The federal opposition has warned it won’t horse-trade over the government’s planned Medicare co-payment, which looks unlikely to pass through the Senate.
Labor, the Australian Greens and the Palmer United Party (PUP) have all declared they will oppose the $7 payment to see the doctor, which the coalition says will help pay for its new Medical Research Future Fund.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he is open to “horse-trading” to get his government’s first budget through the Senate.
But opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King dispelled any thoughts Labor may be willing to negotiate on the co-payment, which it has dubbed a “GP tax”.
Advertisement
“We will not horse-trade ever on an issue that means that patients, the most vulnerable Australians, will be forced to pay more for their healthcare,” she told ABC Radio on Thursday.
Linking the medical research fund to the co-payment – which will raise $3.5 billion over five years – was “entirely cynical”.
“How cynical to make people pay for it out of the back of a GP tax,” Ms King said.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will deliver his budget reply speech in parliament on Thursday night.
Other budget measures such as pension changes and a hike in the petrol excise could also be blocked by a combination of Labor, Greens and crossbench senators.
The upcoming Senate roadblock has led to a veiled prime ministerial threat of a double dissolution election.
Mr Abbott also warned the crossbenchers would be “unlikely” to retain their seats if there was a new poll.
But Labor finance spokesman Tony Burke said he’d welcome an election fight over the Abbott government’s first budget.
“How unbelievably arrogant of Tony Abbott, for him to think he can pick and choose who would be hurt in a new election after a budget like that,” he told Sky News.
Mr Abbott had “broken faith” with his pre-election commitments.
“And if his view is he wants to go to people again, well the opposition, we’re not going to be saying `please don’t go to the people’,” Mr Burke said.
Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek confirmed the opposition would oppose the pension age increase and pension indexation changes, the petrol excise hike and the Medicare co-payment.
“The destruction of Medicare is something that we cannot tolerate,” she said.
“I would be very happy to fight an election where Labor was saying we built Medicare and we’ll protect it.”
The battle in the Senate is not the only one the government faces, with states banding together to fight $80 billion in education and health cuts.
Mr Abbott has said “grown-up” state governments should be raising revenue for state-run schools and hospitals, and if they want an increase in the GST they should campaign for the tax hike.
Mr Shorten says Labor would not support any rise in the goods and services tax.
“What they’re doing is they’re effectively blackmailing the states into demanding an increase in the GST,” he told the Seven Network.
Government frontbencher Christopher Pyne called on the minor parties, including PUP, to honour the coalition’s reform mandate.
Mr Pyne will negotiate with PUP leader Clive Palmer on the reforms, with the government’s senate leader Eric Abetz to head discussions in the Senate.
“I think by and large we have a mandate to do most of these changes and I think the Senate will recognise that,” Mr Pyne told ABC radio.
“We can’t have a situation in Australia where we’re ungovernable and I think the Senate knows that and I think Mr Palmer is well aware of that.”
But Mr Palmer insisted his party would not support the changes to the pension age, fuel excise and the GP co-payment.
“You imagine being 87 years of age and having to go to the doctor four or five times a week on an income of around $300,” he told Sky News.
“These people have paid their taxes over their entire lifetimes.”
Mr Pyne also called on Mr Shorten, who he dubbed Australia’s “number one whinger”, to use his budget reply on Thursday evening to “explain how he would pay the debt and deficit back”.
Source: AAP