Fifty years ago in July marks the Australian Council of Trade Union’s (ACTU) organised national general strike to defend Medibank — Australia’s first universal, tax-funded public health insurance scheme, which predated Medicare.
The then Coalition government of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser modified it and then decided to dismantle it, prompting the ACTU to organise a strike. The Gough Whitlam Labor government had introduced Medibank in 1974, after having been elected on a promise to extend public services.
Medibank was largely dismantled under Fraser, whose government was intent on cost cutting. When the Bob Hawke Labor government reintroduced Medicare in 1984, the scheme had been modified, including with Medibank Private, a government owned statutory authority which later became fully private.
The ACTU’s 24-hour nationwide general strike on July 12 was historic. Never before or since has the ACTU organised such an action. The ACTU executive’s call for it was endorsed by more than 200 delegates at a special national unions conference a few days before.
In the lead-up months, the ACTU had organised a series of stoppages, rallies, marches and meetings all over the country. Together with countless meetings on the job in many states, workers were prepared to take action.
The strike reflected a deepening polarisation as the Fraser government stepped up its drive against welfare, jobs and wages. The country was brought to an almost total standstill. Public transport in Sydney and Melbourne ground to a halt. Warehouses were largely shut down, the waterfront was silent and all scheduled flights from airports were cancelled. A considerable number of pubs were closed.
Direct Action, the socialist newspaper, reported in July 1976: “Australia’s first, nation-wide 24-hour strike around Medibank was a resounding success … Around the country basic industry was brought to an almost total standstill. Transport, both in the public commuter sector and in the industrial and commercial area, was almost non-existent in most major cities. In the two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, there was hardly a bus or truck on the road. No trains ran anywhere in the country.
“Warehouses were largely shut down, the waterfront was silent, and all scheduled flights from airports were cancelled. A considerable number of pubs were closed, as well as all other bars relying on members of the Liquor and Allied Trades Union, which called its members out.”
Even the Australian reported: “The whole experience of July 12 has been invaluable for Australian workers, and quite unprecedented in this country. Not even the [anti-penal powers] upsurge around [the jailing of tramways union official] Clarrie O’Shea in 1969 involved so many unionists in action at once.”
In the end, the Medibank general strike was not enough to force Fraser to drop his plan to undermine the universal national health scheme. This was partly due to the fact that the ACTU’s then president, Bob Hawke, refused to follow up the successful strike with more industrial action.
However, the 24-hour general strike did begin to undermine support for Fraser and his government was defeated in March 1983.
The Hawke Labor government in 1984 reintroduced a national public health scheme under the new name Medicare. It provided a basic universal coverage, but failed to cover all aspects of health care and retained paid additional services at cost through Medibank Private — in competition with the private health funds.
The Tony Abbott Coalition government fully privatised Medibank Private in 2014. It also threatened to introduce a Medicare co-payment and other measures to privatise other aspects of the network, including the sell-off of its administration and payment system. However, a strong community campaign against these latter measures, as well as rank-and-file pressure from within the union movement to defend Medicare, forced Abbott to back down.
The Malcolm Turnbull Coalition government tried to sell off the administration and payments system, but this was also largely defeated after a widespread public outcry in 2016.
Today, Medicare is still far from a universal, free public health system. Anthony Albanese’s Labor government has made some limited moves since 2023 to boost bulk billing rates, but the estimates are that less than half of all General Practitioner consultations are bulk-billed, compared to more than 80% a decade ago).
The great Medibank general strike of July 1976 showed the power of a united union movement in industrial and political action to defend our public health system. Building and consolidating a stronger and broader union movement can help lay the groundwork for mass action to maintain and extend the Medicare system into the future.
[Jim McIlroy is a retired public servant, life-long unionist and member of the Socialist Alliance.]