Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Gilmore for her question. Indeed, my government is building Australia's future by strengthening Medicare, prioritising support for people to get the health care they need when they need it and where they need it—they will just need their Medicare card in order to get it. That's our priority. Government is about making decisions about priorities of expenditure. That's why $1.7 billion of additional funding for public hospitals just in the next year will make an enormous difference. That's our priority, not long lunches, but helping people with the health care they need.

This funding will help to cut waiting lists. It will reduce waiting times in emergency rooms, and it will manage ramping. This will save lives. All of the states and territories that we've engaged with over recent days have welcomed this announcement, and I congratulate the health minister on the work that he has done to deliver this. This is just part of our plan—better support for our public hospitals but also support for primary health care so that the pressure is taken of those emergency departments. That's why the tripling of the bulk-billing incentive was so important. That's why 87 Medicare urgent care clinics are providing the care that people need for free. Over one million Australians, one-third of whom were under the age of 15, have visited those urgent care clinics when they've needed them. They're right across the board. These haven't got a colour coded spreadsheet to decide where they are; they have been provided in regional Australia, in our suburbs and in our towns, right throughout the entire country. They have delivered over one million free doctors' appointments.

This new agreement increases the Commonwealth contribution to state-run hospitals over the next year by 12 per cent to a record of almost $34 billion. That stands in stark contrast—I'm asked about alternatives. The last time the coalition got into government, they tried to rip $50 billion from public hospitals, they wanted a GP tax every time people visited a doctor, and they wanted a payment to be made when people visited the emergency departments of public hospitals as well. On Sunday the Leader of the Opposition made clear that the cuts are coming. He won't tell you where they are coming till after the election, but we know that he's had health in his sights before, and we know it will be in his sights again.

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