Turnbull told his Q&A audience that while the Medicare payments system was badly in need of updating “to get it to a sort of smartphone-era”, the work would be done within government, not outsourced.
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Labor is ramping up its health scare campaign against the Turnbull government, with claims children’s vaccination records will be handed over to private companies.
The Labor faithful gave Julia Gillard, Paul Keating and Bob Hawke a rousing reception as the former prime ministers arrived at the party’s launch in Penrith.
Mr Shorten’s stance would appear to contradict comments made this week by his health spokeswoman Catherine King, who suggested the Government was open to the idea of enlisting the help of the private sector to modernise Medicare’s IT system.
While the PM croaks about “Labor’s lies”, the Opposition Leader roars back that a re-elected Coalition government will take the hammer to Medicare.
Turnbull will launch his conservative Liberal Party’s campaign next weekend.
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.
Labor has dialled up its rhetoric on protecting Medicare as the July 2 election approaches, insisting Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is not being candid about his intentions to privatise elements of the Medicare system.
“What we want to do is make sure that Australians living with a disability or their families caring for them receive packages of support”, he said.
Bill Shorten has declared the Australian election a referendum on Medicare and promised extra help for small business, as he officially launched Labor’s campaign two weeks out from the federal election. “All services provided by Medicare will continue to be provided by Medicare in public hands”.
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The Productivity Commission is looking at how to implement recommendations from a review of competition policy which have been accepted by the Coalition. Now the Liberals are trying to pull off the biggest fraud of this campaign. “And the efficiencies have often been less in reality than they were in promise”, he said.
