Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

It's nice to see a female speaker talking when I'm about to speak about support for women's health, in particular. Those of us on this side of the House believe in outcomes rather than spin. Labor's rhetoric about saving Medicare and celebrating anniversaries is desperate when you compare actual outcomes, because their record is actually pathetic. Not only do they keep the Department of Health and Aged Care under the thumb and are unable to provide us or the public with data on outcomes but they manipulate departmental resources to claim bulk-billing rates are improving.

GP bulk-billing has fallen 11 per cent under the Albanese Government, to 77 per cent, while out-of-pocket costs have increased by 11 per cent—and that's just in the past year alone. To put this into perspective, the GP bulk-billing rate rose under Peter Dutton, the opposition leader, when he was the health minister, to 84 per cent, and it continued to rise under the former coalition government to 88 per cent before we left office in May 2022. But under the Albanese government Medicare is currently covering the lowest percentage of GP fees on record. On average, Australians are being forced to cover 45 per cent more of the cost from their own pocket to see a doctor than when the coalition was in government—and this is in a cost-of-living crisis.

What is happening is that people are not seeking out an appointment with their doctor, because they simply cannot afford it. This is emphasised in the regions where we have fewer doctors to go around. The maldistribution of doctors—again, another great idea by the Albanese government!—expanded the distribution priority areas, so doctors left in a flood from Modified Monash Model regions MM3 and MM7 to MM2 and even MM1. So, in the regions, we have fewer doctors to start with, and more people are having to pull out more money from their pocket to go and see their doctor, if they can get an appointment. This is a sham by the Albanese Labor government, to brag about their outcomes in Medicare.

I want, however, to speak about the women's health package. The coalition supports the government's $573.3 million package announced today, which builds on the historic work undertaken by the former coalition government in supporting women's health. We will match this women's health package, including measures to enhance menopause care for women through a new Medicare rebate; expand health professional training; develop national clinical guidelines; and increase funding for endometriosis and pelvic pain. I've got to say that this was actually brought by the previous member for Boothby, Nicolle Flint, who worked incredibly hard to see that endometriosis was raised to the level where government took it seriously. I'm really pleased to see this funding announcement made, and we welcome the government's decision to expand on this work with 11 new clinics.

Whether it is helping women who live with chronic health conditions like endometriosis, supporting women with menopause or helping families on their fertility journey, we are committed to getting the policy settings right. However, the coalition remains concerned that under the Albanese Labor government it has never been harder or more expensive for women in Australia to access critical primary care. As I said, the GP bulk-billing rate has collapsed. When the coalition left government, bulk-billing was at 88 per cent. It has now fallen to 77 per cent. Patients are now paying record-high out-of-pocket costs to see a doctor during Labor's cost-of-living crisis. This led to more than 1.5 million Australians avoiding seeing their GP in 2023-24 due to cost concerns. What is the outcome of that? What it means is that people live with chronic health conditions for a longer time, inevitably leading to more hospital admissions. While the Labor government wants to brag about the urgent care clinics— (Time expired)

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