Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. How are the Albanese Labor government's actions to strengthen Medicare helping Australians access the health care they need while relieving cost-of-living pressures? Why is the government so determined to strengthen Medicare after a decade of cuts and neglect?

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

The member for Robertson is this talented young emergency physician who decided to pause his promising medical career to run for parliament and deliver better healthcare services for his community on the Central Coast. On this side of parliament, we count ourselves so lucky that he took that decision, because by working shifts every day at Wyong Hospital and Gosford Hospital he saw, shift after shift, the consequences of 10 years of cuts and neglect to Medicare under those opposite. He argued, for example, for the reversal of the decision that the former government made to cut the ability of general practices on the Central Coast and the Hunter Valley to recruit overseas trained doctors, a decision that hollowed out general practices right through that Central Coast and Hunter Valley community. That's why we reversed that decision. That decision came on top of a six-year freeze to the Medicare rebate, a freeze that was kicked off by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the health minister because he could not get his infamous GP tax through the Senate.

Labor's approach, and the approach of the member for Robertson, could not be more different from the approach of the Leader of the Opposition. While he tried to abolish bulk billing altogether and make every single Australian pay a fee every single time they visited a doctor, in the May budget we tripled the bulk-billing incentive, the biggest ever investment in bulk billing in Australia's history and one that's particularly important for the Central Coast of New South Wales, which has one of the lowest bulk-billing rates in the country.

The member for Robertson also promised his community a Medicare urgent care clinic, to make it easier to see a doctor for one of those urgent, non-life-threatening emergencies and also to take the pressure off those local hospitals he'd been working in as an emergency physician. He delivered on that promise, because the Peninsula Medicare urgent care clinic is now open seven days a week, with extended hours. It is fully bulk billed and is delivering services to the people of his community. It's already making it difference.

Christine sent a message to Dr Gordon Reid saying, 'I want to thank you so much for your work in providing the Peninsula Medicare urgent care clinic. Our son had a red, swollen spider bite and was able to see a doctor after work this afternoon straightaway. He got a trophy emoji and a golden star emoji as well.' Jenny took her son in at 8.30 am and got him seen within 15 minutes, fully bulk billed, and also thanked the local member, because he is a terrific member for Robertson who supports our campaign to strengthen Medicare, tripling the bulk-billing incentive, rolling out urgent care clinics and delivering cheaper medicines.