Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

After five minutes of kabuki from the other side of this chamber about bulk-billing rates, we might inject some numbers so that we can have an informed discussion in this chamber. The pinnacle of bulk-billing under Labor was 79 per cent for all services. That is now up to 85 per cent. Looking specifically at GP services, over 75 per cent of services are now bulk-billed, something that the Labor Party could only ever dream of while they were in government. The reality is that, with supply and demand—with your University of Tasmania degree and your understanding of basic economics, yes, you are correct—it is the supply of doctors to bulk-bill as much as it is the supply and demand of patients. It is actually doctor provision and distribution around the country that is far more important in this debate.

But it is fascinating to see, Minister, that we have an opposition asking questions about recutting the data and counting it differently: 'We don't like the answer about services bulk-billed, so let's recut it.' Of course they are not going to recut backwards and look at how bad the data looks from when they were in government. They just do not like the results of bulk-billing figures going up under a coalition government. Let us just think of the numbers here too. If we are talking about 85 per cent of services being bulk-billed—and that is presumably roughly either side of 85 per cent of individuals being bulk-billed, although it will vary slightly—who are the Labor Party fighting for when they ask these questions of the minister? Is it the 15 per cent of Australians who are not being bulk-billed, who are predominantly in areas of regional Australia, where in fact we are getting more services out and being delivered? In the city areas, of course, bulk-billing rates in many electorates are far higher.

I think, just on the general pub test, most Australians would say that one in 10 of us can afford to pay to see a GP. One in 10 of us, at the highest income levels, can probably afford to—and do every day without blinking, because they know it is a very important quality signal they send to their GP about the services they are receiving. I am not talking about the bottom 10 per cent; I am talking about the wealthiest 10 per cent in society. You are trying to conflate this debate. You are concerned that only 85 per cent of services are bulk-billed. It is extraordinary that most of us in this building walk into a bulk-billing GP and do not pay for our services. We are incredibly lucky to be in a nation that achieves that, and we have had a Labor government that, yes, is fixated on nothing but how much 40 bucks is for someone who is on $250,000 a year, as you are on the opposition frontbench.

It really comes down to this. We have a Labor Party that, when in government, when we were asking questions of the minister, could only come up with a debate about how much money there is in the system and yet deliberately ran down the money in the system until the cupboard was bare and then deferred, indefinitely, the listing of essential medicines. How is that not emblematic of their economic management?

I would like you to remember, Minister, if you could, a couple of those examples of very important mental health drugs that were simply deferred indefinitely. How is it a deferral if you do not say how long it is going to be deferred for, Minister? That is actually a refusal of an approval. To call it a deferral was just to ameliorate the reality that this opposition when in government utterly ran out of money. That was the true situation.

Then they come in here and nickel and dime because there are 10 per cent or 15 per cent of Australians left who are not being bulk-billed. You have managed to argue over the minors here, desperately trying to find a general practice that says, 'We're going to have to start to charge.' Well, there are plenty of general practices opening that are fully bulk-billing. I would love to get to the bottom of those bulk-billing numbers as we go around the country. I see a member here who was quite happy to have a big billboard saying 'Save Medicare' with his scone on it. The minister might remember that the billboard got him elected but that bulk-billing was in fact beautiful in your part of the world.

Mr Dick interjecting—

That is right, and I am one of those. So I know a bit more about it than just sitting in a waiting room of a general practice. As a doctor, I know a bit more about it than the visiting hours of the local hospital which you represent. I know when you walk in you have people in there who know way more than just indexation, and that is what I am going to turn my mind to here in the last few seconds.

This is about the quality of the service that Australia is promising. There is a focus on primary care, which never happened under the Labor Party. The notion of spending more cleverly never crossed the minds of those over there. So, Minister, I would love to know more about the work that is being done by Steve Hambleton and by Professor Robinson—genuinely picking apart these items and putting in the ones we need and replacing those that we do not—and look at primary health care and healthcare homes and, finally, the commissioning of our primary healthcare networks and, for the first time, having KPIs around stuff that is very important to Australians. Medicare locals just ambled along with no direction, and the change to PHNs, which are absolutely aligned with health and hospital regions at a state level, promises a new beginning. We would love to know more about that, Minister.

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