Transcript: Interview with Graeme Goodings, FIVEAA - 30 April 2025

TRANSCRIPT

Interview with Graeme Goodings, FIVEAA

30 April 2025

Subjects: Coalition’s health policies, mental health support, Labor’s Mediscare lies, home care wait list, Labor’s proton therapy broken promise, the clear choice at this election

EO&E..................................................................

Graeme Goodings: Both the Albanese Government and the Coalition have unveiled key health policies focused on improving access to health care. Labor's health policy focuses on expanding Medicare. The Coalition's health policy also supports Medicare funding. While both parties prioritise Medicare, Labor focuses on reducing costs for patients, whereas the Coalition emphasises infrastructure development and regional health. Now we've spoken to Health Minister Mark Butler on a previous occasion. Joining me now is Senator Anne Ruston, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Health spokesman. Senator, good morning to you.

Anne Ruston: Good morning, Graeme.

Graeme Goodings: Does that encapsulate it? I mean, are your health policies pretty similar?

Anne Ruston: We have got some very strong health policies that are reflected similarly with the Government's policies, but most particularly about making sure Australians have got affordable access to healthcare. The cold hard reality is that - I'm sure all of your listeners know - it's never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor and that is the principal crisis that's before Australia at the moment, is the deterioration in access to primary care over the last three years. So that's very strongly a focus. But we also are, as you rightly point out, we're focused on mental health, because we know talking to Australians that that's a really big issue, particularly with parents. And also making sure that people who live in rural, regional and remote communities are also getting access to the healthcare they deserve, which we believe shouldn't matter what your postcode is, you should be able to get access to good healthcare.

Graeme Goodings: Now, the Prime Minister has attacked Peter Dutton, sort of saying that he intends to slash Medicare, and he's pulled out his Medicare card saying this is the only card you need. How do you respond to that?

Anne Ruston: Well, I'd say that I think it's really disappointing that the Prime Minister would lie to Australians about something as important as access to their health care. I mean, the cold hard reality is the experience of the everyday Australian out on the ground is that when they go to the doctor, they are having to pay more out of their pocket than they ever have before. And the Department of Health's own accounts show that Australians are paying the highest amount of out-of-pocket costs, bulk billing has plummeted by 11%, people are quite frankly not going to see the doctor - 1.5 million Australians last year said they didn't go to a doctor because they couldn't afford to do so. So, the Prime Minister can run around making all the promises that he'd like in the world, but that's not the reality that Australians feeling on the ground when they try and get an appointment, and if they do get one, they have to pay a huge amount out of their own pockets.

Graeme Goodings: Peter Dutton's pledge to cut the jobs of 41,000 public servants, will that impact the Health Department?

Anne Ruston: We have been very, very clear, Graeme, that we want to see more invested in frontline services, more invested in our nurses and our doctors and our GP training, making sure that Australians are getting the services they need. What we've said is the additional public servants that have been put on by this government, public servants sitting behind desks in Canberra, are not where we want the investment. We want the investments out there where people are really doing it tough at the moment, where people have been struggling to get the services that they need, as we've pointed out in health care, in aged care, in disability care, right across the board. We want to make sure frontline services are the priority, not desks in Canberra.

Graeme Goodings: Mark Butler said that the Coalition's going to cut PBS support, hospital networks and urgent care clinics. Is that the case?

Anne Ruston: Mark Butler is telling Australians lies, and I think it's really disgusting that Mark Butler and Anthony Albanese would say lies to Australians about something as important as health care. But the reality is, he has nothing positive to tell you about his time in government. So what he reverts to do is lies and scare campaigns that he knows aren't true. And I think the average Australian should actually look at the facts and figures. Don't listen to what Mark Butler and Anthony Albenese say. Actually look at what the National Accounts tell you, and people feel it in their own pockets. I mean, people can be lied to but they know what their own experience is, and so it's really disappointing that all we've seen in health so far from this government is a whole heap of lies

Graeme Goodings: Now, we've had numerous calls to the station about foreshadowed pathology cuts. They go to their pathologist up on the wall, it says from July the 1st, 2025, the federal government plans to reduce pathology funding by $356 million. What would the coalition do as a government? Would you restore those costs or continue them or what would happen?

Anne Ruston: Well, that issue has been raised to me during the campaign by the pathology sector, about the concerns they have about cuts to - once again, cuts by this government to services. What I would like to do is have the opportunity, should I be fortunate enough to be elected by the people of Australia to become the next Health Minister, to sit down with the pathology sector, like I have been sitting down with all sectors, to make sure we have got the best fit-for-purpose health system in Australia that's focusing on delivering what Australians need right now.

Graeme Goodings: We have an ageing population, particularly here in South Australia. Would you be doing more than the Government is to help an ageing population?

Anne Ruston: This government has failed older Australians. It's quite extraordinary that we have now got 83,000 older Australians who have been assessed as needing home care packages, that is assessed as needing care, who haven't received them. I mean, we've seen a government ration home care packages to the extent that the waiting list has tripled. We're now seeing older Australians who, particularly those that are more vulnerable, the ones that are needing higher level packages, waiting 15 to 18 months before they're able to get access to the care they've been assessed as needing. Quite frankly, people are dying waiting for home care packages in Australia and that is totally unacceptable and it needs to be addressed.

Graeme Goodings: On the subject of mental health services, it's an area that's been totally underfunded for far too long. What are your plans in that area?

Anne Ruston: Well, we've had a very strong commitment to mental health funding when we were last in government and we put in place the mental health and suicide prevention plan, which we funded in excess of $2.6 billion and had a plan to continue that funding. The first thing this government did when it came into power was to cut access to [Medicare] mental health subsidised sessions for Australians with more chronic and complex mental health conditions from 20 to 10. I mean, for no other health condition would you turn around and say to somebody who had been assessed as needing X amount of treatment, you can only have half of them. So first and foremost, we will restore the Medicare cut that this government made to mental health sessions. We also understand that youth mental health is a really, really big challenge. So many parents tell me that youth mental health is really a big issue. What we want to do is to make sure, going forward, that we have a world-leading focus on youth mental health. And as part of that, we have invested $400 million specifically into that area, youth mental health. But as well as that, we want to set up an Institute so that we can claim and make sure that we are continuing to invest in world's best practises in addressing youth mental health, because nothing could be more important to the development of Australia than a healthy young Australian population.

Graeme Goodings: Both the Government and the Coalition seem to be shying away any suggestion of adding dental to Medicare. What are your thoughts?

Anne Ruston: Well, right now, the biggest crisis we have is Australians can't afford to get into their GP. So first and foremost, we must make sure primary care is accessible and affordable for every Australian, because we don't want to continue to see what we're seeing at the moment where Australians are ending up in emergency departments, they're ending up ramped on hospital ramps, because they haven't gone to see the doctor because they simply couldn't get in or they couldn't afford to. That is the number one crisis that we must be addressing now. We also need to get our economy back on track, because it's a strong economy that affords us to be able to provide the essential services that Australians rely on. So I think it's very much right now, the biggest crisis we've got is primary care, but obviously down the track there are many things that we would like to look at, but right now it's making sure you can get in to see your doctor and you can afford to do so when you can.

Graeme Goodings: Now, Senator, you're no doubt aware of the $500 million Bragg Centre, the large multi-story building on North Terrace. We had a big story on it this morning. We spoke to Billy Tuckerman, whose daughter had to undergo proton therapy at a cost of half a million dollars, had to go overseas because no proton therapy system operates in Australia, although there are 135 in the Northern Hemisphere. This was going to be a focal point for treatment in Australia. The building lies dormant. What would the Coalition do, if anything, to get that up and running?

Anne Ruston: Well, we originally put forward $68 million for the proton therapy at the Bragg Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Adelaide, and at the time it was a bipartisan commitment - the Labor Party who was in opposition at the also supported it. And it's really disappointing to see that it's failed to be delivered. I tried to prosecute this issue with Federal Department officials last year during estimates, but I got no answers at all. And I think the South Australian Treasurer has belled the cat by saying that it is a failure on the part of the Federal Government to get this negotiated and in place, but nonetheless it's a really sad indictment that we hear stories like on the front page of our paper today, the stories that you've just talked about, that the promise to those 2,000 cancer patients every year that would have been able to use this facility, the potentially 800 lives that could have been saved by this amazing facility, has yet to come to fruition. It needs to be resolved, it needs to resolved in a hurry and I think it's a sad indictment on the Federal Labor Government and the State Labor Government that they have not been able to deliver this to South Australia. Because they promised it and it's just another broken promise. Very disappointing.

Graeme Goodings: There are three days of campaigning to go. The polls aren't looking good for you. Are you confident of a Coalition victory?

Anne Ruston: Well, I think that Australians have got a really strong choice and clear choice as they go into the polling booth, and that is, do they want three more years like the last three years - and I don't know too many Australians who would say that they're feeling better off now than they were three years ago - or a strong plan that I think the Coalition has put forward. But elections, democractic elections will be - and people will vote as they choose, but I think we've got a very, very strong argument why Australians should be considering voting for a Coalition government. We've got a plan for their future. And as I say, I don't think Australians want to live through another three years like the last three years.

Graeme Goodings: Senator, thanks so much for your time today.

Anne Ruston: Thanks, Graeme.

ENDS