Labor seeks to match Libs
LABOR is seeking to close differences with the Coalition in the final days of the election campaign, going toe-to-toe on rallies and matching Liberal policies, as its own signature Medicare announcement comes under fire.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese received a rock star welcome at his rally in Brisbane on Sunday morning, a mere hour
before Prime Minister Scott Morrison took to the stage at his own campaign launch on the other side of the river.
As he addressed party faithful, Mr Albanese’s $970m strengthening Medicare fund was condemned as “nothing more than a ministerial slush fund” by outgoing Health Minister Greg Hunt, who said the grants program would deliver only $20 a day extra to each GP on average.
Mr Albanese also confirmed Labor would match the Liberal’s housing policy incentivising empty nesters to downsize by allowing them to put up to $300,000 each from the sale of their larger home into superannuation without paying tax.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Mr Albanese had done a “mini me”, criticising him for taking the government’s policies. “I see yet again, Anthony Albanese, another ‘mini-me’, has copied us … on this. This guy doesn’t have an idea of his own,” he said.
Coalition analysis shows the $750m Labor plan to deliver to GPs over three years would barely give each of Australia’s 31,000 practitioners $20 a day – not even enough to cover a basic level A consult for “obvious and straightforward cases”. Mr Hunt said that would not cover one-sixth of the $111.50 cost of a longer 40minute consultation.
“Labor need to explain how this tiny amount will lead to “better management of complex and chronic conditions” when the additional funding won’t go anywhere near funding additional long consults,” he said.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and former prime minister Kevin Rudd were among the Labor dignitaries at the rally.
Mr Albanese said that when Australians voted for a Labor candidate, “you’re voting to make life better – for yourself, your children, your community, your state of Queensland, and your nation”.