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

One in three patients have been under 15. The former leader of the National Party interjects 'with a broken wallet'. The truth is that you only need your Medicare card, not your credit card—unlike his Leader of the Opposition, who wanted to impose a cost on every person who ever saw a doctor, with a co-payment. Nearly one in three visits have been on weekends. On weekdays, more than one in five visits have been after 6 pm.

We're strengthening Medicare. The Leader of the Opposition, of course, when he was health minister, tried to destroy it. He tried to abolish bulk-billing with a GP tax. He wanted to increase the price of medicines with a medicine tax and wanted to whack every single patient with a hospital tax when they turned up, as well. No wonder he was voted Australia's worst ever health minister. What we're doing is working to strengthen Medicare as part of our plan for strengthening Australia and working for Australia.

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