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

I'll take that question on notice and see if I can get an answer to the member in precise detail, but I will say that I've said since before the last election and since that the state of general practice when we came to government was its most parlous in 41 years. Bulk-billing was in freefall, and, as I've said once or twice at this dispatch box before, they were suffering through the impact of a six-year freeze on the Medicare rebate. Those opposite, particularly the Leader of the Opposition, when he was health minister, decided to freeze the income of general practices, while their costs continued to rise. Unsurprisingly, they come under very real pressure.

Over the last 24 hours, I've signed off on the third increase in the Medicare rebate since we came to government. Of the three increases, we've delivered the biggest, the second biggest and the third biggest increases in the Medicare rebate in more than 30 years, since Paul Keating was the Prime Minister.

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