Ms HALL (9:00 PM) —The people of the Shortland electorate have had enough. They are disgusted that the Howard government has done nothing to stop the disastrous decline in bulk-billing in their electorate. People in the Shortland electorate are so disgusted that they joined me in a walk to save Medicare, along the foreshore of Lake Macquarie yesterday. We walked from Eleebana to Warners Bay, where we were joined by my colleague Kelly Hoare, the member for Charlton, who also has a bulk-billing and doctor crisis in her electorate. It is a crisis brought on wholly and solely by the inaction and destructive nature of this Howard government.

The people of Lake Macquarie have really suffered under the Howard government and its assault on Medicare. In March 2000 the bulk-billing rate in Shortland was 78.9 per cent. At the end of March 2003 it was 51.2 per cent. That is a direct result of the Howard government's approach to Medicare and its desire to kill it off. As John Howard said back in the 1980s, it is `a quagmire', `a complete failure' and `a total disaster' and he is going to get rid of it. He set out to get rid of it and that is what he has done. What does this decline in bulk-billing really mean? What does it mean to the people of the Shortland electorate? It means that they have to make decisions; they have to make a choice about whether they can afford to go the doctor or to put food on the table. Members on the other side of this House may not believe that this is real. But many people have come up to me in shopping centres and have said, `Jill, what can you do to make John Howard and his government listen to us? We like Medicare and we want Medicare to stay, but they ignore us.'

This decline has been exacerbated by the closure of Belmont Medicare office in the electorate of Shortland—yet another heartless act by the Howard government. People—in the main, elderly people—have to travel 20 kilometres to their nearest Medicare office. They are people who rely on public transport, and that public transport is not frequent. The Medicare office staff at Charlestown identified the reopening of the Belmont Medicare office as the single most important need concerning Medicare on the eastern side of Lake Macquarie. I have submitted 10,000 signatures to this parliament, yet the Howard government has ignored them, just as it has ignored all the petitions I have submitted about bulk-billing and the fact that the people of the Shortland electorate want the government to reinstate it.

I received a phenomenal amount of support as we walked along the foreshore yesterday. People came up to us, asking for stickers and petitions. They congratulated us on our campaign to save Medicare and to stop John Howard destroying it. They offered to help us and to do anything they could to make the government and the Prime Minister listen to them. We received support from motorists as they drove by. What seemed like every second car that drove along the esplanade tooted its horn, and people shouted out in support for us. The success of our walk yesterday reflects the support of the people of Lake Macquarie for Medicare. It also shows their rejection of the Howard government's A Fairer Medicare package. It is a package that will drive the final nail into the coffin of Medicare, as members on the other side of the House well know. It is a package that will deliver a two-tiered US style system to the people of Australia. The people of my area know that Medicare is the answer to quality, affordable health care. They like bulk-billing, as they know it is the only thing that guarantees all Australians access to a doctor when they are sick. The people of Shortland and Lake Macquarie have spoken. They want Medicare, they want bulk-billing and they want them to stay. They demand that the government and the Prime Minister listen to them.