Australian PM vows extra $5.4 bn for healthcare

SYDNEY: Australia´s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised on Sunday a US$5.4-billion boost to the national healthcare system in an overture to voters ahead of elections that must be held by May 17.

Surveys show the cost of living is at the top of voters´ minds. As his three-year term in office nears its end, Albanese has yet to announce the exact date of elections. But unofficial campaigning is already in full swing.

“Just as every Australian wants the best healthcare for their family, our government wants the best healthcare for every Australian,” the prime minister told a rally in the Tasmanian city of Launceston.

Albanese said his centre-left Labor government would invest an extra Aus$8.5 billion (US$5.4 billion) in Medicare, which has provided universal healthcare since 1984. It would result in patients not having to pay for 90 percent of visits to the doctor by 2030, the government said, as well as delivering extra money for training nurses and doctors.

Peter Dutton, leader of the conservative opposition, responded to the latest spending promise by saying his Liberal-National coalition would match the Aus$8.5 billion Medicare investment if elected.

“Without sound and prudent economic management -- something Labor is incapable of -- investments like this cannot be delivered,” his coalition said in a statement. Support for Albanese´s Labor Party is running almost neck-and-neck with the opposition coalition, according to a Newspoll survey released this month by The Australian. If the poll result is replicated in the election, it could lead to a hung parliament with no single party enjoying a majority, the paper said.