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

It is a bigger increase to Medicare rebates across the board than was delivered in seven long years under those opposite—a period of seven years that encompassed the entire time the Leader of the Opposition was health minister, the entire time the deputy Liberal leader was health minister and the first four years of Greg Hunt's time as health minister. We have done more in one year than was done in those seven long years.

Labor regards bulk-billing as the beating heart of Medicare. That's why the centrepiece of our $6 billion Strengthening Medicare package was a $3½ billion initiative to triple the bulk-billing incentive, something the College of General Practitioners described as a game changer for general practice. It is a game changer for millions of mums and dads who want the confidence that they can take their sick kid to a bulk-bill doctor, it is a game changer for millions of pensioners, and it will be a game changer for the member for Gilmore's constituents on the South Coast of New South Wales, 90,000 of whom are eligible for the increased bulk-billing incentive. It will be a game changer for towns like Nowra, where the total fee paid to a GP for a standard bulk-billed consult will go up by 50 per cent, from $50 to $75. That's all part of Labor's plan to strengthen Medicare.

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