Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the Government is continuing to improve our health system by:

(a) strengthening Medicare by:

(i) growing the number of Medicare Urgent Care Clinics to 87;

(ii) expanding the range of free mental health services;

(iii) increasing the number of Medicare eligible magnetic resonance imaging machines;

(iv) delivering funding for Medicare rebates for nuclear medicine imaging and common medical tests; and

(v) boosting the supply of healthcare in areas of shortage; and

(b) easing cost of living pressures with cheaper medicines, and through:

(i) reducing patient costs and improving access to medicines;

(ii) listing new medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme;

(iii) making Australia a destination for clinical trials; and

(iv) investing in ground-breaking new health and medical research; and

(2) acknowledges:

(a) that only a Labor-led Government can be trusted to invest in and strengthen Medicare; and

(b) the damage done to Australia's health system by the Leader of the Opposition who, as the Minister for Health:

(i) tried to tax visits to general practitioners;

(ii) tried to tax visits to emergency departments; and

(iii) cut $50 billion from Australian hospitals.

Australia is fortunate to have a largely universal healthcare system that seeks to improve the health and wellbeing of all Australians. Only Labor understands that. After 10 years of coalition government, we saw: our hospitals under incredible stress; people unable to get in to see a GP; people unable to afford to see a GP; and the costs of seeing specialists becoming unaffordable for many people. Unfortunately, I've seen it all before.

When I started my private practice in 1984, it was the beginning of Medicare. But people had forgotten that Medibank, introduced by Gough Whitlam, was the initial iteration of our universal healthcare scheme that was destroyed by the Fraser government. We then saw the introduction of Medicare, but, with the election of the Abbott government, look what happened! We had Peter Dutton, the present Leader of the Opposition, as health minister, trying to introduce Medicare co-payments, trying to make people pay to be seen in the public hospital system, making health care more and more unaffordable for average Australians. This was terrible and this was one of the reasons that spurred me to run in 2016. I was sick and tired of writing to ministers and departments regarding issues affecting my patients. We saw people who had kids with asthma not being able to afford their preventer medications, causing them to end up in hospital. We saw people with heart failure not being able to afford their medications, medications becoming more and more unaffordable. I think that there's something wrong with the timer, Deputy speaker.

Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You can have extra time.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, I need a lot of time to talk about the deficiencies of the coalition government in health care. I was very fortunate to be elected in 2016. I sought meetings with many ministers—including the present Deputy Leader of the Opposition, when she was health minister, and later the member for Flinders, when he was health minister—trying to get them to understand that people could not afford to get primary care and the difficulties people were facing as to getting in to see GPs. Unfortunately, they both sat on their hands and did nothing.

Thankfully, change has been occurring following the 2022 federal election. I'm very proud to be able to work with the Prime Minister, the Minister for Health and Aged Care and the health team, including the member for Dobell and Ged Kearney, the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, on women's health, on getting reform—on getting change to happen. And, at long last, people are now being able to access health care.

We're seeing the opening of our urgent care centres. It was great to be at the opening of the urgent care centre in Campbelltown, which is really enabling people to bypass the hospital emergency department and get great care; that's taking a lot of pressure off our hospital system.

One of our first items of business in 2022 was to make medicines cheaper. That has delivered the largest price reduction in the 75-year history of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme—another Labor scheme. Under our government, people will pay no more than $31.60 for medicines on the PBS, and they'll be much cheaper if someone is on a healthcare card. Sixty-day prescribing has made a huge difference, and that is another way that people can get cheaper and more affordable health care. I'm proud of our government for fighting hard for this reform—and fighting the vested interests that tried to oppose it—which means cheaper medicines for all Australians. We've been working hard to strengthen Medicare, through our historic investment in the Strengthening Medicare program; the bulk-billing incentives, which have tripled the rebates for people who are bulk billed and will benefit almost 11 million people; and improving bulk-billing rates around the country, making GP practice more viable and allowing people to access GPs.

There's still a lot of work to be done, but, after 10 years of neglect by the coalition government, we're rapidly catching up with health care. We're making significant investments in medical and health research, with $1.4 billion to be invested over 13 years through the Medical Research Future Fund, including an additional $411 million for low-survival cancers and also to reduce health inequities. We're investing $18.8 million to make Australia a destination for clinical trials. This is really important in the medical research fund. We're doing our best to strengthen Medicare—

Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order. Is there a seconder for this motion?

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak later.

Russell Broadbent (Monash, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whilst I disagree with some parts of the motion the member for Macarthur has put forward to the House today, I would never doubt his sincerity towards the issues around health and the wellbeing of his community and the community in Australia, and I applaud him for that. He asks for improvements to our health system.

Well, we're clearly in desperate need of improvements, given the way that flu, RSV and COVID are currently sweeping across the nation and overwhelming the public health system. Elective surgeries have been cancelled under South Australia's emergency 'code yellow', with plans to transfer some patients from overwhelmed Adelaide metropolitan hospitals to regional centres—in large part because frontline workers are sick. But how can that be, if they're all vaccinated? Clearly I do not understand how vaccinations work.

An improved and supportive health bureaucracy is not the experience of Chris Nemeth, a vaccine-injured gentleman who has been suffering great distress and financial hardship since he was injured by the COVID vaccine. Chris is so desperate that he's given me permission to use his full name. Chris was diagnosed with a COVID vaccine injury called chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, which resulted from his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. He will have this condition and need treatment for the rest of his life.

This is the same vaccine that was removed from pharmacy shelves after its manufacturer conceded, in a United Kingdom court last month, that the vaccine causes blood clots. It bewilders me that there hasn't been more of an uproar from Australians who received the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Chris has been engaged with the government's vaccine injury compensation scheme and is getting nowhere. Working with a lawyer, because the system is so difficult to navigate, Chris compiled a thousand-page submission, which he submitted to Services Australia on 2 March 2023. That's 459 days ago. In those 459 days, his application passed the initial review stage and then also passed the external medical review done by the TGA on the first try. After passing the external medical review, he was asked three times for additional information, and his application then went through another external legal panel review and an internal legal review. The most recent external legal review was completed on 23 May, and the advice was passed to Services Australia on that day. Last Thursday, day 455, Services Australia advised that they cannot offer any further update—nothing—no indication of what the advice from the external legal panel was, no indication of the next step and no indication of when they will be able to provide any further update.

The scheme was supposed to be an easy-to-access safety net, with quick administrative processes. These were the words of Greg Hunt, then health minister, when he announced the scheme. The government knew there would be vaccine injuries, but this cautionary initiative was drowned out by the fear propaganda machine and the 'safe and effective' mantra.

Chris is an innocent victim of a bureaucratic nightmare. In Chris's words:

the vaccine injuries scheme is administered with cruelty and callous disregard for the human beings who have been injured by these vaccines that were taken in good faith when asked by our government to do so

Chris told me he speaks with other people facing the same challenges with the scheme and its administration. Are we seeing another robodebt? Will it take a suicide to draw attention to this horrendous situation? Dare I say that the vaccine compensation scheme looks to have similar hallmarks to the robodebt scheme, which was referred to as a 'crude and cruel' mechanism. Haven't we learned anything as a parliament of people?

Chris hasn't been able to work since September 2021 and has not had any income since April 2022. While he did receive a modest TPD payment from his superannuation, it's money that diminishes with every passing day. Chris called me last Friday at his wit's end. He is a strong, capable and professional man who has been pushed to the brink, and he's not the only one. He said he's at the edge of his ability to cope with the additional harm that this claim scheme is inflicting upon him every day. Chris's situation is a shameful blight on our nation—one that has not reached its zenith.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I congratulate the member for Macarthur for moving this very important motion. As we all know, the member for Macarthur is a medical practitioner and paediatrician, and what he said in his speech is absolutely correct. It is evident that only a government led by Labor can be relied upon to prioritise and reinforce Medicare and ensure the safety of Medicare for the public. Only under a Labor administration will the pricing of essential medications remain stable.

Our commitment extends beyond mere rhetoric. We genuinely care about the health and accessibility of our healthcare system for all Australians—an Australia where your Medicare card counts and not your credit card. Our health minister wouldn't even consider taxing visits to the doctor, as we saw done by the previous health minister in the previous government, but that's exactly what the opposition leader was pushing for when he was minister. The proposal to slash $50 billion from Australian hospitals as advocated by the opposition leader defies common sense.

Under this Albanese Labor government, we've rolled out 87 Medicare urgent care clinics, including five in South Australia at Elizabeth, Marion, Morphett Vale, the western region of Royal Park, near my electorate, and Mount Gambier. Of course, many people are accessing these urgent care clinics, including those from my electorate at the one in the western region of Royal Park. The difference they've made is absolutely remarkable. It's evident that Australia benefits immensely from having more urgent Medicare clinics available, and expanding access to these urgent care centres improves our healthcare system for everyone. Of course, we'll continue to advocate for the possibility of extending this benefit to communities in the Adelaide electorate as well.

As I mentioned earlier, this government places a high priority on ensuring that people have access to the help and support that they need, including essential healthcare services and products. That's why we've also taken steps to expand the availability of free mental health services. We understand that mental health is a significant issue that can have a profound impact on individual lives. Our goal is to improve people's wellbeing and provide them with the support that they need to overcome mental health challenges, rather than limiting their options for treatment and recovery. We're ensuring that Australians can afford the medication and treatment that they require and are making sure it is a key priority for us.

It's concerning to think that anyone in Adelaide or elsewhere might feel unable to book a doctor's appointment or follow their prescribed medication regimen due to financial constraints. That's why we're working very hard to address these concerns. Our Minister for Health and Aged Care is actively working to ensure that more Australians don't have to face these tough choices, and I congratulate the member for Hindmarsh, the minister, for the absolutely brilliant work that he's done in this area.

We're increasing the availability of healthcare services in areas where there is a shortage and making medicines more affordable by reducing patient costs and improving access to them, as we've seen. One way we're doing this is by listing new medicines on the PBS. This initiative will help to ease the financial burden on Australians and ensure that they can access the medications that they need to stay healthy. All of these efforts are driven by our genuine concern for the wellbeing of every Australian. We care deeply about ensuring that everyone has access to the health care that they need, regardless of their financial circumstances and regardless of their credit card. The only card that should count is the Medicare card that all Australians have access to.

This is unlike the previous government. When they came into government in 2013, the health minister came in and chopped and changed the entire system. They took billions out of the healthcare service. That's why we need to restore that money and restore the services that we've always taken pride in as a nation: our Medicare system. It is so important that everyone has access to a doctor when they need one, and they will have access under this government.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whilst speaking on health, it's very important that I raise the situation of one of my local constituents, Michael, who's 35 and from Lilydale. Michael was a self-employed electrician who, in the height of Victoria's pandemic lockdowns, was required to get vaccinated due to his job requirements to enter people's homes. After consultation with his doctor, it was decided that it was safe for Michael to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine. Tragically, this resulted in permanent life-altering myocarditis and pericarditis, which have been diagnosed by Michael's specialist. This has taken Michael's ability to work, causing significant financial difficulties, instability and great anxiety about what the future holds. Why is it the case that those who received the AstraZeneca vaccine continue to be barred from accessing compensation under the COVID-19 Vaccine Claims Scheme? I've met with Michael, and I've made representations to the minister about his case. When you see how this situation has had a devastating impact on Michael and his family, you know there is more that we need to do. It's time that the government look to support those with vaccine injuries.

When we look at motions by those opposite, the wording is always very careful and you've got to look at the detail. They talk a big game on Medicare and on health, but, when you look at this motion, there's something that's very important to our health system that's not referenced: bulk billing. Bulk billing is not referenced at all in this motion. The reason is that bulk billing is down 11 per cent since this government came to power, four per cent in the last 12 months. They talk about health, but the numbers show that they're not delivering when it comes to the health system.

They're talking also about the Medicare urgent-care clinics which appear to be making a difference. I know that, in my community of Casey, which covers 2½ thousand square kilometres, we don't have a hospital and we don't have an emergency department. We've only got seven bulk-billing clinics in our community, and we need a Medicare urgent-care clinic so that my community can have access to the health care that they deserve. It's why we've been running a campaign with a petition calling on the government to not play politics, but to deliver for communities. Twenty-nine new clinics were announced in the last budget, but the government haven't announced the locations. I do note they've announced a few locations and, miraculously, all those locations seem to be in Labor held seats. So I'll be watching with interest to see the rest of those 29 Medicare urgent-care clinics delivered. It will be a test of whether this government is genuine about the health care of everyone in the community or just those in Labor-held seats.

It's also interesting that, in this motion, those opposite talk about expanding free mental health services. They didn't do that in my community. This government closed down and pulled the funding for the Lilydale Youth Hub—an investment from the former coalition government to help young people with a drop-in centre and by giving them the mental health services and supports they needed. Despite it delivering significant results and benefits for our community and despite a community campaign, the Albanese Labor government ripped that funding and ripped that youth hub from our community. So it's pretty galling when they talk about expanding mental health services. It's not just Casey that has been abandoned when it comes to mental health services. This government cut the number of free Medicare mental health services from 20 sessions to 10 sessions—they cut the number half. The member for Macnamara had the courage to come out and criticise the government for that decision, and I commend him for that. They cut the number in half despite the Better Health Initiative report finding that it should stay at 20. The sessions were expanded from 10 to 20 under the coalition during COVID. This government made the heartless decision to cut the number in half. If you need help and if you need mental health support, you get 10 sessions; you don't get the 20 sessions that you need, unless you've got the money.

They talk a big game on health and mental health, but the reality and the facts show that they are abandoning the people of Casey and the nation when it comes to health.

Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Macarthur for the opportunity to talk about how Labor was elected to strengthen Medicare and how the most recent budget continues on with our election commitments. We know that only Labor can strengthen Medicare. Labor created Medicare. We'll protect Medicare, and we'll strengthen it. With the 2024 budget, we are taking further steps to reverse the cuts and neglect of the Liberals by enhancing the accessibility, affordability and quality of healthcare services nationwide.

I'm very happy to be able to say that the government will significantly strengthen Medicare in Bennelong. From 1 July, Bennelong will get its first federally funded Medicare urgent-care clinic at Top Ryde shopping centre. It will be open for seven days a week for longer hours, be fully bulk-billed and accept walk-in patients. No matter who you are, what you do or what you earn, you'll have access to the Top Ryde Medicare urgent-care clinic, and that access will be fully bulk-billed with no out-of-pocket costs because Labor believes that, to get urgent care, all you should need is your Medicare card, not your credit card. Funded in the budget, the Top Ryde Medicare urgent-care clinic is an upgrade on the NSW Health run clinic. From 1 July, it will operate as a federally funded clinic, and it will help significantly alleviate the pressure on the Ryde Hospital Emergency Department.

Last financial year, almost half of all the presentations at Ryde Hospital were for conditions that could have been managed in a less acute setting. By shifting these cases to the Top Ryde Medicare urgent-care clinic, patients will be seen more quickly and emergency departments will be reserved for the most critical of cases. The $227 million expansion of the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic program announced in the budget will establish another 29 clinics across the country, bringing the total number of medicare urgent care clinics to 87, and the impact of these clinics in communities is already evident.

Since the first sites opened in June 2023, the 58 existing Medicare urgent care clinics across Australia have handled over 400,000 presentations. In New South Wales alone, the 14 existing clinics have seen more than 65,000 visits, and Bennelong will get its own federally funded urgent care clinic in a few weeks time. It doesn't end there. From 1 July 2025, Bennelong will get its first public MRI licence as part of a $70 million program to increase the number of public MRI machines. Currently, local residents don't have local access to fully funded Medicare-billed MRIs. Our closest public machines are at Royal North Shore or Westmead. Locals had a choice of either being hundreds of dollars out of pocket or to travel out of area to get important MRI images. This expansion from 1 July 2025 will profoundly impact the accessibility of MRI services for everyone in Bennelong. It will mean that the current MRI machine at Macquarie University Hospital will shift from a private licence to a public one. It will help patients access affordable and world-class health care right at our doorstep. And with more public machines available, patients will experience shorter wait times and quicker, cheaper access to essential imaging services. These machines are crucial for early detection and treatment.

Since we were elected, we have remained committed to strengthening the healthcare system and providing tangible relief from cost-of-living pressures. Tripling the bulk-billing rate, making medicines cheaper, funding urgent care clinics and MRIs, we are a government that are undoing the cuts and chaos of the Liberals and Nationals. Contrast our record with those formerly in government. We know that when Mr Dutton was health minister, the Liberals' Leader of the Opposition froze the Medicare rebate, a freeze that remained in place for six long years. He froze it; we tripled it. The Liberals' Leader of the Opposition also cut $200 million out of the system aimed specifically at reducing demand on state-run emergency departments. He put pressure on these departments; we're opening urgent care clinics to take pressure off. Under the Liberals, the Leader of the Opposition tried to jack up the price of medicine by adding $5 to every script. He wanted to push up the cost of medicines, and we have cut them, saving locals in Bennelong almost $2.5 million in two years.

The difference couldn't be more stark. The Liberals opposed, froze and sought to attack Medicare. Under Labor, we'll continue to strengthen it.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed, the difference could not be more stark. Under the previous government, more than 94 million telehealth consultations through Medicare to 16 million patients was the number we achieved. There have been 857 new medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme since 2019 alone. More than 128,000 Australians were supported by headspace each year and there were 1,400 additional nurse placements for the regions. The regions is where I want to very much concentrate on with my contribution because it's the regions which have been left behind by this Albanese Labor government when it comes to health care.

Bulk-billing has collapsed since Labor came into government. The government is overseeing the worst bulk-billing rate in a decade after it was an all-time high of 88.8 per cent under the Liberals and Nationals. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners health of the nation report showed that the number of GPs who bulk-billed all their patients halved in just 12 months, while the cost of seeing a GP increased by $11 on average. We have a city-centric health minister who, when questioned about bulk-billing, said, 'Well, if you don't get a doctor who wants to bulk bill, put the phone down and ring another doctor.' Well that might all be well and good in the leafy suburbs of Adelaide where the health minister comes from, but when you're in Parkes or Forbes or Junee or Cowra or Gundagai or many of those other vibrant regional towns, it is difficult to find a doctor let alone another doctor who might bulk bill.

Indeed, I am very disappointed that the federal Labor government changed the distribution priority areas for GPs to include some of the outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, as well as Newcastle, Wollongong, the Gold Coast and other major centres. What that did is that it told a budding new GP or somebody who had already been operating in a regional centre that they could go and hang their shingle in one of those, some might say, more desirable areas, and that left and is leaving country centres high and dry. Indeed, many of them are overworked because of the work that they have to do, which they do lovingly.

That is why I was so pleased, when I was the Deputy Prime Minister, that I was able to get the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network up and running and funded. Its footprint extends into Wagga Wagga, Dubbo, Orange—I see the member for Calare sitting behind me; they've certainly benefited in his electorate—Bendigo, Mildura and Albury-Wodonga. All of those centres are now training young doctors from start to finish. They're doing their entire medical degree in a regional centre. The Orange medical school was opened on 4 March 2022. What it means for that one and the one at Wagga Wagga is that hopefully the young budding doctors will not only fall in love with the region but might even fall in love with somebody in the region and stay in the region. It's proof positive that, if you do a regional course and get a diploma from a regional university, generally speaking, three-quarters of those people stay in the regions, live in the regions, operate in the regions and make the regions their home.

When you've got a health minister who then says, 'If you don't get what you like when you pick the phone up, hang it up and ring the next doctor,' it goes to show how out of touch he is with the dilemma that is in regional Australia at the moment. The Mayor of Parkes, Neil Westcott, told me recently there hasn't been a baby born at Parkes hospital for five years. The health minister, if you asked him, would say, 'They can go down the road 40 kilometres to Forbes and have their baby there,' but it's not the same thing. Why shouldn't a community of 12,000 people have its own obstetrics services—its own maternity services—at its own hospital?

It's just not right, and it's not right because we've got this distribution priority areas change. It's not right because we've got a city-centric health minister and a city-centric government not looking after the health needs, the Medicare needs and the bulk-billing needs of people who choose to live in the regions. The regions are the best place in the world in which to live, but this government has to do a lot more to improve the health services therein.

Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.