Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Bulk-billing, or the ability to see GP without charge, is the critical core of Medicare and the strength of our primary healthcare system. It literally determines, at times, whether people live or die, and impacts every part of the health system. For people, particularly low-income earners, to be able to go to their GP without a charge rather than fronting up to the public hospital means conditions are picked up earlier, lowering cost of treatment overall and saving expensive, very costly visits to emergency departments, clogging them up when conditions can be treated elsewhere. The good news is, while there's more to do, things are finally improving on the bulk-billing front.

In 2022 when the government was elected, it's no exaggeration to say that bulk-billing rates in this country were in freefall after a decade of the Liberals' cuts and neglect, and a freeze to the rate that GPs are paid. That's really important, because when you freeze the rate, as the previous government did, so doctors are paid the same year after year after year after year, they have no choice. It was such a difficult decision for so many GPs in the suburbs and the regions to make to start charging their patients, because it was the only way they could pay their staff, pay their insurance, pay their rent and earn some modicum of a wage. Now, who was the health minister, you may well ask, who started this cycle of neglect and cuts? Surprise, surprise! It's the now opposition leader, Peter Dutton. He said it made 'no sense' for Australians to expect to access a GP for free. At least he's consistent; it's comparable with his brilliant idea when he was the health minister to charge Australians to access hospital emergency departments. It's no wonder that the medical profession—the doctors—voted him, literally, the worst health minister Australia has had in 40 years.

I'm proud that one year ago this government made the largest investment in bulk-billing in the history of Medicare, tripling the bulk-billing incentive and restoring or moving back towards that core principle—that Labor principle—that it's your Medicare card, not your credit card which determines your access to health care. In the last 12 months since that change, an extra 5.4 million bulk-billing visits have occurred—that's more than 103,000 bulk-billed visits to the GP every week. There's more work to do, but that is real progress. We've also put in place Medicare urgent clinics—seven days a week, extended hours and bulk-billed for non-life-threatening conditions but things that are too urgent to wait to see a GP, to keep people out of the public hospital waiting rooms. In my electorate, at the Narregate clinic in Narre Warren, more than 15,000 people have been bulk-billed over the last year or so. We've made medicines cheaper with more than $1 billion of savings, cutting costs, 60-day scripts and lowering the safety net threshold. It's a fundamental contrast with Peter Dutton, the worst health minister in 40 years.