RADIO ABC MELBOURNE | MORNINGS WITH RAF EPSTEIN
SUBJECT/S: Medicare; Chinese Naval Vessels off the Coast of Australia; Ukraine;
RAF EPSTEIN, HOST: Richard Marles is the Deputy Prime Minister, the MP for Corio and the Defence Minister as well. Good morning.
RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Raf. How are you?
EPSTEIN: I’m ok. If the number of GPS bulk billing has dropped under Labor, why should people believe that it’ll stop with this plan?
MARLES: Well, what we saw was a significant increase in the bulk billing incentive over the last couple of years for pension practitioners and younger people, and that has resulted in an increase in bulk billing for those cohorts. What we’re now proposing to do is expand that to a much wider range of people, to everyone. And so we do have a sense of confidence that this will work. But beyond that, what this represents is the biggest investment in Medicare since its creation more than 40 years ago. And by putting in place measures which provide significant incentives to doctors to bulk bill. But the incentives are only provided if they do bulk bill. We are confident that these rates will come up to 90%. That is to say, nine out of 10 visits to a GP will be bulk billed, there’ll be no gap fees and that will be a significant change for people’s experience in visiting the GP.
EPSTEIN: You say they only get the money if they bulk bill. What if the GP thinks they can make more money, they just charge me rather than get the extra Medicare money from the Government. What happens if they do that?
MARLES: Well, then that’s what they do. But the way in which we have, and in a sense, that’s the 1 in 10 that won’t be bulk billed, but where we’ve pitched this in terms of what gap fees are currently being charged, nine out of 10 visits will make more sense for the GP to bulk bill under this initiative. So, that’s exactly how we have put this in place. I mean, there are going to be some GPs who, who have a bigger gap fee than what we’re talking about. But that is literally the 1 in 10. And where we have set this is at a level where the incentive will be there, that the interest, if you like, will be there from the point of view of the GP to bulk bill for nine out of 10 visits.
EPSTEIN: Is there a little part of you that’s disappointed Peter Dutton smashed it?
MARLES: Well, I don’t think that anyone can have much faith in Peter Dutton saying what he said yesterday. I mean, you only need to look at what Peter Dutton did when he was the Minister for Health. He effectively tried to abolish bulk billing through the proposed introduction of a GP tax. But the bottom line here is that the Liberals are still steadfastly talking about the fact that they’re going to cut $350 billion from the federal budget. They’re not walking away from that. And that is such a profound amount of money in terms of the cuts that they’re proposing that you can’t get there without hacking into Medicare. The only way you could save that kind of money in the federal budget is if you absolutely start attacking frontline services, of which Medicare is a key part. And we know their view about this. You know, whatever they said yesterday, the history of the Liberal Party in respect of Medicare has been clear and unambiguous, and their commitment to cut $350 billion out of the budget if they get elected makes it really clear where they’re going to go.
EPSTEIN: Well, what do you make of what Richard Marles has to say? 1300 222 774 is the phone number. He says it’s clear. As Defence Minister, Richard Marles, if I could ask you about something entirely different. Those Chinese navy ships that include a destroyer and a frigate, New Zealand says they’re now 500ks off the east coast of Tasmania. Last week they were less than 300ks from Sydney. And when they used that live ammunition, they only told that Emirates flight when the Emirates flight was in the air, what on earth are those ships doing off our coast?
MARLES: Well, firstly, we are shadowing those vessels and have been from the moment that they came near Australia. So, as they traversed the Northern Australia, as the frigate, which is the smaller of the two combatants, went through the Torres Strait we were following it. They are complying with international law, but it is our right under international law to also be prudently watching.
EPSTEIN: What, so they’re allowed to be there?
MARLES: They are allowed to be there, and we’ve never said they’re not. But we’re also allowed to watch and, you know, I’ve authorised an unprecedented level of surveillance in relation to this, really, from the moment that they came to, you know, near Australia, with the prospect that they might be lingering in our neck of the woods for a period of time.
EPSTEIN: Do you think they’re being provocative?
MARLES: Well, I think it’s important that we, I think, are calm in terms of the way in which we use our language. We are watching them very closely. Navies do do live firing exercises on the high seas and they’re entitled to do that. And to be clear, we do that. Our concern on Friday was that they did this, as you said in your intro, with very little notice. And whilst that complies with international law, it’s much less notice than what we would do in a similar circumstance. And as you say, it meant that flights that were already in the air had to divert. And that was obviously very disconcerting for them. Perhaps to put it in context, when we do exercises of this kind, we would typically give 12 to 24 hours’ notice. And what that means is that it allows any plane, before it has taken off to plan a route around the exercise that we undertake. And obviously, you know, that avoids the situation that occurred on Friday.
EPSTEIN: Can I just make sure I’ve heard that properly. So, they’re allowed to just sort of go with the live fire exercise and just tell the planes as they’re approaching. They’re allowed to do that within the rules.
MARLES: They are. But I might also add, the rules require whenever a live fire exercise is done, irrespective of what notice you’ve given, to assess the immediate environment to make sure that they are done in a safe way. And because of that, we raised our concerns around the shortness of the notice with China, both in Canberra through their embassy and in Beijing through ours. And indeed our Foreign Minister raised this with Minister Wang Yi when she met him in the sidelines of the G20 in South Africa. But we are on the high seas as well. And it’s important to understand that a large part of what the Royal Australian Navy does now is assert the rules based order in places like the South China Sea and areas which are much closer to China. So, you know, our ships are up there. We obviously though always comply with international law. And whenever we see or have experiences and interactions with the Chinese military that we regard as being unprofessional, unsafe, and indeed we had one of those a couple of weeks ago, we very much register our concern and our complaint about that. As we have been shadowing this task group, we have been doing so in a completely professional manner. They’re entitled to be here, but we’re entitled to watch and we are doing that very closely.
EPSTEIN: Richard Marles is the Deputy Prime Minister and the Defence Minister. I will get to calls on 1300 222 774. Richard Marles. It’s the third anniversary of Russia invading Ukraine today. Donald Trump doesn’t think that Russia’s to blame for that. And he talks about America taking Greenland, Panama and Gaza. Is he blowing up your arguments about a rules based order?
MARLES: Well, we make our voice very clearly heard in respect of the importance of the rules based order, as I’m doing now. And we’ve made it really clear in respect of what’s happened in Ukraine. I mean, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not by reference to international law. It was by reference to might and power which is precisely the kind of world which would be a disaster for Australia. And that’s why we see what’s at issue in Ukraine is really the sanctity of the rules based order. It’s why we’ve supported Ukraine to the tune of $1.5 billion. Why there are Australian servicemen and women right now who are training new recruits into the Ukrainian armed forces. And why we will continue to support Ukraine until they are able to resolve this conflict on their terms. And even now, on the third anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, we’ve just announced the biggest list of additional sanctions for people and entities in Russia since the war began. In December announced that our embassy would reopen in Kyiv and our ambassador is there now. I mean, we will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. And we are unequivocal in both our word and our actions in support of Ukraine.
EPSTEIN: He is the ALP member for the seat of Corio, of course. Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. Thanks so much for your time.
MARLES: Pleasure Raf. Thanks for having me.
ENDS