Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, I need a lot of time to talk about the deficiencies of the coalition government in health care. I was very fortunate to be elected in 2016. I sought meetings with many ministers—including the present Deputy Leader of the Opposition, when she was health minister, and later the member for Flinders, when he was health minister—trying to get them to understand that people could not afford to get primary care and the difficulties people were facing as to getting in to see GPs. Unfortunately, they both sat on their hands and did nothing.

Thankfully, change has been occurring following the 2022 federal election. I'm very proud to be able to work with the Prime Minister, the Minister for Health and Aged Care and the health team, including the member for Dobell and Ged Kearney, the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, on women's health, on getting reform—on getting change to happen. And, at long last, people are now being able to access health care.

We're seeing the opening of our urgent care centres. It was great to be at the opening of the urgent care centre in Campbelltown, which is really enabling people to bypass the hospital emergency department and get great care; that's taking a lot of pressure off our hospital system.

One of our first items of business in 2022 was to make medicines cheaper. That has delivered the largest price reduction in the 75-year history of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme—another Labor scheme. Under our government, people will pay no more than $31.60 for medicines on the PBS, and they'll be much cheaper if someone is on a healthcare card. Sixty-day prescribing has made a huge difference, and that is another way that people can get cheaper and more affordable health care. I'm proud of our government for fighting hard for this reform—and fighting the vested interests that tried to oppose it—which means cheaper medicines for all Australians. We've been working hard to strengthen Medicare, through our historic investment in the Strengthening Medicare program; the bulk-billing incentives, which have tripled the rebates for people who are bulk billed and will benefit almost 11 million people; and improving bulk-billing rates around the country, making GP practice more viable and allowing people to access GPs.

There's still a lot of work to be done, but, after 10 years of neglect by the coalition government, we're rapidly catching up with health care. We're making significant investments in medical and health research, with $1.4 billion to be invested over 13 years through the Medical Research Future Fund, including an additional $411 million for low-survival cancers and also to reduce health inequities. We're investing $18.8 million to make Australia a destination for clinical trials. This is really important in the medical research fund. We're doing our best to strengthen Medicare—

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