Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Minister for Health. How will health workers and their patients benefit from the government's tax cuts? How do Labor's tax cuts complement other actions the government has taken to make health care more affordable? Why is the government so determined to strengthen Medicare?

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

I thank the member for Newcastle for her question. There are more than 650,000 health workers in Australia—nurses, doctors, allied health workers and more—and they work hard every single day keeping us healthy. During the worst times in the pandemic, they worked hard to keep us safe, often at great personal risk to themselves. For that, they deserve our deep gratitude, but they deserve so much more as well. Our government wants Australia's hardworking health workers to earn more for what they do, and we want them to keep more of what they earn.

That's why, on 1 July, Labor will deliver every single health worker in Australia a tax cut to help with the cost of living, not just to some of them but to every single one of the 650,000 health workers. A typical nurse earning $76,000 a year will receive a tax cut of $1,579, around double what they would have earned from the old plan of five years ago. Every single one of their patients will receive a tax cut as well, not just some of them but every single one of them, reinforcing our determination to build on the measures we rolled out over the course of last year to help middle Australia with the cost of living.

Last year, general patients saved $240 million in medicine costs thanks to the biggest cut to the price of medicines in the 75-year history of the PBS, delivered by this government on 1 January last year. They'll save pretty much the same amount again this year just from that one single measure. In four weeks time, 100 more medicines will be added to the 60-day script list, saving Australian patients even more money at the pharmacist, as well as saving time and much more convenience.

Our record investment from last year's budget, delivered by the Treasurer, in bulk-billing for GP visits is, again, already having an impact too. Everyone in this parliament knows that bulk-billing rates were in freefall when we were elected to government—no surprise, perhaps, after a decade of cuts and neglect to Medicare, kicked off by the Leader of the Opposition when he was health minister. Our first job was to stop the slide, and, since the announcement made by the Treasurer in May, we have seen the freefall in bulk-billing for GP visits start to arrest.

I'm pleased to report that, in just the first two months of the incentive taking effect, we've already seen a turnaround in bulk-billing for GP visits, with 360,000 additional free visits to the doctor in just the first two months, with the large majority in regional Australia. That's what we're about—helping with the cost of living and a stronger economy and a stronger Medicare. (Time expired)