Mary Doyle (Aston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Angus Taylor, the shadow Treasurer, has made it clear these Medicare urgent care clinics are on the chopping block, and they will close. If elected, they will cut these urgent care clinics, just as the opposition leader, when he was the health minister, cut funding from Australia's health system by implementing a six-year freeze on Medicare rebates.

Labor went to the 2022 election promising Australians that we would make medicines cheaper and we're delivering on that promise. We've also introduced 60-day prescriptions for around 300 common medicines, meaning that many millions of Australians with a stable ongoing health condition are saving time and money.

Our government made medicines cheaper. The former health minister now Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Peter Dutton, tried to add $5 to every script, voted against cheaper medicines and tried to block 60-day perceptions. The fact is, those opposite and especially the former health minister and current opposition leader, Peter Dutton, cannot be trusted with Medicare.

Australians understand that ours is a government that is committed to strengthening Medicare, and that's precisely what we have delivered since we were elected.

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