Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question. She knows that our government has no higher priority than strengthening Medicare and delivering cheaper medicines. She'll be very pleased to know that we're getting on with the job of doing just that. In May, the Treasurer's second budget will deliver the government's response to the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce, which is underpinned by $750 million in new investment in Medicare.

This year, we'll deliver 50 urgent care centres, which will be providing care in the community seven days a week, from 8 am till 10 pm, for non-life-threatening emergencies—all free of charge, all fully bulk-billed, taking much-needed pressure off our deeply stressed hospital emergency departments. And we've obviously already delivered on our commitment to put in place the biggest cut to the price of medicines in the 75-year history of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme—good for the hip pocket and good for people's health. And there could be no more important time to strengthen Medicare, because, as the member for Corangamite tells me, it's never been harder to see a doctor right now than it is today, and never more expensive. That didn't happen just by chance; it is a product of nine long years of cuts to and neglect of Medicare by those opposite.

There is no single person in Australia more responsible for the current state of Medicare than the Leader of the Opposition. The contrast between our first budget and the Leader of the Opposition's first foray as health minister back in 2014 could not be starker. While we're taking pressure off hospitals with urgent care centres across the country, he tried to cut $50 billion out of hospital funding as well as a range of other hospital programs. While we delivered, in January, a cut of $12.50 to every general patient script, he tried to jack up the price of every single medicine script in this country, including by $5 a script for general patients. While we have committed more funds to Medicare in this budget, the Leader of the Opposition tried to make every single Australian pay for every single visit to the doctor through his infamous GP tax.

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