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

I thank the member for Spence for his question. He has the privilege of representing the northern suburbs of our great city of Adelaide, a community centred around Elizabeth, which of course gave us Jimmy Barnes and many thousands of Holden motor vehicles until, of course, those opposite decided to shut down the car industry a decade ago.

But the member for Spence has also been a relentless advocate for our Strengthening Medicare program to boost bulk-billing, to make medicines cheaper and to roll out urgent care clinics, including the urgent care clinic in Elizabeth. It's open seven days a week, it's fully bulk-billed for patients and, importantly, it's taking much-needed pressure off the local Lyell McEwin Hospital. Suzannah's Google review is a good example of the hundreds of patients that are seen every week at the Elizabeth clinic. She wrote in her review:

Extremely quick check in to the Elizabeth Urgent Care Centre for a laceration to my hand. Highly recommend this over waiting many hours in an Emergency Department. Perfect example at what's urgent, but not an emergency.

The 58 urgent care clinics that we opened last year have already seen 425,000 patients and are delivering urgent care, all fully bulk-billed. We also committed to boosting bulk-billing for GP visits more generally, through a $3½ billion investment to triple the bulk-billing incentive. I'm pleased to report today that, in the seven months since that funding kicked in, bulk-billing has risen in every single state and territory in the federation—by five per cent in our state of South Australia, by more than eight per cent in the state of Tasmania—across the country delivering around 1.7 million additional free visits to the doctor in just seven months. In April alone, there were 425,000 additional free visits to the doctor that would not have occurred but for the changes we made last year. For Labor, that's a big deal, because, for Labor, bulk-billing is the beating heart of Medicare.

But, of course, our approach here could not be more different from that of those opposite, reflected in the member's question about 10 years of cuts and neglect, led by a man who 10 years ago famously said there were too many free Medicare services—too many apparently!—a man who then tried to abolish bulk-billing altogether in his horror health budget, delivered 10 years ago almost to the day. That's not our way in Labor. Medicare is in our DNA. That's why the member for Spence and every single member on this side of the House is fighting so hard to strengthen it.

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