The federal government has come under fire for a message on its Medicare hotline informing patients of the introduction of the $7 GP fee before the legislation has passed the Parliament.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Labor MP Richard Marles complained the government was using "an answering machine to do their dirty work" and without a guarantee its measures would find support.
The automated message tells callers a "patient contribution of $7 will be introduced" from July 1 next year, despite the fee facing significant hurdles as it does not currently have the support of opposition or crossbench senators.
It also advises there will be a $5 reduction in the Medicare benefit for certain services.
The Prime Minister was pressured in question time about the automated message, which Opposition Leader Bill Shorten described as "arrogant".
"Is the Prime Minister so arrogant that his government is telling people that they will have to pay his GP tax when it hasn't even passed the Parliament?" he said.
"When will the Prime Minister finally wake up to himself and realise that Australians don't want your rotten GP tax?"
Mr Abbott said the government was merely signalling its intention to charge people from the middle of 2015 and he expected the Parliament to approve the plan.
"This is the government's intention and it's also the government's intention that we will put the legislation into the Parliament and we expect that, after appropriate consideration, the Parliament will understand that Labor's debt and deficit disaster has to be brought under control and that we need to make Medicare sustainable for the long-term," he said.
"That's what this co-payment is all about.
"It's about making Medicare sustainable for the long-term."
But Mr Marles said the government was getting ahead of itself.
"There is the small matter of the Senate and there's a couple of processes which require people to actually vote who have been duly elected," he told Fairfax Radio on Thursday.
"I mean we wouldn't want to have that getting in the way of the government doing its business but how pathetic is it getting an answering machine to do the job.
"I mean this is genuinely astounding."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services said after every budget it was routine for it to communicate to customers proposed changes that may affect them.
The spokeswoman said these messages needed to be concise and were intended to pre-empt common questions, such as the timing of proposed changes.
''Routine communications such as these are organised and written by the department,'' the spokeswoman said.
A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister pointed to examples of budget measures, including changes to the child care rebate and family payments, which the Rudd and Gillard government had publicised without noting they were subject to legislation.
With Dan Harrison
