STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr RICK WILSON (O'Connor) (13:46): For many seniors in O'Connor, the cost of seeing a doctor is becoming almost as painful as the diagnosis. I'm running a survey of constituents aged over 65 and have heard from many people who are doing everything they can just to make ends meet only to find they pay more just to access the health care they deserve. Helen from Bridgetown and her husband live solely on the age pension.

To help manage their health care, they pay around $6,000 a year for private health insurance. Even then, they are up to $200 a month worse off and can still be as much as $80 out of pocket when they visit a GP. Before the election, the Prime Minister repeatedly claimed that all that Australians would need to see a doctor was their Medicare card.

Well, people like Helen have their Medicare card, but she also needs the credit card. For seniors in O'Connor, health care is becoming less affordable and harder to access. In regional Western Australia, a hospital is not just down the road, and specialist care can be hundreds of kilometres away, yet today there is still not one single urgent care clinic anywhere in my 1.1 million kilometre electorate, despite the Treasurer's promise that, by July, 80 per cent of Australians would live within 20 minutes of one.

The seniors of O'Connor deserve better than empty promises. They deserve results.