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

I thank the member for Hunter for his question. He has a terrific record, after just 17 months as a local member, on delivering on the promises he made to his local community, particularly to strengthen Medicare and deliver cheaper medicines. In particular, the member for Hunter promised to reinstate the nation-leading after-hours GP service in the Hunter, and he along with his Hunter colleagues, the members for Paterson, Shortland and Newcastle, delivered it. He promised to reinstate the right of general practices to recruit overseas trained doctors, a right that had been stripped away by the former government, and he delivered on that promise as well. During the election campaign last May he stood with the Prime Minister and promised to deliver a Medicare urgent care clinic in Cessnock. Two weeks ago he was at the opening of that Medicare urgent care clinic, already making it easier to see a doctor in his area, already taking pressure off local emergency departments.

This is one of 25 urgent care clinics around the country that are already up and running, and 58 will be up and running by the end of this calendar year. They're operating seven days a week on extended hours and are available for walk-ins by patients who need urgent care for non-life threatening emergencies. Of the 50,000 or so services already delivered by these clinics, around one-third have been delivered to kids under the age of15: kids who fall off their skateboard or get a deep cut and who otherwise would be sitting in the emergency department with their mums and dads for hour upon hour upon hour waiting for care. They're instead getting it quickly, and a third of the services have been delivered on the weekend, when it is just so difficult to get a GP, and, again people end up in the emergency department. Importantly, every one of the services up until now and from now will be fully free of charge, fully bulk-billed, because for Labor bulk-billing is the beating heart of Medicare.

I'm asked about neglect over the last decade. Australians who pay attention to health policy understand that the commitment to bulk-billing is not shared across this chamber. They remember when the Leader of the Opposition was the health minister. He said—and this is true—'There are too many free Medicare services'. They remember that he tried to abolish bulk-billing altogether and make every single Australian, every pensioner, every child, pay a fee for every single visit to the doctor. Then, when he couldn't get that through, he froze the Medicare rebate for six long years. Labor—the member for Hunter, everyone on this side—is committed to boosting bulling-billing, not abolishing it like the Leader of the Opposition tried to do.

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