David Smith (Bean, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. How is the Albanese Labor government making health care more affordable, and why is this a priority for the government?

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

I thank the member for his question because he is such a relentless advocate for better and more affordable services in his community in the ACT, and he tells me very regularly, as do the other members for this territory, that it's never been harder to see a doctor than it is right now and it's never been more expensive. Theirs is exactly the message that we're receiving across the country. I think, if members opposite were honest, they'd be saying their constituents were telling them that, as a result of nine years of cuts to and neglect of Medicare, and particularly the Medicare rebate freeze that went on for six long years, general practice is in the most parlous state it has been in for 40 years. Where Australians have to pay gap fees, those gap fees have skyrocketed. More Australians than ever before are having to reach into their own pocket when they see a GP. For the first time—

Thank you. I'm just getting some fashion advice from the Leader of the Opposition—to do my jacket up.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will continue.

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

It shows you how desperate I am for fashion advice, Mr Speaker, that I reach into the bottom of the bucket and take some advice from the Leader of the Opposition! But take it I will, such is the generosity of spirit.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister will not take free advice! He will continue with his answer.

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

He seeks to distract me from his poor record. The man voted by Australia's doctors as the worst health minister in the Medicare era seeks to distract me with some pretty straightforward fashion advice. But I won't be distracted, because Australians know that, if they're paying a gap, for the first time in the history of Medicare they're paying a gap that is actually higher than the Medicare rebate itself to see a GP.

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

You're right; it is too tight.

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

Mr Speaker, protect me!

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will just get on with his answer—

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

The fashion advice is swinging from one end of the pendulum to the other.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and the Leader of the Opposition will cease interjecting and giving fashion advice.

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

'Do the button up.' 'Undo the button.' To see a specialist, gap fees have skyrocketed by more than 100 per cent. This didn't happen out of thin air. Australians remember that, after promising them that there would be no cuts to health, the then health minister, now the Leader of the Opposition, tried to introduce a tax on every single visit to the doctor by every single Australian, including pensioners, concession card holders—a tax that would have wrecked the model of Medicare that has been such a cherished part of our social fabric. So I say to the member for Bean and to all members of this House: get behind the fact that this government has made strengthening Medicare the centrepiece of our health policy because we know how strong Medicare can be.