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

I thank the member for Hume for another enlightened contribution to economic policy debate in Australia. I was just reading that he did his master's at Oxford. He had an interest in game theory, and I think he was looking at applying game theory to English pubs and looking at how they should be protected from the big brewing companies. You just never know what's going to be said these days when coalition members stand up to speak on economic policy.

They now straddle the full spectrum, from being free market ideologues, who would privatise the health system and make free doctors visits a thing of the past, to hardcore interventionists, who would roll over the top of the energy market with a state owned nuclear power company, with no regard to cost, no regard to timing, no regard to communities and no regard to the fact that, under this Labor government, we're finally starting to see the true opportunities which come with renewable energy superpowers. There is no doubting that the National Party is in control at the moment. It's the National Party tail wagging the Liberal Party dog. On the key matter of the cost of living, I see every day in my community the financial pressures that people are under. People are doing it tough. They are under the pump.

Just last Friday, I joined the opening of Toukley Neighbourhood Centre at its new location in Summerside Street. I recognise the work they're doing alongside Orange Sky, OzHarvest, We Care Connect and others to support locals. We have a responsibility as a government to respond in these times. Our government has a clear plan for relief of cost-of-living pressure, in ways that don't add to inflation and repair our budget and supply chains, and reform which lays the foundations for future growth.

From Monday of this week we are rolling out cost-of-living relief in the most responsible way to thousands of Australians. This includes a tax cut for every Australian, including 69,000 people in my electorate of Dobell, on the New South Wales Central Coast. There will be new energy bill relief to every household and one million small businesses—tackling inflation through responsible economic management—and a second budget surplus in two years, not as an end in itself but to provide cost-of-living relief for Australians.

We know there's more to do, but why would you vote against these measures? Why would you get in the way of responsible cost-of-living relief for millions of Australians? Our policies in this year's budget will take three-quarters of a percentage point off inflation this year and half a percentage point next year, which Treasury are forecasting could now get back to the inflation target sooner. The ABS has also confirmed that inflation would be even higher if it weren't for our cost-of-living policies.

I now want to turn to my areas of responsibility in health. We're working to improve access to care while reducing the cost to households. As the health minister said today, what is good for your health is also good for your hip pocket. There are significant investments rolling out to ease the cost of health care and make it easier for Australians wherever they live to get the care that they need. At the same time, we are making permanent structural changes to the health system so that Australians can have confidence that this system will be there for them and their families in the future.

This is in sharp contrast to what we inherited from those opposite. After a decade of neglect, bulk-billing was in freefall. It was never harder or more expensive to visit a GP. But our record investment in tripling the bulk-billing incentive has begun to turn it around in just a few short months. Since we tripled the investment, which started to come into effect last November, we have seen strong data on bulk-billing—a national increase of 3.4 per cent. Across the country, there has been an increase of 3.4 per cent in bulk-billing, growing from 75.6 per cent of all GP visits bulk-billed last October to 79 per cent in May this year. That is a significant and steady growth in bulk-billing. This means around two million additional estimated free visits to see the doctor. I know what that means as a pharmacist, as a local MP and as assistant health minister: a really big change in access and affordability of care, increasing access to health while reducing the cost to households.

This investment has also strengthened general practice and made general practice much more viable for the future, particularly in rural and regional communities, whose outlook was bleak under those opposite. We should never have Australians delaying or avoiding visiting their doctor or filling a prescription because they simply can't afford to go.

The same applies to the cost of medicines. I've been a pharmacist now for more than 25 years. I've worked in community pharmacy; I've worked in regional hospitals. I remember working in an after-hours pharmacy on the main road of Wyong, just opposite the train station. We'd have many people come in late at night. I remember a mother coming in to speak to me. I think she had four children, and three of them had asthma. She came in with their asthma treatment plans and a bundle of prescriptions and asked me which medicines she could avoid or delay filling.

I also remember another occasion of a mother coming to me. She had a shopping trolley full of groceries for her family. She'd been in to see the GP and then come across to the pharmacy. Both of her two children were unwell at the time, and she had prescriptions for antibiotic mixtures for both of them. She said, 'Can I just get one filled and share it between the two and see if after a couple of days they're doing better and I don't need to get the other prescription filled?'

No person should be in a situation where they're forced to make that decision about their children's health and wellbeing. No parent should be forced to decide to fill or not fill a prescription for one of their children. This is what I saw when I was working in pharmacy under the former coalition government. We can't accept that in communities like mine. We can't accept that across the country.

The most recent budget froze the price of PBS medicines. This is really significant. We know that most PBS medicines filled are filled by people who are on healthcare cards, but what this will do is freeze the price of PBS medicines at $31.60 for general patients until the end of 2025 and at $7.70 for concession patients until the end of 2029—for five years. This is significant cost-of-living relief. This will make such a difference to so many people and families coming into community pharmacies right around the country. They will know with confidence that they can afford to pay for their medicine and get the care that they need.

This builds on the government's other measures for cheaper medicines since being elected in May 2022. In July 2022, we lowered the PBS safety net threshold. In October 2022, we reduced the price of 2,000 medicines. In January 2023, we delivered the largest price reduction in the history of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. In September 2023, we introduced 60-day prescriptions for 100 medicines. In March 2024, we expanded 60-day prescriptions to a total of 184 medicines. The third tranche will come into effect in September this year and take the total to some 300 medicines. As a pharmacist, I know what a significant difference this is already making. Around five million Australians have saved more than $414 million on cheaper prescriptions since January 2023. This is good for people's health and it's good, as the health minister says, for their hip pocket.

In addition to bulk billed GP appointments, Australians are also benefiting from quality free health care at a national network of Medicare Urgent Care Clinics. I visited many of the 58 open around the country—and now that number is on its way up to 87. There have been over 494,000 visits to Medicare Urgent Care Clinics around Australia for free, quality, timely care. Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are supporting children and families with over one in four visits from someone aged under 15, making it a trusted place for families to go as an alternative to an emergency department. Over one in three visits have been outside of regular working hours. Half of all patients who presented to Medicare Urgent Care Clinics say they would have otherwise gone to a hospital emergency department. So we're also helping to ease the pressure on those stretched emergency departments of our state hospitals. These are everyday Australians putting their trust in Medicare and using services which make their lives just that little bit easier. Once again, we're easing cost pressures now and making sure the system stronger into the future.

We know there is more to do. My Labor colleagues and I come to work every day, sharply focused on reducing the cost of living for every Australian, making sure that the cost-of-living relief flows in a way that is carefully designed and calibrated for the conditions and the times that the country faces. Those opposite could play a constructive role; I invite them to do so.

See this speech in context