Health Minister Peter Dutton has today admitted he sought legal advice on ways to bypass the Parliament and introduce the GP Tax via the back door.
Just weeks after the Government’s dishonest and deceitful hike in petrol prices, Minister Dutton today confirmed he had sought advice from the Departments of Health and Attorney-General on whether he could also use regulations to hit Australians with his GP Tax.
Reporter: So you’ve asked for legal advice on whether you could do it by regulation?
Dutton: We’ve asked for legal advice well before the Budget process.
Parliament House, 25 November 2014
While the Minister says legal advice was that the GP Tax would require legislation, he confirmed he could introduce the Tax via the backdoor, saying there was “no question” the Medicare rebate could be cut.
He then refused repeated requests to rule out introducing his GP Tax via the backdoor, saying only that “we’re not planning on cutting the rebate by $5.”
Tony Abbott lied about the GP Tax before the election, and his Health Minister has now admitted that he sought to exacerbate this deceit by seeking advice on how to sneak the tax in by the backdoor.
Instead of seeking mean and tricky ways to bypass the parliament, the Abbott Government should listen to what Labor, experts and health professionals have been telling it since day one and scrap its disastrous GP Tax.
The Abbott Government should immediately put an end to the distress and uncertainty caused by it GP Tax and announce before the parliamentary break that the Tax is dead.