Illawarra Labor MPs and the party’s candidate for Gilmore hit the streets across the region on Friday, urging people to sign “Save Medicare” petitions.
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Cunningham MP Sharon Bird and her team, wearing bright yellow T-shirts, chatted with passers-by at the markets in Wollongong’s Crown Street on Friday morning.
The move was part of a regional “day of action”, which called on the Turnbull government to “end its attacks on Medicare”.
Ms Bird said the petition was about putting Medicare “squarely on the campaign agenda” ahead of next week’s budget and the looming federal election, slated for July 2.
Labor says $57 billion has been cut from hospitals in recent years and the freezing of Medicare rebates for GPs will force many doctors to charge their patients an additional co-payment or face going bust.
Ms Bird described changes to Medicare as “basically a sell-off by stealth” and warned the Coalition’s attacks on dental care were the latest example of cuts “putting vulnerable patients at risk”.
“For us, in a community like this, a lot of people are on fixed incomes, they’re on income support payments,” Ms Bird said.
“For them, these are real issues because they and their kids are at the doctors regularly, they’re having tests regularly and they need that to be affordable for them.”
Throsby MP Stephen Jones will collect signatures outside the Centrelink-Medicare office at Stockland Shellharbour between noon and 1.30pm, while Labor candidate for Gilmore Fiona Phillips is garnering support at Jelly Bean Park in Nowra between 9.30am and 11.30am.