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

I'm asked about the former government's record on bulk-billing. I am very pleased to talk about their record on bulk-billing because it is clear that, as the former government were ending their time in government, as we came to government, bulk-billing was in freefall. I don't make up that word. That was the description used by the then president of the College of General Practitioners. Really, it should be no surprise. When the Leader of the Opposition was health minister, when he couldn't abolish bulk-billing altogether, he started a freeze on the Medicare rebate that endured for six long years.

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