Senator CAROL BROWN (Tasmania) (19:19): I rise to speak about two important forums held in my home state of Tasmania last week. One was a forum on the Medicare co-payment organised by the Tasmanian Council of Social Service, and the other was a forum for pensioners concerned about the federal budget. At the TasCOSS forum, health consultant Jennifer Doggett was quite clear about the effects of the $7 GP co-payment. Jennifer said that the GP co-payment—which is a tax under a different name—would 'compound existing disadvantage, resulting in a less equal society.' She argued that the GP tax would see reduced access to preventive and cost-effective health care. It would impact on people with chronic conditions, Indigenous Australians and those living in rural and remote areas. Health problems would become more serious, and there would be an increase in people's stress and anxiety because they would be worried about how they would pay for their health care. Summing up the forum, Meg Webb from TasCOSS said the resounding message was that the introduction of a $7 co-payment for GP visits, pathology and medical imaging would undoubtedly result in worsening health inequities in Tasmania and poorer health outcomes for many Tasmanians. The message was loud and clear: universal health care, our Medicare, is certainly worth fighting for. The second forum was organised by a disability pensioner, Juliann Canty, and was addressed by my colleague Senator Anne Urquhart. For the first time in her life, 61-year-old Juliann decided to become political. She said she could not believe how harsh the budget was for pensioners and those on low incomes. Juliann told the forum that she wanted Mr Abbott to have a heart. Juliann said, 'All we want is for him to treat us like human beings.' Juliann saved a seat at the forum for a representative of the Liberal government. But no Liberal showed up—not one. Not one Liberal was prepared to front up and defend their budget. Not one Liberal was prepared to listen to what Juliann and others affected by this budget had to say. As reporter Blair Richards observed in the Mercury newspaper, the atmosphere at Juliann's forum was grim. She said the overriding message at Juliann's forum was that the wrong people were being targeted. Tim Marks, another disability pensioner who spoke at the forum, said he would be hit hard by the $7 GP tax. Tim, who has lost a leg, said he sometimes goes without food for four or five days to make ends meet. He said he was in pain but sometimes could not afford pain medication. Kathy, who has a son with disabilities, spoke of his needs. Her son is 13 and is in need of a hip replacement which she cannot afford. Kathy is worried about the cost of medications, which will increase because of this budget. Her son takes seven medications a day and she wonders how she will afford to pay for them. John Ward shared his concerns about grandparents raising their grandchildren. He told how one 72-year-old grandmother had taken out a $140,000 mortgage so she could keep her two grandchildren with a roof over their head. These are real people with very real concerns about how they will survive because of this budget, and their concerns are real and genuine. They know that they have been singled out for harsh treatment by the government, a government that has said, 'You're on your own,' and couldn't even find time to meet face to face with Tasmanians who have a very bleak future because of this budget. And they know that many Tasmanians like them will suffer because of this budget. TasCOSS says the measures in this budget will hit the finances of Tasmanian households disproportionately. TasCOSS chief executive Tony Reidy said Tasmania will take the biggest hit on average household disposable income because Tasmania has proportionally more people on low and middle incomes. Tony Reidy says NATSEM modelling found that this budget will cost the average Tasmanians $418 a year per household. By comparison, the average household in the ACT will be $216 worse off, $200 less than a Tasmanian household. So all the heavy lifting is being done by those who can least afford it: Tasmanians like Juliann, Tim, John and Kathy.