Tony Abbott has today compounded his GP Tax lie by lying about the assurances he gave before the election of no cuts to health and no new taxes.
In an astonishing feat of deceit and denial Tony Abbott this morning insulted the intelligence of every Australian voter by insisting his GP Tax was not a broken promise.
Abbott: Well the GP co-payment was very extensively talked about in the lead up to the Budget.
Uhlmann: Not before the election.
Abbott: Well look it certainly wasn’t ruled out before the election.
Tony Abbott – ABC AM – 8 December 2014
In fact the GP Tax, and every other tax increase was specifically ruled out by Tony Abbott on numerous occasions.
“The only party that will raise taxes after the election is the Labor Party."
Tony Abbott – Sydney – 11 August 2013
Even when news leaked the Government was considering the GP Tax Tony Abbott continued to lie, to deceive voters in both the Griffith by-election and the Western Australian Senate election re-run.
Journalist: Mr Abbott, can you guarantee there won’t be a Medicare co-payment?
Tony Abbott: Michelle, nothing is being considered, nothing has been proposed, nothing is planned.
Tony Abbott – Doorstop – 1 February 2014??
Tony Abbott now insists his repeated denials he was planning a GP Tax are evidence it was “extensively talked about”.
How can anyone trust a prime minister that not only lies to the Australian people about his plans to tax every visit to a doctor, but then lies about those lies?
After a year of on again, off again, on again GP Tax chaos, it’s now long past time for Tony Abbott to finally deliver what he promised Australians before the last election and dump the GP Tax for good.
The GP Tax is bad for patients, bad for doctors and bad for the health system.
All the experts agree the GP Tax will stop people seeing their GP, making them sicker and adding to the pressure on public hospitals and the Budget.
It’s time Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton listened to what all the experts, Labor and even their own backbench are telling them and dump this tax for good.