Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Calare for moving this MPI today and for his genuine and deep interest in this issue. I spent time in both Orange and Bathurst last July, meeting with some of the dedicated local health professionals in his electorate, people delivering vital healthcare services such as through the new endometriosis and pelvic pain clinic in Orange and Marathon Health in Bathurst. I also visited the Bathurst rural clinical school, which is training health professionals of the future for that region and regions like it. We know how important regional training is because, as the member for Calare has said, local medical graduates are far more likely to stay and work in communities that they grew up in.

This is an important MPI, and it's an issue that I've been acutely aware of since well before my time in this place. I worked in regional pharmacy. I worked in a regional hospital. I worked at Wyong hospital, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, in my electorate. Over the nearly 10 years I worked there, I saw firsthand the challenges of attracting and retaining the health workforce required to give Australians living in rural and remote communities the health care that they expect and that they deserve.

In Australia today, the life expectancy for women living in the most remote parts of Australia is 19 years below that of their city counterparts. That's before we look at the quality of life. This is unacceptable. A big part of this is to do with access to timely, affordable care closer to home. Every member of our government supports strong and prosperous rural and regional communities. Every member of our government wants to see the seven million Australians living outside our major cities have access to quality, affordable care. We know that access to quality care underpins healthy and strong communities.

But the policy response to this challenge is what matters, and it's not the six-year long freeze to the bulk-billing incentive that we got from the Leader of the Opposition when he was health minister and it's not back-of-the-envelope migration policy which would threaten one of the most important sources of rural and regional doctors that we have—international medical graduates. This challenge demands rational, well-thought-out policy which strengthens the health system as a whole and responds to the unique health needs of rural and regional communities. This is the approach of our government, through significant investment and comprehensive programs that we are rolling out.

A strong Medicare supports people across rural, regional and remote Australia to get the care they need closer to home, while taking the pressure off stretched emergency departments and easing cost-of-living pressures. The government's commitment to improving access to health care across Australia is reflected in the 2024-25 budget, which provided $2.8 billion to continue to strengthen Medicare. This was in addition to the historic $6.1 billion investment in Medicare in the 2023-24 budget.

The beating heart of Medicare, as the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler, has said, is bulk-billing. As members well know, bulk-billing was in absolute freefall when we came to government. A $3.5 billion investment to triple the bulk-billing incentive has stopped the slide in the few short months since it came into effect. Since 1 November last year, the GP bulk-billing rate has risen by 3.9 per cent in regional, rural and remote areas. What this increase in the bulk-billing rate means in regional Australia is an estimated 550,000 additional trips to the GP bulk-billed since 1 November last year.

But this increase hasn't just helped patients; it has strengthened general practice and given more doctors the confidence to work in regional communities and to bulk-bill patients who need it most. In my electorate of Dobell on the Central Coast of New South Wales, we have seen bulk-billing jump by 5.8 per cent since November, a major rise in such a short time. In the member for Calare's electorate, the bulk-billing rate has risen from 79.6 per cent to 81.4 per cent in the same time. That's four out of five trips to the GP being bulk-billed on the back of higher incentive payments to GPs under Medicare—a significant boost in access to affordable and quality care close to home.

Another flagship initiative of the Albanese Labor government to strengthen Medicare is the Medicare urgent care clinics, with an additional 29 funded in the 2024-25 budget. This will bring the total number of Medicare urgent care clinics across the country to 87, offering walk-in care seven days a week, over extended hours, completely bulk-billed. Medicare urgent care clinics are making a difference for patients and for stretched hospital emergency departments.

I was at the Cessnock Medicare Urgent Care Clinic with the member for Hunter, Dan Repacholi, and I met a nurse there. She was the triage nurse for the Medicare urgent care clinic that day. She was working there because she had come to the urgent care clinic with her daughter as a patient. She was so impressed by the Medicare urgent care clinic model that she asked to speak to the practice manager. The practice manager said to me, 'We are so fortunate to have an experienced, capable nurse, and she came because she was a parent of a patient and saw this model and saw the difference that it's making in that community.' That's what we're seeing right across the country, particularly in regional and remote communities. They're making a big difference.

Ten of the 58 Medicare urgent care clinics already operating around the country are in regional, rural and remote areas, and I visited many of them. They are boosting access to primary care, making it affordable for people and giving them a trusted alternative to the emergency department. About a third of presentations to Medicare urgent care clinics and children under 15, which shows that parents and caregivers trust Medicare urgent care clinics as a safe alternative to the emergency department for their young people. So far, these 10 Medicare urgent care clinics in the more regional and remote parts of Australia have seen over 40,000 presentations. Those are 40,000 visits fully bulked-billed and walk-ins without an appointment, making such a big difference to individuals and families and reducing the demands on our stretched emergency departments.

Last week, I was in Rockhampton to announce a boost in funding for their Medicare urgent care clinic because, in the budget, we're enhancing funding to Medicare urgent care clinics outside of our major cities, acknowledging the cost of resources and attracting workforce in those communities. That clinic has already seen more than 5,000 patients since opening in December. This also is really important to note: this practice was a GP practice at risk of closure. It was the only GP practice in that community that was bulk-billing. Since the introduction of the Medicare urgent care clinic model, they've recruited, I believe, six additional GPs. This has gone from a practice that was at risk of closure to a practice that is now providing Medicare urgent care and also expanding bulk-billing to that local community.

These clinics are a major vote of confidence in regional primary care. They are encouraging doctors into the regions. I was at a regional Medicare urgent care clinic, and the doctor working there was from Maroubra, in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. I was at one in Queensland, and the doctor working there was a GP from the Gold coast. We are now getting GPs into the regions as part of strengthening Medicare through these urgent care clinics. They are giving more Australians access to high-quality, free health care in places where it otherwise hasn't been available.

There are many more initiatives in the budget which go directly to supporting and growing the health workforce in regional and rural Australia. There is $90 million to fund the implementation of the independent review of Australia's regulatory settings relating to overseas practitioners, also known as the Kruk review; $17.4 million to support health services at risk of closing; primary health networks and rural workforce agencies working with rural communities to support people to get the care they need closer to home affordably; and $74.8 million to support the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which will continue to allow the RFDS to provide its primary care and dental services to more Australians across rural and remote communities; an expansion of the range of free mental health services so Australians get the right level of care for their level of distress, including for those living in a regional, rural and remote Australia. Perhaps most importantly, there are incentives to fund more training and development of regional doctors in regional locations. There is $24.6 billion to Charles Darwin University to establish a medical school in the Northern Territory from 2026. There is $4.7 million for the existing Northern Territory medical training program. There is $4 million for the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association. The single employer model trials will be extended until 31 December 2028 to help attract and retain GPs in the workforce where we need them.

Lastly, in the education portfolio, there are prac payments for nursing, midwifery and social work students. I was at Gosford Hospital with the Prime Minister, and we saw nursing students talking about the life-changing difference it will make. (Time expired)

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