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

I'm very proud to be part of an Albanese Labor government, with its wonderful health team, which is doing a really great job in getting equitable health care to all Australians, whether it be newborn screening programs; increasing the number of disorders tested for; new MRI licences, of which there are five in my lecture of Macarthur, enabling people to get urgent scans done and rebated by Medicare; the urgent care centres; more funding for medical research; or supporting organisations such as the Children's Tumour Foundation and other really excellent medical organisations, including the DIPG group for children with brain cancers. The health team is doing a fantastic job: Mark Butler, the Minister for Health and Aged Care; Assistant Minister Ged Kearney, the member for Cooper; and Emma McBride, the member for Dobell. They are doing a wonderful job, trying to repair the damage that was done over 10 years of rule by the Liberal and National parties.

You ask me what evidence there is for that. I can tell you I have half a century of experience in the health system. I saw the development of Medibank, our first national health insurance scheme, by Gough Whitlam. It was the first time in Australia that people who had socioeconomic challenges could actually get access to decent health care without bankrupting themselves. We saw that destroyed by the Fraser government when it came into power. We saw the constant undermining of Medicare, which was introduced by the Hawke Labor government, during more than 10 years of Liberal Party rule. The present Leader of the Liberal Party did his best to get rid of universal access to bulk-billing, with almost tragic results. Thankfully, he was stopped, but then there was the gradual withering of Medicare on the vine under the Liberal governments of Scott Morrison, Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott—a tragedy in the making.

We are trying to repair some of that damage, and Mark Butler and his team are doing a great job. The tripling of the Medicare bulk-billing incentives has led to increasing rates of bulk-billing after a 10-year decline, and the results released, I think, yesterday showed an increase of almost 3½ per cent in bulk-billing rates around the country. That's really important in my electorate. It is really important for equitable health care, and it's really only Labor that understands it. The Liberal and National parties do not understand it. We see some of the worst health statistics in the country in areas where they have National Party members, such as Parkes, and regional Liberal Party members, such as Grey in South Australia. There are really terrible health statistics in terms of life expectancies and incidence of things like breast cancer, bowel cancer and cardiovascular disease. After 10 years, the statistics are getting worse, not better, and only Labor knows how to improve that.

Our 2024-25 budget includes funding for things like the PrOSPeCT trial, which is looking at genetic markers for certain cancers, like breast cancer, prostate cancer and bowel cancer. This will dramatically improve health outcomes. Our new medicines funding is unbelievably good. We now have access to some of the most advanced medicines in the world for very little cost to the individual patient. The Albanese government is also delivering $4.3 billion to deliver cheaper medicines through 60-day prescribing and the freezing of payments for medications for people on healthcare cards and even people who are paying privately. This is really making access to health care much more equitable and having a huge effect around the country, particularly in my electorate of Macarthur. In the new budget, we're putting in $1.4 billion for groundbreaking new health and medical research, through the Medical Research Future Fund. It's a really great advancement.

Labor understands the importance of having a universal healthcare insurance scheme that gives equitable access, whether you live in the inner city or rural, regional or remote areas. Our Macarthur residents already have saved over $2.1 million thanks to our government's policies on cheaper medicines. We will now save more with better access to MRI scans— (Time expired)

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