Health Minister breaks another promise to local women

12-August-2009

Health Minister Nicola Roxon has broken another Labor promise today in Parliament when she deserted her guarantee to Australians needing IVF treatment that they would not be worse off under the Rudd Government’s changes to the Extended Medicare Safety Net.

On June 15, while speaking on changes to the safety net in Parliament, the Minister told Australian families that “patients who see specialists who charge $6,000 or less for a typical IVF cycle will not be worse off under these changes.”

“Today in Question Time, Nicola Roxon would not repeat the guarantee that IVF patients would not be worse off, leaving many local families who rely on IVF with great uncertainty,” Sophie Mirabella MP, Federal Member for Indi said this afternoon.

When asked by the Coalition in Parliament to stand by her statements made on June 15, the Minister spent several minutes avoiding her own words. Instead, she told Parliament today that the Government was determined to press ahead with its budget measures.

There is evidence provided to the Coalition by Access Australia which represents those seeking IVF treatment which indicates that if the Government is to press ahead, then IVF recipients would face substantial additional costs for their treatment.

“The Minister’s guarantee on June 15 may prove worthless, if the fears of IVF advocates are realised,” Mrs Mirabella said.

“Clearly the Minister is yet again walking away from a promise or guarantee that this Government has given, its words are worthless,” Mrs Mirabella said.

Mrs Mirabella said that after the Government’s embarrassing back-down on its election promise to fix health by the June 2009 or take financial control of the health system from the States, local people are starting to doubt the words of Kevin Rudd and the Health Minister.

“Kevin Rudd and Nicola Roxon need to stop grandstanding and making flashy promises and get down to the business of fixing health,” Mrs Mirabella concluded.