Dr Con Costa, President of the Doctors Reform Society said:

"The budget for Health is a political manoevre designed to get votes.  It indicates that this Government has no commitment to a humane and efficient public health system.  The provisions for selected groups of voters do nothing for the most important areas of health care.  But they have to be paid for by the taxpayer whose taxes surely should benefit all of us (especially from a Government which claims to run the country for all of us!).

Everyone, from the State Health Ministers down to the actual patients, is aware of this Government’s failure to properly fund the hospitals.  Nothing in this budget has even begun to tackle this major problem.

The increase in the GP rebate is a band-aid where major surgery is necessary.  Bulk-billing (which the Government’s pollsters have consistently identified as being important to patients) is under threat despite the belated small rebate increase.

There is nothing in this budget which indicates that the Government has a sincere commitment to our public hospitals.  On the contrary, there seems to be an attitude that the majority of Australians will simply have to put up with understaffed and technologically backward facilities.  The Government’s friends presumably think that private care will cover them.  They may be shocked when, as a result of an emergency, they find themselves in a run-down ward staffed by overworked, highly-stressed nurses and doctors".

13 May, 1998

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