Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I met with two members of the Doctors Reform Society, Dr John Furler and Dr Tim Woodruff, who shared with me their deep concern about the state of Medicare and our primary healthcare network. I share their concerns.

We discussed the government's recent Strengthening Medicare Taskforce Report and our disappointment that the Albanese government has no immediate vision for the current healthcare crisis. The taskforce has come up with a 12-page report with some nice rhetoric but no plan. We need more GPs in rural and regional centres and more incentives for GPs to bulk bill. We need to consider innovative solutions, like socioeconomic based funding of GP clinics. We need primary healthcare clinics providing multidisciplinary care to keep patients out of emergency departments.

This government has kicked the can down the road. It has no immediate measures to take even a small degree of pressure off our medical system. Our hospitals, our GP clinics and our mental health care services are underfunded, oversubscribed and, sadly, beginning to fail. Our healthcare professionals are exhausted. Australians are waiting longer for medical and surgical care, and we're paying more to receive it. Our Medicare system needs major reconstructive surgery, not just bandaids and a kiss on the knee.