Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Sport) Share this | Hansard source

I do not mind if she ignores me, but I do mind if she interrupts me. We have spent $4.5 billion in new listings. Every time you meet a patient in the pharmacies or the general practices around Australia you hear about how the listing of new medicines has made a difference to their lives, like the most recent one, something called Bydureon for type 2 diabetes, which is a once-weekly injection instead of a confusing regime of shots.

We know that the first place in the world to list Keytruda for melanoma was Australia. We know that we could because we know how to manage the dollars responsibly and invested a billion dollars, so we are the only jurisdiction in the world that offers cures for hepatitis C to every single Australian without fear or favour, everywhere in every circumstance. Now the reason why we need a sustainable Medicare, the reason why budget repair matters for Medicare and the reason why you can always trust a coalition government when it comes to managing the dollars responsibly and managing the health system responsibly is demonstrated by these things—by the fact that we can to that. But at the same time, the figures that I have just given you about bulk-billing underscore the fact GP bulk-billing is higher—at 85.1 per cent—than it has ever been in our history, because we know that we are continuing this investment.

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

The member for Ballarat continuous to interrupt. As I said, I do not mind if she ignores me, but I do mind if she interrupts. They ran around in circles like Chicken Little during the campaign saying, 'It's happening already. It's happening already. Doctors are stopping bulk-billing.' Well, the figures belie that. And we know that with these strong and sustainable bulk-billing rates, we will continue to see that. However, it is not just about that. Our reforms to health are about more than that: they started long before the election, they are continuing and they will land in a place that ultimately is very, very good for Australian patients. Our healthcare homes, a new model of remunerating doctors for general practice—

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

See this speech in context