Labor calls on the Morrison Government to make Rapid Antigen Tests free for Australians via Medicare.
\nWe have been saying for some time that nobody should be denied a test because they can\u2019t afford one.
\nWe have considered the options and it is clear that this is the simplest, most efficient, fairest and most responsible way to fix the mess that Scott Morrison has made of testing at this critical juncture of the pandemic.
\nAs always, we are prepared to work with the Government to determine the best way to provide free tests through the Medicare system.
\nIt\u2019s clear from Scott Morrison\u2019s ridiculous proposal today that he has absolutely no appreciation of the skyrocketing cost of these tests or the consequences of his failure to order enough of them, quickly enough.
\nWe can\u2019t have people at their most vulnerable and contagious being ripped off, or going undiagnosed, or travelling around cities, suburbs and towns searching in vain for tests they can\u2019t find or afford.
\nPrice is one consideration, we also need the Prime Minister to fix the supply issues he is responsible for as well.
\nIn recent days we have been carefully considering the most economically responsible course of action and it\u2019s clear that the cost of tests are dwarfed by the costs of the Prime Minister\u2019s failures to do his job, his undermining of Medicare, and the economic and health consequences of people not being able to test for the virus.
\nThis can\u2019t wait for a change of government.
\nScott Morrison needs to act now. His inability to take responsibility has cost Australians too much already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Labor calls on the Morrison Government to make Rapid Antigen Tests free for Australians via Medicare. We have been saying for some time that nobody should be denied a test because they can\u2019t afford one. We have considered the options and it is clear that this is the simplest, most efficient, fairest and most responsible … Continue reading “Labor: Rapid Antigen Tests should be free”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}