Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

In question time today, the health minister claimed that I'd initiated a pause on the indexation of Medicare rebates, which is not true. The member for Sydney, under the former Labor government, was health minister at the time when the pause on Medicare rebates was initiated in the 2013 budget. This is clearly stated on page 177 of Budget Paper No. 2 of May 2013. The then president of the RACGP said that Labor's 2013 indexation pause would slash $664 million out of primary healthcare services. When I was health minister, the bulk-billing rate was at 84 per cent; today it's at 77 per cent.

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