Bennelong by-election: Labor revives Mediscare campaigning for Keneally

In Bennelong, Bill Shorten says it should be Medicare card, not credit card, that guarantees quality healthcare.

Kristina Keneally and Bill Shorten at Eastwood shopping centre in Sydney,. Picture: AAP

Labor has reignited its “Mediscare” campaign, attacking government cuts and promising to reopen a Medicare office in Sydney’s Eastwood if it wins the marginal seat of Bennelong in the upcoming by-election.

Former NSW premier Kristina Keneally, who is trying to win the seat from tennis great and former MP John Alexander, doubled down on her promise to reopen the Eastwood Medicare, which she claimed was shut down by the Liberals in 2015.

“If Labor is elected at a general election, we will reopen the Medicare centre here,” Ms Keneally said at a media conference in Eastwood.

She said that despite Mr Alexander’s promise that the closure of the Medicare office would offer “a better outcome” for people, that wasn’t the case.

“It’s not, John. It’s not,” Ms Keneally said. “Let me be abundantly clear, Liberals. You closed this Medicare centre. You broke it. You own it. You broke the hearts of Eastwood.”

Labor was in power in 2013 when the decision was taken to close a number of Medicare offices, including the one in Eastwood. However, the ALP says the closure took place under the subsequent Liberal government.

Ms Keneally was joined on the hustings by federal Labor leader Bill Shorten, who described the December 16 by-election as “an opportunity for the voters of Bennelong to send Malcolm Turnbull a message that they’re not happy with the direction of the Liberal government in Canberra”.

“Only Labor believes that it should be your Medicare card, not your credit card, that guarantees you quality healthcare here in Australia,” Mr Shorten said.

“John Alexander said it was an ‘exciting change’ to close the office,” Mr Shorten said. “Only people who are truly out of touch think it’s an ‘exciting change’ to withdraw services from ordinary working people.”

Despite cheers and hugs from locals as the pair walked along The Avenue shopping strip, a disgruntled woman, who didn’t want to be named, asked Ms Keneally why she didn’t speak out against disgraced former politicians Eddie Obeid and Ian MacDonald when she was premier.

Meanwhile, John Alexander, who resigned amid the dual citizenship crisis and held the seat on a margin of 9.7 per cent, was out today visiting locals in Top Ryde.

The Liberal candidate is on the back foot after an old video of him telling a rape joke surfaced on YouTube. In the video, filmed in 1995, the Liberal candidate can be heard telling the joke while at a Brisbane pub.

“More than 20 years ago I told crude and inappropriate jokes, which were completely unacceptable and I apologise unreservedly,” Mr Alexander said in a statement provided by his media adviser.

“There is no place for jokes about violence against women. Again, I apologise unreservedly.”

Malcolm Turnbull said it was a “measure of the man,” that Mr Alexander had acknowledged his “utterly unacceptable” joke.

Mr Shorten said that “the comments are crass, they’re wrong, they’re stupid and the apology is 22 years too late”, denying Labor had dredged up the video to damage Mr Alexander’s campaign.