To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives in Parliament assembled. The humble petition of undersigned citizens of Australia respectfully showeth:

1. That Federal Government proposals to shift the cost of health insurance onto the individual has placed a disproportionate and unfair financial burden on lower income groups, but particularly on large families; single income families; the chronically ill; those with recurrent illnesses and those on fixed incomes.

2. That an estimated 15-20 per cent of Australians will not be able to afford insurance and will be forced to undertake extensive travel to avail themselves of outpatient services, the quality of which will be drastically reduced because of staff cuts.

3. That doctors, who at this moment are awaiting a fee increase, will inevitably become more and more expensive.

Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that the Federal Government (i) will re-examine the effects of health proposals and of the necessity for compulsory health insurance on lower income groups who do not presently meet the description of disadvantaged, and (ii) redefine the criteria determining the genuinely needy and disadvantaged to encompass the categories of persons mentioned in 1. above.

And your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray.