‘We don’t want our health system to be more American’, PM says
Finally, the prime minister pitches this year’s election as “so much more than a choice between two different parties or two different plans”.
On every different issue that matters, jobs and wages, education and skills, energy and housing, cost of living and the economy, the difference and the contrast between us and our opponents is night and day. When the Liberals left office, inflation was rising, wages were falling and interest rates were going up. Together, we have turned this around. Under the Liberals, inflation had a six in front of it and was rising. Under Labor, inflation has a two in front of it and is falling.
My fellow Australians, this election is a make or break moment for Medicare. A re-elected Labor government will make it easier for Australians to see a doctor for free. We will make Medicare stronger than it has ever been. But if the Liberals get their way, they will break bulk billing and break the promise that Medicare is built on. Through half a century of change, through everything the world has thrown at Australia, Labor’s commitment to universal healthcare has never, ever wavered.
Labor built Medicare for Australia and it was built on the Australian values of fairness and opportunity for all. We don’t want our health system to be more American. We don’t need to copy the ideologies of any nation. We only want our health system to be more Australian.
Only Labor is building stronger Medicare and only Labor is building Australia’s future. Thanks very much.
Key events
Catie McLeod
Banana growers expect to face longer-term effects on fruit production
In the 2022-23 financial year, banana production was worth more than $583m, according to the growers’ council.
Collins, who grows bananas on farms at Tully and Lakeland near Cairns, said the recent flooding could have a longer-term effect on fruit production.
While some losses were immediately apparent – for example, to roads and irrigation – the long-term impact on production is starting to become clear.
He said many affected banana farmers were still looking at clean-up costs of more than $25,000.
The deputy chair of the council, Stephen Lowe, previously told Guardian Australia that while only a small percentage of flooded farms’ banana trees would be destroyed, a far larger proportion would have waterlogged roots.
Catie McLeod
Banana prices returning to normal as north Queensland roads reopen
Bananas are expected to return to their usual retail prices as the “backlog” of demand eases amid the cleanup from serious flooding in northern Queensland, growers say.
Farmers in the region – which produces almost 94% of Australia’s banana crop – have been grappling with the fallout from devastating floods earlier this month.
Queensland’s gulf country was hit by heavy rainfall that lasted more than a week, leading to flooding that isolated entire towns including Ingham, killed two people and forced hundreds more to evacuate.
The Australian Banana Growers Council chair, Leon Collins, said there had not been an immediate banana shortage and that any gaps in supply and price fluctuation were due to extended road closures.
Thankfully, we do not expect this to last for much longer as roads are now open and the backlog is clearing. There has never been a shortage of bananas – just a lack of options to get them out of far north Queensland.
He urged the government to prioritise improving road infrastructure in the region, saying the banana industry had been losing approximately $20m a week while the Bruce highway and alternate routes were cut off by flood waters.
The disruption to supply from northern Queensland meant major supermarkets turned to the much smaller community of growers in northern New South Wales, according to Coffs Harbour banana farmer Paul Shoker.
Shoker said he usually sold his Cavendish bananas – the most popular commercial variety – locally but had been supplying them to Coles and Woolworths to sell in Sydney and other metropolitan locations since the floods.
Coles is selling Cavendish bananas online for $0.77 each or $4.50/kg. Woolworths is selling them for $0.86 each and does not have a price per kilogram available on its website.
Shoker said before the flooding, both major supermarkets had been promoting a back to school special, with bananas on sale for $2.50 a kilo.
I think we will see in the coming week prices easing a little, but I expect bananas to still be around that $4.50/kg to reflect the fact they’re not cheap to grow. At $4.50, generally speaking, growers are breaking even.
Can parliament legislate bulk-billing changes before the election?
With Peter Dutton urging Labor to legislate their investment into Medicare prior to the federal election, let’s have a look at dates.
The federal budget is due to be handed down on 25 March. Both houses are next due to sit from 25 to 27 March, and again after Anzac Day.
The last date the next federal election can be held is 17 May, and there can be no fewer than 33 days between an election being called and hitting the polls – which means it must be called by 14 April at the latest.
In other words, it’s a tight squeeze.
Dutton calls for parliament to reconvene before election to pass Medicare legislation
On to questions: Dutton is asked if he can rule out other cuts in government spending, such as hospitals or the NDIS, to fund the changes.
He says all you need to do is “have a look at our track record”.
We support legislation that the government has put forward in this term of parliament, which provides an underpinning of support to the NDIS and funds into those two important areas.
I just make this point. The prime minister obviously doesn’t want to go to a budget. Now, I think the prime minister is running from a budget because he doesn’t have a good story to tell. The cost of everything is up.
He calls for Albanese to make sure the parliament sits again prior to the election so that the legislation can be passed.
That can happen unless the prime minister runs to an early election. If he’s running to an early election to get away from delivering a budget, you know that he’s hiding the numbers. You know that he has no good story to tell about the achievements of this government over the last three years … So I think the onus is on the prime minister to make sure the parliament sits as scheduled and we can legislate to provide a guarantee around this funding, which is important for general practice.
And that is something we would support, and we’re happy to sit down and help draft the legislation with the government.
Ruston accuses Labor of “using one of the most important issues facing Australia … as a scare campaign”.
Yesterday in their press release, all they could do is talk about Peter Dutton. Today in the press conference, all Mr Albanese could talk about is Peter Dutton.
Peter Dutton, a man who has got a very strong and proud track record as the leader of the opposition, but also his time as the health minister … We will support them fixing the mess, because we believe that Australians deserve to have the support, the primary care support underpinned by Medicare.
Ruston says Coalition would double number of Medicare-supported mental health sessions
Ruston says the Coalition particularly backs announcements into the workforce to leverage the number of GPs and a strong primary care workforce.
On the eve of the election, the government has obviously seen the need to … back a strong primary care workforce, because a strong primary care workforce backs in Medicare.
But we remain very, very disappointed that despite us saying that we would restore the cuts made by the Albanese government early on in their period in government to cut Medicare supported mental health sessions for the 240,000 Australians who live with chronic and severe and complex mental health conditions that was slashed in half by this government in early in the first part of this term.
So we have said that we will reinstate those. We will reinstate the cuts made by Labor, by doubling the number of Medicare-supported mental health sessions for Australians who so desperately, desperately need it.
Shadow health minister says Australians ‘have been successively denied’ by Labor on health
The shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, follows Dutton. She says the Coalition “will not stand in the way of a mess that the Labor government have made”.
By absolutely every measure the Albanese government has failed Australians on health … We know that bulk-billing rates have plummeted 11% just in the last three years. They went up 6% under us.
As Peter said today, we will match dollar for dollar the announcements that have been made by the government, in addition to the mental health supports that have already been committed by Peter Dutton for a Coalition government.
We will do that because Australians deserve the quality healthcare that they have been successively denied over the last three years. And also, we will not stand in the way of a mess that the Labor government have made, that they’re now seeking to try and remedy.
Coalition funding would ensure GP practices are ‘viable’: Dutton
Dutton says there is a “cost-of-living crisis” occurring in Australia where families can’t afford groceries or items in their household budgets.
He says the additional funding to the healthcare system will go towards training, mental health services and ensuring practices are “viable” and can provide a “mix of services to patients”.
And it’s not just households. There are 27,000 small businesses which have collapsed over the last three years … and importantly, 272 GP practices have closed over the course of the last three years … the prime minister might tell you different things about health and the investment in it, but the outcomes are very different.
So I’m pleased to announce today that a Coalition government is committed to $9bn worth of investment in to our general practice network. It will provide support to training. It will provide support to mental health services, and it will provide support to making sure that practices are viable and can provide a mix of services to patients.
And it will help build those bulk-billing rates back up to what they were under a Coalition government.
Dutton says Coalition will invest $500m more than Labor in GP network
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, is speaking now from Albany Creek in Queensland in response to Labor’s Medicare announcement.
As he flagged earlier, the Coalition has backed the proposed funding and says the party will commit $9bn towards the general practice network, going further than the $8.5bn promised by Labor.
Dutton says the Coalition “always manages the economy more effectively, and that’s why we can afford to invest into health and education services and other important needs for Australians”.
It’s important that we have a balanced investment into the health system and when we were in government, we invested significantly into health. We also increased the bulk billing rate.
Tropical cyclones expected to form off northern Queensland and WA coasts
Joe Hinchliffe
Two tropical cyclones could form off the Australian coast on Sunday – one off the north-east and the other the north-west coast – the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts.
Both weather systems are well offshore but that near Queensland in particular will be closely monitored, with both states already reeling from natural disasters – although the system off Western Australia is not predicted to impact the state.
The bureau issued a tropical cyclone information bulletin at 10:45am Sunday for a tropical low in the Coral Sea about 730km east-north-east of Cairns.
The low was moving east-north-east at 13 kilometres an hour, the bureau said, and was expected to develop into a tropical cyclone later that day.
The weather system was expected to continuing building strength as it turned south-east and then south during the week.
“Considerable uncertainty exists in the track the system will take beyond that, but there is a risk it will move closer to the central Queensland coast later in the week,” the bulletin said.
Whether or not the cyclone itself makes landfall, it could still bring heavy rain to the state – large swathes of which are still recovering from disastrous flooding.
Earlier on Sunday the bureau issued a separate cyclone bulletin for a tropical low 890km north-west of Exmouth in the Indian Ocean.
It was moving towards the south-west and was expected to strengthen slowly throughout the day, possibly reaching tropical cyclone strength Sunday but more likely during Monday.
It was expected to start weakening on Wednesday and not have any direct impacts on any Australian mainland or island communities from that system.
