Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposite and the Leader of the Opposition had an idea when he was the minister about cost of living. The first chance he got he wanted to raise the cost of seeing a GP by $7—by $7! His other big idea was to raise the cost of prescriptions by $5! We've gone down by $12.50. They went up by $5. But of course there's a link between primary health care and emergency departments, so let's not think that this wasn't a comprehensive plan, because here's his idea: the government will remove the restrictions on state and territory governments that prevent hospital emergency departments charging a fee for presentation. He wanted to charge people for fronting up to emergency departments. He wanted to charge people for going to their GP and he wanted to lift the price of medicines. That was his plan on cost of living. (Time expired)

See this speech in context