Independent Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has criticised the Albanese government’s use of over $3,000 (US$2,000) of taxpayer money to distribute made-in-China teddy bears to all federal MPs.
In a video posted on social media on Feb. 27, Ms. Lambie was seen holding a small brown teddy bear that wears a t-shirt bearing the logo “Medicare Urgent Care Clinic.”
“You wouldn’t have guessed what our parliamentarians got this week,” she said. “The Urgent Medicare Clinic bear.”
“This is over $3,000 of your taxpayer money.”
The bears, costing $16 each, were sent to politicians as part of a campaign to celebrate Medicare’s 40-year anniversary and call for the opening of 58 urgent care clinics.
Ms. Lambie highlighted the irony of promoting a government’s key health policy through an expenditure that could have been better better channeled towards critical health care services, including helping Australians who can’t afford to visit the doctor.
“That would have been quite a few visits for Tasmanians to go see their GPS without being out of pocket.”
The senator also voiced her frustration over the bear’s country of origin.
“You know what’s even funnier—because they care about manufacturing in this country—is that it is made in China,” she added.
“Supporting locals? Yeah, not.”
In the post, Ms. Lambie also drew attention to the need to increase access to bulk billing as the Tasmania records the lowest bulk-billing rates of any state, with a notable decline during the last financial year.
“I’m calling him a ’medi-tedi'—surely a better way to celebrate the anniversary of Medicare would be to change the rules on bulk billing so that it works for all Tasmanians who can’t afford a trip to the doctor,” Ms. Lambie wrote.
Figures released by the federal Health Department on February 2023, revealed just 44.8 percent of Tasmanians were always bulk-billed at the GP, while 15.6 percent were never never bulk-billed.
Notably, about 7.6 percent of Tasmanians cited financial difficulties as their main reason for avoiding a GP, according to the Productivity Commission.
The critique was echoed by many Australians, who expressed their frustration over the government’s spending priorities.
“People in government cannot comprehend or understand the reality of how much the general population is affected by the current Inflation and cost of everyday necessities because they don’t live in our world, they don’t experience our struggles first hand,” one person commented on Ms. Lambie’s Instagram post.
Another person said if she had to choose between spending $100 on seeing the doctor or on feeding her child, she would choose the latter.
Potentially Costs $4,000
The controversy surrounding the teddy bears was brought to light following Senate estimates on Feb. 15, which saw Liberal Senator Anne Ruston asking the health department how much it had spent on the teddy bears.
Rachel Balmanno, the department’s first assistant secretary, said it was about $4,000.
Meanwhile, Health Department Secretary Blair Comley said the purpose of the teddy bears is to highlight electorate awareness about urgent care clinics and that he was “reluctant” to get into the teddy bear controversy.
Northern Territory Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy interrupted Ms. Ruston, saying “I think you’re missing a teddy bear, Senator Ruston.”
Ms. Ruston replied, “I may be.”
“It may be because I’m missing a teddy bear, you just never know.
