Turnbull flags Medicare upgrade after Shorten attacks

Over the weekend the Prime Minister told reporters “every element of Medicare services that is being delivered by government today will be delivered by government in the future”.

THE head of the doctors’ lobby has rejected Labor leader Bill Shorten’s claims the Coalition wants to privatise Medicare.

The register will record adolescent vaccination details for all vaccines given through school programs and is to be operational in time for the 2017 school year.

Tony Shepherd, who chaired the Abbott government’s National Commission of Audit, has accused Labor of “gross misrepresentation” over its Medicare claims.

However, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull emphatically ruled out selling off any part of Medicare and accused Shorten of running a “dishonest scare campaign”.

On Friday, Mr Shorten said the payments system was “the heart of the Medicare system” and handing it to the private sector would compromise the healthcare system.

“There is a risk that if you outsource too much of government services, you run the risk that you end up with very little talent or capability within government”, he said.

“It will be used aggressively as a marketing tool by people smugglers and it absolutely demonstrates that hollowness of Bill Shorten’s claim that he shares the same border protection policies as us”. “I won’t stand here and say otherwise, but what Medicare doesn’t need to do is to be privatised or undermined”. They also promised that the vote would be held within the new parliament’s first 100 days in office.

“It is a conspiracy theory from a desperate opposition that has no economic plan”.

It would come on top of the existing promise of a company tax cut.

But Labor has hardened its language against a public vote, in what commentators said was a strategic move to set up the issue as a clear choice on polling day.

“We will revive it, or renew it, we will modernise it and we will do that within government”, he said.

Mr Turnbull lied about it.

Australia Post CEO Ahmed Fahour confirmed his organisation made a bid for the payments work, and Fairfax newspapers reported past year that Eftpos, Telstra subsidiary Stellar, Serco, Fuji Xerox, SAP and Accenture were also in the race.