The intention is for the final quarter to be played on Labor’s terms, with Shorten challenging Turnbull to forsake his “small target” strategy and engage in a debate about the future of Medicare, schools and Labor’s new plan to boost jobs through a small business tax cut.
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The coalition says Labor’s claim about Medicare’s privatisation is a desperate attempt to win votes.
After several days of heated discussion surrounding Medicare, Bill Shorten is heading off to South Australia to deliver his “positive plans” for the state.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten arrives for Labor’s campaign launch in western Sydney on Sunday.
This is despite Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull strenuously denying that he will “never ever” privatise Medicare, and calling Mr Shorten’s scare campaign “shocking”.
Mr Turnbull and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton revealed that a boat carrying 21 passengers, the 28th to arrive since the Coalition was elected, was recently turned back to Vietnam, while another was in the Indonesian port of Aceh “attempting to come to Australia”.
Turnbull will launch his conservative Liberal Party’s campaign next weekend.
“I’m really concerned that under the Turnbull Government our hospitals are under threat”, Ms Kearney says.
His three platforms for the upcoming election were more jobs, Medicare reforms and more funding for education.
Shorten said the Government’s task force set up to look at private sector involvement in Medicare’s payments system and a Productivity Commission review of the “contestability” of all human services delivered by the government amounted to privatisation.
“There is a risk that if you outsource too much of government services, you run the risk that you end up with very little talent or capability within government”, he said.
That marked a departure from the AMA’s position in February, under Dr Gannon’s predecessor Brian Owler, when the association raised concerns about “serious privacy issues” arising from outsourcing the payments system.
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“Then when they get these packages of support, they would user services, but the payment would go from the NDIS to the person. And the efficiencies have often been less in reality than they were in promise”, he said.
