“Four pages of his speech [were] devoted to Medicare and … the Labor Party is now making a big push in the final two weeks of this campaign to claim that the Government has a plan to privatise Medicare”, he said.
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As the government underscored this by preparing campaign posters featuring Malcolm Turnbull vowing to protect Medicare, a key business group slammed both major parties for their actions, which could cost the nation potentially billions in savings.
Since 2014, the government has been considering privatising Medicare payments as a way of upgrading the system, which is reaching its use-by date, and saving money along the way.
Of course at a campaign launch you would expect the room to be full of the party faithful, but as Uhlmann pointed out, Mr Shorten “made a lot of the fact he was leading a team”.
Jones said that Labor’s promise of a return to surplus within five years was based on increasing revenue, to which Mr Turnbull replied: “I’ve never heard them explain it quite as well as you”.
“We just don’t want there to be any sense of doubt in the minds of the public”, he said.
When asked why his government planned to cut tax rates for big businesses, including foreign companies, Mr Turnbull stressed that this would not kick in for eight years.
Referring to the acts of terror like Sunday’s Orlando massacre which he said were perpetrated to divide along lines of race, religion, sect and sexuality, Mr Turnbull said “that kind of hatred and division must not prevail”.
Mr Shorten also promised not to go ahead with Mr Turnbull’s planned cuts to bonus payments for pathologists and radiologists who bulk-bill.
“The Government mantra has been jobs and growth from the outset”.
“We will continue to improve the way in which Medicare interacts, interfaces with its customers, with citizens and patients, is delivered, but it will all be done by Government and within Government”, he said.
When asked if he would consider shifting funding back to the Australia Council, Mr Turnbull says, “I understand the Australia Council would prefer to have more discretionary spending in its own hands, but it’s something I inherited from my predecessor’s administration and Mitch [Fifield] inherited from [former Arts Minister] George [Brandis]”. “We can do anything but we’ve got to be innovative, got to be competitive, got to be productive”.
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“If we can outsource this important area, well then let’s do it”.
