Sam Lim (Tangney, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. How is the budget making it easier for Australians to see a bulk-billing doctor, and why is it needed?

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

Thanks to the terrific member for Tangney who worked so hard in the last election, campaigning on our promise to strengthen Medicare and to make it easier and cheaper to see a doctor.

Last night's budget delivers more than $6 billion in new investments to strengthen Medicare as well as an indexation boost to Medicare rebates of $1½ billion, which will deliver the biggest across-the-board increase to Medicare rebates since Paul Keating was Prime Minister 30 years ago. But for Labor members the beating heart of Medicare is bulk-billing. I say Labor members because all of those opposite saw fit to elect as their leader a man who, in his first budget as health minister, tried to end bulk-billing for every single Australian forever and a day. When that failed, the six-year-long freeze to Medicare—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

Order! Members on my right will cease interjecting. The Minister for Climate Change and Energy will cease interjecting so I can hear from the Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's on relevance, Mr Speaker. This minister, unfortunately, is a serial offender. He needs to stick to the terms of the question and avoid gratuitous personal attacks.

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

The question was about government making it easier for Australians to see a bulk-billing doctor. I'm going to ask the minister to return to the question.

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

I was asked why it was needed, and the six-year-long Medicare rebate squeezed general practice finances and has seen bulk-billing rates drop sharply. That's why the centrepiece of last night's Strengthening Medicare package was a $3.5 billion initiative to triple the bulk-billing incentive for GP visits, reviving that beating heart of Medicare. In the cities, this increases the total rebate for a standard GP consult by more than a third, and the increases are even higher in rural and regional Australia.

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you can find a doctor! You have to travel to see a doctor because of you.

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

Order! The Leader of the Nationals will cease interjecting.

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

In Bega, in the member for Eden-Monaro's electorate, for example, that bulk-billed rebate will increase by half, from $50 to $75. In Longreach, in the electorate of the Leader of the Nationals, the rebate rises from $52 to more than $80, an increase of 55 per cent. This is why the college of GPs have described this package as a game changer for general practice; a game changer for millions of mums and dads who want the confidence of knowing that, when their kids get sick, they can go to a bulk-billing doctor—

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

If the Leader of the Nationals continues to interject, he will be warned.

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

a game changer for millions of pensioners and seniors health card and other concession card holders, who depend upon bulk-billing; and, importantly, a game changer for tens of thousands of general practitioners, who know now they have a government in Canberra who trusts them, values them and respects the work they do as the backbone of our broader healthcare system. Tripling the bulk-billing incentive, delivering the biggest across-the-board increase to Medicare rebates in 30 years, delivering 58 bulk-billed urgent care services over the course of this year—that is Labor's commitment to strengthening Medicare.