House debates

Wednesday, 5 June 2024

Questions without Notice

Medicare

2:45 pm

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

The deputy leader asked me about the trajectory of bulk-billing. I was very clear in the lead-in to the last election—and I have been since—that bulk-billing has been falling over the last period of time, and it's no surprise. If you freeze the income of general practice for six years, which is what the Leader of the Opposition kicked off in that budget I referred to and what was continued by the deputy leader when she was the health minister, things will change. I've been honest about this. I've also been more transparent and honest about what is actually happening around bulk-billing than those opposite were. They tried to cloak the bulk-billing figure in the one-off COVID measures that had to be bulk-billed.

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