, CAT scans and PET scans.

“Cancer is the greatest disease burden in Australia, and it carries the greatest out-of-pocket costs in our healthcare system,” Mr Shorten said.

“Labor believes it should be your Medicare card, not your ­credit card, which guarantees ­access to quality health care in Australia.’’

The funding would also cover up to three million free consult­ations with oncologists and ­surgeons for cancer patients.

Illustration: Johannes Leak

“This is the most important ­reform to Medicare since it was introduced by Bob Hawke,” Mr Shorten said. He added: “This will mean ­millions of free scans, millions of free consultations and cheaper medicines for cancer patients.”

Mr Shorten said one in two Australians would be diagnosed with cancer by the age of 85.

“Nearly half of Australian cancer patients pay more than $5,000 in out-of-pocket costs over the course of their diagnosis and treatment.

More than a quarter of cancer patients pay more than $10,000 out of their own pocket.”

Threatening a repeat of Labor’s 2016 Medicare scare campaign, which almost cost the Coalition the 2016 election, Mr Shorten launched an attack on the government’s Medicare rebate freeze, which was first imposed under the previous Labor government.

He also accused the Coalition of cutting funding to schools and hospitals.

Scott Morrison yesterday accused­ the Opposition Leader of being “incapable of telling the truth” after a spirited question time on the final day of parliament before the election.

“Under our government over the last five years, funding from the commonwealth for hospitals has increased by 63.2 per cent,” the Prime Minister said.

“Under our government, when it comes to public schools, it’s state schools, those funding over the last five years, that funding is up by 62 per cent. So the Labor Party, they will go to the Australian people and they won’t tell them the truth, Mr Speaker, about what the ­government has done, but I tell you what they will do — they’ll tax Australians and they’ll tax them hard.”

The extra tax measures ­announced by Mr Shorten would cost an additional $1bn, with the government having already matched Labor’s previous commitment that was costed in the budget at $5.8bn.