By political reporter Anna Henderson, staff
Wednesday 13 August 2014
Photo: Joe Hockey says the Government is prepared to discuss wider exemptions to the Medicare co-payment. (AAP: Alan Porritt)
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Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey says the Government is prepared to consider wider exemptions to the Medicare co-payment, after he met with crossbench powerbroker Clive Palmer in Brisbane last night.
Mr Hockey is using the mid-winter parliamentary break to hold talks with key crossbenchers as he tries to muster support for controversial budget measures.
The Government cannot get enough support for billions of dollars worth of budget measures, including its plan for the $7 GP co-payment.
Yesterday, Health Minister Peter Dutton revealed the Government was considering exempting the elderly from the Medicare co-payment proposal.
Speaking this morning, Mr Hockey said further exemptions to the co-payment were being considered.
"We are prepared to discuss these things," he told 612 ABC Brisbane.
"They [the crossbenchers] are very decent people, I think they've got good intentions.
"I haven't met anyone yet who doesn't care about the country, doesn't care about the community.
"My job is to help them understand the challenges ... to give them the opportunity to speak to the Treasury officials that I speak to.
"Once they see that and once they get those briefings, then they can see how important it is to support certain measures in the budget.
"Now they might have variations on those measures and we're prepared to deal with the reality."
Mr Palmer, the leader of the Palmer United Party (PUP), said even if some wider exemptions were given, the co-payment would still hit a large group within the Australian community.
"We need to see the hard policy but I don't think we can stand by and let our pensioners and vulnerable people be attacked by this policy," he told Radio National.
"It's not just pensioners [but] low-income employees, people with families."
Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen warned that Labor was not open to negotiating on the policy.
"There is no compromise on the GP co-payment," he said.
Mr Hockey is travelling to Perth to meet with PUP senator Dio Wang.
Mr Palmer, meanwhile, will have budget discussions with Education Minister Christopher Pyne today.
Mr Palmer says the Government will have a hard task convincing him to support its plans to deregulate the university sector.
"They're things that are diametrically opposed to what we stand for. I stand with the students in the universities across Australia," he said.
"I know that Christopher Pyne, like myself, had a free university education.
"I like to think if we didn't have that benefit, Christopher Pyne probably would not be where he is today."
