VMAG Victorian Election 2014 Campaign
VMAG members met recently and agreed to target candidates in the 22 most marginal seats in the upcoming Victorian election to ask them what they are going to do to preserve universal access to Medicare. For more information go to the 'Get Involved' page of our website. |
Victorian MP survey
VMAG recently wrote to all Victorian MPs asking four questions about Medicare co-payments and hospital funding. The Victorian Coalition, the ALP and the Victorian Greens all say they don’t support the federal government’s proposed $7 co-payment for GP services. They are also critical of the federal government’s decision not to honour a commitment to increase its share of funding for public hospitals. Health Minister David Davis, who responded on behalf of the Victorian Coalition, is clearly annoyed VMAG raised these and accuses us of being disingenuous for drawing attention to the Abbott government’s policies. Victorian Labor appears pleased with a chance to draw attention to the federal government’s hospital funding decision. It says ‘the cuts to Victorian hospital funding [that] are going to have a devastating effect on Victoria’s health system’. However VMAG suggests Labor needs to tread carefully because it’s not blameless on the issue of federal government funding for public hospitals. In 2012 the federal Labor government attempted to cut public hospital funding to Victoria and two other states on the basis of an ABS adjustment in population statistics. They did this despite having agreed to increase the federal government’s share of hospital funding to the states from 2014. Neither Labor nor the Coalition say what they’ll do to meet the short fall. The Victorian Greens are the only party that mentions extra investment for Victoria’s public hospitals. The statements are contained in letters received as part of a survey of all Victorian MPs by VMAG during October. See the full report and full copies of letters from all parties below. |
policy_comparator_results_of_vmag_survey_final.pdf | |
File Size: | 352 kb |
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minister_health_response.pdf | |
File Size: | 343 kb |
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vic_greens_response_to_survey.pdf | |
File Size: | 234 kb |
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vic_labor_response_to_survey.pdf | |
File Size: | 849 kb |
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