Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Minister for Health and Ageing. How is the Albanese Labor government working to strengthen Medicare? Why is urgent action needed to repair the damage caused by a decade of cuts and neglect to Australia's primary health care system?

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

I thank the terrific member for Pearce for her question—such an amazing representative of the northern suburbs of Perth, first as mayor and now as a widely respected member of our government in this place. She understands the critical importance of strengthening Medicare. I remember that, when I first met her, she told me that her constituents had been telling her it had never been harder and never been less affordable to see a doctor than it was right then, back in last year.

We know that, after 10 years of cuts and neglect to Medicare, bulk-billing rates were in serious decline when we came to government, and gap fees were rising sharply. That's why the Treasurer, in the May budget this year, delivered a $6.1 billion strengthening Medicare package. The centrepiece of that package was the biggest investment in bulk-billing in the 40-year history of Medicare, tripling the bulk-billing incentive. We also delivered the biggest across-the-board increase to the Medicare rebate in more than 30 years, since Paul Keating was Prime Minister—in one year, more than the former government managed, in 10 long years, to increase the Medicare rebate.

We also recognise that GPs deserve more than just our thanks after their extraordinary efforts over the 3½ years of the pandemic. They deserve tangible support to strengthen their practices, which is why we've delivered $220 million in Strengthening Medicare General Practice Grants, including to 38 general practices in the member for Pearce's electorate. I'm happy to say the member for Pearce and I visited the Clarkson Medicare Urgent Care Clinic last week, one of the 58 urgent care centres we'll be opening over the course of this year. The waiting room was full, mainly with parents with kids who had urgent but non-life-threatening emergencies, which we're all familiar with as parents—people who would likely have been waiting hours and hours in the Joondalup emergency department if the urgent care centre hadn't been opened. Dr Koh, the terrific manager of that practice, told us how busy the urgent care centre had been in the short time it had been open—just one of the centres operating seven days a week, extended hours and fully bulk-billed, delivering urgent care in the community when and where people need it and taking much pressure off our hospital emergency departments.

Tripling the bulk-billing incentive, the biggest increase to the Medicare rebate in more than 30 years, Strengthening Medicare General Practice Grants to more than 6,800 general practices and rolling out Medicare urgent care centres right across Australia—that's our commitment to strengthening Medicare.

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

The Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cybersecurity is warned.