Wyndham residents will be the hardest hit in Victoria by the federal budget, figures have revealed.
If sweeping reforms to bulk-billed medical services, the Newstart allowance and family tax benefits are approved, 17,000 of the city’s families will be worse off.
The Lalor electorate, which includes Wyndham, has the highest number of people in Victoria on a family tax benefit (17,000), the most bulk-billing services accessed (1.15 million), and the highest number of unemployed young people (2457).
Wyndham would be the second-worst-affected electorate in Australia, behind McMahon in western Sydney.
Lalor MP Joanne Ryan said she was worried about what the budget would mean for Wyndham residents.
“This community hasn’t done anything wrong. We don’t deserve to be put in a position where families are making decisions between seeing a doctor and buying food,” she said. “To me the unfairness of it is that it’s going to hit this community harder than most communities.”
Ms Ryan said one of the most damaging aspects of the budget was the proposal to introduce a $7 co-payment for GP visits.
The $7 payment for a single parent on a Newstart allowance was a lot, Ms Ryan said, and if she, as an MP, were to make the payment at the same ratio of her much higher salary, she would be paying $97 every time she went to the doctor.
“I know doctors here, and they bulk bill because they know that people will not come to the doctor if they have to put cash over the table,” she said.
“There are so many ramifications, but the biggest ramification is if people don’t go to the doctor in the initial stages of something it costs a lot more on the system at the hospital end.”
Treasurer Joe Hockey has said that the “modest” $7 fee would be used to fund a $20 billion medical research future fund.
