Prime minister has called for a bipartisan approach to health issues while saying he is ‘disappointed’ in opposition

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Health is emerging as a key battleground of the 2019 election campaign, with prime minister Scott Morrison accusing Labor of “misrepresenting and politically weaponising” disability services.

In a press conference to officially announce a royal commission into disability abuse, Morrison, who is expected to make the trip to Yarralumla as early as Sunday to ask for an election, said he would look at Labor’s $3.2bn cancer funding announcement.

But, while calling for a more bipartisan approach to health and disability issues, Morrison said he was soundly disappointed with Labor’s response to the $1.6b underspend in the NDIS, which he said was a demand-driven package and remained fully funded.

“As I said in the House yesterday, this is a matter that should bring all Australians together and I’m disappointed that once again Bill Shorten is seeking to drive Australians apart and [playing] partisan politics on something as important as this,” he said.

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“… It can’t have its funding reduced because it is an uncapped program. It has every single resource that it requires. And the Labor Party knows that. Why would they seek to misrepresent that? I even heard Anthony Albanese said this morning that we were cutting things back to pay for a royal commission. That is shameful.”

After Tuesday’s budget was handed down, Shorten told Sky News there were families who weren’t getting the support they need.

“I know people with disability and I know their families. I know there’s many families crying out for support to which they’re entitled and not getting,” he said.

“I don’t think they’ll be very happy that the government’s trying to write a political dividend from them.”

The skirmish follows a pledge by Labor to make almost all cancer scans free as part of their budget commitments. This would cover x-rays, mammograms, PET and CT scans and ultrasounds, as well as expanding the number of MRI machines available in health centres.

Morrison said he would examine the policy, but said he believed Labor had failed to cover all health areas.

“I think on issues of treating cancer there can be absolute unanimity of view across politics and secondly, I would hope there would be the same thing when it comes to dealing with the challenge of youth suicide and youth mental health,” he said.

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Health funding is likely to be a significant issue in the coming election, with Labor having already pledged to replace the funding forecast increases cut by the 2014 Abbott-Hockey budget, and planning to centre local campaigns on cuts to public hospital funding.

Morrison has already laid the groundwork for the government’s response, accusing the opposition of “lying” on health funding, while maintaining there was not much daylight between the two parties on health commitments.

“They made these promise on affordable medicines before. They have. They said they’d do it and then when they were in government, they didn’t list medicines because they ran out of money,” he said.

Anticipating the government’s PBS attack, Labor has also guaranteed to list every drug recommended by independent experts. At the same time, Shorten laid the groundwork for Labor’s Medicare campaign.

“We view Medicare as fundamental to what it means to be Australian,” Shorten said.

“Under this government, the cost of seeing a GP has gone up. Under the government the cost of seeing a specialist has even gone up a bit more.

“Labor is the only party saying we want to tackle the cost of living and healthcare costs, it is just so good for people in the fight of their lives, we are very passionate about this, we think this could make a major difference to people.”