Treasurer Joe Hockey insists the government still intends to bring the GP co-payment proposal before Parliament.Photo: Andrew Meares
Government MPs are directly contradicting each other about the future of the GP co-payment, days after the Prime Minister’s office and the Treasurer were at loggerheads about government support for the controversial budget measure.
The confusion is so great mystified MPs have resorted to jokingly asking journalists what the government’s policy is on the co-payment.
Treasurer Joe Hockey and Health Minister Peter Dutton insisted the policy was not dead, despite reports earlier in the week, based on briefings from the Prime Minister’s office, that the $7 fee to visit the doctor was a “barnacle” that would be removed.
Reports emerged on Saturday that the Prime Minister personally requested the Treasurer defend the policy despite Mr Abbott’s office telling journalists it was dumped.
One Minister said while the matter had not gone to Cabinet they believed the policy would be dumped, in recognition of its political unpopularity in the parliament.
This view was backed by the South Australian Liberal MP Andrew Southcott who said, “My working assumption is that the $7 co-payment is not proceeding and that the government is looking at alternatives to address the sustainability of Medicare”.
But the Victorian Liberal Kelly O’Dwyer told the ABC: “I can assure you that it is our policy and there are good reasons for it”.
Another minister said the government could look at other ways of introducing a price signal into the Medicare system but said if it could be done through regulation, like the recent increase to the fuel excise, that tactic would already have been deployed.
Several MPs speaking on the condition of anonymity expressed their frustration and employed black humour saying they were better off asking journalists whether the government supported the measure or not.
Queensland National MP George Christensen publicly acknowledged the policy limbo telling Fairfax Media “We’ll have to wait until all the barnacles are scraped off to know what we’re advocating in terms of government policy that hasn’t made it through the parliament yet”.
Mr Christensen has previously called for the GP co-payment to be exempted for pensioners and on Sunday described it as “bloody difficult policy” to sell.
TheFinancial Review reported Mr Abbott phoned Mr Hockey and Mr Dutton urging them to back retaining the GP co-payment on Thursday morning, however the Prime Minister speaks to his Treasurer and a range of his cabinet minister’s daily..
Mr Hockey subsequently backed retaining the GP co-payment while speaking at a book launch that he had been scheduled to attend for several weeks.
Labor and a majority of crossbench senators have said they oppose the GP fee but the legislation has not been introduced into the house or put to the test in the upper house.