Page 3320 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 24 November 1992
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MR BERRY: I firmly believe that the Hewson package will be a disaster for Australia.
Mr Humphries: Explain how.
MR BERRY: It will impact on the ACT in the ways that I have just described. It will force people who cannot afford it into expensive private hospital care. It will reduce their standard of living. It will entrap more people in the poverty trap.
Medicare Agreement
MRS CARNELL: My question is to Mr Berry, the Minister for Health. Is the Minister aware that his Federal counterpart, Brian Howe, is taking the Commonwealth-State Medicare agreement back to Cabinet next Monday because the States that have refused to sign the agreement have correctly identified funding shortfalls and problems with the bonus pool split? The shortfall for the ACT is in excess of $20m. Is the Minister now prepared to admit that committing himself to sign the mark I agreement was not in the best interests of the ACT and may have badly disadvantaged the health of Canberrans?
MR BERRY: No; because I will be negotiating it, not a Liberal. I will be negotiating the detail before the signatures end up on the piece of paper. It has to be signed by the middle of next year. I have made it clear that we are keen to sign the Medicare agreement because on its track record alone it will do better than what Hewson has proposed. It will do much better than what Hewson is proposing for Australia.
Mr Kaine: We are not talking about Dr Hewson's proposals; we are talking about your Government's proposals.
MR BERRY: These people need to understand, if they can stand by without interrupting for just a few moments and if they want these questions answered. It is all right for them to ask them, but not all right for them to listen. If you ask silly questions, expect a tirade about the stupidity of some of the things that you have proposed in your policies. You will just have to cop it. What I have said, very clearly, is that we are keen to sign the Medicare agreement because we know that it will produce for ordinary Australians and we know that on its track record alone it is better than anything that has been promised by the Liberals.
In relation to the signing of the agreement, it has to be signed, as everybody knows, before the middle of next year. There are some fine details that have to be negotiated and the people of the ACT will be better off with somebody from the Labor Party negotiating, rather than somebody from the Liberal Party. All that the Liberals have done in relation to the Medicare agreement is to try political stunts and try to force the other parties into a position where they would agree that there ought to be some sort of subsidisation by ordinary taxpayers for the excesses which have been proposed by Hewson; that is, the attempt to force people into a different sort of health system which is intended to look after the interests of the rich, those who can afford to pay for the expensive private insurance. Let us stop kidding ourselves.
Ms Follett: I ask that further questions be placed on the notice paper.
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