Health Minister and Opposition face off at the National Press Club

In a blistering showdown at the National Press Club, Federal Health Minister, Mark Butler, and his Opposition counterpart Senator Anne Ruston laid bare their parties’ health policies – with the Coalition accusing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of exploiting the nation’s most vulnerable for political gain.

Labelling the Prime Minister a “political vulture,” Shadow Health Minister, Senator Ruston, launched a scathing attack on Labor’s $8.5 billion campaign promise that Australians will “see a GP for free” and only need to take their Medicare card” to the doctor – a vision she claimed is a political mirage.

“Are you misleading voters?” Senator Ruston questioned. “Australians deserve better than their politicians fighting, lying and [running] scare campaigns. While the PM is out there waving his Medicare card around and trying to lie his way back to the Lodge, Australians are living with the reality that our health system is under real pressure at the moment.”

The Coalition doubled down, insisting it would not slash hospital funding, promising cheaper medicines and keeping all urgent care clinics open under a Dutton-led government.

“We rule out any cuts to hospital funding and the Coalition will never move to a US-style healthcare system. These are just Labor lies,” emphasised Senator Ruston. “We’ll increase investment into Medicare as we always have and always will. We’ll prioritise workforce because we understand no policy can be achieved without the workforce to deliver it.”

Minister Butler hit back with force, accusing Peter Dutton of orchestrating the Medicare crisis when he was last health minister – and warning of more cuts under a future Coalition government.

“Peter Dutton outlined his plan for a so-called sustainable Medicare, $50bn ripped out of public hospitals, a tax on every visit to the GP for every man, woman, pensioner and child,” Minister Butler said. “When Labor blocked that vandalism in the Senate, Peter Dutton responded by freezing the Medicare rebates for six long years, ripping billions of dollars out of general practice.”

He added, “Those nine years of nasty cuts and calculated neglect have precipitated the crisis that confronts us today. Only months before that speech to the Press Club, of course, Peter Dutton had looked Australians in the eye and promised that there would be no cuts to health.”

The debate intensified further in the Q&A session, when the Coalition’s plan to axe 41,000 public servants came under scrutiny, with questions raised about its potential impact on the Health Department.

Senator Ruston was adamant frontline services would be spared, saying “No frontline services will be even considered as part of this.”

“We have a crisis in workforce,” she said. “It’s the biggest crisis, I think, that is facing health care at the moment, because without the workforce to be able to deliver the outcomes in health care, we cannot possibly deliver them.”

She further explained, “What we want to see is – we want to see an efficient investment in frontline services, so we’ve got the doctors trained, we’ve got the nurses, we’ve got the allied health workers, the carers, people working in the NDIS and disability.

“We need to make sure that we are focused on delivering services to Australians – not public servants sitting behind desks in Canberra, but actually making sure that we are delivering our healthcare system in Australia for the benefit of everyday Australians that need that care and support, which right now, quite frankly, they’re not getting.”

Minister Butler rejected her assurances, warning that slashing public service roles would devastate the delivery of health initiatives.

“The Coalition has said that national security and frontline services are exempt from the 41,000 job reductions or job cuts,” he said. “That leaves on the analysis of the Public Service Commission, a little over 60,000 jobs in the frame for 41,000 jobs going. That includes all of the Department of Health. This is going to be devastating to our capacity to implement health programs.”

The debate hit a final flashpoint over the future of a proposed Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC). Minister Butler claimed the Coalition would cut it, while Senator Ruston dismissed the accusation as a “lie.”

“All I would say to you, minister, is that you made a promise to the Australian public about the formation of a CDC,” she said. “I have not seen any legislation about the establishment of the CDC and I find it quite interesting that you’re suggesting that we import, by the sound of things, the American-style CDC into Australia, when by all accounts, Australia’s response to the Covid pandemic was one of the best in the world.”

With just days left before the election, the message is clear: both sides are ready for a bare-knuckled fight over the nation’s health policies – and neither is backing down.

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