‘He’s playing with people’s health and hopes’: Claims the cost of Bill Shorten’s new cancer policy will ‘blow out by almost $6BILLION’
- Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has promised to pay all cancer medical bills
- He announced his $2.3billion policy in his Budget-in-reply speech on April 4
- Health Minister Greg Hunt accused Mr Shorten of having a $5.7billion black hole
- Mr Hunt said Labor’s policy would cost $6.8billion not $2.3billion over four years
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has been accused of giving cancer sufferers false hope with his plan to pay all of their out-of-pocket medical expenses.
The government claims there’s a cost blowout of almost $6billion in Labor’s figures.
Five years after his mother Ann died of breast cancer, Mr Shorten delivered a Budget-in-reply speech where he promised a Labor government led by him would dedicate $2.3billion over four years to fund six million free cancer scans, X-rays and mammograms.
‘I saw it with my Mum and her battle with breast cancer,’ he told Parliament on April 4.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten (pictured with his late mother Ann) has been accused of giving cancer sufferers false hope with his plan to pay all their out-of-pocket medical expenses
‘Cancer is frightening, it’s isolating, it’s exhausting.’
Far from costing $2.3billion, Mr Hunt released Department of Health figures showing Labor’s policy would cost $6.8billion over four years, before visits to doctors were even factored in.
The difference was $4.5billion.
With an election campaign now underway, Health Minister Greg Hunt has accused the Opposition Leader of getting his costs wrong to the tune of $5.7 billion, with the government’s own arithmetic criticising Labor failing to add up.
‘Mr Shorten has been caught out making false promises,’ he said in a statement on Monday.
The Health Minister described the promise as being worse than Labor’s 2016 election campaign, which accused former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull of plotting to privatise Medicare.
Five years after his mother, Mr Shorten delivered a Budget-in-reply speech where he promised a Labor government led by him would dedicate $2.3billion over four years to fund six million free cancer scans, X-rays and mammograms
‘This is worse than “Mediscare” because he is playing with people’s health and hopes,’ Mr Hunt said.
‘It is a disgraceful abuse of high office – a $5.7 billion black-hole is proof of that – not only can’t Labor manage money, they can’t manage health and they do not deserve to be trusted to manage the country.’
This was based on 421 cancer treatments subsidised under the Medicare Benefit Schedule, with 13.8million cancer-related services performed every year.
Daily Mail Australia has sought a response from Labor’s federal campaign team.
With an election campaign now underway, Health Minister Greg Hunt (picutred) has accused the Opposition Leader of getting his costs wrong to the tune of $5.7billion
Mr Shorten’s mother, Dr Ann Rosemary Shorten (centre), died aged 79 in April 2014. She obtained a PhD in 1976 from Melbourne’s Monash University as she raised Bill Shorten (left) and his twin brother Robert (right), and later became a senior lecturer
Mr Shorten’s mother, Dr Ann Rosemary Shorten, died aged 79 in April 2014.
She obtained a PhD in 1976 from Melbourne’s Monash University as she raised Mr Shorten and his twin brother Robert, and later became a senior lecturer.
The late Dr Shorten graduated with first-class honours in 1985 from Monash University, and won the Supreme Court Prize and the Flos Greig Memorial Prize, the same year the Opposition Leader began an arts and law degree at the same university.
Mr Hunt appears in danger of losing his once-safe Victorian Mornington Peninsula electorate of Flinders, with betting agency Sportsbet putting his odds at $1.80, compared $2 for Labor.