Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister for health. After 40 years, how important is Medicare for Australians? What have been the threats to Medicare, and why is it important to strengthen Medicare for the future?

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

Thank you to the member for Lyons, who is such a terrific advocate for better health care, particularly in rural and regional Australia. A few months ago, he joined the Prime Minister and me and many others besides to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Medicare. For Labor and for Australians who'd come to cherish our most important social program, it was indeed a celebration. Medicare has delivered this country one of the best healthcare systems on the planet. It's ranked No. 1 for health outcomes and, importantly for Labor, No. 1 for health equity as well.

But it's notable there's been no celebration on the other side, not a single murmur, because they never wanted Medicare to survive for 40 years, let alone to thrive. We remember John Howard describing Medicare—get this—as one of the great failures of the Hawke government. That's what the godfather of the modern Liberal Party said. Even after they finally accepted that the Australian people would simply not accept them abolishing Medicare, they've never stopped trying to dismantle and weaken the program year after year, like the Leader of the Opposition freezing the Medicare rebate or trying to rip $50 billion out of our public hospitals.

But it's bulk-billing that's always really offended them. John Howard called it an absolute rort. The Leader of the Opposition said that there were too many free Medicare services before he tried to abolish bulk-billing altogether. But, for Labor, bulk-billing is the beating heart of the Medicare program. That is why last year we tripled the bulk-billing incentive. Since that record investment in November, we've seen bulk-billing for GP visits rise in every single state and every single territory. The member for Lyons will be very pleased that the biggest increase of all has been in the state of Tasmania, where bulk-billing is up by more than seven per cent. Across the nation in just eight months there have been more than three million additional free visits to the doctor. In June there were more than 900,000 additional free visits to the doctor, the same number in May—just one month alone—making a real difference to millions of Australians.

We know that Medicare is still under very real pressure and we know there's a lot more for us to do to keep strengthening Medicare, but we also know that all of that progress on urgent care clinics, on bulk-billing and on making medicines cheaper is under real threat by those opposite. The shadow Treasurer confirmed again last week that he doesn't support any of that additional investment. All of that investment in bulk-billing will go and the urgent clinics will close. As for the Leader of the Opposition, you just need to look at his record.