"I can say to the people of Australia that this election and their vote on July 2 will determine the future of Medicare," Mr Shorten said. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten meets with volunteers at the SA Labor campaign office. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "You can vote Labor and make sure we keep the price of our healthcare system down and that we keep it in government hands, or you can vote Liberal and ... we will head down the path of an Americanised healthcare system, where how much you earn will determine the quality of your healthcare." The future of Medicare has dominated the final weeks of the federal election campaign, despite Mr Turnbull declaring "'Medicare will never, ever be privatised" and labelling the claims "the biggest lie of the campaign". A series of Labor figures have accused the Coalition of wanting to privatise Medicare in recent days, including Mr Shorten, former prime minister Bob Hawke, health spokeswoman Catherine King, employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor and deputy leader Tanya Plibersek.

Mr Shorten said voters had told him to make sure Medicare could not be harmed. Mr Keating accused the ABC's 7.30 program of being 'a news magazine, instead of a hard new breaking operation'. Credit:ABC 7.30 "Malcolm Turnbull is running dishonest ads where he says he guarantees Medicare funding," he said. "I've said that they have plans to privatise the payment system and those plans do exist. A screenshot of a Labor website claiming the Liberal Party wants to privatise Medicare.

"I've said they've set up a Productivity Commission investigation to look at the outsourcing and privatisation of human services." He argued the payment system was at the heart of Medicare and selling it off would not be in the best interest of voters. "I do say to Australians you can trust Labor to defend Medicare, you just can't trust Mr Turnbull and his Liberal team to run Medicare in the interest of all Australians." On Thursday, the Australian Medical Association said outsourcing of the payment system would not amount to a full privatisation. AMA president Michael Gannon backed some outsourcing and said new technology was needed. Sales also grilled the Labor leader over his plans for offshore processing of asylum seekers.

"The Liberal Party has been trying to say to Australians that we have a different plan to them in terms of deterring people smugglers," Mr Shorten said. "They should be ashamed of themselves for running that argument because we don't." Asked if the government's claims about Labor's position on boats was the same as his own Medicare scare campaign, Mr Shorten said he would maintain the same policies as the Coalition to stop boats arriving in Australia. "Mr Turnbull has said in the future he wants to cut Medicare, I'm talking about Mr Turnbull's future plans. "It's not even their past record on Medicare. Whoever wins the election on July 2, the people smugglers are not going to be back in operation," he said.