What did cabinet consider on Medicare and contestability?
With Labor seeking to make the future of Medicare a central campaign issue, and the Prime Minister and other ministers adamant that Medicare will never be privatised, Freedom of Information is in the news. The PM and others assert that "Cabinet has not considered outsourcing any part of Medicare services." While separately Sean Parnell and the Community and Public Service Union produce FOI decision notices refusing access to relevant documents regarding Medicare on the basis of the cabinet document exemption. The decisions cite different sections of the exemption. Parnell was denied access to parts of a letter from the Minister for Health to the Prime minister on the basis of S 34(1)(d) and s 34(3). Reasons give n for the former claim are that parts of the document "contain information which is a draft of information ultimately included in a submission to Cabine t in relation to the payments contestability agenda," and for the latter, that disclosure would rev...